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Ep. 14 2024 World Championship Meta Preview + How to Qualify for World's 2025!
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Hello, everyone! This is Episode 14 of "The Show 6 Podcast", where we bring you the highest quality coverage of the Play! Pokémon Championship Series for Pokémon GO! We explore the plays, the players, and everything else happening in the competitive scene.
This week, we talk about our top Pokémon picks for World's 2024, the signature Pokémon from each Region, and how to qualify for the 2025 World Championships! The most-used picks for each region will surprise you, and Zzweilous does a great job of breaking down the 2025 WCS qualification changes! This is basically a 2-in-1 episode!
If you're ready, Lock In, and good luck, have fun!
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Transcript
Introduction and 2025 Pokemon Go Meta Preview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the Show6 Podcast, where we break down the championship series for Pokemon Go. Typically, that means looking back at a regional competition, but today we're instead taking a look at the near future. We're looking at the state of the meta ahead of the World Championship in Honolulu, Hawaii, and we will also take a look at what we know about the 2025 competitive season so far. There's a lot to talk about, so let's lock in, good luck, and have fun.
Corrections and Meta Longevity Discussion
00:00:51
Speaker
Welcome in, everybody. My name is Zeez Wireless, and I am here with Speedy as Chief 2. And I accidentally announced in a previous version of that intro that we are looking at the 2020 competitive season. I don't know whether we should do that. I don't think Pokemon Go was part of the championship series at that point in time. um But the meta wasn't that dissimilar. like I do believe Azu was around in 2020. And that's kind of that's kind of our topic for today. How are you feeling, Speedy? um'm I'm feeling really good and also really old. Thanks for that. ah Yeah. Azu's been good for a very long time, right? But hopefully, right fingers crossed, in the near future, we will get some meaningful meta shakeups. And we're going to discuss that and a lot of other stuff as well. ah In terms of personal life, doing great. Actually, you got a ah couple of ah full nights rest after ah tons of traveling this past month. So I'm refreshed and ready to go and excited to be here with you because
00:01:47
Speaker
I'm going to say this is a banger of an episode.
Olympics Experience and World Championship Excitement
00:01:50
Speaker
yeah I am very jealous of both the traveling and the full night's rest because currently I'm still stuck in the middle of the Olympics as a sports journalist by day. um i'll um i'm I'm busy currently, but I'm already counting down the days until my flight to Honolulu. I can't wait. And I have a team plan out, a team that is very well suited to defeat this meta. So before we get into that, which might be a little bit of an aside um besides the general discussion, um okay I feel like we should look at where we
00:02:28
Speaker
ended off like after NAIC because this is a very weird time of the season and that we don't get consistent updates on where every competitor's head is at in terms of, okay, what is the matter
Candle Cult Tournaments and Meta Analysis
00:02:44
Speaker
of the day? What is the team of six that is successful at this moment in time? because Like we we're recording this at the second of August and NAIC is like eight weeks ago. So yeah yeah, like the dust definitely has settled. And yeah, like if we, if we look back, that was um obviously out of pocket's winning team. Um, I'd had a Vigoroth, a Shadow Quagsire, a Shadow Gligar, a non-Shadow Feraligatr, a Cresselia and a Chargerbug.
00:03:18
Speaker
And if that's the team to beat, um I do believe there's some clear options that come to mind, but I might all look very different by the time Honolulu rolls around, just because there have been so many practice elements since. Is it going to be that different? I mean, let's be honest, right? We know a lot of the key Pokemon are strong. I think that ah we did establish that Shadow Quagsire is definitely going to be a force. ah you You can think De-Sync, you know, AKA Ricardo for that. I think that Umbreon is a little bit on the rise as well as a very stable pick. Although there was only one in the top cut at NAIC, we've seen a ton of them in APAC and I fully expect that Pokemon to appear. Especially if you're looking at your main counter user being Annihilape, right? It almost has a similar issue that Medicham had.
00:04:05
Speaker
having a type that's that's weak to Ghost and Dark. So I feel like there's a little bit more flexibility there. I think the Feraligatr from Out of Pocket was a nice surprise. But I want to say within the top eight at NAIC, we had 17 unique Pokémon. Within the top 16, we only had 30 unique Pokémon. And then in all the top 32, we ended up with 36 unique Pokémon. So the meta does seem pretty freaking condense, right? And that's including things like guillotine origin form, making top cut ah shadow magnet zone in there as well. I think I believe actually a couple of them. At the same time, I feel like, you know, we haven't gotten too many new meta additions. I mean, Thunder Punch, Goodra, everybody was talking about that. ah We just were given the information that shadow Chris Salia is going to make an appearance.
00:04:52
Speaker
Uh, I don't know. I mean, do you, do you think we have a big shakeup coming in? Cause you're right. This is kind of like the dark period. Everybody's kind of shrouded in mystery in their own regions, practicing against other trainers.
Predicting Worlds Meta and Regional Differences
00:05:02
Speaker
And, uh, it's hard to tell what's going to actually make it to worlds. I feel like the the challenge for competitors will be to be ahead of the curve without really knowing what the curve currently is. And i'll have so I have some numbers for you. And these are from my good friend Martijn's recent tournament, the Candle Cult practice tournaments, as they are known. um They happen in his Discord. um Currently about like five or six times a week.
00:05:34
Speaker
And the usage stats for the most recent tournament, only a couple hours old at this point, are 28 Chargerbugs, 28 Lickitungs, 27 Annihilapes, 21 Shadow Gligar, 19 Azumarill, 18 Lantern. That is interesting. That was not really around at NAIC. 16 Cresselia, 16 Skarmory, 15 Shadow Quagsire, 13 Vigoroth. 12 Altaria and then it becomes like less than 10 with Mandibuzz and Skeletorch being the notable front runners of the less than 10 crowd.
00:06:10
Speaker
And then see, that makes total sense to me, right? I think that there's certain Pokemon that are almost, ah and and um how do I say this? Like you can't remove them from their top spot, right? You can't dethrone them. In particular, charge bug as the lead electric type. I know ah we have in our notes here, the rise of, or excuse me, not the rise, the return of lantern. And like you were saying, 16, I believe, lantern in the practice cup. ah Most of them won't running water gun, I would assume. But outside of that Gligar matchup, I just feel like Chargibug just comes across as the superior electric type, ah given the fact that it can also hit so hard against Stark types and psychics as well.
00:06:51
Speaker
Yeah, like dark types in particular, I do believe have a hard time currently because um I feel like we're in a point of the the meta cycle because like the way a meta develops, it's always, okay, like we we need to counter what has been winning at the most recent tournaments. And I do believe with um all those dark types doing super well um during the May tournaments, especially in Latin America, Um, first of all, obviously charge a bug as a bug type, um, with that sub typing and the very spammy accessor kind of rinsed them in a little bit. And then there's also just this big uptick in a zoomer error, which makes it really difficult for dark types to to shine. And I do believe like the current moment is.
00:07:43
Speaker
Okay, like a zoomer will be on quite a few teams. It's one of the more popular water types. It's actually the most popular water types. If you go by this, like very current, very recent um practice c tournament ah data, and if you want to. counter that. um Obviously, Charjabug and Likitang being the top two Pokémon in that specific um practice tournament, it just makes a lot of sense. So I do believe that Azu has kind of scared the darks away. Charjabug is trying to combat combat Azu, which further scares the darks away.
Debate: Vigoroth vs Annihilape as Top Counter at Worlds
00:08:23
Speaker
And with the darks scared away, Likitang has an opening again, being able to beat both Charjabug and Azu at the top of the meta food chain, basically.
00:08:32
Speaker
Exactly. And that's something that cresselia can't even do right cresselia can beat Azu pretty reliably with grass not but the charge book matchup is abysmal against dark type Pokemon matchups are usually abysmal unless it's Gus Lord, and you can land a moon blast with no shields but At the same time, yeah, Lickitong again, when you look at counter users, this is kind of like where we started off. When we first introduced annihilate to the meta, it felt like Lickitong was a great answer. Even though it's a normal type, the ghost type lakes absolutely just drain away the annihilates HP. And then you don't have any hard losing match ups outside of that. There aren't that many registeels. Uh, the skarmory matchup is pretty close and there's very little fighting pressure across the meta. I mean, just look at the fighting type charge attacks, right? You've got close combat.
00:09:15
Speaker
which lowers your defense. You've got super power, which ruins your attack and defense. And then you've got focus blast, which is super expensive. And very few Pokemon have access. And then, yes, Niantic did buff brick break a little bit, but I really don't think that many Pokemon even consider that outside of what, like, Hakkamo or something like that. ah So it definitely feels like Pokemon like Likitung are in a prime position to succeed in the current meta, which is ironic, right? Because Likitung has been good for so long. But, um, yeah, I agree. I think that these practice tournaments, by the way, that inadequate hosts are so useful. And, um, I really would love to see if they actually translate well to, to the next tournament that's coming, right? Because he typically typically runs, I think at least one per month. Most of the time it's multiple per month. Uh, but I'd love to see like, if you took a meta sample and then you compared it to the top cut of the tournament that followed, if it would be, uh, pretty accurate, if it would line up.
00:10:11
Speaker
Yeah, like the interest the interesting thing about these practice tournaments is also like, first of all, I think you said per month, but they're even like, they're weekly, they're weekly, like every week, um he runs like, like at least like one or two, two or three, but now that Worlds is coming up, um there's basically almost every day there's one tournament.
Practice Tournaments and Regional Meta Preferences
00:10:32
Speaker
So it's like really useful. And if you look at the list of competitors, um those are the try-hards. Like it's really useful even if you are maybe newer to the scene to just um get that practice in because you only learn from playing the best at the end of the day if you
00:10:50
Speaker
just beat up on people who are like mechanically inferior in terms of their basic understanding and knowledge of the game. I don't think you really um improve much, but like these tournaments are the opposite of what I just described. These are like tournament winner after tournament winner after tourment tournament winner, basically, and they can be huge. They can be like six rounders. Um, yeah, so like these are like also, if, if people out there are listening to this podcast, but are just used to watching the championship series, these are Swiss style tournaments. So everybody actually gets to play all the six rounds. Whereas in the, um, official tournaments, it's obviously just double eliminate elimination. So if you lose twice a route.
00:11:32
Speaker
um So in terms of practice, you always get like the guaranteed number of rounds, which is just super useful. And I do believe that the meta breakdown from the candle call tournaments will be more accurately reflected in the world's meta than it would be in a regular tournament, just because everybody who gets to participate in worlds is also a person that would be practicing beforehand because it is the biggest biggest event of the season. And it's not just somewhere where you go or register a team and just hang out with friends from the area. It's literally like a remote island in the Pacific. You go there because you
00:12:20
Speaker
earned your way to to that qualification threshold. And then you definitely also want to, like not everybody will be going for the win, I don't think. Like I personally definitely want to do well, but I want to do well in style and I want to be, I want to see that reflected in the team I'll choose. um But yeah, everybody will at least have probably answered like one or two of these practice tournaments. So I do believe what we're seeing is accurate and Yeah, so top of the food chain for electric types, definitely charge a bug still. um you You said that, oh, like Lantern, Watergun Lantern, it has that Gligar matchup, which is obviously still really relevant relevant with Gligar at 21, which is like the fourth most used in that tournament. But I've actually seen posts about Gligar usage trending down a little bit.
00:13:17
Speaker
So I guess like, Gligar used to be at the very, very top. There were probably multiple tournaments where Gligar was the most used Pokémon. Now it's like sitting in fourth, closer to and fifth place and
Role of Flying Types in Current Meta
00:13:30
Speaker
to third place. and um But I do believe that Gligar kind of competes with Pokémon such as Skeletorch for um just a slot on a team because they they have very similar properties, right? Like they're good against fighting types, but they're weak to water types. And Lantron also being good against fire types might come in handy just because like even though Gligar might be on the downturn, there's just like Gligar replacements that could be even more hostile to a charger bug with those incinerates just chunking.
