Everything about RNG

Rice Ninja's Goat.

RNG is everyone's favourite thing about Pokemon. In general it makes you a very sad bunny, but it can also make you a very happy bunny. RNG short for random number generator has been a huge part of Pokemon and its competitive scene since the franchise began. With it, no battle is the same, no outcome is set and there's a good chance it will leave a bad taste in your mouth if you disrespect it. In this behemoth post I'll try and go over almost what can commonly screw you over in competitive play, how to avoid it and how to deal with it should it come knocking on your door.

What even is RNG?

RNG can be perceived as a villainous third party in a battle, ready to strike down without mercy on an unsuspecting player. This is horribly exaggerated of course but a lot of newer players make the mistake of actually believing this. That the game is out to get them and the game will reward them after a time. This is a fallacy since the game isn't a living being and has no morals, it owes no player anything. If you've been playing for 5 minutes or 5 years it doesn't matter, a games outcome can be changed drastically as a result of it. So why do players who've been playing for longer keep winning and the newcomer gets paralysed all the time? An older player likely has a deep understanding of what it is and how to control it whereas the newer player might not. Simple when you say it like that but there's a lot more too it which I'm going to try and cover.

;-; ;-; ;-;

'Hax'

Hax is a horrible term that we all use differently. Some will scream HAX at every occurrence of RNG. If I had a Pound for every time someone has complained at my Kang for critting their Greninja, I'd probably have enough to wallet warrior next year. Other's wont ever say the term and some will say it after a horrible encounter with RNG. I like to think of hax as RNG that directly changes the course of the game for the worse. Smeargle getting an Evasion boost is annoying but it isn't hax, missing it for the next 3 turns while Xerneas Geomancy's and losing as a result is though .Getting frozen by Cresselia's Ice beam and not un-thawing for the rest of the game can be classed as hax. Talonflame critting an Amoonguss from half is not. 

Every player will encounter these massive bouts of RNG. Its completely unavoidable...But you can mitigate it and control it to a degree.

Paralysis:

Z A P  Z A P

While this part will cover Paralysis in general, Thunder Wave and Thundurus will be the focus since that's where Paralysis tends to come from. Paralysis is a status condition that can be afflicted on any Pokemon that isn't electric type or has an ability preventing it such as Limber. It should be noted that Ground type Pokemon can be paralysed but this is very rare to see as they are immune to Thunder wave. The most common ways of doing this is through the move Glare or the ability Static, although you can also use other moves like Body Slam. The effect of Paralysis on a Pokemon is a huge drop in speed (25% of its original value) and a 25% chance to miss a turn each turn the status is on the Pokemon. This is quite obviously a very bad thing to be afflicted by and should be avoided if possible. You can use Paralysis as a means to very heavily tilt the RNG towards you, Thunder Wave is also an incredibly strong move that is easy and almost recommended to be on any team so you're not going out of your way much. If you're confused imagine a battle. One side has lost two of his Pokemon and the other side's has all four but they're all Paralysed. Who has the advantage? While naturally the Player with more Pokemon has the advantage you absolutely cannot count out the player who is down. They have the chance for the opponent to miss consecutive turns and pull things back. A lot of newer players will see this as cheap and an unfair win, which may be correct, but the game doesn't care. Whoever it declares the winner is the winner. And if anything, the losing player should be criticised for allowing everything to be Paralysed. It should be noted that sometimes you have to let a Pokemon get Paralysed and this should come under risk reward which I'll cover later. 

Pokemon that can carry Thunder wave in VGC16:

Thundurus

Cresselia

Groudon

Most random Pranksters.

