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Ep. 1 Portland 2024
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 1 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we dive deep into the Play! Pokémon Championship series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and the competitive scene. This week, we review the Portland regional championships. We are so excited to kick things off, so Lock In, and let's get started!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Show 6 Podcast
00:00:22
Speaker
All right, everybody. Hello and welcome to the show six podcast, a brand new podcast breaking down the play Pokemon Championship Series for Pokemon Go. Your two hosts for the show will be myself, Speedy's Chief 2, and the Zwylus. Zwylus, welcome in, my friend. It's so good to launch this project with you. I'm really excited for the future. And yeah, introduce yourself to the people, tell them who you are and let's get started.
Meet the Hosts: Zwylus and Speedy's Chief 2
00:00:49
Speaker
Hello, hello, Speedy. Hi, dear listeners. My name is Zweilis. I am just as excited to get this project off the ground to talk about the Play Pokemon Championship series, because I am not only a regular Go Battle League player, but also a competitor. I'm just a big fan of what Play Pokemon has done with
00:01:14
Speaker
Go PvP and yeah, I've competed in Europe. I've actually won the Barcelona special event this season and I've also competed overseas in Hartford and Toronto and yeah speeding I thought this would be a nice combination of American and European expertise to maybe dig a little deeper into what our co-competitors have to offer and
00:01:40
Speaker
Yeah, I couldn't have said it better. I feel like there's an opportunity to look at kind of the brackets, the team analysis, kind of break things down a little bit in more detail, right? And make the game overall more accessible to new players who wanted to join. That's why I always hated in school when you had to introduce yourself. So because you did it.
00:01:59
Speaker
I'll do it on my side as well. Uh, I'm Swedish chief too. I commentate for play Pokemon. Uh, I've done a couple of world championships, the first being in London and then the second in Yokohama. Uh, best job ever. I love commentating. I love Pokemon go. And this has been my goal for, for just about, oh my gosh, it's been what six, seven years since PVP came out. I always felt like it could be an e-sport and it felt like we had the potential.
00:02:23
Speaker
We're finally here, but now we have to keep building on it, keep growing the game and kind of increasing the momentum that we already have. I think the signups are headed in the right direction in terms of tournaments. I think the viewership is headed in the right direction, but I think we can definitely do more. So making the game more accessible overall has always been my goal. And I think, like you said, this is a great opportunity to
Portland Regionals Overview
00:02:44
Speaker
do that. Well, so we had a very, very exciting regional championship just over the past weekend.
00:02:51
Speaker
It was the Portland regionals. Now, this is a very, very fun one to watch. 92 competitors signed up. We had the world champ. Its accent was there. We had Rubik's master. We had Caleb Pang. We had so many incredibly talented trainers and a lot of trainers that really surprised us. So I kind of want to open the floor to you because we're going to spend the majority of our episodes discussing the regionals, talking about what stood out to us. If you had to sum up Portland or just point out one thing that really jumped out to you, how would you like to kick this conversation off?
00:03:21
Speaker
I would say that Portland was, in my eyes, the regional where the meta really solidified itself. While we had Stuttgart to kick this particular season, this particular meta change off, most people were still just going off PVP rankings, maybe having done one or two practice tournaments, but nobody really knew what this meta was about.
00:03:47
Speaker
And now I feel like a pattern emerges and we kind of see where things are headed and yeah.
Meta Trends and Strategy Shifts
00:03:56
Speaker
I so so I agree to to a degree but I don't I don't completely agree if that makes sense so I feel like we're seeing kind of a tilt towards more flexible play this is kind of where we were in the previous season where we had a lot of superior Gligar then a champ made a lot of this similar Pokemon kind of facing off I think we're
00:04:17
Speaker
kind of tilting towards that direction. A lot of trainers opting for more neutral picks. We don't see a, like, for example, in the grand finals, it wasn't quite like the Stuttgart grand finals where it was kind of like the, um, kind of a triangle of interactions. You had your Claude Sire, you had your
00:04:33
Speaker
Uh, charger bugs, you had your poly rats. It didn't feel exactly like that in my mind. It felt a lot more neutral. You had some Gligar, some whisk, cash, zoom, or all. Uh, but I felt like there was a lot of, a lot of opportunity for trainers to kind of, I guess, express their skill in different ways. Infamously neutral. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, we'll get to that for sure. But I feel like, um, yeah, fair point.
00:04:58
Speaker
Well, but to the most point, or for the most part, excuse me, I feel like a lot of the tournament was, uh, you know, just whisk. I should get the skull debuff. Do we see a farm down here on the polywrath? Is it, it's, it kind of felt more momentum based, more energy based. And yeah, maybe with the exception of the Bassey Don a little more.
00:05:16
Speaker
a little less alignment base. Big rise in the zoom roll. We saw Whiscash on seven of the top 12 teams. We saw a lot of defense from Deoxys. We actually saw four Vigoroth in the top 12, which is also a bit surprising. Any metapix that stood out to you that kind of shocked you or you thought we're out of place?
00:05:36
Speaker
I think the Vigoroth pick is especially interesting because as far as I know, or as far as I remember, it was not at all present on the top 12 graphics on day one. So not many people actually opted to bring that. I think I remember like Poliwrath being the premier counter user with about 33-ish percent usage in day one. And then like Medisham hanging on for dear life, like at the very bottom of the top 12.
00:06:06
Speaker
But Vigorous wasn't mainstream yet, I would say. But it definitely overperformed its usage. It won the tournament and had some amazing results. And I think that is because of one other Pokémon that
00:06:27
Speaker
already started to stand out more ever since the Chargerbug Poliwrath core emerged, which is the Gligar. If you remember in Stuttgart, Gligar was nowhere to be seen. Basically, the entire top 12 best or most commonly used Pokémon
00:06:48
Speaker
Like they came without Gligar, even though Gligar was one of the staples of the previous season, but everybody just thought, okay, there's new flyers in town. There's Talonflame. Talonflame, remember that one? There's Skarmory, which actually did pick up a new switch. And yeah, like when people picked out their flyer, they just didn't think of Gligar.
