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EP. 19 - Dortmund, Joinville, Lima 2025 Recaps
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 19 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we bring you the highest quality coverage of the Play! Pokémon Championship Series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and everything else happening in the competitive scene.
This week, we talk about the double Galarian Moltres Grand Finals in Dortmund, LNDsRargef slaying Araquanid in Joinville to add another Regional Championship to his resume, MartoGalde's absolutely dominant Grand Finals win in Lima, the overall health of the Play! Pokémon competitive circuit, and much more! We hope you enjoy this episode. Leave us a review on whichever platform you are listening!
With that said, if you're ready, Lock In, press play, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction and Tournament Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Dortmund, Germany, a GBL ah great set out to achieve his first ever top cut and return to home with the gold medal. Whereas in Joinville, Brazil and Lima, Peru, two of the most decorated battles of the Latin region reset their brackets to claim yet another championship title.
Podcast Triple Header Announcement
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome back to the Show6 podcast, coming to you with a triple header episode this week. So lock in, good luck and most importantly, have fun.
Guest Introductions
00:00:51
Speaker
Welcome in, everybody. Those last two weekends were fairly eventful, I must say. My name is Zeez Wireless, and I am here, as always, with Speedius
Hosts' Dynamic and Competition Plans
00:01:01
Speaker
Chief 2. How are you doing, Speedie?
00:01:04
Speaker
whileless I'm doing awesome. I loved your intro. I love the drive. I loved it. It felt like a March forward. And it definitely is the kind of vibe that we're getting with the season as well. ah More events rolling out. We've got two for Latem, one for EU. And in this one, an EU that we're going to open with, you actually placed within the top eight within the top four, if I'm not mistaken. And I feel like tradition.
00:01:26
Speaker
As is tradition, yes, with with disease wireless specialist, we call it. I think I need to start competing more because we spend a lot of time talking about you, my friend. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, honestly, I'm all for it. Like, you could do it the same way on your co-cast. So Tomahawk UK does it. So he cast the European events and then he goes to compete in the N.A. ones. I would love to see you in Gdansk competing speedies. So like,
00:01:50
Speaker
if you If you have that weekend off, um just so come to Poland. It's a beautiful city. and um I think Lille, which does come before, would also be um quite nice.
Invitation to Gdansk Competition
00:02:01
Speaker
France is always worth a visit, but I won't be there, unfortunately. so My invitation that I extend to you is to come to the Gdansk Regional. I don't know. would Would that be something for you?
00:02:12
Speaker
It's actually funny you mention it because my grandma on my dad's side actually was from Poland. So so I do have some some Polish blood. um It's also interesting as well because we talk about the events in North America and and EU and how they stack up. And Tua Butters made a really funny point. He said, yeah, you know, the the European caster sometimes they comment, they say, ah, well, you've got more events in NA or you have more of this or more that.
00:02:40
Speaker
And Butter said, but wait, we're going to places like Peoria and you're going to Bologna or you're going to Gdansk or you're in Dortmund, Germany. We're like, oh my God, if if I could go there to those cities with all the rich history in Europe, it would just be an incredible experience. And meanwhile, we're in Peoria. To be honest, to be honest, all of all those cities, I feel like Dortmund might be the most comparable to Peoria. It's just like the the Western German industrial heartland. like um
00:03:10
Speaker
it's not ah It's not a bad city by any means, but it's not something like a Gdansk, which is like by the coast, by the Baltic Sea, just like very picturesque um old town. and Like there's a lot of like amazing locations actually when it comes to e-originals. I feel like Dublin might not necessarily be one of them. Oh, fair, fair. see See, that's how unfamiliar I am with the regions. Actually, just one more reason to come to Europe. One more reason to come to Europe.
00:03:38
Speaker
You're right. I would love to compete in an EU regional. I'd also love to cast one at one point. So we'll see. We'll see what happens in the future. Um, speaking of Germany, though, ah this is a little anecdote I wanted to share with you because I'm looking at our season schedule and I actually broke up all the events based on the in game season.
German Season Travel Plans
00:03:56
Speaker
So we're currently in the max out season, which runs for three months. Were you aware that we're actually bookending this season, starting in Dortmund and ending in Stuttgart? Like this is the German season.
00:04:08
Speaker
I will be at both of these events actually. I just today booked my travel to Stuttgart, booked the hotel. And yeah, i'm I'm really looking forward to it. I feel like I might be doing even more um events than last year this season because the schedule just lines up really favorably for me. So yeah, definitely like try to take home another like home country medal. And they're like, Stuttgart is so far from me. I live all the way up in Hamburg, Germany. So that's like,
00:04:38
Speaker
the northernmost really big city, like almost 2 million. Unfortunately, never blessed by and by an event either by TPCI or Niantic. So um please come here, you guys. It's pretty up here. yeah I'll do my best to attend as many originals as possible and I'll definitely take the opportunity to visit those in my home country.
Reflections on Past Competitions
00:05:01
Speaker
Very good, very good. I would love to visit Germany at at some point as well. I've been to Frankfurt. That was the first EUIC back in 2022, but i have I didn't get a chance to explore very much outside of that. So I would love to make my way back, but I know our our listeners are here to talk to.
Dortmund Event as a Comeback Opportunity
00:05:17
Speaker
are here to hear us talk about the regional competitions and obviously finishing fourth place overall is super impressive. We did have a really hype, a really, really hype grand finals and a lot of European trainers that did well. And we're actually um kind of regaining, kind of recapturing some of the early play Pokemon magic that they had, you know, able to make top cut or or push deep.
00:05:40
Speaker
into day number two. I wanted to ask you about your experience in Dortmund because you are on the ground there. Are there any storylines, any things you want to share about how this season feels a bit different this season's past?
Trainer Highlights and Team Strategies
00:05:52
Speaker
So, um first of all, I would say that the Dortmund event specifically um It was a little bit of the weekend of the comeback, kids, I would say. like This was the first regional that I ever attended um alongside my my brother, Jonkers, content creator. You might know him. yeah um We actually did play in the 2023 UIC back in the day, but this was like the first real regional-level event. and ah we so we stayed for like We stayed at the same hotel. We watched a lot of sports in the evenings. and
00:06:26
Speaker
Um, just like had, uh, like nice, nice sibling weekend overall. Um, but yeah, for him, it was the return to the competitive scene after, um, after one and a half years of, um, play Pokemon absence. Um, he does try to make more, um, events work in the future. He went slightly positive, but did not top cut, unfortunately. But yeah, he was not really intending to like, not, not a lot of show six practice as of recent, but.
00:06:55
Speaker
Still a fun time with Araquanet and Arctobax, but even beyond my personal ah personal family history, there were a bunch of trainers that placed really well that were like really in in need of this bounce-back competition. MaximilianP finishing ninth overall, becoming one decision short of of top-cutting another regional with Arctobax and Malama, a really spicy team.
00:07:23
Speaker
um I remember him having a really deep losers bracket run last year at the first one in Barcelona where I was like very afraid to to face him because I think his team would have ended my run that eventually ah led to my first and only championship title.
00:07:41
Speaker
This time I was a little mad that he fell short of beating Tonton because my line my line matched up a lot better into his than into Tonton. So just throw that dragon claw man. that um and was It was so good. I'm i'm happy for Maxi to have another really strong finish to stop the season off well.
Strategic Picks and Meta Trends
00:08:01
Speaker
and If we look into the top eight, there is even more trainers here. I might have had a little bit of a rough time or took a little break from the game for a little while. For example, 23EGB, obviously the Bocom champion from like two seasons ago at this point. Bocom just like 15 minutes away from Dortmund. Dortmund basically the regional replacing Bocom. So definitely no stranger to doing really well in this particular region of Germany.
00:08:30
Speaker
um Yeah, he basically played VGC in Bologna, um did not really engage with competitive Pokemon Go for a long, long while. um But yeah, top cutting with a Shadow Dragonite, a real spicy pick, um protected from the Azus and Dunspouses by the other relatively spicy pick of Chestnut, so that was a sight to see.
00:08:53
Speaker
um And then we obviously have um a mindstroke who was very publicly unhappy with the previous meta. Like one of the most consistent top competitors ahead of that, like back in the Medicham days, it was always surrounding that um Shadow Alone and Sandslash. Basically the one Pokemon that didn't want to see Medicham at all, but he somehow made that work too.
00:09:16
Speaker
a degree in that wasn't really seen before. and um When Championship points got introduced, everybody was like, okay, like this is the ah mind show change because it was always so close to the top two. um But like you knew, okay, like right behind the top two, there there would be like,
00:09:34
Speaker
Uh, his placement somewhere and then he had had a little bit of a drought, but it brought out the Ariados this time to finish fifth overall. Uh, that is also like an impressive run pioneering a Pokemon that we haven't seen at all in the Baltimore top card, if I'm not mistaken.
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think I described Ariados as being the anti anti-meta. It's one of those Pokemon that once the meta evolves to a certain point, it can have a ton of use. So it can be a little bit risky to bring. I think we've talked about this as well in a previous episode, ah playing it in GBL, kind of getting a sense for how it's going to play out. um I definitely think it it can be good, but it has to find the right moments. And that actually segues really nicely into what I wanted to ask you personally about your run before we get to grand finals.
00:10:20
Speaker
Uh, we talked a lot about the squid Pokemon. I thought that toxapex was going to be a big player. You thought Malamar was my question for you is was Malamar everything you expected or did it fall a bit short? So.
00:10:36
Speaker
This is, I have three answers to that question. My first answer would be Malamar was really good. I think you definitely saw it in my streamed wins, especially on the the first day of competition, that I was like heavily leaning on Malamar. I thought it what was like really valuable just with its flexibility, that score breaking potential, and even into bad leads. like um One play that I was i'm fairly proud of was against Yonkers, where, not to be mistaken for Yonkers, that's another person, um where I um took the shield with an early superpower with Malama into Gaslord, which is not a favorable matchup, and taking that shield advantage allowed me to immediately pivot into Claude Sire, and I knew I would always reach um
00:11:30
Speaker
two earthquakes, even against the hardest counter imaginable, which would have been the Shadow for Alligator. So I would always be able to just two-shield Cloudsire and take out whatever he was going to throw at me without even taking a charge attack. And this was only enabled by Malama's superpower, Diplay. I think it's a really layered Pokémon. I think it's a Pokémon that allows you to really pivot in and out of matchups really quickly with its one-turn fast attack of Sighwave.
