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EP. 31 Melbourne Regionals, Utrecht Special Championships, Santiago Regionals, Thailand and Taiwan Playoffs
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 31 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we bring you the highest quality coverage of the Play! Pokémon Championship Series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and everything else happening in the competitive scene.
We're back this week with another stacked episode, starting "down under" in Melbourne, where pokemonemaker holds off an inferno to made history as the first trainer from the TPC region to win a TPCi event! Next, we'll travel 10,000 miles to the Netherlands, where Nickname snatched victory from the aquatic jaws of defeat. Then, we turn to Santiago, where MartoGalde broke records by winning his 4th event in a single season. Finally, we'll wrap up with the Thailand and Taiwan Playoffs, where TeddIness strikes gold without ever touching the ground, and gamebirdTW achieves victory with a little inspiration from OutOfPoket, NTC, and SustenanceEater. All of this, plus meta discussion, GO Battle Week details, and so much more.
If you're ready... go ahead and lock In, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction and Breaking News
00:00:01
zzweilous
Welcome to the Show 6 podcast, where we break down the championship series for Pokemon Go. Today, we're coming to you with breaking news. Shadow Typhlosion is breaking the meta, Mato Garde is breaking records, and the Utrecht Special Championship saw a heartbreaking final.
00:00:18
zzweilous
Pokemonemaker is even breaking the barrier between the Asian Pacific region and the global tournament circuit. So log in, good luck, and have fun when we explore everything breaking after a little break.
Hosts' Introductions and Humor
00:00:56
zzweilous
Welcome in, everybody. My name is Ziz Wireless. I'm here with Speedy as Chief. um And we were like, um before the podcast, talking a little bit because both of us had intros prepared. I got my will. I got to i got to say it.
00:01:09
zzweilous
um I liked it. I thought it tied everything together really neatly.
00:01:13
William Dunphey
ah yeah it's so It's so ironic because you say tied together, and that is like the the inverse of breaking things apart. So again, ah with the poetry, the poetry with you is nonstop sometimes. But no, I thought it was great, and I agree with you.
Historic Week in Competitive Pokemon
00:01:25
William Dunphey
So many ah different things were broken, whether it was the metagame or records with Marto and Santiago. And I think this was really a very historic week for competitive Pokemon, historic couple of weeks later.
00:01:37
William Dunphey
And like you said, we've got a lot of events to cover. We're going to start with Melbourne. We're going to go 10,000 miles over to the Netherlands for Utrecht. Then we're going to talk about Santiago and we will wrap up with a couple of TPC playoffs, which I think were really fun. um One of those was actually covered by Rise. I believe Rise casted Teddiness's battles.
00:01:57
William Dunphey
I haven't watched the the video yet, but we will talk about the teams and dive into all that. So, uh, ZZ, dude, the season is actually coming closer to an end. There are only five more events on the calendar before Worlds.
00:02:10
zzweilous
And actually, for some reason, the season is essentially over. If you are not traveling to out-of-region event or to the North American championships, as a Latin player, as a player from Oceania, the only way of getting more championship points is is through local events.
00:02:30
zzweilous
So while we don't have the final standings just yet, the picture that we are seeing right now is very close to what we'll actually end up with.
00:02:32
William Dunphey
Thank you.
Melbourne Event and Team Analysis
00:02:38
William Dunphey
It's, it's actually staggering, especially, um like you mentioned, when you look at lat time and you look at how many points Martel Galladay has accumulated, it's honestly mind blowing, but we're going to get to all that.
00:02:49
William Dunphey
I think we should start things off with Melbourne. So we talked a few weeks ago about how Godzilla Lama was able to win a previous regional in Australia. This one was a little bit different, but there was kind of some echoes, kind of some similarities.
00:03:03
William Dunphey
And, um, Yeah, I really would just love to to dive right into it because um PvP Steve, Debbie Pebble, Dr. Trotter, and Fish on a Heater, along with Miss Mystic, and i I'm sure a lot of other people off camera, put together this incredible community day or community stream.
00:03:13
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:03:19
William Dunphey
so used saying community and day together. i just mixed up. Community stream. I'm very, very grateful for Steve and and the team for doing that. ah But I'd like to just talk about the teams here. We'll have the top cut up on screen if you are watching our YouTube version. So PokeMoneyMaker was able to win the tournament with Lapras, Claydol, Tinkaton, Shadow Drapion, as well as Cradilly and Talonflame.
00:03:43
William Dunphey
El Calvissimo. always have to say that with like an Italian pinch, you know. And Claydol and double Incineroid users in Shadow Typhlosion, Talonflame with Furret and Superior finished second. So ah it's easy. Just looking at the teams here, this this top cut, what are your initial thoughts? I think we could do an overview and then I will dive in and talk about Poke Moneymaker in the grand finals.
00:04:08
zzweilous
I think this is one of the more fascinating eight people top cards that I've ever seen, honestly. And for a multitude of reasons, because um while obviously this is a an Australian regional, only 50% of the top eight trainers are actually Australian. We have RocketClear with a team that looks fairly similar to what we'll see in Utrecht with...
00:04:31
zzweilous
the core of Azumarill, Claydol, Firid, Fire-type, and then also a Carbonite.
00:04:31
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:04:37
zzweilous
um So definitely a meta call that um a lot of top trainers made very similarly, RocketClear, again, I feel like we've seen a little less of her recently. Maybe that's also because like there's just like not that many um events in the Oceanic region.
00:04:54
zzweilous
but definitely proving that she's one of the best with a top eight finish. And she's like kind of sandwiched in between a pair of brothers that we are all too familiar with.
Tournament Dynamics and Key Matches
00:05:04
zzweilous
um Because even though the the stars of the show, Pokemon Maker from Japan and El Calvissimo Calvo from the United States of America, like those made up the grand finals. But going into the tournament, everybody's eyes were on Nighttime Clasher and Sustenance Eater.
00:05:21
zzweilous
Like, Nighttime Pleasure, obviously one of the most high-profile names in the community. think top five in the championship points ranking for North America. And Sustenance Eater, his little brother, really coming into the zone recently and emulating the success his brother had.
00:05:38
zzweilous
um And again, they were running the same team. They finished um fifth and seventh place, respectively. It's always like the plays that are tied within top eight. two fifth places, two seventh places.
00:05:50
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:05:50
zzweilous
And yeah. As of now, as of now, Nighttime Pleasure can still say that he's ahead of his brother, but it's getting closer and closer. They are running a very similar team, and it's also um not too far off the team that um they ran in Milwaukee when both top cut as well.
00:06:08
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep.
00:06:09
zzweilous
Nighttime Clash are coming in third. think Sosin is Yta finishing ninth in that regional. um And yeah, they um both rely on the shadow for and on the regular Feraligata, actually, on the Shadow Jumpluff, on the Tinkerton, on the Lapras, and then they ah fill the rest of the gaps in their team, not with the Digger Speed, but with the Claydol this time, which seems a little more reliable.
00:06:32
zzweilous
And then the Shadow Dropion is also back, so maybe not as afraid of the opposing Tinkerton anymore.
00:06:35
William Dunphey
yep
00:06:39
William Dunphey
Yeah, Shadow Drapion, it really it reminds me a lot of its partner in crime, Azumarill. ah We think that the Pokemon is out of the meta, and then suddenly it storms right back in. And seeing the Shadow Drapion out of these teams, I believe four out of eight did have the Scorpion on them. So um that Pokemon you know was pushed out of the meta by some other picks. It seemed like it was kind of fading in popularity. But then it comes right back.
00:07:02
William Dunphey
And yeah, shout out to Nighttime Clasher and Sustenance Eater for traveling all the way from, i assume I assume, the U.S. I'm not even sure where NTC and Sustenance are these days, but they traveled a long, long way to get down to Melbourne. RocketClear, I mean, so awesome. With Guzzlord and Corviknight, you and I have talked about this before. I made a YouTube video about a Berserk-style team that included those two. I think it's so, so sick when ah anyone plays Guzzlord, especially in a Tinkatan meta. So seeing her succeed was awesome.
00:07:30
William Dunphey
um There are a couple matches I wanted to talk about. ah Well, actually, mainly just one. And this was actually the losers finals between Calvissimo and Fort Waugh.
00:07:42
William Dunphey
um One more note before I get into that. Valiant Vish finished fourth place. He made an awesome post on X. He said, I qualified for Worlds again. Didn't know if I would. Was kind of like semi-retired. ah Valiant Vish is like such a staple of the Australian community and the Oceania community in general.
00:07:58
William Dunphey
I'm really, really excited to see him qualify and I can't wait to see him at Worlds. ah But anyway, sorry for the segue. I just, I wanted to shout out to Vish because he's he's sick Losers finals.
00:08:09
William Dunphey
ZZ. I'm so sad that you weren't able to watch this broadcast yet because this losers finals was an absolute movie. What if I told you that El Calvissimo with double incinerate users took on double ground types in Claude Sire and you know, the stun Fisk ran ABA incinerate in two games and won the series.
00:08:29
zzweilous
Oh, jeez.
00:08:30
William Dunphey
That that's how this went. Right? So.
00:08:32
zzweilous
Like, I see yeah i see how like, the Typhlosion is fine into the Claude's Eye. Like, the Talon of Fame can be fine into... Wait, it wasn't the Claude's Eye. I'm just, like, seeing right now on the graphic.
00:08:43
zzweilous
Like, was it?
00:08:43
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:08:43
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:08:44
zzweilous
Is there one? Because I didn't watch the broadcast. i just I'm just seeing the Dracovus graphic. The Dracovus graphic actually has a Claydol on there.
00:08:51
William Dunphey
I'm sorry, Claydol. Claydol and Unova Stunfisk.
00:08:53
zzweilous
All right, all right.
00:08:55
William Dunphey
For some reason, I thought it was Clotsire. You're correct. So still, double ground, I think, is the principle here. You know, you the mudslaps, the rock tombs, really so many obstacles.
00:09:03
zzweilous
Yes.
00:09:04
William Dunphey
And the Unova Stunfisk is like extremely correct at beating both Townflame and Typhlosion. So I'll run you through the series real quick. It was five games. So, so much fun. So if you haven't seen the stream from PvP-C, definitely go to his channel and check out at least this Loser's Finals.
00:09:19
William Dunphey
um Game one was actually double fire versus double ground. Fort Watt goes ABA ground with his Claydol lead. Elkel just barely loses, is unable to bring it back. Game two, Fort Watt goes ABB ground with a Sableye in the lead.
00:09:33
William Dunphey
Elkel brings his Claydol and it's superior to counter the double grounds in the back. Game three, Elcal hard loses the lead. Fortwa pivots to Mandibuzz, which is actually a direct counter to the c Claydol Superior that Elcal ran in game number two. So as you can imagine, ah he was able to take game three.
00:09:50
William Dunphey
Game four, Elcal goes Azu double fire, eats a sludge bomb on his Azumarill, swaps in the Typhlosion, and Fortwa throws a discharge into ah the Typhlosion. It survives, and then Talon hangs on ah after a charge attack as well. town flame Bates fly versus Sableye and lands the Brave Bird to absolutely scrape that Sableye off of the field.
00:10:15
William Dunphey
um Let's see. Yeah. Elcal putting it all on Typhlosion. Game five. Elcal ABA incinerate with Talonflame lead. He leads ABA incinerate ZZ into Unova Stunfisk.
00:10:27
zzweilous
Oh, y'all.
00:10:27
William Dunphey
So he's forced to swap for it, and he's met by Ace Superior. Elcal sacrifices his Typhlosion, puts it all in the Talonflame. One HP Talon gets the back-to-back Flies, and a single Sucker Punch versus double-resisted Shadow Claw from Sableye leads to Elcal's victory. Double Incinerate wins it for him in that Losers Finals. Absolutely insane series to watch. I highly they recommend it.
