Tournament OMPL X - Week 5

[UT]

Art by Kiwi
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Playoffs | Finals
Information Thread | Roster | Schedule | Standings | Usage Stats​

Useful Information

There are 8 teams this year. Each team will have have 8 players and at least 4 subs. The players are bought using the 120k credits that managers receive during the auction. Managers and co-managers will be allowed to purchase themselves as players for their team at a fixed price of 20k. The managers must inform the hosts (Isaiah, UT) of all self purchases before the beginning of the auction. Teams can win their matchup every week by winning 5 of the 8 matches that their players have to play.​

​

The tier lineup this year is as follows:​

1. SS Almost Any Ability
2. SS Balanced Hackmons
3. SS Godly Gift
4. SS Mix and Mega
5. SS NFE
6. SS STABmons
7. SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5)
8. SS Anything Goes

All games will be played on the Pokemon Showdown main server or SmogTours in the most current version of the format corresponding to those listed above. The result between players may be decided in a best-of-one or best-of-three at the discretion of both players involved. If there is no agreement, the result will decided in a Bo1 by default.​

​

Winning a round rewards a team with 2 points, drawing 1 point, and losing zero points. In addition, the manner in which the round has been won will also be recorded i.e. the difference between a team's wins and losses in a specific week's round (referred to as "Win Differential").​

​

Playoffs:​

Each team will play one another for seven weeks. Based on the final standings, the top 4 teams will enter a Playoffs Round to determine the teams appearing in the finals.​

Tiebreaker

In the event of two teams being tied for a spot in the finals based on points and win differential, or a tie in the final round itself, we will have a tiebreaker round(s).​

Tiebreaker Rules: One metagame will be picked by each manager, and each manager will also pick one metagame to strike. Additionally, each manager will submit a backup meta to strike in case their choice is the same as the opposing team's pick. The third format will be determined at random by the hosts from the remaining unpicked, unstruck metagames. In the event that the picks and strikes from each manager are the same, the hosts will determine both the second and third format at random based on the remaining options. All three metagames must be unique, so no format can be picked twice.​

Substitutes

Substitutes are to be used in the case of extenuating circumstances, whether on the first day of the week, or the last. At the same time, players should be relatively well-aware of who all are available to play in the opponent's camp. If last minute substitutes are being frequently used or abused and the hosts find explanations unsatisfactory, the hosts still reserve the right to veto them. In order to further prevent this being the case teams are only granted a maximum of two substitutes per week. Any substitutions after the second will be vetoed.​

Trades

The hosts have decided to not include trades this year due to reasons outlined in this thread - all roster decisions will be final, so draft carefully!​

Scheduling

Scheduling should be done on Smogon Profile walls, plain and simple:​

• If there is no communication on Smogon Profile walls and a game goes undone, it will be left to the RNG to decide the winner
• If there is communication on only one user's behalf, the win will go to them. Feel free to call activity in this thread beforehand
• If there is a very healthy back and forth regarding potential times and one user is a no-show, a manager may take the opportunity to sub out the no-show competitor; if this is not done, the user that showed up responsibly will be awarded the win.

TL;DR: Post on your opponent's Smogon wall, schedule your matches, and be reliable. If you can't play for any reason, let your manager know so they can sub you out ASAP.​

​

Use these posts as a place to initiate discussion about bo1 or bo3 as well (or bo5 vs bo7 for 2v2)!​

Sportsmanship

Exhibitions of unsportsmanlike conduct with regards to the Other Metagame Premier League will be met with an infraction at the discretion of the OMPL host/OM mods. This is unlikely to include interactions within a team's private chat unless there is reason found to make an exception. This rule is meant to protect other users from being publicly flamed/bashed/provoked by another competitor for the duration of and following the tournament.​

​

All players must complete their matches by the given deadline. Any incomplete matches by that time will be subject to an activity decision (MAKE SURE YOU POST ON YOUR OPPONENT'S WALL); otherwise, it will be a deadgame. All matches should ideally be done on your most notable alt (the one you registered for OMPL with) to avoid confusion and all match replays must be saved and posted in this thread. The replays will be archived in a separate thread, and will be used to calculate usage stats.​

Substitutions & Lineups

Managers, if you wish to make any substitutions, you must post here tagging both the player you're subbing out, the player you're subbing in, the manager and assistant manager of the opposing team, the substitute's opponent, and all of the hosts (Isaiah, UT). This is to assure that everyone is in-the-loop and that the OP is updated accordingly to reflect the new match-up.​

​

Managers, when you send in lineups, please send it in with the tier and Smogon username of each player fully written out for ease of transcription, following these guidelines exactly.​

Matchups

The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake) - [5][3] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs Reece
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: velvet vs Farce Of The Death
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: Meta vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57
SS NFE: tlenit vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: Fc vs LBDC

The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa - [3][5] - The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs London13
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs shiloh
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs Skarph
SS Balanced Hackmons: Ren vs xavgb
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs TPP
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs ez
SS NFE: Stareal vs TJ
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Greybaum

The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ) - [5][3] - The Malding Mavericks (Morgan and IBM)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs luisin
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs BasedWhat?
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs quojova
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs crying
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs TectonicDestroyer
SS NFE: jonfilch vs beauts
SS STABmons: Clementine vs Byleth

The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [3][5] - The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: mncmt vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs lotiasite
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs Jordy
SS NFE: pdt vs King Leo V
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs pannuracotta

Deadline:
10:00 PM (GMT -4) on May 8th, 2022
​

For the Bot

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs Reece
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs avyrie
SS Anything Goes: velvet vs Farce Of The Death
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: Meta vs Lily
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57
SS NFE: tlenit vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d
SS STABmons: Fc vs lbdc

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs London13
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs shiloh
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs Skarph
SS Balanced Hackmons: Ren vs xavgb
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs TPP
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs ez
SS NFE: Stareal vs TJ
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Greybaum

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs luisin
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs BasedWhat?
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs quojova
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs crying
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs TectonicDestroyer
SS NFE: jonfilch vs beauts
SS STABmons: Clementine vs Byleth

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: mncmt vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs lotiasite
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs Jordy
SS NFE: pdt vs King Leo V
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs pannuracotta

 

[Ducky]

predictions whooo!

the

SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs avyrie - avyrie has had a rough ompl and MZ has been playing pretty well
SS Anything Goes: velvet vs Nevelle - havent seen any of velvet's game and think nevelle is pretty strong
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs a loser - both are 2-2 rn, but I think a loser is slightly better
SS Godly Gift: Meta vs Lily - Meta played well week 4, but Lily has been very consistent so far
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57 - I think damfame has been player really well so far
SS NFE: tlenit vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - tlenit has just been playing better imo
SS STABmons: Fc vs lbdc - Fc hasnt been doing too well and lbdc is a great player

SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs shiloh - going to be a great game, think shiloh is slightly better here
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs Skarph - another close one, but I think skarph is favored
SS Balanced Hackmons: Ren vs xavgb - stroat
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs FlamingVictini - mossy hasnt been doing too well, but I believe in him
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs ez - QT is a boss
SS NFE: Stareal vs TJ - I think stareal is a little better
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Greybaum - Greybaum won the ssnl for a reason


SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs luisin - Luisin had been playing great and beauts has been building well
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs BasedWhat? - Bacon has a really funny name and has been playing well
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs quojova - I like chew, but quojova is a beast
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs crying - BJ won grand slam as had been playing really well
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs TectonicDestroyer - lydia is really good, but i think the match will be pretty close
SS NFE: jonfilch vs beauts - beauts is an awesome player
SS STABmons: Clementine vs Byleth - I am never predicting vs Byleth in stab

SS Almost Any Ability: mncmt vs The Number Man - TNM the goat
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs lotiasite -
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs cityscapes - city has been doing really well
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs lepton - jrdn slightly edges out lepton here
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs Jordy - Andy is a baller
SS NFE: pdt vs King Leo V - i honestly didnt know who to pick here, think pdt is a tiny bit better
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs pannuracotta - both 2-2, feel like pannu is better though

 

[DuGuo]

Predictions

SS Balanced Hackmons: Ren vs xavgb
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs ez
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs quojova
SS NFE: jonfilch vs beauts
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57

 

[spell]

predict

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Blanched vs Reece
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs avyrie - sorry again lph, but i cannot go against emzee
SS Anything Goes: velvet vs Nevelle - no comment, lets see what kind of kyogre he brings this time woo!!!
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs a loser
SS Godly Gift: Meta vs Lily - she mastered this tier + is god oml.
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57
SS NFE: tlenit vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - dont know nfe much but tlenit has the more bearable name i suppose so i'll just go with that
SS STABmons: Fc vs lbdc

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs London13 - go both :D
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs shiloh - dunno pandas record but im just gonna go with rozes cuz his play has been solid
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs Skarph - this is pretty close to a 50/50, though if I were to pick someone to win vs any non-bacon ag player, itd be skarpy. WOO GOO SKARPY
SS Balanced Hackmons: Ren vs xavgb - ly ren but stresh is stresh
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs FlamingVictini
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs ez
SS NFE: Stareal vs TJ
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Greybaum

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs Chris32156
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs luisin
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs BasedWhat? - should take this in his sleep
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs quojova
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs crying - sorry crying :( phd is goated
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs TectonicDestroyer - i hate the way tect plays
SS NFE: jonfilch vs beauts - This is like putting pokemonfan23 vs abr. an edge as long as a football field wouldnt be big enough here. GO JON
SS STABmons: Clementine vs Byleth - fine. go bestie byleth woo sorry for not predicting u before

Lets hope no annoying cringe spam happens in any of the games in this series!! Haha...

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: mncmt vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs lotiasite
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs Jordy
SS NFE: pdt vs King Leo V
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs pannuracotta

im being deadass here btw.

 

[hayedenn]

"i need something to do instead of writing my essay due in 90 mins so im gonna go on smogon and do ompl predictions" predictions

The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake) - [2][6] - The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast)
genuinely no idea with this set, it can go either way. im throwing darts blindfolded with these predicts

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Blanched vs Reece
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs avyrie - manifesting this one for avyrie, i really want them to win this they deserve it
SS Anything Goes: velvet vs Nevelle - ag
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs a loser - a loser is a gentleman and a scholar
SS Godly Gift: Meta vs Lily - meta was impressive last week but it seemed largely due to mu more than anything. lily has shown that she plays at a high level
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57 - ivar looked good last week
SS NFE: tlenit vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - i think ho3n is gonna look strong for another week or two
SS STABmons: Fc vs LBDC - both good, lbdc looking better tho

The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa - [3][5] - The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs London13 - 2v2
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs shiloh - shiloh on a roll, pd is ok but not quite at shiloh's level rn
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs Skarph - ag
SS Balanced Hackmons: Ren vs xavgb - stresh will win this but im manifesting this for ren, this game seems very meaningful to them
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs FlamingVictini - like 40/60 on this one but i think fv will win just due to playing at a higher level and idt mossy has a big building advantage
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs ez - quantum tesseract
SS NFE: Stareal vs TJ - stresh support
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Greybaum - idk, i just think greybaum will win

The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [4.5][3.5] - The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs zioziotrip - 2v2
SS Almost Any Ability: mncmt vs The Number Man - THE tnm is a better builder than linoones atm
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs lotiasite - ag
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs cityscapes - cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs lepton - jrdn is a better builder
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs Jordy - andygoaty
SS NFE: pdt vs King Leo V - PDT is playing better
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs pannuracotta - like 60/40 here. geerat will win trust

 

[Dr. Phd. BJ]

won pogchamp https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8godlygift-1565734154-j6nefbt0uc4b5g8zxfymbn0evfd5bxzpw

 

[spell]

how?

 

[Osake]

I, as manager of the Wiggly Family, must diligently inform you of the substitution of STABLE, a player managed by Osake, instead of Blanched, a player managed by Dragonillis, against Reece of the Uh-Oh Kommo-os who are ably managed by the wonderful player willdbeast who I am hereby tagging to inform of the imminent substitution of an opposing player in the fifth week of the tenth edition of the prestigious Other Metagames Premier League, kindly hosted by Isaiah and UT.

tagging EX EX XxSevagxX EX EX as I've heard he's bringing the towels to willdbeast's players and PERHAPS he might want to be aware of this substitution.

haters gonna say I stole this post but IT'S WRONG I changed at least 2 words so COPE

 

[Osake]

I am sorry for the double post lol but fitting a sub into the AAA review was kinda weird...

