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tag:Community Blogs:blogCommunity Blogshttp://www.destructoid.com/ul/user/5/5294-35323-50.jpgQalamarihttps:://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Qalamari2012-07-08T16:25:15ZCommunity Blogs:371934Pokéwatch: Final Push - QalamariQalamari2016-06-29T22:00:00Z2016-06-29T22:00:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>

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Over the last week and a half I've been combining my longtime interest in Pokémon with my appreciation for the more recent Overwatch. I thought it would be fun to go one by one through the different heroes of Overwatch and determine which creatures each of them might use. Both Overwatch and Pokémon feature large casts of diverse, iconic characters, and it wasn't difficult to find three Pokémon for each character that represent their abilities and personality in their own game. If you've missed any of the previous installments, you can check those out right here.

Part one: Genji, McCree, Pharah

Part two: Reaper, Soldier: 76, Tracer

Part three: Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat

Part four: Mei, Torbjörn, Widowmaker

Part five: D. Va, Reinhardt, Roadhog

Part six: Winston, Zarya

Part seven: Lúcio, Mercy, Symmetra

 Today will be the final installment of Pokéwatch, until and unless Blizzard decides to release some more characters. Since the teams are all set, we'll also be finishing the character's tournament today. Due to the odd number of combatants, both the Tank and Support classes all receive a bye in the first round. Mercy got one in the second as well, because if Mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. We'll resume the tournament after finishing up the teams with Zenyatta.

Zenyatta

Source: ElStrawFedora's DeviantArt.

Zenyatta Tekhartha is one of the more unusual characters in Overwatch, a machine intelligence that has become a devout Buddhist monk. It reminds me a lot of the character Lobsang in The Long Earth series, an artificial intelligence who claims to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman for legal purposes. Zenyatta uses the free-floating orbs of its Mala (prayer beads) to attack, heal its friends, and to boost the damage its team deals. Its ultimate, Transcendence, makes it temporarily invulnerable and heals anyone within range by crazy amounts for as long as the ability remains active. This can be used like Lúcio's Sound Barrier to help the team break through a troublesome defensive position, or to neutralize the damage dealt by an enemy's ultimate ability. Zenyatta's feet never touch the ground, as it prefers to levitate wherever it goes. This makes it a little more stealthy since it doesn't make any footstep noise while it hovers over the battlefield.

As a side note, the internet seems to think that Zenyatta should use Rowlet, but since they're not available yet, according to my rules, it can't. I couldn't pass up sharing this artwork, though.

Source.

Lead Pokémon: Medicham (#308)

Type: Fighting/Psychic

Reason: Zenyatta uses both its advanced mental capacity and its knowledge of physiology to make itself one of the more dangerous Support classes to play against. It can deal considerably more damage than any of the other Supports, and there's no damage falloff when it throws its prayer beads at long range, meaning it can stay behind its more durable teammates. Medicham shares a body type and appears to share some of the Jieba marks (Scroll to entry 2) that Zenyatta has on its own frame. Its typing also allows it to combine spirituality (Psychic) with physicality, (Fighting) much like a Shaolin monk. Medicham can Mega evolve and gains spirit arms like its master when it does so, making it another option for Zenyatta. However, Pokémon teams are limited to one Mega evolution per battle. Zenyatta could decide to give both Medicham and Alakazam their respective Mega stones and decide which to power up based on what it's facing.

Support Pokémon: Registeel (#379)

Type: Steel

Reason: Although Zenyatta is a spiritual leader, it's important to remember that it was built, not born. Registeel serves as Zenyatta's tie to the machine world as it, too is a Steel body animated by some divine force. Like Zenyatta and Medicham, Registeel also appears to have several Jieba marks on its forehead, though these may just be ocular inputs.

Finisher: Mega Alakazam (#065)

Type: Psychic

Reason: Zenyatta's Mala beads use either its spiritual energy or some advanced form of antigravity to levitate close to Zenyatta's body, allowing it to select the one it needs quickly. Mega Alakazam has embraced the realm of the spirit entirely, gaining a flowing white beard and the ability to levitate both itself and its trademark spoons. It also gains the ability Trace, allowing it to experience another creature's ability for itself.

Analysis: Both Medicham and Alakazam are capable of Mega evolution, but Zenyatta will have to choose which it'd prefer to have backing it up. If it goes with Mega Alakazam, it will have a fast, hard-hitting special attacker, albeit one with somewhat weak defenses. Mega Medicham is better balanced and a good physical attacker, but can't hit as hard. If it wants to split the difference, Zenyatta gives up using a hold item on one of these creatures, but the flexibility is probably worth it. Medicham and Alakazam share the Psychic type, meaning both will need to watch out for Dark attacks, and Alakazam will need to watch for Bugs and Ghost moves as well. Medicham's Fighting type opens it up to Flying and Fairy attacks, and Registeel's Steel makes it vulnerable to Fire, Fighting, and Ground moves. Zenyatta will do very well against Poison or Fighting types, and Psychic moves do reasonably well against most other types as well. Deciding which Pokémon to Mega evolve quickly will be key for Zenyatta, since both options benefit greatly from striking before the opponent has a chance to launch a counterattack.

 With all of the combatants ready, it's time to get into the battles. I'll throw in a few more pictures I've found in between to break them up a little bit. All of those found below came from http://cottonwings.tumblr.com/post/144355016822.

D. Va Vs. Reinhardt

D. Va's got sort of a squishy team, and Reinhardt has little difficulty defending against everything she can throw at him. Her Azumarill does well against his Pyroar and Bastiodon, but gets stopped cold when he drops his Mega Aggron. Not even her last resort move, exploding her Electrode, can make a dent in Aggron's massive armor. She makes some headway when her Furret starts using Surf, but Aggron outlasts her, letting the Sandstorm chip away at her team. Reinhardt admonishes D. Va to respect her elders; she responds by slamming a Dew and sulking for the next few hours.

Winner: Reinhardt

Roadhog Vs. Winston

Although both teams are diverse and capable of handling multiple types of threats, Roadhog's team has the edge here. His Mamoswine takes down Winston's Tropius in one hit, and the Thick Fat on his Grumpig and Mamoswine means he doesn't have to worry about Darmanitan's Fire. Once Darmanitan enters Zen Mode it does manage to take out his Emboar, but Grumpig is still fresh and shrugs off both the Fire and Psychic attacks it's dishing up. Winston's Primeape can't survive long enough to trigger its Anger Point, and Roadhog coasts to an easy victory.

Winner: Roadhog

Zarya vs. Lúcio

This is a close fight. Lúcio is initially fooled by Zarya's Zoroark and switches his Chatot in to hit it with a Flying attack. When the illusion drops, he uses U-turn to deal some damage and swap to Mega Lucario. Lucario manages to finish off Zoroark without any difficulty, but is forced to switch when Zarya brings out her Machamp. His Chatot deals only a little damage before it's overpowered, and Zarya thinks she'll have an easy victory when Lúcio brings back his Loudred. But it's harder to take this Loudred down than she'd anticipated, thanks to the Eviolite and the surprise move Zen Headbutt. Loudred still goes down, but it's softened up Machamp enough for Lucario to finish it off. Once that's taken care of Lucario and Scrafty trade blows, but the healing provided by Drain Punch gives Lucario the victory.

Winner: Lúcio

Symmetra Vs. Zenyatta

Symmetra likes to have foreknowledge of what the enemy is planning, and this battle only reinforces that desire in her. While choosing to make her Arceus carry the Fighting Plate was the most prudent choice when she didn't know what she was up against, it proves to be a disastrous mistake in her battle with Zenyatta. Her Golduck can use Shadow Claw against Zenyatta's Psychics, but Registeel can wall it until it lands a Zap Cannon, and it's not strong enough to take down both before they can lace into Arceus's Fighting type. Arceus takes down Zenyatta's Registeel, but Medicham's Fighting moves make short work of Porygon, and it deals enough Psychic damage to Arceus to allow Alakazam to finish it with a single hit.

Winner: Zenyatta

That takes care of the preliminaries. From the initial rounds, we still have Hanzo, Pharah and Torbjörn waiting for their matchups. They'll begin by facing the winners of today's battles in the quarterfinals.

Hanzo Vs. Roadhog

Hanzo's main challenge is getting past Roadhog's Mamoswine. With its immunity to Electric attacks and the extra damage it does to Dragons, it's very capable of shutting down his Zekrom. While his Gyarados does gain the Dark type and an immunity to Psychic moves when it evolves, it's unfortunate for Hanzo that Roadhog's Grumpig can still use Charge Beam to attack his Gyarados, powering itself up at the same time. After that, Mamoswine has little difficulty overpowering his Dragonair and dealing the final blow to his Zekrom.

Winner: Roadhog

Pharah Vs. Reinhardt

Another close match here. Pharah's Mega Charizard would seem to be a good match for Reinhardt's Mega Aggron, but when it loses its Flying type, it gains a weakness to Ground moves that Aggron can exploit with Earthquake. Switching to Skarmory evens things out and prevents the damage caused by Reinhardt's Sandstorm, but it can't do much damage to Aggron, so they end up just staring at each other for a bit while Pharah waits out the Sandstorm. Her next move is to switch in Cofagrigus and try to hit Aggron with some status attacks, but Reinhardt counters with Pyroar, whose Fire type makes it immune to burns. Pharah brings back Charizard to remove Pyroar, but Reinhardt's got Sandstorm active again and his years have taught him the value of patience. His Pyroar avoids the Sandstorm by using Safety Goggles, but Charizard has to hold its Mega stone. It's a long, drawn out battle, but Reinhardt eventually prevails. Since he can't do much to an airborne Pharah on the battlefields of Overwatch, he takes the time to savor this victory.

Winner: Reinhardt

Torbjörn Vs. Lúcio

I've found that Lúcio does a reasonably good job of taking down Torbjörn's turrets as long as he's not there to defend them. Lúcio can fire off a few shots, then duck back into cover to heal himself, repeating as neccesary. He can even use Soundwave to blast Torbjörn away long enough for the rest of the team to finish the turret off. That's not the case in their Pokémon battle. Although Klinklang and Zweilous share a vulnerability to Lucario's Fighting attacks, Lucario takes extra damage from both Camerupt's Fire and Ground moves thanks to its secondary Steel type. Once Lucario is out of the picture, Klinklang has no problem tanking Lúcio's other two creatures. No matter who won, I'll still have to use an unusual diacritic mark when writing their name, so in a way, I'm the loser here. You can keep your reactions to that last sentence to yourself.

Winner: Torbjörn

Mercy Vs. Zenyatta

Mercy's first battle gets off to a rough start; when Zenyatta sees that she's opening with Blissey, it decides to Mega evolve its Medicham, doubling its attack with Pure Power. She switches to her Shedinja, and lands a Toxic before Zenyatta realizes it can't hurt her Ghost Bug with Fighting or Psychic moves. When it switches in Alakazam to take it out with a Shadow Ball, she has another Toxic waiting. That's all her Shedinja can do, so she switches to Togekiss after it falls. Togekiss is able to use Roost long enough for the poison to finish Alakazam, so Zenyatta brings out Registeel to try and remove Togekiss before it can mess with Medicham. Mercy counters by switching back to Blissey, and by alternating Soft-boiled with Power-up Punch, she manages to remove Zenyatta's Registeel despite its immunity to poison. It's 2 vs. 1 now, but Zenyatta evens the score when its Medicham scores a huge hit on Blissey. Zen's in serious trouble though, its Medicham losing health rapidly to the poison while Togekiss shrugs off both Psychic and Fighting attacks easily. Togekiss' ability to recover health lets Mercy wait out the poison, and she gets the victory.

