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EP. 39 | Lille, Brisbane, Gdansk 2026 Recaps
123 Plays19 days ago
Hello, everyone! This is Episode 39 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.
We begin the show with our recap of the Lille Regional Championships, where Hikhami swept the Grand Finals and Grand Finals Reset with a stunning 6-0 record vs KeldeoSH. Then, we go down under to Australia, where g0ne1001 proudly defended their turf from an upset-minded pokemonemaker from Japan. Finally, we conclude the show with Gdansk, where PvpDavid07 and boem20 reminded us that competitive Pokemon GO is ultimately a young trainer's game. We also announce our winners of the Wild Area ticketed event! This, plus an analysis of EU's 2 new casters, addressing competitive burnout, and more.
So, if you're ready... go ahead and lock In, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction and Lille Championship Highlights
00:00:00
William Dunphey
Welcome into the Show 6 Podcast, where we break down the championship series for Pokemon Go. In this episode, we begin in Lille, where 162 trainers competed. The Frenchman Hikami proved to be unstoppable as he powered through the Grand Finals and Grand Finals Reset, winning six games in a row.
00:00:18
William Dunphey
Next, we head to Brisbane, where 43 trainers registered to compete. Outside of the Aussie battlers, 8 trainers from out of region placed within the top 25, including 6 from the TPC region.
00:00:29
William Dunphey
Australia prevailed in the end though, as GONE claimed the title. Finally, we conclude with another EU regional championship in Gdansk, where 95 trainers competed. PvP David pulled off a reverse sweep to deny Boom the bracket reset, taking the crown for himself in the end.
00:00:45
William Dunphey
The 2026 competitive season continues to be one of the most dynamic seasons ever filled with upsets, underdog stories, sudden meta shifts, and unpredictable finishes. We'll uncover why top players are seemingly unper underperforming, answer if the competitive community is healthy, and take a look forward to what we can look forward to in the coming weeks.
00:01:04
William Dunphey
That and so much more.
Brisbane and Gdansk Championships
00:01:06
William Dunphey
So if you're ready, lock in, good luck, and have fun.
00:01:32
William Dunphey
Welcome back everyone to the show six podcast where we break down the championship series in excruciating detail. We've got three tournaments to cover and a lot to talk about. Also our winners of the into the wild, ah I guess, contest that we posted about ah where we're going to be giving away two of those tickets for the upcoming event, which is going to be really exciting.
00:01:53
William Dunphey
I'm joined as always ah by my friend and co-host Z Zweilis. How are you feeling my friend?
00:02:00
zzweilous
Hello, Speedy. I am feeling good. i am feeling and'm feeling this is going to be a long episode once again, but I'm totally up for it. like There's so much to talk about. ah My region, the European region, has had two major events.
00:02:14
zzweilous
And honestly, like we talk about end of season meta changes a lot, like once every three months at the end of the day. This felt like we got a meta shift without a move update because honestly, like nothing looked the same after after len and Gdansk.
00:02:23
William Dunphey
true
00:02:33
William Dunphey
I agree. So, um, I'm just going to start this off just right off the bat. I'm gonna swing for the fences here. Uh, ZZ. Was there a meeting before each of these EU tournaments where all the trainers got together and they all made a pact to not play Bastion on? Where was this meeting held and what degree of secrecy was this meeting undertook and why why did the public not know about this?
00:02:58
zzweilous
um so you know speedy um there was no official meeting but like the main difference between a lot of things in europe and in north america is that um In Europe, we have a lot of regulations
European Meta Analysis
00:03:11
zzweilous
for stuff.
00:03:11
zzweilous
like If you look at the list of ingredients, it's ah usually a lot shorter in Europe when it comes to certain foods and stuff. and
00:03:19
William Dunphey
It's true.
00:03:19
zzweilous
I guess it's just the same for Show 6 teams that Bastiodon by the EU Commission is being labeled as an unhealthy Pokemon.
00:03:29
William Dunphey
Toxic?
00:03:29
zzweilous
and Therefore, we're just like which looking out for our citizens. and Therefore, it's just not legal to be brought into
00:03:39
William Dunphey
Hmm.
00:03:39
zzweilous
an EU tournament.
00:03:41
William Dunphey
So when we kicked off this episode, I didn't ever expect that we would draw a direct connection between Red 40 and Bastiodon. But here we are somehow ah drawing drawing the this straight line between Americans drinking Mountain Dew and red colored sodas and playing Bastiodon.
00:04:00
William Dunphey
Maybe maybe our our food says a lot about what we actually think. um But yeah, I was amazed, right? I was looking at teams with Zylas on them, with Abomasnow, with Scizor, Furret, ah even Florgis, right? You know, Florgis only beats Bastiodon in the twos.
00:04:16
William Dunphey
So I'm looking at all these matches. I'm thinking... What in the world is going on? Why do we not see more Rockface?
00:04:21
zzweilous
yeah
00:04:22
William Dunphey
I mean, after America has set the meta, you would think EU would say, okay, well, you know, we'll fall we'll follow a suit for a little while and see how it works. But no, there was, I swear, i swear to you, everybody, there was a secret pact.
00:04:34
William Dunphey
Everyone wore robes. It was in a dark room in secrecy. And all the EU trainers just swore not to play Bastiodon.
00:04:41
zzweilous
But like honestly, i don't even think that we as Europeans are morally superior for rejecting Bastiodon because when i When I look at the little top cut, we have three Unovan Stunfisk in the top four.
00:04:53
William Dunphey
True.
00:04:57
zzweilous
And then there's like two more in top eight. So I don't know. like I have feelings about the pancake. um I guess it's a very good core breaker, but it also has such horrendous neutral matchups.
00:05:07
William Dunphey
It is.
00:05:11
zzweilous
So you do kind of bank on being in a polarizing one, but in one that favors you. um And yeah, it's like, so one of the threads trends that emerged where previously at the start of the season um people were going on about credily people were going on about canto marowak a lot feel as if we saw a lot of galarian moltres and if we now look into lil's top eight i don't think i see a single galarian moltres i don't think it can to marowak even made it into day two and
00:05:31
William Dunphey
Nope.
00:05:44
William Dunphey
sope
00:05:45
zzweilous
While there is the occasional credily on the teams of Chris LB and Neutern Matzow, that was also not the star of the show anymore. Instead, we had Flogus rising up. We had Unovan Stunfisk being everywhere.
00:06:00
zzweilous
We had Ampolyon and Zwylus taking their first championship titles. So a very, very different meta and one that requires a very different reaction from what we saw in North America.
00:06:12
William Dunphey
The Galarian Moltres question is a very interesting one. I think there are really two reasons, right? And you can agree or disagree or maybe see something that I miss. ah The two reasons I can think of is ah first, the rise in fairy types.
00:06:27
William Dunphey
Belo Horizonte saw Zardy win with double fairy, Azumarill, and Ticaton. But outside of that, the surge in Florges seems to be a big reason why people are shying away from Galarian Moltres and a lot of dark types in general.
00:06:40
William Dunphey
ah The second reason is that there are other fliers in the meta. It used to feel like it was only Glare Moltres with maybe the occasional Corviknight here or there, but we saw a strong surge from Altaria in this meta. We saw a lot of Shadow Talonflame.
00:06:57
William Dunphey
ah Shadow Charizard was a thing for like a week, and I think people have have moved past that. ah But point still stands that there's more variety in terms of flying type coverage and you can kind of pick and choose different things to fit your niche. It doesn't feel like a requirement to play the dark flyer. I don't know if those are the two reasons that you pinpointed or if you see something else.
00:07:16
zzweilous
I think those reasons are pretty good ones. I think another like more general a point about Flyers is that we kind of moved past the mud slapping archetype of the ground type.
00:07:33
zzweilous
So whereas you could really shut down, say, a Gastrodon, or if you had shields up also a Cantum Arawak with your Galarian Moltres, just continuously sucker punching them on
00:07:41
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:07:46
zzweilous
being really, really dominant into that ground type damage. Now the premier ground type appears to be and electric type, instead taking down the Galarian Moltres with a relative ease, or even a Claude Sire, which um has Stone Edge for coverage and also is a pretty threatening matchup all of a sudden.
00:08:04
zzweilous
So there's still obviously like utility that your flier can provide to you. um but yeah there is an argument to be made that the utility that gallery and multus used to offer isn't all that valuable anymore um especially if you go for the standard moveset with fly and brave bird where like if you chose payback which we did see in pittsburgh as attack briefly that can actually make it so that you can land the payback and then if the unovan stun fist didn't shield that
00:08:19
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:08:40
zzweilous
you can dictate swap. So you would have to go down a shield, but after landing a payback, you actually get farm down a Unovan Stunfist taking one discharge. This is just like
00:08:50
William Dunphey
and
Regional Strategies and Meta Shifts
00:08:51
zzweilous
for the future, if anybody is interested in bringing back out the Galarian Moltres because targets are still there, right?
00:08:57
William Dunphey
yes
00:08:57
zzweilous
um At least in Lill, we saw a lot of Galarian Corsula select selling and a little bit in Lill, but even more so in Gdansk, we also saw the rise of Furet as the new true neutral Pokemon of the meta.
00:09:11
zzweilous
And if you can resist the Furred Sucker Punches, you also have a very positive matchup there as the Galarian Moltres. So while it is out of the meta for now, I can see a world in which Galarian Moltres fights for medals again in the near future.
00:09:20
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:09:28
William Dunphey
Yeah, I really appreciate what you said about targets. I mean, there's still ah apparently, ah at least looking here at the Leo results, there is actually a ghost on every single team, whether it's the glaring Corsula or the Shadow Dust Noir or the the Jelicent that Kushner brought, ah which is definitely a little bit on the spicy side, but there's still targets for it.
00:09:43
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:09:47
William Dunphey
And that flying type damage, whether it's fly, brave bird or the dark type damage of payback, it can go into most places ah neutrally, which I think is really is is really versatile and useful.
00:09:57
William Dunphey
It just feels like Altaria with that sub-dragon typing. ah Due to the lack of ice in the meta, I have noticed that. In seasons past, you know during the maxout meta, we had a lot of kind of ground versus ice ah you know kind of matchups going on.
00:10:12
William Dunphey
There's a lot less of that now. ah You don't have Ice Punch, you don't have Powder Snow on anything here. It really feels like the Altaria is just in the perfect spot to succeed, especially with the reworked Sky Attack and Flamethrower, which can still scare things like Scizor, some of its hardest counters.
00:10:27
William Dunphey
um What I think is interesting is that Florges first kind of popped up in APAC. I think we saw that in a few tournaments. I think it was prevalent in the Japanese tournament we talked about briefly as well.
00:10:40
William Dunphey
And it made its way over to EU. A lot of players and casters in NA are still Florges doubters. I think I talked talk to them about this and and they do not believe in it, but I don't know. That combination of water and grass type coverage is pretty potent. And then you get all those resistances that the fairy typing lends you as well. So you can really hang in a lot of matchups.
00:11:00
William Dunphey
Were you surprised at all by the flourishes?
00:11:00
zzweilous
I will say that a lot of NA casters also have a track record of doubting Pokemon that then do really well at the next tournament.
00:11:02
William Dunphey
Fair.
00:11:09
zzweilous
So there's that consider.
00:11:10
William Dunphey
Fair.
00:11:12
zzweilous
on But yeah, I kind of like, I'll say I expected the rise of Flogus to a degree. I feel like it's a Pokemon that can comfortably sit at a usage rate of like 15 to 20% and it wouldn't be crazy.
00:11:19
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:11:26
zzweilous
I feel like maybe it overshot that a little bit in Gdansk, but overall it's within like the margin of error that I expected it to be in in terms of usage.
00:11:40
zzweilous
And I think it's between pacing and flexibility, right? Because has a lot of the flexibility that Azumarilla gives you, being fairy type with water coverage.
00:11:52
zzweilous
um But you just pace so much faster. You're not just sitting there doing your little bubbles until after 15 turns you eventually reach a non-stab ice beam. You just get to manipulate the attack stat of yourself and your opponent so, so fast.
00:12:07
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:12:08
zzweilous
um And yeah I think it's um it's very similar to Furret in a way. As it's a Pokemon that has very neutral matchup that isn't super polarizing and also just has the pacing and the stat manipulation to become a very flexible option in the hands of many trainers.
00:12:31
William Dunphey
So I've been trying to, so before we started recording, I was trying to kind of categorize and classify each region's meta in terms of a theme, right? So i'll I'll read them off to you.
00:12:42
William Dunphey
I didn't tell you this was coming. So this is, we're going get ZZ's authentic reaction.
00:12:46
zzweilous
Thank
00:12:48
William Dunphey
ah So starting with NA, the phrase that came to mind was set and refine. So typically the first regional of the season is in NA. NA has a tendency to hyper optimize.
00:12:59
William Dunphey
So it follows that and NA tries to select only the strongest Pokemon and methodically grind at the margins of efficiency over time. I think a good example of this is something like Magic Mason's Umbreon team from a couple of seasons back or the Umbreon.
00:13:13
William Dunphey
over-reliance on top meta Pokemon during the Metacham era or refusing to play core breakers like Dragonair and Alola Ninetales during the Noctowl, Lantern, Trevenant era, right? Things like that all seem very NA coded.
00:13:27
William Dunphey
So for EU, I have Core Break and Iterate. So EU places high emphasis on Core Breakers and upsetting the existing meta. They have a strong desire to win with signature Pokemon and to crack the existing paradigm.
00:13:40
William Dunphey
This reliance on Core Breakers can sometimes lead to its own inverse sense of RPS in which matchups between Core Breakers can lead to unconventional ma or unconventional situations. So a perfect example for me when I think of this in EU, Townflame and Abomasnow.
00:13:57
William Dunphey
Both of them, stellar core breakers in their own rights, fill wildly different roles, but you don't see those two Pokemon paired up in NA because people are not thinking in that direction, right?
00:14:05
zzweilous
Yeah, I think that has never happened. And Hikami winning with both of these on his team was like the most EU thing to happen. Like that was on nobody's bingo card.
00:14:15
William Dunphey
Exactly. Exactly.
00:14:18
zzweilous
But again, like sometimes those moments pop up.
00:14:19
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:14:21
zzweilous
We had that in Dortmund a couple of years back. So it's just an EU thing.
00:14:24
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:14:26
William Dunphey
Yeah, I'm still working on my my LATAM and my OC breakdowns, or or I guess you would say like kind of like distillations of of the meta personality of the region.
00:14:31
zzweilous
yeah
00:14:37
William Dunphey
But for right now, for LATAM, I have Pinpoint and Protect. LATAM is very open to the idea of having one just incredible core breaker on the team and then having multiple Pokemon around it to support it.
00:14:50
William Dunphey
And the first example that comes to mind for me is JW Naldo and Toxapex back in LAIC in 2023. I mean, Pokemon that nobody sees coming, but actually being well supported and relied on heavily. But I don't know if that stands for every ah LATAM tournament or if that's a unified enough theory. So I'm still workshopping that.
00:15:08
William Dunphey
um
00:15:08
zzweilous
One thing, one thing, okay, I have like one more interjection for the LATAM theory, because one thing that I tend to observe during like LATAM tournaments, or at least on the graphics that get released for LATAM tournaments, is that not always, we did have Belo Horizonte where we had 18 unique species in top three.
00:15:08
William Dunphey
But the point I'm... Go ahead.
00:15:13
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:15:29
zzweilous
um But oftentimes you have teams that are maybe built in cooperation with one another because a lot of the top players are very well interconnected but that then look pretty much identical so you can easily get like an over representation of a pokemon like dedene like murkrow like tinkerton like fortress where maybe the origin of that is just the top players conspiring quote unquote to bring this one dominant team that they figured out would be a very
00:16:06
zzweilous
like, effective approach against the established meta.
00:16:10
William Dunphey
a
00:16:10
zzweilous
And then that leads to, like, oh, we have 75% of this Pokémon that we don't see anywhere else. Whereas was with EU, like, everybody wants to be special in a way, and everybody has their own little weird Pokémon that they like to bring.
00:16:17
William Dunphey
Fair.
00:16:25
William Dunphey
that's such That's such a good point. So the note that I took here was over-representation of specific Pokemon due to team's team building. So 7-Eleven, the GB Lindos, those examples stand out.
00:16:35
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:16:39
zzweilous
It's pretty much that.
00:16:40
William Dunphey
ah That's a really, really good insight. ah So I say all of this to circle back ah to to what I was trying to get at. When I when i look at the EU meta, um I see this kind of, I'm trying to think of the word to use, but kind of spreading out.
00:16:57
William Dunphey
the roles of each Pokemon and not having things so localized. What I mean by that is typically in NA, when you look for grass type coverage, there's one answer. It's Cradilly, you've got Grass Knot.
00:17:09
William Dunphey
Occasionally you'd have a Furret here or there, but that was kind of you know ah in the margins.
00:17:11
zzweilous
Thank
00:17:14
William Dunphey
But then you look at EU and you've got teams that have ah Furret and Cradilly or Furret and Florges, or maybe even all three. And you've got Trailblaze on two of those three and you've got Grass Knot on the other It really feels like EU doesn't mind spreading out the roles and kind of diversifying a bit more in order to kind of create a different balance, right?
00:17:34
William Dunphey
So you could have a you could have a ah shape and depending on on how you put items into it, you could feel the shape, but it really kind of takes on a different form once you have all the pieces in place, if that makes sense. Like the six Pokemon you use, you can still arrive at a cohesive team, but you can use a completely different formula to build the team.
