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EP. 18 - Baltimore 2025 Recap
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 18 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we bring you the highest quality coverage of the Play! Pokémon Championship Series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and everything else happening in the competitive scene.
This week, we talk about the Baltimore Regional Championships! We had a brand new meta, and a mix of old and new players stood out amongst the field! We talk about how the "big three" of Great League performed, spice picks like Chesnaught, Galarian Moltres, Shadow Drapion, Shadow Typhlosion, our expectations for Dortmund, and much, much more! We hope you enjoy this episode. Leave us a review on whichever platform you are listening!
With that said, if you're ready, Lock In, press play, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction to the 2025 Pokémon Season
00:00:00
Speaker
The 2025 play Pokemon season kicked off in Baltimore last weekend and 180 trainers showed up for the first tournament of the season.
Dominance of Claude Sire
00:00:09
Speaker
Claude Sire is king. Feraligatr actually can be stopped and Mandibuzz appeared to be a total fraud.
00:00:15
Speaker
Galyrian Moltres, Shadowdrapian, Chestot, Gastrodon, and Pangoro all made it into the top four. Legends returned to the stage, and new
Meta Discussion and Surprises
00:00:24
Speaker
challengers stunned and impressed us. We'll talk about the meta, expectations for the future, and the return of the king. So if you're ready, lock in, good luck, and have fun.
Strategies and Player Comebacks
Introducing Zees Pilis
00:00:59
Speaker
Welcome in everyone to our first regional recap of the 2025 season. We're going to be discussing Baltimore and
Zees Pilis' Observations
00:01:05
Speaker
you know, I couldn't do it alone. I brought in the best, the brightest, the zweil-assist. Here comes Zees Pilis. Welcome in, my friend. How are you feeling? Thank you so much, Speedy. I'm glad that I'm not um on the fraud watch alongside Mandibuzz. Very, a very nice introduction. I am feeling good. I'm feeling, um,
Technical Issues and Meta Satisfaction
00:01:26
Speaker
Well-rested because I actually got the entire weekend off and could just watch Pokemon all the weekend. Nice. um And I had a blast, honestly. i like if we Like, if we discount the um game issues, the lag issues, the one turn ring-ins, that is like, it's a whole other topic. But if we just look at the meta and the gameplay, i um I'm so happy how this meta shakes out and I'm so happy with the start of the season.
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think that there were, I know this is going to come up and a lot of people listening are probably waiting for us to talk about this. I think we'll talk about it in a little while, maybe in a few minutes, but ah yeah don't don't get me wrong. like I noticed there were lots of inconsistencies, lots of issues, and I do have a ah kind of explanation for it after talking with the production team, so I will share that with everyone as we move through the show. but Yeah, I think in hindsight, again, we had bugs. We had
Day 1 Highlights and Statistics
00:02:21
Speaker
some pretty annoying things happen, but in hindsight, I think those things will kind of wash out and we'll look back at Baltimore as being the introduction of a brand new season, a brand new spicy meta and a lot of insane gameplay in particular, my favorite, series my favorite series of the entire weekend was the winner's finals between elite and Wadaj that deserves like its own breakdown, but we'll talk about the grand finals and everything else. So.
00:02:44
Speaker
I'm excited. I agree. I have like written down multiple plays that I want to highlight because that was just like. Absolutely insane levels of PvP, honestly, but I guess we'll we'll start a little, a little before the winners and grand finals. Um, let
Day 2 Standouts and Team Analysis
00:03:01
Speaker
me, let me list some of the most popular day one Pokemon. So obviously, um, at the very top of, of the charts, we have Claude Zaire at 74.2%. Then clocking in at almost half of, of, um,
00:03:17
Speaker
Like on almost half of all teams, 49.7% we have dance bars. Then I'm not sure whether the graphic team, um basically counted non-Shadow but Shadow Feraligata appears to be on 43.6%. Then we have Azumarill at 38%, Mandibuzz as well, and then it just, like we have Superior at 36.2%. Those are the big six. Everything else is just
Claude Sire and Azumarill's Popularity
00:03:44
Speaker
around 20%, 15% or lower, with Malama, Gastrodon, Dugong, Talonflame,
00:03:50
Speaker
and um diggers bs as well as jump love rounding out our top 12 it's pretty impressive because going into day two all eight of our winner's side trainers had clotsire and i noticed that our loser's side bracket had a ton of superiors actually which is pretty surprising but we did not see a superior finish any higher than fifth place overall uh to to kind of piggyback on the clotsire point our Our top finishers, top four, all had Claude sire. If you look at the final results, standings out of the top eight, six out of eight had Claude sire. And it looks like three out of those six had Claude sire Chris Elia core. So I know a lot of folks who probably watched last season noticed that a zoom roll and Chris Elia team won this first tournament. And they're probably saying, what the heck? I thought this was a new meta. Why do we have those two there? But.
00:04:41
Speaker
I think that, uh, a point that was made by PV poke on X was really, really prescient. He said that meta is incredibly
Claude Sire's Move Set Debate
00:04:47
Speaker
top heavy. And I think it's funny because I imagine Claude sire at the top of a pile, you know, like, like the, like the human pyramid and Claude Sarah gets on the top and everybody underneath is like, Oh my God, I'm going to be crushed. Uh, I think, I think I look at it that way because 75% usage for Claude sire is absolutely a monstrous number. I mean, that's, that's like pre pre-nerve meta cham numbers, right?
00:05:07
Speaker
Exactly. um And I think it's not unlike Medicham in that there's also like two flavors of Claude Zaire like with Medicham you had the psychic Medicham which used to be the go-to for most of its viability. um But you also have dynamic punch Medicham which um I thought was a really nice pick for ah the meta just one year ago. And I think Snudge Bomb and Stone Edge on Cloudsire have a similar divide in but what is good, what is maybe a little less optimal. And like those those two moves have like different use cases. With the Stone Edge, you had ice types like Dugong, who can um one-shot a Talonflame, and you also um
00:05:54
Speaker
Like, I think like the Manda Bus matchup is still good if you have Sludge Bomb, but it's a little cleaner if you have Stone Edge. um So I see why the
Strategic Play and Matchup Analysis
00:06:03
Speaker
original thought when the meta drop was, okay, like we want to have this move against this very common bird that we need to take out of the sky with the Cloudsire. But I personally thought like watching this tournament that the Sludge Bomb Cloudsire was actually um probably overall the more dominant pick putting up a real good fight against each and every grass type that would have been coming its way because um it would have otherwise been walled by chestnut and also only could have fit superior for neutral. It played really well into Azumarill which was one of our most newest
Meta Strategies and Counters
00:06:41
Speaker
Pokemon as well.
00:06:42
Speaker
um And the pacing made it so that um you could just reach the move, one fast move earlier, and that made the difference in some matchups. So I feel like Snudge Bomb has a little edge, even though it's not a little edge.
00:07:00
Speaker
um Yeah, se I appreciate your note because looking at our notes here, you said Claude rules supreme hyphen. Is the sludge Stone Age debate settled? question mark And honestly, i I don't know if it's settled. I think that sludge bomb has a slight edge right now. But if you look at the teams as well, the only team that was able to stop elite with his Stone Age Claude sire was madtaj with his chest knot.
00:07:24
Speaker
So it almost feels like, uh,
Feraligatr's Role and Challenges
00:07:26
Speaker
you know, chestnut's going to hard wall the stone edge earthquake cloud sire. We all know this very well, but it it almost feels like if Wadaj didn't have the sludge bomb tech, then this whole series could have gone, or excuse me, if, if elite did not have, was not facing the sludge bomb cloud sire, I should say, then this whole series could have gone a different way.
00:07:42
Speaker
I want to point out two things that are a little more nerdy about Slash Bomb Cloud Sire as well. um The one thing is, if you have um a high enough attack stat on your Cloud Sire, you get a Poison Sting Breakpoint against Shadow Feraligatr. If you get that Breakpoint but have sufficient bulk otherwise,
00:08:01
Speaker
Just landing one sludge bomb makes it so that you can poison Sting down. And that means that just straight up, even energy, you win the two shield matchup against Feraligatr as the Cloudsire, which is quite impressive. Gross. um And the other like slightly counterintuitive
In-Game Dynamics and Player Decisions
00:08:20
Speaker
um
00:08:22
Speaker
benefit of Sludge Bomb is that it's actually the better move into Shadow-type Lotion. We have not talked about Shadow-type Lotion yet, but if we look, um instead of the day one top 12 graphic, if we take a look at the day two one, we actually have Shadow-type Lotion in seventh place. um It was more popular than Talonflame amongst top cover but top cutters. yeah And just apparently it's a real part of the meta now.
