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E15 // Casting Worlds is as smooth as 2OButters!
139 Plays7 months ago
Join us for this episode of Tap Tap Cast where we chat with one of the casting titans in Pokemon Go, 2OButters! Butters was one of the first official casters in the Pokemon Go Championship series and has an amazing career since then, casting at all of the International Championships and also all three of the Pokemon Go World competitions! The crew discuss if shadow Cresselia is going to make waves in Honolulu, funny casting moments, and the REAL story behind the Ampharos bet!
Follow the crew!
Amanda // www.twitter.com/Lundberger
Martijn // www.twitter.com/InadequancePOGO
Special Guest // www.twitter.com/2OButters
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Transcript
Introduction and Pokémon Go World Championships
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome into this week's episode of tap tap cast where we are going over everything Pokemon go PvP related I am Amanda also known as Lundberger and I am Martijn you may also know me as inadequance yes, it's ah it's all getting a hot summer now Amanda and This episode is gonna be about that one event in the summer. That's gonna be the world championships. How do you feel about it? I? super excited about it. I'm sure you're also very excited because you will be competing. I have to ask you ahead of time, do you think that you are going to take home the gold here? You were like theoretically one of the, you really don't think so? I'm losing my mind. I'm losing my mind on building teams. I have Pelipper on my drives right now. It's not going to pay with me. oh wow
00:00:45
Speaker
But you love Pelipper. Listen, um I always have that face. Every time before team building, I have that face of putting like Pelipper, all my favorite Pokemon on there. So i'm I'm not doing well right now. I think I'm just going to leave it until I get on the plane to think about it. So that's going to be something.
Adventure Week and Rocket Event Highlights
00:01:05
Speaker
um And another thing that's also coming is Adventure Week, right? This time, it's not just Adventure Week. I believe it's very hatching. There's a lot of hatching in this event. After there's going to be a rocket event. So I'm thinking maybe there's going to be some cool Pokemon in there. I can get frustration off, right? I can team off with rocket events.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's like the very few times a year that there are these rocket events, you can use those charge TMs to be able to go away with
Martijn's Shadow Piplup Strategy
00:01:31
Speaker
frustration. I just got a really good shadow Piplup. The IVs are actually i haven't run it through anything yet, but I'm like, OK, this is going to be my Empoleon. So I already tell you something. If you have a really high defense Empoleon, you have a Lictung ballpoint. OK, OK, all right. So that is an important thing to keep in mind about. Shadow and Polium. I was hoping it would be Shadow Pelipper, Lurken Rocket probably as well, but not yet, not yet. So, yeah. um And then the other exciting thing that's coming up, Amanda, is Oplio Community Day.
Oplio Community Day and Hydro Cannon Move
00:02:06
Speaker
That there will be after the World Championships, but it's finally getting Hydro Cannon. I believe, as of now, I believe in the main series, Sparkling Area is a water type attack.
00:02:18
Speaker
but so far it's been released or being revealed to be a fairy type attack in Pokemon Go. Yeah, do you think that they're changing it for Go or do you think that maybe the release is just not quite up to date with what the actual moveset is? To be fair, either one of these could be a true statement for the game. It's true, it's true. I pray that they're like, you know what? The other ones got like a dark type attack, right? a Darkest Lariat and Spirit Shackle, which is not a grass or a fire type attack. So I'm hoping they keep you the fairy attack and then a very fast attack because Charm Amanda takes way too long. And I know I'm a wiggly tough addict. I'm swift now, which is wow. One Charm cheaper, but it's still too far and too long, right? Yeah. You can get to those hydrocane a little bit faster. Then Primarina would excel a little bit. So I'm hoping.
00:03:08
Speaker
You're not a fan in general of Fairy Wind? No, no, it's like Mud Shoals, which charges like quickly, but it's just weak, right? there There's very little fast attack pressure. And the only times you are you really like it is if you farm like a lantern down in five Mud Shoals or a Sableye in five Fairy Winds and still take like 20% damage to Shadowpool. But anyway, no, I'm not a fan of Fairy Winds. There needs to be some like in-between ground, something like like a vault switch for Fairy Winds. I'm kind of hoping it's going to be that. Okay, okay, yeah. Well, we'll have to stay tuned to see if they will switch it back to a water attack like in the main series, or if they will keep it as the fairy attack.
Competition Meta Predictions
00:03:44
Speaker
Also, while we're talking about a attacks and move sets, just a reminder for people that this meta that we're using right now for the world's competition is the same meta that was used at NAIC. So I think we're gonna see a lot of interesting picks. Do you think it's gonna be much different with the release of a couple new? I see you putting your finger up. So you have some ideas, you're cooking.
00:04:04
Speaker
Goodra, that was not there at NAIC because that was released on NAIC.
Shadow Cresselia's Impact on the Meta
00:04:10
Speaker
So that'll be one single difference, which I think will be a small difference because I still think Azuma is going to be very meta, right? So dragons are going to be struggling in general, especially when they face off against my Wigglytuff. I will not feel sorry. um And then shadow cresselia also has been it's going to be released during adventure week But we're gonna go through a bigger breakdown on that later I don't think it will have a lot of impacts on the world's meta and I think at any I see was more of a preview of What's to come right usually those first tournaments in a new meta is like people trying out toward Pokemon to see if that works in the tournament So any I see was just a first showcase and I think there's more to come I think charge buck probably the number one Pokemon that's gonna be at any I see
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, at the at Worlds you mean?
Guest Introduction: Butters the Caster
00:04:56
Speaker
Worlds, thank you. It is funny that you mentioned Goudre, Martijn, because our guest this week is actually known for his Goudre gameplay. Really? I thought it was not for his Ampharos gameplay. That is also true. I mean, i mean i mean now that Goudre learns Thunder Punch, maybe he's just kind of upgrading. and Maybe he's just a Thunder Punch game player. Or maybe he lost not a bet. We'll have to find out because we're going to go in to our guest. Who do we got on this week? It's Butters! All right, here we are. There he is, the man, the myth, the legend. It is 2-0 Butters. Welcome on, Butters. ah Good to see you. How are you doing?
00:05:39
Speaker
I'm doing fantastic. I feel good. um Wait, hold on. I thought you guys were going to do an intro with just you two and then bring me in. What happened? You're ruining the behind the scenes magic. We've actually already recorded the intro without you here. So we didn't have to make you suffer through it. so No, I was so excited. I was going to be able to watch the intro. I'm just going to get in the mood of this. But I mean, congratulations to everyone listening right now who has already heard the audio. But yeah, I'm doing fast fantastic. Good to be here with two friends. Thanks for having me. For those who maybe don't know who you are yet, why don't you give a short introduction about the Yeah, to all butters.
00:06:19
Speaker
Yeah, um I go buy two old butters. My real name is Steven Sanders, which was a surprise to a lot of people in the Go community when I first started casting. But yeah, I've been casting for a long time. I've been playing a bit competitively. I did Silph at the very beginning, just like everyone else. And then I kind of just fell in love with casting, even before all the championship series stuff when I
Butters' Journey from Player to Caster
00:06:43
Speaker
was doing Silph. Like at that point, I already liked casting more than I liked competing. I still really enjoyed competing, but that was definitely my passion. So I've been pursuing that, had the opportunity to cast a lot of battles in the championship series. So really appreciate it.
00:07:00
Speaker
that's been a ah really good two years but I'm I'm known for more of a spice player I like to bring the spice we're back in the day when- Martine was- getting first. streamer to legend. I was number two to legend with with some spice back in the day. I've had some top Go Battle League placements. I did OK last season at Go Battle League. This season's still a work in progress. But I like to have creative solutions to problems in the meta. And that's what I try to do. And that's what I appreciate also about casting.
00:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, we, since, yeah, again, you haven't heard the intro yet. We did talk a little bit about your spicy gameplay in general, because we were talking about Gudra, and we were saying that you were using it even before it got its updated attack. And then we were talking about Ampharos as well. We're saying maybe you're just a big Thunder Punch fan. No, it's cuz I I like good drug before when it was spicy now everyone plays it now It's not spicy now. I have to drop good drug good drug was my baby But now it's grown up into a real Pokemon and now I don't play it as much I still really like to play it I do I do like electric types in general. I like Ampharos more in ultra League, which is funny because I
00:08:13
Speaker
My best placement ever when I got number one on the leaderboard was with Shadow Ampharos. So I've always liked Shadow Ampharos and I think there's just been this balloon effect of like me thinking that Shadow Ampharos is good for Great League. There's just a lot of misconceptions, a lot of rhetoric I will say from a co-caster of mine ah just trying to bash the Pokemon. Did you lose a bet to him? No, no, so he he's the one who like I was just like, all right, you wouldn't know the actual story. I would like to say the story because every tribe I try to tell the story, he just does it off. This is the story of Shadow Ampharos or Ampharos in general. So it got I believe brutal swing in an update a while ago. I don't know, maybe five seasons ago or four seasons ago. Who knows? It's been a while.
00:09:02
Speaker
It's been a while at this point and then I looked up shields of like a one to zero shield um and shadow infros
The Shadow Ampharos Bet Story
00:09:10
Speaker
versus every Pokemon in open great league and it was with volt switched brutal swing focus blast it like technically has perfect coverage and So I'm like, hey, like if you get up shield with shadow afros, it's nuts. Like it's a really good closer. And that's what I posted. Like that was my post. I was like, you're up a shield with shadow afros. And then like Caleb says like, like there's no way anyone is going to win any game or any tournament with shadow afros. And I'm just like, at first I'm just like, okay. Like that was a weird response to me saying it's pretty good up energy. And then, and then
00:09:48
Speaker
And then he doubles down and says like on his own accord, I didn't like beat him into this. I was just going about my life. Then he's like, if anyone wins a tournament with shadow infros, I will transfer my bastard on. And then I'm like, Okay, like outside here, like sure, like I don't even have to give up anything. Like I'm not even saying like it's gonna win a tournament. I'm not saying anything. I'm just like, okay, there's no downside. I would love if he transferred as Bastiodon. That sounds fantastic. So I accepted. I'm like, yeah, sure. And then that's where the problem started because so many people wanted him to transfer as Bastiodon. They started playing Shadow Ampharos.
00:10:31
Speaker
But the misconception is that I was saying, like, hey, ShadowAce versus so good, it's going to win a tournament. It's more that I'm just like, like, people are playing ShadowAce for us. I'm like, cool. I hope you win. I hope your chance is in Bastion on. Like, and then it just, I think I'm known for electric types in general. So it's just kind of, yeah. it's It all went down from there. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, well, we have a surprise for you. We also have Caleb waiting who heard heard all of this and he's gonna... No, he's not gonna tell us that. That's interesting, yeah. I know if your affiliation with the electric types. Why don't you drop electrodes in the first place? That was your first favorite electric type, no?
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah. It's not like your signature Pokemon. You still have it as your profile picture on Twitch. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, when I first started streaming, I guess like when the pandemic just started and we just started having Go Battle League from home, like where we could stream and like we didn't have to walk anymore. Remember when we had to walk for Go Battle League? And so once Once that happened, I started streaming more and I don't know if it was like a certain cup. It wasn't like I was just playing Electrode in Open Great League. There was a certain cup that I was playing it that I really liked Hyper Beam Electrode and it wasn't like, it wasn't a meme. I was actually like pretty high ELO and Hyper Beaming people with Electrode.
00:11:56
Speaker
And I was like, this is so sick. I love this. And at the time I just started streaming, when you just start streaming, then you kind of choose like some emotes if you have the opportunity to, if you get like affiliate or or something like that. So I was like, I really love an electrode right now. Why don't I make electrode POG? And that's now that's like my, my symbol because I turned out really good. And I love electrode. I love electric type. So I still love electrode. It's funny that you say you love electric type Pokemon because I mean, I feel like the mascot for Pokemon is an electric type Pokemon. True. true you're Even wearing it on your shirt, but you're not even mentioning you're like, I love electric types except for the most well known one.
00:12:42
Speaker
well you know Pikachu gets a lot of love so I'm just spreading out the love to other electric types in electric types are not really built for Pokemon go because of the way that their stats are distributed distributed from the main series game they're really high in speed in the main series game and that translates to attack in Pokemon go so they're super attack weighted no bulk I mean, lantern has done really well, but we'll just call that a water type that dabbles in electricity. It's not a true electric type. That's how you feel about lantern. It's not like a true a love like and frozen electronics. No, you don't have love for it in the same way. No, I don't. I don't. It's like no, it's like a stepchild. No, it's like. But
00:13:28
Speaker
I think it's just more that it's so bulky. It doesn't play like the eleven other electric types. And it's so ah alignment oriented too. So it's like it's like the things I don't like, which is bulkiness and alignment oriented. And it's unfortunately the most famous electric type. So it's kind of a weird situation for me. Okay. Another electric type then. One one more electric type that I want to propose. Magnezone. What do you think? It cooks, I mean, i I feel like Paul Lasha, we'll talk about trainers later, I think he's you mentioned. But Paul Lasha is like my favorite trainer in the championship series now because she put on such a show with that shadow Magna Zone. I know other trainers did really well with it. Yeah. You still do, one trainer used to do. Yeah, yeah. The first one, who cares? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, wait, wait, is that you say you more time?
00:14:20
Speaker
Yes, that was me. Wait, you were the first one, but you didn't win with it, though. But she didn't win either. She got top three. Yeah. Yeah. OK. OK. Fair enough. You know what? Fair enough. I'll give you the first one to win with it. That's true. Yeah, true. Against Steiner, right? He beat Steiner in the grand finals. Yeah, that was that was really nice. But I can't find a rhythm with it personally in Open Great League. I find Shadow Magnezone or Volt Switch really clunky. So I'm not great with it. but I love when I see a trainer like Martine or Palasha go off with it. So it's it's definitely, it's gonna make an impact in world. So it's it's gonna be a fun Pokemon. Definitely gonna be one of my favorite Pokemon. Yeah, it's definitely a Pokemon fun to watch, right? Let's talk a little bit about worlds because it's just been announced today, in fact, that the the casting roster for worlds and you are at it once again on the roster. Congratulations, my friend. Yeah, really looking forward to it.
00:15:20
Speaker
Thank you, and congratulations to you as well. it's It's gonna be really fun. It's always an epic world championship. It's kind of weird ah how it's like, I don't know about you guys, but like this is the biggest break in the season. for Pokemon Go, right? Like between NAIC and Worlds, it's like to a two month break. So it's like almost like the summer, almost like the off season, but now it's almost August. So by the time this is out, it's gonna be August. and The hype is already ramped up. We're gonna find out who's gonna win the World Championship in a little over two weeks. So I'm feeling super stoked and grateful to be a part of it all.
00:15:59
Speaker
um You guys are congratulation congratulating. It's all about why are you not congratulating me? um yeah i was go say Because you're gonna get fourth place it's going to be a mail out a trophy i'll take it yeah real question how did' you get to laa Would you get last year by the way tied nine tied nine I thought ah for some reason I thought you got snuck into the top eight there but you you did very well last season and definitely one of the We can say what are the favorites going in Martine? You think so? I think so. I don't think I was the favorite of many. Just as I beat Bartoman, then Rope, and a couple others came to me like, yeah, now it's gonna be you. And then I lost Tuna Rope. But regardless, I think when starting going in, I don't know. And I feel that effect now also comes in from NAIC, right? Because like, top names that we had there, Axon, Doombug, Rice, they all seem now very mortal, right? it's Going in. Yeah, that's true.
