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2025 Pokémon GO World Championships Recap
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 35 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we bring you the highest quality coverage of the Play! Pokémon Championship Series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and everything else happening in the competitive scene.
In this episode, we recap the 2025 Pokémon GO World Championships in Anaheim! We begin with analyzing the meta. Did things turn out the way that we expected? Which Pokémon shined the brightest? How did Galarian Moltres, Shadow Kanto Marowak, and Tinkaton outshine their role-rivals Mandibuzz, Diggersby, and Dedenne respectively? Next, we talk about the players. Which region had the best run? Is NA washed? India had a stunning 100% success rate of all its players (2) making it into the top 8. We also explore key storylines and upsets, like FireStar73's run and MartoGalde's 0-2. Next, we analyze one of the best Grand Finals in competitive Pokémon GO history!! Zzweilous gives his insights into exactly how Beelzeboy won it all. Finally, we conclude with a recap of the closing ceremonies. Competitive Pokémon is reaching new heights, evolving into one of the world's biggest esports. Are you ready for what's to come?
If you're ready... go ahead and lock In, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction and World Championships recap
00:00:01
William Dunphey
Ten days ago, the World Championships in Anaheim, California concluded. Cradilly, Lapras, and Dusclops were meta staples, but picks like Galarian Moltres, Shadow Kento Marowak, and Tinkaton set themselves apart.
00:00:13
William Dunphey
There were plenty of meta surprises too, like Senhudigo's Turtonator and Toadscrew combo, Lao Jeffs III's Shadow Dusknoir, and Dun Dun Batous' Dragapult. After two days of extremely hard-fought battles, only Spain's Potaman and India's Beelzeboy remained.
00:00:28
William Dunphey
These two trainers were destined to meet on Championship Sunday, in the arena, for the very first time. On a Sunday morning, unlike any other, the soft California summer breeze hummed with the roar of the crowd.
00:00:41
William Dunphey
As the palm trees swayed and Pokémon fans took their seats, Potaman and Beelzeboy clashed on center stage. What unfolded next was one of the best sets of competitive Pokemon ever played.
00:00:54
William Dunphey
In today's episode, we'll be recapping the World Championships, starting with the overall meta, then player storylines, bracket breakdowns, and a grand finals recap, as well as the evolution that competitive Pokemon underwent this year.
00:01:06
William Dunphey
We've got a ton to talk about, so if you're ready, lock in, good luck, and have
Hosts' experiences and reflections
00:01:11
William Dunphey
fun.
00:01:34
William Dunphey
Welcome back trainers to another episode of the show six podcast. I am your co host speed is chief to with my host Z Zylas. I'm very excited to get into this world's recap ZZ. We did an awesome world's preview and we're actually going to tally up our scores on how we did with those players.
00:01:52
William Dunphey
ah But yeah, let's ah let's check in see how you're doing how you're adjusting to the the jet lag and the time difference and how you're feeling.
00:01:56
zzweilous
okay
00:01:59
zzweilous
Well, as you as you mentioned, Speedy, it's been 10 days. I am feeling better. The nine-hour time difference is difficult for a Central European, but I'm back to work, back to regular live stuff.
00:02:13
zzweilous
And it's been a while since Worlds wrapped up, and said live stuff got a little in the way of an earlier recording.
00:02:14
William Dunphey
Awesome.
00:02:20
zzweilous
But I feel like we're still in time. The new season hasn't even started yet. We're still within the old meta, where no more tournaments will be played in.
00:02:26
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:02:28
zzweilous
and Yeah, it's like this a little in-between cycle, like little bit looking back at what was and what could have been. Because I did compete at Worlds as well.
00:02:40
zzweilous
And they did not it did not go my way all the way, but still happy with my run.
00:02:45
William Dunphey
Yeah. Hmm.
00:02:46
zzweilous
And definitely very, like it was very exciting to enter the arena as a spectator as well, to see the stage design, to see the competitors.
00:02:59
zzweilous
And even though
Performance highlights and meta insights
00:03:00
zzweilous
it was a tournament of a lot of upsets, I feel as if Pato man as the most accomplished European competitor of the season and Bielseboy as last year's fourth place finisher and one of the strongest Indian battlers, like that was definitely a showdown for the ages. And as you mentioned, like, I don't think we've seen anything this exciting in a world's grand final since a Dancing Rock reset the bracket to become our very first, um,
00:03:29
zzweilous
Master Division World Champion in 2022.
00:03:33
William Dunphey
Exactly. I've seen a lot of of discussion about that. I think that our past grand finals were were cursed by the 3-1 results, right? We'd have just a 3-1 victory for either side. But this game five, it just hits different.
00:03:47
William Dunphey
And I was talking with my ah my co-casters after that. They all agreed the game five is just such a hype moment, especially in the bracket reset. ah But you made so many good points. I'm goingnna try to to kind of ah rifle through them really quickly.
00:03:59
William Dunphey
People need to respect Asia. I'm just telling you this. Yakai last year, Beelzeboy this year, these trainers only get one chance really to qualify for the world championships through whatever qualifying tournament they have.
00:04:11
William Dunphey
But they always show up. I mean, this is honestly insane. I know that VG has a um has like a a pattern where every odd year a trainer from Japan, I believe, is is able to win.
00:04:23
William Dunphey
And i think I think Go is starting to have a similar trend where we have a trainer from Asia that just crushes.
00:04:26
zzweilous
Yeah. Ghost's current pattern is just every year a trainer from Asia wins. It's only been two years, but still it's been quite impressive, I must say.
00:04:36
zzweilous
And I think because like we... dabble in player storylines, trying to assess the power level of the global scene. And I think if we like talk about who's the current best player in the world, that always has to come with an asterisk if we talk about that during a season, in the middle of a season.
00:04:55
zzweilous
Because we just, like one fourth of the global GO population just doesn't get the spotlight, essentially.
00:04:56
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:05:03
zzweilous
But like we've seen it with Mielseboy, we've seen it with Yakai. We've also seen it with a bunch of other competitors like Master Mihir also from India, also with a top 8 finish.
00:05:11
William Dunphey
yes
00:05:13
zzweilous
There's such depth of talent, not only in the Pokémon country of Japan, but also places like Hong Kong, also places like India. and yeah Definitely, i I think we are trying to do our best to put those trainers on the map, to give them the the recognition they deserve.
00:05:33
zzweilous
but We can only ever do so much with so few tournaments that they do get to compete in. And yeah, like, we'll certainly show it what we can do.
00:05:38
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah. Also there's lot to be said. Exactly. And there's a lot to be said about the double elimination format as well. It can be very, very unforgiving.
00:05:49
William Dunphey
ah Whereas, you know, I would say during the regular season, if you're running Swiss, it makes more sense because then you essentially you you move into situations where you can start O2 and you can still make day two.
00:06:01
William Dunphey
You know, you can still make top cut or whatever it might be. And Worlds is probably the the gray area for that argument. Double elimination might just be fine at Worlds because I don't think we're going to have a world champion with two losses on the record, no matter what, just because of how stacked the competition is.
00:06:14
William Dunphey
ah But to to your taking a ah look over at socials, so many interesting things happening before and after the event. I wanted to point out your bell curves that you were posting about King Gambit.
00:06:26
William Dunphey
Those are killing me.
00:06:27
zzweilous
ah
00:06:27
William Dunphey
Those are so funny.
00:06:30
zzweilous
it's becoming a tradition like it started with shadow shadow gerardos last year now i managed to qualify again and i so like This is something that I've talked about with Tomahawk briefly because he was kind of disappointed in me.
00:06:44
zzweilous
He was like looking at me and like going like, you know you're one of the best players in the world.
00:06:44
William Dunphey
um
00:06:51
zzweilous
Why are you bringing an RPS pick rather than a Pokemon that gives you neutral play? But I think I still don't regret bringing King Gambit even though its main purpose is to RPS certain core meta picks like Cradilly, like Ghost types, just because...
00:07:07
William Dunphey
yeah
00:07:09
zzweilous
I did not have the practice results or the practice experience with the neutral picks to justify running a team that wasn't what I did. I feel as if, like, if I am currently not feeling the meta in a way that would consider myself competitive, may as well opt into the one thing that I will always have going for me, which is familiarity with crazy shit.
00:07:18
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:07:35
zzweilous
um So I don't know whether we have to beep that, um But this is just something that I tend to do. And i feel as if like I earned the right to do something crazy like that.
00:07:46
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:07:51
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:07:52
zzweilous
And like it's it's still a top 32. So nobody can tell me that King Gambit didn't work. It's a 32 at Worlds. lot of people would be very proud of that.
00:08:00
William Dunphey
Exactly. No, honestly, I speak for for most viewers, most Pokemon Go competitive fans. Please don't change ZZ. Please don't go vanilla ice cream on us and just play Azumarill Shadow Drappy in every every event. Please don't do that.
00:08:13
William Dunphey
ah But no, I think there were so many interesting picks and your King Gambit, I would i would classify it in the same kind of grouping as Sanhutigo's Turtonator. As in Pokemon that were solid, but ended up getting buffs right at the end of the season, or excuse going into the next season, because in the Tales of Transformation that's starting next month, both of those Pokemon are getting ah upgrades to Metal Sound for King Gambit.
00:08:40
William Dunphey
And then with...
00:08:40
zzweilous
I think Metal Sound is actually not even getting buffed.
00:08:40
William Dunphey
ah
00:08:42
zzweilous
It's going to be distributed to Empoleon and Komo-O, but I think it's staying the same in terms of its parameters.
00:08:46
William Dunphey
Ah, ah, thank you. um I'm wondering why metal sound polio on is so high in the PV poke rankings. Then that, that, uh, that confuses me, but anyways,
00:08:56
zzweilous
I think it's just because... like You remember Shadow Peraligatr, right? like That thing was a menace.
00:09:00
William Dunphey
yeah.
00:09:01
zzweilous
Imagine that with the Steel typing and a cheaper anti-grass coverage move.
00:09:03
William Dunphey
Hmm.
00:09:05
zzweilous
so
00:09:06
William Dunphey
Hmm.
00:09:06
zzweilous
I feel as if even with the current parameters, Shadow and Pony is probably going to do great. But if anybody listening right now, please please stay here first and foremost.
00:09:17
zzweilous
But if anybody's expecting a big breakdown of the Tales of Transformation meta, that is coming. It is not coming today because we want to dedicate today's episode entirely to the world's competitors and their stories.
00:09:23
William Dunphey
Yes. Yes.
00:09:29
zzweilous
Whereas we will probably wait until the actual energy values for the um new season drop or to discuss what will change.
00:09:38
William Dunphey
Exactly. ah Small changes and in energy values, like five energy more or less for a certain charge attack, it can send a Pokemon up or down the rankings, 50 or 100 slots. So it really, really depends on what the final numbers are. And we don't know that until the season actually rolls out. So to ZZ's point, we fully anticipate we'll do a breakdown of that, especially leading into the Frankfurt and Monterey regionals that are coming up. So definitely... ah Follow the podcast if you want to hear that because we will we will be giving our best possible advice.
00:10:08
William Dunphey
But this kind of segues into the first thing we were going to break down. We won't spend too much time on this because to your point, this meta is basically done. ah We're going to see a brand new meta roll out. But I did want to point out something that I mentioned in the intro.
00:10:22
William Dunphey
We had a lot of expected picks, you know, Dusclops, Cradilly. These Pokemon were really strong. ah But then we had other things that kind of outclassed other Pokemon in their categories, mainly Dalarian Moltres outclassing Mandibuzz, Tinkaton seemingly outclassing Azumarill, and Dedenne, I guess, on Fraud Watch at this point ah in the meta.
00:10:43
William Dunphey
And then you had other Pokemon like Fortress popping up. I think we had almost an even split in Top Cup between Shadow Scizor and Fortress. Maybe a few more Shadow Scizor, but the Bug Steels were really um like a sixty forty kind of kind of dynamic from what I could see.
00:10:58
William Dunphey
what are I just want to ask you, because you were prepping, you you were reviewing teams. I was more kind of looking at this from a bird's eye view. What was your read on this? Because if I could take one
Team strategies and community insights
00:11:08
William Dunphey
thing away from the meta and how it actually shook out. Another example, Shadowcat to Marowak over Diggersby, right?
00:11:14
William Dunphey
If I could take one thing away, I would say that the Cano Cult tournaments were absolutely invaluable. I think that if you were competing in those tournaments, you saw these changes before almost anyone else. I don't know if you agree or disagree with that.
00:11:27
zzweilous
I 100% agree. I think those trends were really just about spot on actually. And to your point, like Dedane being on Fraud Watch, while I do agree, I think that even we only saw like four Dedane in top 32,
00:11:42
zzweilous
it still really shaped this meta because Dedane is a Pokemon that, as we mentioned in our preview, you cannot go weak to. If you go weak to Dedane too much, it will just run over you.
00:11:50
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:11:54
zzweilous
And that's why the top two most used Pokemon in um the world's top card were Crudilly at 78.1% and Shadowkent to Marowak at 43.8%. Those are essentially the two hardest answers and those also like the two archetypes of Dedane answers that you can have and those top the usage.
00:12:13
William Dunphey
Exactly.
00:12:15
zzweilous
So it makes a lot of sense why Dedane didn't do better because essentially everybody was prepping for it. And I think people will have to keep prepping for it for as long as Dedane stays good because once somebody many brings that mouse and runs into people that disregard this big threat, um it's going to get ugly.
00:12:38
zzweilous
so
00:12:38
William Dunphey
Yes. Mm-hmm.
00:12:39
zzweilous
That way, Dedane had an influence without actually doing anything itself. um But there were like interesting um aspects that you also mentioned in terms of, okay, these Pokemon compete for a role, and how do they do that, and who comes out on top.
