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EP. 28 Stockholm Regionals & India Qualifiers Recap 2025
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 28 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.
Today, we're recapping the Stockholm Regionals and India Qualifiers, where 75, 131 and 130 competitors competed respectively. Stockholm was a smaller tournament, but filled to the brim with storylines! From a father vs son matchup, to time-out victories with Chansey, and Swalot's first Regional victory, it was one of the richest Play! Pokémon events of all time. The India Qualifiers showcased some of India's best, and spicy picks like Melmetal, Grumpig, Claydol, and Blastoise all finished within the top 4. This episode is action packed!
If you're ready... go ahead and lock In, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Reflections and Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
It takes almost 18 years to raise your son to a point where he defeats you in a video game on live television. It takes 1029 days for Polish Battler Nickname to repeat history and win his second gold.
00:00:14
Speaker
It takes a million years for Galax Cabalton to win one battle of PvP with his trusty chancy. but it only takes between one and two hours to listen to an episode of the Show 6 podcast.
00:00:26
Speaker
So if you have the time to spare for all storylines from the official championship series for Pokemon Go, better log in, take some good luck, and have fun.
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome in everybody to the show six
Hosts and Pokemon Go Meta Discussion
00:01:01
Speaker
podcast. My name is Zizuailis. I am here with Speedy's Chief and we have everything to talk about from the new my Mind and Mastery meta because we are one regional in and we also have some qualifiers to talk about Speedy.
00:01:16
Speaker
I'm always so excited to hear your intros. I know I say this a lot. I say this basically every time, but ah whenever we we're getting ready to film or art not film, record, and I say, ah smileless do you have anything you cooked up i'm always I'm always so thrilled when you do because it it goes off formula and it's just perfect.
00:01:33
Speaker
ah It reminded me of of that song. i forget how it goes. It's like 26,000... twenty six thousand 500 minutes or something like that. They sing it in the office and and it pops up a few other times. But yeah, I love the um the the time ah kind of theme that we have going here. And we're not in the season of timeless travels. We are in might and mastery.
00:01:54
Speaker
ah Personally, when I was working on a potential intro, I i drifted over to the Twilight Zone. And I was like, the year 2025 Metal is in top four. Yeah. mel metal is in you know top four It's like you're now entering the show six podcasts.
Regional Tournaments and Attendance Trends
00:02:08
Speaker
If we traveled in time, we definitely travel to the future with this iteration of the meta because we have never seen anything like this before. And I am so here for it. like This was one of the most fun events to watch.
00:02:22
Speaker
Even though like originally I was a little bit skeptical, a little bit hesitant to really look forward to it because While I always know that the casters are going to put on a show, at the battlers are going to put on a show.
00:02:33
Speaker
i also look at the bigger picture a lot. And for Europe specifically, and only for Europe, the numbers have not been developing great. So the Stockholm Regional Championships, which is our one big streamed event, um had only 75 people competing, which is 25 less than last year. Like we had the same location.
00:02:56
Speaker
um similar position within the calendar year. So that can't be an excuse either. But we're like on a downward trend. And I don't know why that is. Because um if you saw that on, um I'll just call it Twitter still.
00:03:11
Speaker
Mato Galle shared um a post where he ah signed up for the Monterrey Regional in Mexico. Oh, yeah. And 267 people had registered for that event. 267. That is more than some ICs that we had.
00:03:27
Speaker
And that is, if I'm not mistaken, our first 32 people top cut for a proper regional event. Wow. I really hope that it is. and And this is something that I've said for a long time. People probably thought I was blowing smoke or maybe I was just biased because my my wife is from Mexico, but I'm serious.
00:03:46
Speaker
LATAM is mobile first, right? The the import tax on Switch consoles and PlayStations and whatever else are just really out of this world. You're paying like double the price if you want to buy a Nintendo Switch.
00:03:57
Speaker
it's It's really insane. So having a game that people can play on their phone is actually so, so instrumental. You've seen it in Swagron's Community Day post where he's got like 200 people ah in 2025, right? It's like, wait, there's still that large of a community?
00:04:12
Speaker
Yes, there is. And seeing ah Monterey really blow up is very, very exciting. um So this is actually something I was going to ask you about. I didn't tell you this in the um and the setup, but I was curious what your thoughts are because you've kind of sounded the alarm before on low attendance in EU.
00:04:29
Speaker
But my goodness, if if EU doesn't give us some incredible gifts, ah not only you with your switch timer manipulation, you look at Martijn and him taking... Legendary Dragons to to top cuts at ICs and Worlds.
00:04:42
Speaker
And then you see um you see players like Galax Cabolton using timeout strategy. I mean, this this is really, it just it just makes me feel so validated when I went to EUIC and I said on the cast that the EU is the most innovative region in the world.
00:04:57
Speaker
You can argue about skill levels from different places. You know you can argue about spicy teams or whatever. But no one, no other region in the entire globe is going to push and pull at the at the actual fabric of the game as much as the EU does.
00:05:11
Speaker
And I think that it's like it's heartbreaking a bit to see the attendance going down. So is there any like explanation for this? Is there any reasoning for this? Or are are people just sick of
Improving Competitive Play in Pokemon Go
00:05:21
Speaker
the game not working? I mean, be honest here.
00:05:24
Speaker
um So I don't have a grand theory to explain it all away. I wish I had the tweet from ah Pokemon's very own Dan Brunner.
00:05:35
Speaker
Was it? what Chris Brown was it? Dan Brown was the guy with the Da Vinci code. um But he did share the numbers for all the games, I think. And I'm curious to see whether the the same holds true for the TCG and VGC, because I don't actually believe that is the case. This feels fairly specific to Pokemon Go.
00:05:58
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And like, I would imagine that part of it is um like, this is going to be in a whole nother conversation that we can have another time when we maybe talk more about the Scopely takeover.
00:06:11
Speaker
But I think the way the competitive circuit is integrated within the app of Pokemon Go, it is very easy to miss out. Like you'll have like one GBL themed or like PVP themed five days stretch a season um and even that is essentially not even all that tied in with the official championship series so if there was more collaboration beyond just like handing out ah signature pokemon of an ic winner every three months i feel like we should we're like because like the potential is still there they're still um people are still playing the game um but i feel like maybe you need to
00:06:54
Speaker
and you need to be a little bit more on the nose with how you advertise it. um Especially like in a region where maybe you don't have that pre-existing grassroots potential, grassroots potential but also what I think actually is something that is even more tangible and also maybe something that, um,
00:07:16
Speaker
ah play Pokemon, um the Pokemon Company International could work towards addressing is to make it more attractive for um local game shops and card shops to also host Pokemon Go locals because I live in a city of 2 million, the closest local event ever that I can attend is like a three hour train ride away. um This should not be the case. And there are countries where um there is some more of an immediate grassroots energy where there are, um like, I think the grassroots energy is there for almost every place. But a lot of the shops that offer local tournaments for the trading card game or the video game,
00:08:04
Speaker
are not willing to host for Go. And I think that really hampers the opportunity to grow the game through those in-person events that we can have without traveling anywhere.
00:08:18
Speaker
um And I would want to see like more incentives, like maybe some pressure from Big Pikachu to enable that more, but also maybe... um like It's about carrots and sticks, right? And if you yeah hand out like some carrots where...
00:08:33
Speaker
um people maybe can buy specific codes for PvP Pokémon that are handed out at registered card shops where there's like a Pokémon professor that can host a local that could make events.
00:08:51
Speaker
um financially viable for the card shop, but also give an incentive for casual PvP players to show up to the locals. Because that's actually like a complaint that I've heard outside of Europe as well, that the lowered best finish limit for local events has kind of, if not killed, then at least slowed down the local scenes this year a bit. So that yeah after most people got their cup and challenge points in, they might not have turned out the same way they did last year.
00:09:21
Speaker
That's so interesting. so So in your heart, you really think that a lot of this begins at the local level. And if you don't build up a strong, not even grassroots, but just a a local scene, then it can really hamper the the growth of the tournament because you're not funneling as many players into a regional. I mean...
00:09:38
Speaker
If you're going to compete at a regional, not only do you have to buy your your ticket, you also have to get a hotel, a train or a flight. ah You have to buy food the whole weekend. you Maybe you need to take off of work so that you can travel. I mean, it's a huge investment.
00:09:52
Speaker
ah In the US, it's not uncommon at all for people to spend upwards of $1,000 for the weekend. ah just to go to a regional. So if you're kind of dabbling in competitive Go, if you're not really sure about what you're doing, you're very unlikely to kind of make that that level of investment. So you've you brought up some really
Impact of Scopely and Go Battle League Enhancements
00:10:11
Speaker
good points.
00:10:11
Speaker
um The Scopely takeover, yeah, that's something we haven't even talked about yet. It just feels like there's so much content and so many things to discuss. And and I do definitely want to dedicate a full episode to it. um But my gut tells me right now that this shift away from Niantic and their basically their um drive to send people out and to map the world and get as much yummy, yummy, delicious geolocation data as they possibly could.
00:10:37
Speaker
I think that that priority is going to shift a little bit. And sure, Pokemon Go is still going to be about going out and getting people to go to physical places because that's what makes the game unique. But I do think that screen time is also going to be emphasized a lot more under Scopely leadership.
00:10:52
Speaker
And if you look at Go Battle League and you say, yeah, you know, we've got like just estimating here, we've got like a few hundred thousand players that pick up GBL and they might play all their sets in a day. And it takes about an hour and a half to two hours of screen time to do all that.
00:11:07
Speaker
Oh, and by the way, the feature is not monetized whatsoever at all. And Scopely is going to say, what in the world? Like screen time is king. And if you can literally force people, not force people, but if you can have people that are playing for an hour and a half to two hours,
00:11:22
Speaker
at yeah their own will, not being forced, not being coerced, then that's like a goldmine of a potential screen time. I don't know if that comes out in the form of ads, in the form of monetizing GBL with a paid pass or whatever it is, but regardless, you're going to at your average player screen time of like 30 minutes a day, 40 minutes a day, I'm guessing, and you're going to see the GBL players spending two hours plus the 40 minutes they normally play, if not more, and you're going to say, my gosh, this is like a goldmine. So...
00:11:51
Speaker
I fully anticipate um for Scopely to invest more into GBL. um Honestly, I'll say this. I say this to everyone who will listen, and I've said this to you before as well as Wireless.
00:12:02
Speaker
The single biggest proverbial lever that we could pull to get more people into the championship series is adding show sticks to GBL. We've been talking about this for years. It's like the most obvious thing, not being able to practice the official format at home and then just like Changing everything up and going to a show six format regional and paying $1,000 over the weekend to do it is insane.
