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Ep. 11 Indianapolis, Sao Paulo, WCS (India, Indonesia, Thailand) 2024
149 Plays6 months ago
Hello, everyone! This is Episode 11 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.
This week, we recap the Indianapolis & Sao Paulo Regionals. SJamesp21 wins in NA, and LNDsKanan in LATAM. We take a close look at the meta trends, and how trainers are combatting Gligar. We also explore the Playoff teams for several WCS tournaments!
If you're ready, Lock In, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Show6 Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome everyone to the Show6 podcast where we break down the championship series for Pokemon Go. Today we have a massive episode. We're taking a look back at the Indianapolis regionals where 168 trainers competed, the Sao Paulo regionals where 122 trainers competed, and hundreds more trainers at a flurry of WCS qualifiers and playoffs over the past two weekends.
00:00:26
Speaker
We'll discuss some surprising team compositions, some very hype grand finals, and the 2024 season's final stretch. So if you're ready, lock in. Good luck and have fun.
Co-host Zzzwylus's Relaxing Battle Day Experience
00:01:02
Speaker
It's gonna be a banger of an episode, and I am so honored, excited, and humbled to welcome in my co-host, the number one Go Battle League player in the entire world, to help me break this down, Zzzwylus. How are you, my friend? Thank you so much, Speedy. I am, like, as good as you can be when you tap-tap your way to number one on the GBR leaderboard with the weekly tough and the razor-leafed ropius.
00:01:31
Speaker
I did have a great time watching the regional competitions in Sao Paulo and Indianapolis over these past two weekends. I played a little bit of Go Battle Day. It was very relaxing not having to push for that sweet, sweet number one spot anymore. I can't wait to discuss everything that happened over these past two
Podcast Planning and Episode Growth
00:01:52
Speaker
weeks.
00:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think the last recording we did was about 18 days ago. And as we move into the April and May segment of the season, it gets just more and more intense. I think in May, there's like three or four tournaments every single weekend. And it feels like a new event was being announced almost every weekend in April as well. So we're kind of adding these things on as we go. I finally looked back at our first pitch that I sent over to you when we started
Indianapolis and Sao Paulo Regionals Overview
00:02:17
Speaker
the podcast. And I said, oh yeah, we'll do about 11 episodes to cover the whole season. And guess what?
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, the episodes will be 45 minutes long. That's what you said. Oh, yeah. Okay. I made lots of promises. I remember. But I think it's going to be cool because what we can do here is we can kind of work backwards, right? We'll start with Indianapolis, then we'll go to Sao Paulo. Then we can take a look at the WCS tournaments because a lot of those don't have streams, but we do want to recognize the players and the teams. And I'm sure we'll find lots of other interesting things to highlight as well. Definitely.
00:02:53
Speaker
So we just wrapped up the Indianapolis regionals, notably the biggest NA regional this season, which is really, really hype. And a Go Battle League legend was actually able to win it, or Go Battle League hero, as we call them. And I'm curious as far as this, because I was there, right? I was working with Amanda, who I'm very fond of.
00:03:14
Speaker
very, very talented caster. And we introed Rise as a brand new addition to the casting team. He was with Caleb. I don't know. I don't know if you've heard of Caleb Pang, but he's, you know, kind of under the radar himself, but it was a really great crew and a really great tournament.
Indianapolis Regionals Casting Team Praise
00:03:29
Speaker
What were your first impressions, I guess, of the meta and how things were going?
00:03:33
Speaker
So first of all, I really enjoyed the casting this weekend. I think that Rice, I think he originally wanted to do something in the sports casting business as before Pokemon came into his life. He was looking to be a sportscaster and you definitely could tell that he's a natural and being someone who is so accomplished and has
00:03:59
Speaker
just the corresponding insights and just the knowledge about the game. It really did shine through and I think that was a very good debut. And Amanda, honestly, before the
00:04:14
Speaker
Tomahawk nighttime clash of days who are now like emerging as another pairing with amazing chemistry over at the EU side. Like Amanda and Martijn, in eloquence, were always kind of my favorite caster duo. There's so many good caster duos, but like those two always stood out to me because like,
00:04:36
Speaker
Amanda has been a champion of the grassroots community for a long, long time.
Challenges of Larger Competitions
00:04:41
Speaker
And she also has this unique talent of like making situations, like taking the awkwardness out of situations by leaning into it.
00:04:54
Speaker
And I think that definitely made the NA cast a lot more colorful, and I know that it meant a lot to her to cast on her home continent, so big shout-outs to the casting crew of Indianapolis. It was a pleasure to listen to you guys, and it was a pleasure to watch the battles, because honestly,
00:05:15
Speaker
I feel like the bigger the tournament, the more difficult it is to win it all, just because you have to battle more, you have to probably battle stronger opponents as the best riser at the top. And I really enjoyed this event. I do think that the grand finals were very interesting insofar as the teams were almost identical, while
00:05:42
Speaker
They didn't really, like, there was still a lot of Pokemon that were to be expected, like Lantern, Gligarchore, Licky, and Eyelabecore, but the team, which was originally premiered by Lurgan Rocket during EUIC, I think, as James P said as much, basically looked at the team graphics, and that one stood out to him, so he gave it a shot.
00:06:06
Speaker
And Trent basically did the same thing, with the one exception of not having a proper Cresselia to run, so he instead opted for the Artaria, which also has that Moondust coverage, also really works well against the Whiscash, so their team was almost identical. And I want to highlight the Dewgong on their team, because Dewgong is one of these Pokemon
00:06:28
Speaker
that rarely ever makes the top 12 on the usage charts. But I feel like every top player that uses Dewgong also always goes super far with Dewgong. I think like Dewgong won Liverpool on Nighttime Clash's team. Whenever Dewgong shows up, it's kind of troubling to deal with it. So yeah, it's definitely probably one of the Pokemon that have the best
00:06:56
Speaker
frequency to peak performance ratio, if you can call it that. Yeah, it seems to kind of outperform, right? It outperforms its usage and it does take a unique trainer to use it, but speaking about Dugong, I'm looking here at the Indonesia playoffs. We'll talk more about these teams later, but seeing Dugong pop up at number two overall on Yerina's team is pretty impressive. And then if you look over at the India playoffs, Harish actually finished with Dugong on his team and he finished
00:07:24
Speaker
fifth overall out of a very talented field of players. So it's one of those picks that, you know, coming from Lurgen Rockets team originally, seeing it perform really well in A and then also seeing it succeed in the WCS qualifiers over in APAC. This might be a worldwide pick, maybe a Pokemon's wireless we can all agree on. All the regions agree. Dewgong is pretty good. I think everybody loves Dewgong in a way. Some like just like it's, it's debuffing play style.
00:07:51
Speaker
But yeah, I just think that in a scammery with cash matter, no matter where you want to prevent your opponent from freely safe switching, Gligar, Dugong has so much potential. And I feel like the Dugong Annihilate core really excels for that exact reason. Because when you look at counter users, I think we've seen a steep drop off in polywrath usage. I think we've seen a moderate drop off in vigoroth usage.
00:08:16
Speaker
And surprisingly, for day two in Indianapolis, Annihilape was actually the number one counter user. And, you know, again, we were kind of making, Amanda and I were making a lot of EU versus NA kind of comparisons, you know, friendly jests and jabs. And I thought to myself, this feels like an EU tournament, seeing Annihilape as the number one overall usage, especially in day number two. But I think it's because you can pair it with the dugong. One of the most desperate matchups for Annihilape is the Gligar matchup.
00:08:45
Speaker
So if you have a really strong counter user on your team and you want to gravitate towards it and build around that, you have to have Gligar answers. And as you look at these teams, we had the Lickitung, Crecelia, and Dugong, which are three Pokémon that can go toe-to-toe with the Gligar, and one of them that absolutely stomps it out. And then on the Runner-Ups team, you had Altaria. And that was another Pokémon that actually has a very solid matchup against Gligar.
00:09:12
Speaker
I'm kind of seeing as Gligar's usage, especially Shadow Gligar's usage, really hits new levels. We're seeing a lot of teams kind of say, well, I really want to play Annihilate and I'm going to figure out how because I need to be Gligar along the way.
00:09:26
Speaker
Yeah, and if you look at the top eight, it's like, Glaiga is still prevalent, but there's actually like four teams out of those top eight that don't rely on Glaiga on their teams, like Valor Ash, Elam, God in the Flash, and Out of Pocket.
00:09:45
Speaker
all just completely forwent the Gligar and opted for different team comps. And like the last time we talked about Gligar, I think we were talking about how it's basically like you can't not have Gligar on your team. And I feel like maybe, just maybe, because if we look a little further down the line, there are more team comps with a lot more Gligar still. But maybe people have now figured out that in a matter where
00:10:15
Speaker
Of course, like Dewgong, Alolan, Sandslash, those Pokemon exist, but also the Skarmory, which wasn't a big player in this specific event, but really dominated the previous ones. Maybe with those Pokemon around, Gligar is not as safe as it once seemed, just because people start to adapt. So if, so pop quiz here. If you were in control of the Pokemon Go meta, do you feel like a Gligar nerf is necessary right now?
00:10:45
Speaker
I think Gligar is a very strong neutral Pokemon, but because it is so neutral and not really keeping anything out of the meta, like which, which Pokemon would you say, um, is unviable because of Gligar's existence? Like Charjabug is still being played, even though it's, it's a matchup against Gligar is pretty dire. So like, I don't actually think that, um, Gligar is an unhealthy influence on the meta. It is just neutrally very strong.
00:11:12
Speaker
Um, yeah, I don't, I don't actually think that we need a nerf. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's very fair. And even when you look at some of these match-ups, like if you really dive deep into the Sims, when you look at Lickitung versus Gligar or Cresselia versus Gligar, these are very, very close match-ups that are highly energy dependent. Uh, maybe even break point dependent when you're looking at the wing attack damage from the Gligar as well. Uh, I think there's tons of flexibility across the board and seeing how players kind of.
00:11:40
Speaker
build their own unique teams and also try to address Gligar. I want to mention out-of-pockets team. Whenever you have a Bastidon on your team of six, you have to have answers for Gligar. He tried to bring the Feraligatr, didn't quite pop off the same way as maybe he would have hoped. CrimsonK19 with the Shadow Lord and Sandslash and Mandibuzz Core, which I was a big fan of. Both of those Pokemon can handle Gligar relatively well.
00:12:04
Speaker
and then you look at teams like Gordon the Flash with you know his Guzzlord, Cresselia, Azumarole, three solid matchups for the Gligar. A little bit of a question mark for me though was honestly the Valor Ash team of Talonflame and Shadow Magnezone. Some people were jesting it was the most European team at Indianapolis. Yeah, I am a big fan of both of those Pokemon with
00:12:26
Speaker
Talonflame featuring on both my EUIC and my Dortmund team. And Magnezone obviously helping me to number one on the leaderboard. So Magnezone, kind of my boy. I have two rank one Magnezones for Ultra League Shadow Magnezones. I'm a big fan.