AAA Review of Week 4 by OMFL Slayer and beauts n°2 fan Osake

This week showed again the power of Tapu Koko that is rising more and more, especially the Pixilate set that appear to be very difficult to handle with several tools in Volt Switch, Taunt, Nature Madness, and even Work Up, and if you feel that this mon is broken you should blame Atha who is the one that discovered it!
Anyway, let's move on on the AAA review of this week!

Beka vs The Number Man

Chandelure ?

Beka (tu sabessssss) brought a team that was really similar to what he brought the two previous weeks, and also similar to what Lydia brought Week 1. If we count the diversity of Pokemon, we have :
4 times : Garchomp, Mandibuzz
3 times : Jirachi, Toxapex
2 times : Tapu Koko, Talonflame, Zapdos-Galar
1 time : Cinderace, Slowbro, Ferrothorn, Chansey
And of all those mons, Cinderace is an equivalent to Talonflame, Chansey an equivalent to Jirachi, and Slowbro an equivalent to Toxapex, so at the end of the day we can see very little variation of teams. They are certainly good teams, but using the same core again and again will most likely end to a counter team. TNM didn't brought a full counter team to this structure, which is logical cuz it's a tour game, but he certainly had this structure in mind and good outs vs it, and as much the MU wasn't easy for Beka since the beginning. We can notice a cool Galarian Zapdos tho, that was Choice Band Tough Claws and that has a good shot at preview. TNM brought a relatively classic team too, with a Slowbro that was either Dauntless Shield or Magic Bounce, presumably Pixilate Koko cuz he loves this set, Unaware or Dauntless Shield Mandibuzz, a core of Regenerator with Garchomp and Genesect, and a cool Chandelure.

The Flying-resist on TNM side is kinda sus so gdos might have a shot, but otherwise there is no clear advantage at preview; it'll depend of some sets, and positioning of the win cons. The game starts pretty quickly with a lead Tepu Keko from TNM in front of Toxapex, and Koko is immediately able to grab momentum vs the incoming Jirachi, allowing TNM to in Chandelure t2 which is pretty huge It shows that it's Desolate Land and proceed to burn the Garchomp immediately on the switch which is really huge as Garchomp is kinda a dead weight on Beka side now. It clicks Toxic on the incoming Slowbro that reveals Magic Bounce which is really annoying cuz now Bro walls Garchomp all day, while Toxic Chomp would have made good progress vs DS Bro. A few turns later after small exchange of Scald/Koff/Future Sight, Chandelure is able to come again thanks to Koko and does a solid 46% to Garchomp with Flamethrower which is a very Chandelure moment. A couple of turns later, Slowbro is able to setup Future Sight and to bring Chandelure against Mandibuzz a third time in 12 turns, and it does 97% to Mandibuzz that stayed in to eat the Future Sight. It was probably a min roll, assuming Chandelure is Modest and Mandibuzz doesnt have SpD invests since it's Dauntless Shield (252+ SpA Choice Specs Chandelure Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mandibuzz in Harsh Sunshine: 412-486 (97.1 - 114.6%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO) and it kinda sucked for TNM cuz Garchomp probably wins with Mandibuzz down. Quick stop in the game to see that both players had breakers that could break well the opposite team (we don't know yet the gdos set but gdos always a threat vs specs chandelure) but TNM achieved to bring it his breaker 3 times in 12 turns, burn the chomp and almost killed the Mandibuzz, whereas Beka was only able to react to every play and was unable to bring any of his breakers once. This is a good lesson of momentum imo, it's not only who has the strongest threat but also how do you play around, how you can pivot, etc, and TNM clearly did it better this game. On the next turns, Chandelure is once again able to come several times, doing 45% do Chomp and Pex. Then Slowbro and Toxapex exchange Scald and after 11 Scald clicked Bro is finally able to get a burn on DS Mandibuzz (that was the SI to FSight) which is huge for Chomp as Foul Play does very little damage now. Game continues, Chandelure is able to come again but clicks Will-O-Wisp, probably expecting Mandibuzz or Toxapex on a read. Chandelure is again to come, letting Chomp at 5% after Flame + FSight damage, but it's quickly able to recover thanks to broken Regenerator; on the other hand, Beka has brought Talonflame only once but facing Bounce Bro + DS Buzz isnt an easy MU for it. TNM's Mandibuzz reveals Whirlwhind which is nice (probably over Defog with Bounce Bro, altho I'm not a fan of no hazards control with so many grounded Pokemon but okay) and Beka is able to setup a Swords Dance with Chomp, but the burn completely hinders it and it only does 52% to Scarf Genesect that is able to grab momentum able without having to risk recovery on Bro or Toxic on Buzz.
Turn 57 and the following turns are key in the game : after burning Mandibuzz, the main SI to its SD Chomp, TNM is finnaly able to bring it in front of Jirachi and proceeds to win the 1v1 vs burned Mandibuzz, putting Rocks and using SD only taking ~35% from Mandibuzz Foul Play. Stone Edge accuracy should've fucked TNM as he missed one Stone Edge and if the last one missed he'd probably lose Chomp or have to do the whole sequence again, but fortunately he didn't miss and is able to setup Rocks and kill Mandibuzz which completely opens the path for its Chomp; and it also removes the FSight immunity so at this state of the game TNM is in a really good position. He didn't break with a completely overpowered Pokemon (even tho he has Chandelure that surely puts a lot of pressure against Beka's team, it doesn't solo wins) but with good positioning, taking the good trades (burn on Chomp and Mandibuzz), he's finally able to achieve his gameplan and setup rocks and opens the path for Garchomp. I was not a fan of how he played his game vs Panda during Week 2, and I belive he should have lose the game vs MZ week 3, but he did play this game goodly with a solid gameplan and I think Beka should've made more risky plays at some points with gdos cuz he was just slowly losing all his team.
Anyway, after Mandibuzz death Galarian Zapdos is finally able to come, click Brave Bird and reveals its Choice Band Adaptability, probably Adamant, and it does a solid 48% to Mandibuzz. The calc showed that the max roll was around 53% and I think Beka should've risk it at this point cuz Zapdos was his only shot and, it had a good one tbf with any chip on Mandibuzz or the roll there was still a chance (baring the fact that he was dying of Brave Bird recoil which is a pain). But he decided to switch on Talonflame, revealing Will-O-Wisp while TNM just checks with Bounce Bro and once again stops progress for Beka. Turn 76, Beka finally revealed Garchhomp's item, eating comfortably Tapu Koko's Facade thanks to the Roseli Berry but only doing 57% back with Earthquake because of the burn... When I watched this turn I was like omg it is certainly Roseli Berry bc I thought there has been a physical hit on this Chomp at some point and RH hadnt be revealed but in fact it could have been Rocky Helmet and TNM assumed that which is fine, I just had an illumination just before the item was revealed, but sadly didnt kill it back so TNM lost nothing by not checking Chomp's item as it is able to freely recover on the incoming Jirachi right after. Nothing much happens after that, Gdos is only able to come once and clicks Throat Chop expecting Bro or Chandelure I guess ? but TNM just chose to sack his Genesect that ended up living and finish to weaken Beka's team with its Chomp.
This game was quite interesting to watch, especially considering the points I mentioned earlier. DS Mandibuzz was probably not enough as a counterplay vs Regen Chomp and its ability to consistently make progress and the other mons of TNM helped a lot to slowly weaken the opposite team. I don't know if Beka's Chomp was Stealth Rock in last or Stone Edge/Fire Fang, but I'd assume the latter cuz otherwise you don't hit corv at all which seems kinda bad ? Bounce Bro isnt the hardest Bounce user to overwhelm I think (in the sens of setting up hazard vs) and hazards would certainly have helped Beka a lot, especially if the Mandibuzz wasnt Defog (no U-turn is sus...) cuz it would have severly limited Chandelure's opportunities to come on the field, notably, as well as chipping Slowbro.

MZ vs luisin

zyg 3.0 lol

People don't know but I was scared af for this game, obviously bc we were facing luisin's who is in 3-0 with beauts in the back who is an excellent builder so they don't complain smh, but also I realised on my Saturday morning that MZ misscheduled and count the time in the wrong sens (assuming gmt-7 was 2 hours after him when they are 2h before him) and I knew he's busy the rest of the day so maybe we'll have to sub him which would have sucked pretty hard in such an important game. Fortunately he was able to play, so we can move on the game!
I'll start with luisin's team: it was a fat, fat, fat team, almost semi-stall tbf with only Garchomp as real way of progress. There isn't much to say about it, it's just FAT. MZ on the other hand brought a triple-Steel-core cuz it's the best type of the game so why not?? with a Mew that was either Dauntless Shield or Regen Scarf and an offensive core of Koko + Zydog that was also his only way of making progress.
MZ immediately leads Zyg to pressure luisin's team and load into Dauntless Shield Mandibuzz which is annoying but not impossible to break with Toxic support. Mew is immediately after able to Trick Chansey which doesn't feel that important cuz it doesn't really block something in MZ's team, and right after Zyg is once again able to come vs Toxapex, clicking Arrows to see if luisin was gonna check Toxic with its Mew or something. Koko is able to come on the Roost, activates its Flame Orb, and Volt Switch on the incoming Toxapex, allowing MZ to bring Zyg a third time in 7 turns. That comes back to what I was saying during TNM game : it's not only about who has the good or the strongest breaker, it comes to how and when do you bring it. Since luisin's team only has 1 'breaker' in Garchomp they don't really have this path and just have to eat hits until they can weaken slowly the opposite team; on the other hand, Koko is exceptionnally good at bringing breakers on the field and that's its strength, barring Facade Pixilate doing huge damage ofc. Anyway, MZ is finally able to Toxic Mandibuzz which is really good to waste its Roost, but Chansey immediately reveals Aromatherapy which kinda sucks for MZ but on the other hand, having it Tricked isn't that bad anymore cuz it has less room to do what it wants and is forced to block itself on Aroma if luisin wants to remove Buzz' status. Zygarde comes again on the field thanks to Corviknight - we can notice how everyone on this team barring Ferrothorn (and Zyg obviously) have a pivoting move in order to bring Zyg (and sometimes Koko) to wallbreak efficiently - and it reveals Glare, so double status, to paralyse Mandibuzz. Everyone knows that para is broken, especially BH players, so it may seems like a useless turn - after all, Mandi only takes 30% from TArrows, but this Glare was key in the game. A few turns later, Ferrothorn and Mew for MZ are able to setup Stealth Rock + one layer of Spikes whereas Heatran + Toxapex for luisin setup Rock + TSpikes, that are really annoying for MZ esp for its Zygarde. Ferrothorn reveals to have Primordial Sea, which is logical considering the 3-Steel-core, whereas Heatran shows it has Regenerator. Ferrothorn Knocks Off Chansey's Choice Scarf which is kinda annoying for MZ, and then proceeds to remove Garchomp's Rocky Helmet, but after losing almost 50%. Mew reveals to be either Boots w/o DS either Magic Guard, and I think it was MG, and a few turns later Heatran is able to come in front of Koko and clicks Earth Power - an odd move, never seen usually - and crits the incoming Ferrothorn, 3HKOing it which is annoying for MZ. It then reveals the Chople Berry while Ferro clicks Body Press, and after a few turns of positioning with Heatran taking a lot of damage due to the lack of Leftovers and hazards, Heatran is able to kill Ferrothorn and Zyg comes to Revenge Kill, taking the TSpikes which means that MZ is now on a timer. Mandibuzz took a U-turn from Genesect earlier so its now at 83%, takes 34% from TArrows, stay in to Roost, but get para'd, and MZ is able to kill the Mandibuzz with 3 TArrows with the help of paralysis. luisin tries to save the game how they can by healing Chomp to eat Thousand Arrows, but Zydog being Adamant it kills it and Zyg proceeds to take down the whole luisin's team alone with the lack of Ground resists.
This game was interesting, and it ends up to MZ getting a key paralysis but that could have been avoided by luisin (ask beauts...) and it's a part of Pokemon that, I think, is important: there is luck in Pokemon, and that is often annoying, but you often have ways to play around and/or avoid it and here, luisin certainly shouldn't have risk their Mandibuzz like that, cuz Zyg was on a timer so they were probably winning long term now. I'm not blaming them, they played 3 games at a very high level of play and even this game was good, and Pokemon sometimes come down to one mistake.
If I had to talk about my build now, cuz I'm always trying to explain a little bit my thought process cuz I think it can be interesting - and I can't really do it for other teams - I'd say that my team had a lot of ingredients to be a good team but wasn't really one; because there is the idea of Koko + Zyg that is extremely powerful on paper, a lot of pivoting to bring my two breakers, WS Corviknight in the back to steal Regenerator from Genesect notably, a solid defensive core with Scarf Mew/Corv/Gene/PSea Ferro, but at the end of the day this team had little outs vs unfavorable match-ups. And it kinda happened; DS Mandibuzz + Aroma Chansey + Heatran for Koko was a pain, and our only out was hazards + pivoting but if the Mew had been Magic Bounce - which it could have been - it was probably even harder and, ofc, you'll not always load in those kind of teams but it's important to have outs and we didn't have a tonn. MZ took the best path with paralysis, but it could have been prevented by luisin, so I'm not really satisfied with this build. I think I should have put something else over Corviknight bc it's kinda a dead weight but it was also my progress maker vs RegenPivot abusers so it's kinda hard to say. Anyway, I'm quite happy of this win tbh and we are the first team to defeat luisin + beauts so it kinda feel nice :D

longhiep341 vs PandaDoux

ayo ive lost my common sens watching this

okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk this game was WILD and was really fun to watch, it was really fresh to see longhiep playing in OMPL and I believe most of the viewers enjoyed this moment so, even if he ended up losing, thanks longhiep341 for this .
For those who don't know, there has been not one but TWO games between longhiep and PandaDoux, but the first one was a tie. I'm gonna comment it quickly (relatively) in spoiler but you can skip it if you just want to see the actual game.

