Resource SPL XI LC Discussion

sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
10:19 PM] EviGaro: Merry Christmas people
[10:19 PM] EviGaro: I would like a LC SPL Discussion as my Christmas gift




Welcome to the SPL XI LC Discussion thread! Feel free to talk about anything relating to LC in SPL from matches, predictions, to the metagame that develops out of these intense matches. This thread will be updated with matches and other relevant announcements when they happen.

SPL XI Commencement Thread
SPL XI Schedule
Power Rankings
Scheduled Games Spreadsheet


ggggd: 5 - 0
Osh: 4 - 1
EviGaro: 3 - 2
Jake: 3 - 2
LilyAC: 3 - 2
Luthier: 3 - 2
Serene Grace: 2 - 3
tazz: 1- 3
HT: 1 - 4
Kushalos: 0 - 1
zf: 0 - 1
Ninjadog: 0 - 1
trash: 0 - 3


a
 
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I think Ruiners have a REALLY strong LC core; jake's nothing if not motivated, and Shrug is a really solid support who'll be able to keep him engaged with the meta and possibly add more direction to his teams. I like what the Tyrants have with LC too; Luthier when he plays is the best LCer, and ict as a sub for the weeks Luthier can't be in is real smart imo, automatically makes them contenders for the best slot.

The Scooters are interesting, tazz could possibly have a break out season especially considering he's aided by zf in terms of building and someone to explore the meta with.
EDIT: apparently they have madoka in their chat, so like I said the scooters are absolutely fire flames and tazz is ending up with 6-3 at worst

I think Wolfpack went for a pretty high-risk high-reward strategy, especially considering Star has to shoulder pretty much all the building for the season; HT's not unfamiliar with the LC scene or the tour scene, but it's a clear break from what I think most other teams decided to do. I feel similarly about the Sharks, I'm not sure who's gonna end up playing but I think there's gonna be an adjustment period they might have to deal with. Friso's a pretty good flex slot for just about anything, though, so if things get rough I think he could hold the slot down possibly.

the other teams mostly did business as usual, so not much to say there; lily for 4k was a pretty good pick in my regard, hopefully a team with me wins against luthier in week 1 for once hehe

glad ninja got picked up by the bigs btw, still kind of a shame we don't get to see london/zebra though. in general it was nice to see some teams pick up 2 or more LCers; hope we see more teams do this in snake
 
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I thought that the main draw of people like myself, Lily and trash would be our ability to fill a slot for cheap with almost no support if needed, but this draft went in the complete opposite direction: Osh, Serene Grace and Pablo are all not known for their team building abilities and have no help while Lily, myself, Jake and trash all have all the support we could possibly want despite our reputations for greater teambuilding prowess. I would normally expect players like Pablo and osh to be relatively safe picks but the massive gap in support between them and most of the other teams endangers that safety greatly. I think it is entirely possible that it will all work out, but as of now I'm not nearly as sure as them as I thought I would be.

I think the latter four I mentioned are at least on paper solid slots; they would be without support, and they certainly are with all that they have. HT and EviGaro (or whoever plays for the sharks) are probably the wildcards in terms of how well they'll do. Star's support is no joke but I feel like what will in part determine HT's record is his ability to adapt to the esoteric innovation that will undoubtedly be thrown at him in an effort to catch him off guard. I heard that EviGaro will be the LCer for the sharks which if true is a pretty weird pick, as she's never done super well in LC in the past and certainly will be far behind in terms of building. I don't know if the sharks know something the rest of us don't, but as of now I think this could prove to be a problem slot for them. I hope I'm proven wrong, though.

I think my personal rankings would be something like Raiders/Ruiners/Cryonicles > BIGs/Tyrants > Wolfpack/Tigers/Classiest > Sharks, with the difference between the first and second groups being only marginal. I said before that I was more unsure of Pablo than I would be if he had support, but even without support Pablo is the truth so I can only predict him to do amazing this tournament. I'm really looking forward from what the bottom teams on that list will put out, as their ranking is more from my uncertainty in their meta knowledge, something very subject to change, rather than their playing ability. Serene in particular is known to build crazy stuff on his own so he should definitely bring some excitement to the teams this season.
 

sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
Week 1 is up!