00:12:57
zzweilous
One interesting development, Galarian Moltres over Mandibus. Why is that so? What does Mandibus do? Mandibus, is a fantastic response to Shadow Drapion. With Airslash, you just neutrally outbolt. can take like five Aqua Tails.
00:13:13
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:13:13
zzweilous
um You have a very good matchup there.
00:13:13
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:13:15
zzweilous
Shadow Drapion was not in the top 12 for a day two usage. And I think um with how prevalent Cantumarowak was, with how Tinkerton's usage did rise, it makes a lot of sense why Shadow Drapion wasn't really anywhere to be seen.
00:13:33
zzweilous
um And another thing that we see when we look at the top usage is that the presence of ghost types made Annihilate pretty uncommon.
00:13:43
zzweilous
I feel as if people did underexplore the Karate choppers like Pangoro and Primape.
00:13:44
William Dunphey
Perry
00:13:48
zzweilous
Those just didn't show up even though they had good play on paper.
00:13:48
William Dunphey
Kivolowitz-
00:13:52
zzweilous
But like those fighting type Pokémon also some that give Mandibas an edge over Galarian Moltres typically. um If we remember the day one usage, Mandibus was actually on more teams than Galarian Moltres.
00:13:58
William Dunphey
Perry
00:14:03
zzweilous
It just didn't perform as well, so it didn't translate to day two.
00:14:03
William Dunphey
Kivolowitz- yeah.
00:14:06
zzweilous
Galarian Moltres ended up being the better choice for what we did actually see. And that was um a Pokemon like Cradilly, where you are absolutely helpless if you are a Mandibus.
00:14:17
William Dunphey
Yep. Hmm.
00:14:17
zzweilous
Whereas you can actually play out that matchup as a Galarian Moltres. And we did see that in the grand finals a good amount of times. Even though Cradilly technically wins that,
00:14:24
William Dunphey
ye
00:14:27
zzweilous
um you can still dip in and out of that matchup and have a lot of play. And also another thing that Galarian Moltres does, which Mendebus doesn't do as well, is to really hard check those ghost types.
00:14:40
zzweilous
um The ghost types were also like actually a really competitive category because we did see Dustclobs emerge as the premier ghost types from NAIC, really giving a lot of safe play into Pokémon like Diggersby, which would be a hard wall to Galarian Corsola.
00:14:50
William Dunphey
Mm.
00:14:57
zzweilous
but this is just ripple effect after ripple effect after ripple effect because Crudilly is Staple, the most common Pokemon ah to reign in Dedene.
00:15:08
zzweilous
That in turn means that Diggersby as a ground type that uses quick attack has a very poor matchup against the Rock and Grass type Crudilly, whereas Kanto Marowak as just a ground type attacker that does neutral damage into Crudilly,
00:15:24
William Dunphey
Green.
00:15:24
zzweilous
can even force the two-shield scenario in some cases, if the Cradilla is an asset, for example. um So it would make a lot more sense to move away from diggerspeed. And in turn, you are free to use Galarian Corsula more often, which just has a lot more immediate fast attack pressure and just feels like a little bit less of a sick sitting duck in many situations if you compare it to Duskloves, which was still viable, but fell behind Galarian Corsula.
00:15:52
William Dunphey
green
00:15:54
zzweilous
And that way, those Pokemon and their relationships between each other essentially ended up informing the meta that we ended up seeing.
00:15:54
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:16:02
zzweilous
And I think if you just followed along with the usage trends in the Canva cult, that was relatively clear to you before, clear to you beforehand. So either practicing or keeping an eye on the practice data really helped a lot of people prepare.
00:16:19
William Dunphey
Yeah, and i just want to point out, in order to of protect and preserve a lot of the team ideas and structures in the Kando cult, Martijn only publishes the winning teams, right? So you're not if you have 48 people competing or 60 people competing, which some of those tournaments did get pretty big, ah you're not going to see all 60 teams.
00:16:38
William Dunphey
So where whereas there is a significant value from looking at the results, I do think that actually being in the competition is also really, really good. I mean, I did, I think, two or three of the tournaments.
00:16:50
William Dunphey
I played Ashton Ash, I played Dylap, I played Jackal Loco, I played Game Bird. Trainers literally from from multiple regions, and I got to see their teams. And I was hearing from them because I played a team that out-of-pocket gave to me. He said, you know, you should try this. If you want to beat Dedenne without playing Dedenne, I recommend this team.
00:17:08
William Dunphey
And i that team was really solid. And for example, after after playing Ash and Ash and Dylap, they said, yeah, I'm just so weak to Shadowcat to Marowak. I just don't know how to deal with it. I need to change my team. And I think that that kind of information, getting that weeks before Worlds is super, super invaluable.
00:17:23
William Dunphey
ah to a lot of these trainers. So
Pokemon roles and team dynamics
00:17:25
William Dunphey
yeah, shout out to the Candle Cult and the incredible incredible work they do over there and all the tournament hosts. some Something interesting I wanted to talk with you about specifically, i noticed this on Beelzebue and Harjeff's teams in particular.
00:17:38
William Dunphey
And you mentioned earlier Ghost Types, Shadow Annihilate, you mentioned Galarian Corsula and Dusclops trying to shut down Shadow Annihilate, which did kind of feel like an anti-meta pick, especially for Pokemon like Cradilly, like Lapras, like the Diggersby, whatever else you know would be weak to counter.
00:17:56
William Dunphey
Something interesting I noted was that if you look back at NAIC, basically saw every time there was an and i and and i excuse me an Annihilate, that was definitely hard to pronounce, Every time there was an Annihilate, we saw a Dedenate paired with it because it was kind of like this AB duo that hard-checked Man of Us, at least on one side with, with of course, Dedenate.
00:18:16
William Dunphey
What I noticed here is that there was kind of tech in order to support the Shadow Annihilate on both Beelzebue and Harjef's teams. We did get Fairy type, but it wasn't Dedenate.
00:18:28
William Dunphey
It was Azumarill for Harjef, and it was Tinkaton for Beelzebue. And then we got a soft answer to something like a Mana Buzz in the form of Thunderfang Steelix.
00:18:39
William Dunphey
We got that both on Harjif's team and Beelze Boy's team. So I think it's so fascinating to kind of ah evolve, no pun intended, from an A-B b duo that one of them hard checks Mana Buzz, the other one hard loses.
00:18:51
William Dunphey
ah And then you have this kind of like supporting cast where you're just like, okay, I'm going to bring in a fairy type, but also I'm going to soft answer in Shadow Steelix. And for me, in my caster predictions, I felt like Shadow Stalix is one of the biggest surprises in this meta. And I think that the Dark Flyers was a big part of that. ah The return of Azumarill was a big part of that.
00:19:11
William Dunphey
The water types that we we're going to see, like Lapras and Lyle Jeff's Feraligatr apparently, is also part of that. um Did you see Shadow Stalix coming? and And do you agree with this tech of supporting Shadow Annihilate with a hard answer and a soft answer to Dark Flyers and things like that?
00:19:27
zzweilous
um So actually I would say that so first of all I did see Steelix coming I was considering it myself but I don't have a good one if I had like if Onyx was in Grunts I would have grinded the event to maybe build a better Shadow Steelix so that was just like an accessibility issue for me.
00:19:47
zzweilous
But in Battle Frontier, our Great League players used Shadow Steelix a good amount this last cycle and to great effect. So I was definitely considering Shadow Steelix as a threat going into it. I didn't expect it to win it all and take another trophy just because yeah the raw numbers were still pretty low. Not a lot of people were opting for it in practice.
00:20:16
zzweilous
So i wasn't like really thinking about a Shadow Steelix World Champion, but it does make a lot of sense because it does typically um have good play into essentially everything that isn't a ground type or a counter user.
00:20:16
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:20:31
zzweilous
So especially with the crunch attack, you're really good into ghosts, you even beat Talonflame, which as a fire type, you would think is a decent enough check. You beat that in the one and two shield scenario, even if Flame Charge is being used.
00:20:46
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:20:47
zzweilous
um And yeah, like you have Play Into Waters, you're not as miserable as you may think you are into Pokemon like Cradilly, and you're just very good into Dark Flyers, especially Mandibus.
00:20:58
zzweilous
So, oh yeah, another the important thing is also, um because we did mention Scizor and Dedene as two things that you want to be prepared for. Steelix covers both of these.
00:21:09
zzweilous
So that's also why Steelix has very nice roll compression. And yeah, like the question about Shadow Annihilate, personally, I feel as if the thing that you want to do with a Pokemon like that is to scare away ghost types first and foremost.
00:21:25
zzweilous
Because even though like if you farm up energy, you may be able to do stuff.
00:21:25
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Agreed.
00:21:30
zzweilous
If you have your Annihilate on a Galarian Corsula and that Galarian Corsula has just one shield, you're in for a bad time. So I figured that with ghosts being such staples, people would opt to pair their annihilate with things that really hard answer ghost types.
00:21:49
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:21:50
zzweilous
Rachev did have the Mandibas, which I do consider a soft answer. He did have the um and it had to have a lot of neutral answers in the Steelix as well. and Then we also did see the Biosaboy team where he does have, I think, arguably the star of the show with Galarian Moltres.
00:22:07
zzweilous
where these Sucker Punches really put in a lot of work.
00:22:07
William Dunphey
Yes. Yeah.
00:22:09
zzweilous
And um between his very first stream match, where he did lead a Galarian Moltres into a Tinkerton, just to flip the matchup without even having to flip alignment, just doing enough damage with perfect Moltres farm against a Tinkerton, with a lot of Brave Birding.
00:22:27
zzweilous
And lastly, the Grand Finals, where the Galarian Moltres was unchecked. I feel as if that Pokemon was really the key to victory here.
00:22:37
William Dunphey
I agree with you. if you're watching the YouTube version, ZZ did send me the clip that he was referencing there. So you will be able to actually see that battle. I'm going to insert that into our, our YouTube video. So make sure to follow that channel as well. And, and, and, uh,
00:22:50
William Dunphey
Look for the updates if you have time to watch the YouTube version. I know some people are driving. If you're driving, please don't watch the YouTube version. We don't want to be sued for liability. ah But yeah, you make some really interesting points. I definitely think that the adjustment, and we'll get to the grand finals soon, but the adjustment that Beelzebue made between his first meeting with Pato Man, trying to just hammer the Annihilate, bringing it over and over, and getting...
00:23:14
William Dunphey
basically caught against Galarian Corsola. The adjustment he made for Sunday, only bringing it to one game the entire championship Sunday, including the grand finals and grand finals reset. That was key.
00:23:25
William Dunphey
I feel like that was a massive, massive adjustment he made. That was really, really clever. And it was for the exact reason you mentioned. Galarian Corsola is just such a menace, especially to something like the Shadow Annihilate. So there are some polarizing matchups, but I feel like the best players...
00:23:39
William Dunphey
were on stage on Sunday, and they were able to pilot themselves through those situations. um In terms of of overall meta, we talked about Shadow Scizor, we talked about Steelix, we talked about Dedenne, Shadow Annihilate, Shadow Kanto Marowak as well.
00:23:52
William Dunphey
um I'm not sure if there are any other Pokémon you want to point out. It feels like it was poetic yet again for Cradle to be overwhelmingly top usage, but not win the event.
00:24:03
William Dunphey
And also, it was definitely cathartic for Morita Pokémon, my wonderful wife, ah for Lapras to win the grand finals. Either way, we were going to get a Lapras world champion, which I know she was happy about.
00:24:13
zzweilous
yeah yeah yeah i think like i'm happy about lapras not only because it's also a favorite of mine maybe not to that exact same degree but i love when the pokemon that are winning the event are ones that provide neutral play rather than
00:24:19
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:24:22
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:24:31
zzweilous
polarizing play. And I think Lapras is like one of the great equalizers when it comes to, okay, what can I just slap onto any team and I will have play.
00:24:41
zzweilous
I may not dominate. i may be caught out of position if my opponent really plays it well, but I will have play.
00:24:47
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:24:48
zzweilous
And I think especially like high level players like Pato and Beelzeboy were able to showcase the intricacies of Lapras really, really well. Be it like a scenario where Beelzeboy um gets met with a Lapras safe swap from Pato.
00:25:07
zzweilous
He does like six Sucker Punches and then brings in and his own Lapras to sponge all the energy and bank the energy on his Moldris before dipping out. like That's a high-level play that really helped him in the endgame there.
00:25:21
zzweilous
oh I have like a lot of notes for the Grand Finals. We'll get to that.
00:25:23
William Dunphey
Yeah, me too. Me too.
00:25:24
zzweilous
um
00:25:25
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:25:26
zzweilous
But also, like this is also like another Beelzeboy thing.
00:25:26
William Dunphey
I want to talk. Go ahead. Go ahead.
00:25:31
zzweilous
knowing when to throw the Ice Beam and when to throw the Sparkling Aria, because sometimes you just eat this a little extra bit of damage. And this is just like, it can make the difference between reaching a last move and not reaching a last move, whether you want to expend the Sparkling Aria energy twice or whether you just go for one Ice Beam.
00:25:50
zzweilous
um
00:25:51
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:25:51
zzweilous
Yeah, I feel like Lapras is just so flexible, bulky enough to really dip in and out of matchups, great coverage, and
00:25:54
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:25:58
zzweilous
Not OP either. like It's not as if the game is over if the Lapras is ever on anything. It just really gives you a lot of wiggle room, a lot of pivoting potential in and out of matchups.
00:26:10
William Dunphey
Yeah. yeah I mean, you said it perfectly that that kind of decision making in the moment for me, that looks like hundreds and hundreds of games played knowing your damage calculations inside and out knowing your shielding scenarios, maybe maybe hundreds of hours on PP poke as well looking at at damage percentages.
