Second, I used basically the exact same team as last year, even down to the two switches I made later that year to counter Team Aqua: Deoxys-A instead of my Porygon2 and Gallade instead of my Thundurus. I was worried I had forgotten how to use my team, or that it wasn't any good anymore, but I figure the fact I was apparently the first into the Elite 6 proved otherwise.
Third, I wanted to go over the three moments I remember most from my endless battling and rebattling. First was Giovanni teaming up with me to fight for the Rivals badge, and me pulling out my trump card Scizor to finish off the last two by himself after Giovanni had been knocked out. Second was my battle against Dr. Kronus, where my stall Skarmory carried the team on his back against Kronus' jungle team, due to the lack of a fire move on the opposing side. My last battle with Joey took number three as Thundurus landed killing blows on over half of his team by the end and I predicted his switches well enough to land the first KOs I needed to turn the tide, including Infernape trading with Forretress and denying that switch later. In fact I probably overpredicted at the start and used a Stone Edge off the bat, expecting Staraptor to switch in for Brave Bird next turn
Lastly, I wanted to go over my one main regret for the weekend as a whole, which was spending too much effort on trying to get the first champion cape. By the end of Friday I had my eight badges and I had my requisite E6 badges the next day, so I wanted to get my battle with Joey ASAP and free up the rest of my weekend for other things, but across Saturday and Sunday I think I spent 5-6 hours waiting for him, time that I could have spent playing other games or roaming the expo hall. I was a little disappointed with the first loss, too, and I think hearing on Sunday that I was still the only person to lose to him probably set off my inferiority complex, so those didn't help either. The latter is not something I need to go over right now. I managed to defeat Joey in the final conflict on Monday, though, so all was well. As I told him, for the second match I had the right team, and for the third I had the right predictions
Once more, though, so many thanks to everyone who participated, be they leaders or challengers. You guys make my PAX weekends incredibly awesome. Rock on. \m/
PS, if you want to see the team comp, point yourself at this: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=915#p15992