00:16:57
Speaker
yeah right So it's going to be difficult to determine a favorite for Worlds. First I want to talk about the comparison to Worlds last season. How do you feel about see the Worlds upcoming compared to how it went last season? Yeah, because last season was a different format even where you qualified only for getting first place, second place, or a trickle down. So it was all trainers that competed and placed very highly. This year there is the championship points as well. So you can qualify that way. So i it's a completely different format. And I really actually like the format that it is right now that if you are able to go through the entire season,
00:17:41
Speaker
build up your resume, you can still make it to the world championship. So I feel like it has everything that last season has because it's always going to have the best players. But then it can have the underdog stories. It can have those new trainers that maybe will peek at worlds. You never know who's going to do their best in that competition. And that is kind of the beauty of Pokemon Go in a way that Anyone can win a tournament. I mean, there are going to be the favorites. There are going to be the trainers that have a better percentage. But if you are at a certain level, you have a chance to win. So if you have an amazing day or you make an amazing team and I'm actually going to flip this interview a little bit to Martime because you have the most world's experience.
00:18:25
Speaker
So when I think back to last season, we had the top three from a certain region, but it was a top three of Axon, Rubik's Master, and Wadaj. And going into that tournament, you would say, for sure, Wadaj had the most momentum. Wadaj, at that point, was absolutely on fire. He was probably... Yeah, he was the favorite going into Worlds, and he just won a Silph World Championship as well. He just, believe I believe, won Hartford, too. so Yeah, it was a regional, then, yeah. Yeah, he was he was on fire. So we had two trainers, which is with Dodge and Axon, who were probably considered favorites, because Axon, even before he came to the World Champion, was sister considered Mr. Top Cut.
00:19:10
Speaker
And then we had Rubik's Master who obviously has an awesome resume but I think he made it there because first off he played it out of his mind but I felt like his team was really well positioned for the meta. Do you feel like Do you feel like going into a tournament right now, you are kind of considered one of those upper echelon players. Are you looking more to just play it a consistent way like with dodge or accent did with a safer team or are you going to try to switch it up a bit, a little Rubik's master style and try to throw someone off? That's a good question. We actually talked a little bit about it before this. And my answer to Amanda was that I'm absolutely losing my mind when it comes to building a team right now.
00:19:57
Speaker
Because I have no idea what to run exactly. There's a lot of core breakers in the current Open Gray League meta that are top mana, such as Charger Buck, Azumarill, those kind of Pokemon, Likitung, has a lot of play and everything. Vigold is very hard to check if you have no annihilate. So I am not exactly sure on what to use currently. And this is a phase I go through every time I go to tournaments. Pelipers on my roster. um I very much doubt it will stay on there. But um as to your question, whether I will play it safe or not safe, it is um it is likely I will play a little bit of meta. But I must say, I also played a practice tournament last week just for to make some content. I use Lucario, right? I use Lucario and five hard meta Pokemon, OK?
00:20:42
Speaker
Like, it was Lickitung, Gligar, Charngeburg, Azur, as boring as it can be. and But I must say, it tastes pretty good, man. Hard meta. Tastes pretty good. So, I'm not exactly sure. um At this point, my plan is to make it Giratina Swan Song, to make it its last dance. okay But building with Giratina right now is very, very difficult. I'm struggling to cover Viggo as well. I'm not exactly sure. Just what is the cup that's right now going on in GBL? Just start practicing there, because I see literally Giratina's every single time. Oh, no, Giratina's too good at that. It's not comparable. Giratina's not comparable in that, because it's not really tough, right? I think this is unfair. And in Open Great League, Likitang is likely going to be top one or two usage. That's true. Viggo's maybe top six, at least top 12. That's already two Pokemon that's hard to shut it down.
00:21:37
Speaker
I don't think Giratina is going to be as reliable, but as you know, I love RPS. So um at the end of the day, right? You bring six Pokemon and that's going to be the keys that you have to puzzle with. So ah by the end of the day, I'm like, yeah, whatever. I'm just going to play what we have. Mark time. Why? I've never asked you this. Why do you like RPS? It's just satisfying to have a locked matchup in and to predict exactly what your opponent is going to do, right? When you know all the tricks in the book, when everyone's like, oh, if I say switch Gligar, then Feraligat is not a counter. Butters, it's boring. It's just old, predictable, and you win easy on that. So that's why I like some RPS picks.
00:22:23
Speaker
Now, it's not fun when you get RPS. That's why I don't like it. So that that is sometimes ah what i'm what I'm still trying to cope with. But if you always avoid guertino with ah the Lichton with Giratina, you usually are in a boost spot. but That's your, that's your tip. yeah thats is what i did soina Yeah. I feel like that is the reason when you play go battle league, you see so much RPS teams, like so many bad bastion razorless teams. It is too satisfying. Even when I'm not playing an RPS Pokemon and I hard RPS them, it's just because you don't have to use your brain anymore. You're just like already won the game. It is just like, you just, you're all the tension is gone.
00:23:05
Speaker
you're just like this game is over you're just having so much fun i feel like it's way too satisfying we need to have something in pokemon go that can eclipse the satisfaction only stress yeah yeah we need something that can eclipse the rps magic it i don't like it and it for me it feels good But listen, listen, ah first off blind format, I think it's way different, right? so Because you have no idea what, what a true, but then she'll say, so what's my RPS team? Wasn't that un um unappealing to watch?
00:23:41
Speaker
No, so the thing is it it wasn't because like you said, and there is like, you they know what they're running and then it's even more impressive that you make the calls, right? Because if if it's in a blind format and you just RPS someone, no one's impressed. You just queued up and then you just RPS them. But if you actually make the right alignment calls and if you have polarizing Pokemon that there's so much downside, you literally have to predict your po ah your opponent Perfectly, so there is some sort of like satisfaction as a caster or a viewer to be like oh wow this guy's insane at his predictions, but For me, I wish it was a little bit more like oh my god He played insane instead of like oh my god. He predicted him in an insane way. You know what I mean? I my favorite strategy, and I'll tell you that right now, and this is not to play RPS per se. It is to put so much pressure on a team that my opponent cannot construct a team with a particular Pokemon and particular course that I can core break on that.
00:24:47
Speaker
That is, um and unfortunately, Bastionon has been on my mind, not just because it's an RPS Pokemon. People cannot play Pokemon like Azur without Hydro Pump, Cresselia, Likitung, and Chargebug all together against the Bastionon. It just breaks those cores. So that is more of the way that I liked it. But does it, like, if you play Bastionon into a zoom roll in pick six, and then you just farm down the Bastionon with something else, is it the end of the world? that That is assuming Basudon stays in like an annihilate, but usually Basudon teams cover this. So there comes a little bit more with it, right? But it's just about like, if they lead Talonflame with Azura in the back, they're screwed. That's the point of it, right? That I want to put a lot of pressure on the teams and stuff. So you know there's there's a lot of different approaches to building a team. You can make it that you cover everything, that you played as safe as possible,
00:25:42
Speaker
Right. Some people like yourself hate RPS and they they fall. They fall because they're like, well, respectfully, not all of them fall. Some of them, will of course, but like into a risky team, you might fall just because you're like, oh wait, my safe Pokemon don't work. I have to think of different strategies. Right. It it put yeah puts you in an uncomfortable spot. It's really interesting to me because whenever I'm casting, as you see a player progress even into from day one to day two to championship Sunday, you always see them playing safer. You always see them key in on three Pokemon that are the most flexible.
