Transcript
zzweilous: Almost a year has passed since Sekai0904's Silicatong found Inadequance's Giratina origin in Honolulu, Hawaii to reward Pokémon GO's Hong Kong Hero with the title of World Champion.
zzweilous: We've witnessed one year of memorable breakout moments, captivating comeback stories, and superstars from all continents staking their claim, vying to be the very best like no one ever was.
zzweilous: We followed an ever-developing meta from small adjustments to tectonic shifts. no In Anaheim, California, Dusclops has an eye on the prize, while Crudilly seems ready to rock the biggest of stages.
zzweilous: The 2025 Pokémon GO World Championships are upon us, and a new champion is about to be crowned. So what better time for the Show 6 podcast to come out of Hibernation to bring you all our takes on what to expect for the dramatic conclusion of this year's Play Pokémon Championship Series.
zzweilous: At this point, you will know the catchphrase. So log in. Good luck. and have fun
zzweilous: So, so, so, we're back. We're back. I am back. My name is Ziz Wireless. Speedy's Chief 2 is also here with us. um How are you doing, Speedy? I feel like weve and we haven't really heard from each other in a long while.
William Dunphey: It's been a nice break. We were just talking about before we pressed record that we know the break is coming. We know we're going to get a month and a half to two months apart. No community events, no tournaments, ah no storylines to follow. We know it's coming, but it still feels so strange to actually get through it.
William Dunphey: And I'm honestly bit relieved ah that we have Worlds coming up. And speaking of feeling relieved, I'm relieved that you had an intro as well. ah Because i I so selfishly ask ZZ for intros, but I feel like it's not so selfish because I do think you do such a good job.
William Dunphey: I'm sure everyone enjoys listening to them, you know minus minus the low-hanging fruits and the puns that sometimes occur.
zzweilous: Yeah, you asked like seven minutes before we started the recording or scheduled to start the recording and I had nothing at that point.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: So this was like very much improvised, but I feel like it's been getting us into the mood of this actually being the the culmination of essentially like 12 months of tournaments, of battles, of storylines.
zzweilous: And yeah, I feel like a lot of just like, very, very interesting pathways of competitors are just like finding that one spot where everything's going to go down in a stadium nonetheless.
zzweilous: Like I've heard that day three of the Anaheim competition is going to be held in the stadium.
William Dunphey: Uh-huh.
zzweilous: So it's really like one of those anime situations where like you had the journey, right?
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: Like Ash traveling through the lands with all his friends and creatures by his side. And now you actually step inside the arena and You have to fight the other giants, like the other memorable characters that you may or may not know from the video games. so like Our Pokémon Go competitors are ah somewhat like those people, aren't they? like if you like If you're a competitor from Europe and all of a sudden you get to face players like Elim or Matogaldi at the World Championships, that must be exciting. That must feel special.
William Dunphey: I've had a, almost like a a poem kind of half written in my head for quite a while. ah And it basically comes down to what but you're getting at. Like, it's nice to believe in something like fate.
William Dunphey: I do believe that some people, but not to be too to punny and direct, but they have faith in the concept of fate because it kind of takes... the responsibility of life out of their hands. And there's already some kind of like predisposition path they can follow, something they can trust in, something that is is going to lead them to to a good place no matter what.
William Dunphey: And I don't want to say it's it's fate, but as as a future world champion, you just have to reflect about the first time you spun a Pokestop or the first time you caught a Pokemon or the first GBL battle you ever did.
William Dunphey: And if you could like draw a a straight line of events that led up to this world championship, it would feel like fate. And I think, um, a lot of these trainers, you know, have their own vision of how this is going to go in their minds, but yeah, you never know until you get there. And, uh, there's, there's lots of unexpected things along the way, but we share a similar sentiment.
zzweilous: This is very ah very funny of you to say because as you know I like this is one tournament that I won that was, it's been two years at this point, but the Barcelona special event.
zzweilous: And I did that with a Pelipper on my team.
William Dunphey: Uh, uh,
zzweilous: And that Pelipper was caught at 1499 CP, fully evolved already. And it turned out to be the rank one. And I shouted out that this could be the rank one before even catching it, before even checking the IVs.
zzweilous: So ever since that moment, I referred to that Pelipper as destiny Pelipper. because it just, it was just fate, right? And then it actually ended up on the one team that ever won a thing for me.
zzweilous: So yeah like maybe, maybe there is some truth to um but you just said, that there could be like those, those moments, those, um yeah, like fateful paths that everybody is
William Dunphey: yeah
William Dunphey: actually didn't know I actually did not know that story.
zzweilous: and so on
William Dunphey: That's that's awesome. Yeah, I feel like every champion feels it in their bones, especially after a few rounds of the tournament, and they start to feel like they're in a groove and things are working. You can just feel like you're... your it's It's less that...
William Dunphey: that um you're actually working towards something. It's just that things are sort of happening and they keep on happening. And I'm sure you felt that when you won in Barcelona that you were like, Oh, things are just clicking.
William Dunphey: They're working really well. Uh, and worlds is always fun because you basically have, you know, 200 plus people who they all think everything's clicking, everything's working. And, uh, Yeah, it's a shame that we only get one world champion, but they are very, very well deserved, of course.
William Dunphey: ah ZZ, we've got an awesome episode. It's going to be similar to what we did last year. You and I have been chatting back and forth about topics and what we're going to cover. ah So obviously, we're going to review players. We've got a few really fun categories that we're going to go over.
William Dunphey: ah But the full run the show is that we're going to talk first, just briefly, about the PJCS because we didn't do a recap for that one. So there were some some notes I wanted to mention. That'll lead us into a meta discussion. I've heard rumors that ZZ hates the current meta.
William Dunphey: ah Personally, i think it's pretty fun, although i I think we both share a disdain for Dedene, that Pokemon is super, super annoying. um Then we'll talk about our players, how we categorize them. We've got three picks for various different slots, so you definitely want to tune in for that, see if ZZ and I agree.
William Dunphey: Then we'll talk about the most important event in the game that's going to be happening for Worlds, especially if you like Shadow Pokemon. So let's go ahead and kick things off with ah the PJCS. And I'm just going to start right out of the gate here, ZZ.
William Dunphey: You and i might have failed in our journalistic responsibilities, and I alluded this to you before we started, but hear me out. We've talked about trainers from the TPC region competing at TPCI events.
William Dunphey: Most notably, these are going to be trainers that are competing in Australia, whether it's Melbourne, Brisbane, whatever it might be. But there was another Japanese trainer that actually came quite close to winning an event earlier this year, and they were actually on the Western Hemisphere when they did it, which is pretty remarkable.
William Dunphey: Now, if I can find in my notes, that trainer actually finished third overall at the PJCS this year. That was K-A-G-M-P-W-T-P-D.
William Dunphey: K-A-G-M-P-W-T, I guess we could say. What I didn't realize.
zzweilous: Yeah, not very easy to pronounce, but certainly somebody that, like, I don't know, like, it's been a while since we talked about this, but I think that must have been, like, the San Juan special event.
William Dunphey: Yeah. Yeah.
zzweilous: Was it, like, the Puerto Rican one? I feel as if it was the one that Pocket took, right?
William Dunphey: Yes. CAG MP faced Pocket in the Grand Finals of the Puerto Rico special event earlier this season. So we we had a trainer from TPC, not Chews, not a PokeMoney maker, not these trainers that are runner-up and champions in in OC, but actually ah player from Japan came over to Puerto Rico and almost won an event there, ah which was very early on in the season. So...
William Dunphey: yeah I don't know if if anyone else picked up on this or is this not as big of a deal as I'm making it, but I feel like this went past us, Swylus. I feel like this passed us by...
zzweilous: Did we talk about that at the time, like during the Puerto Rico recap episode, which like obviously probably had more events than just that to recap. But yeah, I feel like we we did definitely like talk about it in a more pronounced fashion when we discussed the Australian regionals, because it's like, oh, you're defending your home turf. Whereas Puerto Rico, like it's like kind of like an in-between zone, like
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: It's a special event. It's technically North America. It's not a state, but it is the United States. um It's like... it's It's always difficult to place.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: People travel there because it's like a nice place to travel to. But people don't really organically just go there because they happen to live in the area because it's not mainland US. So, yeah, it's like always like one of those...
zzweilous: One of those, like a little bit out of like, not really fitting into any category, but yeah, it's definitely,
William Dunphey: it It kind of, I agree with you. it kind of reminds me of the South Africa tournaments. Like people will go there specifically to pick up a world's invite or to get points or whatever it might be, but it's not something that's like, oh, in the general discourse, you know, we don't ah batch it together with the larger events and NAEU, LATAM, et cetera. So yeah.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I thought that was interesting. um But again, this has been a long season. If you remember, this is still the same season where Lyle Jeffs won Louisville with Toxapex, Shadow Kenta Marowak, Tauntaun won an event with Alolan Raticate.
William Dunphey: ah We had in Sacramento, SJ...
zzweilous: i haven't forgotten that one
William Dunphey: I know, I know. That one, sorry. Too soon, too soon. ah Sacramento...
zzweilous: okay yeah it's actually like at this point like everybody everybody knows
William Dunphey: In Sacramento, we had SJ taking down out of pocket in the grand finals, both of them playing Alolan Sandslash and Shadow Kanto Marowak yet again. It feels like, and then you go back to the first tournament of the season with Wadage winning Baltimore with a freaking chestnut.
William Dunphey: All right. It's been a long road this this past year, and it is it is easy to overlook some things here and there, but...
zzweilous: We are only one month away from the dodge winning Pittsburgh, so it's, hey, life comes at you fast.
William Dunphey: Exactly. It's like clockwork every season.
zzweilous: but
William Dunphey: um But yeah, I just want to say that ah CAG MP did finish third overall at the PJCS. i I hope that they will be at Worlds. I believe they will. Assaulted Koji is your PJCS champion. They were running Primeape with Shadow Scizor, Unova Stunfisk, Azumarol, as well as Cradilly and Mandabuzz. But I have a couple of notes here.
William Dunphey: ah Saltakoji took on Kento Sarunori in the grand finals. And this to me, i watched back the footage, this felt like an example of not being ready for Shadow Scizor. And this is definitely a theme we're going to talk about in the meta discussion, in the player outlook.
William Dunphey: Not being ready for Shadow Scizor or Dedenne, I think is like a death sentence in this meta. You have to be able to rein those Pokemon in. Koji's Cradilly was actually purified and running Bullet Seed.
William Dunphey: Believe it or not, it was not Acid Cradilly, which is pretty amazing. ah Koji's Primeape was running Rage Fist in Close Combat, which does check out because it is a regular non-Shadow Primeape. um And then for top eights, I want to say that Earthcolors, who I believe came top five, was running Acid Cradily.
William Dunphey: Their Fortress was Bug Bite, Rock Tomb, and Sand Tomb, which I think is the standard these days. CAG MP, who finished third overall, believe it or not, it was running Lantern. Lantern with Water Gun. ah Then we had a Naman Kichi with fourth place running the ZZWYLESS special G-Weezing with Sludge and Brutal Swing. So couple of interesting meta notes. And I know that the the TPC tournaments are always a little bit off meta, not what we really expect, but I do think it does inform the world's meta coming into the event.
zzweilous: Honestly, the most fascinating thing looking at the top eight from the PGCS is that we see two dragons, if I'm not mistaken, because Nauman Kichi also had a shadow dragonite on their team.
William Dunphey: uh-huh
zzweilous: And Watagashi236 coming eighth or tight seventh, I don't actually know how the exact format was. They had the Komo-O, which recently received clanging scales as a community day move, which is just about the strongest shards attack in the game. So definitely um a very spicy, a very off-meta pick.
zzweilous: um But yeah, the PTCS, like, definitely a showcase of creative team building and also our very last snapshot into what the actual tournament meta looks like because we have been on a hiatus, we only had practice tournaments, and even those have kind of stopped for about a month before they recently picked back up again.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um And yeah, if you look at what we've been seeing at the PJCS, I feel like we are kind of noticing a pattern with um Shadow Scizor being on five out of the top eight teams, um with Dusclops being also on five teams, if I'm if i'm seeing that correctly, and with Cradilly actually,
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um being on seven different teams. Mandibus on six, one team has a Gmoltris which is essentially a Mandibus. So yeah we are we're seeing some themes where um you have the Dark Flyers, you have the Ghost-type as like kind of your neutral Pokémon, you have the Cridilly because the Cridilly is one of the Pokémon that does the best job at keeping Dedane at bay.
zzweilous: And I must say it did a fantastic job in Japan because There are actually zero Dedane in top eight, which is um a very stark departure from the North American International Championships, where you had a Dedane on both sides of the grand finals.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
William Dunphey: Nice.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
William Dunphey: Something interesting as well is ah when I created my own spreadsheet for the season, um i always try to slot things into certain categories. You have a safe swap, you have a ground type, you usually have a flying type or an anti-grass.
William Dunphey: And this has changed over the seasons as the roles adjust to the current meta. ah But what I'm noticing, especially in the PJCS, is the lack of Lapras. We see one Lapras. And if you look at the Sims, um you know you've got Lapras baiting Sparkling Arya connecting with Ice Beam or Skull Bash in so many matchups.
William Dunphey: It's a very bulky Pokemon. It's got great balance with fast and charge attack pressure. But at the same time, what's really pushed this Pokemon out is something that I personally experienced and um in NAIC is that those side waves being double resisted by something like Mandibuzz or Galerium Ultrace, it is really, really punishing.
William Dunphey: And if you are locked into one of those matchups, it suddenly does not feel favorable. And when then when you have another bulky Pokemon to work through, like a Dusclops or a Cradilly, it just puts a lot of but pressure on Lapras to succeed.
William Dunphey: And I think this is something we're going to see going into Worlds as well, is a general lack of Lapras, maybe a pivot back towards Azumarill, just because Mandibuzz and Galarian Moltres are so popular. I mean, you mentioned the Cradillys.
