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Ep. 2 Charlotte 2024
203 Plays9 months ago
Hello, everyone! This is Episode 2 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we dive deep into the Play! Pokémon Championship series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and the competitive scene.
This week, we review the Charlotte Regional Championships, where LyleJeffsIII won it all! If you're ready, Lock In, and let's get started!
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Transcript
Introduction and Tournament Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
All right, everybody. Welcome into the show six podcast where we break down the play Pokemon Championship Series for Pokemon go this week. We're talking about these Charlotte regionals where 136 trainers came to play the debut of annihilate the surprising amount of electric type coverage across the teams. The team composition trends, for example, the double and even triple fliers taking over the meta and Lyle Jeff's finally getting his breakthrough moment. All that and more. So lock in and good luck.
00:00:30
Speaker
Have fun!
Annihilape's Impact and Meta Shifts
00:00:52
Speaker
Hi Speedy, I'm feeling great actually. I do have the week off. I am headed towards the Liverpool regionals and I can't wait to talk about Charlotte with you. Awesome. Well, so I am really excited to talk about Charlotte, the recap, everything that went on this past weekend. We had a brand new Pokemon coming in to the meta, but you know, I listened to a lot of topics there at the beginning. I want you to just kind of take, take one of those or another topic that's off the top of your head and just start running. What did you think about the Charlotte regional?
00:01:22
Speaker
Honestly, I want to circle back to the whole Planet of the Apes cover story of this weekend, because I had people telling me that they weren't all that happy about an ILA being released that shortly before the tournament, because it was basically like if a Pokémon gets a newly released, it needs to be like a 24-hour cooldown before it becomes legal for a Pokémon play as far as I'm aware.
00:01:50
Speaker
And another tape got released earlier than expected, earlier than the start of the event where it was to be featured.
00:02:02
Speaker
And people weren't really prepared for it. But it shot up from 0% usage to, because obviously nobody had it, to 33% usage becoming the premier fighter immediately. And everybody was scared of this ghost. But I feel like we haven't really seen much of it. We haven't really seen much of it. It wasn't a couple of teams. Some of them made top cut.
00:02:26
Speaker
But I always felt like a liability to me rather than an asset. What did you think about the monkeys?
Niantic's Communication Issues
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like the release was definitely problematic, right? Because Niantic published comms. They said, you know, the raging battles event will go live on the 19th.
00:02:43
Speaker
at whatever it is ten am standard time whatever the time zone might be but i felt like when you publish something and that's in your comms you should definitely stick to that schedule right i mean this is a multi billion dollar company with you know eighty million monthly users you gotta think that once you publish something you stick to it.
00:03:02
Speaker
And it put a lot of pressure on on TPCI and play Pokemon. And I was actually having this debate with another another player in the community. Actually, Arrow brought up a really good point. This is the trainer I was talking to. I said, yeah, you know, if if TPCI doesn't follow Niantic's published schedule, then it looks bad on TPCI. But then he said, well, if if TPCI doesn't allow it, then they're not actually sticking to what they said they were going to do. And I said, oh, my gosh.
00:03:32
Speaker
You're right. It's like an impossible conundrum. So I think the lesson is take Niantic comms with a grain of salt because they are not exactly accurate. So if you know something's coming, you know, if
00:03:45
Speaker
If Revaroom is going to debut, maybe look out for 24 hours or 36 hours early or late. Who knows? Maybe there's a problem with the release. So it's a little bit fluid in those situations, which I do think is frustrating. And a lot of trainers had game plan for a month and a half of this season.
00:04:02
Speaker
Uh, maybe since the beginning of this season, they said Charlotte is the only regional I can go to. So I'm going to watch all the streams I'm going to practice. And then all of a sudden at the very last second, they have to change their teams. But I agree with you. I think annihilate only making it onto two of the top 16 teams. If not mistaken.
00:04:19
Speaker
It's one of those things kind of like when Toxapex release or maybe when Claude Sire released. I feel like trainers are still learning how to use it. And it's definitely a unique Pokemon. It's got above average bulk, but it doesn't hit quite as hard as I would like. And the pacing's a bit slow, kind of like Poliwrath, because you've got Ice Punch and Shadow Ball. I've been using a lot in GBL, but I'm curious what your take
Strategic Use of Annihilape
00:04:42
Speaker
is. Yeah, I do think that
00:04:45
Speaker
Funny that you mentioned Arrow, because I'm pretty sure I saw a tweet about him using Annihilape and, I think, one of the challenges in Charlotte. And the pacing for Annihilape is a little bit awkward, because if you're not as bulky as, say, a Medichan, taking six counters to your first Charter Tech can make you feel a little clunky. Like, same for Poliwrath. Poliwrath is also just bulkier than Annihilape.
00:05:14
Speaker
So if you're really dependent on that quick one-two punch damage output, okay, I get to this move, I get to that move. Maybe Ice Punch isn't for you.
00:05:28
Speaker
An arrow, I'm pretty sure I had a Knight slash Shadow Ball moveset on an IOLape. So players are still figuring out the preferred moveset. I think Close Combat is another consideration that we haven't seen yet, but that might come up in the future. It's a bit of a Swiss army knife, but I do think it needs some refinement, both in terms of team building, like what is even a good core with an IOLape. I've seen a lot of an IOLape's scarmory in the Go Battle League, but people basically just
00:05:57
Speaker
Like, either they didn't put Annihilate in at all, and that usually worked out better for them, or they tried to substitute their current fighter with the new fighter that they expected to be the top dog, the number one.
00:06:13
Speaker
I don't think we're quite in an NFT situation where everybody invests in the apes and then two years later they lose all their investment. But we definitely need to... There's definitely a learning curve to annihilate and I do think it will have a greater presence at the upcoming regionals. Probably not a dominant presence but a greater presence.
00:06:36
Speaker
And it might also be suited better to different matters. I do think this is not the perfect matter for its unique competition type combination. I agree. And what really surprised me as well is that not only did a Vigoroth team win the regional, but we actually had more Vigoroths in top 16 than we had on Iolapes. We had three Vigos, right? I couldn't even say the Vigoroth team won it. Exactly. The Vigoroth team, the premier.
00:07:02
Speaker
figure off team. And you know, it reminded me of when carbink was introduced and everyone's saying, oh yeah, carbink is going to just up in the meta. It's going to be a brand new Pokemon that just destroys certain things. For example, I said multiple times last season, I said, if there's going to be a shadow Charizard world champion at Pokemon go, it has to be this season because carbink is coming and carbink is going to just
00:07:27
Speaker
Annihilate any Charizard's and what does, what does Wadaj do? The first tournament of this season in the Karbink meta, he brings Shadow Dragonite. It's just like, when, when, when you think players are going to go to the left, they actually, you know, take a right turn instead. That's definitely what I saw from the Vigoroth usage here. And I agree with you in terms of the moveset, the shift to close combat
00:07:47
Speaker
is definitely more useful for like the Lickitung matchup because the Lickitung Annihilate matchup is notoriously close.