00:11:58
Speaker
um I really enjoyed the flexibility. It really rewards energy management. So I loved Malamar, but I didn't really love the environment Malamar found itself in, in Dortmund in particular.
00:12:12
Speaker
Because we're always talking about, okay, like every region has their own little quirks. Like everybody um interprets the meta differently. And sometimes there's trends that persist amongst European trainers. Maybe because there's like grassroots teams that scrim together and inspire each other's team building or just like, um I don't know like just like trends that emerge from practice tournaments that maybe happen at a certain time of day that are mostly attended by um a certain type of trainer that then um inspires corebreakers to emerge and I didn't really know um
00:12:51
Speaker
what to expect going into the first European competition. But I know that in practice, I played a against a lot of that. I'm trainers that lean heavily on Digaspy Toxapex core. And I really loved Malama against that. And I didn't really face that many Digaspy Toxapex cores in Dortmund. Whenever I faced them, I was really happy. For example, like our Peruvian guest, ah Javier V20, who finished at an impressive fifth place.
00:13:19
Speaker
um He was bringing that core and I definitely thought that my line was build against that. like I think I had a team comp advantage in that specific scenario. It did not really feel that way um into a lot of the the more standard teams. I would say that I had this Claude Sier shadow for alligator combination that we did come to expect, but that I was hoping Europeans would counter rather than adopt. So I feel like if my if my fellow Europeans went a little more anti-matter,
00:13:52
Speaker
um That would have allowed Malamard to shine a little more. And yeah, do you want to know why um I personally think I fell short against both Chonto and Nickname, the two trainers that ended up knocking me out of the tournament, sweetie?
00:14:08
Speaker
So, so before, before you get the answer, yes, absolutely. I want to know, but before you give the answer, um, I kind of got a similar sense watching your battles on stream. I felt like you had to work really hard for a lot of the wins that you got. And sometimes you can just make a right team composition call. We've kind of saw this a little bit with, with, um, with Dodge and Baltimore a couple of weeks ago or a few weeks ago now, uh, where he brought the chest on into some match-ups and it just looked like it was such an incredible core breaker. There was really no way around it.
00:14:37
Speaker
Or you could see that, for example, we'll talk about it soon in Lima. ah Marto's Azumarill sand slash core was just absolutely unstoppable. It didn't feel like you had a team composition advantage in almost any of the match-ups that I saw, particularly in day two. So I feel like that's my personal opinion. I felt like, again, the meta didn't quite align where you thought it would go. And I do want to credit you as well because the European trainers are known for core breaking are known for going anti-meta. So it's really, it was really kind of a shock to me to see that the EU trainers kind of pivot away from that and go a little bit safer. So that's my answer. You just didn't have the right, the right team composition match-ups. What's the real answer? Um, so I think the real answer is that in preparation for a match, top players typically just type their opponents team into PV Polk.
00:15:29
Speaker
um Set the ah ranks to rank one because obviously it's most likely that your opponent will opt for like the most optimal IV spread and then just look at the sims and see what is good for them.
00:15:44
Speaker
And if my opponents did that, they would have looked at a very different um spread of matchups than what I was looking at, because I was obviously simming with my exact IVs. And that means that against Tonton,
00:16:00
Speaker
i wouldn I felt like I would really struggle with the shadow for alligator. I didn't see it a single time. Against Nickname, I thought his toxapex didn't look particularly amazing. He still felt comfortable bringing it again and again. And against both Tonton and Nickname, I was not expecting the shadow quag side to come out.
00:16:23
Speaker
And it rps me every single time it came out. Like every time I did the field, it was aligned aligned against the dance bars. And I felt Shadow Cracksire was such a risk to bring against me. I look back at the Sims. Oh, Shadow Cracksire actually just cleanly beats Malama with the default IV spread in all shield scenarios. Whereas my Malama just shows me that it's so dominant against Cracksire. And nobody should bring it out because what if it's again lined up against the Malama? It would be terrible for the Cracksire.
00:16:51
Speaker
But ah yeah, like if you don't know that the Malamar is a danger, I might as well bring the Quaxion and actually cooperate me to smithereens in that scenario. So definitely made the wrong calls because I did not consider what my opponents would know about my team composition because my strange IVs, like they had no way of knowing what I was running and therefore just like completely completely misread the threads that would await me and just like chose abysmal team compositions time and time again. Interesting, interesting. So so again, maybe kind of a case of like over planning a little bit or trying to think too far outside of the box they ended up, you know, walking square into the box, which turned out to be a trap, a trap in the end, right? and definite Okay.
00:17:38
Speaker
that's definitely tough okay that's that's a really good insight i feel like a lot of a lot of people who maybe are listening to the to the show for the first time and have never competed at a tournament probably to never even think of these things but there are so so many layers to competitive pokemon go uh i think we we can spend some time talking about the grand finals because this was definitely a fun one but It felt like Kazeem was just bringing out the double D's every game and Tonton could really do nothing about it because Kazeem was on the winner's side. He won the first two games, lost to Tonton in game number three, and then ended up winning game number four to win the grand finals three to one. But it felt like it was the the double D's, the Dewgong, Dunsparce,
00:18:21
Speaker
a duo versus Galarian Moltres. And Galarian Moltres was just smothered under the rocks and the ice. Did you get the same sense? Because it felt like Kazim just kept running the same trio or same four Pokemon and it just worked out for him. Yeah, I think Kazim really loved the, he played that for Alligator, Dugon, Dunspus, especially. I feel like that was a line that he brought a lot.
00:18:45
Speaker
And those just gave him a lot of play because the best answer that Tron Tron had for the Feraligatr was the Galarian Moltres. And if you get a farm down with Feraligatr, which you could easily set up by pivoting into Dugong and debuffing something, then the Moltres would still be fearful of that ice beam. So I definitely think that, especially with that Dugong utility, like Dugong actually um And it doesn't even look too, too strong into 2020 because Feraligatr has played Cresselia obviously is a really solid answer. um And Dunsparce and Shadow Quaxia can hit back with a super effective Rock-type move, but
00:19:32
Speaker
Even in its bad matchups, Dugong just offers so much utility, and I think it's like no surprise that out of the top three trainers, um two of them twelve of them had Dugong on their team. Like you have Cloud's Iron on all teams, you have Feraligatr, you have Danspars, you have obviously Galarian Mortress, you have Shadow Cragsire, like those are Pokemon that really managed to shine in the top three teams, but you also had Dewgong. And I always think that Dewgong is like one of these Pokemon, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned this on the on the podcast in the past as well, that overperformed their numbers. Like you have like 10% of Dewgong in a tournament, and then they'll still make up 50% of the top four. So. Yes.
00:20:18
Speaker
um It's certainly a Pokemon that just allows you to set up so many flexible wind conditions, and it also allowed Kazim to have the pressure against Tonton's Galarian Moltres that um like really made it difficult for Tonton to bring his star of the show out as much as he would have wanted it to shine. like He still relied heavily on the Galarian Moltres,
00:20:47
Speaker
um And I can see why, because it is it is a Pokemon that can overcome its bad matchups by just farming up a lot of energy. I feel like that's one of Galarian Moltres' main draws, that it's just like really good, really efficient with the energy. It farms up.
00:21:02
Speaker
But if you if you are up against such a bulky Pokemon, such a versatile Pokemon, then it's difficult to find the openings. And honestly, I feel like this was one of the more dominant grand finals that I've seen. And even even the winner's finals, because even though there was no bracket reset, um those we did get two best of fives between Kazim and Ton-Ton. And um yeah I think the Dugong was the difference maker in both of these sets.
00:21:32
Speaker
I absolutely agree. As we take a look back at the grand finals, uh, you know, I'm a, I'm a real nerd about it. I track all the Pokemon. I track who controls switch advantage, uh, kazim speaking of switch advantage. I track this as just whoever seeds switch first. The other trainer would then win control, switch advantage. So that's either like you swap out or your Pokemon gets KO'd and then switch advantage would go to the other player. If that makes sense.
00:21:56
Speaker
So in all four games of the grand finals, Kazeem controlled switch advantage, which meant that Tonton was definitely playing the energy or shield advantage ah perspective when he was trying to win the games. Game number one, Kazeem with superior Dunsparce Dugong. So ABB strong against Galarian Moltres, and he lets superior into Dunsparce, which we know is a really solid lead for superior. Game two, Shadow for Alligator, Dunsparce Dugong again. This time he led Shadow for Alligator into Claude Sire, which is very nice, right? Especially in a, in a shield's up scenario. Then we look at game three Dunsparce shadow for alligators, superior. So kazim switching things up a little bit might've seen something like the, uh, for alligator, Chris Sally, a corn gay number two that he didn't like. So he brought superior this time. He leads Dunsparce into glaring multirus. And that is a solid lead for Dunsparce. And this is actually the only game that Tonton would win, which is also, it speaks volumes about him as a player. I think very, very nice comeback.
00:22:51
Speaker
And then game four shadow for alligator lead from Kazim with again, do gone done sparse in the back. This time he got Chris Elia in the lead game. Number four was able to get the win in, in a very exciting manner. Tonton got the boost on Guleri Moltres, the engine power at the end, but it still wasn't enough. He just fizzled out there. The final moments.
00:23:09
Speaker
I think there was one game, or like, I don't know whether it was a set or a game, it might well have just been a game, where Tauntaun actually got three Ancient Power boosts, and like, I think it was against Maxi, where it just like, kept on boosting and kept on boosting, and you were wondering whether this is just like, Rock-type Power Punch, but yeah, like, be the Moltres boosts definitely put in a shift this weekend,
00:23:34
Speaker
um But still, if you find yourself in so many disadvantages match-ups, there's only so much even even a masterfully-played Galarian Mortress can do. I think, like obviously, it was a great effort of Tonsun to You'll just claw his way back into that game three and actually um put a win on the board and in that one. But I actually think that this like it was like the... like
00:24:07
Speaker
the ever-slightest misplay of Kazim, because I think he um used his shield with for with his Feraligatr into Tauntaun's Cresselia, and therefore basically he left his dancebar shieldless against the Mortress in the back.