00:26:27
William Dunphey
ah or it could just be a really, really brilliant player who just absorbs everything the first time they see it. Sometimes I do wish I had more of a, ah I had better memory retention, maybe photographic memory where I can hit an ice beam one time and I can just remember from then on how much damage it does or whatever matchup, but That's why these these players are the best.
00:26:47
William Dunphey
ah In terms of meta, I guess we can wrap up with a few of the outliers, a few of the spice picks, and talk about those before we get into the meat of the player storylines. I was a Shadow Dust Noir hater all weekend. I was basically saying, i don't understand how it's doing anything in this meta.
00:27:03
William Dunphey
But then Lyle Jeffs took it all the way to fifth place overall. I don't know if you have thoughts on Shadow Dust Noir, but it seemed like the least popular ghost type for a reason.
00:27:13
zzweilous
I think like the fact that it made top cut on multiple teams is honestly just testament to how underrated it was going into this. um The person who popularized it like unwillingly to a degree didn't even make top cut. That was a 315 Katunari from Japan.
00:27:32
zzweilous
They excelled in practice tournaments. Like if you look at those chemical graphics, they're on there like three or four times because they just kept winning tournaments. But then the secret was out and more people were experimenting with the Shadow Dusk Noir.
00:27:43
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:27:46
zzweilous
And if you opt for that, that gives you just different play than the regular Dusk Clops or Corsola. And then all of a sudden your ghost isn't the safe pivot that you bring in if you want a neutral matchup.
00:28:02
zzweilous
It's an aggressive two-shell fast-move beatdown machine.
00:28:06
William Dunphey
yes
00:28:06
zzweilous
And those Shadow Astonishers chimes. The pacing to Shadow Punch is excellent. Dynamic Punch is a great coverage. And you will have to be careful of those like Dark Flyers that stand in your way.
00:28:21
zzweilous
There are counters to that Pokemon, but if you don't build your team with the Shadow Dusk Gnore in mind, you may just be in trouble because this is so much more aggressive and can win a game on its own.
00:28:31
William Dunphey
yeah
00:28:34
zzweilous
Whereas the other ghosts are more about setting up your teammates.
00:28:38
William Dunphey
Yeah. I mean, i don't know if people will get this, but to me, it's almost like if you had and ah an Annihilate and you injected it with venom, like in in Batman's Bane, then you would get Shadow Dust Noir, just something totally berserk, lots of damage output.
00:28:51
zzweilous
Bye.
00:28:53
William Dunphey
And the dynamic punch gives you that fighting type coverage against Cradula, against Lapras, against Digger's Beat, a lot of these other these other targets. that ah typically you you don't get in other ways. So I think it it required a very specific style of team building to support that Shadow Dust Noir.
00:29:10
William Dunphey
And even in matchups, like when Lyle Jeffs would bring it, I think he, I forget exactly who he played against. Maybe it was Trent who had the Shadow Drapion and he still, Lyle still brought that Shadow Dust Noir and the casters were like shocked.
00:29:23
William Dunphey
They're like, oh my gosh, even in spite of this, he's doubling down on the Pokemon.
00:29:23
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:29:26
William Dunphey
So, Again, I can't emphasize enough, it really depends on what you're comfortable bringing and what your play style is. You shouldn't force yourself in into playing any kind of high finesse team unless it fits your personality and fits your your approach.
00:29:40
William Dunphey
um
Stories of significant player performances
00:29:41
William Dunphey
It was really funny. You mentioned Shadow Steelix taking down Talonflame. We did a real ah real awesome skit. I'll try to insert it here at the 29 minute timestamp. We did an awesome skit called Sharpedo Tank.
00:29:52
William Dunphey
in which we brought in Arrow and Tauntaun and Richie, and we had them pitch their teams. And myself, Rocha, and and Butters were kind of like the the sharks, right? We're choosing who we're going invest in, which team we think is going to go all the way, that kind of thing.
00:30:07
William Dunphey
And Arrow told us, he said, Shadow Steelix can beat Townflame in the ones and the twos. with ah Even with Flame Charge, it can win those matchups. And when he told me that, you know, not looking at the Sims, I was like, Arrow, I'm sorry, but I'm out.
00:30:19
zzweilous
fourth place Gdansk
00:30:20
William Dunphey
I'm not in this deal. I just don't believe you. You've got double steel and you're going to take on Townflame. I think you're I think you're screwed, you know, more or less. so And then Tauntaun came on and he said, I'm going to play a Pokemon that actually top cut already in EU.
00:30:33
William Dunphey
It's an Astonish user. That's a dragon type. And I was like, no, no effing way you're going to play Dragapult in this tournament.
00:30:36
zzweilous
fourth place good done
00:30:42
William Dunphey
And he did, which, you know, this segues from our Astonish user debate.
00:30:43
zzweilous
yeah
00:30:46
William Dunphey
13th overall, Tauntaun Batuu's Dragapult. That was also insane.
00:30:52
zzweilous
Yeah, like if if anyone can do it, it's Tonton. Like this guy is just like EU is a spicy region and he is the spiciest EU player.
00:30:55
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:30:59
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:31:01
zzweilous
So like even i i'm trying to come for his title eventually, but he won a tournament with an Alolan Raticate earlier this season.
00:31:07
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:31:10
zzweilous
Like that's the type of player he is.
00:31:12
William Dunphey
yeah
00:31:13
zzweilous
And I think he just feels uncomfortable if he doesn't have a Pokemon like that on his team. Like the more meta he goes, the worse he performs. So I really appreciate him leaning into that Dragapult.
00:31:24
zzweilous
It is very squishy. That way he, like, like it kind of imitates the way a Pokemon like Shadow Dusknoir plays, where you have the 4-3 pacing to your 35 energy move.
00:31:36
zzweilous
You don't have the most bulk, but where Dragapult stands out is with its ability to, for example, resist the incinerate pressure from a Talonflame and just like a lot of good resistances come with being a dragon type.
00:31:49
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:31:54
zzweilous
um So yeah, I did enjoy that pick a lot, even though i personally it was a little doubtful going into it, whether that could work, but yeah, he did make it work.
00:32:03
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And with this new season, i mean, dragons might get even better pretty soon. so we're going to have to see.
00:32:11
zzweilous
Oh yeah.
00:32:12
William Dunphey
I'm not sure if there are any teams that you wanted to point out. The last note that I had was Axan basically recycling his NAIC team and not changing a thing and coming into this meta, which is not something at all that I predicted.
00:32:27
zzweilous
Yeah, like Axan is like definitely back first and foremost. like We were thinking like, oh, is he going to take the triple crown back to back to back?
00:32:37
zzweilous
That would have been probably like asking too much, but he did mention that he didn't even like the meta. That's nice if you don't like the meta and still win NAIC.
00:32:47
zzweilous
um And he just ran it back because I guess comfort picks, I guess like never change a winning team and still made it to top 32,
00:32:47
William Dunphey
True.
00:32:47
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:32:56
zzweilous
Shoutouts to him. um I don't believe that like most of his team really aged well, but I guess sometimes it's just the driver, not the car.
00:33:06
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:33:06
zzweilous
So that was still a really good run. like One thing that I want to point out too is actually the highest placing American in the tournament, which is Firestar73. The style of the show was truly a fire type as Shadowtyphlosion made it all the way to to its top eight.
00:33:25
zzweilous
which is a very interesting core breaker, and that is, it is a fire type that is has very strong play into um like a water type like Lapras, but also wins the head-to-head in the fire mirror against Talonflame because Thunder Punch paces faster and just, like in the once and two, it just knocks out.
00:33:36
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:33:47
zzweilous
um Very strong against the Steel Bugs, obviously, And honestly, nothing wants to take a Shadow Blast burn. If you manage to set this up, if you manage to farm some energy somewhere, you can even one-shot an unfortunate Kanto Marowak.
00:34:04
zzweilous
So ah definitely one of the more exciting um picks in Top Cut. And also a fantastic result for Firestar, who...
00:34:13
zzweilous
like There's a lot of very prominent and accomplished American championship series contenders and a lot of trainers that may have not really met their own expectations at this tournament.
00:34:13
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:34:29
zzweilous
Whereas Firestar is somebody who doesn't attend as many events, still doing well at them, but kind of looking for a breakout performance still, one that matches his GBI accolades, which are plentiful.
00:34:40
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:34:40
zzweilous
But I think it was his first top eight and making that at the World Championships is honestly just the best place to do so.
00:34:48
William Dunphey
Exactly. Firestar was very impressive. I think we saw him in the Spice Bowl ah hosted by myself and Homestays Henry. He was actually very good in that one too. if I recall, he was playing Shadow Mighty Yenna, if I'm not mistaken. So guy knows what he's doing when it comes to to spicy Pokemon.
00:35:06
zzweilous
Oh, second Job 8 actually, yeah. But the first was just like Charlotte 2023. I feel as if both the, like the stage has gotten bigger for sure.
00:35:06
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:35:12
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:35:17
William Dunphey
Yeah, exactly. And I'm looking at his his record as well. Ninth in Atlanta is also impressive. That was recent. He did it with Corviknight, which is pretty sick. So definitely on on the up and coming, especially when you look at his NAIC 2024 results, right?
00:35:27
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:35:31
William Dunphey
Where he basically ah was but a blip on the radar going one, two. So he's...
00:35:35
zzweilous
I want to point out one stat now that I look at the Dracovus profile and that's matches won because sometimes it's not just about your final placement but also about how many rounds did you go through to arrive where you did arrive.
00:35:48
zzweilous
And that's eight matches won in Atlanta, eight matches won at NAIC and nine matches won at Worlds. And that's tournament winner levels. Like maybe dropping down into losers a little too early at times but the losers runs he goes on are
00:35:58
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:36:05
zzweilous
almost unparalleled because that's just crazy numbers.
00:36:10
William Dunphey
Yeah, I mean, he he is the basement bully. I don't know if there are any other funny ways we can say it. I think that that ah one of our casters pointed out that Firestar lives in the loser's bracket.
00:36:21
William Dunphey
I don't think that was very endearing. i would say he dwells he dwells in the loser's bracket is something that that maybe is a bit more appropriate.
00:36:24
zzweilous
Oh, man.
00:36:29
William Dunphey
But yeah, if if he stops dropping the earlier rounds in you know round one, two, three, four, whatever it might be, If he just is able to take that 8-0 run or the 7-0 run and just do it from the winner's side, he's winning events.
00:36:43
William Dunphey
like it's It's spontaneous at that point.
00:36:43
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:36:45
William Dunphey
so And if you look at his record as well, this actually segues perfectly because I wanted to highlight ah two different regions. and ah The first one was actually NA, and the first player i wanted to highlight was Firestar.
00:36:57
William Dunphey
So same same mind.
00:36:58
zzweilous
There go.
00:37:00
William Dunphey
Day one, Firestar had wins over the Aux 5005. ah The Ox had Talonflame and Pangoro on their team, which is pretty cool. He then took on Haydon as Actual with Blastoise, Fortress, and Talonflame.
00:37:13
William Dunphey
Holy talk about Typhlosion targets, right? If you have Thunder Punch and Incinerate, that was a plentiful feast.
00:37:16
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:37:19
William Dunphey
He lost to Trent, sending him down to the to the loser's bracket. So basically round three of the winner's side, he was sent down. He capped out his day one with five more wins over Anikor, Ngbeto, Javier V20, Zardy, and Wolfpack, who actually won a pretty intense set on stream.
00:37:40
William Dunphey
Day two, he would take wins over Pokemichi and Ice Chris. So Firestar is is literally disposing of people in that loser's side bracket. I mean, he is dumpstering people with with his gameplay.
00:37:53
William Dunphey
And then he would eventually lose to LNDS Coralash. So it seriously took a top four trainer in Coralash to take down Firestar, which, you know, you can say, you can look at the record and say he finished seventh overall, but seriously, he played insanely, insanely well.
00:38:02
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:38:09
William Dunphey
Beating trains from all kinds of different regions.
00:38:09
zzweilous
Yeah. I think he took down four people that have a ah championship winning jersey in-game. um If you can take down four event winners, then you can win an event for sure.
00:38:23
William Dunphey
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it's it's so ironic. I'm going to throw this meme up on screen ah for all of our our YouTube audience as well. But Dylap posted a really funny meme about carrying. don't know if you've seen this yet.
00:38:39
William Dunphey
Let me see. I'll send you the link.
00:38:40
zzweilous
I may have not. will check for it.
00:38:43
William Dunphey
I'm going to get your real reaction. I'm going send it to you Discord right now. So...
00:38:47
zzweilous
Oh, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it.
00:38:50
William Dunphey
He's got...
00:38:51
zzweilous
Oh, man.
00:38:51
William Dunphey
He's got carrying EU. It's a picture of Pata man just smoldering like he always does in his in his photos. Carrying Asia, Beelzebue with his world champion trophy. Carrying LATAM, you've got Harjef and Coralash, which obviously are two of Brazil's best.
00:39:06
William Dunphey
And then carrying NA is just a Boeing 747, which is just the funniest thing.
00:39:11
zzweilous
Oh, man.
00:39:13
William Dunphey
Which is just the funniest thing.
00:39:14
zzweilous
Like, it's back-to-back Worlds without an NA trainer in top four. Like, what's what's even happening?
00:39:19
William Dunphey
We used up all of our luck in Yokohama, all right? Top three and A in Yokohama, we used it up for a generation, I guess.