Meta Shifts: Azumarill and Counters
00:07:53
Speaker
And I feel like if you have the close combat, it's almost like teching your meta champ to dynamic punch. It just makes that matchup uncomfortable for the Lickitung. But again, more drawbacks because you lose defense. That's true. Speaking of losing defense and the Lickitung matchup,
00:08:09
Speaker
Another thing that people might not have figured out just yet is also the specific IV combinations that maybe showed up some matchups and enabled others that might have not been possible otherwise. I've seen talk of high attack in our lab actually also beating the guitar consistently. So maybe people get funky with their IV combinations
00:08:36
Speaker
Oh, so I don't, don't tell me that because, uh, this whole event, I've been catching man keys and I've just, I transferred to bed at catching, but I can build a master league and I live now. And I will, as soon as I get a handle. So yeah, I really, everybody, like everything was full of Mac keys and I made sure to clean up.
00:08:57
Speaker
Well, speaking of usage, I think this is actually one of your notes going into the show here. This is the first time ever we have not seen a Medicham in top 12 usage. I think that you're correct. I think you're correct in that. Yeah.
00:09:11
Speaker
And it makes sense, right? Because when you see at the, when you look at the rest of the notes, okay, what is moving, moving upwards in usage and I live, we went over this. It's now the fighter that beats other fighters. That was many times role. It's no longer many times role. Charger bug plus 9%. Okay. Charger bug was around earlier. Um, but yeah, the Charger bug matchup is just really bad for many ever since it had to drop psychic because that's just a really bad move now. And what stands out the most to me.
00:09:37
Speaker
Zoomeral, from Portland to Charlotte, plus 22% usage. That's a usage spike that's... This is among the staples now. Like, Liger, Zoomeral, Lickitung. That's like the big three, and then maybe Chargerbug.
00:09:52
Speaker
No, I agree. I think Azumarill is back. The bubble buff was definitely something trainers had their eyes on. We remember the Azumarill of old. I even remember playing in what we called freestyle tournaments when I was living in Tampa. We'd have those once a week. I remember playing in my freestyle tournaments back in 2018, 2019 and playing Azumarill.
00:10:11
Speaker
all the way back then. And it's back into the meta now. I mean, definitely the theme of timeless travels is sticking. And we can we can discuss this later as well. But I just want to give everyone listening a little a question, something to think about, you know, plant a seed in their minds. I think this GBL season has got to be one of the best GBL seasons we've had in a very, very long time. I mean, twenty five hundred total battles this season. You've got a great league cup available every single week.
00:10:39
Speaker
of the season, I mean, this is what Go Battle League should be like. But I'll let everyone leave their thoughts in the comments there and we'll see what they think.
Game Pace Affected by Bulky Pokémon
00:10:48
Speaker
One thing that surprised me about Charlotte was the number of timeout games. We saw a lot of Lickitung, a lot of Mandibuzz and so many Whiskash skull debuffs. Why did that surprise you as well? The skull debuffs specifically surprised me 50% of the time. But no, like the timeout games,
00:11:08
Speaker
I didn't expect them to be that prevalent because we had like, there were games. I remember, I don't remember exactly who was on stage at that time, but it was mirror teams. It was the kind of mirror that takes ages to complete. And in the end, the WinCon was basically to keep more Pokemon alive. And one of the trainers basically
00:11:32
Speaker
saw that went con early and made sure to win the lead and keep that Pokemon alive. And in the end, like, okay, both both trainers had a full health Pokemon available to them. But because the other one had basically this little like two HP Pokemon in the back, it was it was so obvious the domain two would win the timeout. And yeah, I don't I'm not a big fan of that play style, just because I'm
00:12:00
Speaker
Like the type of Pokemon that initiate those timeout games are typically ones that don't make for the most engaging gameplay. Like I recognize that not all of it is just bulk. It's also spamminous because the charge detect animations just take ages. But I feel like people should try, like people should do whatever they want to do, but I would love to see people try and break up the current bulk fest with a few
00:12:30
Speaker
spicier a few more attack heavy options maybe i just felt all the uh the ultra league specialists just collectively get get furious at you for saying that those style of games are not fun because a lot of trainers think the ultra league you know with the extra bulk with the timeout games is actually more exciting because it introduces more win conditions so
00:12:50
Speaker
Maybe that's another topic of debate.
Evan's Innovative Play with Shadow Zapdos
00:12:52
Speaker
But speaking of, of spicy Pokemon and fun trainers, the most fun trainer to watch this weekend had to be Evan, right? Evan, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 1, 3, and his shadow Zapdos. I mean, come on, Swai. He's bringing an electric type to the tournament. He's doing really well. He's a man after your own heart, right?
00:13:10
Speaker
I was rooting for Evan from the start, if I'm being honest. We scrimmed a little going into this. And when I saw him, like when he shared his team first and I saw that Shadow Zapdos, I was like, okay, like, I don't know what the man is cooking, but he's cooking something. And like finishing top four two times in a row.
00:13:31
Speaker
is insane, especially while doing it with unique picks. He went from a Toxapex to a Shadow Zapdos who used to be known for his Shadow Beedrill, another spicy Pokémon that has featured on maybe two top cuts in its entire existence. And yeah, I can't wait to see what Evan will bring to Knoxville. Definitely one of the most entertaining trainers out there currently.
00:13:58
Speaker
I actually did some digging, right? I went to Draco Vis. You mentioned his B drill. That's when Evan really kind of broke through and started to build a name for himself. He also brought Shadow Hitmonchan to Arlington last season, where he finished 17th. He brought Victini to Hartford last season, where he finished 33rd. And then he brought Toxapex in San Antonio, and then the Shadow Zapdos Diggers B Corps.
00:14:20
Speaker
his two fourth place finishes. He did a really fun, uh, breakdown of his tournament on, on his own live stream on Twitch. And he, and somebody asked like, Evan, when are you going to win one? He said, no, I'm hunting for my next fourth place finish. So of course he, he likes to have a, he likes to have a good time, but we had a lot of trainers, not only from North America, actually find a lot of success, uh, Javier V 20. I think that's a trainer that you single that as well. Absolutely. Like, um,
00:14:49
Speaker
He is the first Peruvian to clinch his Worlds invite, as far as I'm aware. And yeah, he had a good run. He made top cut. And I just love seeing trainers not only compete, but also succeed outside of their own region.
