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EP. 20 - Louisville & Lille 2025 Regional Recaps
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 20 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 talk about the Louisville and Lille Regional Championships, where NA great LyleJeffsIII and newcomer boem20 won, respectively. The elusive Shadow Kanto Marowak is on the rise, Registeel makes a surprising return, Azumarill sticks around, and the Max Out meta is officially INFESTED with Ariados! These topics, and a whole lot more! We hope you enjoy this episode. Leave us a review on whichever platform you are listening!
With that said, if you're ready, Lock In, press play, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Championship Series
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome in into the Show6 Podcast, where we break down the championship series for Pokémon GO. Today, we're taking a look at the Louisville and Leel regionals, where 160 and 154 trainers competed, respectively. We'll discuss the Shadow Kanto Marowak versus Regis still grand finals in Louisville, and how Boom brought the literal Boom in Leel. Plus, much, much more. So, if you're ready, let's lock in, good luck, and have fun.
00:00:51
Speaker
I feel a change in the wind. The tectonic plates are shifting beneath our feet. This meta is far from settled, and there is so much
Pronunciations and Performances
00:01:00
Speaker
to talk about. I'm Speedus Chief here with my illustrious co-host, Zeez Wireless. Zeez Wireless, we've got a lot to get into. Louisville and Leo, two Ls, but there were plenty of Ws given out this weekend. That was smooth, Speedy. That was smooth. um Yeah, and I guess we have a bone to pick with ah Shadow K-Wac and how a available it is. Yes. um Because yeah, I think that was the story of the Lou Will. Is it Lou Will? Is it Louis Will? I think they had like a sign at the regional venue where there were like multiple pronunciations of the city name. yeah um Nobody knows. Anything could be correct.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's kind of like Toronto. So the locals in in Toronto told me to not say the second T. So you don't say Toronto, you say Toronto, like T-O-R-O and N-O. And if you're like a really local local whose family has lived there for generations, then it's something like Toronto. It's like, yeah none of none of the letters even correspond to how the word is written out.
Lyle Jeffs' Regional Dominance
00:02:04
Speaker
um yeah And Newell is kind of the same, but it is also like kind of the same in terms of how these NA regionals are playing out. Because once again, Lyle Jeffs, the third, taking his third regional title. And it's no surprise by any means.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, hes he's bold and famous for a reason, right? You could see ah the the demeanor he brings to the stage is always so telling because everyone has their own stage persona, but but Lyle is always just so focused, so laser focused. There were several moments, especially in grands, and well we'll get to all that,
00:02:40
Speaker
where Arrow would talk into the microphone. If if you battle against Arrow, you know, I love him, but he's a yapper, right? He talks the whole time and he's saying, you know, good game. He's asking you what Pokemon's in the back or he's asking you, do you have the move? You know, he's asking all kinds of questions and making all kinds of statements.
00:02:57
Speaker
But when he would say things to Lyle, Lyle would not even look up. he was He was so intently focused on the game and finishing it. And only when that last charge tag landed or when that last KO came through, did he allow himself to look up from it. So definitely locked in, definitely focused a great grand finals. And yeah, you know, something's changed with some, something stayed the same. And Lyle with shadow K whack was able to take it all in Louisville.
00:03:22
Speaker
And yeah, I know and some people say Louisville, some people say Louisville, but ah because I'm, I guess you could say a bit, a bit, I guess from the South of the U.S., the Louisville is a little bit easier for me. It's just kind of a ooh kind of sound. And there's also the question whether it's Lyle Jeffs or Lyle's Jeff. That's true. That is also a thing. We should put multiple signs for that at Lyle's store in the Greater Toronto region.
00:03:49
Speaker
So yeah anybody can take a picture with that, whether they believe in Lyles, whether they believe in Lyle. Um, he definitely gave us a lot to believe in.
Grand Finals: Arrow's Challenge
00:03:57
Speaker
Um, because as you said, I think.
00:04:01
Speaker
Um, he just has one of the best mentalities when it comes to those like high stakes matches. And I did watch the, um, fairly entertaining, um, Vadash featuring Yassir Ali and ATL stream on Twitch dot.tv on the Yassir Ali channel. ah And they were talking about.
00:04:22
Speaker
the best North American play Pokemon competitors. And I think like with with the exception of the meme tier D, all of the tiers they had were actually like quite flattering because the worst you could be would be like an occasional top cutter to which I'd say, okay, that's not a bad thing to be.
00:04:42
Speaker
But there was also the S plus tier, which is who basically players with the best results and the best mentality. And I think the the consensus was that Lyle was probably the NA player with the best mental talent mentality.
00:04:59
Speaker
And I think that really showed because he always had a game plan. And I've i've read a tweet from Arrow after the fact that he was rewatching the grand finals, which um at first he managed to reset the bracket.
00:05:17
Speaker
He went straight 3-0 against ah Lyle, and I do believe that his um team composition, which was fairly unique with Registeal, with Shadow Quaxire, with a Leaf Tornado Superior, with the Galarian Vultress, with a Shadow Typhlosion, and with the Gas Lord. None of these are standard picks, if we are being honest.
00:05:40
Speaker
I think that actually put him in a really favorable position just from um how the teams s matched up into each other. So he did manage to pull one back um against Lyle after originally being dropped by Lyle to the lower bracket. um But then he basically um came to the conclusion that in the grand finals reset, there were the set of three that actually decided the tournament Um, he lost three winnable games, like he allowed Lyle to catch in the first game. Um, and he lost switch advantage, another game. And I was like, all those little details where if you're not careful, a player like Lyle just punishes you for it. And like arrow, one of the most innovative team builders in the world, probably. And also somebody who has been to a grand final three times now.
00:06:40
Speaker
um So definitely one who is really up there in terms of competitive greatness, still prone to making mistakes in the heat of the moment, whereas I feel like Lyle, I don't know if that's like a Canadian thing, but he doesn't seem to know the heat
Louisville's Competitive Landscape
00:06:59
Speaker
of the moment. and um Alongside his very unique choice of bringing the Shadow K-Wag to battle, um I think that's what set him apart in a competition that was honestly the most stacked that I've ever seen a regular regional tournament be in North America.
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's, that's the final point you made. I want to to um zero in on that a bit because a lot of people were saying it was the most stacked top 16 ever at a, at a regional. And if you look at the number of people that have won tournaments or that have been runner ups or even won internationals, it's honestly crazy. I mean, this, this is your top 16 in Louisville, right? And it was a week ago, a lot of people remember, but if you weren't there watching the stream you had gordon the flash vs lyle jeffs it's axon vs balk trent vs elam rise vs arrow and then in the loser side bracket you had sj vs out of pocket i mean are you kidding me sj was our pick to win worlds last year then you had frana vs tomahawk
00:07:57
Speaker
then Richie versus Doonbug, one of Mexico's best versus literal Doonbug, and then Nighttime Glacier versus Augustely. And I think that's maybe the final trainer there is one that you're not as familiar with. But to be in a top 16 with all these folks is like basically like walking into ah to a bar and everyone turns to look at you. You know you're in a really rough spot. And and ah and yeah, what what a stacked competition. I felt the same way.
00:08:24
Speaker
about the, uh, why I don't want to say the same way. I felt very similarly about the top 16 and Leo as well. Cause I feel like we're getting to that point where so many talented trainers who have won tournaments are coming back to these events year after year. And it's really starting to be super impressive when we look at the top 16. Um, well said I would have brought it, brought that up for the little segment as well, because I think that was just like really mirroring the.
00:08:50
Speaker
Louisville tournament in the European way, like the best that EU has to offer. And one thing that I wanted to call out in terms of how stacked this Louisville tournament actually was, um Rocha Babyface versus Boppa was a winners side day two matchup at the world championships this year. It was the losers round five in day one of Louisville.
00:09:14
Speaker
wow none of them even made it to top cut that's how stacked this tournament was wow no when you put it in that perspective that's absolutely stellar uh i was i was looking at the top cut for louisville and i was so excited for winners round two because essentially what you had was Lyle Jeffs, right? Best in Canada, arguably one of the best in NA versus It's Axon, you know, won a regional, won an IC and won a world championships. That was your top pair. And then your second pair in winners side bracket was Elam versus Arrow, the perennial runner ups, the trainers that top cut over and over and over looking for their breakthrough moments and seeing just those two pairs, right? The champions in the top two and then the runner ups in the second pair. It's like, this has like a storybook feel
Standout Players and Strategies
00:09:58
Speaker
to it.
00:09:58
Speaker
And as we got to that grand finals, we did see Lyle versus Arrow, as we've mentioned a couple of times already. um But before we could jump into grands, I was just curious, were there any standout players that you really enjoyed watching in Louisville? ah Personally, it was very ah serendipitous for me to see Axon succeed so well because he has had like some hits and misses over the past the past season. What did you think? So there's certainly some players that I um really was enjoying like seeing on stage and also looking forward to when I was like just looking at the bracket of the tournament. Axel was definitely one of them or with a strong fourth place finish after um there was like even some discussion about whether he could still do it because we we saw him basically win everything there was to win during the first two seasons of play Pokemon for for Pokemon Go. And then he had like a quieter like
00:10:55
Speaker
Like still impressive, but, um, just, just less overwhelming last season where he like top cut here and there and maybe even like brought a spicy Medicham at that point to a competition. But people were like wondering with the, okay, like we, we know he's really, really good.
00:11:18
Speaker
um How well can he plays if he really tries? And I feel like that was actually competitor mode accent and again. And coming top four is obviously just an amazing feat given like the sheer depth of the sheer quality of competition that we had. um Then Tomahawk UK.
00:11:40
Speaker
Competing in his second U.S. regional of the season, and top-cutting again with the Pangoro and also bringing a Shadow Skarmory into the competition, which is another almost forgotten Pokémon that actually manages to match up surprisingly well into most of the other teams um that competitors brought.
