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EP. 32 Portland, Bologna, Durban 2025 recaps + Delightful Days Meta 1st Impressions!
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 32 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we bring you the highest quality coverage of the Play! Pokémon Championship Series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and everything else happening in the competitive scene.
In this episode, we are kicking off in Portland, where our 2023 World Champion ItsAXN rolled to gold with Big Man Blastoise! Next, we'll travel to Bologna, where Filbeg completed the 2nd perfect sweep in Championship Series history, going a staggering 18-0! Finally, we'll wrap up with the Durban South Africa, where Diveshan claimed a decisive game 5 victory to become the 1st South African to qualify for the World Championships. All of this, plus our 1st impressions of the Delightful Days meta, and more!
If you're ready... go ahead and lock In, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction to Championship Series
00:00:00
William Dunphey
Welcome in into the Show 6 podcast, where we break down the championship series for Pokemon
Portland Event Highlights
00:00:05
William Dunphey
Go. In this episode, we're kicking things off in Portland, where our 2023 world champion, Itz Axan, rolled to gold with big man Blastoise.
Bologna Event and Philbeck's Performance
00:00:13
William Dunphey
Next, we'll travel to Bologna, where Philbeck completed just the second perfect sweep in championship series history.
Durban Event and GoFest Preview
00:00:20
William Dunphey
Finally, we'll wrap up with the Durban South Africa event, where Divichon claimed a decisive Game 5 victory to become the first South African to qualify for the world championships.
Upcoming Discussions and Host Introductions
00:00:31
William Dunphey
All of this, plus a GoFest preview, our first impressions of the Delightful Days meta, and more. So if you're ready, good luck, lock in, and have fun.
Historical Context and Remote Podcasting
00:01:04
William Dunphey
Welcome in, everyone. It's so good to see you all here today. i have my illustrious co-host, the ZZ Zwei-Lis, joining on the show per usual. ZZ, we've got an awesome episode to talk about. it feels like every single week we're making history, and it's really cool to see some older names like Itzaxan rising back to prominence.
00:01:22
William Dunphey
I mean, the world stage is going to be wild this year.
00:01:25
zzweilous
Yeah, hello Speedy. Thanks for having me once again. and a little bit of a different environment. I'm visiting family this week, but... It allowed me to essentially watch the Bologna Special Championships while not having to cook for
Philbeck and ItzAxan's Strategies
00:01:39
zzweilous
myself. So that was really, really appreciated.
00:01:41
William Dunphey
That's a plus.
00:01:42
zzweilous
And yeah, i got I got offered a show like 18-0, especially from a player that we may not have seen on the Play Pokemon leaderboard so far with Philbeck taking it all.
00:01:53
zzweilous
And obviously... Leading into that, Big Man Blastoise, it's Axan finding a new signature chip Pokemon. like He's still on that Medichem propaganda.
00:02:01
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:02:03
zzweilous
He had the plushie in his interviews, very well-spoken interviews, if I may say so myself. um He did call for the Force Palm Medichem.
00:02:09
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:02:12
zzweilous
um But yeah, he did manage to leave it behind and actually unwash himself, if you could ever say that about one of the best players this game ever has ever seen.
00:02:19
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:02:25
William Dunphey
Exactly. Um, yeah, he was, he was very well-spoken, almost like a politician campaigning for Medicham. I think he did one interview. He said force bomb Medicham. And then another interview, he said, sigh shock Medicham.
00:02:36
William Dunphey
Uh, he just wants that Pokemon to get buffed back into relevancy. And we just see the plushie up on stage as well.
00:02:41
zzweilous
His
Grand Finals and Meta Trends
00:02:42
William Dunphey
Um,
00:02:42
zzweilous
own message, and I can appreciate that.
00:02:44
William Dunphey
He absolutely is right. He's very consistent. Uh, and I know a lot of trainers are, are very grateful to him for jumping right into content after the world championships. I know, I remember he started off his YouTube channel with the move count timing video series, which I still think is very, very helpful.
00:02:59
William Dunphey
Uh, and then he's continued to just stream, make content, make videos after that. So shout out to it's accent.
Bird Power's Return and Player Highlights
00:03:05
William Dunphey
Um, before we get to the grand finals and the blast always dominance, I'd love to talk about the top cut and maybe some of the meta trends that we saw.
00:03:12
William Dunphey
Um, A few players I wanted to shout out. It was very cool to see Bird Power come back to the stage. ah She had a really fun interview as well ah during the broadcast.
00:03:18
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:03:20
William Dunphey
And she's obviously like ah basically a prodigy at the game. I remember back to Indianapolis in 2022 when she just... ah when she just Cleared out her division and then went to the master's division and was cleaning up there as well. So i'm very, very proud of her.
00:03:36
William Dunphey
um We also had Dialeptron bringing the Shadow Blastoise, which i thought I thought was really sick. ah That's what I expected to do well, because when you look at the simulations, the Shadow Blastoise seems to perform a lot better than the regular. And then we had Out of Pocket, of course, doing out of pocket things.
00:03:52
William Dunphey
But I got to mention ah couple of stars, actually three different stars. I wanted to to zero in on Kobe Couplant, as well as Kem Coop and Stud Muffins. Those three players have been kind of like on the cusp, you know, maybe a top cut here, top cut there.
00:04:08
William Dunphey
Respectable trainers, but nothing like what they were this past weekend
Medium-Sized Tournament in Portland
00:04:12
William Dunphey
in Portland. They were super, super impressive. I'm not sure what you saw on your side, ZZ, but I was shocked that Kobe Coupland in particular was able to dominate with Dickersby and Claude Sire double ground.
00:04:24
zzweilous
Yeah, I really enjoy myself a medium-sized tournament tournament because Portland had 107 players competing and that is a good chunk more than we had, for example, at the Seville Special Championship where we had more sign-ups, but at the end of the day, only like 65 people actually sat down at the tables to play their matches.
00:04:32
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:04:47
zzweilous
I feel like 107 is a nice number because it essentially makes it so that it's not one of those events in a big hub where everybody just travels to and we essentially just see the same people over and over. But it's like a medium-sized affair where we can see some locals maybe that get the chance to shine. And I feel like Kobe Kaplan really embodies that because if I remember correctly from the broadcast, I actually haven't looked that up. I should have looked that up.
00:05:13
zzweilous
But he only ever competes in Portland, if i if I'm remembering that correctly.
00:05:19
William Dunphey
No, you're correct.
00:05:19
zzweilous
um And he's always putting on a show. I feel like Kobe Kaplan probably was the player with the highest catches made per games played ratio.
00:05:31
zzweilous
and feel like he always managed to wiggle his way out of difficult situations. And not only did he do that, but he also did it against some of the best players in the world. i feel like um What was it?
00:05:41
zzweilous
Was he? Was he the? Yeah, he was in the out of pocket group. So he actually played the losers finals against pocket, who is a strong argument for being, if not the best player in North America this season, then at least top three.
00:05:46
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:05:56
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:05:56
zzweilous
And on day two, I think he did the same thing to Doonberg where he just took down another giant of the competitive scene.
00:05:56
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:06:04
zzweilous
And to do that as somebody who maybe does not get all the practice that those people that travel to 10 plus events a season get, um that is beyond impressive. And it was definitely a joy to see Kobe Kaplan do well, especially because he had a team that was fairly unusual, at least for North American standards.
00:06:23
William Dunphey
I love that you tacked that on at the end, and you're exactly right. I think the North American standards, I'm so used to it, and I saw the team, and I was thinking like, huh, I don't know if Kobe is cooking here or if this is just kind of you know something that's going to fizzle out.
00:06:38
William Dunphey
ah But you're exactly right. He faced out of pocket to make day number two. It was his last round of the group stage, and then he faced ItzAxen directly afterwards. And then he also – or excuse me. Yeah, he faced ItzAxen and then pocket in the loser's side – Then he took on Dunebug and 2-0 Dunebug, only to be knocked out of the tournament by Ashton Ash.
00:06:58
William Dunphey
So honestly, like out of any gauntlet of four players that you could have gone up against in Portland, this might have been the strongest.
00:07:03
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:07:06
zzweilous
yeah
00:07:06
William Dunphey
And we look at Kobe Coupland's performance in Portland last year.
00:07:09
William Dunphey
were exactly on the money about that as well. He finished third last year with Cresselia, Gligar, Mandibuzz, Shadow Poliwrath, Registeel, and Whiskash. A different time, I might say. But um just a testament to how he's able to adapt to the new metas.
00:07:24
zzweilous
Yeah, maybe we had some timeless travels influencing the meta back then. But yeah, where we're in the future now. not Not in the future. Probably in the present, rather. It would be difficult to be in the future.
00:07:33
William Dunphey
Yes. That would be cool though.
00:07:35
zzweilous
And yeah, it is true. But yeah, we have no future, said Cresselius. But we do have the big man Blastoise being the pick of the day, the pick of the weekend.
00:07:47
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:07:47
zzweilous
And I know that you have been a big fan of Blastoise for a long time, Speedy. Yeah. did you ah Did you know this was going to happen? Because I feel like you always had like a pretty good feeling about Blastoise, were you almost writing it off after like we came all the way to like the last two weeks of this meta without Blastoise doing anything?
00:08:08
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:08:10
zzweilous
and like It was on Fraud Watch, but it's accent really showed what it was capable of.
00:08:16
William Dunphey
It was absolutely on fraud watch. um I started to get a feeling that there might be something there ah based on how Dylat played it at the ah previous regional. I thought that safe switching it, playing the shadow again, i thought was was you know the choice.
00:08:31
William Dunphey
um But I was really surprised, honestly, to see how Axon deployed it. We saw most of the games, and Stark and I commented on this right when we were doing our our commentary together. Most of the games you see him safe switching the Blastoise, and he's able to get ah an extra rollout. um Not dissimilar from playing any three-turn fast attack user, where you want to get that that little lead on energy before you go into the next matchup when your opponent counter swaps.
00:08:55
William Dunphey
He did that really, really well. And then he ends up leading it in, I think, game three or game four of the grand finals. So he kind of flipped our expectations as well. Blast Royce was really impressive, though, because rollout doesn't feel like ah an attack that you can farm things down with unless it's a really soft target like a Talonflame or a Typhlosion or something really, really weak to rock.
00:09:14
zzweilous
got nerfed at the start of the season, right? They decreased the damage by one per rollout.
00:09:16
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:09:19
William Dunphey
Yeah, exactly. Increase the the damage. Or no, increase the energy, but decrease the damage.
00:09:22
zzweilous
a deep and So they they buffed the energy a while ago, but the damage also, and then they went back on the on part of the damage buff, so it's still better than it used to be, but it's worse than last season when we had Pokemon like Bibarel or even Dunsparce make a name for themselves.
00:09:26
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:09:31
William Dunphey
yeah
00:09:41
William Dunphey
Yeah, no, you're exactly right. And I felt like rollout was kind of in a curious place. Blastoise also has like a really interesting attack stat. I think a lot of people don't know um the IV spreads that you can use to win certain charge attack priority ties.
00:09:55
William Dunphey
Because if you look at Blastoise, I mean, the rank one is going to have about 110 attack, which I think is a little bit higher than some of the bulkier Great League picks. um But it's not anything like, you know, catastrophic, like a Typhlosion or a Talonflame.
00:10:08
zzweilous
it's in a weird tier because like recently i played blastoise in gbl and i thought i had the match lost because while i had a hydro cannon loaded my opponent's um shadow canto marowak also had a bone club because i always see the canto marowak as such an aggressive pokemon that does a lot of damage in short amount of time
00:10:10
William Dunphey
Yeah,
00:10:13
William Dunphey
Mm.
00:10:26
William Dunphey
yeah yeah
00:10:28
zzweilous
I was very certain that I would lose that charge attack priority, but actually Blastoise typically comes out ahead just by a little margin. And I think my confusion is partly explained due to the fact that you often see the shadow bonus on the Marowak damage.
00:10:43
zzweilous
So it looks immediately more threatening, but because charge attack priority is decided by the raw stats rather than by the 20% multiplier, Blastoise can actually win that.
00:10:44
William Dunphey
Yep. Yep.
00:10:54
William Dunphey
Yeah, and I think those nuances are really important. Blastoise has more attack than Claydol, but less than Furret, which feels like really counterintuitive, right?
00:11:00
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:11:02
William Dunphey
Because you you think of Furret as like a bulky normal type Pokemon with ah maybe ah an above average attack stat, ah but Blastoise being significantly like three or three to five points lower than that is is pretty pretty interesting.
00:11:14
William Dunphey
um But yeah, I was just really impressed with how Axon played it. He moved it around, pivoted quite a bit. ah If I remember correctly, he did rely a lot on double water. He played a lot of like, I think this is what what Stark and I talked about.
00:11:27
William Dunphey
He played a lot of like random Pokemon in the lead and double water in the back being Lapras and Blastoise.
00:11:32
zzweilous
um Yeah.
00:11:33
William Dunphey
ah So it's like, you know, Shadowjumpluff in the lead or Tinkaton in the lead. ah But to his credit, he did play. ah He didn't play Double Water every game in the grand finals. ah Game one was Tinkaton Malamar Blastoise.
00:11:44
William Dunphey
Game two was Diggersby Shadowjumpluff Blastoise. Game three Shadowjumpluff Lapras Blastoise, our only example of Double Water. And then game four, he went ABA Water with Blastoise lead Lapras and Shadowjumpluff.
00:11:56
William Dunphey
ah And I think a lot of this has to be viewed in kind of the context of the team he was up against, because you can't just run ABA water in GBL and have a lot of success, especially, you know, if there's so many jump bluff with energy ball for whatever mysterious reason, or so many superiors and cradillies, but he was able to make it work in this tournament.
00:12:14
William Dunphey
I'm not sure if there's anything that like really impressed you about the gameplay, but I felt like it's accidents counts were probably the best part of what he did this weekend. He never lost track of energy, not even for a second.
00:12:25
zzweilous
I actually have like multiple notes on just how Axon played his games.
00:12:31
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:12:32
zzweilous
And also when I knew that something special was going to happen that weekend, because I'll be honest, I have been rooting for Axon for a long while now for the one, like for one, because he's a fairly likable dude. And I've actually talked to him much, but I really enjoy what he's been doing in terms as, in terms of,
00:12:51
zzweilous
being an ambassador for the community as a creator, be it on Twitch or YouTube. But yeah, he's like always like, he is polite without being,
00:13:04
zzweilous
like boring or shy, like he strikes a good balance.
00:13:06
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:13:07
zzweilous
um And I think that really draws a lot of, especially newer players in. And I'm really grateful for that because I'm always rooting for the scene to grow. And I thought that Axan has been a big part of that ever since he took his world championship title and used the um newfound audience to build essentially a little bit of a content creation career on that.
00:13:26
William Dunphey
yep
00:13:27
zzweilous
um But also I really like ah good story. If you like, I'm a sports journalist and if there's a comeback story of somebody who used to dominate the, like their sport essentially.
00:13:39
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:13:40
zzweilous
I, but I feel like ever since he won Worlds, I think Axon played 10 events, but he only made top eight twice, winning one medal, which was, I think, it might have been Louisville earlier this season, where you got a fourth place.
00:13:57
William Dunphey
Yeah. Fourth place.
00:13:58
zzweilous
But... This was a trainer who... He won Portland in 2023. He was um a previous North American international champion. And he was a world champion. He was like the pinnacle of Pokemon Go PvP.
00:14:13
zzweilous
And he went almost two years trying to find his form. And now...
00:14:17
William Dunphey
Yep. Mm.
00:14:18
zzweilous
Like him finding his form just as this season leads into NAIC, leads into Worlds. This is such an intriguing and compelling storyline that I was definitely like hoping for him to have this moment and really excited when he did manage to have it.
00:14:33
zzweilous
And the moment when I knew it was going to happen was his winner's semifinals in the group stage on day one. Because um that lined up to be against out-of-pocket. Again, somebody that I consider top three in North America right now.
00:14:48
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:14:49
zzweilous
um and Axson not only played super well and took that series, but he also um showed how calm he could be under pressure. In multiple scenarios, ah in multiple situations, he actively waited to see what pocket would do, whether a fast move would come through, whether a swap would come through, so he wouldn't waste energy on a target that he didn't want to use the energy on.
00:15:14
zzweilous
And being so locked in, even when faced with one of the most elite competitors in North America, that just shows that you're on form. That just shows that you can do it again.
00:15:26
William Dunphey
Yep. Mm-hmm.
00:15:27
zzweilous
And yeah, it... definitely led into ah fantastic tournament run and definitely want to shout out the blastoise meta call because i think like rollout is rollout is a rock type fast attack and that is awkward in a meta where you have like a lot of fighting types but the main fighter in the current meta is malamar while malamar still has a decent matchup against blastoise Blastoise has such a better time in into Malamar compared to the old Primeape or Annihilate.
00:16:00
zzweilous
And I thought the idea of safe-swapping Blastoise in a meta that doesn't have fighters to resist the fast attacks, and the only grass type you really see doesn't run grass attacks and is also part-flying, thought that was a great use of a rollout here.
00:16:13
William Dunphey
Exactly.
00:16:17
William Dunphey
Yeah, and I think you nailed it. It's one of those instances where if you can get past this one huge obstacle, you can likely take it all the way and getting past pocket felt like a ah milestone.
00:16:28
William Dunphey
and It felt like after that, I agree with you.
00:16:29
zzweilous
like a momentum win, right? Like once once you do that, like, you know, okay, okay, i'm and I still got it.
00:16:31
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:16:37
zzweilous
I'm still him kind of.
00:16:38
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:16:38
zzweilous
And ah was it was great to witness.
00:16:39
William Dunphey
Yes, exactly. Yeah, it it felt like um ah when he won that series, it was 2-1, so it came down to a decisive game three. When he won that series, I was like, oh, I think Axan's back.