00:12:41
Speaker
One actually became a Magneton, because I already had the one rank on, but yeah. Huge fan. It's very difficult to run both of those Pokémon, the Talonflame and the Shadow Magneton, on the same team in a Shadow Whiskash meta. But outside of Shadow Whiskash, there's not actually that much that cooperates them. So yeah, like, Mother Earth is definitely on the spicier side, but I think a top 8 finish.
00:13:10
Speaker
goes to show that sometimes you can afford to be. Sometimes maybe you should be on the Spicier side, because especially if you look at those top teams, a Talonflame gives those trouble, a Magnezone gives those trouble. It's not like those Pokémon are. Even if you don't actually bring them into
00:13:31
Speaker
and match those kind of Pokemon that maybe break course in a unique way or just really make people think twice about using shields early because what if there's a Magnezone in the back and then even your Annihilate wants to have a shield to shield a Wild Charge. So it just really helps with the mind games also. Worked out quite well for him.
00:13:53
Speaker
It did, right? And very resilient, making a deep losers bracket run. Valor Ash making it into that top eight is definitely very impressive. If you're open to this idea, I kind of want to highlight a couple of players. Maybe we could go back and forth. And I'll mention one to kick us off. I have to say two years ago, Indianapolis, 2022, it was so much fun watching Crimson K play.
00:14:18
Speaker
And those were back in the Walrein days, right? That was our Walrein Trevenant, Regis Steel meta, thoughts of a zoom roll to boot. St. Crimson K come back to Indianapolis, as he called it, the indie magic, right? And do really well with Shadow Lone Sandslash and Mandibuzz was so much fun to watch. I think he finished fifth overall, which, you know, if you're counting on paper is not an improvement compared to two years ago.
00:14:43
Speaker
But if you're looking at the player pool, the overall talent level, uh, the meta development over time, I think it's, it's way better than, than he performed two years ago. Right. Because the competition has only gotten more stiff. Uh, but the shadow loan sand size was a lot of fun to watch. I still don't love the shadow claw moveset, but it did show its merit against Pokemon like lantern. Uh, and Manda buzz was the number one pick on my caster predictions. So shout out to a Crimson for having a great showing. It was crim credible.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, I was so impressed with this gameplay all weekend. So about his team, because we actually chatted a little bit before the tournament, he took that from a Korean trainer, Yatsuruna. She is one of the most accomplished Korean competitors, swept her
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's a qualifiers to the playoffs, right? So yeah, she basically swept her qualifiers. There will be another one on the playoffs on May 18th.
00:15:44
Speaker
Um, so she swept that with that team and Crimson really liked that. Um, he practiced a lot on stream against his viewers, which is always super fun to see because a lot of people just scream in private against like friends and other top competitors. But if somebody who grows the community by just putting on a really entertaining stream a day in and day out, um, has like a community activity activity like that.
00:16:08
Speaker
That is always super fun. And yeah, like many of us alone in the sand slash core look so strong. There's so many teams like, yeah, pretty much both of those Pokemon always said win conditions against four out of six of basically every team that Crimson was up against. And he made some, some really good calls, especially early on in day two to
00:16:34
Speaker
and was super far in a very, very stacked field. And yeah, I really hope, like, honestly, the way the circuit has grown, they should have probably decided to, instead of just making, like, providing medals for place one to four, maybe invent a fifth place medal, because I don't think that will be appropriate for this particular showing. But yeah, like,
00:17:03
Speaker
I know that he really, really wanted to make top four or maybe even top three to either match or eclipse his previous showing, but I would 100% agree with you that this was probably even more impressive than the 2022 performance, just because the level of play is different
00:17:22
Speaker
Not that the competitors back then weren't really really talented at the game, but just like we're two years into, like further into the competitive circuit and
00:17:34
Speaker
It's definitely gotten so much harder, especially for a guy who puts all his energy into entertaining hundreds of people and just being a creator and being one of those pinnacles of the community rather than somebody who only cares about competing. It is just an amazing run. I think watching Crimson on stage during his interview, it was a highlight of the competition.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah. The first time he came off stage and we didn't have an interview, I was so disappointed. I thought, Oh my gosh, something went wrong. Or maybe, uh, Crimson got banned. You know, like he, like he has been from various platforms before. Back on Twitter. He's back on Twitter. He's back. Uh, everyone, everyone go follow. Uh, but no, actually the camera had just gone to one of the other games. Cause we have one roaming camera.
00:18:22
Speaker
and it was, I think, doing a VG interview or a TCG interview, and it wasn't available. So I'm so glad that we were able to get him on camera for the second round, the second time he was on stream. Fun fact about Crimson as well, it's illegal to watch his stream and not follow. So make sure... They will call the police on you.
00:18:40
Speaker
It's true. Yeah. Yeah. So make sure you follow, otherwise you'll be arrested and put in jail. It's a, it's just as simple as that. There's another trainer I want to highlight, but I'm curious if, if you already have this, this trainer in your sites as well, anyone that you want to speak about. I have, I have a lot of trainers to highlight. Um, that's, that's highlight this one trainer because I feel like.
00:19:00
Speaker
There's three more I want to talk about before moving into the Grand Vinyls. One person I do want to highlight is ShinyDialgal45. Let's go! Because going into this, there are people that you know because they travel to all the regionals and they typically top-cut, or they are on grassroots teams that are kind of famous, or they are content creators and therefore they have
00:19:29
Speaker
so many eyes on them already. And I feel like Shiny Diaga has been around, has been top-cutting in the past, but he feels relatively unaffiliated as far as those big, big names go. And if you look at his team,
00:19:45
Speaker
on first glance it doesn't really let nothing really sticks out to you because Skamri with Skashkor, Likki and Ayleepkor, Shadow Glagalantankor everything is kind of okay like we have seen that before so why would we care about this trainer just playing devil's advocate here but watching him perform like first of all his gameplay was so good it was so on point all weekend and
00:20:10
Speaker
Like he was, if I remember correctly, the one who handed Lyle Jeffs his first loss of the tournament, which is incredibly impressive because going in, Lyle Jeffs was the, like he definitely had a target on his back just because of the two regional championships he already won this year. And the thing that completely made me and also like other people, like I had people tell me that like,
00:20:37
Speaker
their siblings who are like half played Pokemon Go, but are not really into PvP, watched the battles this weekend, and basically came away from the event saying, oh, I'm really rooting for Shiny Dihaga, because we just love the energy this guy displayed in his winners interview.
00:20:55
Speaker
Because it was just so full of hype and positivity and I always love this kind of energy when watching players at these events. This is like why I really enjoy watching Palasha play and pop off when she wins on stage because if people really
00:21:15
Speaker
I'm not guilty of that at all because I'm more of a quiet introverted person myself. But if people really show the excitement for the game, I think that is the best. They are the best ambassadors for the game. And I think Shiny Diaga, between his gameplay and just his positive energy, was really one of the revelations of the weekend.
00:21:36
Speaker
I couldn't agree more and I've heard that actually for multiple people in the venue, right? Like we put Johnny Dialga on camera and he's a really fun interview, right? He's just so incredibly excited to be there and so hyped and you can just, the enthusiasm just seeps into everyone that's around him watching the interview.
00:21:55
Speaker
He also had a really incredible set against King Alexander where I think in one of the most pivotal moments they both ended up waiting a turn and then King Alexander blinked first through the charge attack and it ended up being the biggest catch of the entire series which allowed him to win the game.
00:22:13
Speaker
When you look at that in retrospect, taking down a regional champion and then taking down Lyle Jeffs, Shiny Dialga just hit a new level. We talk about upsets, we talk about matches that we circle when we look at the bracket. When I saw Lyle Jeffs versus Shiny Dialga going into day number two, I said, this is something we need to keep an eye on. This has a lot of potential. This is fireworks and we just need to light the fuse. Putting them on stage did exactly that.
00:22:41
Speaker
Uh, another thing I wanted to pivot to, right? A whole bunch of appreciation for, for shiny Dialga, but also for Lyle Jeffs. I'm really curious to see now because Lyle was unable to keep the expectations when was unable to match the page to say that about someone who finished life.
00:22:57
Speaker
I know, right? Like, oh, the expectations are so high that you'll just flip-flop regionals with Doonbug. I really feel like we're entering this phase where we're going to find out who Lyle Jeffs really is after this because some trainers can have some success, you know, you'll see.
00:23:13
Speaker
I don't want to shout out, I don't want to, I don't want to name names, right? Particularly because everyone who was watching the stream saw it, but sometimes, right? Especially young trainers who have a tough set. You can see it when they go on stage for their next set. You can see them look deflated. You can see them look defeated before the matches have even begun. And it really, uh, it's communicated strongly through their, their body language and how they play now that Lyle has been.
00:23:39
Speaker
eliminated from Indianapolis was unable to even make top four, right? Because the expectations are so high, I just wonder, are we going to see Lyle really rebound and just totally crush it, crush it, and re-correct, rewrite the narrative, or are we going to see Lyle kind of be a little bit more fragile than we have in the past?
00:24:00
Speaker
I also wonder when his next tournament will be, because I don't know whether he'll be at Los Angeles or NAIC. As a Canadian, it's not super easy to get to those places. And I don't know, maybe the next time we'll see him is Worlds in a new meta. So yeah, definitely very interesting to see where he goes from here.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's always one of those things when somebody faces a new brand of adversity, how do they respond, right? I think that's definitely something I'm personally keeping my eye on. You said there were actually a few trainers you wanted to highlight. We agree on the shiny Dialga pick, but I'm curious who your next one is.
00:24:39
Speaker
Do you have any more or should I just go ahead and just work through them all? No, no, I would love to hear your insights. I already know what I think and I'm sure a lot of people listening to the cast probably heard my thoughts, so I would love to hear your opinions. I think we could move from the one guy who we thought would be the highest finishing Canadian to the actual highest finishing Canadian and Gordon the Flash, a teammate of mine actually impressed with his formats.
00:25:09
Speaker
So I was really excited to watch him compete because he doesn't really get to compete as much. Canada has two regionals this season and if you're from the Toronto area, even Vancouver is a huge commitment. He did compete there.
00:25:24
Speaker
He's no stranger to the competitive circuit this cycle, but I was really glad to see him basically match his biggest achievement yet, which was the fifth place in Toronto last season.
00:25:40
Speaker
And doing it at such a stacked regional with a rather unique team was just really great to see because it was definitely a line of six that stood out to me with a Skeletorch and a Zoomeral, which is probably not the water type of choice for many people in a lantern meta.