I'll be updating this with scheduled times and replays as the week progresses. This first week looks to be fairly interesting as we get some power matches right off the bat with Luthier vs. Lily and pablo vs. Serene. We also some of the bigger questions out of LC in this draft battling it out with EviGaro vs. HT, which should prove to be very interesting.
 
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Corporal Levi

ninjadog of the decade
is a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnus
Hey all, I've noticed an absurdist notion floating around among less informed circles that pablo is anything short of the truth. Please understand that this notion is strictly false. pablo is almost universally accepted as the greatest player that LC has ever seen; he enters SPL with sky-high expectations - something he is no stranger to, and which he has never failed to meet or exceed in the past. In terms of LC accolades, ggggd is unmatched in his superb team tour and circuit records. This is notably topped off by his LC Open victory in 2018 where he built many of his own teams, proving that when he's in tune with a metagame, he can fare just fine without external support, and in this case he is being supported by Coconut as well. He did take a break for most of 2019, but it has been well established now that LC ability doesn't diminish over time; pablo made his return to SS LC during the Ekans draft where he finished 4-1, placing him alongside other all time greats such as jytcampbell and snaga. Some doubts may remain about how well he will adapt to SS LC, but with how rapidly he rose to the top during both ORAS and SM, there is little reason to believe he won't remain there for SS.


Predicts:

LilyAC [100] vs Luthier [0]

pablo [200] vs Serene Grace [-100]

[20] jake vs Osh [80] - Both are highly capable battlers who I'd argue are roughly on par with each other in that respect, but while I generally like jake's building a bit more, he has historically struggled to adapt quickly to unfamiliar metagames (exhibits A, B). Osh is by no means a poor builder, and I imagine he'll have an easier time whipping up something solid.

[80] tazz vs trash [20] - I don't see tazz winning much for the first few weeks.

ht [6.3] vs EviGaro [93.8] - Still reeling from their devastating defeat at the hands of the Pimpidimps during the Ekans draft semifinals, ht and Star enter week 1 understandably demoralized and unsure of their ability. The 3-0 record that HT was drafted by has since transitioned into a 3-1; meanwhile, Star's 4th place finish in the tour leaves an unmistakable scar on his otherwise illustrious record of other 4th place finishes. EviGaro, on the other hand, faces no such mental blockades, as the Corsola Corpses never stood a chance to begin with.
 

sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
Week 2 up!

Some exciting matchups this week! LilyAC vs. jake is probably my highlight match of the week, and with both winning their week 1s this should prove to be an exciting match. HT failed to impress many last week after losing to the relatively unproven EviGaro, however this week he faces Osh who doesn't seem to be 100% plugged into the current metagame. Will HT find his stride first with starmasters help or will Osh figure out the metagame out without help from his team? Good luck to everyone this week, hope to see some fun matches :)
 
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[BIGS] trash vs. ggggd [CRYO] - the
absurdist notion floating around among less informed circles that pablo is anything short of the truth
is wrong and ridiculous

[WOLF] HT vs. Osh [TGRS] - 7th ranked vs ranked below that, lol
[SHRK] EviGaro vs. tazz [SCTR] - madoka support
[CONG] Serene Grace vs. Luthier [TYRN] - after last week's beatdown my man luthier will strike back hard. i'd try taking a week's vacation if i were serene
 

sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
Welcome to week 3! This week we see a lot of interesting matchups, with our first change in starter! Ninjadog gets his SPL debut after a dissapointing two weeks from trash, and faces EviGaro, who many people had doubts about but currently stands undefeated. Luthier vs. ggggd is the highlight of the week for me and should hopefully prove to be an exciting match to watch. Good luck everybody!
 
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sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place

Welcome to week 4! Here are some thoughts on this weeks games. HT has not been looking good, and he faces the formidable Serene Grace this week. It seems like starmaster help hasn't been able to get him past most of the LC pool this year, and unfortunately with the way things are looking it won't be able to help him this week either. Ninjadog has been pushed back onto the bench, and we see trash back in the starting position. Will he be able to come back and clutch this for the Bigs? Finally, we have the battle of the 3-0 players, the formidable pablo vs. last in the PR, EviGaro. Although Evi's opponents have been less impressive than ggggd's wins, she has shown relatively solid playing. Exciting matches all around, good luck to everybody!
 