00:16:52
William Dunphey
I think he's he's really here this time, which is was very, very like poetic to see. um Axan's team was interesting, too, because you mentioned safe switching the Blastoise into a field with basically no Primeape, no Annihilate, no Polywrath, whatever.
00:17:07
William Dunphey
um he was actually running Skull Bash on the Blastoise, and his Ice Beam tech was on the Lapras, which made it a bit of an interesting matchup for him whenever he did encounter a Jumpluff, because he kind of lacked a hard answer um on his team. He had the Blastoise, the Diggersby, Shadow Jumpluff, Lapras, Malamar, and Tickaton.
00:17:25
William Dunphey
And I'd say that Jumpluff is like... relatively neutral into just about everything on the team. I don't see any Talonflame. I don't see Typhlosion. I don't see Corviknight anywhere. It really feels like there's really no hard answer.
00:17:37
William Dunphey
And I feel like so much of where players get hung up is trying to build the perfect team with no weaknesses that breaks all the cores, et cetera, et cetera. But what's much more important than that is actually picking your weakness and then refining a way to beat it, to overcome it.
00:17:53
William Dunphey
And I think that Axan did a great job of that because like you said, we can expect no fighters in the meta, but what we can also expect is 69% jump love usage in in the entire tournament. All right. It's very nice. I know.
00:18:05
William Dunphey
But expecting this...
00:18:06
zzweilous
ah consider this unfortunate, but also like nice
00:18:11
William Dunphey
Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, exactly, but also nice. Kind of a mixed bag, right? ah But I think finding creative ways to beat the jump bluff was really, really important for him in his tournament victory. So again, yeah, just knowing your team inside out inside and out is super, super important.
00:18:27
William Dunphey
um I feel like... I feel like Axon really needed this win. I feel like as a a perennial competitor, ah obviously, I think everyone in Pokemon looks up to Wolf and how Wolf is able to win worlds. But it was, you know, it was, oh my goodness, it was almost a decade ago now.
00:18:45
William Dunphey
And then you look at him and you say, well, does he still have that world champion spirit? Does he still have that competitive edge? And then he comes out and wins these bigger tournaments and then he wins an IC and then he has all these incredible speeches and the content he makes is insane.
00:18:59
William Dunphey
I feel like Pokemon...
00:18:59
zzweilous
Or our farming is what the kids call it.
00:19:01
William Dunphey
Absolutely.
00:19:01
zzweilous
yes
00:19:02
William Dunphey
just Just straight up farming Aura. and and And honestly, VG is so lucky to have Wolf because he is such such a persona. And I feel like Pokemon Go is still searching for its Wolf in a sense. you know We're still searching for that trainer that will win tournament after tournament, pop up here and there and be relevant for almost a decade, which is very hard to do.
00:19:23
William Dunphey
Extremely hard to do. um So seeing Axan come back in and win was very, very poetic. And to your point earlier, i think I've talked about this on the last episode. I think it's really critical to peak at the right moment in the season because you have trainers maybe like Wadaj that will come in and win the first event and shows that they can they can adapt to the meta really well.
00:19:42
William Dunphey
You have Ryze that wins at like halfway meta that where things are changing. It shows you that he's one of the best in the world at reading the meta and understanding changes. But then you have trainers like like Axon or like Pocket who come on late in the season, ah like Pocket did last season at NAIC, and they just absolutely are on fire going into Worlds. And that's so, so critical ah to find your momentum at the right time in the season.
00:20:06
William Dunphey
Because you can be super hot in in September, you know but then by the time the next August rolls around and the meta has changed and you haven't won anything in a while and maybe your confidence is a little low, it it can be a tough ah go at Worlds.
00:20:21
zzweilous
Yeah, I remember i remember that Vadasch round two where he won three out of four tournaments in a row and the only one that he didn't win was a third place at Worlds.
00:20:34
zzweilous
So yeah, like if you if you have that momentum going when it really matters, which is at the ICs on the Worlds stage, um that can that can really make a difference.
00:20:41
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:20:44
zzweilous
But especially with this um world's meta being a little different from the previous ones and that they actually dare to change up things a little more than usual.
00:20:55
William Dunphey
yeah
00:20:55
zzweilous
I wonder whether these are like these experiences from this past meta will count as much as previously. And I also wonder how competitors will um essentially get in form ahead of Worlds because I think one nice thing about ah the development of Pokemon Go PvP, especially in show six,
00:21:18
zzweilous
is that i found there to be a lot more grassroots tournament options be at practice tournaments or little more prestigious priced events that the community organizes and i'm sure there will be at least one in the lead up to the big event which is worlds um as well this summer there's going to be a big break between any ic and worlds and
00:21:25
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:21:41
zzweilous
Yeah, you've got to stay sharp, you've got predict a meta development that you may not be familiar with at all, because there's the black box of no official tournaments. But at least having your confidence out, because so much of this is a mental game also, i think that is what's going to translate beyond the Might and Mastery meta.
00:21:55
William Dunphey
yeah
00:22:02
William Dunphey
I agree with you. I think it's it's very, very critical to be you know to perform well and to also be confident going into this. Speaking to the the new meta, I'm like itching to talk about it. right You brought it up a little bit. I'm like, oh man, I wish we could just jump ahead to that segment.
00:22:17
William Dunphey
So if you're listening, we will discuss some of our picks that we've made for the upcoming meta, our first impressions. But of course, we're going to learn a lot more once we actually do those practice tournaments. So I've got one eye on on the Candle Cult server looking for these practice tournaments to pop up.
00:22:32
William Dunphey
um Axon did tweet. He tweeted on May 27th, and he said, quote, this is the best pre-Worlds moveset update they've ever done. I couldn't be happier with the size of the changes.
00:22:44
William Dunphey
NAIC is going to be the Wild West with a a smiling cowboy emoji. Um, and think this is also fascinating too, because you have a trainer that not only has a ton of momentum, after winning Portland and reclaiming, you know, his goal that he won a couple of years back, uh, but he's also very excited about the meta changes. And he's also one of the most brilliant minds in, in the community. So I don't know. i mean, accent could be gearing up for a very special NAIC and a i in worlds run. It seems like all the pieces are falling into place.
00:23:13
zzweilous
Yeah, but like one thing that I will say right now, Metachem is not going to be viable. just say Just to get that out of the way. But yeah, again, like i'm I'm really excited to not only team build in this meta, but also see what other people are thinking about. Because one thing that we did see um going into Utrecht previously, going into Portland, and then going into Bologna,
00:23:38
zzweilous
is that a lot of competitors um just looked at the previous event and then either copied the winning team or copied the winning team and tweaked like one element of it or decided to hard counter the winning team.
00:23:49
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:23:52
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:23:52
zzweilous
But now we essentially have a clean slate again, and that's leading into a nice seat. And I think that is very exciting just from a viewer's perspective. And yeah I'm definitely looking forward to that.
00:24:03
William Dunphey
Yeah, dude. Freaking rip to Shadow Malamar, right? I mean, it it had like 10 seconds of fame and Philbeck made it look really good.
00:24:11
zzweilous
Yeah, it's good to win a tournament undefeated and then it retired.
00:24:11
William Dunphey
And
00:24:14
William Dunphey
then
00:24:15
zzweilous
Like, this is definitely going out on a high.
00:24:15
William Dunphey
and then Absolutely crash and burn after after that. At least that's what i personally expect and I think you do as well. um Before we we wrap up our our Portland coverage, I just wanted to shout out again to Kim Coop.
00:24:28
William Dunphey
He was really impressive. I said this during the cast. He was willing to take risk and to call leads a bit more than other competitors when it was really important to do so. He even led his clay doll into Ticketon. I think that was the only game that he won in the grand finals versus Axan, which is very, very impressive to make that read. Studmuffins, I feel like that trainer is on the cusp of winning an event.
00:24:49
William Dunphey
I think if if you didn't have a former world champion, a former... second place NAIC finisher, ah you know, a dune bug, a D pran off all these other trainers.
00:24:56
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:24:58
William Dunphey
If you didn't have them at this event, I think some muffins had a solid shot to win it. And I really want to see Ash Nash win an event. I mean, he's such a, a welcoming, calm and kind personality. I want him to to succeed as well in a similar vein that I want access to succeed. So I'm sure he'll get his gold and i hope that he doesn't give up.
00:25:17
William Dunphey
Um, i don't know if you have any comments on players, but I just wanted to play it one more seed. I'm curious what you thought of the speedy Stark casting duo, because I've heard some things. I heard some people give me feedback.
00:25:30
zzweilous
Yeah, like, we have not exchanged notes, but this is, like, exactly what I wrote down. Like, my notes read, Stubmuffins, most improved player, question mark.
00:25:35
William Dunphey
Okay.
00:25:39
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:25:39
zzweilous
Ash and Ash, best player without a gold, question mark. Like, those trainers that came in just behind the Big Axon storyline, I feel like they've... They're due their moment in a way.
00:25:51
zzweilous
um And they've definitely shown that they belong with the best this season. And like, who knows? Any ACs coming up? Beshtan Ash was in the grand finals last year. Maybe he can do it again.
00:26:02
zzweilous
um So yeah, that is definitely some storylines we want to keep an eye on.
00:26:03
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:26:07
zzweilous
But yeah, the house star casting debut. I personally loved it.
00:26:13
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:26:14
zzweilous
I thought this was like between... messaged you that like straight out of the event. When you had that exchange where you pretended to go coloring when that came up in one of the segments, like you you were like, okay, picture of the scene. um The social media segment, people can use the hashtag play Pokemon and show up on screen and the casters have to talk about it.
00:26:38
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:26:38
zzweilous
And Speedy led into it. Somebody was like at the coloring booth and just like, painting pictures of Pokemon. And Speedy was like, yep, sounds good. I'm out. I'll do this for the next five minutes.
00:26:51
zzweilous
And like Stark had to take over essentially like hosting and talking through the social media segment. And at one point, he was like... trying to talk to you as if you were back like maybe speedy is back already from his coloring but he was not speedy was not back from his coloring job you just sat there next to him like apparently gave him a stern look and said no no you you walk us through all of this and it was it was hilarious i thought i thought you guys had immediate chemistry ah love that um
00:27:28
zzweilous
Stark also got to cast alongside somebody like you who just has that experience and can ease somebody who definitely has talent and has um done great casting jobs at grassroots level before, but maybe hasn't had those cameras on him yet.
00:27:45
zzweilous
and to that degree just yet. I thought that you did a good job of easing him into it. And I also love that he brings a different personality to the table than some of our most beloved casters do because...
00:28:00
William Dunphey
Agreed.
00:28:01
zzweilous
If we look at a 2-0 Butters, if we look at a Homeslice Henry, those people are knowledgeable, they are hyped, they are loud, and they definitely try to make everything as exciting as possible.
00:28:18
zzweilous
But they also have fairly similar style, in my opinion, where it's like very hype shoutcasting, whereas Stark just has a more low-key personality.
00:28:26
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:28:29
zzweilous
And I think that is... excellent because it just complements other casting styles so well he's still quick with but he's easy to follow like a lot of my friends have complimented his voice like everybody was like oh how stark he's such a soothing voice i could fall asleep to that but that's a compliment it's not boring just has such a nice voice to listen to and yeah i feel like yeah a good amount of wordplay here and there like really quick with but also just like the matchup knowledge so definitely ah great fit um behind the caster's desk
00:28:41
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:28:47
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:29:01
William Dunphey
I remember years ago when ah PvP was first coming you know to the game and King IV went around kind of dubbing the best trainers in North America, you know, the so-called Elite Four.
00:29:15
William Dunphey
And of course, Stark was a part of that. ah He was the first trainer to get ranked 10 in Go Battle League in the first season ah that we know of, right? Check our NA privilege there. um But ah Stark was just has consistently been a trainer that competitively i always looked up to.
00:29:31
William Dunphey
I always felt like he was ah top tier, you know, the a cut above basically everyone else. And I remember at Sylph Continentals when he and i battled each other, actually aligned my fortress versus his Mew in a decisive game three, if I recall correctly.
00:29:48
William Dunphey
and um And that was wraps, right? And I felt like... after I took, after I took him down, he said that, um, if I could get past him, i could get past anyone.
00:30:00
William Dunphey
And then I said, man, if i knock Stark out of the tournament, I cannot afford to give up. I cannot afford to not be a hundred percent because he deserves this much more than I do.
00:30:12
William Dunphey
He's the best, right? Like if I took him down, there's no excuse for me to not give everything I have to try to win. And, um, it was really like poetic in a sense because I looked up to him quite a bit and then the casting became a thing in 2022.
00:30:27
William Dunphey
And I, you know, worked a ton of these events and I feel, you know, like I've hit my stride. I feel pretty confident casting. And then, and he says, he looks up to me in the casting area. So it was really like, like a swing back and forth of, of different talents and in friendship.
00:30:42
William Dunphey
And, um, Yeah, I just I just want to say I really i admire Stark still to this this very day. Very kind person, um soothing for sure, but also very talented and very grounded.
00:30:53
William Dunphey
And I thought we had a ah really fun cast. I wanted it to feel a bit more like conversational, like fun, because I think that helps him to be less nervous. So that's why I did the the goofy stuff that I did. Plus, it's the last show of the season.
00:31:05
William Dunphey
So we screwed around a little bit, you know?
00:31:06
zzweilous
yeah yeah yeah it was a good time and like it wasn't the goofiest thing you did that weekend because there was there was like this is mark park segment and
00:31:08
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:31:15
William Dunphey
Oh, dude.
00:31:16
zzweilous
ah
00:31:17
William Dunphey
Cheers.
00:31:19
zzweilous
Like, people were confused, but I guess in a good way, mostly.
00:31:19
William Dunphey
Mark Park?
00:31:24
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:31:27
William Dunphey
Yeah, I was trying to channel some kind of mix of ah Super Troopers and Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation. That was like the medium I wanted to hit. But yeah, Pulling Pocket and Dr. Rose Beef into that was was hilarious.
00:31:40
William Dunphey
um Yeah, I was told that I should do more segments like that, that they want to make that a recurring character. So we'll see.
00:31:46
zzweilous
Oh, yeah. Okay, I love it. that now okay Now we get to split the cast's personality too. But yeah, yeah definitely you definitely picked out the right people to do the segment with because they definitely yeah leaned into the whole fun heavily and I thought that really made the segment
00:32:01
William Dunphey
It was awesome because before the segment started, Pocket but could not keep it together. He kept looking at me and just laughing and just cracking up. And he's like, okay, like he's like, I got to lock in. And then Dr. Rose Beef was basically doing his best not to laugh.
00:32:16
William Dunphey
he was He was trying to make me laugh. That was his goal, right? so So when Pocket turned to me and he said, could you repeat? But he like put the words really close together. So it sounded like Gerpeet.
00:32:27
William Dunphey
I was like, did you just call me Gerpeet? He's like, Gerpeet?
00:32:31
zzweilous
Jesus Christ.
00:32:31
William Dunphey
Yeah, now that was fun. And that was totally organic. That that part was not planned. um But yeah, I had a ton of fun with the skits. And I really, again, admire Stark. And I thought we had a really good show. I thought Rise and Phoebe were also very good together.
00:32:45
William Dunphey
I heard a lot of people saying good things about them as well. So ah congrats to to those two fellas. I think Rise is... yeah I saw one reply that he's basically like the Michael Jordan of Pokemon Go.
00:32:56
William Dunphey
He does the casting.
00:32:56
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:32:56
William Dunphey
He does the competing. He does it all. Content. And yeah, he's ah he's a special, special guy for sure.
00:33:04
William Dunphey
um Well, I think that's all I have for Portland. Shout out to all the trainers that perform really well. Shout out to my boy Pranov for also top cutting. That was really impressive. And um yeah, if you want, we can go to Bologna. And I'm really going to rely on you, my friend, because this stream ended ah before I woke up.
00:33:22
William Dunphey
So I watched back the grand finals. I watched back Philbeg's absolute dominance, but I missed a lot of the the context.
00:33:24
zzweilous
yeah
00:33:28
William Dunphey
So I'm going to hand it over to our EU correspondent here.
00:33:32
zzweilous
Yeah, let's do this. I'll just quickly pull up the graphics so I know that I won't stumble over my own thoughts.
00:33:36
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:33:42
William Dunphey
All Mm-hmm.
00:33:42
zzweilous
All right, yeah, obviously. The event was won by um an Italian trainer named Phil Beck, who i think most people who only watch...
00:33:53
zzweilous
Play Pokemon events may not know. This was his fourth event. He previously played in the Turin ah Special Championship. He played in the Bologna Special Championship last year.
00:34:07
zzweilous
He also competed at the Leila Regional once. He never made a top eight. um
00:34:12
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:34:12
zzweilous
But between you and I, i feel like the name Philbeck, he's not a stranger to like extremely, extremely um high performance. Because um if you remember the Go Battle League arena, there used to be a segment of yours, like a little show on Twitch.television, where you invited the top eight players on the Go Battle League leaderboards.
00:34:38
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:34:38
zzweilous
um You invited me once too, and I actually managed to get cast by House Stark, the one and only, that week. So that's a nice tie-in into our last segment.
00:34:48
William Dunphey
Wow. Poetic.
00:34:50
zzweilous
um But yeah, like so I'm a a one-time Go Battle League Arena weekly winner. Philbeck is a two-time Go Battle League Arena weekly winner.
00:35:02
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:35:02
zzweilous
So he actually managed to not only be in the top eight when you pulled the leaderboard data, but he also managed to defeat the other players within the top eight in that little tournament setting twice.
00:35:15
zzweilous
And I think we also had like a... um an event one time when it wasn't really down to okay who placed highest on the leaderboard that week but just like invited previous winners or something maybe that was like an end of the end of the season season thing and i actually went up against philbeck first round and he demolished me so like he has definitely uh left his mark both at the gbl leaderboards um
00:35:24
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:35:42
zzweilous
where he has made the front page ever since the season of Go, which was the season after the interlude season in 2022. um Ever since he has um peaked on the front page of the GBL leaderboards every season.