00:10:50
William Dunphey
Elcal was playing loose, fast, out of his mind, and really showing off that the Incinerate users can be flexible.
Poke Money Maker's Historic Win
00:10:56
William Dunphey
Now, when we get to the grand finals, Poke Money Maker made history, and we will talk about this in a moment, but the grand finals is actually pretty direct. It was a 3-1 for Poke Money Maker.
00:11:07
William Dunphey
um Poke Money Maker, actually, this is their second tournament in Australia, finished third place in Perth this season with Shadow Dragonite. They lost in round two of the tournament, won seven rounds straight, and was eventually eliminated by 89CGYFlamesFan, I believe is how you say it Elcal in the grand finals, I'm going be candid.
00:11:27
William Dunphey
it was He was just totally overwhelmed by the Shadow Drapion. Shadow Drapion spamming the Aqua Tails swept his team in games two, three, and four. It was the last Pokemon remaining. It KO'd at least two, if not three, of Elcal's picks. So Incinerate was great for him. It worked all tournament long. The Pokemon maker was just more flexible, more agile, faster, and was able to outpace and and defeat Elcal. So that was a really fun finals to watch.
00:11:54
zzweilous
Yeah, so looking at the El Calvissimo team, again, we find the core of four that we already called out um in the RocketClear team, where there's the Azu, the Furret, the Claydol.
00:12:07
zzweilous
And then this time, not only one Firetype, but two Firetypes. So again, I personally think that this is like...
00:12:10
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:12:13
zzweilous
we We talk about course of two a lot, but I think this combination of just four Pokemon that fill certain roles on a team, um that has been really, really strong for the entirety of the Might and Mastery season, actually.
00:12:26
zzweilous
Because I remember when, ah back in March, we were still figuring out what was good, what wasn't. um I had those um three non-fire types alongside eskeleturch in a um and in a little bit of a community tournament. It was really, really strong even back in the day.
00:12:44
zzweilous
And then like the last two are always some flex picks in a way, so... Calvo going for the superior talentflame core, which in itself is very strong, albeit sometimes not as flexible.
00:12:57
zzweilous
And it does make sense that Pokemon Emeka was the end of him in the grand finals, because that's also the exact same person that originally knocked Calvo down to the losers. So sometimes you just run into a team that you cannot beat. And if you have a top tier trainer with a Shadow Dropion that essentially beats everything on your team that isn't called Claydol,
00:13:17
zzweilous
That's just what can happen, right?
00:13:19
William Dunphey
yeah I agree with you. I think it was kind of like the the antidote versus you know the poison, so to speak. Speaking of poison, i actually opened up the stream, and I think that there was actually an error on the Dracovis graphic, because I'm looking here at the Elcal versus Fortwa matchup.
00:13:33
William Dunphey
I knew I wasn't hallucinating as ZZ. There was a Claude Sire on this team and on the screen, so maybe it was just a ah discrepancy with Dracovis.
00:13:41
zzweilous
I heard you mentioning the Azure tanking sludge bomb. And I was like really curious whether, like because none of the others will be able to throw that, and you are not hallucinating sludge bombs, I would assume.
00:13:44
William Dunphey
Yeah, yeah. And you were like, what?
00:13:52
William Dunphey
Yeah, yeah. So I surely hope not. um But ah if if I do that, we have bigger problems. But no, it might have just been a discrepancy with DracoViz. So ah they get things right 99.99% the time.
00:14:04
William Dunphey
But ah this...
00:14:04
zzweilous
yeah Yeah, we're very grateful for all the service they provide to the competitive community.
00:14:08
William Dunphey
Yeah, I wish I could show, maybe maybe we can do like a behind the scenes thing one time. I'll show all the tabs that I've opened. It's like spreadsheet, spreadsheet, a leak duck event page, and then five DracoViz team graphic pages is is what I have open here. So yeah, we're really, really grateful.
00:14:25
William Dunphey
um This was a historic event because Poke Money Maker, as you said, not only knocked down Elcal, not only was this his second event in Australia, but he actually made history being the first trainer from the TPC region to win a TPCI event, which leads to an auto qualification for Worlds. He doesn't have to go through the whole gauntlet of battling at a Pokemon Center, doing an online qualifier, attending playoffs and placing you know highly in the playoffs. doesn't have to do any of that.
00:14:54
William Dunphey
He actually has an auto qualification right now after winning a TPCI event. So, I mean, this was huge. And I feel like, um remind me who was in the grand finals versus Godzilla Lama.
00:15:05
William Dunphey
It was Poke Moneymaker, right?
00:15:07
zzweilous
ah Was it Choose with a lot of the O's? I think it was another Japanese player.
00:15:11
William Dunphey
to check.
00:15:13
zzweilous
Like Pokemon Maker, I think, came a third in Perth.
00:15:16
William Dunphey
Perth.
00:15:16
zzweilous
um
00:15:16
William Dunphey
Okay, that's right.
00:15:19
zzweilous
If I'm not mistaken...
00:15:19
William Dunphey
You're right. You're right. It was actually Brisbane, Godzilla versus Choose. And I believe Choose is also from Japan, as you mentioned. So again, these TPC trainers got really close several times.
00:15:29
William Dunphey
And Pokemon Maker was actually the first to break through and win the whole event, which is honestly historic. And that's only the first historic thing that we're talk about on the show today. So...
00:15:40
William Dunphey
ah Again, Melbourne was a very, very impressive event. It was a a one day tournament. Steve not only did a a Saturday community stream for Melbourne for Go, but he also turned around and did a VGC stream on Sunday so he could broadcast Championship Sunday for the video game series. So he's he's doing it all. he's He's a do it all Aussie is is what I'll say.
00:16:04
William Dunphey
um But yeah, an incredible tournament in Melbourne. I'm not sure if there's anything else you wanted to add. I'm really excited to see ah Poke Moneymaker attending Worlds. And I am excited to see Valiant Vish as well qualify.
00:16:15
William Dunphey
Elcal is so close to that first tournament win. He's been on a a ah hockey stick trajectory of improvement. I cannot wait to see what he does next.
00:16:21
zzweilous
He's also a trainer that really enjoys competing in Australia.
00:16:22
William Dunphey
Maybe NAIC. Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:26
zzweilous
in australia like We have the Europeans that occasionally make their way across the pond to compete in North America.
00:16:30
William Dunphey
yeah
00:16:32
zzweilous
we have some people who like to do it, vice versa. I feel like Calvo is the one guy ah from ah North America that we can expect to show up at at least one Australian regional season.
Utrecht Event Overview
00:16:43
zzweilous
and yeah This time it really paid dividends, just coming so close with such a unique strategy. um and yeah Just like...
00:16:50
zzweilous
found his master in Shadow Rapion, but he's not the first to fall to that creature. So, um yeah, this was this was in in a way the culmination of a lot of storylines um within the Australian competitive scene.
00:16:56
William Dunphey
Exactly.
00:17:05
zzweilous
i really like to see um the Shadow Blastoise as well, making top eight twice, both for Vish and for Gon.
00:17:10
William Dunphey
Let's go.
00:17:12
zzweilous
um So yeah, maybe we haven't really had a Blastoise threatening, like really making a title challenge yet, but there's still people who believe and I think it's like a very safe Pokemon.
00:17:20
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:17:23
zzweilous
So maybe there's still some unexplored potential, but...
00:17:27
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:17:27
zzweilous
ah Other than that, i feel like we can um move continents and maybe take a deeper look into what happened in Utrecht in the Netherlands, where we needed to find a successor to Martijn and Eloquins, who last year took it all with a Giratina origin.
00:17:44
zzweilous
um This time he brought a Rayquaza. He didn't make it into day two, but apparently there's there's some... It's not even a new champion, but like a champion of old who just rises above the competition every time this spring.
00:17:58
William Dunphey
Yeah, i agree. Martijn is just such a character because not only is he is he going and competing against some of Europe's best. If you look at this top cut, it's like a who's who of of ah Europe's you most talented trainers, all except for for diseasez wireless.
00:18:12
William Dunphey
I don't know who the the heck that is.
00:18:14
zzweilous
I've never heard of them.
00:18:14
William Dunphey
but ah But it's so funny how how he basically goes into these tournaments with one arm behind his back. And he's like, I'm going to play Rayquaza or I'm going to play Apalkia or whatever.
00:18:25
William Dunphey
And I think he made a post about it. He said five versus six is pretty difficult. And I agree with him. it can be It can be tricky. Although I did pop into his stream one time and I did see a Rayquaza eat a bone club from Alolan Marowak. So...
00:18:39
William Dunphey
be that but Be that what it is, it can tank a couple of moves. So Martijn, come on, man. you gotta You got to get day two Rayquaza next time. ah But yeah, I'd love to talk about this this tournament. This is also historic, maybe on a on a smaller level, because I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think this is Korvanite's first gold medal, which is super exciting.
00:19:00
William Dunphey
And there's a lot to talk about with these teams, especially teams like Zephy Mastics. I mean, what the heck?
00:19:06
zzweilous
It is Corviknight's first gold medal. And it ah is also my boy Furret's first gold medal. So all the Furret doubters, they are in shambles. They know nothing about this game.
00:19:17
zzweilous
Furret is a great Pokemon. It can win tournaments. It has won two tournaments even. um We will get to the other one later on. um But yeah, I really liked Nickname's nicknames team. um Maybe that is because I ran essentially an identical one in that same tournament.
00:19:34
zzweilous
um Piloting it a little worse, falling to MaxiMillionP twice. Once on a day one, then a second time. on day two, essentially ending in fifth position.
00:19:47
zzweilous
And yeah, just like really getting outmaneuvered by Maxi in some very neutral matches where he recognized that my Claydol looked fairly safe for me, but um that gave him the opportunity to target it ah with his water types, Zumurl and Lapras, essentially just overwhelming um thelaor the the Typhlosion that I ran for a lot of my games actually.
00:20:02
William Dunphey
ye
00:20:11
zzweilous
And yeah, that's so that's how my tournament run ended. But yeah, Maxi made it all the way to the grand finals, challenging challenging the Stockholm regional champion in nickname 29585. We just call nickname.
00:20:26
zzweilous
I think we're we're close like that.
00:20:27
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:20:28
zzweilous
um
00:20:32
zzweilous
But yeah, like I think this is the first time we've had a back-to-back regional champion in Europe. ah There was the Sevilla event between ah Stockholm and Utrecht, but...
00:20:48
zzweilous
Nickname didn't compete in that. That was um the one event where it was essentially, um i wont i won't call it like a bigger local, but it was very heavy on Spanish and Portuguese players with only very few um competitors from the rest of the continent.
00:21:03
zzweilous
So Nickname decided to skip that and instead um just like win back-to-back events that he actually attended and ah This now puts him at three regional titles ah with Bremen all the way back in 2022 and now ah Stockholm and Utrecht.
00:21:15
William Dunphey
Wow. Hmm.
00:21:21
zzweilous
That also means that he is, I think, like if you count the senior world championship title of Emmy Viedel, we have three Europeans with three titles, but in terms of a master's ah division titles, only Colin Six um equals that tally.
00:21:39
zzweilous
So... um yeah I was like already hinting on social media that that Nickname might be ah in contention for like a European GOAT debate with um that runoff form.
00:21:40
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:21:52
zzweilous
I feel like it's very difficult to um get around that at this point because he has been the dominant Might and Mastery player. on this continent. and yeah He's been it been doing what we already called out in Melbourne, um and leveraging the Azumarill-Claedol-Fire-Type-Ferrid combination and combining that with Corviknight for a very first ah gold medal and the Shadowjump-Love with the Doublefly moveset.