00:17:56
zzweilous
Yeah, and I feel like we do see some of that represented in the little top card as well, where like even just people choosing such different fire flying types, using fire flying types in and of itself is not even that common of a thing.
00:18:01
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:18:14
zzweilous
Like Townflame exists and has been fairly successful in EU before, winning Frankfurt in the hands of an eloquence. um But what really stood out to me was For example, the Neuter and Madzal team, who is like one of the OGs, I must say, of the EU competitive scene. like A lot of grassroots success over the years without really having that big breakthrough tournament.
00:18:40
zzweilous
But like we know that this is a player who is capable and who has the fundamentals down. But this time, he chose to not bring Shadow Talonflame, not bring the classic Ember Shadow Charizard,
00:18:55
zzweilous
but instead opting for the Dragon Breath Shadow Charizard, which is like a viable sidegrade that nobody ever really uses.
00:19:04
William Dunphey
Sure.
00:19:04
zzweilous
But it proved so effective for him in this exact tournament. And I think that also goes to show that EU finds so many different ways and like for to arrive at the exact same coverage that everybody else has, but with such unique matchups and like sprinkled in um their own unique styles. and yeah play styles, I would say.
00:19:28
zzweilous
So yeah, this one-turn move of Dragon Breath being a lot better into the Fire Flying Mirrors because you do a neutral damage instead of resisted one, and you also have more maneuverability with um just being such a short-turn duration fast attack.
Upsets and European Competitions
00:19:44
zzweilous
I think those choices are, they they feel very EU to me, where you go a little against the grain and it often pays dividends. And I guess like one of the talking points for Lille was also how this approach let us arrive at a situation where we had a lot more upsets than we would have expected at our average tournament.
00:20:09
zzweilous
um
00:20:09
William Dunphey
Yeah. ah Before we get into the upsets, I just wanted to mention real briefly, i feel like it would be a disservice not to say it because I didn't look at his bracket run, but Noitem... How do you say it? Noitemud?
00:20:22
zzweilous
It's last damnation. It's last damnation backwards, but last damnation isn't very ATPCI friendly.
00:20:24
William Dunphey
Ah... Okay, Last Stand Nation. Oh, now it's clicking. His wins were over Cheese Curl. They Love Jai, who is honestly one of the best in Australia.
00:20:36
William Dunphey
He beat Icelandic Lapras, and he beat Chris LB7 in order to make Day 2. So that was a that was a thick ah bracket run in order to to get to Day 2. That was very impressive. And he did it with Dragon Breath Shadow Charizard, which makes it amazing.
00:20:50
William Dunphey
um Yeah, I just wanted to give give him his flowers because that was a really impressive run today too. ah To your point about upsets, you have some interesting notes you sent me um before we started recording.
00:21:02
William Dunphey
I'll just read this off here. Yeah. The narrative is the 12th, 11th, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 2nd, 11th, and 3rd seed of each group advanced to the winner's side. So three proper upsets and zero out of eight.
00:21:17
William Dunphey
Again, zero out of eight top seeds made it into day two on winner's or loser's side. Like i said in the intro, ZZ, this feels like a season of upsets.
00:21:28
William Dunphey
What the heck is going on?
00:21:31
zzweilous
I think this feels especially interesting because it happened just after Milwaukee and we did go into the nitty-gritty in terms of, oh, how exceptionally you well i have at the unseededs done in Milwaukee and we went into winning percentages and how this was like such an open regional with like not really one dominating force that just sweeps through the entire tournament, but
00:21:59
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:21:59
zzweilous
everybody, like everything was broad level in a way that we didn't really see in North America. um In Europe, I feel as if we see this a little more often, where I think the overall talking point is the European region does not have the numbers that NA has typically.
00:22:17
zzweilous
Like, LIL was a big regional. Like, we had more than 128 competitors. Like, we had a top 16 day to a proper one with two people emerging from eight groups. um So was large for an EU tournament, but if you compare that to Vegas, which has like almost 220 competitors signed up just now, like there's there's still like 60-ish people missing to to match those numbers.
00:22:41
zzweilous
And that difference is usually explained in ah little bit of a lack of a casual competitive culture in Europe, where people just go to an event because it's like close or because they just want to have a good time with friends and
00:22:41
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:22:57
zzweilous
A lot of the European competition hinges on actually being able and capable and kind of expecting yourself to do so well that you may reach day two, which then results in like 50ish plus people with like real ambitions to make that top 16.
00:23:17
zzweilous
And also with a record that shows that they made top 16 before.
00:23:17
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:23:22
zzweilous
And I think in an environment like that, where like almost the bulk of the players has like a history of top cutting and just like a very high baseline level, it's very difficult to achieve consistency.
00:23:39
zzweilous
And I think what has happened over the years of consistent move updates is that the meta has grown wider and wider.
00:23:50
zzweilous
So you not you can't only like trust your you playing instincts, like your general understanding of the game because everybody is at such a high level that you cannot just simply outplay and outmaneuver your way out of every situation.
00:24:04
William Dunphey
Agreed.
00:24:10
zzweilous
And pairing that with ah region that already has a tendency to innovate a lot and meta that allows for so, so many different Pokemon to be played effectively you really need to have your meta read on point. Because if you do not, then you will be up against somebody who has maybe a little bit of a better idea of what is going to be good at this particular point in the season. And they're also just like so, so good and capable. Like we talked about Last Damnation. Like he was a surprise in day two.
00:24:46
zzweilous
He had a very, very tough bracket run. But he's also somebody who's been like a household name in grassroots competition since like at least 2022, 2021.
00:24:57
William Dunphey
exactly like
00:24:57
zzweilous
So like, it's not as if like random people were just coming up all of a sudden and taking the spots of those top competitors.
00:25:08
zzweilous
It's just that we are at a point where every top competitor really has to be tuned in and at the pulse of the meta, because if you're not, other people will be.
00:25:22
William Dunphey
i think that's such a good point. um It's one of those things where historically in the grassroots sense, we came from limited metas. I remember, ZC, I remember when I was in Tampa and I was doing our our local tournaments, we would have a weekly open great league and we call it Freestyle Friday.
00:25:42
William Dunphey
And that was like the exception where you only, you know, played free so Freestyle Friday. You only played Open Great League once a week or once every two weeks. And that was outside of all of your self metas. That was all, you know, ah auxiliary.
00:25:55
William Dunphey
I would play i would play Linoon in a lot of my Freestyle Fridays. Right. But that's that's the level I was at. um And I feel like. Conditionally coming from a limited meta background where you knew what targets were coming, you knew what was going to happen.
00:26:11
William Dunphey
It felt like a lot of trainers kind of kind of leaned into that and they had these expectations going into the championship series. And to your point, especially over the past three or four seasons, the meta has the net of the meta has expanded tremendously.
00:26:26
William Dunphey
um I'm trying to find the post right now, but Pottenman did make a post about how this meta ah was tough because you can practice all you want.
00:26:30
zzweilous
Okay.
00:26:35
William Dunphey
You can team build the best site that you possibly can, but you really, in the end at the end of the day, just have to hope that you don't run into that core breaker that you don't want to see. Again, I'm i'm paraphrasing. I can't find the exact post, but I remember seeing him say that and thinking, yeah, that's actually...
00:26:50
William Dunphey
That's actually really relevant. And I think this happens to other Pokemon games as well, where you can have a standard meta team, but then you see that one pick across from you and you're like, man, this is the one thing I did not want to see. And um we talked about this in the past.
00:27:03
William Dunphey
A lot of trainers ah that are high level in the earlier rounds will face this weird stuff like like Colin face Flichender at EUIC, I believe. Stuff like that, right? And a lot of the best players can kind of weather that storm, so to speak, and come out of the other end and take on the curveballs, but also hit the home runs you're supposed to hit.
00:27:21
William Dunphey
And I feel like it's gotten a lot harder ah with the current championship series meta because not only are these picks random and unpredictable, but they're viable, which is something you can't say for a lot of the the previous ones.
00:27:32
zzweilous
Yes.
00:27:36
zzweilous
Yes, I think that's a very good point. like The spice that you see these days, like a lot of people were like looking at me funny when I brought King Gambit to Worlds, and probably for a good reason, but we saw um another King Gambit make, I think, like top 17 in Tide for 17th in Lill, just one win short of Top Cut.
00:27:48
William Dunphey
Thomas
00:27:55
William Dunphey
Ph.D.:
00:28:00
zzweilous
I'm blanking on the name of Is like Pine Tree? it was like there That was a person that brought King Gambit to Lille and it was actually like so, so close to top cutting.
00:28:04
William Dunphey
Thomas Edgar, Ph.D.: Oh yeah.
00:28:11
zzweilous
um
00:28:12
William Dunphey
You're right. It was Pine Tree. they um They beat Geronizard and Tantan Batus with King Gambit, which is wild.
00:28:14
zzweilous
Yes.
00:28:19
William Dunphey
Lost to Chris.
00:28:20
zzweilous
Exactly. and I looked at the Tauntaun team and it was essentially six times weak to King Gambit.
00:28:21
William Dunphey
Beat Jai. Wow. Yeah.
00:28:29
zzweilous
The Tauntaun team was also super, super spicy because that's just how he team builds. And I do appreciate that.
00:28:34
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:28:35
zzweilous
um But you can run into a Pokemon such as King Gambit, and especially in a region where in like Europe, where everybody is trying to bring their own unique spice pig.
00:28:47
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:28:47
zzweilous
There's just so many stumbling blocks and everybody operates and on such a high mechanical level that even if you have like, even if you can say like, oh, if Pato Man plays this person 100 times with mirror teams, Pato Man is probably going win 60 times out of 100.
00:29:07
William Dunphey
Sure.
00:29:07
zzweilous
But that's still only 60% at the end of the day.
00:29:07
William Dunphey
Sure.
00:29:12
zzweilous
And it's entirely possible that somebody like Pato, who arguably was the most successful TPCI region player of last season, um it's entirely possible to have
00:29:25
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:29:27
zzweilous
two personally disappointing tournaments back to back. And I will blame it on him bringing Girardino to Lille. um And I will sort of blame it on him facing Boom in, I think, his winners round two. It was probably winners round three because he had a bye.
00:29:45
zzweilous
um But that was just an unfortunate situation where two of our very strongest European trainers had to face very early on because Boom only played his third tournament.
00:29:57
zzweilous
And then that just led to a seeding that made him clash with Pato early on. But yeah, its just it just happens so easily now that you run into stuff that you may think of as weird in a historical a sense, but it's not weird anymore.
00:30:16
zzweilous
We just have 60, 70 viable Pokemon and you at least have to have an out against the uncommon stuff.
00:30:19
William Dunphey
Yeah, exactly.
00:30:25
William Dunphey
Yeah, I'm looking at Pato Man's run in Lille. It looks like he'd lost to Fabio 7-1-90 in round three, and then one a won his next match against Hantar 334, but then lost to Arrow Bubble 66. So again, these are two names that we don't really ah see that much on in top cuts, you know winning tournaments, ah of course.
00:30:46
William Dunphey
But Pato Man is somebody we always think has has got the potential to to run the gauntlet. I was looking at some of the other loser side ah results. ah In Lille and ah Emmy Weedle, Don, a RGR and Tomahawk were for that kind of zeroed in on.
00:31:00
William Dunphey
I just want to just look at this real quick because this this lines up perfectly with this theme of Tonton Batou's losing to a trainer that's not as well known a Pata man losing to two trainers that are not as well known. and Emmy Weedle was knocked down in round three to someone named Cephiel and he lost O2.
00:31:16
William Dunphey
However, Weedle did have a really nice loser side run with five wins in a row, including wins over Ripperly, Nickname, and Maxie, as well as a rematch over Cephiel. So Weedle persevered, right? Did really well.
00:31:29
William Dunphey
um Then you had...
00:31:30
zzweilous
That's a crazy gauntlet, by the way. Like, nickname Maxi.
00:31:32
William Dunphey
Isn't it?
00:31:33
zzweilous
In Utrecht, that was just the grand finals.
00:31:37
William Dunphey
Exactly. Yeah, Maxie was so good at Worlds. Nickname won two regionals last season. Ripperly is a stud. I mean, it's such a tough, tough bracket.
00:31:43
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:31:45
zzweilous
Reppel, he already got a medal this season.
00:31:45
William Dunphey
You look at...
00:31:45
William Dunphey
um
00:31:47
zzweilous
Like, that's just crazy. Yeah.
00:31:50
William Dunphey
Right. Imagine like losing to someone like Cephiel, who you expect to get the win over probably due to your experience and your skill, and then running through that gauntlet as a result. Tomahawk had something similar happen to him. He was knocked down in losers round three by someone named Smittyx.
00:32:05
William Dunphey
ah He lost O2, but then he won five consecutive rounds, including wins over h k Assassin and a mind joke. which is wild, right? Quality wins, very quality.
00:32:16
William Dunphey
Don A was knocked to losers in Group A finals versus A Kushner, which is but more understandable. And then ah RGR was knocked to losers in Group C finals by Cookshack, which obviously Cookshack performed extremely well at that tournament.
00:32:29
William Dunphey
So the Amy Weedle, the Tomahawk, the Patsaman, the Tauntaun, these are not like localized occurrences, right? It feels like a lot of these top players are getting upset.
00:32:42
William Dunphey
And it really questions like, what direction is the meta heading? Is is everyone getting better? Are these trainers getting older and slower and more geriatric? I don't know. i don't know what the answer is.
00:32:53
zzweilous
Yeah, there's like a lot of takes that one can have based on that snapshot. And i know that ah Tomahawk did a stream the other day that was met with like mixed responses because he was calling out that exact situation.
00:33:08
zzweilous
And I think the like the thesis was, oh, if we have top players struggling to advance like top players, meaning people that have previously shown that they can consistently top card, that stops all of a sudden, does that mean that the meta is bad?
00:33:30
zzweilous
And what I would say to that is that we shouldn't overvalue ah snapshot of one tournament or two, and we also shouldn't generalize from those tournaments that, like, okay, every person that upset a top player did so because of some meta shenanigans.
00:33:56
zzweilous
I think that we just have such a density of talent that that can never be said unless we like watch the individual matches and see whether the one player had like a massive team composition advantage over the other.
00:34:09
William Dunphey
Agreed.
00:34:10
zzweilous
And also, i will say that if you look beyond Milwaukee and Lille and onto the Gdansk bracket, Like, what's the top eight in Gdansk looking like?
00:34:22
zzweilous
That could just be like the top eight of the leaderboards in Europe in this season or the last. Like we had, okay, we had Colin Six, we had Galax Cobaltin, we had, so that's already like how many gold medals?
00:34:33
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:34:38
zzweilous
We had Alfie who came second in Frankfurt.
00:34:38
William Dunphey
Insane.
00:34:42
zzweilous
We had Stone Collection. I think Stone Collection is currently the top ranked EU player in terms of championship points. Then we had Boom20, who never placed worse than seventh and won his very first tournament, came second in his third.
00:34:58
zzweilous
um Then we had Howie, who is one of the many EU trainers where I was like just waiting for them to get their first medal. I think in this it is his first medal. i'm I'm not entirely sure, but that is somebody that i frequently encounter in like high leaderboards and like know about their grassroots successes and then we had pvp david and paul asha that's also just like two players like if somebody if amanda lambert gave you her list of the top five eu players and those two were featured you would not ask twice about the legitimacy so i feel as if yeah like like those two tournaments have been happening on back-to-back weekends and
00:35:37
William Dunphey
Exactly.
00:35:47
zzweilous
the one tournament having essentially only names you expect and the other tournament having like not a single top seed, that still averages out to essentially what you would expect from any given tournament with a mixture of like very established players and capable players that have like an above average day for their standards.
00:36:06
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:36:13
zzweilous
So yeah, I don't i don't believe we have like a greater problem or even development on hand.
Tournament Structures and Inclusivity
00:36:21
zzweilous
um It's just, I think we can be lucky that we have both so many viable Pokémon and so many capable players.
00:36:31
William Dunphey
If anything, so I think it it honestly goes a little bit beyond the players. And I think it actually speaks to the format and not only the format of the game, but also the format of the tournament.
00:36:43
William Dunphey
So the word that that keeps coming to mind whenever whenever we cover this topic is potency. I keep thinking of when you compare Go to the other titles, you think of probably the most...
00:36:54
William Dunphey
i not Not even, it's not even an apt comparison because Unite is a team game, but ah a game in Unite is 10 minutes, right? And it's a best of three. So maximum roughly 30 minutes a gameplay, maybe less.
00:37:07
William Dunphey
You look at VG and you're going to average 20 to 30 minutes per round, right? You look at the trading card game and it's 50 minutes, right? And you look at Pokemon Go and you're looking at 12 to 15 minutes, right?
00:37:18
zzweilous
Thanks.
00:37:21
William Dunphey
maybe um Maybe less. It depends on how much time it takes to lock in, etc. But of actual gameplay, you're looking at probably three minutes per game, right? nine Nine minutes, 12 minutes, something like that.
00:37:31
William Dunphey
So I think this is this is kind of revealing the potency of our games format where the lead does matter so much. The swap matters so much. An individual game matters so much and it's over so quickly. But also the potency of double a limb.
00:37:47
William Dunphey
So if you had these trainers that were really elite ah who lost two rounds, who's to say they wouldn't win out the next six or seven rounds if it was a very large tournament and make top cut anyway? So I think that we're kind of like...
00:38:00
William Dunphey
if you If you imagine a knife, right? Maybe maybe in the Medicham era, we were standing more towards the handle, where things were a little more balanced. But now we're kind of marching towards the end of the knife, where things are a lot thinner, a lot ah less balanced, a lot less stable.
