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Ep. 16 2024 WCS Review
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 16 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we bring you the highest quality coverage of the Play! Pokémon Championship Series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and everything else happening in the competitive scene.
This week, we recap the biggest event of the season, the 2024 World Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii!! We discuss the final meta of the season, our top 32 trainers, how each region performed overall, our new champion, Yekai0904, and our personal experiences at Worlds! We hope you enjoy this episode. Leave us a review on whichever platform you are listening!
With that said, if you're ready, Lock In, press play, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Conclusion of the 2024 Pokemon Go World Championships
00:00:00
Speaker
The 2024 Pokemon Go World Championships have come and gone. A new champion was crowned, the Hong Kong hero, Yekai0904, sweeping through an absolute gauntlet of competition. There were many surprises, lots of,
Yekai0904's Victory
00:00:16
Speaker
I guess, upsets, lots of shocks, but also some things that we've come to expect from the past seasons.
00:00:21
Speaker
We're going to take a look back at the World Championships 2024 where over 220 players competed and maybe even my co-host was on stage a couple of those times. It's going to be a fun one. Let's take a look back and then a look forward at where we're going. If you're ready, good luck, lock in and have fun.
00:01:04
Speaker
I'm Speedy's Chief 2, here with the Zzweilis, the Gyarados Gamer. How are you feeling, Zzweilis? Welcome back.
Hosts' Championship Experiences
00:01:11
Speaker
I'm feeling good. And I have to say, I missed this intro. i just I just want the music to roll, to just put me in the mood for an episode. And here we are again, back from Hawaii, back from Honolulu, back from Worlds, where I think each of us played um a somewhat significant role, not ah a a major role, but at least like a beloved supporting role, right? Like the characters that appear here and there, like you're more in this narrator role, ah leading everybody, guiding everybody through the championship series and me with some cameos on
Key Matches and Upsets
00:01:46
Speaker
stage. So that was really fun and then I can't wait to get into it.
00:01:49
Speaker
Well, I don't want to hype you up too much, but one of the three most replayed sections of the day one world championship stream was your set against Cindy because everybody wanted to see how shadow Gyarados was going to do in the tournament. And I remember we had a discussion before worlds. I said, you know, what are you, what are you, what's most important to you and what are you going to look back on and really think about once the world is done?
00:02:14
Speaker
Would you be happy locking in a spicier Pokemon and maybe doing decently well? Or would you feel like you left something on the table when you could have played more meta and gotten further into the tournament? And my personal opinion is that somehow you're able to achieve both. But we're not only going to talk about Z's Wireless, right? As much fun as it is.
Meta Evolution Discussion
00:02:31
Speaker
We're also going to talk about our world champion, the meta, the regions, and how everything kind of shook out. And we'll take a kind of a closer look at a few things as well. So I'm really excited to get into it. I think that where we can really start this off, though.
00:02:44
Speaker
Is with the top 32, how did this meta finally shake out? Because a lot of people were concerned like, Oh, we've got six months of of shadow, Gligar charge a bug lantern. And I'm so annoyed at this and I wish it would just go away. But I think things are, they sweetened a little bit in hindsight. Do you agree? Um, I actually, I have to agree. Yeah. Like we did have some Pokemon that were more prevalent than others, of course. And maybe some that weren't too healthy for the matter. Like if you look at, um, the.
Top Players' Team Analysis
00:03:13
Speaker
grand finals, um, on on day three on championship Sunday. Um, there was a Pokemon that was on both teams and that was Skarmory, which is a little bit like, um, it's not, it's not too beloved um amongst trainers just because of its somewhat polarizing match-ups here and there, but that was already the only Pokemon that was featured on both teams. Um, other than that,
00:03:37
Speaker
um both trainers both Yekaya and Inadequance brought very unique, um very interesting teams. Yekaya going with a more of a standard line in terms of what course he was going for because there's like the mud boy, the shadow quacks layer, the mud boy of the hour after the sculptor from shadow whiskash.
00:03:58
Speaker
um alongside fliers such as scamri and ataria um then also the licky tongue annihilate core like lick tongue in a fighter it has been a staple for years and years at this point probably not going forward but um Anyway, we want to look back today, and then he rounded it out with a Chargiburg on his team, whereas Zenadoquence took a team from his teammate Scuffle, and ran with Giratina Origin, which was like mandatory, because it was his
Diversity in Pokemon Strategies
00:04:28
Speaker
signature pick. It was his good luck charm for his sensational Utrecht run.
00:04:33
Speaker
And he rounded that out with Claude Sire. Also something that back in the day was spicy. Poliwrath, Skarmory again, Wigglytuff, and the Lantern. So that's already 11 different Pokémon between yeah the top two. And I think last year, um people were so excited because nobody expected Axton and Rubik's Master actually um head into the finals with 12 unique Pokémon.
Adaptations to Evolving Meta
00:05:01
Speaker
Um, and I think that was a big point of discussion back in the day, but I think this time it's almost more impressive because last year it was still ah basically the exact same roles. Like the map was different. The counter user was different. The flyer may be different. Um.
00:05:19
Speaker
At this time around, it was just Pokemon that enabled entirely different strategies. And um I wish we had gotten two best of fives. We only got one because I made some great calls on day three.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yes. um But yeah, the variety was there. If we look at the top four with Martogade coming in a strong third and Beelzeboy doing India proud and fourth, we have 18 out of potentially 24 Pokemon that are unique to those trainers. And I don't really think we could wish for much more. We have 36 different Pokemon overall in day two.
Tournament Dynamics and Challenges
00:05:58
Speaker
Um, with like the most unique pigs coming on and half spicy, lowland theme team, five unique pigs. Um, but yeah, it was a matter that turned out to be really healthy. Um, really diverse. And yeah, a lot of, a lot of players, a lot of battlers brought their unique flavors, their unique branding today too. Uh, yeah, it was, it was a blast to watch.
00:06:24
Speaker
It absolutely was. And to further break down this top eight, I mean, some surprises. Three Gudra in top eight, ah two Skeletor, two Talonflame. It looks like we had four Annihilape, two Vigoroth and two Poliwrath as well. So ah I'm going to be honest, this feels like the most diverse meta that we had over at least the last three months, maybe the last six months.
00:06:46
Speaker
and it all came down to worlds and i think that a big thing that can't be overlooked and this is a point of frustration for a lot of trainers while they're prepping for worlds is that we only had one tournament in this new meta which was NAIC in the shared sky season and then we had kind of a hiatus into worlds so i kept hearing the same phrase over and over you and i have talked about this i talked about this with the co-casters as well a black box. The meta
Individual Performances and Surprises
00:07:11
Speaker
was really a black box because there were no tournaments to kind of test against each other unless you were doing practice tournaments in local servers. And there wasn't really you know a way to kind of guide your compass to what was going to be strong, what wasn't. And while this it was frustrating from a preparation standpoint, I think that the product we got at the end was definitely worth it. Like you said, Enhoff's full Alola team. ah One more time, I'll shout out to your shadow Gyarados, which is such a surprise. Whimsicott in top three, and then Inadequance literally predicting the future and taking Claude Sire into second place overall. I haven't looked at the entire top 32, but he might be one of only quick eye check here. ah Two, Claude Sire's in the top 32. The only other Claude player looks to be the CTU. So for him to bring that Pokemon all the way to second place is phenomenal, and it might ah bode well for him in the upcoming season.
00:08:04
Speaker
And I want
Community Spirit and Interactions
00:08:05
Speaker
to shout out one person who also played at Worlds, but who isn't featured in the top 32. But T.U. Astell, also a fellow podcaster, he got so much flack for the way he talked about Klotzai before its release, because he was strongly, um, opposing the addition of poison jab or serve. He's your clothes as move said, and everybody was like, come on, let us, let us have fun. Let's just unleash fully powered clothes there and just see where it goes. But I think between, um, the latest move changes and Martine's world's performance, I do believe that Claude Saya actually.
00:08:50
Speaker
was fine-tuned well enough for it to be like the more sensible choice compared to what the alternative would have been. Yeah, I don't know. I tried to play Claude Zaire in Go Battle League last season. I tested it out. I was like, man, it doesn't... it Last season, it kind of felt to me like... um How do I describe this? Kind of like a Mantine or maybe like a Diggers V. Like it was mega bulky, hit everything kind of decently well, but you needed two charge stacks to KO just about everything that you came across. And it just felt so clunky, in my opinion. but
00:09:24
Speaker
Uh, with this team composition from an adequate, it definitely worked. And I feel like he was able to play towards the strength of his team. Uh, one, one kind of side project I wanted to do that I didn't get done before we recorded was I wanted to go back and look at all of Martine's games. And in all the situations where he lost lead, I wanted to see how many times he double suited
Strategic Decisions in Key Games
00:09:44
Speaker
his swap, because I think he did that quite a lot.
00:09:47
Speaker
But that's, that's the structure of the team. That's the nature of the beast and like understanding your Pokemon and your play style is so critical ah for succeeding at this level. Right. And, uh, I feel like Martine really embraces that a lot of the trainers that, that succeed at a high level embrace that.