00:14:09
Speaker
I really love the way you put that, right? Because a lot of, a lot of players will look at teams and they'll try to slot together typings or they'll try to slot together coverage. But I think it's so important to consider roles. so What is my anti fighter? What is my primary anti-steal, you know? When you start thinking in those terms, I think you, you afford yourself a lot more flexibility and maneuverability. And I do agree. Like that's actually a really good comparison, Skeletor and Gligar. Gligar is like old faithful, right? If you want a solid, reliable, strong pick that's been strong for many, many months, the season, you really just don't need to look any further than Gligar.
00:14:47
Speaker
And famously with Doonbug and his regional championship runs, Double Ground was a huge strategy for him. You know, at at the time it was Whiskash Gligar. I could see Gligar Quagsire being very, very strong at Worlds this year um because there are just few just so few corebreakers for that. ah You said something earlier about competitors going to the Candle Cult tournaments and really kind of putting their best foot forward. I'm always curious. If top competitors are really showing their hands or if they're just trying things out. And I think a lot of people are different, but I know a lot of top trainers who don't want to scream with anyone that's not a teammate. They don't want to reveal their team in a public setting. And they're, they're very secretive about their preparation for worlds and what they're doing.
00:15:32
Speaker
I thought about asking some people, you know, how your battles are going or send me footage or what do you think is top meta? And it's really tough because it's like a, it's like a sensitive topic with top trainers, almost like talking about money, right? You just, it's one of those taboo things that you don't really do on unless you're super comfortable with the person. One thing about top trainers also is that um like you say, they're very secretive about what team they want to bring. I think a lot of them also just don't know currently because it is so difficult to figure out where we are at with the meta right now. So I do believe if people just run stuff that you maybe would not expect on their final world's team, that might also just be them just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, right? Because like.
00:16:27
Speaker
um I think you always want to have that confidence going into Worlds, and you can really only get that confidence if you um test yourself in a and an environment that is as close as possible to what you will find at Worlds. And I do believe that those practice tournaments are um a way better fit for that than just scrimming with friends. Because even if those friends are really capable at the game and just provide real good practice from a mechanical standpoint, I also do believe that you want to just look at the variety of options that other trainers would bring. And ah one one ah way of putting it is something that I've heard from a lot of trainers
00:17:17
Speaker
um and At some point, if you just play against the the same people over and over for scrims, you're not practicing against a team, you're practicing against a player, and you're basically just getting accustomed to a play style of a person that might not even travel to Worlds, and then you're all surprised Pikachu whenever somebody but comes up and plays it entirely differently. So I believe that while there's merit and secrecy, especially as far as like maybe, um, like special IVs go, because like last world it was the big talk of the town that Axon wanted all with his Medi Slayer Medi. And those very specialized IVs have been a thing.
IV Strategies and APAC Meta Insights
00:18:05
Speaker
Like people have been running that like,
00:18:08
Speaker
i don't I don't know, was it like 13 attack, 8 defense, 0 HP, annihilate? Like those kinds of Pokemon. um So nobody really wants to show their hand in that regard because if people already know, okay, that person really wants their annihilate to win CMP, but maybe they lose a board point here or there. or yeah Like that person can really rely on their chrysalia because they have a high rank, but this person might not have a high rank chrysalia, so I can counterswap, charge a buck, and they won't even get to their second moonblast. Like there's always those little details. Maybe you don't really want to give them away and like practice tournaments like these.
00:18:50
Speaker
so So can we agree to blame Tomahawk for that, for the 15-15-1 annihilates? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We definitely should blame him for that. And it's also like, it's like a race to the bottom in terms of overall stat product, because now that people are running other like a 13 attack one, other people will go for a 15 attack one just to win CMP over that one and sacrifice even more HP. And I would not be surprised if like, whatever world's competitor maybe just says, okay, I don't care. I just accept that I will lose CMP every time. And I'll just have five annihilate counters with my annihilate to not be in that nervous situation and just run the bulkiest goddamn ape that I can find to just counteract the whole trend and have the best neutral annihilate. So I would not rule that out either.
00:19:44
Speaker
Right. It's, it's like when, when the, when the crowd goes left, you go right, you know, go against the, against the tide here, which is actually a very impression considering it's in, it's in Hawaii. Uh, but my honest opinion is that, uh, tournaments like, like Bologna mainly show how tea and pizza and emperors isolate themselves from everyone else so that others can't know anything. And then they play stupid and they win because no one counters it. That's my honest opinion. 100% agree. One more thing though. do know I do believe we are just regurgitating Twitter copy pastors at this point. And there's nothing wrong with that because there's there's wisdom in Twitter copy pastors.
00:20:24
Speaker
Um, the brain rot. So we talked about charge about being the top electric. Let's run through a few more typings. Uh, I see one on our list here is top fighter. I think this is like a two horse argument, or maybe I should say two ape argument. I'm going to say, I'm going to say annihilate has to be the top fighter for worlds this year. What do you think? I disagree. I vehemently disagree. um I think it will be the most, like I don't think it's impossible for Annihilape to win Worlds at all. But I do believe we're at a point in the meta where basically every top pick is able to beat Annihilape.
Annihilape's Potential at Worlds
00:21:07
Speaker
Like, charge about
00:21:11
Speaker
obviously resists counter and it's a little baity with like, oh, do I shield a shadow wall? Do I let a knight slash go? But definitely not a Pokemon where you're super uncomfortable into annihilate. Lickitun. Again, this is a Tomahawk situation where you kind of want that bulk point and that breakpoint, so your annihilate is good against Lickitun, but then you become neutrally worse into other stuff. And it's it's just dicey. it's It's never super easy to compete with the Pokemon that is so much bulkier and also hits you for super effective leak damage. Gligar, terrible for Annihilate. Azumarill, not great. like It's slow to its charge attacks, but player off basically one shots. And then there's stuff like Cresselia, Skeletor, Tremendibus, Altaria. There's so many things that Annihilate really fears.
00:22:00
Speaker
And I do believe because of that, if you have Annihilape on your team versus most teams that you will face, like in most matchups that you will um come up against at the world championship tournament, your Annihilape will basically be bench pressure in case the opponent has a bigger auth. I do believe that's the main relation we're facing. If Annihilape that basically can't come out against most Pokemon that are on the top meta teams, and we have Vigoroth, which is one of the most neutral picks there is, wins zeroes against Shadow Gligar in many cases, completely annihilates Liketan, wins, I think, the one-shields against Chargeburg's Great Bodyslam, as Rockstar does a coverage as well, and can even make the Cresselia match up really close when shields are up, um especially if the Cresselia isn't great IVs. So, Vigoroth,
00:22:54
Speaker
actually has a lot more play into almost every matchup that Annihilape struggles with. But it also just gets you no shield found down by Annihilape every time. So it's like the the most neutral versus one of the most polarizing picks, and they are kind of in a balance. But I do believe that a lot of tournament winners um have won their tournaments because of their ability to capitalize on neutral play so much. um An Eyelape, I will say, an Eyelape is not ah useless in neutral situations, but I do believe you want it wants to be that sweeper type of Pokémon that has a shield or an energy advantage to really capitalize on that Shadow Ball coverage, whereas in just 1v1 situations, it's not looking as pretty as with Vigoroth in many situations.
00:23:46
Speaker
Okay, so you choose Vigoroth as the top counter user, which which again, I felt like it was a 2-8 race ah for ah for counter users.
Vigoroth's Strategic Importance in North America
00:23:55
Speaker
And I have an interesting fact here, because before our show, I actually went through and looked at all the top cuts for all the tournaments this season, with one exception, I don't have the data for the PJCS. So this is everything from Pittsburgh to start the season, to NAIC to end the season. And if you had to guess, right just and just a ah general feel, which region had the most vigoroth make top cut this season? Would it be NA, EU, LATEM, or APAC? And APAC does include Australia, New Zealand, and the TPC regions. So the APAC region and has the word APE in it.
00:24:35
Speaker
so I don't know, like this is, this is not an argument. Um, I think at an earlier point in the season, and IALAB used to be more of a North American Pokemon. So I would, based on that, based on that memory, say that Europe would probably be the region with more Vigoroth in top card, but I feel like I remember more successful Vigoroth runs from North America. And I especially remember the Rajev and Steiner teams, which were identical and had a Vigoroth on it. And I know Lyle Jeffs was a big proponent of Vigoroth at one point. I'll just say North America. I do believe that Vigoroth probably did well there.
00:25:29
Speaker
That's a very good guess. So, in all of our top cuts, EU actually had the least number of vigoroths this season with only 20. 20 vigoroth made top cut in the EU region, followed by LATAM with 23, APAC had 31, and NA comes in first place with 39 vigoroths in top cut. Holy, that's a lot of bigger. ah Yeah. 10 of which were all NAIC, right? NAIC took the top 32. That was also like out of my reasoning, right? Because, oh, there's a 32 people top card tournament that just happened. Surely that's where all the bigger growth went.
00:26:05
Speaker
Exactly right. And then if you flip over and you look at Annihilape, I'll just kind of reveal this one. I know that early on in the season, I remember saying this on some of my my casts right around, I think it was maybe one or two months after Annihilape was introduced. I said, yeah, Annihilape coming over from the EU region. yeah This is a Pokemon that was popularized by Nighttime Clash and Tomahawk and others. And for a little while that held up, but the way the season ended, I could not be more wrong. The least number of Annihilapes in Topcut was actually EU. Only 39 Annihilapes made Topcut, followed by 42 in LATAM and 48 in APAC. And then meanwhile, you have North America with 56 Annihilapes, 17 of which were all NAIC. So if you take away NAIC, we have 39 Annihilapes, so we're tied for EU, but we had a big boost there with the last tournament of the season.
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah, so what I'd be interested in is also the amount of events or more specifically the number of top cutters this is based on because there's probably like a percentage there that could tell us even more about how popular these Pokémon really are beyond like the raw numbers. But yeah, I also wonder whether there will be teams that don't feature a counter user at all, just expecting all those answers to fighting types that are popular currently charge a bug with with Gligar, with Cresselia, with Azu. There's just so much that's hostile to these Pokemon.
00:27:39
Speaker
No, I think you're right. I think there's definitely an opening for for um teams with no counter users, especially because steel is such a rare commodity. And normal outside of Lickitung is pretty tough to come by. It's just it's difficult because trainers do still need a way to beat dark type Pokemon. And it almost feels like your two answers are your counter user and your charge bug primarily. because fairy type is just so tough to run in a steel wing Skarmory meta. But speaking of stealing Skarmory and flyers, I'm going to say the top flyer for worlds this year. I mean, it's so hard to bet against shadow. Gligar. What do you think?