00:22:20
William Dunphey
it's ah It's incredible when you look at the overall teams because between his two championships, and this is just, I want everyone to just realize like how diverse this Might and Mastery season has been because between Stockholm and Utrecht, Nickname was able to win those tournaments with 11 unique Pokemon.
00:22:40
William Dunphey
In Stockholm, he did Shadow Annihilate, Azumarill, Guzzlord, Lapras, Swalot, if you remember. Everyone remembers Swalot? And Talonflame. And then in Uhthreght, he won with Azumarill, the only shared Pokemon across the two teams.
00:22:53
William Dunphey
Claydol, Corviknight, Furret, Shadowjumbluff, and Shadowtyphlosion. So again, these tournaments are literally two months apart, and the meta is is wildly different. um It's just really, really incredible to see what Nickname's able able to accomplish here.
00:23:08
William Dunphey
In terms of the bracket run, he did have a couple of really nice wins. ah Defeated Arrow Bubble 2-0, JBG Winson, Cookshack, Maxie, a mind joke, and then um did lose that grand that first Grand Finals to Maxie before winning the reset. We'll talk about the the Grand Finals in detail soon, but...
00:23:26
William Dunphey
What an incredible run by him. And yeah, it's it's really amazing, right? because Because competitive Pokemon Go is still so young, ah starting off in 2022. We've had two or three years to kind of establish who our GOATs are, but then you see up and coming trainers like Nickname, and you're like, man, we might have to but have to change our our perspective a little bit here.
00:23:45
William Dunphey
A couple of other interesting teams here in the top cut. Zephy Mastics, I'm going to come back to him. I really, really admire that Zephy loves that Gastrodon, has committed to it in multiple tournaments, brought it again here in Utrecht.
00:23:57
William Dunphey
ah Double ground Gastrodon Clotsire with Dusclops, which I thought was like a dinosaur that nobody played, but apparently Zephy's finding a way to make it work. The EU special of Talonflame and Chargebug, and Furret as well to to appease Z's wireless, I assume.
00:24:07
zzweilous
Thank
00:24:12
William Dunphey
Cookshack running Dugong, of all things, with a Golisopod. ah We had Elephant Flashé, which is a name that I recognized from all the way back in 2022. The pretty conventional team.
00:24:23
William Dunphey
ZZ, dude, you got to trust in EU to break the mold every single time they get the opportunity. Fatalist Next finished within the top 16 with Hisuian Electrode.
00:24:37
William Dunphey
What was bro cooking?
00:24:39
zzweilous
like He made a winner's side day two.
Meta Evolution: Typhlosion and Azumarill
00:24:41
zzweilous
like This is incredible. like But honestly, like if you look at the different regions, like there was like a lot of variety in Australia already. i think we did display that on the screen for our YouTube audience.
00:24:55
zzweilous
um with Pokémon such as um Superior or Mandelbus or Unovan Stunfisk, none of which really played a role in Europe. um What is special about the European circuit, in my opinion, is the relative flag of Tinkerton as well.
00:25:11
zzweilous
Because if you look at the top eight, you only have ah three teams that feature the Tinkerton, and two of them are at the very bottom of the top eight with Palasha and Elephant Flashe. managing to squeeze in that prestigious top record that actually yields a good amount of championship points compared to ah mere top 16. But yeah, feel like the rise in Typhlosion that we predicted a little bit on our last podcast, um that really gave the Tinkerton teams a very hard time.
00:25:43
zzweilous
And yeah, like out of the top eight, six of them had a fire type on their team. So we were definitely Tinkerton hunting in Europe.
00:25:53
William Dunphey
I agree. And it's actually really, really interesting as well, because I battled ah Kufia in the the Joust tournament. the I believe is the May Joust hosted by Lundberger and her team.
00:26:06
William Dunphey
And um after our match, Kufia actually, we were you know talking in in DMs. I don't think he minds me saying it because he was actually correct about this. But we were talking about Tinkatan and Azumarill.
00:26:18
William Dunphey
And um I said, you know, I'm in this like back and forth debate with Tostel and some other people about Azumarill's prevalence in the meta and whether it's going to leak back in. And he actually told me he he believed personally that there would be more Azumarill than Tinkatan in the day two in Utrecht. And guess what?
00:26:38
William Dunphey
He was on the money. I believe it was like eight to six were the numbers, if I'm not mistaken, ah last time I counted them. And, or maybe, yeah, I think eight to six. Anyways, yeah, Azumarill finding its way back into the meta and winning the tournament with nicknames. So the Water Bunny is not done yet. And I think that you actually reinforced that when we battled in the Joust and you played Azumarill for it. i was like, oh.
00:27:01
William Dunphey
Dang it, ZZ. You got to move on from the meta. Don't don't throw these old old tools at me. You have to get with the new stuff, but it it proves that ah sometimes old is is best. A couple other interesting things I wanted to touch on really briefly.
00:27:16
William Dunphey
Bats 893 with Shadow Dusclops, Shadow Galarian, Weezing, and Unova Stunfisk. and And then you got like this mix. um What I'm noticing here...
00:27:27
William Dunphey
is that we've got a lot of Shadow, Jump Bluff, and Malamar pairings. That seems to be like one of the core duos. Sometimes you see Shadow, Jump Bluff, and Furret as another likely pair.
00:27:37
William Dunphey
um But as an overall composition, I've kind of like narrowed this down into a formula. right You and i talk about team building from time to time. I'll just give you my theory real quick. I'd love to hear your reaction, and then we can talk about brands and and everything else.
00:27:52
William Dunphey
Slot one, water. That's either going to be Zummeril or Lapras in most cases. Slot two is 90% of the time it's ground. It's either going to be Diggersby, Claydol, maybe a Unova Stunfisk.
00:28:03
William Dunphey
ah Slot three seems to be the steel slot these days, whether it's Tinkaton, Corviknight, Alolan Sandslash. We've also seen a few of those as well. Slot four is like a flex a slot. You might see a fire type like Typhlosion. You might see a Feraligatr. You might even see like a Glycopod or in the case of bats, a Galarian Wheezing there.
00:28:24
William Dunphey
Slot five is grass, whether that's a superior jump bluff, Cradilly. That's really what I see the most there. And then slot six is another flex slot. And that typically is going to be your Malamar, your Furret, your Shadow Drapion, or maybe even Glycopod, like I mentioned before, that can also fit into that slot.
00:28:42
William Dunphey
I don't know what you think about that, but that's kind of like what the team's overall, that's kind of like the formula that I'm picking up on. I don't know if you agree.
00:28:51
zzweilous
I think you are pretty much right on the money and I especially like how you um try to describe what you mean by flex slots because you mentioned the Ferala gauge and the Typhlosion, the Golisopod.
00:28:59
William Dunphey
Hmm.
00:29:04
zzweilous
All of those have in common that they are on the squishier side when it comes to stat product and overall durability. um While they're also, um they they have this nice pacing where they get to a pretty powerful charge attack in only 10 turns.
00:29:20
zzweilous
So you have those Pokemon that can really apply pressure to an opponent that occasionally can function as a safe swap or that you can um play for energy with. And um those Pokemon, like you can really only afford one or two of those on your team because they're typically shield hogs.
00:29:36
zzweilous
They don't really enjoy being ah left unprotected.
00:29:37
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Technical Mastery in Competitive Play
00:29:40
zzweilous
um But yeah, this is definitely like a genre of Pokémon that sees a lot of play. Whereas ah the other type of flex pick is one where you maybe want to utilize um the power of stat modification a little bit, where you have this very powerful superpower on Malama that necessitates you swapping out of a matchup or you have the Furret, which really wants to stay in a matchup for a really long time to really make the most of its boosted Sack-a-punches after a trailblaze.
00:30:11
zzweilous
So um when and how you swap with those Pokemon and how you utilize the energy is really, really important to get the most out of them.
00:30:19
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:30:19
zzweilous
um And yeah, I feel like making the most of those types of Pokemon is really crucial. Um... to really get an advantage because just throwing your relatively safe Azumarill, Lapras, and Claydol into a matchup, I feel like most players can do that reliably, but mastering those more technical Pokemon like the Typhlosion, like the Furriate, also Corviknight, which has been described as an awkward pick by many, has been described as the MVP by nickname in this tournament, and
00:30:51
William Dunphey
Wow.
00:30:52
zzweilous
um So you mentioned Koifje earlier. Also, i would consider him a friend of mine. We did play, obviously, in day three of EUIC. met first at Worlds last year. He's really one of the up-and-coming trainers in the European region.
00:31:07
zzweilous
And I think the way this tournament winning team actually came to pass may have been like a little bit of a game of telephone when i did play Kofie one of the practice tournaments that are hosted in the Kendall Cult Discord channel by Inadequance by his many hosts.
00:31:21
William Dunphey
Hmm.
00:31:24
zzweilous
um And we had like similar ideas of how to really target down the Tinkerton to enable other Pokemon such as Ferret to really do stuff. And I played him with um an iteration of this team where I hadn't had the Jump Thuff yet, but instead tried out the Ariados, not necessarily because I think it's better than the Jump Thuff, but because I really wanted to try out Ariados after I saw that it can be Tinkerton if you go through straight Trailblaze in the ones and twos.
00:31:53
zzweilous
um So that was just like a little bit of a test run, but I think Kofi essentially took that core five, immediately saw that Ariadus is kind of stupid and he should much rather run a jump club and then shared that tag with nickname.
00:32:08
zzweilous
And if you look at the graphics that Martijn put out after last week of after the last week of practice ahead of Utrecht, there's like seven Typhlosions that won a practice tournament.
00:32:09
William Dunphey
Wow.
00:32:19
zzweilous
So...
00:32:19
William Dunphey
wo
00:32:20
zzweilous
um like the The proof was kind of in the pudding, but people have not adapted yet.
00:32:21
William Dunphey
wow
00:32:25
zzweilous
So the team was super, super well positioned. I found that myself in in my own run. I just played a little more sloppy than I usually expect of myself. Still making fifth place just goes to show how strong that team was.
00:32:41
zzweilous
Whereas um Nickname, obviously, he was locked in. He's been locked in for months at this point, um especially his Corvinite play.
00:32:47
William Dunphey
yeah
00:32:49
zzweilous
He really dared to bring that Steelbird, whereas I chickened out um every time I saw a Firetype on my opponent's team, which was most of the time. um So yeah, I feel like the mastery of those awkward Pokemon, those Pokemon that but require are you to really um know your damage ranges, know when to aggressively swap, I think that really makes the difference in this meta.
00:33:08
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:33:10
zzweilous
And some people are saying Europeans play to RPS. I disagree. i think we actually kind of play the opposite of RPS at times. So um yeah, if you if you want to showcase of that, just rewatch the Utrecht special event because...
00:33:26
zzweilous
That was a lot of great gameplay to watch.
00:33:26
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:33:29
William Dunphey
It's really staggering as well. When you look at Nickname's team and you see Azumarill, Claydol, Shadow Typhlosion, Shadowjumpluff, and Furret, and I'm looking at those five Pokemon. yeah Again, I didn't mention the Corviknight, but if you look at those five Pokemon and you think, huh,
00:33:45
William Dunphey
Drapion's going to effective Poison Stings to Azumarill, can hang in even shield matchups, a Crunch debuff, it can be really devastating in that matchup. Up energy against Claydol, you can Crunch Aquatail for the KO.
00:33:56
William Dunphey
Against the Typhalosion, you can probably land a single Aquatail and then Poison Sting down in some situations.
