One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.   This is Pikkdogs here with a special article.  Today I am putting out a bonus article to celebrate my 150^th article. 

It seems like just a month ago I celebrated my 100^th article, but now I have 150 articles already.  A big thanks to all you readers out there, I never expected to write 50 article, nonetheless 150.  I must say that I really enjoy writing article and interacting with you guys out there.  To celebrate my 150^th article, I will be sharing with you a part of my upcoming interview in the Pokemon issue of Pokerface Magazine.  Enjoy the sneak peak of the interview.

Thanks for coming to the interview Pikkdogs, we have all been enjoying the articles you have been churning out lately.  What do you think separates you from the other article writers and Pokemon commentators out there?

Well, thanks for having me.  I think the difference between me and most of the big time personalities out there is that I don’t pretend to be anything that I am not.  If you look at the first article or video of any author or Pokemon…

Continue reading "Bonus Article: An Interview with a Pikkdogs, 150 Articles Later"

Hey Everybody.

This is just Pikkdogs here to make a special announcement.

Don’t  get your hopes up, I’m not retiring.

But, I guess you could say I’m retiring for one week.

Ed and I are proud to announce that during the week of August 8th-14th, www.onehitko.com will be introducing its first “Guest Writer Week.”  During this week you will read articles from people who have never written on this site before.  The writers will be from all different areas of expertise.  From Nationals winners to league leaders, Guest Writer Week will have it all.

Ed and I have been working really hard on this week to try to get the best writers, and I think I can say that we got one of the best and most diverse groups of writers ever assembled for one week of articles.  The authors who have currently signed on for Guest Writer Week are, in no practicular order:

1. Alan Traxler – Ann Arbor’s League Leader and player in Michigan.
2. Jay Hornung – the 3rd place finisher of Worlds in 2009 and winner of too many other tournaments to mention.  He writes the “Jay’s Gym” article on sixprizes.com.
3. Kyle Sucevich – also known as “Pooka,” he is the 2009 U.S. Nationals 1st place winner, finished in the top 4 in 2010, and got second place in 2011.  He currently is one of the masterminds of the show “The Top Cut.”  It can be found on www.thetopcut.net.
4. Michael Slutsky – Competitive player in the Minneapolis area.
5. Jordan Baker – Member of Team Warp Point and competitive player in the Detroit Area.
6. Adam Capriola – Adam has many accomplishments including multiple Nationals top cuts (most recently this year) and multiple Worlds invites. Oh, and he has a little website you may have heard of called www.sixprizes.com.
7. Radu C. – Competitive player in the Minneapolis area.  He top cut in this year’s U.S. Nationals and has won many other tournaments. He also has competed in Worlds.  He has the distinction of being the first player I have ever lost to, which doesn’t really matter that much to anyone but me.

Continue reading "Big Announcement – Introducing…"

Hey all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here.  Recently it came to my attention that I have passed the 100 article mark.  I waited till now to celebrate it because I didn’t want to start this during our Nationals coverage.  But now that Nationals is out of the way, we can party down.

To celebrate my 100th post, this article will be special.  It contains information about a contest, short biography, an excerpt of my interview featured in the upcoming issue of The Rolling Stone, and some other fun stuff.

The Contest

Last winter we had a contest for the first anniversary of the site.  That contest didn’t go so well, so I thought I would try it again.  Perhaps the last contest was a little too difficult, so this contest will be easy.  All you have to do is send an email to “pikkdogs@teamomar.com.”  In this email we ask you to tell us something you like, or do not like about the website.  Thats all you have to do.  Everyone who submits a successful entry, will get their name placed into a drawing.  When the contest is over, I will select two names at random.  The winners…

Continue reading "Pikkdogs Celebrates 100 Articles!"

Hey guys. When we changed the website to the new name/URL, I also created a new look for the site. Now, the new look was not something that we originally discussed as being a part of the change. I mostly just felt that it would be fun to have a new look and feel to accompany the new name, so I took it upon myself to create the new design. After a weekend of getting used to the new look, what do you guys think?

I would really like feedback on this, because I’m not necessarily attached to the new layout. I could be persuaded to go back to the old, stick with the new, come up with something in between, or try something entirely new.

I’m no graphic artist here, so I know that my artistic abilities and tastes are (well let’s lay it out there) virtually nonexistent. I could use some help. If you’re into designing stuff like this, maybe you want a shot at it. Maybe you just want to voice your opinion. Maybe you’re like me and don’t have a strong opinion, but that’s important for me to know, too.

Here are a few options that are on the table. Any of these are ready to roll. New designs are definitely doable, too (but maybe not by me?). At any rate, please comment and let’s figure this out together.

Old Theme

Old Theme + New Background/Title

New Theme

Continue reading "Feedback Needed: Website Design"

You may have noticed, but I’ll say it anyway. Pikkdogs already alluded to it in his previous post. What was once TeamOmar.com is now OneHitKO.com. We’re hoping that the new name better represents what the site has become. It’s grown larger than just a place for a few guys to share their ramblings, and we’re really pleased with the site’s growth.