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sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
Sorry for being late guys! Pretty busy so I'll keep this short. trash continues to dissapoint with his spl performance with another loss, and is replaced with Kushalos who hopes to bring the Bigs their first LC win. HT finally got his first win, and faces jake in what is highly likely to be a tough matchup for him. Was last week a fluke or has he finally found his stride in the LC metagame? Highlight match of the week is pablo vs. lily, who both are having a fairly good spl with pablo undefeated and lily with only one loss. Hope to see some good matches this week :)
 
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fatty

is a Tiering Contributor
NUPL Champion
so the metas already gone through some interesting changes so far in spl in just 5 weeks. instead of chronicling all of it, just wanted to comment on some interesting things this week.

frillish has seen a steady increase in usage over the course of the tourney, culminating in 3 uses this week with a 100% wr to boot (71% cumulative). with all the worry about floon and Mareanie being the dominant bulky water, it seems frill was kind of forgotten about. it’s flexing now tho and for good reason. lack of knock, it’s great bulk, inability to be trapped and cursed body all combine to make frill a massive pain in the ass to actually kill. being able to stay in on oddish gigas just to fish for disable is pretty crazy. it’s also a built in check to Munchlax and spreads burn like the plague, softening up teams in conjunction with hex.

although it was only brought once this week (and lost), non scarf rufflet is something I’ve seen in lpl as well and it seems to be gaining more and more traction. yea we know hustle sucks and lily woulda won without the miss, but 80% of the time this thing nuking something. it has all the powerful coverage it needs between BB + CC, leaving it fairly open in the last 2 slots but double dance (bu + agility) is probably the best bet. Although again not the most reliable sweeper, it’s potential is all there just need some luck on your side. can definitely see it being a premier mon on webs as well.

mudbray had a rough week with 4 uses, all being losses. I can’t say I know the exact reason for this, but I do think mud is a tad overrated considering how good other grounds are. personally, I haven’t really found myself choosing bray on any build because it doesn’t seem to provide support I cant find somewhere else. its a rather solid blanket check, but in the team building process I rarely feel like it’s an easy fit. If I’m running rocks, I’d much rather be running onix, be it sturdy or even dd. the trappers speak for themselves, they provide support mud could only dream of. and even drilbur does the whole offensive thing better and can spin. resttalk is great, is just don’t think it’s nearly as good as resttalk was last gen even with less knock. again, I can’t fully put my finger on why it had such a rough week, but I can’t say I’m surprised.
 
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sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
Welcome back! This week marks the point where we are now halfway through the season! The Bigs looks to be trying their entire roster in the LC position in an attempt to find some miracle, but it seems highly unlikely they'll be able to get it with LilyAC having a fairly good season so far. The Wolfpack replace the struggling HT with Jytcambell who they acquired in some midseason shuffling and trading. Jyt has had a pretty good LPL season, with a notable win against Kingler12345 and may be the cure to the Wolfpacks LC dilemna. Pablo remains undefeated, but faces yet another hard opponent in jake, who has been playing fairly well. With the midseason over, I hope to make a post detailing usage stats and metagame trends later this week so look out for that!
 
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sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
Welcome back! I am very very late this week plsdonthurtme. Last week we saw some very interesting matches, with the Bigs picking up their first LC win of this SPL! Even though they had to sacrifice 3 pigs in order to get the luck needed to win, it seems as if they have found their strategy, and they have 3 more pigs lined up for jake this week. Meanwhile, the Wolfpack appears to have found their solution for their LC slot that's been plaguing them this whole SPL. Was last week a fluke for Jyt, or will he be able to help bring his team back from the brink? Pablo had his toughest game last week and almost lost, but managed to bring it back in the very end. Up against him and his undefeated run this week is tazz, who seeks to be the first to take him down. Sorry for the late post, I'll try to be more timely for the rest of SPL.
 