William Dunphey: We've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Mandibuzz and 1 Galarian Moltres out of the top 8 teams at pj PJCS, which... I think the dark flyers are here to stay.
zzweilous: Yeah, so this is something very interesting and actually like one of the PV poke tabs that I currently have open is Lapras with Ice Beam versus Lapras with Skull Bash into the current top meta just to see like how the matchups flip in the Sims.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: And after NAIC, I actually kind of expected to see um its accents Skull Bash Lapras pick up in popularity just because ah was crucial for him to ah win the mirror, to have like a safe Pokemon into those bulky waters. And um even against the Cradilly, you will live a charge attack, you outpace.
zzweilous: And if the Cradilly isn't careful enough, you may be able to um put it into a range where two Sparkling Aureas and the Sidewaves could pick up the knockout.
William Dunphey: Yep.
zzweilous: So... and It felt as if things were tilting more towards the Skulllash as the secondary move. But with how ubiquitous especially Mandibus is, I feel like that's the more popular choice.
William Dunphey: ye
zzweilous: Which is good for Lapras because honestly Mandibus is slower and has less fast move pressure. It is a lot bulkier but it's a little more exploitable than the Galarian Moltres where if you just sit there and get sucker punched all the way down that's probably not a great time as a lapras whereas against mana bus at least you have time right like you can maybe wait for the switch clock to come back up or if shields are down you may be able to land an ice beam to do probably above 50 damage um and yeah especially because of that matchup i feel as if um even though there hasn't really been
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: any tournaments besides the pgcs since any I see we've already gone from originally ice cream lab press to school brush lab press influenced by accident back to ice beam lab press just in the practice because there's just so many dark flyers you want to be ready for them, especially like the mandibles we actually have some counterplay.
William Dunphey: i agree speaking of dark types i do see two greninjas also at pjcs uh as someone familiar with greninja thoughts on that pokemon going into the world championships what
zzweilous: I think it's worse. I think it's worse than it ah was at the NAIC. And that has one particular reason, and that is that the ground type of choice has been flipping from Diggersby to um Shadow Canto Marowak more and more.
William Dunphey: why
zzweilous: like um You're still seeing one Diggersby in the top eight at the PJCS, but you're also seeing three Shadow Canto Marowak. And the problem with Greninja is that despite its fantastic pacing, it will not ever reach three charge attacks if the Kanto Marowak commits to the Mud Slapdown.
zzweilous: And yeah, that's just like a really dire matchup for you, even though you're the water type doing water damage consistently. But the difference in stat product just makes it a really tough time for Greninja.
zzweilous: And not being able to break up those um Drapion, Dusclops, Diggersby cores, and instead having to deal with the Pokémon that you can beat, but not in all Shield scenarios with the Marowak, I think that is going to make it a lot less safe to bring Greninja.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um And yeah, besides that, obviously there's also the Araquanid that took NEIC in the hands of its Axon, where Maybe some people feel like that's still a strategy that they could employ, which then also would spell disaster for a ninja.
William Dunphey: True. Okay. I understand your points. There's one Pokemon that you mentioned just kind of offhandedly, and I'm shocked to not see it on more teams here, but Shadow Drapion is only on Poke Moneymaker's team in the top eight of the PJCS.
William Dunphey: Is this due to like the rise in the Shadow Cat to Marowak? ah Because there are still lots of targets. i mean, there's there's more Zoomeroll than before. you have Dusclops on so many teams. It feels like as a neutral Pokemon, ah Shadow Drapion still looks really strong.
zzweilous: I think it is still strong and I would not, like I would be surprised if I didn't see Shadow Drapion within the, I think top eight is a fair shot.
zzweilous: I think it's probably still going to be a top eight most used at Worlds.
William Dunphey: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um Probably not top four, but top eight I think is fairly realistic. But Shadow Drapion has some issues, right? Because ah you've mentioned that Sword of Koji actually opted for the Bullet Seed Cradilly, which does make sense in some matchups, like especially Lapras, especially something like Greninja, where you, I think, no longer lose the two shields, or um also Kanto Marowak, which just becomes a lot more safe with that um consistent ah super effective damage.
zzweilous: But um what is more common right now is actually the Acid variant of Cradilly. And the Acid variant of Cradilly actually can force swap against a Shadow Drapion.
zzweilous: And if you are a Shadow Drapion and the main grass type that does resisted fast move damage into you still takes swap against you, that's not a great spot to be in. um Then there's the problem with counter swapping into a Shadow Dusklobs because the shadow and and like even the regular Dusklobs, I think, is able to win the two shield scenario just because of its bulk.
zzweilous: and it's pacing. um So if it lifts a crunch and gets to two attacks, then with the Hexes and the two shields, it's just not fun. um And yeah, there's fewer Azu.
zzweilous: You always had the Azumarill Shadow Dropion core, which used to be like the the core feature of Pokemon Go PvP as a whole for like nine months straight, but um that's not really a thing anymore.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um Then there's Lapras, where Okay, you have play, but also you don't get the work point against the Psywave, so it's not really like you resist it all that much.
zzweilous: Then there's Shadow Scizor, which just sees you as an opportunity to get a ton of energy and like shilling ones, facilitating a farm down.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: There's Tinkerton Rising, which is one of the hardest counters that you could possibly see. So... um Yeah, between that and also Mandibus with Airslash having a fairly comfortable matchup into you, Shadow Rappion isn't in the greatest spot.
zzweilous: Like, it just has too many loose conditions against too many things.
William Dunphey: Gotcha. Yeah, I would say that makes sense. We've been kind of poking around at some of these picks for the PJCS. I'm not sure if there are any other notes that you want to add. The last thing I'll say is just a logistical thing.
William Dunphey: ah So given the US is a very tricky visa requirements based on country of origin, I am very happy to have learned that Japan is actually part of the waiver program and and trainers from Japan will be allowed to enter the US for short stays for tourism purposes. So hopefully, fingers crossed, we have as many of these talented trainers from Japan able to attend as possible.
William Dunphey: And then ah wishing on a star that one day trainers from LATAM would also get the chance they deserve to come in and compete and not have to jump through all of these ridiculous hoops with our our visa program.
zzweilous: Yes.
William Dunphey: that That's all I want to say. i don't want to get too much into politics on the show, but it is really, really sad when very talented trainers can't attend the World Championships. ah ZZ, you posted a tier list, and these are some meta Pokemon that you reviewed.
William Dunphey: I've got a few bones to pick with you because there are some things here on the list that I just simply do not agree with. We're goingnna have the visual aid up next.
zzweilous: Please do.
William Dunphey: ah We're to visual aid up on the podcast as well.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: ah This is not meant to be a ZZ interrogation, but it is quickly becoming one. So I guess we should get right into it. um S tier, which is best. this this You categorize this as top threat or neutral staple. You've got four picks.
William Dunphey: You've got Cradilly, Dusclops, Dedene, and Scizor. Personally, i would just do a little bit of shuffling here. I would still have Cradle at number one. I'd have Dusk Cops number two due to its neutral capability. Scizor is an easy third spot here. I mean, come on. It's ridiculous.
William Dunphey: Dedene is just too matchup dependent, in my opinion. I tried practicing with it before NEIC. Either you're feasting on Zumarole Mandibuzz or you are being absolutely demolished by Diggersby, Shadowcat, and Marowak. It's way too polarizing to be in this tier.
William Dunphey: And I think that it's it's powerful, it's strong, but I do not agree with it being this high.
zzweilous: I think this has to do with what I'm trying to express with the tiering that I chose because this is not just like listing the Pokemon from strongest to weakest, but I think this this list kind of tries to explain what is most important to keep in mind because I feel as if Dedene, like Dedene specifically,
William Dunphey: Mm. Mm.
zzweilous: is one of the Pokémon that you are very prone to build weak to, but you also... like It's one of the Pokémon where you can ah afford to build weak to it the least, because if it ever gets locked into a positive matchup, and maybe if you go ABA to it, then the Daedany will put you on the back foot so much that it's probably impossible to recover from it.
William Dunphey: oh
zzweilous: so um I feel like, so that's why I call it a top threat or neutral staple. I think the neutral staples are Cradilly and Dusclops, who are, i think, the most common Pokemon that I have seen in practice.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: And also two of the Pokemon that have the most neutral play into most situations, not all situations, but most situations. Whereas s with Deidanny and Scizor, I think those Pokemon are the two that you really need to keep in mind when, um,
zzweilous: combining a six Pokemon to a team because if you don't have enough either strict counters or at least neutral play into these um and this is also part of the reason why I don't really like the meta like if you don't account for those two threats you will be in a position where you just have to guess your opponent's line and hope to not get RPS like much much quicker than you want to
William Dunphey: Yep. Yeah.
zzweilous: um And yeah, like you can avoid those scenarios, but you have to make sure that you have the tools to avoid them already at the team building stage. Like if you build a team that looks perfectly neutral into 95% of the meta, but that doesn't account for those two, you will be in trouble.
William Dunphey: yeah I could not have said it better. um Like the SpongeBob meme where SpongeBob has a binoculars and he's shouting to Patrick. He says, write that down, write that down. That's honestly what what everyone should be doing right now.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: Maybe if I can find the sound clip, I'll put it into into the podcast. ah Okay. Okay. I understand your point. I understand your reasoning. Let's move on to the next tier. We've got common picks. um Is this one ranked in in terms of prominence from left to right?
William Dunphey: More or less.
zzweilous: For the most part, like more or less is what i I would say. Like it's definitely like more common on the left. I felt as if Tinkerton was a breakout star in practice. um Whereas like you see on the very right, there is the Shadow Drapion. I still believe that it will be um like on this list. It's like in like 13th place or something.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: I think because some of the Pokemon ahead of it will compete for a spot on the roster. It may be a little more common. But I personally, I'm just not a huge believer in shadow wrap-in as of now, so it makes dead last in this category.
William Dunphey: Okay, so for all of our our listeners who are just listening to the audio version, the next tier, we're going to see Tinkaton, Mandibuzz, Lapras, Quagsire, Kanto Marowak, Primeape, Annihilate, Galerian Corsula, and Drapion. So I'm going to agree with you on Drapion being near the back, but I do not know, ah pardon me, but what you were smoking, putting Tinkaton number one.
William Dunphey: All right, Tinkaton... this This is a Mandibuzz own slot, right? I think Mandibuzz is number one here. ah Shadow Quagsire. i actually did a Candle Cult practice tournament yesterday. I saw way more Shadow Quag than I expected.
William Dunphey: And I do think it has the capability to beat ah Pokemon like Scizor and Dedene. I mean, it comes down to basically a knife fight when that Scizor has the energy for the Trailblaze. But the Shadow Quagsire outpaces Scizor and it is going to... The matchup gets worse for Scizor the longer the game goes on, the longer the was on, I should say.
William Dunphey: So Mandibuzz, definitely number one overall pick for me in this category. ah You've got Lapras third. We've got slide Lapras down next to Drapion here. it's just It just has to go further down the list.
William Dunphey: Quagsire, I think, is a good placement. Canto Marrowack is a good placement. Primeape, I think, is is very, very good. Annihilate, for me, would slide down to the next tier. It just can't be up here.
zzweilous: Oh, interesting.
William Dunphey: when it deals with so many Dusclops, so many Galarian Corsola, so many Manda Buzz, so many Dedenne, there are many, many obstacles. And yeah, you can punch your way through a Cradilly. You can, you know, annihilate neutral matchups. You can Rage Fist, whatever.
William Dunphey: I think it's Ghost Hyping betrays it. And Primeape is definitely superior. Galarian Corsola, I absolutely adore. I think that's a great spot for it. But the biggest insult of all to me here, ZZ, is that on the second tier list, or the second tier of the list, so to speak,
William Dunphey: You do not have a zoom roll here. You have a zoom roll in the tier below it. And I think that is blasphemous on a scale that I have not encountered in a long time because a zoom roll, just when you're not ready for it is when it's better than ever.
zzweilous: So ah let's take another look at the name of the tier. The second tier is called Common Pick. So this tier is kind of um based on how frequently those Pokemon are used.
zzweilous: And if we're being perfectly honest, then Azumarill is just not that popular right now. I still like, I entered a practice tournament just the other day with an Azumarill on my team. And I still believe that it is viable because um Obviously Azumarilla is one of the bulkiest Pokémon that you could use, so it always will um give you some way to spawn some damage here and there.
zzweilous: and It is a Pokémon that um functions as a very hard Mandibus counter. It is a Pokémon that helps you out against fighters, especially Annihilate. Primabe does have win conditions, but Azumarilla is great at shutting down Annihilate. And it's also a Pokémon that doesn't really have to fear Kanto Marowak's energy edge as much, um whereas other water types um such as Shadow Quagsite doesn't quite have the bulk, Lapras can take super effective from Rockslide, and a Pokémon like Blastoise just doesn't really need do any fast move damage with its rollout, so all of those matchups are a little shaky, whereas Azumarill is still fairly fairly good into the Kanto Marowak, but
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: I think what um has been happening is that Azumarill is kind of being power-crapped by its poor pacing.
zzweilous: um Because you still need five bubbles to even get to a non-stab ice beam.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: And in this meta, with how quickly Dustclobs gets to its shadow punches, with how quickly Dedani is to its parabolic charge, like Azurul outpaces nothing.
zzweilous: There's a lot of Pokemon that can just buff themselves, whether it be a Trailblaze from a Scizor or a Parabolic Charge from a Dedane before you even get to move at it.
zzweilous: um And therefore, i feel as if it's like it needs to be very carefully positioned and isn't nearly as spammable as it used to be. And therefore, I felt as if I wanted to put it a little lower on the list.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
William Dunphey: Yeah, so you make some good points. If there's more Cradily, if there's more Dedene, if there are more hard answers, I do think Azumarill's viability is is reduced a little bit. i Personally, I think it's being slept on a little bit here as well, just because, for example, if Mandibuzz is so prominent, I mean, Azumarill is one of the only Pokemon outside of maybe Cradily that just just locks down that matchup and you can leave with energy to spare.
William Dunphey: Azumarill's still a very good wedge, as you referred to. it's It's very bulky. It's it's very, you know... It stays in matchups a long time, which can also be a negative, but... Yeah, I don't know. I think that people are are sleeping on it a little bit, but when you're, for example, when your ground type target becomes a lot softer, switching from Diggersby, Claydol over to Shadowcantor, Marowak, and Ice Beam plus some Bubbles is going to get the job done.
