This guy just straight up wrote the speech of a pokemon villain right before they awaken the box legendary.

The fact that it's a _Jirachi_ that flinches is the icing on the cake.

I feel like if I lost from triple flinch like that I’d have a completely unhinged conniption as well

That was honestly a sick way to ragequit, he had a whole Shakespearean soliloquy

Someone on Fiver who was hired to read this script: "this is the most epic nerd monologue I've ever had to be paid to read"

Today I lost a won game to six paralysis in a row. My heart has never resonated with Lavos this strong before.

This feels like the prime example of "If I had more time I'd have written a shorter letter" he wrote this in the heat of the moment and it was something

Lavos is literally me every time focus blast misses

I suppose it's fitting, naming himself after the antagonist of Chrono Trigger and dropping a monologue powerful enough to be a final boss' finale. Competitive game settings are such magical places.

“unfortunate” doesn’t begin to describe my series

This is me every other night after getting burnt by flame body, crit, and whiffing 500 moves.

My man really did the digital equivalent of flipping the table and cussing out the DM after rolling three nat 1s in a row.

This is a "he's out of line but he's right" moment if I ever did see it.

This is fucking hilarious, he ragequit in Times new Roman, size 12, double spaced

It's a rare thing to see someone's Joker moment in real time

I get tilted after a single flinch but I also only play random with my friends. I cant imagine how stressful that shit would be at a top tier level

lavos with that #1 overall looks good but that #4 record looking clean too😏

This kind of thing is why tournaments are usually 2 out of 3 to advance and why some tournaments have double elimination brackets, so that people don't get screwed over by being supremely unlucky one time.

He's not necessarily wrong about competitive Pokemon being a RNG mess.

Honestly, kinda gotta give some respect to the dude because of how well worded this was. Wasn't just a random tweet of saying "I'm done" or a cringe KZfaq video with terrible justification or anything. The effort put into the post was not lost on me.

No matter how much Smogon tries to diminish it, Pokemon will always be professional gambling

The copy pasta was great but honestly after watching as the match unfolded I can understand completely where he was coming from. He got flinched each time he tried to counterplay, It could have been stopped but the amount of times he was flinched made the game unwinnable. I think if I put in that much work as well just to be flinch that many times I would quit as well.

To be honest, if I worked that hard and climbed my way to that spot then those flinches happened to me, I’d be pretty tilted too.

"Unfortunate" doesn't begin to describe my series, this game rewards blind luck and nothing else, I am beyond convinced at this point. After getting completely tooled by scheduling with my opponent changing times on me last minute and refusing to provide confirmation prior to the day of the match as to play times, losing this way somehow felt even worse than I had thought possible. My preparation was superior, my play was superior, and I lost, so I don't see a reason to continue engaging in an activity where what is within my control is overwhelmingly outweighed by what is not. I am done with competitive Pokemon, and you won't get a fond farewell. This community is infected to its roots with a degenerative disease that grows stronger over time but stops short of killing its host. Tournaments used to have a competitive spirit at their heart, this has been transplanted and replaced with an artificial organ that feeds on vitriol and mockery from insecure little boys that heckle by the sidelines and tear each other to shreds over scraps of attention. The environment we fostered has trapped us all like this in a vicious cycle, and escaping it requires acceptance of the harshest reality we all scramble to explain away, that none of the countless straining efforts we put ourselves through here will ever amount to one single shining glimmer of significance. I would make this the end, but World Cup is still ongoing, and I would never leave so many great friends out to dry, so I'll suffer through a few more games for them. One last thing before I leave you all to react with disdain, ridicule, and self-righteous fervor, before you do everything in your power to minimize my words and thoughts, box them up and shove them to some cobwebbed corner of your memory, and hope they disappear forever as a stain on your finite time ground to dust. From this moment on, nothing you say matters to me. The foulest insults you hurl with intent to wound will calmly settle at the earth before my feet, and the venom you spit will bring all the pain of a warm summer breeze. You are less than anything you can conceive, while I carry on, brimming with joy distilled from detachment.

Ok so fun fact, Blunder and BKCs commentary on this set getting recommended to me is what got me into showdown.

Triple flinch in the final game is rough. Overall reaction was extreme, but I totally get the frustration of that match.

Honestly, good for him. He doesn’t have to be right about the game to do the right thing for himself. At the end of the day, playing any game isn’t worth it if the losses create that much frustration and the wins don’t mean anywhere near as much.

We joke about this meltdown but tbh I understand; that triple flinch is some BS.

