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EP. 29 Brisbane Regionals, TPC India Playoffs, TPC South Korea Qualifiers, TPC APAC Qualifiers, Atlanta Regionals
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 29 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.
Today, we've got a HUGE episode, and a lot of ground to cover! We'll start off in Brisbane, where Godzilama had a kaiju-level RAMPAGE through the competition. MasterMihir continues his winning ways by SWEEPING the India Playoffs, the best South Korean trainers bring the SPICE to their Qualifier stage, and Walker0623 sweeps the APAC Qualifiers 7-0. Then, we head to UPSET CITY, aka Atlanta, to recap the myriad of upsets, the dynamic and unique top cut, and Ilqm's history-making Grand Finals bracket reset. This episode is WILD! It's also our first episode uploaded on YouTube, so make sure to check us out there as well!
If you're ready... go ahead and lock In, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Championship Series
00:00:00
William Dunphey
Welcome into the Show 6 Podcast, where we break down the championship series for Pokemon
Tournament Highlights: Brisbane and Beyond
00:00:05
William Dunphey
Go. Today's episode is a big one, as we'll be covering Godzilla Lama's Kaiju-level rampage through Brisbane, how Master Mahir and Charming Pory translated Grassroots Tournament success into utter dominance in the TPC region, a brief look at the APEC qualifiers so far, and finally, the largest North America regional to date in Atlanta.
00:00:26
William Dunphey
We're going to travel 15,000 kilometers across the globe to kick off the show in Brisbane. So stretch your legs, grab some snacks and pop your headphones in. It's time to lock in. This is the show six podcast.
Hosts' Excitement and YouTube Launch
00:01:01
William Dunphey
It's April, spring is here, the sun is out, the birds are singing. It's a beautiful day to talk about some competitive Pokemon Go. And we have so much to talk about these wireless. Welcome in my esteemed co-host, competitor, and friend.
00:01:14
William Dunphey
How are you feeling?
00:01:15
zzweilous
Hello, hello, hello. I'm feeling great, um especially because it's going to be our first YouTube episode. I'm really excited for that. ah You will be able to see me pointing at you if you are watching this on YouTube. So yeah, don't don't miss out on that.
00:01:32
zzweilous
um If you've been following us on like the various other platforms and mediums, we do appreciate that. But now you get even more show six and we have so much to cover. And I'm very excited to get right into the meat and potatoes of it.
00:01:45
zzweilous
when we head over to Down Under.
TPC Region Tournaments Overview
00:01:48
William Dunphey
I feel like um because we have all the the TPC region tournaments in May, it feels like there are like four or five different events. We're really starting to pile on things. um A lot of big metrics have been hit. For example, the Brisbane regionals, we saw a trainer that was actually from the APAC region, from Japan, finished second place.
00:02:07
William Dunphey
Atlanta, 220 players in North America, which is the biggest one so far. The TPC qualifiers are typically online. So when we do see those, we have a lot of signups, especially for the India qualifiers, if I recall. There are tons and tons of players there.
00:02:20
William Dunphey
um But we're going to try to move through this chronologically. You had a great list of events in order
Godzilla Lama's Victory in Brisbane
00:02:25
William Dunphey
to start the show. Like you said, Brisbane is first up. Let's talk about Godzilla Lama because um I'm kind of surprised we haven't talked about this so far. It's April eighteenth when we're recording. This was back on April 6th.
00:02:36
William Dunphey
I feel like we've been sitting on this for a couple of weeks. But Godzilla Lama proving that nice guys can win. This is very much like Richie 1409 energy in my mind.
00:02:45
zzweilous
Yeah, like honestly, Brisbane, big shout out again to the crew around PvP Steve bringing us a community stream once again. So we do get to see those battles in action.
00:02:56
zzweilous
And it was a little bit of the story of like the Aussies defending their home turf. as it tends to be because now that um it is possible for trainers from the TPC region to snatch away an invite from us TPCI people by winning a tournament or by coming forth at NIC, a lot of these Asian trainers who are obviously very good, as we know from the GBL leaderboards, think that Australia hits kind of the sweet spot of being
00:03:14
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:03:27
zzweilous
fairly easy to travel to if you're already from the APEC region. Still ah good distance, but more manageable than um maybe going over to the US or to Europe.
00:03:38
zzweilous
um And also those tournaments being relatively small in size. So we had multiple competitors actually traveling over. I think Ishikawa Boy announced that he was going And when we look at the top eight, we do see familiar faces like Yeti Runa, who is um one of the best Korean battlers and also had a pretty impressive run at EUIC.
00:03:54
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:04:00
zzweilous
And obviously Choo's with a lot of O's from Japan, making it all the way to the grand finals. But the aust Australians were successful in defending Brisbane.
00:04:10
zzweilous
And it was a name that we might not have expected to be.
00:04:14
William Dunphey
That was such a dynamic grand finals to watch. To your point, Swylus, I did watch the community stream that Steve and company hosted, and it was really ah just a testament of the power of Guzlord. I know I was harping about Guzlord constantly on the Atlanta stream last weekend, but ah I'll just give the the full teams here for our grand finals.
00:04:33
William Dunphey
Godzilla Lama with Azumarill, Guzlord, Chargebug, one of the Zswaylis favorites there. Swalot as well as Talonflame and Malamar versus Chews with Azumarill, Clodsire, Lapras, kind of rocking a double water team with the poison type Clodsire, Shadow Drapion, Shadow Savelight, and Shadow Annihilate.
00:04:50
William Dunphey
um What I really took away from from this grand finals was just that it felt like the The will that Godzilla was imposing on Chew's, it just kind of wore him down as the series went on.
Strategic Changes and Meta Analysis
00:05:02
William Dunphey
Chew's a very nimble player playing with a lot of kind of charge attack oriented Pokemon. I mean, you've got Azumarill, right? Bubble is is a very kind of medium damage fast attack. You've got Clodsire, which is all about the charge attacks.
00:05:14
William Dunphey
Sableye, Annihilate, Shadow Drapion. But the power of Godzilla's team was really, really impressive. And if you look at this team, there were three Pokemon that reminded me of a grassroots tournament, which is a theme that you and I are going to come back to several times in the show.
00:05:26
William Dunphey
The Guzzlord, Swallowed, and Talonflame trio was actually played by nickname in the Dez is the Best Cash Prize tournament. Of course, ah swapping some pieces around, Godzilla opting for Malamar as his Dark type instead of Shadow Sableye, opting for Chargebug in place of Cradilly, and opting for the Azumarill in place of Lapras.
00:05:45
zzweilous
So um funny that you mentioned nicknames, um practice tournament run, and not his ah Stockholm gold medal, because I was like very much thinking of of his achievements in March specifically.
00:05:52
William Dunphey
ah
00:05:58
zzweilous
And yeah, like Brisbane felt like a bit of a continuation in that we see the Swallowed-Gasload combination again. I think we had two Talon Flames in the Stockholm Grand Finals, actually.
00:06:09
zzweilous
And obviously, Azu is making an appearance again. Like, if we look at the top eight, there's only two teams, I think, that don't run the Water Bunny, the greatest of all time in terms of Pokemon Go PvP.
00:06:20
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:06:22
zzweilous
um So yeah, that's like pretty much sticking around. And so yeah, I was wondering whether the meta would stay that way. um Now that it essentially did well in Grassroots, did well in Stockholm, did well in Brisbane.
00:06:36
zzweilous
was very interesting that it did not stay well stay that way. But I also don't want to get ahead of myself.
00:06:41
William Dunphey
and
00:06:41
zzweilous
I do want to talk a little about Godzilla. Because... um if we If we look at the top eight bracket, we have like a bunch of previously World's qualified players from Australia. I see Mikey Morgz, I see Rick Flareon, I see Valiant Wish.
00:06:57
zzweilous
All of those are kind of household names. But Godzilla feels a little newer.
00:06:59
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:07:01
zzweilous
I feel like there wasn't really a top cut to speak of previously to this event. But ah where I've noticed his presence um pretty significant ah significantly, as he too owed me and in one of those tournaments, is in the candle cult so server of Inadequance, where ah there's essentially daily practice tournaments at this point and godzolama was definitely one of the names that um put in work there and essentially um like prepared really really um like really really hard for this event and i always love to see practice paying off so again if you want to become from
00:07:41
zzweilous
What is essentially a previous no-name to regional champion beating out multiple Worlds qualifiers and foes from around the globe? um But I get practicing because apparently it's paying off.
00:07:54
William Dunphey
I mean, you said, you know, daily practice tournaments. I saw one, i think it was April. I think it was yesterday the day or the day before. There were three practice tournaments in one single day in the Canna Cult.
00:08:04
zzweilous
So like as as we speak, we are 30 minutes away from the next practice tournament. And after this recording wraps up, I will probably host another one.
00:08:10
William Dunphey
ah
00:08:13
zzweilous
So yeah, this is about action.
00:08:17
William Dunphey
That's so sick. So so ah just as just as an aside, in the in the server, um any mod can host a practice tournament. It doesn't have to be Martyn.
00:08:25
zzweilous
um So actually, we have had a bunch of new hosts, like an influx of new hosts. um It helps if you have been a present around the presence around the community for a little while.
00:08:37
zzweilous
So Martijn and the mods know that you're trustworthy.
00:08:37
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:08:40
zzweilous
um But any help is honestly welcome, especially because we are a very international crew that covers a lot of time slots so that every region gets the practice they deserve.
00:08:41
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:08:52
William Dunphey
Yeah, honestly, I was looking at the tournament schedule and I said, oh, well, I can play in the 8 a.m. m practice tournament or i can play in the 3 p.m. practice tournament or i can play in the 8 p.m. practice tournament. And all of the tournament listings are adjusted for your respective time zones. So when you do read them, read them out, that is your local time. It's just the work has already been done for you. But sorry to get off on that tangent. I just really appreciate what Martijn is doing over in the Candle Cult. I think it's really, really helpful.
00:09:17
William Dunphey
And again, the grassroots success is something that we're going to come back to yet yet again. um One more thing I wanted to mention about the Brisbane stream is that Godzilla Lama did defeat Yeteruna, a top eight finisher from South Korea, did defeat Yeteruna to make it over to day number two. So not only did Godzilla Lama hold the line against the trainer from Japan, he also defeated the South Korean trainer. And I really appreciate that you mentioned South Korea earlier, even back to Worlds 2022, our first grand finals ah with Godan Hada. He was from South Korea. So this is a region that's known for a very high caliber player. And for Godzilla, not only to beat Chews in the finals, but also Yedaruna, definitely a a very notable accomplishment. So I'm excited to see what he does.
00:10:03
William Dunphey
um I know that we're going to talk about this later, but Swalot is a Pokemon that we saw a nickname crush with, Godzilla, crush with it the next weekend. But you kind of alluded to this. The meta didn't stay the same.
00:10:14
William Dunphey
And I'm really curious why, why that was.
00:10:18
zzweilous
Yeah, I feel like its it would be best to get into that once we have arrived at the Atlanta Regional.
00:10:25
William Dunphey
Okay.
00:10:25
zzweilous
um But yeah, I feel like ah feel like a lot of it has to do with the pairing of Swallowed and Guzzlord feeling just so prominent. um But what then emerged a little later on was the um not only the pairing of Azumarill and Shadowdropion, which we have come to know from especially the last meta, but also another familiar core Azumarill and Lonely Sandslash.
00:10:52
zzweilous
with Azumarill obviously hard-beating Guzzlord and Alolan Sandslash hard-beating Swallowed. But not only does Alolan Sandslash hard-beat Swallowed, it also is pretty much favored against the Guzzlord as well, especially if it runs Powder Snow, which is another debate that we'll get into.
Shifting Focus: TPC India Playoffs
00:11:12
zzweilous
So now that Sandslash has essentially risen to the forefront as the the Swallowed Guzzlord core is just less appealing.
00:11:12
William Dunphey
Oh, okay.
00:11:22
William Dunphey
Wow. All right. that' ah That was on my radar as well. I'm excited to see that we tied back to the same Pokemon. um But you're right. We're kind of getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. Sorry to hit you with that meta question in the middle of the Brisbane recap. But um I just want to say again, final thoughts. I thought this was a great tournament. If you haven't watched the community stream, definitely check that out. PvP Steve and and the crew put on a wonderful, wonderful performance. They a big green backdrop behind them as well. It looked good. Everyone was dressed up.
00:11:50
William Dunphey
I think one of the casters was wearing shorts, I'm not mistaken, or maybe it was a little bit more casual on the bottom half.
00:11:55
zzweilous
that's a that's at least very australian right like
00:11:58
William Dunphey
True, true. I mean, it's it's hot out there, right? You've got to be comfortable and professional. So I fully support it. I've casted plenty of grassroots tournaments wearing shorts. so But you never knew, did you?
00:12:08
zzweilous
the there They're comfy and easy to wear, so I would i would not be opposed to wearing shorts at an official class.
00:12:08
William Dunphey
You never knew.
00:12:11
William Dunphey
That's true.
00:12:16
William Dunphey
Well, opposed to the large leap that we had to take from Germany and the U.S. s to go down to Brisbane, let's take a short hop over to the TPC India
Master Mahir's Performance and Strategy
00:12:26
William Dunphey
playoffs. Now, I want to remind everybody, with the TPC region tournaments, there is a qualifier stage and then a playoff stage.
00:12:32
William Dunphey
The top trainers from the qualifier do enter into the playoff, and the top four from the playoffs will get their world's berths. So let's go ahead and talk about some some India gameplay. Master Mahir tearing things up, huh?
00:12:45
zzweilous
Yeah, and this is a name that had a stellar... early spring of this year for sure because um you were um already pointing out the nickname run at one of the ah prize tournaments in in March but last time here actually managed to make it all the way to the grand finals of I think the Haydonis prize tournament and he was up against yours truly and and even though I managed to even though I managed to defeat him I honestly think that he outplayed me
00:13:07
William Dunphey
who
00:13:11
William Dunphey
I was going to say, that's as far as he got.
00:13:19
zzweilous
I had the better team composition, but he had the better plays.
00:13:19
William Dunphey
Whoa.
00:13:22
zzweilous
So I have a lot of respect for for Master Me here that I gained during that event because he went into that as somebody who just didn't have the exposure that a lot of trainers from North America or Europe do have.
00:13:37
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:13:37
zzweilous
So he was like kind of the underdog on paper, but um i think with his gameplay, he proved that he's a force to be reckoned with.
00:13:37
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:13:44
zzweilous
Then he went on to win the qualifiers already. Well, like those are essentially like, OK, you tie for a position depending on your wins, but still essentially ah the best record um alongside a couple of the trainers um in the India qualifier.
00:14:01
zzweilous
And now he actually managed to take it all in the actual playoffs where the top four emerge and are finally qualified for Worlds.
00:14:09
William Dunphey
Exactly right. Master Mahir in the qualifier. So there were two ah regional qualifiers, basically like simultaneous or parallel tournaments that led up to the playoffs. ah He was part of the India regional qualifier too.
00:14:22
William Dunphey
They very stacked bracket. I mean, he had Nava Empire, Beelzeboy, Austin Prince was in this bracket, Scarlet Wiz as well. He aced Lancelot. A lot of trainers that recognize ah from a lot of India grassroots tournaments.