International Trainer Success Stories
00:15:06
Speaker
Because I've always loved and enjoyed the global aspect of this game. And yeah, it was a great success story, seeing Javier,
00:15:17
Speaker
compete so well and do so well. And I think also another Central American trainer, Teddy, finished third. So yeah, that was definitely not only like, it's almost as if the Americans in Charlotte took a little bit off the backseat to the Canadians, the Central Americans, the South Americans. And yeah, that's what I love to see.
00:15:44
Speaker
talented trainers from all around the world, giving it their best shot and having success in their own way.
00:15:52
Speaker
No, I completely agree as well. I feel like the, I'll say this time and time again, right? The LATAM community is the single greatest growth opportunity for competitive Pokemon Go in the world because in LATAM, it's so much easier to have a mobile device instead of buying a console. A lot of the tariffs, the taxes on a Nintendo Switch or a PlayStation or an Xbox are just incredibly high.
00:16:15
Speaker
to ship them to Chile, to ship them to Argentina, Peru, even Mexico sometimes. So I think that, um, when you see these pictures of community day, right? With swag round, we'll post something and there will be 200 people behind him out for something silly, like Porygon classic. It's like, man, these, these trainers really love to play Pokemon go. And I agree. They're so talented. We saw Elche at worlds last season. Actually, it was so far.
00:16:40
Speaker
I Pokemon with one hand tied behind his back. He's just dismantling the best trainers in the world. I think that really speaks volumes to the level of talent in Latin America. I sincerely agree. And I hope that they get more regional championships as well because there's so much. They did get some new ones just, just recently, right? Like three more announced two in Brazil and one in Chile as far as I'm aware. So yeah, like they had, they had this, this empty tournament called Canada for the longest time.
00:17:10
Speaker
Finally they got some love. I wish they got even more because as you said the energy is there the people out there and Yeah, I just I just hope we we grow on all those all those continents
00:17:22
Speaker
I agree. So we have the local tournaments in North America and EU, and I believe local tournaments are starting to spread up in Latin as well. I love to see a regional in Argentina and in Chile and Mexico City always gets a regional every season hosted by Niantic, which I think is a really cool facet. A lot of people don't really understand that, but the regional championship in Mexico City the past two seasons is not hosted by TPCI. Like TPCI lends support, but it's actually hosted by Niantic.
00:17:52
Speaker
which shows that they have the potential to host regional championships on their own, which I think is super exciting and we should definitely delve more into.
Keishan's First Regional Performance
00:18:00
Speaker
Now, speaking of Niantic, we had a GBL hero actually make it to the grand finals. Keishan, with his first regionals appearance, had been grinding GBL for a long time, actually made it to the finals and lost twice, if I'm not mistaken, to Wild Jeffs. Oh, yeah. And I honestly,
00:18:19
Speaker
I have nothing but respect and admiration for someone who goes to his first regional ever and just makes it to the grand finals on first try. But what Lyle Jeffs did to Kaishan in those games, it makes you believe in the GBL algorithm just for Play Pokemon. Those line calls were something else.
00:18:42
Speaker
No, what really surprised me about Lyle Jeff's play in particular is that, uh, by game three, he was so dialed into a lot of these team reads that it almost felt like it was an algorithm or something, right? It felt very RPS. You could just look at the team and say, all right, Lyle's got this trainer pinned against the mat and there's nothing they can do to get out. But yeah, Kayshaun super impressive. His line calls also outstanding, but he kind of met his kryptonite in Lyle Jeff's. The only two losses he had all tournament were to the champ.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, like that's like, I think you mentioned it in the notes as well. That's like a Rubik's master versus accent situation. Um, yeah, I think Keishan wouldn't mind if he meets a lot of Jeffs at Worlds again to maybe, uh, have a little, have a little, um, revenge in the finals potentially. But yeah, it's, it's a long way to go until then. Yeah, the similarities are striking.
00:19:36
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
Stream Segment on Diverse Trainers
00:19:37
Speaker
Well, we'll moving to the, the stream itself, a new segment kind of debuted the trainer spotlights. So typically we hear from our regional champions, right? We've all seen the wadaj video, the dune bug video, et cetera. Uh, even this wireless video, I'm not sure if there was one made, maybe you can, you can, you know, wink, wink at the camera if that's the case.
00:19:56
Speaker
I don't actually think there was one. I gave a little interview after the fact, but I don't think that was actually for TPCI. That was just for the production or the company that hosted the event itself. So I don't think that will be used for one of those little reels.
00:20:14
Speaker
Gotcha. Well, I think that the production did a great job of spotlighting trainers who maybe don't win regional championships, but are still notable trainers in the community. Maybe they've appeared on stream a couple of times and they attend maybe one or two or three or four events per season.
00:20:31
Speaker
They featured mama climbs during one segment that I watched this weekend. And I thought it was great because getting to know these trainers that maybe are not winning at a very high level all the time, but are still trying, still consistent. I think that's really, really fun. And there's so many unique personalities in the Pokemon go space. Just off the top of your head. So I, if you could feature one trainer in a spotlight, who would it be?
00:20:55
Speaker
I want to think specifically of North Americans too. We've talked about Evan already. Evan is not only a great battler, but also a bit of a character, very creative team builder. I think you could have a very fun segment about him.
00:21:11
Speaker
But another name that I thought managed to shine this weekend and also did so in like a very unique fashion is actually Buckeye Fizzie. Because I do think that the whole Fitzgerald family has been like a staple of play Pokemon events for the longest time.
00:21:30
Speaker
And some people looked at them like, okay, yeah, I think that's, that's pretty cute. That's pretty sweet that they basically traveled from event to event with like all the kids and both parents compete. But I feel like when Bakai Fitsi managed to qualify for Worlds last year, he didn't really get the respect some of the maybe, um,
00:21:54
Speaker
more GBL savvy trainers got for their for their respective Worlds qualifications. So him qualifying for Worlds again through points at the Charlotte Regional and having probably the most entertaining set of the entire tournament against Dunberg. Those were those were great moments and his wife made winners finals as well as far as I'm aware in day one.
00:22:19
Speaker
So that was like, I feel like a Fitzy family spotlight would be a fun thing as well. Oh, no, I absolutely agree. And I remember Kalisi Fitzy actually making waves. I think she might've been the first in the family to really kind of draw attention with her Lapras play. Yeah, I distinctly remember that shadow Lapras. I was a big fan of that pick back in the day as well.