00:10:03
Speaker
And something that really stood out to me about Yaki's gameplay, watching it back, is that he wasn't reliant on two or three or even four of his Pokemon. He's closing out games with every single Pokemon on his roster. So he was one of the most, most balanced trainers.
Standout Players and Strategies
00:10:17
Speaker
I mean, last year, Axon famously said, I never played Swampert in a single game. Well, that wasn't the case for Yaki. He used all of the tools in his toolkit. So definitely like a clash of not only you know players in different regions, but also playtys play styles and philosophies.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah, I enjoyed how Yekai in his best of five specifically, like he played like two or three games with very safe lines and on very balanced lines, um often relying heavily on Nikitang and Schalkeberg. But then like after three or four games,
00:10:49
Speaker
It was always the Altaria coming out um just as soon as his opponent played a little softer to the big cloud bird. And yeah, like just having those those options in your roster and actually like utilizing them at the right time is actually a big skill because your team compositions that you choose early invite certain picks from your opponent later on. And I think you kind of capitalized on that accidentally.
00:11:16
Speaker
yeah Oh yeah, absolutely right.
Community Impact on the Competitive Scene
00:11:17
Speaker
He was able to make all the right predictions. And I know we'll spend a lot of time talking about Yaki as we move through the tournament bracket, but there were a few kind of standout trainers, a few surprises that really shocked me. I'll just list them off. I've got three here and I'm curious if any other trainers surprised you. I was really impressed with PVP David.
00:11:36
Speaker
As we saw, he finished within the top eight with Wigglytuff on his team. I was really, really impressed with the CTU. ah he just Every time I looked at the screen when I wasn't casting, he was somehow still in the tournament. I was like, wait, how is CTU just like crushing and folding everyone up and just passing himself on to the next level? Because it was really fun to watch.
00:11:56
Speaker
And, uh, the third surprise I wanted to mention was, I don't think this should come as a shock to anyone, but Rocha Babyface, best talent flame player in the world. I mean, come on, best in mechs. Here comes Rocha Babyface. Yeah. Like, honestly, like if you just look at the, these standings, you could also make a case for Logan Rocket,
North American Players' Performance
00:12:16
Speaker
who also plays really highly with the talent famous on his team.
00:12:19
Speaker
But yeah, Rocha has been on a bit of a hot streak recently. I think he even, I'm correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he um beat Martijn in the finals of the Clash of the Casters tournament i'm going into Worlds? He did, yes. He did. Yeah, I think he's also, yeah he's he's been coming off a real strong performance at NAIC as well.
00:12:43
Speaker
um Yeah, just just really on fire, it just shows that so many creators and people who may be devil in casting then and there, um and here and there, they are also just like excellent at the game. and Yeah, I always love a little bit of talent flame gaming myself. So I definitely appreciate it to see that. And yeah, like I was like the one trainer that I definitely expected in your list is the C2U. Because um I think at one point in the tournament, he was like he be he won nine games in a row, like beat nine opponents in a row. But not only that, he didn't drop a single game during.
00:13:28
Speaker
So that is a run that has won tournaments in ah and like other circumstances. And pulling that off at Worlds against the best competition in the world, um that is so impressive. And honestly, like going into next season,
00:13:47
Speaker
um I wouldn't be surprised if the C2U would be one of the trainers who
European and APEC Players' Challenges
00:13:53
Speaker
would at least take home their first medal because that was just a real impressive showing and especially that grid that you need fighting through a loser's bracket. That is a skill that comes in super handy especially in those like high pressure situations.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah, I want to recap his bracket run because I'm taking a look at it now. Actually losing round one to Zardy, right? Drop zero two against already round one of worlds for most people. That is ah basically unrecoverable, right? You'll, you'll probably lose the next round or maybe win one round before you, you fall out of the tournament. Well, in the losers bracket, he beat Jaco Loco, the Bogota regional champion two. Oh, he beat young casts. He beat DVS, Daniel SMB. He beat Evan.
00:14:37
Speaker
Evan77, our residents of my store. With his XL Lillip. That was good content. Great content. And, uh, CTU beat Ventuski. He then beat Paulino Tad, if you remember last season, or not last season, I guess, by the season before last won a regional with, uh, Chestnut. And then on day two, the CTU beat Rise to Occasion 2-0. He beat Strange Top 2-0, Arceus Aurelius 2-0, and he was finally felled by Inadequance 0-2 in Losers Round 4. So it took the do it all Dutchman to take down the CTU. That is impressive.
Future Tournament Predictions
00:15:15
Speaker
Like a lot of regional champions beat is all I can say to that. So yeah, that was that was definitely one hell of a run. And towards your last mention, PVP David, I feel like that's a good example for a trend that we see in the championship series that Maybe we're just too old to do it still. Maybe maybe it's like the the next generation with Yekai who just turned 17, with BL's a boy making top four, with players like PVP David, with players like Out of Pocket. um Yeah, like the the younger generation is definitely, I don't even know whether you can say taking over because they've always been so good.
00:16:01
Speaker
But now that, like if you, like I watched a little bit of, especially VGC, I don't, I don't understand much about the trading card game, unfortunately, but they have age divisions and like Pokemon go players.
00:16:18
Speaker
Like they they don't have age divisions anymore. And that is definitely to the detriment of everybody 18 plus because i mean there's just so much talent out there.
Rise of Younger Players
00:16:29
Speaker
And yeah, PVP David was locked in. I feel like he's one of those players where you can just see the focus when they go on stage. And they don't like, players like Mattain obviously are focused as well. um But they they like to just like,
00:16:48
Speaker
not Not necessarily talk trash, like talk trash when they know their opponent and know they can take it. um But they they're yeah they're just chatty, they're just somewhat relaxed going, like sitting in that chair. And with PVP David, I don't want to call it a death stare, but he's definitely definitely locked in.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think the most we got out of David on stage was like a head shake when he shielded a bait. I think that's the, the most reaction. yeah And he is not known for shielding baits. If you remember his games against Stadastan, um, like some, some months ago, like he typically lets these go.
00:17:26
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. But I think this, this new generation of players, it gives me so much solace to think about the future of competitive Pokemon go, because we see trainers like Beelzeboy, like Yekai even out of pocket, who also was the only, uh, us resident to finish in the top eight. We see these, these players that are are succeeding at a high level consistently. And it gives me so much hope because I'm like, yeah, you know, uh, the goal is to grow, right? The goal is to improve. You want the game to expand.
00:17:55
Speaker
and you want to see up-and-coming stars.
Travel Challenges for Competitors
00:17:57
Speaker
And I think that's what keeps a franchise or a platform exciting. And I think that we got tons of that at Worlds, seeing a lot of these these younger players succeed. So it makes me really happy and it makes me very confident in the future of competitive Pokémon, which for me, if if you're one of my close friends and you talk we talk about locals and things like that, I do get a bit concerned when I look at pictures from local tournaments and it's the same group of six to 10 people.
00:18:22
Speaker
that have been playing still since 2020. And I feel like, man, when when these when these folks age out and stop playing, who's going to replace them? Who's going to go to the locals? Well, it looks like we're starting to get our answer. And it is these these new up and coming trainers who were just fireworks on stage. Awesome to watch. Absolutely.
00:18:42
Speaker
um Yeah, and also one thing that I want to mention about Yekai and Beelzeboy specifically is that with both of them i'm finishing top four, they have their Yekai obviously as the defending champion, but all the top four have locked in their Worlds Invite for next year in in Anaheim, apparently. Nice. um And that is especially important because um Neither Hong Kong, I think Hong Kong is part of the general APEC qualifying tournament within the TPC region and like India gets I think like at most four qualifiers but it's also like difficult with like travel and like visa restrictions and just getting all of that sorted ahead of time and for these players specifically it's just
00:19:36
Speaker
such good news that they can already start planning and for the rest of the region it's nice that they have like one additional qualification
Impact of Meta Changes
00:19:44
Speaker
slot that ah they can fight for now because like one of their best is already qualified.
00:19:51
Speaker
Exactly. I just i just hopped onto Google. So the air time from New Delhi, India to Honolulu is 18 hours, and that is a direct flight. So I so i knew that you came you know from Germany, which is spill still a formidable trip, but ah for a lot of these trainers, you're right. In the TPC region, in in the Asia region, it is difficult and challenging, especially get to get to these US locations. So ah Having that that invite to next season, next season's worlds already locked in is absolutely massive. And I really hope to see Beelzeboy and in the other three on stage competing. But a in terms of top 32 meta analysis, I mean, I'm pretty happy with the meta and I'm looking forward to the next one. And it wasn't as dry as I thought it might be, which was definitely a relief.
00:20:40
Speaker
Yeah, and one thing about this meta and the next is that out of the six Pokemon on the winning team, the only Pokemon left unnerved is Charjabach. And there's other reasons why we won't see that many Charjabach anymore next season. So yeah, I think the meta will look a lot different.
Unique PvP Mechanics in Pokemon Go
00:21:00
Speaker
And this is honestly...
