I
You
with the full dealings and then for TCG Emily, of course, and then of course Gale Fang who's gonna
be doing all of my Unite stuff because he knows the game better than me. But we've got so much
action going on here, actually a lot of you have done Unite, I made that joke earlier, but we've got
so much action that has happened over the past few days, I mean of course players and teams coming
from all across the world and it's been so exciting to watch but we're only lighting I guess half
ish through the entire tournament already we've seen so many upsets and some great wins so I'm
I'm going to go one by one and kind of ask you all, first of all, what is your big takeaway so far now being partly through this event and seeing what's going to come into the future.
So Sierra, do you see?
I mean, first off for the Pokemon video game, the biggest takeaway from the get go is this is a really tough tournament.
We have had so many of our previous world champions get knocked out in phase one of the competition, which I mean, you come to world is the best of the best.
some people have to drop along the way, but I think we were really hyping up this repeat champion and we do have a couple of them still in the field, but it's it's looking tricky. The other one too with our current regulation and slash B, it's all been about this mega Charizard, right? But we have seen that even though it's really at the top
percentage is it's not necessarily all of the top teams.
We've gotten to see Mega Dragonite by Yuya,
which has been incredible.
Justin Tang with his Mega Delphox and Mega Blast Toys,
and J.N. Terry DeRocona with Mega Star Raptor,
and Brightchu, just showing that there is a lot of innovation
in different megas that really could rise to the top.
Yeah, of course, it's so exciting seeing, of course,
the new game and all the new formats,
and there's just so many things being changed.
But Emily, how about TCG?
What's the take away?
Well, you can't talk about the Pokemon trading card game without talking about the big bad Dragonfall DX, which of course is here in a full force, but honestly, not as much as people would expect at the World Championship, only sitting at 43.2%.
A lot of players actually thought that this deck would actually be above 50% for this tournament.
but all the way at the top of our Swiss phase one is going to be Brent Tonneson from Australia who is currently undefeated, 8-0, with Dragapult crushing hammers.
So there's a couple of variants of Dragapult that can be played, but it seems like Brent has actually really locked down just the most consistent list and where you really just don't want to take risks here in the world championship.
I don't want to take no risk or take every risk, but of course, with Pokemon Go, how's
it going?
Definitely.
So a big take away here is our two Grand Finals, Potomac and Bealsboy are still in the running
to make another Grand Final, so here they were top two for a reason and Bealsboy, reigning
World Champion, we've never, speaking of VP, World Champion, we've never had a World
Champion VP ever as well in our fifth year, so still early on, but it really might happen
this year.
The finalist that finished second last year has gone on 5-3 Championship Sundays in International World Cup Live, which is absolutely insane stat line.
And he's looking to try to make it back to Grand finals to find the win that World Championship that he's going for.
So that could be a super exciting one, especially if they get that rematch.
How to rematch an NAIC that was super close, and I'm sure it's on the back of both their minds that they might, based off of the NBA number 2 and maybe the Championship Sunday.
Well, that actually is a great segment to unite because we've got a lot of players that are former champions will champions
But a lot of them have been eliminated and you've got other teams
We've got some our previous reign will champion as well
That's having a little bit of a tough time
But the real takeaway here that nobody expected is people who have never been the world champion, which is Europe, right?
We've had Japanese champions. We've had American champions
We've had a Latin champion most recently
But Europe has qualified with one extra spot through like kind of a big qualifier at UIC and all four of their teams have made it today
number two, which I believe is the first time that's ever happened, and they are looking
extremely good, so they've made it up to second place at Worlds, they've made it to the Grand
Finals before, but they've never quite been there, just been one of those regions.
This might be their year, so everybody's really looking towards Europe, but we still
have basically every region presence in day number two, so anything can really happen
with Pokemon United, so it's been very exciting, but of course there have been some amazing
moments that have happened already, and I do want to each kind of highlight one of them
that's happened so far. So, uh, of course, if you're getting any big moment,
I highlighted. Oh, we had to highlight to, but starting off talking about the fact
that we can have a repeat world champion. I wanted to highlight for show he can
do his matter 2023 Pokemon world champion. Looking back at this match,
so he was going up against our, okay, we got the, we got the cliff switch,
but we'll start with this one first. So we're switching the point. We're
talking about the unique Pokemon. We'll, we'll come back to show you in a second.
I wanted to highlight Kari's team and Kari as a player because Kari has been someone who has really
stepped up for this year. He is for any regional champion and when we're looking at a couple of
these unique megas he has to with the Listeraptor and the Raichu but it was really this Izumi and
Arcanine that stole the show. This has been a Pokemon that hasn't necessarily picked up on so many
teams but really made so much impact but this is what I was talking about. Shohei Kimura going up
against a Japan national champion in Hiroshi Onishi and this was such a great match.
Shohei now sitting at 7-1 record, we had very similar teams with Megachars are being one of the
dominant teams going into this tournament and how Shohei piloted it was such a we know that he's so
skilled but to see it again in such confidence display was really like wow if this is just a
preview of his matches.
Hey, he's going to go all the way.
It was incredible.
It's such a big stage to be able to show something like that
on.
Yeah, now, since, of course, the Pokemon video game had two
clips, now that means you not get zero clips,
unfortunately, and it's taken away from us.
I'm sorry.
That's just how it goes.
That's just how it goes.
No, we'll have one later.
But for the trading card game, of course,
it's a gigantic tournament, any moment
that you wanted to kind of tribute.
Well, there's plenty, right?
And I think for a lot of players that may be tuning into the
pulled the trading card game for the first time.
They may not know this, but we've
had a whole expansion set that has been released in between NAIC
and the World Championship.
But of course, it is going to be Brett Thomason
on the right, piloting that very straightforward, very
consistent Dragapult.
He even ran out of ways to get Dragapult in the end.
And then Dragapult's best friend, Monkey Dory,
coming in with the mind bend.
with that ability, AdredaBrain,
being able to move three damage counters over
and then taking the win from here.
But honestly, this is my favorite moment of yesterday.
Matejish, who actually got top eight at Worlds last year
with Dragapult, I believe, is piloting Alec Kazam.
Now, the most popular stadium
that we actually have in the trading card game these days
is Team Rocket's Watchtower.
It shuts off the DUNS parts,
but he actually paired it with DUSPNOR.
So it's definitely a very tricky way to make the deck,
but he knows exactly how to trip up the rest of the field.
That's another two clips.
I think you're actually out of clips now.
Yeah, yeah, they're actually gonna,
they're gonna finish this segment.
They're just gonna just take me off stage immediately.
No, I love the fact too that when we talk
about all these games together,
which is not, you know, I don't know what I mean,
opportunities to, it just sounds so ridiculous
to hear two Pokemon paired together
that it's a class of year, like,
Jack of all, and Jack of all the best friend,
Monkey Dory, like, looking at that
from other games you're sectioned, it's like, what?
That's wild.
You think like they've actually played a training card game, you know crime round was good for a while
I want to play that but of course we can't we can't ignore go
I think they might have taken away your clip to because they're just there. There's some reading
You know, what was it if there's a clip for now? We don't have a story in the game yet
So long ago we do have trying to pull which someone actually tried to realize simple low championships and white work
Work decently well, but we are in our fifth year and I feel like the skill level for this game has gone to an all-time
It's going higher and higher as this is Emi Guido,
one of our former world champions against
a two-time Tywin champion.
In their first matchup on the Winners Minos,
Winner goes to day number two on that Winners side loser.
Might even get knocked out tournament.
But look at how close this is down to the wire.
Both players having like two or three point one left
with red HE bars.
Only a fraction of percentages of health.
And you can see in the very end,
it comes down to the final seconds.
simultaneous knockout just really highlights the skill level game too.
That's a half seconds that they had to, you know, tie on that very moment.
That's exactly what happened.
But we see that in so many of our matches through the routes and these players,
like they're so tuned into game that they kind of are anticipating each other's
anticipation.
And that's kind of how it has been this year.
And so I say every world champion every year is just better, better than the previous.
It's, I mean, it's so cool, especially with games like, you know, of course,
I'd love to do a game of TCG, but you know, I feel like our game's a little bit newer, right?
As far as things go competitively, so it's really cool to see the players level up more and more as time has gone on.
And that's actually what my clip is, which is if anybody out there is not familiar with Pokemon Unite,
I think this is such a great clip to kind of show how amazing the game is, how strong the movement is.
This is Haruto, one of the best players in the world to be out of Japan.