00:12:26
Speaker
And honestly, the disconnect is is is almost too much to overcome. I'm honestly very, very happy that our community has been as strong as it has because there are so many barriers to actually getting into the championship series.
Online Tournaments and Integrity Concerns
00:12:39
Speaker
This is also like specifically integrating Show 6 into the app itself. I think this could be ah this could open the floodgates for even more exciting changes because yeah um just very recently, maybe it was this past weekend, it was this past weekend, um I watched a little bit of ah Wolf Glick piloting fledgling in the video game to... ah reasonable competitive success in what they call like a global challenge or something, like an official format that people get to play from home.
00:13:12
Speaker
And like we do have that for the Indian qualifiers that come up, but that's just because of a lack of in-person infrastructure. That's not because we have the like a proper system set up to facilitate that.
00:13:23
Speaker
But once we have that system set up, we can have officially sanctioned events where people can just like get to know PvP and participate in maybe ah ranked ladder from the comfort of their home and actually they like earn championship points from that. That would be like far out in the future.
00:13:42
Speaker
But I think this would be like a great way of introducing people to competitive Pokemon that way. Because like, even if you play in the Go Battle League, like there's like three layers, right? Like there's Pokemon Go players that don't play GBL.
00:13:59
Speaker
There's um GBL players that don't play or don't know about the championship circuit, difficult word. um And then there's people like us who are like very invested in everything PvP and have been here from the start, essentially.
00:14:14
Speaker
um But like we are the smallest group and there is so much potential and we just need deintegration. And I really hope that um changes to the game and to the way PvP functions um within the app um are coming at least um in the middle to near future.
00:14:31
Speaker
I just want to add, I know we're trying to get to Stockholm, but this is just such an engaging topic for me and I'm just so interested in it. um the The one retort I hear, and i hear I can physically hear some people listening to the show right now and saying this to themselves,
00:14:47
Speaker
But what about people that play on other people's accounts and they try to boost for them and and try to get championship points and they get paid to do it. And there's like this whole, you know, illegal racket of manipulation.
00:14:58
Speaker
First of all, GPS locations, not even the the video game series has that. But if Niantic ever wanted or Scopely rather, if Scopely ever wanted to track and make sure that people were legit competing from specific regions, they could actually do that.
00:15:13
Speaker
And that would actually be very easy to to confirm. And secondly, this came up when when I played back in Sylph back in 2020 and won the world championship. Some people I heard were kind of calling me out. They were like, wait, he had like a mediocre season. He didn't really do too much.
00:15:30
Speaker
This seems very odd that he'd be able to go and and win worlds. And I was just thinking to myself, who else? Who else could do it for me? Who else you know could beat Ventusky and um me I think it was Mephis as well um and beat all these really talented trainers in the World Championship? like who Who else is boosting my account?
00:15:50
Speaker
And if if you know who it is, I want to meet them because they are just on another level, right? And I just think it's such an unfair and like – micro argument to say, oh yeah, well, someone could cheat one time on the game.
00:16:03
Speaker
Just like, come on. That that should not prevent ah the entire community from benefiting from a online tournament. I really don't think that there's any any reason for that. I think it's like a strong argument. Especially because like the people that might be able to level up someone's account, um do like an Elon Musk and just play someone else's account to like top 10 in the world.
00:16:26
Speaker
Why wouldn't they just do that with their own accounts? Especially if those accounts and maybe like the championship points are like tied to names and play Pokemon profiles. and like They can just benefit from that themselves. And even if they get monetary compensation, it will only... Especially if you consider like virtual events like one step below the actual in-person regionals, it will only ever lead somebody to maybe qualify for an event where...
00:16:55
Speaker
Like, okay, if you want to attend Worlds based on virtual points, that's not that different from, like, I don't know, like beating up on your locals. Yes. Often enough so that you get the championship points, like, it will enable you to maybe compete at one of those big events, but the big events will never be impacted by that because those will still be in person.
00:17:16
Speaker
and and And this as well, like imagine that somebody does boost your account and somebody wins an online qualifier for you. What do you do when you go to Worlds? What do you do when you show up on stage and you absolutely get Rickrolled by Z. Suilas or by Alan or Yakai or whoever you're playing against? What do you do then? Right. It's so embarrassing. And yeah, it might be like a free ticket into Worlds, but if you don't have the skills, you're not going to win.
00:17:44
Speaker
So you can have your your momentary glory where you pick up a ah win on an online qualifier, but that's where your story ends. Like, sorry about it. You cheated and you're not going to get any farther than that. um We could also have some interesting storylines like ah Wolfie at EUIC when he said, yeah, so you know that ah that big online tournament and the the winner was anonymous. Yeah, yeah.
00:18:05
Speaker
That was me, by the way. There were 1,400 players who signed up for this tournament, who entered this tournament, the biggest official Pokémon tournament of all time. 1,400 players trained their Pokémon, traveled to London, practiced with a friend, worked worked on their team.
00:18:23
Speaker
1,400 people showed up to this tournament hoping and dreaming to win the entire thing. But it wasn't enough!
00:18:34
Speaker
Like that would be so sick if we had an anonymous winner. And then, and then for yeah, for example, that trainer went up on the stage and they were like, and and Marto was like, it was me all along. You know, i play jump fluff there too. You know, there is like one anonymous figure within the community.
Spotlight on Galax Cabolton's Unique Strategy
00:18:50
Speaker
They go by the name of waffle paddles and they have been sniping people from a large friend group for about $30.
00:18:59
Speaker
two years at this point and they're essentially like manipulating the elo at will and it's still an unsolved mystery as to who that person is so maybe we'll get something like that for ah big online event eventually but anyway that's like very far in the future i would suppose That's so exciting to me. that's That's honestly really, really fun to think about.
00:19:24
Speaker
But, Swaylis, we are already 20 minutes in, and we have been stalling hard on this podcast. And I think that's the perfect – This is so fitting. This is the perfect way to talk about ah the first trainer that I think you and I both cannot wait to spotlight.
00:19:40
Speaker
And we we had to wait quite a while to do so, in fact. Let's talk about Galax Cabolton and Chansey making top cut with his stall strategies. i mean I'm telling you, EU is a gift. Everyone should treasure this region and ah the the inventive players within it because playing a stall team at a Play Pokemon Championship Series event was like the last thing on my bingo card. You could give me 50 years to guess and I probably would never come up with this answer.
00:20:09
Speaker
So I... i'm I'm glad it happened and I'm glad it's over because I would not have wanted this meta to become a Chansey meta by virtue of Galax just beating everybody with this very unique but probably also pretty frustrating strategy. So if we take a look at his team It is obviously his signature superior with the Leaf Tornado attack, which enables it to, at the chance of a coin flip, um lower the attack of his opponent by two stages.
00:20:41
Speaker
Then there is Mantine on ah the team as well, which has access to Bubble Beam, again an attack that lowers the opponent's attack. Then there is a Dugong with Icy Wind.
00:20:52
Speaker
Then there's Shadow Drapion and Shadow Sableye, just allowing some flexibility in case you don't want to go for the timeout strategy. And then at the start of the show, of the sixth pick, it's best buddy Zenhatbad, Dazzling Gleam, Hyper Beam Chansey.
00:21:06
Speaker
It is a menace. It has... How many HP does it have? Probably like 400 something. ah Yes. Like in terms of its bulk, there's nothing that compares. Like Chansey doesn't even power up all the way to 1500 CP, which would be the maximum for the Great League.
00:21:23
Speaker
It like essentially... Peter's out at 1418 without best body. If you best body it, you get to 1435 at most. um And you have essentially no attack. You have a little bit of defense.
00:21:37
Speaker
And then you have up to 424 stamina or HP. And to remove that from the field will take you a while. So what Galax did was um He played his debuffers.
00:21:52
Speaker
He tried to knock out one of his opponent's Pokemon. And if you have... At the end of the game, which ends after 4 minutes and 30 seconds, there is a timer in Pokemon Go PvP.
00:22:04
Speaker
yeah shocking At the end of the game, if you have more Pokemon available, you win... on the timer, like by default essentially. If you have the same amount of Pokémon available, um the person with the highest percentage percentage of HP left on their Pokémon wins the battle, which Chansey is also able to pull off plenty of times. And Galaxx actually managed to finish ninth with this. So like one win away from Top Cut with a Chansey, which has not ever been done before. Yeah.
00:22:37
Speaker
I really like that you pointed out the percentage factor because I think that is what trips up most people when they talk about timeout strategies. So for example, if you have 50% health on attack form Deoxys for some reason, but then you have 30% health on Azumarill, even though that Azumarill at 30% health probably has more HP than that attack form Deoxys, that Deoxys with 50% health would take the win there. So I do think that's super important. And yeah, Galax, I did message him actually yesterday saying, And he did confirm that the in-game timer is 270 seconds. i know there's a lot of debate about that. I've heard some other people argue.
00:23:15
Speaker
I playtested it with House Stark and we set a timer. And that's what the that's the conclusion that we came to as well. And what I appreciated the most about his tournament performance was he was literally checking his watch.
00:23:26
Speaker
Checking his watch when he locked in checking his watch in the middle of the game. And you could see him check his watch mid game and then like either smile and nod his head or get like ah uncomfortable and like shift in his chair because he knew there was enough.
00:23:39
Speaker
there There was maybe too much time for him to stall out or there was not enough time. And and he was going to have to throw some charge attacks and try to actually win the game. But. uh it really got me he was so giddy every time he sent out the chancy he like bounced in his chair and looked at the crowd i was like oh man he is having the time of his life up there and it was so much fun to watch and he like i don't know whether he would have done better with what we might call an actual team but galax is a regional champion caliber player he won the only one year and he has gotten a medal this season already as well
00:24:15
Speaker
so he essentially sacrificed his potential chances of winning it all just to play a Pokemon that he has like a special connection to and that he really really loves. Because Galaxx just didn't wake up one day and said, oh...
00:24:31
Speaker
Stockholm is my hometown. I'll just play Chansey because it would be funny. He's been playing Chansey because it would be funny for years. There's like a YouTube channel of his where he um posted videos of two separate legend runs with Chansey and the oldest is like three years old.
00:24:47
Speaker
So he's an OG when it comes to the timeout strategy. And... i was I was rooting for him up to that point. Like, please don't top cut because we don't want people to copy this. But yeah, you got the exposure.