00:34:00
zzweilous
Thank
00:34:02
William Dunphey
You're going a lot of damage to the Shadow Jump Bluff. The Furret, two crunches, and that's all she wrote on that matchup. I'm like, man, as much as we change the meta, it's almost like this revolving wheel of coming back to these really powerful picks. So seeing the seeing the teams here just on paper, it makes Nickname's victory in the Grand Finals even more notable because Maxi did have the Shadow Drapion. He had the Malamar. He had the Talonflame, Azumarill, Lapras, Claydol. I mean, so many obstacles to that Shadow-type losian. I mean, it had to face down two water types, a Claydol Mudslap user, and an Aqua Tail Drapion.
00:34:40
William Dunphey
And if the Malamar's up energy, then that's also a matchup that generally, you know, it will outpace because they they pace at the same rate with the Thunder Punch and the Foul Play. So... such at Such a difficult matchup.
00:34:51
William Dunphey
um You alluded to this when you said heartbreak in the intro. Should we talk about the grand finals between Nickname and Maxie?
00:35:00
zzweilous
I think we have to, and I think we should probably also start with the moment that we have alluded to and that people have been talking about, which is in ah the the very last moments of the decisive ah game five of the already reset bracket.
00:35:01
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:35:16
zzweilous
Like whoever wins this game is going to be our Utrecht special event champion.
00:35:22
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:35:22
zzweilous
And Maxi actually had the Sparkling Aria loaded on his Lapras, which would have taken out the Claydol on Nickname's side. um But because Maxi lost track of energy, he decided to overfarm against the Claydol.
00:35:39
zzweilous
And he did it not only um in a way that he would still be able to like do a few more sidewaves and then throw the Sparkling Aria. They actually miscounted by one and let the Claydol get to a rock tomb when the Azumarill was only at like two bubbles and would have needed four more.
00:35:55
William Dunphey
to.
00:35:56
zzweilous
to actually reach the play rough, which would have been essentially even pacing with the Lapras. And because the Azumarill was already very low health, even a sparkling area would have knocked out.
00:36:07
zzweilous
So Maxi had the move loaded, maneuvered himself into the perfect position, made all the right calls. He reset the bracket from the loser side, coming back after Nickname already took him down in in winner semis.
00:36:21
zzweilous
um just to miscount in the exact worst moment and I like after that happened um the camera obviously panned to nickname because he won a tournament right but
00:36:36
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:36:37
zzweilous
All that nickname could do was just shake his head in disbelief because he knew that the Lapras was at the move. He was fully expecting to lose this game and therefore the tournament.
00:36:48
William Dunphey
yep
00:36:49
zzweilous
And um yeah, he was not really in the most celebratory of moods after he saw co-competitor. Everybody is just really good friends in EU from what I have experienced.
00:37:02
zzweilous
And I feel like he felt for Maxi more than he was happy for himself in that moment.
00:37:07
William Dunphey
I agree. um You can see the emotion on stage. I mean, as soon as as soon as Nickname triggers the rock tomb, you immediately see Maxi like facepalm. He's like, oh, my God, what just happened? And then you see Nickname like look across the table, look at the crowd, look down like he doesn't know that he just can't even process what's happening.
00:37:28
William Dunphey
um The game five actually looked really, really perilous there for nickname from the very beginning. So like you pointed out, game five ah grand finals reset. This is the one game to decide the Utrecht special championship champion, I guess is how we would say it.
00:37:45
William Dunphey
Nickname leads Claydol into Azumarill, immediately swaps his Furret into the Azumarill. Nickname lets his Furret get KO'd. He comes in with his own Azumarill, tries to farm down the Talonflame with Bubbles, but needs to shield a Fly.
00:37:59
William Dunphey
um At this point, his Azumarill, I believe, is really weak. um Or... and Now, think his Azumarill is still healthy, but basically at this midpoint of the game, it was Nickname's Claydol versus a two-shield double water backline of Maxi, which was the Azumarill and Lapras, the two remaining Pokemon.
00:38:17
William Dunphey
um Not only that, but Nickname's Claydol was consistently losing charge attack priority to the opposing Claydol, and his Azumarill was consistently losing the charge attack priority to Maxi's Azumarill. So not only was he at a typing disadvantage, a team comp disadvantage, a shield disadvantage, he's also at a charge attack Priority disadvantage.
00:38:36
William Dunphey
And um you could see him shaking his head. Nickname is a very emotional, very expressive player on stage. Every time something went wrong, he'd like, you know, fidget in his chair. And if you're watching the YouTube version, you can see my nickname impression. He's like, ugh.
00:38:49
William Dunphey
you know, he's like, not sure what's going on. He's very, very like squirmy. um But then the last, the last line in my notes is in all caps. Maxi loses count with Claydol versus Lapras.
00:39:00
William Dunphey
GG's. And I'm watching it back. You were exactly right. I actually watched it back this morning. Azumarill for nickname had two bubbles. He was nowhere near the play rough. Maxi had the sparkling aria honestly no reason to overcharge or over farm there just throw the move side way down that's that's the game right or at least get to another sparkling aria against you zoom roll and win the game um I'm sure that as a player, this is something that Maxie is going to reflect on. I think he had a really good demeanor in the post grand finals interview when Marcus asked, how are you feeling?
00:39:36
William Dunphey
And Maxie said, honestly, I'm i'm really happy that I finished second. And I think that is absolutely the right mindset because as a competitor, as someone who prides himself on competing and working really hard and scrimming and being that guy in that moment,
00:39:52
William Dunphey
it's It can eat at a person to have a mistake like that in the grand finals. It can really eat your confidence if you allow it to. So yeah, Maxi, I was told, i was told, right? i watched I watched some clips of the stream. The EU streams usually start at like 2 a.m. for me, so it's a little bit late.
00:40:08
William Dunphey
But I watched some clips of the VOD. um I saw a Lapras Skull Bash, a 2 HP Shadow Drapion. I saw a Malamar Superpower, another weak Pokemon. Maxie was having a good time in Utherac this past weekend. He was having some fun on stage.
00:40:23
William Dunphey
And um yeah, it was just really funny to to kind of juxtapose the two roles, right? You had Maxie, who was obviously playing a cut above everyone else besides Nickname. BMing when he had the chance. And then in the final, final seconds of, of the grand finals reset where he was ah half second from being a champion, he flounders and that can be really, really difficult to process. So um I hope Max, he's proud of what he accomplished. I hope that he had fun. I hope that he is confident in himself going into the next event. And I hope he's, he's very, very happy with his result because,
00:40:57
William Dunphey
it's It's really telling ZZ how people take that kind of moment. They can either rise above it or they can just let it you know destroy their confidence.
00:41:01
zzweilous
yeah
00:41:06
zzweilous
So from how I've experienced Maxi after that moment, he's really been doing a good job of not letting that moment define him. And if he takes a step back and just looks at his tournament performance, this was his strongest performance of all time.
00:41:15
William Dunphey
Good.
00:41:24
zzweilous
um he did prove that he's a champion, like a champion's caliber player, even though he's not a champion yet, even when he had the chance to.
00:41:33
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:41:33
zzweilous
It is his first top four since Barcelona 2023. It was not the 2024 season, but September 2023.
00:41:38
William Dunphey
yeah
00:41:43
zzweilous
um So, yeah, even though, obviously, those last few moments have been fairly rough, um it I think the the main takeaway of this is that he can do it. Yeah.
00:41:59
zzweilous
And the next time, he just needs to keep the focus up until the last final moment. And like you cannot come closer to the goal than this one. It was so heartbreaking to watch, but I still think that this just reinforces a competitor's desire to compete.
00:42:12
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:42:19
zzweilous
Because as somebody who is like... Europe's silver guy this season. um Falling just short? just want to You just want to do it better the next time. so
00:42:31
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:42:32
zzweilous
This is not the last we've seen of Maxi. um Stephanie well within qualification range for Worlds as well. Let's see whether he makes it to Anaheim. I would love to see him there. um because yeah like he's been around the community community for a long, long time. um yeah we did actually We did actually do a lucky trade on stage you before our um day one matchup. by I gave him a parkier that got immediately deleted.
00:43:00
zzweilous
I received a shiny spinda with 15, 13, 15 IVs, so maybe that is getting built. um But yeah, we essentially got all of that friendship plus the lucky status just from playing each other at like 3 a.m.
00:43:08
William Dunphey
Not bad. Yeah.
00:43:16
zzweilous
local time in GBL. And we have been doing that for years. And I hope we'll we'll just keep doing that and we'll see maxi around at more of these because Honestly, it's just always a great time to be around.
00:43:29
zzweilous
And yeah, I love to see competitors who maybe had a little bit of a rough stretch competitively have another breakthrough tournament.
00:43:29
William Dunphey
yeah
00:43:37
zzweilous
And it's not just Maxi. Honestly, his entire um like friends and teammates have been really excelling. like If you look at third place where a mind choke has...
00:43:52
zzweilous
highlighted the out-of-pocket nighttime pleasure team as like the the best Tinker Tone of the tournament. I feel like Amandjok is another of those candidates who, um like in in the interview after the tournament, he said, it's like a little bit of sweet because obviously it's my best tournament in a long, long time, but all my medals are bronze. I would really like a different color.
00:44:13
zzweilous
um But I just love that some of those staples of the scene, Zephy Mastix as well, another... trainer who um faced nickname in his bremen run like the last obstacle that was 2022 like all of those players have really been around and we've been talking about how pokemon go essentially feels as if it has um problems attracting new players and we always call out if a new player really bursts onto the scene makes a name for themselves and
00:44:27
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:44:47
zzweilous
um we love to reinforce that and want people to keep at it. But there is players out there that have been competing at these events for like four years at this point, essentially.
00:44:59
zzweilous
And
Santiago Tournament Highlights
00:44:59
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:45:00
zzweilous
just seeing them still around, them still excelling, that really brings me joy because it just means that there is reason to stick with this game, even though there is a lot of frustration involved as well, be it terms of results, be it in terms of game performance, which was excellent newscast, by the way.
00:45:17
zzweilous
um But yeah, it feels like this was an event where a lot of names that we have known for a long time actually were showing what they were still capable of.
00:45:28
William Dunphey
I wish that that the EU folks could send some of that high quality ah game functionality over to NA. Please do that. Please. Because there were there are always so many disputes at NA.
00:45:41
William Dunphey
But that's that's neither here nor there. I don't mean to get off topic. I looked at Maxi's profile on on X, formerly known as Twitter, and he has written in here um IGN, ah EU emperors. And then the third note in his bio is season four, Sylph Arena Top 8.
00:46:00
William Dunphey
And I actually looked it up. According to Liquipedia, season four was back in 2022. is when that season started. So ah this just, again, reinforces your point that a lot of these trainers have been competing, have been grinding the game for a long time, and then they they have a breakthrough moment, which kind of you know spontaneously happens.
00:46:11
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:46:18
William Dunphey
so And um I think you can you can probably agree with this. I think on my own personal experience, I agree with this. It's kind of like um having us a successful run in competitive Pokemon Go, and I'm sure this goes for the other games as well, is kind of like...
00:46:35
William Dunphey
Having the most complete run that you possibly can, you know, getting as close to that 100% in every area marker that you can, whether it's ah having the right team comp, knowing the counts, knowing the matchups, reading your opponent correctly, um you know, having the right teams of three going into the matches.
00:46:53
William Dunphey
And then the component that we don't talk about enough is actually focus. And I feel like that focus component, that final piece of the puzzle that Maxie did not quite have at 100%, that is what really let him down. So, I mean, hell, there's so many trainers that that would you know give anything to be at 80%, 85% and consistently top cut But to be at 98% like Maxie was and to not quite win it, I mean, again, we're going to see how he adjusts.