Put off one of the best juke that we have ever seen.
They're going to be on the Lucario and they're going to be chased around.
So you should be able to see them kind of in the top right there,
juicing an entire team.
One d4, they managed to go, escape into the Kyogre pit,
they're escaping the entire team,
they managed to help them back with using bone rush right here,
a huge juke, and they waste the entire time of Groot Dignitas,
which was considered one of the best teams in the world
looking to win this entire tournament,
but they actually got eliminated on day number one
in a big upset of hard, it was because of this,
but there are just too many good teams,
So
Yes, yes, all that is such an amazing truth. This is that's one of the amazing clip for all time
So if you check out Pokemon Unite, that's kind of the movie that you can expect from it
So I mean amazing moments already from all these games. It's been such an amazing half of the event so far
I'm biggest maybe one third for considering Sunday as well
And of course, there's so many amazing things out here in this actual venue. I cannot believe how huge it is
There's so many things to do I feel like I've I don't know like 10% of it
I feel like you are yeah, I I tried to go for a wander and I'm like all right
I'm off for a cup around surely I can see everything right you start getting out to the convention floor
And it just goes as far as the eye can see and there's still so much where I looked at a map
And I'm like this doesn't even scratch the surface is just incredible
How much love there is for Pokemon how much love has been put into the event and so many things going on
So hopefully we have the opportunity today, but it's a competition ramps up. I don't know.
Yeah. Yeah. You honestly to build on Sierra's point. I really feel like there's something here for a
Pokemon fan of any level. If even if it's your first day, if you've been with the series for years,
you really can just find something for you. I know there's musical performances outside. There's a
whole outside stage Pokemon XP happening for the first time. For me, my favorite thing that I've seen
so far is that life-size of Venusaur,
Blasttoys and Charizard, made out of LEGO.
It's so cool.
Ridiculous, yeah.
I'm trying to get a picture with that.
I've not been able to yet.
Do you have a favorite thing real quick
before we move on to the next thing?
I mean, yeah, I don't think I have similar to Emilia.
Probably everyone else here.
Maybe I haven't had the full time to experience all of it.
From all my friends and competitors
that have been on this event, even disaster first aid,
you're like, yeah, I don't know what to expect
from both my XP side mates, but all of them,
for everyone that said it's blue blown their expectation right and it's just if
you're a bulkier or a fan of Pokemon it's the perfect place for you if you're
on the fence about Pokemon you'll probably fall in love with Pokemon after this
weekend so so many great reasons to come out to these world championships and no
better way to celebrate it on the planet. Oh absolutely but of course I want to make
sure that everybody at home doesn't feel bad as well so of course there are things
that every game is giving out for just for watching which unfortunately I've
been missing because I've been here so I actually haven't had the strings open
But we'll talk about what our games are kind of giving away.
So let's start with the Pokemon video games.
If you have anything knowledgeable about what's actually
being distributed for the Pokemon game.
We're giving away so much.
I don't know which order the graphics are going to fly,
but we're giving away a swag in game
if you want the World Championship shirt,
as well we got to make sure that your style is matching
your Pokemon.
You have the opportunity to pick up the 2026 World's
Incineroar.
Incineroar is everywhere now for VGC.
It's kind of taken over whether you love or hate Lucidor or it is taken over it is here
It is one of these strongest Pokemon opportunity to grab that there and this is the shirt
I was talking about enjoy worlds 26 again enjoy worlds 26
Write it down take a picture
Don't ask a 10 million times in the twitch chat enjoy worlds 26 and you can get that hat and shirt
All right, I need a pen bro. If you bring a pen so I can write that code down, please or otherwise
and of course we have so many different things for so many games I agree
obviously I don't know what's gonna come up first but but the trading card game
we'll see what they bring there we go honestly you talk about swag in
champion you can also get your swag the Pokemon trading card game live as well
I personally love the jacket looks like a half leather jacket half letterman
which is really sick but of course players loved to customize their deck
boxes as well so you can find all of your world swag right on your screen but the longer you watch
the Pokemon trading card game the more things you actually get unlocked so in order to get all of
this swag that you see right here you have to actually watch for 60 minutes but if you only
have time for 30 minutes today you can actually get six packs of pitch black so once again that is
our newest set that we had in the Pokemon trading card game I personally love watching a regional
stream on the side to make sure I'm always opening packs either in person or online.
who's the background, just on the team talk.
Really cool to have.
And of course, we got the Pokemon Pikachu XP,
you see, and the space outfit as well as the champion.
Pikachu is spawning in the game right now,
so you can get it if you're opening games.
So open up a game, play it,
and you also get a fresh out car shirt as well,
you can do it.
And no big deal, but I might've gotten the shiny Pikachu
with the space costume yesterday.
But hey, it could be like me
if you just open up a game and play it.
Everybody up here is greedy there.
You can brag about the Chinese, get multiple clips.
We got so much good stuff.
What has United got?
I know, I know, yeah.
United, of course, has some really
actually amazing things depending
on how long you watch for.
You get an exclusive logo sticker for the event.
Or at 30 minutes, you get to an exclusive license
over Pikachu, which is very, very cool.
And then you actually get a license for one of the Pokemon
from the World Champion team Peru last year, what they won
with if you do watch for 45 minutes.
So some really nice stuff.
And of course, just be sure to watch all of the streams
for each of these.
if you want to be able to get some awards at home.
And I mean, just watch all your favorite players play
because we are getting so close now
to starting day number two.
I know it's been an amazing day once so far.
And of course, it's a reminder to everybody,
this is all leading up to a huge championship Sunday
in the Chase Center, the arena.
I mean, we got a little sneak peek of it.
It is incredible.
It is going to be a show like I think
no Pokemon fans have ever, ever watched.
So of course we've got four amazing games.
Be sure to watch all the broadcasts.
We're gonna have a really tough time today,
I think deciding who we'll be moving on
towards that special championship Sunday.
So thank you from all of us.
We're gonna be moving on very soon
as we get sending it over to our start
for day number two here
at the Pokemon World Championships, 2026.
We'll see you all playing soon.
We stand at the start of a new day, looking out on a new adventure, no one knows where the road will take us, already said, cause now is time to go, maybe we can finally see who we're meant to be.
This is so cool, it makes me so lovely
Every charm you show us, here we are
You know we rise up aside to glory
Together you and I will touch the stars
And then, we'll do it all over again
Cause even if we lose our way
You and I will stay, here we go
Here we go again
And even better than my son, here we come
Here we come again
And every slash that I take
We take the okay with all our hands
Here we come again
We go again
Everybody's laughing like that
We go again
We go again
We go again
Oh, yeah.
Oh, wow.
Oh.
Oh, oh.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to day two of the Pokemon World Championships
and Pokemon XP.
Yeah.
We are absolutely delighted you decided to spend your days in the bay enjoying oh so
sunny San Francisco California.
What a day that we have in store.
I'm Gabby Durden and after a strong start to yesterday, I'm back to keep us on track
towards Championship Sunday and the culmination of all the fun surrounding Pokemon XP.
Have you seen the skate park?
You got a chance to?
Yeah?
right? Okay, I'm gonna have to go check that out. It's wild. You know what else is wild?
The fact that we are going to know our finalists across all of the divisions by the end of the day.
Some of which will be crowned world champions when we take over even more of the city by
unleashing the power of Pokemon in the chase center. Today is about our trainers across
Pokemon champions, the trading card game, Pokemon Go and Pokemon Unite.
Our incredible competitors are ready to battle for glory.
And I'm curious, who are you cheering for?
Let's see, who did I write down in my notes yesterday?
Oh yeah, and Pokemon BGC trainers Yuya Wakasugi, Justin Tang and Stefano Grepi.
They look like they have the best shot at championship Sunday,
but we'll see how things shake out once we get into top cut.
But the Pokemon TCG competition has been unmistakably fierce.
But Brent Tonneson, Henry Chow, and Rune Herrmans, they really hope to hold on to yesterday's
momentum and I know a lot of people agree that they can in Pokemon Go, I'm not gonna
lie, I'm keeping my own feels a boy, as well as Potomac and Meweedle as they tap their
way through the bracket.
And finally for Pokemon Unite, we've got Peru Unite, Reject and KOMI, ready for the
to put up a fight. Am I right? Who's going to shine bright in the championship Sunday arena?