00:38:14
William Dunphey
And at any moment, you could just kind of fall off the side ah if you have an unfavorable set or an unfavorable matchup against your opponent. And I agree with your point. Sometimes we can look at the Pokemon used we can say, okay,
00:38:26
William Dunphey
Tauntaun five times a week to King Gambit, that's going to be rough, right? And if he is able to come out of that, it's remarkable. But other times, I mean, you might just have that one core breaker, that one misplay that seals it for the whole series because the games and the format is that potent.
00:38:43
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:38:44
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:38:44
zzweilous
Like, I, we've said it time and time again, like, we do need Swiss, not only, i think it's, like, probably leading to a more, quote-unquote, accurate reflection of player, like, skill level on the day in any given top card, but I just,
00:39:06
zzweilous
feel as if it's just such more, it's so valuable just for everybody to be able to compete a little more because if you walk away from a tournament playing, i don't know, like seven rounds and going like four, three or whatever, like you will not make top cut with that, but you still have, like you made new experiences.
00:39:27
zzweilous
You probably improved.
00:39:28
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:39:29
zzweilous
You got to talk to more people. You've got to spend your day being an active part of the competition. And if you just like, if you're unlucky, if you go 0-2 and that's your weekend, um that just feels bad in comparison. And I'm hopeful that we are moving towards that. um The first IC of the season is coming up.
00:39:48
zzweilous
I don't know whether that that will debut Swiss. The Swiss news that were shared with the players, that was kind of happening at the same time as the IC format was shared. So I don't know. I don't want to read too much into that proximity, but Maybe we'll get to experiment with Swiss eventually.
00:40:11
zzweilous
by yeah, for now, I think we should celebrate the variance because in a format that is so lopsided as is double elimination, um I think having that variance just makes the game seem more accessible or make makes the
00:40:12
William Dunphey
I just. Yeah.
00:40:33
zzweilous
makes success in this game seem more accessible because think we talked about that after Milwaukee as well. If every top cut is the same 16 names, that's not really fun if you're trying to break into that.
00:40:47
William Dunphey
I agree. Yeah, I agree completely. It's like when you look at a, I mean, it's kind of a different example, but if you look at Halo Infinite and its last ah two or three competitive seasons, they went from something like 20 tier one esports teams down to like eight or 10.
00:41:04
William Dunphey
And then you kept seeing, you know, oh, well, here comes Optic Gaming again, or here comes Space Station Gaming, of blah, blah. You see the same teams over and over again. it can definitely feel deflating, right? Because you feel like the the top cut or the or the upper crust of the competitive scene is so far out of reach.
00:41:20
William Dunphey
that it's almost insurmountable. And we we talked about this like two seasons ago when Dunebug was winning every tournament or, you know, when Potaman wins every tournament and kind of raised the same question. So I agree.
00:41:31
William Dunphey
I think opening up the field is is better from an outside perspective because I'm not i'm not commentating LAIC. From an outside perspective, I think it's risky to try to run Swiss at one of the biggest tournaments of the season. i think if anything, TPCI would likely start with smaller events first and try to scale it up to the bigger tournaments.
00:41:51
William Dunphey
But I don't have any inside knowledge. If I would, I would share it with everyone because our loyal listeners deserve it. um I think we can move into ah Grand Finals. There was a little bit of controversy in this one.
00:42:03
William Dunphey
oh And outside of that, the other topic I wanted to to touch on was the fact that it felt like Keldeo was only playing with five out of his six Pokemon for the entire Grand Finals and Grand Finals reset.
00:42:15
William Dunphey
Marcus pointed out a Pokemon that I was thinking of as well. And I don't know if you feel the same, but it felt like Keldeo had one hand kind of tied behind his back in this Grand Finals.
00:42:26
zzweilous
Yeah, and this may be actually a thing that I noted down specifically for this matchup. um I don't know, do we just want to address the elephant in the room? or
00:42:37
William Dunphey
Let's do it.
00:42:37
zzweilous
yeah i think I think before we do the play-by-plays, Calio, where was your Corsola? It looked so good. i thought it looked so good. It's such a good neutral response to the Empoleon, which really gave him trouble all throughout the Grand Finals.
00:42:55
zzweilous
And I think you you do win all even Shield scenarios. Correct me if I'm wrong. I may be wrong, but I i thought initially Empolion looked a little bit rough into the meta because of Mutslab, which isn't really a thing anymore, but also because of the Korsola matchup being so dire. So I think struggling with Empolion so much, Korsola was kind of a thing that needed to come out.
00:43:17
zzweilous
But to a degree, I see why Caldeo left on the bench during Grand Finals, because Those two players faced each other in winner's finals beforehand and Caldeo brought the Galarian Kostela twice to there, losing the first game and winning the second game without having to use the Galarian Kostela.
00:43:41
zzweilous
So you didn't really see the Galarian Kostela do work and maybe over that it is easier to forget what it could do in theory.
00:43:52
zzweilous
And I don't know, maybe the Zouilis was just really, really scary because it also looks like a reasonable choice into Kaleo's team. So yeah, the Galerian-Kostela, I was hoping to see it more, but it did not come out in any of the six games of the Grand Finals.
00:44:09
William Dunphey
What's so funny about that is I felt like Hikami expected it to come. He expected to see it because if you look at the grand finals, he brought Zoylis in the lead in game one. He brought Zoylis again in the lead in game three.
00:44:21
William Dunphey
You look at the reset. He brought Zoylis in the lead in the first game of the reset, but um Then you move on to game number two after the rematch. He brought it again, this time in the back. And then in the final game of the grand finals reset, he brought Zwayliss again.
00:44:34
William Dunphey
So he brought it more often than he didn't. And I was cracking up, Zwayliss. I'm so sorry. i know you saw me laughing, but that is not the Pokemon that Marcus and I saw. That's actually not at all.
00:44:44
zzweilous
Oh, oh now now i'm now I'm really interested because i want to know I want to know what else looks even good on that team.
00:44:46
William Dunphey
That's not at all what we were thinking.
00:44:55
zzweilous
I thought everything else was either being brought or looked pretty dire, but let's hear it.
00:45:01
William Dunphey
No, no, no. The the Pokemon that that Marcus and I saw was only brought to two games. And I feel like, so here's here's the thing, right? Hikami really had two Pokemon that he needed to cover at a high level. He needed to cover the Glaring Corsula. So I agree with you that it was on his mind and it was ah definitely a viable pick that probably would have made a bigger impact if Keldea would have brought it.
00:45:24
William Dunphey
But the second Pokemon that I felt like Hikami struggled against was Shadow Scizor. And you look at some of the comps here from Hikami, he's playing Zwaylis, Galarian Korsla, Empoleon. Abomasnow with Empoleon and, let me see.
00:45:42
William Dunphey
ah Yeah, Empoleon, Abomasnow, Zwaylis. He's playing Zwaylis, Galarian Korsla, Empoleon. These are not, okay, so first of all, these are not like soft targets for Scizor, and I know that Scizor has that that flimsy issue where it it can it can beat everything on paper, but it doesn't have the stamina to go through more than one Pokemon or maybe one and a half Pokemon at a time.
00:46:02
William Dunphey
But still, when when my opponent is running a dragon and an ice grass type against me on the same trio, it's... I mean, you've got to be salivating at the idea of bringing Scizor and just shutting that down.
00:46:13
William Dunphey
And yes, ah Hikami had the Shadow Town Flame. He paired the Zuelis and the Shadow Town Flame in game one of the Grand Finals Reset, I think as an attempt to check both of those core breakers from Keldeo.
Grand Finals Strategy and Controversies
00:46:26
William Dunphey
But still, I felt like Shadow Scizor had immense potential. you could threaten shields on the Gastrodon. You could pressure the Empoleon. You match the pacing with the Night Slash. I mean, there's so much potential there.
00:46:37
William Dunphey
And I felt like he just stopped playing it. And I don't know why.
00:46:41
zzweilous
I will say that in my notes for the first game of the resets, um I did have a little note that says Hekami expects the Shadow Scissor it's adjustment when he brought the Zoiders lead with Empolion and Shadow Talonflame in the back.
00:46:57
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:46:57
zzweilous
And then there was no Shadow Scissor on Caldeo's side. But ah he did also expect that a little and tried to at least bring out the Shadow Talonflame ones to,
00:47:09
zzweilous
um like just remind his opponent of the prospect of the hard RPS there. um What I will say is why I think Scissor is perfectly viable and bringable, um and probably to a larger degree than Caldeo decided.
00:47:25
zzweilous
on With the non-Shadow Empoleon, it's very difficult for the Scissor to win that matchup. like You would essentially need to have a Knight Slash boost happen to you, or like it's it's just like,
00:47:40
zzweilous
a lot less probable that you get through that Empoleon with the double resisted bullet punches and the one charge attack that you may land on even energy compared to ah Shadow Empoleon.
00:47:51
William Dunphey
Agreed.
00:47:53
zzweilous
Because with a Shadow Empoleon, you can actually just play the two-shield scenario and the Night Slash would knock out. Whereas it's just like always losing against your opponent's best Pokemon.
00:47:59
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:48:05
zzweilous
Plus there's the possibility of being stuck against a Shadow Talon Flame or resisted bullet punches against a Gastrodome. There's like at least proper threats and checks to that Pokemon on Hikami's team.
00:48:21
zzweilous
So again, like I don't actually disagree with you. I think Scissor should have probably come more often, um but at least it came sometimes. I think the Scissor is probably a relatively good response to the Zewylers.
00:48:35
zzweilous
um which was a Pokemon that Ikami leaned into a lot. But it was also not the most safe pick, I would imagine. Like I could see Scizor lead.
00:48:46
William Dunphey
yeah.
00:48:48
zzweilous
Like I would ah would have liked to see that probably just because if you're stuck in a negative matchup, you do have the option to safely pivot out. um And I guess that's also something that was on Keldio's mind because he did bring Scizor lead in the very first game of the grand finals.
00:49:05
zzweilous
so it is an option but yeah the employee it was really the employee on show and maybe that deterred calio from bringing that as much
00:49:11
William Dunphey
Yeah, it was. Every single game.
00:49:18
William Dunphey
Yeah, exactly. Seven out of seven total games played. Six officially, ah but out of every single game, Empoleon appeared on every single team. I don't know. i just I just look at some of these matchups and I think, man, if you lead um the Scizor into an Obamasnow, you force the swap. If they go Gastrodon, you pull the shield with the Trailblaze immediately. You're at a huge advantage.
00:49:40
William Dunphey
um To your point about the matchups, you are exactly right. It looks like Shadow Scizor versus Empoleon is going to lose pretty hard in even energy, even shields. You need three bullet punches energy lead to beat it in the twos, and in the ones you need nine turns of advantage, which of course is is five bullet punches advantage. So it's ah it's a tall task, and I agree with you. I think that the Townflame check is also very, very threatening. So...
00:50:06
William Dunphey
Again, we're kind of like armchair quarterbacking this. I wasn't in the grand finals, neith neither, neither were you this time.
00:50:09
zzweilous
but
00:50:12
William Dunphey
So I feel like, yeah, in hindsight, these things seem more obvious, but man, I just feel like in this situation, you have to go on the attack in some way. You have to apply some pressure. And it just felt like, uh, Hikami ran the employee on every game and just controlled the tempo and the pacing of the entire matchup.
00:50:22
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:50:30
William Dunphey
yeah. in terms of the adjustments that he made from winter's finals, I think you alluded to a couple of those. You made some really good points. I do think that, um, Hikami made some stellar changes and was able to, to overcome Caldeo in the end.
00:50:45
William Dunphey
But is there anything else we wanted to mention, or we want to talk about the, the rematch, or do you think that was so something we should just skip?
00:50:53
zzweilous
um yeah i i have like a little bit i have a couple of notes on the gameplay here for example like the very first game um where it is actually like a winning lead for a kill day oh but um so kind of uses his wireless to take a shield from the scissor on the energy from the scissors world on this wireless so that's even though it's not nearly as positive as with the gas lord where you do have the option to
00:50:58
William Dunphey
Okay.
00:51:21
zzweilous
pace to a neutral move in nine turns, and also have little more bulk to withstand the bullet punches in the two-shield scenario, as well as he's still able to tank a move just fine, threaten a shield. And what I really liked was the immediate pivot after taking a shield, because shield advantage and Polion is essentially unbeatable for it any of Caldeo's mounts, and Kami recognized that, and immediately, like, you knew that he had the plan going into that matchup.
00:51:36
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Yes.
00:51:42
William Dunphey
yes
00:51:48
zzweilous
Like, he... He wasn't having, like, he didn't make a decision on the fly. you already knew what he was going to do. I really appreciate that. Just, like, confidence executing his place. And there were, like, some shenanigans going into the end game where, oh, there was a catch attempt, and while that catch attempt failed, the Zawilis got to another move.
00:52:12
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:52:12
zzweilous
um So, like, a little bit of shenanigans going back and forth, but overall pretty much in control from Hikami, even though um there was actually like a Ferret versus Corsela end game matchup. But because shield advantage, Empoleon is kind of broken, just getting a Hydro into that Ferret made it so that even Corsela was able to take that on.
00:52:35
zzweilous
um What else do we have? Yeah, we can just like walk through the various um various matchups and lines that were being brought. I think the Abomasnow is a really interesting pick into Caldeos comps specifically because we did mention that it's just abysmal against Scizor, obviously, but with its bulk and pacing, it actually hangs really, really well with the Furret, which we otherwise expect to be like this big neutral guy that it's very difficult to just beat in the head to head.
00:52:52
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:53:11
zzweilous
But what it also did is it walls at least this variation of Flogers. Like grass types are really in an interesting spot when it comes to the Flogers matchup, because even though it's just ah like a regular fairy type, it cannot hit back against grass types.
00:53:28
zzweilous
and
00:53:28
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:53:29
zzweilous
Therefore, I thought the Abomasnow adjustment is something that maybe threatens other dragons, maybe threatens flying types, but also is a fairy type counter if we expect every fairy type to be Flogers.
00:53:44
zzweilous
um I think that was a pretty good anticipation of what this meta would be. um And yeah, seeing the Obamasnow get some action in the Grand Finals was really fun to see because that was another one of those Pokemon that nobody really thought of before going into Lill.
00:54:00
William Dunphey
This is such an important mindset as well, because it's not an offensive counter. It's a defensive counter. Like you said, the trailblaze resisted, the chilling waters resisted, fair winds are neutral, but they barely do any damage at all.
00:54:14
William Dunphey
It's a defensive counter, which I think is such an important distinction to draw here because you can look at, oh, well, a town flame is an offensive counter versus something like Obama's though, or another steel type like a lowland sand slash.
00:54:26
William Dunphey
But it can also be a defensive counter versus something like Earth Power Gastrodon, like it was you know even a couple seasons back. So that's such an important ah way to frame some of the matchups.
00:54:37
William Dunphey
And I agree with you. I think the Obamastoke coming out was really cool.
00:54:37
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:54:39
William Dunphey
Even against the rollout Blastoise, it didn't look awful. Because again, Blastoise can only hit it for the Hydro Cannons or the very costly Skull Bash. So it was hanging in those matchups.
00:54:48
zzweilous
yeah It's a bit of a baity matchup on either side, but it's not it's not terrible.
00:54:51
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:54:54
zzweilous
And yeah, it's really fun because typically the ice type is probably the worst defensive typing you can pick. um But the Obavus now had a lot of utility and also getting going forward into Like, Pokemon such as Unobhan Stunfisk would have been so interesting to be brought into the matchup from Caldeo's side, but there's a lot of risk involved if there's not only Gastrodome to fear, but also a defensive wall such as the Obamasnow.
00:55:21
zzweilous
um
00:55:21
William Dunphey
Perfectly said.
00:55:22
zzweilous
Yeah, i think I think the one controversial aspect of the Grand Finals, I think, was it the Game 2 of the Reset? It may have been the Game 2 of the Reset, yeah.
00:55:30
William Dunphey
Correct.
00:55:33
zzweilous
um
00:55:34
William Dunphey
Correct.
00:55:34
zzweilous
And that was a rematch call that I think was relatively confusing to the general audience. And I do not know what was discussed on stage.
00:55:46
zzweilous
um But just from viewer's perspective, it looked as if Hikami lost count in a matchup, like not throwing Empoleon energy. Was it against Euphisk?
00:55:57
zzweilous
It may have been against Euphisk and instead eating the charge attack that he probably didn't didn't want to take.
00:55:59
William Dunphey
Yes. yes
00:56:03
zzweilous
therefore seemingly losing that match, but getting the redo. And I don't know what the actual ruleset says, but even if there was no visual update in terms of a fast attack animation, and don't believe that should be grounds for a rematch.
00:56:23
zzweilous
Just because even though like that's an inconsistency and it feels bad, you would still have either the ability to play with Sound on, and if you don't have that, you would still see Thundershot do a little bit of damage to the health bar of your Pokémon. So there should always be a way of telling whether move went through or not.
00:56:43
William Dunphey
If you want to see something spicy, and you got to go to the YouTube comments section. The YouTube comments, ah probably not, but the YouTube comments really laid into the commentators, the judges, even the players, ah which I found ah found pretty surprising.
00:56:49
zzweilous
Oh god, do really want to do that?
00:57:01
William Dunphey
i remember one comment saying, the casters didn't explain anything. I don't know why this was a rematch. I don't know what happened. ah And from from an insight perspective, i'll I'll just say that sometimes the judges' rulings are communicated to us via Discord, but sometimes they're not.