00:14:34
William Dunphey
So this is a very, very tough bracket. and he was able to win with Jump Bluff, Shadow Drapion, Lapras, Claude Sire, Guzzlord, and Shadow Annihilate. But he made a really significant ah pivot in his team structure for the actual playoffs.
Adapting Team Strategies
00:14:47
William Dunphey
Master Mahir is able to win with a lot of the same picks. He still had the Guzzlord, still had the Lapras, still had the Shadow Jump Bluff. But he went for Claydol, another ZZWILE special, the Shadow Sableye, and Bastiodon.
00:15:00
William Dunphey
And apparently, I heard rumors, I don't know if you heard this as well, Zorilus, but I heard a rumor that the Bastidon was in particular to counter things like Beelzeboy's Carbink that he was able to to to pay place top four in the and a qualifier stage. So bringing Bastidon just to counter one Pokemon or maybe one trainer, that's a bold move.
00:15:21
zzweilous
It is ah very interesting observation, though, that I had never thought of before you mentioned it, actually, because these qualifier-into-playoff-style tournaments actually allow you to prepare for the teams of the competitors' um that you can expect based on their previous tournament.
00:15:42
zzweilous
If the one qualifies you for the other, it allows you to change your team in between, but you can still just like have a feeling for what your opponents are likely to do, whether they bring what they already piloted successfully or whether they um try to adjust in a certain way to the meta that you just saw.
00:15:46
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:16:00
zzweilous
Whereas in a regular regional, you can't really adjust your team from day one to day two. And this was essentially India's day two on the road to Worlds so I really love little micro adjustment especially if there's like players that you suspect to bring a certain pick to do really well and honestly it's great for in India that Beelzeboy didn't ah come top four again because that means they get another Worlds qualifier as he was um as the fourth place finisher from last year's Worlds i'm already pre-qualified going into this
00:16:27
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:16:36
William Dunphey
That's actually a very good point, right? The top four finishers for Worlds get that automatic qualification to Worlds the next year. ah But yeah, Beelzebue, very, very talented trainer. i actually, yeah, he actually finished within the top 24. So not even top 16 or top eight, which just goes to show you a a fourth place Worlds finisher finishing there in this regional playoffs.
00:16:57
William Dunphey
That just speaks to the overall skill level. um I do want to mention that in the grand finals, we didn't get a stream for this, but I did take a look at the bracket. And um because this is a a qualifie or excuse a qualifier into playoffs style tournament, it's not a best of five in the grand finals. It's going to be a best of three, but there is a reset.
00:17:16
William Dunphey
And the opponent that Master Mahir took on, XX, Dane's Life XX, actually did ah win that first bout, 2-1, and then ah forced a reset. Master Mahir then responded with a swift 2-0.
00:17:28
William Dunphey
I assume it was swift. He didn't see it, but I assume he he was able to bring him down pretty quickly. um A couple of interesting ah Pokemon shoutouts. Nava Empire with Furret. Maybe this is kind of like a prequel of what we were going to get with Semi in Atlanta, but I did not really see Furret making too many waves. I know um I might be alone on that. We might have a Furret believer here on the podcast.
00:17:47
William Dunphey
um A little bit more of the Swallowout Guzzlord, Fake Soul finishing fourth place. Some talent flame here and there. Austin Prince with a very, very inspired Blastoise and Corviknight Core, which is pretty sick. I like that a lot.
00:17:59
William Dunphey
It's super fun, too. My favorite Pokemon. um Other than that, was there anything that stood out to you or anything that you wanted to talk about?
00:18:06
zzweilous
um Yeah, I think you've actually mentioned the the key components of this event for the most part. like there is I feel like we have seen um a couple of very interesting meta reads all succeeding, which is really lovely that so many different variations um have been able to actually place really well or even qualify it.
00:18:28
zzweilous
um I feel like the Furret is already like a little bit of the anti-meta pick of choice, where I also like felt that into the Azumarill, into the Sableye, it's just like a really, really strong corebreaker and also flexible pick.
00:18:43
zzweilous
So I really like now Vampire's team like that.
00:18:44
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:18:46
zzweilous
Whereas I have seen a good amount of Malamar, which was on XX Dance Life's team. um which is essentially one of those fighters that beat other fighters. And um I feel like we've we've seen adjustments like that as well, um doing well in in Brisbane also.
00:19:03
zzweilous
um And then obviously the Bastiodon, where if if you don't respect it in a certain meta, it can just like steal games because you always have to prepare for it.
00:19:14
zzweilous
There's Pokémon that are good, that are flexible, that but that don't really put the bench pressure on your opponent to really choose lines that might be more predictable. Whereas with the Bastiodon, either your opponent takes a massive risk or he plays a predictable line.
00:19:30
zzweilous
There's not really anything in between with a Pokémon that dominant in its positive matchups.
00:19:35
William Dunphey
I feel like the the rule of thumb with Bastion is that it can be the lead, it can be the closer, but it is never, under any circumstance, is it ever the safe swap, right?
00:19:46
William Dunphey
Never, ever.
00:19:47
zzweilous
We have seen multiple people safe-swap a Shadow Jump Bluff into a Powder Snow Alola Ninetales team in Atlanta.
00:19:53
William Dunphey
yeah Spoiler alert, spoiler alert.
00:19:54
zzweilous
So there is there is always people that do such a thing. But yeah for the most part, Bastiodon not the safest Pokémon out there. You really want to play for alignment with it.
00:20:05
zzweilous
And there are other Pokémon that get you the alignment. And once you have the alignment, it's Bastiodon's time to shine.
00:20:12
William Dunphey
Well, I don't know that I had much else to offer in regards to the India ah playoffs. Again, I just want to reiterate that there's a qualifier stage and a playoff. We kind of talked about both stages because Master Me here swept both of them.
00:20:25
William Dunphey
ah But the next thing that we would cover here on the show is actually going to be the South Korea qualifier. Am I following things chronologically?
00:20:32
zzweilous
ah Yes, this is exactly the next slide on my little my little notes here So I feel like we're we're still on track.
00:20:39
William Dunphey
Perfect. Perfect. Okay. um Honestly, I just have some kind of anecdotal things to offer this, to to offer to this discussion. Do you want to talk about Charming Pory? Do you want to kind of lead into the South Korea qualifier?
00:20:52
zzweilous
So there's a lot of things to say about Charming Pauri, like from the team that we see here, which is fairly unusual. um So what isn't unusual is obviously Azumarill Shadow Dropion core.
00:21:03
zzweilous
Then we have the Malamar and the Chargerbug, which are like not super common, but they did well in Brisbane. They are core breakers that we see here and there. But then there's also the Diggersby. Diggersby is a Pokemon that felt as if it had fallen out of favor a little bit.
00:21:18
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:21:18
zzweilous
um in part because of the advent of things like Cradily, where your quick attacks are resisted and the Grass Nuts hit for super effective, where you can't even even really hit the Grass type for super effective back because your Fire Punch is on the neutral now.
00:21:18
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:21:32
zzweilous
um And then also the Doogong, which um is a Pokémon that we thought would have been phased out of the meta because of Lapras just doing ice water things a little better now and also winning the head-to-head.
00:21:46
zzweilous
But not only did Charming Pori make those Pokemon work, he also did it twice because this is actually the champion of the other prize tournament.
00:21:56
zzweilous
um So there was the one where was in the final against Master Me here. And then I think the other one was Charming Pori against Pyro Panda, if I'm not mistaken.
00:22:05
William Dunphey
Correct.
00:22:05
zzweilous
And Shamming Party actually won it all that weekend. So yeah, that was essentially another story of just a success story continuing over to the official circuit, which was really fun to see.
00:22:17
William Dunphey
No, you're exactly right. and ah And he did it with exactly the same team. I mean, down down to the movesets, nothing changed at all. Chargebug, Dugong, Diggersby, Ozumar, Malamar, and Shadow Drapion. I actually compared a lot of the different teams because there's also a squad that we'll talk about a little bit later that reminded me of something I saw ah previously this season. But yeah, Charmy Pory, exactly the same.
00:22:40
William Dunphey
And if you go and visit their ah their page on Twitter, it's so endearing because after they won that cash prize tournament, they said, I won the Dez's the best cash prize tournament. This is my biggest accomplishment as a Pokemon Go PvP player, and I'm just so, so proud.
00:22:54
William Dunphey
And then they turn around and like like we've alluded to they brought the exact same kit over to South Korea. Now that qualifier stage was on April 6th. I want to point out that the playoff stage is going to be this weekend on April 20th. So Charmin Puri will ah clash against some of the best in South Korea but to try to win the title. I believe there were 77 players in that actual qualifier stage.
00:23:19
William Dunphey
And then if I'm not mistaken, maybe the top 16 are going to advance to the playoffs if I'm not incorrect there. But yeah, Charmy Pory, very, very fun. um Let's talk about some some interesting picks, though.
00:23:30
William Dunphey
The runner-up for the qualifier in South Korea had a different fairy type that I'm not used to seeing whatsoever.
00:23:33
zzweilous
yeah
00:23:38
William Dunphey
I thought this thing was it from Master League Premier Cup. How is it in Great League succeeding?
00:23:42
zzweilous
This is so funny. i'm I'm so glad that we get to talk about this because the teams that made it through in South Korea were wild. And we know that this is not an instance of like just some random six Pokemon advancing because maybe the level of competition isn't that high.
00:24:00
zzweilous
It's the opposite in South Korea. like All of those people are incredibly good at the game.
00:24:02
William Dunphey
Oh, yeah.
00:24:04
zzweilous
And the second highest finisher, not only did PSNX Legend Push have Enemolga on their team, It also had the fairy-type Florgus, which you do not see in the Open Grand League whatsoever, but it did get a buff. It did get Trailblaze, which it paces to very, very nicely. It's five fairy winds to every Trailblaze.
00:24:27
zzweilous
And yeah, that way it not only has coverage against Pokemon like Azumarill, like Digger Spear, like Dugong, um it also boosts it on its own attack.
00:24:37
zzweilous
And if you just look at how the Flogus would match up into a team like Charming Parrys, it looks playable. like It doesn't look like a crazy pick anymore.
00:24:45
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:24:47
William Dunphey
Well, I'd argue that the three most prominent types in competitive go, especially this season, are Dark, Water, and Ground. And what does Floor just do? It absolutely hammers all three of those sets.
00:24:59
William Dunphey
ah Also, a little bit of a shade of what we're going to see later on in Atlanta. We have Alolan Sandslash also on Legend Push's team. ah But let's talk about Goji in third third place. ah this This is a trainer that does not screw around, you guys.
00:25:12
William Dunphey
Last year, or excuse me, in the 2023 South Korea playoffs, so two years ago, they actually finished ninth. I don't believe that they won. Yeah, they finished ninth in the playoffs, and i I don't know if they were invited to Worlds at that point. In 2024, the South Korea playoffs, last year, they placed first overall with Giratina Origin Form and Mantine.
00:25:34
William Dunphey
along with Wigglytuff, Townflame, Registeel, and Whiscash. It was a different time, all right, everybody? A different time. um And they brought the same exact team to Worlds. But this is a trainer. ah The point I'm trying to emphasize is that they've they've competed in the playoffs three years in a row. They finished in the top ten three years in a row, even sweeping last year.
00:25:52
William Dunphey
And they bring Lucario, Charjabug, and Shadowcanto Marowak. What is going on with this team, Swalice? Can you make any sense of what's happening here?
00:26:00
zzweilous
I really want to know whether this is just just Goji being so confident in his own ability to just run five Pokemon that are real and then a Lucario because it looks cool, or whether the Lucario actually did things.
00:26:15
zzweilous
I do have to say it's a very fun fighting type because you do have that steel typing to kind of make up for your lack of bulk by just resisting a lot of types. like resisting. Lucario never resists anything, if we're we're being honest.
00:26:29
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:26:29
zzweilous
um But also it has access to the move Force Palm, which is incredibly powerful. And it does have coverage options in, I think, Blaze Kick and Thunder Punch. um You can essentially pick whatever you like best.
00:26:42
zzweilous
So it has respectable damage output. I've been like messing around with it in practice tournaments a couple months ago. I would probably not ever bring it to a regional, but you can win a game with it. It's like not unbringable necessarily. and I don't know, maybe it found an opening.
00:26:58
zzweilous
i still don't think like I still think this is a don't-do-that-at-home-kids situation.
00:27:04
William Dunphey
Yeah, I think that this is a a professional, right, versus your run-of-the-mill player. Force Palm, Power-Up Punch, Thunder Punch, Blaze Kick, Shadow Ball, Close Combat.
00:27:14
William Dunphey
There are a lot of different tools in Lucario's kit. And I guess if you look for targets, I mean, you could say Dugong is a target. Maybe Alolan Sandslash is a target. Cradilly, another good target for fighting type pressure.
00:27:26
William Dunphey
But there's just so many downsides as well. um You said this is this might be the bring five real Pokemon and then one meme.
00:27:32
zzweilous
but
00:27:33
William Dunphey
This might be the Martyn Shadow Paukia EUIC strat at play. I don't even know. I don't even know how to explain this. I wish we could see these battles. I desperately want streams for these tournaments because they're so fun and so exciting.
00:27:45
William Dunphey
But the fun doesn't stop there, Zylus. We had the return, the resurrection, if I may, of Galarian Corsola with Dragon Pie 1, finishing within the top six ah with Emolga as well.
00:27:56
William Dunphey
And then we also had a really fun team from Yeteruna, who we've talked about already on this on this podcast because they traveled down to Brisbane. what What the heck is going on? Because I'll just let you explain.
00:28:07
William Dunphey
What is this? yeah What is this, Zylus?
00:28:09
zzweilous
Yeah, Yetzeruna yet again added with a spicy team. She is bringing back the Ariados, which she has been trusting in for a good while. And I think it honestly looks great. Like if you look at the Charming Pori team of Azu, Digaspi, Dugong, Shadow Drapion, Chargerbug, Malama,
00:28:29
zzweilous
You can save Swap Ariadus. It kind of looks like a real Pokémon here. Then we have Whimsicott, which also is like one of those Pokémon that people run if they want to give themselves a challenge.
00:28:40
zzweilous
um
00:28:40
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:28:41
zzweilous
But it does similar things to Phlogis, right, where you have the Fairy and Grass coverage that hits a lot of prominent types in the meta really, really hard. um But the fun doesn't stop there because like the most normal Pokémon is an Alolan Sandslash paired with a Shadow Feraligatr.
00:29:00
zzweilous
But that's not the only water type. We do have Swampert. Swampert is a Pokémon that I personally think is probably one of the best core breakers at the moment because everybody has kind of been adopting the Azumarill Shadow Dropion Alolan Sandslash strat.
00:29:09
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:29:15
zzweilous
And if you want to see a Pokémon that beats all of those, Sludge Swampert is your guy. I feel like that is a Pokemon that we could see more of at um future events, um especially in the immediate future, building on the Atlanta meta.
00:29:30
zzweilous
And then rounding out Yeteruna's incredibly spicy team is Morpeko, the GBL demon that just ramps up and sweeps any team that isn't prepared for it. And yeah, apparently a good amount of trainers were not prepared for Yeteruna because she managed to finish in the top eight and very comfortably moved on to the playoff round.
00:29:51
zzweilous
Also, another trainer that might not have brought the spiciest team, but that I do want to mention is Mangmi, where I think Mangmi is actually um the Pokemon Go name of Seijun Park, who is the Pokemon legend, former VGC world champion with Pachirisu.