00:12:03
Speaker
um And another one that I want to shout out just because I feel like they were also in a bit of a competitive slump, but really, um, like last time we had the theme of people bouncing back from a couple, ah um, less successful months. Uh, and I think nighttime clash, I did that in a special session and also, um, really foreshadowed one what would happen in the little bit by being the trainer.
00:12:34
Speaker
with the best Ariados finish to date, um placing third overall. That's a great shout out. The one trainer I've really wanted to talk about was Nighttime Clasher because ah in my my tracking sheet, what I typically do is i I denote which players come in on the winner side of the bracket and which come in on the loser side. So when I do the final standings, it'll say, for example, Lyle Jeff's space, parentheses, W. And then for Richie, it'll say, you know, Richie 1409 space, parentheses, L.
00:13:03
Speaker
And I always look to see like where these trainers come into that day two bracket and where they finish. And nighttime classroom actually had a crazy run through the loser's bracket. He entered day two in the loser's side and finished third overall, which when we get to Lille, you're going to see that that doesn't happen very often. And something really strange and surprising happened in Lille. And I can't wait to talk about it. But in terms of in terms of nighttime classroom, he took down August. He took down Gordon, the flash, and then he beat Richie. Then he beat Elam.
00:13:32
Speaker
Then he beat Axon, only falling to arrow in game five of the loser's final. So a nighttime classroom had a hell of a run deep into that loser side bracket. And he should be very, very proud of that. And yeah, you make a good point. I mean, he, he did bring the toxpex poison, but he also doubled up on that poison by bringing area dose. And I wonder if that surprised or inspired some of his EU cohorts across the pond.
00:13:57
Speaker
I think it's just such an interesting team building choice because I think when players prepare their teams for the next upcoming tournament, they look at what worked in the last big tournament and then whatever is essentially like the play currently, the meta currently, has just a big target on its back. And I think Ariados is one of those Pokemon that play ah really well into the Toxapex Digaspi Core. um And also, like if you have a high enough attack, Ariados, you defeat Shadow for Alligator if you have uneven energy, and you're also really heavily attacking those Zoomerals that are still everywhere. So I feel like that was
00:14:41
Speaker
just a core breaker that nighttime pleasure managed to. uh, lean on in some clutch moments. And that and the shadow KWAC were yeah like two excellent choices that I think really helped him like put his qualities on display again, like new showcases talents, because you can be a good player. If you don't get the meta read correctly, then you might still be a out of luck in in some certain situations. But yeah, I think that was a really flexible team of six that, um, nighttime clash
Player Reflections and Future Plans
00:15:11
Speaker
up abroad. It was, um,
00:15:13
Speaker
Like in four out of six spots identical to what Lyle Jeffs brought, Lyle brought a zoom roll, shadow K-Wag, toxapex, malamar, dugong, and shadow drapeon. And instead of dugong and shadow drapeon, nighttime Thrasher brought ariados and galarian mortress. So like a very similar core, but a slightly different set of core breakers to um fuel his run up to top three.
00:15:40
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I feel like this is, this has been the meta read of the weekend. And I wrote in second with this crazy team. It's just like, we we have a European trainer that will come up in Lille who did a similar thing, even and though they didn't place top four. Um, but yeah, this is just like, okay, somebody had an idea that was so far off like the, the.
00:16:07
Speaker
the known meta calls said that we expected and it was just crazy enough to work out. And I'm always like very impressed by that. But I think the, like more people will copy the large s that have clasher formula than the arrow formula.
00:16:23
Speaker
Oh, no, absolutely. yeah I think it takes a special kind of person to copy Arrow's formula, if I'm being honest. um only a few Only a few people can keep that energy. Maybe a Tauntaun Batous, right? um When we look at the the teams here from Nighttime Clasher, I think it also reflects the playstyle choices. Like you said, Nighttime Clasher opting for Gleri Moltres over Dewgong. When you think of Lyle Jaffes, you think of reliable, relentless,
00:16:49
Speaker
very judicious in how he approaches games. The Dewgong pick for him makes total sense. You look at Nighttime Clasher, Glaren Moltres of the Brave Bird, Ancient Power, vert versatile, you know high ah high risk, high reward at times. And then you look at Nighttime Clashers, Ariados, spammy, a little bit new, a little bit off kilter. And then Lyle Jeff met that with the Shadow Drapian, which of course is going to be a little bit more standard, a little more meta. People understand that pick a bit more.
00:17:14
Speaker
Um, it's not so often that Lyle will jump outside of the box and pick something like that ahead of the meta. At least, at least in my opinion, um, two more honorable mentions. I wanted to, to shout out a pranav. It was awesome to see him competing again. I don't know if we got pranav on stream or not, but, uh, he's one of my, my good friends. It's always awesome to see him play. And I also saw that Trent finished seventh and then posted on X that he.
00:17:38
Speaker
Feels like top cutting is the limit for him. And he feels like ah winning a tournament is kind of out of the question. And he's really on the fence about quitting. He turned off comments on his post. So he obviously does is not looking for feedback. He just wants to share how he's feeling. But speaking from my my personal experience, knowing Trent, how good he is seeing him in GBLA and seeing him and play Pokemon. I really hope that if he needs a break, he takes a break. But I really hope that he he comes back and competes because he is very, very talented. But Outside of that. I 100% agree. If um you're in a spot where, I don't know, like maybe not achieving the results that you set out to achieve um like actively impacts the joy you get out of these events, um taking a break is obviously fine. yeah But Trend is definitely on my list of trainers who I always consider for a top eight at least.
00:18:33
Speaker
And if you are good enough to make a top eight, you just need one lucky day, one good read on the meta to win a tournament. And you've seen it in Europe with Kazim who didn't even have who didn't even have the top cut consistency that someone like Trent had, um but just stayed with it, just kept grinding and it paid off with this first, like first top cut, first win in Dortmund. And I think if somebody is just so consistent, a top level performer, then like the results will just come with time. and It's a numbers game at the end of the day. You just try often enough and eventually you will succeed.
00:19:15
Speaker
it's It's all about you know being 90% there. it's You can argue it's harder to get from 1% to 50% than it is to get from 90% to 95%. You could argue that it's it's really difficult to make those final tweaks that separate you from top cut into champion, but at the same time, you're already so close. Like you said, whenever I see Trent's name on the bracket, I see a contender every single time he enters a tournament. so I hope that ah you know if if the break is what he needs and that's fine, but obviously we want him to do what's best for him. um If you're ready, I'm ready to talk about some grand finals action because it was a bitney a bit polarizing and I have some some theories. I think Arrow is going to be listening. He asked me when the episode was going to come out and I have some i have some honest thoughts and I'm going to share.
00:20:01
Speaker
But ah before i I spit all my thoughts out, I just want to give everyone an overview. Like Swyla said earlier, ah Arrow is able to reset the bracket 3-0. And then Lyle Jeffs totally spun things around and in the reset, clamped down with a 3-0 victory to seal the win for himself. Arrow, his his third ah regional runner up, if I'm not mistaken, and next to Doonbug. And I think there was another one that he also came up short. But um yeah, I'm curious what your thoughts were, because this was like a mishmash of two very different, very weird teams. I think what um Arrow's team um managed to showcase is especially the power of Shadow Quagsire. like There were a lot of standout teams. I really like the Gazlord tech that Arrow introduced because right now, if you like a lot of players, if they build a team, they basically basically plug in some of their favorites into PVPoke and then see what the suggestion
00:20:58
Speaker
these suggestions from the PVPoke algorithm are like, OK, so this pairs well with that. And these are my alternatives. And all of that is fine. All of that is um a great place to start one's team building. But what PVPoke doesn't show you is potentially an option where a Pokemon doesn't run its move set that is ideal against the broad, against the wide open Great League meta. Yeah, I think currently, Guzzlord is um on Brutal Swing and Sludge Bomb.
00:21:27
Speaker
on PVPoke because it just seems unnecessary to double down on dragon damage if you already have the Heart Hitting Dragon Tail, especially because dragon only hits other dragons for super effective and you don't really have that in the meta as much. um But Ero found one Pokemon in that Gas Lord that reliably managed to just beat down the Shadow Drapion, which looks like one of the most safe Pokémon in the meta currently. If you don't have a Mudstep user, which in itself can be very polarizing, you will probably struggle against the Shadow Drapion. And Gaslord is a great alternative to those Mudstep users to fill that that specific role, but also just being great neutrally into um a lot of
00:22:17
Speaker
um I like to call the call them elemental Pokemon, like water types, fire types, um that kind of stuff. yeah Obviously you don't want to get locked in on an Azumarill, but that's what what the Registeal is for. So you always have some some Pokemon to to scare that away. But I think in the Grand Finals, the Quacksire was actually the most um valuable
Grand Finals Analysis
00:22:43
Speaker
Pokemon. I think in game one of... um The, the first grand final set, um, the cracks, I, uh, managed to strip two shields away from the cancer Marowak setting up, um, arrows, Galerion, Moltres to, to sweep. Yeah. Um, in the second game, the shadow quag got aligned onto the Drapion, um, which also is just like a great secondary answer to the Drapion if you, um,
00:23:14
Speaker
Oh no, and and it wasn't actually aligned on the Drapion, I don't think, but ah yeah, it was a aligned on the, um, on the Toxapex. Yeah. I had my notes backwards, but, um, like basically he went ABA strong into Drapion. So basically nullified the value that, um, Lyle could get out of one of his most flexible Pokemon.