Ways to avoid Paralysis:

Ground Types

Electric Types

Safeguard/Taunt

Lum berry/Cheri Berry

Killing Thundurus/user as early as possible

Move %'s and risk reward

These are literally the worst part of the game. Scald having a 30% to burn sucks, but getting burnt by Fire punch is much more infuriating with it's paltry 10%. And on top of it all, these are mostly uncontrollable. You may Taunt a Thundurus only for it to Paralyse with a Tbolt anyways. Whilst these instances cannot be 100% avoided, you can still plan for them happening in a game scenario. If your best way to win a battle is to have Kang beat down a Groudon 1v1. You need to consider beforehand that if Groudon gets a burn with Fire Punch then you can lose. You can then toss up risk reward, that way of winning has a 90% chance of working, does the other way have 100%? If so you should go for the 100% if possible. Do you lose if Kangaskhan gets burnt by scald t1? Then you might want to look into not risking that if possible. On the other hand if Kang doesn't get burnt you will more than likely win, what do you go for? If you decide to switch Kang you risk the switch-in getting burnt/crit and you might lose a mon and have to go for the same play again hoping not to get burnt. This is what separates the good from the great with players. The ability to think out and decide what the best chances of winning are each turn and also in the long run across multiple turns. This is a skill that comes from experience, experience of playing for a time or getting blasted into the floor by RNG like I did :)  Some players might never pick it up, some might take some time and some may understand it in an instant. Everyone is different.  

Manipulating RNG:

RNG manipulation is something everyone should do in competitive play. This can be little things in team building such as using Flamethrower over Fire blast to avoid accuracy checks, having moves like Thunder wave and Scald especially provide options to tilt the odds in your favour. It can also be clinging to the tiniest of chances for victory through Ice beam freezes, burns,  full Paralysis and consecutive protects. Giving up when there's still a 0.0001% chance of victory in a bo1 game isn't recommended as you never know what could happen, chances are you will lose... But imagine if you won. I'm guilty of relying on opponents missing countless moves and getting critical hits of my own multiple times. It doesn't always work out but that shouldn't stop you trying, especially in an important tournament match. A lot of players I've noticed get very flustered if there main gameplan for winning is distrupted through means of RNG. They then tilt midgame and swiftly lose. It's very important to have multiple plans in mind in order of chance to succeed. If the 100% endgame fails, then switch to the 75% then the 40% and so on. Never give in.

Fun little fact: Scald will un-thaw frozen Pokemon, including a Kyogre that's in Desolate land.

Dealing with the salt:

Dealing with salt on both ends is one of the harder things to do in this game. If you've just lost a game to a triple protect followed by a freeze and some crits, you have every right to be annoyed. You have no right however to insult your opponent, that's poor sportsmanship and you're not going to be making any friends doing this. Everyone has different coping methods to being 'robbed' out of a game. Personally (like many negatives in life) I like to laugh at it. Losing to such dire odds is something I find hilarious and laughing keeps you in a good mindset for the next rounds. Some might like some time to themselves to process what just happened. Completely up to the person. Being on the other side and seeing an opponent get angsty and flustered is a different story. It might be best to just ignore them or apologise if you feel the need and let them work it out on their own. Don't let a persons tendency's to overreact to a childrens game stop you from pursuing a win condition though, this is a competitive game and everyone is there to win, heartless as it may seem.

tl;dr Salt sucks.

Selfie of me at VGC14 Nationals

UN GOLPE CRITICO:

Now we're into the nasty parts. Crits can occur from any damaging move and it will cause them to deal 1.5 the regular damage and they have a 6.25% (1/16) chance of occurring. if you look at 1/16 as the odds you'll realise how high this really is. In a longer tournament, (especially in Bo3 play) chances are you'll be getting crit and dealing crits multiple times. You can consider it as a way for an opponent to win but you cant do much to prevent it at all except cross your fingers and hope for the best.

When your don gets crit by the other 

Closing notes:

I don't know if I've covered everything (Probably not) so I'll just do some tl;dr's.

Hax is different to RNG

They both suck anyways

Thunder wave is god

Abuse the hell out of RNG

Never give in

UN GOLPE CRITICOOOO

JAJAJAJAJAJAJA

PS: I got to dig into my reaction folder for this 10/10 

-Matt