Today was the Queensland leg of the AU Pokemon Battle Competitions, so Shaun and I made the trek via public transport (a tiring endeavor, indeed) to the Chermside EB Games so we could catch a glimpse of the action! I originally had big hopes to participate myself, but though my love for Pokemon knows no bounds, I don’t think I’m cut out for competitive battling. I have too great a fondness for all of the immeasurably cute yet virtually ineffective Pokemon to stand any chance of making it past the first round. Still, I had fun watching the battles and StreetPassing with the other 3DS owners in attendance. Jamie, the friendly announcer, was even kind enough to do a shout-out about StreetPass Brisbane’s first meetup on the 14th!

The competition was fierce at EB Games Chermside

When I first heard that there was going to be an official Pokemon competition nearby, I thought for sure I would want to compete, so I began doing some research on what strategies/Pokemon were the most effective. I won’t go into much detail seeing as most of my readers aren’t big Pokemon fans (and those who are probably know more than me already, anyway), but needless to say, it’s a lot more complicated than one might think! Though we didn’t stay too long, I noticed an abundance of Jellicant, Amoonguss, Haxorus, Chandelure, Conkeldurr, Reuniclus, Gigalith, Thundurus, Tornadus, and Whimsicott. That may seem like a lot, but with the amount of people competing, you did start to see a lot of the same strategies (from what I’ve read of the coverage of other cities’ competitions, they’ve all seen many of the same Pokemon). I’m surprised I didn’t see any Excadrill, actually, and would’ve liked to have seen at least one Stunfisk.

It as fun to watch the battles up on the big screen!

One of the best things about having so many Pokemon fans together in one place was the fact that there were so many 3DS’s to StreetPass with! In the hour or so we were there over the course of the day, I got close to 25 StreetPass hits. I also had the chance to promote StreetPass Brisbane, and as I mentioned before, Jamie even made an announcement over the mic for me after I summoned up all my courage to go up and ask him. I met a few people from a forum I frequent and chatted with a guy who organizes Pokemon tournaments in Brisbane who seemed interested, so I hope to see some of them at our meet next weekend.

All in all, it was a very fun event, though it was a shame they held it in such a small store, as there was no space to move around and the room got very hot extremely quick. I hope to attend more events like these in the future, and maybe someday I’ll even compete, too!