00:57:17
William Dunphey
So whereas we would like to say exactly what happened as casters, sometimes it does come down to communication between the judges and production. And sometimes, I mean, the judges also have every right to withhold the reasoning behind their their ruling and just kind of say, you know, it is what it is.
00:57:34
William Dunphey
But um I saw one comment that was interesting. Apparently one one viewer thinks that that Hikami was challenging, that he should have got ah a zero turn swap, but instead he got a one turn swap.
00:57:46
William Dunphey
And that's why he wasn't able to charge tag priority tie with the stun fisk and the additional thundershot came through that he wasn't ready for.
00:57:47
zzweilous
Oh.
00:57:53
William Dunphey
And apparently that was the basis for for his discrepancy.
00:57:55
zzweilous
Okay. and I just saw the live footage and I know that chat was confused. and
00:58:03
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:58:04
zzweilous
like The thing is that Hekami did have the move ready before the Stunfisk had the move ready. And I think that was what made the situation
00:58:13
William Dunphey
sure
00:58:15
zzweilous
look a little unusual because like at that point you could have just thrown the attack i guess like then it's like a little bit of a philosophical question whether the optimization is something that should be accounted for to a degree where that can be grounds for rematch because it just looked like a simple miscount on the front end like one thing that i will say
00:58:36
William Dunphey
Correct.
00:58:41
William Dunphey
Correct.
00:58:42
zzweilous
is that I do support Hikami challenging that decision and just asking for a judge as a review because at the end of the day, it's a very high stakes moment. And as a competitor, you should always exhaust all your options if you feel as if there's grounds for a potential rematch.
00:59:03
zzweilous
And even though this like looks a little strange to the untrained eye me being the untrained eye, um I would never blame the player for asking for such a thing.
00:59:16
William Dunphey
I think that a lot of people with a strong sense of empathy or even like an underlying ah shyness in their personality are hesitant to ask for the judge's review because immediately, like if you, if you actually really think about your, your personal thought process, when you put yourself in that situation, you're,
00:59:35
William Dunphey
you would say, okay, I want to review. And then for a lot of people instantly their mind expands and says, oh, but all these people watching will think that I'm a sore loser or all the people in the venue will be confused and irritated with me or all of my opponent's fans will be upset.
00:59:50
William Dunphey
Right. ah And I feel like you have to kind of reel that in and bring things back to a centered place where you are on the stage and just kind of reflect on it as if you and your opponent are the only two players that exist, right? And you're trying to make sure that everything is going correctly.
01:00:06
William Dunphey
And I hate that our players are in a position where we have to do this, where we have to ask for these things, but maybe one day we won't be, right? But until then, as you said, ZZ, you've got every right and every, and honestly, a responsibility to point things out when, uh, when, when you don't think that they go correctly, because in a sense, you're kind of betraying your own instincts and your own practice and your own understanding of the game when something happens.
01:00:31
William Dunphey
And then you just say, oh, well, I, you know, you gaslight yourself and say, oh, well, I was probably wrong. It was probably nothing.
01:00:37
zzweilous
yeah oh that's on me yeah you you shouldn't you shouldn't just like always blame yourself when this game gives a lot of opportunity to just play amidst mechanics um
01:00:38
William Dunphey
You know I mean
01:00:47
William Dunphey
Oh, yeah. There's plenty of opportunities to to blame Niantic, as we love to say. um But if we if we zoom back out to the overall grand finals, I don't mean for this to sound like it's it's disparaging of Hikami in any way.
01:01:00
William Dunphey
Because when you look at the ultimate results, I mean, this was a steamrolling game. The ah adjustments Hikami made, you pointed it out so well, bringing that Empoleon in every single game and using it as a shield up safe swap in a lot situations was just so masterfully done.
01:01:16
William Dunphey
And if you look at Hikami, when he did choose to lead the Empoleon after having it in the back, ah five games in a row, he chose to lead the Empoleon and he catches the freaking Floridus in the lead.
01:01:28
William Dunphey
Perfect, perfect lead call. And he was just reminding Caldeo again that he was basically Thanos. He was inevitable. So even in spite of the of what you might feel about the rematch call, this was Hikami's day.
01:01:41
William Dunphey
There was really no way that Caldeo was going to wiggle his way out of this.
01:01:42
zzweilous
Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:46
zzweilous
I also think that if if you go 6-0 in the grand finals, like, there's not really much controversy to be derived from one rematch call that may not have been immediately obvious to everybody.
01:01:58
William Dunphey
Now. Me too.
01:02:00
zzweilous
But, yeah, that was essentially that. I like that it was an all-French final because, um like, we do oftentimes just have, like, oh, like,
01:02:06
William Dunphey
me too
01:02:12
zzweilous
This is somebody who goes to all the events and places highly everywhere. And now they're the champion of this. Now they're the champion of that. And here we essentially had like two, like, I don't know how local they are to Lille specifically, because that is almost Belgium.
01:02:29
zzweilous
But I know that Caldeo only ever competes in the French regional.
01:02:34
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:02:34
zzweilous
And like, he called me as one of the most consistent French battlers, but oftentimes somebody who just falls short. Like I know I played him in Utrecht in, I think it was the losers finals. And I was like, okay, this is going to be difficult. Like we were just chatting and i was like telling him that i think this is going to be ah tough one either way, because I consider him a very strong player. And he was like, yeah, like I'm consistent, but I'm consistently losing in the losers finals.
01:03:08
zzweilous
So i was like, Okay, thanks. This gives me a little hope. And then I later looked at his record because was like, okay, like this guy is so good in GBL.
01:03:19
zzweilous
We play pretty often and surely he has decent amount of top eights, right?
01:03:20
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:03:25
zzweilous
And there's some, but he did actually have, I think, 19 17th places. No, not nine.
01:03:32
William Dunphey
Oh, let's see.
01:03:33
zzweilous
Nine. not It's just nine, not 19, not 19.
01:03:34
William Dunphey
19. Uh,
01:03:36
zzweilous
Nobody has 19 17th places. i out I got the teens from the 17 already, but it's still like, and still like okay, you you do feel for somebody who is like obviously top eight caliber, but then always is one win short of day two.
01:03:42
William Dunphey
ah
01:03:55
zzweilous
And having the breakout tournament, not only being like straight to the gold medal, but also straight to the gold medal in your own country,
01:03:55
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:04:05
zzweilous
I think that's just a really, really cool story. It came with a really, really cool and innovative team. So honestly, i was very happy for Hikami to take that championship.
01:04:16
zzweilous
um Also, because i like when a country within Europe, like there's like not really as much rivalry between countries as there may be between regions.
01:04:31
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:04:31
zzweilous
um But like, If you think of France on the play Pokemon stage, you typically just think of Tonton Latouz because that's the international champion.
01:04:39
William Dunphey
Of course. Mm-hmm.
01:04:41
zzweilous
That's the person who won a regional championship who had so many medals, so many strong placements, but there's such a lively and vibrant grassroots scene in France.
01:04:52
zzweilous
You see that from the top card, which has players like Gorkuf, who is another player who essentially only plays Lil. There's Wolfpack, who... is a French player who I think is kind of underrated, had a very strong world championships.
01:05:02
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:05:06
zzweilous
um But I think those players should have their representation beyond just like, okay, there's Tonton and then there's other guys also.
01:05:17
zzweilous
Now we have another French regional champion. um um Yeah, I think that's just like, it's ah it's ah it's a story that I think is little heartwarming overall and I like it.
01:05:19
William Dunphey
yeah
01:05:28
William Dunphey
Yeah, I agree with you. I did look back at the Utrecht results here. He was playing Shadow Blastoise and Shadow Quagsire into your team, which I'm sure he brought all three games because they looked so good into the team that you had ah for that matchup.
01:05:41
William Dunphey
But you did ah end up winning two to one. So, yeah, I'm i'm proud of.
01:05:46
zzweilous
Yeah, it was a close series.
01:05:47
William Dunphey
Yeah, I'm proud of Hikami. I think he did really well. And winning a regional with Zylus before the Zylus could do it. Come on. Come on.
01:05:55
zzweilous
Yeah, I don't know. i um I'm happy. I think it's a very fun Pokemon. um And I think it makes a lot of sense because that's another thing.
01:06:02
William Dunphey
Me too.
01:06:05
zzweilous
Why do I keep bringing Guzzlord even though being named Zizwylas? Why do I do that? And the answer is that
01:06:11
William Dunphey
Incongruent.
01:06:15
zzweilous
that yaor provides much better play into both fairy types with the sludge bomb for coverage and also into shadow scissor because again we went over it you have the rules from coverage you you have a little bit of extra bulk so hikami's team had talent and flame to scare with the shadow scissor and it had empoleon as a dedicated fairy type answer so you didn't really need the
01:06:39
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:06:46
zzweilous
extra tech that ghzlord would have provided and if you don't need that then zwinus is probably the better dark dragon because dragon breath is better than dragon tail i know they have the same parameters but one turn fast moves are always better um plus i think like the pacing to dark balls it's just so nice it has a lot of very strong neutral matchups
01:07:09
William Dunphey
So here are the two keys, right? you You identified supporting Pokemon as being the key for for winning with Zylus. Let me offer some counterpoints. The key for Zylus beating Scizor is to take a shield off of it, throw two body slams and weaken it, bring it in Empoleon, Metal Sound down, sweep, easy GGs.
01:07:28
William Dunphey
The key for Zylus beating Florges is to just not line them up against each other. And that's exactly what Hikami did as well. He avoided that matchup at all costs, and that's why he won, so... Maybe you don't need coverage.
01:07:38
William Dunphey
You just need to play RPS, ZZ. Come on consider that.
01:07:41
zzweilous
Well, while that is fair. My warm streamed win in G'dan scores from leading Guzzlord into an Azumarill twice and beating it with Guzzlord twice.
01:07:51
zzweilous
So it it it depends on on what your team composition requires, i would say.
01:07:52
William Dunphey
Respect, respect.
01:07:59
William Dunphey
something incredible that I just realized. um Well, first question for you. There's been one grand finals this season where we had 12 unique Pokemon in the grand finals.
01:08:10
William Dunphey
Do you, do you remember which one it was?
01:08:12
zzweilous
better horizontal
01:08:13
William Dunphey
Correct. Correct. Which is remarkable that that barely ever happens. But in Lio, we actually had 11 unique Pokemon. The only shared pick was glaring course. So that's true. so
01:08:24
zzweilous
even though we do not know whether caldo actually had a galarian course okay i'll i'll i'll let it i'll let it go i'll let it go i'm too corso a lot pills on this one classic yeah yeah yeah i i understood by reference
01:08:28
William Dunphey
that's true
01:08:32
William Dunphey
It ghosted on him when he got to grand finals. It ghosted him, right? um
01:08:40
William Dunphey
What's, sorry, what's amazing is that we had 11 unique in Lille and then literally the event immediately afterwards, we had six unique. We had identical teams in Europe.
01:08:50
zzweilous
Yes.
01:08:52
William Dunphey
What the hell is going on in Europe?
01:08:52
zzweilous
Oh man.
01:08:53
William Dunphey
But before we get there, I think we should talk about Australia.
01:08:54
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:08:58
zzweilous
Yes, yes, yes. Let's move on over to Brisbane, um which was a one-day event only. um So yeah, wrapping up rather quickly. And it was a streamed event too, thanks to ah PPP Steve's crew of talented casters and producers.
01:09:17
zzweilous
so that we actually do get to comment on the grand finals which is a service that we don't have for all the um which i'll set aren't streamed on the official platform so very grateful for that and yeah we had gone taking home his very first um gold medal at a original championship and essentially defeating the one kaiju that always haunts the australian continent Pokemonemaker trying to take that out of reach in crown, but just falling short in the grand finals.
01:09:44
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:09:50
William Dunphey
Exactly. know, Pokemon maker, making it to the grand finals seems like it's par for the course, right? That, that trainer is just so, so talented. Shout out to Steve, the whole production crew. I know that Debbie Pebble usually is, is casting or involved, but I believe she competed this time.
01:10:05
William Dunphey
ah But a shout out to, to all the commentators who were a part of it. um I had a really fun time watching the stream and I liked the community segments as well. That was really, really cool. Um, one thing we didn't mention about Leo was the, uh, debut of Jay the underdog.
01:10:21
William Dunphey
I don't know if we want to like, before we fully each jump over to Australia, maybe we should just give him some flowers.
01:10:23
zzweilous
That is true.
01:10:27
William Dunphey
I thought Jay, uh, did a really good job of, um, of building out kind of like the casual, uh, casting, um, tone and vibe right ah being very accessible for people that wanted to watch the stream and just kind of have fun uh i seriously like i told you this before we started recording i felt like i was sitting on the couch next to jay and he was just kind of like giving us commentary on the games which is such a unique vibe that he brought to the eu casting team
01:10:41
zzweilous
Yes.
01:10:55
zzweilous
Jey is kind of like the funny guy from your friend group and he's also just so well spoken so I thoroughly enjoyed his casting debut I like what the EU region is doing with their casters this season where essentially every event they give a new guy a chance and I think it it was a good vibe overall in Lille and I would be looking forward to see more of Jey in the future for sure.
01:11:00
William Dunphey
yeah
01:11:11
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:11:19
William Dunphey
Absolutely. The only EU caster that they've tried out that I didn't like was that weird Jonkis guy. He was just, I didn't vibe with him at all. Just not not good. ah Just kidding, of course, Jonkis. You're the man.
01:11:30
William Dunphey
But all right, back back over to to Brisbane. um I was just thinking of the casters. really appreciated all their their insights. So in terms of ah the actual meta, the battles, we already mentioned mentioned Poke Moneymaker.
01:11:45
William Dunphey
Here's the thing, ZZ. We've seen Poke Money Maker. We've seen Choose. We've seen Yet Aruna. We've seen these trainers come from the TPC region over to Australia to compete, but they seem to be multiplying and increasing in numbers every single time.
01:11:58
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:11:58
William Dunphey
So Yet Aruna was registered for this tournament, but actually did not end up competing. Charming Pori was present. ah They tied for 25th. Charming Pori from South Korea, of course. They lost in round two to They Love Jai. So it took one of the one of the Australia's best to to take down Charming Pori.
01:12:15
William Dunphey
We also had Nayan Kake, who was tied for 13th overall. He was defeated by the OCIC fourth place finisher and agent Magikarp in round four. OCIC 2023. So that was a couple of years ago.
01:12:28
William Dunphey
And then we have some TPC on TPC violence because Nayan Kake was knocked out of the tournament by DHJJ92 from Singapore. Speaking of DHJJ, they actually did pretty well, finishing seventh overall.
01:12:41
William Dunphey
ah Knocked and losers round two by knock to losers in round two by Gone1001, who obviously went went on to win it. And then I want to mention ah the fifth place finisher, OEU1A, Oela, I guess is how you'd say that.
01:12:58
William Dunphey
They're from Japan lost in round four and round seven to Ric Flarion. So Ric Flarion vanquished them from the tournament. And interesting fact here is easy. As I wrap up my TPC in Brisbane segment, Poke Moneymaker only battled Australians all the way to the grand finals did not come up against anyone from out of region.
01:13:19
zzweilous
I will say that this tournament specifically
01:13:24
zzweilous
i think that proved to me how difficult Australian regionals actually are because Charmin Pori, Nian Kake those two names specifically i consider among the very best players period not only just like their regions but
01:13:38
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:13:43
zzweilous
you will always see those trainers at the very top of the GBL leaderboards. And for those two players to not even break into the top eight in Brisbane, I think that just goes to show that Australia actually is a fairly competitive region and you need somebody who is very well adapted to the host ah Australian subcontinent in Pokemon maker to take home at least a medal.
01:13:58
William Dunphey
yes
01:14:06
zzweilous
But yeah, I was like,
01:14:08
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:14:10
zzweilous
I think the grand final is actually really worth worth talking about in this particular tournament because I thought Pokemonemaker almost had this tournament already.
01:14:14
William Dunphey
Let's do it. Mm-hmm.
01:14:20
zzweilous
Like he went up 2-0 and then got reverse swept by Gon, even though I would say that Gon probably had a little bit of a team comp disadvantage. So that makes it even more impressive.
01:14:34
zzweilous
um
01:14:34
William Dunphey
So we'll have the teams up on screen, but I'll just, I'll glaze through this really, really quick. So gone, our champion had Unova Stunfisk, Blastoise, Shadow Scizor, Shadow Talonflame, as well as Pangoro and Glaring Corsula.
01:14:47
William Dunphey
Meanwhile, a Pokemonemaker with Gastrodon, Shadow Annihilate, Shadow Drapion, which we have not seen in eons, as well as Fero, Cradilly, and Glaring Corsula. And you're exactly right. Looking at the record here, Pokemon Maker won the first two games and then gone just stormed back.
01:15:04
William Dunphey
And I think that Pokemon Maker's first two wins were and starting at a disadvantage. He actually led Shadow and Isle Ape into Galarian Korshla twice and won both of those games.
01:15:16
zzweilous
Yeah, that was really impressive. The first game, he decided to safe-swab Shadow Drapion, which then got him a shield advantage. um And the one thing that was really interesting about the team compositions into each other is how relatively free the Gastrodon on Pokémon Maker's side looked.
01:15:34
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:15:36
zzweilous
So after getting that shield advantage, um the Gastrodon was able to essentially take the sweep against the rest of Gorn's line. The second game is actually really really interesting because Pokemon Omega trusts the exact same three, but this time he actually decides to save-swap the Gastrodon, maybe pretending to not be running the exact same line.
01:15:58
William Dunphey
yeah
01:15:59
zzweilous
and Yeah, so essentially Gastrodon is now the save-swap. I think it gets actually counter-swapped by Blastoise this time, which I think it's a little curious because that matchup can actually swing either way.
