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EP. 24 Perth, Bogota, Toronto 2025 Recaps & Happy Holidays!
148 Plays4 months ago
Hello, everyone! This is Episode 24 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.
In the final episode of the 2024 calendar year, we proudly present another triple-header! First, we discuss the most lopsided Grand Finals reset in Championship series history, as 89CGYFlamesFan wins in Perth. Next, we recap Richie1409's continued rise as he sweeps Bogota with the Primeape / Galarian Corsola core that Zzweilous prophesized. Finally, we analyze how Ilqm topped off a career of unparalleled consistency with a championship in Toronto. All of this, and our sincere holiday wishes to all of our amazing listeners! Thank you all so much for your support this year. We hope you enjoy this episode. Leave us a review on whichever platform you are listening!
If you're ready, Lock In, press play, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Year-End Wrap-Up: Pokémon Go Championship Series
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the show six podcast where we break down the championship series for Pokemon go in our final episode of the 2024 calendar year.
December Pokémon Events Overview
00:00:09
Speaker
We'll take a look back at December's Perth Bogota and Toronto events where 40 57 and 154 trainers competed respectively.
00:00:19
Speaker
We'll discuss the most lopsided grand finals reset in championship series history, the continued rise of Mexico's Richie 1409, and how one trainer turned a career of unmatched consistency into one perfect moment. There's no time to waste, so let's lock in and good luck. Have fun.
00:01:01
Speaker
The sleigh bells are ringing, champions are taking
Holiday Spirit vs Australian Summer
00:01:05
Speaker
trophies home. And we are here recording once more in the 2024 calendar year, the show six podcasts coming at you. This is Speedy's chief to with my illustrious co-host disease wireless, who was just over in Toronto.
00:01:19
Speaker
Do I hear a little bit of the holiday spirit in your voice, baby? A little bit. A little shing, shing, shing, shing, you know? yeah Yeah, I feel like it's that time of year, right? um But I guess like the the winter mood is not really taking over Australia given that they are actually in the the summer season right now.
00:01:40
Speaker
um I did, i um um I'm sharing a Discord server with um people from all around the globe, amongst them some Australians, and my good friend Lauren Nolly posted about the fruit that um she apparently freshly harvested, and it looks to be like a very nice summer down under in Australia. so I don't even know how they do Christmas. I feel like Santa Claus might be a little overdressed in those big, fluffy red and white clothes. But apparently it's a great time to host the very first Oceanic Region of the season.
00:02:18
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we always see the Santa Claus in a Hawaiian t-shirt, right? Maybe that is actually accurate for Australia at this point. Also, Lauren Lally, I'm familiar with her as well. I'm a huge fan. Huge fan. Not a big fan, but a huge fan. But that being said- Can she have your account though?
00:02:35
Speaker
Mm, I'll think about it. I don't think I have enough Merkros to make her happy, but we'll see. We'll see. But Perth was
Perth Pokémon Community Recap
00:02:42
Speaker
definitely a fun one. There was a great community stream hosted by PvP Steve, as well as Debbie Pebble and a bunch of people from the Australian community produced by Miss Mystic as well. Very, very fun to watch. And I did manage to catch the grand finals. So I know there was a long stream, a lot of battles. I was cheering for my friend, you say for, oh, because he always brings some spicy, spicy teams.
00:03:04
Speaker
but in the grand finals we had 89 cgy flames fan taking on they love jai if you remember that name the latter name they love jai was actually the champion i believe of a australian regional last year so jai is definitely very very talented And they seem to always bring this shadow Alola Ninetales to every tournament, regardless of the meta, you know, regardless if ah it was a Skarmory meta where Steelwing was double super effective or whether it was, you know, a Typhlosion Talonflame meta or ah a poison type meta, whatever. They always find a way to bring it, but they love Jai, making it to the grand finals is really fun. The bad news though, Zweilis, I gotta be honest.
Perth Grand Finals: CGI Flames' Dominance
00:03:44
Speaker
The bad news is that I alluded to this in the intro. This was one of the most lopsided grand finals I've ever seen. And it almost felt like um it wasn't even like they love Jai's fault. They love Jai came in on the winner's side. 89 CGI flames fan was actually knocked down to the loser's side by they love Jai. And after you watch that grand finals, so it is a massive mystery how that happened in the first place because Flames fan completely dominated. And just looking at the team, the team compositions, we were talking about this before we started recording, there were very few opportunities for Jai to really find an opening.
00:04:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think the main problem here, if we look at the teams, first of all, I think it's quite impressive how somebody can be named Calgary Flamespin when they are, um quite frankly, not old enough to have traveled to Calgary on their own. And also, and apparently, hail from Australia. But they had an impressive showing with the fairly meta team of Azumarill, ShadowCantoMeroWag,
00:04:51
Speaker
Jump Love, Shadow Feraligatr, Primeape, and to Shadow Drapion. Drapion, I must say. Whereas, a they love Jaya coming in a little more spicy with also a Shadow Drapion, which is the one Pokémon that is identical between the two teams.
00:05:06
Speaker
Also for alligator, but this time not a shadow. Then um the legendary um powder snow along the Ninetales, also a shadow. Marama, superior, and you know when stunfisk. And the one thing that stands out when you look at this team in particular, is that the only Drapion, or Drapion, it's so difficult to say that correctly. I know, but if you're going to cast one day, you know, you gotta keep in mind. i have to I have to unlearn the bad habits.
00:05:33
Speaker
um But yeah, the only answer that they love Jai could possibly bring to really counter that Pokémon would probably
Bogota Grand Finals: Richie vs Diakis
00:05:43
Speaker
be the Unova and Stunfisk, even though I believe that even that can lose that matchup just because it gets outpaced ever so slightly.
00:05:53
Speaker
and yeah like That is so difficult to bring because out of the five Pokémon on CGI Flames fans team, five of them have super effective attacks to fight back against the Unova and Stuntfisk. So um I definitely agree that it is a mystery how their love jive could even win the very first meeting of ah those two trainers. And I am not really surprised that a non-top player like CGI Flames fan, who has been doing well in GBL and grassroots before, was able to um pilot this team of just six very strong Pokémon to victory.
00:06:37
Speaker
In the in the set in which Jai was able to knock down flames fan I believe it was a 3 to 2 from them Yeah, it was a 3 to 2 so 3 games for Jai and 2 games for flames fan decisive game 5 in the in the semifinals in the bracket and And yeah looking back at the grand finals you basically had the inverse of that it was not close whatsoever in the initial grand final set you had flames fan winning three oh and then in the reset you had flames fan jumping out to an early to lead before they love jai miraculously one.
00:07:11
Speaker
ah game number three of the reset by leading Malamar keeping his you know of a sunfisk in the back and then game four of the grand finals reset I could tell the job was not ah having a good time because they literally force closed the app before the game was even over and I definitely couldn't Could feel the stress and feel the annoyance coming through the screen because ah this was a story of jump bluff and shadow drabian core just absolutely hammering they love jai I mean there were I think two or three different games where for alligator failed to shadow call the drabian down and it got to an additional crunch or games where it the jai would try to bring the nine tails and
00:07:50
Speaker
And then all of a sudden, it would be it would be lined up against the shadow for alligator that's resisting all the powder snows, or it's lined up against the drabian who's poison stinging the heck out of it. And it was just really tough. And then when you so when you pivot and you try to bring superior stunfisk as Jai, then you get met by jump love. And it's just so obnoxious. I mean, this was a really tough grand finals for Jai. Tough to watch, and and I can only imagine how difficult it was to play it out. but It was great to see those ah those Aussies battle it out and we didn't have just Aussies We had some trainers from New Zealand and from beyond and as well as she made a good point in our pre recording chat This might be a first for our third place medalist here
00:08:34
Speaker
i think that I think that is so um because previously most of the regionals we had were like real regionals where um the field of players that appeared in those brackets were not only from essentially only the same country, but also like always kind of local. So it's it's still the case in, for example, North American regionals where The west coast events will have a decidedly different cast of battlers than the east coast events.