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sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
We are nearing the end of the SPL regular season! We already have two teams eliminated, and the fight for playoff spots looks to be intense as teams are clawing for those coveted spots. We find Jytcampbell looking to try to be the first to take down ggggd. Pablo's run this spl looks to be historic, clinching it for his team last week and maintaining his perfect record. Jytcambell has come into SPL a bit late, but has had a decent showing even though he lost the previous week. Even though he is the underdog, he is fighting for the Wolfpacks chance to make it into playoffs this week. EviGaro has been in a bit of a slump since her undefeated run, and has lost every game since that first loss, and jake is a hard opponent to beat. Jake looks to maintain his dominant record and is very favored to win. The Bigs failed to sacrifice enough things to get the luck last week, so hopefully they will be able to scrounge up things to kill because Serene has been on a roll lately, netting 3 wins in a row these past weeks. Some high stakes games this week, good luck to everyone!
 
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Corporal Levi

ninjadog of the decade
is a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnus


Some fun facts:

- The top 5 LCers ended 23-2 against the bottom 5 LCers. Pablo went undefeated, while Luthier / Jake only lost to other members of the top 5. Both of the losses to bottom 5 players were pretty exceptional individual underperformances, too; lily had to deal with a Hustle miss + Ferroseed being paralyzed 4/4 times + Mareanie being crit against idiotfrommars, whereas serene made a pretty embarrassing choke against HT. This ratio won't change for playoffs, since all four of the remaining teams have a top 5 LCer.

- The power rankings turned out to be pretty accurate! At the end of the regular season, six of the nine users ended within one position of their power ranking. The remaining four users ended within three positions of their power ranking. tazz :(

- Credit where credit is due - Osh farmed ranks 7-10 mercilessly, and didn't look that bad in his earlier losses either. It's up in the air whether he would have performed better against lily and Pablo if the Tigers hadn't dropped out early on.



Predictions for semis:

[50] Luthier vs jake [50]

Luthier goes into this match 7-2 to jake's 6-3, having won their match earlier in the season. He seems to have the upper hand in their confrontations overall, having won their LC Open series as well as their second confrontation in Snake Draft finals last year, but it's hard to make a real case from a such small sample size between two top tier players.

Jake has been around the block and has nerves of cold cut steel. His confidence is borne of years of experience in the tour community over the other competitors, which importantly includes having held his position as a top level LCer for the last few of them. Luthier, on the other hand, has nerves of bathwater, but it doesn't matter when his string of successes in the past year have led him to develop a sky-high ego matched only by his actual ability. Both players have proven themselves to be extremely consistent, not only over the course of this season but over Snake as well, so it's tough to favour either of them in playing ability.

The thought of having to prep against jake drives me to tears. He's gotten the one-up on me every time I've tried doing so, and I don't have a read on his building style at all except that it works - I'll often have to take a moment to process jake's teams and techs before realizing that hey, that does make sense. Meanwhile, I worked closely with Luthier over the course of snake, so his builds feel much more intuitive to me, and of course I would think that they're good. This isn't to say he isn't diverse as well, however, as he's been able to capably pilot all sorts of teams in the past.

I'm completely willing to bet against either of these players normally, I promise, but in this case I genuinely believe they're completely evenly matched. I am eagerly awaiting this face-off and have subscribed to Luthier Showdown in preparation.


[40] ggggd vs Serene Grace [60]

Pablo entered this tour as LC's top contender, an expectation he's since comfortably met. Meanwhile, Serene was the more human of the two, and entered SPL with no prior experience as a trophy team tour starter. Drafting him was seen as a bit a of a gamble, and he started off the season with a late game mishap against Pablo despite having outprepped through Charmander sun's debut. From there, his first four weeks cumulated in a humiliating choke in week 4 to grant HT his sole win, finishing at the midseason at 1-3. It looked like serene was failing to live up to his own expectations.

A superbly decisive victory over zf in week 5 granted serene the confidence boost he needed. As it turns out, the week 5 game wasn't actually an issue with zf in LC (meaning tazz could have been left in peace), because serene's next few opponents ended up going the same way as zf anyway. To say that serene has been playing phenomenally from week 5 onward is an understatement; if we take out luck, he actually outperformed Pablo from this point, boasting a 5-0 to Pablo's 4-1. Pre-February 5th Serene Grace is a thing of the past. There is no chance that either player will misplay.

