2011: What Is A Mask?
By 2011 Pokemon Online had become the premiere simulator for competitive play; however, it didn't support RBY, which meant that it would be incredibly difficult to attract new players if it wasn't available on the most popular simulator. An upgrade to Netbattle known as Netbattle Supremacy was released around this time or earlier, which was what old gen players used if they wanted to play RBY. Although the RBY enthusiast could still play a game if he happened to find somebody on the lone server, "Global Casino," at this point there was no community dedicated to competitive RBY. Tournaments were few and far between, and RBY was being reduced to nothing more than a novelty.
While RBY2K10 was around at this time, it was already dying fast. In its now one-year history, at least half of its tournaments were canceled due to inactivity, while the other half took an unfathomably long time to finish, especially given that most tournaments never exceeded 8 participants. In a desperate attempt to keep it alive, icy and waterwizard combined their allowances to create the RBY2K10 Anniversary Tournament, in which a ridiculous amount of money was offered for first, second, and third places. For this reason and because of brown nosing on Smogon did the tournament get 32 participants.
As exciting as the prospect of receiving an exorbitant cash prize for playing Pokemon sounded, however, I suppose I wasn't as thrilled as I should have been. I was incredibly burned out by this point, partially because I had now been playing for quite a while and partially because--and I, to be perfectly honest, say this objectively--almost everyone on that forum was a giant asshole. It was hard to find enjoyment in the game when players were constantly talking trash, writing wildly inappropriate messages to me, blatantly flaming and trolling, and so on. I no longer experienced any kind of joy from winning, much less playing; rather, it was not only a chore now, but an insult to myself by participating in anything run by that garbage forum.
Even though we were now in the second year of a new decade, a lot of what I witnessed and experienced harked back to my early days on GameFAQs, in which everyone was either a gimmick, an antisocial douche, a braggart, an elitist, a weirdo, or all of the above. I don't remember what exactly inspired my decision, but maybe I made this comparison back then as well. Maybe that's what helped inspire the creation of the infamous, short-lived Hector Gold, whose gimmick was that he was a pompous, bombastic Mexican aristocrat who looked down on everyone else and had grandiose visions of leading the world into a golden era. Or maybe Crystal was the impetus for this character, as I knew him as a jerk who spoke broken English. Well, whatever the cause, Hector Gold was born in March, shortly before the awful RBY2K10 tournament began.
Hector Gold made his debut on Smogon, in which he asked a cryptic and bizarre question, "What Is A Mask?" He then proceeded to declare how much he despised liars while reassuring everybody that his "sangue" was royal and pure. However, what really made Hector memorable for me was his last statement, "Hector Gold the Truth, Coming Soon." It was hilarious. I did the same thing on other forums, and Hector became an instant sensation. What really made Hector brilliant, though, was how successful he was on the Global Casino server. I was shocked that nobody made the connection right away, as this was clearly not only a strange gimmick that came out of nowhere yet was a gimmick that was good enough to form an astonishing 25-5 record against practically every notable RBY player. During my brief yet amazing run I managed to beat a decent chunk of the participants in the tournament, and had a blast from start to finish.
I was having fun again. I didn't care about winning yet had a record most players could only dream of, I was saying whatever I wanted and let my creative juices flow everywhere. However, my creativity wasn't limited to what I said on forums and servers. I was finally experimenting with not just different Pokemon, but entirely different teams. Most notably, I wanted to center my teams around GSCLax, as I thought it would be a lot of fun to see how successful I could be with a moveset that practically nobody even knew existed. I didn't use one team exclusively this time, either: I had both standard teams and even a team that had both Jolteon and Nidoqueen of all things.