00:09:07
Speaker
um But this time we had a Japanese top player, Pokemony Maker, um actually taking home the third place medal. So yeah, in terms of regional medalists, I think that might be a first. And I do want to shout out the very interesting pick of Shadow Dragonite on that team as well. And it's paired with the Shadow Feraligatr. And I think those two, even though both are really squishy,
00:09:31
Speaker
are forming a really solid core just because the main enemies of Dragonite in this meta are probably the ubiquitous Zoomeral as well as its partner in crime alone in Sandslash. yeah And I think Feraligatr is just the most reliable core breaker to those two. That is also generally good into a lot of other matchups. So yeah, partnering those worked out really well for Pokemony Maker on the coming third to they love jai and cty flames fan and i do want to issue one correction as to uh they love jai's previous um played pokemon history um they did reach another grand finals it was also in Perth and they also came second last year they finished runner-up to um rick flario back in the day oh you're right um
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah, that also happened with the, um, shadow alone on that tail. So sticking to a signature Pokemon, we always love to see it. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, you're right. I'm i'm so sorry, Rick, if you're listening, I don't mean, uh, I don't mean any, any, uh, shade there, but no, I recall that finals now that you mentioned it because they love drive was able to reset the bracket. And then, uh, Rick Flareon came back and ended up winning the entire, the entire tournament.
00:10:49
Speaker
And um that seemed to be very rare last season that a trainer would lose the grand finals reset and then course correct or excuse me, they would lose the grand finals and then course correct and win the grand finals reset. I still think it's a bit rare because because once that that challenger right from the loser side bracket, once they reset the bracket the first time,
00:11:09
Speaker
Usually they have the momentum the team composition or just the mental edge against their opponent I get that feeling time and time again It's very difficult to stop your opponent once they reset the bracket once but a trainer that actually managed to do that if I if I may segue this smoothly and was Richie over in Bogota. So let's head over to to Latin America here and talk about Richie taking on his opponent Diakis in the grand finals. And for some reason, the name Diakis is very, very familiar to me. I've seen him battle quite a bit in Go Battle League and in some showsticks practice. And Shadow Typhlosion almost got the better of Richie, but he did some really, really curious things to get around it. And honestly, as far as when I was watching this grand finals on the community stream,
00:11:56
Speaker
I noticed that Richie plays very, very similar to one of the most iconic North American trainers who has not yet won a regional. I don't know if you have any guesses. I'm kind of throwing you a curve ball. If you're if you're putting it like that, so we would need to find somebody who is not a champion yet, who has a very like remarkable and unique play style, um and who also is a top competitor.
00:12:25
Speaker
Are we talking about the arrow battle approach? Yes, we are. yes in And the thing is that the arrow battle approach is is always hilarious to me because it's like an expanded ABA acronym, right? and But ah that's not exactly what Richie does. He doesn't play the ABA the way that Arrow does. However,
00:12:47
Speaker
He does make some very curious switches, some very, um how do i how do I say, very gutsy line calls. I mean, he really moves the pieces around. And sometimes when when you watch, let's say you watch a movie you really enjoy and you know how it's going to go. You're saying, okay, you know, this is about what I expect. You know, we're going to see this and that. And it's a bit predictable.
00:13:10
Speaker
But then there are other movies where things just happen and you're like, what the hell is going on right now? What am I watching? That's what it feels like when you watch Richie play some of these games. And Richie obviously incredibly talented, did phenomenally well at LAIC earlier this year. This one was a bit It was a bit of ah a mix because it wasn't the predictable Richie that we saw LAIC. It was more of what I like to call tables Richie, which Richie takes down a lot of really talented players at the tables and up until LAIC, he didn't perform quite as well on on stage.
00:13:45
Speaker
But he kind of overcame that, and I feel like Richie played very, very well, but he still had a a couple of different sprinkles of his unpredictable style mixed in here. And this was actually a, I believe this, if if not mistaken, I believe this was our first Galarian Corsola to win a championship series event. And honestly, it's why this, you call it the core, Corsola and Primate.
00:14:08
Speaker
It is true. I think those two cover each other so well. um We will see later in the Toronto segment that you can also run Corsola with Annihilate, go for the double ghost. But yeah, I personally love that we have this like fairly neutral Pokemon in Corsola, which like originally I thought, okay, maybe it's too strong. But I think from what I've seen over the the last weekends,
00:14:36
Speaker
Um, this is a Pokemon that really helps enable squishier partners, where it's a Pokemon that you can switch in to tank energy and then just play out a situation neutrally. And yeah, therefore I think something like Primeape with a stat product of Like roughly 1600, um, really benefits from a partner such as the Corsola. But one thing that did surprise me about the Bogota event especially is how Corsola came out on top, even though people were.
00:15:11
Speaker
not only preparing, but in part even maybe over-preparing for it. Like we see in third place, Aluka TV with a fairly spicy and unique team, which features not only DiggerSpy, which is just about the hardest wall imaginable,
00:15:27
Speaker
um to the Galarian Corsola and also features on five out of the six top teams, but also Wigglytuff, which is um like the one thing that we called out as a potential core breaker to the Prime Map Corsola core, but still Richie and Aluka faced in the winners' finals and Richie came out on top. So um that's that's the nice thing about having six Pokemon on your team, right? Even when the one core is broken, you still have a bunch of other Pokemon that can make up for it.
00:15:57
Speaker
I think Double Normal is a very bold call. And and like you said, Wigglytuff is one of the only Pokémon that can charm through the Primeape and the Glaring Corsola, although it is a little bit tricky, especially if you go down shields. But yeah, these teams are very interesting. Like like you pointed out, AlukaTV also had a Drifblim on their team, which i know I know a particular podcaster that likes Drifblim as well.
00:16:20
Speaker
Uh, Marto Galladay coming in at fourth place. We were chatting about this too. I mean, this guy's metal cabinet has to be so full that I think when he opens the, the, the doors to it, it might just tip over, right? There's so many accolades for this trainer having already won a regional and, and I see this year and will likely compete in the, in the calendar year 2025 as well.
00:16:41
Speaker
We had JonnyfansTTV coming in at 5th place as well as Alejandro, CN17, Chris Phoenix, and J.
Toronto Event: Elam's Breakthrough
00:16:50
Speaker
Dargomidor, if I'm saying that correctly, but lots of Azumarill Diggersby. I'm seeing ah at least four of those cores here in this in this tournament, which with Latin we kind of came to expect Diggersby Toxapex, but it feels like Toxapex has basically fallen off.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's really difficult to bring toxapex just because, um like, two things. Corsola is popular now, so that is another hard counter to the toxapex because Ghost does resist poison type damage and that is your main main source of damage as the toxapex. Another Ghost that's popular, Annihilape, also has a pretty good matchup for a fighting type into a poison type. So whereas when Pangoro was the main fighter, your toxapex was a good answer to that. Now it's just another vulnerability, essentially. But also, um more coarser brings in more diga SP because the normal type just contests that so hard. And that also makes toxapex a lot more tricky to run just because, again, like gives you have brine for coverage, but you just pace so slowly. and
00:18:03
Speaker
Um, the bulk of the GSP makes it so that you need at least three, potentially four, Brian Steven knocked that out. So tough times for the friends of, of the, um, both here tend to, uh, tend to cool. So probably not a great time, even though ours was everywhere still. Yeah. The the other, um, uh, what's, what's the name for the, uh, the classification for the animal that is a, uh, it's not a mollusk is it?
00:18:32
Speaker
and I'm nice. Similar. now Now I have to not only access my my knowledge of the English language, but I also have to access my biology knowledge. And one of those things is things is not like the other, I must say. Ah, yes, yes, of course. Well, a good thing this is not a biology podcast, but ah that being said, yeah, I agree. Talkspec is very difficult to bring. And if you look at Richie's team, he actually has three great answers to it in Diggersby, Galarian Corsola, and Alolan Sandslash.
00:19:00
Speaker
Now, I did have a chance to watch this community stream. I watched the grand finals and um actually talked with Richie a little bit as well to get get some clarification because the bracket says that it was it was ah four games in the grand finals and then four games in the grand finals reset, but we did see the players play out five games in the initial grand finals Turns out, thanks to Richie for letting me know, game two was actually a rematch. There was a little inconsistency there. So the official record for the grand finals was Diaki's game one, Richie strikes back game two, and then Diaki's wins games three and four to reset the bracket.