Lmfao the voice actor nailed it with the reading lmao

What an outstanding vocal performance btw. This guy slayed it

If someone dissed me the way lavos did, id honestly be amazed. But who wouldnt go shakespeare on someone after being dealt such an unlucky battle?

For some context for people who haven't played Hearthstone before. The RNG in the game was limited, but eventually more powerful random effects were added to the game that impacted the competitive format, so it makes sense why Lavos would quit from that as well.

I can understand the anger. He literally made every play as perfectly as he possibly could and lost just because the game decided he will lose. There was actually nothing he could have done at all

I love these dramatic recreations of historic competitive moments. Great vid as always!

“You are less than anything you can conceive” is a crazy line

Funny, the thing I remember Lavos most for was under his old username Lavos Spawn. In early B2W2, he created a team that absolutely took over the ladder. It was an incredibly fun Genesect Sun team, really taking advantage of how broken Genesect & Dugtrio was The RMT he posted of the team is archived, the team name is "Simulation of a Drought", if you want to find it.

“Why do I do this for a living?” What a guy, what a way to go out, 10/10, I hope he has found peace in other activities

That has got to be the most bullshit luck I've seen on a high level competitive event. Wasn't even a serene grace pokemon that did it

Lavos was right though. Pokemon is a game of both luck and skill, and in such games, luck can always outweigh skill. Therefore, if your luck breaks bad, it will feel like the game rewards blind luck over all else. OHKO moves are banned in almost every format for a reason, and they were also put in the game by the developers for a reason. Where Lavos went wrong was not meeting the game as it is, and projecting wrongheaded expectations of the game onto others. I believe there is a silent majority of comp players who enjoy winning more than they enjoy winning consistently.

I'm not even gonna lie, I watched the whole set of events and I think I would rage if I was 6-0'd in the lead slot 😭

Lavos is in the planets core, biding his time until he can burst forth and bring about the end of the world, unless a time traveling palm tree and friends can stop him

Odium: You can't carry this burden. Please, give it to me. _I_ drove you this. _It wasn't your fault._ Give me your pain. Lavos: Okay.

I mean, you cant blame him, the way he lost was pretty unfair, rng just hated him that day

I fully understand him though. Ash Greninja critical'd me and I sighed in relief as I saw I survived with a sliver of health. and then, by the same hit, was frozen. That was the last match of competitive Pokémon I have ever played. I do not have the patience to get deep into a match and then just get put on my knees because the random number generator gave me an unfavorable output.

I mean, he wasn't completely wrong lmao. Please cover the infamous Energy Ball Jellicent incident!

Every time someone on r/stunfisk or the forums or the sim says something like "you can play around RNG, just git gud, top players don't complain about hax because they're too good to care" I'm always reminded of this. As ridiculous as Lavos' reaction was, fuck hax.

That was no ragequit. That was a formal letter of resignation.

As a relative outsider (competitive, not Pokemon as a whole) this really seems like a guy who put in enough work and study to know the game across several generations, enough so to sweep the singles tournament and then even after getting banned still help his team with teambuilding advice, get... too good? Like, you know the point in League where you've played 1000 hours and you're not a pro by any means but you load up into yet another team running all teleports and just KNOW you're in for a bad time? Past a certain point of understanding, you start just focusing on the flaws in a game's system. Things that no matter how much you practice, you will have no control over due to game balance or RNG. The more practice you put into a game, the more frustrating luck based mechanics or stupid design choices stick out as a reason not to bother with putting so much time in. I do feel where he's coming from there. But my man didn't have to skid his tires and blow exhaust fumes on the way out, damn.

Greatest pokemon copypasta ever To be fair, pokemon is often complete bs. This is the only competitive video game I can think of where if I played 1000 games vs a pro I would win more than 1. No matter how good Wolfey, PokeAim, Freezai or anyone else is, i have a chance of winning with crits, paralyze/freeze hax, burns/poisons, misses and 50/50s. Not to say the reaction was justified. You should know this going into pokemon, but he does have a valid point. Thats a reason a lot of people dont try to take pokemon competitively or recognize it as an esport in the same way Starcraft, CS:GO, Dota, League etc. Are seen

I don’t fucking blame him. That many Waterfall flinches is a load of bs.

Watching a Jirachi getting flinched with out doing anything is simply beautiful.

That dramatic reenactment made me cackle a solid 5 minutes, extra props to the VA lol Also the fact that Lavos was the best player even when blunder and joey were also eating too in SPL is kinda wild lol

I died laughing at the speech the first time but once you explained it, i was filled with pity for him. Bless his heart

What a beautiful monologue, holy shit. Hope he picked up writing or theater because that was magnificent

Beautifully written monologue, I loved it! Poetic and eloquently emotional. Honestly, as a writing teacher, I think this is well done.