00:25:59
Speaker
Of course. And then, like, the Gas Lord, like, Cresselia is pretty meta, but everything else on the team, like, even the Vigoroth or the Chargerbug, they are not the respective first choices in their category of, like, oh, what counter-user do I bring? Or what electric type do I bring? I feel like it was a team that really made the team building for his opponents really difficult. And, yeah, like, the execution was
00:26:29
Speaker
on point for most of the weekend. There were a couple matches where I think the Cresselia fell a little short just because it wasn't the best IV Cresselia, but it was the very first time he actually traveled outside of Canada and he did a menu to just meet a lot of friends and have a good time, but also basically
00:26:53
Speaker
putting on a performance like this on such a big stage. It's just like, I just really love it when people start traveling for these things and get rewarded by just seeing their efforts pay off like that.
00:27:07
Speaker
We've seen a lot of the triple teeth teams, as some people I believe used to call them, or triple jaw team. Triple Gator, I think is another nickname. Feraligatr, Guzzlord, and Skeleturge. But I think that the Skeleturge, Guzzlord, and Cresselia trio was also very, very good for Gordon. And I want to remind everybody as well, Gordon's team, like you said, was highly unconventional, and he was performing super well.
00:27:31
Speaker
What I want to remind everyone of, though, is that it took a miraculous series of events for SJ to knock him down to that loser's bracket. I mean, that series was very close. But if you remember, the backbreaking moment was when Gordon's guzzler was in the midst of a dragon tail.
00:27:49
Speaker
Right. And SJ switches in his lick of tongue within the span of the three-turn dragon tail and throws a body slam and somehow gets the knockout because that guzzlord, uh, I think some, some guzzlords, right. If they have better IVs, maybe a bit, a bit more HP could have survived. So it was by a hair thin, you know, uh, slice, right. That it was able to get the KO that.
00:28:11
Speaker
That's what it took to take down Gordon. It was a one-turn switch, a one-turn body slam in the midst of a three-turn fast attack to really kind of throw him off his game. And some Guzzlords, like you said, the IVs on the Cosellia mattered. A better Guzzlord, I think Gordon still is in that series at that point.
00:28:29
Speaker
Yeah, I do wholeheartedly agree. I don't know. We don't have to go into this entire accessibility discussion that was basically taking over Twitter for a couple of days, a few weeks ago. But yeah, those sub 1500 CP legendaries,
00:28:50
Speaker
Sometimes they are like make or break, whether you get the perfect reroll. And I do wish for a slight improvement to the system with those, like, I don't know whether bottle caps are the solution or whether it is making more level 15 legendaries available, especially for go battle league enthusiasts, but currently you're
00:29:10
Speaker
you're really basically dependent on, on luck a lot in obtaining, um, like the perfect, the perfect specimen of, of that. So yeah. Um, also like you have to highlight. It was, it was a high level play by a stream speed to even attempt that, that it worked out might be favored by, um, the IVs on the respective Pokemon. Um, but yeah, it was definitely.
00:29:38
Speaker
It needed something special to stop Gods run. Speaking to accessibility, I know we don't want to stay on this too long. I think it's already been hashed out very well in social media realms. Speaking to accessibility, one match I wish we would have seen on stream was actually Jingles 21 versus Ryan Swagg, because Jingles brought a great league Giratina to the tournament.
00:30:02
Speaker
Oh, no. And went up against Ryan Swagg. I mean, talk about, you know, seeing the pairing, seeing the team. I can I can already hear the orchestral ensemble behind Ryan. Duh, duh, duh. You know, he's got to face up against that Pokemon. He actually came out on top to the 1A in Stingles. So that's a battle I wish we could have seen. Yeah, I was really delighted to see Ryan Swagg coming away from this tournament with
00:30:32
Speaker
an overall positive impression and also just putting that to Denny on the team and just having a good time and having a great amount of fun going to this event. Because I know that as someone who basically built his brand around IVs, the randomness and the accessibility issues around, especially the Garatina situations, but within the game at large,
00:31:00
Speaker
Really have been difficult to stomach at least as far as he let on on Twitter I'm just I'm just really glad that he still gets to Enjoy the battles and have a great time at those regional events because I do think that his IV deep dives are actually a really really valuable resource for the community and it would be a shame if
00:31:23
Speaker
he grew this dissolution about the situations within the game that he couldn't enjoy that anymore so like overall just shout out Ryan Swagg maybe maybe we had like very soft disagreements like substantive disagreements on Twitter in the past but um i do i do enjoy the guy's work
00:31:42
Speaker
Me too, me too. I enjoy it a lot. And I think that it's also so important to show players, right, who maybe are obsessed with getting the best rank IVs, maybe think that if they don't have the rank one, they can't compete. That kind of mindset is definitely a huge detriment to getting people into the game. And I think that what Ryan Swagg does so well as he shows you like the unique Pokemon that you captured can actually give you an advantage in ways that you would not expect.
00:32:07
Speaker
and you just need to put in the work to figure out exactly how to do that, how to execute on that. Because I'm sure there's some matchups, right? If you're a talented player, you've simmed the ranked ones constantly, you expect to go up against the ranked ones, and then suddenly a matchup flips, you're probably wondering how the hell did that happen? Like I've watched the
00:32:25
Speaker
the Cresselia versus Gligar match up so many times. And I should know what happens here, but somehow I lost it. And it could be because somebody had a Gligar that was a bit unconventional in terms of build and they were able to, uh, to kind of niche in on one of those fantastic situations. Um, one of our, our, I don't think he's even subtle about it. One of our big breakpoint bulk point fans is actually the lovable, uh, 2L Butters. He, he's just as, as much a enthusiast of those things as Ryan Swag is.
00:32:56
Speaker
Honestly, after my leaderboards ran earlier this season at time of recording, that must have been a week ago only, but still, my first was right up there with me. I think when I was third or something, he was fourth. Or maybe I was even behind him at that point in time.
00:33:17
Speaker
But yeah, I don't think that was specifically because of any IVs. It was probably because of the move set, because Draco, Meteor, Goodra. What I'm trying to say is that I really want to see, like I'm already looking forward to the Los Angeles regionals so much because it will be Butters debut as a competitor at one of these.
00:33:39
Speaker
And I always encourage every caster to do that because if you are such a prominent front-facing figure within the TPCI competitive circuit universe, you should give it a go. You did it with the bronze zone earlier this season and I really enjoyed that. So I see whether he can outdo you or whether he's merely a GBL hero.
00:34:02
Speaker
No, I'm sure he will. Butters is as cracked as he is jacked, right? I think he's going to have a great showing in LA and I know that Caleb is chomping at the bit. He said, yeah, bring your goodra. I'll bring my bastard on and we'll see who wins. It's essentially the mindset that he has. But yeah, definitely a lot to look forward to in LA. But yeah, I'm curious if there's anybody else that you wanted to talk about or if you want to talk about grand finals. Last person before the grand finals and I do think it makes sense for him to be the last one.
00:34:30
Speaker
I have a question for you, Speedy. Sure. How many dollars would you pay to have out of pocket on your team? Oh, I think he's definitely higher than than rise to occasion in the $2 tier.
00:34:44
Speaker
Um, I'd probably say that. No, I think out of pocket is, is incredible. I feel like out of pocket is somebody who's been in, in grassroots and still for so many years that there are very few people that team read better than pocket. And, um, I can tell that pocket at this point, right. He came in with an entourage, right? He came in with with Dodge onion Frank and the trio of them, uh, were so good, especially at the early tournaments pocket, finding a lot of success early on.
00:35:10
Speaker
And then it kind of pivoted towards, uh, with Dodge and with Dodge really just taking off like a rocket ship. And now we're kind of seeing pocket, not lacking behind, but at least trying to keep pace, uh, with the, with his two friends. I think pocket is definitely at least a $3 player. I would agree. I would agree. I do know that the sole tier list idea that was like, I wouldn't call it engagement bait because like, obviously it's.
00:35:39
Speaker
its prompting reactions, but I also think that there is just
00:35:43
Speaker
a lot of like, because it's like competitive sports, right? And people love to chat about their favorite athletes or e-sport athletes at this point in time. And it's just a really fun thing to discuss. And if you're an ambitious competitor, such as pocket, you probably feel a little sour after being left out of that whole conversation.
00:36:10
Speaker
But all the people who assembled this very uniquely flavor tier list had to go by. Everything they had were past regional performances, right? And if you have been doing good, but not great at regionals,
00:36:30
Speaker
Um, you definitely want to do great at your next one, just to put yourself back, like bringing stuff back into this conversation. And I do think pockets succeeded. Um, especially with that rather controversial bestie don't take.
00:36:44
Speaker
Um, which like, I think if you encounter a bastard on in GBL, you're typically just rolling your eyes and thinking that, oh, this is like probably a boring team that I've seen a thousand times. Yeah. The classic D gen lines. But if you make it work in show six.
00:37:04
Speaker
I think there's more layers to it, and it is the spice peak in the Show6 format. I think that's fair to say because its usage is really low, but it does have some really good core breaking potential. And I don't think it takes skill to pilot it, and Pocket piloted it to a third place medal. So yeah, definitely a really fun and impressive run.
00:37:29
Speaker
I think that they're almost... Bastion has, in my mind personally, some similarities with Shadow Loat and Sandslash. Because when you bring that Pokémon on your team, you know exactly what it's going to do. You know exactly what it doesn't want to do, right? Go up against a Whiskash or a Metachim or a Poliwrath or whatever it might be.
00:37:48
Speaker
And you know that you have to control switch advantage. So when you bring a Pokémon like that, you really need to pick your moments. And I feel like Pocket, especially against Trent, was really, really impressive. That was a great set to watch. And Bastion just really kind of showed its mettle and just how
00:38:05
Speaker
dominating and imposing it can be in certain situations. It's just such a risky Pokemon to show six. Like we've gone on about this, you know, we could wax poetic about Caleb bringing it constantly and how difficult it is to play. But yeah, I mean, it was really fun. I like that.
00:38:20
Speaker
Pocket is also kind of reaching outside of his comfort zone from time to time. It's not the first time actually that he's run Basti'd on. If I'm not mistaken, he ran it last season with a wiggly tough on his team as well or something to that effect. Maybe it was Ninetales. But yeah, I like to see Pocket embrace new play styles and try new things and a very impressive young player. And I can't wait to see him at Worlds because he's been qualified for quite some time, I believe.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah. And also the Feraligator came out for the second regional in the role. So yeah, maybe, maybe there is something about the Gator, especially because it's a non shadow one, which is kind of unique in some ways. And I think the most important one is that you can actually switch that into a shadow Gligar safe swap, because if you have the shadow Feraligator, you just lose the two shield scenario. If you bring that into a Gligar down energy. So.
00:39:16
Speaker
I do think he might be onto something by just choosing the non-shadow Ferala Gator over the shadow one.
00:39:25
Speaker
I think so as well, and I was actually playing a little bit of Go Battle Weekend over the weekend, and I pivoted at the advice of Jangles to regular Feraligatr because of that exact situation. You can actually take a charge attack from Gligar as long as it's not Dig and actually stay in the matchup. So I agree. Feraligatr, a very fun Pokémon I wish we'd seen more of in the competitive circuit. I don't know, maybe there will be some adjustments and we'll see a little less counterplay to Feraligatr, which could open up the field for it.
