I've never had the confidence to fight anyone outside the game and one of my friends, I call him the Professor. I'd say he convinced me to try, but really it was after seeing the Doctor walk around, and I found out he was one of the people who started the League!
So, I looked at what Pokemon I could use, with the Professor's help. And approached my first Gym Leader. That didn't work out so well for me...the only one near by and available had been a Veteran player! He was encouraging, so I tried, I held my own through two of his Pokemon but lost in the end.
I didn't give up, I looked for more, and waiting for my chance! Fleur was next, and I was so nervous, I had to keep wiping my hands! I knew this was a battle I could possibly win, so now I was determined! I won! I loved her team, it was really pretty and super tough! I even tweaked my team a some having learned a lot during the fight!
Next up was TL, by far had to be my favorite gym leader, I had the most fun, and I'd have to say most meaningful battle with him. His clever team build was all on holidays, so it was really interesting to see his choices, for starters. I gave it my all, learned even more about team building and strategy, but most of all...I had a heroic Ash like moment. He still gave me a badge, and let me say this, I didn't expect it in the least! No, one told me I'd get rewarded for trying my hardest....
Those two gym leaders really made that day worth it... Later I fought Dan, it was really cool to picture being at a restaurant or cafe like in the games, he was charming and witty, and really had a blast because of him and the guy next to him. (I think he was another leader) I won my badge Ash Ketchem style again, but that's ok, like him, I learned a lot and gave it my all right? lol
The second day at Pax for me, was the last day Sunday, and it was really a great cap on fighting in the league. First I fought Akana (Thank you Propriety, for helping me find her!) and we had a really interesting battle (thank you Akane for taking one more before lunch!) we fought 4x4 another first! I nearly won that round! got down to her last pokemon but it was a tough one! The coolest thing was my Jolteon 1HKOing her Skarmory. If I Pokemon were real, I'd have hugged my favorite buddy tight for that!
Last battle was truly a test of luck. Pavi was the only one available, and I'd tweaked my team over the course of the other 4 battles, so by now, I had a little more confidence under my belt that I could play the next level....Then he told me it'd be a rotation battle....I gulped, I'd been in an out of the pokemon world for a while, mostly because I couldn't get a DS for years! And so, it wasn't till last year I'd even touched White! That was the first and last Rotation battle I'd had! And I'd only played the one in the game!
I didn't really understand how they worked, and what to do (later I learned how to even rotate my pokemon!) all this while in the Battle! I knew I was loosing ground ever turn that I didn't attack properly, and I was getting worried. I wish I'd been able to record that fight, if I could watch it again, i would.
So many times we just missed attacking each others targets!
But in the end, out of luck or budding skill I don't know, but I won, I was shaking and breathing hard...honest, even if that sounds corny to say, for me, it had been the most intense battle I'd ever fought, not in game, not against the professor, against Pavi. And I can't wait to fight him again next year!
(I like writing...hope it was ok to leave a book)
No one I've got in my general friend circles is as into battling as I am, so going to PAX last year was one of the most fun things I've done (even if it took a lot of effort to track down all the leaders). Anyways, sorry for the rambling. Good to finally be able to post.