Well, I'm stoked to find out. How about you? As we've mentioned, the Pokemon World Championships
are only half of the fun we have this weekend. Pokemon XP is in full swing. And whether you're
tuning in from home or you're here with us in person, there is something for everyone. Later
make sure you check out the Pokemon XP panels featuring Pokemon Go, Lego, and
Jimmy Paul. Those will be live on the Pokemon XP channel. You don't want to miss
it, so this would be the time to add that to your schedule. And while I have your
attention, can we take a moment to recognize all of the people that make an
event like this possible? Join me in thanking the phenomenal staff, judges,
production crew, and everyone working behind the scenes to bring the Pokemon World Championships
and Pokemon XP to life in San Francisco, California.
See the Pokemon community truly is something special, and it's because each and every one
of you is part of it.
Okay, that's enough from me right now.
We have a day two of the Pokemon World Championships
to get started.
Let's get into it.
Chasters, take it away.
Thank you so much.
We can all wait to get started here with the 2026
Pokemon World Championship.
As we eye up, who is going to be our next VGC champion?
Sarah, Dawn, and Leah, for us on the desk
to be taking off dates to the action.
I cannot wait.
I can't wait.
I mean, it was such a great day yesterday, day one
of the tournament.
It was remarkable.
From start to finish, it was exciting.
It was explosive.
And we had some familiar faces.
We had some new faces that we're not so familiar with,
performing extremely well.
And it's just going to continue today.
And the journey to getting to our two finalists
is well underway.
And we're going to get there very, very soon.
And I feel like the title of world champion
is the greatest prize of all, right?
That's what everyone's been chasing.
You'll hold onto that title for your life.
But of course, we wanna make sure you're sent home
with a variety of goodies.
So as well as that title,
you're gonna be walking home with $30,000.
Imagine how many Pokemon plushies,
how many Pokemon trading cards that is,
which is just absolutely incredible.
And for second place, showing up on that championship Sunday
and still walking away with $20,000, ain't half bad.
It's incredible pricing to think where we were, you know,
when PGC have originally started to where we are now
with this incredible prize pool,
but like you say, Sierra, the prize money is just a portion
of the reward because it is the title going away
as world champion after this weekend is, you know,
the coveted title on every trainer.
Goes for is hungry for and wants to take away with them
at the end of this proceedings.
And I know that there's a lot of new eyes on the broadcast
all the twitch shops, all the goodies and all the excitement with Pokemon VGC and World.
So to get you up to speed on how the competition is taking place today, check out this format video.
Whether it's your first time watching or you just need a quick refresher,
here is an overview of the Pokemon VGC format at the 2026 World Championships.
The best trainers of around the globe are here to compete for their share of a $2 million prize
pool and the coveted title of Pokemon World Champion.
The first World Championships played in Pokemon Champions will take place over three days.
Phase 1 consists of Swiss rounds where trainers battle head to head in a best of three format
with open team sheets.
That means critical details about each trainer's Pokemon are available to the opponent.
Trainers advance to Swiss Phase 2 if they gain more match points than their division
threshold.
At the conclusion of Phase 2, the top 8 trainers and up to 8 additional trainers tie with a
will advance into an asymmetrical single elimination bracket until only two finalists remain. On
Championship Sunday, these finalists face off in San Francisco's Chase Arena for our
biggest finals yet. Two will enter the arena, but only one will walk away as the 2026 Pokémon
World Champion. Who will become the first World Champion of the Pokémon Champions era? Which
Pokémon will dominate the meta? We'll be here all weekend so you won't miss a second of the
action. With that, it's time to get today's matches going.
Castors, take it away.
Thanks so much, Cast Voiceover, Rosemary.
We are almost ready to get started with the competition.
But of course, we have to talk about a couple of the great things
that you can earn by watching at home,
whether you're here for VGC for any of our games.
So whether it's, you know, this shirt,
whether it's the Pokemon, whether the training tickets,
you can get by watching along.
Especially in 60 minutes on
Twitch gets you the incineroar,
which is definitely something
you want to pick up.
Competitive Brandy Pokemon.
They'll be able to use in the
upcoming season when it all
kicks off again.
Yeah, but looking a little bit
back while you earn those
Twitch rocks, let's talk about
what we saw yesterday as well
as we had some fantastic
Pokemon VGC gameplay.
Talking about this match here,
year. This one was so much fun because we were expecting so much Charizard, right? And there is
so much Charizard out there. But take it a moment to pause, breathe, and see some mega
metagross and a cleaver on the field. Yeah, it was an incredible match. And what a decision
by Chloe to bring those Pokemon into what you say is a top-heavy Charizard format.
Then we can follow up with some action from Carey yesterday against Narwitch as well with that
It's a little bit shaky when it
connects. It really counts.
Really does. And this one also
crazy. Mega Blaziken was not on
my list of Pokemon that I would
necessarily anticipate to see at
a positive level on a 501 record
heading in Switzerland. So that
was just absolutely incredible
to witness it put in the
So that was just absolutely incredible to witness and put in so much work.
But of course, we still have to see what Pokemon and what trainers are going to be coming out on top today.
As anyone who did have those six match points does advance to face two other competitions
and are going to be fighting it out for a chance to make the rate of top cut
and try and find themselves at the chase center tomorrow.
Yeah, well, all of the players that have advanced to this portion of the tournament,
they've put themselves in prime position to go forward
So far in being contentioned for that championship title on Sunday, they've got a bit of a distance to go, they've got a few matches to win, but they are on the right track to doing that and here we can have a look at our first two players, they're only a portion of them here.
You can see Yuiya top and our only undefeated trainer so far in the tournament, just a tank just in there behind who had carried the tonneau as well, who performed extremely well.
you finished the show yesterday with
Shohei, who was just incredible.
I mean, what a performance and
that really tough mirror match really
showed why they are such a
highly committed trainer in this
season. And what I love about this
list of trainers as well is there has
been a lot of trainers that have really
gotten to showcase their dominance throughout
this season but weren't necessarily
talked about yesterday as
you know, these are the trainers watching.
It's hard, there's so many top trainers at
to see the likes of Kerry and
Zachary Weed have the 7 and 1
records. I'm definitely rooting
for them going into today.
Dawey as well. Someone who has
always has such innovative team
building is incredible to see,
and I'm so excited, and it'll be
really it's going to be a tough
competition today, right? So it
would be awesome to see this
list of trainers here at the end
of the day in our top cut, but
it will get whittled down
somehow. Yeah, I mean, it just
goes to show you. You look
across. These are all super
These are all superstars, you know, of our game and the quality of these players.
And this is just a snapshot of some of the players that we'll be in phase two.
There are a lot of others that we aren't featuring right now,
but you know, you can put likes on the media forums as well.
One of the greatest players, in my opinion, that we've ever seen.
But then we've got some other players as well that are kind of rising stars,
Nikolai Hoitz and Nielsen.
They're a real great player on the European circuit.
It's very innovative with their picks,
and I believe they brought something quite interesting.
this weekend so hopefully good to feature some of them as well as the other trainers that we've
got here but former world champion across the board that are going for that second title as well.
It would be incredible in this day and age of Pokemon to see that repeat title but we do have
two trainers still in the competition and in great form for it. First up Shohei Kimura,
2023 Pokemon world champion. We got to see him face off against the Japan national champion
and Hiroshi yesterday in a very,
not quite a mirror, but a very close match.
But the way Shohei played that
was just absolutely incredible.
This was one of the strongest team architects
heading into the tournament
and to be piloted at such a high level
by such a top tier trainer, 7-in-1.
You still have to win a few more,
but wow, is he looking in great form to take it all.
Yeah, and I mean, it's all about the micro decisions
that Shohei makes in the team building process.
So the differences between Hiroshi's team and Shohei's, all of the six were the same.
But also the micro decisions in game as well, when to set up the tailwind, when to attack,
when to be defensive.
Shohei's got that down to such an art and I love the dedication that Shohei has.
We've seen Shohei appear at European regional throughout the season.
It's a long journey, but not making one, making a number of trips and all the ICs as
well and performing to a very consistent level and all that experience throughout the season
and it's just growing that back catalog of an experience
that they've got to make them such a high top-class
kind of up there.
Not the only world champion still fighting out
for another title, though, looking next to person out.
So still in at seven and one.
And what I love about Pokemon VGC is, first off,
we just have so many world champions here.
But looking back at 2019, that was seven years ago now,
right, but still looking in such great form and you can see the accomplishment since then.