Winner: Mercy

With the quarterfinals out of the way, the winners heal up and prepare for the Semifinal round.

Torbjörn Vs. Reinhardt

In the leadup to the Super Bowl, the semifinal games are often much more interesting to watch than the Bowl itself. The matchup between Reinhardt and Torbjörn is a knockdown, dragout fight with both combatants scrambling for any slight advantage and having to change their strategies on the fly. Reinhardt leads with a Sandstorm, boosting his Bastiodon's already considerable defense. This makes little difference to Torbjörn's Klinklang, though, since it's also immune to the storm's effect. It takes a while, but Klinklang cuts through Bastiodon's armor despite taking some damage and having its speed reduced by Bastiodon's Bulldoze. Reinhardt's Pyroar is able to capitalize on Klinklang's weakened state, evening up the battle at 2 apiece. Torbjörn brings in his Mega Camerupt next, and Pyroar falls swiftly to its Sheer Force boosted Earth Power. It's 2 to 1 in favor of Torbjörn, but Reinhardt's Mega Aggron puts up a good fight, taking Camerupt's Earth Power and throwing back an Earthquake in return. Camerupt barely survives the hit but has enough energy to launch a Lava Plume, and eventually Reinhardt is forced to concede.

Winner: Torbjörn

Mercy Vs. Roadhog

Mercy probably shouldn't have gotten this far into the tournament, but the combination of seeding and the unusual number of combatants combined to give her an advantage. Her Blissey starts at a disadvantage to Roadhog's Emboar, so she immediately switches to Togekiss. Roadhog counters with Mamoswine, and its Ice attacks overwhelm Togekiss' self healing. Blissey is able to deal with Mamoswine long enough to remove it with Toxic, but it still can't handle Emboar's Fighting attacks. Mercy is forced to bring out Shedinja, but it expires to a single Fire Punch from Emboar. Roadhog grunts amiably and extends a hand, but Mercy flips him off with a hearty double deuce, spits on the ground and curses ripely in German as she flies away.

Winner: Roadhog

The semifinals are over, so now it's time for the main event. Before we continue, I'd like to say that this has been a lot of fun for me, so I hope others have enjoyed it as well. There hasn't been as much feedback as I thought there would be, so maybe I went a little too technical when describing the teams and the battles. I realized partway through working on yesterday's entries that I was basically writing fanfiction, so that's embarrassing. Still, it let me practice writing about two topics I'm reasonably knowledgeable about, and I learned some things about both games while doing research. It's been fun, even if it seems like nobody's been reading what I've been writing. With that out of the way, let's get to the final battle.

Torbjörn Vs. Roadhog

Torbjörn is off to a bad start, since his Klinklang is vulnerable to both of Emboar's types. He quickly switches to Camerupt and starts laying down Earth Powers to remove it. Roadhog counters with Mamoswine, and its Thick Fat nullifies its weakness to Fire moves, giving it long enough to take out Camerupt with Earthquake. With his team's main threat neutralized, Torbjörn switches back to Klinklang, and it's fast enough to finish Mamoswine with Steel attacks without taking a hit in return. Roadhog brings back Emboar, and this time there's nothing Torbjörn can do to stop it. Klinklang and Zweilous both fall to Emboar's Fighting moves, and Roadhog wins the championship. He celebrates the only way he knows how.

Winner: Roadhog

And we're done! Thanks as always to Pokestadium for the Pokémon sprites, and also to Pokecharms for their trainer card macros. Thanks also to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

 Community Blogs:371856Pokéwatch: Someone play a Support already! - QalamariQalamari2016-06-28T23:30:00Z2016-06-28T23:30:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>

Over the last week and a half I've been combining my longtime interest in Pokémon with my appreciation for the more recent Overwatch. I thought it would be fun to go one by one through the different heroes of Overwatch and determine which creatures each of them might use. Both Overwatch and Pokémon feature large casts of diverse, iconic characters, and it wasn't difficult to find three Pokémon for each character that represent their abilities and personality in their own game. If you've missed any of the previous installments, you can check those out right here.

Part one: Genji, McCree, Pharah

Part two: Reaper, Soldier: 76, Tracer

Part three: Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat

Part four: Mei, Torbjörn, Widowmaker

Part five: D. Va, Reinhardt, Roadhog

Part six: Winston, Zarya

We'll be looking at the Supports today, starting with Lúcio, Mercy, and Symmetra. Support characters are a lot of fun to play, and they're what I gravitate to when I'm playing online. A good team pretty much needs at least one support to win, and even though they don't usually get the Play of the Game, it's gratifying to know that your team wouldn't have done as well without you. Support players often land in the top four at the end of a match, and I'll always vote for a support if they did a good job of keeping the team healthy and in the fight.

 Fry may be a degenerate, but he's right about this.

Lúcio

You can find artwork of each Overwatch character interacting with a Pokémon at ElStrawFedora's DeviantArt page. I've used several in this series, but there are even more that I haven't. Check 'em out!

Lúcio's probably my favorite character to play as in Overwatch. All of his skills tie in to his backstory as a inner-city D.J. on the streets of Rio De Janeiro. Using advanced technology, he's figured out how to harness the power of music to aid others. His Healing and Speed songs affect anyone in his line of sight, and he can switch between them at will depending on the needs of his team. He can also use his Sonic Amplifier to shoot blasts of damaging audio at enemies, or push them back with a Soundwave blast. He can't do spot healing directly, but he can use Amp it Up to increase the power of one of his songs, greatly increasing its effectiveness for a few seconds. His ultimate ability is Sound Barrier, and once it's charged he can use it to provide anyone within range of his song with a shield-- it doesn't last very long, but can be instrumental in pushing a point or neutralizing an enemy's ultimate. Tracer's reemergence and her belief that the world can always use more heroes was what inspired Lúcio to join Overwatch. Like her, Lúcio always has a positive attitude and he frequently offers words of encouragement to his team as he rollerblades around the battlefield.

 Lead Pokémon: Loudred (#294)

Type: Normal

Reason: Most folks looking at Loudred for the first time dismiss it as some sort of Mickey Mouse/Pegleg Pete hybrid. Upon closer inspection however, it becomes apparent that Loudred's "ears" are speakers, and its ability Soundproof makes reference to audio effects and the amplified sound its big mouth makes possible. Furthermore, the speaker ears somewhat resemble the business end of Lúcio's Sonic Amplifier.

Support Pokémon: Chatot (#441)

Type: Flying/Normal

Reason: Lúcio usually keeps his weapon set to the healing beats of Rejuvenescência, but occasionally it's more prudent to switch over to We Move Together as One to get to a contested point or to get the team out of the way of impending damage (like D. Va's Self Destruct) more rapidly. Chatot is a parrot with a musical note for a head, and its Tangled Feet ability means that it becomes much harder to hit when it's confused, allowing it to more easily avoid danger. It was a gimmicky Pokémon in the fourth generation because its signature move, Chatter, made use of the DS's microphone to overwrite the game audio with whatever you recorded when the move was used. The louder you yelled into the microphone while recording the audio, the more damage the move would do. It can also use several sound-based moves like Hyper Voice and Sing.

Finisher: Mega Lucario (#448)

Type: Fighting/Steel

Reason: Apart from the similarity in their names, both Lúcio and Lucario share a stylin' dreadlock haircut and... uh, earstyle, and there's a passing resemblance in their color scheme as well. Lúcio is probably the most popular support class to play because it's easy to change up what you're doing to best serve your team's needs... he has a lot of flexibility depending on the situation. Mega evolving Lucario gives it Adaptability, which raises the attack damage of its Fighting and Steel moves by an additional 25%. Finally, Lúcio can be very difficult to eliminate thanks to his self-healing, and with Drain Punch, Lucario shares this trait.

Analysis: Lúcio's team has two Normal types on it, and Lucario's Steel subtype means it will also be vulnerable to Fighting type moves. Chatot's Flying type counters Fighting moves well but opens it up to some additional weaknesses, namely Electric, Ice, and Rock type moves. His Loudred will need the Eviolite to stand a chance against his rivals, but its Normal type allows it to learn some surprising moves. His Lucario will need to avoid Ground, Fighting, and Fire moves, and it would benefit from an attack boosting item of some sort to power up its Drain Punches. Lúcio doesn't have a lot of power on his side, but he may surprise people with how difficult it is to take down his Lucario.

Mercy

This artwork was created by ElRayo on Reddit.

Mercy is the closest thing Overwatch has to a straight healer; while she does carry a sidearm, she's not much good in a one-on-one fight. Instead, she prefers to keep her team's health topped off with her Caduceas staff, or amplify their damage when healing isn't needed. If she can't heal someone in time to save them, her Resurrection ultimate ability can bring them back from the dead at full health to continue the battle.

Lead Pokémon: Blissey (#242)

Type: Normal

Reason: Early in the Pokémon animé, the medical centers were always staffed by a woman named Nurse Joy, and she was always assisted by a Chansey. In the second generation, Chansey gained an evolution, and the Nurse Joys of the world simultaneously upgraded to Blissey. Blissey has one of the highest hit point totals in Pokémon, and it can use its signature move Soft-boiled to undo some of the damage that its team has taken. What's more, its hidden Healer ability lets it cure status effects of teammates in multi battles. That won't come into play since we're only doing one-on-one fights in this exercise, but I thought it was worth mentioning. In addition to its healing powers, both Mercy and Blissey have less-than-fully functional wings attached to them.

Support Pokémon: Shedinja (#292)

Type: Bug/Ghost

Reason: Mercy's Valkyrie armor makes her appear like an angel, right down to the wings and halo. Shedinja looks a lot like her, and is itself a very unusual Pokémon. Shedinja is the molted carapace of a Nincada, left behind when it evolves into Ninjask. In the games, evolving a Nincada with space in your party results in both Pokémon appearing in your team. Shedinja got the short end of the stick compared to Ninjask, as no Shedinja has more than a single hit point. But it's not quite as weak as it seems because of its ability, Wonder Guard, which prevents all non-Super Effective attack moves from doing damage. If an attack move isn't Ghost, Dark, Fire, Flying, Rock, or Fire, it won't be able to hit Shedinja. While this does protect it from most direct damage, it remains quite vulnerable since it will still take damage from weather, entry hazards, and poison. As mentioned above, Mercy is very dependant on her team for protection, so she and Shedinja have a lot in common.

Finisher: Togekiss (#468)

Type: Flying/Fairy

Reason: Mercy's Guardian Angel ability lets her leap to a friendly player's position to heal them or assist with boosted damage. She can also make use of Angelic Descent to slow her fall, making it appear as though she's flying gracefully above a battlefield. Togekiss represents her kindhearted nature as well as her ability to fly from teammate to teammate, topping off their health and augmenting their firepower.