00:39:54
Speaker
But speaking of opening up the field, as we take a look here towards the grand finals, I was very impressed with Trent's losers bracket run to get into the grand finals, even if his gameplay made me want to pull my hair out sometimes. Trent was knocked down to the losers bracket by pocket in the opening round of day two.
00:40:16
Speaker
He went on to beat Shady Equation 2-1, Elam 2-1, Crimson 2-1, Shiny Diaga 2-1, and then a dominant 3-0 over Pocket before meeting SJ in the grand finals. But I don't know if you can explain this to me, Swireless, but I mentioned this several times on the cast. I could not for the life of me understand why Trent was so eager and so willing in so many situations to just give away Switch, especially in the lead. He played out about half of a matchup and then just pivot.
00:40:45
Speaker
Uh, and sometimes he got hard punch for that pivot. Yeah. I think, I think there's no, there's no real rule of thumb, whether you should swap out of the lead or not. And like, it always depends on, on backline reads, right? Like if we.
00:41:04
Speaker
go into the grand finals. That's also something that you have to decide whether your opponent runs a straight ABB line or whether there's a threat to your back mounts that you want to draw out in a way because your only counter is in the front because you yourself are kind of ABB.
00:41:23
Speaker
This is like at the end of the day, still a guessing game. And if you are really reliant on alignment in the back and it's basically a win switch, win game, then you shouldn't give up switch in the lead for sure. But occasionally you also just play a different strategy and want to save for Pokemon or just want to like,
00:41:52
Speaker
Sometimes you can determine from the Pokemon that your opponent leads. If your opponent is not crazy at least, because some people are crazy and then you could be faced with the Pokemon that is like in the lead and really weak to one Pokemon and then in the back there is another Pokemon that is exactly the same. So some people are crazy like that.
00:42:15
Speaker
But typically you can infer from the lead Pokemon what could be in the bag. Annette sometimes informs you of like, oh, this is safer to switch in because it's very unlikely that they have this punish in the bag. And sometimes you get those ideas in your head and they turn out to be wrong.
00:42:33
Speaker
For Trent, more often than not, they were the correct ideas because he did make the grand finals and he did take down so many talented trainers. Even starting from the Shady equation. The Shady equation is one of those people who always tie up on the leaderboard, goes to very few regionals and everything. During day one, he was on stream multiple times.
00:42:57
Speaker
Like it was, it kind of felt like a setup. I think he was a player to watch as well. Like people kind of expected the Shady Equation to be one of those people who would really challenge for the title. And for good reason, because he does have that, especially grassroots resume that pedigree to really be considered as such. But like with Trent, Trent has been someone who used to be like almost a Mr. Top Card and then kind of
00:43:25
Speaker
Had a bit of a competitive slump but I think with every big name you take out you just grow more and more confident.
00:43:35
Speaker
And yeah, that was really exciting to see. And even if we're just watching from the outside, seeing all the teams in the back lines think of a player as maybe not super intuitive, there are typically reasons why those competitors make those plays. And in the end, second place, can't really be mad about it.
00:43:56
Speaker
I couldn't agree more. It all comes down to play style and how you want to play situations out. And if you don't have a hard win in the lead or if you don't want to give up shield advantage, maybe that's what you're playing for, you definitely have to pivot. And Trent, I was first introduced to him through Go Battle League. He's a frequent GPLA competitor, top eight in the world.
00:44:17
Speaker
uh definitely highly respected and highly talented and like you said kind of came onto the scene early in 2022 but had a slump uh last season and then is is now back on the rise but again when we look at his gameplay though so many like puzzling things in my opinion i mean we knew that the dugong from s james was going to be a big challenge for him to overcome and then in game number one of the grand finals he safe switches alteria and
00:44:42
Speaker
Lo and behold, Ducon comes out. And it just seems like when you're up against a really high caliber player like that, it's so difficult to kind of just throw things at the wall. You can't afford to throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks because you don't have time to adjust if your opponent ice shards down an entire Altaria and then just double IC wins your remaining Pokemon in the back. It's too much of a deficit.
00:45:07
Speaker
And I think the soul, like we're basically in inside of the whole grand finest discussion now already. And I do think, especially like in game two, the the whole dugong situation.
00:45:21
Speaker
Also that to read that ended up being detrimental to, um, trans chances, chances, because, um, he basically threw his Altaria in the back into, um, a Lickitung pivot, while there was still an annihilate for him in the back because he basically assumed, okay, if there's a Lickitung pivot, this is basically an ABB strategy.
00:45:47
Speaker
to pull out my Annihilate to free up the Durgong in the back. Because the Durgong looked so strong, right? Yeah, it ended up being a Cresselia-Glyger course, so as soon as the Licki was on the Altaria, the Annihilate had nowhere to go anymore. And this is like the kind of reads you make. And it was basically the same. Game 3 played out a little differently, but the lines were identical. Yeah.
00:46:10
Speaker
Yeah, it was just unfortunate because by switching out that Cresselia for the Altaria, instead of a Duong counter, you have a Duong weakness. You always have to be scared of it, even if it's not actually on the field.
00:46:23
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And, and as you look at the team, right, you look at how this matchup would have shaken out, it really felt like Trent needed to answer for the dugong, right? Maybe he needed to go with, uh, with lantern, or maybe he needed to go, uh, with annihilate and James SJ knew that. So SJ would bring Chris Elia Lickitong every game.
00:46:41
Speaker
know, the two Pokemon that beat Annihilape and Lantern. And it really felt like because of that one tiny piece, like you said, it shifted the entire personality of the team away from, you know, being neutral against Dewgong to being weak to it. So for SJ to kind of pilot its way through the grand finals, I mean, it was quick. It was a 3-0 for Trent over Pocket and I said, okay, we're gonna have a great grand finals. And then we go into the grand finals and it's such a
00:47:06
Speaker
a deliberate march to a 3-0 that in the first game when SJ got the Moonblast debuff on his opponent, he literally looked at Trent across the table and he said, dude, I'm sorry. Like it just went from bad to worse there.
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. It went from bad to worse and it just didn't really feel like there was a way out of it. Um, I feel like we don't see that very often though in grand finals where, where one team is just totally outmatched by the other one. And it's also so, uh, so bizarre to see it, see that difference made by only one Pokemon. So, and it's not even, it's not even just the dugong because the dugong was a North teams. It is the one thing that.
00:47:49
Speaker
rounded out the team and the one thing was just to do gun counter and like it was basically just between Chris and Lataria. Yeah, insane, right? But SJ and Trent, this for me was very nostalgic because I've seen these two players. SJ was one of our GBLA season champions. So seeing SJ face off against Trent, it was like a GBLA match for me, but only in show six pick three. So very serendipitous and there was a lot of
00:48:17
Speaker
A lot of support in the GBLA server for both players, but yeah, I thought it was fun. This is one of those grand finals, honestly, though. I don't know if you agree or disagree, where it was so deliberate and quick that I feel like we've already kind of encapsulated everything unless you feel like I missed something. I do think because it was the clean sweep and just like basically
00:48:39
Speaker
everything going right for SJ and a lot of things going wrong for Trent between just having the inferior team comb and the moon musty. Well, if I do think that we basically breeze past the grand finals or the quickly, and we could talk a little bit more about SJ actually, because he at the end of the day is our Indianapolis original champion. And honestly, I think he is currently
00:49:05
Speaker
the single person with the most incredible record for play Pokemon. Because he played two tournaments, he finished runner up the first time, and then he won the second tournament, which is like, yeah, you know who this reminds me of? Tell me. It's an EU trainer. And very similar. Okay, so originally,
00:49:28
Speaker
Either they don't show up to the tournament or they're in the grand finals. Yeah, originally I thought, I thought part of man with this. Yes. Um, like part of actually like, yeah, I think one or two tournaments now when it didn't make the grand finals, but honestly, like if you, if you already make like three grand finals, one of your first four tournaments, like it doesn't have the, the, um, like.
00:49:52
Speaker
He hasn't played as many tournaments as Pato yet, so I don't know whether he can keep up first, second, first, second all the time. He might as well, but yeah, I do think it's very reminiscent of the Patoman run. But even quicker to his first championship, actually, because Pato did finish second in Liverpool and Barcelona before winning Gdansk. So yeah, very, very strong start to the Play Pokemon career.
00:50:22
Speaker
funny anecdote amongst myself, the caster group, and some of our friends. We were actually talking about, you know, the tier list thing, right? It came up in conversation here, there. And I was hearing a lot of admiration and respect for Patoman, a lot of people saying he's actually the best player in EU, which is obviously a very, you know,
00:50:42
Speaker
a bit hyperbolic and a very tumultuous topic. But I also heard some people kind of phoning in who weren't at the event, sending direct messages saying, all right, if I built a tier list now, I have to put SJ on the tier list because he's as good as Pato Man. He's got the same kind of similar caliper.
00:51:01
Speaker
of gameplay and he's no longer flying under the radar, which I definitely agree. But I agree with you, SJ just seemed to kind of moonwalk through a lot of the bracket. 2-0 against Gordon the Flash, 2-0 versus Crimson, the 3-2 versus out of pocket. Honestly, personally, that was probably my favorite series of the entire tournament. If that was our grands in terms of hype and gameplay and energy, that would have been a real treat, right? Because that was fantastic to watch.
00:51:29
Speaker
Yeah, especially if two high caliber players like those, they have very, very different team comps also. They do share the Cresselia and the Annihilate, but everything else is different between them. So it's just very different strategies going at each other.
00:51:48
Speaker
And it's not immediately obvious who has the superior team comp. So yeah, that was, it was definitely a treat to watch. And I just, I just love those decisive games five. So yeah, me too. It's like, it's the best for the spectators and for the commentators. And it's the worst for the players because it's so nerve wracking. It's so stress inducing. Uh, but you know, he.
00:52:11
Speaker
It's just the rule of life, I guess, in tournament play. But Indianapolis was an incredible event. I'm not sure if you have any closing thoughts on it, but I feel like there weren't too many surprises. Maybe the one thing I do want to point out about the meta overall and the players, I'll make two points. The first is that the meta
00:52:29
Speaker
It's fun to see new exciting answers i love seeing the rise of do gone here because it's different from what we've been expecting it almost felt like we were stuck in a skarmory. I got our vortex and we're just gonna stay there until i tell any i see some glad the people are innovating i think that's amazing and i also really really happy and please to see.
00:52:51
Speaker
new trainers taking down established players. I don't want to say Shiny Dialga is new, but seeing him play at that level was definitely a new experience for a lot of trainers that we're watching. So seeing those kinds of upsets in the US, I'm sure it's the same in EU. We always love to root for the underdog. The underdog story is just so inspiring.