01:16:09
William Dunphey
It does.
01:16:15
zzweilous
And which way it swings depends on the attack stat on your Blastoise. If you have a really high defense, like high bulk Blastoise, high rank, then the matchup is actually in favor of the Gastrodon because you miss a crucial breakpoint on your rollout fast attack, um which makes it so that the Gastrodon is going to be able to prevail.
01:16:37
zzweilous
If you run a higher attack Blastoise, you can actually win that matchup, which is a very funky interaction. um Overall, it's a fairly neutral matchup. um but IVs can actually make a difference in that specific scenario.
01:16:51
zzweilous
um And yeah, I thought, I'm gonna, I'm gonna.
01:16:52
William Dunphey
Just DM me the spreads.
01:16:56
zzweilous
you're You're like a little bit of the Blasters guy.
01:16:57
William Dunphey
Okay.
01:16:58
zzweilous
You at least have enough plushies to make that claim. um
01:17:02
William Dunphey
It's true.
01:17:04
zzweilous
So yeah, i really I really enjoyed the adaptation from Pokemon Maker to just bring the same line, but save swap the different thing to maybe throw your opponent off a little bit.
01:17:16
zzweilous
um And yeah, this time, first game, there was still a Scizor on Gond's team. He did leave that at home for the second game, but the outcome was just the same with Pokemon Emeka being able to overcome the initial disadvantage.
01:17:27
William Dunphey
Price-
01:17:31
zzweilous
And I must say, I like the team comms on each side. I thought that this was a very, um like it wasn't really a predetermined final as much, even though I thought that
01:17:40
William Dunphey
agreed
01:17:41
zzweilous
Just this, judging by the six Pokemon in makeup probably had a slight advantage, but both sides had months that felt free enough and also unique in a way that, like we'll talk about Gdansk in a second, but there was very little overlap, which made it like a little bit of like, what what do they call it?
01:18:03
zzweilous
I don't know. Like, it's like, if you have like a different style, then it makes for more interesting television at the end of the day.
01:18:11
William Dunphey
Yeah, for sure.
01:18:12
zzweilous
and And yeah. Oh yeah, one interesting adjustment on the Pokemon Maker side was to bring out the Fero as a normal flying type in game three to answer that Corsula.
01:18:23
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:18:26
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:18:27
zzweilous
And that appears to be going well, but there was a situation in the end game of game three where Pokemon Maker does have a drill pack loaded against boosted scissor on Gon's side, but he doesn't throw it.
01:18:40
William Dunphey
a
01:18:45
zzweilous
He keeps pecking, and that is because Gon still had a one HP Blastoise in the back. So what Monimaker probably thought was, okay, he will just attempt the sac swap after I reach the drill pack, so I just keep going to peck down the Blastoise
01:19:04
William Dunphey
ye
01:19:08
zzweilous
before the rollout damage comes through and potentially takes out my low health Firo. um So that was essentially a 50-50 call. If he had just thrown that move right then and there, he would have won the entire tournament.
01:19:22
zzweilous
But because of that 50-50 going in Gon's favor, um we get to have a game four. Assembly Firo is being let into Blastoise, which is less stellar.
01:19:33
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:19:33
zzweilous
um Still, one thing that is really interesting in this game is that the Shadow Annihilate on Pokemon Amaker's side looks in a position to sweep the end game because there's only a Shadow Scizor and a Pangoro left on Gaunt's side with all shields still in play.
01:19:57
zzweilous
But because Pokemon Amaker hasn't seen the Scizor yet, he thinks, oh, maybe there's more damaging charge attacks in the back than a Night Slash from a panda.
01:20:08
William Dunphey
ah
01:20:10
zzweilous
He lets the Night Slash go and then just gets bullet punched down. So again, another position where I thought, like, and I have seen that Gon wins this. How does he win this?
01:20:22
zzweilous
And it is the information game that ends up going in his favor with his opponent not knowing his third Pokémon just yet and therefore making a strategic call that ends up backfiring.
01:20:22
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:20:30
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:20:33
William Dunphey
he forces the hesitation, right?
01:20:34
zzweilous
um
01:20:37
zzweilous
Yeah, essentially.
01:20:37
William Dunphey
Like he, he makes you pause, which is, yeah, it can overload your system. And that's what happened consistently in games three and four to, to Pokemon maker. Yeah. I have in my notes here, ah for game three, Galarian Corsa takes the second shield with power gem into Fero.
01:20:46
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:20:52
William Dunphey
And then the next sentence is shadow scissor F's up the entire team to win game three. Yeah.
01:20:59
zzweilous
Exactly.
01:20:59
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:21:00
zzweilous
And then the last game was essentially just a Galarian Corsola masterclass on Gon's side where it just saves shields for it gets a lot of energy with it, manages to even take out Adrapion just because of the shield advantage situation.
01:21:17
zzweilous
And yeah, it's just like, okay, Corsola, this is all on you. Please carry this game home. And the Corsola does as it's told and secures the gold medal for Gon, which was like,
01:21:25
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:21:28
zzweilous
Man, this must have been nerve-wracking to live through that in person because you're already, like, one decision away from elimination twice, and then you have to execute, like, such a bold strategy to take on the Game 5.
01:21:35
William Dunphey
Right?
Brisbane Grand Finals Strategy and Highlights
01:21:49
zzweilous
Yeah, very, very entertaining Grand Finals, and it's up on the YouTubes.
01:21:49
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:21:54
zzweilous
Probably there's also a Twitch squad. um So if anybody wants to rewatch that, it's really worth it. It's a fun series.
01:22:01
William Dunphey
It was so poetic too, because in that game number five, the Galarian Corsula from gone, its final opponent is Drapion. And that's what it needs to be to win the entire tournament. So probably the one pick that Pokemon maker thought was going to be his Drapion answer actually gets folded up by the the little piece of coral in the end, which is, yeah, again, very, very poetic.
01:22:22
William Dunphey
How, uh, how these kinds of meta themes rhyme as we move through. yeah, Yeah, great tournament. ah Shout out to all of our TPC players that that competed. I'm very happy that we had at least a community production ah for this one. I'd love to see it on the main channel eventually.
01:22:39
William Dunphey
i don't think there were any other tournaments happening at that time, so maybe we'll get it on the main channel one day, ZZ. But for now, we had a Firo Pangoro Grand Finals in Australia, and Gon holds the line once again to defend the Aussie territory from PokeMoneyMaker.
01:22:55
zzweilous
And I'm not 100% certain, but this may have been the first Pangoro Championship.
01:22:55
William Dunphey
But
01:23:00
zzweilous
I don't know whether there any Pangoro won something since the last time PvP Steve posted one of his graphics where he tallies up the Pokemon who have had the most top-cut placements without actually winning a gold.
01:23:14
zzweilous
But the last time I saw one, it was like 14 placements for Pangoro leading the pack. um If it hasn't happened before, at least now the Pangoro has gotten its gold.
01:23:26
zzweilous
So congratulations to the Panda. I think it's still a very well positioned in the meta. um
01:23:31
William Dunphey
yeah
01:23:32
zzweilous
So yeah, that was it was a fun one to see.
01:23:35
William Dunphey
I'm furiously searching through this as fast as I can. 2025, no other Pangoro. 2024, no other Pangoro. 2023, don't think Pangoro even on radar. twenty twenty three i don't think pengro is even on anyone's radar
01:23:48
zzweilous
Pangora wasn't invented yet.
01:23:51
William Dunphey
Yeah. No, he's the first. Gone is the first to win gold with Pangaro.
01:23:54
zzweilous
Let's go.
01:23:56
William Dunphey
I think that's also something that this is like a side tangent, but I wish we had more of like an ESPN analytics thing.
01:23:58
zzweilous
Yeah. Yeah.
01:24:02
William Dunphey
Like, Oh, um, you know, uh, whatever quarterback, uh, Josh Allen throws for an average of 320 yards on, on a Friday night when it's a full moon and below 50 degrees.
01:24:02
zzweilous
yeah
01:24:15
William Dunphey
Yeah. Stuff like that. I would just like to know, like, he was the first Pangaro.
01:24:18
zzweilous
I'm a sucker for statistics.
01:24:18
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:24:19
zzweilous
I really enjoy that type of stuff.
01:24:20
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:24:22
William Dunphey
Exactly. Like who's the first Pangoro champion in history? I feel like that should be played up a bit more because that that would give players like more oomph, you know, more push behind playing these innovative Pokemon.
01:24:31
zzweilous
Yeah. And I think it's such a fun signature Pokémon as well. If you were the first Lickitung champion, it's probably not as impressive.
01:24:42
William Dunphey
ah ah Like like the Homer Simpson at the bar meme where everyone else has like a tongue on their face, you know.
01:24:50
William Dunphey
that's That's what I envision when I when i think of that. um But yeah, outside of that, I don't think there's a whole lot else we can say about Brisbane. I'm just happy we got a tournament. We had a few Galarian Moltres there. We had ah another Pangaro on DJJ's team from Singapore.
01:25:07
William Dunphey
We had a Zwalis on one of our Japanese trainers teams. And yeah, outside of that, very fun.
Gdansk Tournament and Meta Evolution
01:25:13
William Dunphey
It's good to see Jemothy performing well. I faced him in NAIC. ah He beat me in our rematch. So whenever I see him winning, I'm like, yeah, you know.
01:25:21
William Dunphey
That was a quality loss. If I'm going to lose to anyone, I'm glad that they're they're a talented player, right? So keep keep on pushing, Gemithi. You're the man. But I think it's time we move on to Gdansk because we're already an hour and 25 minutes in.
01:25:35
zzweilous
Yes, let's do it. It was a little smaller than Lille. We had 95 competitors attending this event, but honestly, i will say this before we get into any of the competitive action.
01:25:48
William Dunphey
Sure.
01:25:48
zzweilous
Gdansk is probably the best city to visit
01:25:48
William Dunphey
Sure.
01:25:53
zzweilous
during the European competitive season. It is so pretty. um And even though like the numbers don't show it, we had a bunch of American visitors over, which was essentially just friends of mine.
01:26:08
zzweilous
And we generally had the best time. It's such a gorgeous place. And even though it's not terribly central in terms of where most European competitors sit.
01:26:20
zzweilous
I think Lille is much more easy to reach, for example, the like like by train from London. That is very easy, whereas you do need to fly out to Gdansk.
01:26:26
William Dunphey
Sure.
01:26:30
William Dunphey
Pretty far east.
01:26:30
zzweilous
But we had fantastic food. The city is absolutely gorgeous. um In terms of value for money, it's just about unbeatable. And yeah, if Gdansk keeps being reiterated as the Polish location for on the championship series, they can be sure to welcome me again next season, even though my personal compet competitive experience was so-so for this particular regional.
01:26:59
William Dunphey
Well, it it causes me pain that you you confirm that Gdansk is just that beautiful. And the reason is, is because on my dad's side, we do have ah Polish ancestry, and I would love to go visit Poland at some point in my life. Never been.
01:27:14
William Dunphey
But... um Not only are you saying it was lovely, but also ah the illustrious Amanda Lundberg was telling me about how wonderful her hotel was, about how incredible the city was, about how great of a time they were having.
01:27:27
zzweilous
Thank you.
01:27:29
William Dunphey
And was just bragging constantly about how how awesome the tournament was. Because I've told her before the same thing I just told you about Poland and traveling to Europe and maybe one day casting e regional, fingers crossed, if if they let me in.
01:27:42
William Dunphey
But I kept kept telling her, yeah, you know if I was going to go anywhere, it would probably be Poland first. And for this to just be even better than I expected, just makes me think, you know what if but if I could have could have been at the event?
01:27:56
William Dunphey
you know But anyway, that was the good side.
01:27:58
zzweilous
Well, there's always the 2027 season, so...
01:28:02
William Dunphey
That's true. That's true. So hopefully we get Poland and we get Gdansk in particular, because I'd love to go. I'd love to see it. um In terms of meta, why why don't we do an overview of the meta?
01:28:13
William Dunphey
And then we'll we'll get a little bit more zeroed in into gameplay. So a couple of shout outs I wanted to make here. um We did see Greninja kind of resurface a bit. We saw it on both Galaxi Cabalton and Tomahawk's team.
01:28:26
William Dunphey
ah We did see a Feraligator make it onto Bar the Gamers team. ah Shadow Malamar, who I don't know who thought of Malamar since the Mega debut, but apparently Tunantel 2 was going to play it.
01:28:38
William Dunphey
We also had a Best Buddy Hondo Shiny Sittaddle on Mixon's team. I mean, EU is such a treat, man. And then we had Shadow Gary on Paula and Stone's team as well.
01:28:49
zzweilous
I really love the Sertotl because, like, Mixon was on on stream at least twice. He brought it so many times. It had like half a target on the opponent's team. He just wanted to show off that Surturtle.
01:29:04
zzweilous
And I appreciate the commitment to the bit because it is such a fun Pokemon to see doing well in a tournament like that. And to actually give it some screen time, like, I do appreciate that a lot.
01:29:17
zzweilous
um And yeah, top 16.
01:29:17
William Dunphey
Me too.
01:29:18
zzweilous
I don't know if anybody will be able to repeat that feat with Surturtle, but yeah, it did go far. Um...
01:29:26
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:29:27
zzweilous
I wish my Toucanon did more. Toucanon tried its best, but unfortunately the one time I brought it out it was met with a Shadow Scizor, which I was fine with because it's a soft loss in the one shield scenario and then I probably could have Dragon Tail down with my Guzzlor, but it's not as soft if the Scizor boosts on the first Night Slash and that's where everything fall ah fell apart in that matchup, so...
01:29:43
William Dunphey
But
01:29:48
William Dunphey
But
01:29:57
William Dunphey
yeah.
01:29:57
zzweilous
I will say that Toucanon, fantastic meta call three weeks ago.
01:30:03
zzweilous
Not anymore. like with the with the ascent of Unovan's Dunfisk, there's just, like, the Mudstleppers disappear, and all of a sudden, like, a spammy Pokemon that actually has coverage and fast move pressure into Toucanon appears.
01:30:03
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:30:05
William Dunphey
yeah
01:30:13
William Dunphey
yeah
01:30:21
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:30:21
zzweilous
i probably did better than ever before in practice tournaments with the Toucanon team. But that was mostly against people that were running Corsola, Mud Slappers, Clodseyer, Cradillia. Like, lot of Pokémon that get outpaced, don't have any immediate damage, and maybe even have like a negative type matchup.
01:30:44
zzweilous
And as the normal Flyer with the highest attack stat, like not written necessarily stat, but after the 20% damage boost calculation from the Shadow,
01:30:44
William Dunphey
yeah
01:30:54
zzweilous
It is the highest damage drill pack from a normal flyer. um And that is actually very valuable in the right circumstances.
01:31:05
zzweilous
Gdansk, not the right circumstances. But it is on the graphics. Summoned Dracos had to search for that Toucanian sprite and put it on there and tied for 13.
01:31:16
zzweilous
We do take those. so
01:31:18
William Dunphey
We do. We absolutely do. No, that's such an incredible Pokemon. And and it it was funny. I don't think I told you this, but I think it was during the Brisbane stream. I believe it was Fishy Legs actually said that Toucanon might be a player in Gdansk and alluded to it.
01:31:35
zzweilous
but sir Was it like Mikey Morks who had it on his caster's prediction? Because I know that I talked with Mikey Morks ahead of Brisbane about the Toucan and think we may have faced it at practice.
01:31:44
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:31:47
zzweilous
So yeah, like the Toucan and propaganda spread a little bit, but yeah.
01:31:53
William Dunphey
It's sweeping the nation. It's sweeping the world.
01:31:54
zzweilous
ah it was It was more of a thing to draw eyeballs. It could have been like like a legit player three weeks ago, but
01:32:02
William Dunphey
Sure.
01:32:03
zzweilous
Yeah, unfortunately, it just about missed the timing with that thing.
01:32:06
William Dunphey
Well, something I wanted to talk about was the top 12 usage percentages going into Gdansk. I think that Pokemon tweeted about this and said, there's a new sheriff in town and its name is Furret.
01:32:19
William Dunphey
So we had Furret clucking in I guess, at 58%. had Altaria at corvinite at fifty percent Cradily at 50%, followed shortly after by Stunfisk, Clodsire, as well as Florgis.
01:32:36
William Dunphey
um We had Scizor at 33%, Glaring Corsula tumbling from its throne all the way down to 25%, Fortress showing a spike of life at 17%, followed by Shadow Gyarados and Greninja.
01:32:49
William Dunphey
ZZ, this is a wild top 12 usage, and it's a complete reshuffling from what we saw just a few weeks ago.
01:32:56
zzweilous
Yes, I think the thing that stands out to me the most is actually the downfall of Galarian Corsola.
01:33:05
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:33:05
zzweilous
Because if you look at the top eight in Gdansk, you only have two ghost types and only one Galarian Corsola.
01:33:05
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:33:11
zzweilous
You also have the Jelly Sand and Alphys team. um Oh no, there's more. there's There does snow on Howies actually, it's just not in the ghost slot on the Dragulus graphic. but
01:33:20
William Dunphey
yeah
01:33:20
zzweilous
um The point being that with the amount of furred making their way into the meta, like six furreds in the top eight, bringing Galarian Korsler goes from being the safest thing that you can do the least safe thing that you can do.
01:33:37
William Dunphey
He agreed.
01:33:38
zzweilous
And even though you do have a lot of great neutral matchups, if there's just this polarizing threat that is very, very, like, difficult to punish in its own right. Like, Furret is a very spammable Pokémon.