Analysis: There's no disguising the fact that Mercy's Shedinja is her team's weak link, and she'll be fortunate if it survives first contact with an opponent. If she does manage to face a team without one of the six types of damage Shedinja is vulnerable to, it changes from a liability into an invulnerable superbeast, capable of taking out an enemy team singlehandedly by using damage over time attacks like Toxic. Both Shedinja and Togekiss will take double damage from Rock and Dark moves, though any damage at all will remove the former from play. Her Blissey is an excellent wall, capable of stalling everything apart from Fighting moves while the poison does its work. Togekiss is a great complement for Blissey, as its Fairy and Flying types give it a quadruple resistance to Fighting moves. Mercy's team is stronger than it appears at first glance, but has the potential to fall apart rapidly depending on what the opponent throws down.

Symmetra

You can probably guess the source by now, but I really do encourage anyone with an interest in this subject to check out the work on display.

Symmetra is an unconventional Support character, and one of the hardest to master. She can't provide any healing for her team, instead providing them with extra maximum health in the form of a minor shield buff. For this reason, it's a good idea to pair Symmetra with another Support capable of healing incoming damage. She's a very defensive character, capable of holding a point with her hardlight sentry turrets or getting her team back in the fight sooner with her ultimate, a Teleporter pad. She can do a surprising amount of damage by using her Photon Projector weapon to lock on to an opponent, or it can be charged up to fire slow moving orbs of concentrated energy. Symmetra is described as suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and detests chaos and disorder. She believes that she can make the world a better place by using her special ability to manipulate hardlight, reshaping the world in the image she thinks suits it best.

Lead Pokémon: Golduck (#055)

Type: Water

Reason: Although Symmetra's forehead is covered by her headpiece it's quite likely that she's concealing a bindi, the traditional Hindu marking that represents creation and unity, and is sometimes referred to as the third eye. Golduck shares this characteristic, and can also make use of some Psychic moves like Light Screen to bolster its team's defenses.

Support Pokémon: (#137)

Type: Normal

Reason: Symmetra's hardlight constructs take the form of simple polygonal shapes, so it makes sense that she'd be attracted to a Pokémon she could easily recreate in hardlight form. Porygon's been around a long time; when Pokémon Stadium was first released, the graphical limitations of the Nintendo 64 made pretty much every creature in it look a lot more like Porygon than they probably should have.

Finisher: Arceus (#493)

Type: Variable (depends on hold item)

Reason: Symmetra's stated desire is to bring order to the world, and what better ally could there be than the god of the Pokémon universe? Arceus can change its type based on its hold item, and if it holds something other than a Plate it will stay a Normal type Pokémon. Its type affects its signature move, Judgement, making it attack with whatever element corresponds to the plate it's holding. There's even something of a resemblance between the two, as Symmetra's headpiece looks a bit like Arceus' mane and ears.

Analysis: Symmetra works best when she has time to prepare, and her Arceus will work best if she shifts its type to best attack the weak point of her opponent. Since she won't have foreknowledge of her opponent's team though, she'll likely pick the type that will have the widest possible coverage. With only 3 weaknesses and 5 types it deals extra damage to, that would be the Fighting type. Her support Porygon was once one of the most powerful  Pokémon available, but power creep has lessened its appeal somewhat. That said, it's still a reasonably good creature, and only needs to worry about Fighting moves. It can even cover its own weakness by learning Psychic or changing its type with Conversion 2. Golduck will have to be careful of Grass and Electric moves, but since there have been surprisingly few Water types in the competition so far, Symmetra might be able to surprise some people when it's time to throw down.

While I had intended to finish up today, it took longer to write this than I had anticipated. So, we'll finish up tomorrow with Zenyatta and then move into the rest of the tournament.

That's all for today. As always, thanks to Pokestadium for the Pokémon sprites, and especially to Pokecharms for their trainer card macro. Thanks also to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

 Community Blogs:371670Pokéwatch: Barrier activated! - QalamariQalamari2016-06-27T19:00:00Z2016-06-27T19:00:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>

Welcome back! Apologies for how late this installment went up, I lost a lot of work when my mouse broke and somehow caused my computer to crash, wiping out a couple of hours of work. If you're new to the concept, what I've been doing is analyzing each of Overwatch's heroes and assigning them a team of 3 Pokmon based on their abilities and personality in the game. If you've missed any of the other installments, you can check those out right here.

Part one: Genji, McCree, Pharah

Part two: Reaper, Soldier: 76, Tracer

Part three: Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat

Part four: Mei, Torbjörn, Widowmaker

Part five: D. Va, Reinhardt, Roadhog

I had meant to finish up the Tanks and begin the Supports today, but losing so much work put me behind schedule. Instead, we'll just finish up the Tanks today and do all four Supports tomorrow, so today we'll be looking at Winston and Zarya. Let's get to it.

Winston

Don't get me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Winston features heavily in the early promotion for Overwatch, and apart from Tracer, he's probably the best known member of the team. It was he who initiated the activation order to reform Overwatch, and his face that greets you when you first boot up the game. He's a reluctant leader, but his strong moral code wouldn't allow him to sit by and do nothing, watching the peace the first iteration of Overwatch worked so hard for beginning to fall apart. His videos tell a lot of the backstory of Overwatch; essentially, the extensive property damage that resulted from their battles caused the governments of the world to disband the program. It's a lot like the backstory of The Incredibles or Watchmen.

Lead Pokémon: Darmanitan (#555)

Type: Fire (normal) Fire/Psychic (Zen Mode)

Reason: The 600 lb. primate in the room is that Winston is the only member of Overwatch who isn't human. He's a genetically enhanced, superintelligent gorilla who was raised on the moon, but loves humans enough to fight for them wherever they need assistance. Oddly enough, in 6 generations and over 700 Pokémon, there hasn't really been one that you can point to as having definitively been inspired by a gorilla. Darmanitan is pretty close though, and it shares a special trait with Winston. When Winston triggers his ultimate, Primal Rage, he changes from a mild-mannered scientist into an unthinking rage-beast for a few seconds, losing access to his more scientific abilities but gaining vastly a improved health pool, increased mobility, and a much stronger melee attack. A Darmanitan that has taken sufficient damage will enter a state called Zen Mode, gaining access to the Psychic type and becoming immobile, like a statue. It's a bit backwards since Darmanitan actually gets smarter and less mobile when it changes, but much like Winston's shield generator, this isn't an exact science.

Support Pokémon: Tropius (#357)

Type: Grass/Flying

Reason: Though Winston's favorite food is peanut butter, he's been known to indulge in a banana or twelve from time to time. Selecting Tropius as his second ensures that he'll always have a ready supply of yellow fatty beans around to munch on. Goes great with cereal!

Picture from Funnyjunk.

Finisher: Primeape (#057)

Type: Fighting

Reason: People who watched the first season of the Pokémon animé may remember an early episode where a wild Primeape steals Ash's hat, and he endures several savage beatings trying to recover it. Primeape is one of only a few Pokémon that can use Anger Point, which raises its already considerable attack to the maximum when it suffers a critical hit. This Pokémon is also known for its short temper and tendancy to rage uncontrollably when provoked, making it a perfect analog for Winston. The difference is that Winston always seems apologetic for his fits of anger, while Primeape never does.

Analysis: Winston has an unusual team makeup, though perhaps not as unusual as a talking monkey with a jump pack and an electricity gun. Primeape and Tropius will both need to watch out for Flying type attacks, and Tropius will have to avoid anything capable of Ice attacks since it takes quadruple damage from those. Darmanitan and Tropius will both take double damage from Rock attacks, though Primeape's Fighting type will let it hit Ice and Rock types twice as hard. Apart from these issues, Winston's team actually does a pretty good job of covering each others' weaknesses, especially once Darmanitan switches to Zen mode and gains the Psychic type. He'll still have an uphill climb though, as none of his Pokémon are particularly hardy. Like Winston himself, they would benefit greatly by having a healer around.

Zarya

Zarya/Machamp artwork found at ElStrawFedora's DeviantArt page. They've done one for each character now, check it out!

Zarya is probably my least played character in Overwatch, and I confess I haven't figured out how exactly her mechanics work just yet. I've played a few matches with people who are good with her, like Old-toid contributer Toneman, and that was fascinating. Her particle cannon weapon can project an energy barrier on herself or on a friendly teammate, and it gains charge based on how much damage is absorbed while the barrier is active. The higher the charge, the more damage she does. Her weapon constantly loses charge at a slow rate, though, so part of playing Zarya is knowing when and who to place barriers on to maximize your damage output. She's a strategic character, one better suited to advanced players, among whose ranks I cannot currently count myself. Her ultimate ability, Graviton Surge, creates a gravity bomb that will suck in enemy players and immobilize them temporarily, though they can still aim and fire their weapons.

Lead Pokémon: Zoroark (#571)

Type: Dark

Reason: I had originally thought to place Zorua here, a creature that very nearly shares Zarya's name, and also has a shock of pink hair. Zarya values strength highly though, so it's unlikely she'd have any unevolved Pokémon on her team. Having Zoroark in the lead position allows her to take advantage of its ability, Illusion, which will cause it to look like her last Pokémon until it takes a hit. This will work especially well if the opposing trainer tries to capitalize on Machamp's weakness to Psychic type moves, since Zoroark is a Dark type and completely immune to Psychic attacks. Zoroark can also make use of Night Daze, a move which both deals damage and frequently causes enemies to become less accurate.

Support Pokémon: Scrafty (#560)

Type: Dark/Fighting

Reason: Like Zarya, Scrafty sports a sweet mohawk hairdo. It usually has the ability Moxie, which boosts its attack whenever it defeats an opposing Pokémon. Similarly, Zarya gains attack power by mixing it up on the front lines of a battle.

Finisher: Machamp (#068)

Type: Fighting

Reason: There's a lot we don't know about Zarya, but we do know that she's very proud of her guns... all three of them. Many of her emotes and victory poses show her flaunting her impressive biceps or proudly wielding her particle cannon, and it's clear that she has a lot invested in her physicality as well as her scientific knowledge. Machamp is the archetypal fighting-type Pokémon, and its descriptions in the games make it clear that it's just as proud of its power as Zarya is of her own.

Analysis: With only two types of Pokémon on her team, Zarya may have some difficulty fighting against anyone with a strong counter to Dark or Fighting types. Fortunately, the two types complement each other pretty well, and anyone who tries to hit her starter with a Psychic attack is in for a nasty surprise. Both Scrafty and Machamp will need to avoid Flying type moves, and Machamp will also need to stay away from Psychics. Zoroark and Scrafty share a weakness to Fighting type moves, since Fighting doesn't protect from itself. All three of Zarya's team will have to be very careful of Fairy type moves, and Scrafty in particular will take quadruple damage from moves of this type. Although none of Zarya's team can use Gravity, her team will do well against Ice, Rock, Psychic, Dark, Steel, and (perhaps most importantly), Normal type Pokémon, by far the most common type in the game.

That finishes up the Tank team, and while I'd normally start on the Supports now, losing so much time earlier today means I don't really have enough to get another Hero's team put together. Sorry about that. We'll finish up tomorrow and do all four Supports at once.