00:19:38
Speaker
Heading into the grand finals, reset Diakis wins again. So he's on a three game win streak, but then Richie course corrects and he wins three straight to lock down the Bogota grand finals. And I thought you would find this incredibly poetic Swiles because in games four and five, excuse me, in games three and four,
00:19:56
Speaker
the decisive battles of the grand finals reset. Richie narrowed down his team. He he picked a select core of Pokemon that really just shine brilliantly in these last games because Shadow Typhlosion was such a menace. Diaki's ended up bringing that Pokemon in every single game except one.
00:20:17
Speaker
And then the one game that he didn't bring it actually went to a rematch anyway. So technically, Diaki's brought Shadow Typhlosion every single game. Richie was really struggling. He was having a very hard time taking down the Typhlosion, but two Pokémon that can actually give Typhlosion everything it can handle, Primeape and Glarian Corsola. So in games three and four, those are the only to the only two games out of the entire grand finals, so including the reset.
00:20:43
Speaker
The only two games that Richie brought that core and it absolutely crushed. He won both of those games to seal the title. So, you know, you you could say he stopped messing around. He got serious, started bringing the primate glaring course to the core, just like that's why they said. and And that was the remedy for success.
00:21:00
Speaker
So he definitely um makes the prophecies from this podcast come true. I just wonder whether this is, like this win is proof of the Gallerian Corsola Primepco prediction or the prediction after LAIC where we said that Richie definitely has it in him to become a champion yet again. Like he already had that one title, but We were like, oh, like even the nice guy can be the main character for, for any event. And like, he kind of felt as if he gave up the, his chances at the LAIC crown out of like courtesy and friendship almost. Um, because there were like two separate situations where where he could have pushed for a dispute, but didn't.
00:21:45
Speaker
um But yeah, like he definitely got his redemption and made it work his own way, so definitely huge congrats to Ruchi for yet another amazing tournament run.
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah, Richie's incredible, incredibly kind person, incredibly fun to be around and incredible player as well. Everybody said for a long time that Richie was very talented, but like, like I always say, there's, there's tables, Richie, and then there's main stage, Richie. And we got to see a lot of main stage, Richie to LAIC main stage. Richie looks like he is here to stay because he was able to win that grand finals.
00:22:18
Speaker
but he was a complete nail biter from from the very beginning to the end. I'm telling you he does some weird stuff with his swaps and his plays and he makes himself very hard to read and I think that's probably part of the strategy and why he reminded me so much of the Arrow battle approach. But that being said, both the Perth and Bogota streams were community streams and I know one day we we will get to the point where these streams are official but in the meantime the Perth stream is located on PVP Steve's channel and if you want to watch the Bogota stream it's actually on a channel that I wasn't very familiar with it's called Draco Hobby Center. Both of these stream vods, I will say Steve's stream vod has like 200 or 300 views honestly everybody
00:23:04
Speaker
That's pitiful. We got to get those numbers up. We got to show Steve our support for broadcasting these, and these Australian regional events. And then the Draco hobby center has four and a half thousand views. Still, we do much, much better than that on the official channels. So please go and check out those vods and watch those players. And let me know if you think that Richie is as crazy as I think he is, or if they love Jai was, uh, was having a better time than I thought, because it looked pretty miserable in Perth.
00:23:30
Speaker
That being said, the main course here, what everybody was able to watch on the official channel, the big tournament here with 154 players, the culmination of a career of unmatched consistency. Let's talk about Toronto.
00:23:45
Speaker
Can I start this off with a quote from Marto Gaudé, who did not compete. He competed in Bogota, but he did have um just one sentence for Elam's decisive victory in Toronto. He did say it on Twitter. He did say it in Spanish, but he said, the king without a crown finally has has his crown. And I think there is no more accurate description for what happened because like The only thing that kept Elam out of contention for okay who is the greatest NA competitor was probably just this one final step, getting like going from like a serial medalist, a serial grand final competitor, and somebody who, um let me count, I think his last
00:24:39
Speaker
ah kickxi period this last Six appearances that weren't worlds um all ended within the top 10. Then he had like one 25th place in Orlando. Before that, again, seventh place. seven ah Second place in Hartford.
00:24:57
Speaker
you you don't find this consistency anywhere. And it's not only like top cut consistency, it's grand finals, it's top four, top five. And yeah, it was about to happen. And it happened in probably the most stacked NA tournament so far in this season.
00:25:15
Speaker
Hmm. It's so ironic too. We keep saying that the most stack, the best, the strongest top cut. And it, it is true because up until that point that is the best tournament. And I really think Toronto was, was nuts. I mean, for Wadaj to get knocked out of Toronto so early is just a testament of how Incredibly hairy. The competition was right. Elam has 14 career competitive appearances for play Pokemon. He has top cut 11 of those. This was his third trip to the grand finals where he finally got his first place medal. So Elam incredibly impressive. But what really I wanted to talk to you about this wireless because you were you were on site. You were in Toronto. You were competing as well. And you got to see a lot of these battles in person.
00:26:01
Speaker
Looking at Elam's team on paper, you've got Azumarill, Alolan Sandslash, Galarian Corsilla, Shadow Drapian, Superior and Annihilate, So much of that team feels very RPS. Alolan Sandslash has really hard counters and it has really hard wins. Galarian Corsa, like it's absolutely devoured by normal and dark types. Then you've got Superior, who gets picked apart by Talon Flames and Flyers. Annihilape also struggles against, you know, certain match-ups. These Pokemon just feel very polarizing, but it didn't feel polarizing watching Elon play. Was that because he brought Shadow Drappy into every single game or not?
00:26:41
Speaker
It definitely was because of shadow rap. Yeah. I think shadow rap is numero co was the story of the weekend. And funnily enough, so the Toronto event was, um, my, my second bad performance in a row. I got knocked out fairly early. Like I dropped in my very first round. Then I had a little bit of a loser's run one fourth straight, but.
00:27:04
Speaker
eventually it got um knocked out by Vadash, who I did not expect to see down there. um But yeah, those were good battles though. like um I got all my line calls wrong, but I managed to still get a 1-2 out of it by um overcoming that disadvantage game too. I was a little proud of that. Didn't help me at all though. Still fun battles. However,
00:27:28
Speaker
I ran the exact same team that, um, Elon brought to the tournament. Um, and after day one, I essentially said, eh, I like, I felt like these are the best Pokemon right now, but I just can't really play them. And Elon knew how to play them. I especially want to like shout out the Drapion play because not only did he, um, no.
00:27:57
Speaker
what, like know how to over farm and when to pivot out, but also he, I think had just the perfect Drapion for the task because it was bulky enough to just win the head-to-head if the opponent didn't shield, but also attack waited enough to occasionally win CMP and essentially dictate when the opponent would shield. So I feel like that was just like a really nice middle ground IV Drapion that really helped him a lot in his games. And then also the the Annihilate place, where he knows when to, like, if he loses CMP with this Annihilate, um he typically uses that to his advantage and just switches out in, like, the Annihilate mirror and um takes all the energy on his zoom roll and then has a full rage was loaded for the back and just can set up a place like that.
00:28:55
Speaker
um And like a third Pokemon that I want to, or like even a fourth Pokemon if we count the Azu.
Toronto Strategy: Shadow Drapian vs Consistent Picks
00:29:01
Speaker
So yet another Pokemon that I do want to mention, um which I feel I underutilized in my run, because it was so new, because I built it the day before and I did not have a lot of practice with it, is the Galarian Corsola.
00:29:14
Speaker
Um, I talked about how I think this is just like a really good enabler for Pokemon that maybe don't want to take a charge attack, but can do a lot with their energy, such as Annihilape, such as Shadow Drapion. Um, but I just didn't know when to bring it, in which situations the risk would pay off. Elam knew how to do it. And I think he knew that because he's been building this Pokemon for a while. This was a best buddy Galarian Corsola. And yeah I am so lazy at buddying. I did not even know that was possible to have at this point of its release cycle. So that was really impressive, the commitment early to this newly released Pokemon, really.
00:29:56
Speaker
playing to to its strength and knowing how to utilize it. Yeah, they must have been. It must have been a Poffin every single day and you need 300 buddy hearts, I believe to get to best buddy. So he must have been Poffin plus, you know, follow a route, take a picture, battle with your buddy, uh, walk this distance, you know, get maximum hearts every single day in order to best buddy. And I think, uh, softof is well commented on that. Like, holy smokes. There's a best buddy ribbon on that glaring course. But yeah, Elon was, was really impressive. I didn't know. And I feel so bad. I didn't know that you brought the exact same team.