00:53:11
Speaker
It is true. It is true. And I can announce that my teammate, God in the Flesh, will actually also compete at NAIC. So that will be another challenge for potentially a fun team comp to do some things. And speaking of fun team comps, the last trainer I do want to highlight, we didn't really talk about the people who
00:53:32
Speaker
like went out of top cut early, but Cytochrome Tea with a Ferrothorn, the best money Ferrothorn at that on his line was really fun to see, because grass types are basically extinct, and this is not even one of the meta grass types that we've seen in the past. This is a very spicy grass type, but one with the play against all the Skameries in Gligar, so I did think that was a very, very fun pick and a very unique touch in terms of how to build a team.
00:54:02
Speaker
It's actually fascinating too, right? Because if you look at Cytochrome's team and Trent's team, there's actually only one difference. And Trent had Dewgong whereas Cytochrome had Ferrothorn, but all of the other five Pokemon are identical.
00:54:18
Speaker
I, if I'm not mistaken, I think I remember Cytochrome saying in an interview that he wanted to play Cresselia, but didn't have access to one. So he decided to play Farathorn. So if I'm wrong, Cytochrome, I apologize. Please, please correct me wherever you're listening to this from. But I think that was the sentiment I was hearing. And it's really ironic because, you know, if you, uh, if you slot in the, the, um,
00:54:39
Speaker
there, then the team composition changes a little bit more. That's another thing I want to work on. So I list is looking at teams that are similar and which players have actually used the same team because honestly, there's no way to search for that unless you know, you know, based on the interview that SJ says, yeah, I took Lurgan's team five hours before the lock in time. I didn't scream at that at all. And I brought it here to Indianapolis and ended up winning.
00:55:01
Speaker
Right? That's a cool anecdote. It is. It is. And that just goes to show like, you, you pointed it out with like, Oh, these are, these are players who are in the past did super, super well in GBL and therefore GBLA. And I think just those raw mechanical skills and the, the, just the game sense, the understanding and occasionally just translates into great performances, even if you haven't, um,
00:55:29
Speaker
Spend hours practicing all the ins and outs of your team. So that is pretty impressive also
00:55:35
Speaker
Yeah, I just, uh, I have a special place in my heart for SJ's first interview where he said that. Playing in the championship series is the most fun he's ever had in competitive Pokemon, even more fun than go battle league. And he literally said the words, if you're, I can't, I can't quote him directly, right? My, my memory's not that good, but he basically said, if you are succeeding in go battle league, you need to try show six pick three. So come out to a regional event. And that was just the perfect ambassador for our game as well. And converting more players from.
00:56:05
Speaker
Uh, go battle league. But if you're ready, I think it's time that we get into the zone. You want to talk about, uh, talk about someone in on the Sao Paulo regional, right? Oh man. Yeah. We're, we're about an hour in and you know, I'm really, uh, I'm really feeling like I'm in the zone to discuss this actually. Yes. So that happened even earlier, right? It was, um,
00:56:28
Speaker
It was streamed. It was not on the official channel as usual with these South American Latin American regionals. But yeah, the Sao Paulo regional featured the first Magna Zone. It was, I think PVP Steve made a graphic of the 10 unique Pokemon to win an event this season. Like this entire competitive season, not just World of Wonders. And yeah, Magna Zone is a unique pick that was piloted by Alan Diaz Kanan to the victory at Sao Paulo and
00:56:58
Speaker
We've already been over how much I love a Magnezone team. So, yeah, this was definitely original for me. I actually watched a lot of it. And yeah, what are the... What do you want to highlight about the South Island Regional Speedy?
00:57:14
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like with Indianapolis, we started from the outside and then we worked our way inwards, right? We talked about the broad meta and we made our way to grand finals. Why don't we go from the inside out here and start with grand finals and then kind of zoom out from there. So I actually have a list of Magna Zone facts. So there's probably no one else in the world who would love to hear this list more than yourself being a Magna Zone aficionado. I've got some quick, quick facts for you. Are you ready? Yes, yes.
00:57:41
Speaker
All right, so the grand finals in Sao Paulo between Elendias Kanan and trainer Elendias Steiner went eight games. So it did go to the grand finals reset, right? In eight games.
00:57:55
Speaker
Kanan brought Shadow of Magnezone every single time. Eight out of eight, 100% usage in the grand finals. That's always a question. Look at Styla's team. It was, Magnezone is a safe swap into that team comp. Actually, it's really funny that you say that because my next fact is that Kanan only led the Shadow of Magnezone once in game three of the grand finals in all of the other games. He safe switched it.
00:58:22
Speaker
It's so good. I did not know that. I saw some of the battles, but it was a while ago, and I'm not as diligent with my no-taking as you are. But yeah, even the Vigoroth just, I think it loses the zeros and ones, if I'm not mistaken, and can cause it through in the two-spurt. Sounds right. Even energy.
00:58:47
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And the reason for that, right? Actually, I was wondering because he kept on safe switching it. And I said, how in the world are you safe switching Shadow Magnezone when you know your opponent has a Vigoroth on the opposing side? And granted, the Vigoroth was the best answer. There was no, I don't believe there's a Wiscash for Steiner. And he ended up using the Shadow Sableye a lot. I actually found out the reason for that.
00:59:09
Speaker
It's because the first time that they met was actually in the winner's semis, and Steiner sent his Vigoroth to meet the Shadow Zone safe swap, but got farmed down by the Annihilape both times, and ended up losing both of those games. So what Kanan was doing was he was pairing the Magna Zone with the Annihilape, anticipating the Vigoroth counter swap to the Magna Zone, and then once the Magna Zone went down, it took a shield with it, he just bring in the Annihilape and absolutely
00:59:37
Speaker
devour the vigoroth and convert all that energy into shadow balls and night slashes for the backline.
00:59:50
Speaker
Not to take anything away from Kanan's achievement, but this is a team comp advantage if I've ever seen one. If there's just something as dangerous as a Shadow Madness zone, everything needs to shield a Wild Charge and you don't have anything that can take the energy and nothing that even out damages it with the fast moves, you have to get really crafty, really creative to even
01:00:16
Speaker
stand a chance. Even that Steiner won some games is honestly impressive, because Magnezone is just made for this matchup. And honestly, I do want to point out that the way these Grand Finals ended, this is the one note that I did take, is not by a Magnezone sweep, but actually by LNES Kanan's Skarmory, Brave, Burning, and Lantern.
01:00:44
Speaker
So that is one way of asserting who the superior electric type is. But yeah, it's just like, honestly, I'm just so glad that Magnuson, like we were talking about Dewgong earlier as one of the Pokemon that is normally underrepresented, not used as often, but whenever people, like skilled players use it,
01:01:12
Speaker
It really pops off and achieves a high placement. And I do think you can say a very similar thing about the Magnezone, because normally people don't run something as crazy and frail and risky as the Magnezone. It's very similar to an Alolan Sandslash in that regard.
01:01:33
Speaker
But maybe even crazier because it's even squishier. It almost to me, it almost feels like a Charizard, right? Because Charizard gets one shot by so many things in the meta. It maybe can eat a Night Slash or a neutral attack or a resistant X-Scissor, but it doesn't like it, right?
01:01:54
Speaker
If you look at overall shield allocation, which I would love to do at some point, I wish we had like a software that could track when the shields come up and on which Pokemon kind of read the UI. But if you look at overall shield allocation, I would be willing to bet you, I'd be willing to put money down that Kanan spent most of his protect shields on the Magnezone. It's almost without a doubt, right? I would agree. I would agree. And if you just look like throughout the season, you had an eloquence piloting Shadow Magnezone to a third place in middle.
01:02:23
Speaker
You had Palasha piloting Magnezone to 4th place at EUIC. Now you have LNDS Kanan winning Sao Paulo with the Shadow Magnezone. And you also had Balarash placing within the top 8 of Indianapolis with the Shadow Magnezone. So I do think there's very few times where you say,
01:02:42
Speaker
Like this trainer, this well-known trainer, brings a Shadow Magazone and goes out super early or just makes like barely top 16. Like whenever there's a Shadow Magazone, it typically pops off just because very few people plan for it and that can be exploited. And Emily has kind of exploited that masterfully.
01:03:03
Speaker
It's one of those only, it's one of those, uh, the only Pokemon where if you see it on a trainer's team, you know that they know what they're doing. They're not just going to bring a magnet zone on a whim. That is going to be a very, very, uh, studied, calculated Pokemon where they know the match-ups, they know the shielding situations. Uh, they know the turn intervals and all the above. Speaking of, uh, turn intervals volts, which is definitely a tough fast tech to use the only mistake.
01:03:30
Speaker
I'll watch back the entire grand finals. The only mistake that I saw Kanan make with that Pokémon was actually in game 2 of the grand finals. It was an over tap where he threw an additional Volt Switch which led to a Shadow Cloth down from Steiner.
01:03:45
Speaker
But the game was still incredibly close because Kanan was just one or two dragon breaths away from the moon blast on his Altaria, and he actually missed the Brave Bird on Skarmory by just one steel wing as well. So when you're looking at such a massive composition advantage, like we pointed out, even if you play really well and your opponent makes one single mistake, it's still going to be very, very close in the end. Final anecdote that I'll offer up here is that Kanan's favorite core
01:04:12
Speaker
for the grand finals was actually Altaria Magnezone. He brought Altaria Magnezone in all eight games of the grand finals.
01:04:20
Speaker
Yeah, and Arteria does look a lot safer into Steiner's team precisely because the Magnezone looks so free for Kanan because the hardest answer to Arteria on Steiner's team is the Skarmory, but you will not feel compelled to bring a Skarmory into a team where you know that one of the three Pokemon will be the Magnezone.
01:04:43
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Exactly. Exactly. There's just kind of a deterrent there already built in. L.N.D.S. Steiner is such an impressive trainer as well, right? We talked a lot about Kanan, but his opponent Steiner, earlier this season, finished fourth overall at L.A.I.C., won in Goyanya, and then made it to the Sao Paulo Grand Finals, even forced the bracket reset, but could not take down Kanan in the end.
01:05:07
Speaker
I think when we're looking at NA, we're looking at Dunbug and Lyle, kind of switching places with regional championships. When we look at LATAM, maybe we're considering Harchef, taking the win in Kiratiba and then LAIC. But Steiner, also trying to prove to everyone that Heek is capable of winning more than one tournament in a season, which if you just rewind even back to last year or two years ago, almost felt impossible.
01:05:32
Speaker
major, major props to Steiner. There's another trainer that I wanted to highlight. I really love their team composition. And you might agree with me, it's actually the third place trainer, which was Spadoid, I believe is how you say her name. I do agree very much. And that is also part of my notes. I searched Twitter for a little bit after the event. And I think somebody referred to Spadoid as the Slayer of Chileans.