00:29:52
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:30:06
William Dunphey
oh Oh. oh
00:30:10
zzweilous
um incredible versatile Pokemon player and yet again dabbling in Pokemon Go PvP for a little bit.
00:30:18
William Dunphey
That's actually so interesting. um I saw Seijun's name on the bracket, and that was one of the notes I was going to make. I did not know about the Among Me alias. But yeah, Seijun is competing. Here's my note. Seijun is competing in the playoffs, taking on Pokemon Master in round one on April 20th. So if you are a Pachirisu fan, a a former World Champ Seijun Park fan, definitely follow along with their bracket.
00:30:43
William Dunphey
um One more note I wanted to make about Yeteruna. ah She competed in Brisbane, finished fifth overall, came over here to the South Korea qualifiers, only changed one thing about her entire team. That was Annihilate in Brisbane, swapping that out for Whimsicot.
00:30:59
William Dunphey
at the South Korea qualifier. So maybe realize, you know, I've got little bit sand slash and more Peko on my team. I need a bit more ground coverage, a bit more fighting coverage.
00:31:08
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:31:08
William Dunphey
What does both of those things? It's gotta be the whimsicott, right? So very, very nice adjustment. And I really like, uh, sometimes if players compete in multiple tournaments, we can track their changes, their adjustments, their thought processes. weve We've been able to do that with master here with yet Aruna with tons of different trainers so far. And it's, it's always really, really fun to see.
00:31:27
William Dunphey
Um, How they kind of you know sharpen sharpen their their swords and and get ready for the next challenge. um I think those were all the notes I had for the South Korea qualifiers. And we might be ready to move on to the next thing.
00:31:40
zzweilous
Yes, let's do that. um Oh, i think I see there's like two things left over. One is the APEC regional qualifiers.
00:31:49
William Dunphey
Perfect.
00:31:49
zzweilous
And I feel like then the big ticket item is actually on the menu. I feel like then we can go into Atlanta. But there's more.
00:31:55
William Dunphey
Perfect.
00:31:56
zzweilous
There's more qualifiers leading into playoffs eventually. and i think in the apec region um so the one thing that everybody was wondering is um will yekai actually throw down again because um as the hong kong hero our world champion is obviously um eligible to compete in the apec qualifiers not that he needs to he is obviously pre-qualified um but yeah people were like wondering with a the man or boy with the target on his back figuratively is going to is going to show up.
00:32:27
William Dunphey
The young man, the young man.
00:32:31
zzweilous
But no, he he set this one out. He ah essentially let others have the stage. and There was a sevenmin o sweep by Walker0623 with three shadow Pokemon, Dropion, Jump, Love, and Denihilabe, as well as the trusty Azumarill, Claydol, which apparently now is just hard meta, and again the Dugong, which...
00:32:52
zzweilous
Maybe shouldn't be as overlooked given its success in these events.
00:32:56
William Dunphey
I was actually catching up a bit with Wadage before the Atlanta regional, and he was telling me that dugong looks so free and so safe and so good right now. So maybe it's one of those things just when we thought it was dead, it comes storing back, a storming back, excuse me.
00:33:10
William Dunphey
Um, Walker, like you mentioned, taking that first place overall. We also had Silent coming in second, and I love how you mentioned the triple shadows on Walker. I'm going to raise you six shadows on the third place finisher, Arb but WTF Heal, if that means what I think it means. That's actually really funny.
00:33:28
William Dunphey
Arb WTF with six shadows. Shadow Blastoise, Shadow Kanto Marowak, Shadow Lolan Sandslash, Shadow Shadowjumpluff and Shadowsebleye on that team. And then Franz.
00:33:38
William Dunphey
ah I want to say Franz with hands, but I know it's not that. It's Franz with Haas. but So ah they also...
00:33:44
zzweilous
I think it's it's France with a Z, actually.
00:33:47
William Dunphey
Oh, dang it. You're right. You're right. I was wrong on both of my both of my attempts there.
00:33:51
zzweilous
that
00:33:52
William Dunphey
um Also, some other...
00:33:53
zzweilous
Well, you're trying.
00:33:54
William Dunphey
ah yeah it's worth worth Worth a try, I guess. Also, a few other talented trainers. um XRVoz was able to finish within the top eight. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly. LWKetchum, I do recognize. And AnnieC84 with, I believe, that is a Jangmo-O, Frostlass, Furret team, which is pretty sick.
00:34:15
William Dunphey
um But yeah, um you know, so that's one thing I want to mention is that the silent team looked familiar. And I was like, huh, I feel like I've seen this before. Well, it does share four Pokemon in common with Master Meheer's championship team. Silent had Azumarill Golisopod. Master Meheer had Lapras and Shadow Sableye. The other four components are all the same.
00:34:36
William Dunphey
Claydol, Bastidon, Guzzord, and Shadow Jump Bluff. That core four, as we like to say, is ah is consistent. So that was actually really sick to see that carrying over into the APAC qualifiers.
00:34:46
zzweilous
Yeah, and like if you if you take a look at it, then Lapras and Azu are fairly similar in that they are bulky water types with potential ice coverage, whereas Sabela and Galissapod are similar in that they are Shadow Claws that pace really quickly to their move. So like the team idea was pretty much identical. The execution was slightly different, but in both cases, very successful.
00:35:10
William Dunphey
Very, very successful. This was a qualifier tournament. So reminder to everybody, this was just the first stage. The top 16 trainers did advance to the playoffs, and then the playoffs will determine the four trainers that will gain their world's qualifications. So again, we're kind of like breezing through these because um you know in in regards to South Korea and APAC in particular, these are just qualifiers.
00:35:31
William Dunphey
ah They're not actual playoffs. Playoffs are not actual Worlds ah invitation tier tournaments. But we will come back and cover those playoffs once we get there. um But as we breeze through, I think, already four different ah competitive formats so far, we're 35 minutes in.
00:35:46
William Dunphey
Are you ready to talk about the biggest NA regional so far this season?
00:35:51
zzweilous
I feel like I am. i feel like I am, especially because we chatted about this earlier a little bit and um we were essentially talking about how this is the best regional of all time, but then I hit you with the, it's also the worst regional of all time.
00:35:57
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:36:08
zzweilous
And I feel like we have a lot to talk about.
00:36:09
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:36:12
William Dunphey
I got the quote from, I believe it's great expectations. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. ah The Atlanta regionals, basically in a nutshell. ah Let's just preface this, right? 220 trainers. If you're from outside the US, there are a few different airport hubs within the States ah that you have thousands upon thousands of of flights coming in and out every single day.
00:36:34
William Dunphey
ah Atlanta is probably number one. You could argue Dallas. It's like a two two horse race between those two airports. Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Boston. There's a really, really big hub up in like Salt Lake City, for example. But the other ones kind of pale in comparison to Atlanta.
00:36:50
William Dunphey
There was no Orlando regional this season. So it really felt like everyone from the Southeast that might have traveled down the panhandle would be coming up to Georgia for this competition. And that turned out to be true. 220 players.
00:37:02
William Dunphey
I saw our podcast co-host almost attended as well, but was unable to make it sadly because I'm really curious how you would have done. But Very, very talented trainers. Let's just rapid fire some names, right? I know people's ears are going to perk up.
00:37:14
William Dunphey
Sceptile Ice, El Calvissimo, Dre Flames, Dijon the Gin, Dilap Trong, Nighttime Clasher, Semi, Mountain Dewgong, Tamak UK, Ash Nash, Out of Pocket, and Elam. All competing at this tournament.
00:37:25
William Dunphey
And this day one, to me, Swylus, really felt like upset city. We saw Badaj go down. We saw Elite go down. We saw so many former regional champions just toppled by up-and-comers, whether it was Silent Beast or Firestar.
00:37:39
William Dunphey
very, very talented trainers taking down these former champs. um What was your read of like the vibe of day one of how things are going in Atlanta? Was it what you expected? and Was it what you didn't expect?
00:37:52
zzweilous
So first of all, Upset City is definitely very, very accurate. um Duneberg not in day two. um Like with it's Saxon, it's like a little bit of a pattern, but I'm so rooting for him to have another breakthrough tournament because I don't know. i'm i don't I'm just kind of invested in his show six arc at this point because he has nothing to prove.
00:38:14
zzweilous
But I just think he's such a welcome presence in the Twitch scene. And feel like there would just be a lot of people really excited to to see him get another top card or another medal or another win.
00:38:25
William Dunphey
He's such a nice guy.
00:38:25
zzweilous
But again, just adds to how stacked this tournament was that so many big names fell so early. and um But yeah, like part of the the vibes kind of got a little tainted by the connection at the venue where you had a lot of reviews, a lot of rematches and a lot of situations where as the viewer, so I was not able to attend it. I was essentially just viewing on Twitch.
00:38:56
zzweilous
um I was kind of taken out of the action for up to 30 minutes at a point. um Just because there were lot of game issues that were difficult to overcome and at times also really difficult to judge, I felt.
00:38:56
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:39:12
zzweilous
um In part because there were just so many fast attacks lost that it was difficult to determine which of those mattered and which didn't. And um also in part because um i think Soph mentioned it on the podcast that...
00:39:26
zzweilous
um if like a Pokemon wrongfully wins charge attack priority, it's very difficult to actually grant a rematch based on that if those Pokemon are in the same ballpark in terms of attack stat, because it is actually not possible for a judge to really review the attack stat, the exact exact ah attack stat of the Pokemon without third-party software.
00:39:40
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:39:50
zzweilous
So it's very difficult to make definitive decisions, but that... definitely took a little away from like both the viewing pleasure, but also i feel like from the competitor's enjoyment to a degree.
00:40:05
William Dunphey
No, I mean, I think you nailed it. um It was kind of like, I don't know how how you deal with stress, Swylus, but I know everyone has a different response. ah Some people like to make jokes, and that's definitely one of my approaches. If I'm like you know in pain or frustrated or something, if I you know get to a certain point, I just start to laugh about it.
00:40:24
William Dunphey
um There was a point during the broadcast when Caleb and Butters were coming in to take over from Soph and I, And Soph and I, I think on day one, we covered like five disputes.
00:40:35
William Dunphey
That was basically the bulk of our casting was just talking through disputes. And um I remember ah Caleb said, oh, yeah, well, ah you know, you guys get all the disputes today and we'll just go in and cast battles.
00:40:45
William Dunphey
So ha, GG's, you know, like made made it made a joke about it.
00:40:47
zzweilous
It's not
00:40:49
William Dunphey
um And I was like, man, you're really setting yourself up here. And then lo and behold, day two, Caleb and Butters had to cover like two different disputes. um Ha ha. But anyways, I will say that ah we had to cover...
00:40:59
zzweilous
a competition, guys.
00:41:01
William Dunphey
Yeah, right. We had to cover multiple, multiple disputes. And it felt like it was for different things each time. um so So the first and most obvious thing, and I know like we talk about this, like all of our listeners actually watch all the streams, they watch every broadcast, but sometimes they don't.
00:41:16
William Dunphey
And I think the number one thing that is is most frequently talked about is the missed ah fast attack when you come in after a KO. oh you know We call the one-turn lag. And... um We've kind of been able to open up the bottleneck a bit on the broadcast. We can say the word lag. We can talk about the one turn delay, all that kind of stuff.
00:41:34
William Dunphey
ah But missing that fast attack can be so, so detrimental. And sometimes doesn't really matter. i believe there's a nighttime clasher match where he came in against pocket, lost a mud slap, and then realized he wouldn't have won anyway. So he didn't dispute it.
00:41:44
William Dunphey
But sometimes it can be really, really detrimental, especially to a to an end game. um There was another match with, a I believe it was out of pocket again, with Drapion taking on someone and they missed a poison sting and that one poison sting on the opposing Drapion could have turned into you know a whole different slew of win conditions.
00:42:01
William Dunphey
ah That just didn't happen. There was the de-sync CMP between Dugong and Tomahawk UK. um there was i want to ask you about this actually i know i mentioned a bunch of examples but i i want to ask you about the mud slaps from clay doll from nighttime clasher versus the alolan sand slash from elam i heard some people accusing that instance of being dre i believe it was three mud slaps and four shadow claws but the nine the ninth turn mud slap didn't apply and instead the ice punch got fired off if i'm not mistaken
00:42:11
zzweilous
Mm-hmm.
00:42:32
William Dunphey
I don't know if you remember that specific instance, but that was just ah basically that's just one example of all the bugs we're dealing with here.
00:42:38
zzweilous
Yeah, I don't actually remember the specific instance, but the way you laid it out, if there's four Shadow Claws into um three Mud Slabs, that's eight turns into nine, um the more likely outcome is the sand slash going down without the move firing. But if it does fire, we call that a Damage Registration Error, or DRE, which then allows essentially the sand slash to still fire the move.
00:43:05
zzweilous
And yeah, essentially it's, OK, if you knock out declale the claddle, the mudslab doesn't even apply.
00:43:05
William Dunphey
Yeah, exactly.
00:43:11
zzweilous
if you don't knock out the claddle with that, then the mudslab goes through after.
00:43:16
William Dunphey
Yeah. And I think that because that third mud slap, the fast attack damage applies on the final turn of the fast attack. So on turn nine, when the mud slap connected and did damage, that's when the ice punch was triggered as well. So to your point, ah sometimes you get the ice punch, sometimes you don't.
00:43:32
William Dunphey
And the DRE is other another very disputable thing. but what is So what was your perspective as a competitor, as a player who competes quite regularly, what did you see and and what what were your thoughts? Because, you know, I can only say certain things, but you can speak your mind, my friend.
00:43:47
zzweilous
in in terms of okay okay in terms of in terms of the lag um so i think um what i took away from it was that a lot of the time um the burden
00:43:52
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:44:04
zzweilous
was put on either the players or the judges in a situation or like either like the players had to go out of their way to dispute and to push for like a review or escalate to the head judge and it just puts a lot of mental pressure especially when you're the streamed game and especially when you might not have been in that situation too many times before to really stand up for yourself and fight for yourself and um really get the rematches granted that you deserve. I feel like there were multiple ah um occasions where either the rematch wasn't even pressed for, even though it would have there would have been a win condition, or where there was a rematch that was pressed for, or like a review that was pressed for, but the rematch wasn't granted.
00:44:51
zzweilous
But if there was more time or the head judge had gotten involved, it probably would have gotten overturned because sometimes like every judge is doing their best, but it's easy to still like miss a win condition or maybe um like under the pressure, under the, like if you're in a time crunch, if there's so many things to consider, like not every decision will be going the right way.
00:45:06
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:45:15
zzweilous
And I think what, the game should strive for and what also play Pokemon should strive for is to make the situation as easy on both the judges and the competitors as possible.
00:45:29
zzweilous
And I think like a very concrete example would be to just like, um, get together, like you don't even have to get together with, with like, a third-party source such as Peavey Poke, but, like, just talk to Niantic, potentially, to, like, really have an official source for the um CP, Combat Point formula, and give the judges a tool to calculate the...
00:45:57
zzweilous
stats of a Pokemon based on IVs, it does go really fast. So a situation like a charge attack priority that fires off wrongly can be corrected. Because in that situation, everybody was mad because it was obviously not the correct decision.