00:08:51
Speaker
And with Stone Edge, you're just so slow, because you obviously i need 5 extra energy every time, um that in the two shields with just one successful Thunder Punch bait, you lose to Shadow Typhlosion as the Claude's Iron. You don't even land the Charge Attack, whereas with the Cheaper's Dodge Bomb, because Typhlosion is so frail, you just win that matchup every time.
00:09:17
Speaker
Wow. That, that, you know, that's that I wouldn't call that nerdy. I call that very insightful. I know a lot of players that, that listen to our our show are like, come on. So I will spill the secrets. What are the IV spreads that I need? You know, we have, we have how they and who were spawning at the regionals now. So let me know what the spread is that I'm looking for. And I will be DMing you after the show as well. Cause I really want to know.
00:09:38
Speaker
um That's actually fascinating. And looking at the teams here, I'm surprised to note that both of the opponents that Elite took down in day two, being 6'10 hero and Tomahawk, both had sludge bomb Claude Sire as well. ah which So it's not like you know he had no experience dealing with it. It's just that when he did not have the sludge bomb asset versus the opposing chest knot, he really ran into trouble. So very interesting juxtaposition there.
00:10:02
Speaker
The other question I have is a lot of people were pointing out that for alligator got picked quite often, but that it wasn't super successful. And a lot of people were actually kind of pleased that it didn't win the tournament and that it, that it only came in second. But at the same token, I felt like, uh, elite was doubling and tripling down into shadow gator and he played it better than anyone else. So I'm really curious what your take was as a viewer. I mean, did did you feel that for alligator and and shadow for alligator in particular, we're having a bigger impact or do you think this was like. It kind of got exposed like for alligator can be stopped
00:10:36
Speaker
I think, honestly, it just shows that Feraligatr is kind of balanced still. like It's not at the same level as Klotziah, where, okay, this Pokemon gives you utility that can't that you can't really miss on your team.
Feraligatr's Strategic Impact
00:10:51
Speaker
on I do think there is a possibility for a non-Klotziah team that can do well, but just the combination of bulk and being able to flip matchups that you shouldn't win, make spots that are just so potent, so dominant. And I think Feraligator has the um ability to flip matchups that it shouldn't win. This is something that we've been over during our meta episode. It just has so much neutral play into just about everything. It's always a really safe bring.
00:11:24
Speaker
But whereas Klotziah makes it so that the Pokémon you can choose around it can be basically anything because Klotziah never needs shields. If you want to bring Feraligator on your team, you probably have an opportunity cost just because it definitely requires shields.
00:11:41
Speaker
so You probably won't be able to just run three other frail spice picks alongside Feraligatr, whereas with Glottsoe, that's not really a problem. I think a lot of trainers just um had a role in mind for, like, um a Pokémon that made them a little safer into, for example, a Talonflame, or just really provided them with neutral coverage into a lot of Pokémon.
00:12:10
Speaker
And I think
PvP Battle Strategies
00:12:11
Speaker
they had the choice between Azumarill, which is overall bulkier, but maybe a little less explosive, maybe it has a little bit of a lower ceiling, and Feraligatr, which is a Pokemon that um maybe is even more dangerous than Azumarill, but also is higher maintenance. um There's some trainers who successfully brought both of them together, but for the most part, it's either or on most teams.
00:12:40
Speaker
I'd really love, and I've thought about this before, but I'd really love to have some kind of automated software that could watch back a PPP match and could track, uh, how many protections were used when they were used and on which Pokemon. And I feel like that would be incredibly helpful because I felt like, uh, over and over again, we saw elite shielding, double shielding his for alligator, trying to shadow, close something down.
00:13:04
Speaker
A lot of trainers brought the Feraligator because they thought it would be good, but I feel like Elite made it a big component of his team when he had the option to to search for other Pokemon and and to make them his you know most valuable picks and in in the overall team. So I feel like, yeah, I think your point
Strategic Gameplay Analysis
00:13:21
Speaker
is is actually right on the money because I think a lot of trainers that invest in Feraligator do get the returns, but it's to the point where you can't just ah Throw it out there and expect to get shields and expect for it to make an impact unless you give it its own resources Which can definitely be a double double-edged sword in a sense so and there was actually a match I think it was game two of the grand finals reset where we dodge was able to sludge bomb the for alligator and then to shield and Poison sting it all the way down and that was after I re-watched that game. That was one of the most defeating and Things I've ever seen because again, like yeah the God's air can still eat a hydro cannon if it wants to, and you can't shadow clot down. It's just that much of a beast. And, uh, and elite kept on trying to use it to counter the cloud sire. And what does just did not allow him to do so. Yeah, I think elite brought the shadow for alligator and just spot every game in the winners and grand finals, 14 games total. And I think.
00:14:20
Speaker
the The fact that he did that just shows how good it is, because if we look into Vadau's team, his best answer is probably chest nod. And even against that, if Feraligatr gets a farm down somewhere, the Ice Beam basically won shots. So it definitely has a ton of play even into a tournament winning teams, but it's also not a guaranteed victory, right? Because
Tournament Insights and Strategy
00:14:41
Speaker
otherwise, a lead would have been crowned Baltimore Regional Champion.
00:14:45
Speaker
Exactly. And I know we keep touching on the grand finals. I just think it was such a good showcase of the overall meta and kind of how things have changed, but also how they stayed the same. But I'd love to talk about Mandibuzz, a few other picks, and then we can jump into storylines. So we saw Mandibuzz kind of.
00:15:02
Speaker
Fizzle out. I mean, you and I talked about it in Go Battle League is being really good. In our last episode, Martine says that if you can't beat two out of the three being for alligator, mandibuzz and cloud sire, then your Pokemon is just not good. I don't think that rule applies to play Pokemon at at all. Actually, I think the mandibuzz kind of was underwhelming.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think um the one thing that Mandibuzz really doesn't appreciate in this matter is that it feels it feels kind of too slow for the current switch timer.
00:15:35
Speaker
i think like Pokemon can just, like, even if it's a negative matchup for a Pokemon, can probably just stay in the Mandibuzz matchup, farm up a lot of energy, maybe throw one charge attack, and then switch out and be useful another time. Just
Meta Analysis and Adaptability
00:15:51
Speaker
because Mandibuzz always needs so many moves to do anything. And yeah, if we actually look at the day two usage, we had a lot more Galarian Mortress than Mandibuzz actually. No, not a lot more, one more.
00:16:04
Speaker
But we had more Galarian Moltres in Topcut than Mandevas, which is like who even has a great lead Galarian Moltres? That's probably not all 16 trainers in Topcut. So yeah, I think the more, I think the typing is still really good, but the more dynamic play from a Pokemon that is by no means frail, but a little more tech-weighted and just really has the sucker punch utility, Galarian Motress getting stab sucker punch. That's basically like stab counter in in previous seasons. yeah um That has been one of the big winners. And I have to say, I was um utilizing the daily adventure instance combined with the raw of time yeah adventure effect from Dialga origin form today.
00:16:54
Speaker
just to hunt for those Galarian birds because I already i already have a Galarian Moltres, but I kind of want more if only to
Player Experiences and Strategic Challenges
00:17:01
Speaker
trade two friends because I've really seen the potential now. I'm kind of convinced that um it's it's legit.
00:17:08
Speaker
Mm hmm. Uh, placement third place with, with Elam's team, by the way. And, and you saw his CP, he had a 1468, 1468, glaring Moltres. Imagine if you optimized it, right? If you had, yeah, I'm feeling really good about my 1492 Galarian Moltres now. So o Very nice. it's This is actually a funny anecdote. I ended up catching up with one of our Galarian Moltres players. I'm sure he won't care if i if I say who it was. I ended up catching up with Arrow on Monday before leaving. And Arrow ah put the put the pieces together for the first time. He said, wait, you can use roar of time with the daily incense?