00:35:58
zzweilous
um and yeah so definitely a grassroots hero a gbl hero and now also only the second player to win a regional level event without dropping a single game it's an 18 and all run and that has only ever been done by lnd as rajaf uh over in brazil i think it was the porto allegra regional one season um
00:36:04
William Dunphey
Mm hmm.
00:36:14
William Dunphey
Insane.
00:36:22
William Dunphey
Correct.
00:36:23
zzweilous
So yeah, definitely history has been made. um and yeah, so Bologna, it was um another special event. The European scene likes to close the season with a bunch of special championships.
00:36:39
zzweilous
And we had a good amount of storylines. i just I'll just keep talking, right? Because it's difficult for you to to follow um the entire stream.
00:36:44
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:36:48
zzweilous
So one very exciting um match going into the ah second day of the competition that i was looking looking forward to was between Colin6 and Kazim33.
00:36:59
William Dunphey
Oh, yeah.
00:37:00
zzweilous
um you Colin, obviously we know him as the final boss, as ah the most decorated European trainer. um Now it's tied with Nickname actually, but um ah with the amount of grand finals that Colin has reached, with the amount of medals um he has collected, probably still has the best case for being the greatest European battler of all time.
00:37:23
zzweilous
But he actually came off a little bit of a dry spell where he failed to make a winner's side day two for his last four consecutive tournaments.
00:37:33
zzweilous
He still managed to sneak in into day two on the loser's side twice. But a player like Colin, you just expect him to be at the very top every single time. Like...
00:37:44
zzweilous
the pockets and rises in Doombucks in North America. So Colin definitely needed or was looking for another big finish. And he got it in third place, taking out Kazim, who I think is probably...
00:37:58
zzweilous
One of the, if not the newcomer of this year's European season, Dortmund Regional Champion, and also actually the person who at the European International Championship had the most round wins.
00:38:12
zzweilous
Like he was tied for most game wins because some fellas get to play best of threes in the grand finals.
00:38:13
William Dunphey
um
00:38:19
zzweilous
But because he had such a sick loser bracket run, he managed to actually win 11 rounds at EUIC, which is the biggest tournament of all time.
00:38:26
William Dunphey
Wow.
00:38:27
zzweilous
Pretty impressive. um And yeah, we essentially had those two titans face off with the better end for Colin. But at the end of the day, Kazim just made another sick loser bracket run. And um both of them ended with a medal. Colin in third place, Kazim in fourth place.
00:38:45
zzweilous
um So yeah, who is good enough to chm ah come out ahead of Colin and Kazim? One of those people is PvP David in second place.
00:38:56
zzweilous
And I personally was very proud of having made three grand finals this season. I thought like, okay, maybe I haven't won a thing this season. But at least I have this going for me, like being the only European to reach three grand finals.
00:39:08
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:39:11
zzweilous
Not anymore, because PvP David actually is now the Stuttgart regional champion and the Stockholm and Bologna grand finalist.
00:39:13
William Dunphey
Oh.
00:39:20
zzweilous
So one gold, two silvers.
00:39:21
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:39:22
zzweilous
And I think the only reason why um David isn't in that um same conversation as Colin, who is like a tea and pizza team member of his, is just because he doesn't get to go to as many regionals.
00:39:38
zzweilous
Because um like the 07 in his name, I think that's a year of birth.
00:39:39
William Dunphey
Agreed.
00:39:43
zzweilous
So I feel like he was like... just about to turn 18 recently. Maybe he already has done that. is if If not, he's on the cusp. And even though we know that he has very supportive parents, he actually played his dad during the Stockholm regionals, which was very fun to witness.
00:39:59
zzweilous
um Obviously, like as a minor, you don't get to travel all that much.
00:40:03
William Dunphey
sure
00:40:03
zzweilous
But whenever he does go to an event, he just really knocks it out of the park and um Yeah, he only lost to fill back the entire tournament. um His winner's side run ended in the winner's finals.
00:40:16
zzweilous
Then he got knocked down to face Colin Six, both of which actually ran the exact same team. um And yeah, that team definitely took inspiration from Big Man Blastoise's Heroics in Portland and the championship team from its accent.
00:40:35
zzweilous
um But yeah, it was like a lot of...
00:40:37
William Dunphey
ah
00:40:39
William Dunphey
I love that you i love to use the word heroic.
00:40:40
zzweilous
It is, isn't it?
00:40:42
William Dunphey
I'm sorry. Such a good word.
00:40:46
zzweilous
it is isn't it
00:40:49
William Dunphey
The heroic appearance of big man Blastoise. I also thought it was funny. Like ah I w risked it all. Right. i I just said that on the Portland cast because it is it's just so synonymous. That's what everybody memes on. it Everybody thinks about it.
00:41:03
William Dunphey
ah But in the actual clip that was posted online, it just says big Blastoise. You know, you cut out the man because man is not a Pokemon.
00:41:10
zzweilous
Oh.
00:41:10
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:41:10
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:41:11
William Dunphey
um to you know to brand guidelines. I want to ah to sing the praises a bit more of PvP David because Homestice Henry and I were approached by a very generous sponsor ah named Rio, and he wanted to run a Spice Bowl tournament where you essentially ban all of the best Pokemon that people are using um in the championship series and in an Open Great League in general.
00:41:13
zzweilous
yeah
00:41:34
William Dunphey
There were 69 bans when it was all said and done, so very nice. um But PvP David competed in the Spice Bowl, Our top three were Firestar on the loser side bracket and then Galaxka Bolton and David on that winner side bracket.
00:41:48
William Dunphey
I believe you competed in the in the Spice Bowl as well. But um essentially, David went to that grand finals. Henry and i live streamed the tournament on YouTube. ah we We covered 10 different matches, including all of our best of fives being the winners, losers and grand finals.
00:42:05
William Dunphey
ah And David was just insane. I mean, he's just, we saw this at worlds last year where he finished seventh overall. Uh, I called him out, him and BL's a boys being like two, two young prodigies that are basically the next generation of competitive Pokemon go players.
00:42:20
William Dunphey
Um, and I feel like he's just, just proven that time and time again. And, you know, in recent events, um, Yes. like Thank you so much to to Rio and PP Poke for supporting the ah the Spice Bowl. Because to your point earlier, we do need more community-led tournaments.
00:42:35
William Dunphey
And it's just so sick to see David not only appearing in the Grand Finals here in Bologna, but also winning a specialized meta tournament on the side and winning a fair amount of money ah by doing so.
00:42:46
zzweilous
I cannot endorse this usage of Shadow Granbull in that tournament, but other than that, I will have to agree that this is a fairly impressive feat.
00:42:49
William Dunphey
i know
00:42:53
William Dunphey
I mean, the the the finals was literally Shadow Mighty Ana versus Shadow Granbull. I mean, this was like a crazy tournament experience. But ah yeah, I wanted to sing David's praises. I think he's incredibly gifted.
00:43:05
William Dunphey
um Colin and Kazim, I'm looking at the bracket. They played twice, and Colin was the only person to beat Kazim in the tournament. starting off day or excuse me Starting off day two, Colin 2-0ed Kazim, sent him down to the Leisure Side bracket.
00:43:18
William Dunphey
Kazim went through Fasbury, nicknamed Freaka, and then met Colin again where he lost. one to two to be eliminated from the tournament.
00:43:24
zzweilous
but definitely Definitely Colin was somebody's final boss this weekend. and
00:43:28
William Dunphey
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I agree with you as as well about Kazim's talent. I think he is the newcomer ah to the competitive scene. When you look at Philbeck's bracket run, especially day number number two, i mean, this is insane.
00:43:41
William Dunphey
He takes down Nickname in round one, right? He already won two events this season. He takes down Colin in round two, and then he 3-0s and 3-0s, break out the broom, sweeps PvP David twice in both the, looks like the winner's finals and grand finals.
00:43:58
William Dunphey
so And Philbeg's record speaks for itself, but he was clearly untouchable no matter who he was playing against.
00:44:05
zzweilous
And one thing that I want to call out in terms of Philbeck's actually gameplay is his ability to make predictions, to build lines and make predictions, because this is not even grand finals.
00:44:18
zzweilous
Sometimes we go play by play for the grand finals if we want to call out something.
00:44:20
William Dunphey
Sure.
00:44:22
zzweilous
This is Winners Finals Game 1. Philbeck leads his Talonflame into Lapras. He immediately swaps Malamar and draws out the Tinkerton. He could have also um drawn out the Jumpluff, but the only two answers um on the opposing team to Malamar safe swap would be Pokemon that Talonflame could then easily farm down to get ahead on energy to have a positive matchup into Lapras. Because as soon as you're one turn ahead, you can just...
00:44:54
zzweilous
beat the Lapras in many scenarios. It's just like a little more comfortable with Flame Charge as your fast attack, or Charge Attack rather, but like there is definitely a good win condition there by setting up this farm, by safe swapping the one Pokemon um that you know only draws out answers that you can just farm down with your talent flame but this was not everything that happened that game because pvp david he reads the strategy um of like him trying to get the farm done with talent flame so he saves swaps or like counter swaps the um
00:45:30
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:45:34
zzweilous
Tinker Tone, he actually goes down a shield even, but then he still very purposefully um lets Di Malamar get low, but he loses the alignment, and that is because he has the Big Bang Blasters in the back.
00:45:45
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:45:48
zzweilous
So um no matter what happens, he is going to have a positive matchup against the Talonflame, and he would rather...
00:45:48
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:45:57
zzweilous
preserve some energy on his Pokemon rather than let the Talonflame get a farm down. So he purposefully loses the middle matchup, gets the side wave down um with the Lapras, and now um there is a choice to be made on Philbeck's side because he could now take the alignment that was handed to him by PvP David and just bring in the Furret.
00:46:22
zzweilous
But then the Furret would have taken the damage from the Sparkling Aria, would have taken Psywaves, would have just gotten really, really low.
00:46:23
William Dunphey
ye
00:46:30
zzweilous
So Philbeck makes a read and he brings his Talonflame into a loaded Lapras after he just did a save swap that was designed to get his Talonflame away from the Lapras.
00:46:42
zzweilous
But he reads that because of the way that David played it there must be the Blasters in the back. So he keeps his shields for the Furrid, he tanks his perfect Aria, gets to a fly, gets some valuable chip damage, and two shield Furrid just trailblazes, manages energy perfectly, and takes out the two water types.
00:46:50
William Dunphey
Wow.
00:47:00
zzweilous
And multiple adjustments from both sides within the same game, that's just like really high-level gameplay that sometimes, especially if you're like not as familiar with those type of mind games, it may just well go over your head.
00:47:00
William Dunphey
Wow.
00:47:13
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:47:14
zzweilous
like You will be questioning, oh, why did why did he do it like that? Why didn't he just throw the big move and take switch advantage?
00:47:21
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:47:21
zzweilous
But both players actually had really good ideas in that matchup, but Philbeck just was one step ahead after... pvp david attempted that one five head play and i think that says a lot about the level of these competitors um that even after everything's locked in after the teams are decided like there's still um information that is not yet revealed but that can be deduced if you just make the right interpretations from the moves your opponent is making
00:47:54
William Dunphey
I'm looking at the team here from David and if Philbeg is making that kind of read and you saw ah you said that he saw the Ticketon and the Lapras but had not seen the Blastoise in the back.
00:48:05
William Dunphey
um Other remaining options, it would be Diggersby, Blastoise, Shadowjumpluff or Malamar if he's only seen two of the of the six Pokemon. And if you look at those those matchups, I mean, worst case for that Furrit is probably the Shadow Jump Bluff, I would say, especially even Energy.
00:48:21
William Dunphey
But, um I mean, Furrit's got a ah ton of utility into that. It's just, ah to your point, it's incredible that he was able to kind of like... not only recognize the win condition, but also to manage the win condition, send that Talonflame back into the Lapras and not just immediately you know be so far behind from that decision that he's able to close things out and predict the Blastoise in the back.
00:48:42
William Dunphey
These things are so subtle, and I feel like a lot of players just watching the stream might not realize it. And I know it's like the commentator's job to kind of bring these things to light, to mention them, to talk about them.
00:48:55
William Dunphey
And we did have a really good crew Bologna. So I will go back and watch the stream. I'm excited to see if the casters called that out because we did have some very talented gentlemen this weekend. But um yeah, I mean, how subtle, how nuanced, but but, but a person like you, right. Who's regularly competing. You see these things and you know exactly what's happening.
00:49:15
zzweilous
But also you have to be ah locked in on the day. Like you need to be on your A game and just be present enough in that moment to think about all those subpulties ah subtleties within the few seconds that you get to think about them.
00:49:19
William Dunphey
Hmm.
00:49:26
William Dunphey
No.
00:49:30
zzweilous
So yeah, like like even if you're mechanically gifted and you know what you're doing to make those reads in real time, um That really sets the best of the best apart.
00:49:41
zzweilous
And it was a really great back and forth to watch. And also I really want to compliment the team building on the side of Philbeck because that was not just a like like a cookie cutter team that he got from somewhere and um just like took it because it did well somewhere else.
00:49:48
William Dunphey
me
00:49:53
William Dunphey
no
00:49:58
zzweilous
I really liked his combination of Talonflame and the regular Swampert.
00:50:06
zzweilous
because this is not only a pretty decent core into a lot of the meta, but those two Pokémon are also excellent at handling Tinkerton.
00:50:06
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:50:17
William Dunphey
yeah
00:50:17
zzweilous
And once Tinkerton is out of the picture, the third has infinite play, essentially. Like, if you look at um the teams finishing in second and third, there's Lapras, there's Digusby, there's Blastoise, there's the Tinkerton, which you definitely want to scare away, and then there's like Jumpluff and Malama, which are
00:50:33
William Dunphey
yep
00:50:39
zzweilous
negative on paper but against jump love you just straight up win the two shields again and against malamar if they let the first move go the sucker punches will add up especially now that for like i think i don't know whether the the graphic is exactly correct i feel like the pvp david team had a shadow malamar but like if they if the malamar is shadow um like once you land a move and once you keep two shields the fur is just going to sucker punch down yeah
00:50:43
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:51:03
William Dunphey
You just eat it. Yeah. Agreed.
00:51:06
zzweilous
So yeah, really enabling this one Pokemon that used to be on Fraud Watch, but I feel like it has done enough now. i think Furred is actually good. And yeah, we we do see it...
00:51:15
William Dunphey
Yeah, I think so too.
00:51:17
zzweilous
um And on like as part of a very similar team on nine Alfie II's line of of six in the top eight, another Italian name that may not have had x as much exposure as some of these other trainers, but that's the beauty of those um regional events, especially like in Southern Europe, where it's maybe not as easy as, for example, in the Netherlands or Belgium or Germany, where a lot of events are in driving range.
00:51:47
zzweilous
um So yeah, those trainers definitely appreciate when something happens closer to home. And yeah, we we did see some good furred action from the Italians this weekend.
00:51:58
William Dunphey
I think it's incredible that Swampert has only won two gold medals. I say only. That's more than I thought it would win this season. and But both of its gold medals, excuse me, are both in EU.
00:52:09
William Dunphey
We had HK Assassin and now Philbag.
00:52:10
zzweilous
yeah
00:52:13
William Dunphey
ah Cool stat for you. We've had 14 Swamperts top cut this season, or at least be in top eight. I should be i should be more specific. Be in top eight. ah Five of those were Shadow. The remainder were regular.
00:52:24
William Dunphey
And the only two, again, to hit gold were both European Swamperts, which is I think is is pretty funny. um yeah i agree the team composition is definitely a little bit strange if you don't have the graphic in front of you on the youtube version i'll just call it out for everyone listening at home uh azumarill right the pokemon's back azumarill swabbert furret ticket on town flame and shadow malamar so even though he had double fairy type pokemon no lappers no blastoise no jump bluff no new tech No Drapian as well, right?
00:52:55
William Dunphey
The Shadow Malamar is what I kept on seeing ah being discussed on socials. You know, I saw this in Discord. I saw this on on Twitter. I saw a lot of people saying, man, the Shadow Malamar was honestly insane.
00:53:04
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:53:07
William Dunphey
And the way you're able to play it was really impressive. So yeah, Philbeck the Shadow Malamar. I think there were one, two, three, four, five, six, ah seven Shadow Malamars, maybe more if the Dracovitz graphic is incorrect in the top 16, which is pretty good.
00:53:18
zzweilous
yeah
00:53:22
zzweilous
One thing that I also want to call out is that especially with such a shadow Pokemon such as Malamar, um you don't you don't want the perfect that ah you don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good.
00:53:36
zzweilous
because um You may not have gotten a rank top 50 Malamar during the Rocket Takeover event recently, but Philbeck actually benefited from the fact that his Malamar was probably a lower rank than PvP David's, or like, in terms of, like...
00:53:56
zzweilous
worse PvP IVs because he did win CMP and if you lead Malamar into Malamar, that is decided by CMP and CMP only if you have the shadow because previously with the triple resisted sidewaves, you could easily tank to foul plays and probably not get farmed down immediately.
00:54:00
William Dunphey
yes
00:54:15
zzweilous
So playing the zeros would always guarantee that the opposing Malamar would be taken down far, far to the red.
00:54:23
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:54:23
zzweilous
um Whereas now, you just tank one, you're in the yellow, but the next just takes you out. So, yeah, like in those situations, like there was one game in the grand finals where was Malama into Malama lead.
00:54:29
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:54:35
William Dunphey
Game two. Game two.
00:54:37
zzweilous
um
00:54:37
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:54:38
zzweilous
And yeah, like from that point onwards, it was really difficult for PvP David to make anything happen. Because obviously you can't just play this out, you just lose alignment.
00:54:45
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:54:49
zzweilous
But then he makes the successful catch on Tinkerton in the back. But that just aligned the Tinkerton to the Swampert. So Swampert got to be exactly where it wanted to be.
00:55:00
William Dunphey
Exactly.
00:55:00
zzweilous
And that is because of that charge attack priority situation in the lead, which really dictated where the games went for Philbeck a lot of the time.
