Picking Battles

Readers of this blog will know that I had a rather busy weekend, from a Yanni concert on Saturday to a theme event on Sunday. In fact, that weekend could have been more busy, as there was actually a Pokémon Go PvP tournament by my raid group scheduled on Sunday morning. However, owing that I already decided to participate in the theme event, I decided to forego participation in the tournament. This becomes one of the instances where I really have to "pick my battles", so to speak. It seems to apply equally well in Pokémon as it does in my life in general.

As is true of any person, I can't be in two places at once. Thus, participating in both the tournament and the theme event would be impossible... or actually, it's possible, but only partially for the tournament, which I don't want to do, since everything is recorded by the Silph League Arena, even if I forfeited however many battles. If both the tournament and theme event were close by, I could conceivably sacrifice a few battles for the latter. In general, if the competitions were to be simultaneous and doable like the big national tournament, then I'll take part in any or all of them. If not, then things happen as Sunday happened, with me in the cosplay and J-Song competition instead of the tournament.

Based on my tournament performance and given my abilities in cosplay and singing, I decided that I would proceed with the latter to maximize my chances of winning. Even so, I did end up barely winning anything, but at the least there was a bigger chance in my view. This is similar to how most of my time with Pokémon on the 3DS has been spent on Shuffle rather than the main series, because my successes there are more evident, in addition to the consideration of the time factor. Admittedly, not all battles can be picked and chosen, like the case of Trainers completely blocking the way in the main series games. Sunday for me was like that too; I would have at least one battle for either battle path I choose.

With all the business I've got going on, I will inevitably have to pick and choose some of my "battles", with those having consequences for other "battles" as well. The instance of last Sunday was one of those instances, and it's likely not going to be the last. More of these instances will surely appear, and I will have to pick and choose what I really want to battle. But regardless of which ones I pick, whether they involve Pokémon to a great degree or just a little bit, the fight will still always be on in those battles.

One year ago: Cosplay Cards
Two years ago: Ghosty and Me