crazy game

longhiep341 vs PandaDoux v1

ok uhmmmmm I guess I'm gonna start with the analysis of PandaDoux's team ? It's Chansey + Ferro + Pex + Corv + 2 breakers, here Terrakion and a fast pivot in MGLO Koko; as for Lydia's (and Beka's) team, the structure isn't bad in itself but it's really similar to what he has brought in previous weeks. There is also very little way of making progress since Koko isn't CM/Physical/Pixilate and its just classic MGLO with Discharge > Tbolt, so if Terrakion is walled Panda has legit 0 way of making progress (except with hazards I guess, but it should help to make progress and not be the 2nd progress maker on a team, in my opinion. Longhiep's team is uhnnnn something! I will just reveal every sets now cuz it'll makes things easier, but it was Rock Magic Guard Head Smash Dreadnaw (actually 2HKO's every Defoggers that is not DS/Intim Corv!), Leftovers Grassy Surge Zarude (with Jungle Healing and/or Taunt maybe, unrevealed), Intim Mew (classic! lame! but with Sludge Bomb so it was cool (to hit Tapu Bulu)), RegenVest Snorlax (Snorlax shines again!), Magic Bounce Avalugg (yo?) and Regen Black Sludge Tentacruel (I'd assume AV but Black Sludge was quite useful here! we don't know the last move tho so maybe it was 4 Atk or maybe TSpikes/Haze in last). I'll just resume his team with willdbeast wise comments!

and this is really true! If anyone shares me this team I'm gonna say it's bad, use samples and VR, etc... but as we saw in game, it actually works quite decently. If I had to point some issues regarding the general aspect of the team (ignoring the mons you are actually using), I'd say that a Volt Switch immunity and a Rock resist would have helped, cuz it kinda gets pivoted around otherwise. Terrakion had indeed an insane MU here, especially since it almost 2HKO's Intim Mew with Stone Edge.
I did not rewatch the game because it's only a tie so I don't want to spend too much time on it so I'll just use my memories to do this one.
The game was going well for Panda until longhiep switches his AVALUGG to answer Terrakion which is a fucking mad play and Terrakion clicked Toxic (expecting the Mew) and everyone saw Avalugg was Bounce and I'm pretty sure all the spectators were like OMG HE DID IT and that was fucking insane and actually gave a path of win to longhiep. I would like to say that Panda should have checked Bounce before but tbh that was impossible to predict but that was still crazy. Then, at some point, Koko was in front of Avalugg and Panda clicked Discharge and longhiep hard switched on Dreadnaw. I'm not sure of what he was expecting, but this was certainly a missplay cuz he lost his rocker that could still threaten Panda's Defogger and that was kinda a sad moment. And then 3 turns later Panda decided to sack Koko against Avalugg's Avalanche which was also a questionnable play ? so both players lost one of their wincons in 3 turns after 80 turns or so of slow pivoting, that was funny. A couple of times later, PandaDoux missed Stone Edge vs Mew and understood why Terrakion sucks - having to hit one Stone Edge is actually really hard, so hitting 2 or 3 in a game is completely impossible - and indeed he missed the 3rd one. He was able to get a lucky crit later with Close Combat so he killed the Mew, with a mistake from longhiep just 'sacking Mew' when he could've switch on Tentacruel to eat the Close Combat and force Terrakion to take one more turn of poison and eventually heal Mew later (even if it was hard cuz at 17% and Poisoned, but at least get rid of Terrakion). PandaDoux missed another Stone Edge in the game vs Tentacruel, allowing longhiep to kill it, and now he's in a really good position. Sadly, he made a last mistake by letting his Avalugg take a Scald from Toxapex and got a burn, where Avalugg was cleaning the game as it was beating 3 mons out of 4 and Toxapex was burned, without item, and with only 3 or 4 Recover left so Panda was probably losing at this state. After this missplay, the game ends up in a tie bc both players didn't want to go to turn 1000, even if PandaDoux maybe had a shot with Ava burned and Brave Bird Corv but it was long and guaranteed.
This game was, well, interesting, and even if we saw a couple a missplays from both sides that was a fun game to match, and also the first OMPL game for longhiep and I think he did well for a first time, and he'll improve a lot of this game. It also showed that you can deal with a "true" AAA team with unusual mons (2 mons/6 on the VR) and it proves that there is a LOT of room in the builder still, as long as you know how you're building and if your Pokemon synergises well or not. It also showed where it goes when players don't have any wincon left, and it is not really due to Regenerator even if, obviously, without Regenerator the game would never have ended in a tie, but both players only had 2 progress makers, Drednaw and Avalugg for longhiep and Terrak and hazards for Panda, and if those wincons are lost or have unfavourable MUs yeah you don't make progress, but that's up to you in the builder to not have to deal with this if you don't want to.

funny moments of this game

TectonicDestroyer being exposed by stresh as being so bad was funny too but it's unrelated to AAA so...
Thanks for this game anyway :D was really fun to watch

ok we can now move to the second game I think ? Panda brought the same team with 2 changes : Dhelmise > Chansey (so an actual change, from Fat to Balance) and Mamoswine > Terrakion as its wallbreaker. It was also Flash Fire Corv and not PSea ! and TBolt Koko. I can't really blame him for bringing similar structures tho, he legit had to replay a game and he probably didn't have a team built for that so he loaded what he had, and seeing Dhelmise and Mamo in OMPL is quite cool! Longhiep on the other hand uhnnnn brought again 2 mons that are on the VR, GDos and Tapu Fini. And also Stunfisk-Galar (actually, I don't think it's that bad considering I've tried a lot to use Excadrill as a Koko check and eventually with an immunity like FF or WA, and Stunfisk-G has the same typing and a better bulk, still access to Rocks, etc, so actually I think it has a niche. Then we have Trevenant, that is well threatening ? I guess ? I've already lost vs it but it was in Trick Room so it doesn't count smh... Then Lanturn, great Noivern check (in case!), and Avalugg, again, cuz it's the best mon so why not ? Avalugg was Dauntless Shield this time (Weavile check!), Stunfisk-G was Grassy Surge, Trevenant Magic Guard Trick w Sticky Barb (ayo?), Lanturn RegenVest (classic set YES), Gdos was Tinted Band, and Tapu Fini that was Scarf Regenerator I think? classic :c but this team is CRAZY and the first one was too, huge respect for bringing this longhiep (and almost win with it).
The game itself is really weird, but I'll do my best to give you an overview. PandaDoux tricked T1 its Dhelmise against the Stunfisk-G that stayed in cuz why not ? A few turns later Trevenant revealed to be Trick Sticky Barb with Poltergeist and Will-O-Wisp (and presumably Wood Hammer in last) but sadly got owned by Corv Flash Fire and took 83% on Brave Bird and was kinda useless for the rest of the game. A key turn happened when Ferrothorn was able to Toxic the incoming Avalugg, as Toxic is really unusual on it and Avalugg was kinda the answer to Mamoswine and Dhelmise so Panda might be able to break through. The game in itself is less interesting that the first one I think, longhiep was trying to in Galarian Zapdos but with Toxapex + Dhelmise it was kinda hard to break through and the bird wasn't easy to in freely, and Panda on the other hand was just weakening longhiep's team, notably Avalugg, and at some point was able to in Mamoswine to break through if Ava was weakened. At some point, Panda understood that Pex was just walling the whole gang lol since Pex only take 30% ish from Lanturn's Volt Switch so it could just stay and Scald; Longhiep let his Stunfisk-G burned because of that and at this point Koko was also walling the whole gang and kinda make infinite progress. Dhelmise was killed at a moment, because it stayed vs Avalugg's Avalanche and that was a questionnable play (the Avalanche didnt kill but could have, and then it was at 12% and just died on Stunfisk's attack) because Gdos probably had a shot at this point if it was able to come vs Ferrothorn, but Panda didn't let this happen and once Stunfisk was burned Koko was just winning long term with nothing to revenge kill it.
I enjoyed this second game less than the first one but it was still cool. We can also see similarities between the two teams longhiep brought, with Grassy Surge support as a Ground answer, 2 RegenVest, 2 Magic Guard with Recoil moves, 2 Avalugg, and I think it's fun to notice cuz it's not "random" builds and there is a logic behind.
I think longhiep's teams were fun and they certainly can win games but we've seen the lack of wincons were annoying and, as his defensive core is quite unusual, it doesn't necessarily deal really well with the threats Panda brought - esp in g1. In g2 it was more manageable cuz Avalugg walled Mamo and Dhelm once the Trick of Dhelm was dodged, but with Toxic Ferro it was still hard. In both games, he struggled to pass through Toxapex and Tapu Koko and just for this I think the MU was in Panda's favour. The unfortunate misses in g1 and and Gdos in g2 have reshuffled the cards but Panda should've win G1 with Koko and G2 he played aroud Gdos well and logically won. Longhiep probably could have used GDos more but Panda had good outs vs it when Tinted GDos is supposed to avoid those kind of outs so yeah. Fun series to watch, not the greatest in terms of plays but the craziest because longhiep was playing. Blame Willdbeast and Sevag for benching him during 3 Weeks smh this dude made this serie enjoyable af and I hope he'll improve, become stronger, and show that you can be good with crazy builds.