00:55:08
William Dunphey
Yeah, and for myself, only watching back the grand finals, when when that game kicked off, I remember very, very clearly, when that game kicked off and PvP David was just straight up avoiding charge tag priority, I said, he has to know.
00:55:21
William Dunphey
He has to know he's not going to win the charge tag priority here. And this is already information that that he's working with. So, yeah, it just just exactly.
00:55:27
zzweilous
I think it was revealed in the winners finals. So yeah, he definitely had the information.
00:55:32
William Dunphey
Just with that little bit of context, I was able to tell. Yeah, he already knows he's not going to win the the charge tag priority. I've heard a lot of ah lot of folks playing attack-weighted Malamar in days past. I think Shadow probably still has its own breakpoints and such.
00:55:44
William Dunphey
It's just such a shame that Shadow Malamar comes out and then Niantic immediately throws all these bug buffs. This Fury Cutter is now insane. And and Bug Bite is is going to be kind of like Dragon Breath and all this other stuff.
00:55:53
zzweilous
and big
00:55:57
William Dunphey
I'm just like, man, Shadow Malamar had...
00:55:58
zzweilous
You get to have one tournament and one tournament only.
00:56:01
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:56:01
zzweilous
the
00:56:02
William Dunphey
I mean, I mean, is there a more like clear example of five minutes of fame? That's literally, you know, the phrase I think Malamar was popular for five minutes or shadow version, I should say.
00:56:09
zzweilous
I don't know.
00:56:11
zzweilous
like maybe like one of those in-between metas where you had Shadow Steelings pop out but off all of a sudden.
00:56:17
William Dunphey
True.
00:56:17
zzweilous
But yeah, like really, that was a very unfortunate timing of the release.
00:56:18
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:56:23
zzweilous
But also, maybe we're we're counting it out too soon.
00:56:23
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:56:27
zzweilous
like We don't know how popular all those bugbiters will actually end up being on the team set people will bring in the Delightful Days meta. So... i would not I would not transfer my my Shadow Malamar just yet.
00:56:37
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:56:41
zzweilous
Don't um make it into candy and send it to the farm. um Instead, just hold on to it see where the meta goes and whether you'll find an opening with it because it is a very potent Pokemon.
00:56:54
William Dunphey
ZZ, I'm not ever going to tell people to transfer their Shadow Malamar, but i really think you are stretching the truth here when you say that you think its days might not be completely over, especially in the short term.
00:57:06
William Dunphey
i can't wait to talk about our picks for our...
00:57:09
zzweilous
You're a fortress truther. I will take your opinions.
00:57:11
William Dunphey
ah You'll be surprised.
00:57:13
zzweilous
Oh, ok okay, okay, okay.
00:57:13
William Dunphey
You'll be surprised. Yes.
00:57:16
zzweilous
I...
00:57:16
William Dunphey
I'm not a huge fan of Pokemon that have double weaknesses, especially when it looks like the environment is primed for fire type Pokemon. I'll just i'll just say that for now.
00:57:23
zzweilous
Yeah, that is fair.
00:57:25
zzweilous
That is fair.
00:57:25
William Dunphey
um
00:57:26
William Dunphey
But yeah, I...
00:57:27
zzweilous
Again, one instance where we really want to get into the new meta discussions, but there is still some ground to cover.
00:57:30
William Dunphey
Yeah, I know we're like raring to go.
00:57:35
William Dunphey
Yeah,
00:57:35
zzweilous
Um...
00:57:35
William Dunphey
sure.
00:57:36
zzweilous
Yeah, Bologna also, the very last event of the European circuit, um which doesn't mean it's the last time Europeans will earn championship points, but for now, um PvP David and Kazim, I think if my calculations are correct, they should jump ahead of Koifje and Tomahawk UK in the travel award race.
00:57:57
zzweilous
um but we know that tomahawk is going to naic as a competitor and i think uh marcus asius aurelius is also going to be in new orleans to um maybe
00:58:02
William Dunphey
yeah
00:58:11
zzweilous
get some more points to um jump into that top eight. So nobody's safe just yet. um But yeah, also I do want to, I do want them to introduce a shower with cold water for Marcus every time in a Zoom role it wins a tournament because I feel like wherever he goes, he's just followed by that big bunny that just keeps on winning and winning. Yeah.
00:58:33
William Dunphey
Yeah, it's it's like um um it's like the the allegory for depression when that one person in the room always has a rain cloud above them. i feel like I feel like Marcus is walking around and there's just an Azu bubbling on top of his head the whole time.
00:58:42
zzweilous
like It's just Ozzy using Hydro Pump every time. Yep.
00:58:49
William Dunphey
Like, hey, everyone, how are you doing? And you can't help but look at the Azumarill that's just like looming over him. ah No, I...
00:58:54
zzweilous
I want an Ozzy interpretation of that now. Yeah.
00:58:57
William Dunphey
Well, the one thing I wish we could have is honestly a inadequance and Arceus Aurelius rematch because just seeing the banter on stage at EUIC this season.
00:59:09
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:59:09
William Dunphey
I mean, my gosh, I wish we had a hot mic for that. I wish we could hear what they were saying because they were they were yapping the whole series, man, back and forth, back and forth.
00:59:16
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:59:19
zzweilous
They're at the type for that, for sure.
00:59:22
William Dunphey
Yeah, you know, like asking each other, is this a bait? Should I shield this or what do you have in the back?
00:59:26
zzweilous
And it ended so poet poetically with the Aqua Tail Throne when the crunch was available. Really like what we used to call Pega plays, but when CCO streams were still a thing.
00:59:36
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:59:36
William Dunphey
I know. it's like It's like if you're Marcus and you have two paths to choose from and there's like a concrete divider in the middle, you can either go left and throw the crunch or you can go right and try to farm down. He walked like right into the divider.
00:59:49
William Dunphey
Boom! Aqua Tail, do nothing and so and still not be able to win the game.
00:59:51
zzweilous
but
00:59:52
William Dunphey
So that was very tough for him. And I felt a bit sad in the moment. I still feel a little sad. I'm i'm ready for his redemption. i want Marcus to redeem himself.
00:59:59
zzweilous
100% like he's he's not the type to give up which like definitely a fair play to him for being somebody who like maybe not learns from his my mistakes but really takes his mistakes really well just goes again excels again because like
01:00:03
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:00:20
William Dunphey
you I know, i know you're, you're giving him compliments and I hear what you're saying, but it's so funny that you're like, he doesn't learn from his mistakes.
01:00:21
zzweilous
ah Yes, yes, yes.
01:00:27
William Dunphey
All right.
01:00:27
zzweilous
he
01:00:28
William Dunphey
He's just not that kind of person.
01:00:30
zzweilous
he He knows how I mean He knows how I mean it, right?
01:00:33
William Dunphey
I know.
01:00:34
zzweilous
Like, I need to be a little bit backhanded about it.
01:00:34
William Dunphey
I know. I know. I'm just, I'm just giving you a hard time.
01:00:38
zzweilous
um But yeah, he always has those types of moments.
01:00:38
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:00:41
zzweilous
But he'd be unstoppable if he didn't have them, right? Because he's still one of the best in Europe and still in that travel race and for a reason.
01:00:44
William Dunphey
Yes. Yes, he would.
01:00:50
William Dunphey
Yes, he would. And I wish you would make more content. Marcus, if you're listening, please make YouTube videos again.
01:00:54
zzweilous
ah Yeah, miss this YouTube video era.
01:00:54
William Dunphey
Those were so good.
01:00:56
zzweilous
I thought that was really and exciting. And like it was like different because it was not just people talking about like teams or the meta.
01:01:00
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:01:05
zzweilous
It was also like about, okay, who are my top 10 favorites to win worlds?
01:01:05
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:01:09
zzweilous
like That's like exciting.
01:01:09
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:01:10
zzweilous
That that creates like some some gossip. And it's not like putting anyone down.
01:01:13
William Dunphey
Exactly.
01:01:14
zzweilous
It's just like highlighting people within the community who have done really well. I really like that.
01:01:19
William Dunphey
Exactly. All right, Marcus, you you have you have a manifesto from ZZ and I. You have to make content again.
01:01:24
zzweilous
to
01:01:24
William Dunphey
i hope you understand if you're listening. um I wanted to mention, just honor honorable mention, I guess I should say, to 23EJB for top cutting over in Bologna. ah He did it with a wacky team.
01:01:36
William Dunphey
He's got Duskloops, Morpeco, and Shadowcanto Marowak.
01:01:37
zzweilous
you
01:01:40
William Dunphey
EJ, I don't know what you were cooking, but it was great. I i owe you Guinness next time ah next time i see you. And also Withered. I thought Withered has been a rising star this entire season. ah Seeing them again ah here with big man Blastoise and Shadow Gator in Top Cut was really cool. So I'm excited to see what both of those trainers do in their next competition.
01:02:01
zzweilous
100% yeah winner side day two for withered as well and yeah one of the one of the youngest top trainers in the eu region so we'll definitely can definitely um count on him to just grow and grow further probably in height too but also as a competitor
01:02:09
William Dunphey
Hmm.
01:02:18
William Dunphey
Agreed. Agreed. that That next generation, I'm telling you, ZZ, we're aging out, man. We got to make room for the Beelze boys and the PvP Davids and the Withards.
01:02:24
zzweilous
yeah
01:02:27
zzweilous
I once saw like a post on Twitter about who the oldest player to ever win a regional competition has been. And I don't know whether the data is correct, but I think somebody mentioned that Kieng was like 32 at the time of his championship way win.
01:02:44
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:02:45
zzweilous
and I'm 31 now, so the clock is ticking.
01:02:47
William Dunphey
Ooh.
01:02:48
zzweilous
um If I won a second championship title, it needs to come quickly. Yeah.
01:02:52
William Dunphey
I, I prefer, I prefer, that's a great post, but I prefer the post about which trainers have a job and are able to also win a tournament. That's, that's honestly really funny. Yeah.
01:03:02
zzweilous
As somebody who does have a full-time job, it's it's a hindrance.
01:03:05
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:03:07
zzweilous
it's It's not easy. But I do also believe that um out of those four potential reasons why one would not have the same, would not be like, would like struggle at a regional competition, so to speak,
01:03:23
zzweilous
Like having having a kid or having kids is probably the most demanding out of all of them.
01:03:28
William Dunphey
Agreed.
01:03:28
zzweilous
um So I'm definitely privileged in that. I do not have to take care of another yeah human being. Just I got to get myself to work. And that's all I really have to think of.
01:03:37
William Dunphey
Yeah. Not ZZ 2.0 or ZZ Mini, you know.
01:03:44
zzweilous
Thankfully not.
01:03:44
William Dunphey
but
01:03:46
William Dunphey
So i don't know if I should ask you this. I think i think ah in order to keep the theme going, your hypothetical child's name would have to be Dino, I believe, you know to keep the theme going.
01:03:58
zzweilous
It is true. is true.
01:03:59
William Dunphey
you know But anyway, that's neither here nor there.
01:04:00
zzweilous
think we've
01:04:02
William Dunphey
um That's all I have to say about Bologna. I'm not sure if there's anything else that you wanted to add. Very high level EU competition. I cannot wait to watch back the VOD. um Because we're trying to fit in this episode and also another episode next week, we picked Sunday to record.
01:04:15
William Dunphey
So um I'm not my usual studious type, at least when it comes to Bologna.
01:04:19
zzweilous
covered
01:04:19
William Dunphey
So I appreciate you carrying carrying the ah the podcast, my friend.
01:04:24
zzweilous
yeah i think if covered ah Most of Bologna really well, and it was certainly a great competition to watch. um Big congrats to Philbeck for landing that big title. It's always nice if you just compete at one tournament a season and still manage to clutch your Worlds invite, and I really hope that we see him in Anaheim.
01:04:45
William Dunphey
Me as well. I'm excited to talk about our last competition that happened over the past weekend. This was a one-day event, and we're heading back down to South Africa, where there was a 200% increase in the number of players attending.
01:04:59
William Dunphey
ah we had...
01:04:59
zzweilous
The scene is growing.
01:05:01
William Dunphey
The scene is growing. and And I think it's important also that we nurture smaller scenes, ah scenes that need to build more awareness, to to include more players, to become more notable.
01:05:14
William Dunphey
um We had the Durban Special Championship in South Africa. ah PvP Steve of was ah making the trek again to South Africa. And we also had DeBilly Brave Bird from the U.S.,
01:05:26
William Dunphey
um But even more importantly than that, we had our first South African trainer win a championship series event and qualify for the world championship. So um before we talk about anything to do with the tournament, I want to shout out to DracoViz for putting together the graphics per usual and also for PvP Steve for getting the footage together, for publishing a YouTube video about it.
01:05:43
zzweilous
Thank
01:05:45
William Dunphey
um I thought about it, ZZ, and honestly, without Steve, we'd have no coverage of of the all-Australian events. We'd have no coverage of the South African events. so We would lack a ton of coverage when it comes to the TPC events, whether it's ah Thailand, Taiwan, any of the playoffs.
01:06:00
William Dunphey
We would be missing a lot of what we want to talk about. So um Steve, I know, doesn't have the biggest channel. If I could, I would magically give him 10 times the amount of views because he definitely deserves it and he puts in a ton of work.
01:06:11
zzweilous
Yeah, he's definitely one of one over the MVPs and probably the Australian MVP alongside people like Debbie Pebble who always um help out a lot.
01:06:13
William Dunphey
So I'm grateful to you, Steve.
01:06:23
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:06:23
zzweilous
um But yeah, like I was also, so like this is, Okay, we we'll get to we'll get to the finals and the champion in a bit, but the fact that PvP Steve finished third at this competition also means that he is very likely, we just assume that NAIC will not have any surprises in store, um is going to qualify for Worlds in the Oceanic region, which has 10 spots for Worlds.
01:06:57
zzweilous
or it's qualification.
01:06:58
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:06:58
zzweilous
How do you feel about that personally, Speedy? Because I feel like this is like um a topic that you can have opinions on.
01:07:07
William Dunphey
I mean, i don't i don't have any problem with it. um I mean, if regardless of whether or not Steve was a creator, I feel like you compete in the region where you live or where you you are native to or whatever.
01:07:21
William Dunphey
And I feel like you just do your best. And I don't think that like the circumstances of the region where you are should dictate whether or not you're worthy of a championship spot. um We talked about this earlier.
01:07:32
William Dunphey
i I talked about this with my, my fellow co-casters kind of in private at past worlds, especially, um, 22, 22 and 23 when, you know, trainers that maybe didn't win big events or, um you know, just farm locals or, or whatever it might be.
01:07:48
William Dunphey
Um, well, we didn't have locals back in 22 and 23. I should say trainers that won smaller events that attended worlds. And some people were like upset about this. Some people in NA or EU were calling them out for that.
01:08:00
William Dunphey
Um, Honestly, if they're not good, then just beat them at Worlds and just prove it. I don't i don't understand what the problem is, but I don't know if your opinion is different.
01:08:07
zzweilous
Yeah. So like that angle, I'm 100% in agreement with you that just because ah the event is small doesn't mean there shouldn't be anything awarded for it.
01:08:19
zzweilous
um I think what this does do is that it highlights a little bit of an issue with the change that was made to the world's qualification method going into the 2025 season.
01:08:31
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:08:31
zzweilous
where now a player doesn't need to essentially just meet a threshold of points to qualify for Worlds, but instead all the competitors are competing against each other, so to speak.
01:08:45
zzweilous
So um PvP Steve being able to attend Worlds as a competitor means that another Oceanic competitor will not be able to um attend Worlds.
01:08:45
William Dunphey
sure
01:08:55
zzweilous
And I think in this very specific instance, um It is Yusei Furo, who is a content creator from New Zealand, really good battler, but also somebody who I think has indicated that he wouldn't want to travel to Anaheim anyway, because it's like the with work or something.
01:09:16
zzweilous
So actually there's there's nothing lost there and this really makes it so that I can be as happy for Steve as I want to be because I do like the guy and I'm really glad that he did so well for himself. And he also essentially, um by giving us that regional coverage from Australia,
01:09:35
zzweilous
robbed himself of the opportunity to score points in his home region. So I think it's just fair um that he gets to have a makeup event ah like that. And like if you put in the work to travel, like that should be rewarded in some capacity also.
01:09:45
William Dunphey
Good point. Great point.
01:09:52
zzweilous
i just feel as if... um I don't know whether they'll be a rethinking for the upcoming um the upcoming um Play Pokemon Championship series season, but I think a lot of people don't really like the fixed player threshold where it's only top 50, top 75, top 10, because
01:10:14
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:10:16
zzweilous
um like you don't know whether everybody really gets to compete on an even footing. And in this specific instance, it doesn't really like, there's like it's a victimless crime, so to speak.
01:10:31
zzweilous
um It's not even a crime, but it's just like an unfortunate circumstance of the system.
01:10:34
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:10:36
William Dunphey
yeah
01:10:37
zzweilous
And I get that they want to reduce numbers or at least more actively be able to manage numbers because they saw the explosion with the TCG and VGC, um like some moderate growth with Go.
01:10:49
zzweilous
And they want to be able that they can service all the competitors at Worlds. um But I feel like just just make a little bit of a more ambitious threshold for some regions. like So that people that really want to get to Worlds can really grind for that.
01:11:06
zzweilous
And people that just have to take the opportunity that are presented to them aren't really like... prized out by people that they then have to act actively compete against because there's an artificial scarcity of spots.
01:11:24
William Dunphey
e I see what you're saying. So maybe for Oceania and Middle East, South Africa or Mesa, maybe those two regions should allow more trainers to qualify. Maybe it should be top 20.
01:11:35
William Dunphey
Is that what you're getting at? Hmm.
01:11:37
zzweilous
um either is something like that or which is like probably more in line which with what I was actually thinking um just try and go back to okay you have to be this tall to enter you have to get this many championship points to qualify for Worlds and if you if you want slightly fewer people from certain regions just like it make it like slightly more difficult even though I don't even believe that the numbers will change that much this season
01:11:54
William Dunphey
Mmm. Mmm.