William Dunphey: When your two best fighters get one shot by Azumarill's play rough, I think there's a lot of play for it there as well, no pun intended. And then when you have less Drapian, when you have less ah you you know other poison types like Clawed Sire in the meta, I think Azumarill, its it's you know viability goes up.
zzweilous: Bye.
William Dunphey: um And also to your point about Annihilate, I don't, or so to our point, we were we were discussing Annihilate. I don't see it in this tier at all, the more I look at it, because in a meta where you don't have as many Diggersby, as many Drapian as before, do you want Annihilate getting to the Rage Fist pretty slow, getting to the Ice Punch even more slowly? Or do you want 10 turn spammy Karate Chop Ice Punch from Primeape every time?
William Dunphey: Because an ice punch will basically one-shot a Shadow Kanta Marowak after the Karate Chop damage. And it gives you just, I don't know, I think it's just superior coverage. So that's just that's just my dig.
zzweilous: So I personally, like, i love Annihilate, the concept. I love, I think it's a very cool Pokemon. i think the typing combination is so unique.
zzweilous: um And I was really excited for its arrival in Pokemon Go. I've never been the biggest fan of how Annihilate plays in-game. um i think it used to be very strong. It's not as strong anymore.
zzweilous: and just never really suited my play style.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: I just, saw a decent amount of people still use it and i think the reason for that is twofold because on the one hand um annihilate actually out damages uh shadow scissor in the eye to head whereas um primate especially shadow primate is just in a really bad position against this or because shadow primate the scissor can just shield once and farm all the way down um
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: And also if you are in that matchup with the Annihil-Ape against the Prime-Ape, that's also favorable for the Annihil-Ape in most scenarios. So I see why there are reasons to still use it.
zzweilous: Also double resisting Puri Cutters and Bug Bites is pretty valuable. Being generally a little bulkier, then Prime-Ape is quite valuable. But I would also agree that out of the fighters currently available,
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: Anirond is the most feast or famine of them all just because of that Dusclops matchup and it's just not being like it even if you get it a shield advantage Dusclops will get to two Shadow Punches before you get to two Rage Fists and um the Dusclops will have no problem shrugging off the first Rage Fist so it's a fairly delicate Pokemon I still feel as if it's common enough to warrant a place in that list maybe on the lower end of it but
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: yeah I do see the point to some degree. um One Pokemon in this list that I do want to talk about and also like in the context of Azumarill maybe be is the Tinkerton because I feel like we have three fairies really competing for that fairy type slot.
William Dunphey: Sure.
zzweilous: the The okay, how do we hard counter Mandibus type of slot. And I think originally Dedenne was just the top dog was like the Pokemon that you wanted to have because it just feels so neutrally strong. And if you look at the Sims, it beats the most Pokemon out of all Pokemon essentially.
zzweilous: um So yeah, it's very difficult to not build weak to Dedene. um But it also has a huge target on its back just because it could be so disastrous if you don't account for Dedene.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: So the number of Dedene actually has gone down. There's mostly fewer Dedene now than there are Tinkerton. um And Tinkerton is like less oppressive, more neutral, but most importantly, it is less bad in into Crudili, which is essentially the main counter next to ground types that people bring to prepare for Dedane.
zzweilous: So Tinkerton essentially exploits that tendency of everybody to just bring their Crudili in anticipation of Dedane.
zzweilous: um while still fulfilling a lot of the roles that normally the Dedane would take on. Like it resists the sidewaves of Lapras and has a decent matchup there.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: It's obviously a very hard answer to Dark Flyers and it also has decent play against the Fighting types, even though it's not as reliable maybe as Dedane could be in some situations.
zzweilous: And it also, like the nice thing about Tinkerton is that it just comes as a bulky Pokemon out of the gate. um whereas Dedane needs to land a Parabolic Charge to achieve a similar bulk.
zzweilous: um So yeah, I feel like those two have like kind of been competing for ah the top fairy spot, but both of them share the weakness to ground type still, which is where the Azumarill could come in.
zzweilous: Because if you, like there there's a ground and there's a Cradillio on essentially every team to prepare for Dedane, now you can bring Tinkerton to make it so people feel stupid for bringing the Cradilly.
zzweilous: Or you can bring Azu so people feel stupid for bringing the ground. It's like one or the other, but people have been opting for Tinketown more often.
William Dunphey: Interesting. I don't know if I buy it. I'm just going to be honest. I don't know if if you convinced me. It was a valiant effort.
zzweilous: So
William Dunphey: I'm going to need everyone in the in the comments for the YouTube video to weigh in, but please continue.
zzweilous: I will say that I have been playing Devil's Advocate a little here because I am personally Not a huge Tinkerton believer. I feel as if, like, obviously it's nice to have bench pressure, but it also, like, not only does it compete for the Fairy-type role, but it also competes for the Steel-type role, um because Pokemon, like, maybe a Talonflame that people use to prepare for Shadow Scissor would also counter Tinkerton.
William Dunphey: The truth comes out.
zzweilous: But I think you get a lot more upside from a well-played Shadow Scissor than you would get from a Tinkerton. um I just feel as if that Pokemon has a higher ceiling.
zzweilous: And then if you only bring one of them, which is likely, because they do share some weaknesses, um then you would likely be better off with the Shadow Scizor.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: But I do understand if you say that, oh, like, I want the bulk from the Tinkerton, because maybe I have another squishy Pokemon that I want to save shields for.
William Dunphey: Okay. Interesting. Fair. This actually leads us really well into the next ah tier of Pokemon that you have here. So we've already reviewed the top threats and neutral staples. We took a look at the common picks of which Tickaton inexplicably led the pack.
William Dunphey: Now we're going to go into the viable options. And the first pick you have in the viable option slot is Talonflame. And this is like the most... This is the biggest distinction, right, between the Dedene versus Tinkaton debate that we were just going over, is that one of those two fairies can actually do something against Talonflame. The other one is ah helpless and absolutely gets annihilated.
William Dunphey: ah But I'll just list off these picks real quick so people can start to visualize them if they don't have the visual aid. In our viable option slot, we've got Talonflame, Galarian Moltres, Azumaral, Pfft. inexplicably blastoise fortress sableye you know the stun fisk diggers b glygar greninja glysopod araquanid and toadscruel so there's a lot to talk about yeah i've been kind of okay
zzweilous: I will have to say that the Toadscroll was a recency bias from it just coming out. I think it needs to go down. It just hangs out here because it wasn't All right, let's talk Talentflame.
William Dunphey: Okay. I I've been kind of driving the picks that we talk about. What do you want to talk about in this category ZZ? Because I feel like you've got some explaining to do.
zzweilous: Let's start talent flame yeah just start start at the very top.
William Dunphey: Okay.
zzweilous: on If you look at the top threats and the common picks, the two categories above what we see right now in the viable options category, and if you just assume that nobody's bringing Dedane because everybody's prepared for Dedane, what Pokemon, what you feel most comfortable counter swapping into a Talonflame safe swap?
William Dunphey: ah Well, obviously Quagsire, right? Or
zzweilous: Well, you may want to, like you could save swap or like counter swap Lapras in a scenario like that. But if the Talonflame just goes straight fly, um and reaches its last move before the Sparkling Aria is reached.
zzweilous: Because I think you just need like a one turn advantage to just always i get to three moves. And there's a good chance that you just knock out the Lapras with that attack.
William Dunphey: yeah. bait.
zzweilous: So it's not guaranteed that you even get to land any water type damage on the Time of Flame. Whereas with Quagsire, which sounds like the next best thing, you may be in a position where you have to actually successfully ah land a Stone Edge to take it out.
William Dunphey: fa
zzweilous: Because if you just Aqua Tail, that's a fairly weak move, right? and a Talonflame may just lift that and then be at a very awkward range where you can't quite much shot down, and a Brave Bird hurts. It hurts so much that it could just straight up knock you out, and also a Brave Bird is reached after 15 turns, so if you counterswap it and aren't immediately on the same pace as the Talonflame, you may still have to be the one to shield first.
zzweilous: So, yeah, I personally feel as if If there is no Dedane on the team and if there is no um like less common water type like Blastos on Azumarill, it's just really difficult to properly answer Talented Flame safe swap at this stage of the meta.
William Dunphey: Zoom roll. Hmm.
zzweilous: So yeah, I think that's um another area where some teams may leave themselves like themselves exploitable. um just not taking Talonflame as seriously because it's not all that common, but I think it's in a fairly good spot right now just because of that lack of water pressure.
William Dunphey: You actually make a really good point. And this is this is the best argument that that I've heard so far ah for this Pokemon's placement. um I actually agree with you. And if you look at the pacing for Lapras, the Sparkling Arias are 12, 11, 11, 11.
William Dunphey: And the Fly is 15 and then 10. So you're going to get to the two Flies in 25 turns where it's going to be 30 plus for Lapras to get to the third Sparkling Aria. um and i Can you withstand one as a Town Flame? I assume you can.
William Dunphey: me see.
zzweilous: Like one sparking aria. Like you live one in the zeros I think. um But like the real.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: Let me quickly sim that. sim that I know that. um Like a Skeletorch with its torch songs. Because I've just been playing Skeletorch. Because I'm not that smart. um
William Dunphey: Well, sparkling already does 69%.
zzweilous: Like that definitely.
William Dunphey: Nice. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: Knows out nice. um
William Dunphey: nice
zzweilous: So if we. If we give. ah One turn of advantage. To the tunnel flame. And let it go straight. Fly energy plus...
zzweilous: can we Can we do turns here? I don't even know. Let's just give it an incinerate.
William Dunphey: I think you have to give it a full incinerate, right?
zzweilous: Yeah, yeah. Let's just give it a full incinerate. It just has to do with how quickly it gets to its moves.
William Dunphey: You can give the Talon a full incinerate and then the Lapras like three side waves to account for the swap.
zzweilous: um
zzweilous: That is true. That is true, actually. um But yeah, let you get there first and then it essentially...
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: like it's it's going to be IV dependent is is what it is.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: Like you need a good Lapras and you need them to not have that much attack on the Talon Flames, I think the situation here. um But yeah, it's it's not it's not great, right?
zzweilous: Especially if you don't shield early, maybe they just keep on going for fast attacks. And um it's like, it's it's not super comfortable at least.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And maybe it even changes if, there's like a flame charge that comes through early. and me Let me check that actually. Like what if you are flame charge fly? Yeah, if you're a flame charge fly, you just straight up, you're flame charge early and then you still get to ah your your fly and your second fly at the same pace.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: um And then you just cleanly win that matchup. So flame charge, down the flame always guarantees swap if the Lapras is one turn behind, essentially.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I agree. I think Flame Charge Talon looks even better in the twos than it does in the ones. Even if you account for the extra sidewaves and then the the one turn.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: So, yeah.
zzweilous: This then would leave the Quagsire in a little bit of a better spot because it's not really that afraid of the Brave Bird anymore, so it's like kind of pick your poison, but um still, just overall, we're talking about the worst matchups outside of Dedene, and like even something like Cradilly, where you have a good matchup if you're on even energy, that also just can flip with one Incinerate.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: so Especially given that um Like, if you draw out the matchup as Decredily, just do a lot of Rock Tombs, get the shields down, and then maybe you would live the last move.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: But the Talonflame may just dip out of that matchup, bank a fly, and then throw that undebuffed later.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: So yeah, you're you're never truly safe, is what I'm getting at, if there is a Talonflame and you don't have a proper response to it.
William Dunphey: I agree. I think Talonflame also being such a hard punish for Shadow Scizor is something that's going to send it up the ranks. Because even if you could just, like you said, if you can rule out one Pokemon, ah in our example, we said if the opponent doesn't have the Dene, then what do they do against Talonflame safe swap?
William Dunphey: Well, if the opponent does have Scizor and you have Talonflame, i automatically that changes the whole dynamic about how the game is going to go. So Townflame being a number one in our viable option slot, I think it makes a lot of sense.
William Dunphey: ah You've got Galarian Moltres pretty high. Honestly, I would swap two Pokemon here. I would swap Fortress and I'd put it above the Galarian Moltres. I put Fortress right behind Townflame and this is not bias.
William Dunphey: ah this is This is the fact that... Fortress with Bug Bite. And I actually have heard some trainers tell me that Mirror Shot and Rock Tomb is is the way to go because you get the extra stab damage, but that's to be determined.
William Dunphey: But I think that Fortress with Rock Tomb is able to beat all the other bugs. a Bug Bite is just such a devastating move, especially against Dark Types. I think the fortress has a lot of play, a lot of neutral play.
William Dunphey: It doesn't like pop in the Sims. It doesn't look like, oh my gosh, this Pokemon's going to dominate everything. But I think it has enough bulk, and enough staying power and enough damage output to be a wedge, kind of like a zoom roll ah in that sense. Slower pacing, consistent damage, maybe a couple of debuffs could flip the script, so to speak.
William Dunphey: Stabilize, interesting spot here. Sorry, you want to talk about fortress?
zzweilous: Yeah, I just want to comment briefly on how it is a very strong answer to what we have as the number one Pokémon here in Crudilly. But also, it's not even that bad into Dusclops, where you would think that a bug damage dealing Pokémon may not be that great into a Ghost.
zzweilous: But because of Bug Bite being a one-turn fast attack and Dusclops having a lot of defense, but a very small HP pool actually, um Fortress is actually perfectly capable of holding its own in that matchup despite having resisted damage as its main damage source.
William Dunphey: Yeah, it's one of those counterintuitive things. You figure, like you said, Ghost versus Bug. The Bug would not do too well, but Bug Bite is just that OP, I guess. um Gligar actually looks really good in The Sims. We saw Dunebug try to bring it to NAIC, if I'm not mistaken. He didn't have that much success with it, but it does look very interesting.
William Dunphey: ah The Fury Cutter can be so fickle. A lot of the matchups are actually very, very close. Glyzopod being three spots from the bottom of this list, I think is absolute blasphemy as well.