shiloh vs jrdn

stop pls

After longhiep's games jrdn decided that he also had the right to be crazy and brought a crazy team too. shiloh brought a classic team which denotes with their previous builds, and another Zyg-10%! This mon has been brought a lot and won a lot its funny whereas it was kinda a niche pick before. Otherwise it's classic DS Mew/Regen Ferro/Scarf Fini/Moldy Tran/Talonflame. On the other hand, jrdn brought a relatively classic team with Celesteela as the heat pick, and I think Celesteela has a lot of potential cuz you don't know what it is lol, it can be physical, special, regen, unburden w meteor beam, Volt Absorb, etc... and it has a great movepool so it's kinda hard to play around the first time it comes on the field. The game starts slowly with each players revealing their set, and jrdn showing that he runs Defog PSea Zapdos. A couple of turns later jrdn's Garchomp is able to setup a Swords Dance and actually 2HKO Dauntless Shield Mew which is kinda crazy ? cuz it means its 252+ Atk or that the Mew isnt full Def but that would be weird. The roll is around 42-50 but jrdn get some lucky rolls so Mew can't stay too long or it has to risk a crit, Ice Beam back to do like 70% and shiloh is forced to hard switch Tapu Fini that lived with 4%. I don't know how much bulk had Tapu Fini, looking at the damage it did later in the game I think it was just speed creep for Barras and full HP full Def, but even if it's the case +2 252+ Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 84 Def Tapu Fini: 295-348 (85.7 - 101.1%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock so unless shiloh had more bulk that was really an unfortunate roll for jrdn cuz Fini dead would kinda have sealed the game (not right now, but the Fini was quite important in the rest of the game). Actually, Chomp did 84% so the calc isnt right but the Chomp certainly had a lot of Atk to do 50% do DS Mew so that was probably a roll still, don't know exactly how much. Fini tricks its Scarf on the incoming Scarf Genesect so it doesn't matter much, and then Celesteela is able to come in front of Ferrothorn. shiloh feared Flamethrower which is understandable, checked with Talonflame the set and :
instant death LOL that was funny. Tinted Band Celesteela the goat... The game goes on, Heatran missed a Toxic vs PSea Zapdos that was annoying since it was the Defogger, and at turn 25 Fini comes on the field and reveals Calm Mind. "Ok" everyone is thinking, "and so what" ?
RestTalkCM Sap Sipper Tapu Fini... and the only counterplay of shiloh was Tapu Fini, and if it was dead the game was pretty much over here. The game continues without a lot of major events, unless the Zydog doing 45% with a Crit to Scarf Genesect lol, showing its Power Construct, so it was the first Zyg-C of the OMPL ! and it did nothing (and classic Zyg Adapt would probably have won faster) or almost. Celesteela is able to Toxic DS Mew which is huge for SD Chomp but shiloh reveals Heal Bell a couple of turns after and it's getting hard for jrdn at this point with the threat of Scarf Fini in the back that is not easy for his team. After some heat plays between the two players, like DS Mew clicking VS the Garchomp and Mew clicking Ice Beam later while being at 36%, allowing shiloh to kill Zapdos with rocks up, Celesteela dies too and it's getting really tough for jrdn, and he has to rely on his Tapu Fini to win. he's finally able to in Garchomp on the Trick - so Tapu Fini cannot Trick the Scarf to jrdn's Tapu Fini - but shiloh immediately Trick back to regain the Scarf and the 2 other switch-ins were Genesect and Mew that are both Scarf so this kinda leads to nowhere and Mew + Tapu Fini cleans jrdn's team with the help of hazards.
That was really a fun game to watch between two excellent players with good builds and I enjoyed it a lot. I didn't mention it but shiloh's team also featured cool sets with Heal Bell Mew and Swords Dance Ferrothorn, and overall that was one of the best AAA games this OMPL I think, with great builds and great players on both sides. jrdn is sadly back in GG this week, but that was a cool moment :D

This ends the AAA review of Week 4! Stay tuned for the Week 5 that will probably be done by beauts, good luck to everyone, have fun, and take care !

 

[Mirbro]

won pogchamp https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8godlygift-1565734154-j6nefbt0uc4b5g8zxfymbn0evfd5bxzpw

STOP THE COUNT!

 

[willdbeast]

Salutations good people of the Other Metagames Premier League (Tenth Edition) Week Five thread! I hope I find you all well on this beautiful day.

I am here in my official capacity of Manager of the Uh Oh Kommo-os Team with a bittersweet announcement. Due to an unforeseen change in circumstances we (myself and XxSevagxX) on behalf of the whole Kommo-o team must hereby substitute out the skilled Anything Goes player Nevelle from his upcoming contest of wits and talent against the unarguably formidable opponent velvet of The Wiggly Family, as capably managed by the dedicated and likeable pairing of Dragonillis and Osake. While substituting out Nevelle comes with great sadness and regret, that sadness is tempered by the joy and pride I feel in allowing the excellent and enthusiastic player Farce Of The Death to have their first game of this season! Hopefully everyone following this tournament, not least the exemplary hosting team of two Isaiah and UT, will share my anticipation in seeing another deserving player prove themselves on the field of (pokemon) battle!

Uwu.

 

[Fardin]

that time of the month, im feeling moody and nauseous again

SS Anything Goes: velvet vs Farce Of The Death - hmmmm, idk weird mu, velvet should probably take it? but can go either way
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57 - ivar is kinda heat, im going with him

SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs Skarph - hmmm skarph is just levels above wsun, but doesnt mean an upset cant happen, but the chances are pretty low
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs ez - hmmmmmm, i think qt will come with the better team and plays

SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs BasedWhat? - sorry based, this will be a sweep
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs TectonicDestroyer - kinda even mu, i think lydia will come with the better mu, but tect will somehow manage to outplay but lose in a close game

SS Anything Goes: Trade vs lotiasite - hmmmmmm, good to see loti playing again, but trade seems to be on form these days, cant go against him
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs Jordy - hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, interesting mu, both are really good players but I just have 0 confidence in jordy's possible team
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs pannuracotta - idk what the fuck kind of a team pannu's opponent used against him last week, thats a free win if i ever seen one, BUT he does have 2 wins now. nonetheless i cant see a single possible chance he beats sylveon here but its pokemon so u never know, this game was built on upsets

 

[a loser]

a loser's OMPL BH Review: Week 4
Fissure vs a loser
vs
This is a pretty interesting team preview as it features none of Zamazenta-C, Imposter, or Eternatus, which is a first for this OMPL. It looks like Fissure could do some damage with Spectrier depending on my Yveltal's role and I appear to have brought base 90-100 speed spam.

Things start off with a game of chicken between Type: Null and Dialga with Null getting webs up and spamming Nuzzle and Dialga spamming Knock Off. Both are wanting to catch a switch until Null finally U-turns out and I Knock Off Zyg-C's Rocky Helmet. Fissure brings Null back in and I see it didn't heal on the switch so it isn't TTTech's classic webs Regen set and take this opportunity to activate Palkia's Toxic Orb. Fissure pivots to PH Gigas, revealing Swords Dance + Low Lick that chips my Prankster Celesteela for 1/3 health after a Haze. Gigas then uses Baton Pass to bring in Spectrier, who sets up to +4 with Simple Nasty Plot. I have to keep Dialga in here despite a risk of being rolled by Life Orb Ghost STAB but the horse uses Strength Sap instead as I steal its boosts. Here I'm anticipating a Xerneas switch so I use Knock Off but instead hit the Gigas switch-in, who then stays in to Low Kick Dialga as it full paras (I clicked Core Enforcer) and is forced out. Fissure maintains momentum here, baton passing to Yveltal as I switch out to Celesteela. I didn't know what to expect here and switched out to Xerneas, who takes an unexpected Bolt Strike and forces a switch before spinning away the webs. Null takes the spin, leading me to believe it is either Ice Scales or something like Soundproof as a means of checking Xerneas so I play it safe and pivot out as it heals up. Ho-Oh is brought in off the pivot and faces Zyg-C, who reveals it is Prankster with at least three status moves and no anti-setup move revealed yet. Gigas gets back in and faces Celesteela and again capitalizes on Baton Pass by bringing in Yveltal. I didn't want to be cheesed here so I go to Xern again and end up getting paralyzed by Bolt Strike. I decide to keep Xern alive for now and bring in Dialga who takes 53% from Wicked Blow, leaving me in a pickle. With no amazing switches to make, I bring in Palkia with hopes to force out Yveltal and do so, hitting Gigas on the switch for nice chip and I end up sacking Palkia to it. This gives me a free turn to bring in my Yveltal, who at this point is looking to have nice potential with an opening and setup with Quiver Dance. I take out Type: Null on the switch and Fissure brings in Zyg-C, revealing it has no method of threatening Yveltal, but does manage to waste 28 turns of PP before making a switch to Xerneas. Here I pray for no Extreme Speed and no Boomburst crit and chip Xern down to 20% with Oblivion Wing while taking a big chunk from Pixilate Rapid Spin. I didn't want to risk my best wincon on a Speed tie here so I sent in Celesteela who takes a Rapid Spin followed by V-create to remove both mons from the game thanks to helmet chip. I bring in Ho-Oh as Fissure send out Spectrier, who proceed to use Nuzzle and Moongeist Beam, respectively. This is great for me, as Fissure now can't bring anyone in safely except Zyg-C, which would mean a free opening for my Yveltal. They decide to sack Gigas, which gives a free opening for their Yveltal to come in and it takes out my Xerneas with Wicked Blow. Now things are looking dire for me, facing a partially scouted, healthy Yveltal with no real checks but I manage to suppress its ability with Dialga as it sets up with Swords Dance. I sack Ho-Oh in order to ensure Dialga survives future Wicked Blows but end up catching a full para on the following turn. I'm left with Yveltal now and have to pray for Speed ties and Bolt Strike misses but end up crit-KOing it with Oblivion Wing and winning from there.

This was a weird game that featured hax in some key turns. Crits, paras, and Speed ties are all part of the game but were on display during the endgame here. Fissure's team looked neat with Baton Pass Gigas and hard improof offensive, but this goes to show why I hate passive Pranksters so much.

ItsChew. vs cityscapes
vs
ItsChew. makes their debut with an interesting team that is the first one all tour featuring no Fairy-types. city's team looks neat with rare Reshiram and Snorlax getting some action. From here, it looks like both Rayquaza and Reshiram have potential to be key in this one.

Both lead Imposter and double out to Zekrom and Lunala. We see Lunala is likely running +Spe when it hits Zekrom with Core Enforcer, severely limiting the damage output of its Dragon Energy. city anticipates a switch and uses Glare to paralyze the incoming Heatran before Heatran glares back, taking big chip from Hex. Ferrothorn gets brought in and cityscapes responds with Reshiram, who gets scouted the next turn to be Soundproof with STABs and Stealth Rock. Reshiram gets rocks up at the cost of being glared by Heatran and then chew brings in Regigigas and starts Dragon Dancing. city has Lunala facing it but scouts a turn by sending in Snorlax, who gets its Shed Shell removed with Knock Off. city attempts a double here to get in Toxic Orb Chansy but chew knocks again to remove it and promptly KOs it with Facade, aided by a Precipice Blades miss. This has city in a tight spot but chew pulls Gigas out when Xern is sent in to face it. Xern uses Strength Sap as Heatran is sent back in and city doubles to bring in Snorlax as chew doubles bringing Gigas back in. After some more pivoting around, Lax and Tran face each other again to show Prankster Snorlax using Aromatherapy as it gets hit with Glare. Both double out, sending in Gigas and Reshiram, and Resh dodges a P-Blades to force Gigas out with Core Enforcer. The next four turns feature seven switches without a pivot and result in Lunala finally Hexing Heatran as it attempts to heal up, forcing it out. Six more pivotless switches take place in another short span, with a double by both sides bringing Rayquaza and Reshiram to face each other. Both don't like this and bring in Heatran and Xern. Heatran heals up as city bring in Lunala, followed quickly by Reshiram as she anticipated chew bringing in Ferrothorn to deal with Lunala. Heatran is sent back in as a response but it goes down to two Lava Plumes after being paralyzed during an attempt to move. city continues to have effective doubles to bring Reshiram in, chipping Imposter some but only to have it heal while forcing it out. Celesteela makes a real appearance finally and uses Nasty Plot as chew brings in MGLO Zekrom, which results in Zekrom healing back up to full as it saps an incoming Xerneas. Xern uses Nuzzle here to catch an incoming Imposter by surprise and we see that Xern is running a neat set of Boomburst / Nuzzle / Nasty Plot / Sap with Reshiram to improof. Here Chew expects a Lava Plume, perhaps, but gets Zekrom heavily chipped by Core Enforcer instead. This leaves them in a bad spot, desperate to Sap to live another day and ends up getting back to 60% on Lunala. Then Chew switches to bring in Rayquaza while Lunala heals and Rayquaza is KO'd the following turn by a speedy Core Enforcer. Gigas has a last-ditch effort to break through, critting Lunala with Knock Off but going down to Core Enforcer and chew forfeits.

ItsChew. was in a fairly good spot at the start of the battle, mainly thanks to ousting Toxic Orb Imposter before it could be a problem, but quickly fell behind due to city's spot on switches, bad switches on their end, and having Imposter paralyzed on a good play from city. city's team, opting for Orb Imposter, Aroma support, and no Poison Heal was an off-meta approach that appeared to pay off here.

MAMP vs quojova
vs
Ferrothorn shows up again here in a MAMP-looking team and quojova finally brings a Ghost-type.