00:24:28
Speaker
Um, whereas if he let the grass node go, if he has a good gator, like a reasonably good gator, he just barely lives a grass node and gets to two moves. So you could have actually saved the shield and got the clean sweep. I don't, I don't mind that he didn't get the clean sweep. It was but is still just as impressive and I also like love for Tom Tom to not get swept there because the team comp looked dire and it always like feels a little bit better at least if you managed to pull one back like that but like I just it just felt like okay like he could have just
00:25:04
Speaker
even pulled out pulled off the sweep with like this really like dominant team comps and this compositions because you know what to expect from you know what to expect from um to to because mortress kind of has to come out at some point the crest has to come out because um like it's just like you can't really leave the crest on the bench when you just get run over by Dugong time and time again, and the crest is the best Dugong answer. So, yeah, I just i just felt like, okay, like even in his losses, Kazim had this like slight wind condition present, and I think there's it just really speaks to the team building on Kazim's part, not just the team of three, but also the team of six composition, because I know that, especially with the current event going on and Galerian Mortress being released in its shiny form,
00:26:00
Speaker
um A lot of people are hunting for a Galarian bird and trying to build a team of six around it to bring it to the next tournament. um But Galarian Mortress itself is not a guarantee that you take home a championship. You also really need to build well around it, you need to support it well.
00:26:18
Speaker
And then you just need to execute to perfection. And I think, um, even though I think Tauntaun was actually the player in the tournament that got the most mileage out of Mortris specifically, agreed I think Kazim was the one who built the best team, like built the best supporting cast around it. And if you have a player, like this is something that was actually baffling to me when I when I looked it up and found out about it. But like you know Kazim from from the leaderboards, right? Like, you know him from the leaderboards. That's where he lives. That's where he likes to hang out. um And like you expect that player to be like, I was always considering him like a San Francisco type of player, like somebody who like has top cut before, but just is waiting for this one breakout performance. But Kazim actually has never top cut before.
00:27:07
Speaker
i just um yeah like I was not aware of of that because I was like, this guy is so good. He definitely has top back before. He probably had a top eight finish or at at least a top 16 finish. Best place finish before Dortmund, 17. So it was a long time coming because I know that he has put in a shift in GBL and practice tournaments and just like really one of the most mechanically sound players that we have in Europe.
00:27:36
Speaker
And yeah, now it all came together with the right team composition, the Whimsicord. um ah Yeah, this was a long time coming. It was a great ah was a great set of battles to watch. um And even though it was a little more one-sided than one might have hoped, I think that is just like a testament to amazing team building, just making Duong work, making Galarian Mortress work, and just taking it home.
00:28:03
Speaker
ah a couple of A couple of anecdotes, after Kazim won, I did see on X that there was a post, ah somebody paired against Kazim in GBL, and he was playing Whimsicott. So like again, not a big shock, you know gets out it gets out of the tournament, you know out of business mode, goes right into play mode, ah climbing you know climbing yellow, climbing leaderboards, and brings back the Whimsies. So I love it when players are just really committed to a Pokemon and they make it work. It's it's definitely like endearing.
00:28:30
Speaker
to see that kind of a kind of maneuver but you spoke a lot about the team composition i want to point out to everyone listening that four out of the six on these teams were actually shared so both tonton and kazim shared shadow for alligator galerie moltres done sparse and clod sire the differences were is that kazim had superior in lieu of Tauntauns Cresselia and Kazim had Dewgong in lieu of Shadow Quagsire for Tauntauns. So those two Pokemon, those two pieces made a big difference. And I think what you said as well is really prescient because building the right supporting cast around a Pokemon is something that's super, super important. And both these trainers did really well. They were very, very similar in their formula. Just Kazim was just a little bit better.
00:29:11
Speaker
And this reminds me of another Pokemon. And this is kind of a controversy right now because I've seen people on on X, they're they're going out, they're doing the 24 hours sometimes a whole 24 hours of daily incense using roar of time. And they're like, oh, I saw three Galarian birds and none of them are shiny in 24 hours of gameplay. I was just like.
00:29:31
Speaker
That is insane. People are going out hunting for this. We had a, we had a double Galarian Moltres Grand Finals in Dortmund, and it just raises the same accessibility questions that a lot of players had. ah For example, when Inadequance was winning with Giratina Origin Form, is this a rerun? Do we have another legendary Pokemon that is inaccessible, that's way too good, is literal hacks and people can't get it and it's not fair. They can't get it. What do you think?
00:29:56
Speaker
Um, I would say that it is actually, it is similar to the, to the European origin situation and that this is a Pokemon that is very difficult to obtain. And it's also really powerful when.
00:30:13
Speaker
played by elite competitors. But I would not, like the same as with Giratina, I would not say that it is just like free wins, that it's so dominant that you're actively at a disadvantage um if you don't have it. And, I'm sorry, also like one thing I want to mention about Galarian Moltres is that other than Giratina Origen, which was um limited to one per person and also um a time-gated research, if I'm not mistaken. You could go out right now and just hunt for Galerian Moltres until you have it. um So it is very difficult to get, but it is not actually dependent on you being there for the initial release because it's still available. It's very rare. It's maybe not always obtainable under 1500 CPU.
00:31:10
Speaker
Um But like we have we have like master balls released. I'm sitting on two unused master balls right now. um So like there's there's ways of of getting this Pokemon. And I don't think it's too unbalanced, especially if you consider what my Antic sets out to achieve by like making some of the design choices when it comes to the just like core gameplay of Pokemon Go, because they do actually
00:31:41
Speaker
want to make it so that um PVP is not taking away from the core idea of getting people to move around in the real world.
00:31:54
Speaker
And I think giving players a carrot to chase, like something that's just really cool to have, like this majestic bird that looks even cooler in its shiny form, and it might be useful in a tournament, but it's not necessary to win a tournament, as we'll see in Lima and John Will.
00:32:12
Speaker
um i I think this is just a positive incentive to go out and play the game a little. And I think that's actually kind of a good thing, because if you don't want to do it that, you don't have to do that. But if you want the Galarian Motors, you might have to do that. So I think it's a fair thing to hide a bird behind, because it's not money, it's not having to be there within a certain timeframe. It's just like, okay, you can ask, ask to people whether they want to, you can go ask people whether they have spare one to trade, or you can just go out there and go on a little walk every day. And so you get one funny, funny. You say that I'm going to send you a, a picture. I made this meme earlier today. So we'll get your, we'll get your instant reaction here. This was me actually earlier today. I did see that. I did see that on X earlier on Twitter.
00:33:04
Speaker
So I, I encountered a Galarian Moltres and like, Oh hype, let's go. I got my bird. And then the CP appears and it's 2195. And I'm like, uh, do I even want to use a master role on this? Like, is this worth it? I mean, I know it's, it's solid in ultra league, but I really want the great league eligible one. And then I saw that after I caught it, I decided to catch it after I caught it and it went to 24 90. And I'm like,
00:33:30
Speaker
Hmm, maybe there's something here. It's it's ranked 2000. So it's about halfway up the IV ladder, which is not great, but it isn't ah an ultra league eligible and it's ranked number 22 overall in the open ultra league. So I definitely will give it a try. You raised an interesting point about gears in origin form only being available in one time research. I think that is still a huge thorn in the side, like a very, a very focused point of of discontent with the players because again, only one research. If you got lucky, you could mirror trade with somebody. I did the mirror trade with a low friendship friend and mine turned out to be over 1500 anyway. So it was like a waste. And I feel like that needs to be remedied. I do think the the carrot metaphor you made earlier about the Galarian birds being something you can go out and get that are accessible to everyone. I think that is true. I don't think it's as bad accessibility wise as people say. And I also saw a nighttime class. You're just traded a random person for one as well.
00:34:27
Speaker
and got a 1499 Galarian Moltres, which is really, really nice. But, uh, one potential solution I think everybody that listens would be on board with is if we could get a season long GBO research paid pass. Yes. I know I said paid, but hear me out.
00:34:45
Speaker
It would give you specific task to complete during each meta, like play 10 ghost Pokemon in and whatever cup. And then at the end of it, you could you could choose a research track and you could say, I want access to this legendary, greatly eligible Pokemon. It could be a guillotine origin form. It could be Cresselia. It could be Galarian Moltres or whatever it might be. You choose a research path and then you unlock that Pokemon at the end.
00:35:08
Speaker
I think that would be totally worth it. People would totally get on board with that and it would give a lot more motivation and it would help to change the meta in real time because then people would be like, okay, instead of just trying to get wins for stardust, I need to actually play this Pokemon in this cup to to do this. So then you'd see an influx of certain types and influx of certain challenges. I think it'd be really, really fun. So Niantic, if you're listening, please do that. Please do that. Yeah.
00:35:35
Speaker
I think that's that's particularly and nice just because it's killing two Galarian boats with one stone in a way. like Sometimes we have these ideas and they benefit the player base, but Niantic might be questioning what they are getting out of it.
00:35:49
Speaker
But I think like making this a paid ticket, like reasonably reasonably priced, it would actually, oh, like if we get a little bit of money for this and um it also helps the players, then both sides have something um coming out of this. And I don't i don't mind a compromise like that. Obviously, it would be ideal if everything was either affordable or free.
00:36:12
Speaker
um But I don't think we we can really go to like, go to the table and bargain for free stuff as much. So just like maybe advocating for something like that. That is like, I don't know, like five bucks for a seasonal research ticket that gives you some rewards and ends up with a legendary Pokemon encounter of choice. Um, I think like oh yeah that will be great. Yeah.
00:36:36
Speaker
it it It'd be honestly, I think it'd be amazing. If you are listening on X, go ahead and leave a comment. Let us know what you think about that idea. But we talked about the Galarian Moltres double grand finals, but you kind of alluded to this. You said in Joinville and Lima, it didn't feel like that was a requirement.