00:25:01
Speaker
you like and was a good laugh for everybody. ah we were here for a good time and a long time. um so I think he probably achieved everything that he could achieve with that strategy.
00:25:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think I know the video you're referencing. He actually sent that to me as well.
Team Compositions and Meta Analysis
00:25:20
Speaker
8-0 with Troll Timeout Team in the open Ultra League. And in Ultra League, he was playing Blissey.
00:25:26
Speaker
So not only does he play the Chansey in Greatly, he also plays the Blissey in Ultra. So... That was honestly one of the coolest things to see. And something I wanted to point out about his team composition as well is, yes, it takes that Chansey about a year ah to get to the charge attack.
00:25:42
Speaker
But if you look at the other Pokemon on the team, the Sableye only needs 10 turns to the foul play. The Drapion needs eight and then 10 turns for its charge attacks respectively. Looks like the Mantine needs 12 turns for each of those Aerialaces coming through. The Dewgong needs 15, but it does debuff.
00:25:59
Speaker
And then you've got the Superior Relief Tornado. so but I'm saying all of this because every single time you trigger that charge attack and you're swiping the bubbles, it does take time off the timer.
00:26:10
Speaker
And it's about 10 seconds each time. So if you're throwing ah bunch of foul plays, a bunch of crunches, a bunch of area laces, that also is killing the clock. So not only do you need a lot of HP, you need some spammier Pokemon on your team to run out the timer in that sense as well. So it it definitely like when you look at this team, it's so fascinating. And I do want to to amend what I said earlier.
00:26:32
Speaker
Galax finished within the top 12. He was not within the top eight, but still super, super impressive to see that team and and how it all comes together. And we're going to talk a lot about team compositions in this one, because honestly, I've been on a kick.
00:26:45
Speaker
I've been like, talking to people about teams. I've been trying to figure out like how to boil down a meta, what the roles are, how things work. And this team was was really special. And I don't think we're going to see anything like this ah for a long time.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah. And if we see it, it's probably going to come from Galax again. So um I appreciated what we had with the Chansey arc during the tournament.
00:27:08
Speaker
um But yeah, like there were more very interesting team compositions that made it really far. So one trainer that I would like to shout out is um C. Leonardo, who um was like known for the longest time as a sylph great to a degree where I think when Vadaj made his controversial tier lists, as he likes to do, there was like i don't think there was an extra C. Leonardo tier, but...
00:27:35
Speaker
I think because it was so good in Sylph and then never really managed to translate that to the um play Pokemon stages, it was like kind of memed upon a little bit. um but he has really been, i think was like his third top cut in a row. He managed to come come top eight with a team that had Shadow Pidgeot with the um newly buffed Air Cutter, now pacing to that cheap damaging move that also has a chance to buff your own attack in just three gusts every time.
00:28:06
Speaker
um And also, which I'm very happy about, dropping the Feather Dance, which used to be fairly popular on Pidgeot. yeah um So that's not a thing anymore, but Shadow Pidgeot still is a thing.
00:28:18
Speaker
Then Spiritomb, another Rock Tomb user that also has access to the old counter-clone Sucker Punch, a dark-type attack that does massive damage while generating respectable energy.
00:28:31
Speaker
um Also boasting the same dark ghost-typing as Metastaple Sableye. So a really interesting pick. um And also Registeel, which...
00:28:41
Speaker
um It's funny that we are talking about Registeel as the Spice Pig when there's also Cradilly and Claydol on the team. But at this point, in the development of Pokemon Go PvP, bringing out the old Registeel again and doing so well with it, um it's a respectable meta read.
00:29:01
Speaker
And I think overall, we had like 36 species within the top 16 teams. And I don't know whether we ever had that much variety. Like everybody could really just cook with their own ingredients.
00:29:13
Speaker
I do want to to shout out to the casters in Stockholm as well. I think they did mention Doombug's run with Shadow Pidgeot, but please don't forget about Richie. Richie also played a ton of Shadow Pidgeot this season, in fact, and he's made it look really fun.
00:29:29
Speaker
the The pacing on Spiritomb, I think, is what a lot of people ah don't like about it. It is dealing a lot of very balanced damage. It's not very like fast attack oriented or charge attack oriented. It's probably one of the most middle of the road Pokemon you can play ah But needing eight Sucker Punches for the first Rock Tomb and then seven for the second is a little bit on the slower side.
00:29:50
Speaker
But you can find a farm down... It's very inefficient too, right? Because yeah you get like seven Sucker Punches of 49 energy, but you need 50 energy for the Rock Tomb. So Spirit Tomb is in a bit of an awkward spot there.
00:30:02
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah, it's the pacing is just a little uncomfortable. But if you can find like a really advantageous target, ah like a ghost type, maybe a dust collapse or something like that, then you can really just go to town.
00:30:13
Speaker
And also the the damage output, a lot of people aren't prepared for it. I think that still pays dividends to know a Pokemon that's a little bit off kilter, a little bit unique. And Spiritomb definitely measures up. And then Registeel, of course, shout out to our friend Arrow.
00:30:26
Speaker
I think Arrow might have been the last trainer that I recall to play Registeel at a very high competitive level. And that was maybe a year ago. So definitely a blast from the past. I'm noticing too that C. Leonardo has has triple Rock Tomb on his team. He's got Rock Tomb Cradilly, Rock Tomb Claydol, and Rock Tomb Spirit Tomb. So he he was trying to put everybody in a body bag, right?
00:30:48
Speaker
Like, it's just about... ah Remember how we talked about Skald as maybe being too broken when it was 80 damage for 50 energy and 50% debuff chance? Now we have the same stats, just with 100% debuff chance. So I don't blame anyone for just Rock2ming their way through a tournament to their heart's content because it is such a busted move.
00:31:11
Speaker
It really is. It really is. What an interesting team from C. Leonardo. And I think it's just... Again, I'm like itching to talk about the team compositions and how these all make sense and how they actually work because they're all so different. Like you said, 36 unique species. And honestly, um let' let's move up the ladder just a little bit. let's Let's highlight for a moment PVP David.
00:31:34
Speaker
PvP David brought Cradilly, Claydol, Azumarill, Shadow Drapion, Pangoro, and Talon Flame. So I'm really interested to see because this is actually one of the picks I wanted to ask you about later.
00:31:46
Speaker
i think that Pangoro, and yes, that is how you pronounce it. I looked up the official pronunciation guide. It's not Pangoro like I like i thought it was. it's it's it's supposed to It's supposed to follow Pancham. So you've got Pancham and then you've got Pangoro.
00:32:02
Speaker
Um, anyway, so I'm really curious if this Pokemon is the core breaker that a lot of people are, are chalking it up to be. Is it as powerful as it, as it looks and, uh, and Claydol as well. I mean, as well as I owe you a huge apology because you told me that Claydol would earn a medal in, uh, in Stockholm and I scoffed, I guffawed even. And I said, no way.
00:32:27
Speaker
That's not possible. And not only did Udin come in fourth place with a very familiar looking team, but PvP David took home the silver medal. so ah So talk to me. Talk to me about Claydol. Talk to me about Kangaroo. It's the real deal. so you did So I made a bold prediction. i didn't tie a gallon of water to the prediction, so I'm glad about that.
00:32:48
Speaker
But... but i I did originally claim two things actually. The one thing is that I was kind of on board with ah with Marcus osseus Aurelius, um who has said that Azu wouldn't win a tournament um this season. Turns out first tournament it takes second and first.
00:33:10
Speaker
So that was not that didn't age too well. um But I also, like in the same vein, predicted Pangoro to ah pangoro ah to actually win its first event ah this season. And I still kind of stand by it because um if you look at what everybody else brought, like there haven't been...
00:33:31
Speaker
that many Pangoro, but there have been like quite a few targets for it, I would say, like especially with the dominance of Guzzlord, with Lapras winning the event. um I think there' is there's like a good amount of targets for it still.
00:33:46
Speaker
but um So yeah, like my prediction of Pangoro winning its first event also kind of coincided with me anticipating azu numbers to be lower and if azu numbers stay that high it's never going to be super comfortable to run a panguaro into a team um But I would still maintain that it has some strong play, especially because of um Shadow Claws such as Sableye or Goal Isopod still being very relevant and featuring, for example, on the third place team where Dane WWW had not only two Bucks, but also Shadow Claws.
00:34:27
Speaker
Mmm, that's a really good point. Yeah, Glycopod Charjabug. I know you're a big fan of Charjabug, as is Tonton Batus. And the double Shadowclaw is also interesting, but I think that that might also coincide with a decrease in the amount of normal types that we're seeing in the meta.
00:34:41
Speaker
If you're dark, right, like a Guzzlord or Drapion, you're still going to resist the Shadowclaw, but if you're normal type, you're actually double resisting, and it feels really hopeless, as we know from our Lickitung Sableye meta days.
00:34:53
Speaker
um Looking at PvP David's team, you make an interesting point about Azumarill. I always tell people in their team building to choose their weakness. And if you look at David's team, he's got Claydol, he's got ah Pangoro, and he's got Talonflame.
00:35:06
Speaker
Now, all of those Pokemon, I would say maybe Pangoro to the to the the smallest degree, but all three of those Pokemon have play against Azumarill. They have play against Water types.
00:35:17
Speaker
ah Still, two flies or a fly and a braid bird really weakens the Azumarill. Bubble does a lot less damage to Claydol than you'd expect, especially after the first Rock Tomb. But I feel like there's there's not ah a very comfortable position to be in. And if your shield's down against Azumarill with any of those three Pokemon, things can get a little bit dicey.
00:35:35
Speaker
So I do think David probably relied on his Cradily and Shadow Drapion the most when he faced off against Azio teams and probably had his own Azumarill, right, for the mirror matches. But...
00:35:46
Speaker
Again, like these teams look really interesting and you could look at this and say, oh, well, he's triple weak to Azu. So this team sucks. I don't know how he got second place. But again, it's about like knowing what your kit is and how to actually deal with what you face. And speaking of what PvP David faced, he actually had a little little family versus family ah violence here.
00:36:07
Speaker
And I believe that our our judge, Elia, actually caught a hot mic moment between the two of them after the game. Yeah, so actually that was, and this is like very impressive, um that was a winner's round three matchup, if I'm not mistaken, where PvP David actually battled his own dad who brought Bastiodon team. um So I'm glad he he didn't raise his son like that because PvP David's team looks a lot less RPS than the Bastiodon.
00:36:36
Speaker
But yeah, they had they had a really wholesome moment on stage where Like, obviously, PvP David, as one of the strongest European battlers, managed to take out his dad and Kledo slapped down the Bastiodon.