00:47:17
zzweilous
Yeah.
00:47:22
William Dunphey
And I'm glad to hear he's doing well. but
00:47:23
zzweilous
Especially because like he outmaneuvered me in both sets that we played.
00:47:24
William Dunphey
And this is...
00:47:28
zzweilous
and ah He was like waiting turns to deny me catches. like That kind of try-hard gameplay.
00:47:35
William Dunphey
o
00:47:35
zzweilous
and yeah maybe Maybe he was like thinking, like okay, I just want to beat this ZZ guy, and then afterwards I'll take it little more chill.
00:47:47
zzweilous
But...
00:47:48
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:47:48
zzweilous
Um, I'm not taking it personally.
00:47:49
William Dunphey
There's...
00:47:51
zzweilous
Not at all. No, no, no.
00:47:52
William Dunphey
Okay. good Good to know. um There's one more thing I wanted to say, which is the flip side of this. um and And I don't know if if you experience, like, if you got any of these vibes at the venue or if you kind of, like, feel like people are talking this way back in, in you know, various Discord chats, wherever it might be.
00:48:11
William Dunphey
um But I don't want for a moment ah for Nickname to feel like he didn't deserve the championship. Because I feel like there's also the other side of that coin where ah Nickname you know didn't have the right team going into game five.
00:48:23
William Dunphey
ah He got outplayed by Maxie, outmaneuvered, like you said, in several different situations. And I don't want like i don't want ah the second place finisher's mistake to take away from the gold medalist victory, if you know if you know what I'm saying.
00:48:39
William Dunphey
Yeah. I hope nobody's talking bad about nicknames saying he didn't deserve it. Because if they are, you're a jerk. If you're listening and you said that about nickname, you're a jerk because he earned it, right?
00:48:46
zzweilous
Thank you.
00:48:49
zzweilous
I think Maxi himself made that very clear and very explicitly congratulated Nickname for what was just like a very dominant tournament performance. um Again, like they met on the winner's side um before the finals and ah Nickname took that set from what we have identified as a little bit of a team comp disadvantage given how strong, especially Maxi's drop-down looks in that matchup.
00:48:49
William Dunphey
Come on.
00:49:11
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:49:14
zzweilous
um So yeah, honestly, you can take nothing away from Nickname. And one thing that I also want to point out is that most tournament runs have at least one, typically ah couple of situations where the eventual winner of the event could well drop to losers or even get knocked out entirely if the opponent just is slightly more aware of a certain situation, doesn't mess up mess up at a certain point in the battle.
00:49:46
zzweilous
And rarely ever is it as prominent as in the very final moment of the last game of the grand finals reset. um So that was just like very ah visible, but this is by no means different from essentially any other championship run.
00:49:58
William Dunphey
Yep. Yep.
00:50:03
zzweilous
I was like, again, like i I peaked in 2023 when I won that Barcelona special event. And I watched back that run after I managed to win that championship.
00:50:15
zzweilous
And I identified three moments where I could have just lost it all or at least dropped down if my opponent just kept track of my energy or of my health range and just...
00:50:25
William Dunphey
ye yep
00:50:27
zzweilous
really executed a little more cleanly. And I think every champion can look back at something like that. And at the end of the day, being the person at a tournament that makes the least amount of mistakes is a quality in and of itself. And um again, I described nickname as locked in previously.
00:50:46
zzweilous
um and yeah, nobody could take him down at the end of the day. Maxi had this very impressive bracket reset where really made a bunch of great line calls. I thought, especially his talent fame, he utilized really, really well because obviously there's some really annoying matchups in
00:51:00
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
00:51:04
zzweilous
the fairly safe Azumarill on the name side in the Typhlosion, which just outpaces. um So you have to really um be careful where you position your Townflame and how often you use it.
00:51:17
zzweilous
But I thought Maxi made some great calls with that. um So yeah, it was really a back and forth of two evenly matched players. And... even though this feels like it was Maxis to lose, I just think that we had two people in the grand finals that were worthy of that championship title.
00:51:38
zzweilous
And now it's now it's nickname again. then this is like the second time in a row. I still think this is like a fairly... It's like a fun story as well, right? Like if you are just that guy for two events back to back, um i think I think like...
00:51:47
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:51:55
zzweilous
How can you say that somebody who won two tournaments in a row doesn't deserve it? Like nobody can say that. And I'm pretty sure nobody has said that just yet, or at least I have not been made aware of that.
00:52:04
William Dunphey
Good.
00:52:06
William Dunphey
Good. And if you have said it in whatever discord chat, it was go take it back. Go take it back. If you're listening. Uh, I really appreciate it you mentioned talent flame. Um, I have my notes here several times that the town flame shadow drappy and duo was very strong for maxi.
00:52:21
William Dunphey
Uh, we talked about Corviknight getting his first gold medal, but I got some bad news for you.
Challenges in Stream Coverage
00:52:25
William Dunphey
ZZ, uh, nickname brought it twice in the grand finals first set. And in both of those games, he lost.
00:52:31
William Dunphey
ah He has a 0% win rate in the grand finals with Corviknight because in both games, it got lined up against Maxi's flame charge, fly town flame. And it absolutely got ah burned to a crisp. Scorched earth is is how I would describe it.
00:52:45
William Dunphey
But ah again, cheers to to Nickname, Maxi, our other top four, Amainjoke, and Zephy, as well as all of our very talented trainers. There's one more event in EU that's going to be Bologna.
00:52:57
William Dunphey
So I hope to see Europe's best there, ah continuing this trend of Spicy teams, insane plays, and and great storylines. But we talked about Melbourne, a TPC trainer making history, ah winning a TPCI event.
00:53:11
William Dunphey
We talked about Utrecht, where Nickname became the first EU trainer to win back-to-back events. Now we're going to go to an even bigger step in history when we head down to Santiago in LATAM.
00:53:23
William Dunphey
um I mean, this is a this is a Goliath feat. This is a Herculean accomplishment by Argentina's, the pride of Argentina, I should say, Marto Galdei.
00:53:35
zzweilous
think this may be there's maybe a feat that will not ever be repeated because marco galde third place world's finisher um laic champion he won his first championship his first his fourth both with f championship title in the 2025 season which is just incredible like like If you get like one championship title in your PvP career, you can already be so so proud.
00:54:12
zzweilous
Like you'll forever be in the history books.
00:54:12
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:54:15
zzweilous
Macho is the history book. Like he has all the pages at this point.
00:54:18
William Dunphey
Yeah. Exactly. Mm-hmm.
00:54:23
zzweilous
Exactly. he's He's doing it with his very favorite jump love.
00:54:28
William Dunphey
yes
00:54:29
zzweilous
um with a team that somewhat resembles Nickname's championship team, but there's some key differences in that the um steel type of choice is not the Corviknight, but the Tinkerton, which essentially features on just about everything in that ah Santiago top card.
00:54:45
zzweilous
I think only two teams are missing the Tinkerton.
00:54:46
William Dunphey
Except two.
00:54:48
zzweilous
um
00:54:49
William Dunphey
Exactly.
00:54:49
zzweilous
And the water type of choice, which might be slightly better into Tinkerton, therefore may be a good call, is the Lapras instead of the Azumarill, which um obviously, while the sidewave damage is resisted, the neutral Sparkling Aria can make that a favorable matchup against the Tink for the Lapras in some situations.
00:55:11
William Dunphey
So we're going to have the team graphic up on screen ah for Santiago. and Unfortunately for this event, there was not a stream. i did come across a post from Justin Ynez.
00:55:24
William Dunphey
I wanted to to read that. i believe Maxi retweeted it and reminded me. Just Mina says another crazily good Latam regional with no stream. We only had one TV with some matches being streamed to the spectators.
00:55:37
William Dunphey
It's so frustrating to watch many of the best players in the world giving PVP classes and not being streamed to everyone. So um just Mina's. I mean, i agree with you. I know for a fact that ZZ agrees with you. We've said this multiple times on on the show.
00:55:51
William Dunphey
Um, whatever Whatever power we have, you know, you ZZ as a perennial top cut, ah you know, competitor, ah one of Europe's best, a leading minds, myself as a commentator and in my connection with TPCI, whatever pool we have, we are using it to try and get these these tournament streams. So hopefully, just me and I, we have broadcast for these.
00:56:12
William Dunphey
um I say all of that to say we're not going to be able to to talk in depth about these matches, but we can talk about the teams and talk about the bracket. So when you look at Marto's team, what really strikes me here is that he has Lapras, Claydol, Tinkaton, Furret, Shadowjumpluff, and Shadowtyphlosion.
00:56:29
William Dunphey
And all these Pokemon we've mentioned already on this show probably five times in this episode alone. But this particular combination... Of these six, I wasn't able to find this on any of the the tournaments that we covered ah for this episode, whether it was Melbourne, whether it was Utrecht, whether it was Taiwan or Thailand.
00:56:47
William Dunphey
I wasn't able to find this particular set of six on any of them. So again, maybe finding new ways to to engineer this. ah What was serendipitous about this grand finals as well is that...
00:56:58
William Dunphey
Back in 2024, when Niantic hosted a Mexico City ah qualifier tournament, it was this same matchup of Javier V20 taking on Marto Galde. And i remember being there at the venue and watching Marto with his Charizard, Guzzlord, Tooth and Claw, high octane, high offense team take on Javier's Gligar, Whiskash, Vigoroth team. Yes, it was back in that meta.
00:57:23
William Dunphey
And Javier was just able to just weather the storm and take anything that Marto threw at him and win it. So for for these two to match up again and Santiago was absolutely poetic. This time Marto did get the better of him.
00:57:35
William Dunphey
And it looks like he did it ah from the winner's side of the bracket. So Marto, I believe here, i'm looking oh I'm looking at the group stage here on Chalange. Here's the final stage.
00:57:46
William Dunphey
Yeah, Marto able to take a 3-1 over Javier after Javier V20 won a nail-biter 3-2 against L&D Harjef, L&D S Harjef. So one of Brazil's best taking on Javier, taking on Marto. I mean, this was like a LATAM clash.
00:58:03
William Dunphey
I heard that everyone was there besides the Mexican CZ. Everyone was there from LATAM. That's what I was told.
00:58:08
zzweilous
Oh, I think there also has been a bracket reset, right? Like Javier was actually, like, took the first set off Marto, if I'm not mistaken.
00:58:15
William Dunphey
Oh, you're right. You're right.
00:58:18
zzweilous
And yeah, like ah the people that got to watch that one TV that they had at the venue, they actually got a show. um And like, if you look at that top top three um with L&D as Rajaf, obviously, essentially Brazilian's motto, like the Brazilian motto in a way, with like an IC title, with like regional titles, with like really a bunch of accolades, um both in his home region and at international events.
00:58:35
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:58:46
zzweilous
um Then Javier, again, like a rematch against Martu, another regional champion, um probably the most um decorated Peruvian player.
00:58:57
zzweilous
And then ah obviously the pride of Argentina, Martu Galdi himself. I really love that representation. um guess the Chileans will be a little sad that they don't feature in the top four, even though they do have a strong top eight showing with Emilio, with Swagron, and with Steps, who all made um that top eight bracket.
00:58:57
William Dunphey
Yeah.
00:59:10
William Dunphey
yeah
00:59:19
zzweilous
But yeah, like this, like imagine this being streamed, like all of those big, big names with those really like, there's furrits, there's furrits everywhere.
00:59:24
William Dunphey
ah
00:59:29
zzweilous
There's a shadow type lotion. I would love to watch that. I could watch that all day. um so yeah, I really do hope that
00:59:34
William Dunphey
Yep.