00:36:53
Speaker
So let's talk about those tournaments. Cause we had some really hype tournaments in LATAM. Uh, we can start with joinville and I have some really good news for you as wireless and everyone listening. Uh, I was messaging back and forth with hard Jeff, the, the champion of this event. And he gave me a ton of insights. I've got Pokemon usage. I've got some fun facts about each of the players and I'm ready to get into it because this is really fun. And I love to shine the spotlight on LATAM.
00:37:17
Speaker
I definitely want to hear all of that as that was actually the one event that I was not able to to watch. So please hook me up with all the insights. Of course, of course. So the first note I want to give everybody is that um due to the rampant frame drops on Android, I just saw a tweet from Tho a few minutes ago. He's really, really ah pissed off about that.
00:37:39
Speaker
I was really concerned that the players in joinville would be playing on those old samsung phones and i'm just thinking they weren't good a year ago if you try to play them now it's going to be like unbelievably bad experience for everybody involved good news they actually had iphone 15s at the event oh let's go that's actually so big Yeah. Hard, hard Jeff said it made the biggest difference. It just made everything so much better. They had a great tournament experience and it was due mostly to the technology, right? And you have to have the most updated iPhone to run the game properly. Apparently I don't, I wish it wasn't that way, but right now in its current state, it's almost a necessity for competitive play. So that's the the first thing that was really good. Um, you probably saw this on the team graphics, but we had an araquanid and shadow jump love in grand finals.
00:38:28
Speaker
And I know a couple of weeks ago, we put Jumpluff on the fraud watch a list. We thought it was just a total, you know, total um just flop. It was just not good at all. Well, somehow, some way, Kanan brought it to Joyneville and was able to place second.
00:38:45
Speaker
Grand finals are really fun. It was a bracket reset situation. Hard Jeff coming from the loser side and Kanan on the winner side. So, uh, before I give a recap of that, I've got some really fun, um, factoids here. I guess you could say like quick facts, right?
00:39:01
Speaker
So let's get into this for the grand finals. so Both players most use Pokemon were diggers be and toxapex hard Jeff using diggers be six times and using toxapex seven Canon playing diggers be five times and toxapex six times. Both players essentially played a five versus five matchup because hard Jeff did not bring his quag sire at all in any of the seven games and Canon did not play shadow jump left either. So no shadow jump left in the grand finals.
00:39:28
Speaker
This was Kanan's second career. Maybe still a I just want to like jump up. You're not off the hook just yet. Right, right. And and we're going to, we're going to up this, this fraud conversation once we get to Lima too, because it did not look good in Lima. Um, next point is that, uh, this is Kanan second career grand finals appearance. His first was when he won Sao Paulo in 20, 24 after forcing the bracket reset versus Steiner. So he's been the grand final champion or first mechanism champion as a mechanism believer myself. I want to point that out. Can I put it on the map even before we did in Europe?
00:40:05
Speaker
You're exactly right. Yeah, yeah that that's actually on my list as well. So the same same wavelength. Perfect. Perfect. Um, so it was Canon second grand finals appearance, but he was up against arguably the Titan of PVP. And, and I don't think it's an argument anymore. I think, I think definitely the, the biggest Goliath in Latin PVP, hard Jeff's fourth career grand finals appearance. He was first in Porto Alegre in 2023, first in Curitiba 2024 and first at LAIC just a month later. So.
00:40:34
Speaker
Four times in the grand finals, he's no stranger to it. Jumping over to Harjef's side, fun fact, Harjef actually won Porto Alegre in 2023 with a Shadow Jump Love on his team. I did not realize that at the at the time, but it's so serendipitous that he won two years ago with Shadow Jump Love, and then he's facing one in the grand finals. Harjef has won three regionals and one IC in his three-year career with 20 unique Pokémon. He used Metachamp three times because we did have a very long Metachamp era.
00:41:04
Speaker
And, uh, this is actually really interesting as well. This tournament was exactly one year after hard Jeff's 100% perfect sweeping curativa the same weekend in September. He won another regional in Brazil. So basically, basically what we're seeing is that, um, the first champion of the NA season is the same. The first champion of the latter season is the same, but that fraud in Europe just let everybody down again. Is that what you're saying?
00:41:33
Speaker
Oh, yes, exactly. You're picking up what I'm putting down. No, I'm just kidding. ah But, uh, hard Jeff has just been so, so impressive. Uh, he's won tournaments in Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Sao Paulo, and Joinville. Out of the all the Brazilian cities where they held regional championships, he's not won in two of them.
00:41:51
Speaker
Natal and Goyaña. So he's won in four out of six cities in Brazil, and he's trying to complete his Brazilian infinity gauntlet by winning in the next two cities. So we're going to see. I actually asked him about this as well. He said that some of his friends call him the king of the South because every tournament he's won is in a Southern city of Brazil. He says he always opens the season with a Southern city tournament win. And I asked him how long until he's the king of Brazil. He said, I'm working on it.
00:42:18
Speaker
So hard Jeff, definitely, definitely very humble and fun to be around. Uh, some quick con on facts. I only have three con on knocked hard Jeff to the, loop to the losers bracket in group B finals after beating him two to one hard Jeff and can I would end up playing 10 games against each other being the three in day one and then seven in the grand finals in day two.
00:42:38
Speaker
After falling to the loser's bracket, Harjef had to beat Loco Ferras, Darkness Kiyu, Marto Galve, Ellen Diaz Steiner, and Copper Kidd, which he 3-0'd in the loser's finals. So he had a really tough run to get back to the grand finals. And then last year in Sao Paulo, Kanan played Steiner, a total of 13 games, beating him 3-2 in the winner's finals, losing to Steiner 1-3 in grand finals, and then winning the bracket reset 3-1.
00:43:04
Speaker
to win the tournament. So Kanan definitely can grind out these competitions. Now I've talked earlier about how we we basically played a five versus five in the grand finals. The araquanid was a huge, huge issue for hard Jeff. Kanan ended up bringing in it up four times and it was tough for hard Jeff to bring it to bring it down each time.
00:43:25
Speaker
Kanan brought it in game one into a dugong lead, which is really nice lead for Araquanid. Brought it game two into a Diggersby lead, which when you have Fire Punch, that kind of equalizes the matchup there. ah Game four, which is the game, the first game of the of the reset, he actually had it in the back, which I think it lined up against Cresselia, but Hard Jeff was still able to win. And he brought it again in game five, which is actually game two of the bracket reset.
00:43:50
Speaker
Uh, again in the back, but both trainers relied heavily on toxapex diggers be, I think that's a theme that we're going to see a lot in latin, not only in joinville, but also in Lima. And, uh, yeah, uh, Iraq, when it in the grand finals, toxapex, diggers be no cloud sire to be seen as far as I can tell the cloud sire finished third overall, but it was all diggers, be a rack, uh, diggers be toxapex core.
00:44:15
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like that's the two big cores that are emerging right now. So, Feraligatr Klotzer is like, okay, top two PVPoke, the most obvious core that there was at the start of the season. But Toxapex Digaspie feels like a little bit of the anti-metacore. Toxapex is just so reliable in sponging up Feraligatr damage especially.
00:44:40
Speaker
um because it resists the charge attacks that are currently most favored on for alligator. And even bulky neutral mounts typically get too shot by a hydro cannon. So having something that can just really eat all the energy makes toxapex valuable, as well as just scaring away Pokemon like Azumarill and overall being a really bulky neutral threat. And Digisphere is actually one of the few mounts like I talked about earlier when um I played against Yankers in Dopmon that I felt so comfortable just safe swapping my Cloud Sire when I was a shield up, because to shield up, Cloud Sire was beating everything. Digsp is one of the few Pokemon that um even when Cloud Sire is a shield up, Cloud Sire is not winning that matchup. yeah So I think like this this core, having such good utility into these two top threads,
00:45:35
Speaker
um while also being made up of two incredibly bulky, incredibly versatile Pokémon, especially Digasphere's versatile Toxopax, maybe a little bit more lopsided in some of the matchups. But yeah, i think I think this is the core that's here to stay. um and Yeah, we've actually been even seeing players up for both of those scores on their same team. Darkness Q, really impressive loser bracket run of their own right.
00:46:03
Speaker
I'm only stopped by Rajev, but actually bringing both toxic effects to Gatsby core and shadow for alligator cloud set core to finish top eight. So.
00:46:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's just like, um, it's like almost like choosing teams. Are you like mystic? Are you, are you a team valor? And now we just need to know what the team instinct code would be. Um, yeah, this is, this is how the meta looks right now. And that's, um, ah apparently more, um, leaning towards toxicistic SP right now.
00:46:36
Speaker
Um, I think it's, it's so fun as well because it is, at you excuse me. If you round out darkness cues team, he does have the art to backs and pangoro as his other two. In addition to the two really incredible cores you mentioned, it almost feels like, like you said, kind of choose your team, almost like pick your poison. Like, do you want to deal with shadow for alligator, Claude sire art to back safe swap?
00:46:57
Speaker
or do you want to deal with pangoro lead throwing these close combats to take your shields and then safe swapping digrisy and just pivoting out and closing with the bulky tox specs so much versatility built into that team and i feel like it i guess yours like irrespective of the tournaments one thing that pokemon go i think really needs is an explanation of how these teams work what favorable matchups there are, how to actually read teams in a show six format. Like, I don't know if anyone has made content on that, but you and I can talk about it because we have so much experience playing in the format. We've watched so many battles. We're so familiar with it, competed a few times here and there. But a lot of trainers who are watching this are like, OK, there's six random Pokemon here. Like, why is this special? Why is it unique that Darkness Q has Gator, Cloudsire Core and Talkspix, Diggersby Core, and how does he round that out on his team?
00:47:48
Speaker
I feel like a lot of new players just don't get that. And that's maybe something that needs to be explored in the future. So I don't know. maybe Maybe we can talk about that after the show, but that's just something that's been on my mind a lot lately. Okay. So, so just a little bit of a call out to top players out there. If you just have a tournament round and and tournament run that you are proud of.
00:48:09
Speaker
Um, feel free to maybe if you're, if you're comfortable sharing your strategies to offer a little write up on Twitter, because I always love to read these whenever somebody does that. I know that Jacobovich did that after original championship win. I also know that Anhoff did like little.