00:36:51
Speaker
um But yeah, it was like, everybody loved that when that happened. And yeah, the moment that you're referring to, um i i saw the tweet. I haven't i don't have it on stream, so better just take it away and give us the exact wording of that exchange. Yeah.
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So after, um at the at the end of that decisive, I believe it was game number two, ah PvP David, like you said, had the Claydol lined up against the Bastion. I think the Bastion was on like 2 HP or something.
00:37:22
Speaker
And PvP David threw a rock tomb into it, kind of like, you know, BN-ing on stage. And apparently he looked across the ah the podium and and at his dad and said, do I still get dinner tonight?
00:37:34
Speaker
And his dad said, no. Yeah. so and So, yeah, i'm I'm sure that was that was in jest. I don't think that ah that David yeah went without dinner, of course. But, yeah, that was really funny. And honestly, like that that sounds like a dream scenario, you know, down down the road. If you're, you know, have a family and then are our our our kid is up there on on stage and we battle it out and they win, you know, as as young people tend to be better at at Pokemon Go, as King said, if they end up winning, then, yeah, I do think that is a ah really fun, like wholesome family moment. And, you know,
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah, i think um I think Lundberg also reposted about it. i know she's a big fan of PvP David's dad. think she's very nice and and very tall and and maybe be a little good looking as well. So I do think that was ah that was a really funny moment between those two players.
00:38:25
Speaker
Yeah. um So who else should we talk about? Should we just go into the grand finals? Because um maybe... a I want to make ah an honorable mention, and then we can slide right into grand finals. So my honorable mention goes to Udin.
00:38:42
Speaker
And if you remember, Udin is the trainer who ah top cut with Dragapult in the past. So definitely no stranger to spicier Pokemon, spicier teams. I did get a ah ah few minutes with Udin to kind of like talk and get to know him a little bit better.
00:38:56
Speaker
in London for EYC. Very, very nice, ah humble guy, very talented as well. But he actually, and and I'll bring this up, you know, so that you don't feel too shy about it. He actually brought your team that you used to win Heydonis' cash prize tournament to Stockholm, which was Furret with Sucker Punch Swift and Trailblaze.
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah, the year is 2025 and people are playing for it. Claydol, Azumarill, Primeape, Skeledurge with Torch Song as well as Alolan Sandslash. And I think I messaged you after day one. and I was like, yeah, Udin is doing really well. like Let's see how how far this team can go. And you said, yeah, well, this is one of my stakes in Claydol to earn a medal. Udin is who I'm pinning my hopes on, Udin and David. It turned out that David actually finish second but yeah i just want to make an honorable mention to udon for running that team and again i don't know how furret skeletor works in this meta but maybe you can explain it to us later but i'm i'm really really happy for him and and glad to see he's seeing some success
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, I 100% agree. um Like Uden and i have, like I have recently joined his Gym Breakers team. So like ah we are like currently, we were like one pairing for the last Gym Breakers week and we're like team building together anyway. So we just decided, oh, like like that's just team build for Stockholm as well because the team in question did manage to win a large grassroots tournament.
00:40:25
Speaker
um So there was obviously something there. um And yeah, I think like I'm very proud of the way he piloted that team because it's not an easy team to pick up, like not by any means.
00:40:39
Speaker
um But he took down some staples of the European scene. Like, um I feel like Colin Six is probably the most prominent name where he managed to reverse sweep that best of three after um going down 0-1.
00:40:54
Speaker
But still, like, Keeping Calm and Collected, just piloting that very unique team with the Shadowclaw alone Sandslash, which is very necessary for how the team functions.
00:41:08
Speaker
um And I'm glad that he managed to not only get his second medal, ah but also get a lot of championship points to essentially seal his world's qualification.
00:41:19
Speaker
Because while you've managed to talk to him during the London EUIC, he was actually not able to participate in that because of a work commitment. So he missed out on his his local IC, essentially, which is...
00:41:33
Speaker
Big points typically. And yeah, like having this like second breakout run right after that disappointment is is huge. And I'm really glad that he got to have that moment.
00:41:45
Speaker
Me as well. Yeah. Very, very cool guy. I actually didn't know that. He seemed to be in good spirits. So yeah, a little disappointing that he wasn't able to play EUIC. But ah as you were saying, let's jump right into the grand finals.
Stockholm Tournament Highlights
00:41:57
Speaker
Nickname 29585, as we alluded to in the intro.
00:41:59
Speaker
as we alluded to in the intro Returning after over a thousand days to win a regional championship, taking down PVP David 07 in a swift 3-0 sweep.
00:42:10
Speaker
Nickname did lose. The lead in game number three, I believe it was like a Claydol into Swalot lead that he was unable to, ah to um obviously unable to win that lead, so he was forced to switch.
00:42:21
Speaker
but did ultimately win three o This team is also super familiar because it was used to win a practice tournament on Sunday, the day after your win. ah This team actually got a win as well.
00:42:34
Speaker
I believe it was it was played by Master Mahir, and they were able to win Dez's The Best ah Cash Prize tournament. so Really cool to see two ah you know cash prize tournament teams actually placing within the top four at a real regional event. But but's I'll run through the team really briefly, and I want to hear your thoughts on it.
00:42:54
Speaker
We have Lapras, Swalat, Azumarill, Guzzlord, Shadow Annihilate, and Talonflame. What is nickname cooking here? um So like...
00:43:05
Speaker
First and foremost, I feel like the Swallowed-Guzzlord core is probably one that we'll be seeing more often. Because I feel like the first person that actually premiered Swallowed on the big stage was SS Thorn, also during the that double practice weekend run that we had in the lead-up to um the Stockholm Regional.
00:43:27
Speaker
um But... Like the nice thing about Guzzlord is that it core breaks just about everything that isn't a fighter or an Azumarill.
00:43:38
Speaker
um And if you need something that beats fighters and Azumarill, what better to have than a super tanky pure poison type with stab sludge which is 70 damage for 40 energy and ice beam coverage to threaten like first of all the guzzlords on the opposing side which we've seen a lot of um out of the top eight um three people actually used a guzzlord on their team um And also like common threats such as um the Cradily where you want the super effective coverage or like even though sludge is fine there, if you just need one attack, then you can also throw that into, say, um a jump love or even the pitcher that we saw on C. Leonardo's team. So ice is just generally a great offensive typing.
00:44:31
Speaker
And like those two, I think, not only do they seem thematically really fitting, like the Swallower and the Guzzler, as people i' have been nicknaming them, um but they also cover each other really well. And next to that, you obviously have the safe water-type picks with Azu and Lapras.
00:44:51
Speaker
It's Icebeam Lapras, by the way. That was also something that was... really wondering about how that would shake out, whether people would opt for Ice Beam as the coverage move, or whether they would opt for Skull Bash for a better mirror matchup. Turns out people prefer Ice Beam still.
00:45:06
Speaker
um So yeah, those are like the safe picks that you can essentially always throw in next to that new and improved core. And The other two Pokémon on the team, are the Shadow Annihilate as well as the Talonflame, feel like those are to a large degree there to um kind of protect the um Swallowed a little bit because the Swallowed fears Steel types like the Alolan Sandslash. that's not about That's not a good matchup for it whatsoever um because even though it does have Mud Shot, um the charge attacks are double resisted.
00:45:45
Speaker
So just having this big threat of Talonflame and Annihilate is really helpful there. um And overall, you just... like Especially like with the Shadow on Annihilate as well, that puts a lot of pressure on people who want to bring things that they might have deemed safe now that um the side wave change with Lapras.
00:46:11
Speaker
Maybe like people were expecting to um make it make it so that fewer fighters are being used overall. And I think that is what we have seen. I think we do see fewer fighters than before.
00:46:23
Speaker
um But yeah, if people are now banking on just bringing three things weak to fighting, but then they see the Shadow Annihilate, they're still in shambles. And um i actually didn't watch the Des is the Best tournament um all the way through the end because of work commitments myself. But I know that Masami here was my final finals opponent the day before.
00:46:50
Speaker
And he had that Shadow Annihilate. And he brought that into me when I brought three counters to it. And it still put in so much work. So Shadow Annihilate kind of manages to defy um type effectiveness at times.
00:47:05
Speaker
I want to make a ah couple of amendments here to what I i said earlier. I'm so sorry, everyone. I'm trying to keep track of all these different tournaments, and I'm definitely getting my wires crossed a little bit here.
00:47:16
Speaker
So ah the Desk is the best cash prize tournament. Nickname finished third overall, and he was playing a slightly different team in this tournament. So he played Shadow Sableye, Guzzlord, Swalla, Talonflame, Cradilly,
00:47:29
Speaker
and Lapras. So he made two changes to the team. He swapped the Cradilly out for Ozumarill, and he swapped the Shadow Savelight out for Shadow Annihilate. So I do think that his experience in this practice tournament really influenced what he wanted to do in Stockholm, and it was a huge, huge benefit to him to participate.
00:47:46
Speaker
And the winner of that one was actually Charming Pory, a trainer that lives in in the APAC region who was ah playing the the Dugong team, which we thought Dugong was Dugong. Yeah, so it's it's coming back to me now as as I look back um at this at this past tournament. And then Pyro Panda finished second with Grumpig. And we will talk a little bit about Grumpig when it comes to the India qualifier as well.
00:48:08
Speaker
ah But i I just want to, you know, I don't know how many people are watching all these different tournaments, but I want to be honest ah to the players and apologize that I got that wrong earlier. Master Mahir did have a similar team, ah but it wasn't exactly like what nickname ran.
00:48:22
Speaker
um I really appreciate how you broke everything down and um how you pointed out that Shadow Annihilate still has found itself a role. And I think that um I said this, I think it was two or three weeks ago when we were looking at this meta.
00:48:37
Speaker
And I said that because Shadow Drapian is still so prominent in the meta, you either need a Mud Slapper or you need a counter user in order to to keep it on the bench or at least you know prevent your opponent from just running it whatever they want to.
00:48:50
Speaker
Or the third option is Guzzlord. Those are your three options, a Mud Slapper, a Counter User, or a Guzzlord. And I feel like when you look at the team from Nickname, he's got two out of three. He's got the Guzzlord and the Annihilate.
00:49:02
Speaker
So if he's able to pin down the Shadow of Drapion, then he's able to kind of unleash ah the Lapras, unleash the Swalot, unleash the Azumarill and the Talonflame, and really kind of control the pacing of a lot of these games. So I do think that was super important. And ah there's a lot to be said about...