00:30:30
Speaker
as Elon. It's easy to miss. It's easy to miss when you do not appear on the data graphic. I really hope I can do that again in in Birmingham next year, but for now, in a little bit of a slump, it's okay.
00:30:44
Speaker
Well, we spoke about Shadow Drapian a moment ago. I have a mind-blowing fact for you about Shadow Drapian in the grand finals. But before we get to that, I just wanted to shout out to a couple of absolutely ah rising stars, just incredible players that I think impressed everyone. I think you'll agree with me. ah The first player I want to mention, of course, is Sceptile Ice. If you look at Sceptile Ice's overall play Pokemon record,
00:31:10
Speaker
It's honestly astounding how many and I don't I don't mean this in a in a personal way at all I could see how there this could sound mean out of context But I'm being a hundred percent honest because I saw Sceptile ice compete in a grassroots tournament against house Stark and Philly last year and he was so Impressive he took down house start and I started to say like this this kid might be the real deal Sceptile ice has a a high number of oh twos or one twos at regional competitions in his play Pokemon history and And when you juxtapose that against the absolute masterclass that he put on in Toronto, it's astounding how much he has grown and how much he has progressed as a player. I mean, this, this guy is a threat at any, any tournament you walk into, if you see his name on the bracket, you better hope you don't pair against him because it's going to be a really, really tough fight. Sceptile Ice was incredible. I don't know if you have ah thoughts on him, but I also want to shout out Dr. RoastBeef for obvious reasons.
00:32:06
Speaker
third place with a, a, uh, how, do how do I say this? You know, in, in, um, it's not Zoolander. It's, uh, the Jim Carrey movie where he speaks to animals, you know, talking about, yeah, yeah and and I know it, but I just, when nature calls,
00:32:25
Speaker
Anyway, Aspintura. It's like an Aspintura. When Jim Carrey's character walks into the the poacher's room and he's got all those animal heads on the walls and he's like looking left and right like, oh, can't believe it. If you look at the people that Dr. Roastbeef took down and you see like, You know, all these incredible trainers heads on the wall. You're like, Oh my God, this is a, this is a morgue. This player absolutely put these, uh, these top trainers into the dirt. And it's really impressive. I mean, uh, he did some incredible things as well. I mean, taking down Colin, uh, took down dune bug, took down SS thorn, valor Ash inadequate. Uh, and, and only was dropped by Elon the champion. I mean, my goodness, that is a ridiculous roster and that's just day two.
00:33:13
Speaker
Yeah, I, I want to, I want to use those runs from both septalize and talk to rospeave to just like. Let this be a message of hope to anyone who has competed in Play Pokemon and feels as if they should have done better based on their GBL record. Because I think those two trainers just show how improvement is possible when you really commit to it.
00:33:43
Speaker
Um, because you mentioned it, like Scepter Ice had like a couple of rough tournament runs when he started out his play Pokemon career. I'm looking over his, um, his recent record and they were like, okay, 2-0-2, so I think. And there was like 1-0-1-2 or something. Or maybe it was a 2-2. Anyway, it was like a couple um mixed bag type of results.
00:34:09
Speaker
um But then he had like a six match win tournament in Charlotte with a good loser's run, placing 13th. Then 17th finish in in Orlando. Then there was like two big events, NAIC and Worlds. But then fifth place finish in Baltimore earlier this season oh with a shadow Celio nonetheless. um So that was already like a way to announce your presence on the big stage.
00:34:36
Speaker
um and now obviously bettering that even further with a first grand finals appearance and Septilize, a trainer who had top 10 in GBL before. Dr. Rosebeef, a trainer who just recently hit number one in GBL, if I'm not mistaken. um So those players really just sharpening their their skills and um just becoming better and better and trying again trying again really not afraid of anyone and being rewarded with a medal each this tournament can i say something that's gonna blow your mind please do i'm going to connect all three of these players in a way that you probably did not see coming
00:35:20
Speaker
So Septile Ice said, uh, I believe he said on the X, he said, uh, Elam, please stop beating me at regional tournaments. Right. I went back and looked at the record. Septile Ice lost to Elam in Baltimore this year, but he finished fifth overall with the Celio, like you said. but But I want to make the note that the trainer that took down Septile Ice was Elam. Septile Ice also competed in Baltimore 2023 and you guessed it, lost to Elam.
00:35:47
Speaker
Sceptile Ice lost round one at Worlds in Hawaii. And do you want to know who he lost to? um He lost. so Because you so you still have to connect Dr. Rosebeef. He probably lost to Dr. Rosebeef. Is that true or not? Sceptile lost round one in Hawaii to Dr. Rosebeef at Worlds.
00:36:08
Speaker
Yes, so Sceptileice has lost at regional competitions to Elam. This will be the third time that Elam has beaten him in regional competitions, and he lost round one to the third place finisher in Dr. Roastbeef in Hawaii. So honestly, when I looked back at this record, I was absolutely flabbergasted. All three of these trainers have met before, multiple times. And I feel like for for Play Pokemon to get a database going where we actually have access to all these these data points would be so fantastic and even enrich you know commentating and enrich our podcast so much if we can mention these things but just seeing this is absolutely astounding yeah all three are connected and I really I really empathize with what you said about GBL performance and how that can really tie in I mean we've seen trainers like Trent or like SJ um really succeed very well in GBL and then make that transition over to show six and continue to do well
00:37:01
Speaker
But seeing these trainers, you know, recently, these, uh, these players who are recently really finding their rhythm in go battle league also find their rhythm and show six. Very, very nice. And, um, dr. Rose beef and sub tile ice. I think both of them had immaculate team reads. They had great mechanics. Uh, they recognize the wind conditions. Uh, I call it taking a snapshot. They took a mental snapshot of the wind condition multiple times throughout the game and adapted
EU Players' Influence on Global Strategies
00:37:27
Speaker
accordingly.
00:37:27
Speaker
and that's what you have to do against very very talented players uh like like dune bug or like colin or or even like against elum yeah they were so impressive and as you round out this this incredibly stacked uh top 16 i'm just going to run through this really quick uh one through three we've already talked about fourth place inadequance fifth place colin the best dutch player in the world 6th place valor rash 7th place 7th place SS thorn a shady equation Tom ock UK dune bug lost and Cody a deep Khan at the freezing Sun EO Mero and blob and a that is your top 16 and Honestly, it is stout. It is stout like a freshly poured Guinness. That is a very very strong lineup
00:38:07
Speaker
I love how you just seamlessly went from, oh, Colin finished slightly behind Martijn, but Colin is still the best Dutch player in the world. So that was a nice little touch. I mean, what's in the water in the Netherlands? In the Netherlands, right? You've got, you've got, oh, Martijn and Colin. Everything is in the water in the, in the Netherlands. Do you know how far below sea level they are?
00:38:31
Speaker
um true true geography fact coming at you but yeah they are they are in the lowlands and uh i'm i'm a bit familiar with lowlands myself having grown up very close to new orleans and uh that's basically a swamp city but that's neither here nor there I'm not sure if there's anybody else you wanted to shout out to because when I look at this top top 16 We already know a lot about mostly most of these other players But elim septile ice and dr. Rose beef seeing all three of them and their 2024 year earning a medal and really Proving to themselves and everyone watching that they can take down some of the best players in the world I don't think there's a much more poetic ending for these three players.
00:39:15
Speaker
I actually have some more shoutouts, not necessarily for players, but for Pokemon that these trainers utilize, because I do think there is some some more fun and original stuff in here than um in the smaller tournaments by a notch.
00:39:31
Speaker
So like, I love that the barrel is now a thing. It's right um like, there are, like, I think there's like one done sparse overall in, in the whole top 16. So that thing still exists, but the barrel appears to be the premier rollout. now I know I'm finishing both third and fourth, taking home two medals.
00:39:54
Speaker
I feel like the coverage is just justed really, really good, in especially like the condensed top meta, and both Dr. Rosebeef and Inadequence have been able to leverage the beaver quite well. My time even opting for the Talonflame, the barrel core, that just like the Prime Imp course, got its little shout out um earlier on this podcast. Our last podcast, I must say.