01:12:06
William Dunphey
okay
01:12:06
zzweilous
um but i feel like it's nice to really be certain that um you reach your target and then you actually get to go because in this instance it was okay the last event in my home region has wrapped up i'm top 10 i could go to worlds and compete and then far far away on another continent another event happens and somebody somebody earns points for my rating zone like in this specific instance um there was no harm done but i still feel as if the principle is something that needs to be considered when making the decisions um as to how to to a structure the qualification for um future seasons
01:12:30
William Dunphey
Ah, I see.
01:12:48
William Dunphey
Okay. I understand. i understand what you're getting at. So maybe for those smaller regions, you pivot back to the threshold metric, where as long as you're above 500 points or 700 or whatever, you've qualified.
01:13:00
William Dunphey
And then it doesn't matter where you stand on the leaderboard because you've met the threshold.
01:13:01
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:13:03
William Dunphey
So it's threshold and not cutoff, so to speak.
01:13:04
zzweilous
Yeah. I like that. Especially for um if you look at um Australia, for example, they get three regionals.
01:13:08
William Dunphey
Okay.
01:13:13
zzweilous
The best finish limit, so the amount of regionals or ICs that count towards your championship points total is five. So if somebody just has the money or the opportunity to travel abroad and score points there,
01:13:29
zzweilous
they will immediately lap the competition at home that aren't able to travel abroad because they only get three events, right? And especially in a region like Australia that can spiral into, okay, I get a travel award for this IC.
01:13:44
zzweilous
I get a travel award for that IC.
01:13:44
William Dunphey
yeah
01:13:46
zzweilous
And I don't know.
01:13:47
William Dunphey
yeah
01:13:47
zzweilous
It's like a little bit of an infinite money glitch um or like at least an infinite I get compensated for spending money on those experiences glitch.
01:13:55
William Dunphey
Sure.
01:13:55
zzweilous
And so, yeah, I feel like maybe we keep the larger um regions with a more competitive opportunity at the current system, but we could go back to a championship point threshold system for Australia, which doesn't have five regionals.
01:14:11
William Dunphey
Interesting. Interesting point. um I like the way you think. If anyone from TPCI is listening to this, please consider this as a rule update. I know 2026 is probably already settled, but maybe 2027, because um this goes back to what ZZ and I have talked about before. It's just that we feel these smaller regions need to be nurtured.
01:14:33
William Dunphey
um so that they can grow. And I feel like it would be such a relief for these players to be able to just get the amount of points that they need and then not worry about the world's qualification after that and just be able to lock in their invite.
01:14:38
zzweilous
Right.
01:14:46
William Dunphey
you know They have a clear goal. They don't have to just grind all season and hope that somebody from you know doesn't travel outside of region, scoop up a bunch of points, and then come back and kick them out of the out of the threshold.
Eight Trainers Competition Overview
01:14:56
William Dunphey
um Yeah, out ah out of the the cutoff, I should say. Yeah, I believe the threshold number would be actually really good for this group. So yeah, very well thought out argument. You won me over.
01:15:07
William Dunphey
um I'm going to agree with you on that one.
01:15:09
zzweilous
Appreciate it
01:15:10
William Dunphey
Yeah, but um so in this competition, we did have eight trainers total. ah Steve from Australia, Billy ah traveled from the US and it looks like Detective August. I believe that is a German flag, if I'm not mistaken.
01:15:23
zzweilous
It is. And Detective August actually competed in the previous South African regional as well. And I think that was the story of the trainer who... actually the brought their kids to a i think a o VGC competition.
01:15:34
William Dunphey
Yes. Yep.
01:15:36
zzweilous
So definitely a frequent traveler and likes to help out with the goal numbers as well.
01:15:36
William Dunphey
yeah
01:15:42
William Dunphey
Yeah, I mean, honestly, thank you, Detective August, because otherwise, you know, a seven-person tournament ah would have been a little bit strange in terms of how the bracket would have functioned or if it would have fired at all, right?
01:15:54
William Dunphey
But um yeah, this was ah this was a fun competition. Steve did a great job covering some of the matches. I believe in his video, he did his round one, or no, sorry, he wrote he covered all Divichon's games.
01:16:05
zzweilous
So good. okay
01:16:05
William Dunphey
So we have round one, Divichon versus Detective August.
01:16:08
William Dunphey
Then we have Divichon taking on, ah believe this is... Yune, I believe is the name. Yune Gasa. I'm trying to read the small text and also reference. Yuno Gasai, who I believe finished within top six, that is.
01:16:24
William Dunphey
um Next round, winner's finals versus Billy DeBray Bird. And then grand finals where he took on Billy again. ah i actually reached out to Billy because I thought he was going to Portland. And I said, hey, you know, if you're around this weekend, ah we should hang out.
01:16:38
William Dunphey
Very, very cool guy. Part of the SoCal Swablos. Really appreciate Billy a lot. And um he said, no, I'm actually going to South Africa. And I said, what? He said, yeah, I'm flying from from, I guess, l LA to ah to South Africa to go compete.
01:16:53
William Dunphey
And I hope it goes well. And he did very well finishing second overall. That grand finals was a lot of fun to watch as well. I believe it went to game five, if I'm not mistaken.
01:17:03
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:17:03
William Dunphey
And, um, yeah, I mean.
01:17:05
zzweilous
There was also a Fury categorizer part on this team, like kind of um like kind of like looking like almost.
01:17:12
William Dunphey
Prescient.
01:17:13
zzweilous
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like predicting what the future would be.
01:17:17
William Dunphey
Yeah. Wow. Prishant. um This is a a fun word. Having or showing knowledge of events before they take place. And I'm proud of myself that I found the word I wanted and not some other ah random word.
01:17:30
William Dunphey
But yeah, Fury Cutter Glycopod. What ah what a a brilliant call. um So teams, it looks like the runner-up for the tournament in Billy DeBraybird was running Shadow for Alligator, ah Diggersby, Tinkaton, Unova, Stunfisk. I'm a big fan of the pancake. Happy to see it getting another silver medal.
01:17:49
William Dunphey
ShadowJumpluff and FuryCutterGlycopod. Divishan was running Feraligator, Claydol, Tinkaton, ShadowDrapion, ShadowJumpluff, and Furret. Definitely something we more but expect to see. That sounds like a more standard meta team. Maybe the Claydol's a little spicy. Maybe the Feraligatr is a little unusual.
01:18:06
William Dunphey
But um the core four of Tickitung, Shadow Drappy, and Shadowjumpluff and Furret, very, very solid. And I think he played Furret quite a bit. He brought it all five games in the Grand Finals, and it was very good for him.
01:18:14
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:18:18
zzweilous
was definitely leaning on it a good amount. So again, another like another data point that for it is off RodWatch officially. Yeah.
01:18:26
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:18:28
zzweilous
And yeah, I also want to shout out the good people at Dracovis for putting together a little bit of a showcase for the um best or some of the notable trainers from the African continent.
01:18:41
zzweilous
And I think they did mention Divashan as well as like one of the rising stars. So seeing that translate to a championship title was was fun to see.
01:18:50
William Dunphey
Yeah, you're right. They did a whole like ah blog post on South African trainers. That was really cool, and I'm glad they did that. Dracovus, please include more pictures next time. i actually want to see the faces of these players. I know there's a lot of text, and I appreciate the work you did, but i want to see ah I want to see what these players look like. So if I catch them at Worlds or at another event, I can say, oh, hey, you're Divashon, right? I recognize you.
01:19:12
William Dunphey
um this was ah This was a fun event. um It looks like there was there was quite a bit of lag at the event. I did notice in the recordings that Steve posted that, especially in the Winners Finals Grand Finals, it looked a little bit choppy at times.
01:19:26
William Dunphey
So kudos to the players for playing through that kind of annoyance. It can definitely rattle you if you're not ready for it. um Billy had some crazy wins because essentially the the way the grand finals started, it was 2-0 Divishan. He was on the the doorstep of winning the tournament. And then Billy struck back with two victories in a row to tie up the series.
01:19:47
William Dunphey
Essentially came down to game five where Divishan led Feraligatr into Diggersby. ah His full team was Feraligatr, Tingaton, and Furret. And he took on Diggersby, Glyzopod, and Shadow Jump Love. um billy pivoted to that diggers beach or excuse me he pivoted out of diggersby into the glycopod tried to make something happen uh but ultimately the knockout blows easy was delivered by debuchan's furret into that opposing diggersby so i agree with you officially off fraud watch furret is the real deal yeah
01:20:19
William Dunphey
fun tournament and top eight we had a caterpillar what the heck Duty, duty with the Caterpie Haunter Slowbro Core. Man, that is, that's awesome. so
01:20:28
zzweilous
Definitely a team that's leaning more on the fun side of things. So there are some real Pokemon on there, like the Altaria and the Wigglytuff, but Cowboyhead, Caterpie, please, is all I can say on that.
01:20:36
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:20:43
William Dunphey
I really appreciate that MikeNerdLaw, he's commented that on basically every post Pokemon Go has ever published. And he's amassed a ton of followers by doing that, which is honestly like really funny.
01:20:54
zzweilous
yeah I really think they need to introduce Cowboyhead Caterpie for the 10 year anniversary. i feel like at this point, it would be a crowd pleaser.
01:21:02
William Dunphey
Oh.
01:21:06
William Dunphey
He's so consistent, right? You gotta, you gotta to at least give in and just, uh, admire the, the persistence. I would say, um, Durbin special event was a lot of fun. Again, thank you to PVPC for publishing the footage. If you'd like to watch, um, his, uh, his coverage of it, of Divishan's run, you can check out his channel, uh, PVP Steve on YouTube.
01:21:26
William Dunphey
And, uh, Yeah, congratulations on qualifying for Worlds, Steve, and hope to to see you perform well there. Divishan as well. I'm excited to see our first South African trainer compete at Worlds.
01:21:37
William Dunphey
That's going to be history in the making. And yeah, I don't know if I have too much to add to Durbin, just because we didn't have a ah stream for it.
01:21:45
zzweilous
Yeah, i also would finally allow ourselves to move on to the move update discussion
Niantic's Delightful Days Update
01:21:54
zzweilous
because there's quite a bit to talk about, actually, which is not really what we expected at this time of year.
01:21:54
William Dunphey
Let's go.
01:22:01
William Dunphey
So for those of you who do not know, the Delightful Days season update was published by Niantic shortly after the Portland regionals. I mean, come on. We could have totally revealed that on stream in Portland, but we didn't get to.
01:22:14
William Dunphey
But anyway, it's on the website. um And there are a ton of updates. It seems like Bug is getting a massive buff. ah Bug Bite, Fury Cutter, both really, really good. um There's slight touches to Ember. ah Rap has a new effect, which effectively ah reduces the opponent's defense by one stage, guaranteed. So I'm hearing whispers of Lickitung and Dragonair coming back. I don't know how true that will be.
01:22:40
William Dunphey
PVPoke published his rankings, and Fortress is sitting at number two overall. So we really could be living in a world where Fortress, Lapras, and Blastoise are competing for the World Championships in a few months.
01:22:54
William Dunphey
What a time to be alive.
01:22:56
zzweilous
yeah you do have a history with fortress um i guess it was um a real hero during the sylph days and now it's just meta apparently given the um preliminary pv poke rankings for the new season with bug bite um getting the power increase from three to four per bug bite which is very strong on a one turn
01:23:11
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:23:20
zzweilous
fast attack like bug bite it makes it a dragon breath clone dragon breath famously one of the most oppressive fast attacks in the game and now you have that on a pokemon with um for its profile for its fortress profile for it address um where you have the steel subtyping and like bug actually
01:23:35
William Dunphey
he yeah
01:23:44
zzweilous
pairing quite well with it like you definitely have that four times weakness to fire but you also eliminate the ground weakness um you eliminate the um flying weakness from the bug type so there's a lot of more like a lot of extra neutrality from that type combination that you gain and obviously access to rock tomb like fortress
01:23:55
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Yep.
01:24:07
zzweilous
may just be the biggest name on this new update, probably a real meta contender, and likely the main reason why everybody's um claiming that Malamar's days are over.
01:24:20
William Dunphey
Yeah, I think when you look at um a Dragon Breath ah clone bug bite fortress, you're basically looking at fortress spinning up to a hibachi bar and just eating the squid just in one bite, just absolutely annihilating it. So I don't know. I think that Shadow Melamar's days were short lived and they will not be returning anytime soon.
01:24:40
William Dunphey
um I plugged in my headphones. That's why I'm like kind of slouched over to the side. They were running low on battery. So um for this segment, this is again, our first impressions is easy. And I are just kind of going off feel what we see in the rankings, what we see in the updates.
01:24:53
William Dunphey
We're going to learn a lot more when it comes to practice tournaments, so ah scrims, when the season update rolls out on the 4th of June. And also of course, when we get to NAIC, but for now I've got three newcomers,
01:25:06
William Dunphey
which are Pokemon that I think have just shot up the rankings are going to be suddenly very good. I've got three mainstays, which are Pokemon that have been meta staples the past three to six months that I think are not going anywhere.
01:25:17
William Dunphey
If anything, they're getting even stronger given the update. And then I have three has-beens, Pokemon that were strong, that looked good, but are just going to get totally wiped out by this meta change.
01:25:27
William Dunphey
um And then as a bonus part, I've got some honorable mentions, Pokemon that are kind of like wild cards. I don't know if they're going to be good, but they have potential. So how do you want to do this? Do you want to go back and forth?
01:25:38
zzweilous
Yeah, I like a good back and forth. Like, um we move through each category, everybody reveals one at a time, we'll discuss whether agree, whether we disagree.
01:25:45
William Dunphey
Okay.
01:25:49
zzweilous
think that would be fun.
01:25:51
William Dunphey
All right, I'm going to kick things off here. I'm going to leave with a very strong pick. Believe it or not, ZZ, I actually agree with your brother, Joncus. I think that Dedene is going to be a threat in this meta. you're You're Electric, you're Fairy. Yes, you don't want to see poison or ground, but my goodness, do you destroy the flying types, the water types, a lot of the the bug types as well, because Fairy does resist bug.
01:26:15
William Dunphey
I mean, I think Dedene with the new newly buffed Parabolic Charge is going to be a threat.
01:26:20
zzweilous
I will read out my notes verbatim. Dedene maybe? be I'm very interested. Like, I love my electric types.
01:26:30
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:26:32
zzweilous
And even though I originally it wasn't, like, too big on some of those stat-modifying moves for Pokémon that don't have that many stats to work with anyway...
01:26:45
zzweilous
um i just like looked at the raw numbers and if you get like so like the main reason why did any is going to be good is because they um made the move parabolic charge both cheaper and um they guaranteed a 100 which is what guaranteeing is a defense buff to yourself um so
01:27:07
William Dunphey
Well, to be fair, it could be a guaranteed like 25% defense increase, which is kind of what Skull Bash is. so i So I get your point. You don't have to you don't have to backtrack.
01:27:15
zzweilous
I'm just meaning that it's it's i think I think it's like one stage, right? like the The defense isn't increasing by 100%.
01:27:21
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:27:24
zzweilous
It's like 100% likely that you get the defense buff.
01:27:26
William Dunphey
Okay.
01:27:26
zzweilous
So it's like plus one stage. um But you get there so fast now because... If I'm not mistaken, it's going to be straight fives with Thundershock to the Parabolic Charge, which means 10 turns and your defense raised.
01:27:38
William Dunphey
Yep. Mm-hmm.
01:27:40
zzweilous
And oh boy, does Dedenne need that because it is not a tanky Pokemon. It is a little less squishy than the similarly sized, what's it called?
01:27:53
zzweilous
Morpeko. Like that is a lot more, like weighted, a lot more aggressive.
01:27:54
William Dunphey
yeah
01:27:57
zzweilous
But Dedenne is still very middle of the road or rather a little ah below average even.
Gligar and Bug-Type Potential
01:28:02
zzweilous
So it definitely will benefit a lot from that defense boost. And it is not the only Pokemon that will be able to use the new Parabolic Charge.
01:28:12
zzweilous
There's Heliolisk as an option, which is interesting because it does have that normal subtyping. So if you see a lot of ghost types in the meta, maybe Heliolisk could be worth a shot.
01:28:18
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:28:23
zzweilous
It does get access to a good amount of coverage moves as well. Or you could go for the bulkiest of the Parabolic Charge users, which is Belly Bolt. but either But either you have to sacrifice a little bit of pacing for the Sucker Punch non-stab fast attack coverage.
01:28:32
William Dunphey
ah
01:28:42
zzweilous
Or you just play a triple electric moveset with Thundershock, Parabolic Charge, and Zap Cannon, which you can do, but you do open yourself up to RPS a good amount.
01:28:47
William Dunphey
No coverage.
01:28:54
zzweilous
Whereas Dedene, it hasn't It's not the inventor of coverage, but it does have access to stab play rough, which is not a bad move.
01:29:01
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:29:03
zzweilous
So I think the Dany may be slightly preferred just because it's not as one-dimensional.
01:29:09
William Dunphey
Agreed. Wow. So already we're in alignment on Dene. I'm curious, was that one of your, your newcomer picks or was that just an honorable mention?
01:29:16
zzweilous
and was like So like my categories are three winners, buffed.
01:29:21
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:29:21
zzweilous
Three winners, better environment, which is essentially the mainstays. Pokemon that are good um are getting better because of how the meta changed. And then three losers because of the changed environment. like There has been one single nerf. I don't think it's going to be impactful.
01:29:38
zzweilous
the crunch debuff chance has been decreased likely very slightly. um Essentially, it was another season of all buffs. I guess the nerfs will be coming afterwards. So this is what we're working with.
01:29:50
zzweilous
But I can present you one winner that I believe is actually going to play a fairly decent role in the next season on that Pokémon.