William Dunphey: This Pokemon is so versatile. It's so powerful. I think this Pokemon deserves to be a lot higher, probably top four, top five, in my opinion. Requinib will be interesting. And I saw Home Size Henry having success with Toad's Gruul. So you aren't the only one who thinks this Pokemon might have something.
zzweilous: I think it's like definitely a strong contender in the Go Metal League. I don't know how popular is going to be Shor 6, but between the very interesting typing as a ground grass type and just like there the sheer power of Mud Slap, it's always going to be viable at least.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: and yeah I don't actually disagree with Goal Support being underrated by me here. It's just like a Pokemon that's that I personally dislike because it's always bad if I use it and super strong when it's being used against me.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: So yeah, i have a personal agenda against Galizapot, but um yeah, I think it's definitely a Pokemon that with the Fury Cutter damage being so good into Cradilly with its flexibility, just very efficient charge attacks, very good at shutting down ground types.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um Yeah, I can definitely see it do stuff and I think the jury's kind of still out on whether you want the Shadow Claw to be strong into the ghost types or the Fury Cutters to just really lean in on that ah stab damage.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: I think Fury Cutter is slightly better. um But yes, it's definitely one of the more flexible picks for sure.
William Dunphey: Well, Fury Cutter is much better in the Cradilly matchup, of course, and I think you're going to be seeing that pretty often. Cradilly is a big threat. Fury Cutter also a little bit harder to count, harder to anticipate, especially if you're in a high-pressure situation. So that might be more of a nuanced thing, and it wouldn't frazzle a really seasoned trainer, but to me at least, it looks a little bit more hectic.
William Dunphey: um So we've spent a lot of time on this, almost an hour ah into the recording. How about in our Don't Overlook section? We won't list every Pokémon here. If you want to see the full visual aid, ah make sure to visit ZZ's profile on X, formerly known as Twitter, or to watch the YouTube version where we will have the graphic up on stream.
William Dunphey: I just want to talk about like two picks here, and then if you want to take a couple for your site as well, So in this Don't Overlook slot, you've got ah Pokemon like Jellicent.
William Dunphey: ah You also have Regidrago, which I think is a bit inexplicable personally. But the one I want to point out is actually the...
zzweilous: and In what way? Should it be higher or lower? like
William Dunphey: I mean, it's fun. i played it in Go Battle League.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: Um, in a meta with, uh, Dedenne, Tinkatan, and Azumarill, I do not think Reggie Drago is, uh, is a very, a very, po a very good pick. I think something like, uh, Namankichi's, uh, Shadow Dragonite might be better, but, um,
William Dunphey: That's besides the point. The Pokemon I really want to talk about is the Kanto Ninetales. This Pokemon actually won a couple of practice tournaments in the Kanto Cult over the past week.
zzweilous: Amen.
William Dunphey: And honestly, it sims really well. If you give it Ember, Weatherball, Overheat, of course, in the Sims, you're getting the shields on the Weatherball base. You're landing the overheats, blah, blah, blah, blah.
William Dunphey: This Pokemon actually looks pretty solid. It's a bulkier fire type. It's it's easier to handle than something like a Talonflame or Typhlosion in the fact that it's not running Incinerate.
William Dunphey: I think Shadow Kanto Ninetales might be slept on a little bit going into the ah the world championships here. And yeah, I'm curious what your thoughts are.
zzweilous: Shadowcannon Ninetales is top it's it's top five on my on my fraud watch list.
William Dunphey: You can be honest.
zzweilous: I think it's like it really wants to land the overheat.
William Dunphey: oh
zzweilous: Obviously like the pacing to the weather ball is nice, but it does have fairly but little counterplay against the ground types that are already there just to check um Tinkerton and Dedene.
zzweilous: It essentially gets one shot by a rock tomb and we know how much Crideli loves to rock tomb stuff. um I think it just isn't very flexible with mostly sporting mono fire coverage.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um It's just overwhelmingly average. um It would lose the head to head against Talonflame if you wanted to go for a fire type.
zzweilous: And I also feel as if a lot of trainers really picked out Kanto Ninetales as a potential breakout star for NEIC and then it just did nothing.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: So I feel as if it looks nice on paper, but it may be a little bit of a sim hero. It may be a little bit underwhelming. And it like, I like the neutrality it has into most matchups, but if you have like four really nice neutral matchups where you could do something, but then there's also like one and a half that you don't want to be in at all, you would probably rather have something more specialized, more unique, rather than just raw fire damage.
William Dunphey: Hmm.
William Dunphey: Fair. All right. I'm curious if you wanted to highlight a couple of picks here that you were excited about.
zzweilous: Um... So this is one that I'm not really excited about, but that I put top of the don't overlook list for a reason, because I believe that Shadow's Deluxe with Thunder Fang could be a sneaky good pick for the Worlds meta, just because it is a way of um killing two birds with one stone, essentially, even though neither of the Pokemon that it checks ah that I
zzweilous: um I'm implying that you need coverage for our birds and it's also not a rock type. um But yeah, it's a Dedeni counter. It is a Shadow Scizor counter. um It is fairly good into Crudili.
zzweilous: um It is decent enough into Dusklobs. It is pretty strong into Mandibus, like really, really strong into Mandibus actually.
William Dunphey: Yep.
zzweilous: It obviously really hates being in a matchup against a again ah ground type, being in a matchup against a again ah fighting type, although can fight back against Primabe. um But, yep, yep, yep.
William Dunphey: Psychic things.
zzweilous: um Especially if the Primabe runs Ice Punch Rage Twist, then you can just let the first move go. um Against some Pokémon, you may need to shield more often than you would like to with such a bulky pick.
zzweilous: And yeah, like the main the main drawback is losing their two-head against each and every other ground type.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um But against many teams, Steelix has like four really positive matchups where you can like dictate switch advantage or make it so that some lines are impossible to bring for them.
zzweilous: And especially against some Pokemon that otherwise may sweep you, it's just like real good insurance. And I don't think many people are playing it, but I know like teammate of mine just recently played um i name redacted like a very high profile latem trainer um who was i don't want to like spoil the sauce for anybody um because like obviously like those um tournaments are anonymized for a reason um but yeah they played a teammate of mine and they had a steel axe and um yeah it's it's a strong pick it's a strong pick i can i think it can do stuff and
William Dunphey: oh
zzweilous: lot of people will not have a ton of practice against it, so yeah definitely one that I have an eye on. I don't have a great ah Shadow Steelix in terms of IVs, but I may consider it if we get it back into rotation um for the upcoming Rocket event, which thankfully starts the Monday before Worlds.
William Dunphey: It's precisely. And, and you know what? I'm just going to dox them. I'm just going to say exactly who it was. It was and DS core lash and they won Fortaleza. All right. That's who it was. Yep. That was also the season.
William Dunphey: you remember. Uh-huh.
zzweilous: That was that was the the in-between meta where Ryze also played it, right?
William Dunphey: Uh-huh. Hmm.
zzweilous: um ah well It wasn't that trainer, but I wouldn't be surprised to see um like maybe somebody who already had success with it bring it back right now because it does look very well positioned.
William Dunphey: Oh, okay. Interesting. Interesting. ah One last thing I wanted to ask you with with Shadow Steelix, what moveset do you think is most optimal? Because a lot of people are stuck on psychic things, breaking swipe, but there's a lot of versatility there.
zzweilous: I think Slender Fang is a given, Psychic Fang is a given, and then it depends.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: I think a lot of people, not a lot of people, but I've heard um conversations of people that were debating whether they want to use Crunch or whether that would leave them too vulnerable to Shadow Drapion, which then you would be able to only hit for resisted damage with either Psychic Fang or Crunch.
zzweilous: um But honestly, I don't believe that Dropion is that big of of a threat. We've been over that.
William Dunphey: Agreed.
zzweilous: So yeah, i think I think probably... Yeah, I think i think Crunch or Breaking Swap is probably it. I think Earthquake is just taking too long. I think Earthquake, we don't have time for that.
William Dunphey: yeah
William Dunphey: Ain't nobody got time for that, to be honest. Yeah, I think ah Crunch, Psychic Fangs. If I had to pick right now, I would agree with you. Who knows? Maybe trainers practicing with it before Worlds will make a different decision.
William Dunphey: um It's easy. We've crossed the one-hour mark. um This is a brilliant tier list. As much as i as I tease you about your picks, I do think there is a lot of validity here. ah You won me over with Townflame. I think you made a really good appeal when it comes to Steelix.
William Dunphey: ah The Ticketon, the jury for me, is still out on that case. We'll see. um Maybe I'll remix this list with my own picks kind of shuffled in and we'll compare our results. But ah either way, if you're watching the YouTube version, you can see this on video for the YouTube version.
zzweilous: i love to see it.
William Dunphey: um I think it's time for us to shift gears if you're ready and talk about some players.
zzweilous: Yes, yes, yes. Fewer Pokemon, more personalities from the competitive scene. And yeah, like we we took a picture of last year's book in a way where we had a bunch of categories and essentially took those categories as excuses to talk about players that we want to talk about.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um And I think we should just do that again, Speedy. Do you want to get us started?
William Dunphey: Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to get us started on that. ah One thing I wanted to mention is that ah this is the first season where we've had a cutoff per region. you know Top 75 NA, top 50 EU, top 50 LATAM, top 10, I believe, at OC.
William Dunphey: I just wanted to... kind of quantify for everyone what the championship points cutoffs actually look like. Because, you know, we've got the leaderboards, you can go and look on the website if you want. But if you're just a trainer that's looking to qualify for Worlds next year and you you're like, well, what's it really going to take to get into that threshold?
William Dunphey: You know, what ah what do the what does that actually look like in terms of points? I'll run it. I'll run down the list for you. So top 75, our bottom two trainers to qualify for the world championships were Twastel and Buckeye Fitzy.
William Dunphey: They both came in with just over 600 points. Twastel at 605 and Buckeye Fitzy at 607. So, If all things remain equal, being in the 600s at the end of next season will likely net you a world's invite, especially if the points remain as top-heavy as they were ah this season.
William Dunphey: Going to EU, ah top 50 is the cutoff. 747 is what MaxiP10M was able to net over the length of the season. He's actually tied with three other trainers for the same exact amount, including Dinoski.
William Dunphey: So if the US is 600s, EU is seven fifty s or more.
zzweilous: I want to i want to and into interject here real quick because for the 2026 season, we have seen changes being made to the number of ah invitations that can be earned.
William Dunphey: latin
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: And Europe is up to 65 and Latin America is also up to 65.
William Dunphey: right
zzweilous: So it's going to be a little easier for Europeans and our LATAM trainers to qualify next season.
William Dunphey: And that's why we make such a great show because the things I overlook, you you're actually on the ball. Thank you so much, ZZ. LATAM top 50, Basti was the lowest trainer on the board to qualify with 525 points.
William Dunphey: And then top 10 OC was actually Godzalama at the bottom of the list with 770. So whereas, as you pointed out, the the qualification net will increase in size for EU and LATAM,
William Dunphey: For OC, man, it is tough. 770 points, which is what, you know, 30 points above where Maxi P and Dinoski were this season. That's still very, very challenging. So I hope that ah OC can get a little bit more help in terms of local tournaments, lower point threshold, whatever they might need to do that.
zzweilous: I love that we have a special event in New Zealand for the upcoming season two with the Auckland Special Championship has been announced that will take place towards the end of January, I believe.
William Dunphey: Right?
William Dunphey: Right?
zzweilous: And I really hope that we get another community stream because I do want to see that scene highlighted.
William Dunphey: Me too. i think it's going to be incredible. I always wanted to go to New Zealand selfishly because that's where a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed. And I definitely want to see the beautiful landscapes.
zzweilous: I was very close. Like the timing is very awkward, so it will not happen. But if it happened at like, I don't know, like May or like, that that like May in here is like not even that nice of a time of year in the Southern hemisphere, but like any, any time of the year where I would have had more time to travel, and would have probably even considered that just because New Zealand is like one of those once in a lifetime destinations.
zzweilous: um
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: and Yeah. Just like, Having an excuse to do something entirely different for probably like two weeks would have been lovely. Maybe it will come back another year. But for now, we'll just enjoy the show when we hopefully you get to watch some of the New Zealand battles.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to see Yusei compete as well. I think that's the trainer we always talk about when we talk about New Zealand. So hopefully he has a good showing at that event. um In terms of qualification, as ZZ pointed out, the net is increasing a little bit, but I just want to give everyone a ballpark for what these trainers had to ah rack up in terms of points or to qualify for Worlds.
William Dunphey: Now, in our player reviews, we've got several categories. We've got Heating Up on the Rebound, Dark Horse Candidates, Machampions, which we not so gently stole from TapTapCast, Return to the WCS, Wild Cards, Most Improved, and then our World's Favorite, if we can only pick one trainer that we think is going to win it all. So, ZZ, let's start off with Heating Up.
William Dunphey: I'm just going to throw my list out there, all right? My three trainers for the heating up category. I've got Adeeb Khan, who is excellent in Portland, got better as the weekend went on, playing very, very clean, very, very high on on him going into Worlds.
William Dunphey: Stud Muffins, who has only improved, composers unmatched. He always wears the hat. Brim pulled down, can't read his expressions. Very, very cool guy. And Charming Pory, who has been absolutely tearing things up in South Korea, winning tournaments, climbing the the Go Battle League leaderboards, just doing awesome.
William Dunphey: I think those three trainers are peaking at the right time in the season.
zzweilous: I love that selection. i actually have two of those trainers coming up ah later on as well. And the only one that I don't have on my list, on the fairly long list, is Adip Khan. But I still want to give him a shout out because we did battle at NAIC. And we battled at the tables, which is like always an experience, if I may say so myself.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And i was like fairly laggy, but um he extended a lot of good sportsmanship to me during those battles when it was like, maybe he lagged a little here and there, but just like the the interaction at the table it was like very, very amicable, even though there was a lot on the line. And let me shout out to him, a fantastic battler as well.
zzweilous: um I think my heating up category, maybe maybe I'm overheating already a little bit, Because my first player that I want to mention is actually it's Axon.
zzweilous: Because but it's like how hot can you be?