00:28:18
Speaker
I do believe that Shadow Glider will probably be the most used. um Again, it's it's interesting because I know that I put like the, oh, who is the best flyer discussion on there. But as you pointed out um earlier, it's like the thing about flyers is that they serve like they serve so many different
Versatility of Flying Types and Altaria's Role
00:28:39
Speaker
roles. like They are so versatile that you could have three flyers on your on your one team and they all function differently. They all have their own different roles, their own and unique properties basically. And yeah I do believe that Liger, it's just such a comfort pick for so many people and therefore I do believe that we will see a lot of it, especially because
00:29:05
Speaker
um The role of Chargerbug check, or Chargerbug hard answer even, is one that needs to be filled in this meta, and I do believe that um most people that are probably gravitating gravitating towards Gligar, um especially because even though Shadowquack's ire is still a very solid answer to Chargerbug, um It feels a little more bait-dependent with Aqua Tail just not hitting the same as like a Wiscash's Scald would have hit and Stone Edge being um a more expensive move to take out a Charger Bug. So like the whole Mud Boy counters electric type situation. it's It's even been dicey when like Shadow Wiscash was all the rage because if you went straight for Scald and didn't get the debuff,
00:30:00
Speaker
Charger bug had like a world switch or two could actually flip that. So um it was not super comfortable. And Niger is basically always comfortable. Like even if you crunch it, even if you forego that discharge coverage, which you probably shouldn't do now that Azu is so popular, yeah um you will not have a great time against Niger. So yeah, Glaia definitely wanted to look out for it. One thing that I was a little bit surprised about, and I also put this down to primarily um the rise of Azumarill, is that Altaria kind of came and went. Because before the meta shakeup,
00:30:41
Speaker
um I do believe that even during Boulogne or the pga PJCS tournament, Ataria was basically ubiquitous. It was winning tournaments. It was um featuring on top cutting and highly placing teams um basically every week. But now it's like kind of fallen out of favor a little bit. Like it's not gone, gone, but it's probably not a top eight, maybe not in the top 10 pick anymore. Wow. And that is quite interesting because if you look at like Out of Pockets regional winning um team from NAIC, like I do believe that he had Ice Beam on his Ferala Gator specifically to cover for those Ansaria situations. And also as a non-Shadow, you don't really get Dragon Breath down as much, but like Vigoroth, Shadow Cragsire, Shadow Gligar, Chargerbug, Cresselia,
00:31:37
Speaker
What Pokemon would you swap into? And Altaria, say swap there. ah Fair, fair. And that's that's exactly why my ah the last category we have noted here is dragon. I still think out of all the dragons, out of all the Gujuras, the Dragonaires, the Shadow Dragonites, I still think Altaria is the best dragon ah just because of its flexibility. And I actually did the same thing that you pointed out. I looked at this top team from NAIC and I said, man, Altaria would just shred ah if not shred, right? Cause it did get significantly nerfed in terms of sky attack damage. If not shred, it would be a massive nuisance. And I think that, uh, a lot of trainers are going to look for that as well, because again, the only steel type that I see is, is Skarmory these days, maybe the occasional sand slash, but it's such a risky pick. It almost feels like, uh, trainers that do bring something like a sand slash have to, uh,
00:32:31
Speaker
build their team in a particular way and be willing to take big risk on the world stage. It's really tough to bring that Pokemon just, just ask accent. Yeah, I would, I would definitely agree. And I also feel that with dragons, one of the main concerns is that a lot of them just don't really have the stat product to compete. ah You would have to build your team around the dragon almost. And like the most popular ones, obviously Altaria, but also Gazelord and Gudra, they're kind of selected because they're on the Bochia side for a dragon, but that still doesn't really make it so that they can reliably tank more than one move. And I feel like Altaria is probably the most well-positioned. Like you can eat two discharges from ah from a charger bug and still be very fine.
00:33:21
Speaker
yeah um So yeah, I do believe that that's probably the dragon of choice going into worlds.
Dragon Types vs Azumarill in Meta
00:33:28
Speaker
But one thing that I have actually found is that like I was looking into, okay, if I want to run a dragon and Azu is everywhere, what is the most reliable dragon to use? And okay, maybe you go ahead and answer that because that's actually a ah very interesting thought experiment. Uh, the first answer that comes to mind is Goodra. We, with either thunder punch or power whip, depending on how you want to tech it. And the second answer would be Dragalji with gunk shot, but I know you're not going to bring that. ah Like I had a great time with Dragalji in, uh, what's its name? Uh, the most recent cup, it's not fossil fossil is what we have today. Um, and blanking on the name fantasy.
00:34:15
Speaker
Yes, fancy cup. That's, that's its name. Um, so yeah, that was, that was really fun because as it wasn't basically every team. And if you got like a nice dragon tail down and like a gueritina, a gueritina origin, you could just throw the trash can at it and do like 80% of itself. It was so much fun. I played it as well. It's just like the most satisfying charge attack animation in the game in my opinion. and But yeah, like I don't actually believe in Dragalge 2 Worlds as much. um I kind of believe in Gudrah. It's annoying, but I don't really know whether it's like you you get soft losses with it. Or maybe if you get a little bit of a head-on energy, you can do something with like thunder punches.
00:35:05
Speaker
But one thing that I simped today, and I was really surprised by, is that if the Azumarill opts for the move set of Pleraf and Hydro Pump, which a lot of Azus actually have done, just should not be as helpless against the Skeletorch. Because that can just tank the energy, or like it's nothing. um And with no grass surrounding the meta, you don't need Ice Beam that badly. um But if you ah have those two expensive moves on Azu, you flat-out lose the two shields to a Shadow Dragonair. The Shadow Dragonair outs-amens you with body slams and is so oppressive with just like one-turn dragon breathing and landing two body slams before the first player of lands, then you lose the two shields as an Azu without even landing anything beyond bubble damage.
00:35:57
Speaker
So I do believe there is an opening for Shadow Dragon there that hasn't been properly explored yet. And I wonder whether anybody decides to bring that like almost forgotten dragon at this point back into the fold four worlds, especially because it's also a dragon type that can go toe to toe with Basti and the ones and the twos, winning the ones, soft losing the twos, which not many dragon types can do. Wow. Yeah. I mean, that'd be amazing. Dragonaires is always been one of my favorite Pokemon designs ever since I first played red and blue as a kid would be awesome to see it. I'm going to, I'm going to nominate Zardy, right? He seems to be the best shadow Dragonaire player that I know. I'm going to nominate him. Zardy for listening. Bring the shadow Dragonaire to worlds. All right. Swyla said it would work if it doesn't work. Just blame. You get your money back if it doesn't.
Regional Meta Characteristics and Notable Picks
00:36:49
Speaker
Exactly right money back guarantee if Shadow Dragonaire doesn't pull through that's a really interesting point I think Aqua Tail also hits really hard as ah as a shadow form so Gligar has a lot to fear ah the neutral body slams are so nasty because you get one every 12 turns right and Azumarill needs the the six for the first play rough so already you're starting off you know a few turns behind Yeah, that's a really, really good point. I'm wondering though, as we look at the different regions, is there any way that you would categorize each one? Because i again, I went and in ran some numbers. I've talked about the apes already, but I have some other thoughts and some things that really surprised me. I'd love to hear your rundown if you want to if you want to dive into that.
00:37:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So this is is another thought experiment, which like I personally didn't really want to base it in in like data and hard facts. But I'm very grateful that you wanted to do that and have the numbers ready. But we were like talking about, OK, what is the Pokemon that most embodies the team building spirit of the individual regions competing at Worlds? And so I have. I have Pokemon noted down for Europe, for North America, for Latin America, for APAC, but basically just for like the more TPC part of APAC, so like the Asian side of it.
00:38:14
Speaker
and Australia I have separately, because memes, mostly memes, yeah. It's just memes. I know the one. Yes, yes, yes. So my European Pokémon would be Shadow Magnezone. I do believe it originated with an eloquence. Yes. It got popularized by Palasha, and most recently, Colin Six um won Malonia with it. So I do believe Shadow Magnezone solid the European, Um, can travel to all the countries within the European union without having to show its passport. Um, um, North America. Yes. It just crown itself the champion of North America. And I actually got to see one during my, um, time in New Orleans. Like we had a little Bayou tour.
00:39:09
Speaker
Um, and we got to pet a little baby alligator and nice then it crunched above me twice. Um, so for alligator is my, um, North American pick because I just believe that. um but Obviously the big claim to fame is NAIC, but also like I don't believe Blob NA top cut with it pretty early. There were also multiple North American trainers doing really well at NAIC and top cutting with it. So yeah, the Gator is my North American Pokemon.
00:39:42
Speaker
Um, similarly sized Jaws, but, um, a very different profile for my LATAMP pick. Because I do believe we have like three tournament winners from LATAMP that use Gas Lord on their winning team. Ah, nice. And I do believe that that is definitely one that they get to claim now, even though like players like Boppa or, um, Triptando half had their Gas Lord runs. Deonoski, I think had a very, very successful run with Gas Lord. um
00:40:13
Speaker
So like it has been around, but it really had its breakthrough moment in um Latin America specifically. um The Asian Pokemon of choice for me. um I was struggling with that one the most, especially because we don't really get to see that many tournaments. But I think it took second place at the PJCS and it was basically on every team during the Korean qualifiers. I do believe Shadow along in Sandslash is still a very popular popular over, especially in East Asia. um And my Australian pick, obviously Bonk Bonk Bonk Bastiodon is the most Australian Pokemon there is.
00:41:01
Speaker
Agreed, right? Ever since Rob Drago really set set the tone back in 2022 winning with Vasudon, it seems like it's it's really stuck, right? um We actually agree on one of our picks, which is oh is pretty remarkable. Yeah. um Is it Guzzi? You're reacting to Guzzi. Yes, it's Guzzlord. Yes, let's go. Yeah, Guzzlord actually had 13 top cuts in LATAM, only 10 top cuts in NA, only 9 in EU, and just a measly 4 in APAC. So it's definitely a signature LATAM Pokémon.
00:41:35
Speaker
Um, when we look at North America, my pick, we've already discussed it. It's got to be Vigaroth. I feel like the North Americans really go for the safe neutral plays, right? We try to outscale out energy. And I feel like Vigaroth is just an embodiment of that. You could argue, uh, last season Pokemon like Medicham or Umbreon, you know, basically the magic Mason team could, could be, uh, an ode to that, that old reliable, just, you know, outlast your opponent kind of strategy. Vigaroth has to be my pick for North America. So when we turn to EU, right, I have tremendous respect for my EU colleagues. I believe that the EU is a region of innovation. I think that they are much more willing to try new things and to experiment than any of the other regions. However, based on my data, it confirmed my hypothesis.
00:42:26
Speaker
that Alolan Sandslash is the most used top-cut Pokémon of any of the regions landing in EU. 26 Sandslash made top-cut in EU, meanwhile only 24 in NA. And if you look at APAC, for example, like you said, South Korea, There were 19 total in APAC and nine of those came from South Korea, right? So it's only one tournament. And then you, yeah, I've definitely remembered that one, but I love that a stash made it for Europe, both because it got me my tournament win. And also because it did win EUIC after all on Emmy Riedelstein. So definitely worth the representative of ah the European scene.
00:43:09
Speaker
It feels like ah a roll of the dice, right? It feels like a risky Pokemon, huge payoffs. We're really, really crushing defeats. So like we talked about earlier, if you're going to bring this Pokemon to worlds, you have to know intimately, right? down to the nitty gritty details, how your team works and how people are going to play against it because so it's such a polarizing Pokemon that it can do so well or it can just completely fold and give your opponent too much momentum. ah For APAC, this is going to upset inadequence. I'm just going to say it. This is going to make him very unhappy.
00:43:40
Speaker
oh because he was the pioneer. However, there were five Giratina origin forms at Topcut APAC this season, and it will be my pick for the APAC region. Only two in NA and two in EU, and then this actually shocked me. Zero Giratina origin forms Topcut in Laotam this season, not a single one. Damn, is that an accessibility issue or is it just um what happens when everybody has a gust load? Right. maybe Maybe the, the guzzlord is just the superior dragon. And that's just kind of how it got, it got pushed around. It's a gear to an origin form for APAC. And then actually I lied. We agree on two points. Australia, New Zealand is bonk, bonk, bonk, smack down, back down, bass it on. Right. my My second, my honorable mention would be Weilmer for PVP Steve. Oh yeah. Yeah. That, that was, that was fun. I do believe Tomahawk also tried it once in in Europe, but wasn't quite as successful successful as PVP Steve.
00:44:37
Speaker
I mean, a Wailmer. Yeah. But, but Tomahawk did make grands with Shadowbasty, which is pretty impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is definitely true. Oh, it's, do we, do we see a pattern there? Is Tomahawk like a secret Australian agent that runs all their signature Pokemon and European tournaments? Wow. A double region agent. Tomahawk UK. Uh-huh. I see how it is. Yeah. More like Tomahawk AUS. Yep, yep. yeah we need and we need a name change pronto. ah But yeah, I think that that pretty well characterizes it. A couple of really shocking things that I found. I thought that Townflame Obama Snow was EU through and through. It turns out 12 Townflame made top cut in NA and only 10 EU. Oh, yeah, it's it's so interesting because Townflame Obama Snow was like the core for like one weekend.