After leading Imposter to scout Ferrothorn, quojova sends in Lunala to take the inevitable Nuzzle. quojova responds by firing off his own Nuzzles, eventually catching Ferrothorn as dick knees (Zyg-C) pivots out with Volt Switch. dick knees comes back in but is forced out by Xern, who plays the switch by Volt Switching on the Kyogre switch-in and quojova is able to safely activate the Toxic Orb of Regigigas. Gigas uses Swords Dance and hits Ferrothorn for slightly more than half its health but is forced out by Entrainment. MAMP makes a bold play in front of a Lunala that had been trigger happy on Nuzzle, breaking up a short rut of Ferro/Zyg-C switches and gets his Gigas poisoned too. A little while later, after seeing Kyogre use Origin Pulse, MAMP's Gigas comes back in and shows us that quojova's Zama-C is Fur Coat with Rocky Helmet and it uses Thunderous Kick on an incoming Zyg-C. Zama-C gets a spike up while Zyg-C pivots out to bring in the other Zama-C. quojova is forced out due to prior chip and brings in Eternatus to take MAMP's Thunderous Kick. MAMP brings Gigas back in and sets up with Swords Dance in front of Lunala, perhaps fishing for a para, but is forced out after being hit with Core Enforcer. Well, I say forced out but MAMP sticks around and hits an Imposter switch-in for 24% with Precipice Blades all while taking more chip from poison. MAMP finally withdraws Gigas and after a Zyg-C pivot the Zama-C's face off again. quojova doesn't stick around and brings in Lunala on a Thunderous Kick but goes down the following turn to Wicked Blow. A Chansey scout reveals Tough Claws Zama-C with Sunsteel and Fishious Rend to round out the set. quojova sends Zama-C back out to face Zyg-C and we see it is interestingly running Strength Sap as its recovery move. MAMP pivots out and brings Xern in to spin the spike right in Zama-C's face and heal up with sap as quojova brings in Eternatus. quojova's Gigas gets back in when Kyogre faces his Zama-C and ends up absorbing a Glare and setting up again and attempting another time to break past Ferrothorn with paras. Ferro comes in clutch to hit the Entrainment and MAMP brings in Zama-C while quojova stays in and hits it with Glance for some chip. Zama-C Sunsteel Strikes an Eternatus switch and Etern proceeds to heal up while MAMP brings in Gigas. MAMP keeps Gigas in to Swords Dance but takes a decent chunk from Core Enforcer, chipping it within range of a KO and forcing it out. Over the following turns, Etern spams Sludge Bomb as MAMP switches half of his team in and out until a Ferrothorn switch finally forces out Etern with threat of Nuzzle. Ferro recovers here and winds up catching a double switched Zama-C with a Nuzzle instead. MAMP gets Zama-C back in off a Zyg-C pivot and Eternatus comes back in and gives it its Black Sludge in return for an Expert Belt. quojova gets another spike up and both sides pivot around some more until dick knees spends several turns messing around with Zama-C, spamming Thousand Waves and wasting its Sap PP until finally getting its Attack low enough to deny recovery and KO it.
quojova responds by bringing in Regigigas, who finishes off a chipped Zama-C with Glance and MAMP reacts to this by bringing Xern in to spin away three layers of Spikes while the Gigas sets up. Instead of sapping, MAMP chips it with Boomburst while taking a Nuzzle and is KO'd the following turn by +2 Facade. Eternatus comes in to face MAMP's Ferrothorn and thankfully (for us) MAMP doesn't attempt to PP stall it after hitting it with Anchor Shot but rather brings in Gigas, perhaps to pick up an Expert Belt from Trick. So MAMP decides to setup in Etern's face again but winds up being forced out by quojova's Imposter, who then chips dick knees with +2 Blades. Zyg-C doesn't heal here, but rather Volt Switches to bring in Kyogre who then Prankster Hazes the +2 away to force Imposter out with threat of paralysis. This leads to the third installment of +2 Gigas vs paralyzed Ferro and this time Gigas crits it with Glacial Lance for 85% but Ferro still gets off the Entrainment to force it out. Xern and Ogre are then brought in and Xern pivots on Kyogre as it hits Etern coming in with Origin Pulse and paralyzes it the following turn while it fishes for Sludge Bomb poisons. It eventually gets the poison and MAMP, with his entire team in range of 2HKO from Core Enforcer, finally brings in Ferrothorn on a Sludge Bomb and it is able to recover safely while quojova brings Gigas back in. This leads to Ferrothorn actually trapping and PP stalling Eternatus and this goes on for 53 turns until Etern has no PP and MAMP brings in Zyg-C before it can KO itself with Struggle.
Etern finally is KO'd and Xern comes in to face a healthy Ferrothorn, using Boomburst and taking a Nuzzle as quojova has no other safe options. This ends up working out just as quojova prayed for, as Xern continues spamming Boomburst and Ferrothorn spends four turns in a row doing absolutely nothing and is about to die until Xern decides to do nothing as well. So Ferro gets to heal up and quojova is forced to fish for paras again as Gigas is sent in for round four. This time, of course, Ferro is paralyzed and unable to suppress its ability and is KO'd the following turn. Now Gigas is the driver's seat thanks to MAMP's Prankster being no help against it. But MAMP makes some ballsy plays to chip Gigas with Origin Pulse instead of just spamming Haze, which chips it down to 60% before going down itself. Now the two Regigigas face off with MAMP's going first and getting crit-killed in return to end the game.

This was a grind, but not super boring like some can be. Sure it had an typical BH Anchor Shot stall sequence but you can't expect to go a week without seeing that. These teams were quite similar, using paralysis to support setup threat Regigigas with Xern and Zama-C by its side. I thought both sides played well and in the end quojova was just a bit luckier than MAMP and got the win.

Haruno vs xavgb
vs
Late sub Haruno rolls in with a seemingly balanced team with a rare ZygTina core and stresh is repping his usual balanced building style.

stresh's Imposter lead shows that Haruno's team isn't as balanced as it appears with Final Gambit Giratina kicking things off. Yveltal goes down to Gambit, followed by Zyg-C taking out Regigigas with Gambit as well. stresh sends out Zama-C to face Haruno's Regigigas, who gets Taunted while Nuzzling Zama-C. I didn't know what to expect in the following turn but I was really hoping the Gigas would use Final Gambit here too. Instead, it spams Precipice Blades for a few turns before getting crit-killed by Low Kick, leaving Zama-C at 42%. Haruno's Zama-C comes in and revenges the crit-kill with one of their own, KOing it with Close Combat. It then chips stresh's Groudon with Glacial Lance before, yeah you guessed it, getting crit-killed by Thousand Arrows. Haruno responds by sending in Xerneas, whose Fishious Rend is weakened by Prankster Groudon's speedy recovery move. Xern does chip Don severely with Boomburst though and stresh is forced to bring in Imposter. Xern is paralyzed the next two turns though and is finished off after barely denting the Imposter, leaving only Marshadow left. Marshadow is no match Impostered Xern though and goes down before we can even know if it was Normalize.

Gambit spam + Normalize finisher is quite popular on the ladder but is not always reliable. I thought it was neat to mix in some balanced attackers like Gigas and Xern to this formula but unfortunately Haruno was in over their head against a very strong opponent and wasn't able to cheese past them.

Metagame Observations
Regi/Xern lead the way in usage again this week. The only person not to use Xern was chew and they surprisingly used no Fairy-type at all, which is a first for this OMPL. Groudon usage dropped off a cliff, making only one (very brief) appearance in the gambit game but put in good work. I've been surprised at the relatively low usage of mons like Tapu Fini, Zekrom, and Rayquaza, thus far in the tournament. Zekrom and Ray finally made their OMPL debuts this week, along with Reshiram and Ferrothorn, who was used twice. The average length of games could have been shorter this week thanks to the gambit spam shortened 15 turner, but MAMP and quojova stretched it out to 88 with their 198 turn match.

Upcoming Matches
MAMP vs a loser - set your alarm clocks and tune in Thursday 7 am GMT-5 to watch this one go down. This features a cool user, MAMP the champ, against a big ole loser. It should be fun.

Ren vs xavgb - Ren is now in, with Nihilslave being out indefinitely with some IRL stuff to deal with. Ren faces a tall task of playing stresh, but I feel like if anyone can go into this battle with nothing to lose it is Ren. I'm looking forward to seeing what both sides bring to this.

ItsChew. vs quojova - as with the past two weeks, I don't fully understand the decision made here. However, this should be an interesting game and now that ItsChew. has a big time game under their belt maybe they can play more solidly against yet another strong opponent.

Career Ended vs cityscapes - career has got to be feeling down at this point but I've seen them beat cityscapes before, so that should give them some confidence. Although city is playing extremely well and building some neat stuff, so that might eat into that confidence.

 

[ojr]

somehow I still did this on my flight...
OMPL Week 4 NFE games coverage

Metagame Talk

Usages:
7 times:
Piloswine / Vullaby
5 times:
Electabuzz / Roselia
4 times:
Tangela
3 times:
Wartortle
2 times:
Machoke / Raboot / Corsola-Galar / Torracat / Gurdurr
1 time:
Mareanie / Lairon / Marshtomp / Lampent / Hakamo-o / Clefairy

Overall Usage:
26 times:
Vullaby
25 times:
Piloswine
16 times:
Roselia
14 times:
Raboot / Electabuzz
12 times:
Corsola-Galar / Wartortle
11 times:
Gurdurr
8 times:
Thwackey / Hattrem / Tangela
7 times:
Clefairy
5 times:
Machoke
4 times:
Ferroseed / Marshtomp
3 times:
Duosion / Hakamo-o / Lampent
2 times:
Mareanie / Torracat
1 time:
Linoone-G / Charjabug / Koffing / Rufflet / Lairon

Usage compared to last week:
+3:
Piloswine / Vullaby / Roselia
+2:
Electabuzz / Torracat
+1:
Tangela / Machoke / Duosion / Hakamo-o / Lampent / Lairon
+0:
Wartortle / Mareanie
-1:
Corsola-Galar / Gurdurr / Ferroseed / Marshtomp / Koffing / Rufflet
-2:
Raboot
-3:
Clefairy
-4:
Thwackey / Hattrem

Building trends:
- Last week usage was a fluke? We see essentially a reverse of last weeks usage. Piloswine, Vullaby, Roselia all get massively spammed again. We see Thwackey and Hattrem (2 big mons from last week) drop to 0 usage in this week. Overall less diversity and also Clefairy drops massively again.
- Doja Torracats influencing the metagame? We see 2 Torracats seemingly out of nowhere. I think that this mon can be compared to Raboot but is a bit more niche pick it. SD + Intimidate is cool and all but Libero is just a broken ability and High Jump Kick is very key in revenging Piloswine. I could see it having a place in the meta though.
- Tangela comes back? After a complete no show in week 1, Tangela has 4 uses this week and is tied for 11th in overall usage alongside with Thwackey and Hattrem now. Turns out having an insane defense + spatk stat with regenerator and knock off can still be valuable in a meta dominated by Vullaby and Roselia, who woulda thought!
- Raboot and Gurdurr are no longer in favor? Raboot drops by 2 after being very popular in earlier weeks. Part of this decline might be explained by the 2 Torracats taking its place. Raboot seems to have some good competition as an offensive fire even though its still the best one by far. Gurdurr on the other hand has been steadily declining in usage. Dropping by -2 last week and dropping yet again with a -1 this week. People seem to experiment with other fighting types like Machoke and Hakamo-o which gives it a tougher time. Another interesting development is that the only 2 Gurdurrs brought this week were offensive variants (Bulk Up / Flame Orb). The drop of Defensive Defog could be a reaction to Roselia usage.
- Electabuzz shocks the field! After being the worse one of the 2 fast momentum generator for the first few weeks compared to Raboot we see an uptick in usage. Electabuzz is now tied with Raboot in overall usage as it is actually able to pivot more defensively because it can make use of its eviolite to also softcheck; SS Wartortle and opposing Electabuzz, pivot in on weaker attacks and "knock-absorb" Vullaby with Thief variants. Electabuzz could potentially go even higher in usage I think purely because of the splashability with its only downside being an offensive mon without knock.
- Covet Roselia is nasty. Covet seems to be the best 4th move on Roselia due to how often it gets knocked off in games. We saw it used 3 times this week and all 3 times it won the game. I think we will see it used on most Roselias from now on and it will interesting to see how the meta reacts to this development.
- Clefairy usage fluctuates. After a really high usage last week and some lower usage in the weeks before we see Clefairy end up with only 1 use this week again. I think it may be too early to make any calls on how good it is in the meta and I might be biased anyways since im the single one clefairy user from week 4.

stareal vs ho3n

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1564810566

The teams:
From stareal we see a classic dual regen balance. The idea of this team is simple but effective. Pivot a lot with Vullaby and Electabuzz to get in ur knockers like Machoke and Tangela to create progress. I really like the team but I feel like it struggles vs Roselia or would rather prefer not facing it which is pretty bad in this meta. Especially with Machoke not being Guts Roselia can Sludge Bomb it way more freely. From Ho3n we see a very cool and refreshing Lairon team with a new dual grass core which hasnt really been used much before in Roselia + Tangela. Ho3n is running a CB Lairon which I find to be a very epic bring from his end because CB Head Smash is so god damn strong as we will see in this game. The Marshtomp never revealed its set but Im going to assume its rest since its not needed to be rocks with rocks Lairon. Pretty refreshing new archetype from Ho3n here. I think the matchup is in ho3ns favor since the dual grass core is annoying af for stareal to play against since vull will inevitably sludge bomb poisoned and be very pressured during the game. The same dual grass core handles Machoke pretty well which is Stareal's main progress maker alongside Tangela who will just be free spikes for Ho3n.

