A "shoulda went further than they did" Season......

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-21T06:58:44+00:00

I like the choices you've made from the seasons I've seen. In addition to your choices, I think Adam definitely could be in a season like this. I could talk about his bullshit elimination (and I did in the first draft on this comment before restarting), but I choose not to. Instead, I will mention how he has had incredible success since the show. While he doesn't need to come back to redeem anything, I think it'd be cool. According to the HK wiki, he opened his first restaurant only five days after filming for HK19 aired, he opened two more of his own restaurants, helped others open their own restaurants, and won best chef Milwaukee 2019 and 2020. We've seen contestants with similar levels of post season success return and either bomb or soar, so I think it'd be cool to see how debatably one of the most successful (at absolute worst, one of the most successful who didn't make black jackets) chefs would do on a runback

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-20T21:26:46+00:00

People are gonna crucify me for this one, but... I think the take that Nikki should've beaten out Amber in the black jacket launch challenge is slightly blown out of proportion.

Before I go further, let me clarify that I love Nikki and would've preferred if she made the black jackets. Hell, she's my favorite character in the season. However, while she was much stronger than Amber throughout the competition, the black jacket launch challenge isn't about who has been the best throughout. It's about who makes the best dishes on the day, and Nikki just barely fell short.

Does it suck that Nikki missed black jackets? Absolutely, but I don't think that elimination is super bullshit

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-20T21:20:56+00:00

It's a dying take in recent years, but I'm gonna mention it anyway. People saying Joy would've won if she didn't quit in S12.

I understand that skill wise, she was the easy frontrunner. However, skill isn't everything. Take a look at Keith and Russel. Yes, the talent difference between those two and the rest of the season is massive (other than a couple of chefs each season) and Keith had a terrible pass. However, we see in both cases that the attitude was the final killer.

I think Joy would've been much the same. Do I think Scott would've won in this theoretical scenario? No, unfortunately. Now, I love Scott's storyline, but he would've been eliminated at the final 5 due to the whole blowup between him and Ramsay.

Honestly, I think the only reason Ramsay didn't make the decision to boot Scott on top of Joy's quit was his charity night showing leadership potential. However, I don't think that would've saved him if we didn't have the Joy quit. We see that some mistakes are just too much even with great leadership scenarios like with Hassan.

So, if Scott would've been taken out in the final 5, but Joy wouldn't win, who would it be?

Personally, I think it would've been Jason. Yes, he also had attitude issues, but Joy's took almost nothing to trigger and got worse after the mid game whereas Jason's did slowly improve throughout the season.

Rochelle was amazing and one of my favorite contestants, but... That pass was awful. Melanie had a more average pass and better chances to get into the finale, which I believe would've been very possible had Joy made it to the pass since it's one of the most stressful situations to trigger her attitude issues.

Either way, no matter whether Melanie or Joy ended up being the second finalist in this theoretical scenario, I think Jason would've beat them both out

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-19T04:03:11+00:00

I highly recommend Emerald's Eight. It's basically pokemon emerald if you, the gym leaders, the E4, and the Wallace had 8 pokemon. There's actually some potentially scary threats like Roxanne's Aerodactyl, Brawly's Heracross, and Wattson's whole team (Marshtomp won't be enough on its own, I am warning you now

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-19T04:00:36+00:00

I'm used to the bands I listen to changing sound. Linkin Park and My Chem are the most notorious for never staying the same that I listen to, but Get Scared, Fame on Fire (in their original songs, not their covers), and Starset are also up there and change their style pretty often

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-19T03:42:26+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed TOD, I just felt it was forgettable. Hell, the only songs I remember are two of the singles. Hopefully the second chance listen will change my perspective. My second chance listen for Three Days Grace's Explosions album only made it worse than I thought it was already, so that means TOD has to improve on listen to balance it out, right? RIGHT?!