01:33:50
zzweilous
There's not really any fighters to to write about. Like, you can look at the entire top cut, like, the entire top 16 of Gdansk, and, like, the Pankoros didn't really translate much beyond Bar the Gamers team.
01:34:04
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:34:06
William Dunphey
yeah
01:34:06
zzweilous
Then there was Tomahawk with the Shadow Annihilate, but overall, not really the most threatening environment for Furret. So, yeah, bringing Galarian Kostler became a liability overnight.
01:34:14
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:34:19
zzweilous
And in its place, ah whole new top meta team, like top meta cores emerged. And, yeah, having an entirety of six unique species in grand finals was probably, i think that is probably going to inform the meta going forward, going into Vegas and eventually Stuttgart a lot.
01:34:44
William Dunphey
It's just this this combination, and you pointed this out earlier, this combination of your flying types with, or excuse me with your your steel types with that Unova Stunfisk.
01:34:54
William Dunphey
I find that so interesting because previously you could look at having a team like Scizor and Corviknight. You could look at having those two Pokemon exist together on the same team and you would say, oh, Townflame, I'm just going to hammer them with Talon and Flame, and it's going to be an easy win. But then you throw in the Unova Stuntdisk, you throw in Altaria and its neutral matchups, or even the Chilling Water from Florges.
01:35:15
William Dunphey
The Even Shield matchups are not so good for Florges versus Talon. However, the Chilling Water does hurt it a lot, and it sets up a lot of other play. And I just feel like, don't know, this is not the metamorphosis that I was predicting at all, if just to put it shortly.
01:35:31
William Dunphey
And honestly, I don't know, ZZ. I'm looking at this, man. I'm looking at Scizor losing to Bastiodon. I'm looking at Altaria losing to Bastiodon. I'm looking at Floridus only winning the twos. I'm looking at Furret losing to Bastiodon. I'm just thinking, man, I really think there's still a place for this Pokemon. And if not for the secretive robe-clad a truce that all the Europeans made, there would be more Bastiodon.
01:35:54
zzweilous
then there There could be. um I still feel as if like between Korvanite, between, you know, Windstunfisk, between having that utility with the Chilling Water, and honestly, like, Siser and the Furet being able to at least make that close, it's not as if Bastion has more clear targets other than Altaria.
01:36:11
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:36:16
zzweilous
So if there were, like, three or four unwinnable matchups, um into Basseuron, I'd probably be inclined to recommend that Pokemon to the next European would-be champion.
01:36:28
zzweilous
But as of now, I think there is there's a use case for Basseuron. There is a good argument to be made for it. I also don't think it just plays itself into European teams. I know there's like a degree of vulnerability, but you always play that game of, oh, do I align it against the ground type? Do I not?
01:36:49
zzweilous
um especially with the ground types trending more towards being like coverage oriented ground types, whereas previously you just had the Mud Slappers who were about the neutral matchups and the raw damage that they could dish out.
01:36:58
William Dunphey
yes
01:37:06
zzweilous
um I think between Claude Zaire and, you know, Winston Fisk, it's a lot more difficult to form proper cores around Bastiodon that can't be exploited. so
01:37:19
zzweilous
I see why it's absent. um And I also feel as if the top two trainers in PvP David or Gdaansk Rijina Shemchen and Boom20, the most crazily consistent kid that we have on the circuit, I think this was a triumph of weirdly neutral play because while Unovan Stunfist can be an RPS driver in certain certain conditions,
01:37:19
William Dunphey
yeah
01:37:48
zzweilous
I don't believe it was that now. And even matchups between Pokemon like Flordius and Altaria are actually a lot less polarizing than you would expect just looking at the typings.
01:37:51
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:38:00
zzweilous
Because there's like so many interesting sims between the Pokemon on the winning team where Altaria does take the Zero and One Shield matchup against the Flordius if the Flordius runs Chilling Water and Trailblaze.
01:38:15
zzweilous
We did see Paulasha who came fifth in Gdansk actually experiment with disarming boys for and more solid matchup into opposing Artaria over the trailblaze, which was covered by grass coverage on her forehead and her credily, as well as a pretty good anti-ground pick in the shadow Gyarados on her team.
01:38:22
William Dunphey
o
01:38:38
zzweilous
um So trailblaze wasn't really needed, and instead there was little more insurance against Altaria, but if you don't have that extra insurance through the Disalming Voice, that's just a neutral matchup all of a sudden, even though it's a fairy into a dragon type.
01:38:51
zzweilous
And similarly, the Unovan Stunfisk into Altaria matchup is also very interesting in that going by The Sims, Unovan Stunfisk does win that matchup fairly handily and is even able to take it down a shield
01:38:51
William Dunphey
Mm. Mm.
01:39:06
William Dunphey
Mm.
01:39:09
zzweilous
um and unless you opt for a higher attack Altaria because there is a Dragon Breath breakpoint.
01:39:15
William Dunphey
a
01:39:17
zzweilous
And as we know about breakpoints, those occur if your Pokemon reaches a certain attack stat that then makes it so your fast attack does more damage into that Pokemon every time that fast attack is launched.
01:39:30
zzweilous
And that is most impactful with a one-turn fast attack such as Dragon Breath. So on Altaria, this could actually be attack
01:39:34
William Dunphey
True.
01:39:38
zzweilous
that would then enable you to take home the zeros and to shield matchup against opposing Unoman's Stunfisk while sacrificing a significant amount of bulk. So it would be a trade-off, but a lot of these Pokemon have matchups that are easily flipped depending on shielding or IV scenarios. So it was it was very fascinating to watch these two top players interact and play around with exactly the same set of very neutral Pokemon into one another. Like, they don't always have to be neutral, but into the mirror, it's pretty neutral overall.
01:40:19
William Dunphey
So I looked at the Sims. Your Altaria needs a attack stat of 108.29 in order to get three Dragonbreds instead of just two versus the Stunfisk.
01:40:30
William Dunphey
And the best IV combination for that 1170.
01:40:35
William Dunphey
And I was so disappointed because I was looking back through my all Altaria I got from the community day. PVPoke listed a attack weighted Altaria. and i was like, huh, wait, is it the same one? Is it the same spread?
01:40:46
William Dunphey
It is not. The one that PVPoke mentioned is like a 13, 11, two, it looks like.
01:40:47
zzweilous
It's
01:40:50
William Dunphey
two it looks like So I actually need to go and catch more Swablu, I guess, in order to get that one. That's so fascinating. i feel like there's so much, there's so much, I want to call it gatekeeping, but there's so much ah hidden information when it comes to breaking bulk points that top trainers just refuse to to give to anyone
Player Reflections and Competitive Balance
01:41:10
William Dunphey
else.
01:41:10
William Dunphey
And I understand, i understand completely because that is your competitive advantage, right? But it's like, man, I wish that I knew this stuff.
01:41:16
zzweilous
it's I do like sharing some of these insights on the podcast if I'm aware of them, because honestly, I think just knowing about such little break in bulk points, it can inspire people to just go on PVPoke and look for such scenarios on their own and maybe find their unique spreads. Like you may have a Pokemon sitting in your storage that does a bunch of unique things into certain key matchups and I don't know, this is certainly on the nerdier end of being a competitor, um but I personally really enjoy finding the optimized spread. and
01:41:55
zzweilous
yeah like there's I know Annihilate was a big one where, oh, like if you have this attack stat, you actually beat Klotzaya, even though it resists all your counters back in the day.
01:41:55
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:42:03
William Dunphey
Oh, yeah. I remember.
01:42:06
zzweilous
um Very infamously, the Medi Slayer Medi, the Medicham that Axon used to win the World Championships back in the day. um So yeah, there's... ah bunch of a bunch of little side quests that you can um but you can pick for yourself if you are interested in running anything but the rank one, which is like a good rank is typically more reliable, but if you have certain weaknesses that you need to patch up on your team, maybe it's worth looking into some crazy spreads and scenarios.
01:42:44
William Dunphey
Yeah, it's really weird because I'm actually, I'm plugging that IV spread into PV Poke and it's actually not giving me the break point against the stun fisk when I sim it out individually, which is weird.
01:42:57
William Dunphey
So maybe it's not the 108. Maybe i'm I'm incorrect there, but... I feel like, I mean, that's what Peepepoke said. so i'm a little bit I'm a little bit surprised. I'll just put it 12-0-0 and see what that gives us. Are we hitting three Dragon Breath damage? Yes, we are there.
01:43:12
William Dunphey
And that does, I guess, make the matchup closer. i don't know. I'll have to do some more research, but I'm really surprised because I plugged that in. i tried What I tried to do was look at the high rank Altaria versus this 11-7-0 and see what you picked up and what you lost.
01:43:27
William Dunphey
But in both settings, it's showing that it's a loss to Stunfisk when it's a rank one Stunfisk. So I don't know. More research is needed. Maybe maybe you need to ah double down on that.
01:43:38
William Dunphey
I'm really happy that you explained the the nuances of the matchups between the Florges and the Stunfisk and the Altaria and all that kind of thing. Because even though these teams were identical, I even heard a rumor that both David and Boom had the same IV Furret on their team as well, which i don't know if there's a Furret tech.
01:43:56
zzweilous
did have like They did have um a scenario, I think it was in the winners finals, where like both of them won CMP and the mirror won, so that was where it was revealed that it was the exact same attack stat.
01:44:12
William Dunphey
Oh my gosh.
01:44:13
zzweilous
Because if it's identical, then it's just a coin flip who wins CMP.
01:44:13
William Dunphey
Yeah. It's a coin flip. Exactly. Yeah. So, ah but, but even though these teams were identical and this was very much a new look to team comps and into the meta, the games between the two of them felt incredibly fluid, incredibly dynamic, um very back and forth. It wasn't like, oh, you're going to see an obvious team comp advantage from one side or the other.
01:44:39
William Dunphey
um it was really fun to watch actually. And I was like, you know what? If this is the new neutral meta, then I don't mind it that much. It actually looks pretty, pretty entertaining. It's just very different than anything we've had before, which I think is, is what stood out to me.
01:44:52
zzweilous
Yeah, I think that's also really fun because having this as now the established meta, we just earlier today got a little glimpse into what people are running and practice through the Candle Colt update where inadequates hosts a bunch of practice tournaments each week or has people hosted. It's a bunch of community contributors um taking on the hosting duties and we do appreciate them a lot for it.
01:45:18
zzweilous
And and Plenty of winning teams from last week's practice followed the exact formula that um Boom and PvP David employed in their grand finals, where essentially there's two Steel types.
01:45:28
William Dunphey
Yep. Mm-hmm.
01:45:32
zzweilous
It's not always the Corviknight in practice, actually. Some people have diverged from that and instead opted to bring Empoleon, which also looks like a very neutral Pokemon in this current meta.
01:45:45
zzweilous
And then there's the Altaria, the Unovan Stunfisk, And there's the Furret, there's the Flourges, or maybe even different Fairy type than the Flourges.
01:45:48
William Dunphey
ye
01:45:53
zzweilous
Like a weekly type is what I've seen because that is actually like, I think it wins the head-to-head against Flourges, at least in some scenarios.
01:45:56
William Dunphey
is
01:46:02
zzweilous
So people are experimenting with stuff. Oh, it certainly has a better Altaria matchup as a Charmer where the main source of damage is a fast attack.
01:46:09
William Dunphey
Of course.
01:46:11
zzweilous
So lot of people just adopting that formula um But like changing bits and pieces around to maybe have the edge in a potential mirror formula match.
01:46:26
zzweilous
So, yeah, we could we could go into the grand finals, highlight some of the plays. There were like even really great plays in the winner's finals already. I think I remember PvP David in game five of the winner's finals just like really heads up play where he hard swaps his Zunovan stunfisk ahead of the final matchup because he already anticipates that there would be another Unovan Stunfisk in the back, and because of that one Thundershock worth of advantage, he would be able to outpace. And there's like a lot of split-second decisions where each trainer tried to gain that little bit of advantage. And I think it was being said during the Grand Finals as well.
01:47:10
zzweilous
This is a young people's game now. These 0.5 seconds decisions
01:47:15
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:47:15
zzweilous
We may eventually age out of being able to execute that, but it is fascinating to watch. um and us
01:47:22
William Dunphey
I mean, that's buts ah Sorry, that's what King was saying like three years ago. King was saying this is a young person's game. And then you had a, I know exactly what you're referencing. Inadequance was casting and he was, he turned to his co-caster and said, old people like us couldn't do this, but these young trainers have the reflexes and they can pull it off.
01:47:40
zzweilous
and was It was very tongue-in-cheek by my time because he is the Frankfurt Regional Champion just couple weeks ago.
01:47:43
William Dunphey
I know, he just, he.
01:47:45
zzweilous
He can't have aged that much in that short amount of time.
01:47:49
William Dunphey
it It almost, you know you know what, it almost reminds me of of athletes in other sports, right?
01:47:49
zzweilous
um
01:47:55
William Dunphey
If you if you look at something like ah like tennis, for example, if you've got a young tennis player, they might be running from from one side of the court to the other, you know, really hitting these hard angle shots, trying to throw their opponent off balance.
01:48:09
William Dunphey
And then as that player gets older, maybe they work more finesse. Maybe they're taking fewer average steps on the court, but they're they're better at ball placement, right? Maybe they're doing some things that are different and it adjusts with their their age and play style.
01:48:22
William Dunphey
I'm not trying to liken competitive Pokemon Go on a mobile phone to, you know, the...
01:48:25
zzweilous
Thank you.
01:48:28
William Dunphey
the the um Wimbledon, right? I'm not trying to draw us a direct correlation, but I do think that if you were to pick up, if Martai was to pick up PvP David's team with a one-turn fast attack Corviknight, one-turn fast attack Altaria, nothing shorter than a two-turn fast move there, and try to win battles when he's so adept at playing ah Charm, Weekly Tough, Mudslap, Mudslap user, two-turn Shadow Claw, whatever,
01:48:55
zzweilous
yeah i like going going for the alignment strategies is the true old men's game that exists but you let know so
01:49:04
William Dunphey
But that's, yeah, I mean, that's basically what I'm getting at with this team. ah Yeah, he he had a blastoise as well. I mean, these are like dinosaur speed Pokemon compared to what David and boom were playing.
01:49:14
William Dunphey
Right. So if you would give inadequance, this team, and if you were to give David inadequacy team, the results would be wildly different. So you definitely need to, to embrace whether it's RPS or whether it's finesse, you got to embrace.
01:49:27
zzweilous
I will say that i I will say like this is obviously all in good fun, but we did see Martijn in Frankfurt like execute plays where he did not get caught on because he waited for like that split second seeing the Pokemon come in, reacting accordingly.
01:49:33
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:49:44
zzweilous
So he' he's still he' still got it. he's He's not that old just yet.
01:49:48
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:49:48
zzweilous
He gets a lot of puberty sleep. He's going to be fine.
01:49:52
William Dunphey
Well, here's the difference, right? And Martijn was picking his moments. He knew exactly what to anticipate and he only made a risky play when he, when it was very calculated. Right. Whereas when you look at boom and David, I mean, they're just, sometimes if I feel like they were switching for the heck of it just to move the pieces around, just to respond quickly, just to pounce on whatever the next, the next matchup was.
01:50:13
William Dunphey
And, and,
01:50:13
zzweilous
there was there was an insane play um i think that was who who who did that
01:50:21
William Dunphey
The cap tie, game three.
01:50:22
zzweilous
there was like a situation yeah yeah boom was the one who um and who did that i think where or was it david and i don't actually know who took gang three whoever won that did like one dragon birth with an artaria um then one turn to swap, and then, yeah I think it was boom, and then CMP'd the Unovan Stunfisk.
01:50:43
William Dunphey
It was.
01:50:47
zzweilous
So because of that one Dragon Breath, um you would essentially guarantee that your opponent would trigger a whole other two-turn fast attack, and you could get to your attack and then Shards Attack Priority Tie, which is such a high-level play.
01:50:57
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:51:03
zzweilous
Like, it's It's not just like any old combo play, oh, I just blindly tap my Pokemon. I have to keep the move counts. I have to, like, it's a game of mathematics in a way where you always need to know how do the fast moves align, which actions will my opponent perform.
01:51:23
zzweilous
And at some point, it gets nearly impossible to outpredict that if it's so well executed, same way Boom did in Game 3 of the Grand Finals.
01:51:33
William Dunphey
Yeah. And that's the thing, right? So when just, just to draw one more comparison between inadequance and, and, and boom, when inadequance famously cap tied with his gear Tina origin form on charge a bug, that wasn't a clear cut situation because that was the only reserve Pokemon from, if I remember correctly, the only reserve Pokemon left.
01:51:54
William Dunphey
And he was able to swap it in, cap tie, throw the move and then take the, take the energy. In this situation with with Boom, he knew that no matter what David had on the other side, Scizor was going to win that charge stack priority.
01:52:08
William Dunphey
So it's almost like having a checkmate play in your back pocket. And by aligning the the turn durations that way, no matter what your opponent tries to do, if you know that they're going to trigger a fast attack, that takes two turns, you swap in. And then on that turn number three, you're going to lock in the cap tie.
01:52:27
William Dunphey
No matter what, you get your move first. And if you look at the the actual CMP ladder on PvPoke, I mean Scizor is up there really, really high. It's fifth place overall.
01:52:38
William Dunphey
The only Pokemon that are likely to win a cap tie against Scizor are Greninja, Primate, Morpeko, and Murkrow. Only in four. So if you put yourself in that position where you have the move and you can fine tune that catch, you're going to get off your, your night slash every single time.