That's all for today. As always, thanks to Pokestadium for the Pokémon sprites, and especially to Pokecharms for their trainer card macro. Thanks also to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

 Community Blogs:370999Pokéwatch: Get behind me! - QalamariQalamari2016-06-24T21:00:00Z2016-06-24T21:00:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>

All week I've been analyzing the various heroes of Blizzard's latest game, Overwatch, and assigning them different Pokémon based on their abilities, backstory, and personality. With the Offense and Defense teams completed, today we'll start taking a look at the Tank class. Since we're doing 3 heroes per day, today's article will focus on D. Va, Reinhardt, and Roadhog.

If you've missed any of the other installments, you can check those out right here.

Part one: Genji, McCree, Pharah

Part two: Reaper, Soldier: 76, Tracer

Part three: Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat

Part four: Mei, Torbjörn, Widowmaker

D. Va

Picture found at http://cezarbrandao.deviantart.com/art/D-Va-571319680

D. Va is a Korean professional gamer turned Mech pilot, and she's one of the most popular characters in Overwatch.  Her catchphrases and taunts refer to her skill at other Blizzard games like Starcraft, and her description in the game mentions that she likes to livestream battles to the internet as she blazes around the battlefield. The internet has adapted D. Va into some sort of gremlin child fueled by Mountain Dew and Doritos, with Soldier: 76 acting as her father and Mercy as her mother. D. Va is probably the least durable character in the Tank class, but she does have the ability to continue battling even after her mech is destroyed. This gives her the chance to call in a new mech if she survives long enough or manages to get an elimination while outside of it. Her ultimate ability is Self Destruct, which causes her mech's power source to go critical. This deals massive damage to anything within the mech's line of sight when it explodes, and usually nets D. Va a couple of eliminations. It's a great tactic for clearing an embattled point or breaking up an entrenched enemy team, though D. Va has to be careful not to get caught in her own blast.

Lead Pokémon: Furret (#162)

Type: Normal

Reason: D. Va's passive ability lets her bail out of her mech once it's beyond repair, giving her the chance to live to fight another day. Sentret's ability is Run Away- not much use in combat, but it allows discretion to be the better part of valor when fighting in the wild. Furret was actually the inspiration for this series of articles, when I noticed that the sprite in Pokémon Shuffle...

...has some distinct similarities to D. Va herself.

Support Pokémon: Azumarill (#184)

Type: Fairy/Water

Reason: D. Va may be a soldier and a skilled pilot, but she's also a teenaged girl, and she appreciates cute stuff. Her personal symbol is an angry-eyed bunny, and Azumarill looks a lot like it. Azumarill's type was changed in the sixth generation From Water/Normal to Water/Fairy, so it will now fare much better against the Dragon type.

Finisher: Electrode (#101)

Type: Electric

Reason: D. Va's ultimate move is an act of sacrifice, destroying her mech in an attempt to take out one or more of the enemy team. Electrode's signature move, Explosion, does pretty much the same thing.

Analysis: Although D. Va has a reputation as a pro gamer, she may have some trouble in this Pokémon battle. None of her creatures are especially strong, though each of them can learn some surprising moves that may be capable of catching the opponent off guard. Her team doesn't have any shared weaknesses, but it doesn't seem to have any particular focus either. Maybe it's all the caffiene in that Mountain Dew.

It'll probably happen eventually. Source: http://65.media.tumblr.com/5f4a9307a72de611a487bc0a5efaf801/tumblr_inline_o8n06x5Otd1r5ight_500.gif

Reinhardt

Source: http://elstrawfedora.deviantart.com/art/Overwatch-Heroes-and-their-Pokemon-Reinhardt-613109986

Reinhardt's main purpose is to carry a hardlight shield that protects others on his team, soaking up enemy bullets and lasers before they can reach his squishier teammates. He can also use the rocket on his back to charge an enemy team, plowing through them and potentially pinning one to a wall or setting them up for further punishment from his massive jet hammer. His ultimate ability is Earthshatter, which causes the ground to destabilize in front of him, knocking opponents to the ground for a few seconds and removing their defenses.

Lead Pokémon: Bastiodon (#411)

Type: Steel/Rock

Reason: Reinhardt is fond of saying, "I am your shield" to his teammates, and it's true that his shield is basically a part of him, projected from a gauntlet he wears as part of his heavy, medieval-looking armor. Bastiodon is one of the resurrected fossil Pokémon from generation 4, and is quite literally a living shield. With Bastiodon watching his back, Reinhardt could double his defenses.

Support Pokémon: Pyroar (#668)

Type: Normal, Fire

Reason: The shield projector on Reinhardt's gauntlet resembles a lion, which makes sense for a character who's basically a knight born 1,200 years too late. In the heraldry of his native Germany, lions represent strength, nobility, bravery, and valor, all qualities Reinhardt himself tries to live up to by protecting his friends. It may also remind him of the flames he uses to add extra power to his rocket charge and jet hammer. Although Solgaleo, the cover model for Pokémon Sun also fits this description, it isn't available yet, so Reinhardt will have to make do with Pyroar.

Finisher: Mega Aggron (#306)

Type: Rock/Steel (normal) Steel (Mega evolution)

Reason: Reinhardt dresses, acts and speaks like a medieval knight, so it's little wonder that he'd choose a Pokémon that shares his prediliction for cast-iron underwear. Mega Aggron is one of the strongest defenders in Pokémon's metagame, dropping the Rock type to become pure Steel and gaining Filter, which reduces the damage dealt by super effective moves by 50%. Reinhardt's ultimate just knocks people down, but it's rare to see an Aggron that isn't packing Earthquake or Earth Power, each of which can shake up an enemy team in more ways than one.

Analysis: Like their master, Reinhardt's team is mainly clad in Steel, and so they'll have to watch out for Steel's weaknesses, Fire and Ground. Bastiodon and Aggron both take quadruple damage from Ground and Fighting moves, though Aggron wil take 3/4 less damage from them once it Mega evolves. All three of Reinhardt's team take extra damage from Ground types, which is ironic since striking the earth is one of his most powerful abilities. Pyroar is a good choice to switch in against other Fire types, but all three of his creatures also take extra damage from Water types as well. Unsurprisingly, Reinhardt's team excels at defense, so he'd do well to look into moves that cause damage over time like Will'o'wisp and Sandstorm.

Roadhog

Source: http://elstrawfedora.deviantart.com/art/Overwatch-Heroes-and-Their-Pokemon-Roadhog-615211292

Roadhog is hard to pin down. He's a psychopath, but seems reasonably jolly. He yoinks people in with a meathook on a chain to better blast them up close, but he excels at absorbing damage that was meant for somebody else on his team. He's basically a horror movie villian with his dehumanizing gas mask and homemade weaponry. But he has a sense of humor about his own bulk, making use of his outie belly button to add a 3D effect to his tattoos. It's incongruous, sort of like if the Disney corporation got it in their heads to remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Lead Pokémon: Emboar (#500)

Type: Fire/Fighting

Reason: Roadhog has embraced his body type, and comments about his appearance don't seem to bother him. Most of his sprays and comments acknowledge his porcine visage, and he even has a prominent belly tattoo with his belly button forming the snout of a pig. It seems fitting that his entire team would be made up of different species of swine.

Support Pokémon: Grumpig (#326)

 Type: Psychic

Reason: Roadhog isn't shy about his own body, and Grumpig takes that idea even further, using it to its advantage. Grumpig can make use of the Thick Fat ability to halve the damage it takes from incoming Fire and Ice type moves.

Finisher: Mamoswine (#473)

Type: Ground/Ice

Reason: Roadhog's ultimate, Whole Hog, briefly changes his shotgun into a rapid fire spread gun that deals increased damage and also has a powerful knockback effect. This can be used to eliminate enemies or just fling them away from a point, giving Roadhog a lot of versatility. Mamoswine's dual Ice and Ground types similarly give it a lot of options, letting it attack an opponent's weakness in almost any situation. Not only that, it can have the Thick Fat ability just like Grumpig to reduce incoming damage.

Analysis: With five attack types to choose from between his three Pokémon, Roadhog's team can handle nearly any situation. None of his creatures have any double weaknesses, and in fact each of them can cover for the others pretty well. Emboar and Mamoswine share a weakness to Rock attacks, but their secondary types both deal double damage to Rock types. Opponents will have to be careful and hope that Roadhog makes a mistake in order to get through his team.

We'll finish up the Tank class and start on the Supports next time. In the meantime, both the Offense and Defense teams have finished their preliminaries, so they can now face off against each other.

Genji Vs. Hanzo

At some level, the brothers Shimada always knew it would come to this, and both have prepared for years in advance of their meeting. Though Rayquaza's dragon type deals double damage to 2/3 of Hanzo's team, that weakness works both ways, and Rayquaza falls to Zekrom after bashing through Dragonair's augmented defenses. After that, Genji is in serious trouble since both Greninja and Ninjask take double damage from Zekrom's Electric attacks. Hanzo moves on to the next round after defeating his brother once again.

Winner: Hanzo

Pharah Vs. Junkrat

Pharah has an advantage over Junkrat in Overwatch since many of his attacks require the opponent to be on the ground. That doesn't prove to be the case here. Each of their teams has immunities and weakness to the other, so this battle involves a lot of jockeying for position, feints, and head games. Eventually, Junkrat begins his Rollout combo with Donphan, taking out Pharah's Skarmory and threatening her Charizard, but she manages to stop it with Cofagrigus and its status attacks. Junkrat remembers taking out Froslass with Raticate's Crunch move and switches it in, only to get hit by Will'o'wisp which reduces its attack and renders its Focus Sash useless. It comes down to the last Pokémon for both teams, but Pharah's Mega Charizard mops up Mega Mawile pretty handily once Donphan is out of the way.

Winner: Pharah

Tracer Vs. Torbjörn

Even though Tracer's team includes two legendaries, Torbjörn has an answer for everything she can throw at him. His Zweilous is immune to Deoxys' psychic attacks, and both of Tracer's other Pokémon take serious damage from Mega Camerupt's powered up Earthquakes. Deoxys can hit fast but not especially hard, having given up power for mobility. And while Dialga's Roar of Time is an incredibly powerful move, Camerupt has the bulk to take the hit and return the favor, especially since Dialga is immobilized on its next turn. Tracer manages to remove Torbjörn's Camerupt, but it costs both her legendaries to do it, and Pikachu can't stand up to Torbjörn's Klinklang even though it resists Steel attacks. Torbjörn advances to the next round after an appropriately brief battle.

That's all for today. We'll finish up next week with the rest of the Tank team and the Supports starting on Monday. As always, thanks to Pokestadium for the Pokémon sprites, and also to Pokecharms for their trainer card macro. Thanks also to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

 Community Blogs:370716Pokéwatch: Defend the Objective - QalamariQalamari2016-06-23T18:00:00Z2016-06-23T18:00:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>

All this week, I've been taking a look at the various heroes from Overwatch and assigning them a team of three Pokémon based on their personality and moves in their own game. Since both games have such a colorful, diverse cast of characters, it's been a fun challenge trying to determine the most appropriate critters for each hero. We're crossing the halfway point today, finishing up the Defense team with Mei, Torbjorn, and Widowmaker.

 If you've missed any of the other installments, you can check those out right here.