00:07:12
Speaker
I think it's Axan, a world champion, actually stated that he disliked his Shadow Poliwrath that he brought the most on his team. And I think that was in part because it just fainted to an aerial ace plus wing attacks from a Shadow Blige. Shadow Blige was everywhere. So Vigoroth and not resisting, but taking neutral from wing attacks and aerial ace just has a way better Zero Shields matchup there. And I think with
00:07:42
Speaker
Glaiga basically being omnipresent. That was the key to victory to just have this more neutral matchup, as you said. We are trending towards neutrality. We are typically trending towards neutrality the further a season progresses, because that's just like...
00:07:59
Speaker
That's just like how people try to, to, to win games, right? By, by outplaying, not just by getting lucky. These tournaments last too long to just go on a lucky run and RPS your way to victory. Yeah. Just ask, just ask onion Frank, right? That's what he said. That's what he said because of the seeding. He's actually started to use some skill expression, right? He's a frequent go battling leader border. And he used to just bring shadow, victory, bill of acid on the turn. Yeah. Yeah. If you look at onions team for this tournament.
00:08:27
Speaker
Like, there's a ton of neutral play. He also adopted that Vigoroth. He had the Shadow Dragonaire, which is like, infamously neutral in plenty of matchups. Like, many people with one notable exception are going the route of, okay, I'll just try to pick Pokemon that are safe, pick Pokemon that are flexible. Even a Blyga, which is a ground type, doesn't necessarily get knocked out by a Skuld from a Wiscash.
00:08:54
Speaker
So there's just plenty of counterplay. Yeah, I think that made for some great battles for sure. Agreed. So I was actually looking at the teams here and something popped up into my mind. We actually recorded a lost episode as we're calling it. We're never going to release it, or at least not for a long time.
00:09:14
Speaker
But we have a lost episode where we broke down the San Antonio tournament and Doonbug97's 14 and 1 run through the tournament, something nobody has ever done. I was looking here at the Wiscash, the Azumarill, the Lickitung, the Poliwrath, the Gligar, all these Pokémon here have decent or positive matchups against Skeletors. And I almost feel like
00:09:39
Speaker
Um, we kind of have two things going for us, right? We have the previous meta that a lot of trainers like to analyze. They like to kind of adjust and anticipate what's going to show up. And then also, like you said, the general move towards neutrality as this, as the season develops. And I feel like both of those things kind of collided here and we saw so many water type Pokemon, so many ground type Pokemon.
00:09:59
Speaker
A lot of double ground actually in that grand finals as well, being Wiscash and Gligar. And I feel like that is kind of like a cocktail, right? Those are your two ingredients, you mix them together and this is what you get in terms of Portland.
Regional Differences and Influences
00:10:12
Speaker
But I was wondering though, do you think that this trend will continue? Do you think we're going to see a pivot towards more grass? Because there's also a lot of skarmory in the matter and Gligar takes care of grass pretty well as well.
00:10:25
Speaker
Yeah, I have to say that I am kind of curious as to how different the meta will look from the next regional, which is in Charlotte, and the regional after, which will be held back in Europe, in Liverpool.
Abhinav's Tournament Journey
00:10:44
Speaker
Because I remember the last time in Liverpool, Shadow Charizard emerged as a meta threat for the very first time.
00:10:52
Speaker
um taking the entire tournament and i would not be surprised if there were some sleeper picks out there that are yet to be discovered but um i do think that
00:11:05
Speaker
you see it with the Skeletor like it won in San Antonio and in the top 16 we only had Leo Gio who actually top cut with it and Zimikit who fell just short trying it out on their own team so it's not like oh this is the new meta trend that everybody follows most people are just playing it safe there's a lot of
00:11:28
Speaker
um just cores that look very similar from team to team um like um on on Abhinav's team you find um the Lekitang, the Shadow Gleiger, the Azumarill and uh the Chargerbug and you find the same four on Kayla Pang's team so the grand finals look actually like pretty the teams look pretty similar to each other
00:11:53
Speaker
And there's not really the breakout pick, but I feel like we should kind of be at a stage where
00:12:05
Speaker
Like this, this particular meta is so settled that you can just basically go on TV poke and see what plays best into this team because it feels so streamlined. It feels so standardized and Pokemon that might be worse neutrally, but that are good core breakers into like a Gligar Whiskash core might see some play at future tournaments.
00:12:29
Speaker
I agree. I feel like there are some sleeper picks and one trainer that I've learned to keep an eye on is actually Rubik's master. So Rubik's master, I requested a lot of trainers to submit their teams of six for the upcoming meta. I believe this is the last season rotation and Rubik's master was the only trainer that sent in superior. Meanwhile,
00:12:51
Speaker
everyone else is sending in Venusaur. And I was like, Huh, superior, right? There might be some, some merit to this in the adventures of bound season. And lo and behold, superior became by far the top meta choice in terms of grass types. It was everywhere. It was on a lot of winning teams and it was just, I guess, sprinkled throughout the tournament, no matter where you go, EU, NA, LATAM, anywhere in the world, you would see superior battling.
00:13:14
Speaker
And I'm looking at these teams here in top cut, and I do think that Trevenant has a ton of play. You've got Whiskash, Poliwrath, Chargibug. You've got so many different targets. Azumarill as well for that Pokemon.
Player Spotlights: Notable Competitors
00:13:27
Speaker
And Remixmaster actually bringing the Trevenant, Crystallier, Registeal, Mandibuzz, Shadowlald, and Sandslash, and Azumarill team to Portland. Do you have any thoughts on that team or any Pokemon that stood out besides the Trevenant?
00:13:40
Speaker
Yeah, I do think that Rubik's Master is one of the more unique team builders that we have in the Play Pokemon circuit. And while there are some choices that we've seen in win tournaments elsewhere, like the Retry Steel, like the Cresselia,
00:14:01
Speaker
The two Pokemon besides the Trevenant that stand out here are Alolan Sandslash, which kind of fell off. But what I like about Alolan Sandslash is that it does something that very few Pokemon in the current meta do. And that is just putting real bench pressure on the Glider, because Glider is such a staple. It's so safe in so many teams.