00:39:22
zzweilous
Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:25
William Dunphey
But yeah, this this meme is hilarious. And it's so funny as well when you consider that. We did have ah Lyle from from Canada in top five, and then we had Firestar at seventh overall from North America. So it wasn't the usual suspects. It wasn't the pocket. It wasn't the Elam. It wasn't you know the Dunebug or the Rise that you typically expect.
00:39:46
William Dunphey
But yeah, NA still has ah has some gems, I would say. And we are still a very dense region. It just feels like at
00:39:52
zzweilous
Definitely.
Regional trainer achievements
00:39:53
William Dunphey
Worlds, we just can't compete.
00:39:55
zzweilous
think like it's still such a small sample size. It's two tournaments.
00:39:59
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:39:59
zzweilous
You just need to get your shit together the next time.
00:40:00
William Dunphey
True.
00:40:01
zzweilous
and it's it's all going to It's all going to work out.
00:40:03
William Dunphey
True, true.
00:40:06
zzweilous
One thing like while we're on the topic of um American trainers is that I feel as if some of the top cutters that you did have, like the few that you did have, are actually...
00:40:06
William Dunphey
Thanks.
00:40:17
William Dunphey
Oh, thanks.
00:40:19
zzweilous
it I actually like trainers that if we look back at our preview, I don't even think we mentioned them, but they would be like a little bit on the like bouncing back from previous results type of trainers where you have Magic Mason who obviously is one of the best, but not really one of the most featured trainers in recent years.
00:40:25
William Dunphey
Nope.
00:40:33
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:40:40
zzweilous
I feel like he was really big in like 2023 where um he was up there with the Rises and Doom Bugs.
00:40:43
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:40:46
zzweilous
That just calmed down a little little bit. Maybe you also didn't. um attend all that many events but now back strong with a 9th place finish. um Trent, who is somebody who I think publicly was wondering about retirement already.
00:41:05
zzweilous
Too good to retire.
00:41:05
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:41:06
zzweilous
too good to retire. You have to keep at it.
00:41:07
William Dunphey
Too good.
00:41:08
zzweilous
I'm so sorry. But that was a fantastic run to top 16.
00:41:12
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:41:12
zzweilous
And also players like Arrow who took me down. um
00:41:16
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:41:16
zzweilous
Players like JayJan, same... top 17 placement, like those are trainers that like had their moments in the past, but maybe weren't as expected to do super well at this tournament.
00:41:30
zzweilous
If you compare them to the pockets, to the nighttime clashes, to the dream books, to their Isis. So Elam as well, like those were the trainers that dominated the North American circuit during the regular season. But I guess worlds is a different beast.
00:41:44
zzweilous
And it also just goes to show how deep the pool of talent is. and how small the margins can be at an event like this.
00:41:52
William Dunphey
I really appreciate that you pointed it out Arrow. i know I know it's only been 10 days easy. It's probably too soon, but I just got to talk about him a little bit here. So Arrow started off his day one with wins over Avrip,
00:42:03
William Dunphey
ah Flying Pizza, aka the Harjefe Slayer, Master Mehir, and ZZ, right? So he had four wins. ah His losses were to Beelzebue, and then he immediately turned around and lost the rematch to Master Mehir.
00:42:17
William Dunphey
So honestly, he lost to the world champ, and he lost to Master Mehir, who I believe finished seventh overall. Very, very high finish for him as well.
00:42:25
zzweilous
Yes.
00:42:25
William Dunphey
um Arrow is one of those trainers that you look at him, and you look at his history, creating content, competing in grassroots, competing in regionals, And you say, wait, this guy has not won an event yet. Like what the hell is going on?
00:42:37
William Dunphey
This is insane. He's been so close multiple times with, I would argue his closest one being against Dunebug in San Antonio, going to that, ah that bracket reset. That was absolutely heartbreaking.
00:42:48
William Dunphey
ah But I would like to see Ero succeed. And Arrow, if you're listening, I'm sorry that I shot down your Shadow Steelix in the Sharpedo tank. I do think there was some merit to it. And great team reads as well this weekend, man. I told him at the venue, I sent him a DM as well. I said, dude, I think your moment is coming.
00:43:04
William Dunphey
And i really i really sincerely hope that it does soon because he's worked very hard. So, yeah, just wanted to spotlight Arrow there. Sorry, ZZ. But I think he's he deserves a little a little shine.
00:43:13
zzweilous
It's all good. i'm I'm certainly not mad at losing to him.
00:43:15
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:43:18
zzweilous
I'm mad that I'm always in his group.
00:43:18
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:43:21
zzweilous
I managed to avoid him up until this point, but
00:43:21
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:43:24
zzweilous
Against somebody who's known for unconventional play, i tend to get in my head a little too much. So I did have the superior in the back because I expected him, I expected like a regular player to bring Blastoise in the last game.
00:43:31
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:43:39
zzweilous
And then I switched it out for the Townflame because I thought I'm playing Arrow. And then he had the Blastoise on my Townflame, but that was not good.
00:43:47
William Dunphey
I finally...
00:43:47
zzweilous
It's a risky run.
00:43:48
William Dunphey
I fondly remember ADL battles where Arrow would make a switch or he would, he would bring something out. And I'm just like, what, what are you doing? Like, what does this mean? What do you think that I have in the back?
00:43:59
William Dunphey
This doesn't make any sense.
00:44:00
zzweilous
yes
00:44:01
William Dunphey
ah So it's ironic that he pivots from being Arrow to being more standard.
00:44:01
zzweilous
and
00:44:06
William Dunphey
And that's the moment when it's like, oh, I wasn't ready for this.
00:44:10
zzweilous
He set up certain expectations and that that may help him in some situations for sure.
00:44:14
William Dunphey
Exactly.
00:44:18
William Dunphey
Exactly. Last trainer I wanted to highlight just briefly. We've talked about him a little bit here. i got to interview him on stage and that was honestly very cathartic as well because that was one of the the best moments I've seen Lyle, especially mid-competition.
00:44:32
William Dunphey
If you followed him throughout the seasons, he's always very focused. He's very direct. He's very short because his mind is literally on the next game, on on the matchups. ah He's very, very determined to win. And he puts a ton of pressure, an enormous amount of pressure on his on his own shoulders.
00:44:48
William Dunphey
ah Lyle Jeffs had a really, really good run. Wins over DeSynced. He started the day off hot against DeSynced. Took on Ventusky, who obviously i have a long-running friendship with. Kazim33 and Pokimichi.
00:45:00
William Dunphey
ah Day number two, he was beaten by fellow North American Trent. ah Then he lost to... Or sorry, he he won against Trent. Excuse me. Fellow North American Trent. Then he lost to Pato and Corlash. So if you're to lose anyone...
00:45:14
William Dunphey
It's the EUIC champ and runner up at Worlds and Coralash, arguably one of LATAM's top trainers right now. So Lyle had an incredible run and I know he's talking about retirement. He muses over this periodically, you know, every quarter almost, but no, exactly.
00:45:27
zzweilous
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like that's not the first time this season, even. 100%.
00:45:31
William Dunphey
And and to the same point you made about Trent, ah too good to quit. Sorry, Lyle, but we need you to keep playing, inspiring people and being an awesome person because we we adore you and want you in the community.
00:45:41
William Dunphey
So Hopefully Lyle comes back. If he needs take a break, that's fine, but I would love to see him compete some more.
00:45:47
zzweilous
hundred percent
00:45:50
William Dunphey
Last thing I wanted to highlight was India. ah There was a a slight revision that I needed to make, and this is due to something that was brought to my attention by ah my my good friend, my dear friend, Shiny Hunter Ben.
00:46:03
William Dunphey
So we kept on saying during the tournament that we had two trainers from India that were competing. I know that several trainers have Indian heritage and maybe they lived there at one point, maybe their family lives there currently. Uh, we mentioned master me here and Bielzeboy, but shiny hundred been pointed out that, uh,
00:46:19
William Dunphey
Abhinav actually played the first three months of the 2025 season in the US s and then he moved back to India and he had been in India since January. So he had been there for quite a while and he just recently returned to start university.
00:46:32
William Dunphey
So I know we were saying only two trainers from India, but you would argue that Abhinav, although he qualified for Worlds via a North American tournament, has spent a majority of his season in India.
00:46:35
zzweilous
Thanks.
00:46:44
William Dunphey
But i want to mention the ah the other two, Master Mehir and Beelzebhoy, just really briefly. ah Master Mehir started the day off in day one with the winner of a game bird. ah He beat Abhinav, so also very poetic that he would take on another trader from from India.
00:46:58
William Dunphey
Lost to Arrow, but in the loser's bracket, ah sorry, ZZ, it's too soon. He won over Kaifia, Avrip, Danny Booz, ZZWilis, and Arrow as well.
00:47:04
zzweilous
thank
00:47:08
William Dunphey
So he avenged his loss to Arrow. ah Day two losers bracket, he beat TomTon and Trent before Maxi and his immaculate, honestly, just incredible Galarian Moltres plays were able to finally take down Master Bihir. So India's got a great track record. Both of their trainers finishing ah very, very high. Obviously one of them being a champion. So we need to watch out for India. They're the real deal.
00:47:31
zzweilous
yeah Like, i said it after I met Masumi here in a grassroots tournament in March where I was like, okay, I won this tournament, but my grand finals opponent actually outplayed me. I just had the team comp advantage.
00:47:47
William Dunphey
Yep. Mm-hmm.
00:47:47
zzweilous
Now at Worlds, we had even team comps and he just still outplayed me.
00:47:48
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:47:51
zzweilous
So this time it was a 2-0 to him. But yeah, it was it was great ah meeting the guy in person. um Very impressive showing and actually could only be stopped by another trainer with Indian heritage because Maximilian P actually like squarely a u k player, but falls under that category as well. If we want to count honorary Indians as well in terms of top performance.
00:48:19
zzweilous
But yeah, i will I will mostly count him as one of our own in terms of EU talent, because honestly, like we talked about it after the Utrecht episode,
00:48:20
William Dunphey
Oh, it's amazing.
00:48:31
zzweilous
Maxi should have won that tournament. i It was a miscount when he had the tournament winning move ready. And some trainers may have not been able to come back from a moment like that.
00:48:44
zzweilous
He comes back with a fifth place finish at Worlds. So um that is honestly the best response you can have to a heartbreaking moment like that.
00:48:53
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:48:54
zzweilous
And yeah, there were like a bunch of EU runs that I loved witnessing over the course of the weekend. There was Jox, who is good friend of mine as well.
00:49:04
zzweilous
um We did go out to LA a ah day or two before the tournament, and he was still like looking for his um shiny shadow Scizor. He was like, okay, can you alert me when there's a go my super bug Pokemon gru around here?
00:49:22
zzweilous
I want a shiny for the event. And the day before the event, He still, he did get the Shiny. We don't talk about the IVs, but it powered up to like 4098.
00:49:31
zzweilous
And he was able to run that Shadow Shiny Scizor.
00:49:31
William Dunphey
yeah
00:49:34
William Dunphey
yeah
00:49:35
zzweilous
And he managed to get his best tournament placement to date at Worlds with this Pokemon that he wanted so badly. So that was really, really lovely. Eventually eliminated by Maxi.
00:49:47
zzweilous
um And yeah, like overall, you with a really, really good showing. Like obviously we have Pato as... the standout EU player of the season in the grand finals, but also we just had 11 players in top 32, which is the most out of any region.
00:50:04
zzweilous
So
Tournament analysis and predictions review
00:50:05
zzweilous
if we talk about, okay, like in terms of depth of quality, EU may be the strongest region.
00:50:05
William Dunphey
yeah
00:50:11
zzweilous
I feel like we made another, made another good case for that. And yeah, with Pato, one thing I do want to say before we maybe move on to the grand finals, potentially, um in our last episode, we did,
00:50:24
zzweilous
talk about okay who are the rivals from the various regions i don't believe that there is a part of manzi's wireless rivalry at this point like i i need to do more to still call this a rivalry because that man just has eclipsed to anyone in this region this this season um so yeah for sure and incredible
00:50:35
William Dunphey
What?
00:50:41
William Dunphey
Ah, I see.
00:50:52
zzweilous
And like a bittersweet end, but still an incredible end to potentially the only season ever that sees a trainer in three day threes. UIC champion, NAIC third place finisher, world's finalist.
00:51:07
zzweilous
I don't know whether that that will ever be repeated by anybody.
00:51:07
William Dunphey
Wow.
00:51:11
William Dunphey
Wow. When you put it that way, that's kind of ludicrous. That's kind of a, wow.
00:51:15
zzweilous
Yes. And it's also ludicrous to claim that you're the rival of somebody like that.
00:51:21
William Dunphey
ah Okay. Okay. i'm I'm starting to come around to your point. Yeah. We don't want to just bounce in and say, oh yeah, I'm equal. You know, I'm neck and neck with Pata man.
00:51:29
zzweilous
exactly we're we're working on it yeah we're working on it like i will win an event next season you heard it here first
00:51:29
William Dunphey
ah But this just means this is the beginning of your comeback arc. Exactly. Exactly.
00:51:37
William Dunphey
Clip it. Clip it, everyone. I'm entering the timestamp here. ah But no, um um you know what? We are headed into the grand finals here. I think we've highlighted a lot of different stories.
00:51:48
William Dunphey
There were so many surprises and so many fun players to talk about. Jox was incredible on stage. I think he even gave an interview about the Shadow Scissor, which is really, really funny. Andris was exceptional. There were so many other really good trainers. It's hard to mention everyone. So...
00:52:02
William Dunphey
If you are listening to this and you did compete at Worlds, just know ZZ and I are super, super proud of you. thought you were awesome. And I thought ah overall, this skill cap for Worlds, it just continues to rise every single time.
00:52:13
William Dunphey
I was watching back matches that Inadequance and Tomahawk casted. And there were insane CMP switch ah ties that I didn't even realize happened on stage because I was i was backstage working on other things. So it was it was actually insane.