00:22:42
Speaker
Yeah, that was amazing. I believe it was in Salt Lake City, if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, Khaleesi Fitzy was really incredible with her plays and the Lapras pick was amazing. Of course, my beautiful fiancé, Marita, she loves the Lapras and seeing that appear on the camera, she instantly was like, oh my God, I'm a fan. And she even asked me to take a photo with Khaleesi to send to her because obviously she's in Mexico and she wanted to just, you know,
00:23:06
Speaker
have a piece of that moment. So I think that those kinds of trainers can really find ways to relate to viewers that maybe converts viewers into players in the future. And I also think it's important because they travel as a family to all these events. And based on Pokemon being primarily targeted at younger players, I think that finding ways to spotlight families who take the extra effort, who go the extra mile to attend events and try to make it a family
00:23:34
Speaker
uh, outing, you know, family vacation to go to a regional. I think that's really cool. And we need to spotlight that more as well. So I agree with you. The trainer that I would pick for a spotlight has got to be Valor Ash. And, uh, it's because he's just been in the game for so long. I mean, if you remember back to the, uh, the Silph days with the mega tournaments, just right before the pandemic kind of changed the whole world, Valor Ash was at the top of the game. I mean, there wasn't, there weren't a lot of trainers that could really compete with him.
00:24:01
Speaker
And I distinctly remember him winning the Orlando mega tournament and seeing how stark and Toshi and all the elite four just kind of dogpile him when he came out of the room. And this is a guy who not only was winning tournaments, but he was also holding classes to teach people how to time their charge tax, the different typings, the different match-ups.
00:24:23
Speaker
I mean, he's an educator, a very thorough thinker, and I think he gave a really inspiring interview with a lot of perspective because he's been in the game as long as we have. So I'd love to see him spotlighted at some point. Yeah, I really like to listen to him talk, so I wouldn't mind a segment dedicated to him. Yeah, as you said, I've not actually been PVPing for all that long. Most of the in-person self actually took place before my time.
00:24:52
Speaker
But when I really got into the game, Mother Ash was certainly one of the household names that everybody knew and that everybody referred to as one of those go-to battlers with some signature picks. And still to this day, like the talent thing comes out every regional and just like both going back in time, but still featuring someone who is so relevant today with like just multiple, multiple really
00:25:18
Speaker
strong regional performances. I definitely agree. That's one of the prime candidates for a segment like that.
ValorAsh's Influence in Pokémon Go Community
00:25:27
Speaker
I don't want to make him sound like an old person, but Valorash was playing this game back when switching out didn't clear debuffs. So if you icy winded something with your cloister and switched it out, it came right back out of that Pokeball and it was still debuffed. All right. That's how long he's been in the game. I know Valorash used to play Pokemon Go in a Nokia. That's what I heard. Oh my God.
00:25:50
Speaker
Unstoppable, right? An unbreakable trainer with an unbreakable device. Yes. But speaking of production, we had a couple of controversial moments this weekend. Let's start with a lighthearted one and then we can get into a more serious one. There was an interview that I think we should talk about. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Nighttime pleasure. It was actually not his casting debut. He actually made that in Buhong, Germany last year.
00:26:19
Speaker
I was at the tournament, I met him back then, and I had no idea who the guy was. And nobody else had an idea who the guy was, because he was very new to the game. He did have casting experience, but yeah, apparently he liked the experience that he had in Buhong, and he got really good at the game. And now he casted his first North American regional.
00:26:43
Speaker
And I think he did a great job. He became a lot more knowledgeable about the game ever since he started getting into competing at Play Pokemon events. And I do think his energy and his wit really managed to shine through in a lot of his casting moments. And he also probably delivered the funniest, but also slightly controversial
00:27:11
Speaker
interview moment when he had a double interview with Pockets friends, like out of pocket, formerly known as Hot Pocket, um, getting ready on the stage for, for his next match. And there we had Onion Frank who had a great honor of his own and, and Badash, like he needs an introduction, um, being interviewed about their friendship and their respective runs. And it was for the most part, pretty, pretty wholesome and fun.
00:27:41
Speaker
but I also felt like a bit of shade was thrown during that interview. I don't know whether everybody appreciated it all that much, but my personal opinion on that matter.
00:27:54
Speaker
It was in good fun. It was in good fun. Like, you know these guys, you know, they're jokesters of some sort. And Vadash trying to hold in his laugh while being asked serious questions and answering in a slightly less than serious manner. I did enjoy that and I hope that nobody felt seriously hurt by that.
00:28:18
Speaker
Yeah, I thought it was great. I thought it was definitely cringe, right? There were lots of cringe moments and like dead moments in the interview where I was thinking like, okay, are they gonna end this soon or are they gonna cut away? Like what's happening here? It kind of reminded me of the Crimson interview. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:28:40
Speaker
At any moment, they could cut it and say, okay, this is too much. But no, it was really funny because- When Chris shouted out his big wife, yeah, that was also very- Big wife!
00:28:52
Speaker
I love that so much. And she was standing like off stage. So he pointed at her and everything. I was looking at her. I was like, hey. But yeah, no, it was hilarious because, you know, with Dash, Onion and Pocket, you know, they grew up on memes, right? Like they are literal meme factories. So when they get a chance to actually talk, there's a 90% chance that they're not going to say anything serious.
00:29:16
Speaker
or anything sincere, they're just going to troll the whole time. Seeing them try to give funny answers and then Wada is just breaking. Jimmy Fallon in an SNL skit where he just starts laughing because he can't hold it in, that's exactly what happened. I just want to say, Clasher was the perfect person to interview them. Wonderful. He completely matched the energy and still managed to keep up that veneer of
00:29:42
Speaker
play Pokemon seriousness while doing so. And while it, I don't know, maybe it made it a little more cringe, but it also just enabled this fun, memorable moment. And yeah, I think it was good television overall. It was great, yeah, because when I started laughing, and whereas a more, how do I say, like, tightly wound caster would have just kind of ignored him and just let the moment go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Flash returns to him, he's like, oh, I see that you're laughing. What is that about? Would you like to explain?
00:30:11
Speaker
And of course he's putting him on the spot. And this is, you know, this is the same nighttime classroom who wore a chef's hat on stage. And he also gave that interview with Pokemon Go tips. And he said, when the opponent is weak, you should throw your nuke moves. You should return a two HP zoom roll. That's good manners is what he said. I agree with that. I agree with that.
00:30:33
Speaker
NTC is a great guy. He's got a lot of experience in different esports as well, including mobile games. And he's kind of collecting mobile games like Infinity Stones. And I've been really impressed with how quickly he's learned the game, especially his day two casting. I actually haven't told him this, but I felt like his day two casting was really at the next level because he was talking about break points and bulk points, which I don't think has ever been discussed on the stream. He was also talking about wind conditions. He was making shielding predictions.