00:17:48
Speaker
And I was like, yeah, man, you can. And he says, Oh, it takes, uh, XL candies. I said, no regular candies. So just dump some rare candies into your Dialga. If you don't have some and then just fire it off. And he said, this is a game changer. So I think, I think era is going to be doing the same thing you are. And I will be joining the boat. And one thing that I want to point out that um at the at the time our listeners will get this episode, um the Psychic Spectacular event will still be running. And this event comes with Double Catch Stardust and a lot of more little spawns who are 500, I think maybe 500, maybe 750. It's definitely increased dust. So if you pop a star piece, that also benefits from the adventure effect.
00:18:32
Speaker
So you can just go on a nice one hour walk, just enjoying an extra long star piece and an extra long adventure instance. and just really stock up on resources, whether it's Stardust or Galarian Birds. That's honestly really clever. Yeah, because because it freezes all of your items that you're using, or at least extends them. Exactly. So it would extend your star pieces. well Ah, big brain. It's a big brain play. So I think this is a wonderful segue as well. We talked about Mandibuzz, and then we touched briefly on Galarian Moltres. I'm really excited to see what it will do in Dortmund and beyond. ah There's actually...
00:19:10
Speaker
Forgive me, I can't remember if it was Amanda or, or Eric being nighttime clasher that said it, but one of the two said that glaring Moltres was going to go way up in usage in dormant. I don't know if that would be the case, but I'd also love to touch on a few other picks. Shadow. Drapian is the first one that comes up, comes to mind. We saw, we saw Lyle Jeffs just.
00:19:30
Speaker
ruining careers and trashing and just trash canning people with his poison sting downs of, of Pokemon when they didn't expect it. The poison sting buff is real, everybody. And I think that shadow drop beyond is like the biggest benefactor from that. Yeah. I'm i'm like.
00:19:46
Speaker
It's so uncomfortable just because you're you're used to Poison Sting being a move that doesn't really do much damage. When you stay in and you expect to reach the last move that you need to take out this damn Drapion or drion and it just doesn't happen, it just stings you down and comes out with a crunch.
00:20:03
Speaker
And this is like not the place you want to be in. So um I think the thing that makes dropion really interesting going forward is that there's not a lot of reliable counterplay because its biggest threats are um like We haven't really seen Poliwrath at all, which was something that I was thinking could maybe still be around. And we also really haven't seen too many mudslappers succeed. Gasteron, again, on Elem's team finishing third. But um just from the eye test during that tournament, it felt more like a liability than an actual asset to his team. So it's really difficult to either wall the energy from a Drapion or Dropion.
00:20:51
Speaker
or do super effective damage back reliably. um There's obviously ground types like Claude Sire and Digispie, but those still are like somewhat slow to their charge attacks and take super effective from the Aqua Tales, so the the most reliable counters of Drapeon are actually not really top meta at this point.
00:21:12
Speaker
Well, ah so, so I agree in the, and I don't, so I agree with the first point that Gasserdon was a bit underwhelming. If you remember against Tomahawk, it also struggled to take down the toxapex when Valor Ash was playing it. And that led to a really a crazy upset victory for Tomahawk.
00:21:28
Speaker
Uh, the gastron is like hit or miss, but what I think, uh, where I think he went wrong is, is when you talk about the reliable counterplay to Drapian, I think, uh, or Drapian, I think that, uh, Drapian really does not like Dunsparce and Dunsparce is very, very common. Drove runs, very powerful. We saw elite, uh, look very uncomfortable several times when facing off against it. And I think that because it has, you know, almost, almost a rival, uh, pacing as the, the Drapian, I think that the rollout Dunsparce is actually a big big threat. Yeah, I think Dance Pass definitely also cemented its place as a meta Pokémon that is here to stay. And yeah, I'm i'm looking at s Sims right now and it's not like there is no counterplay for Drabion, but um yeah, i would I would agree that Dance Pass is fairly reliable, especially with its death product being able to just tank those moves and winning all even shield scenarios quite handily.
00:22:27
Speaker
Let's talk about some fighters. So we've got Pangoro, Chestnut, and Shadow Machamp. ah And our co-caster, Henry, he is is a diehard believer in Shadow Machamp. He said the things that he saw it do this weekend were absolutely, absolutely horrific.
00:22:43
Speaker
And this is like this is an exact quote from him. and This is just one of the reasons why Henry is so epic and so awesome. He says, Shadow Machamp can farm something down, and yes, it takes shields to do the farm down, but once you get that energy, Machamp gets those protect shields back in blood. I was like, man, that is super intense, but he's also right, because Shadow Machamp unleashes hell on whatever's on the other side.
00:23:08
Speaker
I think there has been, I don't know whether it was the winner's finals or grand finals. I think it was maybe grand finals. um Let me check. No, it was I think the the fourth and decisive game of the winner's finals still.
00:23:21
Speaker
where actually elite Shadow Machamp forces swap against an Azu, landing this tonnage early after Azu answers the Shadow Machamp safe swap, and then basically being able to just cross-shop down and flip swap against the Pokemon that resists Karate Chops, resists cross-shops, and has way, ah way higher stat product than than Shadow Machamp.
00:23:46
Speaker
um So, yeah, it really only fears Claude Sire as this one hard wall in the meta. If you construct your team in a way, I think this is quite important to make the most of Shadow Machamp. If you construct your team in a way that Claude Sire is a risky ring against you, um for example, with a Pokemon like Digger's Bee or water types that are somewhat reliable as... um cloud say counterplay I think then you can really get your Shadow Machamp to shine and really get a lot of mileage out of it because neutral matchups, even though there's not this counter pressure anymore, just the pacing of eight turns to a quite powerful stat cross-shop, um I think that can really spiral out of control and
00:24:31
Speaker
um yeah Very, very impressive neutral matchups. and i've been I've been playing a practice tournament yesterday and my opponent had a shiny Shadow Machamp. um So if anybody has that out there, then I can only encourage you to build a Show 6 team around that and attend a regional because I want to see that thing in action.
00:24:54
Speaker
Yes, please. that That would be a ah beautiful thing to watch because the shadow shiny is absolutely stunning. And I feel like they're speaking of that. There's so many opportunities to flex. I wasn't sure if arrow or Elam, uh, we're, we're were're releasing their Galarian Moltres out of a master ball or not. But I remember saying this way back that one of the biggest flexes we still haven't seen yet is a a trainer win a tournament.
00:25:17
Speaker
and have one of its Pokemon be master balled, whether it's a Galarian bird or something else. So that would actually be really epic to watch. I see that in our notes, we have Pangoro kind of grouped in with Tomahawk storyline. So maybe we'll wait on that and kind of tease everyone, maybe you know give them a reason to listen on later. um There were some new faces in the tournament. And if if you're comfortable wrapping up the overall meta talk, I'd love to hear about some of these these new faces, these new players.
00:25:42
Speaker
Okay, one last meta talk. Shout out. I want to put jump love firmly on that fraud watch. I want to even be low man the bus. I think jump off is not the grass type you want to play going forward. um And there was one jump off and top card after being in the top 12 day one.
00:25:59
Speaker
Um, underwhelming showing. Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm so glad to move onto our next segment because, uh, we had new faces in top card. Um, I think it was three trainers overall who made top 16 for the very first time.
00:26:15
Speaker
And those three trainers were um Murphy 36, Kelsey Kay, and Lily Winery. And I have to say, I was rooting for all three of those trainers because all of them frequent um the same spaces within the community that I do. And I know that they were good, but like, you know, like some trainers um maybe go to more regionals than others, yeah but doesn't really like like There's a depth of talent within our community that is a little underappreciated still, just because so we might not have seen everybody yet really showing that talent on the big stage.
00:26:53
Speaker
But if we just look at the names that these trainers have taken down, like um to finish in Top Guard, Kelsey Kay beat Lyle Jeffs and Andromal Jarrus. The Winery beat Rysto Kacian and Haidonis. And Murphy beat players like like Jangles, Ivy Pips, and Evan77713.