00:48:25
Speaker
graphic of how the course intertwine on on her teams. So whenever like a competitor really shares their secrets and gives some explanation on how their teams function, um I think that's always a great read. And if anybody wants to give some insights, I would be so down for that.
00:48:43
Speaker
Absolutely. I second that as well. It's always great to hear from the greats themselves. And I really appreciate the ladder that you mentioned, Anna's graphic, I thought was really, really nice. And she's just so smart and definitely very gifted when it comes to team building and Jokobrovich as well, one of the goats, right? Just absolutely unstoppable player. So.
00:49:01
Speaker
Yeah, please, please give us your, your insights on how to build teams. Cause we desperately need it as a community, especially when you're trying to teach new players, they're like, wait, but why do you have Chris Kelly on your team? It doesn't heartbeat anything. And then you can talk about the safe swap potential, the water type coverage potential. Like you said earlier with Dortmund, uh, the not getting run over by dugong strategy is a great, great reason to bring Chris Hellia. So.
00:49:24
Speaker
speaking speaking of not getting run over by dugong look who won the tournament again it's dugong it's right there this is someag justine this is something i've talked about with with math magic actually um which pokemon like outperform expectations and how do you measure it so like you said you might only have like 15% dugong usage in the entire tournament, you know, all 100 competitors, whatever it might be. But then you see four dugongs in the top four, or an example of joinville looks like there were two dugongs in top four. And you say, wow, they're only 15% to start. It doesn't seem like a very good Pokemon, but it really excels. And this conversation came up last year as well. I forget which tournament it was, but the annihilate dugong core was so, so powerful. And people were looking at dugong back then as well.
00:50:13
Speaker
So maybe there is something there that it has the ability to come back season after season with new core partners, but still be successful and achieve at a high level. Yeah. Also like one last thing that I want to point out that the second two gone is actually on an identical team. And it's again, Rajiv and Steiner who like two good friends, bringing the same team, both taking home a medal. Like I love to see it.
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah, I love those guys. theyre They were definitely the beating heart of NAIC last year and I can't wait to see where their rivalry takes them. um I think we can go ahead and bounce over to Lima though, unless you have any more thoughts on Joinville. I would love to discuss Lima because that was a really interesting tournament as well.
00:50:56
Speaker
All right, Lima, a very, very dominant grand finals, but there are actually some pretty impressive player cameos as like, as I want to call them, because not only do we have RCS Aurelius making his way from EU to LATAM to compete, which is really hype finishing 10th overall. We also had Javier. And if you remember Javier was just in Dortmund a weekend prior and correct me if I'm wrong, we might need to to go and fact check this, but if I'm not mistaken, Javier might actually be the first player in the world to go to two different regions and top-cut both tournaments in back-to-back weekends. That could be true. i'm I'm trying to think of other examples, but... Yeah.
00:51:41
Speaker
Yeah, like a lot of a lot of other cameos from like Europeans in North America or like North Americans in, I don't know, what did nighttime pleasure do before as Liverpool win? But there was probably not a tournament just ahead of like just before Liverpool. So yeah, I think if we're if we're talking like this exact timeframe,
00:52:00
Speaker
um Oh, like one example is, um, Junberg runner up at UIC winning Orlando with a shadow pigeon within one week, I think. was oh I don't know. It was, it was definitely back to back tournaments. I think it was even one week. Yeah, I'm checking it right now. So, so as I, as I checked this, um I'm wondering what your insights were regarding the FEMA because we did get a stream for that. i'm I'm really grateful we got the stream and it was definitely a lot of fun.
00:52:31
Speaker
Yeah, so I think like first of all, before we talk about like grand finals, maybe even losers' finals ahead of that, because I watched that too, and that was really exciting.
00:52:42
Speaker
um Is I want to shout out decent and I think what is shared fifth place? Who brought a shadow or serene like you don't even look at the Obama snow Which is wild enough in its own right because nobody has been bringing that this season so far But shadow or serene actually top-cutting. Um, I wonder whether it was good or whether it was just there but I know that I have played against shadow or serene in practice before and shadow Swift actually is no joke like and Swift doesn't move. like Not a lot of stuff runs it still. um But coming off a shadow boosted Ursaring, it does hurt. And this thing has a lot of, like against low fast move pressure Pokemon, it typically just wins the twos because it outspams.
00:53:30
Speaker
um So definitely a fun pick um going really far. A lot of Malamar again, like out of the top eight, I think I'm seeing six Malamar so far. So another really strong showing maybe um also owed to the fact that um a lot of a lot of latin players at least in join will prove that um tuxpecs digespy was the name of the game and malamar is one of the better corebreakers if you have the right IV spread on your malamar um so yeah definitely one of the pokemon that did come out to play and meet for some
00:54:09
Speaker
some really exciting battles. And I don't have play-by-play analysis, um but I did start watching day two, um starting off with the Memi vs. Marto losers finals. who And good I feel like somebody called Memi like the Latin American like Chomahawk, Caleb type of character, who instead of finishing second, always finishes third. And there might be some truth to that, but yeah, like I was fortunate enough to meet Memi during ah Worlds in Honolulu.
00:54:48
Speaker
and He's just like, he's got a little bit of a of a controversial upbringing with the community because there was like this whole stream sniping controversy, but it doesn't it doesn't need to snipe anymore. I don't know whether he needed to do it that back in the day. I know he did anyway. I've just had fun with it, honestly. But these days, he's just like one of the most consistent top battlers of the Latham region.
00:55:19
Speaker
and as the highest place in Shaleian, bringing a Gudra to the party, which I thought is really interesting because um we don't really see a lot of hard answers to to Gudra um in this matter as much. um Because even the Azumarill, it gets really close in the two-shield scenario. um Even a Cresselia, where you would think that a Munda is really just There's a number on Gudra and you have no shot there. It still needs two moves to knock you out. You just barely survived that and ah in a health range where a psycho cutting you down is a real is a real challenge. So Gudra actually a Dragon type with a lot of play into its supposed counters, but unfortunately facing Marto's non-shadow Alolan Sandslash.
00:56:12
Speaker
ah yeah um So that Pokemon, to me, was a little bit of the star of the show, both in the Loser's Finals and especially in the Grand Finals.
00:56:23
Speaker
um because like A lot of sand stash is a really polarizing Pokemon, but if you don't have a heart check to it, it can just core break so many cores. like If you look at Digaspy Toxapex, obviously a fire punch does a lot, but the non-shadow can even tank a double super effective fire punch.
00:56:45
Speaker
and Toxypax double the resisted damage or Brine. Like you really don't have a lot of options there. So definitely like a lot of players chose Malamar as their core breaker for that Digger Speed Toxypax score. Malto went another way like maybe took a page out of Vadaj's book just removed the the these shadows and Um, just opted for a little bit less purple, a little bit more bulk and brought out the, brought out the alone and said slash powder is snowing its way through a team that adds so many targets because, um, I think like you haven't even mentioned the name of the run up yet.
00:57:28
Speaker
um Sebas Malito, to me, a person that I didn't know from too many events, but I think that is largely down to the availability um of Play Pokemon Regionals in Peru, um because I did look up their Dracovis profile and they're actually just like,
00:57:48
Speaker
um one of One of the leaderboarders that are probably expected to go far in the tournament like that, and they did it with a team composition of Toxapex, not amazing into it, Alone in Sandslash, Digispy, not as great into Alone in Sandslash as you'd want it to be, Shadow Jumpluff, Fraud, a little Quicksire,
00:58:11
Speaker
Probably one of the breakout stars of the weekend, if we're being honest, because that's also the U.S.P. Talkspec scorebreaker, and it's been doing really well across the board. Malamar, which is probably one of the better answers to a long unsan slash, and then the Shadow Drapion, which just feints to one drill run, essentially. Drill run and a little bit of chip.
00:58:30
Speaker
So you essentially have four targets and two Pokemon that you don't really want to see, but that are by no means unplayable if you have your A-slash in the right position. So, um yeah, that was that was a threat that Matu could definitely wield really effectively against the the team composition of Sebastian Malito. And at some point, I think Sebastian really figured out that he has to rely on his jump love. He has to rely on his shadow quack sire because outside of A slash and um maybe the toxapex that was
00:59:11
Speaker
Available tomato, but not the most safe Pokemon. Jumpluff actually had quite a few good matchups. The Digispy, the Crystalia is actually quite good, and the Azumarill as well. um So yeah, that core was something that might have been the key to victory, but not with the alignment that Sebastian later got in most of the games, because A-slash found its targets.
00:59:34
Speaker
Yeah. So looking back at the grand finals, I definitely felt like the sand slash, like you said, wielded so much power in that matchup. It had four of so of the six Pokemon in a, had a positive matchup against. And I feel like 70% of the grand finals was great team composition. 20% was Marta making incredible lead calls. And then 10% is just like tying the ball up nicely with some in absolutely insane awareness plays. Um, taking a look back at the grand finals here in game number one, Marto led a zoom roll into Malamar greatly situation. Uh, Sebastian Lee tow went to shadow Drapian and he was met by diggers be. So again, Marto just kind of shutting down the lead and the swap, uh, game number two, he led a zoom roll to Malamar. Again, it played out very similar to game number one in that we saw the Drapian, then we saw the diggers be.