William Dunphey: What?
zzweilous: It's a former champion. It's the NAIC winner. like If there's anybody who's on form right now, then it is Axon.
zzweilous: and yeah like There's some talk in the VGC community about Wolf Big potentially not only taking the triple crown of um regional champion IC champion world's champion but also doing it in one season which nobody has done before and yeah accent could do that in just a couple of weeks um given how ah late in the season his resurgence came um but yeah I think that is a trainer that is undoubtedly on fire um my second name is nickname 29585 the only two times EU champion uh this season if I'm not mistaken
zzweilous: and yeah He's one of those trainers that like I see him enter practice tournaments a lot, and I rarely ever see him go anything than like maybe like one round loss, but never really more than that.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um And he's definitely, especially towards the second half of the season, been kind of ah the gold standard for a European competition, at least domestically.
zzweilous: um so yeah, I feel as if he's definitely one to watch out for. And my last ah trainer that I have on my list is the fourth place Portland finisher who also got ninth place at NAIC with a regular Sableye.
zzweilous: um It is Ash Nash, a trainer that I found a lot of people are rooting for it because he's definitely in the conversation for most excellent tournament runs without that number one just yet, without that goal.
zzweilous: And even though it would be crazy to get that at Worlds, I feel as if um as a battler, as a team builder, it's just like a very consistent competitor um who got second place in Merida, third place in Atlanta, fourth place in Portland.
zzweilous: He's really had a very impressive season. And I also think that his gameplay has been and on point as of recent. So yeah I feel as if he's definitely somebody to to have an eye on.
William Dunphey: Interesting. um I have all three of those trainers somewhere else on my list, but ah I had the same kind of dilemma that you had. I was like, well, somebody like it's accent. Are they a champion already?
William Dunphey: or Are they heating up? Like, how do you categorize this person? Can I put them in two categories?
zzweilous: we We have more, like we limited us ah to ah three per category, right?
William Dunphey: Yeah. Yeah.
zzweilous: But if we just count the champions, like the people who actually got like a gold medal at one of the championships or maybe like even a little trophy, we'll probably have like 30 to 40 people to to put into the different categories.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: So Obviously there's going to be oversights.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: Like I left some trainers out of the list entirely that I think are excellent and could easily win the whole thing. um But that's just the level of competition that there are so many trainers that are so accomplished.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And it's lovely to see. But yeah, like I'm very curious to see who you consider to be on the rebound. Who is like somebody who may have something to prove and want to bounce back at the world championships.
William Dunphey: This one is such a strange category because you would never count these players out. You never count them like ah you know as has-beens or washed by any means because they're all really, really talented.
William Dunphey: ah And a lot of them have reached such such insane heights that not winning events outright feels like a step back. right I just want to preface my picks by saying that because a lot of people are going to raise eyebrows. so um On the rebound.
zzweilous: I treated the category as ah as exactly the same, by the way. Like all of my, like all of my trainers are a lot more accomplished than I am myself.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: So um this is definitely not meant as a disrespect.
William Dunphey: Yeah, when I visualize this, I literally visualize a basketball player who you know got the game winning shot or the game winning dunk, whatever it might be. And then the next game, they they missed the the game winning shot.
William Dunphey: It's like, oh, well, they've been there. They've done it. We know they can, but they've stumbled a little bit and maybe they're coming back. The trainers that I have on my list are Dunebug97, which he did win the Merida special event. He took on TZ Spanx in the finals.
William Dunphey: Incredible player. Dunebug always is. But anything less than three regional wins in a season and a runner-up at an IC feels like a step back.
zzweilous: yeah
William Dunphey: so
zzweilous: Oh, fair. that's fair
William Dunphey: ah And then then if you consider Dunebug's world's run last season, where he finished in the 60s, 65th overall or something like that, I think it leaves a lot to be desired for him personally. and I think a lot of people want to see him succeed.
William Dunphey: ah The next pick is actually his nemesis and rival, Rise to Occasion. So Rise is on the rebound. um He had a lot of success during the during the regular season. I mean, this is, again, Rise standards.
William Dunphey: 5th in Louisville, 2nd in San Antonio, 1st in Vancouver in the in-between meta. Then he had strong showings, 7th in Monterey and 5th in Milwaukee. But where Rise has really struggled a bit is in the international play.
William Dunphey: LAIC, he was tied for 33rd and NAIC, he was tied for twenty fifth And this is a year or two after his his spectacular run with Wadaj, House Stark, and Ryze up there at the top at NAIC.
William Dunphey: um I just feel like Ryze at the international level has still some things to prove. And I think that um after his win in the in-between meta, we're going to see just how well he team builds when everyone else has as much time and as much invested into the this tournament.
William Dunphey: And finally, i have Alan D.S. Harjeff, the king of Latam. ah Last season, his crown has been taken by Marto Galde. And I think that Harjeff has a lot to prove. He's made some cryptic posts online saying, well, I'm going to actually really go hard. I'm going to really invest.
William Dunphey: And if you talk with him, you know, he's such a lovable guy. ah Didn't have the best run at NAIC this past season. But i do think ah I do think he's got what it takes to win it all. So we'll see if he locks in and does well at Worlds.
zzweilous: I know from the features that sometimes play ah between battles at the Regionals that he's also just a competitor at heart who really aims for excellence and really makes it his mission.
zzweilous: So I'm definitely excited to see what he cooks up for this biggest tournament of the season.
William Dunphey: Yep.
zzweilous: and yeah I would say that um my three players are like giants on essentially exactly the same level. um i will start us off with Lionel Jeffs III.
William Dunphey: Oh, good pick.
zzweilous: um who is the Louisville ah champion, but actually has missed out on top eight in the five tournaments since, which like many of those runs were still very respectable, pretty good runs.
zzweilous: But with somebody like Lyle Jeffs, is he at like three regional wins at this point?
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um He's definitely somebody that you consider a threat even at the world's level. I think he needs to drop the K9. um This is where I actually had like... um like This is literally in my notes before you pointed out the K9.
William Dunphey: See you soon.
zzweilous: um um But yeah, I think if he finds the right team composition for the occasion, then he's going to improve on his previous Worlds runs, which were ah two and two each.
zzweilous: um Yeah, Lyle, one of the most respected trainers within the North American community and certainly a force to be reckoned with, um with the potential to bounce back The next trainer is probably like, I alluded to this um yesterday.
zzweilous: i put out of pocket here because I think pocket probably has just about the highest standards of any trainer out there. He started the season with, I think, nine top cuts in a row, um which is kind of crazy.
zzweilous: He later went on to win Milwaukee. But he narrowly missed out on Topcat in Portland. And I think his NAIC showing was a 1-2, which is his worst performance of the season.
zzweilous: Since then, has essentially it's just like consistently stayed on page one of the GBL leaderboard and won the Devon World Championship without dropping a game. So this is the type of pocket we're dealing with.
zzweilous: And yeah, like you didn't have to try for NAIC, right? Because he already won that the year before. hasn't won Worlds yet. But maybe the Yad carries that sentence a lot here because I think he's definitely on the rebound, as the category says.
zzweilous: um Also, it's like a quagsire meta, and we know that this is one of his favorites.
William Dunphey: Uh-huh. Oh, yeah.
zzweilous: um um Then for my last pick, I went back to Europe, and you ended with an international champion. I will end with an international champion. think Tonton Matus, 2023 is when he got his EUIC crown,
zzweilous: He is a player that after the first third of the season was probably considered like top three to top five in the world because he was just like doing top fours back to backto back to back.
William Dunphey: Yeah, agreed.
zzweilous: um And ever since he's like, I feel like he's one of those players who in terms of ability is really, really up there, but he also needs a meta that,
zzweilous: he and his spicy ways personally you vibe with and i don't know like he hasn't really played as many tournaments uh since the first half of the season um but i really wonder what he thinks of the current meta whether he um finds a way of breaking it in such creative fashion as we've seen from him before but what i know is that he already brought steelix to a tournament once this season and i earlier did call out steelix as a potential core breaker for this meta. So um I would not be surprised if there was a very special recipe being cooked up somewhere in France right now.
William Dunphey: Tonton is great. I've had a few chances to talk with him. ah Very kind, very welcoming, very humble champion. And he's good. He's good when he's not four or five times weak to a zoom role or something that's like prominent in the meta.
William Dunphey: And we'd love to see him with his team building shenanigans. he's He's on my list as well. I'll talk more about him later. But those are actually really, really good picks. Lyle Jeffs, Out of Pocket, and Tonton.
William Dunphey: Man, I feel like Out of Pocket has... Out of Pocket, I don't want to say is the most improved in terms of gameplay, but he's the most improved in terms of mental aspects of the game.
William Dunphey: Because early on in the season, when you saw him enter day two in the Lugicide bracket, it was like... it was like that a Death Eater had you know flown by him at night and sucked half of his soul out. He just didn't feel like his heart was in it.
William Dunphey: But something changed with with Pocket, and he's his mental, I think, is stronger than ever. So hopefully that one-two at NEIC doesn't rattle him too much because I think he's going to do really well. Next category, Dark Horse Candidates.
William Dunphey: going to kick things off with Ashton Ash, because this is a player that you mentioned before in your heating up category. Ashton Ash, I don't, I wouldn't say directly that he's heating up. I think he's always been pretty good. He's always been a player that's, you know, top eight, top four, you know, challenge pocket last year for the NAIC crown in new Orleans.
William Dunphey: I think Ashton Ash has everything he needs to, to win, especially if he's got a team from Eomero, because that seems to be the the winning recipe. And, uh,
zzweilous: i'm glad you i'm glad I'm glad that shall not happen because I originally wanted to put Eomero on my list but then forgot about it, which like kind of goes to show that he's such an underrated player and team builder in his own right.
zzweilous: But yeah, please continue.
William Dunphey: Yeah. Well, that that's the thing as well. like you can You can steal a team, but actually playing it to a high level is just a whole other aspect of the game, and it's not as easy as some players make it look. ah Colin comes to mind, right? He's somebody that can take somebody else's team and master it in half the time, which is honestly a remarkable skill. So maybe Ash Nash can do that at Worlds. We're going to see.
William Dunphey: I battled him in the Kendo Cult yesterday, and I wished him well. i really hope that he does well because he feels like one of those trainers that's due for a win. ah the Next player um my list, I don't necessarily know if this trainer is due for a win in the same sense, but I want to shout out to Sceptile Ice. This trainer was almost my most improved ah for the season because he really turned a corner at the beginning of this year. But Sceptile Ice is just so versatile, ah so calculated, and so fluid with the gameplay.
William Dunphey: I think he's got a really good chance to knock off some big names, especially if they aren't ready for him. My final pick is Richie1409. And Richie is one of those players who he won with Galarian Corsola and PrimeapeCore that you called out.
William Dunphey: ah He won, I believe, in Bogota with that. Richie's so good. ah We always you know gush about him as being a good member of the community, but I really want to see Richie just shave off that remaining 10% on his way to greatness. Because I think he's 90% of the way there. He's very talented. He's a threat. He finished top cut and an IC at least once a season, if not twice.
William Dunphey: So, so good. Perfect.
zzweilous: You are still wrong. he top cut all three ICs. And I think he came in ninth, fifth, and third. um Third at LAIC, I'm pretty sure.
William Dunphey: Perfect.
zzweilous: um Ninth at NAIC, if I'm not mistaken. And then fifth at EUIC, I'm pretty sure.
William Dunphey: your your brain Your brain is like a database. You're exactly right.
zzweilous: So I think I just took the notes somewhere. I don't know whether he still comes up for me.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And I have him somewhere here. Yeah, I had him in my like return to the the world championship. But yeah, this is this is where I got that from. um But yeah, it's certainly a trainer worth shutting out because like that level of consistency is insane.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
William Dunphey: Yeah, and and the thing is, you know but as you said, incredible finishes that I see. He won Bogota, but then there were a couple of duds. He was tied 33rd in Atlanta, and then he ah was 25th in Monterey. So Richie's one of those players that I don't feel like is as close to someone like Ashton Ash, but they are adjacent, I would say, in terms of skill, capability.
William Dunphey: ah Those are my dark horses, Ashton Ash, Septialice, and Richie, 1409.
zzweilous: I personally feel as if my horses are even a little darker. um So my first candidate is somebody who is yet to lose a series and play Pokemon. It's Boom20, the little champion.
zzweilous: um Never played a tournament before, never played a tournament after. Won that tournament in a very memorable finals against Skullin6. um yeah I think he's somebody whose execution is second to none who will not overthink his gameplay decisions as much because I feel as if when you're constantly playing tournaments and you always like measure yourself up against everybody else that may maybe impact your mental a little bit at times whereas if you just feel like okay I just get to play this and it's great that I get to be here and I know what I can do but
zzweilous: It's not as if I'm consistently like I don't really have to prove myself. Like he went into Lille, just took it and went home.
William Dunphey: Mmm.
zzweilous: And who was supposed to say, can't just do that in Anaheim as well.
William Dunphey: True.
zzweilous: So definitely one of the strongest European contenders. um Moving on to one of the strongest Asian contenders, and that is Master Mihir.
zzweilous: Master Mihir is the current Indian champion.
William Dunphey: Mmm.
zzweilous: we seen how well uh indian competitors do on the big stage from bl the boy taking fourth place last year and yeah i personally had the honor of playing against master me here in a grassroots tournament in march and i had a massive team comp advantage and still only narrowly eeked out the victory and what i personally like we've talked about how maybe shadow annihilate is like a little bit of a risky bring right now i personally don't think i've ever seen a trainer as masterful with Shadow Annihilate as Master Mihir.
William Dunphey: Oh.
zzweilous: So I wonder whether he's going to bring it or whether he considers it like a little bit too RPS in this meta.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: But yeah, I think he is also like one of those trainers who won the qualifiers and the playoffs. So like not even any drop off in performance and certainly somebody to to keep an eye on for Worlds.
zzweilous: and Like, keeping with the theme of my Dark Valses all being players who didn't really play that many tournaments, ah my last player that I want to shout out is SSThorn, who is obviously a Canadian prodigy. um Two tournaments, two top eights.
zzweilous: um Consistent GBL and grassroots success, and I think if he competed at the frequency of somebody as Pocket or Nighttime Clasher, we would just talk about him as much, but he just doesn't get to travel to as many events.
zzweilous: and Yeah, i hope that we will see him at Anaheim and I can definitely, like his ceiling is world champion. That's for sure in my opinion.
William Dunphey: Wow. Wow. High praise for for SS Thorn. Interesting, interesting. ZZ, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I did see a chat discussion about Boom20 not being able to attend Worlds this year.
William Dunphey: It's going to be very sad if that's the case.
zzweilous: Ah, that would be unfortunate.
William Dunphey: Yeah, if that's the case, it's very upsetting um because he is so good. He beat Colin in the finals, right?
zzweilous: Yes.