00:21:03
Speaker
so nice to see just insofar as these are the possibilities for the game like within VGC just because um like they have their regulations and i think they do a good job with that but at the end of the day the power level will always determine that certain pokemon are strong and others are just weaker just by virtue of their total stats Whereas with Go you can do actually like so much tweaking in terms of, okay, what's the meta environment? What moves do they learn? And yeah, we'll have, we'll have a meta where Malama will get to shine, where Kanto, Marowak all of a sudden will be useful.
Perceptions of Pokemon Go by Other Game Fans
00:21:43
Speaker
And yeah, just like this complete 180 from one healthy meta to hopefully another healthy meta.
00:21:51
Speaker
um if If Go pulls that off, and currently I'm really hopeful, um that's going to be a sight to see and be great just for diversity and the viewing experience.
00:22:03
Speaker
For all of the non-Pokemon Go players that may be listening to this show for the first time, one of the things that I hear the most, and something that these folks will probably agree with, is that people from TCG, from VGC, from Unite, from any other Pokemon title, any any other Pokemon enjoyers that don't specifically understand Go and Play Go,
00:22:24
Speaker
they come to the stream and they all say the same thing. They're like, wait, charge a bug is good in Pokémon Go? What the hell? Or they'll see a Vigoroth and be like, huh, why are they playing slacking? Like, this doesn't make any sense. Why would you play a Vigoroth of all things? And I think that Go just has that unique property where some of these like middle, I don't i don't want to call them maybe stepchild Pokémon that maybe are are suboptimal in the other games are actually really fun and really useful in Pokémon Go. And that's a virtue of the Great League.
Defining Pokemon and Strategies
00:22:52
Speaker
And if you look at ah VJC for example, ah you talked about bringing in things, nerfing things, tweaking things. The only way to remove Incineroar from a meta is basically to unlink Scarlet Violet from Pokemon Home or just ban it outright, you know, from the tournament play. ah If you look at Zashian Crown Sword form, the only way to avoid Zashian Crown Sword form with the
00:23:13
Speaker
with the behemoth blade is to just not have it in the meta at all. And luckily, we don't have that in Pokemon go because you can play just about anything. The Galarian birds just became legal this season. oh I don't know who's going to play those Pokemon, but at least you have the option. It's nice to have that option of play whatever you want. So again, something that makes you go really unique.
00:23:36
Speaker
I would not be surprised if we saw at least one Galerian mortress in Baltimore or Dortmund, but I think we're we're already like, our hats are already kind of in the maxed out season, whereas we need to travel back in time for the shared sky season again.
Memorable Matches and Moments
00:23:52
Speaker
and um look at what made the world so great and um maybe you take it away just because I was battling so much during the entire weekend whereas you actually got to watch and cast many many great battles.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah, of course. So, uh, I just like to hop in and talk about a few of my favorite series of the tournament. I think that's a great way to highlight, you know, what the meta was like, what trainers were doing and what Pokemon were, were successful. Um, so the very first series of the day, I mean, this is obvious, right? We had Tonton Batus versus L and D S Harjaf.
00:24:26
Speaker
right two international champions battling on stage the Frenchman versus the Brazilian and it was just fireworks like immediately immediately the games were insane ah just down to the wire every single matchup and I remember just hearing the crowd just gasp when one game would end and one game would would you know roll into the next And that just really set the tone for everything. And then you had great kind of friendly showdowns, like Lurgen Rocket versus Jukobrovich. For example, Yako had to hydro pump Lurgen's Registeal in game one to win it. And then in game two, Lurgen takes his signature Koselya and KO's the opposing Mandibuzz with a Grass Knot, which is absolutely wild. And then ah game three, Lurgen is just a few turns ahead with his Registeal and he's able to outpace Jukobrovich's Chargibug.
00:25:11
Speaker
And you know the casters are saying, oh, yeah, you know they're friends. They scream a lot, blah, blah, blah. And then I'm hearing from my friends, I'm hearing, yeah, they're drinking buddies too. you know They'll slam beers, and they'll talk about the meta, and they just have a ah you know rambunctious time. And it just fit, right? It just actually fit them perfectly up on stage. And then you had a series that just took your breath away, like Marto versus Bastie.
00:25:34
Speaker
When the whims of cot hung on with just one HP and Marto was able to make that catch on vigor Roth and send out the whims of cot and do another counter and get to the seed bomb to just break past his heart. It was tough to watch if you're a Chilean fan, if you're a Bassey fan, but you cannot deny.
00:25:49
Speaker
how hype and exciting that was. Then you had Lurgan Rocket versus PVP David, which is another insane series ah where PVP David is able to snipe away Lurgan's Pokemon, but then Lurgan returns with that talent flame you talked about. He gets the double flies and is able to KO the Goodra and win that series. And then Paula versus Anhoff is the last one I want to highlight. I mean, how i don't I don't know, if you need a better example of how unconventional and wild and insane Pokemon Go PvP can be, take one of the best trainers in the world, not just the EU, in the world, in Palasha, who's absolutely just frying every everyone that she comes across. She goes up against Anhoff with
00:26:32
Speaker
Double dragons from Alola, right? Guzzlord and Como-O. Enhoff bends the knee in game two because or her Como-O is lined up against Grisselia. By the way, I just want to point out she was running ABA Dragon in that game too.
00:26:47
Speaker
And then in game three, she's able to win it with Tapu Fini, which was her signature pick. And it's just, like, absolutely, if you take any snapshots of these moments, these are the special, special series that not only define worlds, but also define these trainers' careers. And they will always look back and remember those moments very fondly. And I also just know, like, about the Palasha versus Enoch battle specifically, that um there were...
00:27:15
Speaker
kind of happy to play each other, but really not happy that one of them would have to lose. Like they would much rather have that matchup happen in a much later round. And I can see why because like those trainers, not only are they so unique in their team building approaches. Like Shadow Magnezone became a thing because of Polasha. Don't take my word for it. Look at the official Pokemon Go Live blog post where it basically like it says in every language, I looked it up in German just the other day. Shadow Magnezone is basically credited as the Palasha Pokemon as in the blog post leading up to Worlds. And then you have Anhoff with her signature Tapufini and a team that not only fits with that signature Tapufini, but also the entire environment. Like we are in Hawaii, we are in Honolulu, we are at this is like paradise to so many people and the way they um build up the entire experience around it with like the drone shows at the Hilton with like basically there was like a little city build up that was all all pokemon themed
00:28:25
Speaker
And yeah, it just blends in so nicely with the Alola region. um And I know I've really brought that to life and she she has the skills to match, right? So we got we got a real exciting series there. And yeah, this is this is world.
Personal Interactions at Championships
00:28:41
Speaker
It's like only one kind of advance at any time.
00:28:44
Speaker
um and yeah the battles did not disappoint and even though i was like playing a lot and couldn't watch at all uh the battles i watched were really exciting like the gudra representation i called them out ekobovich logan rocket pvp david um i did not expect gudra to have such a good showing but it did a whole lot of work the entire weekend um and yeah It was but was's just a really good time. like My personal favorite battle probably um like on stage it was was a fun time with Cindy. We had a good chat before and after. um Then I got to go up on stage again for day two against Pocket.
00:29:32
Speaker
And yeah, like I'm just glad that like I obviously wanted to win. And I made a little bit of a misplay not catching the body slam when he had that ready in game three. and But also, I denied a fast attack of his. And he didn't dispute that in game two when he could have. And I probably would have felt bad looking back at that if I won through that. So that was all good as well.
00:29:56
Speaker
um And yeah, like as someone who had the honor of competing, it's also just such a good time to just go up against trainers from all around
Overall Significance of the World Championships
00:30:08
Speaker
the world. like I talked to people from Brazil, people from Japan. Players said you like the Australians were a great time.
00:30:18
Speaker
like you don't experience that anywhere else but at Worlds and I honestly ah like I just can't wait for next year already because between the battles and just the community experience this was one of my one of my favorite events looking back.
00:30:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's one of those things, and and I experienced this in Yokohama and as well ah in London. It just feels like there's so much going on at these competitions and you don't want to miss any of it, but you can't be everywhere at once.
00:30:52
Speaker
And it's really tough to, you know, work on the things you want to do. Uh, you know, maybe if you want to track metrics or if you want to watch a certain player or if you want to do a lucky trade with somebody, or if you want to play the event for a little while, or if you're recording skits to play during the stream, or if you want to, you know, go back and talk to production about something or, or whatever it might be, there's just this endless laundry list of things. And it's this like.
00:31:16
Speaker
constant uh just non-stop uh challenge to kind of um rank things about you know based on how important they are and to prioritize things and to try to get as much done as you possibly can but it feels like it's so tough because you want to squeeze every second you can out of the experience but you also just want to be present and you want to enjoy it uh we were able to take a picture which is really cool i think i'll i'll post it when we uh when we upload this episode but i think I think we need some official like show six promo shots.
Casting Experience and Stream Evolution
00:31:47
Speaker
Let's have like a photo shoot, you know, we can wear like, I don't know, so I guess signature t-shirts and we can have like cool poses and stuff. Make it like a band album cover, you know? Yeah, we should we should up the branding, right? Like this is our first, like we're heading into our first full season as a podcast. We should get serious about this, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think we should.