00:27:15
Speaker
so Really, you can't say that these trainers had an easy way into top-cut, but all of them really impressed with their yeah very clean gameplay. We've seen all of them on stream, also with sometimes really um unique team building. Like, I especially enjoyed the Arctobax, Shadow, Alolan, Marowak core that Murphy brought to the table. um So, like, Lil Winery's Shadow-type Flosion, there were like a bunch of highlight picks,
00:27:46
Speaker
And yeah, I just have to say that, um, I want to see more of those trainers. I want to see more of those trainers. They were like very easy to root for, I want to say. And I think just making this first top cut experience also, um, it should make people hungry for more, right? Because.
00:28:04
Speaker
This is like the thrill of computing and at first maybe people are a little nervous to go up on stage, but once they've seen that they can actually um translate their GBL success into play Pokemon success, I think that is really encouraging for future tournaments. and um Not all NA tournaments have been announced, so there's still like some wildcards out there, but I really hope that whatever locations you will get that those will be accessible to those new trainers that made a name for themselves.
00:28:36
Speaker
I always love the the underdog story. One of my favorite ah franchises of movies is actually the Rocky series. and Just this idea of a an established champion, you know in the movie it's Apollo Creed, you know and then you've got Rocky Balboa, who's basically just, he kind of lives like a bum. He's got like a you know really Um, kind of, uh, not a very nice apartment, right? He really, he lives really modestly. He works out like crazy. His dream is to be a boxer. That's like everything he's built his personality around and he finds only a handful of people that believe in him, but everyone around him knows that he's very, very talented. And then he gets a shot at the champ. And if you remember in the first movie, Rocky actually loses that fight against Apollo Creed. He doesn't win. Just turn around immediately and just win the first time he challenges the world champion. And I feel like.
00:29:26
Speaker
You know, again, this is maybe a bit dramatic to compare boxing to Pokemon go, but at the same time, it's a, it's a similar a mindset and frame of mind that you have to have where you can be someone like little winery and walk into this matchup and and take on, you know, arguably one of the goats of PPP or Kelsey Kay as well. I mean,
00:29:45
Speaker
but What really, what really amazed me about Kelsey in particular was that ah she, she showed a lot of the same attributes that I see a player like Doonbug actually express on stage. There's a moment during EYC last year where Doonbug brought out Lickitong, his opponent had to whisk cash i for the life of me. I can't remember who he was battling against, but I remember as soon as the Pokemon touched the field, it took about two seconds. I think Doonbug looked up from his phone and looked at the crowd and he had this knowing look on his face.
00:30:13
Speaker
And what he had done is he had already calculated there's no way they can get to to two skulls in this period of time before I get to the power whip. This game is over and I've won. And then, you know, 40, 50 seconds down the line, it actually happens. But he already knew that. And what I really appreciated about Kelsey's plays was that she never lost sight of the wing condition.
00:30:31
Speaker
She was always on top of either executing one win condition, or if that was no longer clear, she would pivot and work towards another one. And you could see her shake her head when she knew that this was a critical farm down she missed, or that she should have gotten a charge attack here or there. You could tell that she she was building towards a win condition the entire game from the beginning. And that was one of the most impressive things ah that I saw from her. And it really showed in her gameplay too, that she was thinking with the end goal in mind constantly.
00:30:59
Speaker
Also like high level adaptability in in some ways, because I don't actually, and this is a little blurry. I don't know exactly against whom that um matchup was, but there was like a team with a toxapex on it and the toxapex looked really strong into Kelsey's line. And so it was a certainty that the toxapex would always be on the team.
00:31:24
Speaker
And I think this was in Dewgong into a zoom roll kind of lead situation. And, um, originally it almost looked as if they were playing the zero shield scenario, straight drill run, straight play rough, and zoom roll narrowly wins that. Um, but yeah, I know that Kelsey has been playing Dewgong for a long time. So, um,
00:31:49
Speaker
She basically knew that if she just shields the last one, she will get the perfect farm down and survive on 1 HP, taking switch advantage and leaving zero farm for the opponent. yeah And because there had to be the Tox effects in the back, um switch advantage was very much necessary. So basically, playing up until the last second, as if you want to play out the zeros,
00:32:11
Speaker
But then just committing this one shield that for certain allows you to just take switch and essentially win the game because at that point you just RPS align your, your toxapex counter and toxapex is a quite polarizing Pokemon. So it doesn't really do well in unfavorable matchups. And yeah, that was like, okay, some trainers might have just.
00:32:33
Speaker
played out the zero shields and gotten an energy advantage on like a Talonflame in the back that could Brave Bird and Dip. But just being cognizant of the wind wind condition at hand is something that um really served a well in this tournament.
00:32:49
Speaker
Uh, yeah, quite happy that my team sharks and recreation managed to pick her up a couple of months ago. So yeah, we have, we have a bunch of trainers that started quite well into the season, whether it be in the go battle league, whether it be and in local tournaments or not in Baltimore. So definitely always, always rooting for my teammates.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah, I recognize. So Kelsey Kay, this is the first time I i' come across her from my understanding. She's a prolific master league player. And then you juxtapose that against Lil Winery, who's obviously been very involved in the community stream chats for a long time. I've seen her in Accent's channel and probably a dozen others. And then you have Murphy, who ah definitely has competed on the Go Battle League leaderboards, is a very elite Go Battle League player. And then we segue into another player like Septile Ice,
00:33:37
Speaker
who I actually watched play a grassroots tournament. And in the grand finals, he beat house Stark. So like, when you look at these four trainers in particular, it's really obvious that they are very, very talented. They're just not as well known as the, as the most prominent players, but they could take games off of them or, so or series off of them at any given moment. And it was so much fun to watch that in Baltimore. I see you have stepped highlights here. I just want to shout out. Yes. Yes. Yes. I was, I was glad that you managed to segue the conversation into step allies because, um, I think he was.
00:34:07
Speaker
impressive in more than one way. So I don't think it was his very first top card. I think he had got like 13th place before. So no stranger to day two. But definitely a trainer who not only impressed with his gameplay, but also had a very interesting team selection. And that he brought a shadow Celio, which is probably something that very few people expected to do well, because even though the typing might play quite well into today's meta,
00:34:34
Speaker
um It's just like after the Bodyslam nerf, not as good in neutral matchups anymore, but he somehow made it work. And also he had a very wholesome moment um on stage during I think the day one match against Haidonis, where Haidonis swapped a Gudra out of a matchup that had an Aqua Tail loaded and wanted to access this Aqua Tail in the dying moments of the game. But the dying moments of the game were the dying moments for his Gudra because his game lacked the turn and he couldn't get the move off.
00:35:03
Speaker
And um that was definitely under investigation. But Sceptilei said, okay, I'm not letting this go through a rematch. I'll just give my opponent the win because that was a scenario that he would have won if the game worked and he just deserves um this point. And I think this is like he didn't have to do that and to do that in such a high stakes situation. I think that definitely Um, I want to recognize this on the podcast because, um, I just, I just love to see the sportsmanship.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think it pays to do the right thing. And I feel like even if you're not looking to you know receive something in return, I do think that, ah again, the true measure of a person is what they do when nobody's watching. And in that point, ah everybody was watching. Like you said, it was a very important matchup. And I remember after that, that KO, I remember, hey, Don is looking up across the yeah across the table and basically saying, like Hey man, good game. And then Sceptile said, did you have the move or did you have the Aqua Tail and do my best, you know, lip reading here? And, uh, and Hadonna said yes. And then they went back and reviewed it. And upon seeing the tape, I guess my assumption, again, I don't know for sure. My assumption is that the judge confirmed that the Aqua Tail was loaded.
00:36:21
Speaker
And at that point, Sceptile said, yeah, well, the game is yours, so which is definitely a super upstanding thing to do. And again, it, it's not Sceptile's responsibility to do that. He took it upon himself to give the game win. So definitely a huge moment for him. And if you ever chat with him, he's really cool, really down to earth. Um, I caught up with him for a couple of minutes after the show and he's just really a really nice person. So I love to see him compete at more events, just like I would the other three we mentioned being Kelsey little winery and Murphy, but.
00:36:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'm so excited again, Zora this I can't like I can't express it enough when we see new players coming into the scene It's like it rejuvenates the whole scene and I absolutely adore seeing new players come and do well and one And I 100% agree. And I also want to point out that I think one of the bigger claims to fame of Lil Winery is also that she's the premier team builder for beloved content creator CrimsonK19. It's like one of the biggest stream memes that whenever Crimson needs a team, he just asks Lil Winery and she comes up with, like, she she just cooks and ah then he yeah manages to actually go positive positive with stuff like, I don't know, Gaslord.
