EVENTS:
[80CP] Top 64 - Pokemon European International Championships / Exhibition Centre London
[12CP] Top 64 - Mid Season Showdown London / Exhibition Centre London
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TEAM OVERVIEW:
Thanks to Daniel Walker for helping with the team, and thanks to Eric Vo for breeding the team for me:
Marowak-Alola / Tapu Koko / Celesteela / Porygon2 / Garchomp / Milotic
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Amber (Marowak-Alola) @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Bone
- Protect
- Flare Blitz
- Bonemerang
NOTES: Very specially bulky. Because I had Thick Club, I wasn't too worried about getting one shots onto things that didn't resist me. Having this extra bulk means I can take a few Eruptions or LO Psychic or random Shadow Balls, very helpful as a pivot switch. Takes LO Draco from Drampa 100% of the time.
Corey Munro 2016: "Marowak is a shit mon...decent typing, crap items, crap movepool...this thing won't see play"
Krystal (Tapu Koko) @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Protect
- Dazzling Gleam
- Volt Switch
NOTES: Standard set. Opponents thought I had Thunderbolt over Discharge quite often.
Ji Eun (Celesteela) @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Heavy Slam
- Leech Seed
- Flamethrower
- Protect
NOTES: Sick of the stupid mirror, so dropped Sub for Flamethrower. rekt a few Kartana on the way. Doesn't take Liquidations too well though. Picked Celesteela the least out of all the mons.
Momo (Porygon2) @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 140 Def / 44 SpA / 76 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Recover
- Trick Room
NOTES: this thing is a fucking god. it doesn't die
Hyomin (Garchomp) @ Groundium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw
- Poison Jab
- Protect
NOTES: Pretty standard...Poison Jab should be pretty common now. Discharge + Ground Z kills anything that's not flying type (bye harambe). A few idiots also decided to leave Bulu in for Poison Jab
Seolhyun (Milotic) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Competitive
Level: 50
EVs: 144 HP / 116 Def / 220 SpA / 28 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA
- Hidden Power [Electric]
- Protect
- Ice Beam
- Scald
NOTES: I brought it more often than I expected. EV'd to take two Solar Beams (one to proc Sitrus, then take another hit). HP electric for gyarados and other random shit. Walls Araquanid decently enough, also destroys Arcanine and double duck.
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TOURNAMENT RUNS:
>Day 1 | European International Championships
PRE-GAME: I thought I was pretty well prepared coming into the tournament. A list of things that concerned me in order of most terrifying:
1. Araquanid - stupid waterbug that hits like a truck and takes hits like a truck too. Water Bubble is stupidly powerful and liquidation donks you
2. Porygon2 - some carry Tbolt and some carry Toxic. Both are annoying against my team and I needed to either brute force it (nothing on my team can kill it in one hit even with a double target) or play for a position in which I win the stall war
3. Sun Room - the onus is on me to make the correct reads to put myself in an optimal position. T1 is always a 50/50 if they lead Oranguru. If I make more than three wrong reads in a game, I would be guaranteed to lose that game, so hard reading was really important
Round 1: vs Eddie Jarafian [SWEDEN] | W W
Pelipper / Tapu Bulu / Goodra / Marowak-Alola / Arcanine / Muk-Alola
NOTES: AV Goodra with Hydration most likely given he had rain. He had a bulky Bulu which didnt get one shot by Poison Jab. His Muk also had Figy berry, so it was annoying. Game 1 was a stall war between P2 and Goodra, he managed to poison me but I managed to get the SpD drop on him. Game 2 was much easier after I one shot his Muk and blasted his Goodra as well.
Round 2: vs Adam Wake [UNITED KINGDOM] | W W
Torkoal / Salamence / Lilligant / Drampa / Oranguru / Tapu Bulu
NOTES: Saw Sun Room and despaired. Then I 4-0 4-0'd him. Turns out his R1 win was due to a disconnect. l0l
Round 3: vs Michele Gavelli (@LordGioppiVGC) [ITALY] | L W L
Porygon2 / Marowak / Araquanid / Gyarados / Tapu Lele / Xurkitree
NOTES: I played the eventual 3rd place player in Round 3. He's a good player, but unfortunately he's a bit of an arrogant dickhead (G1 he was too busy giggling and staring at his mate's screen next to him than playing me) so it feels really good to take G2 off him cleanly. His LO Araquanid was too strong and I let him have TR all three games to my detriment. At this stage I wasn't ready to make hard reads, and this cost me G3. Not committing to reads was my downfall in this tournament definitely, so this wasn't a good start. By all means I didn't lose to a shitter so I didn't mind but to go down in Round 3 was really annoying.
I remember going downstairs and washing my face at this point, telling myself to not let this loss get the better of me and keep playing normally.
Round 4: vs Pietro Chiri (@PietroChiri) [ITALY] | W L W
Talonflame / Buzzwole / Tapu Lele / Krookodile / Gengar / Tapu Koko
NOTES: who the fuck runs Buzzwole l0l I swept him pretty easily in G1 because he TW'd and I one shot his muscle bug and I got TR up, G2 I threw because his Buzzwole fucking destroyed my ass, G3 I beat his Buzzwole up again. Nice to defeat a relatively consistent European player and not let the R3 tilt settle in.
Round 5: vs Jeremy Mantingh (@JeremyMantingh) [UNITED KINGDOM] | L W W
Marowak-Alola / Gyarados / Celesteela / Tapu Koko / Garchomp / Whimsicott
NOTES: Almost a mirror except I had Milotic and he had Gyarados. Whimsicott was irrelevant since I had TR. I could tell that his mons were generally faster because he had no TR (which was weird for this team comp) so I abused TR pretty hard. G1 I didn't capitalise with TR up and got the switches one turn too late, but I rectified this in G2 and G3. I realised he had AV Chomp early on in G1 after a Gleam from Koko did 50% so I abused this later on, because after I got rid of Chomp and Marowak he had no solid answer to my own Koko or Marowak. Lots of 50/50s in T1 in all three games but most went my way.
