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At the time of the game, the Shunkō Jolteons had already won the week so SaDiSTiCNarwhal didn't want to play and tried to get a substitute in for his game against cherryb0ng. However, no substitute was provided within a reasonable time window.
Therefore, cherryb0ng will be granted an activity win over SaDiSTiCNarwhal.
Re: spellcaster vs BlazingDark (Week 5)
Both agreed to play on Sunday but neither confirmed a specific time. BlazingDark ended up not showing at all on Sunday while spellcaster vaguely tried to aim for 12:45AM GMT+1. The managers of the Royal Raikous and the Amp Plains Zapdos were never tagged about it and neither party claimed activity.
GSCPL didn't go the way I hoped it would, but I would just like to thank a few of my teammates for having a good time regardless of the outcome.
pp's splash town
You were the bloodline with this, helping basically everyone out, and gave us the hope even when we didn't have any. @ future UUPL managers please pick him up, he's been one of the best UUers for the past year now.
Chiles HabanerosGLFGno7Estuardo19
All of you were super helpful in the OU core, luck obviously didn't go your way, but you guys were always putting in the effort regardless.
LialiabeastFluore
The super subs, I know you guys weren't able to get any results, but you guys would always be there in case there were any troubles with anything.
BeeOrSomething
Thanks for helping me with test games as well.
And finally, FNHSiatam, thanks for taking the chance with me and trusting me to be a starter. I hope that my benchings would help me grow and better face adversity when it comes to future tours. FNH you were also helpful with building my teams in the beginning, and thanks for your tests as well.
The Snorlaxes have lost tiebreaks after tying in semifinals to the Jolteons. It's unfortunate we had to go out this way, but I won't dwell on it. We did great and we made it this far. I'd like to do some shoutouts.
Mashing thank you for being willing to manage with me. You put a lot of trust into me for drafting and handling OU/UU/NU. I'm glad I got to team with you, you did great with Ubers
susciety poor start but you really picked it back up later in the season. I won't ever regret buying you despite your steep price tag. You helped make the team cord very lively and carried support with OU
RealJester you balled out man. Busy IRL and playoffs were a bit disappointing but without you still being able to show up every week, we wouldn't be here. Helped a lot with prep too. Appreciate u Jestie
Midseason pickup, popped off despite not really being a GSC player (sus carried zzzzzz). You were awesome and brought a real boost to the team chat when it was going a bit slow, thanks for being willing to play GSC
DugZa For someone who doesn't play GSC UU too much, you did amazing. Went positive and 2 of the 3 losses were against the best GSC UU player, that's hard to beat. Mad props. Hope to see you around playing more GSC and see you around in NUCL!
Gondra you stepped into a tier you've never played and, with the help of Mashing, very quickly turned into a fairly solid player and filled out the Ubers slot for us (the pool was very dire). Thank you for being a Snorlax
TyCarter only played 1 game, but in that game you pulled through. Always a fun guy, good luck in circuit next year
Colteor didn't play very much but you filled in when you needed to and you're chill, team player. Hope u had fun
Leftwingbo unfortunately it didn't go so well for you but I still have hope for your GSC career next year in circuit, in the meanwhile have fun winning with shit like Registeel and Slaking in ADV
TLTK shame u had to leave so early but I hope you're doing much better now. Take care man
Other People / Supports
pp's splash town you helped a lot with giving me good tested teams to give to DugZa and general tips, as well as in semis and [helping me build in] tiebreaks (even though we lost both). One of the best GSC UU players right now, you are truly phenomenal
dawnbuster always a big help in NU during the regular season when our teams weren't playing, and always fun to talk to about GSC NU or random stuff
MrSoup another enormous help for me with NU, I really enjoyed being able to talk with you and bounce ideas off on you for my own teams and help you with yours, also helped me with my team for tiebreaks, tysm
LpZ mostly silent but you helped at the very beginning of the tour with teams/prep, thanks for coming along
Chiles Habaneros joined for 1 week of playoffs, helped Gondra clutch out a win in Ubers and helped OU prep some. Thank you
The Snorlaxes have lost tiebreaks after tying in semifinals to the Jolteons. It's unfortunate we had to go out this way, but I won't dwell on it. We did great and we made it this far. I'd like to do some shoutouts.