I am so excited. Like when you have a world top for a world top world champion, that's
just that's incredible. The resume. Yeah, I mean, near at all is just one of us. Again,
you would put them in the highest bracket of top players that we've got in our circuit,
you know, coming in this weekend doesn't always go the way you want it to, but it has been a
phenomenal start for an hour time and looking really good, looking really strong coming in
to this phase two of the tournament. And having the experience of being a world champion previously,
that is just going to benefit you so much on this go. You know what to do at this part of the
tournament. You know how to approach each and every round. Take it step by step. Don't get too
far ahead of yourself and then see how far you can take your skill and team, which I really do
like as well, like Charizard, the Aerodactyl. We've seen that have a lot of success, but there's a
lot of burst damage there with the Venus Soul, especially when you get it set up in those scenarios
and the Sun and they're nice support. Something that they are.
Neatos used in the past to allow success is that in Senor, which has been picking up a lot of popularity
recently pairing really nicely with a lot of these offensive pieces that they've got on their team.
It's just the consistency for me throughout all of the years when you look especially at the world
championships to show that he has always just been in such a great form and for now, so again,
looking in that form, I'm excited for that run. But that's like a look at the meta as well,
not just the players to watch but the Pokemon. No surprise when we talk about Charizard being on
talk for the mega evolution and King Gambit just such a strong tease seeing it at a casual 65%
it makes sense but Sylveon at 35% for these two we saw so much impact from Sylveon yesterday and
I know roses out there like I always knew I always knew boosting it on yeah and it makes a lot of
So it says Sylveon is such a great boost to our Pokemon, you know, it can perform in Tailwind, it can perform in Trick Room, it's got that spread damage, it's got the big burst damage in that hyper hyper beam that we saw yesterday as Sierra.
But yeah, I think, no surprise, and it takes advantage of the Feriora that we commonly see set up by a V-Mega Floor, so it really is a bit of a kind of double-edged sword in those scenarios if you are piloting the Metaflow in your team.
of the Pokemon as well. I think Venusus dropped down a bit.
Starraptor is there in and around about.
You don't see the Sinisteria now like we did yesterday,
which is a surprise to me.
I think Sinisteria has a really big role,
but it does have a hard time.
King Gambit and Charizard are the top two Pokemon
in the usage charts.
Talking particularly about the mega Pokemon,
first off, Megastarraptor has been the main of my existence
on the ranked ladder.
I can't hit too much because it is incredibly strong
make sense why a port was a
field in phase two has this
Pokemon. But wow, it was a
bit annoying for me. But
looking at the Megas, even
though again, Charizard does
have the more dominant share,
it's actually quite spread out
even a little bit more than I
expected. And I love that when
we look at phase two and that
lower list of Pokemon that there
is still some more interesting
picks out there. There's a
camera. There's a mega dragon
those down on the bottom shelf are the ones that we kind of want to keep an eye on as the tournament progresses here just as a note as well that's
Megascovillain and Mega Blast was actually tied in usage with the frost last the camera of the Dragonite and the Gengor so they're also on there in about so don't be surprised if you see those as their tournament progresses but yes
Starraptor, Nuance of the scene and former MB and just an incredible Pokemon and our trainers are really getting to grips with how this Pokemon can be piloted to be
the optimum potential that it's got and pairing it up nicely as well with that
mega right you why which we haven't seen too much of but there are teams
present in the field and hopefully you do get a bit more right you today because
it is a very very squishy but it's very important when it's put in the right
positions and piloted by our top trainers the the meme that's not fake out
chip it's fake out trunk onto it right I like it but hey it feels so much
We're talking a little bit about the twitch drops earlier on. You weren't paying attention. We'll talk about it again
And we'll even bring some supporting graphics this time
Of course, you want to make sure that you are tuning in and get your 60 minutes in so you can get that world in
Cinerar it's such a strong Pokemon
If you haven't seen it before I don't think you're a true VGC fan
It is everywhere. You need one. You need this one get it now
Yeah, definitely pick it up as well as all the quick coupons the teammate tickets that gonna be very useful and helping you build those teams going into the
2027 season consider what's gonna be used throughout and whenever it's available
It's a top top Pokemon like Sierra says if you don't have one already and you're planning to play next season
Definitely make sure you get it picked up even if you already have one have six. It's a good Pokemon
You need one on every single one of your teams, right?
teams, right? Yeah, change, change your stat alignments and all those things. So you don't
need to waste any resources in game. Just have separate ones, separate teams. Exactly.
But we got more for you. We got more in store. Enjoy Worlds 26. That's right. Enjoy Worlds
26 or anyone asking out there. We got a shirt. We got a hat and you can enjoy Worlds 26 to
get all of that. And of course, tuning into the stream as well. You can not just enjoy
you can get yourself a nice
exclusive chat back. We were
talking about this yesterday.
It is so clean. I've already
seen people in the Twitch chat
with it. It looks so nice. I
really need to get my own
something. Please have me and
remind me later on because I
will be devastated if I mess
out on this and you should be
too. Honestly, because this is
nice. I will remind you, Sarah.
I'll make sure you thank you
promise. Thank you promise.
All right. We're we're we're
getting the chat back. We're
getting the chat back. We're
so back, but there is so much
There is so much exciting things this or we got to bring it back to the competition though and look at the standings again
Now the big question is who can get enough round wins to put themselves into top cut?
Certainly anyone at 7-1 or a 8 and 0 is in prime position be able to do so only one
undefeated player in the field you yeah, and so this team I'm oh my gosh. I'm so excited
He's been it all right. I I can't wait. I can't wait
I mean when you look at the team we'll get into them in a moment but I think, you know,
what an incredible accomplishment if we're just looking from this perspective now taking a back
step into the start of D2, incredible performance from Yuya really coming in and saying okay well
I'm here and performing to the best level I can, can we go much further? Well no one's been able to
stop them so far and they're looking on track to continuing that as we get further into this
tournament. Of course, all those seven wands below have taken one loss, but sometimes taking
the loss is actually the galvanizing effect that you need to be able to kind of push on because
it kind of wakes you up, maybe realize that, okay, well, my play was not as sharp as it could have
been there. Here we go. Let's push on. Let's get a bit further. And sometimes, you know,
there can be unfortunate things that happen in game that are out of your control. And they're
just something you have to deal with. Pick yourself up, brush yourself on. And there's some of the
the most accomplished trainers are able to kind of not let that get them and continue on
push forward and see how they can get in the tournament.
It was somebody stacked names here.
You know these matchups are going to be good, but let's look at our notables and our featured
ones.
There is a reason I'm freaking out because we get to see Yuiya Wakazugi up next.
Going up against Kari who we saw yesterday, that second matchup though, Nato versus Shohei
is incredible.
There is feature stations.
is the sidestreams as well.
You've got to make sure you check out all of the action.
Ian, just Joji versus Fragov.
That is...
Yeah, I feel like at this stage of the tournament...
Person's identity versus Zachary.
I just...
Amazing.
Wow.
Matchups, yeah.
I mean, it's really hard to pick which one we're going to feature,
but we have got Yury on our only undefeated player
in the tournament so far.
We get to feature Kari again,
who's got on board because yesterday,
which was amazing to see such a dominant performance as well
the game against a pretty hard
matchup in all respect on paper.
You think, wow, the rain mode
here feels very difficult. So
they were brave in bringing
that to see and all can I in
against that rain cold and it
performed so, so well.
Oh, well, I just the amount of
damage that the head smash
just were doing and it was a
crazy three game set. So seven
one record so deserved. But
for you, yeah, sitting at this
eight and oh, let's head down
to the stage. You get ever so
closer to this match being
defeated after day one of the Pokemon World Championships as one as stacked as this is such a crazy feat
But to do it with mega
Dragonite is even more impressive on the list of mega Pokemon that could pop off this one
I don't necessarily think was on anyone's radars, but to be the only undefeated is a statement
Yeah, I love this iteration of I got similar kind of iteration what you'd expect to see with big six
But the dragonite kind of replacing what would normally be a char is out there. I love it though
I think it's really good really smart, and it's performing obviously extremely well in this tournament here
You can see it is a mega dragonite with that inner focus
So it's got the immunity to fake out flinches before it does mega evolve and then it would obtain that multi-scan ability
Which is so so useful as well no
Setup really on the team just a lot of fast offense and that fast speed can be benefited from that whimsicott as well
you can activate that white
herb to get the speed jump on
things like aerodactyl as well
to have that vast rock slide
and start shipping away and
you've got the two of Megas as
well, which are just so, so
strong if they're positioned
right and you know the
through home is very easy. And
I love the inclusion of the
mega dragonate because you still
do have a lot of energy and
a lot of energy and a lot of
you're going to be able to
do that. You're going to be
able to get the vision of the
mega dragonite because you still
do have the coverage with the
heat wave, which is what
Charizard does, right? But
having things like the
Thunderbolt and Dragonfall
should really be able to
pressure, but not
necessarily being reliant on
that weather to do that big
damage. It's really nice. You
don't have to worry about the
weather wars. You don't have
to worry about boost,
bringing out the sun to then
make sure your basket region
does less damage, right? And I
think such a unique pick that
cannot be just stopped in its
the way he was. He was on
winning streak yesterday and
why he was highlighted this
duo of mega star after and
this right you. Right you can
be a little bit squishy, but
the coverage and hasn't a
couple of these matchups is
incredible, but I think it's
just all eyes on that who's
doing Arkane. Again, the
amount of damage and the fact
that it has that focus actually
can't just take us down in one
hit. It was a really big
pain point for narrow which in
their match yesterday. Yeah I
I think it causes all sorts of issues for the old you I think because it's for passive speed control with that zap panning if you do may revolve and that can be a bit of a detriment.