00:32:09
Speaker
But yeah, I was wondering. So my experience as a caster, I feel like and ah we're taking a break from talking about the meta for just a minute. I think we'll come back to the grand finals and talk about other things as well. But um this seems to be like where we're naturally evolving to my experience as a caster was um I think Daniel is really continuing to push the show forward. And a lot of the skits that we did, for example, like Butters filming out on the beach with PVP, Steve and and Debbie Pebble and Zoe two dots.
00:32:37
Speaker
That was really cool. And that was a skit that we did literally the Friday before the tournament. And skits like, you know, interviews or contests. There was a skit that I made that didn't make it into the show because the film got corrupted, but that was really fun when I thought. And I feel like upping the stream quality is always at the front of mind. I think that Worlds just showed we have a lot more space to grow. And the overlay as well, right? The three Pokemon that weren't in use were actually smaller sprites. Oh, yes. The one in which you thought about that, that was brand new.
00:33:08
Speaker
i I honestly enjoyed that a lot. I think it added a lot to just like, it's easier to recognize and it also, it's it's just more pleasant visually. And I know that there's efforts to take that over to the next season as well. um I'm like, you are definitely better connected than I am, but I just like know that at least the Europeans took notes for their own streams going forward. So maybe that will be a thing.
00:33:34
Speaker
Um, and yeah, I enjoyed that a lot. It also made for some fun moments when like the wrong Pokemon came up. but ah That was, that was only like once or twice. So it's not a recurring issue that much.
Community Moments and Behind-the-Scenes
00:33:48
Speaker
Um, I enjoyed the stream. I actually got to, I don't even know whether that was sent out at any time, but I got to record, um,
00:33:56
Speaker
a set of, ah oh, will this um will this move KO? I think ah Jim Wholesome um showed five people um a recording of a previous play Pokemon moment. And we were tasked with guessing whether a move would KO or not. And let's just say the move that I um got to talk about definitely knocked down.
00:34:21
Speaker
but it was like maybe Maybe they'll show the skit for next season. If they don't, maybe I'll ah um tell tell you guys what it was. but ah okay that was a fun time That was a fun time. It was really interactive, really involving a lot of the community.
00:34:36
Speaker
and i think um and This is another aside, but we're just rambling. We are you have the time and the space to ramble, right? Because Worlds has been... It's its been a while. And today I watched um Amanda Lömpberger's video of the 2024 season on YouTube. It's so sweet. I just got hit with all the feels. This is...
00:35:02
Speaker
And this is what it's about. And if you just show the community while also presenting the game, that's like the best type of skit you can do. And I think like characters like PVP Steve, who I got to talk to at Worlds as well. And it just has so much enthusiasm and positive positivity around the game. um if you If you have people like that in those skits, it's just,
00:35:28
Speaker
a great advertisement for Pokemon Go, not just as a competitive game, but also just as a community experience. And yeah, I think Amanda's video, go check it out if you haven't. It's just so, so sweet. And it touches on a lot of great moments from um the past season.
Memorable Interactions and Highlights
00:35:47
Speaker
yeah Obviously, don't close the episode right now, but make sure to type this into your YouTube browser. L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G-E-R. Pogo. P-O-G-O. That is Lundberger's channel. She just posted it. It's called the Pokémon Go Championship Series Highlights. and ah The thumbnail is is her birthday cake surprise ah delivery during during a stream broadcast. I think that was NAIC.
00:36:12
Speaker
that was definitely a a really really fun time and yeah she just captures so many different emotions of you know kind of candid footage there's a really funny shot of self-taught with a straw in her mouth like walking around backstage ah that that made me laugh and then there's you know all the candid shots of people making funny faces and There's interviews and clips from the streams, but there's also like behind the scenes footage. so i I think it's a great like invitation into the competitive world of of Pokemon Go. If you're not if you're not sure, you know maybe you want to compete this season, you can watch this video and you can really get a sense of like what the people are like ah between the battles, you know behind the scenes. When we're not playing, this is what we're doing and we're up to no good. We're always just ah just acting like clowns and it's it's a ton of fun. so
00:37:00
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad you pointed that out. I watched it too. And I was like, Oh, damn, hit me in the feels of this one.
Behind-the-Scenes Insights
00:37:07
Speaker
But, um, Oh, I was wondering a question for you. Did you see your lower third? Did you watch back the stream and see your lower third that popped up when you battled Cindy?
00:37:17
Speaker
um wait what i did oh oh that that lower third yeah yeah what's wrong with my lower third what's what's wrong with my legs no no it's yeah yeah you mean so yeah what is it you did see that Okay, so one of the one of the contributions I tried to make at NAIC and also Worlds was i I wrote a lot of lower thirds. So for example, Rick Flareon, right? He unfortunately didn't get onto stage, but of course his name is based on Rick Flare. Rick Flare has a really famous quote
00:37:51
Speaker
says, you got to beat the man to be the man. And then I took that and I i looked at one of Rick Flareon's regional championships and I said, you know, in, I can't refuse playing against they love dry or something like that. But I basically said down zero to Rick Flareon reverse swept three, oh, proving that you got to beat the man to be the man. And I was just so hopeful that that lower third would make it on on stream because, you know, being so close to the community, it's really fun to kind of toss in these little jokes and these little personalized things. And and I'm really glad that yours made it onto stage. and And yeah, that's a special moment, you know, for you.
Competitors' Challenges and Overcoming Them
00:38:27
Speaker
And I think that's really what casting is about, connecting with the players, making everybody feel like they're in the community and and hopefully, you know, people that saw my lower thirds felt that way.
00:38:37
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely can say that I appreciated that a lot. I was just not familiar with the term lower third, but now I know it's actually quite obvious when you think about it. No, it's okay. it's It's production term. It takes up the lower third of the screen, usually like text, maybe a reminder or something like that. But but yeah, um I'm curious. What was your, as a competitor, what was your toughest round of the world championships?
Toughest Matches Faced by Competitors
00:39:04
Speaker
So I think my toughest round by far was um my match-up against Bopper, which is kind of fun because it was a rematch from NAIC. I just always traveled to the US, say hi to Bopper, and then one of us is happy and one of us is sad. The last time I was happy and this time I was sad,
00:39:26
Speaker
um But no, was it was it was fun to match with an opponent I had faced previously. I don't get all that many rematches, I don't think. um and Yeah, this time he just completely wrecked me because I just couldn't get through his, like, just very safe, very bulky Pokémon. I avoided most of the Azumarals with my double dragon breathing team. um But not this one, so ah that was quite the challenge.
00:39:55
Speaker
Um, and even though I had like a largely good feeling about my gameplay over the weekend, um, that was a moment where I really felt as if I couldn't do anything to overcome that other than call the line entirely. And I didn't do that. So that was, that was tough, but yeah, we move.
Bracket Dynamics and Strategies
00:40:14
Speaker
It's, uh, it's how I built my teams. I tried to.
00:40:19
Speaker
build a team that beats 80% of the meta and then not play against the other 20%. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And so it worked well enough in my opinion. Well, I think you played the numbers really well because you said, okay, as long as I don't face Azu and Registeal core, I think I will be okay. And kind of eyeball checking the graphics here, there were about four or five Registeals in top 32, but I don't think any of them also had Azu.
00:40:48
Speaker
I think it was Reggie plus Quagsire or Reggie plus ah Shadow Poliwrath or something like that. um But seeing Registeal plus Azu, I mean, that's just a recipe for destruction. And sometimes that's the way the bracket works, right? You get paired against somebody and they just have the perfect antidote to the poison you're spitting. And and then you
Regional Performance Analysis
00:41:07
Speaker
can't really do much. So and I definitely understand. But.
00:41:11
Speaker
World's overall, I thought was a great experience. I'm already looking forward to next season, uh, next season in Anaheim. So I can't wait for that. Um, I think the only two topics we have on our list are to discuss the top four in a little more detail and to talk about grand finals. So, oh, also I'm curious, uh, whatever notes you have, I would love to hear them because you did a little bit of digging into how the regions performed. And I'm very curious about that.
00:41:37
Speaker
So I actually like, the digging I did was looking at a tweet from Dracovis and i' still having the tab open. So that is so the level of research we're talking about here. um But yeah, because Worlds is like the only tournament where really the entirety of the globe comes together to play each other in Pokemon Go. um There's internationals that come close and there's some continental rivalries here and there.
00:42:04
Speaker
But if we just look at and the numbers for ah this year's World Championship, um out of the top 32, 13 were European.
00:42:17
Speaker
um And that's 13 out of 55 Europeans who, um I don't know whether qualified or participated. um let's just Let's just say participated for a simplicity's sake. um and We have 5 out of 25 players from Asia, which is the second best ratio in terms of players in top card.
00:42:40
Speaker
um And there's two out of the 10 qualified Oceania trainers, um um the Oceania trainers that competed, those being Yakovovich and Fichidex from Australia. And we have eight North Americans, which is like by numbers the second largest largest contingent just behind Europe.
00:43:01
Speaker
But if we look at how many trainers actually competed, that's 73. So that's only the fourth best ratio in terms of um top cutting at Worlds. Yeah, it's not bad.