00:31:02
Speaker
I mean, his feel for the game, his in-game knowledge is definitely advanced. And granted, he's only been playing for like a year and a half, right? Exactly. Exactly. Like he's been super dedicated with the amount of tournaments he went to and like the amounts of scrims he put into improving. So yeah, it does make sense that he went from like basically a nobody to someone who can just recite the most intricate PvP effects off the top of his head.
00:31:32
Speaker
And yeah, it was great to see him put that into practice. And I do also agree that maybe at the start of the day one broadcast, there was a little bit of left over nervousness, but he managed to shake that off super well really quickly.
00:31:47
Speaker
No, he really did. And you know, some people are just, are just built for the camera, right? They, they get into a, a, uh, you know, a moment where the spotlight is on them and they just kind of take control and then pilot their way through. He's definitely one of those style of people.
Controversy Over Match Error
00:32:00
Speaker
Uh, but so I, I think, uh, I think we need to touch on this other piece of controversy. That's a little more serious. And then we could talk about some meta trends and the grand finals, but this controversy in particular, uh, was at the heart of a match review that, uh, honestly, it's.
00:32:16
Speaker
Very debatable how this should have gone. Basically, the error in question is damage registration error. Now, in terms of turn speeds and how that works, would you like to explain that or would you like for me to take over that part? I can explain that rather concisely. So we had a game between, I think, a beach and house start.
00:32:36
Speaker
And Hostark had a Registeal, Beach had a Chargerbug. The Chargerbug was very low on HP, so it got to its discharge that would have turned the tides of the game at exactly one HP. But because a one-turn charge move like the Registeal's logon takes priority over charge move activation, the Chargerbug fainted with the move loaded. So that's basically what happened, and that got disputed.
00:33:03
Speaker
And this is, as far as I'm aware, as far as I see it in Everyday Go Battle League, the intended mechanic. But it got disputed and it got awarded a rematch that actually managed to flip the entire series. Yes.
00:33:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, beautifully said. That's exactly what happened. And I've actually noticed this in my own GBL games. I think Tho Technical also published a video detailing this bug and how inconsistent it can be. The best example I can think of is a five turn incinerate versus a four turn volt switch. If you've got a charge bug versus town flame matchup, right?
00:33:40
Speaker
The talent flames incinerate damage should apply on turn five, the same turn that you're activating your discharge. And half the time you get the discharge and half the time you don't. So exactly like you said, the register lock on applying before the charge attack was in question. And that's really what flipped the entire series. Now, Niantic did release a blog post saying that this is how the game should work. But in practice, it definitely feels inconsistent. I think it'd be worth it to test in a tournament environment, you know, a non GBL environment where you're
00:34:10
Speaker
where you're on different networks, maybe in a tournament environment where you're on the shared Wi-Fi. I like to see how the testing goes for that and see how consistent it is and maybe how we can move forward. But our world champion, It's Accent tweeted out saying that DRE
00:34:27
Speaker
Damage registration error being disputable is a dangerous precedent to set. And I agree with him because it can definitely flip a lot of situations. Uh, so I am not going to ask you how you would have rolled in that situation, but I feel like because it's such an inconsistent mechanic, at least as far as we know right now, maybe upon further further testing, we could disprove that because it's so inconsistent. I don't know. I mean, uh, I guess in my official role, I can't say whether or not it should be disputed, but I have doubts.
00:34:55
Speaker
Yeah, I do not have an official rule. First of all, I do want to say I appreciate the effort that all the judges put into making these events possible for everyone. And I do not want to discourage any competitor from asking the judges to review a game situation where they think the game acted in a way that favored their opponent or maybe prevented them from executing a play that they thought they should be able to execute
00:35:25
Speaker
So with that being the preface of my opinion, I do think this was a decision that is very difficult to justify just because in the majority of situations,
00:35:43
Speaker
The way this game played out is how you would expect it to be playing out. I do think the damage registration error got normalized as something. So damage registration error being something like, OK, you do get the move off. Basically, in the moment, you should be fainting. That has been normalized as a so-called new mechanic over
00:36:12
Speaker
like years and years, that was like the colloquial term for it up until recently. And the word mechanic implies that it's intentional, that it's intentional game behavior. And it was intentional for at least a day. And the Niantic blog post
00:36:30
Speaker
speaks to that. I do think it is very likely that very shortly after that blog post was released, this new mechanic was actually reverted back to the old way it was supposed to work, which is damage applying takes priority over charge move activation. But we never got an official confirmation by Niantic for that. So there is this gray area where you could argue, OK,
00:36:59
Speaker
You should be able to get your charge move off while the damage is registering, but I do think it's a bit of a slippery slope just because in practice, in actuality, it doesn't play out that way for probably 80% of the time, maybe even more often.
00:37:19
Speaker
So I do think in formats like in grassroots formats such as Sylph, there were rules that specified that if something is just the state of the game, it cannot be disputed. And I would argue that
00:37:34
Speaker
the damage registration error not occurring. So the game basically allowing the charger bug to faint and not to get its move off. That is what is to be expected. That is the state of the game and the state of the game should probably not be disputed.
00:37:55
Speaker
Yeah. I think that's a really fair point, right? And we talked about state of game issues in the past, which are definitely different from deaf wins or any other, uh, you know, rule that the self arena or play Pokemon has tried to enforce, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's such a great area in setting the precedent of making that debatable. I agree with your first point that you made trainers should never, uh, be nervous to ask a judge for, you know, a review or to, to question how.
00:38:21
Speaker
a game should have gone. I think that everybody should feel like they can dispute something if they feel like maybe the outcome was unjust or was not how it's supposed to work. But yeah, it's a really great area and I would leave it up to everyone listening to maybe leave a comment on our post on X and let us know what you think, if DRE should be disputable or not. My personal opinion, I think it needs further testing and then we can kind of go from there and figure out what the best path forward should be.
Double and Triple Fliers in Team Compositions
00:38:49
Speaker
But speaking to the meta overall, we touched on Annihilate. We talked about a couple of spicy Pokémon, but some of these meta trends are surprising. The one that I want to point out is the trend towards double or even triple flyers on these teams in our top 16, right? Six teams had only one flyer, eight teams had double flyers, and then two teams had triple
00:39:11
Speaker
flying type Pokemon on their team. NTC did a good job breaking down the roles of the different flyers. I think when he was casting, I believe, Onion Frank. But I'm curious what you think is why. I mean, it seems like electric coverage exists, but the flyers are still persisting. Can you crack this code or do you know what's going on?