You can match tailwinds if you do bring that star up that which that intimidate is going to be very important for weakening some of those physical threats on your side.
Starting out our day such an aggressive lead coming out from carry with that Huzooian Archivine we talked so much about and star after on the opposing end for you.
to stay undefeated to Winsicott and Basque legion.
So potential to just go for a tailwind and set up a lot of damage.
Yeah, that immediate tailwind prankster from the Winsicott is going to put
that Basque legion into a really good position to go for either target.
It's boosted by the lifehold as well.
So the damage there, it's going to be able to take that,
continue knocking down down to it, stash immediately or do some really good damage.
Just to soften up that star after the intimidate we mentioned
they're coming into the match is really important just to weaken that attack
that on the basket. It's probably out of range from picking up a knockout on either
either in the Pokemon right now. We're not going for a tailwind in any sort of
setup though. We're all about that damage and it's a dual wing that misses. That
would have been a lot of damage just a KO into the whimsicott but now nothing
done from the star after. It's already down to half health and it's a basket
lesion that can follow up. Wavecrack the double up into that bird is enough to
claim Yuya the first KO in the match. Yeah the dual wing is a really unfortunate
missed there for Kerry, he would have undoubtedly picked up the knockout onto the Whimsicott.
And like you said, the Intimidic quite crucial here.
Still going for the double up, really smart knock, going for that tailwind straight away.
Now that tailwind option has been removed from Kerry, and Vaskyly's in fairly hanging
on with one HP from that recall damage.
Allowing it another turn, it's immune to the extreme speed priority that the Arcanine's
gotten.
Kerry's siding it, he's going to be able to fire off an Aquajet to get one last attack.
But Kerry, knowing that, bringing in the Armortale Frigrave going to block that.
So you don't have any priority on the turn, but that's still an escalation.
If you are looking at a swap out come out later, it would definitely be problematic.
There is also still Wimspot that can type a tailwind.
Yeah, and that's the problem.
I think you can go for the tailwind, but would you want to do that in front of the
furgraft that's threatening maybe a trick room here?
Have you got enough in the tank to take down that furgraft in two hits?
Probably not because of that citrus barrier, but because of the intimidated soul, carrying
a position now where they can set that trick room up.
And it really discares you from going for any sort of speed control of their own because
it would counteract what Terri is trying to do.
Protect on the Arcanine.
So Burgras is going to be the only one to attack and it's not a women's spot attacking
into the Burgras to try and take it down and prevent a trick room, but instead he's double
up into the Arcanine.
Such a well timed protect.
And Burgras, we don't want to go for the trick room yet.
Instead, women's spot avoided and attacked last turn.
It's time to break that focus hatch now.
a really smart play from Kari, catching that double attack into the tech. Now he's getting
the psychic damage onto the Wimplecourt now, that probably puts it in range of an extreme
speed from the Arcanine to remove it, okay, so that's really great. And then you can set up
your trick room with the photograph this turn, and then potentially if the Arcanine does go down,
you're in a position to bring something you would think like that Sylveon in the back onto the
field to start helping Kira up and maybe getting her closer, maybe taking game one.
Yeah, looking at it, the Arcanine, it hasn't even had its focus slash broken yet, so even
if it goes for the Wimps squad and you can fire off one last pack of the basket legion
into it, because you only do get one attack without, like, orbits, if days are numbered,
you wouldn't even be enough to take the Arcanine off down, so it will just be a switch, so
you could potentially do some good damage into something else like that Sylveon.
If it is a potential juggle into that spot, it could get tricky, but instead, opting to
still active so you're kind of blocked from really getting any value there. So if you are you probably
just going to see this attack come out, let these two come out and then bring them to
press welcome on the next turn but not want to give up the winter cut just yet.
Wems Scott protects Helping Hand still beyond. There's two targets that have already been damaged
in front of you. You can only take down one. Vasquez Legion stays, they come to an end. But
with the protect on the Wems Scott it looks like around but there's still so many more turns on
this trick room to get through King Gambit though way to start trying to get
through that. King Gambit coming in a really nice response here and the one
thing that we saw in the team preview you had access to is four attack King
Gambit so the coverage to kind of go after a lot of different things. You go after
the Phyrograph here for some perfect damage with the Couture Beef all four after that
Sylvian with an iron head and that's probably where you want to start
targeting you don't really worry about the offensive threat from the
Pergraf so much now, the Sylvian into the Talvic.
You want to try and remove that as quick as possible.
Pergraf took that personally.
We're not worried about the offensive threat.
Well, that's going to be Pergraf picking up a KO.
Swim Scott is gone, but targeting down into the Sylvion
does even out how much momentum each shader is taking
on this herd.
That's going to be a clean one hit KO,
but now it's Pergraf still around in this trick room.
And two Pokemon gone for Yuya.
Floette blasted her in the field.
Yeah, now the Flowette coming in, the Alcanine's been preserved very smartly by Kerri,
so you can come in now, like you've mentioned before, it's still got the Focus Dash,
so they're gonna be at least able to take one attack.
The King Gambit has got low Hicks, so that's gonna be super effective damage into the Alcanine,
probably take it down to the Dash, but it does give Alcanine the ability to fire back in return,
and kind of pick the target, where you go, probably safer to go after the King Gambit,
because there's no protect there.
In case that Flowette does protect, so you don't really want to target into that,
It is a big offensive threat right now.
It can protect, but going with the mega evolution
says it might just want to go on the offensive
and not leave that king gambit out to dry.
Helping Han, Arcana looking to do the most amount of damage
where it's going to be targeted to is the question.
Low kick does a lot.
Not even enough to bring it down to that 1% focus
hash activation as head slash in a return,
targeting down the flow.
And if it is protected, it could have been dangerous.
But instead, Floor will be down with one fell swoop.
Yeah, really good catch there from Kerry going after the Flood,
saying, OK, well, now I can stall out this trick room
and then put my Arcanine in the position.
As long as my photograph's still in the field,
I'm not going to be threatened by the sucker punch.
But you just say, OK, well, I'm just going to attack here.
The problem is the King Amit right now
is going to be going before your Arcanine,
being able to take it down.
And if it's the photograph is the King Amit,
things aren't going to play out very well for you.
So you've got to preserve that Arcanine.
And that is the way to get through and win this game.
It'll just be both Pokemon protected
to make sure the speaking dimensions
a little bit more suited to carry side of the board
as only one Pokemon remaining for you yet.
100% King Gambit, two Pokemon left on the other side though.
I mean, the further up when you're eyeing up
what it can do is, well, not much.
It can only go for these helping hands.
So it's gonna be the arc nine that has to get the job
all done by itself.
Boosting the attack, flare bullets is enough
to take down the King Gambit and claim
Kerry the first game in a set.
The extreme you all managed there from Kerry
to get out of that really tough situation
from those first two turns as the start after went down.
Timing the trick room really well,
taking advantage of it.
King Gambit caused a lot of issues,
but managing that end scenario so well,
picking the right choices to go after as well
at the right time.
If you're saying that the easy choice in a lot of scenarios
would have been the King Gambit, there's no protect there.
Do you expect the protect on the fly?
But no, Stain tried Trude and tested to their convictions, going after the flow at the smarter choice,
catching no protect on that Pokemon, and then sulling out the trick room.
The Armour Tail Pivotal and being able to allow Kerry the action not to close that game off.