01:52:54
William Dunphey
Yeah, that was game three. Boom is was able to win. I think in the intro, I said that David did a reverse sweep. David actually won game number one, boom, one game two and three, and then David came back to win four and five. So, but yeah, that was impressive.
01:53:11
William Dunphey
Let me see. says I'm looking up my other notes here. Game four, Scizor was the key for David.
01:53:14
zzweilous
Heh heh heh.
01:53:17
William Dunphey
ah David insta-swaps into Furret. This is game five. So ah David leads Altaria into Scizor. Obviously not a great place to be, especially even shields, even energy.
01:53:27
William Dunphey
David insta-swaps into Furret. David realizes once he weakens the Floridus that his Altaria can sweep the game. ah David Thundershock's down the floor just, which was a huge moment. Our casters were popping off and then throws double Mudbomb to win the game. And I think that Boom was like one sucker punch off of the Trailblaze or two, perhaps.
01:53:47
William Dunphey
So it was still a very competitive game. But David did have the buffer that he was in the Winterside bracket. So even if Boom did win that game five, it would have gone to the reset.
01:53:53
zzweilous
yeah
01:53:56
zzweilous
yeah and yeah like just that thunder shock down like it's not really something that you see a lot of the time but it goes to show that even though floor just sometimes can feel really bulky thanks to the chilling water debuffs it only has like like a little less than 99 red stat product which is very meddling in the grand scheme of things so even the pokemon such as soon of instant first can actually
01:54:01
William Dunphey
yeah
01:54:15
William Dunphey
yeah
01:54:21
zzweilous
put in some work against it still which again speaks to the neutrality of the entire composition into one another and like one thing that i thought was most fascinating is that i think correct me if i'm wrong but nobody ever brought corvinite right was that how it played out um yeah so i see why in like grassroots practice a couple of people are already
01:54:41
William Dunphey
Correct. No, no Corbinite on either side.
01:54:50
zzweilous
replacing that Corviknight, which may have been very solid into other team compositions, but not really into the mirror. And I think part of that is because the rise of Altaria is actually making it very difficult to bring. Altaria appears to be so flexible in this current meta because not only is it ah pretty good damage sponge, she actually clocking in at, I don't know, like 2100-ish.
01:55:16
zzweilous
Like a lot of stat product is available on that Pokemon.
01:55:16
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. 22. Mm-hmm.
01:55:19
William Dunphey
twenty two
01:55:20
zzweilous
And therefore, oh yeah, perfect. It's going to be able to tank so many neutral hits. It's going to be able to pace to charge attacks much, much faster. And it feels like it has gone from a fairly um RPS Pokemon all the way back in the day where like you had a one minute switch clock, you had a zoom roll everywhere. And then you had an Altaria, which had,
01:55:47
zzweilous
a more damage-oriented Dragon Breath that couldn't really do much against the Fairy-type answer. um Now you have a Pokémon that still has the exact same stats and type profile, but you have coverage against Steals with Flamethrower, you have stronger energy generation, you have a different switch clock, and all of a sudden, Altaria becomes one of those things that can just be moved in and out of battle, like a big cloud in the sky just
01:56:00
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:56:16
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yep.
01:56:17
zzweilous
like it's It moves slowly, it can rain down on whatever target at any time if it just dips in and out with energy.
01:56:20
William Dunphey
yeah
01:56:28
zzweilous
and
01:56:29
William Dunphey
yeah
01:56:29
zzweilous
i think we'll see a lot more Altaria in Las Vegas as well, because I think this was the perfect proof of concept for this Pokemon specifically. um And I did really enjoy how both players in the grand finals utilized it.
01:56:45
zzweilous
Because again, it's a one-turn generation fast to attack as well, which makes it just so maneuverable and really lets itself well to neutral play.
01:56:55
William Dunphey
It almost felt like fighting a cloud as well. Like you're trying to reach up and you're trying to you know deal some damage.
01:57:00
zzweilous
Yeah,
01:57:01
William Dunphey
You're swiping at it with Furrits sucker punches or with ah with Florges, but it's just so hard to deal damage.
01:57:05
zzweilous
yeah, yeah. That's another thing about Altaria, right? Like where Furud is actually
01:57:09
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:57:11
zzweilous
pretty aggressive into a lot of meddling bulk Pokemon where Stab Swift actually puts in some work. But against Altaria, you can't boost up your damage with Trailblazers.
01:57:21
zzweilous
And Swift only does so much against Pokemon with such a good defensive profile. So as just like a neutral check for Pokemon that are otherwise difficult to deal with, think Altaria has a lot of utility. And it will have a little bit of a target on its on its back though. So I do wonder how people intend to target that.
01:57:21
William Dunphey
True.
01:57:41
zzweilous
And I guess like different fairy types or a different tech on Phlogis could be a way, but it's like we talked briefly about ice types earlier, and I do wonder whether between Unovan's Dunfisk and Altaria there may be a resurgence of ice types down the line.
01:57:59
William Dunphey
Hmm. And Claude Sire and Cradilly. there's There's a few targets. I'll say there's a few targets for sure. Yeah. Or, or I don't know, maybe, maybe a meteor falling and makes an appearance and just smacks down all the Altarias single-handedly with Bastiodon.
01:58:15
zzweilous
Oh no. Yeah, imagine like we talk about all these new Pokemon entering the meta and we go to Vegas and it's just the third Bastion in a row in the original.
01:58:26
William Dunphey
Oh, no.
01:58:26
zzweilous
Oh man.
01:58:27
William Dunphey
What fresh hell is this?
01:58:29
zzweilous
Ugh.
01:58:29
William Dunphey
Now, one thing I did want to to point out, um and you and I can can discuss this, maybe maybe not on the show, but I thought that that Colin actually had a really nice run in Gdansk, finishing third overall.
01:58:46
William Dunphey
I have in my notes here that Colin, me see. Yeah. So Colin eliminated bar the gamer. Colin lost to Howie in group C semifinals. However, after his loss, Colin would go on to win three more rounds to make it to day number two.
01:59:00
William Dunphey
Colin would win his rematch versus Howie in losers round three as well. So ah Colin had a very deep run, ah very solid tournament. There was a bit of a a stumble early on, which sent him down to that loser side bracket, but very, very good showing from him. I know a lot of people, when they think of you they think of Pato, they think of Paula, ah they think of you, they think of Tauntaun. But seeing someone like Colin have a ah third place finish, I think it shows he's still firmly in the race, so to speak, and doing well for himself.
01:59:30
zzweilous
Yeah, I think like the the name, the final boss, like that that's not a coincidence. like People still refer to him as that, and even though he's not been as consistent about his grand finals appearances as he used to be in like the season where he dominated everything, um he's still like he always feels more likely to make a top 8 than to miss out on it. I don't know whether the stats back that up, but if they may not, that really doesn't matter because um i think this kind of snowballs into a general point that i want to make about the competition not only in europe but also beyond that where did see a post from paul asha actually who is like a little bit in the same boat as colin as like a multi-time european champion and certainly one who is one of the undisputed greats of the game
02:00:08
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
02:00:27
zzweilous
where um she noted after Gdansk that she wants to take competing a little bit slower because it's relatively, like, it's it's fairly anxiety-inducing and one always has to maintain a healthy balance between the pressure that one puts on oneself.
02:00:45
zzweilous
And I think that was a post that, like, spoke to me personally, but also is something that I do want to briefly touch on just in a general sense because...
02:00:56
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:00:57
zzweilous
We have so many players like Colin who have just reached the highest of heights. And that does, even if you don't intend for that to be the case, it does set up expectations to match those achievements again in the future.
02:01:16
zzweilous
Because that's just the bar that you set, right? And everybody like just naturally strives to improve.
02:01:19
William Dunphey
yeah
02:01:23
zzweilous
And eventually it will become difficult if you're already that high up. How do I improve further? And I do want to just like generally leave every competitor that may be listening to this with the message that if you're like new and hungry and you feel like, oh, I do want to prove myself and that is something that fuels me positively, go for it.
02:01:52
zzweilous
if you're somebody who has reached certain achievements and now feels as if they kind of have to chase that again just to prove that they still got it people outside of your own self-perception will always see you as like a bigger star than you perceive yourself as.
02:02:18
zzweilous
That's usually the case. There's certainly people who just have a lot of confidence and never really face that pressure. But I think it's natural for competitors to reflect on their achievements, reflect on the runs that went well and reflect on the runs that maybe didn't go so well.
02:02:28
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
02:02:37
zzweilous
And what I just know as somebody who is a competitor myself, who has to deal with feelings like that myself, but who also talks to a lot of competitors is that there's so much respect and admiration, especially for players who are have resumes like Colin or like Paul Asher that I really do hope that those people can always enter a competition with a feeling of okay this is going to be fun and it won't matter as much how well I do because the perception of the people out there will not be altered it will not change my life to the negative in any significant way
02:03:19
zzweilous
if I don't perform the way i like, at the end of the day want to perform, but know that I can't always. And I don't know.
02:03:29
zzweilous
I think the main takeaway here is just that this community is so appreciative of one another that
02:03:43
zzweilous
even if we talk about somebody's greatest successes in the past tense,
02:03:49
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:03:49
zzweilous
that doesn't mean that they count any less than back then in the moment. That's probably what I want to say.
02:03:55
William Dunphey
yeah
02:03:56
zzweilous
And I thought this was like an opportunity to segue into that because I did read that Paul Asha post and it moved me to a degree because it is a feeling that I have experienced as somebody who has won a tournament before, but that's more than two years ago.
02:04:13
zzweilous
So I don't know. I think as long as you, keep having fun while putting yourself out there. Everything's all right.
02:04:25
zzweilous
And if that ever is not the case, I think this community will have your back.
02:04:31
William Dunphey
Well, Silk Worlds was five years ago, and I'm still riding that one's easy. So you got you you got to ride the the the wave as long as you can, right? No, but in all seriousness, um I agree with you. And I think i think maybe it's just...
02:04:47
William Dunphey
it's just the circle that we're in and what our social feeds are, are filled with. But I think I'm seeing more of those sentiments lately, like an increased kind of vibe that competing is, is wearing on people.
02:05:01
William Dunphey
Um, And I think it's it's definitely hard when you have such high expectations. It's not just EU. It's not just NA. I really, really love to talk with Harjeff from time to time. And what I've noticed in our our conversations, you know, because, ah you know, I'll message him. I'll ask, hey, can you give me the team comps that we saw in grand finals? Because he's usually in grand finals.
02:05:22
William Dunphey
And even if he didn't win that grand finals, he, he shares with me the teams and it's, it informs our show so much. It's so constructive. It gives us an insight into these tournaments that should be streamed, ah but are not, not yet covered. And we're so grateful to him for that. But in in my conversations with him, ill I'll say things like, oh yeah, well congrats on another grand finals. And the sentiment I get in return is thanks But I feel like I had a chance to to win and I messed up.
02:05:47
zzweilous
Thank you.
02:05:51
William Dunphey
Or I feel like I really wanted it to be me to actually win. And for someone like Harjeff or like like Paula, who's had that trophy on the stage, once you once you're kind of like...
02:06:04
William Dunphey
Once your peak is that level, it feels like anything less than that can be kind of like a failure, right? And especially if you have a few tournaments that don't go so well, it can start to feel like maybe you've lost your way, which I think is is a very ah valid concern, right? you know Because the game does move so fast.
02:06:20
William Dunphey
The meta changes is so often, and there's so many variables that are outside your control. So I appreciate that you said that. I feel like you have ah such a... such ah a handle on the situation and you have a very empathetic um way of talking about it that I think a lot of people would really value.
02:06:40
William Dunphey
You know, they might look at me and say, oh, well, you know, that was self grassroots five years ago.
02:06:43
zzweilous
Okay.
02:06:45
William Dunphey
That's not that big of a deal. But when they look at you, they know for sure that you are with them, right? You're standing side by side. So. I think that's really important to say, to clarify. And you know what, guys? It's okay to take a little bit of time off and to come back refreshed.
02:06:59
William Dunphey
Wolfie, he got burned out a year or two ago. He took like three or four plus months away from the game, came back, won a tournament. Sometimes you need to recharge and you can't just run on fumes consistently because that's how you really hit the burnout ah that that pushes you so far into the negative that maybe you don't ever come back.
02:07:18
William Dunphey
So that's something you you need to know yourself and be aware of. and Not, not beat yourself up because like you were saying, the people outside will always value your accomplishments and hold weight whenever, whenever your name is mentioned.
02:07:32
William Dunphey
But we know that competitors are the hardest on themselves out of anyone else in the room.
02:07:37
zzweilous
Yes, yes, yes.
02:07:38
William Dunphey
So,
02:07:38
zzweilous
Everybody does tend to be the hardest critic of themselves. So...
02:07:43
William Dunphey
It's the internal voice. You can't let that sneak up on you. um In terms of Gdansk, I'm glad it was it was beautiful. I'm glad that I missed out on an incredible tournament yet again because I was not an EU. But no in all seriousness, I'm happy everyone had fun.
02:07:58
William Dunphey
um A couple other things we could probably mention. We had another casting debut. We just had Jay in Lille, and now we get Jocks in Gdansk.
02:08:07
zzweilous
so So we had Joncus, Jay, and Jonx.
02:08:07
William Dunphey
And
02:08:12
William Dunphey
Oh, jocks. It's, it's triple J's, right?
02:08:15
zzweilous
Yeah, yeah, yeah. wonder who the next Jay person is going to be.
02:08:17
William Dunphey
Wow.
02:08:19
William Dunphey
Well, it's, I heard it was, it was J's wireless is who I heard it was. And I'm just kidding that would require a name change. I don't know if that's a approved brand testing.
02:08:28
zzweilous
That is very unlikely to happen this season, but maybe in the future. Maybe in the future.
02:08:33
William Dunphey
Maybe, maybe, but um yeah. What'd you think of, of jocks debut? I thought he brought the energy for sure.
02:08:40
zzweilous
that is very true so I am I personally consider Jacques a good friend um so I know that he worked really really hard for this opportunity he did a lot for the grassroots circuit in Portugal as well and I will say that I did enjoy how he did get to cast a tournament where with Tornante we had another Portuguese player i have a little bit of a breakout moment I know that that was also a competitor who really did well for themselves in practice ahead of the tournament so seeing that translate so seamlessly was was a sight to see for sure um and yeah I think um it was a solid first showing do like the energy of the cast um and the two of us we did talk before the show that it was like a little bit
02:09:37
zzweilous
we don't want to call it like a 2.0 budget impression but in terms of the role within the cast it was like ah relatively comparable to like NA's premiere hype man in a way um but I don't know like I actually couldn't yeah and I couldn't really watch much of the stream because I was in the dance competing um but yeah maybe I know that
02:09:44
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:09:53
William Dunphey
Which I think is a huge compliment.
02:10:05
zzweilous
Jock's is very open to constructive criticism. So if you have anything to say just from like an established classist perspective, I would give you the opportunity here and right now.
02:10:16
William Dunphey
Sure. So, so your, your sentiment that it was a really strong debut, I think that stands. Um, What I want to say is that we have some casters, ah for example, Tomahawk. right I've said this to to friends who have who have asked me what I thought about his casting.
02:10:34
William Dunphey
um Tomahawk came in with one of the highest floors of any caster that we probably have on NA or EU regardless. right um Very well-spoken, well-poised, great analytical insights, also nice hype. right He's got all the all the right tools.
02:10:52
William Dunphey
And the question becomes, where does he take that floor? Right? Because you can have a super high floor, but if you don't start to grow with everyone else, then you might not ever hit your ceiling. And what I, what I find with jocks is that he does have a high floor and all the right tools.
02:11:08
William Dunphey
But it's ah right now, it's just a little rough around the edges in terms of of controlling the flow of the narrative, right? Because this is this is an analogy that I use when I talk to people about cast casting theory.
02:11:22
William Dunphey
um When you watch a movie, right, you see action on screen. Maybe it's character dialogue. Maybe it's traveling to a new location. Maybe it's a fight scene. When you're watching those things happen, if you listen very intently to the score, the score of the movie emphasizes what's happening on screen.
02:11:41
William Dunphey
It rides the ebbs and flows. It's never out of place if it's a good movie. And I feel like as a commentator, you need to be aware not only of where the story is going, but it also at what point you are in the movie.
02:11:56
William Dunphey
So you can have like a really bang opening scene that gets everyone's attention. That's usually like the intro, right? That usually is what gets people hooked. It gives them something to look forward to, sets up some storylines that are really fascinating.
02:12:09
William Dunphey
um But then there's typically typically like a lull for a little while. And I feel like something that ah Butters has gotten better at, that Jock's is going to need to work at, is just finding the flow of the movie and being the best soundtrack.
02:12:25
William Dunphey
ah Because, I mean, if you watch movies, like my favorite movie of all time is Interstellar. If you watch Interstellar, the music makes the movie. It's just so incredible to kind of go along that journey.
02:12:35
William Dunphey
And I feel like that's the caster's biggest responsibility, is to be... is to help the viewer along the journey. So Jax has the hype. He's got all the right tools. I just feel like be getting more in line with the the flow and the theme of what's going on screen is going to be one of his challenges. But he already starts with a really high floor. I cannot wait to see where his ceiling goes.
02:12:59
William Dunphey
This is a very strong debut, and I can't wait for Jax to refine and improve and excel.