00:40:20
Speaker
And then my favorite series of the tournament probably was between Valor Ash and Dune Buck in day one, where Valor Ash Greninja Talonflame Core went up against Dune's Starmie Pangoro Core. Yeah, um Mason Valor Ash was able to take that in a very close to one series.
00:40:46
Speaker
um saying and very like like playing to a very smart, very very tricky win condition where he didn't incinerate with his Talonflame to um essentially do and think that he's opting to go for and maybe a fly, maybe a charge attack building up to that, but then sniping the Digispy energy with a loaded Greninja that was really fun to see. And I have to say that um Now that Ilum has won his first championship and Skafo won his first medal in EU, um there's as fewer and fewer players we have to a zoom into and just say, okay, like it's about to be your time, right? It's about to be your time. And I feel like Balorash is one of those where we kind of expect them to
00:41:36
Speaker
um get their big breakthrough moment, and if I'm not entirely mistaken, um he's still looking to earn his very first medal, and he has not come closer yet than in this Toronto tournament. um So yeah, I feel like this is a really good time to be a talent flame user, so I would not be surprised if we um see another really deep run in San Antonio in January.
00:42:03
Speaker
Yeah, which so is go ahead. You go ahead. oh I just wanted to, I just wanted to, to insert a ah comment, uh, valor Ash. Yeah. It's absolutely insane that he has not yet, uh, gotten even a third place mental or even ah a fourth place mental at an IC. He has not claimed yet, but I, in my mind, right. Valor Ash, a PVP icon, he's basically, uh, I, I liken him to another American icon, Frank Sinatra.
00:42:30
Speaker
Right, he's brought his Talonflame to every single damn tournament in every single meta he's ever encountered. If he wins, he's going to do it his way. Just like Frank Sinatra, I did it my way. He's going to do it his way with Talonflame, and I think that is just a matter of time if he keeps on improving the way that he is. Because, yeah, the sixth place finish in um arguably the most stacked field we've ever seen at a regional competition, and definitely in NA. Yeah, I think he's he's on the right trajectory, I would say.
00:42:59
Speaker
100% and then the last one that I do want to shout out is Tomahawk UK's crazy shadow swamp pet pick because like this guy always has an ace up his sleeve always has this one pick that nobody's thought about And this weekend I learned that Shadow Swampert with a sufficiently high attack stat, um high enough to beat out Shadow Feraligatr and CMP in fact, which is very unlikely but possible, is able to take that matchup because
00:43:31
Speaker
um Even Resisted Hydro Cannon just does so much that eventually the mudshot damage becomes overwhelming. So apparently that is a way of um defeating Shadow Feraligatr with a Shadow Swampert if it has a crazy IV spread. So anybody who loves Swampert and wants to ring it again, look out for those high attack mudkills. They might just be the key to victory.
00:43:56
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. I mean, like you said, he always comes up with texts that we are never expecting. I think he tried to bring shadow Skarmory to a tournament earlier this season. And then he top cut, uh, was it Baltimore with toxapex, uh, Pangoro and diggers V.
00:44:11
Speaker
Um, but I gotta say tomahawk provided the peak comedic moment of the entire stream for me When he sat across the table from elum and getting ready for their match on day number two Winked at the camera and then proceeded to get folded like a napkin and go oh two against elum on stage That was absolute peak comedy. I saw people in the chat as well saying winking before battling elum is crazy work like To do that is absolute insanity. So Yeah, he definitely always has a a unique pick, but it seems like when he runs up against a lot of NA's best, he doesn't fare quite as well. Because after losing to Elam, he was dispatched by SS Thorne. So yeah, definitely a tough day number two. It looks like in day number one, he took on two trainers I'm not too familiar with, prepared to fight, and Daje FH. But he also took down Dijon Najin and Rocha Babyface. So those were two quality wins, and that's what got him to day number two. so
00:45:07
Speaker
um Very, very, yeah yeah, very exciting run. And it's always good to see the innovators. I still sincerely think that EU is leagues ahead of NA in terms of innovation and experimentation and finding those interesting match-ups and loopholes because, I mean, who can compete with with you, Tonton and Tomahawk? I mean, that's like the trio of the EU Spiced Lords. And we also have Martijn with like his fortress. You're right. like Yeah. Honestly, exactly like, like when we, when we look at the top EU battlers, it's like spy slot, spy slot, spy slot and Colin who copies the teams of the spy slots. Yeah. It's, it's always going to be entertaining. Those Christian pizza guys. You know what I'm saying? oh Yeah. i'm I'm really, I'm really glad that my fellow Europeans, um, managed to avenge me and actually put three of us into top card. Um, that was a really good show.
00:46:03
Speaker
Um, something that really threw me off. Uh, I was looking at the metapix here and some of the off metapix B barrel. The fact that TPCI had to correct our casters and have them say B barrel instead of Bibarel was really tough. But you know, that is life. You have for Hawthorne and you have drabian and now you have B barrel. So I love i love how i hope they stretch out the B as well as if they like, this is, this is like more of a B than B drill at this point.
00:46:33
Speaker
ah right? King B, B-barrel, B-barrel, B-barrel, whatever. But ah yeah, I think that B-barrel is a very nice surprise. seeing Seeing two of them in the top four was honestly remarkable. I would love to see more of it. um And one thing I wanted to call out earlier, Doonbug, I think he made a post on X saying that he was a little disappointed in his runs recently.
00:46:55
Speaker
um It's tough, right? To lose to Valor Ash and a Nailbiter, and then your next game, your next series, I should say, is against Dr. Roastbeef, who leads his Sableye into your Starmie not once, but twice in both games one and three of your series. Definitely a team comp issue there that is very difficult to overcome. And have you seen Doonbug go toe-to-toe with Emmy Weedle in that grassroots tournament hosted by Dez is the Best just a ah week ago or two weeks ago?
00:47:24
Speaker
That was one of the best finals I've ever seen play Pokemon or otherwise. That was absolute electricity. um To see that you know and then have him feel like he's turning downwards a little bit, I think that his his mental state is strong enough and he will bounce back. But I definitely empathize with feeling like you you should do better, but not performing up to what your own expectations are.
00:47:46
Speaker
And for you as well, i look I look for you to bounce back. Yeah, i really I really hope I will. I think I just needed a little more practice, needed to get more familiar um with my team specifically. And also with what my opponents would bring against that team, because I sometimes like overestimated some threats than underestimated others. But yeah, like I'm not worried about Dune whatsoever.
00:48:10
Speaker
Um, but yeah, like you, you talked about the very, the, the very electric finals between Dune and Emmy Wheedle in that, um, priced grassroots tournament, which kind of, um, like set the stage for Toronto. Like that's, this was, um, I think a larger tournament than either Perth or Bogota and it was yeah very stacked as well. So we got to see a little glimpse at the new meta and what it would look like.
00:48:38
Speaker
And honestly, given the MEWeedle team that managed to reach the grand finals, I thought Morpeko would be a real factor in Toronto already. There was no Morpeko in either top cut, not in Perth, not in Bogota, and not in Toronto. So I don't know, I don't know, maybe we just need somebody who is not afraid to bring this 1500-something stat product Pokémon onto a tournament, but I feel like that was underrepresented. And yeah, like I kind of was very scared of that going in and then it just never came. Yeah, it's like the boogeyman, right? You look under your bed and it's not there. Turns out it's in the closet. It's actually at Birmingham. If, uh, if Emmy Wheedle makes an appearance and he and he does decide to bring it. Like, ah, God. Mapeko will be a really tough opponent if it like voluntarily spends time in Birmingham. I must say that. Um,
00:49:37
Speaker
right but Yeah, let's head towards another Grand Finals, shall we? Because even though there was no more Pekko, there was no shortage in terms of great battles, because we did see a Bracket Reset, we did see a very close series, two very close series, um between Elam and Sceptalice.
00:49:59
Speaker
Yes, exactly right. So Sceptile Ice came in on the winner's side of the bracket. Elam from the loser's side, the challenger, if I may. Elam jumps out to an early 2-0 lead in the grand finals. Sceptile Ice strikes back in game number three, but Elam silences the doubters with a game for victory to reset the grand finals bracket.