00:52:29
William Dunphey
ZZ, why don't we just briefly, we'll recap how we did with our predictions and then we'll go into the grand finals and we'll ah we'll head towards a wrap up after we talk about closing ceremonies. How does that sound?
00:52:39
zzweilous
Let's do it. Yes, yes.
00:52:41
William Dunphey
All right. So we'll run through this real quick. I know a lot of trainers probably have seen this online. We posted each on our socials. And then I think we we have it in the youtube from YouTube episode from last preview as well. So heating up, I had Adib Khan, Sudmuffins, and Charming Pory.
00:52:57
William Dunphey
Did not do too well here. Adib was Sudmuffins 2-2, Charming Pory 1-2. Heating up, ZZ had its Axin nickname and Ashton Ash. You, of course, struggled with Axin finishing 6-2 overall.
00:53:09
William Dunphey
Nickname was 1-2, and Ashton Ash was 2-2. On the rebound, I had Dunebug, Harjeff, and Ryze. Dunebug 1-2, Harjeff and Ryze 2-2. On the rebound, you had a more balanced output here.
00:53:21
William Dunphey
Lyle Jeff's finishing 5-2, Out of Pocket 1-2, and Tauntaun Batu's 5-2. ah Dark Horse candidates, I was 2-2 all the way. i had Ashton Ash, Sceptile, and Richie. So none of my Dark Horses really got out of the stable, I would argue.
00:53:36
William Dunphey
ah For you, this was interesting because you picked Boom 20, Master Mehir, and SS Thorn. And two of your three picks actually weren't able to attend Worlds. ah Your one pick that did attend 9-2 Master Mehir, our Shadow Annihilate ah Mastermind, didn't even bring the Shadow Annihilate, but still absolutely crushed.
00:53:54
William Dunphey
That's the halfway point. I'm not sure if there's anything you want to weigh in on. or I can just run through the rest of them.
00:53:59
zzweilous
I will just take Can we say we take the average of each kind category so like we can cross out Thorn and boom for the last one?
00:54:04
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:54:07
zzweilous
Okay, we'll take that.
00:54:08
William Dunphey
Yes. Yeah, I think that's totally fair. For Machampians, I picked up Coralash, Potaman. Already you can tell I'm an S tier ah picker when it comes to Machampians.
00:54:19
William Dunphey
And nickname. Coralash, 9 and 2. Potaman, 8 and 2. And nickname, 1 and 2. For my champions, you had Marto Galde, unfortunately one of our O2 victims.
00:54:29
William Dunphey
You had Potaman as well with eight and two And Elam, who finished 4-2, which was actually my world's favorite to win it all. Returning to the WCS category, I had Itzaxan at six and two Marto was on to And I had PvP David, who actually went 3-2.
00:54:45
William Dunphey
Return to the WCS, you had Richie, two and two Yakai, who went three and two And Palasha, who is 5-2. Again, another very, very solid but kind of quiet run from Palasha.
00:54:57
William Dunphey
And I'm really excited to do to see what she does next season. Finally, we have our wild cards. I had Yakai at Tauntaun at five two and Nighttime Clasher at 3-2. Nighttime Clasher was actually one of the first victims of Bielseboy, I believe, in round two. So...
00:55:11
William Dunphey
That was a rough start for him. Wild cards, Kachunari, 4-2, Kazim, 4-2, and Mengmi, which was actually 5-2, which is really impressive for Seijun Park.
00:55:20
zzweilous
yeah
00:55:20
William Dunphey
So those those are your picks there. um We agreed on the most improved and being Kaifia, and then our world's favorite I just left out of the equation. So I put all the numbers in. And I averaged the wins.
00:55:33
William Dunphey
So with all my picks, I had 55 total wins. And with all of your picks, you had 54. And that's even considering that two of yours were not categorized.
00:55:40
zzweilous
ah
00:55:43
zzweilous
I
00:55:45
William Dunphey
So you averaged 3.375 wins per trainer, and I only averaged 3.05. So I say average. Well, so i will say on average
00:55:52
zzweilous
yeah love that we have two metrics and we can decide who is the winner based on which we take. This is so much diplomatic.
00:55:59
William Dunphey
well So diplomatic, right? ah People have called me the the politician before. But no, to be fair, I do think that with your picks, you had the higher winning average at three almost 3.4 wins per trainer, which I think is definitely yeah remarkable. So I think you might have won this this ah this World's Recap.
00:56:22
zzweilous
I'll take it. I'll take it.
00:56:23
William Dunphey
Yeah, very good. Very, very well done. um That being said, I think it's time to move on to the grand finals. And I think we should talk about the battles first, and then we can talk about the venue and closing ceremonies, and then we'll wrap up the show.
00:56:31
zzweilous
Oh yes.
00:56:37
William Dunphey
Because like you said, this is ah a bit more of a digestible episode. um But yeah, I mean, I have my thoughts on the grand finals. I'm curious what you thought.
00:56:45
zzweilous
So I'm going to start us off with talking about the winners finals just briefly, not as a play-by-play, but just as like, this is the pretext to the grand finals, right?
00:56:50
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:56:55
zzweilous
Because those trainers met in four battles already.
00:56:58
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:56:58
zzweilous
And Beelzeboy trusted in the same line each time. was Annihilator Bleed, Moltres in the back, and then Steelix. But that didn't really go his way. Like, you would think that he has a little bit of a team comp advantage with how free Moltres seems into Partiment's team.
00:57:14
zzweilous
Part of Man running the Galarian Corsela, obviously weak to Moltres. The Lapras, which does have play, but may need to bait in the two shields because Sparkling Arya and Sidewave will not cut it. He has to land the Ice Beam.
00:57:27
zzweilous
Then Fortress, which is little bit of a risky bring. It takes a long time to get to a Rock Tomb. If that connects, great, but it's more of a neutral-ish matchup. Then there's Cradilly, where I mentioned earlier that while Cradilly just in a 1v1 is a decent answer,
00:57:44
zzweilous
um With shields and energy, Moltres can do stuff there. And then two relatively hard wins against the Goliath support, which is on Shadowclaw in Partomans' case, which gives it a lot of play against ghost types, um which we didn't see on Meal's Abyss Oh, we did see the Annihilator.
00:57:54
William Dunphey
Very important. Yeah.
00:58:02
zzweilous
That is technically a ghost type. But I guess, like, honestly, the Furykata one can also win that matchup.
00:58:04
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:58:07
zzweilous
um It's not as much of an edge as it would be against, like, a Galerian Korsala or... um a Dusclops, and then there is the Kanto Marowak as the last Pokémon.
00:58:15
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:58:18
zzweilous
So into at least three of them, Moltres has a heart-winning matchup, and then it has play into the others. So that is essentially why we will always see Moltres from Beelzebue.
00:58:27
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:58:32
zzweilous
And because the best answers from Part 2 to that Pokémon are probably Fortress, Lapras, and Crudeli, we can see why Beelzeboy was leaning into the annihilate a decent amount because two of them are weak to counter and the other is doing double resisted bug bites into the annihilate.
00:58:51
zzweilous
So that core was something that intuitively made sense to Beelzeboy during the winner's finals. It did not go his way. How did these trainers adjust? do you want start us off, Speedy?
00:59:02
William Dunphey
Uh, you know, I'm, I'm looking at trends here and I just noticed something pretty remarkable about championship Sunday. ah but I think the main point you and I discussed this before we started recording is that the Elzaboy effectively bench that shadow annihilate, just recognizing that it was, uh, under so much duress from something like Larian Corsula. And it was just really struggling to find its openings, uh, deciding to bench it in favor of shadow Steelix or in favor of, uh,
00:59:27
William Dunphey
Basically, yes, Shadow Steelix was definitely ah an interesting change. um I want to mention as well, I'm noticing this, that in all nine games played in the Grand Finals, we had a 3-1, and then it went to game five in the reset.
00:59:41
William Dunphey
In every single game, Beelzebue brought Galarian Moltres and Lapras Core. Every single game. Shuffled around the Steelix, brought the Shadow Annihilate one time.
00:59:49
zzweilous
Yes.
00:59:51
William Dunphey
And other than that, it was a a consistent duo.
00:59:51
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:59:54
William Dunphey
So, I'm curious what your thoughts are on adjustments because it felt like Potaman was able to strike back only when he he was able to overwhelm the Glare and Moltres.
00:59:55
zzweilous
yeah
01:00:03
William Dunphey
And once the bird went down, Beelzeboy seemed to run out of gas relatively quickly. And that was like a common theme through a lot of the battles that I watched. But I'm curious if you saw the same thing.
01:00:13
zzweilous
Yes. So before the reset, we actually YVL Zevoie trusting the same three Pokemon every time, like occasionally switching up the order, whether it's a Steelix lead, which um I think happened in the first game, or whether it's a Lapras lead, which happened in the subsequent games.
01:00:28
William Dunphey
Correct.
01:00:31
zzweilous
um And yeah, the very first match, we have Pato's Lapras into Steelix, and then there's a Lapras-Moltris backline for Beelzeboy, a Kosola-Marowak backline for Pato. And Pato is immediately in a very tough spot here.
01:00:46
zzweilous
on because the like he needs to draw out the Moltres, but the Moltres can just farm down either the Kosala or the Kanto Marowak and unleash a ton of damage into the lead Pokemon after it farms is his target down.
01:01:10
William Dunphey
Correct.
01:01:10
zzweilous
So, like, how do you play this? Like, you have to swap here, but The Corsula doesn't even have a great matchup into Steelix. And at the end of the day, was a very risky strategy bringing two Pokemon in the Corsula and the Marowak that just get demolished by the Mortriss, especially because with the Steelix in the front, the Marowak will just not find a target anymore.
01:01:35
zzweilous
um So yeah, this strategy swiftly ended with a 1-0 for Beelzeboy and a necessary adjustment by Patoman, who... um then benched the Cantum Marowak in favor of um the Cridily, which if you look at Steelix, does Thunderfang damage, Lapras weak to both Grass and Rock, Moltres weak to Rock.
01:01:51
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:01:59
zzweilous
Cridily has a lot of great play into those three, so Pato adjusted. um Let Corsola into Lapras, had Lapras and Cridily in the bag for Steelix and and won game two thanks to Lapras energy in the end, because um I think he farmed down the Lapras exactly in the Lapras mirror match, exited with... but So exactly meaning at the very second, the half second, the Lapras got to a sparkling aria.
01:02:29
zzweilous
um Very, very precise gameplay there to exit with two sparkling arias to unleash against a healthy but shieldless Steelix to take the second game in favor of Pato.
01:02:41
zzweilous
um Then Pato does something that I didn't expect. And I think I had reason to not expect it because not only does he go double weak to the Galarian Moltres, but he does so in an ABA fashion.
01:02:56
zzweilous
Not only does he do that in an ABA fashion, he also leads the Canto Merowag into the Lapras. So again, it doesn't fight the Steelix.
01:03:03
William Dunphey
yeah
01:03:04
zzweilous
It's very good at RPSing the Steelix and the energy would go places. um But yeah, right now he's just again in a really tough spot because he has to kind of get his Marrowag away from the Lapras, um hopefully bait out the Steelix, but um unfortunately, the Goliath support that he did bring doesn't have the greatest play into either of the three.
01:03:31
zzweilous
Like, the Goliath support is useful if you get it aligned against the um Annihilate.
01:03:32
William Dunphey
Agreed.
01:03:38
zzweilous
It is useful if you expect the K-Wag or the Tinkerton, but the K-Wag or the Tinkerton just didn't ever come for Bjerzeboj. So the goal eye support was essentially useless. It had like neutral play into Lapras still, but it never really got alignment and it was a tough bring.
01:03:59
zzweilous
And yeah, it came out twice in the grand finals. It lost both um games and Bjerzeboj even managed to call the Bone Club baits um when he didn't even need to.
01:04:09
zzweilous
He was so far ahead, called the Bone Club regardless,
01:04:10
William Dunphey
That was crazy.
01:04:13
zzweilous
um And yeah, just really, they really took it based on Pato apparently making a little bit of a line call that didn't go his way.
01:04:15
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:04:21
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:04:23
zzweilous
The last match before the reset was a little curious because we see the Lapras mirror and we find out new information, which is that Pato's Lapras actually wins charge attack priority.
01:04:35
zzweilous
So the way you would expect this matchup to go then is for Pato to just throw the last Sparkling Aria on charge attack priority and take switch advantage to then align the Korsula to whatever isn't the Moltres and the Fortress that he had in the back to the Moltres to backbite it down to wear it down with the Rock Tomes or Sand Tomes.
01:04:56
zzweilous
um But what happens is actually a little bit of a curious play where I don't know whether Apartheid intended to lose swap or whether he just anticipated maybe a catch um even though nothing really tanks the sparkling area better than the Laplace that was already in the matchup, where he doesn't actually fire off the last sparkling area even though he had it available.
01:05:20
William Dunphey
I noticed that, yeah.
01:05:20
zzweilous
on And yeah, that essentially led to Beelzeboy taking switch advantage and dictating the outcome of the match from there. um So that was the first half of the grand finals.
01:05:36
zzweilous
What we now see is the bracket reset. Beelzeboy has the momentum on his side. Pato needs to adjust. He has tried essentially... Has he tried every Pokémon on his team yet?
01:05:47
zzweilous
He did try the Pod, he did try the Lapras, he did try the Corsula, he did try the Fortress, he did try the Kaywag, he did try the Cradilly.
01:05:50
William Dunphey
correct
01:05:55
zzweilous
All six Pokémon already came out and it's all it's only been four games that have been played. So what worked for Pato?