01:00:24
Speaker
Even though in game number two, Sebastian Lito brought Shadow Quagsire for the Alolan Sandslash ah for Marto, he was still unable to win that game. So ah game number three, this was actually the one I wanted to highlight the most. This is game number three, the grand finals. Marto leads Diggersby into Shadow Drapian, right? After seeing Malamar two games in a row, he goes for for Diggersby. Great lead. ah Doesn't have ah a real answer to the Shadow Quagsire pivot, but in the final moments of the game,
01:00:52
Speaker
Sevastimilito had an Aqua Tail stored on Drapion. He takes the final shield from Marto's Digger's Bee, which is his last Pokémon, if I remember right. Maybe he had Chrisselia very weak in the back, but basically his last Pokémon takes the final shield from from Digger's Bee and then switches in the Drapion. And Marto has the awareness, the precise play to not throw a quick attack. He waits anticipates the switch in, throws the fire punch during the one turn swap that the dropping comes in, negating the Aqua tail. And he actually like throws the move when he realizes he's landed it, he looks up at at the crowd and then looks back to his phone because he knows that that was the shutdown play that he needed. And and once you have that 70 percent team composition advantage, the 20 percent, you know, calling the right leads and then the 10 percent of just being able to anticipate something like that, you're just unstoppable. And I feel like
01:01:46
Speaker
He won that game. Number three, uh, forced the bracket reset. He wants, he won games. Number, uh, one and two, which were sand slash lead into jump, bluff game, one of the bracket reset, which is very nice. And then a zoomer lead into drafty and gain number two. So that's my lead to fought back with the first positive lead he got. In my opinion, this entire grand finals, when he finally led shadow quag sire into lowland sand slash, he was able to win that game. But in the end, Marto came back and gained number four of the reset.
01:02:14
Speaker
Let's sand slash into jump bluff again and was able to win game number four. But I mean, when you're making those kinds of plays where you're so aware, when you time a half second switch and throw a fire punch and have the discipline not to throw the quick attack there. I mean, it's really hard to beat a player like that.
01:02:33
Speaker
Mathieu also just has been on fire recently. like This guy came third at the Worlds with a whimsy card, then he went on to Top Card Joinville, and then just a week after, basically, he went on to to win his like second tournament ever. And even like the the latter half of his most recent season, like He did super well at both Mexico City events. I think he came second in one of them. um like He placed third in Goyanya. There have been just so many so many top results that Marto is definitely, like, if, OK. He probably doesn't have as much competition as Rajiv in terms of, like, oh, King of Brazil. But he's definitely the Argentinian king that we have within the community.
01:03:24
Speaker
Um, and yeah, also just somebody who have has been doing it for so long already, like Matu was a name that everybody knew years before, um, play Pokemon even started hosting their own go tournaments. So yeah, like just.
01:03:42
Speaker
A real nice mix of longevity and just like a real high ceiling when it comes to the results that he achieved. So um definitely no shame in losing a grand finals tomato, especially when he has a pick like that alone in Sandslash that just seemed so free into it like two-thirds of Sebastian's team.
01:04:05
Speaker
No, absolutely. And, and Marto actually top cut in Joinville just a weekend prior to Lima. And I want to talk about his, his team composition and how things changed because in Joinville, he actually brought shadow Typhlosion, Digger's Bee, Cresselia, Shadow Drapian, Dugong, and Azumarill.
01:04:21
Speaker
Which is, you know, pretty fun team. I think the shadow type Flosian, a lot of people were very high on it going into Baltimore, but it's kind of fallen off. When he went to Lima the following weekend, he kept three of those pieces. So he kept a diggers, be Chris Elliott and a zoom roll, but he made three switches as well. In lieu of shadow type Flosian, he brought in the toxapex, another solid anti-grass answer. Very oppressive. Instead of shadow. Drapian, he brought done sparse. And then instead of do go on, he switched to a lowland sand slash. So kind of opted for a double fighting weakness in Dunsparce of Old and Sandslash, but he shorted up with the Toxapex pivot, which I think really kind of covered any kind of Pangoro shenanigans or Shadow Machamp, you know, if we ever see it. But ah but yeah, the this the subtle switch in team composition, taking the pieces that he knows are successful and then pivoting around and actually bringing other really powerful Pokemon and making a very balanced team the whole time.
01:05:17
Speaker
Definitely a great adjustment by him and it paid off. You won a tournament with it. Yeah. And yeah, I think especially, it's especially interesting to me that we had a shadow sensor, shadow alone and sensor window tournament and a non shadow. I wonder whether that will be because it's not really the question whether you are opting for powders, no shadow clo anymore. Like we had this discussion in the past.
01:05:42
Speaker
and Now it's just, okay, do you want this non-shader one that lives in earthquake from a cloud sire, that with the right A-Me combination even has wind conditions against unspars? Or do you really want to double down on its sweeping potential, where if you have it in a positive matchup, you can just follow up a lot of energy and unleash it on whatever comes in to maybe gain and and gain an advantage that way?
01:06:04
Speaker
so Yeah, I think a lot of it sounds like it's sort of the Pokemon that it feels so unsafe, but it has gotten a lot safer now that fighters are spies rather than a default slot and on every team of six. So I was like, I was personally just like hoping in Dortmund that I maybe.
01:06:28
Speaker
don't really have to deal with a lot of sensor shenanigans and even like, maybe like, Oh, I kind of have to adapt my team this way. I can't really drop talent flame, even though I thought town flame didn't look great into the meta, but what if there is an alone in sensors? And I think you can definitely, you can definitely, um, just like if you, if you have that on your team, at least one third of players will not be prepared for it. And that's always a huge plus.
01:06:52
Speaker
Yeah, agreed. and And not to, you know, pat myself on the back or anything, but I think when we first started this season and we first started talking about the max out meta, I said, you know, ice looks pretty good here. I think, uh, I think sand slash, I think do Gong, maybe the occasional Obama snow, like we saw D sink to playing in, uh, in Lima, maybe those Pokemon do have some play. And, uh, I do think ISIS is doing pretty well.
01:07:17
Speaker
so Something interesting as well, we've talked a lot about Feraligatr and Klotzire Core. the If you look at the top four from both Joinville and Lima, three out of the top four in both of those tournaments had Toxapex Diggers V Core. I think if if any core is is becoming synonymous with the region right now, it's LATAM with Toxapex Diggers V, which is also a bit poetic.
01:07:40
Speaker
you you know, tossing back to, uh, to when JW Naldo won LAIC with Toxapex back before people even thought it was going to be a really good Pokemon. You know, we knew it was an Azu counter, but he really made it shine and seeing it return a research here in LATAM is really cool. Yeah. I wonder what the, like I'm, I'm really looking forward to watching both Louisville and Lille, the same regional, just one hasn't wavy and one doesn't. Um,
01:08:08
Speaker
i weekend I just really, I can really see people just take the best best practices off Latin and just incorporate a little more toxapex digaspine to speed into their own team building. Like, especially, like back in the day, um, if you remember, um, Logan Rocket was actually known for Cresselia digaspi core.
01:08:30
Speaker
And now, basically, Macho did bring that to win the tournament, but everybody's still just talking about DigaSpyToxapex's core, because you only see those two guys together. But I think this triple core of Cresselia, DigaSpyToxapex, all a really high stat product, all really flexible, all really good calls for the current meta. I think that is like something that we might see more often, where those three anchor a team.
01:08:58
Speaker
And then you can choose um how to cover for something like a Talonflame that might be a little bit difficult for both Cresselia and Digaspie, and it gets to tools versus Toxapex in the zeroes. and um just like filling in the gaps and yeah um yeah I think this is like a good basis that people will like basically build their teams upon and I'm excited to see what else um people will come up with to just really
01:09:30
Speaker
gain an advantage because it really feels like a season of, okay, I've liked this three or four Pokemon that are really, really solid and reliable. And then I go crazy with the last two. and let's see how crazy or crazy but go i I think people can correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe you know this, but I feel like the total HP product of toxapex, diggers be Chris Elliott has to be pushing like 400 or 500. It's got to be an insane amount of HP. And that's really hard to like cut through all of that.
01:09:59
Speaker
if it Interestingly enough, this is a little bit of a fun fact. Toxapex barely has any HP. Toxapex board comes almost completely from its defense stat. So if you gain a break like ah breakprone excuse me on Toxapex, that actually flips the matchup substantially because it only has so much HP to deal with.
01:10:22
Speaker
um interesting So yeah, this is why some of the Malamars you may encounter in one of these tournaments might not be the ranked one. This is all I have to say on that matter. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, we'll let that one simmer. We'll let, uh, we'll let, we'll let people think about that one. Maybe they should look at their Malamar spreads a little more closely, but I think it's time for a championship points update because you did mention that we do have Louisville and Lille coming up very, very soon. Louisville is going to be October 12th through 13th. And then Lille over in France will be October 19th and 20th. So back to back L tournament weekends.
01:10:58
Speaker
I want to remind everybody as well, we used to do this, we're bringing it back. We've got 247 days until June 13th. As you know, June 13th is NAIC 2025. That is the cutoff for championship points for Worlds in Anaheim. So if you're going to compete your local tournaments, if you're going to go to a regional, we're going to continue this countdown every single episode so you know where you stand in the season as a whole.
01:11:25
Speaker
Uh, but that being said, so I, we can go one of two directions here. We can talk about in-game events, or we can talk about the overall health of the championship series. Cause this is something that a lot of players have been thinking about. They're wondering how participation numbers are looking. Baltimore looked really good to start the season. We had 180 signup. I think after no shows, we had like 160, which is very encouraging, but things have not been as encouraging for the other tournaments. For example, Dortmund only had 103.
01:11:53
Speaker
Join Bill was 70 and Lima just had 60. So I'm starting to think that maybe we're not going in the right direction. What do you think? um So I think I sparked this conversation a little bit by pointing out the slight regression in terms of drop-down numbers because from 104 to 103, and you would think that this is like, oh, this is basically even how is that really bad? But you have to look at like if you were to map it out on a graph,
01:12:23
Speaker
Then you would see a steep increase from the Bohom tournament. I mentioned earlier Bohom is just 15 minutes away from Dortmund, so it's essentially the same city. and Back in the day that only had I think around 60 players competing in the 2023 season.
01:12:41
Speaker
um And then in the 2024 season, Dropmon upped that by like another 40 players, essentially. So what you would expect, like even if the growth was slowing down, um with this being the first tournament in a new meta and after a huge move shakeup, you would expect there to be a little bit hype and maybe just a little bit of continued growth, because that's how um the tournament, like the championship series has behaved in the past.
01:13:11
Speaker
But instead you have this little this little downturn, you have this um going from 104 to 103. and i'm ah just like this This tournament series actually means a lot to me because not only do I really enjoy competing in it, it also gives me a vehicle to um meet up with all the friends I met through this game over the last years.