Part one: Genji, McCree, Pharah

Part two: Reaper, Soldier: 76, Tracer

Part three: Bastion, Hanzo, Junkrat

Once were done with today's heroes, the Defense team will start their battles, and the winners will go on to battle the Offense heroes who won in part two. Let's get started.

Mei

Mei is a Chinese climatologist and cryogeneticist, and she's one of the more unique characters in Overwatch. She doesn't do a lot of damage, but her endothermic blaster lets her slow and eventually freeze enemies in place, making them much easier to hit. Her alternate fire shoots a razor sharp icicle at the opponent, which can do critical damage when aimed at the target's head. This is much easier to do when they're already frozen in place, naturally. She can also instantly create massive walls or pillars of ice, which can be used to boost friendly players to positions they wouldn't normally be able to reach or simply impede an enemy team's progress. She tends to be vulnerable at medium and long range, so she also has the ability to freeze herself in an impenetrable block of ice. This protects her from all harm for a few seconds, but during that time she is completely immobile.

Lead Pokémon: Froslass (#478)

Type: Ghost/Ice

Reason: As you might expect, Mei's team all share the Ice type. Ice type Pokémon can benefit from weather control, since they gain some benefit from the Hail weather condition. Hail causes most non-Ice type Pokémon to take damage every round that the Hail persists, and it also increases Blizzard's accuracy so that it can't miss. Froslass gets an further benefit from Hail since it can have the Snow Cloak ability, which raises its evasion in icy weather. Mei herself could be considered a Frost Lass, but I have to go smack myself in the head now for actually writing that down.

Support Pokémon: Glaceon (#471)

Type: Ice

Reason: Due to her proximity to her own cold-creating technology, Mei must constantly wear an overcoat on the battlefield, even in warmer climates like Ilios and Dorado. Mei's home territory of China borders Nepal, where Sherpas developed the warm winter hats they wear to protect their ears from frostbite in the high Himalaya mountains. Glaceon, a later evolution of Eevee, is Mei's tribute to those hardy Sherpas, and its Ice Body ability helps it heal from damage caused by opponents as long as it's snowing. It doesn't hurt that it's a cute Ice type... not a bad description of Mei herself.

Finisher: Regice (#378)

Type: Ice

Reason: As previously mentioned, Mei's Cryo Freeze ability lets her ignore all damage temporarily, completely surrounding her body with an invulnerable block of ice. It's a great tool for avoiding enemy ultimate abilities or buying yourself some time to allow the rest of your team to move in and help you out. It also closely resembles Mei's third and final choice, Regice, whose Clear Body ability prevents its stats from being lowered. The in game Pokédex says that Regice is so cold that it can reduce the surrounding air to absolute zero, the point where molecules stop moving because all the energy has been drained from them. This sounds a lot like the effect of Mei's ultimate ability Blizzard, which applies the effect of her endothermic blaster to a wide area, freezing solid and damaging any enemy characters unlucky enough to be in the area.

Analysis: Mei's team lacks diversity, so it's all going to have the same strengths and weaknesses. Ice types work great against Dragons, Flying, Grass, and Ground types, but take double damage from Fire, Fighting, Rock, and Steel moves. Choosing 3 of the same type of Pokémon is a gamble, but if she can manage to quickly take out whatever her opponent intends to use against Ice types, they may not have a way to recover. Weather control will give her a distinct advantage in a prolonged battle since her team all gains power in a snowstorm, while the cold saps the energy of the opposing team.

Torbjörn

Torbjörn is the umlauted techno viking of Overwatch, a bearded Swedish engineer who specializes in building autonomous turrets and providing armor to the rest of his team. He's taken out a Titan class robot all by himself, and his turrets tend to make quick work of inexperienced players. His ultimate ability, Molten Core, taps the geothermal energy of the earth's center itself, vastly increasing both his own damage and that of his turret. Despite all of his accomplishments however, he finds it hard to gain the respect of his peers, who constantly try to sit on him.

Lead Pokémon: Klinklang (#601)

Type: Steel

Reason: Though it's a little hard to see in his portrait, Torbjörn has a tattoo of interlocked gears on his right bicep, a symbol of his belief that technology can be used to improve people's lives. His in-game character model also has a constantly spinning clockwork contraption on his back that looks very similar to Klinklang.

If you like this topic, check out ElStrawFedora's page on Deviantart.

Support Pokémon: Zweilous (#634)

Type: Dark/Dragon

Reason: One of Torbjörn's greatest strengths is his ability to effectively attack from two angles at once, thanks to his turrets. Zweilous shares that ability thanks to its twin heads, though the Pokémon games say that the two heads don't really get along very well.

Finisher: Mega Camerupt (#323)

Type: Ground/Fire

Reason: When Torbjörn triggers his Molten Core ability, flames shoot out the back of his twin exhaust pipes, and both he and his turret become considerably more powerful for the duration. Camerupt has twin volcanoes on its back which react in much the same way. When it Mega evolves, Camerupt's volcanoes merge together, and it gains the Sheer Force ability, increasing the damage but removing the added effects of any moves it uses.

Analysis: Torbjörn has a very diverse set of creatures, and much like his turret, his team has a lot of potential. Klinklang's pure steel type leaves it vulnerable to Fighting and Fire moves, but both Camerupt and Zweilous have resistance to Fire, Camerupt in particular having a 4x resistance to fire moves. That resistance comes at a cost however, as Camerupt will take quadruple damage from Water-type moves. This can be mitigated somewhat by making sure that the Sunny Day weather stays in effect, since this cuts Water type moves' power by 50% and increases Fire type moves the same amount. Meanwhile, Zweilous resists both Water and Fire due to its Dragon type, so it would be a good idea to load it with some moves that hurt Water types. It would also benefit from the Eviolite hold item, which would boost both of its defensive stats by 50%. Both Klinklang and Zweilous take double damage from Fighting moves, so Torbjörn will have to be very careful if he faces a Fighting type creature. That said, his Camerupt is a beast, its Fire and Ground types capable of doing super effective damage to fully half of the elemental types. Once it Mega evolves, most teams will have a hard time taking it out unless they have a dedicated Water type and can hit it while Sunny Day isn't in effect.

Widowmaker

Assassin, mercenary, and professional hitwoman, Widowmaker is a beautiful, deadly femme fatale who prefers to dispatch her enemies from as far away as possible. Her weapon, the Widow's Kiss, can shift between a long range sniper rifle and a medium range machine gun, giving her versatility for those times when she can't avoid fighting up close and personal. She can deploy sticky venom mines that will damage and poison unwary foes, and has access to positions most heroes don't thanks to her grappling hook. Her ultimate ability, Infra Sight, allows her to see targets through walls and obstacles, and is shared with her entire team. While depicted as a villian, Widow seems not to worry too much about morality and will simply fight for the side with the largest checkbook.

Lead Pokémon: Ariados (#168)

Type: Bug/Poison

Reason: Though Black Widow spiders aren't necessarily native to her home country of France, Widow has taken the deadly Latrodectus spider as her personal symbol. The closest thing to a Black widow in the Pokémon universe is probably Ariados, a Poison type that conveniently can also have the Sniper ability. It's pretty clear that Ariados isn't a true spider however, since it lacks the requisite number of legs.

Support Pokémon: Purrloin (#509)

Picture of Purrloin as Widowmaker by MAGZ, found at https://k60.kn3.net/taringa/5/8/9/6/1/9/4/123nicolas/75C.jpg

Type: Dark

Reason: When Widowmaker isn't killing people for money, she seems to take heist jobs as well. Purrloin is a play on purloin, another word for steal. It also shares her color scheme, and let's be honest, I just couldn't pass that picture up.

Finisher: Galvantula (#596)

Type: Bug/Electric

Reason: Introduced in Generation 5, Galvantula comes with the Compound Eyes ability, boosting the accuracy of its moves by 30%. This ability translates well to Widowmaker's ultimate, which shows her entire team where they need to put steel on target.

Analysis: Bug types and their trainers are kind of a joke in Pokémon since they evolve quickly, but max out in power just as fast. It's gotten better in recent years since bugs are now super effective against Grass, Dark and Psychic, but Bug type moves are resisted by seven other elemental types, more than any other. Fortunately, both of Widow's spiders have a second type to back them up, and Electric and Poison gives her a fair amount of coverage. Unfortunately, both of these nullify bug's resistance to Ground type moves, meaning they'll take normal damage from common moves like Earthquake. Her Purrloin will have difficulty in a straight fight, so she should take advantage of moves that boost its evasion and lower the opponent's attack value. Using moves that deal damage over time like Toxic is an option for her, but she'll need to be able to buy some time while the poison does its work, and nothing on her team is very good at tanking. Widow faces an uphill climb, and it'll be surprising if she makes it to the second round.

With the defense teams set, it's time to start the second round of battles.

Bastion Vs. Hanzo

This is a very close fight; Bastion's legends don't have any particular weakness against Hanzo's Dragons, and Hanzo manages to switch in Zekrom before the Electric Techno Blast that was intended for Gyarados lands. This match is a slugfest but in the end Hanzo ekes out a win because his weakest link, Dragonair, far outclasses Bastion's weakest link, Pidgey. Poor little bird never stood a chance. Not unlike an immobile Bastion in the path of Hanzo's ultimate, Hanzo is the victor.

Winner: Hanzo

Junkrat Vs. Mei

Mei's lack of diversity quite literally bites her in the ass as she doesn't have an answer for Mega Mawile and its powerful Steel type moves. Her frantic switching gives Junkrat's Donphan enough time to get a Rock type Rollout started, doubling its already hard-hitting power every turn. Even Mei's defensive Regice gets mowed over by the unstoppable force. There's a bright spot when her Froslass' Snow cloak causes Rollout to miss, but Raticate is still fresh and can take it out with Crunch, ignoring its Ghost type moves. Although her team would do well in an extended encounter, Junkrat doesn't give her the option and she can't slow him down enough to make any headway. Junkrat celebrates by licking the defeated Regice. His tongue immediately gets stuck, and the other heroes share a good laugh at his attempts to free himself. Eventually Mercy takes pity on him and helps him loose.

Winner: Junkrat

Torbjörn vs Widowmaker

 Widowmaker's team puts up a reasonable effort, but she doesn't have an answer for Mega Camerupt. Her team gets swept before she can use any of her combat tricks. Torbjörn tells her Good Game after the battle, but both he and his turrets have taken enough W-engraved bullets to the face over the years that you can tell he doesn't really mean it.

Winner: Torbjörn

And that's it for today. Check in tomorrow as we begin the Tank class, and pit the winners from the Offense team against today's champions. Again, thanks to Pokestadium where the Pokémon sprites came from, and also to Pokecharms for their trainer card macro. And a big thanks to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

 Community Blogs:370292Pokéwatch: Prepare your defenses - QalamariQalamari2016-06-22T18:55:00Z2016-06-22T18:55:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>

In my last two blogs, we looked at the Offense characters in Overwatch and determined which Pokémon would best fit them, based on their abilities and personality in their own game. Now that the Offense team is done, it's time to start taking a look at the Defensive players.

 Since we're looking at three characters per day, today we'll go in depth on Bastion, Hanzo, and Junkrat.