00:45:36
Speaker
yeah We had that core three times in the Dortmund top four. It was on my team, it was on Colin's team, and and it was on Marcus's team, on Asya's team. So that was a big proof of concept for that core, and then it just vanished. I don't know what happened, but... Yeah, like Obama Snow, sneaky good actually. Shadow Obama Snow, looking quite fine into um what currently poses as the top meta, with it actually being able to um beat Chargerbug very, very cleanly in the tools. If you have
00:46:12
Speaker
Um, like a certain attack, right? You don't need a lot of attack, but there's like, uh, a weather, and not a weather, how does no break point that you definitely want to get. So you can beat charge a bug very cleanly in the tools. You obviously break like LIGA water course with like Azu or lantern being popular, um, picks like that. But like you you will have to look out for scathered urges of
Challenges and Potential of Abomasnow
00:46:36
Speaker
fighting types. So yeah, Avalosnow might be a sneaky overlook pick for worlds. But it's definitely, it comes with its downsides, right? Especially because like the one thing that puts me off Avalosnow in this particular um meta is just that Feraligator is a water type that doesn't fear it.
00:46:55
Speaker
And yeah, that's just like really difficult if you're a grass type that doesn't even win against a squishy water. Well, if like you pointed out, fire in fighting have historically always been tough for Obama. So, but what about stealing Skarmory? I mean, that's a Pokemon that the steel wings just pound away at that ice typing. And it's really, really tough to beat that Pokemon in even shield scenarios. It almost feels like you need to throw, um I think it's like three icy winds to KO a Skarmory, which is just at that point, you've taken, you know, minimum of of almost 20 steel wings. That is very true. But that is also why it's the Obama's no talent flame core. Right. So you have your fire ti to come for the steel wing guy.
00:47:40
Speaker
And then you have the Obama Snow for everything else. And like one of the nice things about Obama Snow is also that it has ah core breaking qualities that not many Pokemon do have. like Very few Pokemon would bring a Gligar lead and a Quaxire in the back. like That was one of the like double ground. That's what we talked about just 10 minutes ago. It's almost unbreakable. And in comes Obama Snow and just breaks it, even though Gligar can get shaky depending on energy management. Yeah, and moveset too, right? If you're, if you're even energy, you know, opening matchup, uh, weather ball is much preferred to icy wind, uh, given the Gligar matchup. Um, but I, I ran through several different Pokemon. I looked at Talonflame, Abomasnow, Magnezone, Wigglytuff, Alolan Sandslash, Vigoroth, Klotzire, Guzzlord, Skeletor, Denialait, Mandibuzz, Giratina, Origin Form, Carbink, Umbreon, and Feraligatr.
00:48:32
Speaker
and your for alligator sense was correct 11 for alligators top-cut North America only one in EU only one Gator across we didn't have didn't we have I don't know like it feels like we didn't have so like all that many um tournaments when Gator was good and viable. I feel like um like the big NEAC bump for Gator definitely played a part in why the numbers are that high. I do believe that there will be like probably a few Europeans that give Gator a go because the proof of concept is is there ever since ah Pocket took NEAC.
00:49:12
Speaker
Hmm. I agree. It's ironic. Oh my gosh. Sorry. I'm looking at my sheet and I just, I'm so sorry. It's so ironic. The only Gator to make top cutting EU. You're actually very familiar with. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. yeah i am proud of that yes Yes. Oh God. Yeah. It wasn't an Italian Gator and a high probability of lowering the defense. um Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I didn't play my best that day. Let's just put it that way. We, yeah, we don't need to relive that fully. I just looked at the sheet and I was like, no effing way. Is it this person, uh, being scoffer, right? But let's, let's move on. We have spent a lot of time talking about the different regions. Um, I'm curious, what are your top three meta-breakers for Honolulu? Because you mentioned Obama snow being really strong. I'm not sure if that major cut for the top three, but, um, I have a, I think I have a very interesting number one's pick for mine.
00:50:08
Speaker
Okay, so i will I will start with my third and actually talked about it already and um we we even promised that Zadi would get his money back if he decides to run it, but doesn't.
Meta-breakers for World Championship
00:50:23
Speaker
go far with it. It is Shadow Dragonaire. um i do believe that there's like I was almost about to include Shadow Gyarados, because that's not kind of my secret sauce these days, but just having a dragon that can beat at least one variety of Azumarill
00:50:43
Speaker
It just feels so valuable in a meta where Azu is like the only hard dragon answer. ah you can probably like If more people go for the Player of Hydro move set, um you can probably just say, swap Dragonair into almost every team unless there's a Skarmory. I would suggest people pair their Shadow Dragonair with a Fire type, such as Skeletorch. which will scare off Ice-types a little bit, which will scare off Skamri's a little bit, um and which will also be able to just simply wall a zoom roll if they don't have the Play Rough Hydro moveset, because everybody runs Play Rough, right? Nobody runs um Ice Beam and Hydro Pump, which would be like the one thing that breaks the core. But like you could just save swap a Scanner Birch, and if the Azu gets onto it, you still take its shield and the zeroes,
00:51:41
Speaker
um So, yeah, I feel like ah Fire type plus Shadow Dragonaire core is something that is fairly neutral and very oppressive, and that could be utilized to great effect during Worlds. Interesting. Okay. So, Skeletorge, one of your picks, or just the Dragonaire? It's just the Dragonaire. I feel like Skeletorge is meta at this point. I don't believe it will do well, but it's not particularly, in like, it's not a standout pick for me. I try i try to be interesting. Mm, I see, I see. Well, actually, I like the pick a lot. And I like that it's a bit of a throwback because my ah my number one pick is definitely a throwback. ah So my third place pick for meta breakers for Honolulu is actually going to be regular for alligator. And um I think that Pocket really showed us that the regular is where it's at. And this is in opposition to a tweet. I know I read one tweet already today. I'm going to read another one. This is ah June 27th from no none other than Martine.
00:52:39
Speaker
Quote, non shadow for alligator is cope and underwhelming. It's like running a non shadow Gligar. Sorry, but someone had to say it. Well, Martine, I think that a regular for alligator really showed its metal at NAIC. And I think that slight additional bulk you get is actually what ensures one extra hydro cannon or getting to that ice beam with just a couple HP left. And I think that it's just much more reliable, and it doest doesn't turn into a resource sync in terms of shields ah when it's regular form. So I think, like we talked about a few times here, Feraligator will make an appearance. I think it'll be on more than just North American teams. My take on that is that regular Feraligator is underwhelming for GBL, but preferred for Show6. That's my take on it.
00:53:32
Speaker
Agreed. Alright, number two pick. Your first one was Shadow Dragonaire. What do you have for number two? um My number two pick is actually one that doesn't want to face off against Faralligator at all, but one that does a similar job of sorts. um It's a little bulkier, but it has similar coverage, and it is actually jellicent. Because I was looking at the top picks, and if you just see, okay, there's a charger bug, a good jellicent can actually pull a shield from a charger bug.
00:54:07
Speaker
um So it's just bulky enough to manage to do that. Likertang, obviously you would have to build around that in a way that you really scare away Likertang with Pokemon such such as Vigoroth or other very solid answers to that Pokemon. um But it's just like, you have to you have to do that whenever you want to run a ghost, right? Giratina Origin is probably even more RPS and it's still been able to win tournaments. um Then there's Annihilate, obviously.
00:54:45
Speaker
Very good matchup for Jellison. Shadow Gligar, if you have um a bulky Jellison, there's no way Gligar can flip that. If you have not the bulkiest Jellison, I can actually flip that, but just have a good IV one and you will be fine. ah zumao Please, like you're not going to bubble the jellison down. You just take two shadow balls and you probably lose that matchup as the Azu. Lantern, um Watergun Lantern does not win against jellison. um And Spartan Lantern is basically extinct. Cresselia? Well, like Grassnut is a little iffy, but so is Shadow Ball if you're like on the receiving end of that. Skarmory? Have fun doing resist resisted steel wings. Quag's iron? Your cheap move is resisted, and your expensive move is still just non-stab. The growth?
00:55:39
Speaker
Okay, we can go down the list, but you see, Gelsan has so many good matchups. And as long as somebody really decides to build around it and have like two hard, leaky answers and three soft leaky answers, maybe. I do believe there there could be a deep, jettison run. um Actually, I saw a community member save our avocado. She was running a very unique jettison team composition at NEIC and almost made day two, even though she didn't really
00:56:14
Speaker
go into the tournament with the ambition to make Day 2. And it was partially on the back of that jellison that just found so many positive matchups. So I do believe that there is some ah some potential there. Yeah. It's one of those Pokemon that if you're the opponent and you sit down across from your, your next round, uh, competitor and you look at their team, she and you see jealous and you're just like, what the hell, uh, what am I supposed to do against this? Right? I think it's a really good Pokemon. It's got tons of tons of potential. And I think it's based on, uh, three factors. The first is that ghost is a very strong typing in the championship series. It has been for a long time. I think that water, I mean, come on water, right? It's. forever, right? Swampert, Quagsire, Azumarill, Lantern, Pelipper, whatever, whatever water type you want to throw out, it's always been consistent. And the third is it's bulk. It's one of the bulkiest non XL Pokemon that you can, you can play. And I think that, uh, that gives it a lot of staying power. Plus the hex counts are tough, man.
00:57:16
Speaker
at Point number four, counting hexes and and knowing when the shadow ball or the surf is ready can get super confusing, especially when your opponent it starts to bait. So it's not an easy Pokemon to play against. I think i think that's a respectable pick. ah For myself, thank you ah for myself um my number two pick, I was actually inspired by Elam because Elam did really well at NAIC finishing fourth place. And you could tell he leaned into this Pokemon a lot, especially in critical moments when it didn't look like that was something he would reach for. Maybe it was a ah risky pick in terms of team composition. You're just bringing up all my recent IC trauma, aren't you?
00:57:56
Speaker
But I will say, yeah, I hand picked this list just to frustrate you. No, I'm just kidding. But ah originally I had Skeletor in this slot, but I was thinking, no, that's that's too meta. you You even said earlier, it's meta, right? I'm going to go with carbink. I think that where Elam went wrong and he, we actually talked about this a little bit at the tournament is that he leaned a bit too hard into it, especially as he got higher and higher up the, up the tournament ladder. And it felt like if he would have flexed some of his other Pokemon a little more, more openly than he could have maybe even advanced further.
00:58:30
Speaker
But carbink was so key for him in so many matchups. and If you look across the board, right? Chargebug, Mandibuzz, Skeleturge, Goudra, Altaria, all these Pokemon really do not want to see a bulky rock fairy type. So I definitely think that's ah that's a powerful pick. It's going to take a little bit of a unique composition, right? In a similar way that like sand slash requires a really unique team built around it. I think that Car Binks weakness to ground and water are very unforgiving and you need to be very cognizant of how you play it. I think that Aero provided a really good blueprint, at San Antonio fell a little short, and then Elon provided another good blueprint. So I would really love to see trainers bring Car Bink to Hawaii.
00:59:14
Speaker
That's definitely not something that I want to see. but what you did Your jealousy beats it. so Does it really? I wonder whether that's even true. I do believe that if it's hex-jealous, there's some scenarios where Carving can actually win that. um But yeah, i I do believe that Carving is very like sneakily strong in so far as that some players might not consider it as much. And that's like always why these why this is so fun to think about, OK, what breaks the meta? Because there's just blind spots in team building that people think they can afford until they see that one Pokemon, right? And Carving is definitely a one that can dismantle those holes in in certain teams. It has done that in the past. It is known to do that.