01:13:35
Speaker
um And I would love for that to continue to be the case, and for that to be the case, um tournaments will have to be um part of like go treatmentnaments well they have to be part of the official circuit.
01:13:49
Speaker
um And I know that TPCI will be looking at the numbers, and um they might make their decisions accordingly. So it was a little dis discussion like and wasn some bit concerning for me to look at the number actually decreasing. And then looking at signups for KATANSK, for example, which um Also currently it's not at the level that it was um the year before and also people who have signed up for a little saying that that might be a little more like a little more on the smaller side comparatively and there's obviously still some time to go.
01:14:26
Speaker
um But yeah, i was I was wondering whether there are reasons for that that are specific to Europe or whether it's just like the wrong time of the year for some people. um and Yeah, it's just a little bit of a mystery because I don't really know what the exact reason for the end of growth in terms of play Pokemon competition is, and whether it's actually a trend or just an outlier. and I was i was like actually setting up a Twitter poll and by far and away the most important reason given um was that people are just not really comfortable
01:15:11
Speaker
going out to compete or investing time in competing and preparing for tournaments by virtue of the um subpar game state, especially on Android devices. yes And um I would just really hope for that to change because I love hanging out with the community and I want this game to succeed. And yeah, I don't know whether there are changes coming, whether there are fixes in the making, but Um, a lot of like a huge chunk of the player base just feels a little too discouraged to attend right now. And yeah, I don't, I don't really, I don't really love that personally. So, so I think we have a few things working against us. I think the first is game state.
01:15:57
Speaker
Um, I think John Kuss made a post about this as well. He said that there was a lot of hype from the new season. People were really excited for all the, the meta rebalances, all the changes and and content was doing really well. But then after just a few weeks, because of the game state interest in his videos, interest in go battle league in general, just started to to take a nose dive.
01:16:17
Speaker
because people were really excited to play, you know, all I get to use this new Pokemon, you know, cloud sires really strong. Let me bring it to GBL. Malamar has side wave. Let me let me play that. But then you get into a game and you're skipping and you're losing frames and you don't know your opponent's counts. And it's like really, really frustrating, especially for Android players. And I feel like.
01:16:37
Speaker
No, this just this is a signal, right, that no matter what Niantic does in order to update the game in terms of new move sets, adjustments, balances, new cups, whatever it might be, that that all is secondary. I think the primary thing is is a consistent and reliable game state. That's what people really, really want, because that means that it's fair, it's equitable, no matter what side of the world you're on. We had this discussion like two years ago with, uh, sneaks and denials, how a lot of trainers in LATAM were basically getting shafted because they were missing moves. And that all got patched and that was a huge step forward. I think that the, the sneak denial patch was massive, but still the one turn lag on iPhone, um, the fast move mirroring that just recently got resolved. That was a nice step forward. Uh, but the frame drops on Android are like the number one fire. I think Niantic needs to put out.
01:17:27
Speaker
The second thing that's working against us, ah in my opinion, is the double elimination format because a lot of people, I've but i've talked to a ton of friends over the past few weeks. I had a Twitter poll as well. I said, would you prefer Swiss or double a limb? And 26% of my results were Swiss. The other 74% said, please, or excuse me, I got that backwards. 26% were double elimination. And the other 74% said, please give us Swiss. Please give us Swiss format.
01:17:55
Speaker
And I think it's, it allows the players to play more. Uh, I think that people can go and they feel like they, they won't play four games all weekend long after they booked a ah hotel and paid for a flight and, you you know, paid for an Uber to get to the venue or rented a car or whatever. I mean, seriously in the U S these events are like thousand dollar weekends for people and you don't want to spend a thousand bucks and play for 12 minutes.
01:18:19
Speaker
It just, it doesn't feel like a good trade. So I think those two things are are really standing in the way. ah One thing I wanted to to raise to you as wireless is that I actually got a couple of DMs about your your tweet and people were saying that you're being dramatic and that going from 104 to 103 or just a one or two person change was not that big of a deal.
01:18:40
Speaker
And I don't think that you are being dramatic, but the quote, the famous quote comes to mind, if you're not growing, you're dying. And I feel like a lot of a lot of the the analysis that needs to be done is like a year over year trend, where you look at tournaments based on the month, based on the weekend, based on the region. And you say, are we going up? Are we going down? What are player numbers like? And like you said, TPCI will make decisions. ah We've seen games come and go from the circuit before, like Pokken.
01:19:09
Speaker
Uh, and they'll make decisions and they'll say is go growing enough in order to warrant further investment. And that's the question that they have to ask. So I agree with you. I mean, for me, you know, this, this whole thing is like job security.
Concerns Over Game Performance
01:19:21
Speaker
I think, uh, I would love for this to continue for many, many years, but, um, there are some things sitting in our way and I don't, I don't really blame the players that much, if that makes sense.
01:19:31
Speaker
because I've talked with several streamers, several friends who say if they went to a tournament and there was one turn lag and they lost a game, they would just snap the stream phone on stage. And I've heard people say that, right? And i I totally get it. If you're going to spend a thousand bucks, take off of work, whatever you need to do to get to a tournament, you don't want to have a bad experience. So I don't know. I dumped a lot of things. I'm curious what caught your ear.
01:19:54
Speaker
So like one thing I want to say is that, so when people um come to me and tell me that, oh, like I know that I could be competing, but I don't really want to because of the state of the game, um I think that is a reasonable statement to make in one of two ways, but not necessarily in the second one. If you are saying that um because you personally play maybe on an Android device or on an older iPhone that might not be fully functional in the way that you would need it to be for the game to work as intended, um then I can definitely see why you would be anxious to just like throw your weight behind a competitive experience like that.
01:20:49
Speaker
um Just because how are you going to practice when every time you try to PvP, um like the outcome of the game is partly just in the hands of frame drops, because you can't really... like This is a game that is based on turns that are half a second. And if if you ah have these frame drops, sometimes a second and a half pass and you needed to make a decision that you now can't make anymore. And at that point, it's just like something that you can play casually on the side, but without many expectations. And I see why that would discourage people from keeping sharp and um really being invested in the competitive set of things. um One thing that I, as a frequent competitor, would want to stress is that the actual gameplay experience at these events
01:21:44
Speaker
is typically far above the average experience that you can expect just playing this game because they are playing on iPhones, they are playing on flagship flagship devices. And um so my last negative experience with um regards to game state and just lag issues was during the Liverpool Regional where I had a loss on stage that was basically entirely down to lag and I was mulling hard about that.
Judging and Event Experience
01:22:16
Speaker
um But I think those events are and like in in those cases it's largely down to the venue and you never know what you're signing up for when it comes to the venue but I think there is a solid 80% chance of the game just
01:22:35
Speaker
what working as intended and if it doesn't work as intended but you are a player who feels um both confident in your judgment when it comes to um whether that game had game deciding a leg or not.
01:22:51
Speaker
and also confident enough to call over a judge to have a look at that, then you don't have to be afraid of anything. um Just because um you can always escalate it to the head judge if you're not really happy with the decision that was made by your floor judge. And there's always competent people and people that really only want the best for for you and that understand the game um in a way that makes it so they can make these right decisions, um that you don't really need to be fearful of losing a tournament run to lack like that. um It's obviously different when you're like on stage and there's pressure and you don't really want to make a scene. I've been there. I know it's not easy, but
01:23:41
Speaker
almost all of my experiences, and I have made a lot of play Pokemon experiences, have been thoroughly positive even from the gameplay side. I would encourage people to at least give it a try if their their biggest concern is um being afraid of just getting knocked out of the tournament. Again, a double elimination tournament, which is not as um favorable for players who just want to compete a lot as the Swiss tournament would be um by game state issues.
Game Issues and Growth Potential
01:24:18
Speaker
and Another thing that I want to address is the accusation that I might be overly dramatic when it comes to um the state of um the competitive circuit.
01:24:30
Speaker
Yes, I've been dramatic about that. Yeah, i would't I would not disagree with that. I have been sounding the alarms early because if we are sounding the alarms too late, um we might miss out on a certain timeframe where there could be something done about this, where awareness could be raised and people could work towards a solution that actually makes the number go up again.
01:24:54
Speaker
Because I do agree, like 104 to 103 is, it's not a big change, but if you look at it as, okay, like the last time we had an increase of 40 and now we have a decrease of one, that's basically just like.
01:25:08
Speaker
the The expectation was another plus 40, right? right he was So yeah, actually not minus one, but minus 41 from what would be expected. So yeah, i just I just really hope for growth and hope to contribute to growth in whatever way possible for me. And maybe that's just like making a stink on Twitter. ah that's and And so be it.
01:25:30
Speaker
So I think there's one kind of logical fallacy that that ah people are running into from time to time. And it's on both sides, the side that believes that we are in trouble, that we're struggling. And then the other side who says, ah, chill out, it's going to be fine. um And that is comparing go to the other games.
01:25:48
Speaker
to VGC and TCG in particular ah because VG has over 10 years of competitive play and Pokemon GO is just entering its third year and you look at TCG they've been going even longer if I'm not mistaken at the first ever Pokemon world championship it was just the trading card game So they are the OGs. They've got, you know, pushing two decades of competitive, uh, history beneath them. And I think that these things do take a lot of time to grow, to expand, uh, to gain interest. And you have creators, I really admire both Wolfie and Cybertron because they were able to come into Pokemon VGC and make really detailed competitive videos and really blow up the competitive side of those, uh, of that game, right? of Of that format, I should say.
01:26:34
Speaker
And, um, really encourage people to play. So what, what a lot of people are doing is they're comparing the go numbers and they're saying, okay, you know, we we jumped up by 40. We need growth. You know, this looks great. If we can, if we can get 40 more next year, that's awesome. In three or four years, we'll be pushing 256 at every tournament.
01:26:51
Speaker
That's a projection we
Competitive Scene Development
01:26:52
Speaker
make, right? But then you look at the other games and TCG and VGC players, they can't even sign up fast enough until all the spots are sold out. Like they literally will try to buy a ticket to compete and they can't get it because somebody already bought it. That's how how how furious and how fast theyre they're able to sell out these tournaments. And people are saying, well, those two those two titles are selling out faster than they can produce seats in in the venue.