And that's a big call as well, because if you targeted down into that flow at and it was a protect,
you have now accomplished nothing for the turn.
The King Gambit targets down into that arc nine, breaks the sash,
and all of a sudden it's a lot that could do a lot of damage or just the King
Gambit to really be able to even the score with again a photograph unable to
touch that King Gambit so big turn a big swing at the end of it but carry up
one now in this set one step closer to taking the win but heading into game
two can you yet bounce back again our only undefeated trainer in the field you
know you have the potential to win but a little switch up of the leads were
Harry going into game number two.
Yeah, Vasco legion coming out and that one's a cut from you this year and the
Sylvan actually a little bit better because you you saw the importance of
the Hissui Nokenai in that game one so you do want to protect it. The most
important thing here is getting that intimidate down to the Vasco legion it
does really slow it down because she went boosted by that light bulb so you can
get some good damage on this year. You can even go for a tailwind if you're
on if you suspect that coming out but I think it's better at this stage to just
trying leverage the star after get it mega evolved and get some damage onto the board. We saw that
your win being significant. Next at this turn that would be huge but not gonna happen protect from
wins the top. We got the lucky avoiding game number one but it won't be Kerry Rhea attempting to take
care of the whimsicott here instead setting up tailwind with the star after. Hyper voice to follow
up whimsicott again will take no damage but if you have a way to start chunking away at this
is Basque Legion, whereas it'll be the only one to attack.
The wave patch does a lot of damage,
but not nearly enough into the Sylvion.
Yeah, it's a really nice play from Kerry here.
You do take a lot of damage onto your Sylvion,
but it's kind of done its job right.
It's put that Basque Legion into a position
where you just are after to go for the dual wing,
be into that slot this next turn and pick it up.
Even if the Windsor Goat goes for a tailwind to match the
carries, then the Sylvion still has to be that Basque
Legion.
There's always a threat as well of the Sylvion maybe
which you know, Fergaraf coming in.
So there's a hesitation about going for a last-ditch Aquajet.
It's wasted, you know.
So that's something else to consider.
Staraf, they're going to be removed.
Save for later on.
Yeah, Fergaraf in set.
This will be the armortale.
To make sure any priority is stopped,
and of course, just to swap out no on-core works.
Double priority.
Aquajet won't do anything at all.
And Vaskyletian goes down.
Wim's got taken so much damage.
Fantastic switch coming up from Kari.
Yeah, amazing play from Kari.
really identifying the two threats there, the on call big threat to lock you into that tailwind
and then that aqua jet as well and completely null and void. Now the floor comes in, now you've got
to think that you have to go for the tailwind with that wind to cut, to put that floor into a
stronger position. Thing that Kerry could be smart about, they haven't got too many turns
of their own tailwind left and if the tailwind comes out from you, they will be elevated at
first to the Pokemon on Kerry's side. So Kerry could technically go for a trick room a little bit
earlier than what they're thinking here maybe we could take the silver and trick room with the
paragraph and then although two tailwinds are set up you're still going to be under speeding
them with the trick room in effect going into the next turn. Yeah with these tailwind trick room
teams sometimes on that last part of tailwind we can see the trick room so you can really
make the most of any variety of speed mode your team has but going for it early it is a tailwind
from Julia it'd be evening the score and could be a really good heads-up play but there you go
for it that we'll have to see because you also have to worry about the amount of damage
you can do on this turn.
Floette, mega evolution and that fairy aura.
Quick attack, another way to try and make sure that you are going to be out speeding and
whimsicott already at low health will be taken down so you don't actually even have to worry
about the tailwind.
You can just go ahead and play this with your own speed.
Sylveon does get taken down, but Phrygora does an opportunity to attack psychic.
Like, Floette will be stricken off the hit, but still, that's another Pokemon gone from Yuya.
Yeah, a much more direct route, and I kind of prefer that to be honest as well,
because knowing that, probably like the King Gamma in the back,
if you set the Brickroom up, it's going to benefit that,
whereas now you're in a much stronger position where you still got one turn of tail and left,
you've denied it, and now you've got that Hissui and Arcanine in.
You know how to help in hand.
Flavlist will get that King Gamma, and you're not so worried about what that Floette does
if you all the history of Arcanine can resist those various attacks.
Hulkinghand, Arcanine, again set up for success with two juicy targets in front of it.
And with the king gave it unable to protect, the Flurflip is more than enough to claim carry his third KO in the match.
It is all down to a mega-flowet, but Q-high of a hill to climb up up Dazzling Gleam.
Not enough damage, Arcanine's only having the stash broken now. This is all quite done.
Yeah, I mean, Kerry is in the pieces, the tools, so, so elegantly, so well in this match, and there we go.
A commanding game number two, Kerry D'Artona to take the victory.
Up here on the stage, we saw a great victory yesterday, and again, a stronger one here today.
He is so well-posted with this all. This New Zealand Arcanine that's put in so much work, and then perhaps for a late-out plan.
I mean, it just shows how comfortable
carries with the team and the tools
they have at the disposal.
Getting everything right in that match as well.
The timing of a Pharrigraph switch in and
getting two was perfect.
The loud and the silviant to remove the
basket leading before got any more value
and really threatened that Whimsicott and
carrying no in the calcs as well there.
When that barrier is active,
just enough to get that quick attack knockout
onto that Whimsicott to then nah,
the tailwind coming out.
the game. And so, you know,
you're going to be going, um,
coming out. So just yet really
well executed from carrying
going to be a formidable
opponents to the rest of the
field in the rest of day two.
I mean, the whims to go out
despite the fact that it had
taken a lot of damage. It was
still. I mean, slowly on with
the cook attack. Quick attack
isn't known for the craziest
amount of damage out there,
right? So it's not going to
get those lashes. There's one
You see, you know, you know,
I'm getting really, really
talk to you. Take a hassle
facility and it is doing its
best out there. It really did.
It really did have about gone
another way, but just still so
expertly played like played
for Kerry. Again. He's just
looking so strong, but for you
yeah, man, it's not. We didn't
get to see the dragonite. I
understand why not, but I'm
excited to potentially see him
again later. So such a cool
sure maybe you weren't the victor in this match but there was only one person
undefeated on day one and you will still be able to hold out. Yeah there is that
like you say you can see what the dragonite didn't cover it's not going to
fail well into a sylvan that Kerry's going to lean into quite heavily but I'm
sure there'll be plenty of other opportunities for you in the rest of
the tournament to pilot that dragonite to more success if you have such a phenomenal
start as we can but I think Kerry kind of just going back to how they're playing
it when you look at the games that you've seen with them they're not really leveraging or using the
the mega pokemon as their main attacking outlet as their offensive threat using it as more of a
utility and then there's that reliance on the other pokemon like issu and arcanine like the
sylvion and then the support rolls that are played pivotal like that that burger af and how well
kairi knows the interactions and yeah it's just just very very well done and very interesting.
What I think is really interesting with the team is because we always, we haven't gotten to see the Sir Afterdue the craziest amount of impact.
But that's also because it's the first target to be taken down because you can't let it snowball, right?
It is the perfect diversion. It gets taken down all the other Pokemon sweep away the game.
So I just really love this team and all the pieces to it.
But of course, we need to hear from Cary. After that victory, let's go catch up with him on the stage.
Hello, my name is Gabby Sender and I'm here with Kari D'Otrona who is moving on in the
competition still in contention for Top Clut.
How does it feel?
I feel really good right now.
I feel very focused, very good.
I got a good night's sleep, got good conversations with all my friends and I'm ready to play,
ready to do good moms.
I mean you were just telling me that backstage prior to this match you're feeling a little
nervous but then you know the gears started turning and a plan started forming so walk
me through that I mean when we were talking about that matchup backstage I was talking
to Evan specifically we were like well this kind of looks like that Charizard Floette
team but the Dragonite and the Sneasler really made it feel different.
Oh 100% changes how it completely plays.
Dragonite isn't as scary as Charizard on paper I know I have Hussien Arcanine but it can
get kind of awkward versus Charizard if they manage to remove it because then I don't really
have the best ways of removing it, unless I want to like start eating heat waves and
trading damage, which isn't like super nice. So Dragonite does make it similar. I was a
bit scared of the Sneasler, but I figured he would lean more into Basculage and Wimzacod,
so I wanted to lean more into Starraptor. I was thinking Raichu originally, but I'm like,
it's too weak to Basculage and Unlead, and at least with Harkinon and Starraptor, I'm
able to get multiple plans into multiple leads.