01:06:02
William Dunphey
yep
01:06:03
zzweilous
The Corsula, Lapras, Dilly team worked the best. So he brings us ah he he brings the Dily back first, um but he does pair it again with the Fortress, because if you run Dily Fortress core, you are in a good spot against the Moltres, because you have both a decent matchup in the front and in the back.
01:06:28
zzweilous
You would get punished by the Annihilate, but Potter knows that Beelzeboy has learned from the Winners Finals and has benched the Annihilate. um
01:06:36
William Dunphey
yep
01:06:37
zzweilous
So what happens in the first match of the reset is actually something fairly curious because it starts off with a Cradilly into Steelix matchup with Fortress Corsula and Lapras Moltres in the back and the first move that is thrown is just a straight rock tomb from Pato's side.
01:06:57
zzweilous
Maybe assuming that two Grassnauts with the double resisted acid damage or triple resisted even ah may not knock out the Steelix um therefore opting for that little bit of chip that will also help mitigate the um effects of the psychic effects that will be coming this way.
01:07:16
zzweilous
um The fancy play that... um
01:07:23
zzweilous
Is that that? Okay, let let me let me check this actually. is this already the game where...
01:07:27
William Dunphey
Let
01:07:31
zzweilous
um because but Yeah, yeah, this is the...
01:07:32
William Dunphey
let me see my notes.
01:07:33
zzweilous
the city Yeah, It's the last sentence, even though it happens in a last sentence of my notes, even though it happens early in the game, where Belzeboy actually catches a grass knot from the Cradilly on his Gallerian Moltres, which is insanity, because if Pato doesn't throw there, he will have two rock tombs ready for that Gallerian Moltres.
01:07:44
William Dunphey
Yes. Yes.
01:07:53
zzweilous
So he catches the grass move, ah then shields up the rock tomb, managed to do some switch timer shenanigans, and yeah, the the end game essentially...
01:07:53
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:08:03
zzweilous
um ends up with the Steelix, which is really kind of unchecked outside of the Cradilly, which at that point is just really, really low, having so much energy that it just munches through the Corsola.
01:08:17
zzweilous
You see Pato shaking a set after apparently miscounting and letting a crunch go, um where at that point, at that point, you wonder, is he able to come back from this?
01:08:17
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:08:22
William Dunphey
Yeah, that was the backbreaker. Yeah.
01:08:29
zzweilous
And honestly, the fact that after this, after losing 1-3 in the first set,
01:08:29
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:08:33
zzweilous
They're going down ah one in the second set. That Pathos still comes back and ties up the series to a 2-2 later on. I think that is so impressive, honestly.
01:08:40
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:08:43
zzweilous
Because at this moment, I was wondering whether he would have the mental fortitude to to really make the comeback.
01:08:43
William Dunphey
yeah
01:08:51
zzweilous
um
01:08:52
William Dunphey
Yeah. Pottsman really turned a corner mentally, emotionally this season.
01:08:53
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:08:56
William Dunphey
i feel like this is similar to what out of pocket did last year when he won NAIC. ah For some reason, you know, younger trainers, they they really wear their emotions on their sleeve a lot of the time.
01:09:08
William Dunphey
And Pottsman and pocket both just made leaps and bounds in terms of maintaining their mental strength, especially through loser's bracket runs and after taking hard losses. So I agree with you. Seeing Potaman bounce back was actually very impressive.
01:09:21
William Dunphey
And this whole... ah Obviously, I want you to finish the the breakdown because I find this super fascinating. But this whole series, I didn't realize at first how much this was colored by that winner's finals matchup that they had before and how the specter of Shadow Annihilate basically towered over every decision that Potta Man made in this grand finals. But please please continue.
01:09:48
zzweilous
And I think that after going ABA a to Annihilate, um we are in game two of the bracket reset.
01:09:52
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:09:54
zzweilous
There's a boy already 1-0 up.
01:09:54
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:09:57
zzweilous
And now Pato feels as if he needs to account for that Shadow Annihilate at least to a degree again. So this time he runs an ABB strategy with the Galarian Corsola in the lead with the Lapras and the Crudelia in the back. Essentially his three strongest, most most neutrally potent Pokemon.
01:10:16
zzweilous
um And I think this is one of my favorite plays and one that will echo in the decisive game vibe as well, where there's Korsola into Lapras.
01:10:27
zzweilous
um Eventually there's the Moltres pivot. This is um one thing that I did point out to you before where I'm always really impressed by if there's Lapras into Korsola lead, Bielseboy doesn't pivot immediately.
01:10:35
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:10:42
zzweilous
It is like two sidewaves or five sidewaves so that the moment he pivots out,
01:10:45
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:10:47
zzweilous
is the exact moment when Pathos starts a whole new Astonish. So essentially giving the Moltres that switches in one extra turn of energy advantage compared to when you take the turn, like, and essentially come in one turn after the Astonish started.
01:11:05
zzweilous
So by doing this amount of sideways, by taking this amount of turns, doing fast attacks first, you lock your opponent into um a fast move and give yourself a slight energy head start.
01:11:18
zzweilous
And this allows the Moltres to essentially keep pace with the Cradilly counterswap.
01:11:18
William Dunphey
Exactly.
01:11:25
zzweilous
um It allows it to bait flies to threaten Bravebirds. um And yeah, like we end up in a position where the players essentially trade shields, but not only did they trade shields, Pato also managed to debuff the Moltres twice by throwing rock tombs at it.
01:11:47
zzweilous
And at this point, the timer is back up. And what Pato does is incredibly smart because he knows the Moltres very, very debuffed. It's not a big threat anymore. He can pivot into the Korsula again, which used to be the matchup that the Moltres wanted to be in.
01:12:02
zzweilous
But at this point, the Moltres is in power gem range.
01:12:02
William Dunphey
Yep. Mm-hmm.
01:12:04
zzweilous
It's very debuffed. And the Korsula already has a little bit of energy. So Korsula actually paces to the knockout blow, takes down the Moltres, and essentially sets Pato up for a game to victory and kind of helps to swing the pendulum a little bit back into his favor. um So yeah, that was a game that was really masterfully played from both trainers, but with the better strategy at that point from Pato.
01:12:33
zzweilous
on But then we see another instance of do not bring the Goliath support, the Goliath support does not have play because
01:12:45
zzweilous
Again, Pato knows the Annihilate will come
Grand finals detailed breakdown
01:12:49
zzweilous
eventually. This time he goes for another APB, but this time the Bs are what's strong against ah the Annihilate, whereas the the lead Pokemon, is the Crudilly.
01:12:50
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:13:02
zzweilous
And the Crudilly stares down the Annihilate. It is back after six games of a not coming out. ah The Shadow Ape hits the field again, finds its target, and yeah, at that point,
01:13:02
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:13:09
William Dunphey
Exactly.
01:13:15
zzweilous
I feel as if that's just like another dismantling of the Shadow Claw Belize support, which is so strong if it has to counter a Pokemon like Dust Clops, but has a very pitiful matchup against Pokemon like Moltres, where the Shadow Claw is resisted rather than um neutral Fury Cutters, which actually are able to flip that matchup in the one and two-shot scenario.
01:13:21
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:13:35
William Dunphey
yeah
01:13:39
zzweilous
um So really getting exposed on the counter swap there um And also, shout out to Bielzeboy for the endgame, where he did use an Ice Beam, where other people may have used the Sparkling Aria.
01:13:52
zzweilous
um Yeah, it's essentially kind of just downhill from there. I think it's a fairly comfortable win, even the Lapras is even um getting the honor of taking down the Dily with an Ice Beam.
01:14:03
zzweilous
So, um yeah, like the part play has not really been working out, and it's no different in this game.
01:14:03
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:14:08
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:14:10
zzweilous
But again, Pato does bounce back. And he goes back to what worked before, bringing the Corsola Lapras Dili, which is just his safest line. And now staring down ah familiar foe in Steelix Lapras Moltres, again benching the Annihilate, potentially ah scared of Corsola alignment, maybe ah little confused that the pot is coming out time and time again.
01:14:26
William Dunphey
yep
01:14:37
zzweilous
And yeah, Beelzebue is trying to avoid that matchup. So... so This matchup is an interesting one as well because yeah like halfway through it, it almost looks as if Beelzeboy is in a position to win.
01:14:54
zzweilous
it It looks like it may all be over already because after the Corso-Lestilix matchup plays out and gives um part of the initial switch advantage, he hard pivots into um the Lapras and that allows...
01:14:57
William Dunphey
Agreed.
01:15:10
William Dunphey
Yep. Yes. Mm-hmm.
01:15:12
zzweilous
um So the reason why Pato does that is because of the annihilate, right? Because if you don't see save that little bit of Corsola that you do have left, you just run risk of getting completely demolished by a two-shield annihilate in the back.
01:15:17
William Dunphey
yes
01:15:26
zzweilous
um So you'll pivot Lapras, but what comes in is not an, like, there is no annihilate. There's just the Galarian Mortris doing like six sucker punches.
01:15:37
zzweilous
And then what comes in is the Lapras from Beelzebord tanking all the energy. but the switch towers are a little misaligned. And Pato manages to not only stall the clock a little bit, but also tank a lot of Lapras energy on his own Lapras, and then make the catch on the low health Corsola to essentially like stall the switch clock further and also deny Beelzeboy's Lapras little bit of its own energy going somewhere useful.
01:16:11
zzweilous
um
01:16:11
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:16:11
zzweilous
So that is really pivotal in this matchup because now Pato still has healthy enough Lapras, manages to save so save that and manages to save a ton of energy. So yeah, the Kosola is gone, the Moltres farms down, stares down the Kyrgyllia in the final matchup, but because the shields are still in play um and even though the Moltres has enough energy for a Brave Bird,
01:16:40
zzweilous
Padra just calls the fly immediately, doesn't have to shield, um and then manages to just trade shields until the Lapras is in a position where it just can take out everything that's left over because it has so much energy stored.
01:16:54
zzweilous
um So that was really essentially one on that catch. um He may have been able to win it on alignment, but I think this was the more exciting way for that match to go down.
01:17:07
zzweilous
And yeah, leads us into the decisive game five on a 2-2. And this is the game where I say, okay, this is informed by game two that we already talked about. That was the one where Pato hard swapped the Corsola back after the trading shields um with the Cradilly against the Moltres.
01:17:27
zzweilous
We have the same lines.
01:17:27
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:17:28
zzweilous
We have Corsola, Lapras, Cradilly, into Lapras, Moltres, Steelix.
01:17:34
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:17:34
zzweilous
And it plays out similarly in that Mielseboy again attempts to swap out at a moment in time when um it's like a little de-sync and he gets the exact right amount of energy to ah threaten the Cradily with the Moltres.
01:17:54
zzweilous
And again, Pato does switch back out into um the Galarian Corsula.
01:17:54
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:18:00
zzweilous
But this time, this is so interesting because both trainers adjust.
01:18:01
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:18:05
zzweilous
Pato doesn't throw the Power Gem whereas Bielseboy tries to catch the potential power gem on his Steelix in the back.
01:18:11
William Dunphey
yeah
01:18:13
zzweilous
Pato anticipates that, but the problem is the Steelix pivot still wins the game for Bielseboy because now he gets to neutralize a lot of the Korsula and the Korsula's energy, and the endgame just ends up um fairly unfortunate for Pato man because he instantly pivots into his own Napres with a a low health, like a yellow health, debuffed Galerian Corsola on his side, and a power gem loaded. um And like the moment Beersboy reveals his own Lapras, Partridge just goes into the mirror.
01:18:50
zzweilous
That means that later in this matchup, he will not be able to get the power gem off because like the Corsola just loses CMP to everything. And it also means that he hardlocks himself into...
01:19:02
zzweilous
um the the switch again, where he is not able to catch on his low health Cradilly in the back. I feel as if the only way to pull that game back for Partoman at depo at that point in time would have been to um throw the power gem at the exact right moment of overfarm, essentially, so that you would have at least like a little bit of residual health to threaten the Moltres that would come in.
01:19:24
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:19:33
zzweilous
and then just let the Korsula go down eventually to then have the opportunity to catch a Brave Bird from the Moltres on your Crudili, which is like you would have to catch at a random time, but your opponent can also not wait for you to be within a fast attack, like within the animation because you're a sidewavver on your own Lapras.
01:19:58
zzweilous
You would have to deny the Brave Bird damage on the Lapras and you would need to have your switch available for that so you couldn't have a hot pivot there um but yeah it was a very difficult situation for part two to maneuver out of and yeah it was great learning great adaptability from both players but yeah it just ended up swinging into beelzeboy's direction because um yeah like the pokemon that he had at his disposal were just better suited for the opportunity at the end of the day and if you have two giants to like essentially
01:20:07
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:20:32
zzweilous
flawless Pokemon Go PvP players um going at each other. Sometimes a little bit of a combat advantage can make the difference. And yeah, it was still, I think it was just about the best showcase of Pokemon Go PvP we could have wished for because we got to spend so much time with the players, with their teams, with their strategies.
01:20:41
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:20:54
zzweilous
We got to see all six Pokemon on Partos team. We got to see them adapt. um we got to see the stage design and it was like, really like an hour worth of Pokemon Go themed entertainment that really made a great case for the game.
01:21:09
zzweilous
And honestly, even though like, like I didn't have like much of a horse in the race, but if I could have chosen an opponent, and like a champion, I probably would have went with Pato because the two of us have a little bit of a history.
01:21:24
zzweilous
Still very happy for Beelzeboy, but I was going to be happy regardless.
01:21:24
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:21:29
zzweilous
just because this was such a great showing.
01:21:29
William Dunphey
Me too.
01:21:32
zzweilous
And I think you couldn't have sold the game of Pokemon Go PPP much better than we did.