01:05:59
Speaker
Which is just like pretty much deserved given that she took down Basti, Emilio and Icecris back to back to back. Super accomplished trainers from Chile who gave the Brazilians a run for their money, but not Spadioid who had like very on point team reads, trusted in that Scatterdroach-Guzzlord core, which I'm a big fan of, and just
01:06:26
Speaker
It was such a great run because it was also one of those runs where, okay, like it starts pretty early on in the loser's bracket and goes up against like, like she goes up against big name after big name, um, players who qualified for Worlds, who won regionals before, and she just takes them down one after the other with a pretty unconventional team composition. And yeah, I was like,
01:06:52
Speaker
I was like low-key almost expecting her to also best Steiner in the loser's finals, but turns out he's not from Chile, so that did not happen.
01:07:04
Speaker
So he was immune, you know? Yeah, I do think that's all it took, but no shade to the Chileans. The Chilean community is obviously incredible, and we will probably talk about that later on as well in one way.
01:07:24
Speaker
One way or the other. I have so much love and respect for the Chilean community. Mariana and I are close to a lot of the trainers from Chile. After LAIC, we definitely went out to a social with Vintuski, Emilio, Basti, and lots of Ice Chris, and lots of our other friends there. And they're always very kind and generous, right? It's just
01:07:48
Speaker
Amazing, right? To see a player like Spudoid actually take down three of the most talented competitors from an entire country. And her series with Basti was actually incredible. In game one, she ended up leading Guzlord into Annihilate, swapped the Skeletorge, and was met by Lickitung Safe Switch by Basti, but actually tied with him, right? After such a negative lead and a tough swap, actually ended up tying the game. Game number two, she led Skeletorge into Annihilate. Basti caught this army voice on his Gligar and they played it out.
01:08:19
Speaker
And essentially Sputoid was able to win it because in the end, she sent out her final Pokemon, Guzlord, which was lined up against Basti's Lickitung. And she just looked at him across the table and smirked. It's like, yeah, I got you this time. Game three, Basti actually took the win there. I say game three because the game was a tie. Yeah, that's the first one was a tie, yeah.
01:08:38
Speaker
Uh, as she led Chris Ellie into whisk cache, but Basti outplayed her in the end with that, with that exact Pokemon whisk cache. And then game four, she led lantern into Skarmory and just kind of piloted through it. But that was a really fun series to watch. And ever since LAIC and seeing how, how casually Basti just stomped his way through the bracket until he, uh, he went up against the top top two trainers was really impressive. So a win over those, those players of that caliber is amazing and Sputoid deserves a lot of respect.
01:09:08
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes. And I actually, like, with many of those names, like all the LNDS people and also some of the high profile villains, you knew their names going into this event. But Spadorn, I felt like, oh, I heard that here and there. Like, I'm pretty sure I saw the name on the leaderboards. But I wasn't actually too familiar with her game. So I didn't, I didn't look up. This is just like a little anecdote. Like, obviously, like, Draco is, okay, she was, okay, she's the leaderboarder.
01:09:37
Speaker
But also I searched on Twitter. I think there was like one comment by Homeslice Henry where he basically streamed some battles and then just like basically jokingly said to one comment that pointed out a battle that happened on the stream.
01:10:01
Speaker
Um, that he basically said, oh, like, like Spunoid is an expert sniper or something. Apparently he got demolished in that game. I don't think that was meant as a serious accusation, but yeah.
01:10:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's a, it's one of those things, right? Uh, if you, I've seen accident even mentioned it on stream, you know, jokingly, uh, he'll run into a team, a tough team composition and he'll say, Hmm, sniper. But, uh, sometimes your phone, it just has the right formula, right? I made a, I made a go battle league post from this weekend that actually took off on Twitter. I did not expect it to get so much traction. Uh, but I paired against a trainer called the algorithm.
01:10:41
Speaker
And I saw that I led Shadow Magnezone into Annihilape, which which had happened a few times, you know, because the meta is based around it in a large way. So I pivoted to Feraligatr and they answer with Electivire. And I'm like, what in the hell, Electivire, who's playing this Pokemon? And I didn't put it in the tweet. I kept the tweet short and sweet. But I actually lagged in that middle matchup and missed a Hydro Cannon as well. So it's like, OK, hard counter plus lag.
01:11:11
Speaker
And I ended up taking down the Electivire with the Magnezone. I'm thinking, okay, I have a wild charge. Just depends on what the third Pokemon is in the back. Like, I'll just play this out, see how it goes. And I pivot to Mandibuzz, instantly met by a best buddy, Carbink. And I'm like, all right, this is over, right? And, you know, if I was streaming, it would have been pretty funny, pretty ironic to say, oh, Sniper. But it wasn't right. And to be fair, in the next game, I led Shadow Magnezone.
01:11:37
Speaker
into a Alola Ninetales, they pivot to Sableye, I go Mandibuzz, and they top left. So maybe the algorithm goes both ways. I think the algorithm wants to keep you at exactly a 50% win rate is what it is. I think my account is set to hard mode. It must be. It might just be. It might just be. Maybe not yours. It was set to easy modes. Once I embrace Wigglytuff and Razorleaf Tropius, I don't think that's how it works.
01:12:06
Speaker
But the South Paulo regionals were incredibly exciting to watch. Again, these community streams are great. I always have the question in my mind, are we going to get a community stream for the special event in Puerto Rico? Are we going to get one for Bogota, Colombia? Are we going to get one for the Chilean regional? I'm always very hopeful because these trainers in LATAM, but also in APAC, they definitely deserve to be streamed.
01:12:30
Speaker
I'm telling you this, we're trending onwards and upwards with this whole thing. I would not be shocked at all. If you project out even a few years from now, I would not be shocked at all to see in three, four, five years, all of these official streams having their own official streams and us being able to watch them. So that's my hope. I hope that this continues to grow onwards and upwards. I would love to see that. And one closing thought from my end for Sao Paulo.
01:12:57
Speaker
I also do hope that the general positive trend with the game and the competitive circuit
01:13:03
Speaker
leads to the latin trainers being able to play on the same phones as the North American or European trainers because I do think there is still a little bit of a hardware difference and it does show in like the way the game behaves and some frame drops here and there. And I do think like in a perfect world, Niantic would code the game in a way that it is optimized for
01:13:32
Speaker
any device, but that is not the reality we're living in currently. So I don't think that the trainers in that are slightly disadvantaged. And especially with how the camera is set up, you always see the frustration and disappointment in their faces when they're there, of course. And I just hope to see less of that in the future.
01:13:52
Speaker
Me too. Yeah. I see trainers just like throwing their hands up when they encounter frame drops like, Oh, well I can put, you know, hundreds of hours into practice and counting and learning the match-ups and I can take my entire weekend to travel here and spend money on the flights or the hotels and the Ubers or whatever else. But then when I actually get to.
01:14:13
Speaker
to play and do what I came here to do all of that goes out the window because I get a frame drop and now I don't know if my opponent's stuck in incinerate and now the matchup feels like it's pointless because I'm out of it's out of my control and I agree with you that sentiment is like very hard to battle against and I think that uh latem deserves our our appreciation and respect for continuing to fight through those problems because like you said they shouldn't have to deal with that but
01:14:38
Speaker
It's a growing thing and sometimes growth is uneven, right? You're not going to see the rising tide lifting all the boats at the same time, but as long as we get there together, eventually, I think everyone will be happier. Speaking of events that aren't streamed though, there were a boatload of WCS events. Now, I think that we should intro this whole thing because there were a few that we were going to cover, but they all have a similar formula.
01:15:04
Speaker
And that is kind of like an open bracket style into a playoffs. So a lot of times we'll see trainers register a team and then they'll change it for the playoffs. And you can't really rate this the same way as you would like a double elimination tournament because it's a qualifier stage into playoff, not just double elimination with the grand finals. So.
01:15:26
Speaker
These I think for these we could probably focus on the teams because we don't really have content and Shout out to Draco vis for giving us team graphics to start with because that's pretty much all we've got It is true. And I feel like we Should probably start with one of the higher profile ones like we will get to two more and one of my
01:15:49
Speaker
One of my suggested titles for this episode was Indianapolis, India, and Indonesia, because that's three of the tournaments that we will cover. But yeah, that would definitely be unfair to especially Sao Paulo. But honestly, there's so many we couldn't fit them all into the title.
01:16:05
Speaker
Let's start with India because the Indian community is basically, I think the main narrative once fast move denial was largely fixed was that, okay, now we've unleashed the Indians because there's so much talent in that region, but they were largely held back by just the differences in, okay, like my North American connection probably makes it so that I can deny everybody's moves.
01:16:33
Speaker
But in India, maybe the quality of the Wi-Fi signal isn't always up to speed, or maybe it's just further from the service, so the denial doesn't work as well. But now we are past that error. So yeah, if we look at the competition, I'm currently looking at the top 16 graphic.
01:16:57
Speaker
And you've pointed out Harish previously, who is a very very accomplished trainer and piloted that dugong to a fifth place finish. There is somebody who is actually very alike in terms of accomplishments to my dear beloved co-podcast, because Vroom Vroom Paul is, if I'm not mistaken, also a silk world champion.
01:17:25
Speaker
It's true. So he finished shared ninth with a very interesting team, including a Talonflame and a Shadow Alone and Sandslash. So there were some names that were already quite well known within the community, but the four people that actually did qualify were Anish Got Floppy in fourth place, Horned Scarlet Whis in third place, now Vampire 00 in second place,
01:17:51
Speaker
And Beelzeboy in first place with an Ambreon. So that is something that we don't see that much anymore these days.
01:17:59
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, unless we see CO as a beast playing it with his Cofagrigus Umbreon core. We don't typically see the Pokémon, but I was actually surprised to see that. Yes, I agree with you. That was our number one finisher with Umbreon, but there are also other Umbreon teams, which jumped out to me, right? In the top eight, Shaganbora actually brought Umbreon, and then you have Mega Amanji,
01:18:23
Speaker
with Umbreon. And then as you look further down the bracket to round out our top 16, SeaSource69 Astro also had Umbreon. So this was always like a mysterious thing to me. When we got to Worlds and we saw interesting picks, remember the grand finals, Golden Hata had a Shadow Kanto Nine Tales, which we had not seen really since Cindy used it in Vancouver that season. I'm always fascinated to see like no one in NA or EU even has the name Umbreon
01:18:52
Speaker
in their mind, floating around anywhere. But now we're seeing it here played by some of the best Indian trainers in the world. So, I mean, it kind of makes sense because you've got a dark and ghost core. You know, you could pair Umbreon and Skeletorge. It would work pretty well. You could also pair Dark and Psychic, which is pretty strong. So you could put the Umbreon with Beelzeboy's Cresselia. Or even, you know, Cresselia Skeletorge is also solid. So there's some interplay here, but it's definitely fascinating. What I really
01:19:22
Speaker
I like about Umbreon in this current meta is that basically all its move sets are viable in their own unique way. Like typically in the past you would have run Umbreon with Foul Play and Last Resolve because otherwise in the Umbreon Mirror, which is tedious enough on its own, you would just be completely walled if you had like an all dark move set or a dark psychic move set.