01:00:05
Speaker
um but Yeah, my my top pick is actually one that um I've seen quite a bit in those recent practice segments actually. I know that Kazim33 from the UK is a big believer. um It's Whimsicord. It's basically strange Cresselia in a way. And I do believe being strange Cresselia is pretty good because Cresselia already is pretty good. And if you add a little bit of unprectable and unpredictability, um that can really go far because Cresselia has certain weaknesses to Pokemon such as Umbreon, for example.
01:00:52
Speaker
um and also to Pokemon such as Chargerbug. And Whimsicot provides much of the same coverage, while also being decent to good against those kind of Pokemon that some people put on the team specifically to counter Cresselia. It still doesn't mean that Whimsicart is just a Pokemon that beats everything. It still has many of the same weaknesses, such as Skamri or Skeletorch. And it's also significantly less bulky, turning matchups such as like the Vigoroth matchup into something a lot more challenging.
01:01:27
Speaker
But I do believe that trainers who are very familiar with their whimsical and managed to build a team around it to really accommodate it in a way that um your opponent would be hard pressed to even try and bring out like a Skarmory. um you could really put the pressure on people that might feel comfortable bringing like their attack weighted Cresselia into an attack weighted Cresselia attack weighted Ataria into a Cresselia and oh, I have a plan for this particular Pokemon. But now the Pokemon looks like a cotton ball and has different resistances and just completely throws me for a loop. And then things could get interesting. So I do believe that there is an opening for whimsical gameplay. And there have been some trainers that have
01:02:16
Speaker
somewhat make it work. I do believe in Bologna we had a whimsy cut and top cut, and I also do believe that from the PJCS um tournament there has been a qualifier with whimsy cut. Yeah, also, I'm sorry. so I just wanted to shout out, I think pometotoro was the Japanese player that um piloted whimsy cut to success. ah Yes, I think this is also um validation for Arrow, right? Because Arrow loved ah playing Wimsicott. I believe he brought it to EUIC. Yeah, don't don't validate Arrow too much. We don't want to embolden him. He will play ABA lines and completely wipe people out.
01:02:58
Speaker
just just like we we I'll say it right here. if If there's like one person, I would be a little afraid of playing during the world's tournament. It would probably be Arrow, just because typically I try to build like logical lines and he just eats logical lines for breakfast. yes And yeah, like Whimsy definitely helps with that because it's such a good corebreaker. Also like this is all in good fun, no shade to arrow at all. I love that he is
01:03:31
Speaker
I'm conventionally with this team building and we need more of that. This is what I have to say on this. I agree. he He lives and dies by the ABA, right? And I think that if famously, I believe it was status stand honed in on that. And he totally called Eero's ABA flying team, if I'm not mistaken, and really made life difficult for the Texan. but Yeah, i would I would love to see him bring some things like that. Some whimsicots, carvings, some Charizard. Who knows? Who knows what Arrow's cooking up? ah Fun stuff, for sure. Fun stuff, exactly. Well, my number one pick is definitely a throwback, but I was thinking,
01:04:09
Speaker
You know, what can one shot Gligar? What can one shot a lantern? What can take shields in just about any situation? And given the fact that there's very little grass in the meta, what what typing would really thrive? My number one pick, Corebreakers. This is an old head pick. It's Swampert. I think that. Yeah, I think Swampert. Hasn't heard his name in a while. and around It's been 84 years. No, I think, uh, I think Swampert is actually sneaky good, especially if there aren't, uh, if there's not a dragon on the opposing side, uh, because grass is basically extinct. You're going to hit Gligar really hard. I mean, Gligar can no shield an Aqua tail from, uh, from a quag sire. And because of the mudshot doesn't do too much damage, you can kind of hang in there, but taking a hydro cannon is a way different ballgame. And I feel like, uh, Swampert, especially with a couple of mudshot energy advantage. Could regain its place as one of the top closers in the meta. Yeah. That pacing is so nasty, especially because like against whiskers back in the day, um, even though you would only get to an aerial ace before they get to a scald, you would still get to a move before they do. But like with that five, four, five pacing.
01:05:24
Speaker
And it's just like a much harder hitting move than Arco Tail from Kwexile. Yeah, Swoppard can really put the pressure on. And I also do believe that out of all the mud boys, like basically all of them feigned to one grassknot or one powerwhip from Likitsang or Cresselia. um But Swampert is uniquely able to fight back just because you can just farm up the energy, throw a Hydro Cannon, and then maybe catch a move or dip out and just farm up later again and just do it all again. Just because your move is so hard-hitting and comes out so fast and you're relatively attack-weighted. It's definitely more of the sweeper kind of Pokemon. I do believe that Watergun Lantern will make life a little more difficult for it.
01:06:10
Speaker
Um, but yeah, like Shadow Swampert, I do believe it's viable. We don't see it around at all anymore, but if one were to bring it, I do believe if it would still prove very useful. Yeah, I'm looking at some of the even shield matchups. It's not going to beat Vigoroth or Annihilape in even shields. So I definitely think you would have to play similar to what you were describing, where you ah you lead it, get a few much shots worth of energy, make a switch, and then you come back. Because once you get, it's similar to frost slash in that sense, right? Once you get a few fast attacks in, you can just just absolutely pound your opponent with charge attacks over and over again. And I think Swampert is it's definitely going to shred. so
01:06:48
Speaker
We'll see. I don't know. I mean, two of us used to call it the best closer and open great league. We're going to find out if it still is good a year after he made the statement. We'll see outside of worlds. There are tons of events going on in the game.
Adventure Week and PvP Relevance
01:07:01
Speaker
We have, I think that if correct me if I'm wrong, this might be the first time you've seen it. We have adventure week and then adventure week taken over, which I guess is like team rocket infiltrating a adventure week. Uh, how do you feel about the event? Is there anything relevant for PVP players? I love that we get another frustration event like TNOA frustration. It's not a frustration event. It's basically the anti-frustration event. I love that we get that before Worlds because yeah we definitely want everybody to have all their um ah there are recent catches um at their disposal.
01:07:36
Speaker
So that's quite nice. um The new shadows are relatively uninteresting for play Pokemon purposes, for open rating purposes. There will be the the Timber family, the Archon family, and the Tertuga family. Um, so that's quite nice. If you want like a shadow con calendar for like master premiere or like a car Acosta for limited matters where you can do like shadow rock throws in certain situations. So those are like worth picking up, but there are no priority at all for.
01:08:07
Speaker
regular Open Grid dictionary shenanigans. One interesting thing is that Giovanni will actually now drop Cresselia, Shadow Cresselia, which I do believe is um mostly a downgrade from regular Cresselia just because of the way they um its stats are weighted. You definitely want the bulk on that Pokemon and not necessarily more attack. I don't believe there's like one or two matchups that you do pick up in certain shilling scenarios, but the overall score on PB Poke is just much lower. And also you have to keep in mind that I think the IV floor for that kind of legendary is six. So you won't get to use a high rank shadow crystal. Yeah. Even if you tried.
01:08:53
Speaker
Before we started recording, I was listening to tap tap cast with Lundberg and adequate and their special guests butters. And they have a really good segment of, uh, discussing the match-ups Martine and butters just go back and forth because, you know, they're both break point, and bug point gurus who really studied the shielding scenarios. And they were just arguing, you know, rapid fire back and forth. It's a really good conversation. Uh, if you want to check out another Pokemon go PPP podcast, that's quite, quite good. But a yeah, I agree with you. There's like a couple of matchups here and there, a couple of choice things. ah Butters even made the point. He said, well, if you have the boosted psycho cut damage, you can actually ah win against Annihilape in certain situations. And then Martine fired back and said, well, if you have a slightly attack way to Chrisilla, you can do that anyway.
01:09:39
Speaker
So why do you need the shadow? Right. Uh, and in my mind, when I saw this Pokemon teased, I was thinking, is this going to be like a shadow Hypno style thing where Hypno, incredibly bulky, non-excel, psychotype Pokemon benefited it tremendously from being a shadow. I think that the shadow is preferable in almost every situation. And, um, and then again, in tap tap cast, uh, the point was made that if you're going to go that route, you might as well run confusion, Chris Elia for the extra damage, which I don't see anyone doing that at worlds. I think psycho cut is way too flexible, way too dynamic. So, uh, yeah, long story short, I think for high level competition, the regular one, like you said, is still ideal.
01:10:20
Speaker
You can be like Lurgan Rocket and just try to reroll them at every event you go to to try to get a better one. The Shadow one will be fun, but probably only for like, you know, GBL situations and stuff like that. Yeah, one thing I will say is that I do consider it worth picking up. just because you never know. Maybe there's a themed cup where confusion just goes completely wild, and you want that confusion Cresselia, and you want the extra shadow damage. So that might well be the case. So I'll definitely be ah doing one or two. like I've been saving my raiders for a while now, and I'm going to try to pick one up. But yeah, ah a good high-rank non-shadow Cresselia will probably still be superior in 98% of situations.
01:11:04
Speaker
I actually need to fight Giovanni because I want the medal in the game that that awards the Giovanni outfit. I wore it at Worlds last year and actually I actually don't have it in the in the actual game. So that's something I'm looking to remedy. I'm definitely going to fight Giovanni as many times as I possibly can, which I think the maximum number is two. if I'm not mistaken, but, um, it should be, it should be a really good time unless you have more radars, more super rocket radars. But speaking of rockets, uh, you mentioned that during the adventure we taken over, we can team away frustration. What's really cool is that we get from the eighth to the 12th of August, which is essentially what five days we get to team away frustration, but then we get another chance to team away frustration at the world championships event from August 16th through the 20th. So we actually have 10 full days to team away frustration, which.
01:11:52
Speaker
I'm not sure that there's ever been an event that long that allows you to do that or a combination of events that long, um which is, I'm definitely really thankful for it. Like you said, maybe we should call it the relief event and at the frustration event. yeah and Honestly, I just love that it basically is such a smooth transition into the the world championships event um just because like I do believe that these in-game events, these in-game tie-ins that directly reference the Play Pokemon Championship series are super important to get more people interested in PvP in the first place because yes there is no better way to really showcase the excitement this game can provide, especially PvP can provide.
01:12:33
Speaker
Then through the broadcasts where those trainers are put on air, those competitors are put on air and you showcase their reactions and their strategies and you have like people like you who will be casting words explaining um everything to the audience. And just having such a large event with so many um valuable features tied into um the the World Championships, I do believe that could provide a much-needed boost for um the GBL player base and just the PvP community as a whole. um To go over the bonuses for the World Championship event from ah Friday 16th of August to Tuesday 20th,
01:13:15
Speaker
um there There will be a code for an in-game shirt, so people in ah the Twitch chat will be spamming exclamation mark code probably. um So that is like one shirt you can obtain. There's also just a regular, I think it's like a Hawaiian themed kind of snorkeling outfit. I don't know, it's only a Hawaiian theme that you can just obtain in-game just through regular means without having to watch the stream. But a lot of cosmetics, also um the scuba diver champion, world champion pose outfit, clothing,
01:13:53
Speaker
That was revealed with that blog post and I feel like it is... of Love it or hate it. Yeah, it is it is polarizing and I will say as much. um I do believe it either ranks second or third in terms of my personal preference regarding world championship outfits. My personal number my one is still the very first one, the London themed one. I think that looks pretty nice. um I think those snorkels do look kind of goofy, but I will i would
01:14:26
Speaker
be gladly looking goofy until the end of my days if I get to take away those take away take home those pose that pose and those outfits so um yeah that's like that's like trade-offs right but yeah overall I do believe it's difficult to come up with something Hawaiian themed that um It's like, conscious respectful yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's what I was trying to get at. And I feel like if you go down the snorkeling road, that's something that everybody can agree on. And it's so it looks and looks fun still. it's You can't deny that it's fun. It might not be as imposing and and victorious as you would expect a world championship pose to look, but it's fun.