00:46:12
zzweilous
But it was the correct decision by the rulebook because the judges are limited. And I feel like you need to give the judges all the tools you can give to them. And if we as a grassroots community have something like Peavey Poke,
00:46:25
zzweilous
The official circuit should also something like that, even if just to test the stats of a Pokemon and then determine the proper um like the game properly playing out.
00:46:36
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:46:36
zzweilous
um Whereas the other point is just fix the game, as Amato would say on stage after winning a big event, um where... It's like the only way out of this is to not have it happen as frequently. It's it's as easy as that. And um like I know there's still like like people are never just accepting the current state of the game as a given, but things take time.
00:47:04
zzweilous
So i'm I'm hopeful that we will see changes whether under Scopely or before over time. But yeah for now, it's it's what we're stuck with. And yeah we can we can just try and make the best of it.
00:47:18
zzweilous
And like looking at the bracket, to go back to we actually want to talk about, the PvP part of it all, um the players that emerged from this little bit of messy situation were essentially the top competitors that we did expect to emerge.
00:47:23
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:47:35
zzweilous
like People that that have the nerves that can persist through just like hard times like that um so yeah i i feel like at the end of the day it didn't decide the regional but it was definitely like i wonder why europe europe circuit isn't growing even though in europe the issues issues are far less common whereas in the us the attendance explodes which i want for every region obviously um even though you're in for such a hard time so often
00:48:08
William Dunphey
yeah You know, Zarylis, I think that the the North America region is just on weapons-grade copium, all right? We're like, Scopely! Scopely's going to save us! Everything's going to be fine!
00:48:18
zzweilous
Uh, Scofield.
00:48:18
William Dunphey
Just keep competing, keep signing up, and just keep smashing your head into a wall over and over again. It's it' it's like a don't-know wall in front of us, but we're just going to keep on talking to it until those walls finally come down.
00:48:29
William Dunphey
um i can I can tell you that at the regional, I was... i Because I asked as well. I asked like our our our incredible production team. i was like, you know, can you, can you give me like a hint? Is this the network? Is it the venue? Did they sell us on something that we, you know, um that we were supposed to get that we didn't get.
00:48:47
William Dunphey
And I was reassured multiple times that the network was functioning exactly as intended, that the capacity was there, the bandwidth was there. ah And basically it was not network. So, um yeah, it's it's definitely a shame, and it's really stressful.
00:49:01
William Dunphey
Like you said, on the judges and the players, it it really, like, triggered me when I watched Ryze win, I believe it was in Vancouver, right, with his Glycopod Shadow Stalics team.
00:49:12
William Dunphey
It really triggered me when he was in grand in the Grand Finals against Haydonis, and he... Uh, he denied a fast move coming in or a fast move didn't go through from Hey Donas. So then rise like paused and stopped playing for a moment and looked up at a cross at Hey Donas and said, Hey, I, you know, I didn't tap or whatever that really pissed me off, dude. I was like, all right, if our actual players in the grand finals are handcuffing themselves because they don't trust the game, they don't want to dispute. And that's a real, real problem that we need to address.
00:49:41
William Dunphey
Um, And we ranted about it. We complained about it. And i think we're going to keep complaining about it until it gets fixed. But um yeah, I agree with with your sentiment that you wrapped up with there. Some of the best players in the world were actually able to make that top cut. So even in spite of all the different you know nasty weather they had to sail through, so to speak, ah we did have some really, really fun um top cut trainers. so Let's spotlight some teams, why don't we?
00:50:06
William Dunphey
Let's talk but a little bit about some of the upset champs that I really loved watching. There were four in particular. Silent Beast with Talonflame and Furret. I really liked Kaypine's team with the Gastrodon. That was a really nice touch.
00:50:20
William Dunphey
Sceptile Ice resurrecting Feraligator and actually having a good time with that outside of the occasional Shield of Vanish Shadow Typhlosion. And then Firestar bringing Corviknight and actually showing some ah some flashes with that. And Elcal. Elcalvissimo.
00:50:35
William Dunphey
ah playing the Shadow Typhlosion Furret, Superior, and Corbinite team, as well as who can forget the other Typhlosion user in Dreyflames. So we had some really fun teams, man. This was a really, really fun tournament.
00:50:49
zzweilous
Yeah, I love how many different strategies are viable. And yeah, especially like there's so many Pokemon that like kind of do similar things, but have their own little tweaks to the role that they fulfill.
00:51:05
zzweilous
Maybe like we've been talking a lot about, like now we really need to make that team building guide. Maybe we should... Maybe we should do a little info card about like three or so Pokemon that fill a very similar niche, a very similar role, and then like give the pros and cons to utilizing those. So people can maybe at a glance check out, okay, which which options do I have for what I want to do?
00:51:31
zzweilous
And what's what's the benefits of of all of that? like One of the things that really stood out to me was...
00:51:35
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:51:37
zzweilous
um the Shadow Primeape that um featured both on Silent Beast's team, but also on Ash and Ash's team, who was our third place finisher, another stellar performance by Ash and Ash.
00:51:49
zzweilous
And i'm like I'm a known Primeape enjoyer, you know that. I did bring it to the European International Championships, but I opted for the non-Shadow with Ridgefist and Close Combat.
00:51:53
William Dunphey
ye
00:52:03
zzweilous
Whereas these guys brought both the Shadow Primate, but also um opted for Ice Punch as the coverage attack next to the community day move Rage Fist. So that um accomplishes one very fun thing, which is beating the Shadow Jump Thoth in all even shield scenarios, which is not a thing that a fighter typically does.
00:52:27
zzweilous
um But because you pace evenly to the ice punches and the aerial ace and shadow on shadow, that ah double super effective move just takes the jump tough out.
00:52:27
William Dunphey
yeah
00:52:38
zzweilous
um That is actually a way of really, really... um making people think twice about their Jumpluff play. And as somebody who is on team inadequacy on this question of whether Jumpluff is a good or a bad Pokemon, um I like it when Jumpluff gets proven bad. We don't talk about that Jumpluff actually won the entire thing.
00:52:59
William Dunphey
Yeah, yeah, yeah. we'll just We'll just leave that as an aside. um One team structure thing that I wanted to come back to was Ash and Ash's team. ah There were a lot of fun picks, right? A lot of really unique Pokemon. Mountain Dewgong with Galarian Weezing. Dilaptrong with Shadow Blastoise and Unova Stunfisk. A man after my heart there.
00:53:16
William Dunphey
But Ash and Ash's team, if if if we may, I just want to deep dive a little bit on this. Not only did my boy Ash and Ash bring back the Guzzlord from the Pits of Despair, he paired it with Corviknight.
00:53:28
William Dunphey
Right. Really, really sick core. He had Sableye and like you pointed out, the Shadow Primape. And as you look at this team, he's got Azumarill, Shadow Primape, Guzzlord and Sableye. He needs the jump bluff coverage.
00:53:40
William Dunphey
And that's what he got with the Ice Fudge on Primape, the Sludge Bomb on Clotsire and the Corviknight as well.
00:53:40
zzweilous
Yes.
00:53:46
William Dunphey
What do you think about this team? Because I think, if I'm not mistaken, this is the most successful Corviknight team that we have seen to date.
00:53:53
zzweilous
I think so too. And I do want to point out that the Sableye even had Power Gem, if I'm remembering correctly. So it's really like, okay, like my Gaslord is kind of weak to the Jumpluff.
00:54:00
William Dunphey
I think so.
00:54:04
zzweilous
My Primeape is kind of weak to the Jumpluff. I need a lot of creative ways of fighting back. Maybe let's let's put something on my Sableye as well. So people still did bring Jumpluff against Sash and Ash, but um He really tried to at least give himself some outs. And ah really like it when I feel like his playstyle was very aggressive. And you need to be very aggressive if you are a primary player because you can't ever really let yourself be down energy.
00:54:33
zzweilous
um And yeah, I feel like he found a way of um having this one very aggressive two-shield-through-everything type of sweeper with other Pokemon that allowed him to just tank the hits, um play neutrally, and really um spread out the damage that his opponents could deal to him in a way that it allowed his Ace to shine, the Ace obviously ah being the Primeape.
00:54:56
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:55:01
zzweilous
um So yeah, I think um this is also fairly similar to a team like a general team composition that we did see during the i think merida regionals that's um was just before euic so still within the old meta but um that was essentially the first tournament where covenide won a medal and um saw somewhat widespread play and it was also in that prime ape combination where you have um like this this fighting type with the Steelbird and they just really um they they kind of function well together as a core I don't even know why exactly that is because they do target somewhat similar Pokemon to a degree like you have the ground type coverage on Covenant with a sand attack and like that hits Pokemon such as Alolan Sandslash where you want your primate against or
00:55:42
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:55:56
zzweilous
Even the Drapion is a solid matchup for the primary for the most part. So even though they do kind of target the same thing, i feel like they just enable their neutral play really well because the one is um slow and tanky, whereas the other is Freyland fast.
00:56:10
zzweilous
And they just form a really good partnership. And it was very fun to see a team that had no Shadow Drapion ah like he was the only trainer out of the top six to not bring the Shendor Dropion to the event which is kind of impressive in its own right and yeah Ashton Ash definitely putting on a show here
00:56:27
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:56:32
William Dunphey
Honestly, as far your recall always impresses me. ah Yeah, that was actually Merida Spartan L17 finishing fourth place with Corviknight and Shadow Primate. He also had Chargebug, Galarian Corsola, Diggersby, and Azumarol.
00:56:44
William Dunphey
And another tie-in to that Merida event was that Ashton Ash was actually on the winner's side bracket in the grand finals and got the bracket reset and ultimately defeated by Marto. So very cool to see Ashton Ash not only competing ah in Merida, but also a little farther north in Atlanta. and actually maybe borrowing some things from his friends, right? Spartan L17, we know is part of a team 7-11, but Ash Nash credited EO Mero, who's also a 7-11 gamer ah for the inspiration for the team.
00:57:14
William Dunphey
Ash Nash basically said, Hey, EO Mero, I need a team. Tell me what I should play. Gave him the Corbinite team and, You know, it worked out pretty well. And this was definitely the best Corviknight gameplay that I've seen so far.
00:57:25
William Dunphey
ah Switching it in, ah getting up energy, not ever using it as an aggressive lead, kind of using it as ah as like a medium damage sponge, kind of like a kind of an awkward Pokémon to deal with.
00:57:35
William Dunphey
to be Truth be told, the Corviknight gameplay reminded me a lot of Dylap Trunks Shadow Blastoise gameplay. It's not dealing a lot of damage in this faster charge attacks. It's not really like hard winning matchups, but it's just like this wedge that you drive into this this situation that you can buy yourself some time to think or you can you know whittle down the opponent, kind of feel your way through the matchup.
00:57:57
William Dunphey
It's a very curious ah gameplay style, but I do think that...
00:57:59
zzweilous
it's also ah It's also like kind of a 50-second switch timer Pokemon, isn't it?
00:58:00
William Dunphey
ah
00:58:04
zzweilous
Because you can just like bring it in and live long enough that after a couple of charge moves, you can swap out again and essentially reset the game state a little bit.
00:58:04
William Dunphey
Yes.
00:58:13
William Dunphey
Honestly, yeah, exactly. Exactly right. That's a fantastic point. A 50-second switch timer Pokemon for sure. And I think that when you're playing like Ashnash does, and as Butters called his gameplay, very non-linear, you know you're kind of letting you're kind of leaving your Shadow Primeape in a Claydol matchup against Pocket and letting it get pretty weak, but you have Guzzlord in the back, and you really need switch advantage because a Pocket's got an Azumarill, but you don't...
00:58:37
William Dunphey
tell him that you don't show him that by shielding early on. I think that Ash Nash did a lot of very subtle things ah that were really, really unique and different. And it really speaks to his depth and his, and his, his bag, so to speak as a player.
00:58:49
William Dunphey
So, and are there any other teams that you want to shout out to, for example, I don't know how else me just hammered for it for like 10 rounds in this tournament and somehow finished fifth because for it looks super underwhelming, especially in those matchups.
00:59:02
William Dunphey
But I don't know if you agree or disagree.
00:59:04
zzweilous
I almost think that... I almost expected for it to go further because it looks so good into a lot of the Pokemon, especially if this is another point to to make. like We've seen Alolan Sandslash on both sides of the Grand Finals as well as and on every team from 5th to 8th place.
00:59:30
zzweilous
And because the winning Sandslash is actually on Shadow Claw, I feel like that could um maybe help the Pokemon the the prevalence of Furret going forward because that Shadowclaw fast attack makes that matchup favorable as well for the normal time.
00:59:42
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:59:47
zzweilous
Whereas against other teams, like you can still save swap Furret against out-of-pocket. You'll find positive matchups against SableEye, against Azumarill, against Kledal.
00:59:58
zzweilous
And then you'll find playable matchups against Alolan Sandslash, against Trapion. Those are like slightly negative. Whereas I think the Credily matchup, once there's shield investments, you just win that as the Furret.
01:00:10
zzweilous
So I think it's just such a flexible Pokemon, and I honestly expect more rather than less for it in the regionals going forward.
01:00:21
zzweilous
um Except for if we see a big uptick in Tinkerton, because that is not fun for a Sucker Puncher that does normal and grass-type damage.
01:00:21
William Dunphey
wow
01:00:32
William Dunphey
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking as well. i'm like, well, if it's going to play, it better play in Monterey because I don't think that post-Monterey it will be as as prominent. um We've kind of alluded to this a few times. There were some pretty interesting Ice-type Pokemon that finished within the top cut here.
01:00:49
William Dunphey
um And I got to say, six out of the top eight players running Alolan Sandslash. We alluded to this a couple of times in the show earlier. is is this the return of the Slash?
01:01:01
zzweilous
I just know that Homestire Sanry is somewhere pulling his hair out because this is his enemy number one. He just feels as if this Pokemon is so rock, paper, scissors.
01:01:12
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:01:12
zzweilous
But if you look at the top eight, how many fighters do we have?
01:01:12
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:01:16
zzweilous
We have like one fighter in um the Shadow Primate. feel like that's just it. And then you have how many fire types? Oh, zero. So how RPS is Shadow Sands Slash, really, especially if you have that Shadow Claw?
01:01:31
zzweilous
to maybe make the Lapras matchup better, to make the Azumarill matchup better. um I feel like right now it's just a Pokémon that either has neutral play or that has really great to play as a corebreaker.
01:01:46
zzweilous
And people have been abusing that really, really well, and I think we will see more Alolan Sandslash success in tournaments going forward, especially because unlike Furet, it does have its outs against the Tinkerton um with the drill run coverage.
01:02:02
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:02:02
zzweilous
um So yeah, I feel like Sandslash is here to stay, and with the state of the meta being what it is, it's, I would say, the strongest non-Zumarill Drapion Pokemon in the meta right now.
01:02:16
William Dunphey
Wow, top three. Top three for the Slash, huh? um Yeah, honestly, I agree. And if if you look at it, yeah, you're resisting the Leprous Sidewaves. You're dealing super effective damage to Claydol. You're walling opposing fairy types.
01:02:29
William Dunphey
um You can you know match pacing more or less with Sableye. I mean, Sandslash looks serious. And you're exactly right. The lack of fire, the lack of fighting, there's so, so many openings for it.
01:02:39
William Dunphey
ah Seeing it on six out of eight top teams, again, this is just another reason why, as you alluded to, the Sualat and Guzzor core is basically kaput at this point.