00:26:20
Speaker
I'm telling you, like from the beginning of Pokemon Go Championship Series till now, as a team progresses and a player feels like they have three Pokemon that are safe in the meta, say it's like Lickitung, Gligar, and Annihilate, or something like that, they, when their backs against the wall, they continuously go more flexible than more polarizing. So if you go the opposite, if you start getting further and further and go more polarizing, I do think that will throw a lot of people off because that is not what people tend to do in those presser situations.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's true. I mean, if we were, if you remember, we were talking to Arceus Aurelius cause he was talking about his team composition against Colin six and the Dortmund regional championship. And he was just saying that his team was so safe against Collins that he knew that he could basically play a certain way because Colin wasn't going to take a risk that he was going to reliably do certain strategies that Arceus Aurelius could just 100% counter every time. And unless he played ABA or did some like really risky thing. that he knew that he had all the games basically in the pocket. And he was able to flip because of that. So I mean, it's true. Exactly something I had in mind for hard force. I played Trevenant in there and it was a Mediterranean lantern knockdown meta, right? So everyone's favorite. Yeah, I didn't hate it. But I didn't also play knockdown.
00:27:41
Speaker
I did play Lantern and Travanans, but what many players did, and one of my strategies was, if I have Travanans, I core make Mana Gem at Lantern, so if I lead Obstagoon, and I lead into Mana Gem, they should never have Lantern in the back, so I can stage with Charizard. That was like, always, and vice versa, right? If I lead Charizard into Lantern, they should never Mana Gem, so I can stage with Obstagoon. So that was a strategy I always had in mind. If you play it so you don't know, I was too scared. I did not do it. Alola Knight, Spousen at the time, was the Pokemon I considered the most useless. It became the Pokemon I used the most because it was like a Pokemon that was like in between Lantern, Lickitung, Noktau, and Treville, right? I played against all of those. And then I played against Magic Mason. I'm like, this guy is not an idiot. He's not going to play any ridiculous teams.
00:28:29
Speaker
So three games in a row, obstacle leads, chairs are in the back, right? So that is indeed something that might come in mind, right? If you if you know that your opponents won't do something ridiculous like that, so basically anyone but Ani and Frank, then you can adapt your strategies.
00:28:48
Speaker
That's funny you said that because I was gonna say that's my favorite excuse when someone says i I like they played crazy. ah But ah Caleb was saying that to me it gets like, and like I was playing onion Frank and he was playing a ridiculous line. I'm like, dude, it's literally onion Frank. Like that's the only thing you should expect is that he'll play a stupid line. Like why be surprised by this? And he'll do it again if he loses with it. I love it about him. He's gonna run it back. It makes him actually very unique. I love them about that about him. Oh, he's actually the best because sometimes before day two, I'll go and talk to the competitors and 100 Frank will come up to me and he'd be like, you're like, bro, I'm leading a zoom role. There's no shot that they need an assume roll counter ah zero percent chance.
00:29:31
Speaker
And then I'm going to win game one, I'll be in his head. And then I'm going to 2-0 easily. And then I go, I don't say anything because, of course, I'm not going to say anything. I mean, that is sensitive information. I have integrity. And then I get to go with the cast. And the first thing he leads is the zoom roll. And it' it's a charger bug.
00:29:54
Speaker
uh yeah like you i like you we always have uh i'm thinking hard for we had some fun conversations just during battle like during battle we just talk about it at school so very uh but i mean you you've been casting uh you've been like you were what are one of our very first casters. Can you talk a little bit about how you even got into this? Because before that, like you talked about, you were a Twitch streamer. You had been making some Pokemon Go content. You realized that you liked casting, but that was always unofficial stuff. Like I think we did the world championship for Cilk one time together and you did the, the Speedy is like legends. I can't remember what it's called right now.
00:30:30
Speaker
Help me out guys. Oh, uh, the, the go battle league. oneg bill yeah yeah yeah tbla yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, you would obviously had like your skills starting to be honed, but what, what really got you into the actual play Pokemon circuit? Yeah. So I. originally like I did dabble in some sports broadcasting through school so like it had been a passion of mine I played college basketball I've been a basketball player so like basketball was one of my like first loves and I at some point was like
00:31:03
Speaker
i You realize quite quickly, a sport like that, it's it's hard to be professional in it. And there's only like 500, at least in the NBA. I mean, there is a ton of opportunity overseas. Like I had teammates that played overseas and that's really cool too. But it was after knee surgery as well. It was quite clear. It was clear before that, I'll be honest, that I wasn't going to do anything else in basketball. So I was like, you know, how do how do I be a part of basketball? and it always in the back of my mind like sports broadcasting was there I dabbled in it a bit but then like you said the uh
00:31:40
Speaker
ah GBL came out, which I mean obviously was a huge thing for Pokemon Go PvP. Before that, there was just Sylph and stuff. And I had been participating in Sylph, but I never went and I never participated in any of those like mega tournaments, which was like, I guess the championship series before the championship series with all these mega tournaments, like you have these Orlando Megas pulling really good numbers. Like I mean, at the time there were really big events. I always thought they were super cool, but I wasn't part of that. And then I started streaming and then I built a bit of an audience through streaming. And I think someone reached out to me like, Hey, do you want to cast this tournament? And I'm just like,
00:32:22
Speaker
sure i'll I'll try to cast the tournament and the first time I casted like I was just in love with it because I was already so in love with Pokemon Go PvP that I just had so much fun casting it and like I obviously like at the time I was competing I felt like I had a lot of to contribute from just like a standpoint of like talking about the game but then also like I felt like I could introduce some shout casting to Pokemon go PvP as well which you see in some other eSports and I feel like that's been my style a bit.
00:32:57
Speaker
And then from there, I just was kept casting the grassroots scene. So shout out to all everyone involved with Silph. And then also people I've worked with forever like Miss Mystic or Nightwing. Like really, I started all with those grassroots tournaments. And then luckily, it kind of happened where no No one knew this happened, right? Like you guys didn't know that Pokemon Go was going to be put on like championship series. I'll be honest with you. I didn't know Pokemon had like esports. I'll be honest. So I didn't know this thing existed. And then suddenly post pandemic, they got back into it and they had an inaugural crew. And I got very lucky to be a part of that inaugural crew.
00:33:44
Speaker
And then kind of the rest was history. But I did put in a lot of reps in the grassroots scene, which I truly enjoyed. I felt like it it really helped me jump into the championship series. Yeah, I think like I also wasn't didn't know about those championships. I think I heard about card games being a thing at the time. But because in the but pandemic, of course, that's when most of us were playing this right and more getting into this. and They were not going at the time because of the pandemic. So, yeah, I'm happy that, of course, we include the first one in Frankfurt UIC. First time we met. Yeah. You you saw how it's tall I was there. I think I barely came to your shoulder. Not even.
00:34:31
Speaker
no that was I am tall. So, yeah, I think that first UIC was a real turning point, though, like the first broadcast that showed like, wait, this is for real. Right. The first broadcast of the first official stream ball broadcast because we had Liverpool before that. And like, I think 70 people or something came came to that. And so, you know, I was like, yeah, Pokemon tournament's cool. But then you I see streams and I think we had barely on the people there was pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. That was a was a was a kind of favorite one. Yeah. the The thing for me, I didn't point out is like I was doing this without knowing there was like an end goal of like championship series.
00:35:13
Speaker
I was like doing like Silph Tournament, Silph Tournament, Silph Tournament, thinking like that's it. like i I'm just doing Silph Tournament because I love doing this. And then, like you said, you go to Frankfurt and they start out with an international championship. So it's not like you even start out with a regional. So you just like get there and you're like, oh wow, there is like a 30 foot Pikachu back there. like and it like It's an international championship. If anyone out there has been to an international championship, the convention is always amazing. And so they'd be just plopped into the scene and join the card game and the video game series. like It was really surreal. And then, same with you, I'm like, oh, wow, like this is like this can be an esport. Yeah, right? The other one's, yeah.