00:23:34
Speaker
yes um and Basically, because Arrow went with the line of Gaslord, Typhlosion, and Shadow Quaxire in that game too, um he went triple a week to a certain Water Fairy Bunny, um which which ah we We like to call ABA the arrow battle approach. This was AAA and i don't know I don't know how he would have played it out if there was an Azu. and It's the all out the all out arrow attack approach. Basically. basically
00:24:10
Speaker
um so yeah Inviting the Azu. um Arrow just essentially leads a line that has two Azu answers in the back and manages to to align it well again and just resetting within three games, not even a regular sweat, just saying, okay, here I am again. And now we all just play it out on on the even terms.
00:24:36
Speaker
Yeah, so I really appreciate what you said earlier about the elementals. And I think that that first set of the grand finals comes down to more so the elementals themselves, because ah what I'm getting at is that in game one, Lyle Jeffs led the dugong into register, but he was ABA week to register because he had toxapex in the back. So he had to stay into that matchup, which made it really uncomfortable, allowed arrow to control the pacing of the game.
00:24:59
Speaker
Game number two, Arrow led Guzzlord into Shadow Drapian, and behind the Shadow Drapian was Dewgong and Toxapex. Again, double water for Lyle. And then game three, Arrow led Galarian Moltres into Shadow Drapian, and yet again, we had Dewgong and Azumarole double water.
00:25:16
Speaker
in the back for Lyle. And in both games one and three, Arrow brought the Registeal, which was so oppressive, especially regarding Azumarole and Toxapex, but you know could go back and forth to Dugong. But he also brought backups to that. For example, in game three, he brought Registeal Superior. In game two, he brought ah he brought Shadow Typhlosion with Thunder Punch, but he also substituted that with the Quagsire ground type pressure. So I felt like Arrow was really locked into that double water strategy that Lyle was running. And where things really started to unravel in the reset was that first Arrow started to lose the lead. He was leading game one, Superior into Shadow Drapion. Game two, Superior into Shadow Drapion again. And then game number three, Guzzlord into Shadow Drapion, which is like a good lead situation, but that's the one time that Lyle was able to flip it around.
00:26:03
Speaker
But what I really noticed is that second part, the elementals in the reset, Lyle opted for one water type on it. All three of his teams, he only brought do gone. He left a zoomer on the bench. He left talk specs on the bench. He started bringing more K whack. And with only one water type, they were not that many targets for register or a thunder punch type. And I think that those two things.
00:26:24
Speaker
really compounded and they really hurt arrow in the end because arrow said, Hey, I got a three, Oh, I'm just going to keep doing what's working. And Lyle said, I can't keep doing what's working. I got to change things up. And arrow just did not adjust fast enough.
00:26:38
Speaker
Yeah, also like this goes back to what you said earlier when we compared the Lyle and Night-Time Flasher team compositions and how they differed. How Dewgong just feels like a really Lyle Pokemon in a way because um like it's not necessarily something that does some crazy flashy stuff um all the time, dips in and out of matchups and does a lot of heavy damage. It's just something that helps control the pacing of a battle, plays really safe. And if you have enough poison precision to maneuver it, it always helps getting you an advantage. And I think that was really on display, um especially in those last three matches of of the grand finals. But also, um going back to my my point of shadow quacks, I actually, being the MVP for Arrow,
00:27:31
Speaker
um and was It was basically so that um in the first game of the Grand Finals reset, or like like the whatever whatever the the the second set of three is called, yeah um Lyle did have to make that catch to pull it out, because otherwise the the Shadow Quacks I would have been too much to overcome.
00:27:55
Speaker
um because it was at the end of the day, Shadow Quack versus Shadow Drapion, whereas Shadow Quack just needs to land an Arcan Tail and farm down with mud shots. ah The Drapion always needs to land two moves because you are not positing down that bow on time.
00:28:12
Speaker
um and yeah This is where I think Arrow is just like, Really looking back at this rewatching and saying, okay, if I just waited a turn to see whether the fast move came through, could have just thrown my Aqua Tail and ended the game then and there. But he went like one over and then through his move without waiting the turn and that cost him. And in the in the second game, he makes a decision late in the game to take out a yellow health Drapion with a Stone Edge.
00:28:46
Speaker
And then he only gets to an Aqua Tail against the last popcorn, which I think was the Dugong. Um, so essentially if he just, um, was more efficient with how he used that energy, he could have, uh, curtail the Drapion and stone edge the, the Dubong. I feel like those are the moments that arrow pointed out or like alluded to in his tweet where he felt like, Oh, if I just did it a little bit differently, I still could have won those battles. So even though the ah adjustment that Lyle made.
00:29:21
Speaker
gave them these additional win conditions. It was also sort also just a very like a matter of split-second decisions in in many ways that um really made the difference in those games 1 and 2 especially. So it really could have gone either way.
00:29:39
Speaker
In my personal opinion, when I when i look at atd players and their different play styles, I really feel that Lyle and Doonbug have a lot in common with how they control the pacing of a game, how how they play things kind of safe, how they really capitalize on opponents' mistakes. When I look at Arrow's gameplay, to be honest, it reminds me a lot of how Inadequance plays, especially how Martine played at Worlds.
00:30:03
Speaker
um I personally think, and and I really want to hear your opinion you think if you think I'm wrong, I'm right, or if I'm you know oversimplifying too much. I really feel like Arrow puts too much pressure on himself to call the right team compositions, and I feel like if he spend less effort trying to hard call lines and was actually more invested in energy management mechanics and and pivoting to different wind conditions. I think that his play style would really open up and he'd be a lot more fluid in tough situations. But I feel like he gets an idea in his head and it just really takes root. And he has a very hard time like getting out of that kind of stiff approach of just trying to call lines. I mean, do you do you agree? Do you think there's more going on?
00:30:48
Speaker
I was, I was wondering what kind of question you would ask me and I feel like I was very ready to disagree with you, but that is basically a point that I made myself in, in arrow like context that kind of referred to Aaron's and to some degree where I think he is so good at playing out neutral situations that I don't always understand why he deliberately chooses to not go for those neutral situations in a way. yeah But um even though I think this could be a recipe for success,
00:31:32
Speaker
I don't know whether I would actively encourage Arrow to change his style of play up too much because it has worked for him well enough to make it to three grand finals. And I also also just find it really endearing to have somebody in this community who is a little crazy about team building, who is a little bit crazy about calling the lines. And I don't like, I love that there's those,
00:32:00
Speaker
calculated and just like really larger than life figures who have won multiple championships like Lyle and Dunberg who are just like so precise and and really have optimized every aspect of their gameplay in that way. But I also think that we need chaos and I want chaos to sex succeed. So please arrow change nothing, just win. This is my message to you.
00:32:30
Speaker
yeah And it's so interesting too because if you look at their first meetup in the winter semifinals, Arrow lost to Lyle 1-3. But then if you look at the grand finals, if Arrow would have come in on that winter side, he would have taken a swift 3-0, a swift title in Louisville, and he would have become a champion right then and there.
Evolving Pokémon GO Meta
00:32:48
Speaker
I just feel like I don't know. like i i have I have a ah long friendship with Arrow. I've known him for so many years and I want to see him succeed so badly. And I'm not saying like at the expense of other people. I don't believe that Lyle should lose or anybody should lose. But I just feel like Arrow puts so much into the game. He practices, invests so much.
00:33:06
Speaker
he's due for a win and I think it's going to come really really soon i and maybe you're right you know if if he's doing so well to keep doing what's working because if he just makes a couple of minor adjustments he could have had a win here but I feel like it's so hard it's okay so here's one more thing I i want to highlight but You can be a trainer like Arrow, like yourself, like like ah like ah whoever you want to say, any top-cut player from any region. You can be a consistent high performer and you can go into day one in your group and you can call lines, you can read teams. You do have that experience advantage, that skill advantage due due to years of buildup of this of this craft.
00:33:46
Speaker
you can do that but when you get to the grand finals when you get to the top cut you know third three four rounds in whatever you want to call it and you go up against some of the most elite it gets harder and harder and more and more difficult to call lines when the people you're playing against are equally as good as you at doing that kind of thing so it might be a recipe for consistent day two success but i think that you need to to cut a little bit deeper to actually break through and make it into the championship slot. That's just my opinion.
00:34:19
Speaker
One thing that I want to mention with regards to the calling lines part, especially, is that I think the meta is currently developing in a fairly healthy way, but moving away from really polarizing matchups. I think that was especially on display in Nill when there was a lot of Ariados, a lot of Drapion, a lot of Malamar, just Pokemon that beat or lose,
00:34:45
Speaker
um versus certain meta Pokemon just depending on energy, just depending on shields, depending on catches, depending on how you maybe misalign the switch clock by catching a move. And I feel like it's it's very difficult in this meta to just hard call align and yeah your opponent on alignment. So while I think there's like,
00:35:12
Speaker
There's a degree of like, actually like a large degree of skill to just understanding both your team and your opponent's team and building a line of three accordingly in a way that um maybe basically sniffs out your opponent's game plan. um I think there is currently a little more merit to just having those flexible options and basically adjusting on the flyer rather than winning the game on the lock-in screen. yeah
00:35:45
Speaker
No, I keep thinking about the point you made a moment ago where you said that Arrow is so good in neutral situations. Why does he insist on avoiding neutral situations, right? Maybe they're a bit uncomfortable, but but I really appreciate the point you made there. I think that's also really spot on. um And yeah, the meta continues to develop at a really, really fast pace. So we definitely want to hand our our flowers to Lyle Jeffs for winning yet another regional championship. I think it's really cool that that Wadaj won in Baltimore then and then Lyle won in Louisville. You know, they're best friends and then they win tournaments back to back. I mean, that's just such a happy ending. I'm really excited to see how they do in the coming tournaments of the season because I do believe Lyle will continue competing and as well, Wadaj. But that being said, unless you have any more thoughts on Louisville, we can turn the page to Lyle.