Okay but three waterfall flinches? Can you even blame him?

I remember watching bkc and blunder narrate this, you know someone got completely robbed when the only thing bkc of all people has to say at the end was "well that was not good for him"

Honestly I don't even blame him, there are times everyone gets shitted on so hard by RNG. And when the stakes are that high it makes sense he lost his shit. Plus the fact the he is one of the greatest showdown players of his time as well makes this even better lol.

"why are you booing me im right"

I've always related to Lavos's story a lot. I feel its a shame that I think he goes down as a problem when I think he was just troubled. Feeling like you don't fit in with your community even though you love what its around so much, it puts you on the edge every second you want to enjoy it, especially when you're expected to do good at it. From personal experience, It leads to a lot of toxicity. Now whether you spread that toxicity or not is up to you! Personally I bottled it up and got depressed, but either way, it tears you down that I think he began to have this design for a community that he just can't control the chaos of, and that just yeah. Not good.

Honestly his frustration (ha) seems warranted because that's a shitty way to lose .Sure, his attitude was a bit over-the-top, but he's technically not wrong. Especially with his point about "disdain, ridicule, and self-righteous fervor," because that's all over the place on Smogon, especially Smogon itself. You either use what's most popular to use or people act like you're stupid. I've noticed a lot of misplaced elitism on Showdown over the years and it gets so tiring so fast I can't be bothered to use the site for more than a week at a time.

You've got to be shitting me... Imagine losing to a triple flinch from a 10% flinch chance... Ouch

outstanding coverage-the rendition of his monologue was fucking legendary, and i loved all the context you provided. it was really interesting to hear that he advised the US-West team for the world cup, i had no idea he was involved with that. thanks for all the research and work you put into this video :D i hope you do more tournament content-it's such a cool way to document this community's history!

Aw man, all of Lavos' pokemon are named after cosmere characters! That makes it all the sadder. I can't clown on this guy, he's a Sanderfan!

As the best Jojo put it, "Luck is also one of my best skills"

I need more smogon history and more voice actors (or bring this guy back again), this video was so good

Hey! Stormlight Archive Nicknames! Not relevant, but now I want to write them down. Lift for Starmie: Certainly a speedy troublemaker Honor for Raikou: Sure, I guess. Renarin for Swampert: I don't see it Odium for Heatran: Immaculate and hilarious given that this is the one that set him off Zahel for Exxegutor: I mean, you could argue for a regional variant Wyndle for Breloom: He is a grass type. Syl for Jirachi: Yeah, lucky little fairy Nohadon for Latios: Uh, sure. Psychic seems appropriate for wisdom, and the dragon legendary gives a connection to the divine Shalash for Raikou: This is the third nickname for Raikou. I wonder if they correspond to different sets, or EV spreads Kaladin for Kingdra: Swiftswim is appropriate for the Stromblessed. And something about how a dragon evolution was added later feels right for his character Gavilar Kohlin for Metagross: Hard as steel, but more intelligent that they first appear. That tracks Cultivation for Celebi: Legendary Grass type, who has knowledge of the future. Nail, head. (though they have that knowledge differently) Nightblood for Magnezone: Lethal against certain foes, but reauires high skill to wield. Or maybe a living piece of metal Frost for B!Kyurem: Dragon, yep. Plus the name and the type fit. Jezrien for Dragonite: Patron of the Windrunners, and a psuedo god/legendary Dai-Gonarthis for Gyarados: The Black Fisher certainly lends a connection to the sea, even if it's more likely thematic than literal. It did probably destroy an island nation, so that fits with Gyarados's terrible reputation.

Lavos should have heard some advice from Captain Picard. "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."

I am BEGGING you Freezai please talk about the wonderful day that was Energy Ball Jellicent.

The Vivaldi as the music choice for the opening absolutely SENT me Thanks so much for the great content, Freezai 😊 You always provide informative and well-explained videos that are a pleasure to watch

this really was competitive Pokémon's "one bad day" episode

Love Lavos’ Cosmere name references, lol

I hope he’s in a healthier place emotionally now. GGs

I cant blame him for feeling the way he did, and I respect his decision to quit. I hope he's doing well.

I love hidden layers of lore of games, like 2b2t and stuff in that same vein. It's incredibly fascinating sub culture stuff

This video made me kind of sad. He sounds like an absolute beast when it comes to learning a game and being the best at it. I wish he was a fighting game player or something, some game where luck is much less of a factor than Pokémon or Hearthstone. He probably wouldnt have suffered so much.