00:50:17
Speaker
What's even more insane though is how the reset went because in the grand finals reset Elon continued his momentum winning game number one Sceptile ice though one two in a row and he was standing just one game away from claiming the title of Toronto regional champion but Elon had other ideas winning games four and five back-to-back and to reverse sweep and take down set highlights and win it all and and in particular game five of the grand finals i was looking through the the vod trying to find highlights all of game five is a highlight because there is no rational way a player watches set highlights
00:50:54
Speaker
absolutely rip through people with his shadow for alligator no rational player would see that time and time and time again and then in the decisive game five of the grand finals go down zero to two shields against Sceptile Ice and his shadow for alligator that was madness especially because like This had not happened before. like We had not seen Ilum play out the lead that way. And i it felt as if he was a little bit surprised even by Saptalys' Shadow Dropion being able to survive all those counters to not only get off two crunches, taking two shields, but also getting one debuff, and finally getting the one HP Aqua Tail off that hits the... um
00:51:42
Speaker
annihilate for strong neutral damage, essentially putting Septile Ice seemingly so far ahead, right? Because, okay, you have um lost the lead, you don't have alignment, but you have a two-shield advantage and you you have a jump love in the back that can sponge the energy. The annihilate is already down to the yellow, so what can Elam realistically do?
00:52:08
Speaker
Um, but yeah, like the thing that he ends up doing is to just like check one of the rage fist that is built up on the annihilate into the jumper for good measure. Um, but still keeping so much energy on the annihilate, um, that I think it's, it's the, the, um, Corsola that then comes in. Um, it just, it just like really makes use of its neutral book really. Um.
00:52:37
Speaker
makes it so that the the jump off, even an energy ball, it doesn't even do half of its of itself. Like you can use two and energy balls and you will still need a third charge attack to to take out that Corsola. And like, I think that's another really good call from the side of Septilize to let a nightshade go in that matchup. But at the end of the day,
00:53:03
Speaker
You're not able to take out the Corsola with just the jumpthof. You will have to go into the Feraligator, and then you will have to start shielding moves. ah Eventually, the Annihilate comes back into the matchup, has enough foreclose combat, so obviously Sceptilizer will have to respect um that potential one-hit KO.
00:53:25
Speaker
um throws up a shield, tries to shadow claw down the annihilate, but no. Annihilate is so juiced on energy, it just gets to another richest. This time it's boosted and that just puts the Ferala Gator into a position where it can't do anything anymore.
00:53:42
Speaker
Like the Azumar on the back, you would need like four hydro cannons and a lot of shadow cloud chip, but you're just too low. you don't You don't have the ability to withstand all of that pressure that is still coming your way.
00:53:56
Speaker
um And at the end, Sceptile Ice even makes a great play. It gets essentially a CMP on a an aerial ace to chip down the zoom roll even further and waste a lot of energy with an ice beam that it throws. But it's just not enough. The Annihilate put in too much work after um getting the two shields like investing two shields early on, coming out with all that energy and eventually unleashing it against the one squishy sweeper that really enough loves not taking charge attack damage. but
00:54:27
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was tough. It was tough. Like when do you pivot out? When do you bring the for alligator? Do you bring it against the course already? But what if the last Pokemon is really strong into jump off? Would you rather take the neutral matchup?
00:54:39
Speaker
Um, yeah, it, it was a very exciting, um, final match to give you along the title. And I do remember the Twitch chat going a little crazy when the double shield happened and the archival ended and people were like, Oh no, he's not cooking, but it's over. No, it was not over. He was cooking. And yeah, the, the boosted rage was landing with the one HP and RLA, but it was just.
00:55:07
Speaker
a perfect moment for a crazy final game. In order to kind of kind of express how how frustrating it is to play against Elam, in game three of the grand finals, he led his annihilate into the mirror match, and he swapped and caught the second rage fist on the zoom roll. right Then you head into the grand finals reset. Game one, he finds himself in another annihilate lead mirror match. He does the same maneuver where he catches the second rage fist on his zoom roll,
00:55:35
Speaker
However, once you get into the latter games, like for example, game four, another Annihilate Mirror, the third time Elam is playing the situation. Elam actually swaps on the first Rage Fist instead of the second one, and then you go to game four, where Elam let his Annihilate this time into Shadow Drapian, he goes down two shields.
00:55:54
Speaker
it's like Yes, he played it the same way twice, but he didn't play it the same way more than twice. He always wanted to change change up his his approach after that. He didn't stay too predictable. I think that's one thing that Elon does fantastically well, is that he doesn't make himself predictable. He always finds a unique way to play out a matchup, or a a certain way to maneuver around and try to find an opening on his opponent's team. And he never like over predicts or locks himself into a matchup that he feels like he already knows is coming, right? He doesn't kind of walk into any kind of trap. And that's why he's so difficult to pin down, especially in high level competition, like in the grand finals. so i'm I alluded earlier to the fact that I had a a factoid that was going to blow your mind about the grand finals. We talked about Elon playing a ton of Shadow Drapian. Well, I've got a surprise for you. Out of nine games between the grand finals and grand finals reset,
00:56:48
Speaker
Elon played shadow drop Ian three times only three times but if you flip this over and look at Sceptile Isis team He not only played shadow drop Ian. He also played shadow for alligator He played both of them shadow drop Ian shadow for alligator nine out of nine games in the grand finals So we thought eelum was the drop Ian King, but he was used playing a lot more azumarole annihilate Yeah, honestly I have to say that, um especially the Annihilate looked so good for Elam, so I see how he wanted to build around that, and I feel like yeah the Azumarill to just sponge the the damage to um safely pivot into
00:57:31
Speaker
um is probably just the go-to here because like against some opponents you will not really want to pivot into the Azumarill just because there's really really hard punishes for that but not in the current finals because even though um Sceptile Ice had the Cloudsire the Cloudsire was on Stone Edge and um Earthquake which is a neutral matchup rather than the dominant matchup that it would have had against Azumral if it was on Starch Bomb. So I think this combination of, okay, building up energy on Annihilape, sponging the energy from the opponent on Azumral is really what won Elon the tournament, after all, because
00:58:20
Speaker
this is This is how, again, I alluded to it um ah couple a couple minutes ago. This is really what makes Drapion or Anialyps such standout picks. Both of them are like very good if you just stay in a matchup, play it out neutrally.
00:58:38
Speaker
they're crazy good they're like one of the best pokemon in the entire meta if you manage to get an energy advantage and one way of getting an energy advantage is to build up your your energy farm up to move do the counters to the pauses things and then take the charge move elsewhere so you can unleash against pokemon like the shadow for alligator in in the final game that maybe don't have the capabilities of Pokemon on um like a zoom roll where it's like it tanks everything so so handily and yeah it really managed to stay on top of his energy management especially the annihilate place i think we're really impressive
00:59:24
Speaker
And yeah, I do want to i do want to correct myself. I did not bring the exact same team. um I brought Annihilape with Ice Punch rather than Up Close Combat. So I didn't have that um big threat, but I felt like, okay, into Jump Fluff teams, I really want the Ice Punch, but Ilum showed us that you don't need Ice Punch to be good into a Jump Fluff team still.
00:59:47
Speaker
That's actually so funny because um I remember you were talking about the ice punch tech and then I started to see it in GBL. So when I was watching back the grand finals, ah past me actually made a note. and the ah And for game one of the grand finals, Elam close combat strapping to take the lead. Elam then swaps into a zoom roll versus shadow for alligator is the first note that I wrote.
01:00:07
Speaker
because I remembered back then, I was like, you know what, when I record, I want to talk about ice punch versus close combat. And the one time close combat was useful for Elam and he didn't end up winning that game. So yeah, that was, that was a note that passed me i wrote down and then future me almost forgot about until you mentioned the move sets. I have another fun start for you, Speedy. Let's hear it. What connects the trainer Elam and the Pokemon Azumarill?
01:00:37
Speaker
Oh, he's brought it to every single tournament ever. Um, I don't know whether that's true. It would be fun if it's true. It's, um, ah the 11 out of 14 statistic, because Elon top card 11 out of the 14 events he played and zoom roll this season has won 11 out of 14 events. So similar levels of dominance.
01:01:02
Speaker
Um, one might say that Elon is the zoom roll of PVP as you hope. Um, as you hope, definitely, definitely a fun stat that I stumbled upon by reading a PVP Steve tweet on the current meta, where especially the zoom roll drop, drop you on chorus shouted out as a really dominant with drop you on taking seven out of 14 event wins.