00:43:14
Speaker
And the LATAM region um took NAIC by storm, um had a really impressive showing there, but only placed four trainers in the top 32 out of 45 players competing. So that is um unfortunately the worst of the the ratios from those five regions.
00:43:37
Speaker
and
North American vs. European Rivalry
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think that really opens up a new chapter in terms of the European NA rivalry because those are like the those are like the biggest regions in terms of players set qualified, but also probably in um in terms of shit-talking because both of them shit-talk in English. I don't know whether the Latin Americans shit-talk in Spanish and Portuguese, but Uh, this is just like the, the discourse you you see on Twitter, but yeah, and a went from having the top three trainers in the world, like the U S specifically went from having the top three trainers in the world to basically like out of pocket being, um, the one shining light at fifth place and.
00:44:27
Speaker
I know the Americans, they they want to be first, second, third again. And I think they'll come with a vengeance, especially if you look at the players who dropped out early. like We are like, I don't know, let let me check, how many minutes are we in? We are like 45 minutes in. And we haven't said the name Doonbug 97 once. We haven't really talked about its its accent much. um yeah These are players that Definitely. Like definitely of Junberg. I know that he went into worlds thinking like, okay, I don't have to prove anything, but I was the best player in the world. Wasn't I? Like going into this tournament and then just like.
00:45:11
Speaker
not winning anything, like just losing O2. That's not what Doonbug is about. And I talked to him briefly during Worlds and he says, um okay, so I'll preface that with staffing is super important and we love our staffers, but Doonbug basically said, no more staffing, only competing next season. I'm coming to the club. No way.
00:45:32
Speaker
i Yeah, like so ah like he he works with like an esports org, and that esports org already posted, like, are you ready to see Doonbak's face somewhat times during next season's regionals? And then posting that graphic that has all the regional champions, and it's basically just Doonbak, like Jeff's, and like three other people.
00:45:51
Speaker
um it so Yeah, that's going to be a redemption arc for sure. um And there's other people that, there's just so many talented players that went out early because that's just what Worlds is. And um yeah, 73 North Americans qualified or um competed. Eight made it to top 32. That made 65 Americans with something to prove for next season.
Japanese Players' Performance
00:46:19
Speaker
So that will be fun to see. um And I think
00:46:25
Speaker
So with IC travel awards coming up, I think we'll see some more out of reach in travel um for like EUIC and NAIC.
00:46:37
Speaker
um I wonder whether we'll also see that for LAIC, probably from the U.S. I don't know as much about the European plans of attending. um But yeah, LAIC will be really interesting for the Brazilian specifically because um Marto definitely did Latin proud with his what this third place finish. Then we had um some Chilean representation as well.
00:47:03
Speaker
yeah And we had Rocha Babyface um as like the best talent playing player in the world, as you put it. um So there were like some standouts from the last time region, but no Rajev, no no Zardy. Also, all those trainers that Topkart, NAIC and our superstars in their region, not making it to Topkart, I think they have something to prove.
00:47:30
Speaker
And the last point I want to make about like players or regions that might really be back with the vengeance next season. We only had three Japanese players um in top 32, even though the leaderboards are basically 60% Japanese players all the time in GBL.
00:47:49
Speaker
and We had Kip, we had Kaibon and we had K-san in day two and neither of one and neither of them won a single round in the top 32. wow so I have already seen Ishikawa boy basically confirming that he wants to attend an Australian regional, ah please itpping dipping his toes into a TPCI regional, because if you win one of those, you just automatically qualify. You don't have to go through the PJCS ah process and everything that entails.
00:48:23
Speaker
So yeah like some some like ah East Asian travelers might be on the hunt for some titles out of region next season and I can see that happening at ICs and maybe like here and there um if it lines up with their personnel schedules and in other locations too.
Worlds Qualification Pathways
00:48:41
Speaker
So yeah I think the Japanese will ah definitely want to take the title next year and I'm excited to see how that will go with the updates to the rule sets and regulations when it comes to out of region trainers competing at ICs and regionals.
00:48:57
Speaker
Oh, I really hope so. Uh, and if you're a, if you're a frequent listener of the show, you'll know this, but for all of our new listeners, this, uh, we did an episode basically detailing how to qualify for worlds next season. So make sure to check out that episode in our, our backlog as well, because all that information is still relevant. And that's one of the biggest changes is that TPC trainers who typically have to either, you know, in the case of Japan have to go to the Pokemon center, have to win a bunch of battles and then go into a tournament later. Or if you're in other regions like India. then you have to go to the online qualifier and like you you outlined earlier, there might only be like four of those per season. So so it's definitely a very, very competitive, very sweaty, lots of best of ones. I think if you combine the the you know the the single elimination plus the the playoff rounds for a lot of those APAC qualified trainers, they played like 12, 14, 16, 18 rounds of battles and it's absolutely staggering ah what they actually do to compete. so If you have the means to travel outside of region to a TPCI tournament, definitely highly encourage you
Global Representation Significance
00:50:01
Speaker
to do that. But yeah, I mean, if you look back at Worlds 2022, it was Germany versus South Korea in the finals. ah Top three and Yokohama were all NA. But this time our top eight was represented by eight different countries.
00:50:15
Speaker
which I thought was phenomenal. I thought that was great. And it's definitely what Worlds is about. And, um, for all the people that might be looking at NA and saying, Hey, what's up? You know, you were talking all this, all this crap. This was in your, your home homeland of
Tournament Structure and Strategies
00:50:29
Speaker
Hawaii. Like, why weren't you you know performing better? Well, you know, Americans also like to relax. Hawaii was very nice. I'm sure they weren't.
00:50:37
Speaker
absolutely dialed in because they were enjoying you know the beach and the sun and and the sand and all that and you mentioned dunebug as well i actually just looked this up so dunebug got a round one bye he went into round two face against bopper and lost zero two to bopper which is which is ironic because bopper and dunebug i believe compete at the local level quite often So they're close friends, they know each other. And then he lost O2 to a mind joke and actually got eliminated. So Doonbug did not win a single battle at Worlds, not a single round, but a single battle, which is definitely not what we've come to expect.
00:51:14
Speaker
from him but i think it also showcases uh and this will tie in nicely to my hot take later but it also showcases just all the variables in pokemon go i mean in pokemon vg the turns are a lot slower the setups take a lot more time and you can kind of like play your way out of really tough situations but you could argue with the 60 60 second switch timer and the three versus three format that we had at worlds It's very hard once you lose lead and swap to win a game. So I think the 50 second switch timer will help with that. But I would love to see more changes in the future to make the game a little bit more, you know, flexible, building some more comeback conditions, as they call them.
Impact of 50-second Switch Timer
00:51:57
Speaker
I agree. um yeah Oh, the 50 seconds switch demo will be so fun. It will be so fun. I already played my first practice. I went with it and it just enables so many more strategies and plays. I think that would be amazing television when we see that on the actual ah Baltimore Regional Stage in just a week from now. it It just doesn't feel as hopeless, right? If you get met on ah on a hard swap, like if you safe swap something after you lose lead and you get met by something really, really tough for your your safe swap, it doesn't feel hopeless. It doesn't drain your soul when a Bastion comes out because you're like, okay, all I need to do is throw two or three charge attacks and my timer's back and then i can I can move, I can do something.
00:52:36
Speaker
It just feels a lot more, a lot more like there's a way to come back in the game, which is really
Yekai's Strategic Brilliance
00:52:41
Speaker
nice. so Um, if you're okay with this, I would love to talk about Yaki our new world champion, and then maybe we can offer some closing thoughts. How do you feel about that?
00:52:50
Speaker
Yeah, would I would love to do that. And I also, like, we can we can go over his, maybe his winners' finals and the grand finals, because I actually um took some notes here and there. Oh, perfect. Yeah, like because I was really curious, like, what sets Yekai apart from um his opponents? And I think, like,
00:53:14
Speaker
it's It's not all RPS, but he was definitely great at line calling. Like in the winner's finals, first game he leads Skarmory into Gligar. Then he has to deal with the Licki safe swap, which is really annoying because Skarmory paces a really slowly. So for a chip and dip strategy, um you have to keep that in line. Like, okay, when is it really safe to dip out? Because stealing Salone will not secure the secondary matchup.
00:53:43
Speaker
um So he basically just stays in a little, throws a move on the licky save swap, dips out, but then the switch clock is very much de-synced once he puts in his own licky versus Mattos licky in that situation. But just while just securing that alignment already puts him so far ahead,
00:54:08
Speaker
um that, yeah, basically the game is over and um yeah he has just, he just has so much, like he's just so comfortable with the scum really. um Whereas the game two, it's like kind of the opposite way. Whereas um in in game one, Yekai
Grand Finals Analysis
00:54:31
Speaker
really used his own licky after a while to um basically win the secondary matchup or at least
00:54:39
Speaker
kind of tank all the energy. Martu does a good job at taking out that liquor earlier as it comes as a lead for Yekai, and then utilizes his own liquor in the back to just really spread a lot of damage against Charjoba and Quaxire.