00:37:32
Speaker
um So yeah, definitely. Sorry, go ahead. Oh, good. Oh, good. Just go ahead. I was, I was wondering if, if she was responsible for the buzz wall to legend challenge or that was, that was crimson. I feel like that wasn't very much a crimson thing, but the winery is good at doing damage mitigation and that, and that.
00:37:55
Speaker
Oh, for sure. Oh my God. I see you have here um some major storylines that I'd love to cover. ah You argue that maybe this trainer was fueled by copium. What what could you possibly what could you possibly mean by that? ah and Talking about obviously Tomahawk US. Well, obviously the the one the one European that actually made his way across the pond to compete in the very first region of the of the season.
00:38:25
Speaker
um I guess that's like fairly affordable flying out of a major hub, like I guess London. So um yeah, he definitely, he made his money back, I would assume, placing fourth overall. And he did it with a Pokemon that he was really excited about, like almost giddy. He was so hyped when Pangoro received Karate Chop, like the buff Karate Chop.
00:38:50
Speaker
And but also, almost all other fighters were gone from the meta. He was very intent on making this panda work. I don't know whether a he had the Shiny before he had the plan to do that, probably yes.
00:39:05
Speaker
But he had a very gorgeous shiny panda that he took to the US s and um piloted all the way to fourth place. And I want to ask you Speedy, do you think that Pangoro is a legit Pokemon? Or was it just a case of driver not car?
00:39:24
Speaker
That's a great question. If you look at, okay, so I'll juxtapose my answer with this. If you look at Tomahawk's overall team, he had Azumarill, he had Claude Sire, Diggersby, Pangoro, as well as Talonflame and Toxapex. The v four that I want to focus in on here are Azumarill, Claude Sire, Diggersby, and Toxapex.
00:39:43
Speaker
When you have probably between those four Pokemon, you know, bordering on a thousand, yeah I don't know, maybe a thousand, maybe 700 hit points overall between those four Pokemon. I think you can afford to pack a few glass cannons onto your team. And I think that what really gave pangora its success was that it was a, an offensive powerhouse kind of hidden or, or like snugly kept between a bunch of like really tanky blankets that that just,
00:40:11
Speaker
could absorb charge attacks, didn't need shields. You could just send in the Pangoro, give it all your shields and and dish out damage. Now, my caveat to that is that I i would argue, no, Pangoro is not a real actual Pokémon because you could have put Shadow Machamp in that same slot. And I think you would have had very, very similar success. I tend to agree, honestly.
00:40:36
Speaker
um I think that the one thing that makes Pangoro tick in this particular team is the addition of Toxapex to the roster. I think we we saw a few Toxapex, but um Tomahawks was definitely the one that plays the highest overall.
00:40:56
Speaker
um And I could definitely see more of this Pokémon in the upcoming regionals, just because um Azu was one of the most prominent Day 2 Pokémon, was the second most prominent Day 2 Pokémon just behind CloudSire, actually. And even if the other Pokémon on your team are somewhat soft to Azumarill, you will still think twice about bringing it if there's the threat of the Toxapex, which is just the worst matchup for for Azu.
00:41:26
Speaker
So if you basically make it so that the Pokemon that walls Pangoro's energy like no other is out of the picture or is at least super risky to bring, um I think that frees up Pangoro a lot more.
00:41:45
Speaker
um And also the threat of the close combat is probably a little better at pulling shields if you compare it to Machamp. Because obviously Stonehenge hits really hard.
00:42:00
Speaker
but um it's It's not available as quickly as the Close Combat is, so I can see that there is a niche for the Panda going forward. um The one thing it definitely struggles with is just like, okay, if you ah have the choice between Shadow Machamp and Pangoro,
00:42:21
Speaker
what What would you rather use as the question? and I still feel as if Shadow Machamp is a little more consistent. It doesn't need to debuff itself. It wins the head-to-head. There's just enough um enough aspects of Shadow Machamp's gameplay that make it a little more desirable. But um yeah, I wouldn't count out Pangoro completely for um future events, um especially because, like, if we have more... um more Galerian Mortress going forward, which, again, we don't know whether that will happen, or even, like, for Alligator, I think the dark typing is actually a really good subtype defensively, because you resist those sucker punches, you resist those shadow claws,
00:43:09
Speaker
You're probably, <unk>re you're just in a really solid defensive position if you have a Pokémon with the typing that, um like it doesn't have the stat product, but at least it double resists all those stock type threats. on Or like the the one time resist the the shadow claws, which Machamp doesn't do. So there's like some utility in the in the typing difference.
00:43:33
Speaker
um So yeah, i could I could see it stick around at least. I don't expect it to take home another medal within the next two or three tournaments, but I can see it take another medal throughout the season. um So yeah, I'll say it's okay.
00:43:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I feel like it's very dependent on the team you build as well, because I feel like the defensive coverage, like you outlined that sub dark typing, especially with the absence of not, uh, excuse me, the absence of fairy types, not many, um, wiggly tough or Clefable at all to speak of only a zoom rolls, the real threat. I feel like the dark typing can be useful, but if you look at offensively speaking,
00:44:14
Speaker
If you are playing Pangoro into sand slash, you probably wish you had Machamp. If you're playing Machamp into Galarian Moltres, you probably are more comfortable there than you would be with the Pangoro instead. And I feel like that Pokemon in general, it really depends on how you construct the rest of your team. And a lot of it comes down to targets as well. The Pangoro in the shields up scenarios, I'm sure I'm positive. I don't even have to look at the Sims has a better matchup against Grisalia than Machamp. Yes, yes, yes. That's like a big one. If Krissiah usage picks up picks up, that could be another argument for Pangoro.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I think the night slash and especially the threat of a night slash boost could be very, very helpful in that situation. And I think you're right. The, the wealth of Pangoro in the meta is directly connected to Chris Elia's rise. Because if you look at the other target for dark types being ghosts, uh, believe it or not, there was not a single ghost in the top eight teams. And there was only one ghost in the top 16 teams at Baltimore. And that was the shadow Alolan Meruac on Murphy's team. So.
00:45:18
Speaker
When you look at dark, you think about hitting psychic for super effective and ghost for super effective. When you basically only have one psychic type as the only target for your, for your night slash, I think it really makes your position a bit tedious and you have to rely more on the fighting type pressure. So I don't know. It's really good question. But if I had to say one thing about Tom Hawk's team, I think that, uh, toxapex in particular, I'm all aboard the toxapex train. And I think diggers be as well is going to pick up massively in usage. Yeah.
00:45:45
Speaker
Because the things especially those two together just have, yeah they just form a really solid core. Yeah. I think, I think Diggers B versus not only Claude Sire, but also Dunsparce is going to be something that people wake up to and they, they might see it as the superior ground type. Uh, we also have another trainer from NA and I'm, I'm really proud of him. I tried to troll him during the interview.
00:46:05
Speaker
When I intro to him, I said this was last season's Car Bank King and now he's back and and Elam's eyes rolled up so far into his head. I thought he was He was used from the ex the Exorcist and and he said come on man. Why'd you do that? But no, I think that ah that Elam is definitely writing his own story I I'm really interested in the notes you have for him as well So, yeah, like, honestly, I was... This is also because I fell victim to that carving back at any IC. But now at this tournament, here's so many Pokémon on this team that have very polarizing matchups into carving. There were no carvings to really execute those polarizing matchups, but yeah, I think what really makes this team unique... um
00:46:51
Speaker
Like, first of all, he had the two cores that we've kind of come to expect, which are the Furlough Gate and the Claude Sire and the Cresselia and the Dunspars. I think like Dunspars and the Psychic type, like Cresselia is just like really, really solid with the fighting protection that Cresselia, the protection from fighting types to be clear, the Cresselia offers. But I think like Gastrodon and Moltres, those were not really all that prevalent. Like it wasn't the only ones in top card.
00:47:21
Speaker
But and ah he was definitely the player that made the most of that pairing. And yeah, like especially with the Pokemon that... Like he didn't even have a good AV one off, like the gallery and And it wasn't really tested as much, like you don't know if that thing is actually good. It's a very risky pick. And I think just this willingness to think outside of the box is something that, um like it also applies to the carving situation at MEIC and I think it's,
00:47:56
Speaker
uh, a strength of Elon that, um, leaning into that strength definitely correlates with the wealth of positive results he has gotten, um, over time. But yeah, like to me.