00:36:02
Speaker
What do I want to say again? Yeah, as well it's just turning points, right? it's Just a turning point in where where it actually came. Yeah, like you said, there it started with an international championship, basically, right? There was a one regional before that, and that was not streamed, right? Yeah. So that was ah was interesting, yeah. um But before Worlds, we're going to have another Rocket event. Have you seen which Pokemon is going to be released? Oh, I have seen this. I've seen this Pokemon. I got two Rocket radars ready for this Pokemon. Ooh-la-la. Did you do any research?
00:36:34
Speaker
Yes, I did. I actually, I have a whole page here of research. You have a whole page. Okay. Well, so have I, I lied to those. Oh, okay. We get to compare notes here. We get to compare notes. Okay. So I do think, so a lot of times like these bulky Pokemon, like you don't really want to go shadow, like register, you don't want to go shadow. For the record, for maybe people who don't know, cause we have mentioned what it is. It's shadow. criceian Yeah. We haven't mentioned the name yet. Shadow. chriscelia yeah Yeah, thank you, Amanda. Yeah, as a professional host here. Yeah, thank you. I got you guys. I got you guys. Yeah. Yeah. So yes, it is Shadow Crocelia that's coming. And I believe it's technically legal for worlds by the rulebook. We have no word on if it is officially legal yet, but by the rulebook of how they played out releases in the past, it's legal.
00:37:28
Speaker
Uh, so in not only is, does that mean that you can get shadow corcelia for world championships, but that means that a ton of shadow Pokemon that maybe you've been holding onto with frustration, you'll be able to team it right before the world championships as well. So a lot of these trainers that have been grinding or maybe even find, uh, I don't think the new shadow pool has any Pokemon that will be meta relevant, but it's more like you're going to be able to grind some other shadow Pokemon that could be meta relevant. So. All right, let's let's get into notes because like I was saying, sometimes these bulky Pokemon, you don't want you don't want to be shadow, but Cresselia performs a little bit differently because it really just comes down to dimensions and matchups. And if you can knock out with one Moonblast, if you can knock out with double Moonblast, if you can knock out with double Grass Knot, and you just play around with the 20% having the shadow bonus or not having the shadow bonus to just try to pick and choose your matchups. And i after looking at it for a bit,
00:38:28
Speaker
It's clearly, to me, it is clear that Shadow Cresselia has a case to be better than regular Cresselia on certain teams. I'm wondering Martine, did you come to that same conclusion? um I won't say certain teams. There are strategies with it. I feel like it's better when shields are down most of the time. okay The regular Cresselia does seem to pick up more matchups in two-shield scenario. And what you also need to keep in mind um regarding... But who is two-shielding Cresselia?
00:39:05
Speaker
Logan rocket, but let's Keep it keep in mind that from shadow Rockets the IVs are minimal six in every stat. Yes, right? So you the best you can get is I believe a 615 13 or something and defense is actually very very important on shadow Chris alia. So that's a little bit of um A buskill, let me say like you you kind of always want a 13 or a higher defense on Cresselia to get both points against Feraligatr or Karbic. And those are needed to win those matchups. Yeah, so i found I actually found also there's important breakpoints with Gligar, Shadow and Normal as well. And that can flip the entire matchup with Shadow and Cresselia. And breakpoint and both points.
00:39:49
Speaker
Oh, sorry. Yeah, both point. A defensive both point against yeah the Gligars. And same with Shadow Dragon Air, where you take one more Dragon Breath damage and then you actually lose the ones against Shadow Dragon Air as a Shadow Cresselia, which is not ideal when you're trying to play a bulky Pokemon that will out neutral other Pokemon. But that is I was looking at people this morning and it it didn't hit me yet that I'm like, why are my like rank ones having six attack? or my rink, I'm like doing the fifth speed. And I'm like, why is this six attack? Like, ah what is going on with this website? And then suddenly it clicked to me like, oh, he's already updated it to the shadow IVs that are going to be the baseline. But I would say I don't think besides those matchups, I went through like 10 different spreads. It doesn't change that much if you have terrible IVs to good IVs. But there are three to four to five crucial matchups that can flip. But overall, you're going to be fine with whatever one you get. it's It's exactly that, right? That you don't want to miss out on crucial matchups. Yeah. yeah Maybe you will lose to Clefable with low ah defense or a high attack or something.
00:41:03
Speaker
But Feraligatr is on a lot of teams. So that's kind of a matchup. If you bring the Shadow Cresselia, in my opinion, it's not a matchup you want to miss out on. um What I otherwise found is that Moonblast's Shadow Cresselia picks up regular Feraligatr and two shields, but loses to Alteria if regular Cresselia has the bulk when he would win that, right otherwise also loses up. Shadow Crocilla can lose to Dugong. As you said, can lose to Shadow Dragonair. Can lose to Shadow Feraligatr. Can lose to regular Gligar. Can lose to Spark Lantern. Spark Peter Sparcher. And can lose to Mantine as opposing to picking up only Feraligatr and two shields.
00:41:48
Speaker
So that was my downside of it. But what I found cool, though, is that Shadow Crocellia can win Skeletor's in the Two Shields with Future Sight. So you need to bait. But at least it's possible. It's possible. But you never bait, Martine. So, I mean, like, that's the whole thing. You never bait. You never bait. Amanda, I know maybe you didn't do the full page research. I definitely did not. but What are your first impressions of a Pokemon like Shadow Cresselia? Like, I mean, obviously, you just went through all the downsides there. Is there any upside to having that little more damage on any of these charge attacks? I mean, I think overall, you would have to look at how relevant the Pokemon are in the meta that, I mean, and and now that Martine's kind of listed off a majority of Pokemon that I think will be pretty meta relevant at Worlds,
00:42:47
Speaker
If I was judging between these two arguments for, for or against Shadow Cresselia, I would say it probably doesn't have as much play, but that doesn't mean that we won't see it because- Okay, well, let me give you the four. Okay, okay, all right. It's clear who's in favor of the Shadow Cresselia. So i just I just wanted to see like off the bat, I wanted you to disagree with Martine, but since yeah since you were agree with him, let's say the four. All right, so the only thing is, Also, if people want to run a attack-weighted Annihilape, you actually pick up a Psycho psycho-cut breakpoint, and you can pretty much beat Annihilape with Grass Knot. Like, in a lot of situations. That is big. You do that anyway with with regular as well. You don't need Shadow for that. No, but you don't you don't really. you You can beat it. Yeah, true. You can beat it with Grass Knot. You kind of you do. You don't really fuck it out with Grass Knot. If you really hate Annihilape as Cresselia,
00:43:41
Speaker
Let's say you lead Crystallian to Nihilip and you're like, I'm not gonna lose this. There's absolute zero chance. Straight Grass Knot, shield everything. Yeah. You can't lose it. but Yeah, but it was for you and for you non-RPS players that want to actually knock out a Pokebot without double shielding it. You actually get the breakpoint and you they can hold on to the psychic cuts plus a grass knot But if it's on a swap and they took any extra damage like it's really dicey for the either the attack weighted annihilate like if you're gonna try to go for the Breakpoints and bullet points against Lickitung which I don't know how much people care about at worlds Or if you get super unlucky and you have an attack weighted cress which might happen who knows what I mean You're already gonna have six attack
00:44:26
Speaker
So you maybe if you have even more attack, you get that breakpoint. And then also, Shadowcrest does guarantee the Gudra matchup where the regular one doesn't. Because one Moonblast plus Psycho Cuts knocks out, and it doesn't do that ah ah with the regular Cresselia. If you have an age... If the regular can lose the ones, I believe, right? Yeah, exactly. If you have an HP weighted Goudra, which I highly recommend, HP is weirdly the best or stamina is the best stat for Goudra, you can pretty much be fine against Cresselia in the ones because you can take the Moonblast and you're not getting knocked out by the Psycho Cut.