01:29:59
William Dunphey
Mighty Yenna.
01:30:01
zzweilous
mariana i think was a good call actually i think kalasha brought it to bologna she didn't quite make it work but it looked good it just like always got aligned to the one pokemon that it didn't want to see but um i still think like right now mariana probably has some niche but no it is a pokemon that is amongst the fury cutter users um
01:30:14
William Dunphey
rough.
01:30:26
zzweilous
we We used to see a lot of it. We don't see any of them anymore. It's infamously neutral. It has a fantastic type combination.
01:30:33
William Dunphey
I know who you're talking about.
01:30:36
zzweilous
It has very bad charge attacks, but it may not mind. it is Gligar.
01:30:40
William Dunphey
Oh, God.
01:30:40
zzweilous
I think... Fury-Cutter Glygar is actually going to be a meta threat. It's not going to be as much of a staple as it used to be, but I think it will be solidly among the top 15 to 20 Pokemon that you will need to consider when building your team. It's not something that you can ignore.
01:30:57
zzweilous
And it is it is something that fills roles that are pretty difficult to fill because ground types, we will talk about that in the future probably as well, that some of the ground types have like changed utility now.
01:31:14
zzweilous
um And also flying types, where you only really saw Pokemon that weren't really using their flying typing to...
01:31:24
zzweilous
like like They were not really...
01:31:25
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:31:25
zzweilous
like like There's no flying fast attacks anymore. Talonflame is just doing fire damage.
01:31:30
William Dunphey
yeah yeah
01:31:33
zzweilous
Jumpluff obviously loves the double flying moveset now, but that thing is just what we have as a grass type. um so like the The real genuine flyers are few and far between.
01:31:44
zzweilous
And I think Ligar, well, obviously with its subtyping being a little bit of a weirdo as far as flyers go as well, um it will it will allow people to explore new team building options again because it has like nice roll compression. You can have two things in one.
01:32:00
zzweilous
And even if your charge moves are just not that great with such a good fast attack, I think it's worth consideration.
01:32:09
William Dunphey
Gligar is absolutely a weirdo. I think that's probably the perfect word for that Pokemon. um Yeah, Gligar to me is like a mosquito in your bedroom at night. You're trying to sleep and it's just buzzing around. It's so annoying. You know that it's there and you have to respect it because if it does bite you, then it's obviously super annoying ah to deal with. And I think that Gligar is definitely going to come back.
01:32:31
William Dunphey
um the The roll compression of both flying and ground is just so broken. It's so busted. ah You're able to beat things like poisons and steals, which a flying type shouldn't do. And then you're able to beat um you know ah grass and fighters, which a ground type likely shouldn't do.
01:32:46
William Dunphey
So it's just such a weird, puzzling Pokemon. I think weirdo is honestly the perfect word. I agree with you. I think Fear Cutter Glygar is coming right back into the meta. It's going to be something that people scrim with quite a bit, and I fully expect to see it at NAIC.
01:33:00
William Dunphey
um I'm going to go with another Fury Cutter. This is a Pokemon that ah I technically should not call this a newcomer because it has been ah in the meta for quite a while, but I think it's it's going to reach a new level of potency.
01:33:07
zzweilous
Thank you.
01:33:14
William Dunphey
And that's going to be Glycopod with Fury Cutter. Because I think ah having the one turn fast attack that's just more maneuverable, you're going to gain stab on it. It generates energy at the same rate as Shadow Claw. It's just broken up into one turn instead of two turns.
01:33:29
William Dunphey
I think Glyssopod is going to be fierce, especially when you consider that um ground has been very prominent in the meta. Water and bug coverage is really stellar due due to the lack of electric types in the meta right now. And also flyers, as you as you just mentioned.
01:33:42
William Dunphey
um Yeah, Glyssopod is going to be a threat. I think we're going to see it quite a bit.
01:33:47
zzweilous
I don't have it on my list just because of one reason and one reason alone, which is that I do expect a little bit of an overcorrection, at least for NAIC, where people will want to bring a bunch of Pokemon that may resist bug-type damage, um which might not be the strongest Pokemon in a Bactium or when the meta has actually like properly shaken out a couple of weeks in.
01:34:08
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:34:12
zzweilous
um But I don't think people are heading into NAIC wanting to be weak to the Fury Cutter users, weak to the BugBud users. Excuse me. So i think that Glycopod could struggle if there are more ghost types, more fighting types, more fairy types, and more steel types, all of which i can see an argument for. Yeah.
01:34:34
zzweilous
where sometimes you may wish you still had the Shadow Claw. But obviously, like, having what is essentially the bug version of Stab Psywave is going to make Glysepot a beast in neutral matchups.
01:34:39
William Dunphey
Fair. Mm hmm.
01:34:48
zzweilous
So, like, I think it's definitely an improvement for it. I just wonder whether the meta is going to be a little bit more hostile towards it then it may be... Okay, so my take is, Rlyseport will not do fantastic at any IC, but it will have more than just a moment. It will be a staple at Worlds.
01:35:08
zzweilous
I think we'll we'll get there eventually. All
01:35:12
William Dunphey
I'll take it. I agree. all right.
01:35:15
zzweilous
right. I guess I have another Pokemon to unveil. There's one more left. And like, I guess like I'll i'll put the one in honorable mentions. I didn't want to just say fortress because that's so obvious. It's like saying Lapras the last time we had ah move update.
01:35:32
zzweilous
um I think if you're not a fortress guy, and especially if you expect people to...
01:35:43
zzweilous
answer the buck type damage source, why not try Shadow Scizor?
01:35:46
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:35:49
zzweilous
Because that thing obviously is very frail, but it gets access to the newly buffed Bullet Punch. Bullet Punch now is equivalent to Old Counter or Current Sucker Punch, which is essentially the best fast attack in the game because it's two turns, it's very high damage, and it still has such a nice pacing to its cheap charge attacks with generating seven energy per bullet punch, meaning it's only five bullet punches into a Night Slash.
01:36:18
zzweilous
Shadow Scissor has the opportunity to boost its attack further by trailblazing. Like that's a guaranteed buff.
01:36:23
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:36:24
zzweilous
It's coverage against water types. And like right now, PVPoke already has ranked it fairly highly, which is like within the like top 40 or 50.
01:36:33
William Dunphey
yeah
01:36:35
zzweilous
But PVPoke uses the zero and one zero and one shield scenarios for its rankings and averages those out kind of.
01:36:46
zzweilous
but Scizor is a Pokemon that you probably want to two-shield. So its best shielding scenario isn't reflected in the rankings yet. And I think if somebody was to build around Scizor, pair it up with some bulkier stuff that covers its weakness as well, I think Shadow Scizor is capable of...
01:37:07
zzweilous
Like if we had more events, I would be a little more bold and say, okay, it could take a medal. It could maybe take a championship. I think it can take a top 16 or like maybe multiple top 16s even at NEIC and Worlds.
01:37:25
William Dunphey
Whoa. Okay. Okay. I'm looking at the the simulations here. i put it into a matrix and I looked at the two shield scenario with the ah new season update. There are some tough losses. For example, Araquanid is very dominant for that Pokemon. Gastrodon with Mud Slap is very good.
01:37:43
William Dunphey
But then you consider that, man, if I just land a Trailblaze, I basically one-shot Gastrodon. So I don't know how much credence you can put into that simulation. And then, of course, the toughest loss is going something like a Talonflame.
01:37:54
William Dunphey
But in the two shields, Shadow Scizor appears to be 28 victories, 19 losses in one tie with an average rating of 561. This looks like a switch advantage Pokemon. You safe switch it if you lose lead and you just bullet punch the crap out of whatever you come up against.
01:38:11
William Dunphey
Knight Slashing, X-Scissor, Trailblaze, whatever you prefer. And if you just wear down the opponent. If they don't have a hard answer, like if there's no Talonflame, no Typhlosion on the opposing team, easiest safe swap ever.
01:38:20
zzweilous
Exactly.
01:38:23
zzweilous
As long as you're in a neutral position where your opponent doesn't have a type advantage of some sort over you, just the combination of shadow boost, excellent fast attack, and consistent way of boosting is going to allow you to power through.
01:38:25
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:38:30
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:38:39
William Dunphey
Interesting. Interesting. Um, that was not on my radar, but I do think, uh, I might be a scissor believer now.
01:38:45
zzweilous
i want to make it interesting, right?
01:38:47
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:38:47
zzweilous
Like, everybody can look at, like, the top PB Pokemon and will probably be able to make a good case for them. But I thought this may be a little bit of a sleeper.
01:38:57
William Dunphey
Well, my final pick is a Pokemon that actually has 29 victories in the one shield against the championship series meta. And it is a grass poison, not named Venusaur.
01:39:08
zzweilous
Oh. Oh. oh
01:39:11
William Dunphey
yeah
01:39:11
zzweilous
and I see where you're getting at
01:39:12
William Dunphey
I hate it I hate it to death, but I think the potted plant victory bell with the newly buffed acid is actually going to be a force. I mean, if if our predictions are right, because you and I have talked about this, if our predictions are correct, we think that acid is going to be akin to like a powder snow clone, something like that.
01:39:30
William Dunphey
um it's actually going to be very good and it does get stab on it as well. And then you pair that with Leaf Blade, which is a low energy charge attack. ah You could run Acid Spray for the memes or Leaf Tornado if you're Glaxcabulted, but you probably want to put it with Sludge Bomb.
01:39:44
William Dunphey
So Sludge Bomb, Leaf Blade, stab on all three of your attacks, plus above average bulk and a good typing that is has got tons of targets. I think Shadow Victory Bell might be a meta play as well.
01:39:57
zzweilous
I actually wholeheartedly agree. And the only reason why I didn't put an acid user myself is because we don't know the final stats yet.
01:39:59
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:40:05
zzweilous
I think they've only changed the energy parameter and they haven't revealed to what yet.
01:40:05
William Dunphey
Ah.
01:40:11
zzweilous
But I think they already, like acid already um does the same amount of damage as... the move Shadow Claw, right? So if it only also does the same ah generates the same amount of energy as Shadow Claw, it's going to be one of the strongest fast attacks in the game.
01:40:20
William Dunphey
ah
01:40:28
zzweilous
Obviously, Poison is not the most potent offensive type. You have coverage against Grass, coverage against Ferry, but most of the other types don't really mind Poison as much.
01:40:38
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:40:38
zzweilous
But still, it has fantastic synergy with the very cheap Leaf Blade on Victribel.
01:40:38
William Dunphey
Hmm.
01:40:43
zzweilous
they also believe that... um Pokemon such as Cradilly, which probably has seen an environmental nerf with what else has become stronger and more popular this season, could still be overall a better Pokemon if Acid now allows it to maybe need one less charge attack to take out some targets just because now you have better fast attack pressure um than you previously had with Bullet Seed.
01:41:11
zzweilous
Again, this is all hinging on them actually making it so that acid generates H8 energy per acid, so 4 energy per turn.
01:41:18
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:41:20
zzweilous
But that could make Victreebel interesting, that could make Tentacruel interesting, that could make Cradilly more interesting.
01:41:29
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:41:29
zzweilous
And one thing that I want to be good, I don't know whether it will be good, but if Dragology good, if it stands the practice test,
01:41:34
William Dunphey
Oh.
01:41:37
William Dunphey
Please.
01:41:37
zzweilous
I will consider to bring that to an event because Stragalji such a cool Pokemon.
01:41:42
William Dunphey
It's so sick. It's honestly one of the coolest Pokemon. um i've I've tried to play it over the seasons just because it's such a badass ah Pokemon. And when it works, it's really fun. But a lot of the time, doesn't work so well. So ah being weak to both ice and ground is pretty tough in the current meta. But here we are.
01:42:00
William Dunphey
um All right. Interesting. Cradilly. I think... If I'm being reasonable, I think you're probably right.
01:42:04
zzweilous
okay
01:42:06
William Dunphey
Just because rock is such a good off offensive typing, especially when you're expecting more bugs, you already have ice types in the meta, you already have flying types in the meta. Rock is really, really well positioned. So acid will probably help, even though it's not stab.
01:42:19
William Dunphey
I think it'll it'll be viable.
01:42:21
zzweilous
it would also like change the jump-love matchup in a way that the grass that beats other grasses may no longer be just jump-love because the acid pressure would be real.
01:42:25
William Dunphey
Oh, true.
01:42:29
William Dunphey
Oh.
01:42:32
William Dunphey
Wow. I didn't think of that. I think you're right. um Are you ready to move on to our our mainstays or our meta winners that are going to stick around?
01:42:39
zzweilous
Yes, please.
01:42:40
William Dunphey
All right. You started us last time. Or no, I started us last time. Do you want to start us this time?
01:42:44
zzweilous
I can take the lead.
01:42:46
William Dunphey
All right.
01:42:46
zzweilous
So the first Pokemon that I think is going to become um a little better also because of
01:42:47
William Dunphey
Go ahead.
01:42:54
zzweilous
um maybe its competitors for the role that it would take on being a little less good. um would be Diggersby because that Pokemon is a ground type that can fight back against flying types such as Gligar a little better than Mud Slapper would be able to.
01:43:17
zzweilous
um it has fire punch coverage for the fortress that we are likely going to see.
01:43:22
William Dunphey
Yep. Correct.
01:43:23
zzweilous
And also if we expect... um If we expect... Bugs to be prevalent or bug to have damage to be prevalent.
Meta Predictions and Fighter Comebacks
01:43:32
zzweilous
That will um push Dark types out of the meta.
01:43:36
zzweilous
It will probably lead to more Ghost types because not only do do they not have to fear Dark anymore, but they also resist the bug. And many Ghost types really don't want to see a normal type such as Diggersby.
01:43:49
zzweilous
Obviously, there's exceptions like Dusklobs with its Ice Punch, but...
01:43:50
William Dunphey
correct
01:43:53
William Dunphey
Ice punch.
01:43:55
zzweilous
um I think Digus B for the most part, especially with how good it already is and like with its neutral book, with its decent attacks, I think it's going to be ah top five Pokemon in the upcoming meta.
01:43:55
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:44:07
William Dunphey
yeah So in my notes, I also have Diggersby as my mainstays, and I just have no additional notes. I just Diggersby. ah and
01:44:15
zzweilous
Digus B, no, no, I'll take it.
01:44:16
William Dunphey
and No notes. And I think you you explained it ah beautifully. Yeah, it's got it's got such such good ah roll compression. It's such a bulky Pokemon. Fire Punch for all the bugs is so good. And then you have Scorching Sands to beat anything that's that's poison or steal.
01:44:31
William Dunphey
Diggersby is not going anywhere. So I think trainers need to prepare for that maybe more than they should prepare for other mud slappers, which we will get to that soon as well. So we share a pick in Diggersby. um My next pick is actually another ground type.
01:44:44
William Dunphey
I think that Unova Stunfisk is going to gain a ton of targets. massive number of targets electric and ground is such a good ah combination when you've got bugs whether they're bug steels like fortress and scissor or you've got um uh glycopod which is water bug or you've got talon flame uh becoming more more notable i think that you know of a stun fisk has a massive amount of targets and i think the rise in bugs is going to push the mud slappers a little bit lower in usage just opening the door wide open for uh you know a stun fisk
01:45:16
zzweilous
i agree i think it's going to become a little safer it's um becoming better positioned than some of the pokemon that will compete for its role and also um like if there's like if there's pokemon such as dedene that rise up like that needs to be hard answered like
01:45:35
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:45:39
zzweilous
I don't actually know how prevalent it's going to be, but people have already seen a lot of success with Unova and and it's just one of the core breakers.
01:45:50
zzweilous
And honestly, like the PvPoK rankings already show that it's probably going to climb a good amount. And, like, it's a Pokemon that I personally don't like to use because it just does so little damage.
01:46:01
zzweilous
But it does a lot of little damage because it paces to its boost very quickly.
01:46:01
William Dunphey
yeah fair
01:46:07
zzweilous
And it has that roll compression. it has that pacing. It has that bulk. Um... So it's probably well positioned, especially because and another Pokemon that is not on my winners list, and that is actually targeted by the only nerf with the crunch debuff chance reduction, like the Pokemon Drapion, obviously a mainstay as well. It's not on my list, but I think it's going to be around.
01:46:33
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:46:33
zzweilous
And you want to have like that quick Mud Bomb spam now that you can't just Mud Slap as freely anymore.
01:46:40
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:46:40
zzweilous
um so yeah i think that's definitely a good call even though i will never play it because it is one the one electric type that i personally just cannot really handle super well i like i like all the others but it's also a party booper when i play my own um anyway i am moving on to a pokemon that
01:46:54
William Dunphey
That's fair.
01:47:05
zzweilous
Well, I have played some of it. I've never brought it to a tournament, though. And I think it's another one of those guys that are going to be happy to see fewer Darktypes, be happy to see more Bugs, and they'll be happy to slot on teams that want to get all the benefits of the Ghost-typing without being weak to Digger-Speed.
01:47:26
zzweilous
And I think Jellicent is actually going to be a contender for the Water-type role.
01:47:28
William Dunphey
oh good call. um'm right I'm writing down your picks as well, just so we can we can compare answers. I look to Jellicent a lot.
01:47:38
William Dunphey
And I know Ryze has made this Pokemon work multiple times. He seems to be a Jellicent believer from day one. But I think it is gaining a lot of, he runs it, right?
01:47:45
zzweilous
Really, my state.
01:47:48
William Dunphey
He runs it ah pretty often, actually, compared to other people. But I think Jellicent's a contender. I really do think it's going to be very, very good. There's basically no dark. outside of Malamar in the meta, and you're going to see Malamar fall out.
01:48:00
William Dunphey
Well, there's Drapion too, but there's there's no like, what I'm trying to get at is there's no Umbreon, there's no Mandibuzz, there's no, not these old dark types. There's no Scrafty, of course. ah So the the dark types are few and far between, and there's no Pankoro really, and I don't see that Pokemon being ah a rising star either. So yeah, I think i think the environment, you nailed it, the environment is prime for a Jelly Takeover.