00:36:35
Speaker
I think we can definitely move over to Europe, to France, where I think the championship circuit shapes up very differently from the North American one, because we had a first-time regional champion in Kazim in Dortmund. Now we have a first-time competitor and first-time regional champion in Boom 20, recently turned 18, I believe. and and I was finally able to go to original competitions um because I think that was a little difficult to just make the time and convince, like, if you have to convince your parents to go to one of these, they might not know no how good you are and how big of a deal this can be, but you definitely, you know, now sims up on the big stage with an impressive, just like, like,
00:37:28
Speaker
winning it on your first try is something that not many people have done. And actually, one one other person present in this s tournament has done it as well. um I think, like, actually multiple if we count Logan Rocket, but Colin Six, who was Boom's grand finals opponent. Colin's very first tournament was Little two years ago, he won that, and now he was the final boss, as Mattain Inadequance likes to say, for Boom 20. But yeah, the 2020, uh, wasn't it 2023, Little Champion? Um, actually fell to our new 2025 season, Little Champion.
00:38:10
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's ah it's one of those things where I was hearing rumors, right whispers in the wind, if I may, that ah there was a trainer who was very, very successful in go battling and grassroots, and they were going to make their first appearance at a tournament, and turned out it was boom, 20, and he absolutely did not disappoint. I went back and watched both of the VODs. um What I'm starting to do recently is i I watch back the VODs, but I'll put them on 2x speed, and I'll actually mute the stream.
00:38:37
Speaker
because I know that the commentators will will offer their opinions. you know Some of the most valuable competitor insights come from from casters like Inadequance himself, just because he is so ingrained in in the competitive nature. But at the same time, it's always good to kind of look at the game at face value and kind of form your own opinions about it.
00:38:54
Speaker
So it was a really fun experience to kind of look back over this tournament and just kind of look at the raw plays and just kind of make my own interpretation because you don't really, you kind of like, um, you don't realize how much the commentator's perception of things will color what you see. You know, if somebody's in your ear saying, look for the red car, look for the red car while you're driving, of course you're going to look for the red car. But if you're looking for other things on your own, you kind of notice some interesting things. So,
00:39:20
Speaker
i took a lot of notes on day one a lot of really exciting plays um i thought that one Kind of recurring theme was the the theme of experience versus ah potential. And we saw that a lot whenever Palasha played somebody, whenever Colin played someone, Galax Kabolton, you know, Lurgen, whenever these trainers went up against someone who was not as well of known of a name, ah but still formidable, like the Mega Junko or Hikami, you saw kind of the experience gap. And that was really, really cool to see because these trainers like Paula have have been in the seat so many times.
European Competitions and Adaptability
00:39:55
Speaker
they don't get rattled, they don't get flustered, they are so focused and whereas their opponents might be, you know, ah gesticulating on stage or maybe they're kind of like flustered or maybe they're anacore and they're literally rocking back and forth in that chair so much that I felt like he was powering the stage itself. um You don't really get that from some of the more experienced players but there are a couple I wanted to to shout out to in particular but First of all, I wanted to ask, did you get the same feeling? Did you feel like there was a different vibe when Colin was playing someone else or when Paula was playing? do you So I feel as if I don't know, I was.
00:40:32
Speaker
and Like halfway through day two, I was convinced that Colin would reset the bracket and take it all. Colin had a long loser bracket run. Like I'm just looking at the Dragovist graphic. That is probably not even the entirety of, um, Colin's run. I feel like he definitely had at least one loser's match before that, maybe even even multiple. Um, but just like going through the, the gauntlet of Tom Tombatous, um, I see champion.
00:41:00
Speaker
and also Dortmund regional finalist. So like very recently been super close to to another gold medal. than Toe Tactical, one of the original goats of the PvP scene. Galaxkoboulton, last year's the champion. Palasha, obviously like strong claim to like alongside Colin to um being the best European battler. Like just going through that gauntlet is kind of incredible. And I felt like he he kind of
00:41:34
Speaker
like Colin lost so many of his first games in those sets, um and then had a super close, super clutch game too, and somehow just...
00:41:47
Speaker
was like in the driver's seat for game three and took it home and there were like so many moments where I was almost certain that he would get eliminated but he somehow found a way and he always like sometimes it just takes a little inaccuracy from your opponent and but You also need to be able to punish that and Colin punished it every single time. Yeah. So I think this is, I don't know, like, I don't even know whether this is the same thing that we talked about with Lyle earlier, where he's just like, so calm and collected all the time. I think it's just, um.
00:42:28
Speaker
really recognizing how the the state of a particular match changes from one second to another and formulating a secondary win condition or a new game plan um on the spot, essentially. And I feel like a lot of players have a vague idea of how the match might might be going when they lock in their team, when they come up with their initial strategy, and then they follow that strategy. But I think Colin, especially with how flexible the picks he brought were,
00:43:02
Speaker
Um, I think he just made up multiple strategies. Um, whenever their opponent made, when when whenever his opponent made a decision that, um, changed anything about the game. Yeah. And I think this adaptability is huge. And another thing that I think is, is huge and can't be understated how important I thought it was for Leo is matchup knowledge. Um, yes. Because I've, I think like.
00:43:31
Speaker
Boom played a ton of practice tournaments. um I've actually like faced him once with his Malamar and that is how I discovered that Malamar beats Talonflame in the once if it just has enough attack because my Talonflame fainted and I was asking him, oh, like and the sim looks different.
00:43:52
Speaker
Do you run high attack Malama by by any chance? And he actually did. So that was a good learning experience, but just playing a team like that for for like weeks and weeks ahead of a tournament, maybe making a small adjustment here and there, but for the most part sticking with the same core and understanding its win conditions against the top meta. I think that really gives you an edge. And once again, I feel like Boom's Quicksire play just yeah Knowing that it can beat an Ariadors if it's just one mudshot ahead because you pace the same or like you pace slightly faster. But if you just shield the trailblazers and you don't get lunch baited, then you are able to fast move it down. um I think that was quite impressive. and
00:44:42
Speaker
um Yeah, I think this is true for most, if not all of those consistent top competitors. They just know their teams so well and also just react super fast to to changes in the game stage.
00:44:55
Speaker
It, the last point you made, I, that's a perfect segue into what I wanted to talk about because you you highlighted a lot of, of Collins kind of recipe for success, right? He was able to lose game one of so many series, but he always like pivoted to a new win condition or found a different way to win a battle. And I think that if you watch back as I did the loser's finals between him and Paula, which was my favorite series of the entire tournament. If you watch back that, and then you watch back his series against boom and the grand finals.
00:45:26
Speaker
The amount of energy management and wind condition like hedging and shifting and pivoting The amount of that that was going on that Colin was orchestrating there with the typical GBL players mind cannot comprehend. Like they just they could not like understand at all what was happening because it was absolutely nauseating how much he would store energy switch how much he would debuff store some extra energy play out a specific win condition switch again and just so many moving pieces were happening all the time. It was really, really brilliant to watch. And I know that we've had a lot of, a lot of, a lot of talk about Colin, uh, on the podcasts and previous episodes. We kind of, you know, weren't super hot on him going into worlds last season. And that was based on a lot of, a lot of the team composition reads we made about him as a trainer, right? The, the, the stereotypical quote doesn't make his own team. You know, he has to have somebody else make the team and then he can actually run with it. But, uh, I actually.
00:46:25
Speaker
I think it was so funny that he actually ran the exact same team as Paul Asher and Peter, once again proving that, okay, if I have the same team as another top trainer, I always will outperform them with it. it I was really inspired because Waddaj, when he posted his NA tier list, somebody asked him about EU.
00:46:47
Speaker
And in terms of S plus tier, he said there's only a couple people, maybe just Colin in that, in that category. And I was like, really? So Adaj really believes in these plays. And like I mentioned earlier, watching back the VODs with no commentary, uh, just making my own opinions about it. I saw so many brilliant things from Colin this weekend. And I just wanted to apologize formally from the heart that, uh,
00:47:11
Speaker
I am very sorry for not believing more in Collins skills because he seriously is cracked out of his mind. And it was really, really fun ah to watch his gameplay because, yeah, I mean, seriously, nauseating the amount of changes and pivots and the pressure he puts on his opponent to remember exactly how much energy and health he has on all of his Pokemon. It's tremendous. It's like a full court press in basketball. He's coming at you from every single side. It doesn't feel like there's any any pass or any play that's open.
00:47:40
Speaker
I actually had a small discussion with Vadash about the subject of Colin, because i was like trying I was like playing devil's advocate and saying, um oh, maybe Colin is just an S tier player and not an S plus tier player. This is the tiers we're talking about here. Oh, is he literally like... the best or you see like slightly behind the best. This is like the the level of of quality we're talking about here. But it's just like fun to talk about like, it's like when you talk about sports and there's like a greatest of all time discussion. This is just the same in terms of Pokemon Go. But I was like always, I was basically on, on this page where I would say, okay,
00:48:25
Speaker
Colin is either the best player at a tournament or he doesn't really do anything. I think he had like two tournaments last season where he finished 65th and that is kind of like not what you expect from somebody who does plays like that, who just like has like all those debuffers, those self-debuffers, those super quick charging Pokémon, just swaps in and out of matchups, always knows where the opponent's energy is at, where his own energy is at, what his win condition is, how much damage he needs to do, how much damage he can take. There's so much knowledge and so much like so many layers to his gameplay. I really wonder, like how does it happen that somebody like that
00:49:09
Speaker
doesn't do it like somebody like Rice or out of pocket, who um top cut more than or like top eight more than 50% of their tournaments. um And I was like, okay, is what what is what is up with calling that he's either the best player at the tournament, or he goes out so early and I was like, Oh, maybe he's just the best day to play in Europe. ah But I think, like,
00:49:38
Speaker
We've also come a long way with seeding, with the meta becoming less RPS over time, that now those those skills and this flexibility and also just the the mental aspect of the game ah will be on display more often and I think Um, and like, we knew that before, but I think the day one exits are definitely the fluke and the grand final appearances of which Colin, I think has like five now or something. Um, I think those are, are definitely the rule. And if you can say that about somebody of that, or like, it's, it's probably like somewhat likely to make the grand finals. I don't think there's, I don't think there's any player in Europe beyond maybe Palasha where you would
00:50:28
Speaker
say that. so yeah um yeah definitely okay we are We are talking a lot about the runner up of the tournament here, but I think it was important to give Colin his flowers just because agree it's just an incredible amount of accolades. And I think those two, Colin and Palasha, this is um something that I want to call right here right now.