00:45:02
Speaker
So that's good. ah And you're actually better, I think, versus the regular gator for alligator with without shields or in the one shields. In the two shields, you might be in some trouble if you want to play it that way. But from the one shield matchup, you you can beat the regular gator. And the regular Cresselia loses to the gator. But the thing is, Shadow for alligator gets dangerously close to one shield. You can still beat it. But if you don't have that bulk point against Shadow Claw, against a Shadow Feraligatr, you're actually just toast. So that is one downside of this Cresselia, is that like you you wanted to have high defense. I found, ah you were mentioning Mantine. Shadow Cresselia beats Mantine in the ones, in the regular Cresselia doesn't.
00:45:54
Speaker
yep So you pick up Mantine, that's a huge win, but you do kind of flip the, ah like you're better against Gudra, but then now you're worse against Shadow Dragonair and Altaria. So like in the ones in Altaria, you can barely lose because one Moonblast is a knockout, and you don't have the bulk to get to like three if they shield one. One more thing about Streligator though, um because I think you have the same simulations. That is if it has Ice Beam. Yeah, that's crunch. Shadowcrails Silly only picks up zeros. Oh, against the Shadowgator and the ones. I'll look at, wait, actually, I can look at that right now. I'll do it live. I really hope I'm not wrong now. I'm going to give the thoughts in the meantime. Cycle cut, obviously fast generating, doesn't do a lot of damage. So there is some merit to having this fast attack, being able to hit a little bit harder to be able to get these farm downs as well. And everyone is running.
00:46:54
Speaker
ah High attack annihilate I would say for the most part because they all since there's so many annihilates everyone wants to win charge attack priority ah to fanboy Yeah, exactly so I mean there is definitely some merit and now I find out that Martine's lying about the mantian thing and You win twos not the ones okay, when twos is regular shadow does shadows wins once So all right. I mean, theres there's there's some more merit to the shadow now. ah Now hearing both sides of the story here. So, OK, you're completely right about the crunch thing. You just get actually sure. Yeah, you don't even get to a text because it's the same pacing as grass. Yeah. And you'd get shredded. The only other thing that I want to say
00:47:42
Speaker
in favor of Shadow Cresselia is the Vigoroth matchup is actually better because Vigoroth in the zeroes is the softest of soft loss for Vigoroth. You really don't care if you're playing the zeroes versus Cress, but because you get that little extra damage with the shadow, you can beat Vigoroth and have a little bit of HP or more HP remaining. in the zeros and the ones. I didn't look at the twos. I'm not a hard RPSer like Martine, but in the zero in the zeros and ones, which if you're playing carcelia, you're playing in the zeros and ones, you can, you're safer against Vigoroth, which is better. you You would rather be more consistent against Vigoroth and not Vigoroth be able to swap into you and soft lose and it'd be no big deal. All that to say, I have come to a conclusion. I don't know if I know,
00:48:34
Speaker
Martine has probably come to the conclusion. I know we've we've tried to sway Amanda both ways, but I already have a feeling. of what I think is better going into the championship, in the world championship. Are you trying to make people bring this Pokemon and then you put it on your cross prediction? Is that what's going on here? No, my friend is going to make people win with Shadow Cresselia! Oh, there we go! Yes, we have a bad choice! Yes, we have a
00:49:08
Speaker
Olaf but I have come to a conclusion. I'll say mine last, but I don't know if you guys have any more thoughts about the Shadow Crocelia. It definitely is like in terms of legendaries that come out ah from radars, it is one of the more viable ones. So let's give it that at least. It does have play, but um I'm curious to hear if you guys have a ah preliminary final conclusion. I think we will see one at Worlds. Will it be on the winning team? Probably not. That's why i'll i'll I'll say it like that. Like I think that definitely there's skilled players who are also crunching some IVs and say, actually, you know what? ah It needs to fill a certain role on this team where I want it to do exactly this and then they'll put it on. Or some people would just be like, Hey, it's new. It's a toy. I want to play it. And that's perfectly fine as well. So yeah, I bet we'll see a couple of them, but I don't know how high ranking it will actually go because I do think most likely the bulk of the regular one outweighs the benefits of the more attack of the shadow.
00:50:09
Speaker
you Yeah, I think some matchups are just the zeroes in the charger book. The zeroes were linked down at once. Those are pretty important to have as the regular Cresselia. But you know what? If you play at a regional championship, buts maybe you should bring Cresselia. How about that? but I still haven't given my final conclusion. Is it going to be unanimous? I feel like it's important to you know say both sides in an argument you know when you present the argument. But my final conclusion after looking at it this morning,
00:50:42
Speaker
I don't see why if you're using it, the role that carcellia plays in the meta right now, I don't see any reason to run shadow carcellia over regular carcellia. There's key reasons. One, you have to look at the charge attacks in what it's targeting as a counter. So like I always decide whether the shadow or non shadow on like the dimensions of like what a charge attack does. And some people think I just always want shadows because it just does more damage. When you're Cresselia, you're countering something that is
00:51:17
Speaker
oftentimes double weak to grass, like a Quagsire or Whizkash. It doesn't matter to have 20% more damage, or you're countering a water-type Pokémon that is kind of glassy, like a Feraligatr. And you actually don't need always to reach more damage on the Grass Knot if that Feraligatr has taken some damage somewhere else. And the same thing with Moonblast. You're hitting a dragon type most of the times a moon blast hitting a dragon type. It's going to do a lot of damage Does that 20% do that much more? I feel like your charge attacks doing super effective already doing enough damage against what you're countering and then
00:51:57
Speaker
That is why it's well positioned in the meta, but the reason it's good in the meta is because it's so strong neutrally and it's so bold. So you're going to take away its best aspect that it's so strong neutrally and so bulky and could get to a lot of charge tax maybe even get back to your timer swap out. You don't want to take that away from Cresselia. I don't see. any reason why you want to just play the normal Cresselia. I don't see, unless someone's going to go Confusion Grass Knot and just try to double close with the Confusion ah chriscell is Shadow Cresselia, I really don't see a reason to not run the regular because the regular just does what this archetype of Pokémon needs to do better than the Shadow.
00:52:43
Speaker
I have one more question while we're just talking about Cresselia, because you always mentioned it with Moonblast, which I think, do you think that this is the move set of choice or the best move set for it right now in the current meta? Because there's some arguments for future sites. Marta, I can give a couple of them a little bit earlier, but I would say for the most part, you definitely need grass not to be able to counter things going on. Also, it charges a little bit quicker. And Moonblast did seem like the better choice when we saw it at NAIC. I think Moonblast is mandatory for dragons. It's a must. So you're hearing it here, guys. You can make your own decisions on the Shadowcrest, but it sounds like everyone for now is saying go with the regular and Moonblast and Grassknot are the choice picks.