00:49:19
Speaker
even though you're operating in a very unpredictable meta, there is a lot to be said about keeping track of what the sure things are and making making sure that you have checks for those, but then also enough flexibility to move your way through some of the tougher picks. Like for example, if you look at this matchup between Nickname and PvP David,
00:49:40
Speaker
Is there anything that that really looked like it was a hindrance to Nickname? I mean, you've got um you've got Annihilate and Talonflame, so Azumarill looks a little bit tricky. i think that maybe the Claydol could be tricky for the Swallow, up but you do have some really strong answers.
00:49:55
Speaker
And if we look back at the actual Grand Finals gameplay, Nickname ran Guzzlord, Lapras, Azumarill in Game 1, which was Guzzlord Double Water. He ran Azumarill, Shadow Annihilate, and Lapras in Game 2, which is ABA Water.
00:50:08
Speaker
And then he went back to Double Water. in game three, but this time led Swalot. Led Swalot into Claydol and ultimately won that game. So we talk about Poison Double Water as being something that was really popular.
00:50:20
Speaker
Maybe just Double Water and something else. Double Water plus Ape plus Guzzlord plus Swalot. I don't know. Water is a typing. Like would still keep it paused in double water, so that might still be a thing. And also one thing that I appreciate about Swallowed and its role, like the Swallowed Guzzlord core especially, it's really strong into Drapion and Shadow Drapion especially because you have the match shot on Swallowed as well. So you put out...
00:50:45
Speaker
a lot more fast move pressure than resisted poison stings would do. um So in the head-to-head between those two, you will probably come out on top even though Shadow Dropion paces much faster.
00:50:58
Speaker
um So yeah, going back to those grand final matches, I think Nickname, even though like I have to say Nickname played fantastic all weekend, and not only all weekend, like you just mentioned that he came third in one of the grassroots tournaments,
00:51:14
Speaker
Like he played a lot of practices ah that weren't streamed as well, where he also excelled, like he was primed for a run like this, in my opinion. um And also he's like one of the most consistent European trainers ever, actually, um because I did look up his placements for essentially every tournament since his Bremen win in 2022. Yeah.
00:51:37
Speaker
um And he never finished lower than 33rd, and he played a bunch of tournaments. So, like, even his lows are not that low. And it's not his first high this season either. He actually defeated me in Dortmund earlier this year to finish third, um just slightly ahead of me. And, yeah, I feel like he is definitely someone who...
00:52:00
Speaker
can pilot a team to perfection. And if you have a Pokemon like the Azumarill in this context, where even against the Cradilly, you have the Ice Beam to fight back against it, you're just so safe into PvP David's team that you are forcing your opponent to take risks without ever having to take risks yourself. And that is fairly comfortable. And somebody with level of execution, such as Nickname, is probably going to come out on top in like 8 out of 10 times here.
00:52:32
Speaker
um One final thing that I do want to call out in terms of gameplay is that while I have a ton of respect for PvP David, another trainer who...
00:52:43
Speaker
beat me at an event once. It was EOIC of the year before where he actually knocked me out. So definitely a top trainer. But I feel like his Claydol usage could have used a little bit more refinement.
00:52:56
Speaker
I feel like Claydol is a Pokemon where um there were like situations in the third game where Lapras SafeSwap on nickname site came into the Claydol.
00:53:07
Speaker
They charge attack priority tied on the first attack being one Rock Tomb and a Sparkling Aria. And um what PvP David did in that situation was um he shielded the Sparkling Aria, and I agree with that.
00:53:23
Speaker
He debuffed with the Rock Tomb, um and that Rock Tomb was let go. But then he immediately swapped into the Cradily. Whereas you could have done more Mud Slabs to farm up energy again to um just take resisted Psywaves and then take the energy on your Azumarill that you had in the back. That way you would have preserved your own Credile for the Azumarill that you could probably expect in the back because it's nicknamed Strongest Pokemon without a real answer, while also getting a little bit more mileage out of your Claydol, which in the endgame just didn't really have the energy to
00:53:59
Speaker
ah compete against what was left over on the side. So I feel like with Cladol specifically, it's very interesting how you play after a one lead because people are oftentimes watching, safewa safeswa safe switching, um ah very non ambiguous Pokemon into that Claydol and you're fairly slow, but you're also bulky and then you debuff and then it's like, okay, where do I take the fast attack damage from Alapras? Where do I take the charge attack damage?
00:54:33
Speaker
um And between this like energy management, debuff, utility, and line calls, I feel like Claydol has a lot of room for skill expression and a bit of a learning curve.
00:54:46
Speaker
um And I think if we gave PvP David like three more days of practice with Claydol, he probably could have won that third game. But again, like this is hey really like very high-level criticism here, because at the end of the day, it was a fantastic tournament, and um he he he was like so close to becoming the first two times champion of this european season as he already won the stuttgart event earlier this uh this season so that's wrong definitely ahly another indication as to how pvp david is probably one of the i'll say like top 15 strongest trainers in europe like you could argue higher than that because he doesn't attend many but
00:55:27
Speaker
certainly elite level gameplay for the most part. I'm just like, I just played a lot of Claydol, okay? I just played a lot of Claydol. No, and I think that familiarity is so, so important because ah you're right, taking the resisted sidewaves, especially after a debuff, is like a golden opportunity to get more energy and Granted, you can only do, what is it? It's 12 turns for all the sparkling arias, 3, 6, 9, 12. You can go only do maybe four more mud slaps ah and then then switch to the Azu. And knowing that that Lapras is Ice Beam, you're really incredibly safe, especially after it's been debuffed.
00:56:01
Speaker
But ah i will say, in addition to your point you made, I will say that is a very Zylus coded play. because you're the kind of trainer that is is very willing to make those switches and make those those mid-game pivots where a lot of other trainers are not as comfortable just kind of switchlocking themselves for the remainder of of that ah that matchup.
00:56:22
Speaker
And on the same token, if you look at the broader team here from from Nickname, I mean, yes, he had the Swallow. Yes, he had ah the, I believe he had the Cradily as well. Or no, no, just the Swalot.
00:56:34
Speaker
So if you're looking at this team, in terms of safe switches, Azumarill is basically as safe as it gets outside of the Swalot. I mean, either you're going to get an Azumarill mirror, you're going to get the Ape, the Lapras, the Talonflamer, the Guzzlord. So...
00:56:47
Speaker
i I think there's there's a lot of merit to what you're saying. And um I think that's another reason that our our show is so different from a lot of the other ones is because we are willing to kind of take that extra step and look more at strategy and look more at at gameplay style. And it proves as well that some players can just pick a Pokemon up and say, oh, yeah, you know, I i got this. ah For example, Ryze got a Glyceopod traded to him the day before the tournament and he played it really well. I know he was practicing, but still.
00:57:14
Speaker
And then you look at someone like PvP David, who maybe needed a little more time in the hyperbolic time chamber to get ready for his matchups in Stockholm. And what I also do want to say is that I can see why he brought in the Cradly at the end of the day instead of the Azu to tank the energy from Lapras. Because...
00:57:34
Speaker
there there was still a world where he could have called the Guzzlord in the back, which he would rather would have seen on his create a Azu rather than the Cradley. um So like I see why there there could have been a read, but still, I just like the idea of taking the resisted sidewaves on Claydol because The Claydol Energy looks so valuable into just about everything.
00:57:57
Speaker
But anyway, this is just me running out again. Please go ahead. No, no, it's okay. I think that makes a lot of sense. And sometimes ah players might overpredict. ah We did see a lot of Guzzlord from Nickname throughout the entire tournament. So I think it's ah totally 100% valid that maybe he'd be worried about seeing the Guzzlord in the back.
00:58:15
Speaker
ah So I definitely think that ah you're probably on the money there. We'll let David respond if he if he listens to the show. Yeah. And he can let us know what he thinks. um There is one more thing I wanted to mention about Stockholm.
00:58:26
Speaker
Obviously, congratulations to Nickname. But in my mind, I had a very specific question. My question was, if Swylus was competing at Stockholm, could he have beaten Nickname?
00:58:37
Speaker
Because ah we had basically your team in the running, and then we had Nickname squared up against your team. And that was Udin versus Nickname in the winner's semis.
00:58:48
Speaker
where Nickname did win 2-0. So um we we saw a lot of this all tournament long from Nickname Double Water plus something else. In game one, he played Azumarill, Lapras, and Guzzlord, and the Double Water Guzzlord was too much for Uden. It really overwhelmed him, and that that matchup wasn't very close.
00:59:05
Speaker
Game number two, though, was was a a lot more competitive. Uden led his Azumarill. He had Primeape and Claydol in the back, and then um Nickname had Talonflame, Lapras, and Azumarill. So Talonflame Double Water.
00:59:18
Speaker
Um, what was interesting to me is that we saw the Azumar lead into Claydol. So, uh, nickname swapped and he sent out the, the, uh, Lapras and then Uden responded with prime ape.
00:59:29
Speaker
And i'm looking at your team and I'm thinking there's not really, ah a good way to respond to a, uh, to a Lapras safe switch. And granted he got it done with the prime ape, but it was, it was ugly, right? He had to, to invest shields. He had to throw a lot of rage fist and he was able to finally, you know, defeat it, but it was tough. Um,
00:59:47
Speaker
And um yeah, I'm just wondering what what your thoughts were on that series and like how how you think Uden did. And and maybe you should have played as Klaedal a little differently, played the Prime Ape a little differently or any kind of thoughts you had on that.
01:00:00
Speaker
So I actually have a lot of thoughts on that. I will not like ah answer the question whether I could have beaten Nickname or not. Because like that would... like I obviously trust my own skill level, but like the last time I faced off against Nickname in a tournament, um I beat him in the group stage and then he knocked me out in loser semis. So it could always go either way. um One thing that I do want to call out is a fantastic line call by Nickname in the very first game.
01:00:27
Speaker
um where he kept the Guzzlord in the back, which ended up being an entire wall to the Skeletor. And I was very surprised to see the Guzzlord come out because you have the Azumarill Alolan Sand slash Core on Odin's side, and he has leaned into that fairly heavily heavily on day one.
01:00:44
Speaker
and you have a fighting type in primate. Granted, that's not always the most safe in 2Ghuzlord, just because you will have to learn land a close combat to do actual substantial damage.
01:00:55
Speaker
But you also have the Kledal, which does have access to the Ice Beam. So um there's not really a ton of targets for the Ghuzlord. I would argue that four out of the six on Uden's team are not great for the Ghuzlord.
