World Cup of Pokemon VGC - Discussion

[jonas]

Approved by zeefable

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With all the 50+ teams submitted, and the first qualifying round draw happening this weekend, the World Cup of Pokémon VGC by Victory Road is ready to be start. It’ will be the biggest team tournament of the year, that will inspire (hopefully) many metagame developments.
Important Dates:
August 2 - August 22: Qualifying Round 1 - All 55 teams will split into groups of 3 or 4, based on the pool draw next weekend. The top 2 teams from each pool after a round robin will be seeded and advance to Qualifying Round 2.
August 23 - September 12: Qualifying Round 2 - The top 32 teams will be seeded based on their performance in round 1, with the top 2 teams from each pool advancing to seeded playoffs.
September 13 - October 10: Playoffs - After the top 16 teams are found, they will play in a single elimination bracket, until 1 team is remaining
Player Pools:
Many of the top players from around the world are playing, This Includes past world champions like Paul Ruiz and Arash Ommati, as well as many current top players, Such as Kyle Geffner, Mattie Morgan, and Francisco P. Pero.
A lot of smogoners are playing in the event, so I would love to hear some thoughts from: zeefable North Lilburr Jomatoes Animus dev611 Serapis maovgc kingofmars raisedintyo InkVGC Human
Questions:
Some food for thought -
Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run?
Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament?
Which Restricteds Will have the highest usage?
Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta?
What are you most excited for?

 

[Evelyie]

VAI BRASIL

 

[Bananers]

U - S - A, U - S - A

 

[mattiemoomoo]

Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run? Ireland
Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament? Ireland
Which Restricteds Will have the highest usage? Zacian
Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta? Eternatus
What are you most excited for? Ireland

 

[TempleVGC]

Gamer Jomatoes carry

 

[SeaSoil]

Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run? Ireland
Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament? Ireland
Which Restricteds Will have the highest usage? Zacian
Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta? Eternatus
What are you most excited for? Ireland

you have to change every instance of Ireland in this message to Canada if Willy beats you y/n

 

[jonas]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1419734302514950144

Tomorrow at 6 PM UTC the pool drawing will be going on at https://twitch.tv/victoryroad

 

[Evelyie]

BRAZIL TEAM REVIEW

Captain: Gabriel Agati
- Agati is a very good player, unfortunately I never got to play him so I don't know as accurate, but he is a really gold player from what I have seen and heard.

André "Fumito" Fumis
- I have deep appreciation for Fumis, as we're playing as teammates. He is a great player and I consider him an Ace for the team, being back after a while, he's here to kick ass.

Caio "PhantomPumpkin" Romanini
- Same case as Agati. But he has a really good Youtube channel so I know a little more about him, he is another great player I'm expecting to give trouble to other countries.

Hugo "Labacedo"
- I think together with the beforementioned, Labacedo closes off "The big 4" from the Brazil team. He is a REALLY good player, and he already has gotten good results in S10.

Derek "Alphastorm" Ferreira
- I don't know much about him. Next.

Victor "Kids" Viera
- I consider Kids my rival after he got me eliminated in my first Top Cut. He is a great player and I love playing against him.

Jefferson "iJeff" Camelo
- Jeff is a great player, got to play him once and lost, he went REALLY well on PCIV and I'm excited to see how he is going to perform.

- Raul "Gioilele"
MY BROTHER MY PAL MY DUDE, I love Raul so much and he is an amazing player, I'm really cheering for him and I'm so happy he's in.

Luciano "StandProud" Begot
- Begot is a really good player. I played him once and he really kicked my ass back then.

Don't know nothing about Shadow and João. Sorry guys.

Bravvee
- I always play like shit when I go against him and I don't know why. I consider him a good player although everything

Resume:
VAI BRASIL BORA GANHAR ESSA PORRA

edit: smh not having me on the team

 

[Bananers]

Ok now some actual thoughts on this.

1. US. I mean bias aside this team is stacked af lol.

2. Greece. I’ve watched many of these guys play and they are special players. The building I’ve seen from them is also very special, especially when Liakos completely flipped the meta on its head in series 9. I think they are the dark horse of this tournament.

3. Zacian, fits on so many compositions that by default it will be the most used imo.

4. Aegislash, this mon has been lurking around for awhile in the meta but I think it will pop off here. I would’ve said Mienshao a couple weeks ago but it’s solidified itself in the meta.

5. Brazilians spamming copypastas

 

[InkVGC]

Going to answer this semi seriously lol.

Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run? - China for sure--the fact that notable players like Bingjie couldn't make it through their tryouts (unless I have the general idea wrong here) suggests that pretty much everyone on their team is at that level and that sounds extremely scary for any team to face.

Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament? - Team Ireland has extremely strong managers and some strong (if at times underrated) players like Mattiemoo and Jomatoes. Personal bias here (not sure if we really qualify as underdogs) but team India looks quite good and I'm excited to see how well we do.

Which Restricteds Will have the highest usage? - Leaning towards Zacian

Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta? - I have no idea but look forward to finding out.

What are you most excited for? - Gamer Jomatoes Carry

 

[tyo]

I’ll be surprised if Japan doesn’t win this tournament. Their roster is so crazy

 

[tyo]

As for these questions:
Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run? Japan Italy USA Spain China Germany Argentina South Korea are the teams I think will be top 8.
Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament? Singapore, Canada, and India have strong rosters
Which Restricteds Will have the highest usage? Zacian and CalyShadow
Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta? Whatever the Japanese are running
What are you most excited for? I really hope my team can play either the USA, Japan, or Italy sometime during the tournament. Nothing better in mons than playing the best players in the world

 

[Helios of Sun]

Some food for thought -
Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run? Italy, Japan, US, India, and China. I think China can be poised to win it all, considering that players like Bingjie didn't make it through tryouts.
Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament? Canada, South Korea
Which Restricteds Will have the highest usage? Zacian, and I actually think Groudon could rise.
Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta? Good question, I think Lunala could be good. Araquanid and Landorus-T also look quite interesting.
What are you most excited for? I want to see how Team China does. I see a lot of faces I do not know and I want to see them play.

 

[jonas]

the draft is live NOW!
https://twitch.tv/victoryroadvgc
https://twitch.tv/victoryroadvgc
https://twitch.tv/victoryroadvgc
https://twitch.tv/victoryroadvgc
here are the logos:

 

[jonas]

The Stream Concluded, and all 16 groups have been decided, so ill add some more questions:
1. Which Group are you most exicted for?
2. Which Group do you think will be the most competitive?
3. Which Group will have a major upset?
4. Which Team will do the best?

 

[Egor]

vamos russia

 

[zee]

god I fucking LOVE our team logo. USA USA USA!!!!!!!!

getting australia and new zealand in our pool back to back is pretty interesting, though I'm not looking forward to schedule on 14 and 16 hour time differences...

I'm really excited to finally get some high level games in though. Not sure if I'll be starting or supporting but either way I'll be taking the meta pretty seriously from this point on. To answer the questions:


Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run? - now that we have pools this is a bit more clear, though ofc we still don't have a bracket. the 4 strongest teams going into this imo were US Italy Spain and Japan and I'd imagine we see at least 2 of these in the top 4 if brackets aren't horrible.
Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament? - China. China doesn't get to prove themselves due to their lack of official event support but the JollyBreloom community is huge and I promise that their team will be one you should keep your eyes on.
Which Restricteds Will have the highest usage? - Calyrex Zacian Ogre to no one's surprise. I think Groudon and maybe even Eternatus might overtake Xerneas in usage.
Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta? - I'm buying into the Eternatus hype.
What are you most excited for? - All the drama and questionable hosting decisions of course Myself. This is my third world cup and I'm looking to break out of the 1-1 record I've been tied to in the last two times I've played.


1. Which Group are you most exicted for? - Group A actually. India's got a solid player pool, I'm excited to see what Taiwan is going to pull off, and of course, keep your eyes out for China.
2. Which Group do you think will be the most competitive? - Group B, Group G, and Group P all look quite strong.
3. Which Group will have a major upset? - not sure if this is really an upset but Poland beating Portugal and Israel. The Polish were really taking off right before the circuit shut down and I trust they'll be in decent form for this tour.

 

[yone]

Rooting for France

 

[Helios of Sun]

The Stream Concluded, and all 16 groups have been decided, so ill add some more questions:
1. Which Group are you most exicted for? Group A. India and China faceoff is bound to be epic
2. Which Group do you think will be the most competitive? Group C. All teams are fairly equal in skill level, with SK being the outlier
3. Which Group will have a major upset? I don't know the teams well enough, though Taiwan has a chance of pulling off a major upset I think
4. Which Team will do the best? If you mean by winners, I'm guessing China/Japan/USA.

 

[pix]

The Stream Concluded, and all 16 groups have been decided, so ill add some more questions:
1. Which Group are you most exicted for?
2. Which Group do you think will be the most competitive?
3. Which Group will have a major upset?
4. Which Team will do the best?