00:53:26
Speaker
I would say, also, try it out, because we could all be wrong, too. but So Martain, you like coverage with your Crycelia, because you like Moonblast, because it you know gives coverage against dark types. So you don't like coverage with Giratina, though? We don't we don't and we don't do Dragon Pools. That's illegal. Look, we cannot be friends if you run Dragon Pools. It's not a thing. You have your cheap Star Stalkers 55 energy on a Pokémon that's as bulky as a Sableye. This is the real world, Butters. We run Shadow Ball on this wind because we can bait. And baiting is crucial in the game. But you never do it. Only when they shoot. Only when they shoot. I think that's that's that's one of my trademarks right now. I say always bait until you do, right? Yeah. and That's fair. Pacing is so important. like When you look at all the top five like best Pokemon in almost any meta,
00:54:22
Speaker
like They're always well positioned, but they always have really good pacing as well. Yeah. Butters, what do you think is going to be the top six most common Pokemon for Worlds? Oh, well, let me just put up Martijn's Open Great League practice. The graphics, yes. Very good. You know what? i think There's something that I want to talk about a little bit. I don't know if we're going to discuss the meta too long, but Annihilate is going to be top five in the meta, in my opinion, but Vigorov wins tournaments. If you look at the at this season as a whole, you look at the winning teams, the actual champion teams. There are so many teams, a disproportionate amount of teams with Vigorov compared to the Annihilate, which was pretty stunning to me when I was looking at the season as a whole. So
00:55:15
Speaker
We are going to see Annihilate, I think, as number one usage. It could be different, because these are a bunch of winners going into the same time. Do you like the numbers on that? What's that? Do you like the numbers on that? How many figures have won a tournament versus Annihilate? Man, I can get you the numbers on that. I can get you the numbers. But it's for North America, it's very high. I don't know how high it is in Europe. That's because two trainers win your tournament. Fair. Fair. Fair. Yeah, it's a driver, not car. Yeah. Yeah, fair. I'll get those numbers. But I mean, in compared to like the vigor off usage, the vigor off usage is actually quite low, like in tournaments in general, and then to its actual win percentage in
00:55:57
Speaker
North America, it's it's kind of good. So I mean, I assume it's going to be Annihilape, Priscilla. I actually think it's going to be Chargibug that is going to be a ahead of Lantern in that top four. And then number five. What do you think it's going to be in the top slot? Which which you one? Lickitung? I think Lickitung is going to be number one or two. Lickitung. You think so? It's pretty dangerous bringing that Giratina then. Well, it was number one at Utrecht. Did it stop me? That's true, that's true, that's true. Interesting.
00:56:29
Speaker
So you think now, as the meta progresses, like Cresselia kind of took the spot of Lickitung. You think Lickitung is now going to be like the king of that neutral pick? Yeah, I think Lickitung is the one Pokemon that can deal with that core of Azumarill, Gligar, Chargebug. And I think that's going to be very common. That's the one thing Lickitung does, right? And then also Lickitung Mirror, of course, neutral. Annihilate, you can win the one shields. So I think Lictung induces a lot of neutral play. But what do you also say, Vigold is a champion's Pokemon. World Championships is a champion's tournament. That's true. um like I don't think... um'm not I don't want to say that Vigold is going to be more common to Annihilate, but I do think the numbers are going to be very close between those two.
00:57:15
Speaker
Well, if you mentioned the most lethal trio is going to be Azumarill, Chargerbug, Shadow Gligar. I know you would rather be the Vigaroth than the Aylia situation. yeah so Yeah. The hard part is that Vigaroth just loses so hard to annihilate. And since Annihilate is such a popular pick, it's a very risky, like you have to know how you want to play. your pokemon especially because it's almost guaranteed that there's at least going to be a fighter on the other team. So if there is, you have to know how you want to maneuver around so your big rock is never aligned on that. But again, you know, some people are just super fans of rock, paper, scissors. So they know exactly how they want to do that.
00:57:58
Speaker
But that's the thing, right? Annihilape is the only Pokemon that shuts down Vigarot entirely. In everything else, even Azumar, Cresselia, Gligar, Vigarot can win some shield scenarios, and especially with energy advantage. So that makes Vigarot just incredibly good. And like even though we have four spawn Lucario now, I don't see that. I don't think it beats Vigarot actually. Honestly, the thing about Annihilape too, Annihilape is so strong, but Annihilape really against the top meta is not a standout Pokemon. Like you look at any top five Pokemon in the meta and you never say like, oh wow, Annihilape shreds those. It's always like Annihilape loses to all five of those Pokemon or it goes neutral with Lickitung. And it's like, ah it's it is the favorite fighter because I mean, obviously the typing's amazing and then also it's closing potential.
00:58:52
Speaker
is way higher than something of like a Vigaroth. But when you look at what I think is kind of the day two, day three pattern of trainers going into their safer picks, I feel like you can bring Vigaroth because if you just have four picks that are safe, they're gonna be top meta Pokemon and they're all gonna be fine against a Nihilape. So if you're just picking these four Pokemon that are all strong against a Nihilape, it's not like someone is just bringing a Nihilape against you every game. and then you can start bringing the vigor off. So I kind of think that ah I kind of agree a bit that it might be closer in usage in the World Championships compared to how it's been all season where Annalia has been dominating the usage.
00:59:34
Speaker
it It depends, right? If you're really sick of Figurals, and if Figurals is the one Pokemon you might want to counter, that you're like, okay, if I don't have Annihilate on my team, it shreds through my team. People might might use it for that reason. I'm not surprised if that's the sole function of it. And in fact, even like, as you say, that's really good great. closing potential. Annihilate with a shield up, not too bad into a zoom roll, not bad into Skarmy, even shoots some Shinners, right? So even in some of its worst positions. I'm also still considering Annihilate, because if I fear Vigrolet a lot, heck, I'll play Double Ghost, whatever. I need to shut down Vigrolet, I might bring Annihilate too.
01:00:13
Speaker
And that's a weird thing too is because no one fears Vigaroth either because Vigaroth is always just like this utility tool that it's like, okay, these top meta Pokemon like Shadow Gligar or Zoomerul or Cresselia, these Pokemon are coming out in my matchup a lot. all just I'll just put in Vigaroth because it's kind of okay versus that stuff. It's not like it's like killing the top meta. It's just like doing Annihilate's job a little better. It only counts as Likitung. Yeah, yeah. and a little sanized But yeah, that's about it. Really? Yeah. root butter butter ru and We could talk Pokemon forever with you, but we don't get to talk to you very often. And I've actually was just thinking about this. We've never had the opportunity to cast together. You guys had the opportunity to cast together a little bit at EUIC. So I can now flip this. Who's your favorite co-caster?
01:01:03
Speaker
And we're going to put you on the spot here. Co-caster. Oh my goodness. You know what? I think I'm going to go with my partner. What if we say each other? We can't lose. Oh, yeah. True. True. One. All right. Let's do it on count three. All right. You ready? One. No, no, no. Amanda. You know what? I have to go. ah have to go with
01:01:36
Speaker
the co-caster that I've been through so much with. I have to go with my co-caster, even though he balloons up this anthro situation and just distorts it. I mean, completely distorts it, cherry picking like no one else. But Caleb has been the co-caster that I've been through so much with in the championship series and I've casted a lot of amazing battles with him. So I feel like I would be remiss not to say Caleb Peng as my favorite co-caster, because we've had the opportunity to be in a lot of amazing moments with each other. Yeah, I mean, you guys even have like the nickname, Pengers, right? I mean, that was like, ah it's like the most well-known name, I think. ah of ah I think you guys are the most well-known casting duo. And probably because you guys have been there from the beginning with each other, like you said. So I mean, that's ah that's a cool thing. Yeah, I think we have casted, like, I mean,
01:02:33
Speaker
I don't know if it's like double digit tournaments at this point together, but it's, uh, I think it is closing in on, or it might be over double digits. So, but the truth of the matter is I genuinely enjoyed casting with almost everyone and. From my point of view, I always try to make the cast as fun as possible. And I try to bring the energy up. And I love like any co-caster that's sitting next to me, that's just bringing the energy too. And then we're just building on each other. So I really enjoy casting with everyone in the championship series. But I will go with my co-caster, Caleb.