00:14:30
Speaker
that there's no real cost to bringing Gligar. And if you keep a proper ice type, something that just one shots a Gligar on your team, that's really valuable. But it's also high-risk, high-reward. And I do think, if I remember correctly, Rubik's master opted for the Shadow Clock Gligar, which did make a ton of sense for his team comp specifically, because he did have the Regi Steel and the Mandibuzz to scare away
00:15:00
Speaker
opposing Likertang. So the main thing about PowderSnow A-slash is that it breaks the Gligar Likertang core. This A-slash didn't really need to beat Likertang because it had other teammates that did it for it. So it made sense in that specific instance, but
00:15:21
Speaker
It's also better into Azu, by the way. But I do think that you have to build your team specifically around this type of Pokemon. Like, you need those extra Likertang answers. So it kind of limits you in how flexible you can actually build around Alolan Sandslash. So the Pokemon that I can actually
00:15:48
Speaker
And I would envision goes further in future tournaments. It's one that not only Rubik's Master brought, but that also placed third on Kobe's team. It's the Mandibuzz because Mandibuzz, it doesn't look amazing as a flying type that doesn't reliably beat Poliwrath or just fighters in general.
00:16:13
Speaker
But it is also a flying type that completely shuts down Cresselia, if Cresselia opts to run Grassnaught and Futureside. It's a Pokémon that takes less than 30% from Oskarche's Skald.
00:16:31
Speaker
And it's also a great answer to Likitang, making the Likitang safe swap, which is popular as ever, way more costly. So I feel like bench pressure is something that is like an undervalued concept in show 16 building. And I think Rubik's master executed really well on that, just making common safe swaps, like Likitang really cost it to his team.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think, I think Mandibuzz kind of helicopters in and out of the meta. If you remember back to the very first EUIC when Aries won the tournament with air slash Mandibuzz, everybody was kind of surprised. And we've seen other trainers like Doonbug trying to make it work earlier on in the season, but it just wasn't the right moment for it. So I think a lot of the championship series comes down to timing. Picking the right Pokemon at the right time is also very, very critical, especially when you have a meta that's constantly shifting, evolving and changing.
00:17:29
Speaker
In addition to Rubik's Master, like we mentioned, It's Axon made an appearance there in Portland this past weekend. Famously, It's Axon and Rubik's Master faced off in the Portland Grand Finals last season and then met again in the World Championships with our top 3 NA.
00:17:54
Speaker
I said, as long as, as long as, you know, a German dancing Rob was able to win it in year one, then Silas would let the triple NA at the top three in the Oklahoma slide, but.
00:18:03
Speaker
We had some incredible trainers attending, namely Onion Frank. We had Remberto. Bopper was there. I always loved to watch Bopper play because he did play the Guzzlord in a previous regional. That was so much fun to watch. Shadow Mimikyu also making a name for themselves, giving acts and just every, pushing him to the limit, you know, giving everything he can handle.
00:18:23
Speaker
And then some kind of newer players like Kobe, Kobe couplets who had not heard of before actually finished in third place flying pizza. The trainer who knocked hard Jeff out and out in San Antonio actually making top cut as well with shadow somber. It was really fun. But our champion for this one was Abhinav 7 9 9 8.
00:18:43
Speaker
I remember Abhinav said during the interview, he says, I know that I'm good at the game. I know that I've been good for a long time. And I feel like this is my chance to finally prove it. And honestly, so when I heard that quote, it reminded me a lot of your journey as well, because, you know, you said,
00:19:00
Speaker
I like to play spice to your picks. I think I know the game really well. I can win with really fun teams. And we talked, you know, one on one privately, that sometimes you felt like maybe you weren't meta enough to win tournaments, or maybe you felt like, you know, you couldn't break through the next level until you did, and you won a regional championship. So
00:19:19
Speaker
What did you think about Abhinav's run in particular? I'm not sure how much of the tournament you had, you had time to watch, but I'm curious what you thought about his run, his play style, because, uh, I think the grand finals reset was the most impressive, uh, adjustment that I've ever seen in the grand finals, especially in a reset situation. But I'd like to hear what you think first.
00:19:39
Speaker
Yeah, I have plenty of thoughts on this because to me, having enough taking this was not surprising at all. But I completely empathize with this feeling of needing to prove yourself because
00:19:59
Speaker
There are so many good players and only like eight to 10 regionals per region per season. So not everybody gets to claim one of those big titles. And I was actually like searching through the
00:20:19
Speaker
like discord of my my pvp team sharks and recreation because uh i was i was looking for previous mentions of abhinav because like i know that i played him in um the first season of battle frontier but i think i played him earlier as well and then i then i managed to dig up um a practice tournament um from
00:20:42
Speaker
before last year's EUIC. And I remember like talking to my friends about how I felt really comfortable with my team and was really confident going into the tournament and that I only dropped one round against the eventual tournament winner Abhinav. So even like a year ago, the guy swept stacked practice tournaments. Um,
00:21:07
Speaker
I think it was also a little bit about representing the Indian PvP scene, which is definitely underrepresented. I know he's been with the Chicago Stars and he's been in the US for a while, but he's still one of the representatives for just a scene of really strong battlers that has
00:21:33
Speaker
has had so many GBL number one players, so many Sylph grades, but just doesn't get regionals in their own country. So yeah, taking the crown here, I was just really happy for him because
00:21:49
Speaker
like I knew the guy was really good and I felt like his story was just a good one to tell and also like Caleb placing second three times in a row I feel like the further he does that the the more fun the meme gets um so yeah I was I was I was quite happy with the outcome of this tournament
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah. No, it was, it was really fun to watch. And I agree. And I think a lot of trainers feel that way, uh, in terms of their own gameplay, right? Maybe they have a lot of, uh, self-experience, a lot of show six experience, and they feel like maybe they get into a tournament situation and they just get that one matchup. They really don't want, or they run into, you know, a top tier trainer within the second or third round of their, of their regional run.
00:22:37
Speaker
And I've had that question personally, right? Because you see a lot of the same names kind of dominating a lot of tournaments. You expect Waddash to make top cut. You know, Accent's always going to top cut. You know, over an EU, Inadequance is going to top cut most of the time. You're going to see a lot of really good trainers perform really well consistently. And I've always wondered from the outside looking in,
00:22:58
Speaker
If you're a new trainer, a middle tier trainer, or an above average player, if you look at those tournaments and you say, Oh, well, I don't really have a chance to win because, because, uh, hard Jeff will be there. Or I don't have a chance to win you because it's why this is playing. I think that that kind of mindset is something that we should try to move away from. And I think seeing people like Abhinav succeed is a good step in that direction.
