Smogon Tour BW OU Week 1 Coverage

This season started off strong, with tournament veteran Masterclass taking the first-ever victory of BW OU in Smogon Tour 15! An offensive player, Masterclass brought a fairly balanced team starring a Double Dance Landorus-T, made with help from BKC. According to the first day's top 16 usage statistics, Landorus-T is the second most popular Pokemon in tournament play! Usage stats coordinator kd24 hypothesized this was because of Landorus-T's defenses and ability to check Jirachi, but Masterclass' Landorus-T is meant to sweep. Masterclass also had another trick up his sleeve: Custap Berry Skarmory. This surprise set worked so effectively Masterclass was accused of counterteaming! However, this was not the case. The speedy Skarmory was able to Taunt finalist Pejelargarto's Landorus-T on the opening turn to prevent Stealth Rock setup, then used its Custap Berry and first-strike Brave Bird to finish off Starmie a few turns later. Pejelargarto's defensive team was already at a disadvantage once its Rapid Spinner was gone and entry hazards were up, and just over 50 turns later Masterclass claimed victory. Congratulations!

Well-known for his 10-0 record in the Smogon Premiere League under semifinalists Stark Sharks, ShakeItUp once again proved his tournament skill by winning the second day of Smogon Tour 15. As an offensive player, ShakeItUp used an all-out offense team with a lead Skarmory (boy, that's getting popular now!) and 5 sweepers, with the most prominent being Thundurus-T. In fact, Thundurus-T was able to play a huge role in each round, as many teams were a bit weak to it. However, its dominance was cut short unexpectedly by a particularly speedy Tentacruel in round 4. What was really interesting about Saturday's tournament was the final, a 3-way battle royale with Andeby and Gabranth. So, what happened? Did ShakeItUp's faithful Thundurus-T win him the game? Frankly, I have no idea, as ShakeItUp foolishly failed to keep any log of the final matches. Let this serve as a warning: save your log files or I can't write coverage of your finals match! All things aside, congratulations to ShakeItUp!

Hailing from Italy, site old-timer (2007!) Phetto took the third and final victory of the first week of Smogon Tour's BW OU matches. Sometimes described as a gimmicky player, Phetto took on Smogon Tour with his famous Trick Room team. Don't let the team's style fool you, though, as powerhouses such as Victini, Conkeldurr, and Crawdaunt are nothing to be messed with, especially when they practically have a guaranteed first strike! Paired up in the finals with Ojama, a well-known BW player, Phetto opted for a more standard rain balance team. Several times Ojama's Magnezone and Phetto's Ferrothorn squared off with each other, with Phetto eventually taking the lead through a number of correct plays. Ojama was using a DragMag team, but unfortunately for him Phetto packed a Mamoswine, which made quick work of Ojama's Dragons. Just 20 turns after the first move was used, Phetto claimed victory; congratulations!