01:01:07
Speaker
um So making the call that Uden would predict him to leave the Guzzlord at home and instead bring the Skeledrge, which looks pretty good, um especially up energy, because if you like safe swap the Skeledrge with Uden's team, the only real answer, like assuming that the Guzzlord stays at home because it has generally a bad matchup,
01:01:33
Speaker
would probably be the Azumarill and even against that you're very likely to get two Shadow Balls into it and then you might be able to tank um and the energy on say your own Azu or your own Alolan Sandslash. So Skeletrge safe swap looked really appealing into Nickname's team composition but he said okay because Skeletrge looks like something that is really appealing up just one turn of energy for Uden.
01:02:02
Speaker
I will just bring my hardest Skeletor to answer game one and risk that it lands on one of the three to four things that it doesn't really love to see. So like, again, like Claydol obviously is more of a neutral matchup to match on the shielding scenario with a Claydol or Guzzlord come out on top there.
01:02:19
Speaker
um But yeah, that was like a risky call, especially because the way his team was set up, um it would have allowed... like, say, a furrowed lead, an alone sandslash lead, there were, like, a bunch of lead situations that could have spiraled into something really dangerous.
01:02:36
Speaker
But it was um an excellent read of what Uden was going to do, and um especially against a tough team composition, which I would say that nickname wasn't necessarily favored in that matchup, given just the six on each player's side.
01:02:51
Speaker
um that and Like, that's the kind of play that you have to do, and it worked out a treat. um Talking about the Lapras situation, this was a situation that I found myself in in the grassroots grand finals against Master Me here, where he also had the Lapras and he utilized it as a safe swap a lot.
01:03:10
Speaker
So what I tended to do was to lead something that wasn't necessarily afraid of the Lapras. um So, like, this is a lot of an aside, but this is the reason why Alolan Sandslash has Shadow Claw in that specific team composition.
01:03:28
Speaker
Because if you run an attack-weighted Alolan Sandslash with Shadow Claw, you are able to pick up a Lapras breakpoint and cleanly take the one shield and the two shield scenario um just straight up.
01:03:41
Speaker
So I would feel comfortable leading probably... everything but ZoomRail into a Lapras team, just because I really like to just win the lead with a good call, um which I would be able to do with just about everything that isn't a ZoomRail.
01:04:03
Speaker
um Like again, if if like if there was a Lapras that everything's pretty good into that still, like I can just play it out if I lead anything but a ZoomRail into Lapras.
01:04:15
Speaker
um But if there is a Lapras safe swap, which looks really appealing because while I have matchups that I feel comfortable with, um like, Lapras can always try and fight for swap against most of these, especially if it's add on energy. So Lapras safe switch looks good for my opponent. I just protect predict them to do that.
01:04:33
Speaker
And then I have the Azumarill of my own in the back to eventually spawn the energy from the Lapras. This is how I did it against Master Me here a couple of times. um where I just try to keep the Azu in the bag, something that I feel is more comfortable against the Lapras, but not too much of hard counter so he wouldn't um save swap it.
01:04:54
Speaker
um And then I'll just like, okay, I'll chip and dip, go into the one thing. Whereas if you have to um respond Lapras that is already swapping into your Azumarill, that's going to be a little bit of a tougher time. like You could try and go for Farid one shield, trailblaze, harm down.
01:05:13
Speaker
um That could be a situation that might be advantageous for you. um But overall, it's a lot more difficult to face a Lapras safe swap if you have the Azumarill in the lead because you don't... Like, this is already the Pokémon that you want to sponge the charge move damage on.
01:05:30
Speaker
And if you... need to just stay in to do that and the switch clocks misalign, then that's not a good time. So against Lapras teams, I rarely ever lead the Azumarill. I would browser rather um put something up front like the Claydol. I really like Claydol.
01:05:48
Speaker
this is I can tell. ah The Furret. There's a bunch of picks that I think are fairly neutral. And if there's a safe sword that I don't like, I still have the Azur to just act as a damage sponge or as a hot response to something like a Town Flame of Gaslord. So I would have definitely played it differently in game two from Odin, but that's not to say that there's any one perfect way to to play this. It's just like, okay, Lapras team, I keep my eyes on the back kind of situation.
01:06:18
Speaker
it It sounds like it comes down to playing good defense, right? You mentioned like winning the lead is fun. i have to I have to say, I think everyone loves to win the lead. I think that's probably one of the best feelings.
01:06:30
Speaker
But once you actually get into the game, it really comes down to ah where you can send that energy from the Lapras. And when you lack a hard counter to something, when you're not able to ah safe switch a Guzzlord into a Lapras, or I should say counter swap.
01:06:44
Speaker
When you're not able to counter swap Guzzlord into Lapras, you're not able to counter swap, I don't know, um Annihilate into Lapras or Polywrath or whatever it might be, then you have to find a good defensive answer. And I think that ah you kind of touched on this like multiple times, but what I kind of pulled from it is that Azumarill is probably one of the best one of the strongest defensive answers to to a Lapras safe swap that you could that you could keep on your team.
01:07:07
Speaker
And keeping the Azumarill in reserve, not in the lead, actually allows you to place it where you need it to be ah in the matchups where you need that really good defense. So again, it's not always about like winning lead or hard winning swap or having a hard answer to something. Sometimes it's just about playing some defense, ah waiting out the the timer, you know weakening the opponent, putting it into a farm range for something else, and then setting up the rest of your team. So I think that's also super, super important.
01:07:34
Speaker
And ah we talked about picking your weaknesses, PvP David. You could argue had triple weakness to Azu. You could argue that, ah you know for example, this other team... ah what from Udin was really weak to the Lapper safe swap. And then you think you flip it and you say, well, I don't have to be strong against Lapper safe swap. I just need to manage it.
01:07:53
Speaker
just need to find a way through the matchup, even if it's not like flashy and dynamic. You just need to go into it with a game plan where you always know like how to leverage like your pieces in a way that might not always be like super straightforward keep swap win game.
01:08:10
Speaker
Because... um Like, sometimes, like, obviously it's easier to keep swap if you have, like, a plan on where you take the fast moves, where you take the charge attacks. feel like this is, like, actually a pretty good distinction that um maybe is useful for players who make that transition from being um a good player to, like, a top, top player that, like, obviously just, like, knowing your counts and knowing your matchups is fine, but also just...
01:08:38
Speaker
managing to manipulate where and when you take the damage. um I think that's, um and it it makes Pokemon Go a lot more complex and makes win cons a lot more plentiful if you have um a good idea about um how to do exactly that.
01:08:55
Speaker
yeah But yeah, also like sometimes, um sometimes soft losing a matchup is fine. Then you just like, I don't know, like get energy on your Claydol and hit whatever charge attack you want to hit into something like Guzzled, which otherwise would be a counter, but now ahead on energy. So you get to two ice beams. Like there's always ways um of playing around those situations.
01:09:21
Speaker
And again, like i i am I would scream this from the rooftops if people would listen, but you don't get this in the blind three format. You get this in the show six format when you have a set team, when you know what your opponent can bring and your opponent knows what you can bring as well. There's so much depth of strategy and I totally understand why a lot of people who just play GBL. We'll look at show six and say, oh, it's too complicated. I don't understand why the team works. Like, it doesn't make sense. Like, how do these pieces fit together? How do I win a matchup when my opponent safe swaps? Whatever.
01:09:52
Speaker
It's really, really challenging to kind of wrap your head around all this. And just another reason why why we need show six in the game and why ah that's really the key to growth. So I didn't mean to, like, tie it up back to what we were...
01:10:05
Speaker
vamping about earlier, but it just seems so appropriate because you don't think about this if you're if you're not playing show six. It's just such a different feel. ah In blind threes, you're not thinking beyond you know the next matchup or or maybe the potential core you might see in the back, but there's a lot more depth in show six.
01:10:21
Speaker
And speaking of depth, I did want to make an effort to mention how deep the EU roster is, ah although it is not expanding right now. And I hope that that trend reverses rapidly and I hope we start seeing growth at these events.
01:10:35
Speaker
I will say that new prodigies taking the field like Withered is a very, very good sign for the community. And Withered was super impressive in his gameplay, made some really clutch results.
01:10:47
Speaker
maneuvers And I think there was one cast where ah Tomahawk was like, well, if he does this, then this is the key play. I think it was Withered versus Pata, man. And Withered actually does pull it off and was super impressive to watch. And and that for me, that makes the future look so bright for the region.
01:11:03
Speaker
Yeah, that was fantastic to watch just because ah you have obviously Pato as one of our very own European prodigies, freshly crowned EUIC champion. Still so, so young compared to people like me who are like just entered their 30s and um still very much invested in this video game for kids. But Withered is 14 years old.
01:11:26
Speaker
Like he makes the young guns look old. yeah um But the play in question was a situation where both of these players executed the very high-level play of waiting out their timers and not even knocking out the opposing Pokemon because who would win that game was dependent on who would get the farm down.
01:11:48
Speaker
And it looked fairly dire for Withered up until the point where he saw that he had like... um I don't know, like 10 seconds left on the clock.
01:11:59
Speaker
And what he did was he, um I think it was with his Swallowout where he just threw a sludge, not to necessarily do damage, even though that was also a byproduct of what he did.
01:12:11
Speaker
But what he really just wanted to do is to um stall the the switch timer, the clock, and make it so um that there would not be a farm down that would eventually cost him the game because he was then just able to swap out again because the timer came up.
01:12:31
Speaker
and essentially prevented Pato from setting up a high-level win condition of his own. And having like like being that aware of all the circumstances, because using charge attack purely to stall the switch timer is not something that comes up a lot in combat with Pokemon Go.
01:12:51
Speaker
It does come up, but having the awareness at 14 years of age against the reigning EUIC champion, that was very impressive. Withered finishing fifth overall with a team of Shadow Jumpluff, Swalot, Lapras, Guzzlord, Shadow Sableye, and Shadow Canto Marowak. Definitely a little bit of a variation on some of the things that we've seen. a little blaster in the past with the Jumpluff Marowak duo But definitely a very, very impressive showing. And I agree with you. It's it's like those those not not very obvious mechanical choices is really what makes trainers like Withered and also just the EU in general really, really stand out.
01:13:32
Speaker
um There's one more thing I wanted to cap off our Stockholm coverage with, and that is... ah Somebody got some water dumped on their head after taking a a bet that a lot of people would argue was was a boneheaded bet to to take.
01:13:46
Speaker
But ah to his credit, ah Marcus Aurelius, he kept his word. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Freshly signed by T&Pizza, actually. It's a wet Marcus rapid strike form. um And yeah, like people were like very, and like they were suspicious after the broadcast cut out in the middle of ah his shower.