01:19:45
Speaker
And also against Pokémon such as Mandibuzz or Gaslord, which might be more prominent dark types in this current meta. You would also want that normal type coverage just to be able to do neutral damage and potentially win those neutral matchups. But in this current meta, I don't think Last Resort is strictly necessary. If you want to run Umbreon as a bit of a...
01:20:14
Speaker
an annihilate bait out that can then take a shield because the double dark moveset Ambreon does win the zero shields with foul play and dark pulse. Dark pulse being a little more expensive, but also slightly more energy efficient. And then there is obviously the community today move psychic on Ambreon, which did get nerfed. It did get nerfed terrain and meta channel. So neutral needs not as strong move anymore.
01:20:42
Speaker
But it does provide the psychic type coverage to really, really put the herd on the annihilates and also even fight back against Poliwrass, which are still not a positive matchup, but a super effective, relatively big move such as psychic. Still quite powerful. And other than that, Amrion, I remember back in the Shadow Charizard days,
01:21:07
Speaker
Umbreon was known as one of the very few Pokemon that can actually take a blast burn without either immediately fainting or being in farm down range, like you still need two moves. And I do think just this ability to potentially take a Skamri's Brave Bird or a Shadowbragga's Dig, like there's a lot of Pokemon in the meta.
01:21:29
Speaker
that quickly farm up to really hard hitting charge attacks. And just this ability of Amrion to sponge the damage and not really be in range of getting farmed down is really valuable if you set out to win a battle through neutral play. And I do think that the sheer neutrality of Amrion, even though it doesn't really scare anything away but maybe Cresselia,
01:21:53
Speaker
or maybe the Sableye that we see on Nava Empire's runner-up team. I think the sheer neutrality is just really useful. If you feel like, oh, I don't really want to play for switch advantage, I might just play for energy and shields. So yeah, I'm really definitely an interesting one.
01:22:11
Speaker
Yeah, the sheer neutrality, right? You said it perfectly. I think that Pokemon is just something that can, if you're patient, right? You can grind down matchups, you can store extra energy, you can throw a billion foul plays, and you can just kind of whittle your way through the opponents. And as you look at the rest of the teams,
01:22:29
Speaker
There's a distinct absence of fairy and there's only one counter user on about 99% of teams. And there's doesn't seem to be a lot of fighting
Meta Shifts: Registeal and Umbreon
01:22:39
Speaker
type coverage. I mean, you typically look for like a Registeal with Focus Blast as being another Pokemon that could push Umbreon out of the meta.
01:22:46
Speaker
But again, I don't see too many registry. I guess in the top eight, I only see one from SimonPlays. And that's the other telling thing as well, right? If you can't hit for super effective against Umbreon, you're barely hitting it at all. And I think that that goes back to your earlier point too, right? Just kind of working your way through matchups as you go along.
Indian Tournament Highlights: Beelzeboy and Nava Empire
01:23:06
Speaker
Beelzeboy, super impressive. I watched him in the grassroots, Cave of Elites, India 2024 open tournament. And it was just, when I saw his name at the top of the list here for the India playoffs, it was no surprise. I was like, okay. It's the furthest thing from a surprise, honestly.
01:23:24
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. It's like, oh, uh, you know, Doonbug won another tournament or, or Martine won another tournament. Okay. Yeah, I could see that. I could definitely see that. And then Nava Empire having huge success in Go Battle League. That's where I was first introduced to them. They were an absolute Titan in, um, in GBLA as well. So seeing Nava Empire make that transition over is really funny. And how can you overlook a niche got floppy, uh, because the name is hilarious, right? It's true. It is true.
01:23:52
Speaker
Also, I remember them beating me in a practice settlement, so I know that they're good. They're really strong. Oh, that's tough. They beat you off the bracket, but Anish got floppy. That being said, I really would love to see some tournament footage from these trainers. I think that there are some content creators, especially through the Draco-based kind of connections, whether it's Anicor or Caleb or whoever it might be,
01:24:17
Speaker
Who these trainers will send footage to so I'm definitely gonna keep my eye out to see if a youtube video goes up cuz I'd really love to see a recap of Beelzeboy's run or even you know not the Empire's perspective going through the tournament making making it to the grand finals is always important to see because there's always this question you know you you don't know or you don't
01:24:37
Speaker
You can't understand what you don't see.
Are Indian Trainers Truly Skilled?
01:24:39
Speaker
And I feel like a lot of trainers raise the question, are the Indians actually that good? We can't watch their battles, so we don't really know. We don't know what kind of plays they're making, or if this was easy for them, or if there are a bunch of lower tier players. And I think that discussion has been propagated around Twitter a lot recently as well, which is a bit unfortunate.
01:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, I do think that could even lead us to our next qualifier, or playoff rather, because first there's the qualifiers and then there's the playoffs, and then we have to determine who is going to Worlds from a specific region.
Thailand's Path to Worlds
01:25:15
Speaker
And I want to move on to the Thailand playoffs, actually, because I think there was a Twitter thread around that topic that I think, like, first of all, let's get that out of the way. The two players that qualified for Worlds from the Thailand event are Teddy Ness and B.J. Pawad. And both of them, I think both of them are previous Worlds competitors. So, like,
01:25:43
Speaker
they are known to be like basically the standout players from the region. But yeah, I think BJ Power was the one who made a thread on Twitter about feeling kind of anxious of even putting the team graphic out there because unlike
01:26:05
Speaker
other larger regions or nations, the scene in Thailand is not yet as grown as in other countries. So within the top 16, we do see a team that, for example, has a septal and deluxe ray on there. And there's some anxiety going around that it could
01:26:33
Speaker
like people could mock an achievement like winning a national qualifier because, okay, you see on those team graphics that maybe some of the trainers were maybe newer to the game or not as familiar with the top meta picks.
Global Competitiveness and Go Battle League Leaderboards
01:26:51
Speaker
Obviously, like from players who always matches we've seen streamed like a magma man in
01:26:59
Speaker
uh the north american region you're also seeing that um uh and out there team comp doesn't always mean that the player doesn't know like what they're doing so you always have to consider that but also i would say that it is not bj powerts or tetanus fault that um they don't have
01:27:24
Speaker
that big of a community to compete against. In fact, I would argue that it is amazing to see those players from Thailand go to Worlds and compete because that is just a role model for other players from the region to show that they have the talent in Thailand
01:27:41
Speaker
to be represented well at the world stage. And I know those trainers and their previous achievements, both in show six and GBL, and they are world's worthy. There's no doubt about that. They are a problem and nobody would
01:27:59
Speaker
really wants to go up against these trainers just because they shared a qualifier with some people who maybe brought a couple more out their picks. So I think it's the same discussion that sometimes happens around the Australian regionals where there's fewer peoples going.
01:28:18
Speaker
A few people going just because maybe they don't have the numbers that other regions have, but that doesn't mean that at the top, the peak can't be on a similar level as the other trainers, because at the end of the day, everybody plays GBL. And if you do well in GBL, which those two qualified players do, those mechanics translate to every circumstance.
01:28:48
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And I think that a lot of the discussion can kind of go back to the Go Battle League leaderboards, right? That's our global structure for evaluating trainers. And BJ Powatt has hit top 50 on Go Battle League leaderboards. You know, he's been above 3,500 ELO.
01:29:04
Speaker
And then if you want to flip it back to play Pokemon, he went to Peoria this season and finished ninth. And granted, Peoria is not the largest tournament by any means in NA or EU, but still against NA competitors, it was definitely very impressive to finish within the top 10 at a competition like that. So I agree in it. And you know, you and I were discussing this, right? We don't have to go too far into it in this episode, but if people want to hear more, I would be happy to offer my thoughts.
01:29:31
Speaker
But I feel like it's kind of weird champ that, uh, these communities are growing and we have a lot of folks that are saying, Oh, well they don't deserve something because, uh, because there was a trainer who had Tropius and, and, uh, knocked out on their team in the top is a pick that can get you to number one on the leaderboard. Just saying.
01:29:49
Speaker
Oh, okay. Okay. A little, a little, a little sleeper value there. Uh, maybe some trainers are, are just on a different level in terms of insights like yourself, but, but, but all jokes aside, I think it's funny that, uh, we see these, these communities that are growing and people are quick to say, Oh, it's not as competitive
Unexpected Successes and Team Strategies
01:30:06
Speaker
as mine. So it doesn't matter.
01:30:08
Speaker
Well, it does matter. And I think that the worldwide community, uh, overall, like we talked about uneven growth in terms of streams and devices and equipment, I think the same thing goes here and, uh, uh, goes for this situation here. And I think that a rising tide will eventually lift these boats. And until then, right. If you think you're good enough to, uh, to beat BJ Powhat, then hope that you pair against them at worlds. And then we'll find out if you're good enough to beat him. Right. That's the equalizer.
01:30:38
Speaker
could have said it better. Also, like we were talking on like a bit of a meta analysis level, but let's talk on a meta analysis level, right? Because I want to point out that both in India and in Thailand, the scandal judge won the event. And I feel like
01:31:00
Speaker
Okay, this is like the third time during this episode where I will point out, okay, this Pokemon doesn't get picked a lot, but whenever it does get picked, it does really well, because it also won EUIC, right? So that's a couple of high profile victories for Skeletorch, just the span of a couple of weeks. So yeah, maybe there's something to that crocodile.
01:31:21
Speaker
Maybe there is, right? A crocodile smile. Looking at the teams as well. Altaria, right? Finishing second place in India on Nava Empire's team. Finished second place on Teddiness' team in Thailand. And also finished second place in Indianapolis on Trent's team. So maybe a little bit of shared picks. These Pokémon are still good. It did, however, place first in Indonesia, which is definitely a big upgrade for the Pokémon. You always want to take home the gold medal.
01:31:50
Speaker
But yeah, I think that this inter region meta discussion is always interesting. I think that the great boiling pot is always going to be worlds, but there are some kind of, you know,
01:32:03
Speaker
I guess pop-up kitchens, if I may, along the way, when we look at ICs, right? LAIC, EUIC, NAIC, seeing trainers come from out of reach. And I wish that some of these APEC trainers didn't have to travel so far because I would love to see Sir Panic a lot or BJ Pawat compete at NAIC. I think that'd be a real treat one day. Hopefully they can. But especially I think Sir Panic a lot, if I'm not mistaken, I might be slightly off on this, but I think this is actually
01:32:31
Speaker
The second time he qualified but the first time he couldn't go it is something like that but yeah like he streams onto Twitch under the name of Find Panic and has been a staple of the PvP community for years now so really excited to see him take the crown in Indonesia.
01:32:51
Speaker
Yeah, he was actually able to finish first overall at the 2022 APAC playoffs, and then finished fifth overall at the 2023 Indonesia playoffs, and then takes the first place spot in 2024. So very impressive. Shadow Gligar, Shadow Wiscash, Altaria Skarmory, so double ground, double flyer, rounded out with Vigaroth and Lantern. Not too many surprises there.