00:59:36
zzweilous
In the future, we'll actually get to talk about what happened during that record reset. Like, how did Marto fight back after Javier figured him out in the in the first half? um i would I would really love to watch that.
00:59:47
William Dunphey
yeah
00:59:50
zzweilous
Unfortunately, we are left with ah the teams, with the Dracovus graphic. But we do see, what is that on the desync team in Top Cut?
01:00:00
William Dunphey
that that is ah That is a normal type not named for it. And it is of the of the mammalian variety. ah You might ah compare it to a mongoose if you were talking about real world animals.
01:00:14
William Dunphey
De-synced with his signature Shadow Quagsire and Linoon. And i don't I don't even know what the moveset was. Let me see if I can find out if it was Grass Not Thunder or what it what the heck it was.
01:00:23
zzweilous
yeah
01:00:26
zzweilous
I feel Thunder is like the main reason to use it because otherwise you would probably just better off trailblazing with your Sackapuncher for it. But I know that my my brother made like a YouTube video with that and this thing is known to um make top cut with Pokemon that otherwise so only found in YouTube videos.
01:00:50
zzweilous
Again, like this time, not making eight just barely, but was it was one Pokemon that did stand out to me. Another one would probably be the Galarian Corsola on the team of Helios X 1997, which is a name that we haven't seen as much before, i would say.
01:00:57
William Dunphey
yeah
01:01:08
zzweilous
um By actually breaking into that top four alongside three of the greats, another Argentinian, bringing back that Coral Pokemon. um We thought it was dead.
01:01:18
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:01:19
zzweilous
um Apparently, it's still alive. I feel like that's also the lore of it. um
01:01:23
William Dunphey
Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much.
01:01:25
zzweilous
But yeah, really interesting to bring that into a third meta and make top four.
01:01:26
William Dunphey
it
01:01:30
William Dunphey
It looks like the Linoon from DeSaint was running Swift and Grass Knot. I believe that Niantic tried to give it Trailblaze, but it actually can't learn it in the main series, if my memory serves correct.
01:01:35
zzweilous
hello
01:01:40
zzweilous
Oh, God. Yeah, I think I remember that.
01:01:41
William Dunphey
So so it's it's using the other grass move. ah But to your point about him... basically bringing youtube videos into real life this season distinct finished fifth in lima with shadow ursaring he finished fifth in rio with zapdos and shadow registeel he finished third in fortaleza with morpeco so i mean come on it doesn't get better than than watching distinct battle and i wish we could have um I really appreciate that you mentioned the Chileans, ah some very talented ones.
01:02:12
William Dunphey
ah This is kind of under the radar, but one of the biggest creators in all of LATAM Pokemon Go actually finished in the top eight. If you look at slot number six over here, Swagron333YouTube.
01:02:25
William Dunphey
the The guy who who basically is like bringing massive crowds together, he's like everyone's favorite guy to to be around to talk about.
01:02:30
zzweilous
Thank you.
01:02:33
William Dunphey
He's got the iconic you know like so ah platinum blonde hair. ah He's hosted events like NAIC. um Such a talented and friendly and kind person, and also a very, very gifted creator.
01:02:46
William Dunphey
And look at him playing PvP. Not only did he qualify for Worlds last year, but he's also finishing top cut. And right next to names like Marto, Javier, Harchef, Steiner, Emilio, he's right there next to them in this top eight.
01:02:58
zzweilous
Yeah, I always love to see um people who ah very skillfully talk the talk also just to see them walking the walk at one of these events.
01:02:58
William Dunphey
And I just, I want to give... Yeah.
01:03:10
zzweilous
I know that um your co-caster Sof Tov is competing in Portland, if I'm not mistaken.
01:03:11
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:03:17
zzweilous
So that will be another example to to witness potential caster greatness in action.
01:03:17
William Dunphey
It's
01:03:24
zzweilous
And yeah, with Swagron doing the same in Santiago. um That was certainly a very impressive performance with, um as I want to point out, the exact same team as Marto. So also a very strong meta call.
01:03:39
William Dunphey
Very, very strong meta call. Yeah, I agree with you. um Being able to walk the walk is not something that all of us can do. We're going to see if I can do that at NAIC, but I might need ah ah i might need you know some crutches by the time I leave because I'm going to get absolutely destroyed.
01:03:48
zzweilous
yeah
01:03:54
William Dunphey
um Speaking of of teams that are similar, you mentioned Marto and Swaggeron running the same teams. Harjeff and Steiner, you know, two trainers that were basically the beating heart of NAIC last year. Such an emotional um and and such such a very powerful tale of friendship with those two.
01:04:12
William Dunphey
Running the exact same teams, both making top cut. I love to see Steiner competing. I think he's one of the best in the world. Obviously, there's no argument for Harjeff either. Rivals, friends, even translators for each other when they were up on stage. I mean, those guys can do it all. So I really love seeing them there.
01:04:28
William Dunphey
Also, shout out to Steps as well. I've met Steps at a a few different events. Seeing him top cut is really, really poetic and cathartic to see. ah Very, very kind person to hang out with and and to grab a beer with. So shout out to Steps.
01:04:42
William Dunphey
But what an incredible tournament. Again, I wish we had a stream. Just Mina's, we were right there with you. We really wish that there was one. Fingers crossed in the future. I mean, Pokemon is basically a rocket ship and Pokemon Go is tied to it.
01:04:55
William Dunphey
So we're going to see if if that ah rising tide lifts all boats, as as you and I have discussed. um I'm not sure if there's anything else you want to mention about Santiago. We've got a couple of TPC events ah to talk about, and then we have in-game events, and I think we can we can wrap up.
01:05:10
zzweilous
I think we've talked about Santiago at length, given what we were given. but yeah, like to the point of the streams and how they have developed um ahead of the event, or like ahead of the recording, rather, I did share some pictures from the Utrecht event in 2023 when was my my brother competing and
01:05:29
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:05:31
zzweilous
um While that was all it was nice to have that stream, it's also very striking to see how much ah TPCI i has invested in making the streams shine since. With like the car status desk looking so polished and cute and decorated every time and just like all the lighting coming together like the production value has really been stepped up in in recent years and if they can polish ah polish up the european scene um i think it must be possible for them to eventually also bring the latim scene on the map a little more feel like like
01:06:15
zzweilous
if you treat them as you should, like with the same amount of qualification starts for Worlds, you should also and treat them with the same amount of care when it comes to establishing the broadcast.
Thailand and Taiwan Events
01:06:26
zzweilous
And I know that's like easier said than done. And it's very easy for me to just yap about it.
01:06:32
zzweilous
But I really hope that they're working on that because I can't wait to to see more of those trainers. And honestly, the same goes for those um remote qualifiers that we see in the...
01:06:38
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:06:43
zzweilous
um in the APAC region and where we had some more playoffs, some more decisive tournaments that um essentially gave us, I think, four more Worlds qualifiers, two in Taiwan and two in Thailand.
01:06:57
zzweilous
um Where do you want to start, Speedy?
01:07:00
William Dunphey
Oh, I just, I wanted to echo your sentiment. um I don't ever want to come across as being ungrateful for what TPCI has done. um I'll tell you what's most exciting to me is the fact that the North American streams versus the EU streams are so different.
01:07:14
William Dunphey
You know, the caster desk in EU is much more ornate. It's like its own little scene where you could imagine um like Pokemon concierge, you know, dancing around on top. ah The lounge is different as well.
01:07:25
William Dunphey
The most exciting thing
01:07:26
zzweilous
You guys have mini-games that you play with the competitors between between the scenes, and then there's like those little segments. We don't really have that. um But yeah, there's like a lot of character to the individual regions for sure.
01:07:33
William Dunphey
Well,
01:07:38
William Dunphey
and that's what is so exciting to me about LATAM as well, because EU has a personality, NA has a personality. Imagine a brand new personality for LATAM that is signature, you know more for the region. ah The games are more tailored to the players in that region.
01:07:55
William Dunphey
It's more culturally rich. I think there's so much opportunity to have basically like three different identities for streams. And then, like you said, once we once we are able to bring, you know, APAC on board, have a fourth style of identity.
01:08:07
William Dunphey
I mean, how sick would it be if we had, like, commentators walking into Pokemon centers and live casting the battles for the, you know, for the for the the qualifications?
01:08:08
zzweilous
Right.
01:08:19
William Dunphey
Live casting them with the Pokemon center behind them and like this huge ornate shiny Gyarados in Osaka or no in in Hiroshima, I believe. And then you've got another Pokemon center with the the legendary birds behind them. I mean, the backdrops, the stories would fright themselves. It would be so, so sick.
01:08:36
William Dunphey
Yeah. And I really hope we get there one day soon. And I think that's a great way to to kind of move into our topics. Why don't we talk about Thailand first? I think that this tournament and the um Thailand and Taiwan, I believe they're both the same weekend.
01:08:51
William Dunphey
ah We'll start with Thailand here. I really appreciate that DracoViz made the post they did because they said that Teddy Ness third time was the charm. I believe he finished runner up in Thailand the past two seasons.
01:09:03
William Dunphey
So getting gold here was was really a huge step forward.
01:09:07
zzweilous
Yeah, Teddin is definitely a name that was recognizable to me, even though um maybe the Apex scene isn't like always as prominently featured as the EU, Latim, or North America scene.
01:09:19
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Yep.
01:09:21
zzweilous
Another name that I do recognize is BJ Powhat, who finished within the top eight.
01:09:24
William Dunphey
yeah
01:09:26
zzweilous
um There is Pangoro representation on the team of Mecha Mech in fifth place. There is Skellidurge representation, which I'm always a big fan of, and in third place by Hideki.
01:09:39
zzweilous
And the two qualifiers are Teddiness with the team that we, like, last um broadcast, last um recording, we called it out as, like, a genre of team where there's, like, a cradly, a Malamar,
01:09:53
zzweilous
an A-slash, a Glysepot, and then Ausodrapion, which was a little different from the like more ground-heavy, maybe more jump-love-heavy teams that we've seen.
01:09:53
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:10:04
zzweilous
um But this like one team just keeps winning for some reason.
01:10:09
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:10:09
zzweilous
And again, and one um portettiness and that again we see more Pangoro representation in second place with Double Hippo who essentially ran a very very similar team um but with the Claude Zaya and the um Pangoro instead of the Malamar and the Alolan Sandslash so four out of the six identical and then just a little bit of of difference I feel like those teams also look very neutral into each other so I bet the the final games must have been pretty exciting to watch
01:10:41
William Dunphey
So um this is just another example of why I feel like we work so well together on the show, ah because you mentioned something that I was actually going to quiz you about when it came to Teddy's Teddyness's team.
01:10:53
William Dunphey
So ah you mentioned the lack of ground, right? And if you look at this team from Teddyness, he's got a zoom roll, Golisopod, Alolan Sandslash, Shadow Drapian, Cradilly and Malamar. No ground type on the team.
01:11:06
William Dunphey
I was going to ask you what his team was lacking that most other championship teams have, but instead I'm going to take it up a level.
01:11:11
zzweilous
and
01:11:12
William Dunphey
I'm going to ask you this. So no ground types on Teddy Ness' team when he won the TPC Thailand um playoff event. There have been 38 events this season.
01:11:25
William Dunphey
To this day, Ziz Wireless, how many champions have won without a ground type on their team out of 38 events?
01:11:35
zzweilous
That is a very good question.
01:11:38
William Dunphey
I'll give you five seconds. i will I won't make you score him too long, but if you're watching the YouTube version, you can see Ziz Wireless breaking into a sweat right now.
01:11:45
zzweilous
Yes, I'll say it's three teams without a ground type.
