Saturday, January 12, 2019
On Saturday, Pokémon fans celebrated Focus Sash Day. In the Pokémon games, the Focus Sash is an item that allows a Pokémon to survive any attack. Normally when a Pokémon takes damage that is greater than or equal to their current amount of HP, the Pokémon drops to zero and faints. But if a Pokémon is holding a Focus Sash, the Pokémon will endure the hit that otherwise would have knocked it out, with 1 hit point left. Since Rattata has 12 HP at Level 1, this is displayed as “1/12”, which is the same as January 12 in the American Month/Day format. Ever since its discovery on a GameFAQs message board in early 2007, the “F.E.A.R.” strategy has been a famous strategy. It originally stood for “Fucking Evil Annoying Rodent”, but, for family-friendly purposes, an alternative meaning is “Focus, Endeavor, Attack, Rattata”, from the elements Focus Sash, the moves “Endeavor” and “Quick Attack”, and Rattata, the original common choice for the strategy.
The Focus Sash allows Rattata to survive any hit with 1 HP left. Endeavor reduces the target’s HP to that of Rattata, which, assuming Focus Sash triggered, is equal to 1, thus enabling Rattata to finish the target off with “Quick Attack”. The increased priority of Quick Attack allows Rattata to bypass the huge speed difference between it and its presumably high-leveled opponent and take out the final health point. This year ends with “019”, which is Rattata’s National Pokédex number.