02:13:06
zzweilous
Well, I'm really glad that I asked you this question because that was a fantastic explanation. Like so immersive as well. i do love Interstellar as a movie too. So yeah, I think there's, there's a lot of potential here and I am very much looking forward to see, um where Jocks takes that because again, I know him as somebody who is like very willing to put in the work and, um,
02:13:21
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:13:34
zzweilous
just like make the most of his potential. So yeah, looking forward to the next opportunities he'll get on the scene.
02:13:37
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:13:41
zzweilous
um
02:13:41
William Dunphey
i did the I did a grassroots tournament with Jocks and I remember thinking like, oh, this guy's cooking. this guy This guy knows what he's doing, right? so he's already been he's already impressed me. So now the question becomes, how can he grow with this within his own framework? The last thing I'll say is that you don't need to copy other casters. I think that Jay and his style appeals to a huge piece of the audience that probably has been feeling a little left behind or left out of some of the casts that we that would we've had recently.
02:14:12
William Dunphey
Because as the skill level goes up, a lot of casters will try to match that level and they'll try to speak to those top players. But I feel like what Jay did so well is that he just...
02:14:24
William Dunphey
Again, it felt friendly. It felt informative. It felt welcoming. It felt fun, which I think is really important. so And yeah, just like with jocks, I don't want to leave Jay out in the cold. It's going to depend on on how they develop.
02:14:38
William Dunphey
And they should stay themselves, right? I don't want to commentate like inadequacy. I probably could never pull it off that way.
02:14:43
zzweilous
yeah
02:14:45
William Dunphey
I don't know if people could commentate like me. Everyone's going to be different and you need to embrace that, right? So... But anyway, incredible tournaments. We had two EU events and one in Australia. We're headed down to Las Vegas this weekend.
02:15:00
William Dunphey
Reboot Las Vegas. Can't wait for that one. Then we've got LAIC with a limited meta. ZZ, I don't know if you and I are going to have the time or bandwidth to put together an LAIC meta preview.
02:15:11
William Dunphey
But I will say, again, on the theme of casters, this is a fascinating event. casting challenge that our team is going to have with DeFi, Feeb, Ryze, and Leo.
02:15:21
zzweilous
Okay.
02:15:23
William Dunphey
This is a very technical challenge and it's going to be really difficult. I don't want to say difficult. It's going to really new for players to kind of know these matchups inside and out, to know the breakpoints, the bulk points, to know shielding scenarios, energy advantages, interplay between the the Pokemon, because this does feel like a very neutral meta for LAIC.
02:15:44
William Dunphey
And it's not going to be, you're not going to be able to get away with saying, oh, we have another Gyarados mirror. ah Here comes the crunch. That's just not going to work.
02:15:52
zzweilous
i also I also think that you have to prepare for the LAIC cast like a player. I think like probably somebody like Ryze is going to be very readapted at that, that um where you do know how to approach an event like that from the perspective of a previous like multi-regional champion, where even though this meta feels fairly condensed, I don't think we'll see a lot of variety in Top Cut.
02:16:21
zzweilous
we will need to have an insight about, like okay, there's Gudras that will appear here and there with a lot of bulk and breakpoint considerations that flip certain matchups.
02:16:34
zzweilous
There's going to be the discussion between Incinerate and Ember Turginator. There's going to be a discussion between Seelio or Dugong. There's going to be Dugongs that beat other Dugong by virtue of having breaks and bulkpoints against oh the mirror match.
02:16:50
zzweilous
So... I feel as if there's a lot of intricacies that need to be firstly understood and then also presented to an audience in a way that is seamless and that goes for the flow of the narrative.
02:17:03
zzweilous
So it is a very challenging environment to work in, but yeah, I'm very much looking forward to it I will be Sao Paulo for LAIC competing with a team that I have no idea what it will look like.
02:17:16
zzweilous
um but yeah it's it's going to be a very different experience the first limited meta event in the pokemon go championship series and yeah i would i would love to squeeze in at least a little bit of a preview um for that next week um because i will be preparing for it anyway so may as may as well share some of the theoretical insights without revealing too much about my own team
02:17:33
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:17:42
William Dunphey
I was watching back some of Inadequance's stream when he was doing an LAIC practice tournament. There are not a lot of home run charge attacks. You're not just going to get a full-fledged knockout ah right off the bat. You're not going to see Alolan Raichu versus Gyarados in these polarizing matchups.
02:17:58
William Dunphey
You're going to see a lot of the same Pokemon, and it's going to be very ah few and far between that a charge attack just completely knocks something out and just ends the matchup.
02:18:07
zzweilous
Half of the Charger attacks will just be brutal swinging. Like we have Arunogus, an Oranguru, Turtonator.
02:18:10
William Dunphey
Yes.
02:18:13
zzweilous
They just keep swinging.
02:18:13
William Dunphey
spam it, spam the brutal swing. i i need, you know what I need to do is easy. I actually need to look at the average pacing for all these Pokemon and figure out how much faster this meta is than the open great league.
02:18:26
William Dunphey
It's going to be close because when you, when you look at a lot of these Pokemon, they're eight turns, nine turns, 10 turns to the move.
02:18:27
zzweilous
Oh, yeah.
02:18:33
William Dunphey
And we're going to see a lot of switches, lot of catches knowing your damage calcs is going to be so, so important for this meta.
02:18:36
zzweilous
Yeah.
02:18:39
William Dunphey
So Yeah, I don't know. ah Part of me is like, is wishes I could be on that cast just because the challenge is just so enticing. ah But part of me is is relieved that I get to sit back and watch it because it is going to be very, very interesting.
02:18:52
zzweilous
ye
02:18:57
William Dunphey
But yeah, it will.
02:18:57
zzweilous
It's going to be a good show for sure.
02:18:59
William Dunphey
And I'm glad you didn't cancel your flight. I'm glad you didn't do it. I know you thought about it and I got nervous.
02:19:04
zzweilous
Oh yeah. and we didn't actually We didn't actually talk about the that entire thing, right? like the
02:19:09
William Dunphey
No.
02:19:10
zzweilous
You did provide the timestamps for my ah losers round match in Gdansk. Not only for that, but like for all the matches in Gdansk day one.
02:19:20
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:19:20
zzweilous
And typically like between match A and match B, we like probably like an average of like 20-ish minutes. And then you have the match between me and Stone Collection.
02:19:32
zzweilous
was like one hour, four minutes, and 20 seconds. We had so many game issues. It was supposedly something to do with just like the venue Wi-Fi that wasn't even fixable by changing the phones twice.
02:19:44
zzweilous
And I will say that um Stone was... a great sportsman. We did agree to just run back the exact same lines for the first two games um because that was what would have represented the way that match flowed most accurately.
02:19:50
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:20:01
zzweilous
um We even agreed on playing out the lead matchup the same way, catching the move at the exact same time in the first game. And then we did agree to do new lines for game three because he had the lead call, I executed a really good play, so there was one advantage there, one advantage there, we could just cancel it out and do new lines.
02:20:21
William Dunphey
Yeah. Hmm.
02:20:24
zzweilous
um So that was like, honestly, very, like, like it it wasn't a great experience, obviously, because you don't want to be stuck on stage with the game not working, but as far as stressful disputes go, I'm glad it was against Stone.
02:20:39
William Dunphey
yeah
02:20:39
zzweilous
um One thing that I'm minorly frustrated about like i've essentially moved past that already but i should have escalated the last dispute because on stage we only looked at one of three instances of lag and i think there was one that was very decisive that that happened before the one that was looked at and i don't know i don't want to like put any personal blame into onto anybody but i think that um i would want judges to if something's like super laggy
02:21:10
zzweilous
Just watch the game from front to back. Just like watch everything once, um because it's very easy to overlook something, especially after whole hour of dispute action um leading up to that.
02:21:13
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:21:21
zzweilous
But again, the Toucan is on the graphic.
02:21:22
William Dunphey
yeah
02:21:24
zzweilous
That's all I wanted to do. is So it's fine.
02:21:28
William Dunphey
Yeah, I understand. i mean, there's there's got to be like a high degree of fatigue that sets in And um I think I messaged you about it, right? After watching the stream, I was like, man, what kind of cruel poetry is this? That you have this this lag situation against one of your countrymen. And it's just such like a...
02:21:48
William Dunphey
uncomfortable position to be in. But hey, if you're both in the same boat that's sinking, at least you're there with a friend, you know, in the meanwhile. So I, yeah, I understand what you're saying. And that was a little bit tough to watch. And I did notice that as well when I was, when I was entering the timestamps, I was like, my gosh, an hour gap.
02:22:06
William Dunphey
Talk about hogging the stage easy. You just can't can't get out of there, man. Come on.
02:22:10
zzweilous
Bye.
02:22:11
William Dunphey
but now just I'm just pulling your leg. But it was an incredible couple of of weekends of of tournaments. I'm grateful that you will compete at la i I'm excited to see what you do there.
02:22:22
William Dunphey
um Two EU events, one in OC. We're headed down to Las Vegas, like I talked about, and then LAIC.
Wild Area Event and Community Engagement
02:22:28
William Dunphey
All of you SpyDops lovers out there, you're going to need to wait a little while longer because it is a two-week buffer after the Tuesday of release, so we will not see SpyDops until the following event in, drumroll, Stuttgart, which is going to be really fun.
02:22:44
William Dunphey
I don't know SpyDops will be making waves. Maybe.
02:22:46
zzweilous
I'm sorry to say, I will make a prediction right now.
02:22:48
William Dunphey
Maybe.
02:22:49
zzweilous
We will not be seeing spin-offs. It has all the tools in terms of stats and moves, but being a mono bug type is just so difficult for it.
02:22:51
William Dunphey
Ah, yeah.
02:22:58
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah. understand I understand. have a rank 12. I need to build it. Uh, and then I'll, I'll try it out, but,
02:23:03
zzweilous
I built a rank 13 the other day, almost twins.
02:23:05
William Dunphey
Ah, very nice. Very nice. I'm sure I'll come to the same conclusion as you, though. if If you're not feeling it, i don't I doubt that I'll be feeling it.
02:23:10
zzweilous
That's
02:23:13
William Dunphey
But I'm trying to think.
02:23:14
zzweilous
fair.
02:23:16
William Dunphey
ah You know what? I think it's time, speaking of new releases and fun Pokemon, I think it's time to talk about our Wild Area Raffle. What do you say?
02:23:25
zzweilous
Oh, let's go. If anybody still made it up until this point of the podcast, you are the true fans.
02:23:27
William Dunphey
All right.
02:23:30
William Dunphey
You're a real one.
02:23:31
zzweilous
Like you, you actually, you should get a ticket for the Wild Area event just for listening all that much.
02:23:39
William Dunphey
Look under your seat.
02:23:39
zzweilous
But unfortunately, that's not how it's, that's not how it's being decided. We actually had a little bit of a randomizer doing the Lord's work ahead of this recording.
02:23:51
zzweilous
So actually do already know the two lucky participants. and
02:23:56
William Dunphey
Yes. So ah before we say the names, um I will say two things. First, there's a timestamp. I'm going to make sure that's a timestamp here. So all of our our friends that listening can go to the actual two hour, 38 minute block so they can actually hear this.
02:24:11
William Dunphey
um And secondly, I will say that the contest rules were that you had to leave a review and then screenshot that review and reply to the original post. So if you're listening to the show and you went on Spotify or you went Apple Music and you gave it a five star review,
02:24:25
William Dunphey
Thank you. Thank you so much. If you haven't done that already, then I highly encourage you to do it. It would help us a lot. But for those of you that did leave the five-star review, but then did not reply to our post where we don't know ah that you actually left the review, there's no way for us to figure out who that was. So,
02:24:43
William Dunphey
Although we appreciate it, we couldn't involve those people in the contest. ah We had five names actually leave us reviews, whether it was on Spotify or YouTube comments or whatever it might be. And we're grateful to all those people. We had Obedamac, Cmaglio, who left a very funny review.
02:24:58
William Dunphey
We had DanielsBO1990, ChadIsBubbles, and KaleSpecial. And we did our randomizer, as ZZ mentioned. ZZ, you ready for the first name?
02:25:08
zzweilous
Yes.
02:25:09
William Dunphey
Our first winner is DanielsBO1990. After this episode goes live, Daniel, we will contact you. And if you already purchased your wild area ticket, then we'll just give you its equivalent in terms of ah gift monies.
02:25:23
William Dunphey
And then our second winner, Brzzz.
02:25:29
zzweilous
It is Obedomack who is a long time supporter of our anything really like He's such a good dude. and I did talk to him at, I think, last EUAC, it must have been.
02:25:37
William Dunphey
Yes.
02:25:41
zzweilous
Yeah, very, very positive character within the PvP scene. And yeah, certainly somebody that is a longtime supporter. So we do love that.
02:25:50
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:25:51
zzweilous
We do love to see it.
02:25:53
William Dunphey
Yeah. ah Absolutely love Obed. Awesome guy. Love love ah spending time with him and love seeing him at tournaments. i I cannot confirm or deny, but he might be competing at LAIC.
02:26:05
William Dunphey
So... Maybe, maybe we'll see. Maybe you have a chance to bump into him. That that would be an awesome photo of actually. Oh, bad. If you, if you end up at LAIC, go find this guy, go find a, our German friend and take a photo with him.
02:26:13
zzweilous
chicken
02:26:17
zzweilous
yeah
02:26:19
William Dunphey
Cause that would be awesome. would love that. But that's going to be our giveaway. ah We'll reach out to both of you after the um episode goes live. I'm excited for the wild area. I've seen some posts about it. It looks fun. The spawns look really cool.
02:26:33
William Dunphey
I think that there's this weird humanoid aspect to Dynamax Grimmsnarl that is kind of unsettling. It kind of makes me feel weird inside, like the uncanny valley.
02:26:42
zzweilous
I like the Grimmsnall line. like I think the whole impotent Morgrem Grimmsnall, I don't know how viable they're going to be for PvP.
02:26:44
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:26:50
zzweilous
They do have Sucker Punch. They do have a unique typing. think they may need a little bit help with their charge attacks still, but there's potential for that down the line because they do receive, I think, even multiple signature attacks.
02:26:53
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
02:27:04
zzweilous
So maybe there's potential for the future, and it's certainly ah design that I'm pretty fond of. So yeah, I'm glad that we... Just recently, like I think last year was the very first Wild Area, and that was a blast. I love that we have all those various um big events going on every three months, essentially.
02:27:24
zzweilous
but um i don't know.
02:27:24
William Dunphey
yeah.
02:27:25
zzweilous
I think we don't have one for springtime just yet. like We do have the Go Tour in winter, and we do have the Go Fest in summer. We may still need something for spring, but I love that fall is a little more fun now, with the mighty Pokémon appearing in the wild, being almost level 50 at times and more likely to be extra extra large IV floor of 13.
02:27:45
William Dunphey
yeah
02:27:48
zzweilous
There's a lot of fun to be had with that. And yeah, I'm certainly looking forward to it. The week already started where we see some wild spawns. We see like an extra pass.
02:27:59
zzweilous
We see a silver bottle cap that can be earned, which is going to be huge for PVP. So if you're into that, certainly worth checking out. um And yeah, I think it's going to be fun.
02:28:11
zzweilous
I'll certainly be playing that this weekend um in between watching Vegas and yeah, I can't wait to be back on the show next week because what happens in Vegas will not stay in Vegas. We are going to talk about it
02:28:23
William Dunphey
ah yeah we will We'll recap Vegas and we'll talk about LAIC because that's the the following week, right? So we'll figure out what's going on. ah To give you guys an idea of how Grimmsnarl is going to play, it actually has a very similar stat product to Scizor.
02:28:37
William Dunphey
So about as bulky. It's a dark fairy type. Recommended moveset on PvPoke right now is Sucker Punch with Play Rough and Foul Play, but it also has access to Power Up Punch. So there is kind of a bait potential.
02:28:49
William Dunphey
It almost reminds me a bit of like Tuxtricity, which is like this weird... dual typing that you don't see very often you can run pup or you can run something that hits hard and gets stabbed like play rough or foul play so i don't know if it'll be good it might be better in other leagues but uh it's an exciting addition either way and yeah the mighty pokemon i almost forgot about that that's gonna be sick but uh but yeah i'm not sure if there's anything else we need to cover i think you've got one more note here uh sydney sydney regional re-announced
02:29:16
zzweilous
yes so even more even more opportunities for the australians to fend off all the apec invaders um and yeah that is going to happen i think in the new year eventually i don't have it in front of me just now um but yeah this is going to be one down the line okay okay okay
02:29:32
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:29:35
William Dunphey
I'll tell you. added it to my notes. It's February 7th and 8th, the same weekend as Santiago.
02:29:44
zzweilous
So little snapshot ahead of EOIC, even though we do not yet know whether EOIC is even going to be played in the Open Great League format, because EOIC is setting a little bit of a precedent here. So that remains to be seen. But either way, looking forward to discuss even more regional stand-in.
02:30:05
William Dunphey
Exactly. There's a lot to do, a lot to cover. But for this episode, I think we've reached the end of the road. We're at two and a half hours. Another, ZZ and I were talking about before recording, another Sisyphean-sized boulder.
02:30:20
William Dunphey
that we are going to have to edit and produce, but I will get that going for all of our loyal listeners. But ZZ, it's been a pleasure. It's been an honor. I'm excited to see you at LAIC. will be watching the stream from home.
02:30:31
William Dunphey
I'm excited to see what you play, what spice you bring. And I hope you have a ah wonderful time in sao Paulo because it's a beautiful country with wonderful people.
02:30:42
zzweilous
it's going to be fun.
02:30:44
William Dunphey
Awesome. Well, it's been a good one. We'll see you all next week, everybody. And we'll reach out to our wild area contest winners ah until then keep on tapping.