So it comes down to building ability, and in my opinion Pablo's builds have actually been respectably solid. He clearly has an idea of what he's doing, and even managed to catch onto Shellos before other users did. However, serene has looked like one of the best builders of the tour throughout the season; this was true even before he'd gotten acclimated to playing at his best. I have so much faith in his ability to both gauge the metagame and push it forward, and it's definitely worth mentioning that he's the only player (unless you count jake's game) who managed not to get outprepped by lily.



The way our SPL season ended was heartbreaking, but at the end of the day I had a lot of fun and don't regret signing up to manage one bit. Being able to build with someone of lily's caliber felt pretty surreal, and overall I think she played great too. Managing with Kingler has caused me to become physically sick at all mentions of Litwick.

Best of luck to the remaining competitors!
 

sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
SEMIFINALS

[TYRN] Luthier vs. jake [RUIN]
[CRYO] ggggd vs. Serene Grace [CONG]
Levi said the words already, good luck to everyone and hope we get some good matches!
 

sam-testings

What a beautiful face, I have found in this place
FINALS

[CONG] Serene Grace vs jake [RUIN]
Apologies, with all the chaos lately I've been unable to update this thread. And what a finals we have here, with two phenomenal players who have been playing some outstanding mons this whole SPL season. Serene Grace may have had a shaky start, but has steamrolled everyone since on his way to the finish line, while jake has been consistent throughout the season like he has his entire career. Although both are solid builders and players, Serene has certainly been one of the more wild builders in the LC playerbase, always willing to bring out innovations such as Charmanders SPL debut.
jake has years of experience on the big stage, and this is not unfamiliar territory to him in the slightest, whereas this is the first time Serene has ever been here. Will jakes nerves of steel prevail against Serene's teams? Hope we get an exciting game, good luck to both sides!
 
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freezai

Live for the Applause
is a Tiering Contributor
"Good artists borrow, great artists steal."

Yahallo Little Cuppers! After an eventful SPL Season, I thought I would share my teams and my experiences throughout the tour.

Record Entering Week: 0-0
Week 1 vs. Pablo
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Entering Week 1, I really wanted to start off with a bang. Earlier in the week, I got throttled mercilessly by a Charmander on the ladder and then thought to myself, "Hey, this is pretty fucking good." Too often, people gloss over genuinely good ideas because of where it comes from or because it sounds like a meme. But like any great artist, I stole this idea and built a Charmander sun team that used Eject items to get in Charmander and Co. as much as possible. In hindsight, I was too ambitious; Eject Pack Vulpix (which I've since changed) was inferior to the standard heat rock, for example.

In the game, I didn't identify my opponent's Vullaby set early enough, and while I was punching holes early, all I was really doing was setting up myself to be swept late game. So much for a bang.

Record Entering Week: 0-1
Week 2 vs. Luthier

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At this point, I was still hungover by SM and the glory of Z moves. I scoured the teambuilder, but there just weren't many OHKO threats or Fatcore breakers. Beating Mareanie/Ferroseed/Etc cores required you to dissect them through smart pivots and trappers. I wanted something more relaxed, and Band Rufflet was precisely what I was looking for. It was the OHKO threat I was looking for and allowed me to vary my builds to avoid getting a door slammed in my face by a team prepared for a linear Knock Off/Pivots/Trappers team.

Early game Banded Rufflet struck with the force of a thousand Rssp1 ladder games and did precisely what it needed to. I had broken the Mareanie/Ferroseed core. However, I started getting worried about losing the lead and started playing too safe. (along with an objective misplay or two) The endgame culminated in a tense situation. Unfortunately, an untimely crit ruined my chances, and I was heading to another loss.

Unless…?

My opponent choked and made one of the most bizarre plays I've ever seen. It could only be characterized as a misclick or an aneurysm. All of a sudden, I was winning. How lucky could I get? I asked that question too soon. One critical hit and 3 full paralyses later, after my opponent snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, Lady Luck snatched it back and stamped it on my forehead. I was pissed. Luck into choke into luck, and now I was 0-2.