01:11:51
William Dunphey
Actually, you're very close. You're actually extremely close. So Teddiness wins Thailand with no ground type Pokemon. He's the first trainer to do that since God's Lama won in Brisbane. And those two trainers are two of only four that have won championship series events this season without a ground type Pokemon.
01:12:07
zzweilous
damn
01:12:10
William Dunphey
Four out of 38 players. So 34 other champions had at least a Claydol, a Diggersby, a Unova Stunfisk, a Claude Sire, whatever, on their team. So this is definitely not the norm, which is which is really impressive to see Teddy succeed this way.
01:12:26
William Dunphey
um yeah I thought that was a mind-blowing stat. When I started looking at the teams, I was shocked ah to see that basically winning without a ground is taboo this season. Ground is so incredibly strong. ah Or Shadowcanto Marowak. I almost forgot to mention that one.
01:12:39
zzweilous
Yes.
01:12:40
William Dunphey
Um, one thing i think you forgot to mention was in our top eight, you and I talked about this Pokemon ZZ. You and I share an affinity for this pick.
01:12:46
zzweilous
Oh!
01:12:49
William Dunphey
Talk to me about SunGuoke's Steam.
01:12:50
zzweilous
ah
01:12:52
zzweilous
Sun Gorky's team has a Suicune on there. I, at first, did not see that because I'm not used to seeing that sprite on the Dracovis graphic.
01:12:55
William Dunphey
Yeah.
01:13:01
zzweilous
And like my screen, my monitor isn't so small, but it didn't immediately jump out at me just because it's such an unusual sight.
01:13:12
zzweilous
I thought that was just a weirdly shaped Malamar, but no, it is a Suicune.
01:13:15
William Dunphey
oh
01:13:16
zzweilous
Probably running Ice Fang as a...
01:13:17
William Dunphey
Yes.
01:13:19
zzweilous
an interesting way of taking down opposing jump love.
01:13:24
zzweilous
um But yeah, Suicune, one of the bulkier water types, actually, one of the many bulky water types, um with access to, among other things, Ice Fang to Bubble Beam, and I think to Scald as well.
01:13:24
William Dunphey
Yep.
01:13:25
William Dunphey
And ground types.
01:13:38
zzweilous
So it's a little harder hitting water type move.
01:13:38
William Dunphey
Scald, yeah.
01:13:42
William Dunphey
sun Goki finishing top eight with jealous, and glaring Corsula. So already double ghost Corviknight, Wigglytuff, Suicune, and primate. What a team.
01:13:54
William Dunphey
This is ah very, very impressive to see him finish top eight. Uh, I've been experimenting a little bit with Suicune in Go Battle League. ah It eats up Pokemon like Clodsire, like Shadowkent and Marowak, like Claydol. It also eats up Jump Bluff double super effective Ice Fangs, although you do need to watch out for Energy Ball.
01:14:11
William Dunphey
And because there are no open team sheets in GBO, it's super risky to no-shield a potential Energy Ball.
01:14:15
zzweilous
and
01:14:18
William Dunphey
But what a fun Pokemon to play and honestly, kudos to Sun Gooki. We also saw Yagna with Galarian Moltres kind of bringing that Pokemon back. Mechamech, as you pointed out earlier with the Galarian Corsola.
01:14:30
William Dunphey
Yorke Zaza finishing in top 16 with Chansey, as well as Watery Phoenix with Shadow Empoleon. What is watery Phoenix cooking? Who knows? Shadow Dust Noir also making appearance for Hoodie.
01:14:43
William Dunphey
This is such a diverse set of ah Pokemon and teams, and I'm so excited to see Teddy and his compete at Worlds.
01:14:50
zzweilous
I do also love that this top cut, like sometimes you see a Dracovus graphic where there's like a septile on there and you kind of wonder whether, okay, maybe they only found 16 players, but all of these teams look like deliberate creations that the people that were playing them also put thought into.
01:15:09
William Dunphey
Yeah. Mm.
01:15:12
zzweilous
And just this amount of spice is like really inspiring. I think, like, claps in the chat for Thailand, that was that was a great show. like I bet it must have been because the the diversity is really unheard of.
01:15:25
zzweilous
And like there are only five ah Tinkaton as well, whereas there's a Man Metal, there's a Chansey, there's a Shadow Empoleon, there's an Ariadne, there's a Shadow Dusk Noir.
01:15:27
William Dunphey
yeah
01:15:39
zzweilous
there's There's everything. Yeah.
01:15:41
William Dunphey
Yeah, I was noticing lot of Clodsire in this tournament as well, which is a little bit surprising to me.
01:15:45
zzweilous
That's true.
01:15:46
William Dunphey
Maybe it's a Clodsire-heavy region, and that kind of dissuades the tickets on players.
01:15:49
zzweilous
A lot more Glodzire than Tenkaton. Yeah, we don't see that very often.
01:15:52
William Dunphey
Yeah. Surprising, right? It just shows you again, like when we started the max out season for alligator, Cloud Sire was all the rage. It was dominating the meta. ah These Pokemon individually or together can still be very, very strong.
01:16:07
William Dunphey
Again, the diversity of these past six months of gameplay. I think this is probably the most diverse, the most fluid, the most flexible and the deepest meta we've had in a very, very, very long time, maybe ever.
01:16:20
William Dunphey
um That's all I really have to say about the Thailand qualifiers. Again, congratulations to Teddyness for taking that first place prize. I believe Ryseukation actually broke down the footage. I haven't watched his video yet, but head over to Ryse's channel and check out his his showcase of that ah that tournament run.
01:16:39
William Dunphey
We've got one more event to cover. ZZ, do you want to talk about ta Taiwan?
01:16:43
zzweilous
Yes, Taiwan is essentially, um it feels like a sibling to Thailand in that where we just talked about a player who is like a serial runner-up finisher who now got his first ah real title in one of those playoffs.
01:16:50
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:17:01
zzweilous
We now have another staple of the Taiwanese community in Game Bird who is already won last year's event and qualified for Worlds and now just repeated that feat with the team that won Milwaukee in the hands of out-of-pocket, only changing the non-Shadowjumpluff for the largely considered superior Shadowjumpluff.
01:17:13
William Dunphey
susan
01:17:23
zzweilous
So um a very reliable team composition and a very reliable trainer, always at the top of the leaderboards. um and defeating the competition. um and we do see some staple names. I recognize Neko Paradise, who um was hosting a good amount of practice tournaments in the Kendall Cult server from Marshaen and Alecquins ahead of um this event.
01:17:48
zzweilous
So really putting a practice, getting ah rewarded. Unfortunately, not with a Worlds Invite, but still with the top eight finish. um The second Worlds Invite goes to Mie Chang 1978, with, um again, Nigalari and Corsula, which maybe North America and Europe have been overlooking this Pokémon.
01:18:07
zzweilous
It's still fairly highly ranked on BB Poke, but that definitely seems to be a standout pick on that team.
01:18:07
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:18:14
zzweilous
um Again, Shadowblastoise on the team of Aelion B in third place. So very close to um making waves, but still just this one position short from actually grabbing the World's Invite.
01:18:29
zzweilous
And when we look a little further down the bracket, terms of Spice, I feel like the standout next to maybe the man team on and Nico Paradise's team would likely be the Shadow Galate on the team of Doge Dachshen.
01:18:45
zzweilous
um Again, partnered with a Galarian Corsola. So um the the fighting type plus Galarian Corsola, many people opt for Prime Mip or Annihilate, but apparently Shadow Galate is also an an option that has been considered.
01:18:49
William Dunphey
yeah
01:19:00
William Dunphey
Shadow Gallade sounds like a lot of fun. Of course, it's basically made of paper mache. Definitely a very ah difficult Pokemon to pilot. And I feel like when we talk about these TPC qualifiers, I feel like a lot of the times with the actual qualifier stage, we see some wacky stuff, you know, whether it's a Donphan or Hippowdon or any anything spicy like a Gallade.
01:19:22
William Dunphey
But then when you get to the playoff stage and those top 16 players are all battling for their world's invites and you still bring a ah Shadow Gallade, That takes some guts. It takes some some ah some confidence in what you're attempting to do. So that was really, really sick to see that.
01:19:37
William Dunphey
um I'm trying to remember, because I see a Shadow Swampert here as well on Anfernee's... Anfernee H-S-E-U, excuse me, it's a very difficult name to say.
01:19:49
William Dunphey
Anfernee's team. It looks like Shadow Swampert, Lapras, Corviknight is a strong trio there. was there a a Shadow Swampert? a Shadow Swampert winner earlier this season? I feel like there was.
01:20:01
zzweilous
I think Swampert featured on HK Assassin's team in Sevilla to actually take the title there.
01:20:07
William Dunphey
Correct. Correct. I was wondering like how similar that team was because, um again, you called out that that game bird. Also, TWBB and Victor Chu were all running out-of-pocket Nighttime Clasher and Sustance Eaters team from from Milwaukee.
01:20:23
William Dunphey
um But I'm wondering if there's any inspiration here as well. It looks like HK was running Lapras, Unova, Stunfisk, Tinkatan, Shadow Swampert, Townflame, and Superior. So maybe not exactly the same, but a little bit of a little bit of inspiration, i I like to say.
01:20:38
William Dunphey
Um, again, no stream, unfortunately for this tournament. So all we can really do is talk about the teams, uh, appreciate and admire the spice Mantine making top cut is, uh, that Pokemon. I don't know.
01:20:50
William Dunphey
it would never be me.
01:20:51
zzweilous
Thou opinions!
01:20:52
William Dunphey
ZZ. If someone, if, okay. If I place top eight in a tournament with Mantine, that is not actually me. That is something else wearing my skin playing as me because I would never, i would never play it, but I'm glad it worked out for Nico.
01:21:06
zzweilous
It's like the third best waterflying type, maybe a fourth if you consider Shadowswanner.
01:21:06
William Dunphey
Um,
01:21:13
William Dunphey
Yeah, yeah. I think I actually have a Great League Rank 1 Shadow Swanna. So I played that before I played Manteam, trust me. A fun tournament, fun qualifier. Again, would love to see Game Bird and Mitchang at the World Championships in Anaheim this season.
01:21:29
William Dunphey
ah You called out the Shadow Blastoise. That was also in my notes. I would love to see Blastoise get a gold medal this season, but it's kind of running out of chances because there are only five events left before Worlds. So we're going to see. It looks really good in The Sims.
01:21:41
William Dunphey
I'll say that. I was like... For my caster picks for Portland, this is something I do and I'm, I'm kind of giving away my secrets here. Uh, what I'll do is I'll take like the top Pokemon and, uh, from, from previous weeks, I'll put them all into PV poke and then I'll just ask what the top threats are.
01:21:56
William Dunphey
And that's essentially how I make my caster predictions. So, uh, Shadow Blastoise is on my caster predictions because against like one of the sets I had of of top Pokemon, it was like nine and one versus the this assortment of 10 Pokemon.
01:22:08
William Dunphey
It looks really good in the one shield. I can understand why people play it. i would love to see Shadow Blastoise succeed, but it's had a bit of trouble making waves as you eloquently put earlier with a water pun.
01:22:19
William Dunphey
That's a very, very nice touch.
Upcoming Pokemon Events and Commentary
01:22:21
William Dunphey
um DZ, I think that's all I have to say personally on the tournament coverage. ah We can talk about upcoming events and kind of wrap up the show if you want.
01:22:29
zzweilous
Yeah, we should. um i think the next one and this upcoming weekend actually is being held in Portland. It's going to be the send off for the North American regional season, not the entire North American season, because we will have NAIC in New Orleans in June.
01:22:48
William Dunphey
Correct.