Importance of Global Representation in Pokemon Go
00:23:20
Speaker
Abhinav definitely a very impressive trainer. And yes, trying to put the Indian PVP scene on the map, much like Vroom Vroom Pow, you know, our previous self
00:23:28
Speaker
Uh, world champion. And I think that, um, you know, this is a non-official podcast, so we can say this. I think that after fast move, sneaks and denials were fixed, a lot, a lot of, no, I'm being, I'm being honest, a lot of trainers in different parts of the world, where there'd be Latem, APAC, EU, et cetera. I think a lot of trainers in different parts of the world. We're able to show more of what they're capable of. And I think that room rooms in that category, a lot of trainers that, that live outside of the U S or in that category. So.
00:23:57
Speaker
Very, very nice to see talent from around the world crop up. And yeah, I agree. It was a really nice story to watch. Abhinav and Caleb Peng in the grand finals. Caleb Peng, always a bridesmaid, never a bride as he likes to say, but definitely an impressive performance nonetheless. I was looking here at the runs by each of these trainers and how they got to their top three placing. And I got to say, I mean, Caleb Peng first lost to Rubik's master in round three.
00:24:25
Speaker
Took down Cedric beach and Rubik's master in a revenge match in round six. And then in day two, took down onion, Frank Leo, G over in Berto, Kobe, and took down Avina of the first time before eventually being defeated by him in the final round. So I definitely respect the run here by Caleb. I mean, that's an impressive grind to get through those trainers and knowing Caleb a little bit more personally, right? We worked together in the past and we've done a lot of regions together. I could tell the look on his face. He's like, man. Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker
I better not lose to onion Frank, dude. If I lose to this guy, I'm going to be so pissed at myself. That's just, that's just, you know, what he was thinking. I I'm just, I'm just saying this is just, you know, uh, conjecture, but I do think that's what he was feeling. Um, but yeah, very impressive run by all three of the top three trainers. Would you agree? Yeah. Like if you, if you're top three, like per definition, you're honest, hello, impressive. Um, I also think.
00:25:23
Speaker
I don't know, I've competed in some tournaments now and sometimes I don't necessarily think that just from a game to game perspective, of course, overall you're more likely to succeed if you just stay in that winner's bracket.
00:25:40
Speaker
But if you've got a real good loser's bracket run going, then you just build the confidence, you build more familiarity with your team, you build some momentum. And that was at display with Dunberg and San Antonio. And I do think that was also at display with Caleb here. And I don't know whether that can be said about all of his opponents because
00:26:04
Speaker
To me, just watching the battles, it sometimes felt like, okay, Caleb had a real talent to just unnerve his opponents. As soon as they got a Pokemon misaligned in the Bastion matchup, by the next game, they typically were making those little mistakes, and Caleb wasn't making those mistakes,
00:26:33
Speaker
And that's how you prevail in a knockout match. You just have to get those tiny margins, right? And I think it's all the more impressive that Abhinav actually managed to clean sweep 3-0 after the bracket got reset, because that's not a difficult mental situation.
Grand Finals Analysis: Abhinav vs. Caleb Pang
00:26:58
Speaker
And the momentum was definitely on Caleb's side there.
00:27:01
Speaker
No, I agree. And speaking to the grand finals, that was actually the first time that a grand finals has gone to a reset. And then one of the trainers had a three, oh, sweet. That's the first time all season it's gone to at least four or five games in all the previous resets being in Barcelona. Maybe you know something about that.
00:27:20
Speaker
Uh, in Leal Gdansk Stuttgart in San Antonio, those all went to either four or five games. So I think that the adjustments there were key from Abhinav. And if we want to tell the story of the grand finals, it was a lot of fun to watch a lot of twists and turns in those match-ups. But I think that after the reset, Abhinav just, he hit a different level. He had like a different gear and he was able to really kind of dial in on what Caleb was trying to do. And he was able to kind of.
00:27:47
Speaker
pin the Bastiadon, which was the big thing to me because in the previous games, right, in the first iteration of the grand finals, Abhinav won game number one, where Caleb led Bastiadon into Chargebug. He's able to reverse with a really awesome combo play. That was really fun to watch. The Shadow Gligar dig into the Bastiadon was the game winner, if I'm not mistaken.
00:28:09
Speaker
That was fun. And then games two, three, and four, Caleb just swept, right? He brought Bastionons in game three and four of the series, was able to win both of those, as well as win game two with a zoom roll shadow by guard and charge bug. But in the grand finals reset, Abhinav just, he just had enough of it, man. He was gonna bring, basically these are the three teams and I'll let you insert whatever kind of thoughts you have, but these are the three teams that Abhinav brought.
00:28:37
Speaker
in the reset. He brought a zoom real vigor off with cash in one, right? So three, I guess either soft or hard answers for Vasudan in game two shadow, Gligar, Lickitung, whisk, cash. And then he repeated that lineup with whisk, cash lead in game three. So he was definitely ready for the Vasudan. And I think that Caleb tripling down, right? Bringing Vasudan on the lead, all three games, he said, surely Avina won't, won't have a counter in game two. And there's no way he'll have it in game three, but he did.
00:29:04
Speaker
And I think that the triple down was a gamble. And at that point, you know, Caleb had made it really far, but it just wasn't enough. Like you can say a lot about Caleb, but the guy definitely knows the hill he wants to die on. Like it's, it's busty or bust and it always has been, but yeah, I, I particularly liked, um, when Abhinav let the Azu into the bastard on.
00:29:26
Speaker
Yeah, and you would think that, like, of course, they also didn't have hydro pump, it couldn't hit for charge move damage, but above this path, this is a neutral, maybe a positive fleet, depending on shooting scenarios, but no immediate swap out into the whisk cache because
00:29:42
Speaker
This is a smart play, because if there's a Bastion in the front, there will be an answer to either Vigoroth or Wiscash or both in the back. The Azu is probably your worst matchup there, so even though you won needs, you still have to swap there.
00:30:03
Speaker
He basically tripled down on the anti-busted strat in that game. And it paid off for him. It paid off for him. Yeah, I do think, having been there myself, sometimes you bring a Pokemon that others would consider a meme pick. And as soon as you shy away from it,
00:30:28
Speaker
people just bring ABA week to it and you wish you would have brought it. And I think Caleb didn't want to be in that situation. He was like, okay, either I win this with bastard on, then everything's fine. Or I lose it, but at least I did stick to my guns. Yeah, in the end, it costs him, but he's probably going to compete at the next West Coast regional again.