00:48:09
Speaker
He falls into a similar category as Tomahawk does, because those guys are like undoubtedly like some of the greatest players we have on the official circuit. But they're also still trying to get that gold medal, but just fall short every time by just such small margins. um For Elam, it's, I think, the eighth top card so far. And it's the fourth medal, the fourth top four placement.
00:48:37
Speaker
um I think one of them was an IC, so that isn't a medal, that is a trophy. um But yeah, like just incredible high-level consistency. And it's actually like kind of like almost mirroring the previous Baltimore regional, and we actually where he actually finished runner-up. So definitely, he already has like two out of the three medals, or out of the four medals, rather, that um are available in Baltimore.
00:49:05
Speaker
So you should, like if if the event comes back, um I would definitely be keeping an eye out for Elon because there's still the first place medal and there's also still the fourth place medal to win in that city.
00:49:19
Speaker
He's collecting them like infinity stones. you know if he if he's If he wins first next year, granted if if we're back in Baltimore, like you said, then ah then the year after he will only settle for fourth. you know If he gets any higher than fourth, he'll just forfeit. or It's arguably the best medal there is. um we've We've heard it from ah some some players that they really love their fourth place medal.
00:49:40
Speaker
yeah so I can only recommend it. Definitely the most intimidating one as well. I mean, if I ever was was sitting next to someone with a fourth place medal, my my eyes would just go gaga, you know, go crazy. But that being said, there's so many interesting interesting players. ah I'm so happy we got to shout out to some of the new ones and also some of the returning ones.
00:50:00
Speaker
But speaking of returning ones, we had some very familiar faces in the grand finals. ah And like I said, ah during the, I think it was the show closer, as much as things change, they also tend to stay the same. And it felt very ah serendipitous seeing elite and vaudage in grand finals.
00:50:19
Speaker
Can I just take a minute to remind you all of my prediction at the very end of the last episode? I was calling this shit. I was calling it early.
00:50:31
Speaker
Uh, yeah, like Madaj just returning to the official circuit after a year of not playing any official tournament and immediately just taking home the title the same way he did it. Like, like he wasn't on a hiatus back then, but like last season, the first picture we got on, on the graphic for all the regional champions of North America. It was also Madaj's picture. So this is, this is really just.
00:51:00
Speaker
um establishing dominance over the NA scene and I wonder whether he'll use it at that the same way he did last season or whether he wants to really challenge for the title of greatest of all time again because like we've been talking a lot about Dunberg last season but there's there's definitely players like Vadash who have just historically a laundry list of achievements that really can rival those those of Dunebug 97. And I would love for both of those great trainers to face off at a regional and upcoming regional. I just want to say that, and I know that some of this was impacted by some of the game state issues that ah were encountered during his run, but Wadaz just kind of had this this aura that he just didn't give a damn, like he just didn't care. and Yeah, I don't think he does.
00:51:55
Speaker
No, he was just going to go up there and he was just going to play and he was going to play well. Don't get me wrong. you know It's just like the employee that shows up for their shift and you know the they're the best cook on the line or they're they're the best salesperson at the company or whatever it might be. But at the same time, they clock out and they could really care less. They're instantly thinking about something else. That's the kind of vibe I was getting from Modash and it was really Interesting to see him, especially in the grand finals, like go down zero two to start and he did not look flustered or bothered at all. He was like, ah, well, damn, if I lose this next, this next game, then I'm running her up, but I'm still going to try. Like I'm still going to try to beat him and I'm going to do whatever I can, but.
00:52:34
Speaker
You know, if, if I don't win, Oh, well. And that was totally different from the Badaj that I saw last year, who, if he didn't make top cut, or if he lost out too early, he would walk into a corner and literally like beat himself up. You know, he just would stand over there frustrated. Wouldn't want to talk to anybody was so disappointed because he held himself to such a standard. So seeing this like shift has been very interesting to me. And ah that's what it came across as to me. Could you see it on stream as well?
00:53:01
Speaker
I like and definitely could see this attitude, um but honestly, i I was not really surprised by it at all. like Obviously, there has been some development, some personal growth insofar as that Like it was it was kind of the same with out of pocket leading up to his NEIC victory, right? Like especially those those young and ambitious trainers, they always want to prove themselves and they really want to show up in those big moments. But once you have proven yourself, once you have shown up in those big moments enough times,
00:53:40
Speaker
um It's just like you you kind of know that you're the main character and um you don't you don't even care if you are not because okay like what if you have only won like three or four major tournaments and not the fourth or fifth and just finished runner-up at Baltimore like how bad could that realistically be?
00:54:01
Speaker
um And yeah, I also just think that um another thing that just comes with experience is to focus on the gameplay, not do any like fancy shit, not just do do some shenanigans for the camera, but just lock in, play your best PvP, execute your win conditions to perfection, and and it just not get in your own head too much. um yeah like it It was definitely the winners' finals and grand finals that were displaying two players who had um
00:54:37
Speaker
oh I want to say eighteeners elite mentality in their own way, but like yeah that could be seen as another wordplay. um i think I think the one thing that actually made a difference for Vadash at the end is that he didn't switch up his style of play to do anything wild. In the very last game, Elite actually brought the Mandibuzz for the very first time. Previously to that, I think he brought some Shadow Drapion where
00:55:08
Speaker
Um, I think his, his classic line of three of shadow met sham for alligator and um, cresselia, he brought in various orders so many times. I think those were his comfort picks, but because the dashes.
00:55:23
Speaker
found ways to out strategize him and to like there was like one moment in the grand finalist reset where both of the trainers on played the same line back to back. Yes, the first game went to elite. The second game went to Vadash because he adapted he saved swap Chris Elia which um elite didn't really have an answer to and I think that kind of already sealed the deal in a way, because um it just put a leap in a spot where he felt as if he had to do something fancy, something crazy. and But Josh just played reliable, he played Pokemon that I think the meta allowed him to play, that were
00:56:05
Speaker
like obviously like if you have dance balls in shadow match jam that's not great but i feel like there's always win conditions if you get like a reverse farm down somewhere if you just um really know what lines make sense for your opponent um and yeah i think this it's just like safe, but precise gameplay. Like if elite catches a move, he just does three rollouts with the dance bars, pivots into a bulky Pokemon to absorb the energy is in a better spot than before. This is just what he does. And I think this was just the like a very low key clinical grand finals, um, that.
00:56:47
Speaker
was just like and another masterclass honestly and I don't even know like at some point it felt as if the lead had the momentum just because his varaligator was almost unchecked.
00:57:00
Speaker
But because Vadash just gained so much practice playing against it, it felt like the tides turned halfway through the the grand finals and okay, like he just had figured out all the ways Elite could leverage his Feraligatr and um from then it basically had to be either you RPS me or I just outplay you.
00:57:25
Speaker
So there were two different grand finals that elite was in, and I tried to make this point a couple of times during the cast. I'm not sure if you noticed it, but, uh, with Dodge was actually the first player to take a game off of elite in the grand finals in three years, which is like a crazy thing to say because he he had been in grand finals three times. This being the third.
00:57:45
Speaker
And once he did that, I was like, Oh no, maybe there's a chink in the armor. Because from my perspective, I i saw elite go up to, Oh, in the grand finals. And I thought, okay, maybe Wadaj can take one more game, but this looks like it's just about over. And then Wadaj turns, turns it around and he reverse sweeps three, Oh, to force the reset.
00:58:03
Speaker
And the the game you're talking about in particular, you absolutely nailed it. And I'm, it's so serendipitous because I'm reading my notes and you're actually verbalizing what I'm reading as I go through this. But in game three of the, of the, gra excuse me, great game, three of the grand finals, reset elites, led shadow, my champion to Dunsparce with Dodge, pivoted Claude Sire elite ended up winning that game. Game four of the grand finals reset with everything on the line. Like this is, this is an elimination game for with Dodge. If he loses this one elite is the Baltimore champion.