01:48:25
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:48:25
zzweilous
right
01:48:26
William Dunphey
My, go ahead.
01:48:27
zzweilous
oh No, no, no. yeah if if you If you want to present your last pick, please go ahead. I'm just really looking forward to it.
01:48:33
William Dunphey
Yeah, yeah. Well, my pick is is not going to appreciate Jellicent very much. But um I'm going to recall back to NAIC two years ago, where we had Wadage, Ryze, and House Stark in our top three.
01:48:47
William Dunphey
To the fire and flying types. I think that this NAIC and worlds is going to be the worlds for Talonflame. I think that it's so powerful. it's It's fire and flying is so, so good in this current meta, and it's going to target all these bugs really well.
01:49:02
William Dunphey
um Like you said, there might be an overcorrection, maybe at NAIC, maybe at the PJCS, but I think by worlds, Talonflame will be the star of the show, personally.
01:49:13
zzweilous
I can totally see that, especially because I have not actually done the calculations just yet, but I know that like a Feraligatr, like it just takes out Talonflame with a Hydro Cannon.
01:49:29
zzweilous
Does a Samourad with Fury Cutter do the same?
01:49:29
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:49:33
zzweilous
Because it does do double resisted fast attack damage. um So I don't know.
01:49:37
William Dunphey
Let's see. Yeah.
01:49:38
zzweilous
like If there are scenarios where Talonflame can actually like hang on with the minimal HP, I don't know whether that's a thing that will happen. But ah definitely the amount of Pokemon that will rely on Fury Cutter bodes well for something that just double resists that.
01:49:57
zzweilous
like I don't believe that we'll...
01:49:57
William Dunphey
yeah
01:49:59
zzweilous
see such an obvious target as Metang a lot in the meta. I feel like that's like some something that people have been really excited about just because it's such a goofy idea to have a Fury Cuttering Metang running around.
01:50:11
zzweilous
um But yeah, like a lot of those Pokemon that are new and improved for this upcoming season are just prime talentflame targets. And even though I do not have it on my list, because like maybe like in part because I already think that it's very good.
01:50:27
zzweilous
um I do agree that it's it's going to go places. Like a lot of people are claiming to be the best talentflame players in the world. And now it's time to prove it.
01:50:36
William Dunphey
It's true. It's
01:50:40
zzweilous
So my very last pick is actually not a Pokemon, but,
01:50:40
William Dunphey
true.
01:50:45
zzweilous
but an idea of a Pokemon in a way, because I didn't really want to ah just like shout out one specific pick, but I think fighting types may be back.
01:50:47
William Dunphey
Oh my God. Here we go.
01:50:57
zzweilous
They may be a little back. And that that is a direct consequence of Malamar falling out of favor because Malamar has been occupying that role for the most part. You say, okay, like back in the day, every Pokemon had to have a counter user, like either a fighter or a pseudo fighter.
01:51:13
William Dunphey
Yeah, that's true.
01:51:15
zzweilous
And then you had Primeape, Annihilate, all those Pokemon that really reigned supreme for a little while. And then Jump Thuff came into the picture and people adapted with running Ice Punch on the apes.
01:51:29
zzweilous
But then the Malamar-Jumpluff combination was just too much to handle. And I think we'll see a lot less of that. And I think people will rediscover just how good the fighting type can be, especially now resisting bug types, still having great neutral matchups. And obviously I've mentioned Primeape, I've mentioned Annihilate, I've mentioned Metachem as a Pokemon that you shouldn't use at home.
01:51:55
zzweilous
um I am kind of eyeing a Spice Pig that may or may not one of the Paladayntauruses, but... have five notes at once.
01:52:06
William Dunphey
Oh my God. I heard someone got like, i heard someone got like top of the leaderboards with that Pokemon, but I think that was just a legend.
01:52:12
zzweilous
That is true.
01:52:13
William Dunphey
That's a myth.
01:52:13
zzweilous
That is true. That is true.
01:52:14
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:52:14
zzweilous
I don't know that trainer. Maybe they'll bring it to NAAC. um So it was a consideration for Utkest, but that was right around the time when everybody started using Jumpluff Malamar, and that's not the best environment for that Pokémon.
01:52:27
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:52:27
zzweilous
But think maybe maybe the times are a little better for fighters. So I'm definitely curious to see um what comes out on top when I experiment ahead of NAAC.
01:52:39
William Dunphey
I don't know, ZZ. I'm looking at the rankings. I see Bugs getting stronger. I see Dusclops and Galarian Corslet, number four, number five. I see Ryzen flying type Pokemon.
01:52:50
William Dunphey
Gligar returning to the meta. Lapras being an issue. I see all these obstacles to fighting type Pokemon. And maybe... Maybe...
01:52:56
zzweilous
Claudine Tauros creates both Gleiger and Talonflame for super effective with Aqua Jet while resisting their fast attacks.
01:53:03
William Dunphey
maybe maybe that's the one that will succeed. But outside of that, I don't know. I mean, maybe maybe this is an incredible insight into the future because it seems like counterintuitive to say the least.
01:53:10
zzweilous
I'm a believer.
01:53:17
zzweilous
shit
01:53:20
William Dunphey
But yeah, I don't know. I
01:53:22
zzweilous
Counterintuitive. So you're an annihilate believer. I see, I see.
01:53:27
William Dunphey
i am rooting for ah Paldean Tauros to have success. I really hope it does because that would be
01:53:32
zzweilous
It needs all your support, guys. It needs all your support.
01:53:35
William Dunphey
That would be an S tier storyline. I don't think it gets much better than that.
01:53:38
zzweilous
Fair.
01:53:39
William Dunphey
But do I think that fighting as an idea is the right place to go? i don't know. I trust you a lot. We'll see. We'll see what happens. All right, my friend, we're we're closing in on the two hour mark.
01:53:47
zzweilous
fit
01:53:51
William Dunphey
Let's go ahead and jump into our three has-beens. These Pokemon that are just completely going to shatter. They're in shambles. They're out of the meta. We're never going to see them again. And I think one of my picks is actually going to make you upset.
01:54:04
zzweilous
Is that so? Maybe we share the same pick, but you can go ahead because I was first last time
01:54:06
William Dunphey
Yes. Oh.
01:54:11
William Dunphey
Oh, okay. All right. Well, the first one, we can just breeze through this. We talked about this several times. We have alluded to this. ah Shadow Malamar, don't let the door hit you on the way out. I think this Pokemon is is going to be basically a nobody for NAIC and PJCS.
01:54:25
William Dunphey
Maybe something will change before Worlds. Maybe a new Pokemon gets introduced and Shadow Malamar comes back or whatever. But in the immediate, Shadow Malamar is DOA, dead on arrival.
01:54:36
William Dunphey
That's my opinion.
01:54:36
zzweilous
It's very difficult to not have it as a has-been, right? Just because not only are bugs getting stronger, but also Pokemon that aren't bugs that are filling different niches, but are still utilizing Fury Cutter, like Gligar, like Samurott, so like Metang, I don't know.
01:54:40
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:54:51
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:54:53
William Dunphey
Oh, mettae my That much.
01:54:53
zzweilous
But... but ah But yeah, it's definitely certainly tough times for Malamar. The only hope that it can have right now, I think, is like an overcorrection where everybody beats the things that beat the Bucks, but nobody runs the Bucks.
01:55:10
zzweilous
um But I don't know whether you can overcorrect as much, like so much that Malamar is going to come back.
01:55:13
William Dunphey
that much
01:55:17
zzweilous
Yeah, it's probably dead.
01:55:19
William Dunphey
Okay. Was it, was that also on your list of has-beens?
01:55:22
zzweilous
and was also on my list and i will continue this list with yet another fighting type and i wonder whether this is a not fighting type psychic type rather um i wonder whether this is the pokemon that you are considering as the one that makes me sad when it's gone because i used to be such a big clay doll believer and it was
01:55:24
William Dunphey
Okay.
01:55:47
William Dunphey
Salute, salute to Clayton Hall. You were awesome, but no longer that that is, that's my pick as well.
01:55:51
zzweilous
It was so neutral. enabled so many fun plays, but the psychic subtyping is going to be such a detriment for it going into the next season and just taking super effective damage from everybody's fast attack.
01:56:06
zzweilous
It's just going to make it so difficult for Kledos to stay around.
01:56:06
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:56:07
William Dunphey
Hmm.
01:56:10
zzweilous
It will still be good in limited metas, but other than that, I don't believe that it's going to be the ground type of choice going forward, and it massively inspired my um predictions for both Gligar and Digusby.
01:56:24
William Dunphey
I'm glad we're on the same page here. Claydol, my note says, psychic typing, finally betraying it. K-Wack makes more sense again. So that's just my note, Claydol.
01:56:33
zzweilous
Yeah. i I wish I could disagree, but I cannot.
01:56:38
William Dunphey
Well, it did have a a wonderful time in the sun and I was a doubter. I was converted into a true believer in the Claydol, but the outlook, yeah if you shake up the magic eight ball, the outlook is not so good for, yeah.
01:56:51
zzweilous
I think, okay, one way to fix Kledal would be to give it one more charge attack.
01:56:54
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:56:56
zzweilous
Don't you
01:56:57
William Dunphey
No, it's going to become you. It's going to have like 50, 50 charge attacks. We can't allow that. Come on. I thought you're going to say one way to, to, um to bring it back is to give it like rock throw or something or some kind of wacky fast attack. I don't know.
01:57:13
zzweilous
Yeah, like give it give it like a rock type mud slab and maybe we're talking about
01:57:17
William Dunphey
Give it smack down. How about that? um All right.
01:57:21
zzweilous
ah yeah
01:57:22
William Dunphey
That's that's crazy. So of our has-beens, we agree on two of the three picks so far.
01:57:26
zzweilous
yes i think we will not agree on the third but you go ahead
01:57:27
William Dunphey
um Okay. Okay. um I might be taking the low hanging fruit here. i'm I'm not a believer in this Pokemon. I haven't been for a long time. I'm sorry, Galax Cabalton, but I just have not seen the merit to this pick in quite a while.
01:57:44
William Dunphey
um But if you're showing up to a bug, fire, and flying type party, you do not want to be superior. I think it's safe to say that Cradilly with Acid might be a new player. Jump Bluff likely not going anywhere.
01:57:56
William Dunphey
Victory Bell with Acid, who knows? Those are all options. I don't think superior is an option anymore at all. And if you bring it, you're you're a mad lad. That's what i think.
01:58:05
zzweilous
The only reason why I did not consider superior for my um delightful days has-beens is because I consider it a might and mastery has-been.
01:58:17
William Dunphey
Oh.
01:58:17
zzweilous
I think the um prevalence of jump love, the prevalence of shadow dropion, it's just not a good time to be a superior. And obviously there's always going to be water types, there's always going to be ground types, but...
01:58:31
zzweilous
I don't think the pros outweigh the cons here. And lot of people have been opting for jump love as their grass type and furred as their grass type damage source.
01:58:42
zzweilous
And I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. So I definitely do agree. um Even though i did not want to include it just because i just, I just, I don't know.
01:58:52
William Dunphey
it's a has has been yeah
01:58:55
zzweilous
Obviously some people still have been able to make it work, but I just think it's a suboptimal choice. um Okay, this is going to be a little controversial, but I believe... Okay, this is like not really... Like the main has-been here is the Portland Regional Champion Pokemon Blastoise.
01:59:20
zzweilous
Um, but generally, i want to say that the mono water starters, the hydro cannon spammers, they are going to face a new challenger, which is new and improved Fury Cutter Samurai.
01:59:38
zzweilous
That thing has essentially a non-step sidewave-ish type of deal going on now, um, which is a one-turn fast attack, which is a lot less clunky, um,
01:59:50
zzweilous
than what Blastoise can offer. It's a lot more efficient than what Blastoise can offer too. um And I just feel as if Samurad is going to occupy that niche.
02:00:03
zzweilous
It's going to occupy it in a different way because it is more comparable to, say, a Shadow for Alligator, which I think like...
02:00:09
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
02:00:11
zzweilous
like Those three may still coexist because they still do different stuff. um For Alligator, maybe be targeting the ghosts with its fast attack. But overall, I believe that just because of the neutral strength and general maneuverability, the strongest water-type starter is going to be Samurott, which is going to make it so that Blastoise, especially because i already alluded to it benefiting from...
02:00:37
zzweilous
no fighters being in the meta and I kind of believe that there is an opening for fighters again now that Malamar is out of it.
02:00:44
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
02:00:45
zzweilous
um I think all of that will compound to the rollout user being put on the back burner a little and the fury cutter user um actually reigning supreme.
02:00:56
William Dunphey
Wow. um I think we've seen glimpses of Blastoise's struggles when it's lined up against Glyzopod already. Because you're dealing super effective rollout damage, but you either have resisted Hydrocannon or neutral Skull Bash, or you have Ice Beam, which is also not going to do great.
02:01:11
William Dunphey
And I feel like that matchup, whenever I'm in it, I i feel like it should go better for Blastoise, but it just doesn't. And you're seeing picks like Araquanid, Glyzopod. You're seeing these new bugs come in, and you still have targets like Townflame, Corviknight, whatever.
02:01:26
William Dunphey
But I agree that the rollout is just underwhelming. I think if it if it returned to its pre-nerf damage, maybe it would actually be a ah ah really significant player. But I think it just doesn't hit hard enough.
02:01:36
William Dunphey
um The pure water types, I agree with you. The hydro cannon users... I'm looking at... um I don't know if you're going to believe me on this or not, or if you if you think i'm I'm talking out of out of my butt.
02:01:48
William Dunphey
But um if you want to beat Stunfisk, Talonflame, Dedenne, Diggersby, Clodsire, Tinkaton, Typhlosion, Sandslash, you have to go with Swampert.
02:01:49
zzweilous
Sure is, Lord.
02:02:00
William Dunphey
And I think that Swampert being a ground water type... Still has a bit of utility. It's going to be interesting to see how many bugs actually make their way into the meta, because I do think that it still has probably the most play of any Hydro Cannon user outside of Samurott.
02:02:14
William Dunphey
And I don't even know about Samurott because it's not a very bulky Pokemon. So that could be interesting as well. um You know what we should do? We should have Stone Collection.
02:02:24
zzweilous
Yeah.
02:02:24
William Dunphey
He's like the Samurott guy, right?
02:02:26
zzweilous
He truly is. He did win his um half of the last chance qualifier in 2022 to um qualify for the World Championships in London with a Samurad.
02:02:36
zzweilous
And that was way before anybody considered it. So yeah, he's definitely going to be delighted to see it back in action.
02:02:40
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:02:44
zzweilous
I think, like i'm not 100% certain, um but I think he's actually considering competing at NAIC.
02:02:44
William Dunphey
I see what you did there.
02:02:51
zzweilous
So that would be ah great place to see some Samurad gaming in action.
02:02:56
William Dunphey
I hope so. I think he'll be the most dangerous Samurott player in the building if he decides to pick it up because he's already so familiar with it.
02:03:01
zzweilous
or outside of the building if he decides to sleep there again.
02:03:03
William Dunphey
ah Too soon. Too soon.
02:03:07
zzweilous
ah
02:03:07
William Dunphey
ZZ. All right. He won't be making friends with the pigeons in new Orleans. It'll be seagulls instead. All right. Maybe a Pelican here, there we'll find out.
02:03:14
zzweilous
That's true.
02:03:15
William Dunphey
Um,
02:03:15
zzweilous
There's a lot of friends to be made in New Orleans.
02:03:18
William Dunphey
That's true. It is a wonderful place. um Interesting. So we actually agreed on two of the has-beens, final picks being superior, which you think is just so far gone, it wasn't even worth mentioning.
02:03:30
William Dunphey
And the the mono water types, um I don't see any problem with your picks. I think you you make some really good points. Why don't we just roll into the honorable mentions? And I'll mention all three of them that I think are interesting and you can tear them apart. What do you say?
02:03:44
zzweilous
Please, please do. I actually have not prepared any honorable mentions, but I love to talk about just like random Pokemon and give my my two cents on them.
02:03:49
William Dunphey
Okay.
02:03:54
William Dunphey
All right. I'll list them in order of of hype to spice. Starting off with hype. There's a ton of hype around Lickitung with rap. I think that Lickitung with its ghost type licks and ability to drop the opponent's defense over and over and over, I think Lickitung might be a beast.
02:04:14
William Dunphey
Second pick is Metang with Fury Cutter. because I know you're not a believer, but I think it's a sick Pokemon. Fury Cutter with Psyshock and Gyro Ball is going to be pretty intense.
02:04:25
William Dunphey
It depends on the matchups, depends on how much ground is in the meta, but it might have the same issue that Claydol has, being a psychic type. And my third pick is actually not Fortress, but a different Bugsteel.
02:04:36
William Dunphey
I'm looking at Wormadam Trash with Ironhead and Bug Buzz. So those are the three that I...
02:04:43
zzweilous
What makes you consider it over fortress?
02:04:46
William Dunphey
Because it's bulkier. It doesn't have quite the same coverage, but I do think that, ah I don't know if Ironhead sucks.
02:04:52
zzweilous
I wanna check by how much it is bought here.
02:04:56
William Dunphey
Okay. I don't know how much coverage Iron Head is going to have, but i know that Stab Bug Buzz, which is more than Fortress can say, doesn't have any Stab Charge Attacks that it uses.
02:04:57
zzweilous
If my PVP is loading.
02:05:07
William Dunphey
um I would say Stab Bug Buzz absolutely annihilates things. And i think um I think it could be good in really neutral matchups. it is It's a wedge. It's really tough to get rid of.
02:05:19
zzweilous
So Wampenum Trash does actually have a solid 100 stat product um above Fortress. um But I don't think that's good enough to give up the absolute menace that is Zerogtomb.
02:05:35
William Dunphey
Fair.