The game:
Turn 1 we see a knock trade where both parties are probably content with the trade. Stareal reveals Brave Bird which is a nice vs the dual grass core. It does give Ho3n a free Lairon and he gets up rocks since head smashing isnt worth it vs a full health non knocked tangela. Ho3n lets his vull get knocked which is questionable since he has an itemless covet roselia waiting in the back but vull isnt checking too much in this game anyways. Ho3n plays some risky games with confusion but he does get the poison point onto Machoke which is really nice for keeping it in check. Eventually he goes into Tangela and doubles right after into Lairon to get in a good position to click head smash. This allows him to pivot Vullaby and uturn as the Tangela is forced out. Raboot can come in and uturn as well. Stareals vull is now almost dead with rocks which is amazing for ho3n tangela, This allows him to heal roselia up and most importantly covet the mareanie as well. This is where the Roselia starts being insanely annoying for Stareal and he starts getting up spikes. He tries to just burn the roselia to make it forced to use synth more but its really looking dire for stareal. Even the tspikes he gets up immediately get removed. Stareal does get his vull in on a vull roost which was smart but its really not gonna help as ho3n can just uturn and into head smash and stareal has no way of removing the spikes and from here on out its just over as fuck. as its mainly ho3n playing it patiently to get in CB Lairon to just claim kills. A very good display from ho3n here as he finally gets his first win and stareal really had a tough game here because of a cool structure from ho3n.

tj vs pdt

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-623081

The teams:
someone pointed out that this exact matchup is actually the same as the tlenit vs simbo matchup from w2. Given that pdt is simbo's teammate this might be worrisome considering they are already re-using at w4. so yea considering both teams were used before I wont really go into detail about the teams. Classy specs lamp voltturn vs classic spikes with antimeta hakamo-o. Just like in the first match the hakamo-o user, pdt, is at huge advantage as this matchup is pretty hard in this favor id say.

The game:
pdt starts off strong by getting up early rocks since he can spinblock wartortle. tj knocks the pilo which is nice for his electabuzz. pdt makes a really good double to get in his hakamo-o. To make it even worse for TJ, the Hakamo-o is sub as well which just makes this even more of a lopsided matchup. Behind a sub and with an SD up, TJ breaks the sub with Psychic but then pdt gets to Scale Shot which forces TJ to sack. TJ sacks his Electabuzz which is kinda ass for him cuz Psychic Electabuzz couldve been a game winner here. I do understand that its tough to let pdt set up a sub here on a switch but I think with a matchup this bad and when ur already this amount behind in the game that u need to pull those triggers. What I dont get is that he doesnt go into Piloswine to revenge kill the Hakamo-o at -2 defense. Instead he lets pdt get 2 kills onto Tangela and Lampent. Since this Hakamo-o did so much work already I think from here TJ cant really win anymore barring a collosal choke which seems highly unlikely. The rest of this game seems pretty over and unexciting to look at, given we already know who is winning from here. TJ does reveal Yawn Wartortle which is cool as a tech.

tlenit vs ojr

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1565337319

The teams:
From tlenit we see the first Torracat of the week. Like usually u would see this team to have a Raboot over Torracat and a Gurdurr over Machoke but with Torracat u can go with a more offensively structured team cuz of intimidate on Torracat. Overall a pretty standard looking structure but the Torracat really stands out and he also has the uncommon specs Electabuzz and a Rest Talk Machoke. With the information we have after the game I think its pretty weird that this Torracat wasnt u-turn, since I think the SD + u-turn trait that it has is pretty valuable in chipping its "would be checks" like my Wartortle in this game. From my side we see another very standard looking team but I have Flame Orb (I will refer to this as forb in the rest of the post) Gurdurr. Forb Gurdurr has like 0 checks and I think its way better now that golbat is gone from the tier. I actually took some inspiration from ompl 8 back when wishport clefairy + forb Machoke was super popular so thats kinda a blast from the past. I will also use this part to convince people that Gurdurr is the better forb user than Machoke. Machoke has a better speedtier but it barely matters in this meta as the things u are looking to outspeed can also be crept by Gurdurr, besides that guts boosted mach punch actually has some endgame cleaning potential and Machokes only form of priority is bullet punch which obviously does not have the same cleaning potential which makes it signifantly worse. tldr: use forb Gurdurr and not forb Machoke. Besides that I also have something interesting with moonlight clef cuz I wanted to use teleport clef to bring Gurdurr into the game as much as possible. I think because I have a lot of ways to bring in Gurdurr into this game I have a good advantage at matchup even though if tlenits Torracat was u-turn I wouldve given him a much better shot at winning this game.

The game:
Turn 1 I immediately get the focus blast off on Piloswine which was maybe a bit fortunate for me to lose the tie here? tlenit also reveals to be specs Electabuzz Then I double right to Pilo as it covered him staying in and the switch to Roselia. Knowing I can live pretty much any hit bar some really offensive roselia leaf storm which I deem to be unlikely I just icicle crash here since it seems pretty free to me and I get the "trade" which I think is pretty damn good for me. I really feel like I have a huge early lead here which I like. Then he sends in the Torracat and I actually do not know whats coming since this is the first time Ive seen a Torracat in like 2 years and I just scout with Clefairy, which wouldve covered a u-turn / toxic too. Then I realise that Wartortle should be able to handle this and just go into it on FC. Wartortle does not do a lot in this matchup so I play it safe and scald into flip turn. This allows me to freely tbolt, I shouldve probably just volt switched here as it doesnt allow him to get in his specs ebuzz as safely as he did. I go into rose as it should live any hit and doesnt take too much from volt switch. I just go into clef on the next psychic as he crits which is not the end of the world but its still annoying extra damage that im going to be forced to heal off at a point. I go for an "aggressive" teleport because I dont want to give something like a heavy slam machoke many free turns when my roselia is low. I get in my forb gurdurr for the first time and get to click CC super freely. Then he reveals to be some kind of max def machoke and I do not want to risk a roll so I just go into rose. As we both heal and I get up a spike. Now we get into a classic rose vs vull sequence where the rose player just fishes for a poison. But he reveals brave bird which makes this sequence a bit more risky. I get a sludge bomb poison + crit which is unfortunate for tlenit and im fairly sure he is not attacking the next turn which allows me to make use of covet. Because I have eviolite again I can just synthesis again to stay healthy as he switches back to Electabuzz. I just scout what he locks himself into as its just psychic and I just sack my wartortle afterwards. Now I can heal my Clefairy again and get a free teleport into Gurdurr as he gets up rocks and he picks Torracat as sack. At this point I realise that Clefairy can just solo his team because the Machoke cant be Heavy Slam anymore. Knowing that I have no reason to go into it risking a volt switch into pilo who could potentially flinch me I just go into my own pilo who has no more use outside of blocking him to volt. I just get up rocks anticipating the Machoke to come in but he goes pilo which works out well for him but the game is pretty much over at this point. Since Electabuzz cant get enough turns in due to rocks and my Gurdurr can claim very easily too.

jordy vs jon

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-623377

The teams:
Jordy is bringing some fat regen core including shit mon Duosion. Duosion will prove to be bad in this game even though it keeps on missing twave which is no suprise cuz the mon is so awful that it cant even land moves. I really dont like duosion as a pick in general in this meta because it doesnt check anything really in this meta. Getting up future sight vs rose seems cool but it really becomes even worse when u get coveted and they get up free spikes because duosion cant fit a normal non fsight psychic move in this meta. Furthermore Jordy's team is super reliant on fsight to break through teams and with how prevalent a certain pivoting dark type is in this meta its really hard to pull it off as before imo. On the other hand we see a pretty standard meta team with Torracat again. This one is actually SD u-turn which is cool and seems to be annoying in this matchup. To nobodys surprise Roselia seems super potent in this matchup. Overall on matchup I just think this matchup is in jon's favor because the team just seems better equipped for this meta.

The game:
Early on we see jon let himself get knocked with Roselia to just covet right off the bat. He can stay in on duosion way more freely now as he can fish for poisons but he also gets a lucky twave dodge. Then he spikes on the future sight which can be seen as good for either side. Jordy predicts the Piloswine and goes for night shade which is good damage but jon can now go freely into vull right after. He also gets to knock off the Wartortle which is amazing for Piloswine and Torracat. Then also gets to knock the Vullaby and can knock absorb the vullaby with Roselia and also gets the poison point on top of it. Within the first 10 turns we already see a pretty big lead for jon. He gets his spike right back up and also gets in Piloswine on twave. Jordy makes a nice play with Tangela on eq but he doesnt punish the free Roselia right after. This roselia gets to just heal and sludge bomb poison the duosion on future sight which forces him to recover as he gets in his Vullaby for free. Now he can just absorb the future sight without any cost. Jon can put on even more pressure on Jordy with this Bulk Up Gurdurr. Jordy gets the turn right and doesnt get knocked on Tangela so he can force the threat out. But this allows Roselia back in yet again. This time Jon decides to get on the aggressive and punishes the duosion switch with his torracat pivot. U-turn puts him in a good position with Gurdurr again as Jordy is now constantly forced to play reactively. He plays it safe and just goes for a drain as tangela coming in isnt very bad for jon. Roselia comes in again but even Jordy's double into vull isnt that threatening because gurd comes in freely again. This time Jon pulls the trigger and knocks the tangela, honestly this play was quite free because even if jordy made a wild roost or smth there wasnt really anything lost in the grand scheme of the game. Roselia comes in yet again but Jordy doubles to Duosion again as a punish. However he gets unlucky and misses twave yet again on a free spike. I think Jordy tries to catch jon's own vullaby but jon doesnt feel pressured to go into it and sludge bomb + poison picks off vull. I think from here on out it starts looking really really tough for jordy. I think jordy kinda overpredicts with volt switch as sdef roselia can comfortably eat psychic from electabuzz and simply covet the eviolite but he volts into duosion. Piloswine comes in on night shade and eq's into Wartortle who is now practically dead. Jordy doubles into piloswine after his tangela switch but this game seems super over and forfeits as soon as Corsola-G hits the field.

 

[Reece]

Some predicts, once again I'm probably on my own here but these 2v2 games look great, also excited to see these AG too icl.

The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa - [3][5] - The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Potatochan vs London13 - Tourn fav rn for 2v2
SS Almost Any Ability: PandaDoux vs shiloh - A lot of faith in PD rn
SS Anything Goes: WSun1 vs Skarph - Both are doing great, though im giving the edge to Skarph since they are bouncing back rn
SS Balanced Hackmons: Ren vs xavgb
SS Godly Gift: Mossy Sandwich vs FlamingVictini - Both good but im going to give it to someone arguably more exparienced in high level battling
SS Mix and Mega: Quantum Tesseract vs ez
SS NFE: Stareal vs TJ - Stresh helping to build will be good here
SS STABmons: Finchinator vs Greybaum - comeback incoming

The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ) - [4][4] - The Malding Mavericks (Morgan and IBM)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs Chris32156 - I'm telling you fellas this mans gonna do it
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs luisin
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs BasedWhat?
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs quojova
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs crying - Dr PhW
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs TectonicDestroyer
SS NFE: jonfilch vs beauts - full faith in jon
SS STABmons: Clementine vs Byleth


The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [5.5][2.5] - The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi)
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs zioziotrip - Goat deserves this
SS Almost Any Ability: mncmt vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: Trade vs lotiasite - This will be a fun game to watch, idk which way to go on this personally
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Jrdn vs lepton - Only bolding here because of building
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs Jordy
SS NFE: pdt vs King Leo V - Im not sure about KLV's run rn so ima edge it to pdt
SS STABmons: Sylveon. vs pannuracotta

 

[Morgan]

Morgan’s 2v2 Review Week 1-4

Week 1

Week 1

Blanched vs Vrji

Game 1
vs
Volcanion Tyranitar vs Zygarde Volcanion
Neither of these teams have any astounding matchups versus each other, both are quite even, and VRJI picks Zygarde into 2 pokemon it can hit super-effectively.
Game 2
vs
Regieleki Celesteela vs Cinderace Suicune
Blanched’s team looks like it has the better matchup, as Regieleki seems like it goes hard here as long as Landorus-T doesn’t come out. However, VRJI pulls out the tech of Helping Hand + Sucker Punch to KO Eleki and then Cinder picks up the Celesteela KO.
Game 3
vs
Whimsicott Regidrago vs Goltres Kyub
Blanched has a fantastic matchup here barring Haban Kyub. Whimsicott sets up TW while Drago clicks Dragon Energy. Goltres OHKOs whimsicott with Hurricane and Drago crits Haban Kyub with Dragon Energy, which OHKOs it as well as picking up the final 35% on Goltres.
Game 4
vs
Regieleki Kyub vs Zygarde Victini
Blanched once again has a really good matchup this game, although he unfortunately loses the 50/50 predict on Zygarde with Freeze Shock/Protect.