01:15:11
Speaker
Uh, so I can just hear the cope. I'm so sorry. Um, it's fun. It's really, uh, to be honest, I hate it so much that I love it. It's come all the way back around where, where I look at it and I'm like, man, this is dumb. and the longer i look at it the more i'm like you know what it's weird but it's definitely still a flex i think it's it's still acceptable and ah maybe we need to talk to uh accent or rob but in terms of customization you mentioned the goggles i think the goggles are a headpiece item that you can change
01:15:45
Speaker
And I also, I also think the pants might be as well, because I think if I'm not mistaken, the jacket with the world championship belt is the main piece of clothing. I'm not sure if everything else has to be equipped at the same time. Okay. Okay. Okay. Because the jacket actually looks good in my opinion. Right. If you put that with, uh, with the Blanche pants, you know, the dark blue Blanche pants, and then a different, you know, hat or helmet or whatever, I think it could look really good. It's not like, um, it's not like Axon's outfit from Japan where it comes with a literal hoodie. Like you can't really change that. Uh, and I think, uh, if I'm not mistaken, Rob's comes with a hat, but I'm not sure if he can take that off. So maybe we need you do to do some research there, but there are some customization options.
01:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, i one one thing that I will say is um that the whole scuba diver gear looks very good on the world's Pikachu that we get. yes And I don't think that's a good feature to just throw open all the collectors and PvE people so they actually go out and play that event and engage with it. um Because like there's the the scuba Pikachu There is a Mianfu Shiny release, which is also something that um a lot of people that might not care about PVP as much um really appreciate and will go for. And maybe that helps them as their first point of contact with the PVP community.
01:17:09
Speaker
um and There's five special trades a day, which is so valuable if you want those Gaslords, Tapu Finis, Cresselias, Regi Steeles, like with good PvP IVs to use in Open Great League. So that's definitely something that really helps PvPers especially. um Frustration will be TM-able, you already mentioned that, and what I think is great about that is that you have themed shadow raids that feature PvP relevant Pokémon. You get to raid Woopa, you get to raid Magnemite, you get to raid Dratini, you get to raid Sableye. I believe there was one as a Gligar I believe too. Yeah, there's just so many viable great big Pokémon that many people have not been able to obtain a shadow of and that will come back and will be around for this event in raids.
01:17:59
Speaker
um So that will be sweet. The world encounters are just a bunch of PvP staples. um Some, like Likitang, will immediately have access to their Elite TMable move, like a Body Slam. And others, like especially the Community Day Pokemon, Ataria, Charjabuk, Quaxire, and Talonflame, will get their special move upon evolving. So um a great opportunity to just save your Elite TMs and instead just um, evolve or catch for a Pokemon that you might want on your roster. Um, another big one is, um, a $5 ticket for a research Cresselia. Um, and a lot of other stuff like, I don't know, Stardust, I think, and just the regular items, but the main draw will be that level 15 Cresselia that will be immediately under 1500 CP. Um, so very important for PVP at this moment in time.
01:18:54
Speaker
Um, there's also like TM bundles available in the web store, which like, if you have a lot of money, then. Sorry. I was going to say you, you haven't even talked about how you can pay $20 and get four elite charge TMS. I mean, come on. What's not to love. <unk> like
01:19:15
Speaker
It's a, it's a like, do do they have like the drag on their clothes where if, if I'm not happy, I can get my money back also. i say No, you, you, you agree to the terms of service. No, no refunds ever. those sounds of service Oh yeah, they're, ah they're pretty gnarly. I watched a few videos on that, but I know that's not what we're, we're here to discuss. Um, yeah, absolutely. I think the shiny me and foo is a cool collectible type thing. Uh, if you realize, um, back to previous seasons, Pokemon go and Niantic have done this multiple times where they kind of promote fighting type Pokemon during the world championships. So I hear a lot of folks saying, Oh, me and show isn't meta. It'll never be good.
01:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, but the only reason it's in this event is a to debut a new shiny and be because it's a fighting type Pokemon and I think that those are always like, you know trainer battles fighting is just goes along with the themes I don't mind that that actually makes a lot of sense and I don't even know whether that's still the case but for the longest time my like ah Twitter slash X header was just the Pokemon Go background for the fighting typing. Like it's like the entrance to a dojo or something. So like the fighting type being associated with PvP is actually something that I've made your use of in the past. So I can't really blame Niantic to go with the same theme. um and Another thing that I actually like is that they um
01:20:46
Speaker
have the option to do um catch cup battles during that week. It is a go battle week as well, so more um more battles available, and more sets available every day during the duration of the event. And the reason why I don't hate that is because A, they don't force you into catch cup, like they have all the leaks available and then catch cup.
Catch Cup for Beginners and Rumored Updates
01:21:09
Speaker
And B, they also have all the good PvP Pokemon available during that week. So if somebody is actually like really new and wants to play against other beginners first,
01:21:21
Speaker
They can just go out, catch their roster, and hop into Catch Cup to play people at a similar skill level who have done the same. So I don't believe that's actually quite a good way to utilize the much-rated Catch Cup. um And yeah, that does it for the, let's say official part of the event. I have heard rumors on Twitter, but that's mainly hearsay that um there will also be, okay, that one is still official. It is confirmed that there will be a scavenger hunt type of event for people at the venue in Honolulu.
01:21:56
Speaker
And the Twitter rumors go something like, okay, there will be research pathways. Those research pathways will feature Pokemon such as Pangoro, such as, I think, Galarian Weezing was one of them, and um Malama was another one. And those seem odd choices, right? Because if you look at everything else this event provides, it's very, very much um catering towards, yeah, this is the current meta. And the conspiracy theory around that is that those Pokemon might make up the future meta. And that is by no means confirmed. But I think it's, it's a very fun conspiracy theory. And I was ah really like,
01:22:43
Speaker
I don't know why anybody would do a Pankoro themed event. I guess it's also a fighting type, so maybe maybe that comes into play. But but still, I feel like the the choices that were reported um would be odd if they come to pass. um But yeah, maybe maybe it all ends up being a very different event, and the scavenger hunt is about something else. Maybe it's just like, oh, And this is just like, I don't know, Niantic wants to spice it up and wants to wants people to use more unique Pokemon in the Go Battle League. Or maybe the kind conspiracy theorists are correct. I don't know yet.
01:23:27
Speaker
Well, okay. There's the conspiracy theorists. And then there's also looking at the track record for Niantic and history as it, as it were. And, uh, let's be honest while it's work after this, the season is over starting in September, we're going to get six more months of Gligar, uh, shadow quag sire. Come on, you got to be you got to be realistic, right? I mean, Niantic is not known to make massive changes like that. You might see like three or four top meta Pokemon fall out. I do believe like we were was like a year ago, right? Like they always always give new moves or like significant buffs to like two or three Pokemon. And those then become the new meta. And like I'd be here for a pangoro meta. Like I like that panda. I have one for greatly.
01:24:15
Speaker
it would It would be fun, right? It would definitely be fun. I feel like September is Niantic's like biggest opportunity to really shake up the meta. I feel like after Worlds, everyone has digested and they passed out the ah the current meta. right They're no longer interested in it and they want something new and fresh. So September is the most likely candidate. And I feel like as the season goes on, Niantic makes fewer and fewer adjustments and is is trying to like safeguard the meta more so when they get to ah the summertime. But I don't know. I mean, that'd be really cool. Some some Pokemon like Galarian Weezing, we've seen them in Fantasy Cup before. We know the moveset's pretty solid. It's got a lot of versatility. um Yeah, I mean, I would love to play in ah in a brand new meta with new Pokemon. But again, this is... This is Niantic we're talking about, and we've got, ah what, 60 years of history with this company in PVP. We typically know what they do. Like like with Niantic, I know that if they want to do a thing, they typically can do the thing, but there are a lot of times more likely to not want to do the thing. so like I will not get my hopes up just yet, but I also do believe that September has typically been good to me in terms of um
01:25:33
Speaker
satisfying my expectations towards move updates and such. So, um, I'll just, I'll just take it one boom burst at a time and see what the future holds. But, uh, Barcelona was in September, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love adapting to those new letters. Right. And if they, if they do the same thing with Semiran, like I'll be, I'll be at Dortmund. I'll be, I'll be competing. So. Hmm. Interesting.
Integrating Streaming with Go Battle League
01:26:03
Speaker
Well, Niantic, if you're listening, please shake up the meta, please change some things because I mean, this could be like you said, this could be the fighting theme. This could be in line with the ah team away frustration theme. Because if you look at some of the Pokemon you mentioned, ah they are kind of, you know, primarily dark types or maybe they are like team rocket esque Pokemon like wheezing, right?
01:26:25
Speaker
so it could be that as well we're just gonna have to stay tuned but ah what i would really love is for uh for actual information about the meta to be released during the broadcast that would be so sick because i did that during the long run i loved that Yeah, right. I think that integrating more the play Pokemon streams with the actual GBL updates, it's just like free publicity, right? It's like, it's like a bullhorn for what you're trying to say on the town square, because not only is it a blog post, it's actually on a broadcast. And if you look back at worlds, I believe it was 2022 or no, I think it was 2023.
01:27:03
Speaker
We had like 49,000 peak viewers on the channel at one point. So if you got that many people watching and you tell them about a brand new meta, you can you best believe the hype is going to be real. So fingers crossed. I think everyone should tune into worlds the world's broadcast and just see what happens. I will not be doing that, but that's only because I will be there. congratulation Everybody else should please tune in. It will be a great time. It will be a good show. Very
Upcoming Changes to Qualification System
01:27:32
Speaker
fair point. So I wanted to ask you this, Silas, because I know we queued up this episode as being a big one and a meaningful one. And I know a lot of players are curious because we talked, we talked a lot about worlds. We talked a lot about the season, what defines a region, what defines a player, what players are most likely to bring, et cetera.
01:27:51
Speaker
But I'm curious, what are your thoughts on 2025? Because we basically have a revamped qualification system. ah I'm just going to spitball here. I believe that locals took a bit of a nerf. I think that ICs are not going to award more points. I think there's even like a cap on the number of players from each region. I mean, and I know people have a lot of mixed feelings and there was a lot of discourse about this when it was announced. But I feel like coming up this close to Worlds, a lot of trainers who didn't qualify this season are eager to find out how they can put their best foot forward in September and qualify for next season. So I'm going to let you take the lead here. What do you got for us when it comes? Yeah, I can. I will gladly walk us through this because it's actually quite the substantial change in
01:28:36
Speaker
in many regards. um One thing that you rightfully pointed out is that um we have we have um we have we still have CP, but we don't have the threshold that automatically qualifies you after hitting a certain number anymore. So whereas last season, it would have been enough to um hit 500 championship points in North America or 400 championship points in Europe um to qualify for Worlds. That will not be the case anymore because next season you will actually be competing against your fellow trainers, your fellow competitors, rather than against this um random number that TPCI sets for qualification.
01:29:20
Speaker
And you will compete for a set number of slots for world's qualification. um For North America, it will be 75 players. For Latin America and Europe, it will be 50 players each. And for Oceania and Australia, it will be 10 players. So if we if we look at how that compares to this current season, um this is just like my my math. I don't know whether it's all that correct, but just from what I calculated, um North America will actually gain three um spots for the World Championships. You will have three more players, but whereas Latin America and Europe will lose 17 spots.
01:30:06
Speaker
So it will get a lot more competitive, especially for those Latin and Europe player, but player basis. Whereas North America, you will still be expected to do around the same thing. Um, and Oceania took a hit off five. So, um, I do believe that this will make it so that in Australia, New Zealand specifically, um, it will no longer be possible to qualify off locals alone or it will still It will still theoretically be possible, but um it's very unlikely because um of how many championship points um regional competitions actually award.