01:02:51
William Dunphey
um Yeah, I mean, i guess let's talk ah a couple of storylines. Nighttime Clasher had a really good run. Again, congratulations to Nighttime Clasher for signing on with Illuminosity Gaming. I was able to call him NTCLG.
01:03:05
William Dunphey
at one point during the broadcast, but I think it is Luminosity Gaming Nighttime Clasher, which is a little bit of a mouthful.
01:03:07
zzweilous
Bye.
01:03:11
William Dunphey
I saw a really sick promo poster that ah LG posted for Nighttime Clasher going into the event. It was a Toga Damaru in like the super epic, you know, high contrast, ah low light, dramatic style.
01:03:23
William Dunphey
And it looked really, really sick. So, Nighttime Clash had an incredible tournament run, and I know he wants more. I know he wants to win an event this season, so he will continue to compete. Dylap Chong from Canada doing so, so well with Unova Stunfisk.
01:03:36
William Dunphey
ah We first saw it with Anacor playing Mandibuzz Unova Stunfisk, I believe at an EU regional, if I'm not mistaken. And then Dylap takes it up a level with the Shadow Blastoise. And then Tomahawk UK with the Alola Ninetales, think nobody saw coming.
01:03:49
William Dunphey
um That was a bold the bold call, and it turned out to to pay off pretty well for him, so... Very, very nice picks. And yeah, this is like, last thing I'll say, this top eight is a lot of what we expect the top eights to look like, but the bottom eight, you know, Dreflames, Firestar, Sceptile Eyes, Just Dirk, Silent Beast, these are the trainers that upset, you know, Ryze, Dunebug, Elite, Wadage, and made their way into day two, which is really sick. And I love to see new trainers coming up and and performing really well.
01:04:19
zzweilous
Yeah, I have a lot to say all of those, actually.
01:04:23
William Dunphey
Okay.
01:04:24
zzweilous
um like not Not all of those, like literally, but a bunch of a bunch of shout-outs that I do want to make. First of all, Nijon the Djinn, long-time um big community presence, occasionally judging as well.
01:04:39
zzweilous
And I feel like I've ah known him first, like obviously as Dijon the Djinn, but also he was just called Spicy for a little while. That was just his name.
01:04:50
zzweilous
And that was because he liked to run Credily before it was Meta.
01:04:53
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:04:55
zzweilous
I feel like we have to rename the guy now. His name is Meta now just because Credily is Meta. It's not Spicy any longer. If your name changes by like the the status of Cradily, it can't be spicy anymore.
01:05:07
zzweilous
But still, like it's it's always lovely to see if you have a community member that has a signature Pokémon, and all of a sudden that signature Pokémon becomes good.
01:05:07
William Dunphey
Ooh.
01:05:17
zzweilous
it's i feel like there's there's probably no better feeling, and I'm really awaiting the advent of Shadow Sharpido finally defining the meta next season. um So that was a fun top cut to see.
01:05:30
zzweilous
um The dial-up top eight blink twice if the Blastoise next to you make make you shout out ah that that run. But no, honestly, I'm i'm really glad that Dailab is a trainer who doesn't shy away from running the non-obvious picks because not only don't do we not have a Shadow Dropion on his team, he also doesn't have an Azumarill, which is actually the only top eight player to to accomplish a run like that without an Azumarill, which I think is pretty impressive.
01:05:53
William Dunphey
Good call.
01:06:01
zzweilous
And for for NTC, I think the storyline, other than him just getting five fifth place three times in a row, ah was his ah brother Sustenance Eater actually taking names and having a very impressive day one performance.
01:06:15
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:06:20
zzweilous
Not quite punching his way into TopCard just yet, but i feel like that is um maybe the next Luminosity gamer on his way already.
01:06:30
zzweilous
um Because now we have NTC, we have his girlfriend Tihirisa, and we have Sustenance Eater all as a presence and a threat in those brackets. And I love how that's just like almost like a little family project just upsetting people at Regionals at this point.
01:06:44
William Dunphey
yeah
01:06:46
zzweilous
um And yeah, we we did get a rematch between NTC and Tomahawk UK, which is um actually his grand finals opponent from the Liverpool Regional that he did end up winning.
01:07:00
zzweilous
um and again it was NTC knocking down the European Invader but Tomahawk did end up having the last laugh finishing fourth ahead of head of Eric and ah taking that medal his I think second medal this year his second in North America as well he competed seven times four times of those in North America so that's actually Tomahawk US for you
01:07:22
William Dunphey
Woo.
01:07:26
William Dunphey
Yeah, I think that's that's exactly the the direction that he's trending. I really like that you pointed out Sustenance Eater. I saw that andt NTC posted online and said that Sustenance Eater is going to follow his trajectory.
01:07:39
William Dunphey
So he will likely be a regional champion before the year is up. And I'm really, really excited to hear that because that would be insane.
01:07:45
zzweilous
I love the confidence. like I'm always here for somebody making a bold prediction like that.
01:07:47
William Dunphey
Oh, yeah.
01:07:50
William Dunphey
Oh, yeah. I mean, I feel like NTC believes he has a formula. You know, he improves so quickly. He's ah he's a student of the game in every shape and and sense of the word.
01:08:00
zzweilous
also a coach of the game and um yeah has helped others succeed for sure.
01:08:00
William Dunphey
And um yes...
01:08:05
William Dunphey
Exactly. So I would really love to see Sustan's Eater continue to to climb. And that also kind of, it breaks down a big wall that I feel like a lot of the long-term Pokemon Go players have felt build up over these years is the fact that, you know, the game's tough. It's not very accessible. There's no guides. There's no rules about how to learn.
01:08:25
William Dunphey
So seeing a trainer actually pick up the game within a year or so and actually have a lot of success is a really, really good sign for us. You don't have to play all the events dating back three years to have the right shadows or to have the right XLs or whatever.
01:08:38
William Dunphey
You can actually just compete at a high level ah you know with less prep time. I think that's really, really important to know. It looks like Tomahawk UK is currently fifth overall on the EU CP leaderboards with 1,433 points.
01:08:51
William Dunphey
I don't know if the Atlanta points have been have been dialed in here, but ZZ, he's catching up to you.
01:08:54
zzweilous
I think they have been.
01:08:56
William Dunphey
You're at 1695. your heels.
01:09:00
zzweilous
I just need to come top 8. As long as I come top 8, I'm happy because that will mean the World's Travel Award for me.
01:09:07
zzweilous
And I feel like I'm in a decent enough spot, especially now that Some of the casters for the um upcoming events have been released. And I know that Martijn and Adequence, who is like one of those trainers who already has a good amount of championship points but hasn't competed at as many tournaments yet.
01:09:07
William Dunphey
ah
01:09:24
zzweilous
um like He'll be casting, I think, both Seville and NAIC, which means that at those two occasions, he's not going to catch up to me.
01:09:31
William Dunphey
Safe. You're safe.
01:09:33
zzweilous
Yeah, that was like one of those where I was like calculating a little bit like, okay, like Palasha is probably going to pass me, and my time is probably going to pass me. ah But no, I feel like I can hold on to that place I'm currently holding.
01:09:45
William Dunphey
I mean, I mean, Inadequance is currently in 10th place with 1,270 points. So he's still like 400 points below you. And then Apollos is slightly below him at 1,180.
01:09:57
William Dunphey
So she's got a lot of work to do as well. So I don't i don't know. I mean, they maybe if they win a tournament and they shoot up 350 points, you know maybe maybe that'll put them within range.
01:10:05
zzweilous
Yeah, yeah, yeah. like Like, I think if those guys or those guys do i play another event, it's fairly likely that they do a top eight. So I don't want to celebrate too early is what I'm saying.
01:10:13
William Dunphey
Hmm.
01:10:17
William Dunphey
Fair, fair enough, fair enough. Well, um let's go ahead and and we've already talked about the trainers, talked about a few different storylines. We mentioned the bugs as well that people had to deal with. ah I feel like we would be doing a huge disservice if we don't talk about the grand finals because we talked about Shadow Drapion here and there.
01:10:34
William Dunphey
This grand finals, in particular from Elam, felt like a Shadow Drapion masterclass. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone execute quite like he did. and And the most frustrating part ah for Pocket, you know, as a player and as as a viewer, is that Pocket also played really, really well.
01:10:51
William Dunphey
I don't think Pocket made a lot of mistakes. He he played his game. ah He's one of the best in the world. He's shown us that ah dozens of times. And it just felt like like ah no matter how cleanly he played or no matter no matter how well he played, Elam just was one step ahead.
01:11:07
William Dunphey
um As an outside spectator, I could feel the energy in in the venue when I was watching in person. ah curious what you thought, looking through the screen, watching from afar.
01:11:17
William Dunphey
What did you think about this grand finals?
01:11:19
zzweilous
So in my notes, I have the sentence, Elum, best Shadow Dropion player in the world.
01:11:25
William Dunphey
ah Yeah.
01:11:26
zzweilous
So i feel like I feel like we've identified the the same star of the show. And not only did Elum execute um really well in those games, like oftentimes,
01:11:37
zzweilous
um farming up with the dropion, then just swapping out, banking a move to use that for a combo play later, just always having that threat of the charge attack loaded in the back, influencing pockets, shielding the decisions, and just like always dictating the pace of the game.
01:11:52
zzweilous
um He also had two very important... um advantages in the head-to-head matchup if you look at the teams, because the teams are fairly similar, um with like the Zoomroll Drapion core being um obviously the big one.
01:12:02
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:12:08
zzweilous
But there's also um the Alolan Sandslash, which looks pretty good in into each team as well. um And then like the Clairol is identical, and then they just have Lapras on Elim's side, Shadow Sableye on Pocket's side, and then the grass type of choice is on Shadow Jumpler for Elim and Cridily for Pocket.
01:12:28
zzweilous
And the two important factors that um made Elim's matchup more favorable were, first, he had the Drapion that won charge attack priority over Pocket's Drapion.
01:12:41
zzweilous
I think with such an important and such a safe Pokemon, um that is just super, super crucial in those matchups where you find yourself in mirror match situations a lot of the time.
01:12:51
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:12:52
zzweilous
Not only if you're stuck in that matchup but from the get-go, but also if you just once so bank on like want to bank a move and do like a charged attack priority play um in the endgame. If you just know that you win that, you're in such a better spot.
01:13:10
zzweilous
um And then the other difference maker was that um Pockets and Elim's Sandslashes actually had different fast moves.
01:13:20
zzweilous
So Pockets probably felt that with the Sableye and the Cradilly on his team, he had better answers versus opposing Lapras, so he didn't feel the need to put Shadow Claw on his Alolan Sandslash, whereas Elim, with the less clear-cut answers in Jumpluff and his own Lapras, a Lapras that didn't run Skull Bash, if I remember correctly, um he felt as if he needed to run the Shadow Claw and on his Alolan Sandslash.
01:13:50
zzweilous
And now in this exact head-to-head matchup, um Pocket, like for the bulk of the series, he didn't even bring the Alolan Sandslash um because it has a worse matchup into Azumarill without Shadowclaw, has a worse head-to-head matchup without Shadowclaw, and it has a worse Lapras matchup without Shadowclaw.
01:14:04
William Dunphey
yeah
01:14:12
zzweilous
That is three matchups that... If you don't outright give them up, you are significantly worse into. So Elum was bold enough to, i think, run um Shadow Dropion, Shadow Jumpluff Core not once, but at least two times, if I remember correctly.
01:14:30
zzweilous
And those Pokemon leading into an Alolan Sandslash, that just loses you the game. You have no way of coming back from that. But Elum still felt confident enough because his team comp had that pressure against the Powder Snow version specifically.
01:14:38
William Dunphey
True.
Elam's Grand Finals Journey
01:14:45
zzweilous
um So yeah, I feel like those little details in what seems like a mirror match actually tipped the scales into Elam's favor a good amount. um But then the the other aspect obviously was just flawless play, just like always managing the energy perfectly.
01:15:04
zzweilous
Whenever Pocket was pulling in a zoom roll safe swap, Elam just... farmed up energy against bubbles, which do next to nothing, and then brought in his own alone sand slashes to sponge all the charge attack energy. So just like really always optimizing his place. And ah like you like to say, he never left a matchup empty-handed.
01:15:24
zzweilous
And I feel like that was on full display in those grand finals between like two of the absolute greats of the game.
01:15:30
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:15:30
zzweilous
i feel like there's no way around acknowledging that and celebrating that. um But yeah, like Elum between just... perfect mechanics and understanding of his team composition and then just like those little details in how his Rapion and Sandslash managed to put in work that was just too much to overcome even for someone like Pocket.
01:15:52
William Dunphey
We talked a few times during the broadcast about how Ashton Ash really wanted that rematch versus out of pocket, which of course is a a rematch from our NAIC grand finals last season.
01:16:03
William Dunphey
And he had to get through nighttime Clasher to do it. And if you look at nighttime Clasher's team, it's actually identical to what we had from out of pocket. So we were focused a lot on Ashton Ash and his prep to take on Pocket.
01:16:18
William Dunphey
But what about Elam's prep in order to take on Pocket? Because if you look at the ah at the bracket as well, Elam did take on a very similar team to Pocket in Nighttime Clasher as well.
01:16:29
William Dunphey
So not only you know do we have Ashton Ash kind of getting two rounds or two attempts at taking down this this team, Elam did as well. So Elam had a really, really incredible set versus an Nighttime Clasher earlier on in the tournament. I remember that final game came down to the two Alolan Sandslashes that you pointed out.
01:16:45
William Dunphey
Powder Snows from Nighttime Clasher versus the Shadow Claws from Elam, reaching that charge tag priority tie Ice Punch and Elam winning it. And then that Ice Punch being enough to bring down the Sandslash and win him that match.
01:16:58
William Dunphey
um That series that was that was honestly a thrill that was probably the most hype moment ah that I experienced butters was so loud in the casting booth that everyone in production and backstage could hear him even without the microphone he was belting out his cast so it was insane.
01:17:14
William Dunphey
um So yeah, I think that this this is really a testament, not only, like you said, the perfect flawless execution on the Drapion, recognizing your moveset nuances and your team comp nuances that could give you a slight edge, and then kind of playing the odds as well. And we saw Elan play the odds quite aggressively in the series earlier against Tomahawk, where he was safe swapping his jump bluff into a powder snow Alolan Ninetales team that was...
01:17:39
William Dunphey
Absolutely diabolical, and I called that out multiple times on the cast with Soph. um But it just goes to show you that Elam is a trainer that can be so ah so diverse and so multifaceted in his approach.
01:17:51
William Dunphey
He can gamble huge against Tomahawk, and then he can come in against Pocket and just refine, refine, refine, execute, shave off the additional 5% to 10%, and just clean out six wins in a row, arguably seven if we include the rematch, right?
01:18:04
William Dunphey
Seven wins in a row, and just swoop the grand finals.
01:18:06
zzweilous
Also, like, that That is just games, but if you look at um like the the series that he he won just back-to-back-to-back-to-back, he started the ah Day 2 on the loser's side.
01:18:07
William Dunphey
Go ahead.
01:18:18
zzweilous
This is such a huge run, once again.
01:18:20
William Dunphey
Woo.
01:18:22
zzweilous
And the only opponent that he did lose to in the entire tournament was actually Ashton Ash in the winner's final Sunday 1. So actually, like that was a very close fought series as well.