00:39:29
Speaker
I do think if we look just at which Flyer was the most prevalent, the most popular, you see that Gligar tops those charts. And Gligar is actually an electric type counter. So if you have a Gligar on your team, you basically already have something that covers the main weakness of your other Flyer. So I think Gligar's Garmory
00:39:55
Speaker
It's technically two flyers, but it's also almost the same with Gligar, Pelipper. They just complement each other really well because their subtyping makes them just super, super flexible and super unique in their roles, as has been pointed out on the broadcast. So Gligar is just, it's just atypical, right? And especially with Skarmory and
00:40:23
Speaker
the buffed steelwing being such a threat to common ice types such as frostless, which actually made quite the triumphant return at this tournament on K-Shawn's team. I do think that threats for fliers are pretty much down in usage.
00:40:42
Speaker
Besides the charger bug, and there's other ways of covering for the charger bug. For example, when you consider the amount of Wiscash, like more than 50% of day two trainers had a Wiscash on their team. If you have a Wiscash and a Glagger, that's already two matchups that a charger bug really wants to avoid. So why not bring another flyer, like it will likely be relatively safe.
00:41:06
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I think that Gligar is the best word, is the one you use, atypical. It's a Pokemon that can do everything a flyer needs to do. It can also be an anti-steel, anti-rock with dig, and it can also counter electric, which is just really bizarre.
00:41:21
Speaker
And, uh, like you said, the antithesis to Gligar would be an ice type Pokemon. And since, uh, shadow lowland sand slash has generally fallen out of favor, at least in Charlotte, I think that it's a prime time for all these flying types to kind of take over. And a lot of people are kind of doubling up on roles, right? Like they're making Skarmory their steel type, which typically Skarmory would be your flying type, but because of the steel wing,
00:41:42
Speaker
Buff it's been able to kind of take a new role and then we saw out of pocket using Altaria He was on demon mode or demon time all weekend, right wearing all black on stage He just was not fazed by anything that happened. He really wants to make a 2020 for his year
00:41:57
Speaker
and you could see that in his play. Just using Altaria to just melt through things. So yes, Dragon is still good, but I think there's a lot of play for all these different flying type Pokémon. I will say you mentioned Whiscash as well. Five out of our top eight had a counter user. And then if you look at the bottom eight, right, spots nine through 16, six Mud Boys and only two counter users. So even though there's a lot of Whiscash, a lot of the Whiscash kind of finished at the bottom half of our top 16.
Whiscash as an Anti-Steel Option
00:42:27
Speaker
Yeah. That's fair enough. I have, I have been, um, like, because I'm in Europe and we are recording on Tuesday evening, I actually did, um, play the, um, barbo spotlight hour to finally get a whiskersh that, um, is play Pokemon ready basically. And I do personally think that, um, whiskersh is probably the best anti-steal currently.
00:42:56
Speaker
But there's also not that many steel, as you said. Scoury is kind of taking on that role for many teams. And while Regis still sees some success, it's not as common as we've seen it in the past. And also, alone in Sandslash, nowhere to be found in Charlotte.
00:43:14
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. It was extinct, for lack of a better phrase. Alolan Sandslash, definitely a powerful Pokemon. Famously, its Axon used it to win the World Championship. And then we saw trainers like a Mindjoke using it quite a bit in EU as well. There seem to be two very strong team archetypes that are sticking out to me. The first is obviously the Lyle Jeffs slash Abhinav team, which is the Vigoroth, the Wiscash, the Gligar, the Lickitung.
00:43:41
Speaker
And then the other one seems to be the Doonbug archetype, which I categorize that by the trio of Mandibuzz, Skeletorge, excuse me, excuse me, Registeel, Skeletorge, and Cresselia. The Flyers kind of get swapped out here from from time to time. But those seem like the two strongest team archetypes. If I'm not mistaken, we saw something different from Kaeshawn with his frost last, but Teddy was playing the Skeletorge and he was playing it really, really well up until the final moments of his run.
00:44:11
Speaker
Yeah, I do think Skeletorch is in a bit of a weird spot right now, because not only are people doubling up on flying types, which are so-so for Skeletorch. It doesn't really want to see Gligar, but it can at least hold its own against the Gligar. It probably doesn't win that matchup, but Incinerate's just chunked.
00:44:34
Speaker
Then it's good against Skarm. It's not as good into Water Fliers. It's not as good into Altaria, but it can do something against it. So it's like always like a mixed back against fliers, but it's not only double fliers. It's also double water a lot. Like we don't see
00:44:51
Speaker
We barely see any pure grass types anymore. Most grass types are chryseleous or Lickitung that only have grass coverage and aren't actually off-the-grass subtyping. So that just means that with that thread basically extinct,
00:45:12
Speaker
Water types run rampant and Azu one of the public most popular picks Whiskash also featuring on a lot of top cut teams. It's very difficult to maneuver Skeletorch around those and I feel like you almost have to team build in a way that you have two teams in one that of course you have your Pokemon that um
00:45:37
Speaker
play well into basically everything, your generalists, but then Pokemon that also are able to take on specific archetypes of teams that your opponent might bring, because some might feel a squad of six Pokemon that is just terribly weak to Skeletorch, and others might have a team where there's, oh, two hard counters, three checks, and, oh, there's the Chargerbug, but
00:46:02
Speaker
good luck lining your Skellige up against it. It's a high-risk, high-reward Pokémon, but the one thing I like about Skellige is that if you manage its energy really well, it can always put a dent into its counters, and I think Teddy in particular did a really good job at that in Charlotte.
00:46:22
Speaker
I agree with you. I feel like especially after Doonbug won San Antonio, we saw a huge pivot more towards Whiscash-Gligar core. And those two Pokémon obviously are disastrous for Skeletorge to go up again. So I do think the environment is inhospitable. And if you bring that Skeletorge, that's why a Pokémon like Crystallia pairs with it so well, because Crystallia can counter all those typical Pokémon that would otherwise give Skeletorge a hard time.
00:46:48
Speaker
And I agree, having two teams in one is critical, but that just puts a ton of stress on your team building as a Skeletor to enjoy her. But speaking of teams, Lyle Jeffs was able to win the Charlotte regionals.
Lyle Jeffs' Victory and Strategy
00:47:01
Speaker
His run was impressive, right? He was playing the team that Abhinav won the previous regional with in Portland. But he did say kind of subtly during his interview, he says, yeah, I've been playing this team for over a month.