01:21:38
William Dunphey
So much nuance, so many intricate details. I especially really admire what you pointed out about Beelzeboy's timing on the swaps, especially in the lead situation against a Galarian Corsola.
01:21:51
William Dunphey
I watched back the grand finals as you were talking. I went to game five and I watched it, you know, just to kind of refresh my memory. He timed that swap in game five so perfectly that he got two sucker punches on that Galarian Moltres.
01:22:04
William Dunphey
before the glaring course could pivot out because, you know, kind of like dives forward when it does the astonish. And because of the way he timed his sideways before the swap, just as you said, he was able to get that energy lead, which allowed him to tie with that credibly over and over again. So just these small like finesse plays are so microscopic that unless you're a top 5% player, you probably don't even see it coming, you know, unless... ah Unless you're explicitly told about it.
01:22:30
William Dunphey
um Something i wanted to point out is that if you look at the general Sims, the sparkling Arya from Lapras is going to do about 29% damage to your stock Galarian Corsola, whereas the Ice Beam does 33%.
01:22:41
William Dunphey
I still think if you look at the margins here, it's extremely close. But I still think if this was a you know high rank Galarian Corsula, low attack Lapras, in those final moments, if Pato would have brought out the Cradilly to soak the Ice Beam from the Lapras, because Biel's Boy blind fires that Ice Beam.
01:22:59
William Dunphey
He's already tapping the button when that Galarian Corsula comes out. I almost feel like if he would have thrown Ice Beam into Cradilly, KO'd it, and then only had the Sparkling Arya for the Galarian Corsula with a loaded power gem, there was still a slight win condition.
01:23:14
zzweilous
oh
01:23:14
William Dunphey
I mean, I'm talking like one or two HP because Beelzeboy did have the double up on the Sparkling Aria, but obviously you can't double up on Ice Beam, right? So I think the Lapras was within Power Gem range, if I'm being honest.
01:23:23
zzweilous
How healthy was the Lapras at that point? Oh.
01:23:31
William Dunphey
I think it it could have likely KO'd. Let me see if i get the timestamp. um Power Gem into the Lapras is going to do, well, it was about half health.
01:23:42
William Dunphey
Power Gem does 43%. So maybe the Lapras would have survived. I think that's that's a um very valid point. But just I just wanted to emphasize how close this series really was.
01:23:52
zzweilous
Yes.
01:23:53
William Dunphey
cause Because either Lapras wins...
01:23:53
zzweilous
And he likely would have gotten an astonished too, right? Because like, I would have had to try and farm up a little.
01:24:01
William Dunphey
Yeah, so either Lapras wins with 50% health or wins with 7% health. But either way, this matchup is very, very close between these two. ah So I alluded to Shadow Annihilate being like a specter over this entire series.
01:24:15
William Dunphey
I noticed a couple of things when you were recapping these battles. The only games that Potaman won, he won three games in the series. The only games he actually won were teams that were ABB weak to that Shadow Annihilate.
01:24:28
William Dunphey
And it was the same trio every time, Galarian Corsula, Lapras, and Cradilly, which you mentioned.
01:24:30
zzweilous
Yes.
01:24:32
William Dunphey
And then in game four, or sorry, in game five, the decisive game five of the bracket reset. This was actually a repeat of what we saw in game two of the initial grand finals and game two of the reset.
01:24:44
William Dunphey
Same trios, same lineups, same leads. But this time, Beelzeboy actually made the adjustments and was able to win against that team that had been beating him. So again, we talk about like margins of victory and how narrow this was.
01:24:57
William Dunphey
This was the trio that Potaman was winning with every time he won. And he took it into Beelzebue, who had lost to it twice already in this grand finals. And Beelzebue made those micro adjustments that you mentioned and flipped this out outcome.
01:25:12
William Dunphey
So again, if this...
01:25:12
zzweilous
it's just a little This a little bit of a curveball, but this reminds me of a video that I saw recently recently from another person that was in a world's finalist's shoes in Yokohama, actually.
01:25:13
William Dunphey
if if
01:25:25
William Dunphey
Hmm.
01:25:25
zzweilous
Rubik's Master, who was our runner-up in 2023, kind of fallen out of love with the game.
01:25:25
William Dunphey
Hmm.
01:25:32
zzweilous
but always like packaging that as a little bit of an argument.
01:25:33
William Dunphey
You could say that.
01:25:36
zzweilous
And one thing that he did mention in a recent video was how Pokemon Go PvP tends to feel formulaic after a while, because if you encounter a team, you just go through the same motions every time. And I feel like this grand finals is proof that.
01:25:54
zzweilous
I think that it's just like an ever-evolving back and forth of strategies, and I think that's why Pokemon Go PvP is still so intriguing to me even after to all those years.
01:26:04
William Dunphey
Yeah, not quite solved, right? ah Not quite, but close, but close. um You mentioned something else that I found fascinating. This was brought up by our our EU casting team as well, being Martine and Tomahawk.
01:26:17
William Dunphey
The Golisopod, right? We saw it in game three of the initial grand finals. We saw it again in game three of the reset. Both times it completely fizzled out. This is fascinating because we saw that Annihilate really be hammered by Beelzeboy in the winner's finals, bringing it over and over and over again.
01:26:35
William Dunphey
It kind of built up this expectation for Potaman to expect it. So he wanted to go like, you know, he wanted to have a strong answer to Annihilate. You couldn't be too weak to it, but you also need to kind of straddle other matchups.
01:26:46
William Dunphey
But he had another bug on his team that does way better against Galarian Moltres and Lapras. That being the fortress. But if you do bring fortress, you leave yourself exposed to Shadow Annihilate, which is such a fascinating thing to see that Beelzebue only brought it in game seven out of this entire nine game series.
01:27:05
William Dunphey
So Shadow Annihilate, I mean, it wasn't on stage very much, but its shadow literally loomed over every single team decision that Pata Man made in this grand finals.
01:27:05
zzweilous
yes
01:27:15
zzweilous
yeah that fantastic bench pressure at least and well the one time it did come out it did find its target as well so you just have to be like really meticulous about when you pull that ace off your sleeve and
01:27:16
William Dunphey
It's staggering.
01:27:21
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:27:25
William Dunphey
Exactly.
Growth and future of Pokemon Go esports
01:27:32
William Dunphey
I'm telling you, you look you look at some of these teams, like for example, game three of the initial grand finals, that was Shadow Kento Marowak, Lapras, Glycipod up against Lapras, Shadow Steelers, Galerian, Moltres. Wouldn't you rather have the Rock Tomb, Sand Tomb Fortress, Rock Tombing Lapras, Sand Tombing Steelix, Rock Tombing Galarian Moltres? Wouldn't you rather have that than a Shadow Claw Golisopod that gets annihilated by Moltres, it gets Thunderfanged by Steelix, and it's neutral against Lapras? You know what i mean?
01:28:02
William Dunphey
It's just staggering.
01:28:02
zzweilous
Yeah. Five out of those um five hundred of those nine matchups, Piersboy went ABA week to Fortress. let's like I know you're the Fortress guy number one, but maybe it would have been a recent play at times.
01:28:22
zzweilous
I don't know.
01:28:23
William Dunphey
Yeah,
01:28:23
zzweilous
I was like... Simply, I feel as if Pato leaning into Dily, Korsula, and... Lapras, that did make the most sense to me personally, just because of the neutral play.
01:28:34
William Dunphey
Yeah, agreed.
01:28:36
zzweilous
on But yeah, I feel like there was a little bit of fortress disrespect going on, maybe trusting the scarecrow that is Shadow and Isle Ape to keep that on the bench.
01:28:46
William Dunphey
I think Beelzeboy was just willing to take a few more risks, if I'm being honest. Calling the the Bone Club bait against the Shadowcantor Marowak, swapping to catch a grass s knot against a doubled-up Cradilly.
01:28:54
zzweilous
yeah
01:28:58
William Dunphey
I mean, just insane decisions, right?
01:29:00
zzweilous
yeah
01:29:01
William Dunphey
ah But he just was in in a flow state. And yeah, definitely deserved to win because honestly, if you're if you have the guts to make those kinds of bets in the Grand Finals, then you have something going for you.
01:29:12
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:29:12
William Dunphey
So... Yeah. Like you said, best showcase I think we could have asked for for competitive Pokemon go We love the bracket resets. It's tough on the trainers. I'm sure Potaman would have preferred to just win it outright.
01:29:23
William Dunphey
But for viewers' perspective, they put on one hell of a show. And I hope that they're both extremely proud.
01:29:23
zzweilous
100%.
01:29:23
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:29:29
William Dunphey
of what they accomplished at Worlds.
01:29:31
zzweilous
hundred so
01:29:31
William Dunphey
And also, i hope that it fuels Potaman a bit more. I hope that he says, I was in three Sundays in one season, but I didn't win Worlds, so I have more to prove.
01:29:39
zzweilous
yeah
01:29:40
William Dunphey
So I'm going to full speed ahead in 2026.
01:29:42
zzweilous
Yeah, like I'm i'm a legit a little scared that he's just he's just going to take every tournament he enters now because um and don't know, like obviously it's it's small margins and it's not as if any player is unbeatable.
01:29:43
William Dunphey
that's That's what I really hope to see. Mm-hmm.
01:30:02
zzweilous
But like this also like these grand finals also did show that this is a young people's game. I'm 31 years old. I don't know for how much longer I'll be able to like go up against the Pato Menz and Beelze Boys and really have a shot.
01:30:17
zzweilous
um like This is obviously like...
01:30:18
William Dunphey
And then your guys.
01:30:20
zzweilous
Exactly. This is like kind of tongue-in-cheek a little bit because I don't believe that... With the half-second turns, this is not as um dependent on having a young person's brain as maybe some of the first-person shooter games are.
01:30:38
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:30:38
zzweilous
um I guess you can have a decent amount of longevity in this game, but you see those up-and-coming trainers, those trainers that are in their teens or early 20s, and if we look at people like Wolf Glick at VGC, like those came up at around that age.
01:30:57
zzweilous
Where will those trainers that we see in Go now be in 10 years? If this is really supposed to be ah forever game, if this is really going to stay part of the series, and
01:31:01
William Dunphey
True.
01:31:07
zzweilous
Right now, it feels as if competitive Pokemon is only growing. So it must be a great time to be like 20-ish years old and one of the best in the world because you may be able to build a sizable legacy for yourself.
01:31:13
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:31:22
zzweilous
And who's in a better position for that than Parton Man at this point?
01:31:26
William Dunphey
Exactly. Yeah, I agree. I mean, this is something that King said like years ago. He mentioned this. He said that Pokemon Go is a young person's game. And back then i was like, ah, yeah, that's just King being, you know, tongue in cheek or maybe speaking to his own retirement ambitions and that kind of stuff.
01:31:41
William Dunphey
But I do think there is something to be said about the the young trainers that have just such fast reaction times and are just on top of their game and are able to enter this flow state, just basically add will, just whenever they feel like it.
01:31:53
zzweilous
Thank you.
01:31:54
William Dunphey
So yeah. What an incredible grand finals. going to throw up a video on the YouTube version as well. If you didn't watch the ah the actual tournament itself, ZZ just basically gave you a a s tier radio station play-by-play of exactly what happened in the grand finals.
01:32:12
William Dunphey
So you can picture all of it. He is a artist with ah with words. so But if you want to watch the video, I will throw up the Sunday arena video here as we talk about this, um, moving into closing ceremonies. I really felt like this is a step change in how competitive Pokemon is going to be moving forward.
01:32:33
William Dunphey
It was so funny from an a production standpoint. I think it's fine if I, if I say this publicly. We as casters did not see the Sunday venue all weekend. We only saw it when we literally walked in on Sunday morning.
01:32:42
zzweilous
um
01:32:45
William Dunphey
And ah big reason for that secrecy is that this was like a trial run. This was the first time this was, Hey, I got, Hey guys, I don't know if this is going to work, but we're going to do our best. And hopefully it turns out, but we don't know.
01:32:56
William Dunphey
And this is very ambitious and we don't want to make any big promises and let you down. So we're just going to work on it, you know, heads down, work on it really hard, get the venue ready to go and then just see what happens.
01:33:07
William Dunphey
But for me, this was almost like, yeah, you know, you you pick the last player in in dodgeball. And then that player turns out to be your MVP. They're like incredible, right? Just winning every point, just playing out of their minds.
01:33:21
William Dunphey
This felt like a home run on a first attempt is what I'm trying to trying to get across.
01:33:24
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:33:27
William Dunphey
I honestly thought the venue was incredible. The LED floorboards lighting up with each game, Unite, Go, TCG, VG, I've heard comparisons to Yu-Gi-Oh! where Yu-Gi-Oh! needs to bring on like the actual 3D sprites of the monsters in order to compete with what Pokemon is doing.
01:33:45
William Dunphey
And I mean, this is just phenomenal. And then you look forward to 2026 and you look at the Chase Center, which was in the
01:33:47
zzweilous
yeah
01:33:51
William Dunphey
advertised trailer for Worlds and you and you look at the capacity and you say, oh my God, the Chase Center can hold 18,000 people. There were only about 5,000 people in Anaheim.
01:34:03
William Dunphey
So it's going to get big.
01:34:04
zzweilous
Oh man, this is going to be massive, especially because this is accompanied by like go great like a greater Pokemon event surrounding the World Championships this time around.
01:34:07
William Dunphey
Massive.
01:34:15
zzweilous
And yeah, like they start selling tickets for that like in a month from now already. So it's, they're really moving at at a really fast pace um and we get to be a part of that.