01:14:08
Speaker
um But yeah, he was he was shown to actually have received the water onto his head later on. And we believe him. He doesn't have to do it again. Yeah, i think I think it might have honestly been like a Pokemon branding thing.
01:14:21
Speaker
Maybe they could show the water like coming down and then they could show the after effect, but they couldn't show it actually hitting him. That's what I assume it was. I know there's lots of different ah ah brand laws in in Japanese companies. So that's what I chalk it up to. But yes, I can confirm ah that that he did actually take a shower mid broadcast or at the end of the broadcast rather.
01:14:42
Speaker
ah But yeah, massive respect to Marcus for not only being picked up by tea and pizza. I heard they sign anyone, even the potted plants on the caster desk, ah but also for ah keeping his word. And unfortunately, yeah losing a bet to Caleb. We know how that goes, but um Yeah, lots of Azumarill's in the top
India Qualifiers and Unique Strategies
01:15:02
Speaker
cut. It actually looks like there were three, four, five, six out of the top eight teams had Azumarill.
01:15:07
Speaker
So the only glimmers of hope were actually going to be Withered and Udin, of which they finished fifth. Udin has the Azu. Oh, you're right. You're right. Donne and Withered. You're right. So Donne did finish top three, Withered top five. so But yeah, I'm glad that he kept his word.
01:15:24
Speaker
What an interesting tournament ah Stockholm was. I'm not sure if you had any like concluding thoughts, but I thought that Rapid Strike Marcus was a good place to end I thought like I'm so happy with how this tournament turned out because I saw the numbers. I was disappointed. And then I saw like one of the best shows we've ever seen with so many storylines.
01:15:46
Speaker
And yeah, it was ah it was a fantastic watch. It really was. It was really special. One tournament we did not get to watch, or i should say two tournaments, were actually the India qualifiers. And I definitely want to give these trainers their flowers as well because ah the the trainers in India are so talented and they bring so many unique picks.
01:16:05
Speaker
And I have heard arguments that a lot of trainers that sign up for these qualifiers are maybe not as ah as seasoned in terms of ah you their competitive records. But still, there are some names that tend to rise to the top ah that we see time and time again from this region. For example, that PvP person and Veebasist, I have definitely seen them compete in other events.
01:16:26
Speaker
ah Nava Empire was a big name in the Go Battle League Arena. Uh, Bielsa boy was fourth at worlds, uh, last season. Master Mahir is also a very famous trainer.
01:16:37
Speaker
And, uh, there's so many others that I, I didn't even, uh, you know, mentioned Scarlet whiz also, I'm familiar with that name as well, but, um, the India qualifiers, there are basically two of them. They were online, as you pointed out earlier on in the show.
01:16:49
Speaker
And, uh, there were 130 signed up signups for the second qualifier and 131 for the first. So still an online tournament in India is pulling, uh, 260 plus competitors, which I think is really, really awesome.
01:17:03
Speaker
Um, There's a lot of like, i don't want to call them nonsense teams because obviously these are like really cool, but in my brain, it does not compute. Like my brain breaks when I look at a lot of these teams. So um a couple of things I wanted to point out, it looks like Claude Sire was actually very, very prominent in this ah India Regional Qualifiers Part 1 with 31% usage.
01:17:25
Speaker
And then in in Part 2, we've got even more Claude Sire. We also have some interesting picks. I mean, for example, you have things like Looking for my notes here. You have things like um Nava Empire finishing second with Grumpig. Beelzeboy bringing Carbink.
01:17:41
Speaker
Blastoise in fourth place from Zade4440. And then on the other side, in Qualifier 1, you've got Primeape in second place. You've got Suvik playing Claydol, a Pangaro core. excuse me And then you've got Jellicent from VivaSyst. And Malmetal too. Yes, i mean the Malmetal. I feel like that has been featured on...
01:18:02
Speaker
ah multiple YouTube channels actually where based this footage actually got shared and I'm really grateful to see those battles because well I don't know yet whether Malmetal is actually a real Pokemon or this was just we based this being a very good trainer but I really love the diversity of choices and especially Pokemon that we haven't seen in in Stockholm either where especially the um Nava Empire team where Like some Pokemon on there we expected to see and didn't really see a lot.
01:18:36
Speaker
For example, like Mandibus, Clotzaya, Wigglytuff, I feel like those were talked up to be more than they ended up being um in terms of the old god that we already saw last year or last season rather.
01:18:48
Speaker
But also new stuff like Grumpig or Blastoise, which I think are underexplored and will probably show up at future events even on on those stream tournaments. I know that LNDST Steiner is a big fan of Grumpig. I'm still not a Grump believer.
01:19:05
Speaker
It was impressive in the in the cash prize tournaments we had a couple weekends ago ah where I do believe Pyro Panda played Grumpig. But at the same time, it's such a tricky Pokemon. And I really, Smylas, I really want Blastoise to be good.
01:19:18
Speaker
I really do. ah Do I know if it will be strong? If everyone keeps playing Talonflame, maybe there's more opportunity for it. If everyone keeps playing Lapras, there's also opportunity for it. ah There are also so many obstacles as well. So ah between our two qualifiers, I'll just list our top four off here rapidly.
01:19:35
Speaker
um For the regional qualifier part one, we had that PvP person finishing first. It's Ryuga, Suvik, and V-Basis finishing third through fourth respectively. And then in the second qualifier, we had Master Mahir taking first place, Nava Empire, Beelzebue, and Zade 4-4-4-0 taking the first through fourth place. so Now, the way that these tournaments work, and we're going to talk about this as the season goes on, because there are a lot of these qualifier tournaments for the TPC region in April in particular, is that these trainers will do their qualifying ah tournament.
01:20:10
Speaker
And then the top cut from there will move to the playoffs. Now, the India playoffs are happening soon. They will be actually the first event in April on April 6th. So we will have our India champion ah that day and we'll so we'll figure out who is is the very best from the region this year. But that being said, ah we talked about Grumpig from Nava Empire, Beelzeboy playing Carbink, and Melmetal as well. There's so many different variations here, but I just wanted to ask you, is there a way that we can like make some more sense of this meta? Are there roles? Are there...
01:20:46
Speaker
um you know, certain cores that you look at certain trios, perhaps, I mean, in such a wide open meta with 36 unique species in the top cut in Stockholm, and I don't even know how many unique species in India, um maybe like 50 or 60, right? It feels like, um, how can we make sense of this? Is there a best in class flyer? Is there best in class dragon? Do you look at counters to meta picks like a best in class drappy encounter? How do you actually like mentally work through this process? Yeah.
01:21:16
Speaker
I think there isn't really ah best in class for most roles. And I think that's a great thing. I think that's a fantastic thing because for a lot of roles that you would want to fill on a team, you just have like...
01:21:32
Speaker
three or four vari like variations of Pokémon that you could slot in there. like You have Annihilab that just won um a tournament in in Stockholm as a fighting type.
01:21:44
Speaker
You have Pangoro coming second. They do vastly different things. um You have Medicham being piloted ah to a third place by Beelzeboy in the regional qualifier in in India.
01:21:55
Speaker
You have um Primate, which is still going strong. So like for for each of these roles, you have like various um Pokemon that fill them out in a very specific way. And I think this variety, this uniqueness, without leading to too much RPS situations either, is something that will be really fun to explore. And I don't think we have...
01:22:19
Speaker
um settle like this this season uh this meta feels very much wide open still and i see a lot of more movement and the in the future um for example i could see if lapras continues to rise um the usage of uh non-shadowed rapion to to take up potentially um Then there was also the question of whether the Alolan Sandslash should run Shadowclaw or Powder Snow. We have seen more Powder Snows in Star Palm, but I for one and a firm believer in running the Shadowclaw move on it.
01:22:56
Speaker
um And if you want a ground type in this meta, you have the option of Cladol as the slightly slow, very bulky Swiss army knife. You have Shadowcanto Marowak, which was the blast from the past on Withered's team, which still just puts out so much ground type pressure.
01:23:13
Speaker
You have Gastrodon, which is the safest Mudslap user, into Azumarill, which is everywhere. You have... um Claude Zaya, which apparently is still big in India and boasts pretty interesting coverage, um especially into Pokemon like Jump Love and also has ah very useful fighting resistance in a similar fashion as Claydol. So there is there are so many Pokemon for every single role.
01:23:40
Speaker
And I think as long as you puzzle them together in a way that you, um first of all, predict the current vibe within the community, um like the meta of the weekend,
01:23:52
Speaker
um But also just like cover the holes that each of these Pokemon will leave you because all of those have different strengths, but they all also have different weaknesses. And I feel like there's just like a lot of, of,
01:24:06
Speaker
variety and Pokemon to to work with here. And I'm honestly like super excited to see it play out. I think the big thing to target is it going to be Swallowed Guzzlord Core because it feels as if those were two Pokemon that people were not super prepared for. it um Yeah, there's ways of doing that. I think um we could maybe see more people trying out something like Corviknight, which is pretty good into both of those Pokemon, um which obviously is also like...
01:24:38
Speaker
thought to be a little bit of a cope Pokemon, but you have the Iron Head for the Cradle. I can see that re-emerging. um Also, like, if... that Like, the Registeel that we saw on C. Leonardo's team, maybe that is the thing that will come out a little more often now that Azu is so prominent and Lapras is so prominent.
01:25:01
Speaker
So, yeah, I think there's, like, obviously, like, we're still very early in this season and we don't really have... um an exact overview over all of the big players yet. But I think that's like actually the fun stuff. Like I love that nobody knows what to do, but there's so many things to do that aren't the wrong answers immediately.
01:25:21
Speaker
There was a really good post by Sof Tof where she basically compared the tier list that that she made ah before Stockholm and then a post Stockholm tier list. and And what she said was really interesting. She said that ah she feels that she overestimated Lapras and Mandibuzz and and Guzzlord.
01:25:44
Speaker
And like you said, the Swalat, Guzzlord core is something that we didn't see coming. a Nickname, again, was the first trainer that I saw really play that super efficiently in that cash prize tournament but you make some really good points too i mean if i'm looking at the top usage from the india regional qualifier number two right you've got shadow drapeon leading the pack you've got claude sire at 37 you've got talon flame then you've got azumarole lapras mandabuzz shadow kento marowak and cradley bringing up the uh the next next positions there
01:26:16
Speaker
And I'm looking at Registeel and I'm thinking shields down, Registeel Zap Cannon versus Talonflame versus Azumarill versus Lapras versus Vandibuzz. Shields up. Registeel versus Superior, Wigglytuff, and Swalot who can only deal super effective Mudshot damage.