01:18:29
William Dunphey
wow
01:18:32
zzweilous
That was a 2-1 victory for Ashton Ash. But yeah, just like... um seeing what went wrong the first time and then just recovering um doing it better and just having that stamina to like that mental sharpness too to never really count yourself out always like like he went into the the grand finals just like saying like i know that i'm one of the best players in the world and i feel like that's the attitude that you need to have if you go up against someone like pocket
01:19:02
William Dunphey
Yeah. Speaking of ah of the grand finals, you know, pre-interview, man, that was ah that was more more trash talk than I think we've ever gotten on the show. And um yeah, I've got so much love.
01:19:13
zzweilous
some great faces pulled too. That was that was very meme-worthy. I loved that.
01:19:17
William Dunphey
Yeah, yeah. I've got so much love and adoration both for Pocket and Elam. But just sitting next to Pocket and and watching him with the microphone, right? was like, do you guys want to say anything to each other before you go up onto the stage? I know you'll talk in the headsets, but what do you want to say right now?
01:19:32
William Dunphey
And Pocket just deadpan turns to Elam. He's like... I'm sorry, bro. You're not going to win. was like, whoa, whoa.
01:19:39
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:19:40
William Dunphey
You know, that's that's not like, hey, man, you suck ass and, and you know, you're going to get destroyed.
01:19:40
zzweilous
ah
01:19:45
William Dunphey
He didn't say anything like that, right, of course. But this is a Pokemon stream, right? And it was really, really shocking on the C2C Pocket. Just call him out. And Elam said, well, I'm going to prove you wrong. And I was like, bro.
01:19:58
William Dunphey
Bro. That was a bro moment.
01:19:58
zzweilous
Like this is honestly like I've been in that situation a couple of times myself and I've never like dared to do anything but like talk my opponent up and like acknowledge their their run up until this point.
01:20:12
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:20:15
zzweilous
um But I wish I i had the guts to just go out there and say something like that. Like, obviously, you need to kind of have the rapport with the person that you're facing to not have this come off as condescending, because I don't think it did and in Pocket's case.
01:20:28
William Dunphey
No, no.
01:20:29
zzweilous
It was just like, um like very good fun between two top competitors that released the eye to eye. um But yeah, it's it's good to have those moments and to have people that want to be the main character.
01:20:42
zzweilous
and I feel like we were like it definitely elevated the view viewing experience for all of us.
01:20:47
William Dunphey
It was so good. I saw that ah Pocket posted on socials as well that it looks like he is flying down to Monterey ah to compete.
01:20:53
zzweilous
Yes.
01:20:54
William Dunphey
So he's not waiting at all. I mean, seriously, on Saturday morning, I know Pocket's first flight got canceled. So Saturday morning, he arrives. I'm walking up to the venue. I see Pocket get out of the Uber and run up to the door, right?
01:21:07
William Dunphey
Straight from the airport, straight into the venue, no breaks, and actually you know make it all the way to the grand finals. He's going down to Mexico as well, which I cannot wait to see. ah But speaking of long roads, Elam's day two run that you alluded to, I just want to list this off because this is this is staggering.
01:21:23
William Dunphey
Coming in to day two on the loser side bracket, one of the only trainers I believe to ever win the entire tournament after starting on the loop on the loser side. Dunebug97 also comes to mind at San Antonio.
01:21:34
William Dunphey
Elam defeated Silent Beast, Dre Flames, Mountain Dewgong, Nighttime Clasher, Tomahawk, Ashton Ash, and then Pocket twice.
Recap of Elam's Tournament Success
01:21:42
William Dunphey
in order to win this tournament. There's that is no mistake.
01:21:45
William Dunphey
That is no error. That is no oversight. That is pure, utter talent and domination on display.
01:21:52
zzweilous
That's such an incredible gauntlet. Like...
01:21:54
William Dunphey
Wow.
01:21:55
zzweilous
I don't know, like... Just... This is why I try to not lose early, because, like, those Losers fans, they look so daunting. i've never been able to pull something like that off.
01:22:07
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:22:07
zzweilous
Um... But yeah, like also, um so I have been on the loser side before, don't get me wrong. And sometimes i got to like string like three or four successful ah sets together.
01:22:15
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:22:20
zzweilous
And you do feel after a certain time as if you're just in the zone a little more because like you're always back against the wall and you get a lot of practice in with your team, which is kind of nice because like you'll always go into a tournament if you are a top competitor, just like kind of knowing what you're doing, obviously.
01:22:38
zzweilous
um But you still learn. like Every repetition that you get in, um it just allows you to just see something that you didn't see before. um And this can be very helpful. so Especially with like the Pocket team and the Nighttime Clasher team being identical.
01:22:57
zzweilous
um Maybe it's it's just helpful to get those reps in, to know what you can expect, to know what you can do against it, and just really be warmed up as best as possible.
01:23:03
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:23:07
zzweilous
And yeah, I feel like that upset, like he prepared it really, really well that day two run.
01:23:14
William Dunphey
there's There's one word that I use to describe Elam. I believe this is his back ah as far back as 2023. always used to call Elam gritty. He's a very gritty player.
01:23:25
William Dunphey
And what what I mean is just that sometimes you can see trainers make it to that that next round and they're on the loser side bracket and they go up on stream and maybe their body language isn't all there. And maybe they're kind of like looking defeated or they kind of react when things don't go their way. And you can see like you can see the the the crash out coming, right?
01:23:42
William Dunphey
um And other trainers, you know, try really hard and they and you you just feel like they are, they're giving it their all. But Elam just seems to be like the same temperature, the same pace, same tempo, winter side bracket, loser side bracket, ah sunshine or rain does not change. Elam is always level. He's always calm and he's always like very, very ah direct with his approach.
01:24:04
William Dunphey
But man, It doesn't matter if Elam's down or 0-3, or I guess 0-2 is as far down as he could go. 0-2 at a set of five, he always just looks the same. So measured, so composed.
01:24:15
William Dunphey
And um yeah, I mean, he's got that self-belief and he's not a very vocal guy. You're not going to get a lot of you know cheering and and hollering from Elam. We did get you know the raised fist in ah Atlanta, which is I think the most we've got.
01:24:27
zzweilous
There were some good edits of that. I enjoyed those.
01:24:30
William Dunphey
Oh, yeah, I saw the one with the goat as his head. and then the small banner picture has a goat with his hair, which is pristine, absolutely pristine S-tier edit.
Future Prospects for Competitors
01:24:40
William Dunphey
ah But yeah, Elim is ah elam's a star. Pocket is too. I fully expect Pocket to bounce back and crush, whether it's Monterey or an upcoming event.
01:24:48
William Dunphey
And Ashvinash, dude, I want Ashvinash to win an event, man. He's been close to the grand finals, or he's been in the grand finals twice, once in the IC, once in the regional. He made a third place at at this tournament. I mean...
01:24:59
William Dunphey
Ash-dash is due as well.
01:25:01
zzweilous
like At some point, it's just about like spamming events, just ah eliminating variants, right? Because there's always something that can go wrong, but over time, you will see what your what your current baseline kind of is, especially if you like really try to um prepare for those events and really be at your best, play at your best, and then you'll see, okay, like this is...
01:25:09
William Dunphey
Hmm.
01:25:26
zzweilous
the ballpark of what I can reach if I'm really on my A game. And there's always like, oh, if I'm playing super well, then I could be like, I don't know, like top 16, or I can make it into a grand finals.
01:25:38
zzweilous
And with Ash and Ash, his baseline is so high already ah that as long as he keeps attending, he will make it. And that essentially goes for everybody, no matter the skill level.
01:25:49
zzweilous
If you feel as if like, okay, if I just get, one lucky run or like just oh i've been there kind of but i've not quite reached what i want to reach just yet just just keep doing it because and every time you um go out of a tournament there were like little bits and pieces little details that could have gone your way and it wouldn't have been even better so just just keep believing in yourself like you probably know what you can do
01:25:59
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:26:21
zzweilous
and you know that it's like so close so many times it's not a hard wall it's not a hard barrier that you can't break through this goes for everybody and i think ashton is just like one of the most prominent examples and i think tomahawk uk is as well like i so this is one another of those sentences that i wrote down um which is in terms of highlight play tomahawk uk was the best competitor at the tournament
01:26:29
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:26:47
zzweilous
He just also had the worst team of the top four because anyway, we we'll get to that. We'll get to that. But um like I feel like there were moments where he like waited a turn to force a charge attack priority tie to then like soft lose a matchup and get a farm down while wasting his opponent's energy.
01:26:54
William Dunphey
yeah yeah
01:27:09
zzweilous
it's like those players are at such a high level and even though they don't have the in-game shirt, they they don't have the gold medal, they will get there.
01:27:12
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:27:16
zzweilous
They just need to keep trying. And I don't know whether it takes them another year or just another event. But um yeah, I just and just feel as if
01:27:22
William Dunphey
yeah
01:27:25
zzweilous
We'll all be here to celebrate once they break through. And Elam is the best example because he was the one guy who was always like top five but couldn't win a regional. Now he's like the only North American player in the season that won two regional events already.
01:27:42
William Dunphey
Yeah. ah Honestly, I couldn't have said it better. um I really, i've sincerely agree with what you said. ah Sometimes things just click in competitive gameplay, whether it's it's Pokemon Go or or any other game that you might play. um yeah It's like, it's one of those strange things where like all of the the base, okay, I'm going to tie this into another another thing.
01:28:02
William Dunphey
All the base properties are there, right? You've trained really hard. You know your counts, you know your matchups, you're prepared, you understand the meta. All those those base level things are there. And then there's just like this this flow state, this click that you get into.
01:28:15
William Dunphey
It's almost like, Sorylus, when Goku took on Frieza and he was just, he trained so hard in the capsule on the way to Namek and he beat everyone else. And then he came up against his final opponent, which, you know, imagine Frieza right now, but there's like a gold medal on his head instead. That's like the final the final threshold to cross.
01:28:32
William Dunphey
And he tried his best and just almost got there until that one breakthrough moment. Rest in peace, Krillin. Although he didn't stay dead for long. ah Goku turned Super Saiyan. And then everything just flowed from there.
01:28:44
William Dunphey
And absolutely just masterclassed that fight. ah Shout out to all of our Dragon Ball fans who are listening. But um it really it really does feel that way.
01:28:49
zzweilous
yeah
01:28:51
William Dunphey
I mean, it felt that way for me five years ago in Sylph when everything was clicking and people that would scrim against him were just saying, yeah, i can't beat him. Like there's just something... something different about this this point in in the season and and in the career.
01:29:05
William Dunphey
And I'm sure you felt that way as well, going through your regional competitions where everything just comes together. And I agree with you. I think Elam is a great testament to keep trying and you will succeed. And these other trainers are just waiting their turn. And it's really exciting to see um kind of like three tiers of trainers, right? Your champions that always show up, your Collins of the world, your Martos of the world.
01:29:25
William Dunphey
And then you've got trainers like Ashton Ash, who's right on the threshold, Elam, who's finding more consistency, Dialab, Tomahawk. And then below them, you've got up-and-comers like Just Dirk and Firestar and Yet Aruna and very, very talented trainers that are are breaking through slowly. So very, very exciting stuff.
01:29:41
William Dunphey
I don't know if there's anything else that you wanted to say about Atlanta because it was a <unk> an incredible tournament.
01:29:47
zzweilous
um I think I have a little segment prepared um that dives a little into the viability of certain Pokemon.
01:29:50
William Dunphey
all right.
01:29:54
zzweilous
Let me see whether I can pull it up. um This will probably not be graphically represented. Maybe like we should hire an editor to now put these Pokemon on the stream.
01:30:02
William Dunphey
oo
01:30:04
zzweilous
I don't want to get ahead of myself. This our first ah YouTube episode.
01:30:06
William Dunphey
but
01:30:08
zzweilous
um but yeah so like One shout-out that I do want to make is um that Elum actually brought the Azu Drapion core to all of his Grand
Atlanta Regional Championship Feedback
01:30:18
zzweilous
Finals games. I do want to mention that.
01:30:20
zzweilous
I feel like We should probably look at targeting that exact core for the events going forward, but enough of um gameplay feedback for Atlanta.
01:30:31
zzweilous
We have a segment called Fraud Watch.
01:30:31
William Dunphey
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
01:30:33
zzweilous
um Speedy, we all love it. We all know it. like there's um Whether it's like an athlete or just a Pokemon in the competitive championship series, um like they have ah high hopes, high expectations. Everybody's eyes are on them.
01:30:50
zzweilous
But then maybe they they fall short a little. They don't quite cut it. They might not actually win the event that they were touted to win. But um I have brought to you, I have brought today um six Pokemon that all top cards on the Atlanta Regional Championship.
01:31:11
zzweilous
um but they haven't quite made it all the way. And I want to ask you whether you think those Pokémon have what it takes to really shine, to really carve out not only a niche in the meta, but take home a gold medal and be the best choice for what they do as well, not just be like, okay, like a good player can do like the inadequacy Palkia approach where you just put that on the team and play with the other five Pokémon.
01:31:41
zzweilous
um So yeah, i have I have six Pokemon, and I'll hit you with the first one.
01:31:42
William Dunphey
all right.
01:31:45
zzweilous
um Shadow Typhlosion. We saw that place ninth twice in Atlanta, and it has won championship before in Stuttgart, actually, on a PvP David's team.
01:32:00
zzweilous
But in this new Might and Mastery meta, do you think Shadow Typhlosion would be able to repeat that feat?
01:32:07
William Dunphey
So, so what's our what are our possible answers here? Obviously one of them is fraud. ah Is the, is the inverse of that like legit, like contender? What should, what should we say here?
01:32:16
zzweilous
um I think it's it's just fraud, yes or no. that's That's what we're dealing with here.
01:32:21
William Dunphey
Oh, um I would, I would say 90% fraud.
01:32:27
zzweilous
Oh, that's interesting.
01:32:30
William Dunphey
Yeah. I'm not, I'm not a Thai thai believer.
01:32:31
zzweilous
one
01:32:34
zzweilous
So, ah I think... Fyre Pokémon are actually fairly interesting just because they're like one of the ways of dealing with Alolan Sandslash and also potentially the Tinkerton that might be um coming to play Pokémon tournament near you.
01:32:48
William Dunphey
or Or an occasional shadow blast toys played by Dilap Trong.
01:32:51
zzweilous
and
01:32:53
William Dunphey
i don't know.
01:32:53
zzweilous
This is true, and Typhlosion is the one Pokemon that um is able to beat water types in certain scenarios while being a fire type itself.
01:33:06
zzweilous
So it definitely has um things going for it, especially... um also because it paces so fast to the Thunder Punches um with Talonflame and Skeletor having their cheapest move at 45 energy but Typhlosion with a Thunder Punch at 40, meaning it's just two incinerates.
01:33:24
zzweilous
And I will actually say Shadow Typhlosion, obviously it's a very, it has a niche, it's not a very spammable Pokémon because it has such a tag-weighted stat distribution.
01:33:37
zzweilous
But I think it's legit. I think it can win a tournament. I don't think it's a fraud.
01:33:42
William Dunphey
All right. I mean, there are tons of targets.
01:33:43
zzweilous
But I like that we have disagreements. I like that we have disagreements.
01:33:47
William Dunphey
I will.
01:33:47
zzweilous
So...