00:47:12
Speaker
And he didn't seem too happy when other people said it was Abhinav's team. So I'm going to call it the Lyle slash Abhinav team. And of course, that is the team of six, Wiscash, Azumarill, Vigaroth, Chargibug, Shadow Gligar, and Lickitung. We also saw Elam play that team in the tournament. But one interesting anecdote I want to add about Lyle was that he was actually the first trainer featured on stream at the event versus Poppin' Bubbles.
00:47:37
Speaker
And Poppin Bubbles was playing Lyrantis and Annihilape, and Lyle barely won game two, right? He lost game one. He barely won game two because his Azumarill had just a few HP, and he got to a last-second ice beam against the Leafage Lyrantis that he was battling. And he almost had to, you know, follow in Dune's footsteps, falling to that loser's bracket in round one because he was sweating against Poppin Bubbles.
00:48:06
Speaker
Yeah, and I watched that set, and... A trainer, like, unless a trainer, then...
00:48:13
Speaker
Lyle would have probably dropped against Poppin Bubbles, because Poppin Bubbles played really well. He had that spicy pick. He managed to mostly also find the right spot for it. And Lyle basically had to play as clean as humanly possible. And he managed to do so. And he didn't stop doing that for the entirety of the tournament.
00:48:41
Speaker
Yeah, he really set himself up for success early by managing to power through that tense moment in the first game. And on stream as well, that just adds more pressure to it.
00:48:58
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you said setting himself up for success. I agree as well because pop and bubbles did have Skarmory and you could tell in that set that Skarmory was a headache for Lyle to deal with. And I think that getting that gritty win against pop and bubbles in the first round really helped set him up for his eventual match-ups versus K. Sean also piloting the Skarmory.
00:49:17
Speaker
Now, Lyle Jeffs did win a 3-0 victory over Kaeshawn to sweep the grand finals. It seems like we get more bracket resets than we, you know, have just sweeps, but Lyle was able to win that first round and not, you know, battle Kaeshawn a second time. So huge congrats to Lyle. My question to you though, now that we're speaking about winners, in your own opinion, who is the best North American trainer that hasn't won a regional yet?
00:49:46
Speaker
The best North American that has no one original yet. I think there's like three answers that come to mind. I will keep it at one. I think it's probably Arrow. Arrow has been to so many. He's been super close, at least twice, probably even more times. He's been top cutting regularly. He's playing unique team compositions.
00:50:11
Speaker
I do think he's overdue a victory and I would not be surprised to see that happen relatively soon.
00:50:19
Speaker
I agree. Arrow's incredibly talented. I think that his team building is also, uh, just as unpredictable as his play style, right? Either he's playing frost last and Kanto nine tails against, uh, Kimmy sui back last season, or he's playing carb, pink, Skarmory versus Doonbug. Uh, this season there, there's this really no telling what arrow was thinking. And I think that he always throws people, uh, for a loop. I agree. I think arrow is very close to a breakthrough. My pick though is going to be a lump.
00:50:46
Speaker
Because I feel like Elam is just, he's incredibly talented, he's incredibly patient, and he's also very gritty, right? In my mind, Elam is kind of like the antithesis to how Stone Collection plays in EU. And, you know, when the match is over, Stone Collection just, he stops shielding, maybe he only throws a few fast attacks, you know, he's kind of passive in the endgame.
00:51:11
Speaker
But Elam is the opposite. Elam is like, okay, if I have one chance to catch this attack, I'm going to make the switch. If I can throw a scald and maybe get the debuff here and give myself a chance, I'm going to do it. Until the bell rings, right? So to speak, Elam is fighting through those matches. I think he does a really good job and I think that grit will eventually be rewarded because he has come close, you know, even against.
00:51:33
Speaker
Wadaj on his first regional win last season in Hartford, if not mistaken, uh, Elon pushed hard. I mean, he pushed, he pushed Wadaj really hard, even though it felt like Wadaj was, was playing on another level and was just going to win it all. And I think that, uh, like Arrow, you know, coming up second a few times is frustrating and maybe they'll, they'll, they'll evolve into Pata man and win one. Yeah, I was about to make the same comparison. Like if you, if you find a second choice, like just, just do a Pata man and just win the next one.
00:52:03
Speaker
Yeah, Ilim, like, super consistent on a high level. I do think trainers like Ilim, who, like, he doesn't really stray away too far from the core meta, but he's just incredibly precise and patient and he doesn't give his opponents any breathing room at all, I feel. And that's what makes him so consistent. Like, I just pulled up his strike of his profile and his last five tournaments,
00:52:33
Speaker
second place and not as good showing in all that, no second place, seventh place, seventh place. Like if you finish a top eight four out of five times in your last tournaments, like that is just like your, your overdue win, probably like that level of consistency is very difficult to achieve.
00:52:54
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, we talk about top cutting, you know, being consistent. We called accent Mr. Top cut last season, but at the same time, you know, getting, getting top three or top four at multiple tournaments is just another level as well. Well, that's why we're going to talk about the championship points update our picks for Liverpool and some in-game events. But is there anything else you wanted to mention about Charlotte before we move on to those other topics?
00:53:18
Speaker
I would personally say that we covered all the bases and I'm really looking forward to look ahead to what's coming next.
Liverpool Regionals Predictions
00:53:27
Speaker
Yeah, me too. And coming up next is Liverpool. That's the next regional championship on our calendar. I'm always excited to see what EU does with the current meta. And as we've discussed in our previous episode, it's never exactly what we would think as North Americans. So I'm really excited to kind of, you know, kind of push, push the ball back into your court and see how things go in EU. Do you have any, uh, any predictions about Pokemon that might come or trainers that might succeed? Or what are your general thoughts? Can I say Obama snow again? I don't want to say Obama snow again.
00:53:57
Speaker
Because if you look at the Abhinav team, which appears to be the gold standard now, you have amazing play into Wiscash. You do beat Azu, it's a little closer than you would hope for it to be, but it's still a positive matchup. If you run the non-shadow with Icy Wind, you do beat Liketang in all Even Shield scenarios.
00:54:18
Speaker
Bigger off this stuff, then there is Charjaburg, which depends on the shooting scenario, but you can also take a win there. What was the last Pokemon? I don't think it was that bad. Yo, it was a Gligar. Yeah, that's not terrible for an Abomasnow either. So yeah, I personally think of Abomasnow as aggressive Likitung, because you do have that Pokemon that doesn't want to take counters, but it has the grass coverage.
00:54:45
Speaker
And it also has decent enough Glagger matchup. And it's not as tanky, it's a little more fast-paced. It gets to its moves really quickly. It has a lot of the same wins. And I do think that most people bring Likitang on their team.