01:33:15
Speaker
But I do have a hot take for you, Swyliss, as we move down the Indonesia playoffs list. Yuki in third place with Claude Sire. I still don't understand the Claude Sire pick, and I still don't think it's very good. Unfortunately, I do tend to agree with you. I did play a lot of Claude Sire recently in practice tournaments, but I was kind of let down by it because
01:33:37
Speaker
I don't know, I just... I can see how it makes sense in Yuki's specific team composition, just because I think this goes back to the Ataria point you made earlier, because Ataria was on BJ Powat's team to protect, for example, the Skeletorch from the Wiscash, was on Tedin's team to potentially protect the Alolan Sandslash from the Wiscash,
01:34:04
Speaker
And it is on Yuki's team here in Indonesia to potentially protect the CloudSire from the Wiscash. Now the question is just, okay, how much upside does CloudSire actually offer? And I do think it does fall short in comparison to the other picks that we see.
01:34:23
Speaker
doing well more often. Um, but like, for example, if you find yourself in a position where you desperately need something that can just take neutral hits and just be bulky and, um, just hang out in a matchup for, for a long time, I don't think thoughts is worth the consideration, but it's probably still on the spicier side. So yeah, I am able to get results with it. Unfortunately.
01:34:48
Speaker
Kind of on the fringe, right? Kind of like a fringe player. Yuki's team also included Lickitung and Cresselia. So tons of HP, tons of bulk on that trio. One other thing I wanted to point out about the Indonesia playoffs
LATAM's Growth and Infrastructure Needs
01:35:00
Speaker
is within the top eight, there were actually two Giratina origin forms with Lalati and Acrontastic, I believe is how you pronounce them.
01:35:12
Speaker
Yeah, like, get it written origin, obviously. This is, again, feeding into the accessibility conversation. But I do think the La Latif team is, if I'm not mistaken, identical to the one that Martin used to win Utrecht. So definitely taking a page out of the European book there and doing it quite successfully.
01:35:38
Speaker
The Acrontastic team, to me, even more interesting, because it also features a Digger speed, which obviously, as a normal type, gives you the opportunity to resist the licks from Ligetang to potentially protect your Giratina a little more. And also, when I did find out while playing in the Jungle Cup in the Great League and in the Go Battle League, rather,
01:36:06
Speaker
If you have a Scorching Sense, Quick Attack, Digger Spear, you do win the Zero Shield scenario against Vigoroth, another pick that would give a Pokemon such as Giratina trouble. So potentially a way to bait out Vigoroth and therefore free up the Giratina in the back. Interesting team compositions around the Ghost Dragon type.
01:36:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, amazing. I did not even have that insight, but you were number one in the world for a reason, so I'll give you that. I think we've covered three of these WCS playoffs. I'm not sure if we want to dive into any more, if we want to save them. How are you feeling about that?
01:36:49
Speaker
Um, I want to just just a few sentences. Um, yeah, of course. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think one we need to talk about, but we don't actually have that much info yet is, uh, the Buenos Aires special event, because that actually wrapped up this past weekend, but we didn't have any streams for it. I do not think that, um, Jacob is sourced the.
01:37:13
Speaker
Data for that one yet. I will just refresh life with a it already already came in But yeah, it's not it's not quite life yet But um, I I told you we were to circle back to the Chilean community. I
01:37:29
Speaker
And I have to say that this Argentinian event was actually won by a Chilean in D-Sync, Riccardo as he is known. Very talented battler, both in the GBLs as well as in grassroots show6 formats. And also very talented artists, responsible for a lot of great emotes that you can find on twitch.tv. So, yeah, definitely one to look out for at Worlds this year.
01:37:53
Speaker
Uh, I really love how, uh, how Ricardo talks about winning these tournaments because he also won a different tournament a few weeks ago, uh, where if I'm not mistaken, he did face off against, uh, a Chilean in the finals. And, um, he just kind of posts on, on Twitter. He says, I want a thing. And then, uh, this time this, this post was from yesterday. It's one word it's yippee.
01:38:17
Speaker
And it has 33 likes and there's no context. There's no hashtags. I know that the world champion at Saxon had to quote read him to explain to people that what this UP is actually about. So I am very low key in his celebrations, but he's a good guy.
01:38:35
Speaker
Yeah, no, he definitely, definitely is a character. I was able to talk with him briefly at LAIC, very, very kind in person as well. And obviously very talented. I mean, it's no mistake that somebody will win a special event and then actually win an entire tournament in Buenos Aires as well. Argentina was always one of those countries that I looked up to in terms of self participation. Whenever there was a battle tower or a big tournament, the Argentinians
01:39:00
Speaker
They are so awesome, right? They all come out. They all battled it out. So many participants and the level competition is very, very high. I remember Marto first made a name for himself by sweeping those tournaments back in the early self days. And that really helped to put him on the map. So, uh,
01:39:15
Speaker
I honestly, I think I've said this before on the show, but I see Latem as one of the largest, if not the largest growth opportunities for competitive Pokemon. And it all comes down to getting them the support infrastructure and devices that they need to have a fair and equal competition. I 100% agree.
01:39:38
Speaker
Yeah. One more thing. Some trainers like to run Shadow Magnezone with an RPS, Tropius, and Wigglytuff back line to reach rank one on
Upcoming Tournaments and Personal Plans
01:39:47
Speaker
the leaderboards. Okay. I said it. I'm just kidding. You tied that up perfectly, honestly. That is kind of why I found during that number one push. I think we talked about all the big decisions and the tournaments that have happened.
01:40:06
Speaker
There is more to talk about if we really wanted to, but we're really far into the episode and the rest is I think only the qualifiers for the playoffs in places like South Korea.
01:40:18
Speaker
The whole APEC qualifier, which features trainers from a bunch of nations, they will have their decisive playoffs within the next few weeks. So I think it will be probably enough if we talk about who actually made it towards once all of that is wrapped up.
01:40:37
Speaker
It's always tough, right? Because when we were first starting with the championship series, I was looking at, uh, the qualifiers, I was looking at the playoffs and I was trying to list teams and seeing what players are trying to analyze what players use. And there's always that, that point between the two where you can switch your team, you can bring a different team.
01:40:54
Speaker
to the qualifier that you brought to the playoffs. And then I was getting confused. I was thinking, oh, which Pokemon did they actually win with? What do they favor? And that whole thing requires a different depth of analysis. So I do agree that focusing on the playoffs and the playoff winners is important. And then if we want to dig deeper, we can look and see if they use similar strategies with which to qualify for the playoffs.
01:41:17
Speaker
But we're trying to give the WCS events some attention, some coverage, some love and affection because they deserve it. So yeah, I'd love to talk about Korea and a few other events. It's always tough because, like you said, we have the playoffs, which are happening at one point. And then before that, you have the qualifiers. So you don't want to cover it too early. You want to get to it after the dust has settled. But we have a few events that we're looking forward to. I believe the Stockholm regionals are coming. I know that the Los Angeles
01:41:46
Speaker
Regionals are on the way, and then we have NAIC. Is there anything that you're excited for over the coming weeks? Oh, yes. There's so much to be excited for, honestly. I actually try to basically just list all of the events that will be happening next week or next weekend. And there is Stockholm to look forward to. There is the special event in Bogotá, the one in Puerto Rico.
01:42:14
Speaker
The first one of two that will take place in Mexico City.
01:42:17
Speaker
Um, the Asian qualifiers, which is again, um, just a bunch of Asian countries that didn't get their, their very own. And I do think that Taiwan qualifiers are also happening. So there's so many tournaments to talk about. Um, and yeah, like I'm probably not going to Stockholm unless I make, um, a very, very rash last minute decision. Um, and I will be, I will be going to NAIC. I will compete in, in neural needs and I'm very much looking forward to hanging out with everybody. Um, just because like.
01:42:47
Speaker
Some people have asked me why I am guaranteed to go to NAIC, but very unlikely to go to Worlds. And the very simple reason for that is not only is it slightly less expensive and also announced way earlier,
01:43:03
Speaker
But also this is an open event and everybody can can register still and I want more people to register because honestly in North America you're you're slacking you're so far behind EUIC you're only at 240 registrations right now and I do think you could you could you should get that up to 300 at least at the very least. Especially because some of those guys are European and they might just take the crown from you so be prepared.
01:43:32
Speaker
I agree. The good thing is I will be meeting a ton of friends and plenty of those friends will probably not go to Worlds because they're not super dry hearts. They're just hanging out in Twitch chat, in Discord. It's just a really close-knit community and I just want to see people basically. So yeah, any I see will be where I'm at.
01:43:56
Speaker
And then I'll have to decide on worlds. It's looking unlikely currently, but if there is a good NAIC run, maybe. So it's not completely ruled out yet. But yeah, this is where my head is at currently.
01:44:08
Speaker
Okay. Well, I'm sure a lot of, uh, a lot of your friends, you know, including myself who, uh, look forward to seeing you at a future event. We'd love to see you at worlds as well. So maybe, uh, maybe we can have the best of both worlds. We'll, we'll have to find out. Right. But, uh, don't perform too well at NAIC. We still need a North American to win. Appreciate that. I'm sitting for top four, top four. You settle for top four. Okay.
01:44:34
Speaker
But you're absolutely right regarding events a big weekend. This is probably the most stacked weekend of the entire season coming up May, May 11th and 12th. A lot of other tournaments happening in May as well. Santiago, Chile, Chile. We also have the WCS for South Korea wrapping up Los Angeles, WCS Taiwan.
01:44:52
Speaker
the second of the two Mexico City tournaments that you promptly pointed out, as well as Lima, Peru. And then we have Bologna and it all concludes with NAIC in terms of the regular season. So if you're keeping track, there's 32 more days left until NAIC. So only about a month.
01:45:10
Speaker
to get those championship points to to try to up your scores in terms of cups and challenges and gather as many points as you can to fight for a travel award or even just the qualification. So I really would love to see a huge turnout at Worlds. I think for the trainers that can make it, it's going to be a once in a lifetime experience. And if you're if you have a chance to make it and it's within reality for you, I definitely think you will leave it feeling happy and really lacking regrets. I think it would be a very, very wonderful, wonderful experience.
01:45:40
Speaker
But it's been a long one. We covered a lot of tournaments. We took a couple weeks off and I think we made up the time pretty well. Do you have any closing thoughts as we move into the next weekend of May? No, I'm completely devoid of thoughts at the very moment. I do think that we covered all the things that happened over those past few weeks quite well.
01:46:02
Speaker
Awesome. I agree with you. Great wrap up. Great episode. Great to talk with you as well. My friend again, congratulations. Number one on the leaderboard. If you're not already following both of us, you should definitely give Silas to follow because right now he's crushing it at the Z wireless. Uh, sometimes when I tag you, I type the Z first. So make sure to type T H E Z wireless, follow him on X. But yeah, I agree with you, my friend. I think that's all from us for this week. Uh, we appreciate everybody for listening and look forward to seeing you in the next one.