00:50:50
Speaker
They will qualify for every regional travel award this season. This is what I'm just personally thinking. I think those two will dominate the EU competitive season because I think they strike the balance from like between being able to attend a lot of events and also just consistent consistently excelling.
00:51:09
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. No, I think that, I think that's a great prediction, right? If you look at, uh, specific regions, right? If you look at LATAM, I would definitely peg, um, hard Jeff and Marto to probably be two of the top players that attend enough events and also perform well in NA. You could argue, uh, you know, Lyle Jeffs and maybe rise, you know, to be two players that are going to top cut, no matter where they go. I think that's a very safe bet for Colin and Palasha. And.
00:51:33
Speaker
ah To your point about either flaming out early or just really succeeding on day two, I think you you really drew up a good dichotomy because maybe some players just really know what they know and they're not as wide or as deep as others. For example, I look at a player like Ryze or Doonbug. I think they are so accomplished and the the latter is probably even a better example because he was able to go from Um, from EU at EUIC finishing second overall against EU trainers who definitely played differently than North American trainers. And then he was able to turn around, come back to the US and win an event in the US. And when you ask him if he changed his play style and he, you know, to accommodate for that, he said, no. So I think some trainers maybe just have more depth and maybe Colin knows his team really well, but maybe he isn't like that broad in terms of his knowledge yet. I don't know. Maybe I'm talking out of my butt, but either way,
00:52:24
Speaker
We're going to find out what Colin does next. and Colin on day two reminds me of Elite in the U.S. because um Elite losing to Wedaj in the grand finals in Baltimore was the first time he had lost a grand finals game in three years. In three grand finals appearances, that was the first time he dropped a single game. Ended up dropping the the tournament in the end, but at the same time, like Tremendous closers both of them elite and Colin both insanely talented closers. So we'll see what happens But there were two other trainers. I wanted to shout out first one for obvious reasons is Tonton Batous. I think that Tonton is is the mad scientist over a team builder, right? I know I know you're the the mad engineer the mad scientist, but I don't know maybe we need the mad chef I don't know maybe we can call Tonton some give him some other nickname but his team building I
00:53:14
Speaker
i think I think I'm good and I'm somewhat creative. I don't think I'm on Tonton's level. like If you look at his team... um There is a Pangoro on there, and that's the fourth spiciest Pokemon. He brought Skarmory, he brought Charjabug, neither of like, Skarmory we have seen on Tomahawk's team who, by the way, like, yeah also top cut again in this event. um But we we did see that in in North America and New Will, actually, for the first time. When we saw Charjabug, everybody thought Charjabug was gone, but it actually ended up just being a perfect meta read now that
00:53:52
Speaker
Most of the cloud sires were actually out of the picture. Yeah. Um, Greninja, which I think was the star of the show. So far, even
Innovative Strategies and Outcomes
00:54:00
Speaker
some zoomer because it just like outpaces so massively it has stab hydro cannon and has one of the best fast moves in the game with water shuriken and it found a lot of targets. And even though it was.
00:54:14
Speaker
a little sad frog whenever Tonton had to go down shields. And, um, even if a line against the shadow can tomorrow act, it doesn't really appreciate taking a bone club and yeah does lose that matchup down a shield. Um, I think there were a lot of battles where it was just really fun or watching these really fast paced night slashes and hydro cannon being spammed. and Yeah. Tonton.
00:54:38
Speaker
Amazing Batman also just always a joy to watch with your steam compositions. I think there's so much merit to the volt switch pressure. You know, a lot of people, uh, outside of the occasional shadow Magna zone, like we saw with Lurgan rocket in Lille, we're not seeing too much electric fast attack pressure.
00:54:54
Speaker
And I feel like the vault switch, I remember several games where he would vault switch down his opponent, whether it would be a zoom roll, toxic packs, even neutral match ups, you know, like an area dose or something. The vault switch really closed a lot of games for him. And it was really impressive to see how he managed it. And ah yeah, not not the best team against something like a zoom roll, which seems to be a little bit of a recurring theme for Tonton. He doesn't seem to to accommodate very well for a zoom role, but with Greninja, as well as ah Pangoro on your team and Claude Sire, you really need some good answers for it. so ah But it was really cool to see Tonton succeed with such a wild team. I mean, we're sitting across from him, I'm sure all of his
00:55:32
Speaker
opponents were pulling out their hair. You know, look at the team sheet. Like what the hell is this? You know, how am I going to beat this? And he's such a talented player. He can make these Pokemon work, which is actually really, really, uh, stellar. I mean, top cutting with Greninja. And then last, last season seeking, I don't know if there's anybody that does it like Thompson. Um, but I also wanted to highlight Annacor as well.
00:55:52
Speaker
Of course we know Anicor because he was the co-host on Battle Cats for a while and he did ah some tournament competitions here and there, but I was honestly really impressed with what Anicor was cooking up this weekend. Definitely very fun to watch. He had wins over Wolfpack, Hikami, and the Gengar life. His only two losses were too so technical and colon. And if you're losing to anyone in EU, there is no shame in losing to those two players. They're some of the best to ever do it. So, uh, and of course, a very animated on stage, like I alluded to earlier, rocking in his chair, go back. So I seriously go back, watch it in two times speed. It is absolutely conical because he is swiveling like, like no other chair. And again, I'm not trying to make him feel embarrassed or anything, but everybody has their own kind of like posture that they do when they play. And there's nothing wrong with that. So it's all in good fun, but Anna core is really impressive. And Tonton's team building is just chef's kiss. It's amazing.
00:56:47
Speaker
I like the Anacor shout out. I also think that that was one of the moments where I think it was against Colin, right? That was um where he ultimately got knocked out. Yeah. Where I think he basically had, was it game two? I think it might've been a game that could have sealed it for him even. Where if he won that, he would have progressed to the next round.
00:57:11
Speaker
um And he did try to wait for a fast move to come through to not allow the catch, even though the timer wasn't up, but that is secondary to the point that I was trying to make. But I think Aniko was waiting for a fast move to show on his side. But sometimes the game has this thing where um if you just stand still, it doesn't show the animation from the opposing Pokémon anymore.
00:57:37
Speaker
yeah So Anicor just sat there waiting for multiple seconds, um allowing, I think it was a Drapion to just farm up energy and basically flip a game that seemed one for Anicor on its head again. And that was a really unfortunate situation because that was just the game acting up, but in a way that isn't really rematchable because obviously,
00:58:01
Speaker
We know you had that plan in your head, but you can't really try to overturn a match result based on, oh, but I would have done that if I saw a thing that I didn't see. So it was it was really tough for both Anacor as a competitor and the judges um to maneuver through that situation. And I wish it had happened in a different way, um but it just showed that It was like really close to just continuing his his run with a double steam, steel line and an a Iraq, when which yeah most people don't even have one single steel on, on their team. and
00:58:41
Speaker
um Yeah, I reckon it also not necessarily the spider of choice this weekend, but looked like a very strong t strong pick to um shut down some of that dugong play that we saw a lot of players rely on because Buck and Water is one of the few, like I think maybe even the only typing that resists ice and ground coverage.
00:59:03
Speaker
Yeah, I know exactly the moment ah you're referring to. If I if i remember right, um Colin had Malamar in the field, he had Drapion in the back, and he had his switch timer was available, so he was able to to switch out and catch like you like you alluded to.
00:59:18
Speaker
and It was a really tough position because Anacor had the sand slash. He was going to throw the charge attack. ah He waited for the side waves to come through. and um In my mind, I was looking at it like Colin has built himself such an insurance policy here because he can either catch and and make you know force Anacor to wait, or he can just build up energy and throw. and Either way, it's going to be super uncomfortable.
00:59:42
Speaker
So it really came down to just a half second decision for an accord to make. And you could see invisibly kind of like throws hands up, you know, throw his head back and say, Oh man, when, when calling gets his charge attack off, because if you watch from Colin's perspective, the sand slash doesn't move at all. And he's able to get to two additional side waves and then the super power. And that's all she wrote. And that's game. Right. So really, really tough position for an accord to be in and.
01:00:07
Speaker
and Like you said, he's got a lot to be proud of and I hope that that that game bug does not discourage him from competing again because that was actually a really ah really fun storyline to watch. um yeah I think his team building was actually one of the most interesting and impressive out of a lot of very unique teams that we saw um in day two in the tournament overall. So yeah, I think he's onto something and he should just keep cooking.
01:00:35
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. So I alluded to it earlier when we, when we look at the top cut, we've all we've already touched on this a little bit, but the top cut in Leo, something very strange happened that I, as far as my Mary serves me has not happened, uh, ever before, or at least has not happened for a long time. Um, obviously when you come into day number two and you have a top 16, you have eight on the winter side and eight on the loser side.
01:00:58
Speaker
So, Leel appears to be the first time that every single player on the loser's side finished outside of the top eight in standings. That means that all four of the trainers who fell from the winner's side bracket to the loser's side won their next match and ah and essentially eliminated everyone that had come in to day two on the loser side of the bracket. So when you look at the final standings, one through 16, you have eight W's in a row from one through eight and then eight L's from nine through 16, which is again, like it's like a minor thing. You don't really you don't realize it's probably not that important either. But it still seems cool to notice that that when the winner's side players came down to the loser side bracket, not a single one of the four of them lost and effectively eliminated everyone who had come in on the lo on the loser side for Sunday.