00:54:55
Speaker
And at that point, it kind of feels like a battle of the Likis. And honestly, I watch the games back on two times speed. So I'm not too mad that Likis actually gone from the meta because it's not even like if you have Likis against Quacksire or Likis against Charjaburg.
00:55:14
Speaker
um Matu had in that second game of the winners' finals. That's not too bad to watch, because at least the body stamps from Niki do something into these Pokémon. But if you have double-resistant League versus double-resistant League, that's just like... It's always the mirrors that are the worst with this kind of Pokémon. Like, same with Mandibas and such, so... um That is still around, but at least the Liki appears to be a little little less licking. Like, you cant you have the raw Liki-Liki now, and that's...
00:55:44
Speaker
It plays a little differently, maybe it's a little faster. Yeah. um Yeah. So game three is very interesting in the, in the winners finals, because um it's leaky versus Altaria lead. Yeah. Kai has the Altaria, Matu has the leaky, and Matu actually invests the shield to take switch advantage. And I was like surprised that he did that because um like he probably knows that the leaky is coming again. And.
00:56:11
Speaker
you don't really need alignment as much against the leaky in the back. And also, if you just lick down the Altaria and come out with the body slam, where is that body slam going to land realistically? But I think Gekai is calling the potential shadow glycer in the back and brings in his charger back to soak the energy while keeping his um own leaky tongue in the back. And yeah, that is... A little, this makes the thing, that makes the matchup a little more competitive, and at the end it basically comes down to, yeah, Mikai is licky and Marto is a lantern in the back, in a one shield scenario, and
00:56:53
Speaker
but Basically, both players shield the big move, um which ends in Liki basically taking out the lantern, and then Yekai has a move on Shajuberg to take out the whimsical. It was like a a dispute situation going on briefly, because Matu got denied a fairy wind, but it wasn't game deciding, so um that got ruled as a win for Yekai, and rightfully so. And at this point,
00:57:21
Speaker
Yekai is only one win away from and advancing. um But even though it looks fairly good at the start of Game 4, the back is basically just Matos Gleiger versus Yekai's Chargerbug. So Yekai has to play one more game to actually advance to Day 3.
00:57:40
Speaker
And that deciding game, that decisive game five, it looks really terrible at first for Yekai, just because um it's Skarm into Lantern. And we talked about Skarm at the very beginning of the podcast as one of the few really polarizing picks. So you would think this is a lost cause. um But the leaky save swap that Yekai opts for is not drawing out the Annihilape in the bag for Mato, but instead it invites a chip and dip situation. And after that, Mato makes um the crucial mistake that he probably could not have known about at that point with the information that he had. But he did shield his Likitang for alignment, so it basically came down to his Annihilape operating at a shield disadvantage in the bag.
00:58:33
Speaker
And that just. makes it too difficult, um because Sakai has the Altaria to sweep the Watergun Lantern and then annihilate that other king in the back formato. And that basically seals the the first, like this basically makes Sakai the first finalist and seals the winner's final, um really overcoming the most difficult lead, getting a shield on the swab and sweeping in the bag with his clothes and his Altaria.
00:59:04
Speaker
Which, like, I mentioned it earlier, like, it always brings those, like, charge of ugly key, we play it safe, we just play all comfort picks, and then the Altaria shows up and just takes it all. So yeah, that's why that's what happened there.
Key Games Breakdown
00:59:17
Speaker
Move on to the actual grand finals, which, we're only a four-game series, but we can, like, it was a very poetic four-game series.
00:59:26
Speaker
Because picture of the scene, you have Yekai, the wonder kid from Hong Kong, who doesn't have a ton of play Pokemon experience under the spell, and it's actually not a lot of in-person experience. And in the other corner, you have the do-it-all Dutchman, you have Matzein, inadequence, the one who is a Twitch creator, a YouTube creator, the one who has this Discord server that hosts all the practice tournaments, that actually got a shout out later on as well.
00:59:52
Speaker
He's basically the focal point of the competitive community. He's a caster, he's a competitor, he's been through it all, and he has the team comp advantage. He says that, he Kai says that. So, can Martijn climb this mountain? Or is he Kai just too on point with his calls, with his plays? Not only the lead calls, but also the decision making in the middle of the battle.
01:00:17
Speaker
And yeah, like the very first matchup that we see has Martine's signature pick on the field. It's gueritino origin against the shadowcrack sire.
01:00:29
Speaker
And this is actually a little bit iffy, just because Giratina is good into the Pokémon that are like doing elemental damage. But the storage is such a hard-hitting move that it comes down to a big game, whether Yekai or Matai can take the one-shot scenario here.
01:00:49
Speaker
And my time says, okay, like the worst that can happen to me is that I lose ah the 0 to 1 shields, take the shield with the Shadow Ball, and um basically get taken out by the Stone Edge. um So he doesn't even go for a shield, just predicts the Aqua Tail, or otherwise is fine with um taking a shield advantage.
01:01:11
Speaker
um And yeah, like that way he sets up a farm down for his non-shadowed Poliwrath. But I think at that point he's already second-guessing himself a little bit just because he actually opts to shield. What could have been a Stone Edge but ended up being an Aqua Tail on his Poliwrath And yeah, he's like shaking his head and I understand why because if you go for a play like that, you feel like your polyrath is um super valuable in the back and you really want to keep all the health because ah you know that it's going to be a resistant move, so you have to make ah like a hard call.
01:01:49
Speaker
But the hard call ends up like, and it it just wouldn't have mattered either way, because the back line is a charger bug for the polyrath and a scalmery for the wigglytuff. So this is what we call a rose chambeau. It is a rock, paper, scissors.
01:02:04
Speaker
Um, and yeah, this is why why I want to say that, um, like the game five against nato shows that not everything that your kite did to become world champion, obviously it was just playing up. Yes. But very, very strong line calls definitely played a part as well.
Yekai's Path to Championship
01:02:22
Speaker
And just to, just to stress that and make that clear, that is a skill in and of itself. It's like, you don't get lucky about these things.
01:02:31
Speaker
so many times in a row that you just become world champion of it. um But yeah, I just identified correctly what Matsan would run. I identified what moves to throw and in what position, and really capitalized on that lead matchup specifically, and taking switch, taking the game. um Game two. Speaking of rock, paper, scissors. It's coming, it's really tough. And you see the hard answer, Landsho and Estes, safe swap.
01:02:59
Speaker
um And this is actually kind of smart because it kind of doesn't really have the greatest answers to a lantern save swap. I think the best probably would be, um, the Altaria, but even the Altaria against the Watergun legend is like kind of IV dependent. yeah i Yeah. So basically.
01:03:17
Speaker
um Matine, I think it's like a Lickitang in the back, I didn't actually have that in my notes. But yeah, Matine actually takes swap and vests only me one shield. um And it kind of actually like makes an interesting play here that could have given Matine an out, because um At some point he just ends up swapping Skamri back in really aggressively, and Lataina's kind of stunned for a moment because like he's already at a sheer disadvantage, and now Yekai basically takes the momentum back by just giving up swap, but also loading up on energy.
01:03:54
Speaker
yeah And what Matine maybe would have needed to do would be like an immediate swap into Polira to just pace in a way that he gets off two icy winds before Skamri reaches two sky attacks. But Skamri already had like a stealing advantage and um at that point it's just like really difficult to deal what's left to deal with what's left for Matine's Wiggly in the back. So yeah, this is like...
01:04:22
Speaker
um this This is a little bit of a weird game, and at the end of the day, I think what Matai needs to do is to really preserve his Poliwrath, save shields for it, and get it into a position where it actually can punish Mikai's lines. Because even though there's the Chargerbug, like Skarm Liketankur, which Mikai really likes to play, it's not good against Poliwrath. It's not good at all, as long as shields are up for the Poliwrath. So...
01:04:50
Speaker
This time, Poliwrath comes in the lead, and it does break a core. It's not the Likitung Scarmory core, but it's the Quagsire Scarmory core. So basically, Martijn leads it into Quag. The Scarmory comes out, and Martijn says, thanks, I'll take that. And Westworn Shield takes out the Scarm. Actually, saves the Poliwrath for the Quagsire later, and hardswaps his...
01:05:19
Speaker
Claude Zaya into um the Chargerbug while the switch clock is still not up. This would have been different in this new um season just because of the switch timer. So he manages to land his Stone Edge against the Chargerbug before that can debout. And at this point, Yekai still has all the shields in the world, but he also has a Quag Zaya against the Poliwrath and a 30% health Chargerbug against what ends up being the Wiggly again in the back. So that's an easy charm down and Matine takes that game. And then it's the championship deciding match and um I honestly, I'm honestly proud of Matine for sticking with Giratina Origin because a lot of times I brought a signature pick to a tournament
01:06:10
Speaker
And I ended up chickening out and not bringing it in the size of moments. And I always thought like, okay, now I'm just like a regular trainer that lost. What could have been if I just brought my signature pick? Even if I lost, it would at least be the cool trainer with the signature pick. And my time was the cool trainer with the signature pick, but it was Giratina and Charles Hari Ali with Lekitang in the bag.