00:30:53
Speaker
Oh, of course. Yeah. And that's just the thing, right? A lot of people, I was like to say, are born competitors, right? I put Doonbug in that class. I put Axon in that class. I put Caleb in that class as well. These are people that are going to go in and compete just as many times as it takes in order to win, to kind of
00:31:11
Speaker
you know, reach the heights that they want to hit and to validate their own belief in their skills. Right. So I think that's definitely going to continue to occur, but it was a lot of fun to watch the tournament. A lot of interesting players like Kobe, who was able to come up almost with a Cinderella story and, and, uh, win the whole tournament, but did finish in third place. So Abhinav, Kobe, I love to see these trainers that maybe a lot of people outside of the circuit, haven't heard of maybe people outside of the silver arena have never heard of.
00:31:39
Speaker
really fun to see these trainers succeed. But that being said, I do think there's still a lot of improvement in terms of a room for improvement, excuse me, in terms of how many trainers we get signing up, how hyped the tournaments are. I would love to see a lot of people sign up for Charlotte. Like you, like you pointed out at the top of the show, we've got Charlotte this month and we've got Liverpool coming up the third and fourth weekend of this month. So that being said, sorry, Liz.
00:32:06
Speaker
What did you think about the production and the casting? Because we did have interviews kind of working their way into the segments. And I do have my own thoughts about that. And then we had a shout casting debut. And I think based on your notes here, you were a fan of one of the new casters. Yeah. I have to say that I am not big on watching Pokemon go YouTube anymore. Like I know my brother is a content creator and I did watch a ton of YouTube when I was just starting out with PVP.
00:32:35
Speaker
I do think that's just like a great pipeline into like Twitch chats or Discord communities. And it's a good starting point, but I didn't really watch much YouTube for like the past two
Commentary and Broadcasting Insights
00:32:48
Speaker
years. And I wasn't really familiar with home slice Henry's game. But yeah, he definitely knocked it out of the park on his casting debut.
00:32:59
Speaker
I was particularly impressed with how flawlessly he managed to recite matchup specifics, like which matchups Cresselia picks up if it has future side, or... I don't know whether this was a setup, but it worked out beautifully when he managed to recite the energy cost and damage output of the move Last Up Purge very early in the stream when Morma and Matt actually brought a Shadow Latios to the table.
00:33:29
Speaker
That was an exciting moment. And I also do think that he managed to be the hype caster in these constellations of two. He did that really well. He definitely brings a certain energy, a certain cadence to the table that not everybody has. And I think that definitely made the tournament more enjoyable. And he also...
00:33:58
Speaker
I really like that this has made the way from Europe to North America. He also did interview a couple of folks after their owns.
00:34:14
Speaker
I would prefer it like it's not a big deal but it always felt a bit makeshift when they were like almost standing in the crowd when doing the interviews like we have a little cozy seats a little sofa over in Europe but I think it just brings a lot more personality from the competitors to the screen when you have those interviews when you give them the little spotlight and I do remember that
00:34:40
Speaker
It was it was Ron Berto after one of his day two victories. Really really hyped up and celebrated rightfully so by your co-caster to Obattas for his precise counting at Energy Management.
00:34:59
Speaker
this is become a meme yeah yeah yeah and i i saw i saw alessio a mind joke um make a little super cut of that and put it on twitter where he basically just um like took the took the butter's commentary and then put in the the interview after and then better just
00:35:18
Speaker
goes right to the camera and says, I just go by vibes basically. If you're at that level, you don't need to come. You just live and breathe PVP.
00:35:34
Speaker
It's just muscle memory at that point. Yeah, that was an impressive showcase. Not everybody needs to be super particular about every single move they make. Sometimes you just feel the game and that's perfectly fine too. That can be a recipe for success as well.
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree. I think we could go, we could go into more of like a philosophical, um, direction on this. When we talk about player stories and getting to know the trainers a lot better. Uh, a lot of people feel like Pokemon go PVP is so fast that it might not, uh, it might not lend itself to as much, uh, skill expression in terms of like team compositions. So you might say, yeah, well, if you're watching VGC or if you're watching TCG,
00:36:16
Speaker
Maybe you can play your way out of really tough situations, but in Go, if you lock in the wrong team, the game could just could be over from the beginning. And I think it's a bit arguable, right, that Go does have that kind of higher stress, higher pressure point on picking the right teams. But I do think it's worth it to get to know these trainers, to get to know the players and where they come from, where they're headed, what their ambitions are. That allows people that are more casual players to follow along with the storylines, to figure out
00:36:44
Speaker
you know, who they want to support, who they want to cheer for in Worlds. And I feel like a lot of what we can do as a production is to build on that and then get people more invested in what's going to happen next. And yeah, there have been some great storylines like Renberto. I actually have an anecdote about him. Back, I think it was in, oh my goodness, it was like probably 2019, 2020.
00:37:07
Speaker
like four or five years ago. Oh my gosh, we're getting old. I remember playing against Roberto in a team tournament and he was actually playing Zweilis, believe it or not, on his team of six. And I remember he was so good at what I call masking his energy. So he would come in with the Zweilis, he'd fire off a bunch of dragon breaths,
00:37:28
Speaker
He'd throw a body slam, over farm a little bit, and then he'd switch. And then he'd bring this wireless back out. He'd over farm a little bit more, throw a charge attack, then switch. And by the end of the game, I had no idea if that's why this was at Dark Pulse, if it was at body slam, if it was at two body slams, I had no idea where that Pokemon was with energy. And he did such a good job of overcharging, kind of reaching the peaks in energy, and then the lulls, and just managing to keep me on my toes.
00:37:55
Speaker
And ever since then, I knew Remberto was very, very gifted in terms of his energy management and seeing him succeed the way he did in Portland was just incredibly serendipitous, right? Because he is that good of a player and he did retire from the game for a little while. You know, we always say Pokemon go players never really retired. Well, he stepped out, he stepped out for a couple of years, right? Two or three years and then came back to it. I'm so glad that he's competing again, because that kind of skill expression definitely needs to be witnessed.
00:38:22
Speaker
But for all of the, for all of those trainers that study their counts, really, really religiously, all the dune bugs that know the energy for the fast tax and the charge tax, and can make any combination in their minds and count anything in the whole world. When Roberto gets up on stage and he says, yeah, I don't really count. It's like the most deflating thing. You're like, come on, man. What am I wasting all my time studying for? If I can just play Lake Berto.