Yeah, so let's go through that game one, because I know the Starraptor did its best. Unfortunately,
quite work out but that trick room really seemed to bail you out of a tough start.
So yeah, the dual wing be so it was kind of a call that turn because he can either moon
blast aqua jet the basket lead the park and I'm or he can double the star raptor coin
like a photograph swap or protect. I was thinking about it and I'm like I think he's just going
to double my star raptor if I remove wins a cot I should be in contention to just close
out the game because he doesn't have the damage. But then the mishap and then I was like that's
That's really bad.
And so, but I found the one way back in,
which is to pressure Trick Room to force out the King Gambit
and then get the 50-50 right on it,
the full-ette swings or not on that last turn.
And that Trick Room looks so good.
I was very surprised you pivoted to Tailwind in game two.
Was that intentional?
I mean, obviously it was intentional,
but what was the thinking behind it?
So I wanted to adjust to Sylveon
in case he went to a possible Dragonite changeup.
I also really like leading Sylveon sometimes
because you can bait certain things from the opponent.
And also pressured out the Basque Legion
to take a lot of damage.
because the Windsor caught doesn't really want to set tail in that turn because it's at risk of getting like
the wing beaded hyper voice like are you clicking tail in and hyper voice so it gets into an awkward position
I think the big turn was when I called the aqua jet on core and I just swapped for a graph on the star raptor
I was fine if he set tail end and swung with basket into my
Sorry Sylveon because I knew I could win that trade
For sure for sure
So I mean all of those decisions all those moves show that you have a lot of comfort with the team
And I think that's the kind of comfort you need to make it far in this tournament. How are you feeling overall?
I feel really good. I really like this team. It reminds me a lot of
my King Gambit Volcarona team back from Reg H. It just kind of flows.
But I also feel like it has a lot of fundamentals that I've been learning across the season.
Like I learned to rigouraf when I went to
Orlando. I started learning how to do tailroom back in Portland last season.
So it just kind of combined a lot of the teams that I used previously and blended into one nice team with a lot of options
And you feel like you're falling back on those fundamentals and your matches throughout the weekend?
Overall, yes, but I'm also trying to implement new ones to get better and grow stronger because like nobody's perfect, right?
You got to push yourself to be better every day. So
That's the goal. All right. Well, Carrie, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it best of luck throughout the rest of this run
Do you have any shout outs you want to give to anybody watching at home?
So I shouted out a ton of people yesterday, of course, Patrick Caden and then all the others I shout out.
I did forget to shout out Marcus Hamon. I really want to thank him because he gave me some like great advice
over the previous weeks in regards to how to approach certain matchups and his thought on the team.
So I really want to thank him for that.
One more, sorry. And of course my parents for allowing me to go here and my aunt Janet and uncle Michael who are in the crowd right now. So thank you.
Awesome. Well, shout outs to everybody. Hello to your aunt and uncle out there and hello to you watching at home.
I'm sure you'd love to watch us break down that battle, so let's go check out Ben's battle breakdown back there in the analyst lounge
Thank you so much Gabby we've got a battle to break down
But it's gonna be moving on from the battle that we've just had it was crazy
It was such a great way to start the match
I don't know what it is about the world championships this year and starting off with a nice clean 2-0 on the stream
But we're we're here again. We're doing it again for Saturday here
here, but we've got such an
amazing feature match here with
Lee and Sierra going through
that the other match that we
had on our notables show. Hey
versus now. So this is a world
champion, previous world
champion showdown that we've
got here coming up. I was so
excited when I saw this on
notables. I was I was telling
you a shot. You got to go check
this out. And oh my gosh,
absolutely amazing. Of course,
So he's just been so strong and consistent with those.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, probably one of the best players with this six, to be honest.
And I think the little micro kind decisions that they've made and putting items where they are,
stats where they are, I really make a huge difference when opponents are watching this.
From the kind of common trend that they would probably use to be seeing,
I think that makes Shohei stand out from the rest, you know, the snorkel here.
They just got a nice lead, you activate that sunga, that core-affiliability active, and then the Venusaur is going to be threatening sleep powder attacks on the phylohazard.
Yes, the Garchomp is threatening the Charizard, but pretty easy to protect here from the Charizard, just to free up that Venusaur for a take.
Yeah, the trouble is, is if you start protecting the Garchomp, you take the pressure away from the Charizard, your King Gambit's not looking like it's going to take an attack all too well.
Well, and this is what we would play for sometimes is just that sleep powder avoid their charizard
Wow trained for seeing that coming going down to just 1%
Yeah, but probably here is now. Yes, you can go for a bit the heat wave the king gamut nice smart protect from sure
Hey, you're gonna get in a second chance at this sleep powder
But the charizard days are kind of numbered until I can gamut is removed and the primary way to remove the king gamut
was always going to be the Charizard so it becomes a little bit more difficult for now
so can they weave in their own bar chomping scenario it's difficult because if you get
caught with a kautau cleave on the switch in things become increasingly difficult yeah
and like do you even go for the sucker punch in this position like you know both players
can see this coming at this point right that's kind of one of the things though is yes you
can see it coming from a mile out but sometimes when the players just so obvious well if you're
You gotta think ahead, right?
If I can just sucker punch the Charizard
and that is just the most obvious play,
do they actually switch it out?
Because if you all of a sudden make the heads up play,
well, I don't think so, sucker punch,
because that's too obvious.
You can get so much mileage,
but it looks like not sucker punching.
Was the right call here,
because Charizard will protect.
It's just so clean, so obvious.
But Venusaur, okay, it wasn't a miss,
just a well-timed swap from Shohei,
but Venusaur has not actually accomplished anything,
which feels really bad in this match.
I feel like this is like,
Shohei was on round eight yesterday
in this Charizard flow out mirror,
playing up against it.
He's just, you can see how well practiced he is.
It's like, not just switching the Whimsicott
in to catch the Charizard going for a protect
and put that on core pressure on,
but then also knowing to like,
hey, that's lost property.
Gonna be playing passive.
Like let's, this is the opportunity
to try to get some damage down into the Venusaur
and really like try to further the board position
rather than like go into the protect
and not really make any progress.
And now you've got the scenario
where it's your hands can set it that hill
and Garchomp gonna be ahead of everything.
Even that VSO on the side and just rock slide,
which does force the switch to Garchomp coming in here.
Should be the double, okay.
The double pivot's always an interesting one
because it's nothing really gained
except for the pivoting right,
but an instant in for that Intimidate Drop
is a bit tailed in on the other end.
That's gonna be a lot of damage and a lot of pressure.
And you can see how much that intimidate pays off,
but still like an earthquake next turn can do so much.
Yeah, it's like, and do you wanna bring,
if you're now to, you're bringing the guard chomp in
because you kinda need to, right?
You're like expecting the rock slide
because the Charizard's just protected.
You're expecting maybe that little bit of spread pressure.
You wanna bring the guard chomp in
because that's going to take those attacks.
But equally, Nalto's like on the uphill battle
because you're bringing that into a Whimsicott
that could just go for a moon blast on the next turn.
And especially when the tailwind then gets set up,
that's two turns in a row that Shohei hasn't let Nalto
get away with the defensive plays
and has managed to aggressively switch their board position up
and try to find a little bit more position.
And you have a figure for the one,
but I ended up into the Whimsicott instead.
Because it's a Garchon that can just go for the attack
at Earthquake again.
The Antibody has just done so much work,
but at Shohei that consistently getting more and more
momentum if there isn't a big swing from the Garchon
from now to here.
You go to one of them, the Dragon's Close here
is gonna be enough, but I think that the Earthquake
really is small there from Shohei to no way
you're gonna put the opposing Garchon.
This is now in range.
After that, that rough skin damage,
of the life or recoil there is it going to be in range of a sucker punch now you can just bring
your Kingamber onto the field sucker punch get rid of that Kingamber and the Scythera is also
taking a lot of damage as well it's going to be in range of a moonblast so it's a pretty easy
clean up view and you don't have really too much reliance even on until when at this point although
I was saying that the Citrus Buries probably put the Incinor just out of range in the Scythera
very um but still the Gaulchon threatened and you've got two port one on the back in the red as
well so they're not going to be able to come in and have the impact like you would want them to
Can I just call out the earthquake in your self-play?
I think this is something like...
You see that so much.
So much, so much across all of Phase 1 yesterday.
And it's one of those things that I feel like
if you're at home and you're playing on the ladder
and you're thinking like,
oh, I can't earthquake because I've got something next to me
that I might be damaging.