Mashing thank you for being willing to manage with me. You put a lot of trust into me for drafting and handling OU/UU/NU. I'm glad I got to team with you, you did great with Ubers
susciety poor start but you really picked it back up later in the season. I won't ever regret buying you despite your steep price tag. You helped make the team cord very lively and carried support with OU
RealJester you balled out man. Busy IRL and playoffs were a bit disappointing but without you still being able to show up every week, we wouldn't be here. Helped a lot with prep too. Appreciate u Jestie
EgorView attachment 577218 Midseason pickup, popped off despite not really being a GSC player (sus carried zzzzzz). You were awesome and brought a real boost to the team chat when it was going a bit slow, thanks for being willing to play GSC
DugZa For someone who doesn't play GSC UU too much, you did amazing. Went positive and 2 of the 3 losses were against the best GSC UU player, that's hard to beat. Mad props. Hope to see you around in NUCL and play more GSC!
Gondra you stepped into a tier you've never played and, with the help of Mashing, very quickly turned into a fairly solid player and filled out the Ubers slot for us (the pool was very dire). Thank you for being a Snorlax
TyCarter only played 1 game, but in that game you pulled through. Always a fun guy, good luck in circuit next year
Colteor didn't play very much but you filled in when you needed to and you're chill, team player. Hope u had fun
Leftwingbo unfortunately it didn't go so well for you but I still have hope for your GSC career next year in circuit, in the meanwhile have fun winning with shit like Registeel and Slaking in ADV View attachment 577219
TLTK shame u had to leave so early but I hope you're doing much better now. Take care man
Other People / Supports
pp's splash town you helped a lot with giving me good tested teams to give to DugZa and general tips, as well as in semis and [helping me build in] tiebreaks (even though we lost both). One of the best GSC UU players right now, you are truly phenomenal
dawnbuster always a big help in NU during the regular season when our teams weren't playing, and always fun to talk to about GSC NU or random stuff
MrSoup another enormous help for me with NU, I really enjoyed being able to talk with you and bounce ideas off on you for my own teams and help you with yours, also helped me with my team for tiebreaks, tysm
LpZ mostly silent but you helped at the very beginning of the tour with teams/prep, thanks for coming along
Chiles Habaneros joined for 1 week of playoffs, helped Gondra clutch out a win in Ubers and helped OU prep some. Thank you
Thanks to BeeOrSomething and Mashing for drafting me; I know the price tag was never gonna be worth it but I really do appreciate the faith you showed me week after week. I'd also like to take a moment to praise susciety , as despite the lackluster start, you showed immense perseverance and turned your season around, serving as yet another reminder (as if it was necessary) that a record doesn't tell the full story.
In general, next year I'd like to see more top GSCers sign up and play OU. I know most of you guys are like 30 years old with a mortgage, but a big part of keeping a past generation alive year-round is engaging in the circuit (see: McMeghan, Starmaster, and co. in ADV). I'm not positing that you have to enter every tournament, as that simply isn't realistic, but at least one or two other than SPL would strike a nice balance. I'm sure that there's a place that I could make this point with more visibility, but hopefully this reaches at least a few of who it pertains to.
Hey everyone. Since Johto League(a GSC version of Mushi League) will be launching in a matter of days, I decided so share my enthusiasm by posting my GSC PL IV teams here.
I suppose since this is the first serious post of the year that I spent some time I also want to take the opportunity to thank those who have been following my channel, including those of you who have been watching irregularly but giving me feedback. I’m grateful that my videos and posts are some of the reasons why people get into this game.
Intro
So it's been forever since the end of GSC PL the IVth and I can proudly say that I am yet to get my groove back since (I've had my sh*t kicked out of me in four different tours since New Year’s). This is something I've been holding off for a looooooooooooooooooooooong time now, not because I was reluctant to share teams or because they weren't any good (they're average) but because God himself has done everything in his power to the life of this miserable content creator that much harder.