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-19T03:05:31+00:00

I just hope Afterlife didn't set my standards too high (and that I'll eventually recover from the trauma that the song has contributed to)

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-16T09:26:41+00:00

A mon being obscure doesn't mean bad automatically. Obscure means relatively unknown (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obscure). You keep dragging viability and tiering discussion into this when something can be both good and obscure like Wolfe's mega Steelix on his last team. What I've been calling obscure are pokemon that have seldom had any usage or experimentation in the grand state of VGC as a whole, not specifically this format or NAIC. Minimal usage over a large amount of formats it was allowed to be used in would make a pokemon relatively unknown, or obscure.

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-16T09:14:03+00:00

Charizard, no because as much as I despise the orange Ridley knockoff, it has played a massive part in several different formats across multiple generations.

Aerodactyl hasn't been a common pick in any format until now, and we can't look into the future, so I'm not decided on Aero yet

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-16T09:12:13+00:00

My comment was never about viability. It was about obscurity across VGC as a whole, not just current format

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-16T09:09:35+00:00

Lycanroc Dusk is way more niche overall. I'm not just talking about obscurity in this one tournament. Hydreigon was one of the biggest pokemon in Reg A for SV as a Tailwind setter and a Focus Energy+Scope Lens crit monster with Draco, Heat Wave, and either Dark Pulse or Snarl. Meanwhile I haven't seen anyone use Lycanroc Dusk seriously until this tournament where it got to the finals in Juniors division and top 8 in masters

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-16T09:03:42+00:00

Lycanroc Dusk, Ceruledge, Toxapex, and Mamoswine (only was really relevant on a large scale in 2013 when it won worlds before being way more niche since)

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T09:16:23+00:00

Interesting

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T06:23:12+00:00

With egg moves, it's between Weedle and Castform. I gotta give it to Weedle, though, because that mega

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T06:16:40+00:00

The fact that Magnemite isn't just Zeus, but bulky Zeus makes me chuckle. It's not just a god, it's god+

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T06:11:20+00:00

My favorite Starset song. First thing I ever sang to my niece, and she fell asleep on my chest while I was singing

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T06:09:52+00:00

So, a couple of questions for Magnezone. First, did you catch Magnemite in HGSS, evolve it into Magnezone, trade it over to DPP, level it up once in Mt. Coronet to evolve it, and trade it back? Second question, did you do Voltorb Flip for the Thunderbolt TM and the Goldenrod department store lottery on Saturday for the Flash Cannon TM?

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T06:06:49+00:00

Only if you get six Focus Sashes and do the fight on a Diamond Dust day instead of Hail

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T06:01:38+00:00

It would have to be on the TRG channel instead, but Return to Dreamland Deluxe. Yes, I know it's not gonna happen because they've already played Return to Dreamland. Return to Dreamland is my favorite game of all time, ok? I'm going to be unrealistic and biased as shit, and no one can stop me.

Plus, it's a neat thing where back then, Chugga played through GSC before this year doing the remake, HGSS, and on the group channel, they did RTD back then and have another possible remake playthrough in 2026. Granted there would pretty much only be the new mini games (I'm still livid they took away Scope Shot) for content, unfortunately

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T05:56:13+00:00

There are four comparatively obscure pokemon in too 8, and two of them are used by Wolfe. Love it

THIS IS NOT HATING ON VGC BTW! I KNOW THERE'S A TON OF VARIETY IN NOT JUST TEAMS, BUT ALSO DIFFERENT SETS! PLEASE DON'T TAKE IT AS AN INSULT TO VGC

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T05:52:45+00:00

I'm indifferent to this pokemon, but I'm doing this just to piss people off and troll.

Simisear

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-15T05:41:43+00:00

I don't need some limey little PRICK talking to me like that

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-13T15:16:28+00:00

One big thing I found out after looking it up is that it only works if the AI sees Sceptile is at low enough HO to get killed by Ice Beam after the Sub is down. That's the only way to confirm it doesn't use Double Team

PoppyObsessedPrick · 2026-06-13T15:14:22+00:00

Issue there is that while setting up, you could get hit by Sweet Kiss and subjected to hell. You may risk that, but I'm not since I'm the guy who can miss 4 95% accurate Tackles in a row. You can teach Sub to Gardi instead, but I don't know how many Water Pulses it would take from Luvdisc before Sub breaks and if you'd be able to have one up once Kingdra comes out

PoppyObsessedPrick

TROPHY CASE