01:30:48
Speaker
So there's also like something to note that for direct qualifications, we are um no longer just getting an automatic qualification for every regional champion, but we are also getting top four direct qualifications for an IC. And to my understanding, um People that qualify through that way will not be counting towards the 75, 50, 50 or 10 qualification slots open to um any respective region. So every single winner will actually help others um qualify. Like North America should really make it so that Junebug and Lyle Jeffs won't just alternate with the winning tournaments because
01:31:36
Speaker
it It actually doesn't cascade down. like If Dunberg wins his second tournament, um the runner-up in that tournament will not inherit the automatic qualification. The automatic qualification will just be but just go to whoever comes 76th, assuming that Dunberg is one of the first 75. Agreed. So, but, but at the same time, if you play second at a regional, you're still going to earn a lot of championship points. So you're still working towards qualification in the threshold sense. Right. That is,
Community Focus and International Competitions
01:32:08
Speaker
that's very true. I do not want to discourage, uh, either Tomahawk, AUS or like god because, um, placing facing second regularly is actually still a very viable path towards world's qualification. Oh my God. I love it. Um.
01:32:25
Speaker
I love it. Yeah. Caleb paying or the EU, uh, Caleb paying, right? No, I'm just kidding. But, um, yeah I think it's interesting because if, so the example I want to use is a King Alexander. So King Alexander was able to win a regional championship this season. But in terms of locals performance or in terms of going to other regionals and getting championship points, he's not very high in the leaderboards. So if you were to scroll through the list, I don't believe he'd be within this top 75 or so threshold for North America.
01:32:57
Speaker
But because he won a regional championship, he gets the automatic qualification. So it's kind of similar in that sense, uh, in regards to actually winning things, but top four qualifying at an IC is actually huge. Uh, I wasn't aware of that until you just said it. I do believe that we will see a huge uptick in terms of um just IC popularity. And I do hope that TPCI decides to increase the capacity for the Go portion of the ICs to like 512, because while I don't know whether we can fill all that, I do believe that we can easily get more than 320 people, especially given that EUIC basically sold out within an hour last time around.
01:33:42
Speaker
I agree. I agree. Yeah, I think that's, that's definitely the upgrade that needs to be made because that's just the thing, right? If you put so much emphasis, if you place so much precedence on doing well in IC and awarding so many points and all the qualification slots, then you have to kind of rise to meet the player base as well. if you put that much you know pressure on people to go to ICs, you should be able to accommodate them. so I'd really love to see 512 be the cap. I think that maybe device limits ah have been the main threshold that the company is trying to overcome in terms of getting enough phones for everyone to play on, but I definitely think that we need to address that as well if we're going to expand the cap. Otherwise, right you need to spread things out, democratize them more, and give people more opportunities to qualify, which
01:34:32
Speaker
It seems to be the opposite direction that that ah TPCI is going here. I've seen a lot of of discourse about that, ah even in terms of locals. so I'm actually reading through your thread here. Locals were nerfed. You said, while the points paid out from cups and challenges will stay the same, the best finish limit got decreased from six down to four, meaning fewer local tournament events count towards CP. so i remember talking with jangles he would he would say things like yeah my my top six cups and top six challenges have almost maxed out my potential locals points for this season now you're saying we're going to go to top four for each yeah this is this is an odd one because i was wondering like i was thinking that
01:35:16
Speaker
I feel like TPCI made such an effort to really popularize locals and roll them out everywhere for Pokemon Go especially. um And this feels like a change in the opposite direction where theoretically you would be done after four cups and challenges. And I think, I think Elite posted about it that he was basically done with that already because the new season actually already started um ever since um July, you were able to earn championship points towards the 2025 Worlds qualification. So I will get back to that in another context later, but I do believe that locals are
01:36:01
Speaker
and now they are more about like hanging out with the community and practicing than about making a serious effort towards um world's qualification even though i will say that you should still try and get your four cups and challenges in this is just the best finish limit by the way so um even if you do four cups and four challenges you still will be able to compete in more and whenever you place higher than in a previous cup or challenge, that new higher finish will ah replace the previous lowest one. So um unless you immediately sweep everything, it will still make sense for you to come out to more um cups and challenges.
01:36:43
Speaker
um in part also because now you won't really be able to chill at like the the midpoint of the season knowing that you have hit your threshold, but you will still be competing against other players who might still go to local, still try to outdo you by attending um more events, like the best finishing it for rituals and internationals. like Technically, it stays at six, but originally, internationals were separate from that. so You could do six regionals and up to three internationals because that's how many internationals we have. Now, if you do three internationals, you will only get to count three regionals because the best finish limit for regionals will also these ah rituals and internationals combined will be six.
01:37:37
Speaker
so it's like everything will be lowered in terms of best financial limits because rather than potentially nine events that you can count, you will now always have six big events that you can count. I think that generally reduces the cost of competing a little bit just because you won't feel like you need to fly out to all of those regional competitions because you know, okay, every one of my competitors will do six regionals and like an IC or two.
01:38:11
Speaker
um But one thing that it does change is that it heavily incentivizes IC travel because IC still awards so many more um points than than regionals do. So if you are only have six slots to fill in terms of regionals and internationals, you definitely want to go to the events that give the highest amount of points. And I do believe that While it will still be possible to qualify with only one or maybe even no internationals played, I think that most players who will go for a travel award, for example, will still try to go to
01:38:55
Speaker
or like we'll now try to go to at least two international events just because of the championship point benefit that provides. So yeah, like the best finish limits kind of make it so that, okay, regionals, a little less important, locals, a lot less important. um Internationals, kind of a big deal now, kind of a big deal now. Yeah. all That is slightly mitigated by the fact that um regional championships have their championship points increased by a factor of 1.7.
01:39:36
Speaker
um So it goes from 200 to 350 now ah for original championship win, whereas IC winners
Impact of Prize Changes on Participation
01:39:46
Speaker
now receive 750 rather than 500 points. So it's a 1.5 times c increase. So originals are compared to ICs, a little more valuable. but still overall a lot less valuable. So you don't miss out on yeah as many points, but still on a lot. And especially um like a big thing is that top eight now matters a lot more because there's actually a very steep drop off from placing top eight in a regional to just placing top 16, for example, like the cut off is actually
01:40:23
Speaker
very like it's It's worth so many points, whereas you were happy to top cut in the past. We'll still be happy happy to top cut in the future in like a 16 people top cut, um just because it's fun to make another day of competition. But the real big championship points prices don't start before eight. So yeah, like top top top performers will get rewarded rewarded disproportionately more compared to last season. to To recap a couple of the points you made, I can see two kind of ah ripple effects from these changes. The first one comes down to locals. Because you had this this current season, you had six potential cups and six potential challenges, I think that a lot of players were attending multiple tournaments ah because they wanted to just kind of shave off a few extra points or gain a few extra points, I should say.
01:41:18
Speaker
here or there. Even trainers that had done you know ah over a dozen locals were still going to locals into the spring because they wanted to make sure that they performed as best as they possibly could. Now that you only have the the threshold being four, I feel like that incentivizes a lot of players to, like you said, kind of do their cups and challenges, get their points, and then just kind of rest and not attend many more tournaments. Sure, some people will come out for practice, but I do think this is a blow to locals because one of the best incentive drivers to actually physically
01:41:56
Speaker
getting dressed, getting into your car, driving out, spending multiple hours of your evening going to one of these events ah were the points. And I feel like a lot of players went for the points. And now that that's not as much of a factor, you're going to have a lot of the mainstays of local communities, right? The top players that you know perform well season after season, they're going to do their four tournaments. And I really think that the likelihood of them coming out for more for just the point of practice is going to be pretty low. And I think that's a pretty big detriment to the local scene, which, again, like you pointed out, Niantic, TPCI i have really been trying to build up these incentives that Niantic pitched, the the the solar and lunar energy and all these other things. All those incentives aren't going to matter as much if people aren't getting points. It's still the primary driver. ah The second thing I wanted to mention is the the regional and IC ah best or BFL.
01:42:51
Speaker
uh best performance right uh being six that means that you're gonna see less repeat faces for example jojo go-go dancer and stone collection both went to 10 events this season and if you're only going to count the top six then you top cut two or three of those you go to an icy basically that's done and dusted right that that's basically your season so this is going to allow for new players to come in especially later on in the season But, uh, there are still going to be the the hardcore grinders, right? The, the ones that want to get the travel award, the ones that want to max their their championship points, they'll still be attending tournaments. so But I do think you'll probably see like 20% less in terms of repeat faces. Uh, because again, ah you don't have as much incentive to go out to these events. If you've already kind of hit the the goals that you set for yourself in terms of championship points.
01:43:45
Speaker
I can definitely see that and like towards the locals point, I just would want to encourage everybody who has the opportunity to go to locals, yeah just go there to build the local scene because um Like I don't really have one yet where I live, even though there is one potential local that I was going to go to the other week, but it actually canceled because it was just a regular challenge and we wouldn't have had have had enough players.
01:44:18
Speaker
And I think that's kind of unfortunate because I have been um i have witnessed local tournaments in the past, not really where I live, but elsewhere. And those communities are actually like, it's just a great experience to experience that community and um people who really share a passion for the game and maybe even meet new faces and hear their stories because ah especially in like big metropolitan areas, there's always a chance that somebody new comes along who has like their own PvP journey, and it's just it's just fun to meet those players, but this will only stay if people
01:45:01
Speaker
decide to attend for reasons beyond championship points. And I know that nobody can be forced to do that, but I would still love to see that just because there's there's value beyond just, okay, how do I profit off this for for world's qualification? um And towards the lack of repeat faces, whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is also just anybody's guess. Like some people love to see all those top competitors everywhere because it makes for good television. ah the Others really want to see more variety and maybe more local players that get to shine at those regional level events. um I think one reason why we might not see that drop off that you predicted
01:45:47
Speaker
is that we have IC travel prizes, IC travel awards for um Pokemon Go now. That has been a thing for the TCG and the video game for the longest time. But now, if my understanding of it is correct, is if my understanding of it is correct um the top four of each region get paid travel to um the the upcoming IC, depending on how many points they earned um during a certain amount of time. And I do believe that already starts with this year's LAIC.
01:46:28
Speaker
yes and So this basically incentivizes um people to go to um and basically every regional available to them and also do as many locals as possible in a select amount of time, in like a third of the season between two ICs to earn so many points that they're in contention for a travel award that gets, and that allows them to get paid travel for an upcoming event like a couple months after.
01:47:00
Speaker
um For example, if you started to really do locals and play all the regionals you could go go to after EUIC, and many people did that because after EUIC, we were both basically in the final stretch of the season, like the final three months, um the final opportunity to earn championship points, and a lot of people are really fought to qualify, and therefore a lot of people earned a lot of points, And now these people, not knowing that they would work towards another travel award, are most likely getting um paid travel to LAIC this fall. So there's actually, if you go to um the Pokemon, play Pokemon leaderboards,
01:47:49
Speaker
You can select an LAIC 2025 leaderboard ranking. And for example, for the U.S. and Canada, it shows a top four of um Out-of-Pocket, the Taurean 22, Elam, and Sydney, or greenish-backwards. so I cannot confirm, and once again, there is no money back guarantees at all in this broadcast. But um if I read the news about the new season correctly, these four might be getting a travel award to LAIC this fall. So that is an exciting new feature, and I do believe that will motivate players who
01:48:30
Speaker
Maybe you want to fly out and travel to a different continent and maybe you haven't done that yet because how many people realistically have done that? Probably not more than half of the competitors. on Then this is just a great opportunity to really go hard for three months in a row to be in contention for that IC Travel Award. And obviously this is some more catered towards top top competitors because at the end of the day, you still have to do well. like you don't get points for just showing up. um You'll also have to actually top-cut and maybe win or place top-aid in those originals that you attend. But I do believe that this will heavily incentivize attendance for from top players going forward.