People from all over the world are reading and posting here, and we feel like they’re all part of the “team.” The problem is that we feel the name “Team Omar” might be too exclusive. People are reading, but we’d like to see more people contributing (commenting, writing articles, submitting videos, etc.). The new identity is our attempt at making this a place where everyone will feel welcome to participate.

This isn’t Omar’s website. This isn’t my team’s website. It’s a place where everyone can go to share information and read quality articles about the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

To help usher in the new name and URL, we’ve also given the website a facelift. I think it adds a freshness to the site. It definitely gives the site a new feel, but it’s still the same content you’ve come to expect. We hope you like the new look, the new name, and all that it represents.

One Hit KO for the win!
Continue reading "Introducing “One Hit KO”"

TeamOmar’s Pokemon Chat

Adam over at 6P had this bright idea to get some webmasters to add chat capability to their sites. His plan was to link the chats up such that anyone using any one of the participating sites will be chatting live with everyone from all the sites.

I believe that the list of sites using it will be:

• Team Omar
• HeyTrainer
• J-Wittz
• Six Prizes

I already chatted with J-Wittz using TeamOmar.com’s chat client this morning. He’s working on getting his set up. Adam already has the Six Prizes one running.

If you want to join the conversation, head over to TeamOmar’s Chat Page.

Continue reading "Pokemon TCG Chat For Everyone"

First of all, I’d like to hear some comments on this one. I have some ideas to present, and I would appreciate some input. Before we get to that, though, I am curious how many of you are going to the US Pokemon Nationals. If you didn’t know, it’s in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 25 to June 27. Here is some recent news about the registration process.

So, while you’re chiming in about how excited you are to go to Nats or filling us in on your sob story of why you can’t attend, maybe you want to weigh in on the idea of a twitter feed. For those of us (like myself) who won’t be attending, this is a way we can follow fellow players during their stay and while they progress through the tourney. For those of you that will be attending, it will be a way for you to let us know how you are doing, what the metagame is like, how your nightly partying fares, and brag about your wins to a wide audience.

So, that’s the idea, but the implementation is up for discussion. Here are some basic questions. Maybe you have some ideas about them or whatever. If you’re willing to tweet from Nats, let us know, and let us know how you’d want it to work. If you aren’t going, but you have experience with this sort of thing, let us know. If you think this is a stupid idea, let us know.

Continue reading "Are You Atwitter For Nationals?"

Ava created another piece of art for the website. This time, she has combined the forces of Vulpix and Uxie to create Vuluxie. I can’t say, for certain, why. I can’t pretend to understand the mind of an artist. I have no such talent, so these things are above my comprehension.

No, on to today’s news. Cheffords, who recently wrote about his experiences at the Michigan State tourney, contacted me to inform me that some of his comments were missing. Low and behold, he was right. I had wondered why we weren’t getting very many comments lately. Well, it seems that people were commenting all along. It was just that the automatic comment SPAM filter system was marking the vast majority of comments as SPAM. Indeed, there are a lot of comments that are SPAM. It’s a sad reality, but when your real comments get tossed in with that garbage, it becomes a huge problem. Of course, we’re trying to create an atmosphere where people can share ideas and comment on people’s experiences, decklists, questions, etc. That’s hard to do if those ideas and comments get automatically discarded.

Continue reading "Comments, New Artwork, and a Road Trip"

According to Bulbapedia, “As Zigzagoon shows an interest in everything it happens to see, it always zigs and zags, even leaving distinguishable zigzag footprints.” We at Team Omar are also interested in many different things, so today, we will zig and zag leaving a footprint.

For a website, though, the footprint is a bit different. The trail left for you to follow us is at TeamOmar dot INFO. That’s our footprint. If you want to find the real Team Omar, though, you will now find us at TeamOmar dot COM. Don’t worry, though. Until the footprints are washed away, you will still find us the old way. Okay, let’s drop the Zigzagoon bit.

What I’m trying to tell you is that we used to be at a different web URL. I thought that the site deserved a real dot com address, so I switched from .info to .com. The old URLs should still work, but not forever. If you have ever linked to Team Omar on another website, please change your links to www.teamomar.com!

If you’ve told your friends to check the site out, please let them know of the URL change. As I…

Continue reading "Zigzagoon and Team Omar"

I really like how this website is shaping up. We’re getting a good amount of interesting Pokemon TCG articles here. We’re even getting more and more traffic from people searching for information about different decks and cards. In fact, our top search is for info about a dialga garchomp deck, so Omar will need to write an article titled “Dialga Garchomp Deck” in the near future. [winks and points finger at Omar]

So, the site is becoming a good repository of information, but I feel like we’re missing out on it being a good resource/medium for discussing things as a team and working together to create something or come to a decision as a whole. A tournament report really ought to be one guy’s take on what happened, and the comments are probably just going to be like “good job” or whatever. Reporting about how a deck worked while play-testing or in an actual tournament/league situation (like what I did with The Problem With Porygon) could generate some interesting discussion if others show up and have questions/comments, but it really is just another report. These things are in the past, and therefore they can be somewhat standalone and…

Continue reading "Pokemon Deck Workshop"