Overall, I think both players brought pretty good teams, but Vrji had some good techs like Sucker Punch Cinder + Helping Hand and Haban Kyub that helped him win the series.

London13 vs Chris32156

Game 1
vs
Kyurem-Black Volcanion vs Blastoise Zygarde
London’s matchup is far better here due to having Icy Wind Kyub and Volcanion. The steam eruption burn is objectively inconsequential (sorry Chris32156) and London wins a MU he should.
Game 2
vs
Cinderace Blastoise vs Talonflame Rillaboom
This is probably the best matchup each team has into the other. However, London just wins this interaction.
Game 3
vs
Mew Rillaboom vs Incineroar Dracovish
Chris beats London’s stall mew set using Darkest Lariat Incineroar, very cool.
Game 4
vs Latios:
Snorlax Landorus vs Metagross Latios
Chris picks the winning matchup here, as Bulldoze Latios + WP Metagross should beat London’s entire team, but the Landorus getting a double protect seals the series

London plays very well g1 and 2, and gets quite lucky g4 factoring double protect and iron head no flinch, but thats not to say that Chris would have absolutely won g5, he probably would have lost b/c he himself says that he can only win in team tours if he 3-0s so he would get owned in 5. London brought better teams IMO. His teams had more consistent matchups than Chris’ teams

Potatochan vs Adam3560

Game 1
vs
Cinderace Regidrago vs Cinderace Diancie
Potatochan’s Regidrago lives Adam’s Cinderace’s Low Kick, HJK may have KO’d here. Iron Head Cinderace from Potatochan OHKOs Diancie, very nice bring.
Game 2
vs :Landorus-T:
Sableye Landorus vs Landorus-T Regieleki
Potatochan has a fantastic matchup here with Landorus + Sableye. Regieleki wasn’t the worst click by Adam, however, the fact that Potatochan brought Landorus sealed the deal. Also Adam clicked protect vs Sableye, massive L.
Game 3
vs
Whimsicott Cinderace vs Pheromosa Ferrothorn
Adam had the chance to bring Zygarde + Pheromosa but he unfortunately didn’t. He was likely scared of the Whimsicott + Regidrago so he went Ferrothorn, which meant that both his Pokemon would be OHKOd by Cinderace Pyro Ball, and Whimsicott TW allowed Cinderace to outspeed Pheromosa.

Potatochan breaks out with very strong teams week 1. The teams are quite matchup-fishy, but he gets the matchups he wants every game. Adam brings some sus teams game 2 and 3 for example Regieleki with 1 Rillaboom answer. His g1 team was good though. He just got Iron Head Cinderace’d.

Mubs vs Reece

Game 1
vs
Stakataka Hitmontop vs Dracovish Thundurus
Fake Out allows Mubs to get TR up, alongside Chople berry allowing Stakataka to survive Thundurus Superpower (I do not like this set very much). TR allows Mubs to then proceed to KO Reece’s pokemon by underspeeding and attacking first.
Game 2
vs
Victini Blastoise vs Rillaboom Incineroar
Incin Uses Knock off Turn 1 to remove possible Rindo Berry. Rillaboom picks up the KO and Incin KO’s Victini.
Game 3
vs
Snorlax Metagross vs Primarina Zeraora
Metagross does nothing and gets violated turn 1. Snorlax OHKOs Zeraora and then pwns Primarina with its incredible special bulk in conjunction with Gluttony + Aguav Berry.
Game 4
vs
Victini Primarina vs Rillaboom Incineroar
Divine Rindo Primarina lives Grassy Glide, unfortunately misses Hydro Pump. Victini KOs Rillaboom and is KOd by Incineroar. Primarina is able to salvage the game by landing the rest of the Hydro Pumps against Incineroar.

Clowning on Reece for bringing a public team not once but twice (The same public team mind you). Also brought Physical Thundurus. Also brought Amoonguss. Mubs bringing (some) relatively balanced teams grants him the win over the very MU fishy Reece, who does not successfully fish enough MUs.

Week 2

Week 2

Chris32156 vs Itchy

Game 1
vs
Zeraora Latios + Blaziken Gastrodon
I think Itchy vastly underestimates how much damage Latios does to Gastrodon.
Game 2
vs
Blastoise Alolatales vs Porygon2 Diancie
Itchy wins with TR. Pretty sure this matchup was an auto win.
Game 3
vs
Indeedee-F Cinderace vs Indeedee Victini
Chris pulls out my goated Assurance + Scarf Spread tech.
Game 4
vs
Chris brings rain and does not Calc anything its so tragic. Itchy brings Fini Tsareena, winning the 50/50 mu which is very nice.
Game 5
vs
Metagross Latios vs Porygon2 Rillaboom
Itchy gets a super good matchup here with P2 Rillaboom easily breaking Metagross Latios, neither of which can beat Porygon2 as long as Metagross can’t get WP boosts.

Itchy brings really good teams this set, I like everything they brought except maybe the Thundurus, but that’s just because I don’t know the set. I think Chris played alright, but itchy simply just outplayed most of the games

Adam3560 vs Stable

Game 1
vs
Togekiss Zygarde vs Sableye Naganadel
Scarf Zygarde was a super unfortunate matchup vs the Sableye, it was the right pokemon to bring probably, but Sableye just had a nice matchup here. Adam probably could have clicked High Horsepower on Naganadel and won but I’m not sure.
Game 2
vs
Indeedee-F Hatterene vs Cresselia Landorus-T
Stable’s matchup is really good here because Lando-T deals with Vic/Stak super well and Cress 1v2s Psyspam
Game 3
vs
Victini Tapu Fini vs Rillaboom Azumarill
Turn 1 Adam has a good protect on Victini to stop the Fake Out + Waterfall, and Fini gets a free hit on Azu. Turn 2 Adam has a good protect on Fini to cover for the possible Grassy Glide, not sure why it didn’t happen though. V-Create OHKOs Rillaboom and Azumarill returns the OHKO onto Victini. Tapu Fini then cleans Azumarill.
Game 4
vs
Naganadel Whimsicott vs Whimsicott Regidrago
Tailwind Dragon vs Tailwind Dragon. The faster dragon won.
Game 5
vs
Pheromosa Zapdos vs Whimsicott Zapdos
Pretty Sure Whimsicott Zapdos auto wins, good team bring from stable.

Stable brought really good teams this set, as did Adam. Stable got some really really good matchups g2 and g5. Both players played very well here.

London13 vs Vrji

Game 1
vs
Tapu Fini Zeraora vs Genesect Incineroar
London gets bodied by AV Incin and Vrji’s overall matchup is very very good. Possible 4-0.
Game 2
vs
Whimsicott Zygarde vs Kyurem-B Heatran
Not sure why Vrji clicked Protect vs Whimsicott with Shuca Heatran. Seems like a choke, london got a little bailed T_T.
Game 3
vs
Cinderace Nihilego vs Tsareena Diancie
I am very unsure as to why London double targetted Tsareena. Maybe he thought there was no TR.
Game 4
vs
Volcanion Genesect vs Indeedee-F Victini
Vrji got absolutely victimized by hax here. Perfectly rolling London into Custap with Eforce and also the Steam Eruption crit. Vrji had the winning matchup but got very unlucky!
Game 5
vs
Cresselia Incineroar vs Blastoise Incineroar
Toxic Cress 1v4s Vrji’s team.

Vrji choked game 2 and was robbed g4. Very unfortunate. Vrji brought winning teams the first 4 games of the series, he just clicked Protect vs Whimsicott T_T. Toxic Cress was a good bring from London g5 though

Mubs vs Papiloco

Game 1
vs :Kyurem-B:
Zapdos-Galar Genesect vs Keldeo Nihilego
Papiloco brings a Morgan team and wins despite Hydro Pump miss, lets go!
Game 2
vs
Hitmontop Incineroar vs Zeraora Tapu Lele
Papiloco Brings another Morgan team and gets a very good matchup. Woo!
Game 3
vs
Blastoise Incineroar vs Whimsicott Regidrago
Papiloco has a good matchup because of Dragon Pulse + Dragon Energy.

Papiloco gets super good matchups every game, very well done. Cracked mf. Mubs doesn’t bring terrible teams but they had unfortunate matchups.

Week 3

Week 3

Potatochan vs Chris32156

Game 1
vs
Togekiss Marowak-Alola vs Indeedee-F Victini
Indeedee-F Victini has a great matchup into this team, and it wins.
Game 2
vs
Mew Blastoise vs Landorus-T Celesteela
Mew vs Celesteela PP stall. Stressful one because Body Press crit had a roll to KO Celesteela
Game 3
vs
Togekiss Zapdos vs Indeedee-F Victini
Bolt Strike Victini claims here.

Potatochan played alright but he had a very unfortunate matchup g1 and g3. The teams he brought were definitely really nice though.

Vrji vs Adam3560

Game 1
vs
Kyurem-Black Moltres-G vs Incineroar Zygarde
DD Scale Shot Zyg KO’s Kyub and Adam is able to beat the Goltres
Game 2
vs
Genesect Zygarde vs Incineroar Gastrodon
Gastrodon popoff game fr.
Game 3
vs
Mienshao Nihilego vs Indeedee-F Victini
VRJI brings the mienshao here, not sure that was the best decision, however the Earth Power Life Orb Diancie from Adam pretty much means VRJI was never winning this MU.

Both players brought pretty good teams, Vrji just had worse MU’s against the pokemon that Adam brought unfortunately. Very unfortunate week for vrji after he got robbed week 2, however Adam winning his first week is good for him.

London13 vs Reece

Game 1
vs
Registeel Amoonguss vs Cinderace Tapu Fini
Bringing Amoonguss is sussy especially when they have Cinderace Tapu Fini. Cinder Fini goes hard here, not sure why lord pex wasn’t clicked though.
Game 2
vs
Tsareena Kyurem-B vs Kyurem-B Volcanion
Life Orb Physical Kyurem has a fantastic matchup here, Feint Tsareena was super cool here.
Game 3
vs
Tsareena Dragapult vs Incineroar Tyranitar
Adam why did you click Disable on Tyranitar when the Incineroar was clicking Flare Blitz on Tsar.
Game 4
vs
Snorlax Dragapult vs Whimsicott Zygarde
ADAM WHY DID YOU CLICK PROTECT THEY HAVE A WHIMSICOTT

Adam made some really bad plays g3/4 but some of it was I think just matchup knowledge. London brought good teams, Adam brought good teams (Game 1 was strange though) but I think both players had good picks into eachother.

Stable vs Zioziotrip

Game 1
vs
Landorus Cinderace vs Indeedee-F Spectrier
Hyper Beam Spectrier pops off and OHKOs Cinder, and Indeedee is able to clean up Landorus.
Game 2
vs
Metagross Incineroar vs Tapu Fini Celesteela
Tapu Fini Hydro Pump KOs LO Incineroar and ID Celesteela is able to secure the victory easily.
Game 3
vs
Naganadel Pheromosa vs Marowak-Alola Zeraora
Fast OHKO mons go faster and OHKO the other pokemon,
Game 4
vs :Celesteela
Zapdos Landorus-T vs Tapu Fini Incineroar
Zapdos has an incredible matchup this game, and gets sent into Fini.
Game 5
vs
Togekiss Pheromosa vs Cinderace Indeedee-F
Zio has some really good turns with Libero despite his Gunk Shot miss. Gunk Shot on Pheromosa Protect ensures that Close Combat will not KO Cinderace.

This was a super fun series to watch. Both players played super well and brought really good teams. G5 came down to the wire for this super even series. Almost a reverse sweep.