00:58:32
Speaker
Both players run the exact same teams in the exact same order. And instead, this time, Waddash pivots Grisselia because he knew that he was close in the earlier matchup versus elite. And he thought he could find a win condition. So he just ran it back. And this is when Waddash got that moonblast debuff in the Grisselia mirror match, because not only did Waddash like answers to shallow for alligator. And he realized that.
00:58:54
Speaker
Elite liked answers to Cresselia and Woodage realized that. And then after the moon blast debuff, Elite was not able to maintain switch and ended up losing. And then Woodage ended up winning game five, of course. But those like minor shifts in strategy and gameplay are so telling between these two players. And I, I plan to go back and watch the winner's finals. Cause I also think that was an absolute clinic. I mean that, that match was like watching, I don't know, like a, like a race. It was just so intense the entire time, but.
00:59:24
Speaker
Yeah. Again, I'm really impressed with the leads gameplay. He just wasn't good enough to stop with Dodge and the dichotomy of, of demeanors on stage was so telling because elite he didn't want to joke. He didn't want to laugh. He was so focused and with Dodge was like, basically, you know, this, if I win, that's cool. If I, if I lose, it's whatever.
00:59:43
Speaker
I also like enjoy the looks that Elite gives the camera whenever something happens within game that shouldn't have happened. like Yes. won't you ah yeah At least it wasn't like too impactful. like I don't think any game within the like Winner's Finals Grand Finals really was decided by that. um But yeah, it's definitely something that can bring you like slightly off balance in a high-stakes situation like that.
01:00:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's, it's more of the mental, right? Because if you're in in a game and you don't get something and you really feel like it's important, it can definitely disrupt your mental flow. We saw that a lot this weekend. A lot of trainers were getting really frustrated when this stuff started happening. Um, but just to, to recap the team usage here, I should say Pokemon usage for grand finals. You absolutely nailed it with the Feraligatr, Chris Salyam, a champ trio that elite was bringing. If you look back at the grand finals.
01:00:35
Speaker
He brought Feraligatr to all 10 games, Cresselia to all 10 games, followed by Shadow Machamp at six times, Shadow Drapion at three, and Mandibuzz only in the last game of the reset. He brought Claude Sire zero times in the grand finals.
01:00:50
Speaker
And that's also really telling because if you look at Wadaj's team, it was built to stop Claude Sire. I mean, he had Dunsparce, his own Claude Sire, Cresselia, Shadow, Alolan Sandslash with Powdered Snow, Azumarill with Ice Beam and Chestnut. And Wadaj's usage was actually number one. He brought Claude Sire nine out of 10 games, followed by Cresselia seven times Dunsparce six. Then you had Chestnut four times, Shadow, Alolan Sandslash three times and Azumarill only once. So.
01:01:17
Speaker
Definitely a very different tale of the tape. I mean, elite was basically playing with five Pokemon instead of six. Yeah, I think elite would have been in a much better spot if you had sludge bomb cloud sire for this matchup in particular. Oh yeah. Just with that you have play into um chest nod and with that you have play into a zoom roll. And yeah, I can see why he didn't want to bring his cloud sire into Vadaja's team just because um Like the chest not looked like the most obvious answer for the dash to stop the onslaught of her alligator and therefore you would be expecting a lot of chest not probably and you don't want to get your You don't want to get your thoughts. I are stuck on a Pokemon that resists every charge move
01:01:58
Speaker
Of course, yeah, then it's just really, really miserable. And I think elite knew that, but it's just an interesting kind of position to be in. And I felt like this happened a couple of times where players had a really good strategy or really good composition. For example, Elam had a similar issue when he ran into Vadaj because he led his gal glaring multress against the chest knot. And we're thinking, Oh yeah, you know, flying type versus grass and fighting, what could go wrong?
01:02:19
Speaker
Well, apparently a lot of things because with shields up chest, not good, double frenzy, plant, Moltres and KO it, which is absolutely absurd. Uh, and I think that chest on in particular was like a thorn in the side of a lot of the trainers here. Um, so my question for you and I, you might not have an answer for this because we touched on this briefly earlier. Azumarill and Cresselia won another regional. I thought this was a new meta. What's going on?
01:02:44
Speaker
Numetta doesn't mean that every single Pokemon has to be new, right? um I personally enjoy that Cresselia and Azumarill are still viable, because I think those are two Pokemon that for um a variety of reasons trainers have invested really heavily into with Cresselia, it's that you're really, um like, I personally you can talk about how I invested a lot of time and effort and status in trading for a better IB Cresselia. And I ended up with the rank three just after NAIC. And it would have been a shame if I couldn't use that beyond the worlds anymore because it was so bad in the meta. So I'm honestly happy that that is still viable.
01:03:31
Speaker
um And with Azumarill, it's just an Excel Pokémon that has been around for years and years. And I think like even though we are moving away from Excel Pokémon as meta staples, it's still nice if people who have already built this Pokémon can rely on it further, and it's not just 500k dust down the drain.
01:03:51
Speaker
So I don't actually mind those two staying around, especially because both of them are just like fairly bulky, fairly neutral Pokemon that can anchor a team and that aren't too oppressive.
01:04:05
Speaker
That's, that's true. I feel like the neutral play is is very, it's interesting because people always want to blow up the meta. They want brand new things. They want shiny new toys, but I feel like a lot of the time the old reliability can also be very, very healthy to keep around. And that was a big concern with the meta update is that people are saying, well, all these things I've already invested in are no longer good. Well, I've got good news. Not only do you, do you need fewer and fewer XL Pokemon to be competitive as you did in seasons past,
01:04:30
Speaker
But a lot of those investments you already made could still be useful down the stretch, which is ah honestly very, very nice for trainers to know. Um, I wasn't sure if you had any more thoughts on the grand finals, uh, other than, uh, if, if any of our listeners have not watched it, I highly encourage you to go back and watch it and also watch the winners finals because arguably the winners finals in my mind were even more exciting.
01:04:51
Speaker
But I felt like this was, uh, like you, you laid it out earlier, a low key clinic because there wasn't a lot of flash. There wasn't a lot of like time between matches where players were ruminating on what to bring. They were locking in so fast. Oh, I love that by the way. I, I like, obviously if you want, if you need to take your time, take your time, but just as a viewer and also as an opponent, I appreciate a quick login.
01:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. The production literally had to stop doing the replays because we didn't have enough time to show the replays because our, our players were already ready for the next game, which is, I think the first time that's happened so consistently on stream. Yeah. Yeah. But that would actually also be my last thought with regards to the grand finals.
01:05:35
Speaker
Yeah, you, you, you appreciated the pace of the grand finals. For sure. That's good to know. Well, congratulations to with Dodge. A lot of people are saying return of the King. Yeah. The King is back. Uh, with Dodge proves that he can, he can walk into a tournament, um, with a very specific demeanor.
01:05:52
Speaker
and still ah you know win a tournament, which is honestly phenomenal. Good for him. ah Kudos to Elite and Elam, our second and third place finishers as well. I thought Elite was so impressive. um um ah I'm supposed to remain neutral in ah in all cases, but I can't help but cheer sometimes for Elite because he just looks like a killer in some of these situations. i mean Some of the gameplays and the way he shuts people people down, if you give a lead any leverage at all, he he makes a bloody mess of things. So excited to see him play more Elam as well, looking for his first championship. I think he's not very far away. Just a couple of plays here, there. One or two Pokemon shifts, and he can have his own title pretty soon. So I'm excited for that. um I'm curious if you want to talk about bugs briefly or you want to turn the page to Dortmund.
01:06:37
Speaker
I think we can touch on bugs just for a second, because you um hinted towards having some insight as to what really went wrong. And I have to say that even though the game state is um subpar currently, like it's playable on iPhone and it's not good on Android at all.
01:06:59
Speaker
um But still, the the things I saw on stream felt a little out of the ordinary. i it I have heard rumors that it had to do with the venue, at least to a degree. yeah And I would ask you whether there is any truth to that.
01:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, so so obviously I'm not going to ah disclose the specifics of of what I was told, but I will say you know being backstage, i I am a bit closer in proximity to a lot of what's going on. And I know that our our tech team in particular has been working on this for three years straight, trying to get these these matches as smooth as possible. And they've done some pretty wild things.