00:55:02
Speaker
Why don't bring two of those? Bring the Katang and Obama Snow, and you have the one thing that can also protect your other thing from the Skeletorch. And you'll be good to go. This thing wins against everything that's not a counter-user, basically. You also need to protect from Skeletorch. Well, what about Skeletorch? That's your third kryptonite. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Skeletorch, I personally think Skeletorch, Obama Snow, is a core.
00:55:32
Speaker
If you can't beat him, join him. I love it. I love it. It's going to be Obama Snow's core is going to win the pool. You heard it here first. Wow. Quote him. Quote him. Let's put that in a quote image. You know, with the black and white filter and just your face, you know. This is. No, I think that's a really good call out. Obama Snow, definitely flexible. That ice type coverage like we were talking about is so lacking in the current meta. No sand slash to be seen. We saw K. Sean playing frost slash.
00:56:01
Speaker
Maybe it's time for ice to return in a new form and maybe that form could be a bomb of snow. My key pick for Liverpool, I'm going, I'm going the chaotic route here is why I'm choosing Trevenant.
00:56:12
Speaker
as my pick for Liverpool against, against the warnings and, uh, and concerns of yourself and another close friend of mine, TZ Spanx, who does not agree. I think that, uh, that Trevenant is going to be the pick because if you look at a lot of these match ups, especially if annihilate usage goes up, I don't care that there's a lick of tongue and a Gligar on every team. All right. I want to see a Trevenant, see bomb a whisk, cash, and then shadow call down annihilate. That's what I want to see. And that's what I think we'll get.
00:56:37
Speaker
I actually looked into the Trev Sims before this podcast because I've heard you talk about that tree and it has a very impressive win rate. However, if your two hardest counters are Glaiga and Likaton, in a matter where every second person, or maybe even more than those, like both of them are above 50% usage, are playing like Likaton's Glaiga core, it will probably like
00:57:06
Speaker
live by the RPS, die by the RPS. That's just what comes with Trevor. Yeah. I mentioned him a moment ago, TZ Spanks, who's been my coach for at least a couple of seasons, on and off. TZ said that Cresselia makes a lot more sense. That's like the neutral pick, the neutral good pick.
00:57:29
Speaker
I'm, I'm chaotic, right? I'm picking Trevenant live by the RPS die by the RPS. Uh, but speaking of, uh, living and dying, you got about 134 days or so until you can no longer gather championship points to qualify for worlds in Honolulu, Hawaii. And as you take a look here at the championship points leaderboards, I just want to call out that, uh, flying pizza.
00:57:54
Speaker
I just saw his name right here. Flying pizza has 444 points. You need 500 in NA in order to qualify. So he's definitely very close. We'd love to see flying pizza compete at worlds.
00:58:04
Speaker
And our friend NighttimeClasher has almost 600 points himself. So not only is he cooking on the caster booth, he is also already qualified for Worlds. He is probably among the highest scoring Europeans now because he is studying abroad in Maastricht Netherlands. And yeah, I've seen pictures of him or from him on Twitter where he basically is driving around the German Autobahn.
00:58:31
Speaker
Yeah, he's probably going to mess up the odds European regional in the near future. I'd be excited to see it. You never know what nighttime clasher is cooking up. Taking a look at LATAM, we do have our trainer Harjef still leading the world with 750.
00:58:52
Speaker
championship points. Of course, the threshold for LATAM, I believe is 300 points, if not mistaken. It looks like a lot of trainers are already qualified for Worlds and a few on the cusp, like Emilio Javier V20 that we did see in Charlotte. Just me and his, as well as Patrick A. Albany. So really excited to see some of those trainers actually living in Brazil. They have those regionals coming up.
00:59:13
Speaker
It should be a unique opportunity, but I think it'd be really cool. So I honestly, to develop a tracking chart for championship points so we can watch trainers like move up and progress and kind of track the race. I want to see like one of those interactive graphics that you sometimes see on social media where they all like in 1920, they had this many like fast food chain restaurants from the specific brand. And then it changes over time and just with championship points. And one thing I want to call out is Javier.
00:59:43
Speaker
Um, I just think, um, the play Pokemon website isn't updated yet. I do think, um, that Charlotte actually pushed him over the edge for world's qualification. Oh, that's amazing. Well, congratulations to Javier for qualifying. What's those points do apply. I really am curious as well to see how many trainers are going to qualify for worlds this season, because in the past, you know, it's been, it hasn't been the biggest for Pokemon go, but I'm excited to see if the point system will change that and we'll have a wider field of competitors.
01:00:13
Speaker
Speaking to in-game events and updates, we kind of foreshadowed the Raging Battles event on the last episode. We've got another event, but the news is not as good. Taking Treasures starts on January 27th, and Varoom will be appearing in 12-kilometer eggs. That's why I've got terrible news. Varoom and its Evolution Rev Varoom, they're bad. They're really bad. They're steel poison types, and they both go 9 and 33 in the Great League meta.
01:00:40
Speaker
They sound so unique. They sound so unique. I wish they were good. Apparently they're not. I think they have like poison drab, acid spray, and overheat, which like on the face of it, not the worst, like rather unique, but I do think their stat product is kind of lacking. They're also not too quick to their moves. So probably a spice pick, probably a Dex filler, but nothing too relevant. Yeah.
01:01:03
Speaker
Nothing that's going to, um, to really kind of excite or upset trainers the way that annihilate did in this, uh, this past regional. Uh, that being said, that's why, I mean, I think we've covered everything for Charlotte. We've got Liverpool to look forward to. I believe you'll be there. I can't even remember if we mentioned that on the show yet.
01:01:22
Speaker
I think in the introduction I briefly touched on it, but yeah, I will be at Liverpool and I will also be at the event in Dortmund in February, but yeah, we'll have another North American regional between those two in Knoxville. So it's a busy schedule. It's a busy schedule. I'm looking forward to it.
01:01:40
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited. Battlers meeting all around the world as we continue on our race to qualify for the world championships in Honolulu, Hawaii. Um, well, I think that's a wrap for us. Why I don't have anything else to add a pleasure as always knock this out at about an hour and two minutes and best of luck in Liverpool. And I'm really excited to see how you do. And hopefully you can keep your, your win rate at a hundred percent. Right.
01:02:02
Speaker
Oh yeah. I'm trying to do that. And, uh, if I'm the only one bringing Obama's no scholar, rich core, I'm pretty confident that I will manage to win that one too. All right. Well, it sounds good. I'll talk to you after Liverpool and we'll dissect those results as well. Sound good for sure. For sure. Looking forward to it. All right. So I take care. Take care everybody. Bye everybody.