01:01:49
Speaker
So that is pretty cool. And I also think it might have at least in part to do with, um, a slight difference in terms of experience, because if you look at the trainers that come, came down from the winter side, like just look at our top eight, uh, if we go through it, Tomahawk UK has been in grand finals three times. Tom, Tom Tombatous is an international champion.
01:02:16
Speaker
and has been in ah regional grandfins two additional times loggan rocket um, perennial world top world's top cutter and our very first regional champion. Um, so technical previous little grand finalist and just one of the most accomplished grassroots battlers. Galaxical Bolton last year's little champion. Palasha multiple times, original champion, Colin multiple times, original champion. And then boom, who just wanted all has been first to legend in like, I think four seasons ago in GBL. I think has like a peak, you know, of more than.
01:02:52
Speaker
3,800. Wow. So like, if if that is the caliber of bettas that made day two on the winner's side, um, I think there's just such a wealth of competitive experience, whether it be in play Pokemon or in grassroots competitions, um, that you don't really get down on yourself as much if you go down to the loser side from from that position, just because you have done it before, you know you can do it again. You also know that you just went up against one of the titans of the EU scene, and whoever your're your next opponent may be, they are probably really, really good, but they might not be quite as scary as somebody um
01:03:43
Speaker
like Palasha and yeah like those types of players. Yeah, no, I agree. i you have just this Whatever region you go to, you have a a group of people that you think you know could take it all at any given time, will likely be top cut, you you know have have formerly top cut or even one events in the past. And when you see that group of names, no matter if you go to EU, LATAM, APAC, wherever,
01:04:09
Speaker
you're going to get that same feeling. And I feel like there are a lot of challengers. There are a lot of players that ah have been competing for a while that are improving by leaps and bounds. But there are definitely there's definitely another tier, you know, to borrow from Wadaj's tier list. There's definitely another tier of player that exists ah in the championship series. And it's definitely um formidable and sometimes, you know, intimidating to go up against somebody like that. So I i agree with you. I think that that's probably ah what happened.
01:04:36
Speaker
But it's just funny, you know, how the W's and L's all lined up. But I think it's time we can talk about Boom, our grand champion, because he deserves a lot of praise. I mean, this was one hell of a first time appearance. Yeah, like, honestly, he's I kind of think of of Boom as, um, I don't know, like Europe's answer to those NA wonder kids.
01:05:05
Speaker
alongside players such as Patriman, Emmy Riedel and PVP David, maybe like that's the the for a horseman of um teenage sensations from the EU. And I think like you always think of esports competitions as something that is for young people rather than for old old people. um Maybe in part because of possible time investment if you don't have to work a full-time job just yet, but also just because
01:05:37
Speaker
it's It's just a lot of quick decision making. And if you're old, you might get slow over time when it comes to that. Yeah. And yeah, I was, I was like, not surprised at all to see boom, do it this well. um But yeah, like you just, like i I'm still a little bit bewildered by just like the Quagsire play that always seems to be like the key to victory um for for some of the top players in like both the North America and EU because it feels like a Pokemon that is so overlooked. um I think there were only two Quagsires in day two, on no three I think, Anicorn, Jun, ch and um obviously Boom brought it. yeah But
01:06:29
Speaker
It feels like such a sleeper pick still, even though it just consistently does super well for everybody who brought it. And I think that was on display um against the best of Europe, against Palasha and against Colin as well, where, okay, like.
01:06:47
Speaker
You have your pseudo grass type in Ariados. You don't really have real grass types anymore because it's too much poison. We can't do that. Unless you're a Galaxian and then you don't care. just leave to You just ram superior down their throats, which he did constantly. Exactly. But if you don't have that brute force superior option, then you kind of have to rely on those trailblazers for your grass type coverage. and um if you If you have an Aqua Tailor who just gets to move so, so quickly, ah and like the increased much-shot damage might also actually play a role here, then you probably have actually a Pokémon that is still a contender that we should see more of at the at the future originals. And I wonder whether that is the just like the meta implication from from Boom's victory, that we might see more people
01:07:40
Speaker
more people adopting that that shadow quag because it just feels like there's very few hard counters to it. um One thing that I was a little bit surprised to see is um fairly few for alligator, which yes um that sounded like I made that on purpose with all the Fs, but um yeah, we have triple a we have a Shadow Feraligatr from Anicore and from Sercori. And then we only have a non-Shadow Feraligatr from Tomahawk UK. And that's it for Feraligatr and Top Cut, I think. So yeah um I think Boom's team was slightly soft to that Pokémon.
01:08:22
Speaker
Um, just because I was wondering like, Oh, what what actually scares the quack style? But, um, if you manage to either play around it or just dodge it entirely, then the door is wide open to just bring that Pokemon every time and get a lot of mileage out of it.
01:08:39
Speaker
Yeah, the the absence of Feraligatr, and we haven't really talked too much about overall meta, but the absence of Feraligatr and Claude Sire and Diggersby, where the hell is Diggersby? I think these are these are conversations we we still need to have, but i'm I actually agree with you a lot.
01:08:55
Speaker
I was never super hot on Feraligatr. I don't want to say I'm i'm like that meme where the guy is celebrating over Feraligatr's grave, you know, like rip Feraligatr, but I never was super impressed with it. I think it's very, very flexible. Some players in NA like Elam are able to play the absolute hell out of that Pokemon and play it so well. But yeah, I mean, not seeing it here, you see much more Azumarill. You see much more Dewgong. You see different, more flexible water types that are a bit bulkier as well.
01:09:23
Speaker
Maybe we are gravitating towards that, but the point you made about Shadow Quagsire reminded reminding me of the Toy Story meme where Andy's like, I don't want to play with you anymore. And he just like throws the the toys away. That's kind of what it feels like when somebody, something gets nerfed, you know, we'll look at something like, like a Skarmory with Tan Tan Batu. So we'll look at Quagsire and people will say, Oh, a Mudshot was nerfed. Shadow Quagsire is awful now. It's no good. But you have people like Hot Pocket who brought it to Baltimore, you know?
01:09:52
Speaker
I think there's there's a lot of picks that are kind of like that. And we actually have even more in the little top cut. um And i just I just always love to um not only look at player storylines, but also at meta implications. OK, what happened that informs maybe what people will bring to Gdansk? And I think um we did see the resurgence of um Pokemon that really excelled in the previous meta, or even in metas before the previous meta, that were like kind of written off, but now actually feel like they have some play again, just because people disregard them in their team building. People just don't bring checks to them. There's um the Shadow Magnezone on Logan Rocket's team. I think that was probably even his and MVP in that run. And I can't see Magnezone with a shadow or even non-shadow, because non-shadow actually has
01:10:45
Speaker
the perk of beating Shadow Drapion in two-shirt scenario, which the the shadow cannot replicate. um I can see that two feature on more teams, because even though you have to be very of um those ground types, there's typically just one per team of six. And if there's one answer to your Pokémon on a team of six, you're still more likely than not to have it on a positive matchup.
01:11:10
Speaker
um And you also kind of make your opponent a little more predictable in what they can bring to to a battle. So that also gives you some information ahead of time. I think Magna's own very strong pick, if only for bench pressure. I would assume that um at least the more adventurous team builders will try to build around it for the next tournaments.
01:11:29
Speaker
um Then we had obviously Tonton, Skarmory, and Chargibug picks. Chargibug, maybe the map is on for people who don't like to risk it all as much. Can't take a move. It's a little more flexible into stuff like Gasteron, where you deal ah like take neutral damage, deal neutral damage.
01:11:48
Speaker
image with the accesses. You have to that as an option. And then we also saw a return of wall-rhine, to some degree, that actually did top-cut on Toe Tactical's team and on the Gengar Life's team. And I want to take partial credit for that, because I did run a shadow wall-rhine in a practice tournament, for the simple reason that, unlike Dewgong, which um really struggles because of its pacing, even though it has a lot of great utility with its debuffs and its bolt,
01:12:18
Speaker
um It really doesn't do too well into Ariados and Malamar, just because those Pokémon outpace it and have super effective coverage against it. And while they still have super effective coverage against Walrein, with the um faster pacing of icospheres, those Pokémon actually can't counterswap into a Walrein safe swap.
01:12:40
Speaker
So I think that is also a Pokemon that has been a little underappreciated. And it's actually a real contender, not a straight downgrade to Dewgong at all. But well, that's something that um can be a real challenge to deal with, especially if it's head on energy.
01:12:58
Speaker
I remember when the max out season first rolled around, you and I were talking about our anti-metapix. I said, ISIS is the way to go. We talked about Sandslash, we talked about Obama's snow. And I said, yeah, even wall rain. And you were like, wall rain. And you were like, wall rain, really? ah so And I said, yeah, even wall rain. And maybe it was Copian back then, but I'm glad that it actually is coming back around.
01:13:20
Speaker
It is. It's a good cound it's ah very bulky Pokemon. And like you said, the pacing of icicle spear, it did get a damage increase or one or two seasons ago. So it is a little bit, um, harder hitting, but it was fun. And in the hands of somebody like photo tactical, it's a, it really went far, which is fun to watch. Um, we saw a purified, a little, a lowland radicate. I think that was the first time we've seen purified, a lowland radicate ever make top cut, if I'm not mistaken. So world's first for panda light.
01:13:48
Speaker
which is definitely I think it was so cool to see Panalite face off against Tonton Matus because I think Tonton famously had the eradicate on his own legend team and almost felt as if fealite Panalite took Tonton's legend team, build a team of six around it.