00:38:45
Speaker
Um, but to, to your point about the casters and the interviews as well. Yeah. Homesize Henry. I've worked with him on a few grassroots productions, brings so much energy, such a positive vibe. And, uh, definitely, like you said, the cadence is very, very good. That comes from hundreds and hundreds of videos on YouTube. Uh, and I thought he really brought the hype. I thought our caster pairings were good too. So tough is one of the best color commentaries that we have available across the entire play Pokemon circuit. And she was with butters.
00:39:13
Speaker
And, you know, of course, Butters is the guy for a play by play. Then you had home size Henry and Alpha Phoebe and Phoebe also very strong in color commentary. So those combinations worked really well. And I think that also shows our growth as a casting team that we're switching to more play by play, more color commentary, more defined roles. And it just strengthens the broadcast overall. They compliment each other very well. Now, so I will say you said that the interviews were kind of makeshift.
00:39:38
Speaker
I have to disagree. I have to disagree because I remember watching, I think it was the Leo stream. I remember watching the stream and seeing how we get battles on camera. Then we tossed a break. Then we'd have interview. Then we tossed a break. Then we have casters, then battles, and then rinse and repeat. And it felt like throwing all those breaks in there, switching to the lounge. Yes, it takes a little bit of time, but it kills the momentum of the stream.
00:40:03
Speaker
it feels slower feels like i'm and now you have to you know i'll go get a snack during this break but i might not come back as i might forget the stream is on you really want to keep people hooked i feel like getting that instant reaction as soon as i come up the stage has its own value because you still have the adrenaline going you still pumped up you like oh yeah
00:40:21
Speaker
It was a crazy matchup, and I can't believe this happened. And people are much more, I think, genuine, much more fluid in those situations. Maybe not as detailed or as personal, but I think that it's much more of like an instant reaction, kind of that high octane response. Do you agree? I have to say that just being at quite a few European regionals as a competitor, I don't always exactly
00:40:50
Speaker
I can't always tell the exact difference between how long does it take between American Regionals and how long does it take during European Regionals. I don't exactly know about the pacing. You might be correct. I'm just not entirely aware. But I have to say, one thing that I could see be interesting with those crowd shots and with just getting the people in front of a mic as soon as they leave the stage is
00:41:20
Speaker
like what would have happened if you did this at like an international championship or at a South American regional or like a Mexican regional like somewhere where there's like infamous like
00:41:36
Speaker
good vibes from the crowd or high attendance or like I do think the Portland Regional was great I do think it was I think it grew by about 20 competitors compared to last year and it's definitely on the right track but if you if you had like an even bigger stage like even even more hype from from the stands
00:41:57
Speaker
um i don't think that could be quite interesting too to basically have the the backdrop of like friends cheering on their their homies their co-competitors agree and yeah like i don't i don't think it's necessarily like worse than um what we do in europe but i do think just
00:42:17
Speaker
The whole way the stage is designed, the whole way the little studio is made up. It's just cute in Europe. It's just cute. I just like it. Those little Pokemon plushies, I just enjoy it.
00:42:28
Speaker
It is a, it's very cozy. It feels like warm and wonderful. Right. Sometimes that's what a competitor needs. So just calm down after a heated match, maybe before another heated match and just this little, this little cozier space. Um, but I think, I think either like both has, both has merit for sure. Yeah.
00:42:52
Speaker
I agree. I think it's, um, and I, I really appreciate that the EU streams are official so that we can have this kind of back and forth. We can try different things, different styles. And I don't think, like you said, the same style would work for every region because if you looked at, uh, Brazil and you remember LAIC and how insane that the GB Lindos and the crowd was, I think that if you tried to interview hard Jeff on the floor in, in Brazil, you wouldn't hear a word he said.
00:43:18
Speaker
because everybody'd be like, ah, you know. But I do think it would be a lot of fun if you did that. I kind of do want to see that. True, true, true. I think it would be, yeah, it would be amazing to witness,
Production Innovations and Future Outlook
00:43:32
Speaker
right? Maybe one interview on the floor and then we'll have to pull him over to the side, or if it's just me and Es, pull her over to the side and have a private conversation where we can actually talk and actually get our questions answered and things like that.
00:43:46
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I think, um, as the production continues to evolve, I think there's a lot of room for innovation. I think that it could, it could be more and more developed as we move on. And I'm excited to see where we go for the rest of the season. But speaking of the rest of the season here, as the time of this recording, this is Tuesday, uh, January the ninth, you have 150 days.
00:44:09
Speaker
to get your championship points to qualify for the world championships in Honolulu, Hawaii. We have a few names I wanted to shout out in terms of the leaderboards. The current global leader in championship points is hard Jeff with 750.
00:44:26
Speaker
Championship points. I mean, that's really stellar. You get that from winning an IC and a regional and coming to the US and getting a few points there as well. I assume, uh, Chris Reisner coming in second place at 669 points, Doonbuck at 607. And remember, if you win a regional, you get the automatic invitation, but you can also qualify through the championship points. So, so I know that we talked a little bit about the EU championship points leaders in our last episode.
00:44:54
Speaker
But would you like to shout out to our number one, a mind joke, number two, Putnam in number three, Colin or any other EU trainers? Yeah, I do think those are.
00:45:06
Speaker
basically who you would have expected up there, like unless you people were people were joking about how the championship points have been invented for a mind show because it's like the most consistent EU battle but he's just he's just looking for this one breakout tournament I'm sure he will get a regional title eventually
00:45:28
Speaker
But up until then, he just keeps on just stacking like one cup, one challenge and top-cutted regional up on upon another. Yeah. And like Patoman, he's basically he's basically what Caleb wants to be in terms of basically always reaching the grand finals. But he actually won one. Oh, man.
00:45:53
Speaker
I know. I know. Shayt is being thrown. Shayt is being thrown. It's okay. I actually watched back the Gdansk finals because I have a tracking sheet where I kind of take notes about all the finals matchups and I write down the teams and such.
00:46:09
Speaker
And I remember watching back Potomans win and seeing just the emotion he had on stage. You know, he stood up after, after beating Tonton and he just was like pumping his fist. He was, you know, like just shaking. He was so excited for it. And, uh, it definitely a really good feeling, but Hey, shade throne, but that's okay. I mean, we're, we'd like to have fun on the show six. Absolutely.
