It really pisses me off. Today I was in a chatroom and I tell people I'm training my Pokémon to Lv. 100 so I can get off my major loss streak. They tell me that the reason I've been losing was because I don't play their way: In other words, they told me to start breeding for IV's and perfect natures, and training for EVs. It really made me sick that almost the entire room was filled with competitive Pokémon trainers with nearly the same mentality: You have to play by their rules or you can't win, end of story. Then they tell me to simply Action Replay my team, which I'm not going to do because that would be unfair to the people that worked hard to train their Pokémon.

Basically what I want to say is that, in my opinion, competitive gaming mentality ruins the point of one person's view of the game. "You have to play this game one way and only that way or it won't be 'fun'."

What are your opinions on competitve battling mentalities in Pokémon/other games?

I hate tards. They don't understand how to have fun in the game. Maybe not Anythign Goes, but the current Standard Rules are great for any beginning user. Tards are also half the reason that we have nostalgic noobs: those that stick to the old games "because nobody trained for perfect EVs, natures, or other stats." And I hate those people too because they are wrong (mostly the ones that say Pokérus, shinies, and IVs started in third generation).

While it isnt neccessary to train with ivs and such, it isnt a bad idea too either. And while I dislike "tards" I must say that you kind of set yourself up for it, there was bound to be someone who uses AR in there, and even more so someone who is a "tard". Speaking of AR, the only thing Ive ever AR'd up were some berry juices, which is only because its unobtainable and because it does very little.

I agree with serenade. EV training IV breading all that stuff helps a ton and you can't really deny that it helps a whole lot of your willing to put the time into it, but using action replay is a big no, no. You did set yourself up for it by asking "why am I losing?". Sounding like they were just trying to make a suggestion to get you out of your losing streak.

You can be surprised how much a difference it could make

The only battles I lose are usually because I make stupid decisions but you never know I could be wrong we'll have to see who will win the tournament.

I really think that "perfecting" your pokemon is a big waste of time. The thing that makes pokemon so fun is when you catch and train your pokemon and send them to battle and try to unlock their potential and see the outcome of the battle and play through trial and error but when it gets to the point of trying to get the "right" stats and all the values and everything, it takes the fun out of the game and makes it more like a chore.