William Dunphey: Yeah, thought so.
zzweilous: And like, that was the Malama Ariados energy management extravaganza.
William Dunphey: ah
zzweilous: That was ah that's a crazy tournament to watch.
William Dunphey: Yeah, that was that was the one I watched on on mute. And I was like, man, Colin, I wasn't familiar with your game. I apologize. that was That was really an insane series. So hopefully that's not true. Hopefully Boom is able to attend. But I think that's a great, great pick as a Dark Horse candidate.
William Dunphey: Moving on to our Machampions. Let's talk about a trainer who has become the foil to the former king of LATAM, still king of Brazil, in my opinion. That is going to be S. Corlash.
William Dunphey: Corlash has won two events this season. Very, very powerful player. I don't think that Corlash did that well at NAIC, tied for 33rd overall, but he did win the crown in Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro.
William Dunphey: And yeah, I mean, again, this category for me is focused on players that have won championships, have done it multiple times, and have proven that they can do it essentially anytime that they heat up.
William Dunphey: Second trainer on my list is going to be Pato Man. I don't think there needs to be any explanation here. Pato Man is absolutely on another level. And with the miraculous turn of events that happened at NAIC is going to be very hard to repeat against someone of his level.
William Dunphey: So Pato Man is incredible. Third pick is going to be a trainer you mentioned earlier, Nickname. Won two events in Europe, arguably the best trainer in EU right now. If you won an event with Guzzlord, you're already on my best friends list.
William Dunphey: If you win one with Corviknight as well, you're way up on the list. So Nickname did both of those things. I'm ah i'm a big fan. So Coralash, Potoman, and Nickname are my mid-champions.
zzweilous: Yeah, single-handedly ridding Corviknight of the fraud allegations. That is actually fairly impressive.
William Dunphey: but Yeah.
zzweilous: um So yeah, we have a little bit of an overlap in that I also want to shout out Partoman for what was just like an incredible season, especially towards the half of it with making day three and two different ICs, taking his home one at EUIC.
William Dunphey: Oh.
zzweilous: as I will know. um And also making the Sevilla Grand Finals as well, where he only succumbed to what was a very tough team composition to go up against.
zzweilous: um But yeah, certainly one of Europe's greatest champions. Then maybe the greatest champion of the season, because he took four events, is Marto Galladay.
zzweilous: And like you talk about potential ah kings of Latin America. And I think the crown for this year certainly resides in Argentina.
William Dunphey: Wow.
zzweilous: He took Santiago, Merida, LAIC and Lima in the same season. And the only question marks that I have for Mato is, is he able to do it in the U.S.?
William Dunphey: wow
zzweilous: Because like he's been, i think, doing a top eight at the UIC or something. So that was excellent as well. But he played two U.S. tournaments this season. It was a 33rd place in San Antonio and a 65th place at NAIC.
zzweilous: Granted, the NAIC performance came at very short notice because it was originally supposed to cast the event, but I think there were visa issues.
William Dunphey: Short notice.
zzweilous: um But yeah, like, Marto definitely, I think, the most impressive season of everybody. um But yeah, like... are the United States just cursed or will he be able to do at Anaheim as well?
zzweilous: And yeah, my last match champion is probably the North American trainer of the season, even though Axan has some momentum, but Elam elum never finished outside of the top five all season. um He won Toronto in Atlanta, he just came second in NAAC.
zzweilous: I think he's like the name to beat probably and even though like we still have our prediction for who is going to take it and I went like a little bit spicier with that one because I like to make calls that aren't super obvious um but yeah no I did not um but yeah like like Elim obviously like if we talk about consistency like if if you look up consistency in the dictionary you will see Elim with two gold medals around his neck
William Dunphey: You picked yourself.
zzweilous: um and probably also like that AI picture with like super strong arms as well. um and Yeah, like I feel as if if you had like the face of Latim, it's Martu.
William Dunphey: Fair.
zzweilous: If you had the face of Europe, it's Pato. And if you had the face of NA, it's even the season. So those are my mid-champions.
William Dunphey: Wow. I really can't argue. i think those are all incredible, incredible picks. Elim not finishing outside of a fifth place is even more remarkable when you consider how many events he actually went to, which is staggering.
William Dunphey: um Next category is the return to the WCS. And I have some overlap with you this time. ah The first trainer that is returning to the WCS is actually going to be Marto for me.
zzweilous: Oh.
William Dunphey: ah So not only, of course, is he the best trainer in the world right now, ah actually eclipsing even what Dunebug was able to do last season. If you think about it, if Dunebug was able to beat um Emmy Weedle at EYC, they would have identical, you know, semi-identical records. IC champion, three regionals in the same season, but Marto took everything one step further.
William Dunphey: And you mentioned him being a bit cursed in terms of n a performances, but I mean, he was third overall at Worlds in Hawaii. So maybe it's just the mainland US where he seems to...
zzweilous: Yeah, that may be true.
William Dunphey: Now find his footing. um But yeah, for me, this, this return to the WCS for Marto feels like unfinished work. ah Third place overall last season with Whimsicott on his team came very, very close. I think that his matchup versus, I believe it was Basti was probably the most watched Basti a clip of the entire tournament. It was absolutely incredible.
William Dunphey: And for someone who memes as much as he does and who jokes around as much as he does, he is more cracked at the game than anyone. So Marta coming back to the, to the WCS, especially with prep time, especially knowing he's competing right off the bat.
William Dunphey: Everyone should be scared of the Argentinian. ah Next up, I've got Itz Axon. Of course, 2023 world champion in Yokohama. The storybook ending wasn't even done there because he wants another crown. And I think he's, like you said, heating up in the prime position to do that in and Anaheim.
William Dunphey: Third pick is actually going to be, I believe he finished seventh overall at Worlds last season with Skeledurge and Gudra. That is going to be PvP David. I think PvP David returning to the the WCS should scare everyone else on the other side because ah he's just so fast.
William Dunphey: He thinks on his feet like no one else. And I've been a PvP David fan ever since Hawaii. I think he's incredible. um But yeah, Axan, Marto, and David, I honestly, skill-wise, I put them all in the same bracket. I think they all could win the whole thing.
zzweilous: um' I'm really happy that like this is not the first time, but you always pick some of the players for your categories that I want to include, but didn't have space for anymore.
zzweilous: And David is definitely one of them because like he, I think he won one and then made two other grand finals this season, which again, like if, if this is your real resume for, for the season, you are definitely somebody who can go all the way.
William Dunphey: Ah.
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: and yeah, I think that's, very good selection of trainers. um My three, like we've been over um one of them already, who is Richie1409. Yeah, like obviously calling out IC consistency, Bogota Championship.
zzweilous: But he also went Last Worlds, if I looked that up correctly. So he definitely has something to prove. And I'm fairly confident that he will. um Another trainer that I think um will be very interesting to watch return to the world championship is actually our last world champion.
zzweilous: Yekai will be back. We've seen essentially nothing of him for a year because I guess like he's mostly busy with with school. He's also not competing in a TPCI region, but he was ah the best trainer at the world championship championship last year.
zzweilous: Now the question is, where does he go from here? Will he just do it again? Was he practicing for it? Is he like, eager to take the double crown does he think that oh like I've already <unk> already done it all essentially and we've seen him go 0-2 at one of these we've got we've seen him win ah one of these so Yakai at world championships always going to be like an extreme at least and yeah obviously good enough to win it all but just like somebody that we actually know fairly little about
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: based on just how little exposure there is between the big events. um And yeah, my last trainer that I want to highlight is um one of the, I think, seven women qualified for Worlds, which is, um like i hang out in pretty co-ed spaces a lot, and sometimes regionals go without seeing a women battler on stage, and that is always a little disheartening.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: and So I think Paulasha is not only a champion in her own right, but also a little bit of a role model. and Last ah World Championships, she actually went out against Enhoff, somebody who hasn't competed this year, but made for a really memorable moment, moment bringing in all Alolan team, taking on Paula in her Shadow Magna zone.
William Dunphey: a
William Dunphey: ah
zzweilous: So really a spice battle as well, and a stream highlight that I think um Pokemon even included in a little bit of a compilation um from the World Championships afterwards because it was just so hype.
William Dunphey: yeah.
zzweilous: And yeah, last World Championships, Paula went down in the very first round, then had a great losers bracket run all the way to day two, um winning 2-1 every time. So a lot of um opportunities to prove that you can perform with your back to the wall.
zzweilous: And yeah, I think she's like also like underrated a fairly spicy team. mil ive song I've seen a Shadow Mighty in Bologna, I'm not mistaken. So yeah, I wonder i wonder what will happen with this meta and the Paul Asher team of choice.
zzweilous: wonder whether Furret, which is a fan favorite, will make a return. And yeah, I think she'll she'll definitely put on a show once again. Maybe they'll be cooking.
William Dunphey: I'm really glad you mentioned Palasha because last season she got a lot of attention with Shadow Magnezone. But this season, the the amount of you know coverage, attention that's been directed at her has not been as high.
William Dunphey: But I think she's a trainer you definitely cannot sleep on. And Paula is going to be really, really powerful no matter what. I remember casting that Enhoff-Palasha matchup. That was wild. To win a a series against Paula with an All-Alola team was...
William Dunphey: Yeah, I mean, if you could you know if you could put achievements on your your Pokemon Go PvP resume and I was Enhoff, that would be like top three achievements for me because that's that's an insane feat.
William Dunphey: I like that you mentioned Yikai.
zzweilous: I'm excited to, like again, like just a little interjection, but I think Anhoff somewhat announced to be maybe like returning to the championship series a little more.
William Dunphey: Go ahead.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: towards the next season and I think especially with how she's not shying away from just bringing a themed team to a tournament just running that and actually playing it as a series I'm glad that we all have that back
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
William Dunphey: Well, I'll tell you what's easy. The real ones remember the quintuple moonblast debuff. All right. The real ones remember. And Enhoff playing primate before anyone else, you know, so.
zzweilous: okay it's true had a 100% win rate at that tournament
William Dunphey: These, these. Exactly right.
zzweilous: I'm out for one medal.
William Dunphey: This is history, right? It's already been written. But yeah, I'm really excited to see Anna come back. I think she's going to do great. um I also have Yikai on my list, but not as a return to the WCS.
William Dunphey: um I want to preface this. All right. I want to preface this by reviewing really quickly Yikai's bracket run at Worlds last year, because I got curious while you were talking about him. You said he was the best overall trainer.
William Dunphey: I know sometimes when you look at the brackets, you say, oh, well, they had you know a relatively easier run. Maybe they didn't play you know two international champions back-to-back or whatever rationale you want to offer.
zzweilous: Thank you.
William Dunphey: Here's the record for Ya'Kai. Round one, Nighttime Clasher. Round two, Lankern. Round three, Galax Cobulton. Round four, LNDS Steinar. Round five, Kaiban, very talented trainer from the TPC region.
William Dunphey: Round six, Beelzebuey. Round seven, Lurgen Rocket. Round eight, Marto Galde. And then round nine, Grand Finals Inadequates. So Ya'Kai really did run the absolute gauntlet of trainers from all in different regions and worlds.
William Dunphey: But for me, because we haven't seen much of Yakai, he's actually the first pick in my wild cards slot. Because as you alluded to, every world champion treats it differently.
William Dunphey: After Dancing Rob won, he kind of you know dipped a toe into content, but then he decided to become a judge full time, and that's where his passion really is. After Axan won, he went full into content, and he's trying to educate people, and he's also competing at a high level consistently, especially this season.
William Dunphey: And then Ya'Kai has kind of just, you know, he's younger. Maybe he's focused on school or other life responsibilities, but he's not, he's we can't see him as much as we can see the other two.
William Dunphey: So Ya'Kai for me is a big wild card. He could absolutely pop off and win again, who knows? Or he could be a trainer that has, you know, and respectable performance, but nothing like last year. Maybe last year was just special.
William Dunphey: The next pick in my wild cards, I was struggling between Tonton Batus and DeSynced, and I was struggling between them for the same reason. Because they both are such elaborate team builders that either their team is totally cracked and it disrupts the meta and it just makes all their opponents fold like paper or it's something that kind of flops and i feel like uh i settled it on tonton batu's because he already won an event this season but he's such a wild card if he is feeling this meta as you alluded to earlier he could be very very dangerous but if he's not it might not be a performance that he wants to remember
William Dunphey: My final pick in the wild card slot is someone who's consistent consistently very good, has not won an event since Liverpool, but I think has all the raw talent and commitment that you need in a player, and that is Nighttime Clasher.
William Dunphey: I think Ya'Kai, Tauntaun, and Nighttime Clasher are my wild cards for Worlds, all for varying reasons, and I'm really curious what your picks are.
zzweilous: those pretty excellent selections um feel as if my oil cards are like my reasoning behind some of them is or like at least behind the first is similar to your reasoning behind the kai because the trainer that is my very first pick is also somebody that we haven't really ever seen but we've heard of them if we ever checked the gbl leaderboards or maybe some screenshots of people hitting Legend in just 185 battles.
zzweilous: 315 Katunari 315 is one of the highest profile Japanese battlers.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: um And also just for years and years and years, just consistently been topping the GPL leaderboards. I feel as if the Japanese community is like,
zzweilous: somewhat disappointed with how little a role they played when like the day three, like they they weren't in day three, they weren't really there anymore for the end of day two.
zzweilous: And if we look at JBL alone, it's probably the country that has the most leaderboarders at any given time. There's sometimes like a but little bit of controversy around some of them, but most of them are just really, really good players.
William Dunphey: Agreed.
zzweilous: I think Katunari falls into that category. And I just, I'm really excited to see like a mystery figure like that, that I've seen on the leaderboards for years at this point, just battle life and in the flesh.
zzweilous: Really hope that's that they are one of the players that actually makes it over. um My second wildcard pick is a lot closer to home. He's a European trainer who,
zzweilous: actually tied for most rounds one at EUIC this year. That is Kazim33.