01:14:06
Speaker
And then just challenged its creator with the Raticade. And the Raticade actually did so much. It got to two returns against the Chargewalk taking both shields and just like really setting Panalite up for success in the final matchup. And I think there was another moment where it felt as if the more experienced competitor just barely got away with um yeah the game at the end because I think there was like a crunch available to take out Tonton's Claude Sire. But um I think Panellite wanted to commit to the harder heading move and just didn't throw it, yeah even though I think it would have been enough to knock out. So yeah um that was just like a very, very slight miscalculation that
01:14:51
Speaker
Um, prevented this newcomer with a very unique team from even breaking into top eight. And yeah, I really hope to see more from panelite, especially with a creative team composition like that.
01:15:02
Speaker
Yeah, speaking of ah of not being able to capitalize, I think it was day number one, Hikami was playing someone, Hikami was playing Shadow Hippowdon, and I think they were going up against a shadow for alligator it might have been. i My memory fails me, but if they would have thrown the weather ball, I went to PB Poke immediately afterwards. I said, wait, shadow versus shadow, this should be enough. And Hikami did not throw the the rock weather ball, but I'm convinced it would have been a KO. So I always love to see Shadow Hippowdon succeed. One of my favorite kind of meme ah Pokemon, you know, along with Alolan Executor and Garbodor. I think those Pokemon are all awesome.
01:15:39
Speaker
But, um, yeah, I think it's definitely, and it ah but it goes back to what I said earlier about kind of like experience versus newer or not newer players, but maybe just of less experienced players who have not sat in the, the so-called hot seat in a grand final situation or are deep into a Top Gun situation. There's definitely a, a, an edge that experience gives you in a highly competitive environment. Um, but unless you're on any other shout outs you want to make, uh, I think we can talk about some grand finals action.
01:16:08
Speaker
Well, I think we should do that. Awesome. Awesome. So boom comes in on the winner's side. He takes on Colin six coming from the loser's side bracket, which is definitely not something that we typically see, you know, Colin very, very accomplished. And boom, coming into his first grand finals, it looked pretty dire after the first set. I have to admit because boom was able to win game one, but then Colin comes back in reverse sweeps three. Oh, in order to force the reset, I thought boom might be in trouble.
01:16:36
Speaker
and something really needed to change. um I'm curious if you had any thoughts on that first set of the grand finals, because to me, it just felt like an Airdos, Drapion, energy management, switch pivot, just marathon. It was absolutely a chess match to watch. Honestly, I didn't actually take notes ah from these great grand finals because I was actually outside doing my adventure instance trying to catch a Galarian Moltres. I do have one, but I would love to have more just to trade them away to um people that might not have one yet.
01:17:14
Speaker
Um, and so therefore I was like watching the little screen on the side ah and I listening to the, the shout casters and casting the battles. And every time I, I focused on what was going on, it was just like, okay, this Ariados is double lunch. The other one is just one time lunch. The switch clock is about to come up. there is a common play available with the Drape on that stored energy. it was It was a lot. It was a lot of poison stinging, a lot of spamming. And I think this was also like a situation where it wasn't quite the situation between Colin and Paula where they both just ran mirror teams and occasionally mirror lines. um But it was still so similar in that both trainers just
01:18:04
Speaker
Like they had a Malamar, they had an Ariados, they had a Shadow Drapion. And I think all of these three Pokemon looked really good. yeah So they came out a lot and it was really just, okay, do I keep track of everything here? Do I know where I can over farm? And um with all those charge attacks being thrown with all the switching, it was really just a game of, okay, who has the better memory of where the game is at right now?
01:18:32
Speaker
Yeah, incredibly well said. It's so challenging. like Like I was saying earlier, the full court press analogy where it doesn't feel like there's any easy opening. like No matter what ah route you choose, you have to be 100% aware and in the moment of of how things are going. And when we moved to the bracket reset, I felt like the shadow quag sire that you have been you've brought up multiple times.
01:18:54
Speaker
That was the game winner in games three and four for boom to win the actual tournament itself. I think shadow quacksire absolutely turned the tide. Very, very impressive. A nasty set of farm downs. I think it was, if I'm not mistaken, it was either game. No, it was game four of the bracket reset.
01:19:10
Speaker
ah Shadow Quaxire farmed down two different Pokemon, if and I'm not mistaken, the Malamar and the Drapion. And it just ended up absolutely exploiting all that energy lead know and just blowing up Colin. And Colin's game of delicate balancing finally came to an end as Boom was able to claim the championship title. But I have some pretty cool facts about the the grand finals, about Boom himself.
01:19:32
Speaker
The first fact ah coming ah to the grand finals topic is that we're so accustomed to winning switch winning game, right? You saw that a lot with inadequacies gameplay at worlds. You know, we see it all the time in GBL, right? If you can control switch advantage, it gives you an exponentially better chance to win the game. This grand finals was absolutely bizarre because I just want you to guess. So there were there were eight games played in the grand finals between the first set and the reset.
01:20:02
Speaker
I want you to guess so how many times the player that controlled switch won the game out of eight games.
01:20:10
Speaker
The question is what, what does control switch even mean in a scenario that is so neutral? So, so I'm going from the the opening matchup. So when your leads go onto the field, if your lead either gets KO'd or if you switch it out, then your opponent gains control of switch.
01:20:28
Speaker
ah Okay, okay. that's That's a good definition. So out of eight games, how many did the person that controlled switch win the game? I want i want to say it three times. The answer is one time.
01:20:41
Speaker
Holy. yeah so So Switch was actively detrimental to to winning the game there. Yes. it it Honestly, it was. So for example, game one, Colin gets control of Switch because Boom gets a defense drop and goes to his drapey on. Boom wins the game. Game two, Boom controls Switch because Colin insta-swaps out of the Shadow Quack Cyber's Shadow Kanto Marowak matchup, goes into his dugong, and guess what? Colin and ends up winning that game.
01:21:08
Speaker
The only game where a player controlled Switch Advantage and won was Game 3 with Colin. He led his Malamar into Shadow Quagsire, took a shield, ah switched switched into Drapion, ah Colin went into the Mira match, and then from there on, Colin was able to win the game. All the other games, it is the exact opposite.
01:21:29
Speaker
Boom control switch in game number four, Colin wins. Reset happens, right? Colin control switch, boom wins. Boom control switch game two, Colin wins. And then the last two, as you can guess, boom won the games. Guess who controlled switch? It was Colin. So this, this was actually a really interesting showcase because so many times this is, this is why, right? Before we started recording, I said Louisville and Leo could not be more different because I felt like when Arrow controlled switch, he won the damn game pretty easily. When Lio controlled Switch, he won the game. In this series, in Lael, it was absolutely the opposite. I think there's a good takeaway in there for competitors though, which is that within this meta, there's so few Pokemon that really are hard punishes to certain options.
01:22:21
Speaker
that, um especially with how the switch timer works now, you just can't afford to be more proactive with your switching and ah with making aggressive plays. So honestly, if you just go by the advice of bring neutral stuff and switch aggressively, I think that's like almost... ah hey It probably helps you you win some matches that um you might have lost if you where like to ah if you still had your roots in the old meta where you switch advantage really mattered because matchups were more polarizing.
Role of Energy and Strategy in Matches
01:22:58
Speaker
You had lantern versus camry kind of matchups and um you had the 60 second switch clock. And right now, like you you said, OK, this is a little thing. It might not have been a Louisville thing.
01:23:11
Speaker
um But that might just, that might only go for like Eros team specifically and yeah um the grand finals as an example of that. Because like I was like really um heavily invested in the run of Gordon if Lash was a teammate of mine and who did play Lyle early in day two. And um they had a very similar team with um only Arctobax on Gordon's side and um Shadow Canto Marowak on Lyle's side being the difference.
01:23:40
Speaker
And they essentially also brought the mirror team to I think the game two of that series. Um, but because Lyle played the lead out in a way that he aggressively swapped what I think was a Drapion, um, into, um, the, the lead Pokemon when that was basically within range of one fast of, of being KO'd and that could have been a Simul KO.
01:24:04
Speaker
Um, being that one poison sting ahead, essentially set Lyle up for victory in that game. So giving up switch advantage intentionally, um, just to go ahead, like be ahead on energy.
01:24:22
Speaker
um for a potential mirror match against the Drapion or um another scenario where you really, really want to outpace because so many things have this ah spacing of, okay, um five, two turn faster takes to a move. yeah um like It can really be important to just um make those aggressive plays rather than the concerts conservative ones. Never allow your opponent farm in this matter. Energy goes such a long way.
01:24:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think that's, that's a clippable quote right there because, because seriously, energy matters so much. And like we talked about a couple of times in Colin versus polisha, Colin versus boom. I felt like both of those series were so heavily dictated by energy and you absolutely love to see it. There was not much more soul draining in the entire competitive go PvP world than knockdown to Trevenant.
01:25:15
Speaker
Than you know f freaking those awful times lantern into knock down there are not many more soul draining matchups than those and the fact that we are light years past that kind of RPS nonsense is just the best feeling because it really shows skill expression it really allows us to demonstrate what the depth of this game really is and how far people can take it so I agree with you. I think energy matters more. And, and when we look at team compositions, maybe arrows team composition was more to blame than it was the, um, the actual game play itself. Interesting fact about boom. He played four games on stream and day number one and 17 games on day number two between his grand finals appearances and day two battles. My question for you is wireless. He played 21 total games. How many games did he bring Ariados to?
01:26:08
Speaker
um That's a good question. me Let me see how the teams look right here. Yeah, he played a bunch of different teams. He played ah a pangoro team. He played all kinds of weird stuff. And this is an easy answer, actually. I know you weren't actively watching the whole stream, so I won't hold it against you. But and out of 21 games,
01:26:29
Speaker
I'll just say 21 times at this point. You're correct. Out of 21 games, he brought the spider 21 times. And in his winners winner's interview, he said the two best Pokemon in the meta right now are Eriados and Quagsire. Everything else is up for debate. And Dunspus especially was awful every time you brought it. I remember that as well.