01:06:34
Speaker
And actually, there is a win condition somewhere in that game, because Martin responds with a Claude Sire save swap into the Altaria. And this time, it's Yekai that looks a bit stunned, doesn't really know how to handle that, because he doesn't have a clear answer. He didn't bring the Quack Sire again. So he just stays in, gets the Claude Sire low, and ends up basically giving up swap.
01:07:02
Speaker
Um, and yeah, like at that point, uh, time probably feels somewhat good about himself because. Okay. Like the, the Atari is gone. This is looking okay now, but yeah, like the problem that ah happened there for him is that the Klotzer is still at like 15% health. He could have actually done like four or five more stone edges stone edges. That would be fun. Um, that'd be impressive.
01:07:27
Speaker
Yeah, four or five more mud shots to um get him let himself get lower with the dragon breath damage from Azaria, therefore allowing the Skarmory that actually comes back to farm um a lot less energy. and maybe aligning his Giratina there to have a somewhat favorable one shield scenario against Skamri, but instead of one or two Steel Wings, Skamri basically loads up to a move, um and then he's basically, like Matine is basically forced to tank the energy on his own Skamri, because okay, you want to take the flying damage on the Steel type, right?
01:08:05
Speaker
But and at that point, the only win condition for him would have been the charger bug in the back, but it is not the charger bug. It is the Lekitang, and yeah therefore he realigns the Giratino from a heart-losing matchup to its worst matchup. And yeah, he goes out. um as the runner-up of the world championships with his very own, very unique Uretina origin to Yekai who just like...
01:08:39
Speaker
He just made the best decisions. At the end of the day, Pokemon Go is a decision-making game. And yeah, he just read minds. He was so good in the mid-games, so good. um there were That was rarely ever a mid-game. Either he won switch advantage, or he won shield advantage, oh or he won neither, but just went for the farm-down energy advantage play. No matter the mid-game, Yekai came out with an advantage.
01:09:06
Speaker
and that is what, like I was personally rooting for Martijn because Martijn is a friend of mine. I was also like, I was like rooting for the winner of Martu versus Martijn, like of the loser's final, which we haven't yeah touched on yet. But both of these players are just know a lot better than Yekai just from like a personal perspective because both of them are creators, they've shared their journey and they've also both stated like their disappointment with the game, right? Like they've both made Twitter posts or Matai basically said okay I'll take a little bit of a step back from content creation before Worlds and
01:09:45
Speaker
I wanted it for both of them to just have this experience that really makes them happy and that maybe keeps them at it because we need them in the community as like pillars of content creation and um just those really it really prominent faces that draw in those new people and Nikai is like probably the most deserving champion just because of his gameplay and also this is like not a fluke this is not a one-off like there was this narrative of okay he went o2 last season now he won it all this is like zero to hero story
01:10:24
Speaker
And I think it's like, yes, but no, because this guy, Yekai, he's been so consistent in the Go Battle League. He's been, um like, whenever he got to play a tournament, he excelled. And going O2, we talked about Dunbaag. It can happen to the literal best in the world, to go O2 at Worlds. So, like, Yekai was not, he was like a young trainer, a trainer with not a lot of exposure. um But I don't think he was an underdog, necessarily. He was just,
01:10:52
Speaker
really, really good. And he got his chance and he took it. And I think that is very impressive. But and my in my heart of hearts, I'm also a little bit sad that Maxine didn't get to take the crown there because I just know how much effort he put into growing the community. And I just love seeing that rewarded. But I'm also not too sad because he wouldn't have stopped bragging about it. And so we're still for another year. And I'll take that as well.
01:11:21
Speaker
it's It's so funny you you leave on that note because I was i was in the crowd talking to Ilya, who recently changed his name to Potato Bear in game. and I said, who are you rooting for? and He said, Yaki. I said, what? What do you mean? Inadequance is up there. He says, yeah, but if an adequance wins, he won't let us forget it for a year. He'll say it every single time he sees us. and I said, ah yeah, well,
01:11:46
Speaker
you know We all have we have unique personalities in the community. but um so so You made some fantastic points, especially in in grand finals. What really shocked me was the game four team composition from Yakai. and I just want to go revisit that just briefly because in games one, two, and three, Martine had not only doubled down, he had tripled down on Wigglytuff.
01:12:09
Speaker
bringing in all three of the first ah three games of the series and ah the third one of which he won to keep himself in it. And Wigglytuff was the key to that actually charm down the Quagsire. So what does Yekai do in game four? He plays ABA Flyers.
01:12:25
Speaker
with Altaria lead and Lickitung sandwiched in the middle between his Altaria and his Skarmory. So if Wiggles is in the lead, that's devastating. If Wiggles is in the back instead of Giratina, that's game over. It's really, really tough for him to win that game. But he just knew he had that instinct. He said, Inadequences has played Wigglytuff so many times, he probably thinks that I'm thinking about Wigglytuff. So how do I get one step ahead of the Dutchman? And that's exactly what he did.
01:12:54
Speaker
by bringing the Lickitung and he also knew where to cover his weaknesses. He said, after three games of Wiggles, I can't leave myself open to getting wrecked by the Giratina because that's how Martine plays. He's got so many different dynamic ways to attack that if you leave yourself open on one front, he just exploits it and blows you up from that angle.
01:13:12
Speaker
so Yaki played great defensive team compositions and he also played great offense, especially when he was ahead in the series and he could afford to gamble. And I think that you said it really well, you said Yaki was the most deserving player for the world championships. I think that is is fully valid because he was the most well-rounded player in my opinion because I kind of look at place I was on a spectrum I look at you Cobra bitch over way over on maybe the safe side of things where he doesn't really invest a lot into making hard league calls he just kind of plays three Pokemon he knows are good and just outskills you capitalizes on mistakes while Jeff's is very similar where he just kind of whittles away
01:13:55
Speaker
And if you make any errors, then he then he doesn't let you forget it. And then on the far other side of the spectrum are players like Onion Frank, who will just lead Bastiadon three games in a row and hopefully you know catch catch something good in the lead. And he just really hard hard calls teams. But Yekai had a mix of both, where, like you said, he would play safe. He'd play boring stuff like Quagsire, charge a bug, like a tongue, really neutral stuff. But then he knew the moments when he needed to make a gamble.
01:14:23
Speaker
He knew when he could make a bold call and it would pay off for him. And whether it was sweeping with Altaria or it was ABA Flyers double week to Lickitung in the grand finals of the world championships when your opponent just beat you with Wigglytuff. I mean, he just knew ah how to choose his moments. And I think that's so, so important in a world champion ah is to is to find those moments and to find the win conditions when it seems like it might be impossible to do so.
Future of Competitive Pokemon Go
01:14:50
Speaker
Yeah, I love that you pointed that out. And I also love how you pointed it out because two things are really important. The one thing is, okay, like the difference between a good player and a great player in terms of predictions and anticipating your opponent's next move is, um, sometimes it's not just about, okay, what will my opponent do next, but also about, okay, what will my opponent expect me to do next? Yeah.
01:15:15
Speaker
And I think you really hit the nail on the head with pointing out that, okay, my time probably expected Yekai to have like a team that is a reaction to the weekly tough threat after bringing it so many times. And Yekai doing the opposite was really just 5D chess at that point. And also, this is this is a chess move that you do when you're 3-1 ahead. This is not when you're 1-2 down or 2-2 tied. So yeah, from the from the comfort of that position, he just made a really excellent call. And even though like it doesn't look as exciting when you just see Matine stop tapping and the Lickitang licking down the legendary Pokémon,
01:15:58
Speaker
Um, it's like not very interactive to just close out the entire series, but just the amount of strategy that went into the game going the way it went. Um, I think that those little nuances just make it kind of such a top threat. And I just also think that it's great that we have the spotlight on trainers that are not from a region that gets extensive.
01:16:24
Speaker
play Pokemon media coverage weekend week in and week out, because it really showcases that there are trainers everywhere around the world that um deserve recognition, that are a big threat for the title, and um that can have their own hero story, and I think I adjust that.
01:16:43
Speaker
Yeah, i I couldn't have said it better. I really feel like, um, and this actually segues into my, my hot take, right? I feel like you Kai had all the right ingredients to win worlds. I feel like dancing Rob back in 2022, uh, he wasn't like circled in everybody's bracket to win it all, but he just managed to make the right calls. And then you have accident basically, you know, pulling an Elche and playing with five Pokemon the whole tournament.
01:17:08
Speaker
Uh, and, and just this the pressure of Swampert enabled so many different, you know, uh, uh, I guess opportunities for him to exploit and he was able to win it all. And I don't think, you know, everybody knew about accident because he had won NAIC and he was definitely a trainer on the rise, but it wasn't like, Oh, this is one of our favorites. We didn't circle his name though. Same way that people circle Doonbug's name for this tournament or Palasz's name. Right. So here's my hot take.
01:17:34
Speaker
I think with the current structure of Pokemon Go PvP, unless something incredible changes with how the battles actually work, I don't think we will ever have a repeat world champion in Pokemon Go. Ever.