William Dunphey: Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: I think I've heard people mention Kazim as like somebody who like really popped off this season. He would have been a candidate for most improved also, but also somebody who just in terms of raw skill, probably still,
zzweilous: underperforms his ceiling almost because like sometimes he plays overly flashy, but just being able to do that just goes to show that he is somebody who has the ability to understand and execute plays that a lot of players don't even think of.
zzweilous: His latest tournament was, i think, a fourth place in Bologna where he lost to Colin Sixx twice. think with the mirror teams as well. So like Colin, definitely an oversight in terms of, I think he's like one of the best, but I couldn't start him in anywhere.
zzweilous: um But yeah, this is more about Kazim, who I think is an up and comer who, especially with just like a very deep UIC losers run, um has proven the season that not only is he a champion, like he proved in Dortmund with that early title,
zzweilous: but he's also somebody who has the stamina to just do super, super well at an international level competition. i think that's what you need for Worlds.
zzweilous: um And my last candidate is a Korean battler. um This trainer is not really known for Pokemon Go. They are known for being VGC world champion, but Seijoon Park, also known as Mangmi, that's his IGM,
zzweilous: within pokemon go one vgc worlds with the pachirisu i don't know whether the that is coming out for this pokemon go team this time but he is qualified and this is a true pokemon master like a celebrity potentially bigger than the game itself at least on the play pokemon stage and i'm really excited to see what he can do because what a feat it would be what a story it would be if somebody
William Dunphey: Yeah.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: was able to take home trophies in so many different games. i Certainly a jack of all trades and master of at least one, potentially more.
William Dunphey: Yeah, imagine that. It was so hype. the The trailer that was designed for Worlds in 2022, I believe we had Imagine Dragons doing the soundtrack for that song, if I remember right.
William Dunphey: ah But you you had literally a 3D animation of the Pachirisu doing the Follow Me and then the Draco Meteor coming down. Yeah, absolutely iconic.
William Dunphey: I mean, it doesn't get bigger than Seijoon Park. um He's had a little bit of success in Go over the past few years. I can tell that he's committed to it. He's been trying. He tries all the Pokemon games. I think he was on a Unite team as well that also ah was qualified for an IC or something like that, if i if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, he's trying all the Pokemon games, to your point. you And to win and ah a World Championship crown in two different titles, he would obviously be the first one to do it. So...
William Dunphey: I'd be really excited to do that or to see that. You mentioned Kazim, great shout out. Katunari is also good. I'm curious about the other Japanese trainers too, like like Salted Koji or PJCS champion or or CAG MP or any of the other Ks in Japan.
William Dunphey: i think I think all of them have a lot of potential. So yeah, I like that you're reaching to the other regions as well.
zzweilous: Yes.
William Dunphey: This is very good. I think our next slot is most improved and I believe we limited ourselves to one pick each, right?
zzweilous: yes
William Dunphey: Okay, so I want to preface this by saying my most improved trainer. going to run through their 2024 performances as quickly as I can. Lille, 65th. Stuttgart, Liverpool,
William Dunphey: Dortmund, 33rd. Utrecht, 65th. EUIC, 97th. Worlds, overall.
William Dunphey: uthrecht sixty fifth e yc ninety seventh worlds forty ninth over all Starting this season, not the hottest start. 33rd in Dortmund, 25th in Lille, 49th in Gdansk, and then suddenly something changed.
William Dunphey: 5th in Stuttgart, 3rd at EUIC, 7th in Sevilla. I'm talking about Kaifje, the trainer that no one can pronounce his name correctly. but I think is the most improved trainer year over year, especially in the EU region.
William Dunphey: A trainer who I believe is Amanda Lundberg's local over in in Belgium. But Kaifia is so, so talented, especially at EUIC. Such an incredible trainer to watch. Sorry, ZZ. Too soon again. Well, actually, you beat him.
zzweilous: ah Yeah, I was about to say like not not too soon at all, but i'm I'm just smiling because we have the exact same pick.
William Dunphey: Pantaman and you beat him.
William Dunphey: Okay.
zzweilous: I also picked Koichi.
William Dunphey: No! Really? Really?
zzweilous: Yes, yes, yes. I guess like it's pretty close to home for me because... So, um last World Championships, um on my way to picking up the badge and the merch, all the swag that you get, um I ran into...
William Dunphey: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
zzweilous: Odin, another um very talented German trainer, and Koifje, obviously our pick for most improved. And yeah this is essentially the first time i really talked to the guys. I didn't really know them before.
zzweilous: And both of them then just ended and up having such an impressive season. And um yeah, I've been like talking to each of them in some capacity since.
zzweilous: And yeah, like because of that third place i see finish obviously because you got the knot but yeah i'm just like i i see him share his insight on some some matches some team building questions and like he came into this game as somebody who wanted to learn it and he's coming so close to mastery is a lot of
William Dunphey: Yes.
zzweilous: original thoughts that I think are a sign of somebody who really can dictate a game and potentially a whole tournament um just from that position of mastery. And yeah, therefore, I think he's a fantastic candidate for for this category specifically.
William Dunphey: That's so hilarious to me that we ah we allotted three picks for each of these other slots. And we had some overlap you know category category.
zzweilous: i thought you'd pick a North American.
William Dunphey: No, come on come on. I'm not so limited, but no.
zzweilous: like i was I was thinking of like Sceptre and Iso-Stutmuffins, but I just thought like, okay, I'm the EU guy, I'll pick the EU guy, but
William Dunphey: No, no. Septile Ice would have been a good pick as well. I think Sudmuffins was solid last season too, so hard to say. ah But yeah, I don't know. I don't know if there's much more I can add, but Kaifia is really nice. I had a chance to talk with him a little bit at EUIC.
William Dunphey: i get the same sentiment. Very, very kind ah person. Willing to learn, eager to learn. Excited to see what he does at Worlds. Our last pick here is going to be our Worlds favorite. And if we pick the same one for this, I'm really going to lose it.
zzweilous: I can already guarantee, like I can assure you that we haven't picked the same person because my pick is not only like a little more out there, nothing crazy, but something that you wouldn't expect and also somebody that you mentioned already.
zzweilous: So I know that there will be no overlap.
William Dunphey: ah
William Dunphey: can i Can I guess who you picked?
zzweilous: Yes. Yes, please.
William Dunphey: Marto.
zzweilous: I did not. um
William Dunphey: Okay.
zzweilous: I did have Martua as one of my mid-champions, so
William Dunphey: All right.
zzweilous: credit where credit is due and obviously there yeah like like picking twice for especially this category i think would be perfectly valid and i was um considering that briefly um but i just have a gut feeling that the epic region is going to come back with a vengeance this year um and especially the east asian trainers i'm expecting a lot of and
William Dunphey: Okay. Well, thought you picked him twice.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: ah the most successful trainer from that general reason region as of recent in my eyes has been Charming Pori. um Won a big ah grassroots tournament a couple of months back, won the Korean qualifiers and playoffs and then I think recently there has also been an APAC champions tournament that Charming Pori also won ah beating Yelzeboy in the finals.
William Dunphey: is
William Dunphey: Beating Beelzeboy.
zzweilous: Exactly. And I think the guy's just been winning too much. so Like, every new challenge, just taking it head-on and coming out on top.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And, yeah, there's just, like, a lot of arguments in Charming Pori's favor. And, obviously, this is somebody that we don't see as much. Like, we don't really have um much to go by in terms of how we would rate the gameplay.
zzweilous: But I think the success kind of speaks for itself. And I did want to go with maybe a more surprising selection. And i guess we'll see, I don't know how surprising it's actually going to be.
William Dunphey: I love that pick a lot. ah When we got to see Charming Bory play in the grassroots event, I believe ah believe it was Dez's tournament. We had Dez's tournament and Haydonis' tournament basically back-to-back that one weekend.
William Dunphey: But I believe it was the Dez's the best cash prize tournament. When we got to see Charming Bory, what really stood out to me was this... this kind of eerie balance of very fast reaction time and also very patient gameplay. I know that kind of sounds you know like a stock statement, but it was something about his ability to counter swap so fast, to adjust and pivot so quickly, but also to to be patient and execute with Pokemon like Dewgong that are obviously not fast-paced Pokemon.
William Dunphey: And there's something very unique about Charming Pori's play. maybe One could say he had quite a bit of aura going into those battles, but I would really love to see Charming Pori pop off, and I agree. I think the APAC and TPC region in particular is always very strong. I mean, Godan Hada, runner-up in Worlds 2022. 2024, we had Yakai.
William Dunphey: I mean, APAC might be coming back. ah My Worlds favorite, ah I am going to go a little bit NA bias here. I'm just going to say it, man. It's Elam. It's got to be Elam. I mean, don't know anyone...
zzweilous: It would have been my pick if i were going for if I was going for a double up in terms of my champions and world's favorites. Like, fifth place, your worst tournament of the season.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: Come on. Come on, Al.
William Dunphey: Yeah. He's so correct. And I do think that the reduction in Shadow Drapion's viability is going to hurt him a little bit, but i' I'm very confident in Elim's ability to adjust. And going into Championship Sunday at NAIC, I thought he had a distinct team comp disadvantage, especially against Pato, but his ability to switch things around and find openings is just...
William Dunphey: it's It's art. It's like art in motion when you watch Elon play. And he's got this this blend of like calmness and coolness, but also this like gritty, relentless, gets stuck to your shoe and just will not come off.
William Dunphey: Elon is so persistent. it's It's honestly just, i don't I can't think of how to describe it.
zzweilous: um I'm really feeling and really feelinging bad for like his first five or six opponents because you know he's not going to lose, right? like That's just not something he does.
William Dunphey: No.
zzweilous: and I don't know exactly how the seeding will work at Worlds, whether there will be any, but it's probably a lot more likely that you face a really heavy hitter. like There's only top players at Worlds anyway,
zzweilous: But there there may be like champion on champion violence very early.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: And I do not want to be the person that has to go up against Elam like round two.
William Dunphey: No, absolutely not. ah Elam to me is a kind of trainer that takes away your win conditions in such a way that it's almost like he's locking you in a box and throwing you in the ocean. And then when the series is over, he hits you with like ah a smirk and a shrug.
William Dunphey: He's like, all right, yeah, man, you know, GGs. But the whole time you feel so hopeless playing against him.
zzweilous: It's very graphic, but I kind of agree.
William Dunphey: But yeah, I don't know. I think Elam's got what it takes. And I think he's his his performance this season is finally matching this inner fire that he's had for years. And we could see it you know a couple of years back when he was you know top cutting every so often.
William Dunphey: But now it's really like his his visualization of himself and his actual gameplay are actually much more aligned than they've ever been, ah which I think is really important. And it's always fun to see that that story and that growth over the season.
William Dunphey: But ZZ, I think we've got some really impressive lists. We had some overlap here and there. um Us both picking Kaifia as most improved. That was not something I expected, but very happy with that.
zzweilous: This wasn't planned, guys. This wasn't planned.
William Dunphey: Not scripted. Not scripted at all. um There's one more thing that I have in stock for us, and that is top rivalries. And maybe we can just you know please not glaze but glance over this really quickly.
William Dunphey: gla ah Glaze has a new meaning, right? You could say glaze in the past, but now it's got a whole new interpretation. oh We'll just glance over this real quickly. What I wanted ZZ and I to try was actually like pinpoint a rivalry from each region.
William Dunphey: I think a lot of ours will be the same. Some of them might be different. Let's just kick it off. NA, I think the top rivalry and the absolute fireworks that would ensue if these trainers matched up at Worlds would be Elam versus Pocket.
William Dunphey: I think you've got two trainers that consistently top-cutting over and over again, fighting back and forth for the crown of NA's best player, especially this season. I think Elam versus Pocket has kind of supplanted the Dune versus Rise rivalry that we saw last season.
zzweilous: I still feel as if in terms of just rivalries, like players who really go up against each other a lot, a lot, Dune vs. Rise still has to be the number one. It obviously has to, like, if Dune vs. Rise happens like round three, it may not be that hype.
zzweilous: But imagine the world's finals being Dune vs. Rise. this This would be legendary.
William Dunphey: Yeah, true.
zzweilous: This would be one for the ages. Like, um yeah I really hope it happens at some place, at some point of the tournament.
William Dunphey: Yep.
zzweilous: um and yeah like Obviously, those like if if there's Pocket versus Elam, that's probably the two strongest NA players of the season. um But I just feel as if...
zzweilous: it's There's more history to to the other rivalries. So I will go with that.
William Dunphey: Fair.
William Dunphey: Okay. Okay. For EU, I think that there's no better rivalry, and I think it would absolutely pack the stadium if this was the event, especially you know late set late Saturday, Sunday morning, Championship Sunday.
William Dunphey: That's got to be Pato versus yours truly, ZZoilis. I mean, come on.
zzweilous: This is like, I have not mentioned myself at all up until this point, but I think if we go for EU rivalries, I think they are very difficult to actually pinpoint as much just because EU always feels like a region where lot of trainers just enter the spotlight at any given point of the season.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: So it's like very even, not that top heavy, but between... Barcelona, EUIC, and NAIC, there just have been like too many really high stakes encounters.
zzweilous: And I feel like I'm due another victory. I need to tie up the series. And i would love to do that at Worlds at some point. And if that's Championship championship some Sunday, I'm not going to say no to that.
William Dunphey: yeah
William Dunphey: right. So you agree top rivalry right now, at least this season in this moment.
zzweilous: i would say so. i would say so.
William Dunphey: All right. I agree. I will make sure that the script shows that you two are facing each other on championship Sunday. You're welcome. Um,
zzweilous: ah show I shall play Pokemon's Grip by Jaspidius Chief. That's a lot of it.
William Dunphey: ah For LATAM, I think you and i are in agreement here in terms of our rivalry. ah You did some really good work looking at the matchups between the two. i think that if you look at LATAM, last season you think Harjef, this season you think Marto.
William Dunphey: ah Harjev versus Marto would also be an absolute blockbuster. The LATAM trainers going crazy in the stands is something I can already visualize and hear.
William Dunphey: Just imagining it would be so hype. I mean, this has to be it. This has to be the premium rivalry, right?
zzweilous: Yeah, like this season, Rajiv eliminated Martu on his way to winning Joinville early in the season. Whereas in Santiago, it was Martu who got the better of Rajiv, took him down at Nuna's finals.
zzweilous: There wasn't a rematch because Loser's finals went to Javier V20 as a very strong Latim contender.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: But yeah, I think that like that Brazil-Argentina rivalry that's like, a big thing and in soccer as well. And I just feel as if those countries are always like, um they have a very healthy basis of competition.
