Generation 7: 2016 - 2019?

November 2016:
I like many other eagerly anticipated the coming European International Championship over in London during the start of the competitive 2017 season. A whole new generation of pokémon had just been released, and I like many others wanted to see which mons would rise to the top of the meta since only mons in the Alola Dex were allowed. Naturally, since the Tapus and Ultra Beasts were permitted, many trainers defaulted to using them. While I was quite bored with the battles I saw a the European International Championship (as many trainers ran the same mons), a few stood out that gave me a glimmer of hope for the format to become a little more creative. I remember Nico Davide Cognetta using a Krookodile in place of Garchomp, Tommy Cooleen successfully used the Double Duck core for the first time, and Incineroar saw its first placement before getting Intimidate. With all that going on, it inspired me to find my own hole-in-the-wall mon to use during the competitive season, and I spend the next month breeding mons for people and doing research as the meta developed.

January 2017:
Here's the part that all of you came for. This is when things started getting interesting. Since Se-Jun's Pachirisu was still living in my mind, I decided to see if any of the other Electric Mouse pokémon had viability in the current format. The only legal Electric Mouse were Pikachu, Alolan Raichu, Emolga, and Togedemaru. Alolan Raichu had already been used in a speedy core with Tapu Koko, and Togedemaru would eventually get reviewed by Wolfey, igniting a chain that resulted in it becoming one of the most popular support mons of the format, even appearing on his Worlds team. Emolga was kind of lost in the background, and the only reason I even bothered to take a look at it was because of its hidden ability, Motor Drive. One thing led to another, and I sat down and wrote this: my competitive Emolga post. I posted it on the 24th, and I had no idea it'd snowball into what it did. Turns out, people really liked the idea of an underused mon having viability, and while I did have a few nay-sayers, the response was overall very positive. That was beginning of my history with Emolga, it only grew from there.

March 2017:
I continued experimenting with Emolga, realizing that even without access to Move Tutor moves like Helping Hand, Knock Off, and Tailwind, it still had a good supportive movepool. After much trial and error, I eventually felt confident enough to bring my Emolga team to a local tournament on March 19th. Believe me, when I went to go register, I got more than a few weird looks. But, the joke was one them because they had little to no way of stopping my little friend from abusing Nuzzle, Volt Switch, and when apt, Speed Swap. Even though I won, I felt that it must've been luck, or that it was too gimmicky for anyone to actually take my team seriously. So I refrained from posting it, at least until the demand grew a little more skeptical than I was expecting. As such, I finally posted my 1st Place Emolga team that May, to surprisingly warm reception, even from some of the site's more hardcore VGC players. It was a good sign, as I later learned.

July 2017:
I'm not sure when it was, but Ashton Cox (ever known for his unconventional strategies) used a Speed Swap Emolga on one of his regional teams. I can't find the footage on YouTube, but I know for a fact that I wasn't crazy when I watched it. I believe it was some time after spring break, and around the time I saw Wolfey go up against an Emolga on Battle Spot doubles during one of his Championship challenge videos. It was around July when my association with Emolga started to inspire some people. I even received my first (albeit) terrifying piece of Emolga fanart from my partner, @The_Flaine. It was also about the same time user, now Kahuna, @Kris used my Emolga set in a post of their own. User @Slec also considered putting it on their VGC 2017 tier list, but ultimately refrained because it just hadn't gotten enough use. Unfortunately, time was running out for Emolga to stake her claim in the VGC 2017 meta. Worlds was coming up, and by that point I was already sure I'd used every trick she had to offer.