01:34:15
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:34:25
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:34:27
zzweilous
So this is something that even just as somebody who was like a day two competitor and then spectated day three i was just really very grateful for that we can all be like just do our part in growing ah game that has a stage like this that really feels if it is treated by the largest entertainment franchise in the world essentially as if it was the serious esports that it's growing into right now and there's still problems obviously via um game performance issues or
01:35:01
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:35:04
zzweilous
like like there's always going to be hiccups here and there, right? um But I still think that we've come such a long way and the trajectory in terms of the championship series is something that makes me really, really hopeful, really, really optimistic for the future.
01:35:20
zzweilous
And one thing that I also want to mention is um the Eternatus event that happened right at the end of Championship Sunday
01:35:27
William Dunphey
yes
01:35:31
zzweilous
which I was a little bit upset about because I was already on my way home because Pokemon Go is like early in the morning, right? Like if you don't really have to be there, like you don't necessarily need to stay all the way through, especially if there's like, like the next work week is going to start.
01:35:39
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:35:49
zzweilous
It's like nine hour time zone difference. You need to, you need to head home eventually.
01:35:52
William Dunphey
yeah yeah
01:35:54
zzweilous
So I did have my flight booked for that evening and I was at a LAX when I found out that Eternatus is going to essentially appear at the venue. And I was like, why are you doing it now? Why don't you do that? Like at the end of Saturday when all the Go players are still around.
01:36:10
zzweilous
But then I saw some people posting their experience from the venue. And we don't have to talk about like how we felt that the whole Eternatus thing may have been closer to a cash grab as some people have mentioned.
01:36:23
William Dunphey
me Maybe.
01:36:24
zzweilous
um But just this moment there for the people that were still in attendance, I don't even think the Go players were the target audience.
01:36:33
zzweilous
The target audience were Pokemon fans that maybe also had Pokemon Go installed on their phone and were now part of the action. They were actively participating when previously they were just like watching with whatever interest they may have had.
01:36:33
William Dunphey
No.
01:36:48
zzweilous
But all of a sudden, you bring this action, you bring this community, you bring the 2016 feeling back to the people, back to the Pokemon fans. And I think even though it was just Anaheim, and it was like,
01:36:59
zzweilous
relatively small scale they may be invested in other competitive games already and may not cross over to go but still i think the way this was targeted at people it did make sense i feel like that did work and i can see a world in which pokemon go will receive another push especially with the anniversaries coming up next year and i do believe that
01:37:13
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:37:22
zzweilous
even though we've been going on about, oh, like NA is growing, u is shrinking, but UIC is growing, but NAIC is not always selling out. We're like kind of like treading water at an acceptable level, but I think there is going to be much more in store for us um going forward.
01:37:39
zzweilous
If we, like, if we quote unquote, it's not you and me, it's just Pokemon Go as a game.
01:37:44
William Dunphey
yeah
01:37:45
zzweilous
If they play their cards right, I think there's still so much potential.
01:37:48
William Dunphey
This is something i want everyone to to understand. So our show, right? we We've done 34 episodes. This will be our 35th episode, which I do think is is really, really great. Most podcasts don't get past like five or six episodes, statistically speaking.
01:38:05
William Dunphey
So I love doing this show. I absolutely adore everyone who listens. I'm just going to be transparent. Our total number of listens, according to the the platform that we publish on is 5.8 thousand, which is awesome. Almost 6,000 listens. That's huge, right? I'm very, very proud of that. I'm very, very happy that everyone listens to it and enjoys it so much.
01:38:26
William Dunphey
The point I want to get across is exactly what ZZ is alluding to, is that competitive Pokemon as a percentage of the overall player base is still exceedingly small, especially when it comes to Pokemon Go.
01:38:39
William Dunphey
And I think that a lot of our mission, and I learned this at GoFest. ah We learned this. It was basically reinforced with this Eternatus event. is that we have to widen the funnel and we have to speak more to the casual players and let them know that this is even an option.
01:38:55
William Dunphey
I mean, I've heard rumors that even when you talk to the Pokemon company, employees that work for the Pokemon company don't know that there are regional tournaments. They don't know that there's a championship series. And then you look at the broader Pokemon Go community and you you say, oh, well, I know Eternatus is a thing.
01:39:09
William Dunphey
And wait, it was actually debuted at Worlds? Oh, that's really exciting. you know Let me see what Worlds is about. You talk about GoFest and you're like, oh, we actually had a GoFest stream? Oh, that's awesome. Oh, they were giving away drops that actually might help me in PVP?
01:39:22
William Dunphey
Wait, the the commentators work on the championship series? Let's look at that, right? We have to widen this funnel and bring more people into this this community because I feel like while our our viewership is awesome and I'm so, so grateful for everyone that's been listening, I think everyone would want to see interest, viewership, participation. i want i think everyone wants to see the numbers go up, right?
01:39:44
William Dunphey
I think that's totally fair. And if we're ever going to get to that point, we need to bring in more casual players. So like you said, Eternatus was not really targeted at the hardcore PvP Go players that were there.
01:39:56
William Dunphey
many of them take pride in not raiding unless they need charge TMs to be fair.
01:39:59
zzweilous
yeah
01:40:00
William Dunphey
This was targeted at all those Pokemon fans that were there in Anaheim that have Pokemon go on their phone, which I gotta to be honest with you is a majority of the people there. It was targeted at all of them. And they were saying, Hey, you're here at worlds. Maybe your son is playing TCG, or maybe you got knocked out of the, of the video game championship, but you have Pokemon go and there's this big event you can get into and it's at worlds.
01:40:22
William Dunphey
So this is like encouragement for people to open the app again, yeah explore the new features in the game and maybe get into PVP, trying to widen the funnel yet again. So I know that competitive Pokemon Go PVP and casual players, we've had our differences and we don't always agree with each other.
01:40:40
William Dunphey
For example, there were lot of comments on the post I made about the new level 80 update that I simply don't agree with.
01:40:40
zzweilous
Thank
01:40:46
William Dunphey
I think the opinions are bad, but at the same time, i have to respect them because they are Pokemon Go players. They do care about the game enough to take time out of their day to write these these responses. So Yeah, everybody, we need to widen the funnel. We need to accept more casual players and we need to shepherd them into the competitive scene.
01:41:03
William Dunphey
And things like Eternatus, you nailed it, Swireless. Those are for the casual players and their proximity to worlds is something that is really going to help us grow and we need to embrace it full stop.
01:41:18
zzweilous
Yes, I'm really like between that, between level 80, I'm really curious to see.
01:41:19
William Dunphey
That's it.
01:41:25
zzweilous
Like the next year is going to be so pivotal, I feel, because of the anniversaries and because of the way that can really propel a game like Pokemon Go to new heights.
01:41:37
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:41:37
zzweilous
on And I feel like the first steps have been undertaken. um So yeah, I'll continue to be along for the ride for the most part. going to all the events yeah and not not quite all of them but
01:41:49
William Dunphey
all of All of them. Hold on. Breaking news. every Every regional championship Z's wireless will be there. So you need to be there too, everybody.
01:41:58
zzweilous
i will be attending five regional championships or international championships um before december so that's going to be plenty
01:42:01
William Dunphey
Whoa! Whoa!
01:42:08
William Dunphey
Oh my goodness. Yes. I do think that is plenty. Please line up for autographs. We need to fund this show somehow. So 20 bucks an autograph.
01:42:15
zzweilous
Oh god, I don't know what the going rate for those is. Yeah, yeah, 20 bucks. Sounds about right.
01:42:21
William Dunphey
Well, honestly, I felt like this change to the arena, whenever you undergo change, it's slightly uncomfortable. ah Growth is uncomfortable, categorically speaking. if you're People will say, if you're not uncomfortable, then you're not growing, right?
01:42:35
William Dunphey
It was different going into a different – it was different going into a different – it was strange and unique going into an adjacent arena that was different from the main venue hall.
01:42:46
William Dunphey
But I just hope that everyone is comfortable doing that because I think that for 2026, you're going to have to be even more committed. Because when you look just on the map, right, it's not a secret. If you look on the map, you look at the Chase Center, and you look at the actual convention hall in San Francisco, and they're pretty far apart.
01:43:03
William Dunphey
And I know there's a lot to do at Worlds, but you might have to commit to one or the other on Sunday. If you want to watch the grand finals, you're going to have to take an Uber, you know, ride share, whatever, over to the Chase Center to see it.
01:43:15
William Dunphey
It's not going to be as easy as it was in Anaheim where you just walk into the next hall and suddenly you're in the arena. So, yeah, I hope everyone's ready for for the additional commitment, but also the additional hype, right?
01:43:26
William Dunphey
It's going to be great.
01:43:27
zzweilous
Yeah. One thing, it's just like a small side note, but I wonder whether the ah new idea of always having Championship Sunday in an arena, that may limit the cities that are going to be hosting Worlds in the future, because you will need to have the infrastructure for that too, not just a regular old convention center.
01:43:29
William Dunphey
But, yeah.
01:43:47
zzweilous
So yeah, it's only going to get bigger and better.
01:43:48
William Dunphey
correct
01:43:52
William Dunphey
Until Pokemon builds their own arena and it moves it from city to city.
01:43:52
zzweilous
going forward like they're they're building a theme park in japan like there's there's things happening currently
01:44:02
William Dunphey
Yeah. And on that note, I'm excited to see what this Pokemon XP debut is about because that's also new.
01:44:09
zzweilous
oh yeah and in it it is it is
01:44:10
William Dunphey
So we'll see. Well, ZZ, we covered a lot. We covered the meta. We covered a lot of player storylines. We talked about grand finals extensively. Again, if you miss anything about that, go back, listen to ZZ's recap, because it was honestly point for point, step for step, exactly what happened.
01:44:28
William Dunphey
ah We talked about the closing ceremonies. We recapped our own predictions that we made and how they actually came to fruition. And i think we covered a lot of ground. I'm not sure if there's anything else you want to discuss before we sign off.
01:44:40
zzweilous
I think we are pretty much done with what we wanted to talk about today, but there's still so much that we do want to talk about in our next episode, which is the entirety of the Tales of Transformation season that is awaiting us, the move updates, um be it move reworks, new moves being distributed, the overall picture that the meta will paint,
01:44:46
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:45:01
zzweilous
um or even just the 2026 season of the championship series because there are some news there are some minor changes here and there and honestly the next regional events are already around the corner it's like three weeks ish so
01:45:16
William Dunphey
Less, even less than that. Also, hmm.
01:45:21
zzweilous
but i'm honestly here for it i feel like i've just come out of my summer slump where i've been um really busy with my day job and Now I get actually spend the next four months um focusing on the Pokémon part of my life a little more.
01:45:36
zzweilous
So yeah, I'll be at Frankfurt, I'll be at Pittsburgh, I'll be at Gdansk, I'll be at LAIC, and I will be at Stuttgart.
01:45:44
William Dunphey
Wow. What a slate of tournaments. Watch out for ZZ. Grab his autograph when you can. We always really, really appreciate it when folks walk up to us and tell us they listen to the show and they enjoy it. Thank you so much for listening if you've made it this far.
01:45:57
William Dunphey
And ZZ, I finally figured out why Empoleon is so high on the projected rankings. This is, again, pre-
01:46:02
zzweilous
And why is that?
01:46:04
William Dunphey
Pre-transparency, we don't know exactly what the energy values are. I think it's because of the drill pick buff on Empoleon, because it went from 65 damage to 70 damage, and it gets Metal Sound, which I think is a slight upgrade from Metal Claw and Waterfall.
01:46:17
William Dunphey
So maybe that's what Cocoon is looking at.
01:46:18
zzweilous
Yes, it is. The meta sound pacing is what makes it so great, because it's 10 turns to every move, and that is just it's like kind of the gold standard, especially if your moves are buff Drillpeck and stab Hydrocat it.
01:46:20
William Dunphey
Maybe.
01:46:24
William Dunphey
oh
01:46:31
William Dunphey
Exactly. So... Get ready for some ah some flying types. Maybe some peckers are going to be in the new meta. We're going to find out. Azizi, it's been an honor and a pleasure, and we promised you a short episode, but we we kind of got carried away with the hype.
01:46:45
William Dunphey
I can't wait to talk with you about the new movesets or the new moveset updates once we figure out the energy values.
01:46:49
zzweilous
yes I fear to find somebody to complain about a long episode, so we're probably in the clear.
01:46:56
William Dunphey
I think so too. I think we actually get more compliments when they're longer episodes, which is not what I expected, but we're very, very grateful. So. All right, It's been fun. Get some more rest. Got to get back to the regular human life and see you at every single event this season is what I've heard.
01:47:12
zzweilous
Yes, yes, every single event, especially when there's like three on the same day, like Birmingham, Auckland and Merida. I'll be at all of them. Watch me.
01:47:22
William Dunphey
I mean, you're...
01:47:23
zzweilous
PvP Steve is nothing against me.
01:47:25
William Dunphey
You're going to have to... How are you going to do this? You're going to have to compete in Championship Sunday in Monterey and then fly back over to Frankfurt. No, you'll do Frankfurt first, I think.
01:47:37
William Dunphey
Yeah, Frankfurt first and then fly over to Monterey to win that tournament as well because they're on the same weekend. So...
01:47:42
zzweilous
I feel like the Z's wireless just has to evolve into into a high dragon, and then every herd has to attend its own regional. I think that's how it's done.
01:47:51
William Dunphey
Yeah. Aziz Wireless learned fly and he flew into the event, but it's been, it's been fun, my friend.
01:47:53
zzweilous
Whoa.
01:47:57
William Dunphey
ah Only a few days until the next season starts. So let's get some rest. Let's ah think about this moveset update and tons of more show six content is on the way. So stay tuned. Bye everybody.
01:48:09
zzweilous
Until next time.