How did you make the jump from in-game to competitive?

[Forever]

Refer to the title! What made you want to switch from just playing in-game to the competitive side of battling? How did you do this, did you study the movesets and such that Smogon had beforehand, or just tried out whatever came to mind through a series of trial and error, or maybe something else, like used full teams from Smogon and went from there? Share your thoughts and so on.

[Ash493]

That's kinda hard question :D
I guess it was because I was bored of the difficulty of the games and I wanted to try something new.
So I started with Shoddy Battle and then Pokémon Online :D

[Ninjagon]

I wanted to switch when i kept losing to my friends all the time, so i looked up if there was any way to make pokemon stronger, and then i learned about IV's and EV's, i'd already known about natures. So i got my first flawless pokemon, yet i still found myself losing. So i came to PC to learn more, i got tutored by PlatinumDude and i learned how to make solid teams with good EV Spreads and Items, i haven't lost since. The change wasn't THAT hard but i gotta admit, it was VERY confusing at first -.- These days, even though i know a lot of good movesets off by heart, i still go to Smogon just to see if they're any new ones or if i forgot something.

[PlatinumDude]

In D/P, after glimpsing at my tag partner's Pokemon's stats in the Battle Tower's Multi Battle, I noticed that their stats were a bit higher than mine, so after a few more rounds there, I realized that they had been EV'ed. So I studied how to EV train and read Smogon's articles for the best sets for each Pokemon. I also discovered Shoddy Battle and Pokemon Online and eventually learned about team synergy and I've been competitive battling since.

[iiZqHD]

I started a week ago actually I was on youtube and saw the Flaming Spade doing a video on Pokemon Showdown and i started there

[Original_Blastoise]

after i finally found out what ivs and evs were. I decided to educate myself more. checked out smogon. and then i started competitive battling. starting making teams and stuff.

[DarkBlueNinja]

I started competing because of my dad. Oddly enough, one day he came up to me and asked if I would like to play pokemon with him. I thought this was odd because he would normally tease me for liking it. We had a battle and i one. He explained to me how so much strategy is involved in the game, and i like strategy. After that i decided to start competing.

[Forever]

Originally Posted by DarkBlueNinja

I started competing because of my dad. Oddly enough, one day he came up to me and asked if I would like to play pokemon with him. I thought this was odd because he would normally tease me for liking it. We had a battle and i one. He explained to me how so much strategy is involved in the game, and i like strategy. After that i decided to start competing.

Hey that's kinda awesome! My Dad was better at battling than me but only because he raised Pokemon to higher levels, I didn't even consider the idea of competitive back then. XD;

Alsoooooo time for me to answer the question! For me it was because of my boyfriend p much, I kinda did it because I wanted more in common with him and uh... I just continued battling after he left for the two years (um, we're still together BUT I DON'T FEEL THIS REALLY IS RELEVANT lmao) and yeah :3 I found that I enjoyed it for myself too, rather than just for him. And also uhhh I remember at first I was that bad that I EV trained Litwick in Attack because I thought sPA = Super Effective, and Attack = ...everything else. ;x I even EV trained in the first place because I wanted to prove "omg I'M SO SMART" when rly I wasn't. :(

[shnen2]

I stumbled across PO while looking for ways to play roms in browser online (for some reason), I guess I must have typed in Pokemon Online, and taught myself.