01:33:48
William Dunphey
ah Go ahead. Go ahead.
01:33:49
zzweilous
No, you go ahead.
01:33:51
William Dunphey
i was just going to say, I will say that i disagree with you about Claydol, and I came around.
01:33:51
zzweilous
No, you.
01:33:55
William Dunphey
I came to my senses on Claydol. I do think it is it is very good. Looking at the rest of the teams, there are a lot of targets for Shadow Typhlosion, but one caveat I want to offer to just conclude my my fraud ah um ah my fraud decision here is the fact that with Tinkaton arriving, we're going to see more grounds and likely more poisons too.
01:34:07
zzweilous
Mm-hmm.
01:34:15
William Dunphey
And I do think there are obstacles for Typhlosion to be additional ground types and poisons. Anyways, as you're saying.
01:34:22
zzweilous
um What if the ground type is Claudeza and you can actually win that matchup with Typhlosion? But I'll let you have the point.
01:34:27
William Dunphey
Oh my God.
01:34:29
zzweilous
I'll let you have the point. Mutsnappers are actually and very unfortunate for our Johto friend.
01:34:30
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:34:35
zzweilous
um let's Let's stick with the starters.
01:34:38
William Dunphey
okay
01:34:40
zzweilous
Let's pet your plushie next to you and ask yourself the question with our Shadow Blastoise.
01:34:43
William Dunphey
isn it
01:34:46
zzweilous
Oh god, here's so many of them. um let's Let's ask ourselves the question of whether Blastoise has what it takes to win a big event.
01:34:57
William Dunphey
um Honestly, I think Eddie played it incredibly well. It looked very, very inspired. it looked very fun. But it's still, i I feel like it's one of those wedge Pokémon that you kind of throw in there. It does damage. It kind of eats up the switch timer.
01:35:12
William Dunphey
But I don't think that it it showed enough to me where I feel like this is a contender. This is the next thing. This is a Pokémon that, you know, is going to shoot up in usage. I think Blastoise will remain fringe.
01:35:24
William Dunphey
at least for the next um next two months, I'd say it's on FrogWatch for sure.
01:35:28
zzweilous
Yeah, yeah. I have it as a fraud as well.
Competitive Viability Discussion
01:35:31
zzweilous
My reasoning being that with the rollout, you um generate 13 energy per fast attack.
01:35:31
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:35:38
zzweilous
So you'll end up at 39 energy after three rollouts. But Hydro Cannon is exactly 40 energy. So it's like ah the most inefficient Pokemon there is.
01:35:48
zzweilous
Plus, you um struggle against Pokémon like Gladoll that if you are Water-type, you would really like to beat the most prevalent Mud Slapper. But because of the resisted rollouts, it's just not a great time because you don't have that fast attack pressure, you always need two moves.
01:36:07
zzweilous
And again, like your pacing is not what you would like it to be, given that you are a charge attack oriented Pokemon. So I love that I got to see Shadow Blastoise action on stream.
01:36:07
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:36:14
William Dunphey
yeah
01:36:19
zzweilous
um But I think most tryhards, quote unquote, will just opt for Azumarill or Lapras and therefore Blastoise is unlikely to make it.
01:36:29
William Dunphey
Yep. Amen.
01:36:29
zzweilous
um Okay, this is a very interesting one.
01:36:30
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:36:35
zzweilous
Do you believe that Corviknight, after taking a third place in Atlanta, the biggest and North American regional of all the time to date, it's going to change with Monterey, which is really fun.
01:36:47
zzweilous
um Does it have what it takes to win a big event or third as as far as high as it can go?
01:36:47
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:36:55
William Dunphey
ah This Pokemon is actually the number one pick that I had in terms of up-and-comers, Core Breakers, for example, Meta Breakers going into the next, the leg of the season.
01:37:06
William Dunphey
um I think what Ashnash showed us with Corviknight was honestly incredible. I think if you're looking for a Jumpluff answer, if you want a Tinkaton answer, ah the only shield scenario that Corviknight loses to Tinkaton is going to be the zero to two shields.
01:37:21
William Dunphey
Everything else is blue across the board. You'll get anywhere from a 629 win rating ah in the 0-1s versus a 900 win rating when you're up ah just 1-0.
01:37:30
zzweilous
Yikes.
01:37:31
William Dunphey
It's honestly staggering how much this Pokemon destroys Tinkatan, which is also super contrary to the lore, right? But um that point aside, Corviknight my number one pick, actually, to succeed in the in the upcoming weeks.
01:37:39
zzweilous
It's true.
01:37:45
William Dunphey
I think Corviknight is going to win a championship before mighty Mastery is done.
01:37:50
zzweilous
I like that take. i like that take, especially because I have always been Corvinae. but I still have it on Fraud Watch. um I will change that as soon as it gets like a little tweak to its pacing because I think just having to wait for so long until you even get to utilize your very underwhelming Iron Head, it's just...
01:37:59
William Dunphey
Oh.
01:38:14
zzweilous
I think it's something, it's an aspect of Corviknight's gameplay that with where the me meta currently is, with how the power creep enabled um Pokemon like Sableye just pace so quickly, um players like Outofpocket will just exploit that 10 times out of 10.
01:38:32
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:38:32
zzweilous
um So I feel as if Corviknight Covenant's ceiling is that metal. I don't believe it has what it takes to really go all the way, and especially because Covenant teams typically rely on its roll compression a lot.
01:38:49
zzweilous
And once you have to bring it every time, but you have somebody who just runs more meta Pokemon that have that better pacing, um I just don't think you can take it all the way. i would love to be proven wrong, though.
01:39:01
zzweilous
And like I wonder whether there will ever be like little bit of an energy adjustment to Iron Hat, because I feel like that would be a safe attack to buff. It's only seen on Master League Dialga, and that thing being too strong is like 2021 lore.
01:39:11
William Dunphey
Hmm.
01:39:16
zzweilous
I feel like we are we have power crept our way out of the Dialga meta.
01:39:17
William Dunphey
True.
01:39:20
zzweilous
So maybe in the future, but right now, Kov'Knight is still on Fraud Watch.
01:39:21
William Dunphey
I agree.
01:39:25
zzweilous
Okay, let's move to Pokemon that is very near and dear to my heart, the Furret. um Are you one of the Furret doubters or are you a Furret believer, SvD?
01:39:35
William Dunphey
That's a really good question. One final aside I just want to make. I looked up Ironhead in the Great League, and your top users are number 12, Corviknight, number 28, Pangaro, which honestly, when's last time you even saw Pangaro?
01:39:47
zzweilous
What? Oh yeah, okay. okay not not Not as its default moveset. Okay, okay, okay.
01:39:50
William Dunphey
No, no, it's it's in the kit somewhere. And then it slides all the way down to number 218 with Berserker.
01:39:53
zzweilous
Yeah.
01:39:57
William Dunphey
So I'm right on board with you. I think Iron Head is prime for a buff, and it can make a big difference for Corviknight. ah Your question at hand is Furret. Dude, Furret is firmly... On the fraud watch. All right, this Pokemon, I don't even know how Semi hammered it to the point that he did where he finished fifth.
01:40:14
William Dunphey
I didn't like watching it play. I i didn't like imagining myself playing it. playing it I did not feel like Furret was the sauce. It felt like the opposite. It was like, you know, boiled, boiled, bland chicken with ah with white rice. It was just meh.
01:40:29
zzweilous
So if Tinkerton becomes meta-defining Pokemon, I think you would be correct. ah Right now, at this moment in time, and going into the Monterey regionals,
01:40:41
zzweilous
If I was attending, I would have Furred on 10 out of 10 teams that I would build. I think it is so good in the right hands.
01:40:47
William Dunphey
Wow. Wow.
01:40:49
zzweilous
It was one of my MVPs during the prize tournament just a month ago, where I paired it with Shadowclaw alone and Sandslash and Azumarill for like half of my games. And honestly, it did so, so well.
01:41:03
zzweilous
I know that Guzzlord is kind of falling out of favor, and maybe more people are catching on to the Shadowclaw Sandslash tag. I just feel as if Ferret's stocks are on the rise.
01:41:13
zzweilous
um They will keep crashing down as soon as Tinkerton is eligible and good. um But right now, I think Ferret is fantastic. And I think that um it coming fifth at Atlanta was like the least that I expected from Ferret. I think it's so good, actually.
01:41:13
William Dunphey
wow
01:41:31
William Dunphey
Wow.
01:41:32
zzweilous
yeah it's like
01:41:32
William Dunphey
All right.
01:41:33
zzweilous
I don't know whether this will age as well as my claddle predictions, but I have very strong opinions on Ferit. it It walks, it runs, it trailblazes.
01:41:41
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:41:44
zzweilous
Big fan.
01:41:45
William Dunphey
Well, it's good.
01:41:45
zzweilous
um Okay. i was like if you If you have more to say on Ferit, if it's more slender, we can move ahead. But...
01:41:53
William Dunphey
Oh, okay, okay.
01:41:53
zzweilous
um
01:41:54
William Dunphey
No, no, no, it's not slander.
01:41:54
zzweilous
ah
01:41:55
William Dunphey
I just want to say um all the openings you pointed for Alone Sandslash, for example, lack of fighters, lack of fire types as well, Furr benefits from that ah from that and just simultaneously, according with the sim the i Alone Sandslash, excuse me.
01:42:10
William Dunphey
Because there are very few fighters. There's basically no Annihilate, the occasional Primate. fighting is or excuse me Normal is only weak to fighting. That's its only weakness. So it's neutral into basically everything.
01:42:20
William Dunphey
I think where you run into trouble is when you're up against Steel types, Fairy types. Those Pokemon can be really frustrating. But please proceed.
01:42:29
zzweilous
All right, our penultimate ah fraud or not fraud is actually a Pokemon that um we've we've talked about it already as something that now is firmly meta, but I think there was another PvP Steve graphic with the Pokemon that have had the most top eight placements without ever actually winning.
01:42:49
zzweilous
And the Pokemon on top of that list is Cradily. Is that because it can't ever do it and it's actually a fraud? Or have we just not seen the right tournament, the right moment for Cradle? It's been like consistently good.
01:43:08
zzweilous
Does it have what it takes? Or is it just like overrated and will drop down now that hasn't seen the initial success?
01:43:15
William Dunphey
I think historically in competitive Pokemon Go, we've talked about grass types as being powerful, although alignment dependent. They struggle against ice, they struggle against fire.
01:43:26
William Dunphey
We talked about rock type Pokemon basically being not even on the radar. Rock and electric, you know, all the other types are playing competitively. Steel, water, poison, ice, whatever. Rocket and Electric are like sitting off to their own. Like nobody wants to touch those Pokemon really.
01:43:40
William Dunphey
And um we thought that Cradilly was going to get a new Dawn because we actually had a Grass type that could beat Fires, could beat certain Ice types. But um I just feel like it's been super underwhelming that Pokemon has been picked a ton.
01:43:53
William Dunphey
It has not done... that well in my mind but i want to note though that it did finish second overall in atlanta i believe pocket was was playing it um and he did a really good job with it nighttime clasher also playing it um but outside of that don't know if you have the choice between cradilly and jump bluff i think you take the extra bulk i think you take the uh extra resistance to fighting and i think that you take the extra damage output um For me, i don't know.
01:44:19
William Dunphey
Cradilly was the hot thing because Rock Tomb got buffed and Rock Tomb is overpowered as hell.
01:44:22
zzweilous
Oh.
01:44:24
William Dunphey
But I don't think it's goingnna it's going to win an event this season.
01:44:27
zzweilous
oh I love that take because I honestly felt as if this was the Pokemon that was most clearly in the lot of fraud category. And I wanted to surprise you by calling it a fraud because I don't believe in Cradily whatsoever.
01:44:41
zzweilous
I think Bullet Seed is so bad.
01:44:41
William Dunphey
No. Yeah. Yeah.
01:44:43
zzweilous
I think the pacing is so awkward. I've been calling people just throwing on alignment to get the debuff off quickly. Like I've been calling them out for Cradily timing.
01:44:52
zzweilous
This is like... Yes. I just like, like, obviously you have the stats, you have good charge attacks, but I feel like it's so exploitable to to have that fairly bad fast attack and the fairly bad typing.
01:44:52
William Dunphey
It's so cringe.
01:45:08
zzweilous
And it's not going to get better if more people just run alone Sandstash, if more people run Tinkerton, it's just i don't think great times are ahead for credily especially because like what is the initial answer to arise in steel types probably more fighting types and also that would not be amazing for credily so yeah i i do have clearly at the like in the fraud category um
01:45:19
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:45:36
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:45:37
zzweilous
Let's see whether our last Pokémon for today is also going to slot in the dishonorable category. um This is a Pokémon that Tomahawk UK piloted to a fourth place finish.
01:45:49
zzweilous
It is the Alolan Ninetales. um This is fairly interesting. It is an Ice type that should scare away the um and the jump love.
01:46:00
zzweilous
It has pretty good pacing and benefits from the updated Dazzling Gleam and also would have access to the updated PsyShark, but I think that is currently less favorite. um What do you think, Speedy? It did have success before in previous metas and hasn't really been around recently.
01:46:17
zzweilous
Will we see another championship run with the Nolol and Night Tales this season?
01:46:23
William Dunphey
So to be fair, I'm going to be fair here. Alola Ninetales does have targets. It does have a lot of targets in the current meta, whether it's a ground type clay at all, it can fight back against ah things like Claude Sire. It absolutely destroys Pokemon like Guzzlord.
01:46:38
William Dunphey
Against Sableye, you can hit the Dazzling Gleam and deal a ton of damage. It's a very flexible Pokemon, especially with Powdered Snow. um It's got targets. Like it it does have a lot of things that can hit. You know of Stunfisk is something else that we saw.
01:46:50
William Dunphey
It can hit Cardilly pretty hard as well. But yeah, I'm just going to say, we've kind of alluded to this a few times about the rise of Tinkaton, ah the rise of um more Pokemon that are maybe are fighting types or maybe even fire types heading into the meta, like Typhlosion.
01:47:04
William Dunphey
If Alola Ninetales was going to have a moment, it had to be in Atlanta. because I do feel like the meta is shifting yet again. And I will say one of the most interesting facets of it from what I saw from Tomahawk was its defensive play.
01:47:17
William Dunphey
ah Resisting all the dark type attacks was huge. ah Alolan Knight Tails versus Furret looked super, super uncomfortable, even against the the Shadow Drap Beams, right? Poisonous Thing was adding up, but the Crunch was resisted. The Aqua Tails were neutral. It was kind of like an an even kilter matchup.
01:47:31
William Dunphey
um But yeah, i don't I don't know where that Pokemon came from. i was so so shocked to see it.
01:47:35
zzweilous
but
01:47:37
William Dunphey
ah But if you're going to look for an Ice type, I think you're going to go to a Lolan Sandslash. So Lolan Eintails on the fraud list for sure.
01:47:44
zzweilous
Yeah, um I'm right on board with you. I think, like I alluded to it earlier, um I thought that Tomahawk had like the most televisable place of the tournament.
01:47:56
zzweilous
But I think the, like using a team slot for Alolan Ninetales kind of let him down more than it helped him. Like, there is that fringe play against the Furet, for example. um But, like, it didn't didn't even deter the Jumpluff safe swaps.