Record Entering Week: 0-2
Week 3 vs. Jake

1585390211921.png
Honestly, this was the week I was stressed most about. The burden of being 0-2 was bearing down on me and Jake was one of the better players of the tour. Add in the fact that my team had 3k at midseason, and I definitely felt like I was on the hot seat. I decided to go back to basics and use a Fairy Spam core, which was rising in popularity at the time. Remember, this was back when people were still running slow Mareanies and Cutiefly wasn't as common because it didn't have roost. NP Spritzee could run through unprepared teams. Also, I stole the concept of fast Mareanie from Madoka, who had mentioned it earlier. Although FastMar is standard now, at the time, people knew it existed but never used it. In fact, this was the SPL debut of fast Mareanie. During Ekans, I lost to a Modest LO Cutiefly which ohkoed Pawniard, and I decided to implement a similar set on my Pawniard weak team.

Both techs worked perfectly, fast Mareanie lured a Mudbray and LO Cutiefly nailed a Pawniard. Heavy Duty Boots Cutiefly scared me for a bit, but it was a relatively clear endgame to finish off. Finally, my first win.

Record Entering Week: 1-2
Week 4 vs. HT
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I was relieved, I got through the gauntlet and ended 1-2 where I could've been 2-1. Up next was 0-3 HT, and I was feeling good about my chances. I decided to use one of my favorite cores of SM, Shell Dig, because I was expecting a Sun Team. Sun had rising support for a ban and was viewed as broken by the majority for the community. HT had never used Sun before, and it seemed like a no brainer that he would use it: Sun is easy to use, easy to build, and an easy way to break an 0-3 slump. However, all that does is make the resulting sequence even more embarrassing.

I prepped for Sun and then made one of the biggest chokes of my career and found a way to throw away a great MU. It's almost like I completely forgot that my Diglett had memento, and I threw away what should've been an easy win. I was shambled and my team was livid, especially because we missed out on a win that week.

Record Entering Week: 1-3
Week 5 vs. zf
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I didn't really know what to make of zf; Tazz was the original starter but got benched, so I didn't have any replays to work with. I decided to just go with something standard and outplay. During the week, I was lamenting to myself about how Frilish is so good, but then it means I can't run Mareanie, which was also so good. Then it dawned on me, who says I can't use both on the same team? Stacking bulky waters is perfectly fine when there's nothing that actually abuses bulky waters. I coupled the double water core with broken Drifloon and filled out with some standards.

Fast Mareanie was, yet again, tremendous and gave me a sharp look vs. Corphish+Mudbray. However, I did have to be very careful as my opponent's team looked very dangerous. Threats like SD Pawniard, LO Cutiefly, or LO Wingull could easily break through my squad if I let it. Fortunately, I was able to navigate through and had one of my more convincing wins of the season.

Record Entering Week: 2-3
Week 6 vs. Evigaro
https://pokepast.es/de53bddd729694ea
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I felt like this game was going to be a trap game for me. On paper, Evigaro was the 10th ranked player in the tour, but clearly, 3 other people paid the price for overlooking her. I reworked one of my older Fairy spam cores and decided to use it because it was an archetype that I was comfortable with and considered it to be reliable. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, right?

I had fairy spam, and on turn 2, my opponent sacked her fairy resist.

Record Entering Week: 3-3
Week 7 vs. Osh
https://pokepast.es/63cc86eb211df72b
1585390324681.png
Pokemon Home just released, and I knew what I wanted to use: Aurora Veil. I struggled to build a version of veils that I liked because I knew that I had to be prepared for standard veil checks, especially because I had (have?) a reputation as a cheeser. While I was testing, LilyAC came up with the idea of Protect+Disable Vulpix-Alola to stop Timburr's Defog and Pawniard's Brick Break. I immediately Great Artisted the idea and went to work.

This game, the MU was relatively even if not slanting in favor of me. It was always going to be very difficult for my opponent to stop my NP Vullaby + Zigzagoon. Meanwhile, I had to worry about his threats like NP Gunk and Sticky Web. Funnily enough, I never had to set up Veils as Vullaby and Vulpix-Alola were able to break through without any Veils support.