01:26:32
Speaker
Meanwhile, the Sludge is double resisted and the Ice Beam is resisted. And then you've got, ah you know, Cradilly, who's not going to hit it for super effective. So you're really worried only about like the Claude Sire and the Shadowcanta Marowak. So I think that was such a clever call there by C. Leonardo, the more that I look at it. And um I wish that there was like an easy formula for trying to try to figure this out. For example, Shawnee Hunter-Ben, one of my closest friends in the community, he always talks about a team having two answers to meta choices.
01:27:04
Speaker
So, for example, if you look at the top usage for Stockholm and you say, OK, well, I need a team that has ah you know at least two answers to Talonflame, at least two answers to Lapras.
01:27:15
Speaker
And if you have that built into your your team of six, that honestly seems like a pretty reasonable mechanic mechanical way to think about team compositions. um And like you said earlier, you alluded to you know having holes, having gaps in your team and finding ways to fill those.
01:27:31
Speaker
I think that looking at the elasticity of matchups is also super important. like You could say, oh, my Mandibuzz is a Marowak counter. And you could say, well, ah if the Marowak has three mudslaps worth of energy, it gets to the third rock slide and suddenly my Mandibuzz is not a counter for that.
01:27:47
Speaker
So you have to like consider these things when you go into team building and team construction. But I don't know how you feel about the the two counters to every meta pick strategy. Is that something you think is viable or do you have like a different method that you like?
01:28:00
Speaker
um So like it also always depends on what a counter is, right? like I really like to have at least one pick on my team that really discourages the use of a Pokemon that I personally consider too spammable and too annoying if they just save swap that every time and get away with it.
01:28:21
Speaker
But there's other Pokemon, for example, like Azumarill, which i would b pretty comfortable with like if I went, I don't know, like four times weak to it, but playably weak to it, then have like one good answer and maybe my own Azumarill or something. like So that's like Pokemon where you can afford certain levels of weakness more often because it doesn't really spiral out of control.
01:28:48
Speaker
And I just, I like to keep hard checks for Pokemon that have that potential of spiraling. For example, I would never play, um... a team that is like four times unwinnably weak against annihilate, because that is just something that spirals so quickly.
01:29:06
Speaker
I definitely would love to, to have enough checks for that. um But yeah, like typically it helps to have more than one way out of a situation just so you are less predictable um for your opponent. And this is also like, we're always going back to why I like Kledal so much.
01:29:26
Speaker
I feel like this is an addition of a Pokemon that offers that in many situations where you just have play even against some of your hardest counters. Like obviously stuff like a Sableye isn't great.
01:29:39
Speaker
um But even against an Azumarill, like the two-shield scenario doesn't look that terrible. um And as long as you have Pokemon like that, you can be like weak in one shielding scenario and solid enough into another. So I feel like having neutral options is almost um as valuable, as important as covering all your bases because...
01:30:02
Speaker
um You don't want to be predictable or needing to bring this one Pokemon to even have play in the matchup because that way you just get get caught out of position so easily.
01:30:15
Speaker
and yeah, like it it needs to be a balance out of having your bases covered and having flexible play into everything. And I think just this meta expanding to the degree that it has allowed for a lot more flexibility. And that's why I think that team building has never been as fun.
01:30:32
Speaker
You mentioned flexibility a couple times. I just wanted to to double down on that point and why that's so important. ah What really differentiates Go from a lot of the other competitive Pokemon titles, um maybe you could argue Unite is the most similar, is that you have to think in terms of relative damage. I feel like a lot of people, they oversimplify things and they think too much in terms of typing.
01:30:54
Speaker
I think the Claydol versus Azumarill matchup is is like the perfect example here. Because if you are a ground type Cladol, ground and psychic, and you're taking on a water type Azumarill with ice beam, then you would say, oh, based on a typing perspective, this is awful. Like I'm going to take two ice beams and die. And then it's, it's you know, GG's as the Cladol.
01:31:15
Speaker
But once you look a little bit deeper into the shielding scenarios, you look at the mudslap damage, you look at the the rock tomb slowing down the azumarill, suddenly once you actually get below that surface level, that matchup is a lot more palatable.
01:31:28
Speaker
And in in other titles, for example, like in VG, if you throw an earthquake into a bronzong, because that Bronzong has Levitate, it's not going to do any damage at all because the Bronzong is technically not on the ground.
01:31:39
Speaker
However, in Pokemon, you could Earthquake Amanda Buzz. You could Earthquake, you know, a Pelipper, and it's still going to do a little bit of damage. And I think that shifting your mindset away from typing matchups and just kind of like writing things off too early and moving more into like a neutral damage perspective and like looking more closely at the matchups as it goes on in certain shielding scenarios is really, really important for kind of breaking through and looking at at games in like a different, a different level. Because again, a lot of the time, if you lead Guzzlord into Wigglytuff and then you swap Corviknight and your opponent comes in with Fortress, you're like, oh I'm screwed because they're dealing electric type damage and I already lost lead, whatever. But you need to look a little bit deeper than that. so
01:32:22
Speaker
That's just my my personal opinion on on what you said. I think that's what a lot of really good team builders do. And ah in I mentioned this to you before, but I'm really like on a kick recently about team building.
01:32:33
Speaker
And I'm just so bothered by the fact that there is not a team building guide that players can refer to within the community for for show six, there's literally nothing besides like a bunch of top players telling us basically, oh, well, i want to have, you know, two checks to that, or I want to at least be neutral into this, or I want to kind of, you know, minimize a certain safe swap.
01:32:55
Speaker
And I feel like distilling all that knowledge, gathering it and distilling it is super important and it needs to be done. So, ah so yeah, that's something that that you and I should definitely take take a look at as the ah the coming weeks go on.
01:33:07
Speaker
But um I'm not sure if there's anything else you wanted to mention in the recap of of the India qualifiers or of Stockholm. If not, then I've got some ah some, I guess, housekeeping things to mention.
01:33:18
Speaker
There's one last thing that I want to mention, and that is is that a 2-15-15 Claydol wins both the one shield and the two shield scenario against Azumarill. That's all.
01:33:30
Speaker
that i Honestly, I need to get you a t-shirt that says number one Claydol fame. I think that's that's the point we're at now.
01:33:39
Speaker
Well, I'm very, very honored to to work on this show and and to and to learn things like that about the Azumarole Claydol matchup. So I'm going to check my Claydols. I think i think the the only one that I have for PvP right now is like a rank 2 or rank 1.
01:33:54
Speaker
So I don't think I have that 2 attack that I
Upcoming Events and Podcast Plans
01:33:57
Speaker
need. But anyway. Upcoming Play Pokemon events, the last event of the month of March is the Brisbane Regionals, which will have a community stream hosted by PvP Steve. ah There must be a typo on the graphic because it says Josh Starrett. I do not know who that is.
01:34:13
Speaker
All I know is Steve. Steve will be joined by Ryan O'Hara as well as Debbie Tan and Michael G. D Agostino, which I believe is fish on a heater. So very excited to see that stream.
01:34:25
Speaker
The first event of April is the India playoffs. As we alluded to earlier, that is on April 6th. And then the second week of April, we're going to Atlanta, which I think is going to be a big tournament. It's an airport hub. It's very, very easy to fly into. I really hope that um all of our trainers from the Southeast ah attend this one. I know there's no, no regional in Florida this year. So this is like the next best thing. And I hope that our trainers make the track.
01:34:50
Speaker
um In terms of Worlds, we are 78 days away from NAIC. That is your last chance to earn championship points to qualify for Worlds on your respective regional leaderboards.
01:35:01
Speaker
So definitely make sure to get your local Cups and Challenges done and attend some regionals because we are T-minus less than three months away from NAIC. The season is going by so, so fast.
01:35:12
Speaker
in-game events go battle league finally for the love of god finally rotated out of scroll cup we are now in open great league open ultra and open master league we have been liberated from the scroll cup which i'm very very happy about in-game events we've got the bug out which i believe started yesterday introducing sizzle peed and sent a scorch which is a fire bug type which didn't look very good in the sims uh sent to scorch is 13 and 35 versus the great league and 13 and 29 versus the Ultra League, but Jonkas and Henry have already made videos on it, so it must be better than than it looks on paper.
01:35:49
Speaker
Also, March 29th, we have the Fuzzy Buddy Field Research that now includes Shiny Pancham. So if you want to play a Shiny Pangoro in tournament play, this might be a good chance to get it.
01:36:00
Speaker
And also, um I know we're looking for Cub Foods. A lot of people want the ah Hondo Pancam. for Master League and a lot of people are looking for little Kofus that can fit into Great League whenever they build their Rapid Strike Marcus.
01:36:13
Speaker
ah But anyway, it's going to be a really, really fun ah rest of the month and a really fun intro to April. Lots of TPC events coming up very soon as well, so I'm very interested to see how the um qualifiers in the playoffs progress. But It's going to be a really good time. So we're going to be very busy.
01:36:30
Speaker
Lots of episodes coming very soon. But yeah, um'm I'm looking forward to it. And I don't know if you have any any final thoughts or bold predictions for the upcoming tournaments, but I'd love to hear them if you have them.
01:36:43
Speaker
Well, i I think I'll just... um I'm looking forward to be surprised by our trainers. I do hope... poppo poop pop people that will not the pop People will experiment with Blastoise some more. would really love to see some Blastoise action on stream.
01:36:59
Speaker
um and yeah Other than that, I think that's it from me. I'm going to actually visit Milan for the Safari Zone this weekend. um Maybe I'll catch some Mutzdale, even though they're currently banned for the championship series. I have to wait a little while until i can use that in an official event.
01:37:18
Speaker
I think it looks really interesting in The Sims. um I remember looking at that a while ago and saying, you know what, this would be a good way to break up the meta. So maybe there is a a good reason why it's banned. ah In terms of future episodes, we're definitely going to recap tournaments.
01:37:32
Speaker
ah You and I were talking about doing a couple of different interviews. And then also ah we really need to talk about the Scopely acquisition. But all of that can wait until after Safari Zone and and whenever we have time in our schedule. But I want to thank everyone for listening to the show. We really appreciate all of you. Thank you so much, DeFi, for listening to the end, as you always do.
01:37:51
Speaker
And appreciate everyone for joining us for another episode of the Show 6 podcast. That's all from us today, and we hope to see you very very soon.