01:27:18
Speaker
and Go has a cap of 256, but we can't even get anywhere close to that. So what's going on here? you know Is there a problem? is Is it a different format? But I think one one kind of shining light here that we need to keep in mind is that ah I've seen various non-official, I want to stress non-official analysis of the monthly and yearly Pokemon Go player accounts. And if we even got a fraction of a percent,
01:27:44
Speaker
of the overall Pokemon Go player counts to come into and actually compete at these tournaments, so we would be blowing the other games out of the water because our monthly players, our our annual players, the numbers are staggering. They're actually massive. And I think that's one of the things that TPCI has their eye on. They're aware of that. They work closely with Niantic and they're looking at that. They're saying, well, the potential is there. It's not like we're just scraping for crumbs and this is the best it's going to get. If we even brought in a fraction of 1%,
01:28:13
Speaker
we would be selling out just as fast as the other games. And I think the real challenge is figuring out how to do that and how to support it at a tournament where we don't have big you know lag issues. We don't have bugs on stream where everything goes smoothly. Because if we can if we can iron out the tournament experience, then I think we can bring in the masses and then there's ah there's a bright future ahead.
01:28:35
Speaker
I also wonder how we can maybe achieve a little bit of just like cross game appeal the way that VGC and the TCG have been able to to do it with Pokemon Go because I know of a lot of Pokemon Go players who have given the TCG or VGC a try. And obviously it's like those games are bigger, those games are probably more easy to get into because there's more content and especially if the TCG is really well supported when it comes to um getting beginners into the game. um And yeah, I feel like and feel like a lot of this is like we we can't really expect Pokemon to do this for us because even though they can do it with the TCG, um they've they've basically
01:29:29
Speaker
They're working with Niantic. They're not working instead of Niantic. right like um I don't ever think that Niantic will start prioritizing PvP over their actual like core idea of how the game should work.
01:29:47
Speaker
Um, so they are always like just juggling a lot of, a lot of things. And PVP is only one of the many, many balls that are being juggled. Um, and yeah, sometimes it's a ball that falls to the wayside. And, yeah um, yeah, like we as the grassroots community.
01:30:07
Speaker
I think the most we can do is just like um make the environment around go as inviting and as interesting as possible. And you have mentioned like wolfy type figures, and I'm honestly just grateful for every content creator who does go out there and tries to make Pokemon Go PvP seem fun and approachable and a thing that you want to pick up and you want to try it because um that's like still of the easiest, on not the easiest way, but one of the most efficient way to get new people into the game by just showing them how fun it is. and
01:30:50
Speaker
um Obviously, it's not easy to go viral with PvP content alone, but there are big creators in the Pokemon Go sphere, and there is this player base that maybe just, like, dipped their toes into PvP once and decided, oh, it wasn't maybe it wasn't for them, but might really enjoy it if they just took another look at it. and Yeah, all we can do is really just um do our part and just like really like we have this passion for the game right and if we just put it on this display and if we use it to create the content that um really makes this seem like an interesting and fun thing to do because it is um then maybe we can go somewhere um but yeah we definitely need to find ways to um
01:31:43
Speaker
not only motivate all the players who have been playing this game for years and years, because I feel like they are showing up for the most part, but also get new players into the fold and be inviting and just be interesting. Just be interesting. It's as easy as that.
01:31:59
Speaker
Yeah, there's there's this fine line between aspiring for things to be better and for accepting things as they currently are. Because I think if you sit around and you just wait for the game state to be perfect and for all the different updates to be a hit as soon as they come out and for every cup to be awesome and fun and dynamic. If you just sit around and wait for all those things to happen, you're going to be waiting probably forever, right?
01:32:24
Speaker
Growth is very uneven. No matter what area of life that you look at, it's never an upward curve that's just smooth. It's always very bumpy. and And by uneven, I just mean like in different areas, right? And Niantic will focus on PVP for a few months and then they'll switch to something else. So during those few months, yeah, we're on the upswing and everything's going great. And then they'll introduce a new feature and then PVP will dip and then there's there's like a little bump. And then we'll kind of go back and forth like that.
01:32:51
Speaker
But overall, you want to make sure that you're training upwards over time. So yeah, again, I know, I know we're probably preaching to a lot of people who believe the same thing we do. Um, but I would just encourage everybody as a final note, if you're watching a stream VOD or if you're watching a John kiss video, or if you're watching whatever content creator, give them a like, leave them a comment. Uh, I mean, on some of these videos, we've got 30, 40, 50,000 views on YouTube. And I see like 200 likes.
01:33:18
Speaker
And I'm thinking, if you if you really support something, you know, like my friend Doop Snacks likes to say, then at least do the bare minimum to show people that that's what you care about. And I think the bare minimum is a like, a comment, just supporting the algorithm for whichever content creator it is.
Upcoming Events and Meta Shifts
01:33:34
Speaker
So I think that would go a long way. But.
01:33:37
Speaker
Speaking of the game in general, we've got a couple of events. We can hit these real quick and then wrap up unless you have any final thoughts. But um we've got the Galarian Expedition going on, which some people are hype about, some people are not. And then you've got upcoming events like the Team Go Rocket Takeover and Menki Community Day. What are your thoughts? So I think the Team Go Rocket Takeover and the Menki Community Day actually tie into each other really well.
01:34:02
Speaker
um Just because the main thing that is new and something that people are will want to get is the um Shadow Mankey and that will evolve into the Shadow Primeape. Not the Annihilape anymore. Well, it will still evolve into that if you really force it to. But um right now um with the Karate Chop instead of the Counter as your fast attack, Primeape is actually the better option.
01:34:28
Speaker
It plays very similar to what Shadow Machamp would do um with the quick pacing to cross chop, so really high attacks that definitely the Shadow preferred. um But what sets it apart is its access to Eye Sponge, so that is a coverage option that will even allow it to beat Claude's eye in the two-shirt scenario. So um Shadow Primape is something that is really interesting already, and it might get even more interesting um depending on the exact stats of the move Ragefist. Ragefist is the community day exclusive move for both Primeape and Annihilape during the Maggie community day. And we already know that it is essentially a stronger power-up punish, so it is 50 power, so that's the damage count on it, um while also being a guaranteed plus one to your attack.
01:35:18
Speaker
Now we don't know the energy value of the move just yet. I think 35 might be a little overtuned because that would just be a dragon claw that also buffs your attack. 45 might just be too bad to even consider running. I think it might be a 40 energy charge to attack. And with that, I do see potential for both Primeape and Annihilape.
01:35:41
Speaker
And I like obviously slower, but a little a little bit more bulky and also has stab on Ragefist, which is a ghost type move. Whereas Primeape obviously faster pacing and a little bit higher attack. So an interesting community there for sure. And I would start grinding and TM'ing frustration of those manki if you find them.
01:36:02
Speaker
Absolutely. I agree that the the shadow event, you know, shadow man key coming to the game ties in really well with the community day. And I feel like Niantic has been doing a few more of those kinds of tie ins. If I'm not mistaken, ah we had a pretty cool event during a recent cup where I think a lot of the spawns lined up, maybe the psychic spectacular lined up with psychic cup. If I'm not mistaken.
01:36:23
Speaker
And I think a few of those events are really nice to build more congruency in the game and make GBL feel like it's more an aspect of Pokemon go overall and not just like a side project that kind of does its own thing on its own schedule. So that's always really nice to have. Um, we're going to find out what the energy is for ragefist, but like you said, 50 damage plus one attack going to be a really good charge attack regardless. But I think, um.
01:36:47
Speaker
I think that annihilate was very strong in the meta. It had a very short, but, uh, but bright light shined on it last season. We're going to see if it makes a return here because I do think there is kind of a need for some fighting type pressure right now. We've got Pangoro and Machamp in the championship series, but we'd love to see a little more variety as well. I know. I think prime ape is actually quite good in ultra league already. So if we give it rage fist plus, plus a shadow form, it could be really, really fun.
01:37:16
Speaker
Yeah, like, obviously I think especially Annihilape is also a bit of a fan favorite, so I would actually not mind if it managed to return to the meta. Just... in a way that it is like an option, right? And not something that is necessary because I feel like if it's too centralizing, I don't mind centralizing picks, but I'm somewhat glad that we have new centralizing picks rather than the old ones. But if it came back as a spice pick, I feel like ah like a viable spice pick, something that could top-cut a tournament, I would love it to be balanced in that way.
01:37:52
Speaker
It's definitely one of the coolest designs. And I think there are very few, uh, inhibitors to it. I mean, you have non-traditional counters to fighting types right now, like toxapex or Claude sire, but once you add that ghost sub typing, I do think the toxapex matchup for annihilate gets, gets a lot better. Uh, Claude sire can, you know, it doesn't want to throw a resisted stone edge or a double resistant sludge bomb. So it's going to be forced to throw earthquake into it. So there might be some, some viability there, but we'll see how that turns out.
Achievements and Future Tournaments
01:38:20
Speaker
But, uh, that's why this has been a really fun episode. Um, closing thought, I think, I think it almost slipped our minds, but you were right about dune bug. He was actually able to go to EUIC and top cut the weekend of April 5th through the seventh. And then the next weekend he came back to the U S went to Orlando and one with shadow Pidgeot April 12th through the 14th. So he might be the first player to top cut two tournaments in two different regions in back to back weekends.
01:38:49
Speaker
ah look at me knowing my pvp facts um yeah ah awesome this is why this is why dune bug is in that goat conversation always is always is right but we'll see what uh what dune can do in future tournaments and what our other trainers can do will it be a weekend of comeback kids in louisville and how will things go in leo you're gonna have to tune in for our recaps as we uh talk about each of these tournaments if you enjoyed the show please leave us a review on whatever platform you're listening to and uh So as my friend, it's been an honor, another top cut for you, you just collecting them like Thanos' Infinity Stones. Excited to see you compete in a few short weeks and we'll be back with a review of the next tournament as well. Yeah, and I'm very much looking forward to it, but also very happy to just sit on the couch, relax and watch both Louisville and Lille. Sounds like a plan. Talk soon, my friend.