01:22:48
zzweilous
um But yeah, this is going to be actually a cast's debut, if I'm not mistaken, um because House Stark is actually um going to feature on the broadcast for for the first time.
01:23:00
William Dunphey
He is. Yeah. Alex is going to commentate his first event. I'm really excited. As you know, I've i've been friends with Alex literally for years. ah Great guy. I'm really excited to work with him ah this weekend. It's going to be really tremendous. He's so, so talented, so intelligent.
01:23:17
William Dunphey
And it's going to be fun as well to kind of like ah spotlight him on stream. I'm going to talk about how he was the first... ah Rank 10 trainer in the world that we know of back in the days of Toxicroak, Registeel, and Altaria.
01:23:29
William Dunphey
um Or Azumarill, I believe, was his team. So um there's a lot of history there. But you nailed it. Upcoming events. Let's run through them real quickly. Only five. going to mention all of them because they're coming up soon.
01:23:41
William Dunphey
Portland, May 24th to 25th. We head over to Durban, South Africa on May 25th. May 31st through June 1st is Bologna. And then we've got NAIC June 13th through the 15th, followed by the PJCS, the Pokemon Japan Championship Series event. That is the final event before Worlds.
01:24:00
William Dunphey
um Correct me if I'm wrong, but due to the new rule set, I believe that Shadow Malamar is only eligible in Durban, South Africa forward. ah Or no, actually, excuse me, it's going to be Bologna.
01:24:14
William Dunphey
Bologna is the first time that it's it's eligible.
01:24:14
zzweilous
I think it's only Bologna, yes. Yes, because there's a two-week cooldown period before you can actually use it in battle, so...
01:24:21
William Dunphey
Correct.
01:24:21
zzweilous
and And maybe it'll just be like one tournament um before whatever the June move update has in store for us, where we can see the Shadow Malamar, which it does look very strong. I have played against some of them in GBL. The Go Battle Week just started.
01:24:37
zzweilous
And yeah, people are trying out their new Shadows, and Malamar sure is one of them.
01:24:38
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:24:42
zzweilous
um So yeah, especially like a high attack one apparently gets some crazy wins. I haven't made the deep dive just yet. But yeah, if you manage to grab one of those from the rocket stops over this past week, i'll make sure to try it out.
01:24:57
William Dunphey
We've got 24 days. If you're listening to this right now, I believe May 21st is the day we're recording. If you're listening to this right now, you've got 24 days, everybody. You've got three weeks in three days to get championship points before NAIC. Remember, NAIC is the cutoff.
01:25:14
William Dunphey
four worlds So check your place on your respective or regional championship points leaderboards. Make sure that you are making the cutoff for the world qualifications. Otherwise, you're going to to watch from the sidelines. So make sure to get those points and get them quick.
In-Game Events and Player Suggestions
01:25:28
William Dunphey
I really appreciate that you mentioned in-game events like Go Battle Week that actually kicked off today, going from May 21st to the 27th. I'm going to put this graphic up on the YouTube stream, but if you're just listening to the to the broadcast, I want to tell you about this because this event is a little bit complicated.
01:25:43
William Dunphey
ah This is not just any Go Battle Week, ZZ Wireless. This is the final strike Go Battle Week. All right. So from 10 a.m. local time on May 21st to 8 p.m. ah local time on May 27th, you get two times XP for winning raid battles, increased chance to encounter Shiny Meditite, Shiny Stunky, and Shiny Marini.
01:26:04
William Dunphey
You get one extra raid pass per day. So if you're hurting for charged TMs like I am, use those free raid passes. You also are going to get a double Pokemon debut. The Wushu Pokemon, Urshifu, will make its Pokemon Go debut.
01:26:18
William Dunphey
You can evolve Kubfu into Urshifu single strike form with 200 Kubfu candy after you defeat 30 Dark-type Pokemon in either raids or max battles with Kubfu as your buddy.
01:26:20
zzweilous
Thank you.
01:26:31
William Dunphey
You do not have to defeat the Pokemon with Kubfu itself. So please don't throw your little Kubfu into a max battle. It's going to get crushed. Play something else instead. You can evolve Kupfu into Ushifu Rapid Strike. So there are two forms, Single Strike and Rapid Strike.
01:26:45
William Dunphey
With 200 Kupfu Candy after defeating 30 Water-type Pokemon in raids or max battles with Kupfu as your buddy, you do not have to use Kupfu in the battles. So Single Strike is all based around one decisive blow. Put all your energy into it.
01:27:00
William Dunphey
Knock them out. End the fight quickly. Urshifu Rapid Strike is more like Goku. You kind of throw a bunch of hits, you see how strong your enemy is, and you keep on throwing hits until eventually you're able to ah to to beat them.
01:27:13
William Dunphey
Pokestop Showcases are going to be active. Spawns, Manky, Seal, Galarian, Zigzagoon, Meditite, Froakie. Some trainers can encounter Dino and Nickit. And then in Raids, you're going to get Carvana, Stunky, Marini.
01:27:26
William Dunphey
Three-star Raids, you're going to get Lapras, Hisuyan Samurott, and Bombardier, which is pretty sick.
01:27:31
zzweilous
I actually got a shiny Bombardier today from one of those raids, so that is that really pretty.
01:27:31
William Dunphey
The Wind...
01:27:34
William Dunphey
Ooh, what a flex. I like it because the three stars, um depending, right, you can either solo or duo them. So getting those 30 wins that you need, it's going to be painful to to use those raid passes, but at least the raid bosses are not too tough.
01:27:49
William Dunphey
And they could be useful down the down the line. If you want a shortcut the ah the shiny Bombardier, Z's Wyla style, you can actually get the field research of win two raids, which can either give you the Lapras, Hisuian, Samurath, the Bombardier.
01:27:58
zzweilous
Bye.
01:28:03
William Dunphey
There's also a big special research page. I won't go through all the details there. But yeah, this is actually ah a pretty special event. It's a little bit different than previous um Go Battle Weeks that used to have a theme, like used to be able to like unlock Ember Ninetales one season, and then they went without a theme for a long time. I think Niantic just, you know...
01:28:22
William Dunphey
but let them sit on the back burner. And now we have like a very special one, which I think is definitely tying it to go fast. So this page from leak duck is seriously, it's easy. I'm just scrolling and it keeps on going. There's so much here. There's so many events stacked on events these days, but that's what you need to know as a PVP player.
01:28:40
William Dunphey
um One more thing I wanted to mention. I promise I'm almost done. Dynamax Rookity Hour is going to be May 26th from 6 to 7 p.m. You're going to see Rookities in all the Dynamax slots.
01:28:50
William Dunphey
So if you need a good Corviknight or if you want to pick up some Corviknight to potentially reroll and trade, Dynamax doesn't affect them in PvP and they're hard to find in the wild.
01:28:51
zzweilous
so
01:29:00
William Dunphey
So this might actually be a good excuse to go out and do Dynamax stuff because... I don't know what else it's good for besides farming and and re-rolling. So might be a good opportunity.
01:29:12
William Dunphey
But yeah, that's my long-winded ah story about events. Machop Community Day Classic is May 24th. That's going to be going on the weekend of Portland. ah So that's going to be you know pretty fun. i already have my Machops the way that I want. I'm good on that.
01:29:25
William Dunphey
But if you want to evolve a Shadow Machop up to Shadow Machamp with Payback, I believe is the move it's going to get. That's a good opportunity to do that. um Last thing I'll say, I swear this is the last, last thing.
01:29:38
William Dunphey
Core Breakers for Mei, I've got two. I've got Shadow Quagsire and I've got Ice Fang Suicune. Those are my Core Breakers.
01:29:45
zzweilous
Oh, that is very spicy. I can see the Quagsire. and would love to see the Suicune. um I don't know whether will see it, though. So...
01:29:53
William Dunphey
Gotta believe.
01:29:56
zzweilous
um let me Let me quickly come up with something. So, Core Breakers for the upcoming tournament.
01:29:59
William Dunphey
Okay.
01:30:02
zzweilous
I think Lantern is bound to make a comeback. I have seen people perform really well with Watergun Lantern in practice. I think now that... Azumarill is making a little bit of a comeback now that Jampla for the most part is still only ever running um the double flying charge attacks.
01:30:23
William Dunphey
Mm-hmm.
01:30:24
zzweilous
There is um reason to bring in the Lantern which can function similarly to a Unovan Stunfisk just with a much better matchup against um the ground types that would give Stunfisk trouble.
01:30:38
zzweilous
um And then We were talking about the Joust tournament earlier, which is a monthly tournament, I think, hosted by the newly rebranded Cerulean Court, um mainly led by Landberger, Amanda Landberg, one of our beloved European casters.
01:30:56
zzweilous
And um we, too, actually matched up in that event, Speedy. um I will not talk at length about how the battles went, but I will share the fact that I did bring in Ariados on my team and how managed to win the entire tournament. Maybe I also spoiled how the battles went by revealing that.
01:31:17
zzweilous
um So... I think Ariados can actually do something. It may not always be perfect against Alapras, where the Siawaves just sit for consistent, very hard damage, but you essentially wall the Tinkerton back. You have ways to fight back against Malamar, against Jumpluff.
01:31:38
zzweilous
um If you utilize Trailblaze and Lunges really well, exactly like Azu. um I think having like a good poison type ah back in the meta, I think that can go really far, and Ariadus is my pick.
01:31:51
William Dunphey
I'm not sure what your final win-loss record ended up being, but I was told by tournament admins that I was the only one to take a game off of you ah in in the tournament up...
01:32:01
zzweilous
Arsir's Aurelius. Marcus also mentioned to do that in the finals, but other than that, that is actually correct.
01:32:05
William Dunphey
Ah. Ah, well, I'll take it. All right. We've got, again, one of EU's best ah going toe-to-toe with the best trainers in the world seemingly every other weekend versus little old me hiding in the caster booth for multiple seasons. I'll take i'll take one win off of ZZ after... after pseudo, you know, pseudo retirement here.
01:32:25
zzweilous
Thank you.
01:32:26
William Dunphey
So, uh, that that's good enough for me. Um, it's easy. It's been a pleasure. We covered a lot of events. Again, we started with Melbourne. We traveled 10,000 miles over to Utrecht. Uh, we talked about Santiago and we also recapped the TPC, Thailand, and TPC, Taiwan playoffs as well.
01:32:43
William Dunphey
Talked about in-game events, talked about records being broken, history being made. And remember everybody, there are only three more weeks to get your championship points to qualify for worlds, write your own story in the history books and only five events left the season before the big one in Anaheim.
Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement
01:32:59
William Dunphey
So it's easy. see I'm off to Portland tomorrow flying out a day early to record skits. Hopefully there'll be some funny ones. I've got some good things planned and I hope ah you and everyone else watching enjoys them. And um I hope that, you know, you have a great weekend. i hope you have ah
01:33:16
William Dunphey
a good recovery. I know that you're kind of have a little cold right now, so I need you in tip.
01:33:20
zzweilous
Yeah, just so a little under the weather, but still good enough to record one and a half hours worth of podcasting.
01:33:22
William Dunphey
I need,
01:33:26
William Dunphey
need you in tip top shape for NAIC, my friend, because it's, it's going to be a, it's going to be absolute fireworks if you're able to make it out. But that being said, easy. I think there's a great, this was a great episode.
01:33:37
William Dunphey
appreciate you. And I look forward to talking with you after Portland.
01:33:41
zzweilous
There's going to be just week after week after week, it's going to be exciting episodes and I can't wait.
01:33:47
William Dunphey
All right, my friend. Have a great one. Everyone, thank you for listening. Leave a YouTube comment if you enjoyed the show. And we appreciate you and we'll see you in the next one. Bye.