Record Entering Week: 4-3
Week 8 vs. Idiotfrommars
https://pokepast.es/7f8092627cf848fa
1585390362988.png

Preparing for the week, I went for a similar approach to how I did Evigaro. I went for a "standard and outplay" Webs team with Cutiefly and it's newly acquired roost. I had to be prepared for cheese like Veils, so I opted for a stout core of Onix+Eviolite BB Pawniard and then added NP Vullaby as my webs abuser.

It appears that my opponent heavily prepared for cheese, indicated by Onix+Pawn and garbage like Scarf Frillish. Pawniard was very threatening, but thankfully I was able to catch it on a stay in. After that, it was just playing around with Mareanie and Trapinch and making sure I don't choke vs. something like Trick Frillish.

Record Entering Week: 5-3
Week 9 vs. LilyAC
https://pokepast.es/ceed0037213ba0f5
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This was a big week: our team needed to win this week to make playoffs and LilyAC was on fire this season. The core of Levi, Kingler12345, and Lily was clearly working well as they were able to get good matchups most games and had some new innovations every game. From the beginning, I knew that if I wanted to out prep them, I had to go out of my comfort zone. Shellos was rising in popularity, mainly because of ggggd, and while I've always considered Shellos to be very mediocre, I had to admit, it does have its moments. I wanted to use Shellos with a different look than the Shellos team that gets spammed on the ladder so I paired it with a PonyPinch core, something I don't use very often yet is still solid.

This game was heartbreaking, Shellos got robbed and I was left scrambling to try and pick up pieces that didn't exist. Other techs like substitute Mudbray iced any minuscule chance I had left, and I was left hoping the rest of my team could take us to the playoffs.

Record Entering Semifinals: 5-4
Semifinals vs Shawyu 1313
https://pokepast.es/01402b58508f3858
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I wanted revenge after I lost to Pablo in Week 1. (Un)fortunately, we already won the week before I could play and they subbed in Shawyu 1313. I reused LilyAC's Koffing team and added Toxic on Ferroseed because I know ggggd loves shellos and would've passed him a team with it.

I swept with NP Vullaby and some dark pulse flinches. I think I was looking good even without the flinches, but meh, no one really cares, this was a meaningless game anyways.

Record Entering Week: 6-4
Finals vs. Jake
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The finals. At this point in the season, Cutiefly had cemented itself as being extremely broken. I had resigned myself to the fact that any team should be built assuming that Webs are on both sides of the field. My previous favorites, like NP Spritzee, were simply unviable. I had to look at a new set of abusers. BU Rufflet was an obvious choice and offensive Koffing was an interesting option that I really liked from the team I used last week. However, I still wasn't delighted with the webs MU. I started looking for ways to deny webs, but it's hard to lure Cutiefly and I couldn't get a spinner like Drilbur to work. Then, I lost to Redboy using Scarf Onix on the ladder, and I realized that that's what I'm looking for. Scarf Onix lures Lead Cutiefly and Lead Vullaby, checks NP Vullaby in a web vs. web, and its worst-case scenario is a 150 bp stab move on one of the fastest pokemon in the tier. I ended up with a standard looking webs team with BU Rufflet and Offensive Koffing, but with Scarf Onix as a special surprise.

This was one of the most intense games I have ever played. My lead Onix caught lead Dewpider (which I later found out was Choice Scarf Dewpider). However, I wasn't out of the lurch yet because after my Onix got trapped, I had no switch-in to Vullaby. It was very tempting to switch in Cutiefly on a predicted knock off, but that was just way too risky. I knew I had to get myself into a position where I could Bulk Up with Rufflet, but I also needed Webs up to deal with Head Smash Onix. The game climaxed with a tricky endgame, and I ended up winning with a Trapinch with 1 hp left.
What a season.

Finals ended up going to a tiebreaker and we lost there.
Final Record: 7-4

Conclusion
Overall, this season was a lot of fun, and it's a season I'm proud of, especially after my horrendous start. I felt like I had a chip on my shoulder after all the pundits said I wasn't a good builder, I was even adamant that we don't add any other LC players to the team chat because I wanted to do this on my own.
Shoutouts to all the people on my team who don't regularly play LC but still popped in to help out, mainly snaga and suapah and shoutouts to GotCookies who helped out too, and to all the people I tested with and talked to over these few months
 

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