02:05:35
zzweilous
I think... um I think people will still go for Fortress just because the charge attacks are an identity difference. What I'm wondering about, though, is whether people are going to elect to run the so-called double nuke moveset of Rock Tomb and Earthquake, or whether they maybe go for a Sand Tomb or Mirror Shot to have a little of a cheaper option now that they don't have the fast charging world switch at their disposal anymore.
02:06:02
William Dunphey
Oh, good point. Yeah. If you're if you're more damage focused, it might make sense to include a bait move instead of a rock tomb earthquake. But yeah, I don't know.
02:06:10
zzweilous
yeah
02:06:11
William Dunphey
You you laughed when I said rap lick a tongue.
02:06:14
zzweilous
Yes.
02:06:14
William Dunphey
Why'd you laugh?
02:06:15
zzweilous
Yes.
02:06:15
William Dunphey
This is not funny.
02:06:16
zzweilous
ah yeah yeah
02:06:19
William Dunphey
It's kind of funny.
02:06:19
zzweilous
I think... I think Rap Lickitung is comically bad. I think it will see play whatsoever. If you run it, you're playing with five Pokémon.
02:06:32
zzweilous
And the reason for that is
02:06:32
William Dunphey
All right.
02:06:36
zzweilous
We are not in the one minute switch timer era anymore.
02:06:41
William Dunphey
Oh,
02:06:41
zzweilous
People are just going to pivot out their debuff. And like you take, like you now have a move that costs 10 more energy than Body Slam to do the exact same damage that old Body Slam did.
02:06:56
zzweilous
And then you have a debuff that you can just reset every 45 seconds, which is approximately the amount of time that you need to get to one rap. So, Again, like, I was not even a big leaky hater. I thought it was not exciting, but in in and it enabled neutral play.
02:07:15
zzweilous
I just think that it's plain bad and that people will discover that really soon. Like, it's like ranked 200-something on PvPoke, I think. And I think it's a deserved low ranking because people will just not give you the satisfaction of staying in that debuffed leaky tongue matchup forever. Yeah.
02:07:34
William Dunphey
I, I'm just going to quote Austin powers when he's in the casino and he's at the blackjack table and he already has 20 and he tells the dealer to hit. ah He said, I do like to live dangerously.
02:07:47
William Dunphey
And I think that if you, if you choose like a tongue, you are living quite dangerously. ah You make a good point about the switch timer. i got a i got to remind myself from time to time to get inside the head of ZZ, who is always screwing with that switch timer, moving it around, changing things up and shuffling the cards.
02:08:05
William Dunphey
ah
02:08:05
zzweilous
So for for me personally, the switch timer is not an option, it's an obligation.
02:08:06
William Dunphey
It's a good point.
02:08:09
zzweilous
i just got to pivot in and out.
02:08:10
William Dunphey
Yes.
02:08:11
zzweilous
need to keep two Pokemon as a sex swap, even though there will not be a situation coming up where I need them.
02:08:14
William Dunphey
I agree.
02:08:17
zzweilous
um It's just life sometimes, right?
02:08:18
William Dunphey
Well... I might need to change this from honorable mentions to picks that get a rise out of Z's wireless. Cause, uh,
02:08:27
zzweilous
Please hit me with more of them. I could do this all day.
02:08:30
William Dunphey
yeah, right. It's like, Oh, I didn't know this. This was turning into a roast. Let's go ahead and roast.
02:08:35
zzweilous
Yeah.
02:08:36
William Dunphey
Uh, what is your issue? Uh, it's like, it's like we're in interrogation room and I just slammed my hands on the table. What is your issue with fear cutter metang? Where were you on Tuesday night?
02:08:47
zzweilous
Oh, God. Like, Shiri Katametang, I know that some people are really excited, largely because of goofiness, in part also because Steel remains a very strong defensive typing. um But I just, like, Psychic is so vulnerable.
02:09:03
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:09:03
zzweilous
We just did a whole segment on how Talentflame is going to be the star of NAICN Worlds. Will you want to be the Metang in that situation, or will you pick and choose Fio-type weaknesses very carefully?
02:09:12
William Dunphey
Oh yeah.
02:09:17
zzweilous
and
02:09:17
William Dunphey
Oh yeah.
02:09:18
zzweilous
yeah, I think it's going to be a really fun...
02:09:18
William Dunphey
Trip triple size shock.
02:09:20
zzweilous
It's going to be like a grumpy type of character where you see it occasionally in GBL.
02:09:24
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:09:24
zzweilous
It may be usable in a themed cup, but it's not actually going to steal the show at and at a regional event. I'm sorry. um so
02:09:32
William Dunphey
Let me down easy. Thanks. Thanks for this
02:09:36
zzweilous
It's okay. I'm just like looking over the changes and see whether we forgot anything. Like there's Hex Skeledurge that's not going to do anything because we really do want the um fast attack damage to ramp up with Torch Song.
02:09:48
William Dunphey
incinerate.
02:09:51
zzweilous
There's going to be Poison Sting Beatril, which looks really fun on paper. I think it's a little bit of a Copium Pokemon, but one that I might indulge in occasionally.
02:09:58
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:10:01
zzweilous
um
02:10:02
William Dunphey
What about Tenacruel?
02:10:03
zzweilous
Tentacruel is one that is going to be very interesting because you have like three flavors of poison with it. You have Poison Jab for the maximum amount of fast move pressure, which synergizes fairly well with Acid Spray.
02:10:11
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
02:10:16
zzweilous
You have Poison Sting, which allows you to really spam out those charge attacks, get Scald and Scald and Scald off. Maybe run Sludge Wave with maybe run Blizzard with it.
02:10:27
zzweilous
And then you have the middle of the road option in Acid, which does both hit pretty hard. and generate energy faster than Poison Jab. So I wonder what will be preferred on
Galarian Moltres and GoFest Stream Introduction
02:10:39
zzweilous
Tender Cruel. I think I would personally probably be an asset type of guy and I could see it work out quite well.
02:10:45
William Dunphey
Yeah, you're definitely pretty toxic. So it makes sense that you choose acid. Just kidding. um Yeah, I think that's a good point. i I know there's so many other smaller changes. I don't know if Ember is going to make an impact, for example, but maybe.
02:10:59
William Dunphey
I don't know.
02:10:59
zzweilous
it's It's likely not enough just yet. Like I wish they... but I would have liked to see um maybe like an air cutter for Charizard, which doesn't like do a lot for it.
02:11:09
William Dunphey
Hmm.
02:11:10
zzweilous
It's the same pacing as Dragonclaw, but you would get stab on it. You would also get the 30% chance of raising your attack by one stage, which like, again, it probably wouldn't have changed the Pokemon.
02:11:14
William Dunphey
fun. Hmm.
02:11:21
zzweilous
um But I just like being able to play Charizard and Ember buff could provide an option, but...
02:11:27
William Dunphey
it's fun
02:11:29
zzweilous
It's not going to be the same at the same power level as it was when Human Catcher Bug won Liverpool on the wings of his Shadow Charizard. um Speaking of majestic flying creatures, do you believe that Galarian Moltres is going to ah see an increase again?
02:11:46
William Dunphey
So Galarian Moltres, as well as Galarian Articuno and Galarian Zapdos all gain access to fly. um i haven't looked at the simulations and I kind of think that as a Moltres player, you i guess you have like, I guess you have three options now.
02:12:02
William Dunphey
You can do Ancient Power Brave Bird, which is the kind of like the bait and nuke set that we were all familiar with. You can go double flying and you can do Brave Bird fly, or you can do some combination of, um,
02:12:14
William Dunphey
fly an ancient power or yeah, I guess it'd have to be flying ancient power. So lower energy costs. Um, I haven't looked at the simulation, so I honestly am not that well informed. What do you think? Do you think it's a player?
02:12:25
zzweilous
um So my personal take is that that the preferred moveset is 10 out of 10 times going to be Fly and Brave Bird, which like some people call that the Z's Wireless Special in another context, which I personally disagree with because I did not coin that Tongueflame moveset, but I do appreciate the cast is repeating that every broadcast anyway.
02:12:34
William Dunphey
Okay.
02:12:39
William Dunphey
Oh yeah. Double fly.
02:12:49
zzweilous
on
02:12:50
William Dunphey
oh yeah. Yeah.
02:12:50
zzweilous
I don't know, it's like an EU phenomenon. um
02:12:53
William Dunphey
Fair.
02:12:53
zzweilous
But I do think that Galerian Moltres is going to it's going to see play. Because now you can get to an attack that threatens Jump Thuff, which was a really sad Pokemon to lose to, a little faster again.
02:13:12
zzweilous
And you don't really want to be a flying type that loses to to another flying type as much.
02:13:16
William Dunphey
chair
02:13:17
zzweilous
um So I think it's going to see, like it's definitely a plus for it. It's also going to be beneficial for Galarian Articuno, which now paces to fly every five Psycho Kuts.
02:13:30
zzweilous
um But again, this is a Pokemon that we will not have to consider for the championship series whatsoever. That privilege only belongs to Moltres and I think people are going to use it but it's like not going to be a top 12 graphics type of Pokemon.
02:13:43
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:13:44
zzweilous
It's just like okay you went from little bit of a has-been to usable again but that's basically all she wrote.
02:13:49
William Dunphey
yeah
02:13:52
William Dunphey
in the In the one shields, it looks like it goes 24 and 22 with an average rating of 474, which is basically, you can't get much more middle of the road than that in terms of matchups.
02:14:04
zzweilous
Exactly.
02:14:05
William Dunphey
ah it's It's worse losses are against things like Tikatan, which we come to expect, or more Peko, which is threatening. And it does have, PB Poke does have it marked as a loss versus jump fluff as well, but when you actually dive into the simulation a bit more, it's only one turn different.
02:14:21
William Dunphey
So if you have just one Sucker Punch, you're able to get to the the Fly you need to win.
02:14:21
zzweilous
Yeah. Exactly.
02:14:25
William Dunphey
i assume it's a Fly. But um yeah, that's actually a really good point. I think it's got a ton of utility. And if we do expect to see Fortress with Bug Bite, um if we expect to see Jellicent, if we expect to see um you you know other ground types or whatever it might be, having Stab Sucker Punch and Stab Fly actually sounds pretty good.
02:14:42
zzweilous
like exactly The flying subtyping is one of the ways of eliminating your Fury Cutter weakness and still be a viable dark type.
02:14:49
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
02:14:50
zzweilous
So I think just that is a pretty good niche for it.
02:14:50
William Dunphey
Agreed. Yeah.
02:14:54
zzweilous
um And yeah, the other Sucker Puncher is likely going to be Furret that we've seen a lot of, but that's non-stop. So surely you really want the oppressive Sucker Punchers probably got to lean into...
02:15:02
William Dunphey
yeah
02:15:07
zzweilous
Bombardier, Galarian Moltres, maybe Spiritomb, all those Pokémon that have a subtyping that allows them to actually there take neutral damage from Shurikata.
02:15:17
William Dunphey
Yeah. And you're also resisting fur at sucker punches, right? Which is pretty cool.
02:15:20
zzweilous
That is true, that is true.
02:15:21
William Dunphey
So, so.
02:15:22
zzweilous
As to Galarian Moltres, you do have that benefit.
02:15:25
William Dunphey
There might be something there. um But yeah, again, I just want to emphasize everybody, we did spend a lot of time on this, but I think it's just so exciting. And it's something that we've had on our minds. There's a lot of other updates as well. So i encourage everyone to go and check out the the full list.
02:15:39
William Dunphey
um I'm honestly surprised that ZZ and I agreed on a few of these picks. And I do think he made some some really good points.
02:15:44
zzweilous
Thank you.
02:15:46
William Dunphey
Again, I'm changing my honorable mentions to ah get a reaction from ZZWILUS category is what I'm going to call that. um But ZZ, the season is is coming up on the end here.
02:15:58
William Dunphey
And if you want to get championship points, you have 12 days to do so, which is less than two weeks. So if you have not maxed out your locals, cups and challenges, et cetera, you should definitely go and do that.
02:16:08
William Dunphey
The last two events of the season are NAIC, June 13th through the 15th, and the PJCS, which is a one-day event on June the twenty second in Japan. I think that not Rob May is going to be covering that event.
02:16:21
William Dunphey
He might be doing a live stream with a bit of translation as well. So I'm really excited to see what he does, but NAIC is going to be a thrill. I'm going to be there competing. ah you You're going to be there as well. We're going to try and create some content and and have a good time competing.
02:16:31
zzweilous
yeah
02:16:36
William Dunphey
And hopefully we don't pair in the bracket because that would honestly be sinister if we paired against each other. I would not appreciate that unless it's the grand finals.
02:16:43
zzweilous
it was a fairly closely fought battle when we faced each other in the in the joust hosted by amanda lundberg and her cerulean card
02:16:50
William Dunphey
just Just be honest, EZ, I won off of some nonsense, all right? I played double electric into your team, and that was nonsensical, and it worked. Because against a smart person like you, you have to do something dumb to find of a wing con, all right?
02:17:03
zzweilous
But I'm also like known to be a double electric appreciator, right? like I used to run Amphoros, Magnezone, and Ultraleague all the time. so
02:17:11
William Dunphey
Poetry. Poetry in motion.
02:17:13
zzweilous
Game recognized game.
02:17:17
William Dunphey
Amen. Amen, brother. All right. um In terms of upcoming in-game events, I don't have any on my list, but I do want to mention one, one big one. That is going to be the New Jersey Go Fest that is coming up this weekend.
02:17:30
William Dunphey
I'm flying out on Wednesday. i plan to spend some time in the Big Apple and then head over to Jersey City. To host the first ever Pokemon Go livestream event, the whole goal of this but this program is actually twofold.
02:17:45
William Dunphey
The first objective is to show the best that GoFest has to offer, whether it's the spawns, the raids, the Gigantamax, the friends that you have there, the lucky trades, whatever might be.
02:17:57
William Dunphey
And the second objective is to teach trainers about how to become a better trainer overall, whether it's learning about routes or party play or how to maximize your Dynamax battles or basically what Pokemon you need to pick up for PVP.
02:18:11
William Dunphey
That's all going to be included. I'm hosting it with Gabby, so I'm really excited because her Pokemon knowledge is basically bottomless. She knows everything about Pokemon, and I think she's going great complement, especially for a lot of newer trainers that might be watching the stream.
02:18:24
William Dunphey
If you're listening to this podcast, you enjoy PvP. I think that's pretty obvious, unless maybe you stumbled upon this and you're just now realizing that it's it is about PvP. This stream for GoFest is going to be PvE-focused primarily, although there will be tournaments going on in the background. We've got some really fun segments planned for that as well.
02:18:42
William Dunphey
ah But we will be talking about general Pokemon Go stuff. So... If you're in New Jersey this weekend, I'd love to meet you. love to see you come up, say hi. As long as we're not on camera, I would appreciate it. But maybe we will get you on camera for a segment.
02:18:55
William Dunphey
I think that'd be really, really fun. But yeah, DZ, that's all I've got. 12 days to get championship points. NAIC is going to be a blast. We're going to learn a lot more after the practice tournaments that we do and our scrims as well.
02:19:06
William Dunphey
And GoFest is going to be ah hoot. It's going to be awesome.
02:19:09
zzweilous
So Speedy, I have a content idea for that GoFest stream for you. This is not pre-planned, by the way.
02:19:14
William Dunphey
Let's do it. No, I have no idea what you're going to say.
02:19:15
zzweilous
um An IRL showcase, you get a group of trainers um and because it's like New Jersey, essentially New York, like it's so close, right?
02:19:25
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:19:27
zzweilous
And we recently had the Applin release in Pokemon Go. And because of the big apple, you ask a group of trainers to show their biggest Applin. And whoever has the biggest apple gets a big apple as a reward.
02:19:40
zzweilous
Can you do that?
02:19:41
William Dunphey
Wow.
02:19:41
zzweilous
It would be way too dang.
02:19:42
William Dunphey
i I really thought that you were going to go in i thought you were a different route and say that they had to all play triple Applin in a GBL battle. And I was going to be like, I don't know how that's going to end well.
02:19:54
William Dunphey
But I like the direction you chose.
02:19:56
zzweilous
Oh, it's PvE focused, right?
02:19:56
William Dunphey
um
02:19:58
zzweilous
i I'm just getting with the program.
02:19:58
William Dunphey
It is. It is. I do think an Applin size contest, especially when you consider that behind the broadcast booth, you're going to be able to see the Statue of Liberty. You're going to see the New York City skyline.
02:20:10
William Dunphey
I think having an Applin size contest would be ideal. Yeah, let's do it. I'm going to write that down and and tell Gabby right now.
02:20:18
zzweilous
I'm looking forward to see it on stream.
02:20:20
William Dunphey
Awesome. We'll credit you as well. We'll say this is the newsies, why the special. It's all about apples. I'll say that.
02:20:25
zzweilous
Let's go.
02:20:26
William Dunphey
right, my friend. um Those are my closing thoughts. I'm really excited for the GoFest stream ah from the Big Apple to the Big Easy back-to-back weekends. That's Pokemon life for you, and I can't wait to do it.
02:20:37
William Dunphey
I think this is another great episode, and I'm excited to see ah fighting types not do anything at NAIC. All
02:20:44
zzweilous
I could read Taurus has a thing or two to say about that. But yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to big things and potentially a little bit of a preview episode before NESC as well.
02:20:49
William Dunphey
right.
02:20:56
zzweilous
So stay tuned for that.
02:20:57
William Dunphey
Yes. Stay tuned, everybody. We're going to dive in a lot more deep um more deep into the the meta changes, what we think is good, maybe some team compositions, players to watch. Just like we do for all the ICs, we're going to have a really, really nice preview.
02:21:10
William Dunphey
um And I can't wait to see Paldean Tauros is the truth or if it's just bull.
02:21:15
zzweilous
Thank you.
02:21:16
William Dunphey
But thank you so much, ZZ. We'll catch you in the next episode, my friend.
02:21:39
William Dunphey
Thank you.