FIRST I wanted this to be a Youtube series, and in December the computer where I stored all my teams, hundreds of recordings and footage for countless projects, as well as super special replays, just up-and-decided that it didn't want to let me plug the damned charger back in. And the company that sold the laptop has successfully ignored the insurance policy I bought until its expiry date in typical Italian fashion
THEN, well... this major f*ck up happened. And I'm not the only one who fell victim here so at least we can say that we're in this together (then again, the videos where I record major tour replays has gained value for historical reasons).
AND NOW well, to put it lightly, I have a negative cash influx after being promoted to customer by my boss, who insists on paying the last check with what expired coupons and spare change is left under her couch cushions.
BUT I HAVE NOT LOST HEART! I will strive further in milking this metaphorical Miltank to provide the community with the GSC content that nobody has asked for but never known that we truly wanted. Only now it's in written form ... and so I present to you
GOLD SILVER CRYSTAL PREMIER LEAGUE THE 4th
Cherryb0ng's teamdump with some rundown on his prep
DISCLAIMER: I know what happens when teams like these get posted. Some of us will take the time to look the teams and either find ways to improve them, take a core concept to further develop them, or just ignore them but enjoy learning about the meta. BUT THEN SOME OF YOU will just skip all the writing and take the teams and spam the sh*t out of them without reading any of the descriptions or ideas expecting to get maximum results, no questions asked (You know who you are). And as much as it puts a smile on my face for me to see my teams on ladder and in tours used against others or myself, even years after the meta has since shifted from the moment I used/conceived these and they’ve aged like cottage cheese on a Florida summer patio, I want the readers to be warned:
THESE TEAMS ARE NOT PERFECT, SOME MIGHT NEVER EVEN WORK FOR YOU.
The effectiveness of a team is such an odd concept but just be mindful.
As of 2023 it had been a long time since I joined a GSC team tournament, especially a GSC PL as a player (the years before I was manager and tournament host). There was a bit of speculation on what I could possibly do since I am pretty proficient at GSC UU and OU and I knew my way around the other tiers. UU was stacked af in terms of player quality, and I guess OU wasn't so much because it was the first time we had a whopping 8 teams and this tour doesn't get much attention typically because it's at the end of the year (more than 3 teams' managers by the end of this tour were almost entirely inactive, making this season one of the tournaments of all time). So my choice would be to A) play as a wildcard in any tier or focus on something like UUwhere help would definitely have been needed and take our chances in the third OU slot, OR B) main GSC OU. Since I didn't join any GSC OU tours and was aiming for SPL, I decided to main GSC OU alongside Kenix and Coco no less.
So as is typical with every fricking tournament, I am excited about playing but sometimes my enthusiasm gets the better of my nerves and I panic in the builder. Then despite having alright teams just ready to be used, I doubt my own ability and ignore my prep or whatever I have most success with, then I ask for an opinion I usually ignore, load whatever team gets passed to me that I've never used before, and do a terrible job. I remember upon seeing the match phosphor told me " That was a wild, disgusting matchup fish for a specific kind of stall that vani wasnt even guaranteed to bring" but I believe I had at least some wiggle room if I simply had the patience.
I already see some plays that I make that I don't love, like revealing I have a no Rest lax by the end of turn 4 and I even revealed that Steelix was Body slam very early. Blissey stall doesn't strike me as the most potent form of stall nor is it the most threatening without something like a drumlax and teams like, while ready to play long and drawn out games until the heat death of the universe, they struggle early on. In fact, this game was a lot shorter and not nearly as bad a loss as I thought initially. My Gengar offered lots of opportunities to keep Vani on the back foot. If I hadn't wasted my Marowak and allowed Steelix to take so much damage, the game might have played out differently. The more experienced of us two, Vani outmaneuvered me and so I couldn't do much with my Snorlax to respond to his golem.