Besides GSCLax I also started using FriendlyMie, which would go on to arguably change the metagame 2-3 years later. It was just as effective here, though, punishing lead Gengars with Psychic, giving Snorlax paralysis support with Thunder Wave, and nailing presumptuous Exeggutors with Blizzard. Even though I never used one team, all variants included FriendlyMie and GSCLax. The premise behind FriendlyMie was that it was an aggressive lead that could accomplish something against everything except Jynx, while GSCLax's job was to clean up in the endgame unless I found an opportunity to set up earlier. Every variant of my team had at least three Pokemon that could reliably paralyze something, as paralysis played an integral role in securing the sweep (no surprise there, it's RBY).
My favorite variant was probably the one with Jolteon and Nidoqueen (the full team was Starmie/Snorlax/Tauros/Jolteon/Nidoqueen/Clefable). It was incredibly aggressive and fun to play with. An honorable mention goes to my more solid team that I used against Nitro in one of my last games as Hector Gold. Our rivalry from eight years ago was rekindled with one of the greatest games that I've ever had. It went over 250 turns and I almost PP wasted his Tauros with GSCLax. It came down to a Tauros-Tauros showdown, though mine was paralyzed. I survived Hyper Beam at 1%, then landed my own that, sadly, did not crit.
I thought Hector Gold had a lot of untapped potential that was, unfortunately, never realized, as I had created him at the worst possible time. As much as I was having fun, I knew that the end was near. So I intentionally made it painfully obvious that I was Hector Gold, and announced my "retirement" in July, after not playing for a few months. What could have been.
Anyways, the team:
Starmie
~Blizzard
~Psychic
~Thunder Wave
~Recover
FriendlyMie was actually around as early as 2011, and for good reason. It was a damn great lead at this time, as Gengar had reached the apex of its popularity. Blizzard hit Exeggutor and could freeze something, while Thunder Wave is great in general.
Tauros
~Blizzard
~Body Slam
~Earthquake
~Hyper Beam
Tauros is never interesting, but always effective.
Clefable
~Blizzard
~Body Slam
~Thunder Wave
~Hyper Beam
I used Clefable here for a few reasons. First of all, it has a lot more offensive prowess over Chansey thanks to STAB and an amazing movepool, which made it, at times, unpredictable. Like Chansey it can also paralyze things, so I wasn't sacrificing paralysis support. Clefable's superior physical bulk also comes in handy when dealing with things like GolDon and Pokemon that can blow up (it can survive Exeggutor's Explosion, for example). Thunderbolt is certainly viable, but I generally prefer Hyper Beam for how useful it is in general, whereas Thunderbolt is for specific targets.
Jolteon
~Thunderbolt
~Thunder Wave
~Pin Missile
~Double Kick
Another anomaly, Jolteon's main mission was to provide even more paralysis support, though it's certainly a capable offensive threat as well. Jolteon was also meant to beat up Water types that otherwise give Snorlax trouble, namely Lapras.
Nidoqueen
~Blizzard
~Body Slam
~Earthquake
~Thunderbolt
I wanted a Pokemon that could absorb Thunder Wave while threaten other foes at the same time. I opted for Nidoqueen because GolDon is too slow and Nidoking is too boring. Yeah, King is vastly superior if only for its better Attack, but both have the same Special and MAYBE Queen's extra bulk could come in handy. Well, probably not because of its horrible typing, but oh well. Queen can hit everything for at least neutral damage and can even kill something with paralysis support.
Snorlax
~Amnesia
~Reflect
~Body Slam
~Rest
The bread and butter of Hector Gold. Dormant for five years, this cranky, destructive giant finally awoke from its seemingly eternal slumber to put one of the most dominant performances of the Netbattle era. With shock value on its side, GSCLax could use Reflect when Chansey was out and then Amnesia on the Lapras switch, much to the opponent's bewilderment. I don't have every log, but the ones that I do have show just how frightening a Pokemon or even a move could be if you're sure the opponent won't see it coming. In a time where I hated competitive Pokemon and almost everyone who was a part of it, GSCLax helped make my last month some of the most fun I've ever had in this black hole of the internet known as the competitive Pokemon scene.