01:48:12
zzweilous
And feel like there was one situation where and just played out in the zeros. So the alone in Sandslash, not alone in Sandslash, alone in Ninetales against the the Shadow Jumpluff. And the Acrobatics actually took it into the red.
01:48:25
zzweilous
and it survived a weather ball. So, great. You win that matchup just barely. You come out with, like, a weather ball, and what then what? Do you throw it into an ol alone sand slash?
01:48:34
zzweilous
Do you you throw it into an Azumarill?
01:48:35
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:48:37
zzweilous
It's like... You don't really get that much mileage out of it, and you have better ice types, you have a better fairy and a zoomerill. I would even be surprised if, like, I know there's, like, some people that really love that Pokemon, but um outside of, like, dedicated fans of Alolan Ninetales, I don't believe we'll see it in Top Cut again.
01:48:59
William Dunphey
I think that Tomahawk's run is also miraculous when you consider that he's basically four times weak to Alolan Sandslash. mean, you could argue the Claydol matchup is competitive, but Claydol, Lapras, Shadow Drapion, and Alolan Ninetales, all of them, I think, if they're at a slight energy disadvantage or a shield disadvantage, Alolan Sandslash is cleaning those Pokemon up.
01:49:19
William Dunphey
And then his only answers are Shadow Sableye and Azumarill. So honestly, it's more impressive that he made it that far to the tournament with no Alolan Sandslash than he made it and that far to the tournament with Alolan Ninetales.
01:49:31
William Dunphey
Like you said, it almost feels like like ah you know like a handicap he was playing with.
01:49:31
zzweilous
it's also true
01:49:36
William Dunphey
So yeah, I don't know what he saw. ah Apparently, I've heard this a lot. Apparently, he does see things that other people don't see in the meta and in terms of movesets.
01:49:44
zzweilous
oh he does do that a lot like he has ideas that I cannot even fathom and it works out quite a lot for him too but I yeah I feel like I feel like he kind of wasted a team slot there what can I say
01:49:46
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:49:51
William Dunphey
For him. Yeah.
01:49:58
William Dunphey
Yeah. it's it It almost reminds me of like Arrow's team building. Like the Arrow teams work for Arrow. The Tomahawk team teams work for him. It just, the players are are so unique in their thought process, how they approach the game. But yeah. um In summary, I would just say a little the Ninetales firmly on the Fraud Watch, especially with the rise of Tinkatan, more ground types, more fire types, and whatever other, Corviknites, whatever other obstacles.
01:50:25
zzweilous
Yeah, that are all of my Pokemon that I brought to this discussion. I don't know whether you have anything that you want to to firmly call out as a fraud. Just like insult a Pokemon. This is your this is your minute. You can go ahead.
01:50:38
William Dunphey
I was just going to say something that could actually be sneaky good. And now that I think about this more, I think Dylab might have been onto something with the Unova Stunfisk because we're going to get Tinkaton.
01:50:50
William Dunphey
We believe it's going to get Bulldoze. We don't know for sure, of course. That's just a rumor. But, um oh, you're right.
01:50:54
zzweilous
I think it's already out, right? Like right now, you can already hatch it and you can evolve it.
01:50:57
William Dunphey
You're right. It is out.
01:50:59
zzweilous
I think it gets bulldozed.
01:51:01
William Dunphey
You're right. No, I'm sorry. I'm living in the past. um and living um' um took Take me back to Atlanta. I'm living back there. But no, Unova Stunfisk. Dylev really floored Sceptile Ice because Sceptile Ice was playing Shadow Drappy in double water every single time. And he finally just started bringing the Unova Stunfisk, giving it a shield, and just powered through the matchup.
01:51:22
William Dunphey
If you're looking at a Tinkaton meta, a Steel Fairy type, you're looking at maybe more waters, more fires, right? Like Talonflame or Shadow Typhlosion. um And you're looking at more Corviknight as well. I'm starting to think maybe the Unova Stunfisk. You can Mudbomb the Shadow Drappings. You can Mudbomb the Alolan Sandslash.
01:51:38
William Dunphey
If they're running Shadow Claw, that's even better for you, right? As a Unova Stunfisk. I think he might've been cooking there with the with the pancake. And we'll have to see how that does in the upcoming weeks. I think that Unova Stunfisk is an up-and-comer. That's a Pokemon to watch.
01:51:50
William Dunphey
And I do think it will it'll get a medal this season.
01:51:55
zzweilous
Honestly, don't disagree. i really dislike the Pokemon and how it plays. Like, I'm typically fond of my electric types because I feel like they have a very dynamic play style. They're like high risk, high reward. Whereas, you know, when Stunfisk just sits there, gets to both of its moves at the same time and does like little damage to chip away.
01:52:18
William Dunphey
yeah
01:52:19
zzweilous
but its current role compression actually bodes so well for it because you have the steels to target, you have the waters to target. And the important thing in my mind, like we just labeled Cradilly as a fraud,
01:52:34
zzweilous
but Jumpthoff just won the tournament. But Jumpthoff, as the Grass-type, actually loses to Unovan Stuntfisk, even though um that used to be, like, one of the worst situations for it, just, like, being lined up against the Grass-type.
01:52:47
zzweilous
But now that the Grass-type runs a very fast attack and two Flying-type charge moves, you actually just Thunder Shock, Discharge, Thunder Shock, Discharge, probably, like, four or five times, and then you win that matchup.
01:52:58
zzweilous
So, yeah, I think Ufisk, that could be something.
01:52:59
William Dunphey
Wow.
01:53:01
zzweilous
It could be something.
01:53:02
William Dunphey
I know the new season of Stranger Things is is on the way, but honestly, when we talk about Unova Stunfist beating Jumpluff, I feel like I'm in the upside down. I don't know what's going on.
01:53:10
zzweilous
yeah
01:53:12
William Dunphey
This is like a parallel world. I don't know what's what's happening, but everything is is dark and twisted. But no, I think, ah yeah, this was really off the cuff, um to you know prompted by your question.
01:53:22
William Dunphey
But yeah, I think Unova Stunfist has a lot of play. You keep it safe from from ah the Mud Slappers. You keep it safe from... It doesn't even need to be kept safe from a zoom role because it is a competitive matchup. But yeah, keep it safe from the grass types and the mud slappers and you're a-okay.
01:53:36
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:53:37
zzweilous
Yeah, I would agree.
01:53:38
William Dunphey
think that's it.
01:53:39
zzweilous
And I feel like that would be that for this segment.
01:53:42
William Dunphey
Awesome. All right, everybody, let us know if you like the fraud watch segment. We need like ah I was telling Swaylis this before we started recording. We need like more of our soundboard to be developed. Maybe we need like like a siren, like rear rear rare fraud watch, you know, maybe we can go into something like that.
01:53:57
William Dunphey
I think that'd be fun. It helped break up the show a little bit. um But yeah, so otherwise I don't have any other thoughts to add. ah We're approaching two hours, but that's to be expected because this was a very beefy episode. Tons of tournaments that we covered and we will be back, I believe, I believe next week we could we could maybe do something depending on our schedules. But if not, we'll be back after Seville no matter what.
01:54:20
William Dunphey
But yeah, man, I don't know Anything else you want to add or do we cover everything?
01:54:21
zzweilous
For sure.
01:54:25
zzweilous
I feel like we we've covered everything for the most part. like There was still like Tinkerton talk is still on my list, but I feel like we've mentioned that a lot already. So maybe maybe just like briefly for everybody who ah might not have all the information on what Tinkerton is and does, it is currently, as of the time of the recording, available in 7kmx as
Tinkaton's Introduction and Potential
01:54:49
zzweilous
its um first stage evolution Tinkertink.
01:54:52
zzweilous
um It's a three-stage evolution um and obviously you want to hatch those eggs, trade with lower-level friends because you would like the bulkiest Tinkertons out there and you need to reroll your IVs for that.
01:55:07
zzweilous
um And once you have obtained your Tinkerton, you are um set with a Steel and Fairy type, so same typing as Pokémon such as Marwild and Klefki.
01:55:18
zzweilous
But what sets it apart from those Pokémon is its far superior stat product.
01:55:23
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:55:23
zzweilous
um It's like at like 2,200-ish, I think. So it's it's really, really fairly bulky. It can take a hit. And it paces fairly fast to its charge attacks as well.
01:55:35
zzweilous
With Fairy Wind, it generates... I think, nine energy per fast attack. And that enables it to get to bulldozers within 10 turns. um And it also enables it to get to, I think, heavy slam and play rough are its other charge attacks of choice.
01:55:52
William Dunphey
yeah
01:55:54
zzweilous
If you really want that big, big move, I think you can also opt for flash cannon. But most players I have seen run play rough as its default move. And then that choice is between Bulldoze to maybe get that defense drop and have some ground type coverage, or just go for the heavy slam to have a slightly faster, more accessible source of stab damage.
01:56:17
William Dunphey
Tinkaton rank one, like Slylus alluded to, is a 1.14.14. You cannot get that from egg hatches, so you definitely need to do those trades. It goes to level 25.5, so the good news is that although it's rare, and i don't know, maybe you're like me and you've hatched 18 eggs and only you've gotten two Tinkas from that that those two batches.
01:56:37
William Dunphey
you know um The good news is that it doesn't require any XL candies. It only goes to level 25 and a half. So outside of the egg problem, it is relatively accessible. And that's why I just nailed the movesets. Play Rough Heavy Slam, Flash Cannon, and Bulldoze.
01:56:51
William Dunphey
Fairy Wind is a great fast attack for energy generation. It also gets Rock Smash, so you're going to want to stick with Fairy Wind no matter what. I do think Ticketun will be a player. As reminder to all of our competitors that are going down to Monterey, it will not be eligible for the Monterey regionals. However, it will be eligible after that. So definitely go ahead and do some low friendship trades. I saw some of the NA casters talking about Milwaukee and saying, hey, you know, bring your bring your Tinkas to Milwaukee. Let's re-roll them and and do some trades. So definitely get out there and and try to do that.
01:57:24
William Dunphey
um Speaking of Pokemon to trade, swap, and try to get better IVs, I did hear that Rookity is actually back in the game. ah You might need to turn on your your um notification in your Pokedex to to find it.
01:57:36
William Dunphey
But Rookity was basically gone from the game for weeks, and it was just recently just has recently resurfaced. But it's a very rare spawn. So definitely look out for that. So while we're speaking of upcoming events, we've got the TPC Indonesia ah playoffs, I believe, on April 20th.
01:57:54
William Dunphey
That's also the same day as the TPC Thailand, TPC South Korea playoffs as well.
01:57:57
zzweilous
Thank you.
01:57:59
William Dunphey
The following weekend, we have, ah is excuse me, the same weekend as Monterey. So in one weekend, we have TPC Indonesia, TPC Thailand, TPC South Korea, and Monterey.
01:58:10
William Dunphey
The following weekend. We have our TPC APAC playoffs as well as Seville. So that's going to be really, really fun. If you're listening to the podcast right now, you've got 56 days to get championship points before the cutoff.
01:58:22
William Dunphey
The cutoff, of course, is NAIC. Less than two months, Wireless. So we were talking about your placement on the leaderboards with the championship points. I can see why you're you've got one eye tracking tracking your fellow competitors because less than two months is not a lot of time.
01:58:38
zzweilous
It's going to be a fun race. It's going to be a fun race. I still have um two events to go.
01:58:41
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:58:43
zzweilous
I'll be at the Utrecht special event, and I'll be at at the North American International Championships, um which is going to be the event that is going to be giving out the most points, because ICs always count a lot more than the quite lucrative already regional-level events.
01:59:01
zzweilous
So yeah, i'm I'm really hoping to maybe six secure of my position then and there. but um Either way, it's it's been a very fun season. we are kind of like nearing the end of it. We're not quite there yet, but it's really building up to something good, to something great even. And I'm really looking forward to this very busy month to come.
01:59:22
William Dunphey
Well, you heard him, everyone. If you want to take a photo with the Show 6 podcast co-host, if you want an autograph from Zee Swilis, you know where to find him. Make sure to...
01:59:31
zzweilous
only $5.
01:59:31
William Dunphey
to so To run up, ah pay your pay your fee for the picture and the autograph, and then and take home that that keepsake. In terms of in-game events, there are just two I wanted to mention. This Tuesday coming up is the Moralol Spotlight Hour, which already awards you, I believe, 750 dust.
01:59:49
William Dunphey
It is going to be a double dust hour. So Niantic, again, has done a good job of stacking ah very valuable catches on top of the double dust hour. So we appreciate that. And then April 24th through the 29th is actually the Applin debut.
02:00:02
William Dunphey
That Pokemon is going to evolve into some kind of like dragon-apple combination, which honestly, so far in The Sims, doesn't look that good. But... You do need to make sure to collect your tart apples, which will result in a flapple or your sweet apple. I feel like I'm in Dr. Seuss world. Like, what is this?
02:00:21
William Dunphey
Or a sweet apple leads to apple ton and a syrupy apple in the DLC, which is reading this from, ah from Google results in diplen, which further evolves into hydrapple.
02:00:32
William Dunphey
So hydrapple, I believe is like the hydraken. It's the third evolution. It's the big, actually, you know, it's just a snake coming out of an apple. I don't know what I'm talking about. This Pokemon doesn't look super good in in the PPpoke Sims, so only time will tell. Unless unless you disagree, Sarlis. I don't know.
02:00:48
zzweilous
like I don't know how exactly this is going to be implemented, but it sounds like a fun time. I feel like lore-wise, it's kind of goofy, but enjoyable.
02:00:55
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:00:58
zzweilous
ah like the typing. It's like Alolan Executor typing with like dragon and grass. Whether that will ever be good, it remains to be seen, but I like those guys.
02:01:03
William Dunphey
Yeah.
02:01:07
zzweilous
I'm kind of looking forward to that event.
02:01:09
William Dunphey
There's a really funny meme format that I've seen. For example, it's like a quagsire. And the the quote below it says, hey, bro, go touch grass. And then you look at the typing and it says water and ground, four times weak to grass. And quagsire responds, my brother in Christ, I cannot.
02:01:23
William Dunphey
this is like um This is like Applin going to you know Antarctica or the North Pole. It's like, hey, you know ah have have a glass of ice water. It's like my brother in Christ, I cannot. I am dragon and grass. There is no way that's going to be possible.
02:01:36
William Dunphey
But all the memes aside, all the funny things aside, so this has been a really fun episode. um Thank you so much, as as always, for all of your insights, for all of your breakdowns, analysis, your fraud watch. I think that's a really fun thing.
02:01:48
William Dunphey
ah We should bring it back to the show again. So if people like it, please let us know. Shout out to all of you for listening. And we hope you enjoyed our first ah video version of the of the podcast. So make sure to subscribe.
02:01:58
zzweilous
Please leave a YouTube comment. This is a thing that people can do now.
02:02:02
William Dunphey
Exactly. Leave a YouTube comment. Let us know what you think. We're going to push this episode out to all of our friends within the community. And yeah, we'd love to know what you think. Anyway, Swaylis, I think that's that's all for us. I'll let you enjoy the rest of your evening. It was a great episode.
02:02:16
William Dunphey
ah Good luck. Best of luck, in fact, to all of our trainers competing in Monterey, as well as the other TPC events and Seville later this month. And I think that's all for us, Swaylis. See on the flip side, my friend.
02:02:30
zzweilous
Bye.