01:26:52
Speaker
ah yeah he did not Yeah, you think you think Dunsparce is like really useful right now because so many people bring Ariados and Drapion and it is a good answer to that but like Dunsparce Even though it is better now in neutral situations, it just never gets same type of attack bonus on its attacks. yeah So especially against debuffers like Dugong and Ariados, a matchup that looks positive on the surface can actually be a lot less comfortable than you would have liked it to be. yeah um Add to that the Somalamar and its superpowers, add to that
01:27:29
Speaker
Um, during resisted damage to, to shadow Kanto Marowak and just being outbought against Azumarill. There's just like dance pass is still flexible. It's still good. But I think the meta is a bit too hectic, too fast paced for it almost, yeah because it still is a little bit clunky with those three turn roll outs. I think that Ariados turned up the tempo of the meta ah to a high degree.
01:27:55
Speaker
And I think that in the Airdos era, I think that Dunsparce is going to be less and less common. ah yeah Funny enough, boam actually bo um Boom actually brought Dunsparce one game in the grand finals. It was game four of the first grand finals. He even led his Dunsparce into Airdos, but he ultimately lost that game. So after he lost, after you know such a strong lead, I'm sure he was ready to put Dunsparce on the bench, and that is where it stayed.
01:28:20
Speaker
But, uh, it's definitely very impressive grand finals again. Um, huge props to, to call in and to our champion boom. That was a treat of a grand finals. Very, very fun to watch. And, uh, I'm excited to see where the meta goes. I think it's very unsettled at this point. And, uh, yeah, I'm excited to see what the future holds.
New Moves and Meta Impact
01:28:39
Speaker
Um, Speedy, I think we have breaking news. Um, do you want to talk about a monkey? A monkey. Oh, I I'm, I'm seeing it. Yeah. I'm getting some tags.
01:28:50
Speaker
and It is, it has risen from the dead. All right. So we're getting some, some leaks here, right? These, this is from a Poke miners and and some other folks are sharing this information around rage. Fist is coming and an energy value was just discovered. And we were like kind of on the fence where there would be.
01:29:13
Speaker
45 energy move that would have been a little underwhelming maybe even a lot so we were kind of thinking that 40 might be might be a balanced amount of energy for what is essentially just a far stronger power punch but no it is a 35 energy move ragefist ghost type charge attack will be available to both prime ape and annihilate um on the manki community day So that will be a must play community day as this is a super cheap attack. Um, that comes with a guaranteed buff and should really be interesting, especially on primary. If you have the combination of rage fist and close combat as this, this big same time attack bonus move that you get to super quickly with the karate chops, which.
01:30:05
Speaker
Nylape does not have access to it will be stuck with counter, which will still be usable or will it be usable again, but, um, might be a little more clunky and not as dynamic as Primape would be with that move. Um, and yeah, I'm excited to see how that will change the meta. This will be, um, available after the, um, and like at least after the Gdansk regional. So.
01:30:30
Speaker
um It will not be something that we will have to worry about immediately, but yeah, it looks like.
Preview of Upcoming Events
01:30:35
Speaker
um Either we get the return of Annihilape, or we get the return of, I guess, Primeape made it to the grand finals once in the hands of Anhal. It did, yeah. That was like ages ago, and I think it was Peoria. um And back in the day, it had a 100% win rate because it only came to one Battle Hall tournament. Um, so yeah, maybe, maybe it will lose some of that win rate, but it should be a contender actually. And, um, challenge those pangoro that currently, um, claim the spot of top fighting type. Yeah. And, and targeting that, uh, apparently non-existing core of diggers be toxapex, which apparently is no longer an issue, but, um, to to put this in context for folks, if, if these numbers are correct, 35 energy.
01:31:22
Speaker
50 damage and chance to buff attack 100 percent that essentially is night slash but you get stab and instead of going up two attack stages which is what night slash gives you you get an automatic one stage increase so this is definitely a new style of attack that i don't think we have an equivalent for currently maybe i'm mistaken but this is going to be really fun um i'm reading some actual comments here Arcade guy says, it's nice slash except the attack buff is guaranteed. Nice. But again, it's only one stage, not two. ah Pokemon Yoda says this will be a brilliant move for PvP. Paldayan Brooklyn boy says at Janka's Pokemon. Look at this.
01:32:06
Speaker
He's definitely looking yeah, and then I see a Pikachu in the Pokemon Center with a breathing mask And it says no shadow prime ape and I have frustration ah so ah People have have very mixed opinions of this so far As somebody who has exactly one shadow primate that doesn't have frustration anymore, I am happy enough with these news. um But I will have to pick and choose whether I want to evolve it to annihilate or whether I will.
01:32:36
Speaker
keep it as a primate. We will see. But I think that's a great segue because you mentioned Gdansk and I think it's a great segue to talk about the upcoming events in Play Pokemon. So November is going to be action packed. ah November 2nd and 3rd is Gdansk in Poland. We have Buenos Aires the next weekend, November 9th and 10th in Argentina.
01:32:57
Speaker
Then we have LAIC, which is going to be a big one. I know a lot of Latin trainers will be going and I also know a lot of trainers from EU and n NA ah and maybe APAC as well will be in attendance. That's November 15th through the 17th. And then we have Sacramento for November 22nd through the 24th. So I think every weekend except the weekend of the 30th, if not mistaken, and We have events, uh, in November. So it's going to be really, really action packed and annihilate and prime ape with reach fist might be contenders. And if you're listening to this right now, you have 234 days to get your championship points, to try to climb those leaderboards and qualify for worlds. I mean, this is going to be really fun. We've got two Latin events, an NA and an EU event all in November. Yeah, I think I should, I should really, really hurry up and get my championship points. So.
01:33:48
Speaker
I will actually be competing at the Gdansk event and then also later in the month in Stuttgart. I'm unfortunately skipping LAIC this year, but I know that Europe's fate is in good hands. I think Palasha is going. I think Colin is going as well. so um Definitely some top tier European battles on their way. Oh and that confirms it. You're right, Stuttgart as well. So we've got Gdansk, Buenos Aires, LAIC, Sacramento, and Stuttgart. All all ah four weekends in November we've got a tournament. So if you love PvP, it's going to be a great month. ah I guess we can do in-game events really quickly. Yamask Research Day just passed. Did you have a fun one?
01:34:27
Speaker
um I found out about it happening um like three hours after it wrapped up for me for my time. so yes um i was I was working that afternoon, so um I couldn't have played it even if I knew about it. um So yeah, that was that was a no from me, but I know that a lot of people um got some of these really pretty shiny Galarian Yamas.
01:34:50
Speaker
which was like evolving to Runerigus, a fun Pokémon that hasn't really seen um a lot of play in this meta currently, but maybe it will be the next discovery because apparently we get something new every week now and I'm here to see um how the
Conclusion and Future Coverage
01:35:07
Speaker
meta develops. I want so badly for Runerigus to be good. I think it's one of the coolest Pokemon designs and Ground and Ghost is really sick, you know, same typing as Golurk. So maybe one day upcoming events. We've got the Halloween event this year, which should be good. We've got a very interesting spotlight hour on Tuesday with three Pokemon is instead of just one. We have Great League remix and a Great League Halloween cup. So we are escaping this absolute
01:35:33
Speaker
did nebula that we are in right now with master league and little Halloween. And we also get to, I was saying to people, I was saying and to people that go battle league returns tomorrow, not only like leaks change the go battle league returns tomorrow. I'm i'm happy. I'm happy about that. Maybe it's already back when you guys are hearing this at home. Um, I'm very much looking forward to Halloween cup. One of my favorites every year. I bring out the shadow Sharpedo and waterfall things down. It's a good time.
01:36:03
Speaker
that's ah i'm gonna I'm going to be on the lookout for that strategy. I'm also going to be playing a lot of games. so We've got Gigantamax apparently debuting this weekend as to what all this Dynamax Gigantamax is for. I don't really know, but we're going to figure out over time, I guess. And then the following weekend, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but the same weekend as Gdansk is actually go battle weekend. So that should be a fun one as well.
01:36:26
Speaker
But I think, uh, I think that's all that's on our calendars, PvP players, make sure to get some ghost types, mega evolve your Sableyes and Gengars when you're playing the Halloween event and otherwise, uh, stay safe and stay spooky. Unless you have any other final thoughts. I think there's also this one bonus that I read about today that if you go out on Halloween on the 31st, um, and catch some costume Pokemon of which there will be some old favorites, but also.
01:36:53
Speaker
some new ones such as the Froakie line, which would also be an interesting one to just catch as a costume Pokemon, maybe um do it like Tonton and bring a Greninja with a witch hat to an event. That would be fun. yeah um But even beyond those costumes, I think on Halloween specifically, there's a bonus that um allows those costume Pokemon to drop Rare Candy XL. And I don't know how common that will be.
01:37:20
Speaker
I actually would just assume that the drop rates will be relatively low, but I will definitely try to to make something work and see whether I can um get some of that valuable resource. All right. That is great information to know. I'm learning about it for the first time, but I definitely will be playing, be playing on Halloween for that, for that bonus particular, like you said, Halloween cup is great. And the Halloween event in particular has always been one of the best every single year. It's really, really good. So it's going to be a fun one to play. But.
01:37:49
Speaker
We covered the elves, we covered Louisville and Lille. We're heading into November with some action-packed tournaments. ah Depending on our work schedules and how things go, maybe we could do one a week. But again, if if something doesn't work out, we'll always just lump them together and try to cover every region and every tournament and give every champion their flowers. But that's why this has been a great episode. I appreciate your insights per usual, and I can't wait for the next one. I'm excited. All right. See you then.