I mean, I don’t blame the guy. It’s why I refuse to play this competitively. I only touch games that have close to zero RNG in them.

I understand his pain. To lose to flinch. When that’s what they had to play for… is beyond painful .

Can we talk about how good this VA is though?

Quitting like this, insulting a community because you've been flinched 3 times while playing Jirachi, a pokemon which was essentially used for it's ability to flinch non stop. Yeah.

> uses Jirachi > complains about flinches

Your content style is getting better every day. Really love watching you find your footing and perfect your formula like this.

Lavos probably had this coming. You cannot play many competitive Pokemon matches without ever getting very unlucky unless you are very lucky. RNG gets all of us sometimes. I am glad that he took it well, though. How well people take losses due to RNG shows their real emotional strength. Lavos remained brimming with joy. He was like a rock. Good for him! Next time I get screwed over by RNG I will think of Lavos and his strength to stay brimming with joy in the face of bad luck.

Can't even blame him, that DPP round was absolutely tragic.

I actually feel this guy on a spiritual level I was on my way to top 500 in nat dex ou with a decent team with some incredible plays But then my bad luck started showing it self When I was 2 games away from getting into top 500 my seripiror missed SIX LEAF STORMS

For some reason the most surprising thing about this video to me is that Lavos is a Brandon Sanderson fan. A decent chunk of these teams are named after Stormlight Archive characters. I guess people being angry about bad RNG is fairly tame after all the showdown I've played, even if he took it to new heights.

I think Energy Ball Jellicent is still more iconic :}

Man, this guy was so salty that I wouldn’t be surprised if it became a copypasta like the Navy Seals copypasta or the right-click NFT copypasta Edit: Aaaaand yup it’s a copypasta lmao

Lets be real 2 flinches in a row is horrendously unlucky,dude got robbed,straight up lost to rng

I remember when that happened. I looked into it and came away thinking "His reaction was over the top but hmm. He ain't wrong." But he went to Hearthstone?!? That game can be even worse with random chance.

I mean honestly I get the frustration. Technically you can just crit or flinch or paralize everyturn it matters and its crazy to see a battle where that actually happened

I can understand being pissed over luck, especially in such volume, but it’s fairly ironic how his Gen 4 team has a Jirachi, the infamous flinch hax mon

I get it though, you put in that much work and effort for an entire season or maybe a year and then it all vanishes from what feels like an unlucky roll. Not saying toxicity is ok, but tbh rng and the like is part of why I don't even play these types of games in the first place, I know that sort of thing bothers me too much lol. Like the part about what being in his control is outweighed by what is isn't in his control.... well its untrue overall for Pokémon, but in those moments it happens it is tilting af and makes me not wanna play it either. I just watch and enjoy hearing about the strats as a spectator instead

Though not nearly as toxic, this does remind me of the tourney in the locals we had that made me truly quit. It was at the height of Para-flinch Togekiss, and it outsped with a T-Wave. Every pokemon I had used a move that would be able to reliably take it down, but not once did I get a turn. Every first turn was a paralyze, and every turn after was a flinch or paralyze. I never got a move, the guy called it skill, and walked off smug. Fast forward his next match, the other guy literally never got had a single turn where he was affected by a paralysis, or from a flinch and I watched on with a smug smile as the guy fucking lost his shit when the other dude got a crit that mattered, and a freeze in the same fight. It was... just the best, but I do have to say the feeling is similar. Yes, you can have the better strategy and play but sometimes the cards just aren't in your hands. Pokemon is a game of mad skill, and it shouldn't be underestimated, but the small luck that spills through ruins it for me as a player. As a viewer, I can understand why it exists and enjoy it all the more, but I couldn't enjoy it as a player.

7:31 BRAZIL MENTIONED

You guys can laugh at him, but he deserves all of my respect, i know his pain, i already felt his pain, and i bet most of the competitive players that are reading this also felt it, this guy shoudn't be blammed for leaving such unfair game that competitive pokemon is. Have a nice day.

Lavos reminds me of that evil villain kid from Sharkboy & Lavagirl *"MR ELECTRIC, SEND HIM TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE AND HAVE HIM EXPELLED!"*

I mean given how much time and effort he probably put in, for his teams, match ups, all that whole shabang, it's easy to just call him a baby, but imagine being dedicated to the grind, just to get it taken by sheer luck of the draw

I tought LowTierGod delivering a homoerotic novel as a way of roasting some troll was one of the most elaborated flames ever, but this is on the same level, lol

Most sane Pokémon player