01:49:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's, it's something that I've, I've, you know, I'm friends with a few different people in the VG and TCG space. And I've seen, uh, some top players actually, you know, win these icy travel awards and they're like, yeah, you know, I performed pretty well at at a few regionals. And now they're sending me to Brazil to compete. And I'm like. that's freaking sick that mid-season a company would just up and say hey you're pretty good at our game why don't we just pay for everything and you can go down to brazil or you can go to london or you you can go to new orleans and you can actually compete uh at an international championship and we'll cover it
01:49:55
Speaker
That's actually amazing. And that's a fair point, right? I think a lot of the top players who have that drive and make that commitment every season to go to multiple events, a lot of them have something new to chase. So, yeah, maybe that is a that is a solid counterpoint to my 20 percent same face drop off prediction. But we're we're going to see. We're going to see what happens. um Also, these international championships feel like they're a bit more spaced out. So, for example, I saw that EUIC was actually in February. um ah London in February sounds really cold and not quite pleasant. but Let's just say nobody ever travels to London for the last weather, right?
01:50:37
Speaker
Uh, fair. That's a fair point. Been there twice can confirm. So I feel like, um, I feel like that is kind of spacing out the events a little bit more is also nice because there used to be four ICs. Uh, that's no longer the case. So with only three ICs, it feels like if you space them out a bit more, it kind of aids in this whole travel award mission as well, because then you can actually reliably predict and you have more of a runway, so to speak.
Planning for International Events
01:51:05
Speaker
to give these awards to trainers so they can actually fly out and make plans because yeah traveling internationally definitely takes a lot of pre-planning, right? You want to know what what days you can get off of work. You want to know what days you're going to be there. You want to know what things you can do in that city or in that region and you want to know anything else around there. If we think, for example,
01:51:28
Speaker
of like player players from Brazil, um they also have to apply for a visa to even um enter the US to compete at, for example, any IC. So knowing ahead of time is is definitely um important. So yeah, I do believe that structure helps with that for sure. Yeah. And speaking. Okay. You go ahead. Uh, last thing I want to say, I definitely feel bad for JW Naldo. I saw that a couple of his U S visa requests were denied and he's unable to to make worlds, which is really, really unfortunate. So yes, if you are a top trainer, uh, from a different region other than the U S and, um, it, you know, whenever the world states and locations are announced, make sure that you start the visa process for the respective country as soon as you can.
01:52:16
Speaker
ah just because I think it it'll give you a little ah little less to worry about down the road. 100%. I also have two more points about um the changes for next season.
Opportunities for TPC Region Players
01:52:29
Speaker
um One also consider and concerns top players traveling internationally and um it's with regards to the opportunity for TPC region players, so basically players from um Asia who um up until this point had nothing to do with ah TPCI i events at all.
01:52:51
Speaker
um They are now able to qualify by attending um either a regional or an international and not earning championship points, but instead just qualifying through winning a regional or placing top four at an international. and So I would not be surprised to see like a Crescent Angels type player or like even a Beelzeboy type player from India. Um, to maybe give it another shot elsewhere to have like, um, a vacation to London or, um, traveling to, um, for example, New Orleans next year again, to compete against the international elite and maybe aim for that top four spot to, um, forego those really excruciating qualifiers in those regions when you only have one shot to qualify at all.
01:53:43
Speaker
you won't get um rewarded for consistency. You just have to perform at that one qualifier you get. But now there is an arguably expensive, but still exciting alternative to that. um um i would really be um like I would love to see, um especially like the these Asian top competitors that um we typically only get to see at Worlds, maybe um challenge the top EU and A, Latin competitors on their home soil a little bit more often. It also works for for trainers that have family on on both continents or in both regions. ah For example, if you look at somebody like Kim Misui, who has competed in North America regionals, also competed in the WCS Taiwan qualifier and and made top cut.
01:54:35
Speaker
right If you have a trainer that maybe is is has family in the United States and they travel abroad to the US, s they can actually do a tournament. and Whereas prior that tournament, the results wouldn't matter whatsoever. If they go and win that tournament, they're actually afforded a spot into the world championships, which is definitely kind of bypassing a lot of the the TPC requirements. right It's kind of like a loophole ah where you can qualify without going through their rigorous system. yeah which which I think is super exciting. ah Speaking of of TPC and TPCI, I think everything we've covered is in regards to TPCI, i which covers North America, EU, LATAM, and Australia, New Zealand, but TPC also runs a significant
01:55:18
Speaker
uh, portion of the championship series. And a lot of those trainers from the TPC region are the ones we look out for at worlds. We're so excited to see them because it's all very secretive, right? Uh, this is actually a breakdown from our mutual friend to Estelle. I just want to run through this really quickly. So we talk about regionals, locals, all that stuff, take all that, crumple it up into a ball and throw it out. Because in Japan, you have a lottery system to get in to the actual qualifiers. Then you do best of ones in person. at Pokemon centers. And then that becomes a double then elimination bracket. So that
01:55:53
Speaker
Just that segment in itself is wild to me. Lottery, best of ones in person, and then double elimination bracket. The one caveat is that you can compete in multiple of these, as far as I understand. You can go to different Pokemon centers and compete, which is pretty cool. Now, this is not to be confused with the PJCS, which is the Pokemon Japan Championship Series. This is all in-person best of threes, but this is a Swiss bracket that then morphs into a single a limb once the top eight trainers have been have been decided, right? All the other TPC markets, you know, Indonesia, ah India, Taiwan are all online tournaments with initial qualifiers and then playoffs. So nothing in person, no lottery system, no best of one, anything like that. So the TPC system is very different from the TPCI system. And again, to your point, right? It's this kind of intersection, allowing players from TPC to come over to TPCI.
01:56:49
Speaker
uh, tournaments and win and then qualify for worlds. I think that intersection is really cool. If we started to have like, for example, uh, in-person Pokemon center, best of ones in the U S or in EU or in Latin, that will also be really sick. So hopefully we can get more crossovers like that in the future.
Encouraging Global Participation in Events
01:57:07
Speaker
One thing that, okay, this is like slightly besides the point, but one thing that you mentioned in the past, I don't know whether on the podcast or just in private conversation, is that it would be really fun to have
01:57:20
Speaker
um TPCI-style tournaments that award like one world's qualification start at Go Fest. So those in-person tournaments where everybody would travel to anyway, because there's just so much to do, if you could combine them with the championship series, I feel like that would also be very fun, especially now that people from basically all over the globe could um come to a place and play a regional and if they win that um they just get to go to Worlds and if you have like this added incentive of oh there's an in-person event ah being held anyway then there's just added incentive basically and we've seen in the past that not every
01:58:08
Speaker
um play Pokemon event has to feature all the games. like I do believe the Niantic hosted Mexico City qualifying tournament. yeah um that's just That's just Pokemon Go. so In theory, it's possible to have those like very specific Go tournaments that don't even necessarily need to have VGC and the trading card game. it's like additional events. Oh, absolutely. Right. There's already the the proof is already there that Niantic can run qualifier tournaments. They've been doing it since 2022 in Mexico City. So I guess three years running. They've done a qualifier. I competed at the one this season. It was really, really fun. I will say as well that we were allowed to use our own devices and that you only had to use stream devices or excuse me. ah You only had to use sanctioned devices when you were on stream.
01:59:02
Speaker
So that also lifts the barrier tremendously when it comes to accessibility because anyone at Go Fest can just walk up and say, Hey, I want to battle in this tournament. And then they can use their own device and they can battle. And then that's that right. And if you make it to stream, then you use the stream phones, which makes total sense. It also has like a cool ring to it. So if you think about the future tournaments, you say, Oh, the 2025 Gdańsk Regional Champion, Zee Zweilis, is going to take on the 2025 New York Go Fest World, or New York Go Fest Champion, Speediest Chief 2, and this is going to be a really, really
Go Fest Tournament Prestige and Player Enthusiasm
01:59:38
Speaker
heated competition. What does our Go Fest competitor have against the Gdańsk Regional Champion?
01:59:42
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of sounds prestigious to be like a Go Fest champion because that's the biggest Pokemon Go themed event of the year, kind of. I would definitely love to have that be a reality. Imagine a Sendai Go Fest champion, a Madrid Go Fest champion, and a New York Go Fest champion, all making their way to worlds. They'd be wild cards. That would be so amazing. and it's like it's not like um like That would be three people that qualify from these. It's not like, oh, now you have this crazy event inflation. It's just it's just more fun for everybody. like People are incentivized to um try out PVP. People are incentivized to fly out to in-person events to compete. and
02:00:30
Speaker
Like if you're if you're only interested in um like the PvP side of things, you might not want to spend the money to go to one of the these in-person go-fests for a couple shinies, but if there's the possibility of qualifying for Worlds, that would be a whole new incentive. Yeah, like imagine imagine if you're a young person, right you're a young kid and you really love Pokemon Go, but you're still living with your parents, you're still in school, you know you've got a lot of restrictions on on how much you can play the game and you say, mom, dad, I really want to go to a regional championship.
02:01:02
Speaker
And they say, well, you know, it's doing's during the school year, it's a school weekend, whatever, can't do it. And then you say, OK, well, if I can only go to one event this entire year, I want to go to Go Fest. And they're like, OK, you know, we'll we'll build around it. This is what you want. So we'll make it happen. You go to Go Fest and you enter the tournament and win it. That's like a dream, right? If you're if you're a young kid and you think of winning with Tens of thousands of fellow trainers around you, you know, people watching your games, people cheering the environment and just winning a tournament there. That's tremendous. And then you get to go to worlds after that. I mean, that would make so many dreams come true in my personal opinion. That's such a good pitch for this idea. Somebody we should send that to both Niantic and TPCI. Yeah. Maybe one day. I hope, I hope they do it. um
02:01:50
Speaker
Yeah, ah well ah we'll see what we can do. But again, we're just kind of players who love the game and are passionate about it. And we'll try to convince the powers that be. So ah maybe maybe in Hawaii, we can we can find some Niantic employees and just pour our hearts out. I'm sure they would love that. Yes, yes. I will i will not leave them alone for the entirety of the weekend. That'd be tremendous. But um if you want to read through this thread that Zweilis posted, again, I've read it multiple times, still trying to digest it because definitely very good information. Make sure to follow ah my co-host Zweilis at the ZZweilis on X. ah This whole breakdown that we just went through is actually a tweet thread that he did back in June. So definitely make sure to check that out. But Zweilis, thank you so much for the guide. I feel like if I'm a first time player, I have a much better understanding of what to do now.
02:02:42
Speaker
Yes, please, uh, please feel free to qualify for next year year's world championship. Mr. Speedy is she'd, I would love to see you there. I was thinking about that. I might try to, uh, I might try to pull a Caleb and qualify for worlds, but also hopefully fingers crossed being invited to cast it. Yeah. Yeah. also so I was about to say, let's take a little bit of the casters course that you won't ever get to have as many opportunities to earn championship points as people who don't cast fair, fair. We'll see. But, uh, so this this has been really fun. We talked about world championships, uh, coming up.
02:03:16
Speaker
actually in less than two weeks, right? I mean, it's- Yep, yep, less than two weeks. i will it's It's already already like, we've we've crossed midnight in Germany during this recording, and I'm 11 days away from my flight to Honolulu now, so it's getting close. We'll have one more episode until then, which is um getting into all the story arcs and like, um all the All the players that will basically be the heart of the competition we will definitely crown our personal favorites to win worlds in next week's episode. I can't wait. I want it to be divisive. I want it to be fiery. I want people to be arguing. I have some hot takes. I have some very hot takes.
02:04:00
Speaker
All right. All right. Well, if you want to hear that, make sure to stay tuned as well. This has been really fun. I appreciate you as always, my friend staying up late and and having a good time recording. Like he said, back with another episode soon. So make sure to follow the podcast, leave us a rating if you enjoy it. And thanks for hanging out this long. That's all for us. That's all from us for this episode. And we'll see you very, very soon.