Bastion

Bastion's place in Overwatch is uneasy; his model of robot is what tried to wipe out humanity years ago, necessitating the Overwatch program in the first place. Many of the other members of the team express misgivings about working with it. Many players express misgivings about playing against one, as Bastion has a tendency to shred inexperienced teams. Bastion's main purpose is area denial, and it's good at its job. Its main form of attack is to set up overlooking a control point or along the path of an escort target and transform into a heavy duty gatling gun, capable of dishing out tremendous damage wherever the barrel is pointed. In between enemy charges, Bastion can even heal itself using the self repair ability. The tradeoff for this is that while in this turret form, Bastion is immobile and must rely on its team for blocking and other support.

Lead Pokémon: Genesect (#649)

Type: Bug/Steel

Reason: Genesect is a biotech experiment; in Pokémon Black and White it was augmented by Team Plasma, who attached an enormous cannon to its back capable of shooting blasts of elemental energy. Visually, it's similar to Bastion in its Recon mode, since it must carry the gatling gun's barrel around with it even when it's not in use. Genesect can make use of different hold items to change its signature move, Techno Blast, into one of five different elemental attacks, which gives it a lot of different options on the battlefield. Like Bastion, this diversity comes with a tradeoff, however, as the Drive items it holds mean it can't use another hold item, and they can't be changed midway through a battle.

Support Pokémon: Pidgey (#016)

Type: Normal/Flying

Reason: Bastion is the one of last of his kind, the E54 model sentry bots mostly having been destroyed as the frontline warriors of the Omnic Crisis. The playable Bastion has given up its warlike ways, but will still heed a call to action when Overwatch has need of its abilities. This Bastion unit seems to have a fair amount of curiosity about biological life, and it seems to have made a friendship of sorts with a small bird. On Bastion's "Overgrown" skin, the bird has made a nest, and several of its emotes and victory poses feature the bird in some way. There aren't too many smaller birds than Pidgey, the original winged rat from Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Finisher: Meloetta (#648)

Type: Normal/Psychic (Aria form) Normal/Fighting (Pirouette form)

Reason: Bastion makes use of multiple configurations to increase its versatility on the battlefield, and the same is true of Meloetta. This Pokémon can make use of its signature move, Relic Song, to shift its secondary type from Psychic to Fighting and back again if desired. This move also takes advantage of Meloetta's unchanging Normal type, and is the only move which can both do damage and also put a target to sleep.

Analysis:

Bastion's team includes two legendaries, but its fondness for that little bird means it'll be facing an uphill battle no matter who it goes up against. The Genesect will most likely be equipped with the Shock drive, so Techno Blast will deal Electric type damage. Genesect will have to be careful of Fire type moves since it takes quadruple damage from those, but its typing leaves it with no other weaknesses. Pidgey's Flying type cancels out Normal's Fighting type vulnerability, but leaves it vulnerable to Electric, Ice, and Rock attacks. It's one of the weakest Pokémon around, so even normally effective moves have a good chance of taking it out in one hit. Bastion's Meloetta, on the other hand, will have a way of shifting its vulnerabilities and strengths based on the situation, and should be able to perform well regardless of what the opponent attacks with.

 Hanzo

Hanzo is Genji's brother, the scion of the Shimada clan, and may be a dragon walking the earth in human form... it's unclear right now. What we do know is that he's a world-class archer, combining high tech arrowheads with the accuracy of his bow and arrows to make himself a formidable threat to any opposition he can draw a bead on. He also seems to have some mystical powers, as his ultimate ability sends a pair of extremely powerful spirit dragons charging through the enemy team. Much like his brother, if you hear him shout "Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau!" (Dragon, consume my enemies), you'd better pay attention and hope he's on your side.

Lead Pokémon: Gyarados (#130)

Type: Water/Flying (normal) Water/Dark (Mega Evolution)

Reason: Gyarados is perhaps one of the most Japanese looking Pokémon around, its design based in part on traditional carp kites, or Koinobori. Hanzo's spirit dragons are both blue and bear a strong resemblance to the top two Pokémon in his team.

Support Pokémon: Dragonair (#148)

Type: Dragon

Reason: In the very first Pokémon game, Dragonair and its predecessor Dratini were the only true Dragon types available, since it gains the Flying type when it evolves into Dragonite. Once again, Hanzo has made a choice based on aesthetics, as Dragonair reminds him of his other blue spirit dragon.

Finisher: Zekrom (#644)

Type: Dragon/Electric

Reason: While Hanzo's spirit dragons appear to be tied in some way to his exposed dragon tattoos, it's easier to miss the thundercloud printed on his robe on his other side. Choosing Zekrom as his closer combines his love of Dragons with his apparent interest in lightning bolts.

Analysis:

Despite a lack of diversity, Hanzo's team should be tough to overcome. Gyarados gained the ability to Mega evolve in generation 6, changing its secondary type from Flying to Dark and reducing the damage it would normally take from Electric attacks by half. Hanzo could also bait the opponent into using an Electric attack on Gyarados, using this as an opportunity to switch in Zekrom, which has a 4x resistance to Electric attacks. Dragonair would appear to be the weak link in the team, but Hanzo can take advantage of the fact that it's not evolved to its final form by making it hold the Eviolite, which will increase both of its defensive stats by 50%. Unsurprisingly, Hanzo's team will have to watch out for Fairy types, a hard counter to Dragons.

 Junkrat

Junkrat is the mad bomber of Overwatch, a not-necessarily-reformed criminal who specializes in explosives and area denial. His homemade, jury-rigged explosives are apparently made out of discarded car parts, and he can also make use of a jagged bear trap to stop an enemy in place for a few seconds, making them easy pickings for a friendly sniper or just a face full of bombs. His ultimate, Rip-Tire, is a remote controlled bomb with massive power and area of effect, useful for stopping an enemy push or just putting the fear of God into the opposition for a few seconds.

Lead Pokémon: Raticate (#020)

Type: Normal

Reason: Raticate is the evolution of one of the earliest Pokémon most players will come across, and as such, it's easy to dismiss. Despite its appearance, however, trainers who level up Raticate may learn that it has some particularly nasty tricks up its sleeve. It's one of the few Pokémon that can learn Super Fang, which takes an opponent down to half their remaining hit points regardless of defenses or type. It can also make good use of Endeavor, which reduces the opponent's life total to whatever Raticate is currently sitting at. As a normal type, it can also learn lots of different elemental attacks and is immune to Ghost type moves, though it will need to avoid Fighting type attacks. Rattatas are everywhere, and there's no doubt that more than one freshly caught Raticate has been given the nickname "Junkrat" by a novice Pokémon trainer.

Support Pokémon: Mega Mawile (#303)

Type: Steel/Fairy

Reason: Mawile is a living Steel trap, the sweet face on one side giving no indication of the existential horror mouth coming out the back of its head. Junkrat's steel traps don't do a lot of damage on their own, but they can set up a lot of damage by removing an opponent's ability to evade. While less subtle, Mawile's Mega Evolution gives it the Huge Power ability, doubling its attack damage.

Finisher: Donphan (#232)

Type: Ground

Reason: Junkrat's ultimate, seen above, makes use of a discarded truck tire fitted with spikes and (presumably) enough C-4 to blow a hole in the moon. Donphan resembles an elephant, but can make use of the thick, leathery hide on its trunk and back to roll up into a tire shape and increase its speed over smooth terrain. It can also make good use of Rollout, a Rock-type move that deals increasing damage for five turns but leaves the user unable to choose another move. Preceding Rollout with Defense Curl doubles this attack's damage at the outset and also provides a small defensive boost.

Analysis: Much like their owner, Junkrat's team is unconventional, relying on combat tricks and unpredictability to get the job done. His Raticate doesn't have great stats, but can make use of a Focus Sash to make sure it gets at least one good hit in. Combined with Endeavor, this virtually guarantees Raticate will take out whatever creature it faces; it's sort of like how Junkrat drops several live grenades when he dies, which can get him revenge on a careless opponent. His Mawile's Steel type nullifies the Fairy weakness to Poison and Steel attacks, but it will still have to watch out for Fire and Ground moves. Donphan takes double damage from the common Water, Ice and Grass type moves, but its Ground type gives it a wide array of coverages. Using Rollout ensures that it won't have to switch out if the opponent brings out a Flying type, either.

That's all for today. We'll finish up the Defense team tomorrow with Mei, Torbjörn, and Widowmaker. Once Defense is done, they'll start their own battle, and the winners there will take on the winners from yesterday's Offense batle.

As always, thanks to Pokestadium, where I found the Pokémon sprites, and also to Pokecharms for their trainer card macro. And a big thanks to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

Finally, this last image didn't quite fit in with my team for Hanzo, but I thought it was too cool not to share. Check out ElStrawFedora on DeviantArt for more like this.

 Community Blogs:370020Pokéwatch: Relentless Assault - QalamariQalamari2016-06-21T17:30:00Z2016-06-21T17:30:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>

In my last blog, we went through the first three heroes of Overwatch and assigned three Pokémon to each of them, based on that hero's moveset and apparent personality. Today we'll be finishing up the Offense team of characters, taking a look at Reaper, Soldier: 76, and Tracer.

Don't forget that each hero only gets 3 Pokémon, and that no two heroes can share the same creature. Once we're done with today's heroes, the Offense class will start a friendly battle to see who the best trainer is.

Reaper

Reaper/Darkrai artwork by Elstrawfedora at Deviantart. You'll probably be seeing more by this artist as the week goes on.

Reaper is the result of mashing every emo kid in the world together and leaving the resulting blob to fester for a few years. There's a reason the @Reapernames twitter has become so popular since Overwatch went into open beta, and it's because this character seems to attract a certain type of player. Reaper is a skull faced, gravel-throated dude who blasts at opponents with his twin shotguns, throwing them to the ground with contempt when the clip is empty. He can also enter Wraith form to become immune to all damage for a few seconds, and can make use of a short-range teleport to sneak up behind an enemy team and unleash his ultimate, Death Blossom. This deals incredible damage to anyone who's near Reaper, though it can be cut short if he's stunned, killed, or otherwise incapacitated. His passive ability causes a soul orb to drop whenever he gets the killing blow on an enemy, and consuming it grants him a medium health boost. If there's a physical embodiment of Occam's concept of Darksiders 2, it's Reaper.

Lead Pokémon: Darkrai (#491)

Type: Dark

Reason: Reaper's passive ability allows him to consume the souls of enemies he's slain to extend his own life. Darkrai's signature move, Dark Void, allows it to put an entire enemy team to sleep. It can follow this up by using Dream Eater to steal the life from its opponents. And while the aesthetic similarity to his wraith form is undeniable, Darkrai also learns Double team, which makes it much harder to hit.

Support Pokémon: Duskull (#355)

Type: Ghost

Reason: Maintaining the visual theme of his team is important to Reaper, who understands that demoralizing his opponents can be a great asset on the battlefield. People are a lot easier to shoot at if they're running away from you. For this reason, he chose Pokémon that match his chosen style, and Duskull's cowl and skull mask combination make them look like they were made to be together.

Finisher: Mega Houndoom (#229)

Type: Dark/Fire

Reason: Reaper's ultimate, Death Blossom, greatly increases the power of his twin Hellfire shotguns and punishes a team for doing what they're supposed to do, sticking together. Mega evolving Houndoom makes it look much more threatening, upping the percieved threat factor that's so important to Reaper. Having a literal hellhound beside him might cause an enemy team to break and scatter, where they'll be much easier to pick off one by one.

