In two days, I will have been on VR for three years. I'll probably forget about that on the 27th because it's a Tuesday and the only thing that runs through my mind when I get home from school is relaxing a bit, so I might as well make my speech now.
A little over three years ago, I subscribed to this nobody called Cat333Pokémon because he was very good with this little known program called Mario Paint Composer. I didn't watch all of his videos, but I did watch a fair amount of those that peaked my curiosity. Every one of his videos had a link to his website, floatzel.net (for some reason, I want to say it was buizel.net back then), but I was a bit hesitant at joining.
Then in late November of 2009, Cat posted a video saying there is a Pokémon tournament being held in the forums on his site. Back then, I was really into battling, but wasn't really good at it. I signed up for the tournament and saw that I had a Bye round to start off with. Because I was clueless to how the tournaments worked here when I first joined, I ended up missing the tournament completely.
Even though I was out of the tournament, I didn't leave the VR community. I got to meet some cool people way back when and we all just hung out in our little corner of the internet (back then, there was only 300 or so members when I joined. Think about that).
A few weeks after I joined, there was an announcement concerning changing the name and motto of the forum. I submitted my own idea for a name and motto, but the winning name ended up being what you see today. The motto, however, is not what you see today. Some of you may know what I'm talking about when I say that, but the newer members are probably clueless.
Things were going swimmingly. The community was rather active with people like Jad, Lux, Squirtle, SK, Lite, A'bom (or Quil), Spirit, and Fubab, just to name a few. Then there was this one incident with one particular member named LEAF. Back in the old chat program, LEAF came in and started doing what trolls did best - trolling. Back then, I didn't know what I troll was, so I didn't really know how to handle the situation properly. After a staff member came into the room, I tried explaining what LEAF was doing, but LEAF was claiming I was the one doing it... it was an ugly situation. Had I known back then, I would've told the staff member to check the chat archives. In fact, it was users like LEAF which inspired one member's Super Mario World ROM hack which was centered around defeating banned members. Because the member who was leading the project was banned himself, the hack was abandoned for obvious reasons.
Nothing too eventful really happened to me in 2010. I did leave VR for a few months, but I did come back (I think it was from December 2009 to February 2010). Then around mid to late 2010, a 5th generation of Pokémon was released in Japan. Because a lot of people on here wanted to get their hands on a copy ASAP, they imported things and looked into everything they could about the new games. There was info about these games everywhere on the site, despite the fact that spoilers were to be kept inside the proper threads. Around late October to early November, I decided that if I wanted to not be spoiled on the new games, I would have to leave VR until I beat Black.
I didn't return to VR for an entire year and I never did beat Black during that time. I just kept thinking about VR and how little of things there is to do without that site. Plus, another forum site I was on was full of just the worst kind of people. So I returned to VR and the people who welcomed me gave me a very warm welcome. It felt nice to feel like I was part of a community again, rather than just another face on the forum. Looking back on that thread, I find the first thing that I said to Reun funny. Ah, how the times change.
To be honest, when I first came back to VR, I felt like I walked into a completely different site. Aside from a majority of the staff, everyone I knew was gone. Fubab, SK, Lux... they were just gone and I wasn't the greatest at meeting new people. Then I met two people who helped me feel like I belonged again - Reun and Syra. Those two were probably the most active people I saw on VRIM when it was up and they were some of the friendliest people I met when I returned. If it wasn't for them, it's possible that I might've left again.
One night in VRIM stood out in particular to me - it was a Saturday and I only remember that much because a few members were watching Pokémon Sunday via Keyhole TV or something like that. I was working my way through Black 1 still, I was nearing the end - I was just about done with the Elite Four and I was working my way through N's Castle. Then I saw Cat get really excited in the chat after being confused for a bit. It was the night Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 were officially announced. Everyone watching the show was excited and was eager to spread the news, while I just continued on moving through Black, defeating Ghetis. Funny how had I stuck to my word of not returning to VR until I beat Black, I would've never witnessed that moment in VR history.
The last thing I can probably talk about in its fullest would probably be my promotion to staff. I think it was around early April, a few days after every staff member turned into a MLP character, Cat asked me if I would like to be part of the staff. I obviously said yes. About a month later, I remember Reun was promoted to staff as well. The rest is history.
Everything else I missed is scattered about in my memory. I remember the old gym league when I came back and how it was failing miserably. Could never forget Vel's shenanigans. Can't forget how stubborn one particular former staff member was after he was banned (every staff member knows what I'm talking about). The December '11 Brawl Tourney that was never finished due to faulty friend code registrations. The Mario Kart 7 tourney which TPM won because of a lucky shot. Kid Icarus: Uprising with a bunch of people here (fear the Black Club's ranged attacks). I'll never forget the time I beat Reun's gym. Then there are just some users that are impossible to forget about. Cat, Yoshi, KYA, A'bom, Green, LD, Lux, Jad, Lite, Shade, Cyrus, Syra, Reun, Turt, Eagles, dewott, Spirit, Aura, PRS, Vel, Ditto, Saber, Jared, Grass, SK, Spikey, TPM, Mag, Idno, Ala, Shadow... these are probably some of the greatest people I've met... except Lite. He's just a memorable figure.
Then the arcade... ooohhh the arcade.... I had 10 trophies at one point, but people kept trying to take me down from the position of "Arcade Champion." Oh well, I'll settle with 8.
That's all I have to say. I could probably say more, but I don't think I need to. I guess there is one last thing I could say - if it wasn't for VR, things in my real life might've turned out differently. It's funny how things on the internet can affect you so drastically in the real life.
-Quad
9 – Twiggy, Cyrus, Reuniclus, TurtwigX, SpikyEaredPichu96, Squirtle102, Firo, GalliumGrant, PHANTOMxTRAINER
), KI: U, and building on the same Minecraft server. 