01:01:29
Speaker
I think that, ah I'm so glad you mentioned that. I remember the tweet as well. ah I think that Steve comes off as a very nice person. We know him for for producing a lot of meta guides, a lot of grassroots tournament for tournaments for Australia.
Elam's Competitive Journey and Future
01:01:42
Speaker
Recently he embarked on a a world tour as well.
01:01:45
Speaker
But Steve is also a numbers guy. yeah He mentions a lot about top cuts. He was the one who pointed out that Mandibuzz was the perennial bridesmaid last season and had not won a tournament that entire season. um So I think that ah it might be fun to to one day include some of PVP Steve's insights into our our podcast. So ah Steve, just know we appreciate you and we see your your huge brain.
01:02:07
Speaker
ah Looking over at Elam's teams, no, he did not use a zoom role in every single competition. He did not bring it to Indianapolis, Los Angeles, or NAIC last season, and he did not bring it to third place in Baltimore either. However, there was a lot of a zoom role outside of that. But yeah.
01:02:24
Speaker
you I'm so impressive. I'm really glad he finally got his trophy in an incredibly stacked field as well. So only time will tell how Elam does going forward, maybe NAIC, maybe worlds of next year. I'm not sure how much more he's going to compete, but I do feel a little sense of pride because when I was living in Florida, Elam and I were actually only a 40 minute drive from each other. I did not realize he was as close as he was, but there must be something in those Florida swamps as well.
01:02:53
Speaker
Yeah, like the lowlands are are really um getting their shout outs here. um Yeah. So yeah, maybe maybe there's something to it. But yeah, it's interesting because if you hit this one big objective, where do you go next? yeah um Like there's people who just go on a run. Sometimes they allow themselves a little bit more creative freedom. Like you remember the Dunberg championship run with Shadowpige just after coming second at UIC. So sometimes those can go handin hand in hand.
01:03:28
Speaker
um other times people maybe um don't take computing as seriously anymore just want to have fun but i feel like because Ilum knows what he can do and how consistently he can do it. um Also, because it's like always really convenient if if you like travel for these events and the competing just pays for the travel alone. um I don't think we'll we'll have to worry about Ilum falling out of top-cut contention because he goes all spicy on us now. um I think he probably will be
01:04:04
Speaker
a little more relaxed, but he'll still, like, he'll be featured in more top eights than not is my prediction for the rest of the season. agreed. I think when he does compete, no matter how casually, you know, he talks about it or, or even during, during his interviews in Toronto, he said, well, I'm not particularly comfortable with the meta, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. You know, I'm, you're not fooling anyone. You are an absolute brainiac. And like you pointed out best, but in the course of like getting a ton of practice with it, I think he is very much in a business mode whenever he does attend these tournaments. but
01:04:36
Speaker
It's always uncharted territory. like We don't know how Doonbug is going to respond after having such a a phenomenal last season and now kind of stumbling a bit to start off 2025. We don't know how how trainers like Martel will respond, who's already won the regional and and international, but still has a long road ahead of him. Now that Elam has that trophy, how is he going to to proceed? I think that ah only time will tell.
Anticipation for Upcoming Championships
01:04:59
Speaker
But I do think that for a lot of these players, the next item on the list is the international championship trophy, followed by the world championship trophy. Just like its accident completed the triple crown, one of the first trainers to ever do so, if not the first, I do feel like um these trainers are looking out for that. And that's definitely the the most obvious next ah stop along their journey as players. And while I'm mentioning that, I do want to shout out um all of our competitors that signed up for the European International Championship, because we did almost immediately hit the 400 player cap. This is going to be the biggest play Pokemon tournament for Pokemon Go to date. Last year we had 320, this year we have 80 more. And I'm greatly looking forward to see players such as Matos, such as Elam, compete out of region for the next international crown.
01:05:57
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. These ICs really feel more international than they ever have, right? like We saw that LAIC with a lot of trainers from EU and NA and even ah so the Australia-Oceania region heading out to LAIC, EUIC is going to cook even harder. I absolutely cannot wait. It's going to be a rainy February, but it's going to be fireworks inside of the Excel venue out there in Eastern London.
01:06:22
Speaker
Speaking of next year as well, we do have some awesome events in January to get us started. We're going to have a few weeks off after Toronto has has finished. We're going to resume our Play Pokemon action with Birmingham and Rio de Janeiro in a double header of EU and LATAM on the weekend of January 18th and 19th followed by San Antonio on January 25th and 26th. Those are the three tournaments for the month of January. It's going to be a little bit cold in Birmingham, probably a little cold in San Antonio as well. Maybe Rio will be a bit warmer, but either way, it is going to be a fun, fun warmup for what we're heading into in terms of February, which will include EUIC. The biggest tournament ever, I believe.
01:07:07
Speaker
Yes. And I can also confidently say that the trainers in Birmingham are going to bring the heat because as a tradition for the UK tournaments in the Play Pokemon circuit, we have a staggering amount of signups already. We are at 167 competitors and the tournament is still a month away. So this is just a regular regional, but it's going to be a stacked one for sure.
01:07:36
Speaker
i think I think honestly if we have 160 I think we can hit 200. Easy. 200. I would not be surprised. I would not be surprised. Wow. EU is back baby 2025 let's go those attendance numbers are trending upwards. Yes, I will have to say that like I was really worried after the first two events of the year because yeah those were trending downwards but we've really like turned things around and i I am hopeful again for the future of this game even in Europe maybe we just need to like
01:08:09
Speaker
Pick a better German city than Dortmund next time. I don't know. It's like not super easy to get to. It's not a real touristy destination. I mean, neither is Birmingham, but um still maybe maybe give us Hamburg. Just like no, no LTR motors whatsoever.
01:08:25
Speaker
um i I really enjoyed Frankfurt. i'm not I'm not sure how far Frankfurt is from you, but I thought Frankfurt was great. It is fairly far, but I would go to Frankfurt in a heartbeat. I think this is very easy to fly into with like yes one of the the biggest airports. um It's massive. It's huge. Yeah, easy to to get to by train as well from Germany or yeah neighboring countries. so I distinctly remember at the ending of EUIC 2022, I was walking with Caleb through the airport. We filmed the ending of his vlog video and then I said, okay, I'm going to go to my my flight. And I realized it was in a different half, a different terminal.
01:09:08
Speaker
of the airport and I'd take this big train to get over there and I just I was like flustered and um funny story I'll share you this anecdote I was very flustered and one of the um airport workers actually approached me because you know I was a ah bearded you know 30 year old guy and I was frustrated and flustered and and panicked in the airport. They were like, hey, is ah is everything okay over here? But ah the airport employee was really kind. She helped to it to calm me down. I said, yeah, it's my first time in Germany. I don't know my way my way around this airport. I'm really stressed out, but I just don't want to miss my flight because you know that's a long flight from Germany back to the US. but ah But it turned out to be a very pleasant experience. But yeah,
01:09:47
Speaker
Very, very nice. um So wireless, this is the end of the the year for our show. I know we haven't really talked about ah goals, aspirations, or promises for the podcast for next year, but I do think we have chatted a bit about maybe trying to expand the distribution, get more people involved. ah we We both share the sentiment that it's very nice when we hear people Comment to us like for example at events somebody will walk up and say hey I really enjoyed the show I listened to the the episode and I'll get DMS like that as well like hey when is show six dropping even some some friends in other Pokemon communities like Pokemon unite I have some friends who who DM me from there and they say hey so uh I'm waiting for your podcast episode you know anytime anytime you want to drop that
01:10:30
Speaker
So it really means a lot to us that people ah care about it so much. So I just, I don't know. We we didn't really plan on this part. I just wanted to say that we were very thankful for everyone who's listened this year and we're very excited for next year, taking it up a level.
01:10:44
Speaker
And you guys, if you if you see me at an event, which is probably more likely than not, um just just come over, say hi. like Even if you feel like, oh, um maybe like you're new to the scene, you're just listening to the podcast, um just just say hi. I like really appreciate it. I love to talk with people about like their their tournament experience, their teams, um the podcast, just PVP in general. like It's so easy to just have this one topic that we are all really passionate about and it's really easy to just start the conversation immediately and kick things off, get things going. And yeah, I'm very appreciate appreciative of everybody who reached out to me over this past year of
01:11:26
Speaker
the Show us Six podcast and said like, I like what you're doing, maybe even given constructive feedback as to what we could improve. I know there was um like a little bit of criticism towards the audio levels, for example. I think you fixed that quite well. um But yeah, like everybody's perspective is appreciated. And yeah, I just enjoy interacting with this community so much.