Week 4

Week 4

Zioziotrip vs Yuki

Game 1
vs
Victini Zapdos-Galar vs Regieleki Moltres-Galar
Scarf Victini pop off moment
Game 2
vs
Kyurem-Black Necrozma vs Moltres-Galar Indeedee-F
Moltres gets a lucky crit with Fiery Wrath that critically ensures it 2HKOs Necrozma
Game 3
vs
Landorus Cresselia vs Nihilego Pheromosa
Phero picks up the KO on Landorus and Nihi is able to beat Cress.
Game 4
vs
Cresselia Blastoise vs Hatterene Regidrago
CM Cresselia is able to 1v2 Hatterene and Regidrago here
Game 5
vs
Tapu Fini Cresselia vs Hatterene Regidrago
Regidrago is picked into a fairy type here and it loses.

Zio plays really well this series. Both players brought pretty decent teams, but I think zio definitely deserved the W here. Scarf Victini game 1 was super hype, and the CM cress pops off in g4.

Blanched vs Chris32156

Game 1
vs
Incineroar Spectrier vs Celesteela Landorus-Therian
Lando + ID Leech Celesteela is able to stall out Incin Spec, possibly winnable for Blanched if he KO’d Incin with Spec, but the Disable on Protect was likely more important
Game 2
vs
Whimsicott Moltres-Galar vs Talonflame Landorus-T
Talonflame crit doesn’t matter because Rock Slide picks up the KO. Chris reveals his set like a dumb slug
Game 3
vs
Whimsicott Cresselia vs Zeraora Ninetales-Alola
The freeze on Cresselia also didn’t matter. Moonlight is only able to heal for 25% HP, therefore Zeraora (Which eats +1 Psychic) and Ninetales will beat Cress.

Blanched brings a lot of really good teams this series, but unfortunately he gets unfortunate matchups

Adam3560 vs London13

Game 1
vs
Whimsicott Incineroar vs Indeedee-F Regieleki
Regieleki 2HKOs Incineroar and is able to stall out Tailwind.
Game 2
vs
Incineroar Zygarde vs Naganadel Cinderace
Dragon Dance Zygarde + Fake Out Incineroar has a divine matchup this game
Game 3
vs
Heatran Regieleki vs Volcanion Naganadel
Naganadel hits Eleki Protect and is OHKO’d by Heatran. Adam does not fall for Custap Volcanion, gj.
Game 4
vs
Tyranitar Cinderace vs Landorus Tapu Fini
Kebia Berry Tapu Fini is a super dope tech that I might have to steal in the future.
Game 5
vs
Indeedee-F Diancie vs Kyurem-Black Volcanion
Indeedee lets Diancie get TR up, and Power Gem Diancie is able to KO Volcanion and KyuB.

I think this was a super hype series. Both players brought very nice teams, and they both played really well. London had some really nice techs, but so did Adam.

Itchy vs Papiloco

Game 1
vs
Genesect Zeraora vs Diancie Landorus
Morgan team from papiloco, Helping hand helps Landorus trade for Genesect, and Physically Defensive Diancie is able to 1v1 Zeraora
Game 2
vs
Pheromosa Regieleki vs Togekiss Kyurem-B
Wacan Togekiss is able to tank the Thunder from Itchy’s scarf Regieleki and Kyurem-B is able to KO both Pheromosa and Regieleki with Icicle Spear.
Game 3
vs
Cinderace Whimsicott vs Dragapult Whimsicott
Another Morgan team from papiloco woo, Whimsi Fast LO vs Whimsi Fast LO, the faster fast LO wins

Papiloco brings some very good teams if I do say so myself, and has super good matchups against Itchy. Itchy’s teams aren’t bad they just got mad unfortunate that they had to go up against the Tom Cruise of 2v2.

 

[IBM]

IBM’s Week 4 Review Review ​

Ok we had some good reviews this week with a newcomer in Morgan joining the standard reviewers, the meta looks to be shaping up in favor of spoiler tags and I like the visuals everyone’s using solid 8/10 week. Im pretty sure I'm the only one who's fully read all these

Osake’s AAA review

Game 1 was very entertaining to read alongside watching the replay of the game, I liked the turn 57 wincon evaluation, also talking about the points along the way where beta could have made plays to have a better chance of winning was a good idea.
Game 2 I liked how Osake repeated the theme of AAA of making plays to be able to bring in your breakers as often as you can, taking a shot at bh in the middle of the review was funny af too. The review of your own building was interesting as well
Game 3 I did not want to rewatch the tie either :D but the overview was pretty accurate, screenshots of chat were goated. Real G3 this one was less detailed overall because the write a lot on a team like longhiep's, but I liked the comparison between the teams brought both games for each person, really shows insight into how they build. s/o longhiep for the crazy teams tho
Game 4 I think calling jrdn's team crazy was sarcasm? Just overall good commentary on a solid AAA game between 2 good players, I dont have much to say.
Overall, I like how Osake's personality comes through in his writing, and his knowledge of the meta makes these games easy to watch and understand for someone who doesn't know AAA.

A losr’s BH review

The metagame observations section is great and I love the upcoming matches section too cuz it hypes up the upcoming matches and adds a storyline which makes these games more bearable to watch. Extremely detailed description of the game too. I'm not going to lie tho, the review of the games was kind of disappointing, it was mostly just a play by play with very sparse insight into what either player could be thinking or what the wincons were, for me the most interesting parts were when you made guesses as to what the sets could be. The play-by-play style is good if you don't have the time to watch one of these lengthy BH games, I just prefer the companion style type idk. My advice would be to talk more about what you as a BH player see when parts of a set are revealed, like when you see a regi with 3 moves revealed, what are the possible last moves? Maybe its obvious to BH players but as an outsider I think it would make the games a bit more watchable. Good writeup overall, love the upcoming matches part, just that one thing to work on

ojr’s nfe review

I love the hyper detailed metagame talk part of the review and I think its something that would improve any week review, just seeing how a meta changes over the course of PL is fascinating. What you see on preview is also great as it lets us know what the players see out of each others teams and what the threats are going to be. The commentary during the game is also good, not quite as detailed as the others but covers the main points and gives the audience insight into the significance of the plays. I think this is my favorite review this week, maybe writing on a plane helped

Morgan’s 2v2 review

OML a review of every week so far man this must have been a lot of work, it would have been fine just as week 4 but this is just crazy o.o. Great job covering all of these games and I like the end of every series talk about each player did. (I dont blame you for not doing this because of the massive workload this instance, but maybe next time go a little into like why the matchups are good for one player or the other) Good job here, and I love the personality of your writing

Everyone writing weekly reviews

 

[Ivar57]

won gg https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8mixandmega-1567738641

 

[MAMP]

une autre victoire por LE MAMP! gg un perdant!

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8balancedhackmons-1568170126

 

[Shing]

Beauts asked me for an NFE prediction, and I was like sure why not. Will admit it's a late one, but it's better than never I guess?


SS NFE: Tlenit vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d (58:42)
While I like Ho3n's variety of teams he has showcased, some of the decisions on the teams do irk me. E.g no Knock Off on Ferroseed in w3, and the w2 team itself felt too slow for me that it could be effective. And looking back at the replays again, I'm not impressed with his plays. Some of them were difficult enough to make a good play due to the unfavorable matchup, but there were those plays that made it more difficult on him which he could have avoided. He did take a win last week with a pretty cool team despite the matchup being mad difficult for Stareal. I'll give credit when credit's due where Ho3n capitalized it extremely well. But I'm still not convinced that he will beat Tlenit. Tlenit may use teams that all of them share a lot of similar patterns, but I think that's fine because they are different from each other overall, and 85% teams are usually solid enough. His performance isn't anything special, but it's still better than what ho3n has shown. Overall I'm betting on Tlenit over Ho3n's in good favor. However, it may not be a clear one because I can see Ho3n winning this one if 85/Tlenit isn't prepared on what he will bring but otherwise I would say this is in Tlenit's favor.


SS NFE: Stareal vs TJ (48:52)
I'm favoring TJ on this one. I think their teams are better than what Stareal has shown atm, although just slightly. But I'll say that Stareal's performance impressed me more than TJ. Never have I ever seen someone giving a middle finger to a player by getting so many hazards on someone that has a Hattrem LOL. Still, I think this match can be really close just because I don't think both of them have any clear advantage over each other. IMO it'll be determined instead on who will be the better player on that day just because the gap is just that close. So I wish the best for both players because I think those critical plays will decide who's the winner.


SS NFE: Jonfilch vs Beauts (52:48)
I'm extremely impressed by Jonfilch performance. Besides the luck on w3, it looks like nothing will stop the momentum from the impressive 4-0 record right now. Unless you're of course Beauts. To make it quick with references, Beauts has always been able to take wins against people that looked impossible to stop such as Ojr(won Stresh in UMPL right before, and cleaned the rest of in pool), Greybaum(UMPL and took dominant wins over Hys and Skysolo which was undefeated by that point) and Arctic (OMPL IX with 3-0, and was extremely consistent with rare losses). So I can clearly see Beauts having a good chance to take the win.

I still think I would give Jonfilch the slight edge still. Not only they're playing well, but I would argue they're also stronger at the support. Mirbro's teambuilding with Dr. Phd. PJ/Jett synergy seems to pay off, and I'm so impressed on Mirbro for bias reasons, obviously lol.
But Beauts do have also their own solid support too and again, they're solid as an NFE player based on the record itself so it'll be a close-ass match. I'm excited to see what both of them will provide for this week because there's some hype here from my personal perspective lol.


SS NFE: Pdt vs King Leo V (40:60)
This is a particular matchup I didn't expect, but I'm all up for it. Pdt and Leo are like some of the aggro players I know, keeping people on their toes and making great reads. So seeing these two face each other will be very entertaining. I think I'll give the Leo win though because of the team aspect alone. If Pdt tries to repeat teams like in the last week, then the chances for them to win will be harder. If they somehow don't encounter the problem or solve it, then the match is pretty close but I would still give it to Leo because he's still the better NFE player. I would recommend watching the game out of anyone else. It can be a tight game or be one-sided, but overall I'm excited about this match. Sad I won't be able to watch it live since I'm traveling outside to something else, but best wishes to both players!


I may continue making these for the rest of the tour. Shorter or longer idk, it depends on my mood and I feel like I'm overdoing it ngl. I could even do MNM, but perhaps that would burn me out since I take too much time to write my posts LOL. Just gonna hope I'll finally get a positive record on my predictions B)

[Extra Edit] Just making another comment on last week and I'm just gonna say it, why the fuck did I have to see covet Roselia and two Torracats this week fr they make sense but damn they are wack as shit.

 

[Osake]

Schedule W5 The Wiggly Family vs The Uh Oh Kommo-os: (GMT=0)

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs Reece : Friday 4 PM
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs avyrie : Saturday 5 PM
SS Anything Goes: velvet vs Farce Of The Death : Saturday 5 PM (!!)
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs a loser : Done
SS Godly Gift: Meta vs Lily : Saturday 7 PM
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57 : Done
SS NFE: tlenit vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d : Sunday evening
SS STABmons: Fc vs LBDC : Saturday 5 PM (!!!)

Be there Saturday at 5 PM, good luck everyone, and have fun!

Happy birthday King Leo V :]

 

[willdbeast]

Schedule W5 The Wiggly Family vs The Uh Oh Kommo-os: (GMT=0)

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): STABLE vs Reece : Friday 4 PM
SS Almost Any Ability: MZ vs avyrie : Saturday 5 PM
SS Anything Goes: velvet vs Farce Of The Death : Saturday 5 PM (!!)
SS Balanced Hackmons: MAMP vs a loser : Done
SS Godly Gift: Meta vs Lily : Saturday 7 PM
SS Mix and Mega: damflame 3 vs Ivar57 : Done
SS NFE: tlenit vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d : Sunday evening
SS STABmons: Fc vs LBDC : Saturday 5 PM (!!!)

Be there Saturday at 5 PM, good luck everyone, and have fun!

Happy birthday King Leo V :]

im just gonna copy paste this into our scheduling channel cos half of em haven't posted lol

 

[fade]

won
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-623985

 

[Mirbro]

won
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-623985

STOP THE COUNT! Version 2

 

[Adam3560]

Won in 5 vs zioziotrip, ggs

1. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen82v2doubles-1568566054
2. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen82v2doubles-1568568332
3. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen82v2doubles-1568570476
4. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen82v2doubles-1568573471
5. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen82v2doubles-1568575796

Thanks for the teams Chris32156, I had 2 tests to study for this week and didn't have the time to build, also 2 of the 3 games I won were with their teams so make do with that what you will