Round 6: vs Filippo Maccarini [ITALY] | W L L
Tapu Lele / Gyarados / Marowak-Alola / Garchomp / Porygon2 / Celesteela
NOTES: Really shouldn't have lost this set. It's a blur in my mind but I know I threw away G2 and G3. Don't know how but I definitely played terribly this whole set. Again, shouldn't have lost this set. He made day 2 as well, I'm disappointed that I couldn't beat him because I made many correct plays but one crucial misplayed turn in both games cost me the set. Now that I look at his team comp, I think in G2 I didn't bring Celesteela and G3 I threw it away. His P2 had Toxic so once I got rid of Marowak he literally couldn't win.
Round 7: vs Lukas Auer [AUSTRIA] | W W
Nihilego / Lilligant / Oranguru / Tapu Lele / Araquanid / Torkoal
NOTES: Can't remember this match either, I just remember washing my face before the game but I was still mad so I just channeled my frustration into crushing him. I crushed him.
Round 8: vs Kinugawa Yuma [JAPAN/SINGAPORE] | L L
Aerodactyl / Gyarados / Garchomp / Tapu Koko / Raichu / Celesteela
NOTES: Again, a really frustrating and upsetting loss. For two reasons really. The first was that I failed to capitalise from amazing positions (T1 he lost two mons in two turns and I had TR up, T2 he TW'd and I TR'd) - I was 4-2 up both games and somehow managed to throw away not only the lead but also the game. The second reason was that my opponent got really amazing rolls for and against his mons (my P2 Ice Beam left him on 1HP, his P2 Ice Beam got the OHKO). Overall it was a really frustrating set, not gonna lie losing G1 tilted me into G2 so even though I got myself into a good position I threw away my TR turns and gave him a DD to sweep me late game. Fuck i dont want to remember this game. Losing to him also cost me Day 2, so I can't really forgive myself for choking.
Round 9: vs Curtis Cousins [CANADA] | W L W
Comfey / Lilligant / Tapu Bulu / Drampa / Torkoal / Mudsdale
NOTES: I think at this point I was pretty done with the day, it was like 8pm London time and it was just so non-stop and I had enough of the shit so I wasn't really in the mood to play. I knew his team inside out because I played something similar on BS a few nights before, and other than not having Oranguru it was the same Sun Room thing that I was cautious for this tournament. G1 I let him get the TR up but he lost his Drampa pretty quickly, His Torkoal was a gimmick Shell Smash White Herb set, but I only know he had Shell Smash because he didn't fire an attacking move at all. I kinda got rekt G2 because he brought Mudsdale but G3 I brought Celesteela and I 4-0'd him because he literally had no answer for it since he didn't bring Torkoal.
>Mid Season Showdown London
PRE-GAME: Coming into the tournament I realised I needed to place within CP range because getting top 64 yesterday meant that I had a head start in APAC. (Then Malaysia and Singapore get 130CP special events...lol..) However, the tournament was so terribly organised that even though rego closed at 9:45, the tournament started at 12 or something. To "make up for lost time" the tournament changed into an 8 Round Bo1 Swiss. Bo1 is definitely not ideal for my team nor my playstyle as I usually play for information G1.
Round 1: vs Alex [SPAIN] | L
Mudsdale / Oranguru / Lillilgant / Vikavolt / Tapu Lele / Torkoal
NOTES: A really bad player with shitty Bo1 memes. He ran a hard TR team but had Scarf Lele. I can actually see myself winning the next 9 out of 10 games against him, but Bo1 format does bite you in the ass hard. Shit way to start the day after all the delay
Round 2: vs Kane Holdstock [UNITED KINGDOM] | W
Marowak-Alola / Garchomp / Porygon2 / Gyarados / Tapu Koko / Kartana
NOTES: I brought Celesteela, he brought Kartana. He also switched in Marowak against my EQ so that made my life really really easy
Round 3: vs Joan Perello [SPAIN] | L
Celesteela / Lilligant / Torkoal / Tapu Lele / Garchomp / Mimikyu
NOTES: It's not easy playing 2-4 after turn 1 because your opponent has a scarfed Chomp and you just can't adjust to it because your shit's already dead
Round 4: vs William Bassolino [ITALY] | W
Pelipper / Golduck / Mudsdale / Tapu Koko / Tapu Bulu / Togedemaru
NOTES: I had Milotic so I won
Round 5-9: RAN OUT OF BOOK SPACE!?!?!
NOTES: I lost R5 and won R6, then Mitch Kendrick started yelling at me to concentrate because I needed the CP, so I won out and went 5-3. Managed to place 59th I think so I got the 12CP. TBH more interested in trading for some dank cards than playing.
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Didn't play the PC on Sunday because I was done with VGC for the week, but congrats to Alex Poole (@Triceratops5X) for winning out in a stacked tournament!
Finally, shoutouts to:
Phil (@Boomguy_Pokemon), Sam Pandelis (@ZeldaVGC), Alex (@Triceratops5X) and Haris (@HSahovic) as fellow "Aussies" for keeping me company and overall bringing some convict vibe in the "motherland"
Pedro (@pedroazl) and Trista (@ryuzakiVGC) for a lit night full of drinks and shit aussie player banter
Eric V, Corey, Denaysh, Simon, Kevin, David, Martin, Mitch Kendrick(@MitchVGC), Brendan Webb (@Floristthebudew) thanks for helping me test shit and giving me support at 3-4am Sydney time
