The World Cup of Pokémon 2020 - Qualifying Round 2

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NYANPASU AND WELCOME TO PART 5 OF THE UNBIASED POWER RANKINGS
I guess we're just going to be doing 1 team at a time at this point since everyone's taking their sweet time nowadays.

Europe:

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Europe is back for another year, hoping to rekindle some of the magic that helped them reach the finals in World Cup 2017. The team was definitely hurt by the new format change. Can their boomers adjust to the post-DLC zoomer metagame and help the squad reach the playoffs again?

The team doesn't really have a superstar player (not even SuperstarPearl this year, lol). They do have Mr. Ribbon Syndrome himself, though, Pohjis, who surprised me with a pretty solid run in the most recent Smogon Tour. He managed to make it all the way to the finals, and came pretty close to taking down ABR in game 3. A lot of his games didn't seem too impressive to me, but at least he managed to do well I guess. This run definitely elevates him a bit in my mind, but I'm definitely nowhere near ready to drink the Pohjis kool-aid. Speaking of impressive runs, Mana has seemingly come out of nowhere to dominate Classic so far. He was always known as a new gen player before this, so I think he should be able to translate his newfound skill pretty well to SS OU. He's always managed to do decent to solid in team tours before this, so I think he'll definitely go positive.

Next up, we have the face of Europe, TonyFlygon. Tony has managed to make the playoffs in a few individual tours during his short tenure as a Smogon player, and has managed to decently on the big stage as well, albeit in a small sample size. I'll definitely need to see more before I'm convinced, but I'd probably bank on him going positive more often than not. frisoeva's another player who has had a decent run so far in a small sample size. I've never really been overly impressed by him, but like Tony, I'd probably expect him go to positive. It wouldn't really surprise me too much if either of these two players "underperformed," though. I've always thought W3k was pretty decent; however, I don't really know how well he'll be able to transition to SS OU. It's also been a year and a half since his last showing on the big stage. I think his season could go either way.

The suspect slots on the lineup are Bloody Alfa, Quaze, and Twixtry. Bloody Alfa looked like a clown in the first game I watched him play in Corona PL; he did apparently go 12-7 combined in those tours, though. More importantly, he is coming off a pretty solid Smogon Tour run. He reached the semifinals and took down one of Smogon's biggest legends, McMeghan, in the process. Granted, the ending of his series against Roro didn't inspire too much confidence; he basically threw away a 100% win for no real reason. The endgame was still in his favor, even after the throw, but you can't really make plays like that on the big stage and expect to get away with it. He is currently 0-0 on the sheet, so there's really a wide range of outcomes here. I'll obviously need to see a lot more before I'm ready to have any semblance of confidence in him; personally, I think he'll struggle. Quaze, meanwhile, is someone I really have no confidence in. He was benched in SPL after a poor start, and currently sits at 3-7 on the sheet. He definitely didn't seem too competent from what I saw. Last up, we have Twixtry, a player who broke onto the scene in a big way with a nice 4-0 run last World Cup. He's been in decline ever since that showing, though, as he could only muster up a 3-3 record in Snake, and got absolutely washed to the tune of a 3-6 record in SPL. I really haven't seen anything from him to make me think that he can get out of this slump. I'd probably expect him to struggle too.

The bench features some interesting names. MetalGro$$ is an RBYer who is coming off of a nice SPL run. Does that really matter? Well, no LOL I'd be surprised if he played, honestly. The other three candidates could all see playing time, though. Void established himself as a pretty good player in my eyes, but he's definitely been in poor form lately; there's also no evidence he can succeed in SS OU. ZoroClick is someone I bold a fair amount; he hasn't been too hot lately on the big stage, but I still think he's better than some of the people starting for Europe right now. That being said, I obviously have no idea how much he's played SS OU. Considering that he's benched in favor of goons like Quaze to start the tour, I'll temper my expectations a fair bit here. The most interesting name here is Eeveeto, who amassed a ridiculous 20-7 combined record in Corona PL. More importantly, he also had a nice STour run...granted, his series against ABR was pretty atrocious LOL He's also struggled a bit on the big stage, and is coming off an 0-3 showing in SPL XI. I'll need to see more before I'm ready to have any faith in him, but I'm not going to completely write him off. I wouldn't bank on him doing anything substantial in this tour, though.

Overall, this is a decent team. They lack any real star power, which definitely hurts their chances of success. A lot of their players could definitely struggle in the limelight, and I'm really not sure if their boomers have what it takes to salvage any poor SS OU slots the team might have. It's definitely not a terrible team, and they have a decent shot of making the playoffs if things break their way. Perhaps the TonyFlygon effect can elevate this team to contender status, but for now...color me skeptical.

Overall Rankings:

1. US Northeast
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2. US South
3. Italy
4. US West
5. Brazil
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6. France
7. Europe
8. US Midwest
9. Latin America
10. Germany
11. Greece
12. India
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