I wasn't entirely comfortable with this team and it wasn't exactly clear to me what I should do with this but it's a great privilege nonetheless to have a team from Kenix. If I had half of his ability as a player I'd probably be a much more massive threat.
my team his team
[I don't have much to say about this except the fact that I had no proven record and Vani had just won like 7 straight games or something in RoAPL. So for some reason I expected him to prep against me but he ended up loading some bulky stall which is exactly what he had been using in ROAPL. This was a lesson for me to show that I should at least make my opponent respect me and also listen to the advice of teammates, as well as trust my gut a little more]
I wasn't too shook about week 1 loss. I just wanted to focus on what I had before me. And the second week I was facing Inder, a player I know for his GSC UU but not as much for OU. I noticed Inder, aside from a few NidoTar Machamp usages, was somewhat exposed to Umbreon. I had decided quite early that I would use a team with Umbreon for defensive purposes and attempt to win the spikes war through Forry and Starmie. He actually ended up loading double electric stall, which is quite annoying for me because Golem Cloy is quite powerful if you lack the means to pressure them with, and since he had a Skarmory, my Rest talk eq lax wasn't going to be doing much to them. My Roarkou helped a little but it's also annoying to have to resort to it when there is a constant onslaught of Zapdos and Raikou coming from the other end. Not the best game I've played, was kind of awkward on both ends. My opponent ended up taking a lot of damage on his Golem and Cloyster and there were a few unsafe switches here and there giving me many opportunities I could have seized to end the game but which I mostly was too scared taking in case of a boom or something. The game could easily have ended below 150 turns but some awkwardness is only natural to arise sometimes when you aren't confident 100%. I also got some luck with a crit on his Cloyster. I also dodged a Thunder with Forry which is always nice and most importantly never got hugely crit by my opponent.
This is pretty much all the prep you need to know about week 3. Exact converstion in the Vaporeons group chat I had with myself.
TLDR I was looking for an excuse to use Machamp and this seemed like a good opportunity. I don't really know if he was actually champ weak looking at the scout but the double elec could at least provide me with a defensive back bone against the likes of Psychics, which he used quite a bit of. The upside was that if he exploded on Raikou or Zapdos with Eggy or Gengar then I technically was free to use Champ and break.
Looking at this game, I managed to make a lot of progress vs Shiloh's NidoGar Tar team early with Zapdos. I don't typically use a lot of Golem but I basically just sent in Zapdos every time he had something that doesn't have a form of recovery in. And if he'd go to Snorlax I could spin, forcing the toxic'd Cloyster to take action and allowing me to go back to Zap. His Ttar just allowed me to pressure with Champ. I felt really comfortable after weakening the Nidoking. My Machamp managed to close the game and thank god because I lost my Golem and Cloyster.
Ok. After two successful games I began to feel myself. That's partly due to the positive mindset I tried adopting and overall not burning myself the hell out throughout the year. So I asked if I could play vs the strongest player in slot 1 :P
I did not have a team built specifically for Jester. There was some very helpful input from Century Express. My ending team choice only vaguely respected what he said but it was still useful because in the end we did factor in that he could have Eggy and use it to boom on Zapdos, opening me up to ground types and Vaporeon, which he liked and ended up bringing. Even though I didn't have a matchup advantage per se, there are some redeeming qualities to this team. First off, I was absolutely itching to use 4 attacks ttar or All out attacking Ttar (a team I had been developing taking inspiration from Century Express's team in SPL XV that year). When paired alongside a ground type, you are very free to fight aggressively against special attackers and your opponent has to guess whether your pursuit tar + lax (which they might be inclined to believe with Nido Lax and Zap) or a screech tar or something else.
The game was rather quick, luckily I caught a rather early boom from Jester. But there were some instances he could have potentially made a comeback and I was naturally nervous with 3 water weak and ground weak mons on my team while facing his Curse eq lax and RT vaporeon. There was a moment I might have been able to play differently. For instance I could have attempted to go early to Cloyster on turn 28 and perhaps prompt Jester into switching out his Vap... maybe. My Zap was weakened so I think using double edge constantly with my lax could have ended poorly or maybe it was the best way to win I'm not 100% certain. I managed to completely scorch his steelix with a surprise Fire Blast and that opened him more to my Nido and Zapdos. Was pretty fun.