01:17:51
Speaker
oh I don't care if if the tournament series goes on for 100 years, we will not have another repeat champion. Yeah, like like if if we if we lose, go from the competitive circuit in like 2027, that would be an easy easy guess. We hope it won't be like that for sure. um But I don't know how I feel about that. It depends on what the individual the the individual players do because Like it's unlikely, certainly, just because there's just so many top level players, but like how much more unlikely is it that we have repeat world champions? Like let's, let's say we have 10 world championships and like a Dunbar level player placed them 10 times. Um,
01:18:50
Speaker
Is it like impossible to have a repeat champion? Because if you do that on the regional level and play like 10 tournaments, and you really you you always have amazing players at regional level as well, you can still end up with a three-peat within the same season. I guess this was this was probably an outlier. I don't think we'll have another three-peat next year. But um I don't know. like I'm definitely not... ah So like one thing that I can see is um World Champions taking it easy after their title, because Dancing Rock went into a staffing and really did a good job, especially in Europe, but also at the bigger international events um assisting that.
01:19:36
Speaker
um Axson went into content creation and is now one of the biggest Twitch streamers and also has a little YouTube on the side that um is is quite educational and quite entertaining at times.
01:19:49
Speaker
Um, so he's been branching out and hasn't just been a competitor anymore. And with the Akai, there's, there's other considerations, like even school, like, um, it's not like these players just go all out to compete for another title with.
01:20:10
Speaker
ah same like They probably won't put the same energy into their second world championship um that they put into their first world championship if they want that.
01:20:21
Speaker
um So I can see how that is a factor, but I don't think it's impossible to have like Somebody who is just really thinking okay like being a hardcore Pokemon go competitor I could see that being my life for the next four or five years and if if that trainer just really It's like just two good days, that could be enough. like i don't I don't necessarily think that um it's it's impossible just with how many
Challenges for Previous Champions
01:20:50
Speaker
repeat champions we have seen on like a regional or an international level. Yeah. um I think my my counterpoint is just that Dunbug had such a successful regular season. Jokobrovich had two wins. Colin had two wins.
01:21:04
Speaker
But I think that, you know, beating up on on people in a North American regional or ah an EU regional, wherever you might be in the world, is never going to quite measure up to what it's like at Worlds. I just think the caliber of the players is that much higher. I think every round has just that much more pressure on it. I mean, maybe right. ah One of my one of my pet peeves is when I hear sports journalists or sports analysts and they'll say, we'll never see another athlete like ah like LeBron.
01:21:34
Speaker
we'll never see another Michael Jordan ever ever in history and I'm just or ever in the future and I'm just thinking hmm so if the NBA goes on for another 300 years so to speak then you really don't think anyone is going to win three championships in a row you really don't think any anyone is going to be the next LeBron who who comes out at a young age joins the league and then just dominates for as long as he has because players are only getting better You know, sports science is only improving. It feels like the bar is constantly raising and, uh, and I just, I just don't buy it. But for Pokemon go in particular, I mean, if you look at unite, you know, they had two world champions back to back that were the same team, but that's a team game. And I feel like that's true. That's like just a smaller sample size with how many players compete or like how many different world champions are possible, I guess.
01:22:23
Speaker
Yeah, but, but team games are also different than individual games as well. And you could argue in Fiji, we had Ray Rizzo, but also the, the way that Fiji operates is just so much slower. The setups are so much more important. As we talked about earlier, it just feels like in go, once you lock in that team with the current battle structure, everything is so fast that even the best players in the world can go Oh two. And we saw that with, with accident at any IC and with, with doing here at
Unique Nature of Pokemon Go PvP
01:22:51
Speaker
worlds. I mean, come on.
01:22:53
Speaker
Pokemon Go is definitely not like chess where you know that like in 2700 elo world class like caliber player will always beat someone who's like 200 points lower. It's not the same for Go for sure. So you're saying Pokemon Go is not solved?
01:23:11
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes. So that's a whole other discussion that we might get into for the next episode. I appreciate that Rubik's master video on on that topic, but yeah I was like, I appreciated it in a way that I was like, okay, I think that's good that we have that discussion. But I also see what you did there with like some of the framing and how you really wanted to get people talking about it. And I'll take the bait, but I'll let you know that I know that it was bait.
01:23:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. i like ah Like a fish looking at the hook. I know this is a hook, ah but I'm still going to take the worm anyway. And I'm just going to enjoy it. This looks delicious, yep.
Conclusion and Future Outlook
01:23:51
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. Well, is there anything else that you'd like to cover? I have a brief look at Yekai's Bracket Run, which I think was really interesting. But other than that, I think this is a pretty good episode.
01:24:03
Speaker
Yeah, I do think so too. I think we're also like, this is like a very, like we are almost approaching one and a half hours. I think we're like, for the, for the regional events, we'll probably be closer to the one hour mark again, just make it a little more digestible, but this is well, it's this, uh, this deserved the length we we went to.
01:24:21
Speaker
um Yeah, i think i'm I think I'm good. I want to... I already can't wait for next week's episode. Please tune in, guys. This will be a really fun one when we talk about the meta ahead of Baltimore and what teams we might see there. the yes This is already looking into the future. Even though future site was nerfed, I'm really interested in that still.
01:24:41
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I agree. I mean, and like you pointed out, Worlds was several weeks ago um for yourself. you know You've got travel, you've got work. ah For me, I came back from Hawaii, and then two days later, literally 48 hours after I landed in a at home, so to speak, I was back on a plane going to Mexico ah for for Mariana and I's fiancé visa appointment. so Uh, then I did that for about 10 days and then I came back to the U S and I've only been here for about what four or five days at this point. So, um, yeah, it's been really busy, but I'm really glad that we got a world's recap. Uh, speaking of recaps, let's take a look briefly at your guys bracket run. Cause I think this was phenomenal. Uh, he opened the tournament by taking down nighttime clash or two to one beat Lincoln two to one took on Galaxica Bolton, our leaf tornado superior champion beat him. like
01:25:32
Speaker
That might come, it could. Serpir is actually really good now, again, as it was before. He also took on Steiner to close out day number one. Took down one of Brazil's best 2-0. Day number two, took on one of the few Japanese players, defeating Kaibon 2-0. Then he took on Beelzeboy 2-0. Lurgen Rocket 2-0. Marto Galli, you could argue, pushed him the furthest in the winner's finals. He was able to come come out of that with a 3-2.
01:26:02
Speaker
And then, of course, versus inadequate and grand finals three one. So he was he didn't have an easy run. I'll say that he did not have an easy bracket, took on some of the world's best and proved why he deserves to be the world champion.
01:26:15
Speaker
I agree. It always like, if you just win all your rounds, it always looks like, okay, this is like a relatively short run. If you look at like the C2U or other players who just dropped early and had to basically play twice the battles. But still like, that's the guy who didn't lose a single single set of battles. So, ah course um, yeah, like just, just a dominant performance and doing it like that at the world stage. It's just so impressive.
01:26:46
Speaker
Yeah, it really
Looking Ahead to Future Tournaments
01:26:47
Speaker
is. I think we're going to be very intently watching Yekai's career. Of course, you know, I don't want to name drop or anything, but I've i've known Yekai for at least two years before this because he was our GBLA season five grand champion. And that was back in August of 2022. So he's been good for a little while in in GBL, but I thought it was really sincere, like you pointed out.
01:27:09
Speaker
During his his interview he thanked Inadequance for the practice tournaments that he hosts and I think that if we can take away one thing from all of our world's competitors is that we are so deeply connected as a community and the things that we do do make an impact. So if you are ah like Martijn who gives so much to the community and but has like wavering thoughts sometimes maybe you know it's not worth it or maybe he's not getting enough out of it or maybe you're Marto and you've made you know literally tens of thousands of people just laugh until they cry and you you feel like maybe it's not worth it to continue streaming or maybe you're looking at your very first tournament on the on the calendar you're not sure if you should attend
01:27:52
Speaker
I think that you can always find reassurance in the community members around you and the things that you do have a much, much bigger impact than you think. And sometimes you don't find out about it for weeks, months, years, or maybe ever. But I do think that putting out good things generally gets good results and you should always make the effort because the effort is worth it. And I think that, uh, yeah, worlds was an incredible showcase of that.
01:28:21
Speaker
Some excellent closing thoughts right there, I would say. Well, I'm excited for next week's wireless. We're going to talk about the max out season. We've got another black box that we're going to try to unlock. I've got some really interesting meta picks that I think will be absolute showstoppers on stage. And it's not your Claude Sires, not your Gasterdons, not any of the typical stuff that people are talking about. But I've been playing a lot of of GBL. And I think ah there are some sleeper picks that people are not yet considering. And if anything, if I expect anything out of you,
01:28:54
Speaker
It's for you to have incredible picks as well, like bringing shadow Gyarados to worlds. What kind of crazy person would do that? I don't know, but we're going to talk to him next week on the episode as well. So I'm really looking forward to that. Can we get into next season? I think we've got so much positive momentum in our community, in our game, and I'm looking to carry that over into Baltimore and beyond. 100%. I'm so excited for what's going to happen next. Awesome. That's right. Let's see you next week and thank you everybody for listening.