01:11:52
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I think if we do well on this episode, we could eclipse 4,000 lifetime listens to the show, which would be really, really cool. So we need about 200 of you to tune in and listen, which should be no problem. So if you are at this point, please share the show with your friends. We always try to make the championship series feel accessible and feel enjoyable and um and also kind of provide some insights, some numbers, some breakdowns, and kind of pull back the curtain on a lot of of what you see because There's so little that's actually explaining competitive Pokemon go and we really try our best to kind of flesh that out and make it ah Make it understandable so that people who are new newer to the game or people who are like you said um You know just coming into the championship series for maybe their first event. Maybe they can
01:12:38
Speaker
appreciate a bit more of the plays and understand the players and make some of their own really awesome plays whenever they do compete next time. So we appreciate you all. So as I'm not sure if there's anything else you wanted to mention because this is our last recording for the 2024 year.
01:12:54
Speaker
I think because it is the last recording, I do want to mention two events that might be interesting for anybody a grinding towards PvP Pokémon that will start very early in 2025. I don't know how relevant these two events are going to be, but um there is going to be a new Pokémon release with the, I think, is it Fiddo or Fido? I believe it's Fido.
01:13:21
Speaker
Fido. So that is a little dog bred Pokemon, I think. And it evolves into Daxpon, which is a, I think pure fairy type with Charm as a fast attack and Psychic Fangs as a charge attack. So if you are really into those fast move beatdown strategies, that might be worth picking up. It's fairly bulky for a fairy type as well. We'll have to see whether it will receive any further ah fast or charge attacks down the road to maybe um maybe give ah yeah give it some more flexibility in its gameplay. But it's a cute little doggo that um can make for some really decent strategies. So if you're a fan of that, um make sure to play the early event. It's a little bit of a mystery event still, because there's like six stages of unlocking bonuses. And one of them is four-time stardust.
01:14:14
Speaker
But it will start at like around the 4th of January, I'm pretty sure, maybe the 3rd around that ballpark. So shortly after the new year, you will be able to catch fairy dogs and um be able to earn a lot of starters potentially.
New Pokémon and Moves Impact
01:14:30
Speaker
So that is one event. The other event is the Spligatito Community Day, in which Miawa Scarata, the final evolution of this little Paldean kitty cat, is going to not only get access to the Community community Day move of Frenzy plant, but also as is tradition, is going to get permanent access. This is not only restricted to the community dollars to its signature move. The signature move is called Flower Trick and it is announced as a 30 damage attack.
01:15:03
Speaker
30 damage is actually an attack value that no previous attack in Pokemon Go ever had. And we can assume that as it is probably probably going to be a very low energy move, probably like 35. I don't know whether they would even experiment in Go.30 or something. That would be crazy, but 30 is like, it's it's nothing in terms of damage. So we can definitely expect this to be an attack that comes with a secondary effect.
01:15:32
Speaker
In the main series games, Flower Trick bypasses certain protection mechanisms that some Pokémon can employ and it also always lands a critical hit. So attacks like Night Slash in Pokémon GO try to make up for the critical hit mechanic that we don't really have by um increasing the attack stat, occasionally by two stages even. So I could see this be like a grass-type power-up punch, for example, or something more crazy where the attack stage is boosted, or like the attack is boosted by two stages, or it's like even cheaper than power-up punch. Something along those lines would be needed to make this move viable, because in terms of grass-type damage, I think you would rather rely on the Frenzy Plan.
01:16:22
Speaker
Interesting. that That reminds me a lot of how we got Decidueye with Spirit Shackle and Frenzy Plant. There's another Pokémon I believe got Blaze Kick. Or was it Incineroar with Blastburn and Darkest Lariat at the same time? was Incinero with Blaspern and Dux Lariat and then there was also Primarina with Hydro Cannon and Sparkling Aria. Oh that's right, yeah. So yeah like the starters recently not only received like the classic OG big beefy starter attack that does a lot of damage in the main series but also always had their like
01:17:05
Speaker
specific gimmick that is exclusive to them. We also saw that with Greninja and Water Shuriken, which really propels it into viability. um So most of these moves, unfortunately, have not been very good, which is a bit of a shame because um a signature move is so customizable that you can really look at, okay, what do we need to give this Pokémon real meta play and then balance it towards that because no other Pokémon will need to be accounted for.
01:17:34
Speaker
um I don't know if Amioska Rada is going to um make a big impact in the PVP scene, but maybe it's like we don't know the exact um modifications that Flower Trick is going to give you just yet.
01:17:48
Speaker
um so there's still potential and also like the the upcoming community days could introduce um some more signature attacks just like yeah only time will tell i think niantic has done one really positive thing and that is introduce new pokemon that are keeping the meta alive and fresh even though we didn't get a big update in the dual destiny season i do think that the introduction of pokemon like galarian corsola or perhaps Fido and Mioscarata with its moveset could be slight game changers, maybe some more than others. And I wanted to read Fido's Pokedex entry because it is equal parts cute and disgusting.
01:18:28
Speaker
This Pokémon is smooth and moist to the touch. Yeast in Fido's breath induces fermentation in the Pokémon's vicinity. So it literally makes bread as it breathes around the the environment, which is absolutely wild. And if you look at its ears, they look like little buttered rolls. so Definitely cute, but also kind of gross if you ever encounter that Pokemon in person. So I'm so glad you mentioned events because if you want to really maximize on that triple Stardust on January 5th for Sprigotito Community Day, you need bag space and there is no better time than Christmas Eve. December 24th is a Tuesday this year, I believe.
01:19:07
Speaker
and you will be able to catch deli birds with holiday ribbons, but also benefit from two times transfer candy during the spotlight hour. So do those trades, clean out your bag and really get prepped for a Sprigotito community day because as PVPers, we really love that triple stardust as I'm sure every trainer does, but I think PVPers like it just a little bit more.
Tips for Maximizing Stardust Earnings
01:19:29
Speaker
100%.
01:19:31
Speaker
100% agree. One more thing. So iless I think this is the end of our show for 2024. Everybody, we appreciate you so much for listening. Stay tuned for more event breakdowns, more championship series coverage. Share this show with your friends. Let's make a big push in 2025. I would love to double our lifetime listener numbers next year at least. I think that'd be a really nice goal to set.
01:19:54
Speaker
And I know that starts with us making content, whether it's clips or video versions that we post on social, or if we just encourage everyone to share, review, and maybe hold some contests as well. Maybe we could give away some in-game tickets in response for reviews, or maybe other exciting things that we cook up as the year goes on.
01:20:17
Speaker
But that being said, I'm glad that you returned safely home from Toronto. Looking forward to seeing you at more events and who knows, maybe I will compete next year as well. Only time will tell, but until then, I hope everyone has wonderful holidays. I hope you get lots of rest and catch lots of Dedenne in the Christmas outfit Pokemon, and maybe a hundo satadal as well, because that would be a really sick catch. 100% agree. um and Another thing.
01:20:46
Speaker
There was a very cute Dedenne plush at the price wall in Toronto. It was um a Christmas edition Dedenne, and it was like was like out of stock so quickly. So I'm glad that we at least have the digital version to catch and and hunt for, because it is a very cute Pokémon. But yeah, other than that, this would be it for me from me for the year 2024. It was an honor, Speedy, and I cannot wait to be back next year.
01:21:14
Speaker
Absolutely. Let's get a few weeks off so we can refresh and lock in and get ready for January. It's going to be really fun and we'll see, maybe we'll brainstorm over the holidays, you and I. We can message back and forth and see what we can add to the show, maybe tweak or change or introduce.
Podcast Goals and Listener Appreciation
01:21:29
Speaker
But regardless, the emphasis right now is on relaxation. I hope everybody is proud of what they achieved this year and I hope everyone has big goals for 2025 because I know that we do.
01:21:39
Speaker
so iless It's been an honor as well. My friend could not do the show with anyone else but you and I hope to see you in January. Bye everybody.