William Dunphey: yeah
zzweilous: And yeah, two two giants of the season that i would definitely agree are currently um the top rivalry to pick. um What APAC rivalry can you even think of?
zzweilous: That is one that I did struggle with.
William Dunphey: Yeah, this feels like um this feels like something that's probably more private. And then if you're actually in the, for example, Japanese community, you probably know a bit more about these rivalries or the South Korean community or even India, right, is another good example.
William Dunphey: Like I could pencil in like two good players from each region. I could say like Beelzebue versus Master Me Here, or I could say... K-Sorn versus Salted Koji. You know or you could go any any way you want.
William Dunphey: um This one was really tough. I kind of sheeped down on this one. I know this ah might frustrate some people to listen to, but for me, I just lumped APAC and OC together and I said OC versus anyone from Japan.
William Dunphey: This is like Godzilla and Elcal versus Chews and Poke Moneymaker. I mean, this is like... How else do you describe it?
zzweilous: i i i love that i love that you put el calvissimo who is american into the australia bucket as well so i i this is always strayer catching strays oh man um
William Dunphey: Oops.
William Dunphey: Oops.
zzweilous: well yeah we we did talk about that briefly as well uh yesterday that yeah like the real battle is between the aussies and the invaders so um yeah that's that's a fun one um yeah i think i think i'll just i don't i think i i did note down like charming party versus charming poem because that's like another like a rivalry between like i would suppose like teammates it feels like a lmds type um
William Dunphey: ah Yeah, I think so.
William Dunphey: Ah, it's a good one.
zzweilous: name convention um but yeah i think i think that's uh like especially because like in some way even though oceania does um fall under tpci and they're not like exactly equal like at least they like they share time zones they're fairly close to each other which is why there's so many um japanese battlers at aussie tournaments
William Dunphey: Hmm.
zzweilous: I think like if you were to lump them together into like a continental tournament, um there's no OCIC anymore, if you had an APAC International Championships, like the Aussies would belong to that a little bit.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: feel like they're adjacent enough.
William Dunphey: Yeah. ah Something that's also useful is if you look at trainers who have qualified for Worlds multiple seasons from South Korea or Japan or India, and you compare them to, you know are they still competing? Are they still active? Are they you know competing currently? That kind of thing.
William Dunphey: And there are some similarities. I think K-Sarn is one of the trainers from Japan who's actually been near the top of GBL leaderboards, but also has qualified for Worlds at least twice, if not all three times.
William Dunphey: So, yeah, I don't know. Maybe maybe we need our our Japan correspondent, not Rob May, to go and ask some of the Japanese trainers who who the biggest rivalries are in the community, because I'm curious. Yeah.
William Dunphey: But yeah, it's one of those things. I wish we had streams, ZZ. I wish we had streams for these the Japanese qualifiers. I wish we could sneak a camera into the Pokemon Center and watch these players actually battle to qualify for the the remote playoffs and that kind of stuff. That'd be so cool.
zzweilous: Yeah, i I just wish there was more willingness from TPC to integrate with TPCI a little bit, because
William Dunphey: Fair.
zzweilous: I think that what is happening, especially like in Europe and NA, where there is the stream set up, it's like kind of a best practice situation. And I just wish we could get everybody to that same standard where you have essentially every major event streamed with dedicated commentators and everything.
zzweilous: um But yeah, maybe sometime in the future, like the scene is still evolving, still growing. um
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: And yeah, I guess... Yeah, we're heading into the 2026 season fairly soon. There will probably be some announcements as to what changes within Pokemon Go at the World champion Championships.
zzweilous: But we've already heard of some of the changes. Like we alluded to it earlier with more qualification slots for LATAM and EU. we've We've heard of some new locations.
zzweilous: um A lot of them are um fairly similar to what we had last season already but there are some exciting new additions for example Las Vegas will be getting its own regional in Europe we are getting a Prague regional which I'm excited to visit as well so there are changes coming to the series again yeah maybe there will be some bigger picture ones as well but um I also like I wonder whether that will happen after the 30th anniversary of the franchise as well which is coming up next year
William Dunphey: Hmm.
William Dunphey: oh Yeah, 2026 is going to be ah crazy, crazy season. um I've heard rumors, rumblings, whispers in the wind, if I may, that the 2025 season is really just setting the groundwork for something really huge in 2026.
zzweilous: Thank
William Dunphey: So we'll see. I mean, this is a big year for Pokemon Go coming up, a big year for Pokemon as a brand. um And we've already seen Niantic slash Scopely investing more in the game. We've got a brand new overlay for the World Championships this year, which is going to be really cool. So you're not staring at a patch of grass when you battle. You actually are in a stadium, in an arena.
William Dunphey: And I just want to take you know this moment on on the platform that I have to shout out to Pogo Doms for creating the artwork over two years ago now, I think. of the stadium and what it could look like.
William Dunphey: I honestly think that seeing that visual aid might have, I don't know, but it might have pushed Niantic actually work with their art department to create something like that, to show them what's possible, because it is such a huge upgrade, and it is just like a map change, you know? You get different maps on any other game, why don't we get different maps in PvP? But...
William Dunphey: Yeah, there are some some pretty exciting things. But ZZ, we've run through the meta. We've run through the players. I think the only thing really left to do is talk about the events for Worlds and and to wish everyone the best. I mean, is there anything else that you want to discuss?
zzweilous: I think those were two fairly eventful hours. There was not even anything to recap. It was just like really digging into it. I think I've essentially said everything that I wanted to say and Yeah, I guess we can move towards the Worlds event and especially the Shadow event that will start the Monday of Worlds week.
William Dunphey: I'm so glad you mentioned that. That's actually the one I wanted to highlight the most ah because ah Niantic ah slash Scopely are so gracious as to allow players to TM away frustration on their shadows just before the world championships. And i definitely think there was a world, not no no pun intended, there was just a scenario in which this event would be held until September or held until you know the third month of of the upcoming season.
William Dunphey: And it was moved up to the second week of August, which I think is is really big. So I'm excited for that. I will say with a huge asterisk here that your new shadows, like Shadow Chargebug, Shadow Talonflame, Shadow Staryu, Starmie, whatever,
William Dunphey: Those Pokemon will not be eligible due to the two-week cooldown ah rule that's now in effect for competitive Pokemon. So you can catch them. You catch your Shadow Flitgenders, catch your Shadow Star Use, whatever you like, but they will not be eligible for tournament play, which is a little bit of a bummer. Would have loved to see them mix up the meta.
William Dunphey: ah i'm not sure if you looked looked at the Sims already, Swylus, but I feel like the Shadow Charge Bug has the most potential out of the ones that I reviewed personally.
zzweilous: I did have a brief look at the Sims, but I do want to be cautious with any and analysis because it will only really be relevant for um tournaments happening from September onward, really.
zzweilous: And we may see another meta shake up um the last time it was announced at Worlds. um And that was essentially like one of the most hype moments of the weekend.
zzweilous: So I'm really holding out for another instance of that.
William Dunphey: Yeah.
zzweilous: um But yeah, I think Charger Bucks is going to be worth getting. i think Talent Flame is going to be worth getting. And also think that you should um go out and defeat Giovanni so you can ah rescue Giratina altered, or you can stop halfway through rescuing it and not actually purify it, because as a purified version, it would be too big for Great Leak, whereas I think as a Shadow, you will be able to use it in 1500 CP formats.
William Dunphey: Hmm.
William Dunphey: I love that Inadequance posted about it and he just said it's so over for you all but once he gets his shadow Giratina Giratina altered i should I should be more specific
zzweilous: Yeah.
zzweilous: yeah
zzweilous: I love to see Martijn cast things, but I do hope that he competes at some of more events next season as well, because he always runs wacky stuff, and I like when people run wacky stuff.
William Dunphey: Yeah, me too. he's He's one of the most exciting team builders and does lean a little bit into the RPS aspects of the game ah more so than others, but I do think it does deliver a very exciting show.
William Dunphey: So for the World Championships, we've got an event from the 15th through the 17th. I believe this is also the same as Go Battle Weekend. ah You're going to get a t-shirt with the Anaheim artwork.
William Dunphey: ah Pokemon debut. It's going to be Pikachu wearing a varsity jacket. We always get a Pikachu every year. I've actually had to like parse down my inventory of of stored event Pikachus. I think I'm down to 21 from each worlds.
William Dunphey: So 21 Beefeeder Pikachus, 21 Yokohama jerseys, 21 Snorkelcheus. and I'm going to have to pick up 21 Letterman jacket Pikachus. ah Something exciting about this event is that we're going to get Hone Edge in one-star raids. So if you only got a couple of them or a handful of them in the last event, you will have a chance to get more. ah We're going to get Lapras in three stars, which you know is is viable.
William Dunphey: ah Field research is also going to include Hone Edge, which is actually really, really cool. I like that a lot. It's amazing that we during our break, Hone Edge came out and we have not even talked about Aegislash.
William Dunphey: That's actually amazing.
zzweilous: That is true. It also speaks to how weird the Eggsnash situation has been and kind of still is currently.
William Dunphey: Yeah, I agree.
zzweilous: um But yeah, it's a unique Pokémon to say the least. hes
William Dunphey: ah You will be able to learn some featured attacks on your Pokemon. So if you evolve Lapras during this event, you will get Ice Beam, which is a legacy move. Prime Ape and Annihilate will both gain Rage Fist. So if you've got a good Mankey in the interim since the community day and you don't want to use an Elite TM, you can use it there.
William Dunphey: And also the biggest news of all, Cloud Sire can learn Megahorn, which is, you know, just a revolutionary thing.
zzweilous: i do I do wonder how Lapras is going to work because it is not a thing that you evolve into. ah Is it just upon catching or is it something that you can just freely TM?
William Dunphey: True.
William Dunphey: Good point.
zzweilous: I don't know how that is going to work.
William Dunphey: It says, yeah, you make a really good point. it says certain Pokemon encountered during the event. And then in the next phase, it says for the Rage Fist variants and for the Cloud Sire, it says sir certain Pokemon evolved during the event.
zzweilous: So it would make sense to load up on Ice Beam Laprasus during the event to maybe do low friendship trades and save a friend and a lead TM.
William Dunphey: So.
William Dunphey: Exactly. Exactly right. So I'm glad you pointed that out. That's a really good catch. um If you want, you can go on the webpage and you can watch a frost breath labris throw a zero charge skull bash into a sweet coon in the new battle arena, which is definitely ah an interesting choice.
zzweilous: Oh.
William Dunphey: ah But i I think I share the sentiment with everyone else. i I just hope that the new graphic load on the battle screen while playing does not affect the latency of the game. That's my, that's my big hope.
zzweilous: That would be lovely.
William Dunphey: that that would That would be ideal, is if everything ran smoothly, right? That's what we hope for. But anyways, between the ah TakeOver event, where you can TM Shadows, and the championship ah World Championships event, I think there's a lot of fun to be had with the event, a lot of ah gameplay,
William Dunphey: I'm really excited for Worlds Easy. I know it's been a bit of a longer episode, but honestly, I feel like this is one of our best ones we've done. I feel like we offered a lot of insights. I'm curious where the meta will go. i hope that trainers that are unsure about the meta find their footing in the days leading up to Worlds.
William Dunphey: And I'm ready for a good show.
zzweilous: I'm very unsure about the meta, just personally, but I'm very excited to just end that hiatus to start traveling again to these events.
William Dunphey: Yeah?
zzweilous: I'm very fortunate and and grateful that I get to have that opportunity. um and Yeah, I love that afterwards it's going to be fast paced again and not another two month break because I will be in Frankfurt, I will be in Pittsburgh.
William Dunphey: Yeah. Yeah.
zzweilous: I know that I'll be in Gdansk as well. Let's see a about Neil. That's not a certainty just yet. But yeah, it's definitely kicking it up a notch from September onwards. And yeah, I guess Worlds is first, but it won't be the end. It will just be the start of something new that will follow just
William Dunphey: Interesting. Well, um I'm going to ease your uncertainty here a little bit about worlds. I just want you to know this because I was doing a little bit of research about the city of Anaheim and I came across something interesting.
William Dunphey: Anaheim's name is a blend of Anna named after the nearby Santa Anna River and the German Heim meaning home. So river home is where you're going to be playing the world championships. dez So you got to lock in. You got to do it.
William Dunphey: It's meant to be. It's fate like we discussed.
zzweilous: true okay okay i'll i'll just treat it like my battles at home that i play after midnight just mindlessly tapping through jvl
William Dunphey: There you go. There you go. You'll be totally locked in. But all right, my friend, it's been a, it's been a great episode.
zzweilous: exactly
William Dunphey: It's been good to get back into it. And I'm excited to, to see you at worlds. Uh, I'm excited to, um, kick off the next season, but man, this world championships is going to go crazy in arena for the grand finals.
William Dunphey: Uh, Man, it's going to be special.
zzweilous: It's going to be a fantastic time. It's going to be great television. um Yeah, like glad to see people that I don't otherwise see as much as well. It's always a great time to just talk to the international player base that we do have.
zzweilous: And yeah, I'm excited. I'll start my vacation two days from the recording of this episode. So a little early, um but this is exactly what we need.
William Dunphey: Nice.
zzweilous: So it's going to be great.
William Dunphey: Yeah. I agree. Got to get in the mindset. And also, if you are at the World Championships and you enjoy the Show 6 podcast, walk up to us and let us know. I hope more people talk to me than ZZ because then that would be a great reversal because everyone tells...
zzweilous: They've been really good about talking to me. and This is like, I don't know, maybe they're they're intimidated because you're like this big official person.
William Dunphey: Yeah, everyone...
zzweilous: like
William Dunphey: Oh, come on. ah Everyone tells ZZ how good the show is. And I've had i've had a handful of people ah approach me about it. And I'm always really, really grateful when you do say kind things about the show. So if you enjoy it, let us know. Leave us a review as well.
William Dunphey: ZZ, it's been a great episode. I'll let you enjoy the rest of your evening. And I'll see you actually, literally, next week.
zzweilous: It is true. I'm very excited.
William Dunphey: Wow. All right, my friend. It's been great. See you very soon. And good luck to all of our world's competitors. May the best champion win it all. Peace.