My team
Week 5 Sadistic-post-on-your-whal
This was the first of a series of scheduling issues that started to arise in this tournament. Quite frustrating. Especially because the lack of interest due to many teams not thinking they had a chance at playoffs further exarcebated a pandemic of dissertions and dead games. I don't particularly like it when I get an ACT and I try until the last minute to get the game done. It sort of takes away from the competitive side of the sport (and it's not like I wouldn't have liked to go out Saturday night with my friends and cracked a beer). This didn't matter too much for us because... we were pretty much out by this week if we couldn't get a win. And my team didn’t win the week so…
so there's this running gag that Nalo is in a tropical jungle where there is no connection. What led him or many other managers to decide to fit such an important role in a 7 week commitment is beyond me but I am probably the last person to talk about management issues... probably just best if I focused on the team
So coco suggested I use this team and it was absolutely horrifying to use. I wasn't happy by the end of the game (even though he says I played well) and I probably lost 3 years from my lifespan, but I'm happy I had the opportunity to experiment with such a team because it inspired me to build in the future.
I remember the sensation that my gameplan might fall apart by a mere crit and I was hanging on a loose thread trying to make ground back. His Snorlax was free to slap my team around and I had hold the fort some how. Having Reflect sort of was a cue for my opponent to go to Gengar and spam Ice punches and Tbolts. My primary Gengar answer was rest talk Jynx but it had no leftovers and I was super nervous. Fortunately after the midgame yone's lax was para'd and their Zapdos had tbolt so I was more or less free behind a Reflect to setup with Snorlax and prepare for a reverse sweep.
On the team: building a non-rock/steel team comes with many caveats but also some advantages, you are potentially less worried about ground spam teams. On a team like this you need Snorlax to be as threatening as it is defensive. So it’s sort of the key to victory. Zapdos Gengar and Jynx work in tandem to bring your opponents’ mixed and physical attackers down while curse lax can attempt to 1v1 other lax… sort of…
Fuck this week. This was an absolute nightmare of a scheduling week no thanks to Leru aka Larry aka troll and whatever nuclear holocaust had caused all managers to evacuate their discords, or make their players strategically withdrawal in the GSC 1 slot so they could increase any odds of a dead game for a better points differential like what was attempted in the previous week (kind of sus that it happened to the player that won 4 straight times what reason would I have to not show up and ruin my streak).
Honestly I just appreciate it that the opposing manager actually heard me out and found a sub for me. OmBrArch is a true G for going through with the game. I had a whole prep for Leru, who on discord calls himself McMeghan with an 'h' (with whom I never want to schedule a game ever again). But anyways I was so done that I loaded some bad variation of a team that I had not properly done tests with. Clamp Cloyster is such a sucky set. I had actually managed to use a Surf +Eggy+Don+Vaporeon team in the past and I was honing it for a while. Not that any of it mattered because I was so absolutely done with the tournament that my brain forfeited the match the moment I loaded this team andI was making so many inexcusably bad plays that I had almost no hope of taking down the stall team. I actually wasn't too far from getting a sweep opportunity. I just had to click boom on turn 111... and there definitely would have been a chance there. A bit heart crushing for me not to get the 6-1 that I really wanted. Oh well.
On the team: this is an elaboration of a team I had seen in GSC invitational 2 used by Iguana (actually a teammate on the vaporeons). I wasn’t fond of two strong sweepers like Rhydon and Vaporeon not being supported with much needed paralysis spread. So I made many experimentations and finally ended up with a version of the team I liked (but ended up not using) with stun eggy and giga drain (sometimes hp grass lol) and body slam lax. Cloyster is a lure for Zapdos so it can boom. Lax + Eggy + Zap can spread paralysis making Rhydon very much able to sweep. In all honesty, the Clamp Screech version, while not the most versatile, might have its place somewhere if played correctly. I had used dual status eggy paired with clamp Cloyster because I remember seeing a very old replay Mcmegan vs FOMG where the Belgian master slept Fomg’s lax then spiked, then trapped it with clamp, screeched, then boomed on it. Sus says it’s not a good idea to load Clamp Cloy without a back Gengar or Ghost…
My team
My team was out regardless. But at least I managed to tie with the other top4 players in OU before playoffs.
vs Vani
his team
vs Shiloh
vs Jester
Week 5 Sadistic-post-on-your-whal 
vs yone
vs Leru...no mcmeghan ... no mcmegan ... actually Ombrarch