Analysis:

 Reaper's team is all about maintaining a certain aesthetic, focusing on terrorizing the enemy as much as it does on overwhelming force. Two of his three creatures are Dark types, which are immune to Psychic attacks but take double damage from Fighting, Bug, and Fairy type moves. Houndoom won't need to worry about bugs since it can burn them away, but a strong Fairy type may cause his team problems. Using a Ghost type as his support is a good play since they're immune to Fighting type moves and can switch in as a counter, but using the un-evolved form means that Duskull doesn't have the bulk to take hits like Reaper's other two creatures. If an opponent can take out Duskull early and then capitalize on the Dark type weaknesses without being put to sleep, Reaper's team will be in serious trouble.

 Soldier: 76

Soldier: 76 image from https://www.funnyjunk.com/channel/overwatch-time/Protect+the+children/knbjLxa/8

Soldier: 76 is the former leader of Overwatch, and many of the other members still look up to him. He's older than most of the others and serves as a surrogate father to the rest of the team, but he's not sure that reactivating Overwatch was such a good idea. He's depicted as a cranky, grumbling old man, but he still believes in protecting the innocent from those who would do them harm.

Lead Pokémon: Omastar (#139)

Type: Rock/Water

Reason: Soldier: 76 is a man who's set in his ways. He's been there and done that, and he never bothered to try any of the newer games since he feels that the first one was just fine as it was. He feels like a man out of time, so he chose Pokemon he feels he has something in common with. In Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, it's possible to resurrect three different Pokemon from fossils. Since Soldier: 76 thinks he's something of a fossil himself but doesn't acknowledge any Pokémon beyond the original 151, he chose these three as his representatives.

Support Pokémon: Kabutops (#141)

Type: Rock/Water

Reason: Soldier: 76's passive ability allows him to sprint at will, moving considerably faster than most other members of Overwatch. Both Kabutops and Omastar can benefit greatly from having rain active, similar to McCree's team. Each has the potential to have the Swift Swim ability, which doubles their speed in the rain. Soldier: 76 definitely wouldn't care about abilities or weather effects though, since they weren't introduced until later generations. Still, Kabutops has a decent attack and speed stat on its own, and it'll probably be able to do some damage before it gets taken out.

Finisher: Aerodactyl (#142)

Type: Rock/Flying

Reason: Although Aerodactyl gained the ability to Mega evolve in the sixth generation, Soldier: 76 isn't having any truck with that nonsense. He raised his Pokémon years ago, and he doesn't want to learn any newfangled mechanics. And while we're on the subject, one Special stat for both offense and defense should be enough for anybody.

Analysis: Since Pokémon battles now scale the level so that both teams are on an even footing, the fact that Soldier: 76's team has all been at the level cap of 100 for 15 years means a lot less. Back in his day, there were no limits on how strong a Pokémon could grow, and you can bet that he'd have kicked your ass. As it stands now however, Soldier's team has some pretty serious weaknesses. Both Omastar and Kabutops take quadruple damage from Grass type moves, and Aerodactyl takes quad damage from Ice. All three of his team take double damage from Steel and Fighting moves due to their shared Rock type, and each has a weakness to Electric attacks as well. His refusal to use hold items or allow Aerodactyl to Mega evolve further limits his team's effectiveness. While he'll do very well against Fire and has a decent chance vs. Ground types, it's unlikely that he'll make it out of the first round due to his stubbornness. His best chance for winning is a lucky break with Ancient Power; it's thematically appropriate, all three of his Pokémon can use it, and if it hits, there's a small chance that the user's base stats will all go up at once.

 Tracer

Once again, this image was created by ElStrawFedora on Deviantart.

 Tracer was our introduction to the world of Overwatch, and players took a shine to her immediately. Unlike several of the other characters, Tracer just seems like she's having fun as she blinks around the battlefield, making use of her Chronal Accelerator to outmaneuver and harrass her opponents. The device gives her the ability to make use of a short range teleport in any direction which she can use to move from cover to cover, flank and attack entrenched enemies, or get in close to place her Pulse Bomb where it'll do the most good. She can also rewind time for herself by a few seconds, giving herself a second chance if she makes a mistake or would prefer to try a different tactic.

Lead Pokémon: Deoxys: Speed Forme (#386)

Type: Psychic

Reason: Tracer's ability to blink forward makes her one of the speediest, hardest to hit members of Overwatch, so it makes sense that she'd want an equally speedy Pokémon to train with. Deoxys is an alien Pokémon that can assume any of four forms, each one focusing on a particular statistic. The Speed form of Deoxys is one of the fastest Pokémon available and is very difficult to outrun.

Support Pokémon: Pikachu (#25)

Type: Electric

Reason: Pikachu and Tracer have a lot in common. They're both the face of their franchise, they can both use a version of Quick Attack to move around the battlefield ahead of their enemies, and they both have cute yellow butts. While Pikachu isn't as strong as Tracer's other two choices, it can make up for that by taking advantage of its natural speediness and by holding a Light Ball, an item that doubles both of its attack stats.

Finisher: Dialga (#483)

Type: Dragon/Steel

Reason: The most immediately noticable part of Tracer's design is the glowing chest piece, the Chronal Accelerator that provides her abilities. Not only does Dialga share this design element, but it serves as the Pokémon representation of time, something that Tracer freely bends to her will. They even have the same basic head shape with Tracer's hair formed into a series of spiky locks.

Analysis: Tracer has some heavy hitters on her side, the Pokémon embodiments of both speed and time itself. Deoxys will have to look out for Dark types because they're immune to Psychics, and both Pikachu and Dialga will need to avoid Ground type attacks. Dialga also takes double damage from Fighting moves, but Deoxys should be able to burn down any Fighting types for it before they can pose a threat.

That takes care of the Offense players, so let's see which of them would come out on top. Each hero will battle with the one to their right in a single elimination, and those that remain will move on to challenge the winners from the Defense team.

Genji Vs. McCree

While McCree's team has a theme that will serve it well in most encounters, it's just bad luck for him that Genji's Ninjask is a strong bug type that can cripple his team by removing his Ludicolo. After that, McCree will be on the defensive and his other two Pokémon are no match for Mega Rayquaza. Genji wins this fight handily. Much like in Overwatch, Ninja beats Cowboy.

Winner: Genji

Pharah vs. Reaper

This is a close match, but Reaper's decision not to evolve Duskull costs him the victory when Pharah's Cofagrigus takes it out with a single Ghost move. Houndoom would be a good matchup against Phara's Skarmory, but Fire moves bounce right off of Mega Charizard, which has a 4x resistance to them. Reaper's Darkrai gains him some ground, but Pharah's Skarmory is able to tank it after Cofagrigus lands a Will-o-wisp that reduces its attack and slowly burns it down. At the end of the match Reaper curses, throws his Pokéballs on the ground, then shadow steps away.

Winner: Pharah

Soldier: 76 Vs. Tracer

Tracer barely has to try here, as her Pikachu's Electric attacks and Dialga's Steel both deal double damage to Soldier's entire team. Tracer is happy about the victory, but feels a little guilty about beating an old man so badly.

Winner: Tracer

Since we have an odd number of matchups now, we'll wait until tomorrow to continue the battles. Tune in next time as we begin the Defense team.

 Once again, special thanks goes to Pokestadium, where I found the Pokémon sprites, and also to Pokecharms for their trainer card macro. And a big thanks to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

 Community Blogs:368819Opinion: Why would anyone buy an Xbox One right now? - QalamariQalamari2016-06-15T19:00:00Z2016-06-15T19:00:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Sorry, Knut.

In general, it's hard to argue that Microsoft's E3 press event for 2016 was a lot better than previous years. For the most part, they focused on their upcoming games, but the conference opened by debuting the redesigned Xbox One S, and closed with the reveal of "Project Scorpio," a much beefier piece of hardware with the highest quality, uncompressed pixels available. It's unsurprising that Microsoft is looking to revise their hardware; when plans for a disc-less, cloud-based, Kinect controlled console fell through just before they system's launch three years ago, they had to scramble to turn what had been planned into the console we have today. Unfortunately, this led to compromises that the engineers, to their credit, have tried valiantly to work around. Still, the Xbox One has consistently performed worse in head-to-head comparisons with Sony's Playstation 4, which has to have hurt some egos in Seattle.

I'm curious as to why anyone would buy an Xbox One right now, though.

Let's begin by saying that I am the target audience for the new, slimmed-down Xbox One S. I enjoyed my time with the Xbox 360, and in fact still play on it from time to time. I haven't yet purchased either of the current-gen consoles, and had been considering buying one within the next year or so. What I've seen from Microsoft recently, however, makes me less inclined to buy an Xbox One than before.

I'll freely admit that I'm a bargain hunter when it comes to playing video games. I don't usually preorder anything, and I rarely buy a game at launch, preferring to let others take the first hit of depreciation. I'm not quite this far behind, but the philosophy makes a lot of sense to me. I've never felt like I was missing out by not owning the newest and shiniest console. So I'm not exactly thrilled with the prospect of upgrading hardware twice in two years. I don't want to buy my consoles like we buy phones. I don't even like buying phones that way.

It's seeming like Microsoft is attempting to create a tiered family of Xbox One consoles, with the base model at the low end and Scorpio at the top, a premium product for a greater cost. We've already seen them do this with controllers; the basic Xbox One gamepad works great, but they also offer the Elite series for more than twice the cost of the standard controller. I understand that some people are willing to shell out more money for enhanced audio and visuals, and I don't necessarily have a problem with that. I am a little concerned that this will eventually price out all but the most dedicated game fans. Additionally, one of the previous benefits of a console was that a developer knew exactly what hardware their audience would be using, so they don't have to create multiple versions of the game for different versions of the console. With the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), that's no longer the case. Either developers will have to optimize their game for multiple hardware versions plus Windows 10, or they'll be constrained to the lowest supported version of the hardware in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Microsoft is also extending an olive brach to PC gamers, offering cross-play and a free PC copy of any games purchased for Xbox through the Microsoft Store. I can't count the number of times I saw "Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive" during their press conference. Ben Kuchera wrote at Polygon that this seems like a way for Microsoft to limit the more open development space that the PC offers. While it's likely that this is what they have in mind, it's my opinion that this will backfire. You can already hook up an Xbox One controller to your PC, and it seems as though Microsoft's exclusive games will all become available on the UWP. Those that aren't can usually be found on Steam, as third-party publishers simply can't afford to pass up other sources of revenue. As such, there seems to be very little reason to own a dedicated console that can't be upgraded, is more expensive to replace, and will very clearly be obsolete in less than a year. Why would anyone spend $400 annually to play the most recent games on a console, when the option exists to play those games on a system where you can upgrade individual components as they become outdated?