00:46:30
Speaker
And like people that I'm personally looking forward to and I don't know if all of these will be at Liverpool. Liverpool will be the tournament to close out this January and it will be the biggest EU regional to date actually. We've already surpassed last year's Liverpool
00:46:52
Speaker
numbers by like about 15 ish and there's still like more than two weeks to go so I could I could see us maybe even getting past 200 participants in a regular regional tournament which has not been accomplished yet as far as I know like I think it has been done once in a lot of events but yeah not in Europe for sure
00:47:16
Speaker
And I want to see innovation, I want to see spies, I want to see Pokemon that we might not have seen yet, and that might seem riskier, but actually rather safe into what currently makes up the core meta. And I think people who could deliver that are a stone collection.
00:47:34
Speaker
infamously, um, samurai bench in London before winning the RCQ with, uh, samurai in London one year. Um, Tonton, who is always good for some, some spicy up face, um, seeking, seeking to, to the grand finals. And that was the, the seeking is still like taking the spotlight. You know, there was also a clever and an octobux on the team. Yeah. Right.
00:48:02
Speaker
Let's just imagine that in this current environment where everything's so bulky and so safe. But yeah, I wouldn't put it past him to just do it again. I think he tried out Whimsicord in the very first regional of this meta. So yeah, there's definitely some fun picks that he trusts regularly. And I also kind of...
00:48:28
Speaker
I want to see Stata Stan try something creative, something new, because I remember from last season there was a lot of new play, a lot of dance bars play, when both of these Pokémon weren't really common, and I feel like we have some innovators in Europe, and I want to see more of them, because I do think there's ways of tackling this current
00:48:53
Speaker
very safe, very bulky and almost standardized matter that I feel like we could see in Europe. Not to throw too much shade at Americans again. We went over this. You guys took the first three spots at the last year's World Championship. I feel like when it comes to just going crazy, the Europeans are typically doing a good job.
00:49:20
Speaker
I, yeah, I tend to agree. And there's always this question in my mind, if you were to airdrop status, Stan into Portland, or if you were to, you know, to send yourself or an adequate. To Charlotte, you know, what would the teams look like? How would you perform? Because I do feel like it's almost like, um, I'm trying to think of how to describe it. It's almost like a different field, different energy around these tournaments.
00:49:43
Speaker
Whereas status and definitely a perfectionist, right? Running the new Dunsparce core at multiple regionals, trying to perfect it. Uh, I actually said this in, in one of my casts, I said, it's really difficult for, for a trainer to, to kind of shave off the last few percentage points towards playing a team perfectly instead of saying, was it, you know, 90, 92, 94% in my mind in terms of how
00:50:07
Speaker
Well, he was playing that team, but he just kept on hammering it, trying to get better and better. I always wonder if those trainers like that would find success or would they, like you said, run into that bulky wall that that standardized and a wall of Pokemon that are just so thick and so reliable and so obnoxious. I wonder if they would, uh, if they'd have a tough time. So.
00:50:26
Speaker
I'm curious for everyone listening, what you think would go down, but I'm really excited for Charlotte coming up. Like we mentioned a couple of times, it's the third weekend of January and then Liverpool, the fourth weekend of January. But I think we can get into a couple of predictions here, then talk about, uh, in-game events to close this one out. So I, so I have a Pokemon in mind that I think is going to absolutely core break Charlotte. It could be very good in Liverpool as well. You want to hear what it is? Hit me with it.
00:50:53
Speaker
I'm telling you, it's got to be surfetched. It's got to be surface, right? You've got leaf blade coverage at night slash coverage as well. You have counter, which is definitely, you know, obviously the best fast move in the game. If you look at mathematic, you know, mathematically speaking, it's in rates probably better, but counters, much more flexible, more consistent in my opinion, but surface has so much coverage. You can beat whisk, cash, a zoom roll. You can beat lick a tongue. You can be registered. You do have a tougher matchup against Gligar, but I think there are some wind conditions there. If you have additional shields,
00:51:22
Speaker
But I think surfage could have a ton of play. Do you agree disagree? Um, I don't disagree that it could have a ton of play, but I will say that I don't expect to see any surface that Charlotte. Wow. Okay. Like, like maybe, maybe one or two. Um, if somebody really likes surface, um, but I feel like for most people, it's just, it's just not.
00:51:49
Speaker
reliable enough just because
00:51:52
Speaker
You don't really survive a hit if a Pokemon gets a head on energy. Like even a body stem from a Lickitung, a Surfridge doesn't take too well. And don't get me started on like getting into a Gligar matchup. I guess that goes for most fighters, but a Poliwrath at least has the option of calming something down and icy winning a Gligar. And even though Leaf Blade is good coverage in this meta, I feel like the role of anti-water, like anti-Whiscash especially,
00:52:22
Speaker
Fighting type is still probably best suited for Poliwrath. Like don't get me wrong, I would love to see more surface. And I do think this rule of, oh, grass type, that isn't actually a grass type, but does a lot of grass damage. I think that is currently spread out between
00:52:41
Speaker
And I was actually, this is not my pick, but I was simming some matchups that Goudra has into this. Oh, I was looking at Goudra too. Because it is a power web user. And I was like taking the 15 most used day two Pokemon or top 16 Pokemon.
00:53:05
Speaker
from Portland and a good IV Goudreaux might or might not be 10 out of 15 in the one shield scenario. There's definitely merit to just having that grass type coverage in a meta that is really water heavy currently with many teams electing to run
00:53:28
Speaker
Poliwrath, Azumarill, Wiscash, and in any combination, there's even like the odd lanterns still around. But yeah, like Surf Edge's stat product just, I think it will, it just will put many people off that go for those safer plays. And especially because the roll-off counter user is also so contested with Poliwrath, which, with Yox's defense, still a few meta champs and Vigoroth, so.
00:53:57
Speaker
I feel like because it's so spread out, Surf Edge will stay around and get into a spice pick. But grass type coverage is actually just the right cue for my pick, if you want to hear it.
00:54:13
Speaker
No, if it's not surface, I don't want to hear it. No, I'm just kidding. Okay. We'll just end the episode here. No, I was actually, this is also going back to basically all those episode and the preparation before San Antonio, even, because I do think there is a place for Obama snow in this matter as the premier grass type. It is.