01:07:35
Speaker
you know, in in the name of this effort to try to make sure the stream goes smoothly. um From what I can gather, we kind of had a perfect storm. So there was, ah everyone is aware that there was recently an iOS software update that dropped. ah There was also a update for Go that recently dropped. And on top of that, you have the latent in-game issues which we all experience on iPhone. I mean, I've i've basically come to the point now where when my Pokémon enters the battle, I am starting to feel like it's a feature, not a bug, that I get a one-turn lag because it happens to me every single day in almost every battle that I play.
01:08:11
Speaker
right so you had those things those discrepancies and thankfully we didn't have the frame drops that android users are currently suffering through but i feel like the the existing in-game issues were there right so not only do we have an ios update we have an update to the game and then we also have the known bugs in the game which every player has experienced next is that i also heard rumors that the venue internet was not what the team expected i heard that ah multiple times they were trying to shift internet channels to try to fix things and hopefully things were smoothed out at a few points in the stream and they made that effort but I just want everyone listening ah who got to this point and who who appreciates the show and and wants us to be honest I will be honest with you the production team really like goes above and beyond their switching cables, they're toggling GPS, they're running internet speed tests. They are really like pulling their hair out during the show, trying to fix this as quickly as possible. And there's a whole team that's dedicated to doing it. But I feel like sometimes there are just so many variables and so many things come together that really create an issue. And you could argue that the team should have pushed the iOS update, you know, days before the tournament.
01:09:18
Speaker
Or if it wasn't stable, they should have rolled it back. Or you could argue the same for the Pokemon Go app update or whatever it might be. But regardless, I want everyone to know that TPCI watched the stream, Niantic watched the stream, and both parties are aware of the issues. and I mean, pretty much you and I are not developers. Most of the people listening are probably not developers for Niantic, but I think that, um, the right people who actually can control this thing are aware of it. So I have really high hopes for Dortmund and beyond.
01:09:49
Speaker
that the game state will be improved. And I just want to say again, like, I know I'm, I cast for these events. Uh, I know as wireless you compete and attend a lot of these events, our podcast is built around this game, but we're always going to be honest when there are huge mistakes and huge issues, we will point them out. And Baltimore was not by any means a good display of what this game should be.
01:10:09
Speaker
100% but yeah I definitely appreciate the insight and also like I share in the hope for Dortmund and beyond that this is like even though there will be issues in the future I think realistically we just have to expect that. I don't think that Baltimore will be a representative of what this season holds.
01:10:30
Speaker
Yeah, I sincerely hope not. And I just want you i just want everyone to know that like the production, the stream, is doing everything they can to prevent that from happening again. So again, they care about this game as much as we do. And I think that's always important to remember.
01:10:44
Speaker
But ah coming up, were we're making that transition across the Atlantic. We're going over to Germany in Dortmund, and I'm really excited. I think I have ah one meta pick that I think is really going to stand out, but I'm curious. you know I asked Amanda about this. I talked to Tom Hawk about this, and I was just asking them,
01:11:04
Speaker
EU is known for its ingenuity, for creating new metas, for establishing new Pokemon, for experimenting a lot more than NA is. What are the Europeans going to cook up? yeah that's i want I wonder what they said to they said towards that because um I honestly believe that well we'll see people trying to counter the stuff that was successful in North America. And the Pokemon that I think is best suited to that is one that we actually saw on the top 12 chart for the day one usage, but we only say see we only saw one off in day two, and that is Malamar. I think that Malamar is a premier core breaker that is in a really good position to
01:12:00
Speaker
really like I think the turn it's turned the meta on its head joke has been overdone at this point and but like if you if you look at it it has um the foul play to threaten the cresselia it has um a solid enough for alligator matchup and that it definitely wins the one shield scenario it does super effective side waves against each flavor of clawed sire um If there's chestnuts, the side wave fits there as well. And even the ice types like Shadow Alone and Sand Slash, they don't want to take a superpower. So I can see mamama be actually a really flexible pig that um I think is a little more delicate in that it has
01:12:44
Speaker
um a new one-trend fast attack, and it's a very recent addition to the meta that people need more experience with. Or maybe they want to wait until the Psychic Spectacular event to catch a good IV NK to evolve that to a Malamar. And I think this is something, this is a Pokemon that needs a little more practice, a little more experience, but I think by the time Dalton rolls around, um it will be a force to be reckoned with. Really, Malamar. We only saw one Malamar in top 16, if I'm not mistaken.
01:13:14
Speaker
I think it was on on Murphy's rather spicy team. So yeah definitely not a staple just yet, but I think there's there's some upside to it. Interesting, interesting. So ah you asked earlier what the picks were. I know i know this um this episode is just about an an hour long. I want to give a refresher. Homesize Henry thinks that Machamp will destroy in Dortmund. I can't remember which pick was which, but Amanda and Nighttime Clasher said Galarian, Moltres, and Shadow Drabian were the two Pokemon to watch.
01:13:43
Speaker
ah My personal pick is actually Toxapex. And this really goes back to the note that you made that Tomahawk is one of the world's best team builders. I tend to agree because a lot of the core breakers that he chose were absolutely phenomenal. I think that Toxapex really kind of showed, and I made this analogy during the stream.
01:14:01
Speaker
that it's definitely a Kraken of sorts. And if you remember the mythical Kraken, when that animal gets a hold or when that beast gets a hold of your ship, it absolutely pulls you down into the depths and breaks you apart. I feel like that's exactly what Talkspex was doing. A lot of games were over when Azumarill came out and Talkspex came out to meet it. that was That was it. That was the end of the matchup.
01:14:23
Speaker
And I feel like we're going to see probably more grass, whether it's chest knot or superior or whatever it might be, tox specs succeeds there. We will continue to see for alligator, tox specs does well there. And even in most neutral match ups, it does great. So then you look at the hard counters, you say, okay, well, cloud sire and mud slappers. Yeah, you can run those, but then you leave yourself wide open for something like a digger's bee or a chest knot. So I think that there's a lot of play for tox specs.
01:14:49
Speaker
i think because toxapex is such a strong neutral force and already it also has like and a very defined list of weaknesses like you don't have to cover for like three different archetypes of pokemon you just really have to be safe against ground types and like even stuff like gemalamar um With a certain IV spread, you just do fine there as the toxapex. It's not even a losing matchup necessarily for the toxapex users. so i can I can definitely see that. I'm i'm definitely a toxapex believer. I just think that if you want this, because I think this meta is a lot about flexibility or it has been um this this weekend. and If you want that flexible pick,
01:15:33
Speaker
I think Malamar is where you want to go. Toxic packs, also very good, um but you have to really protect from its hard counters because if it is in a losing matchup, it's a hard losing one.
01:15:47
Speaker
That's fair. That's completely fair. Yeah. Because talk specs does get absolutely dumpster by some of the more potent picks in the meta. But, uh, so it was a really fun show. I know it was, there was a little damper on the stream because of the bugs, but hopefully again, we can continue continue to improve that. Uh, I don't know how many of our listeners follow me on Twitter as well, but I made a lengthy post about that. I feel like viewership and participation is the oxygen that really fuels.
01:16:13
Speaker
our game or any game in the competitive sports scene. And I feel like the only way to really get the support to actually fix bugs and get investment from the the powers that be is to support the game more because then they see a significant part of their player base is passionate about one feature and that they should invest in it. And I know some folks will drag me for that commentary, but whatever.
01:16:36
Speaker
It's just what I believe because we've seen boycotts. We've tried here as Niantic. We tried all this other stuff and I feel like, uh, we need to, to select our approach very carefully. But that being said, again, congratulations to Adash for winning the tournament. Congratulations to all of our, our top eights. I cannot wait to see what's what's going to go down in Dortmund. I hope we have a great turnout. I hope we have a really fun time and fingers crossed for a bug free stream.
01:17:01
Speaker
Definitely hoping for the best. I will be competing in Dortmund and so will my brother, so it's the big jonkers comeback and um I'm really excited. It's only the second time that we play in the same tournament and the very first was EUIC, which didn't go like, it was like over a year ago and that didn't go great for either of us, so definitely hoping for maybe a little storyline to unfold there.
01:17:25
Speaker
Absolutely. Again, making your case for the best brothers in PvP. We'll, uh, we'll see how that goes down, but it's just been a pleasure. I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening and we're looking forward to getting started with our next episode after dormant. I'm looking forward to it.