1. Group A and C look the most exciting imo
2. Group C looks the most competitive
3. Group J
4. Hard to say but India, Japan, USA and UK look strong imo with great players on each of the team

 

[Evelyie]

Bringing this discussion over to Smogon as well. I think it's a pretty neat topic for a more fun debate

 

[Sole Survivor]

go India wooo

Questions:
Some food for thought -
Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run?
Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament?
Which Restricteds Will have the highest usage?
Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta?
What are you most excited for?

Which teams do you think are poised to make a deep playoff run?
-definitely Japan and the US, their teams are stacked

Which teams do you think will be underdogs that make it far in the tournament?|
-this is a tough one but I'm gonna say India bc ofc, I'm biased

Which Restricteds will have the highest usage?
-I expect Zacian-C, Kyogre and Caly-S to be at the top of usage stats with a good amount of Xerneas.

Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta?
-no idea honestly but it might be Araquanid because of its good movepool and Wide Guard and also because it's a great answer into Incineroar specifically.

What are you most excited for?
-I'm particularly excited to see how far the US, Japan, China and India make it into the tournament, especially as the first two seem to be fan favorites as always, with the latter two definitely having some great potential. I also am hoping to see Xerneas find good success in this tournament since I just really like it a lot and feel it definitely can be a meta defining Pokemon with the aforementioned Zacian-C, Kyogre and Caly-S, shoutouts to Volcarona for being a key member in potentially facilitating this.

 

[Evelyie]

Which new Pokémon will find a place in the meta?

I definetly feel like new Fake Out users have chance due to their tools. I don't know how much time people will realize Grimmsnarl is basically a nautrally bulky Prankster Thundurus with Fake Out. Other options are Blastoise with Yawn and Flip Turn, Weavile with Snarl, Icy Wind, Ice Shard and similars.

What I would imagine from each

Grimmsnarl (M) @ Wiki Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
- Taunt
- Spirit Break
- Fake Out
- Thunder Wave / Swagger

Weavile @ Assault Vest
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
- Triple Axel
- Ice Shard
- Fake Out
- Low Kick / Low Sweep

Blastoise @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Torrent
Level: 50
- Scald
- Flip Turn
- Fake Out
- Icy Wind

 

[ck49]

I think Group C is terrifying. It and Group A are the two most competitive groups for sure. But I'm playing in Group C so I'll give the run down on that.

Denmark is the underdog. It has the fewest notable players in the group but is stil a very talented squad. I think if they were placed in any 3 team group they'd be favored to make it through. While I'd be shocked if they made it through, they're definetely capable of stealing points from the other three teams which could easily be the difference between progressing and getting knocked out.

Sweden is the team most people have as third in the group. Sweden is coming off a Cinderella run to the finals of the European championships, coming one game away from beating Italy for the title. However, the best player from that team, Worlds top 4 competitor Nils Dunlop, isn't participating this time around, nor is his very talented brother Daniel. Sweden is a real threat to make it through despite this. The two most notable players are myself and Pontus, two players with regional top cuts and have been starters on past NPA champions. Victor and David D are players who have found a lot of success in the last year as well, Victor having finished 6th in the European Players cup and David finishing top 16 as well as being a finalist of the r/vgc circuit 2. We're still probably a step being the other two teams, but we have the experience in team tournaments and the playerbase to beat anyone.

Singapore has always been on of the best countries in the APAC region, and is the team most people would expect to finish in 2nd in the group. They managed to get most of their top players to participate and the top end of their roster can compete with anyone in the world. They're spearheaded by their big 3 of Melvin, Matthias, and Yoko. Melvin is undoubtably one of the best players in the world, having top cut the last two world championships, Yoko is a regional champion with multiple top cuts under her belt, and Matthias has top cut an internats along with multiple regional top cuts as well. The rest of their roster has a number of impressive performances as well, but beating Singapore starts with stealing a win against their top three players.

Korea is of course the favorite in the group and one of the teams that could feasibly win the entire tournament. However, one slip up from them could see them out in this stage given how competitive this group is. A lot of their players aren't well known in the west, but the one who you probably have heard of is Players Cup runner up Jiseok Lee. Donguk "Springs" Jung is another player well known here as he has played in NPA for the last few years and has a Worlds Top 32 under his belt. Wonseok Jung has a worlds top cut from 2016 and multiple day two worlds appearances, Jeongso Lee is currently in top 4 of Korea's de-facto 2021 Nationals, and the rest of the team is stacked with talent.

Certainly not the group I was hoping for going into the tournament from Sweden's perspective but I'm excited to play against some of the best players from Asia and hopefully knock one of them out.

 

[pix]

Don't disappoint me India that's all that I have to say