01:03:15
Speaker
I remember when we were doing UIC together, we we had like two or three battles together. At the Hall of Way you were standing up. Yeah, that's that's a butter secret. You always stand up. I don't even see you anymore, man. Like, you have to look down at the screen like that. I couldn't do that. but No, I, I was, I was trying to hype myself up before. Cause you know, you only get like, you only get three series. And so and before you rotate. So I try to, I try to get in that mindset of the hype and I try to keep it up sometimes maybe too much because then it's like five o'clock.
01:03:50
Speaker
on like a day two that we go from like 7am to 7pm and you're like, oh my God, this is like my 10th time standing up and doing jumping jacks today. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe I should have just actually conserved some energy instead of ah trying to use it in warm up. Do you have any um funny or embarrassing casting moments. We've gone over so some some of ours in the past as well, but I'm interested since you've been around since the very beginning, if there's anything that you're like, oh yeah, no, I remember this time was ah pretty pretty good. You know, I don't know if I've told this story publicly, but the thing that jumps to mind is my first ever cast for Championship Series, which like you mentioned before, was in Frankfurt, Germany for EUIC. April 2022, we had just got there
01:04:38
Speaker
ah I was casting with Zionic, actually, who I just casted with recently at UIC, which is pretty cool. And it was my first time ever. And remember, this is like we had just joined Championship Series. So this was all the start of everything for everyone. Top to bottom for TPCI, for a production company, for the casters. Day one, you know, first day of school, we're all like, don't know what to expect. And we go into the first cast. I think maybe Speedy and Caleb opened. I'm not sure who opened either. They opened or we were second, but we're on the casting stage. It's me and Zionik. I think like for the first time ever, I'm like feeling really comfortable. Zionik's doing well. I feel like I'm doing well. I'm like, oh my god, we're here. We're doing this. We're nailing this.
01:05:37
Speaker
like first ever cast. I was like going to come out and everyone's going to be like, Oh my God, who are these go casters? And then the I come out and the first thing they've been like message me like three times, like look at camera. Hey, you look, you look good today. and Can you look at the camera? And like, I just noticed that when I came out, like the thing was I didn't somehow, I didn't look at the camera one time. through this entire thing So ah that was ah that was a fun moment for me to realize that you know there's an audience. You gotta look at that camera, but that was that was a humbling start to my championship series where I had my first ever cast and I didn't look at the camera a single time. And it's not for one game. It was all an entire ah it was an entire three series.
01:06:29
Speaker
Interval that I went I think without looking at the camera once it it was more exaggerated because zionic was locked in on that camera It was like dead sitter looking at it and like my eyes were literally anywhere but the camera, but you know, I I adapted so yeah and look Look how far you've come. Yeah
01:06:56
Speaker
All right. Well, speaking of, like since you have been there from the beginning, uh, we're, we're getting to the very end of the podcast and we have a ah staple question that we ask. And I feel like you are in a prime position for the question because you've seen so many games and been able to cast over all these games. So it's a two parter. And I'm going to start with who in this community. do you consider a crabrawler? And so this would be a person who is maybe not super well-known, but you think, oh, they're a scrappy player. They're a really good player. ah They just haven't had their breakout moment yet. And then who in this community would you consider um a champion? And this is someone who's pretty well-known, qualified for Worlds, and you think that has a really good shot of winning Worlds.
01:07:44
Speaker
OK, I actually have an answer for that first one that could have caught me way off guard. But I will say someone who I felt like really had that mentality at NAIC was ah Ashton Ash, actually. ah This was a trainer that I didn't know too much about, to be honest, going into it. And I feel like it it fits your example perfectly. Not only that I feel like he had that scrappiness, that determination, his matches were awesome. like He had some of the best highlight matches of the entire tournament, and not just one one series. He had three or four of them that were so fun to watch. So I'm going to give that, which is a cre-baller.
01:08:24
Speaker
I'm gonna give that to Ashton Ash because he really impressed me at NAIC with his showmanship, his onstage determination and just sometimes gameplay that where he felt like he didn't have any momentum and then he just took the momentum and then took the battle and it was just really fun to watch. hundred All right. And the second one is who you think is like someone who is Favored going into the world championships. Okay, and this can be you personally I mean, it doesn't have to be like, you know the favorite to win but you're like, no, no this person this is my my champion, you know This is so hard because There is this gap in between like there's this two month gap So it's like it feels like people who had momentum it loses a little of that momentum during this gap but
01:09:21
Speaker
I really want to say doom bug, but I'm hesitant because he obviously went on a run that is like unprecedented. Like he wins like three out of four tournaments in like, uh, what, like a six week span and gets runner up at UIC. If we look at the pattern of last season where in the top three where. Axon and Wadaj to trainers that proved that they could do it at a really high level and Wadaj was the favorite coming in.
01:09:51
Speaker
I feel like I have to pick Doonbug as my favorite coming in just because what he's pulled off this season. So I'm gonna say Doonbug because he pulled off something in North America and even proved it in Europe. I mean, yes, he didn't win it. I mean, to very much- He came too uncomfortably close. Yeah, yeah, he did. He did. Martine was sweating for sure. But- Every time, every time I came across Butters after he lost to Sanadu, I was like, yeah, he's gonna go out soon. The Americans are not winning. I'll joke with Doombug about it as well. I should have told this story. When I was casting, I think, maybe Doombug was in the semis or maybe before that, I think maybe in the top six or whatever. He was casting a series, I believe he was down 0-1.
01:10:43
Speaker
And then he tied up the game number two, and Martine was up next for casting. And I just see him pacing back and forth, just staring at his at the ground, just pacing as like the battle's going on. and then like And then as it's clear that Dude Bug is about to win, I just saw Martine stop pacing. And I could just see his back and his head was down. And I could just remember that image clearly from the caster booth. so yeah it was uh it was funny though i'm i'm i'm happy with the way that with and i'm sure dune buggers as well yeah this place is crazy and it's obviously no shade to dune bugger he but he played up the villain so well you know coming out on stage pretending he was a you know a bald eagle did you hear the crowds when he lost to sundo do did you hear that backstage because they went
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I mean, no one in Europe wanted to be like hand another title over to another American coming over the season. I mean, DUMUG is acceptable. Yeah. Nighttime Clasher. Oh, kidding. I like Nighttime Clasher. It's just an easy target. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, DUMUG has obviously come off of North American championships. Nighttime Clasher did not. So I know what you're talking about. He finally was able to break through against the competition in Europe. ah yeah
01:12:05
Speaker
Oh, and on that note, we're going to call an end to this one. Once again, Butters, thank you so much for coming on. Really excited to cast along, and not with you, but alongside you in Honolulu. We're really excited to watch over your games as well in our time. I think this will be the next time that we all are in one place at the same time. It will be. I can't wait. It's going to be a lot of fun. Maybe we'll all do something together. We're going to shoot hoops. We're going to shoot hoops. Oh, I would love to shoot hoops. I mean, we have to at least play horse or something because I used to play basketball too when I was younger. And even though you have the height advantage, I think that, you know, if we're not actually playing one on one, that may be a I could be able to do something here. you You honestly, I'm not the best horse player. So I might put my my money on. Oh, you're just going to dunk. um' I'm already calling it. No dunks are allowed in horse.
Basketball Plans and Tap Cast Schedule
01:12:58
Speaker
OK. OK. All right. No dunks. It's OK. It's better for my knee anyway. But yeah, we're going to shoot some hoops. Mark Titan, you in? Yeah, sure. Your opinions are great at it. Yeah. All right. Shooting hoops in Honolulu. And for the rest of you guys, Thursdays is the the time that Tap Tap Cast drops. We'll see you in the next episode.