Interestingly, while the PC may be becoming more like an Xbox One, it seems as though the reverse is also true. Though it wasn't mentioned in their main E3 presentation, Phil Spencer confirmed that mouse and keyboard support is upcoming in a future Xbox update. It's great to have additional options, but this is going to take a lot of the fun out of online FPS matches for anyone who only plays with a controller. Anyone who tried to play Shadowrun on the Xbox 360 knows that there's a reason developers balance console and PC versions of games separately. I can only imagine how frustrating it will be in a few months to shell out for one of those $150 elite controllers and then get reamed by a kid with a $10 mouse and keyboard combo from Best Buy. Maybe these games won't have cross platform multiplayer, but if they don't, it seems like they're cutting their playerbase in half before anyone even logs in. And while I appreciate the effort by Microsoft, I also remember how awful trying to get Gears of War or Bioshock to run on my PC was under Games For Windows live.

I really don't mean to dump all over Microsoft. I think there were some great things shown at their conference, and I'm definitely interested in learning more about We Happy Few and the latest Dead Rising. I know that they had to make a hard pivot when the world roundly rejected their vision of the future, and they've been scrambling ever since. I'm just not sure that what they've announced so far is the right way to get things back on track.

The only Scorpio I intend to worry about, for the time being.

 Community Blogs:366868Reintroduction - QalamariQalamari2016-06-11T17:00:00Z2016-06-11T17:00:00Z<!DOCTYPE html>
Hi.

You probably don't know me. That's OK! I've been gone for a long time. To make a long story short, I was involved in this community for several years. I've hosted Friday Night Fights, I've hosted and attended NARPs, I've met most of the principal staff members of the site at one time or another. I've kind of always been around, in the background, in the periphery.

Lurking.

Synonyms for Lurking include Stalking, Creeping, and... y'know what? Let's just move on.

That's kind of a funny name for it, isn't it? Sounds like something that should be illegal. Certainly no positive connotations to be had there. But that's what I've been, and that's what I've done. I never really stopped checking Destructoid on a daily basis, but I stopped making comments, stopped interacting with people on the site itself. I still talk to folks, but mostly on Twitter or other social media. I've written about it before, but it's a lot harder for me to put myself out and make friends than I assume it is for "normal" folks. The thing is, I made some really great friends here. Thankfully, I'll never know the stomach-churning horror of what it's like to anticipate going into a real battle, with real stakes and real lives on the line. The closest I've come is the time I spent in Halo: Reach, headshotting waves of Covenant soldiers and talking crap with people I knew only by their reputation. And yet, that shared, simulated experience has led to some of the most meaningful friendships I've had in real life. I never would have met most of the people I interact with now if it hadn't been for the inexpensive Xbox 360 I bought as Target closed them out nearly 6 years ago.

I've been fortunate enough to attend several PAXes and have met most of Destructoid's staff in person. What was even better was meeting some of the friends I'd made online and learning that they were cool people in real life as well. Knutaf has been kind enough to open his house to a passal of rowdies every year for nearly a decade. And it's at his place where I first got to know folks like SteezyXL, Corduroy Turtle, Beyamor, Occams, and M. Randy Dixon. I also live in central California, which means I occasionally get to hang out with folks like Swishiee, Law, and Spencer, even though I'm probably as old as all three of them mashed together. Going back to look up links to throw in there, I keep finding things like this, reminders of good times I've had with some really great people. 2012 was probably the best year of PAX so far... it was still under the radar, so it wasn't so hard to get tickets, but a lot of friends were able to get together and meet up in real life. I look forward to the week of PAX Prime (Err, West, now, I guess) more than any other. I've written about it before, but there's an energy at PAX that's hard to describe. Something about being in an enormous building stuffed with like-minded, friendly people that everyone should experience at least once in their lives.

That's me in the front, orange shirt, holding the poster. But that's a story for another day.

If you know me at all, it's probably because of the time I spent working on the C-blog recap team several years ago. I'm still in contact with most of the folks I worked with back then, though these days it's mostly on Twitter. If you get a chance, give those folks some love. It's not an easy job, and they're all volunteers. I recapped for a little over a year, and looking back on some of my old posts, they, too, remind me of a lot of good times. Don't get me wrong, I'm in a much better place in my life than I was when I was doing recaps. In the past 6 years I've gotten married, we've moved into a house together, and I've changed jobs. And that brings me to why I'm writing this blog, here and now.

I love to write, and I think I'm reasonably good at it. I haven't done it in a long time though, and I feel the rust as I try to re-engage some mental gears I haven't used in a while. Like any other creative endeavor, it's something that you get better at the more you do it, but it's also something that you need to practice doing to maintain your skill level.

I've seen countless people I respected and enjoyed reading move on to bigger and better things after putting time and effort in via the C-blogs. I met Bbain back in 2012, not long after he had just signed up at Dtoid. Now he's a regular contributer here. Law went on to become a professional writer at Twinfinite, and even Mom is now freelancing at Cliqist and HeyPoorPlayer. Now that I'm unfettered by gainful employment, I'd love to follow that same path. And so, in deference to the Reader's Digests I used to flip through for the cartons and funny stories, I pledge to write at least one article a week, of enduring significance. It's been a long time since I've written anything regularly, but I need to start somewhere. I hope you guys don't mind if I restart, and if I do it here.

Still on phase one, I'm afraid.

 P.S. -If your name didn't come up here, it isn't because I hate you. I've met and interacted with way more cool people than I can count. Stupid Monkeysphere.

 Community Blogs:168701 - QalamariQalamari2012-11-10T16:51:48Z2012-11-10T16:51:48ZCommunity Blogs:232459Followup: Dtoid Raft trip! - QalamariQalamari2012-08-03T03:22:31Z2012-08-03T03:22:31ZGreetings again, Destructoid. I have an update on the get-together I'm planning for next weekend. I want to keep things relatively snappy, so for most of the relevant details, I'll refer you to this thing. This thing right here.

So far, I'll admit there's been less enthusiasm for this than I'd have thought. That doesn't mean we're not going anyway! Even if you can't make it for the rafting, you're still welcome to come for the games and socializing afterwards. I know it's pretty close to a couple of major gaming events, and I apologize for that. I'll keep it short and say that this is the weekend I have off, so this is when it had to be. If it goes well this may have the potential to become an annual event, so if that happens I'll try and schedule it for sooner in the year next time.

Anyway, here's where we are right now. I have confirmation for both the raft trip and subsequent Games and Stuff from the following people:

Myself (duh)
My wife
Crime Minister
Corduroy Turtle
Steezy XL

Now that... that is a brilliant, talented, and dare I say it, devastatingly handsome group of people. It's my understanding that Turtle will be staying overnight, and that Steezy will be making other accommodations. This means we still have plenty of room available for those who'd like to crash overnight. I just need to know by the 8th (That's this coming Thursday) who's coming for the party and who needs a place to stay.

I've heard from the following people (or intermediaries) that they have at least some interest in attending, but haven't gotten firm confirmation one way or the other yet.

Com 01
PhilK3nS3bb3n (if you do make it, I have no idea how to pronounce that. I'ma call you straight-up Phil. Cool?)
Bill Zoeker
Niero

Additionally, Swishiee has said he can't make it for the rafting but will join us for the after party. I should probably stress that this is totally an option for those who want to socialize but don't want to get wet or are afraid of inflated rubber or river spiders or whatever damn thing.

So yeah. If you haven't RSVP'd yet, now would be the time. A comment here would be great, or Mr. Andy Dixon very kindly set up a meetup thing that'll let me know who's coming.

One final thing. I'm not sure who's a fan and who's not, but I thought it might be worth mentioning that Weird Al Yankovic will be playing shows in this area over this weekend, and tickets are still available. If you've never seen Weird Al live, I can confirm that he puts on a great show and you will leave thoroughly entertained. For some reason I can't get the link to work here, but if you google "Weird Al Three Stages" you can get all the venue information. Just something to think about if you decide to come.

Think that's pretty much it. Again, hope to see several of you here next weekend!

Q

 Community Blogs:230940Dtoid Sac and SF, a Toobin' invitation! - QalamariQalamari2012-07-08T16:25:15Z2012-07-08T16:25:15Z

Greetings to you, Northern California users of Destructoid! I have a proposition for you. I've been working on this for a while now and I think the story is ready to break. The short version is, I'd like to invite everyone who's within a reasonable distance of my home base on a Destructoid themed raft trip down the lower fork of the American River. So here's the pertinent information, in old-school JOURNALISM style. I shall now don my newsman's fedora with a "Press" tag in the brim to prepare myself mentally.

(Ahem.) That's better.

WHO: Everyone who considers themselves a part of Dtoid and lives close enough to make a day trip to Sacramento.

WHAT: We'll be doing a raft trip down the Lower American River. I won't know exactly how much per person this will cost until we have a final headcount, because prices are calculated per raft, not per person. Figure on spending somewhere around $25-$30 per person, though it's my hope that with coupons and a large group discount, we can get it lower than that. Afterwards, we'll be doing dinner (probably something grilled), games and stuff like that there at my house. If you have your own raft/kayak/heavy innertube, go ahead and bring it, but just let me know ahead of time so I don't include you in the headcount for rental pricing.

WHERE: River Rat Raft Rentals, which apart from having a wonderfully alliterative name, also has a pullout farther down the river than the competition, meaning we get to stay on the water longer. That link has info on all the details, so I won't repeat them here.

WHEN: August 11/12. I'm trying to avoid any other prior engagements those folks in the industry might have... I'm aware that Gamescom is the following week, and PAX is not long after, but unfortunately this is the only time I could be certain to be available. We'll meet up at River Rat at 10:30AM and float down the river together, and should be done by about 3PM. There's a shuttle back to the launch site and we'll be heading back to my house from there. I'd prefer not to put my home address out on the internet, so I'll be letting everyone know in person when we meet up the first time.

Anyway, those coming from farther away (Bay area, most likely) are welcome to stay overnight either at our house or if we run out of room, with Spencer Hayes and his family. Bed space at our house is rather limited, but there's plenty of couches and room for sleeping bags. We do have 2 cats, and they're shedding more hair right now than should be physically possible, so if you're allergic you should keep that in mind. Seriously. Big ol' tumbleweeds every morning, no matter how much we vacuum. If we let them pile up they'd soon be bigger than the cats that made them and THAT JUST DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. Also, Spencer has cute lil' dachshund dogs, so, y'know, pick your allergen.

WHY: Ah, now that is the question, isn't it? Well, for those who aren't aware, Mr. Corduroy Turtle and his lovely companion COM 01 have recently made a significant life change and moved from middle America to the Golden State. This is sort of a "welcome to the neighborhood" for a couple of people I like a lot and am glad to have in closer proximity. But really, it's just a good excuse to have everyone over, eat and play games together. And the Bay area folks have always been exceptionally nice to me, so I figure it's time to return the favor.

HOW: As I mentioned, prices are variable based on how many people we actually have coming. That said, there are a few constants. Shuttle service back to where we parked will cost $4.50 per head. I'd recommend that everyone bring your own bag lunch, sunscreen, swim clothes, change of clothes, towel, any games you'd like to play/share, and bring a sleeping bag just in case. It might also be a good idea to bring a folding camping chair for the after party. We won't be serving alcohol at the party, but if you'd like to bring some for the raft trip or after, you're welcome to. Coolers with snacks and drinks are probably a good idea too, but remember no glass bottles are allowed in the rafts. Also, bring water guns. Lots of `em.

If you need to get in contact with me, I check Twitter fairly frequently. I'm @Qalamari there, and you can also reach me at Qalamari {at} gmail {dot} com. Hope to see a lot of you in August!

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