00:54:39
Speaker
A grass type that massively threatens Gligar and has positive matchups into Wiscash, obviously, into Azumaril, obviously. The shadow version of Abama Snow
00:54:55
Speaker
wins the two shields against Charger Bug without even losing 50% of itself. I do prefer, that is actually a very good question and something I do want to distinguish between. I think if you elect to run the non shadow variant of Obama's snow, you do want the IC win just for
00:55:18
Speaker
uh longevity just general utility stay staying around longer and drawing out the matchups because obama snow is actually like it's not bulky bulky but it has like vigorous-ish bulk so it can stay on the field for for quite some time um but if i go for the shadow i want to double down down on hyper offense and i want those spammable weather balls that come out every few seconds and really put the pressure on my opponents and
00:55:47
Speaker
also give me like just more speed right like if i if i bait with a weather ball to then land an energy ball that just that just really can put the opponent on the back back foot while i see when it's a little more energy uh like energy expensive but
00:56:05
Speaker
Yeah, I do think there is typically one counter user, maybe a Skarmory on each team. I think counter users and steals are the two genres of Pokemon that you need to cover for. Agreed. But as long as you do that, Obama Snow has a ton of play and typically finds between three and four positive matchups plus maybe one or two neutral matchups on plenty of teams.
00:56:32
Speaker
Mm hmm. Agreed. So surfetch and Obama snow. You heard it here first. If we do see those two Pokemon appear in Charlotte, you know who to thank. I really would love to see somebody a pilot surfetch really well. Uh, the last time I think it really saw a ton of success was back when Andrew Minyar has used it at NAIC in 2022 for not mistaken, but I have seen a GBL or is like Pranav actually succeed with surfetch, uh, to a, to a very high level. So.
00:57:00
Speaker
Pranav, if you're headed to Charlotte, you know what to bring. Well, Charlotte, I do want to make, because I remember from last year that Charlotte was actually a regional where quite a few members of the up and coming faction or Battle Frontier team, Brave Nerds, actually wanted to throw their head in the ring and managed to compete at a very high level.
00:57:25
Speaker
And that faction's mascot is actually a Sirfetch'd. So those are just a bunch of leaderboarders who have Sirfetch'd as their mascot. And for a few of them, I do think Charlotte is pretty local. So if some of them make it there, maybe we see a Sirfetch'd or two.
00:57:43
Speaker
Maybe so. Remember last year we saw Richie versus Auburn in the grand finals. It was Shadow Swampert and Lantern versus Alolan Eyetails from Not Mistaken. And that was a pretty fun series to watch. But Zweilis, any final thoughts before we briefly mention off a couple of in-game events and then close out our first episode? I would say I've probably thrown enough shade, advocated for enough spice. Just walk us through what Niantic has to offer.
00:58:11
Speaker
okay understood well the one event that i have in mind i'm looking here at the raging battles event which is quietly appeared on the calendar in january it's from the 19th to the 24th very all three leagues yeah it's it's very cryptic right all three leagues available four times stardust rewards i don't exactly know what that will be but i just want to say in general that this go battle league season is
00:58:34
Speaker
highly underrated right we've got a great league cup every single week of the entire season and when you have 2500 total battles to play so it feels like there's there's so much love for the great league right now there's a lot of positive shifts in terms of the meta right meta cham like you said meta cham hanging on for dear life and the top usage charts just that was not a sentence that i think i ever hear
00:58:57
Speaker
I thought it was going to be meta champ forever, right? So Niantic is moving things in the right direction as is play Pokemon in terms of the championship series. But I won't ask for an Elo update or anything like that. I just want to, I just want to ask you Zweilis, uh, what team are you playing in, uh, in Go Battle League and are you having success in either ultra or great league remix?
00:59:18
Speaker
Um, that is a very good question. Uh, I do think I do have to say that I miss the open great league a little bit because I do think that the current remix formats bans a lot of Pokemon that just
00:59:33
Speaker
got hit with some some balance changes that made them irrelevant anyway. So just just giving back those those Azumarillas so I can target them with Magnezone. But other than that I have actually been ending my day-to-day with a 5-0 in the Open Ultra League
00:59:55
Speaker
And I did run a team of Shadow Ampharos, Obama Snow, so more and more Obama Snow propaganda on this podcast. Can we beep this out? But I did run Giratina Altered, so it was actually a matter of time.
01:00:12
Speaker
but we'll beat that out don't worry we'll do it it was a strong team and yeah like i do think i do think that's that's quite viable because so many teams are aba week two electrics still and unfortunately it really takes advantage of that
01:00:28
Speaker
Gotcha. Well, I was seeing so many, uh, polywrath and whisk, cash cores in remix that I started running Gorguys. So I've got, I've got charged a bug Gorguys and shadow Gligar on my team right now. So, uh, a future updates on that as we go guys, despite, uh, despite the recent law that community day, I see.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yes, exactly. I fear no, I fear no decidue and I will not use decidue why it's too glassy. Right. But, uh, that being said, so I was a lot of fun discussing Portland. I'm really looking forward to Charlotte and Liverpool. Um, our plan so far is to do a podcast episode after each regional. So we're not going to get a weekly update unless there is a regional tournament.
01:01:08
Speaker
I think this fits best into our current work-life balance schedules. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun. And we can always offer up some high-level thoughts on what we see in terms of the meta, the gameplay, and things like that. Absolutely. Yeah. It's going to be a good time. Well, that's why it's been really fun. Any final shout outs before we sign off of our first official episode of the Show 6 podcast?
01:01:31
Speaker
Shout out to Speedy as Chief for doing this with me because I did not expect to get approached for this, but I do love the Play Pokemon Championship series and I hope this circuit continues to grow. I'm excited for the future.
01:01:46
Speaker
Exactly. Well, uh, our goal that, that we have set out with the podcast as why this and I agreed, we want to create a 45 minute to one hour kind of summary of the regional, a high level breakdown of the gameplay, uh, get people excited, make them feel involved in the championship series and hopefully grow our game into a larger and larger e-sport. But I think we're up to a great start. So while this, we're going to roll some outro music and I can't wait to talk to you after Charlotte when surface wins it all.
01:02:15
Speaker
It does beat Obama's nose in the head to head. I have to give it to dad. Okay. Okay. So bring your Obama's nose and bring your surfage to counter them. Well, that being said, it's been fun. I'll talk to you in a couple of weeks. Yes. Yes. Until then.