Like, I think Shohei's doing a really great job
of showcasing why that's so important to actually,
hey, hang on a second.
Damaging myself not too much of a problem
If it gets enough damage on my opponent, that's exactly it. It's like the risks, right?
And earthquake and next to the WIMP spot isn't the biggest risk. It's going to take the hit so well,
but we also did get to see the why it could be so dangerous in yesterday's matches, but
so much damage into this incident over time. Incinerator is just a bye incident.
Yeah, there's just even that part you think, okay, well, Fingal is going to take the earthquake,
but it's still all right. The Goldchamp is going to take another take of that recall.
If it wasn't it wasn't in center or taken down that would have been Garchomp to KO in its own partner Pokemon, right?
But this is the thing like, you know
Malto knows that yeah, we're in we're in teller and what tell went right now and the likelihood is that in center all goes down but if
yeah, it's
Sure, he decided to target into that guard chomp instead. I've played doesn't matter, right?
Because the guard chomps gone down and then the incident all gets to act instead
And so I've now so sort of like holding their ground in that position and saying well, okay
Pick one of the KO's I I get some major like damage off onto your side of the field and I know like
From there I get to plan my end game with whatever I get to achieve on that turn. Yeah
And now there's an almost pin position
You want to get the Charizard on some fields accurate at core fill ability, so it puts the Venus or head solo health though
One thing you can take advantage of is that sleep powder potentially
the second punch won't engage, but while it still went as an effect for at least one more turn,
it is going to be pressuring a knockout, an easy knockout until I've seen it so.
Godchomp's waiting, the Moonblast coming from the Wimsykart, and then he's got very low health,
Jarosar's coming back, and yeah, it's looking great for sure here, not so much for now,
so I don't know if there's a way back for them right now.
And you don't always see this situation where it's like Wimsykart's kind of the most dangerous thing
on the field now because all of that's scary.
Like all of Nelto's Pokemon are in range of a moon blast, right?
But also in range of a sucker punch,
that King Gambit is boosted by the Black Glasses as well.
So they're certainly going to take a chunk out of anything,
but there's not many chunks left on Nelto's side
to take anything out of, right?
We got like a combined 35% through there are three remaining Pokemon
in terms of that health pool, but a good protect
and assuming a good swamp as well.
We're down to, if we had 35% before, we had 34% towards our VKO.
We're slowly getting there.
We're getting there.
Any offensive threat from the Venusol is covered from the King Gamma with a sucker punch if you want to protect your winter car.
And I think even a moon blast is going to be enough to take down the Venusol even though it's resistive.
So you're quite easily able here just to sucker punch.
the Venusaur cover that even if they're a sneak part of this come out it's only
putting a few gams to sleep and then the following turn after the moon blasts the
dodge I'm gonna be able to see that we still don't know what's in the back for
Shohei right yeah we've only seen three Pokemon so far and tailwind will you know
take away the pressure that the Venusaur is putting on as well on core
coming down onto it there locking it into double protect though double protect
getting it, you know, fair, fair play, but here's the sucker punch into the
guard jump, we know that's in range, that's going down, King Gambit going down
to 7%, but 7% is easily gonna be enough for Shohei to lock up this game. I feel
like, I feel like Nelto played really well against a different opponent in
this particular match, right? If Shohei hadn't made so many like really
aggressive like reads, really pushing forward in that game, like it looks like
just, you know, made every read
turn after turn, right?
But these matches can go
differently every single time.
I'm sticking it out.
We get the swap, too.
So that does give us and now to
that information that it was the
Charizard.
I feel like it's pretty well to
be assumed, but you know how that
going into game two.
It's not like you wonder how
much of that is like a little bit
of conditioning.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God, the mind games.
The mind games.
Like how do you play the mind
games, right?
you want to keep your opponent guessing or do you want to say like, hey, by the way,
I've watched Arizona too, right? You've got to be careful of it going into game two.
Oh, okay. We're going to big brain here. Okay. I mean, it makes sense for all champion.
It checks out, but game two. Same leads again. So, you know, both of these
trainers, I love going into these games, whereas exactly the same leads coming up for both
training because like the branching parts of a match are so so wide right what
decisions do you make also just asleep how to hit this time right yeah like how
does the targeting go yeah like there's so many there's so many different ways
that this can go and even though the leads look the same like where we're
gonna go from here is probably gonna be totally different we want to see that in
Paris match yesterday it was three games three identical leads but very very
different things and I really do love being able to see that run back into this one though.
I mean if we get a connect that could be everything but if it's miss targeted into
the win to call we already got that swap and that could also all right so we're just not
sleep powdering anything this turn. Okay it's a it's for testing Garchom so nothing that seems
sleepless. It's the safer player as well for Garchom to be in a a stronger position the next
thing you tell him with win to call you get that same thing. That's big. That's big. It's gonna be
We've got some compounding probabilities as well right because the Windsor cock can go for a tailwind it's still got its sash intact
And so we're tailwing and the chance of a if a rock slide comes out and the rock slide gets the chance to flinch the venus all and
There's the chance of missing the sleep powder like sure
He's sort of compounding those odds of the potential of those rocks in play
But with the incineroar coming in really nice play from now
So just making sure like yeah that venus all does get a few turns to go for it
Yeah, but there is still you know that odds of the flinch doesn't senator is not stopping that but if you want to talk about
We can only just miss, right?
We've got to count for that one as well.
So, Venusaur, we don't have to worry about the flinch at all
and the opportunity to go for the Sleep Powder
if you hit it with...
No! Another miss!
This is heartbreaking for Nelson.
And let's be clear, right?
You put Sleep Powder on knowing that it can miss,
but you still have to commit to it.
And we've got to shout this out, right?
Because even though it's not working in this match, right,
this match right it still make it it doesn't make it the wrong move to have
on the Venusaur right having earth power instead wouldn't be you know better in
this particular matchup so now he's using the tools and using tools correctly
but just not getting the backup of what's happening in the match it's one
of those unlucky components of the current regulation that we're in that
some of the most powerful moves just have that an inherent chance to miss and
that's always the give or take you keep trainers sometimes often to those less
powerful moves to not avoid in the scene but sleep outer your kind of
stuck with it right you just kind of go for it but to have the sleep powder mist
a heat wave mist that one is just tough and now shouhei you can just the ring
of the Pokemon again the center again takes the head but we're just doing the
damage over time and now it's just not really been able to accomplish much in
this batch not so far better resource management this time around but really
wants to put that gargoyle to sleep because it's a great protect from shouhei
it was the impending threat of the bake out there so it made sense to just delay
things. You now got a position where you're going to start going for some
attacks here because you've got the opportunity and had the opportunity a
number of times to go after that winter cold just after the goal jump and start
damaging it because at some point you're gonna have to get damage on to it and
I want it to sleep that's great but how many turns of sleep are you gonna get and
and he's gonna get his value out of it.
Missed him, I think he's gonna change
your track a little bit.
Oh, we're attack, getting set number six around.
Do we hit the sleeve powder this time?
Well, you did another miss.
Unisor's not hitting an attack,
but it's not really getting hit either.
At what point do you just call it fair, right?
Unisor's just sitting there enjoying the sun.
Like, it's just having a good time there.
Unisor wins by doing absolutely nothing.
There, finally, we get it.
We got it! We got it!
We got it! We got it!
Even our casters on the other side are cheering.
Is it too late though?
Well, no.
That's all.
Yeah, I think the parting shot now into the guard jump
well is it.
And now you get the Charizard back in and it really comes
in a position.
Right, and so like this is one of the things about sleep turn
order, right?
Coming into Pokemon Champions, sleep had a little bit of a
nerf, it's one turn less at most
most overall but also there and there's always been that thing like Amungus has
been the premier sport Pokemon because it puts Pokemon to sleep after they've
used a move you don't get that guaranteed tick until the next turn and
this is what's happened with the Star Chomp right it's got to take its
guaranteed turn now Charizard feels really nice coming in hopefully it put
its glasses on and maybe can hit a heat wave this time on to that Whimsicott take
it down to Sash and start doing some stuff but it's Venusaur then now has an
opportunity to instead of missing a sleep powder, miss a leash storm instead,
carrying into this car.
Why are we putting this into the universe?
You know, I don't want to cast this curse yet, but, you know, it was here waiting for me.
Oh, let's see.
I hope it doesn't come to...
No, it's locked out.
You have to be worried about that on for, right?
So it's which makes so much more sense.
We don't want to be locked into a move.
The majority of the time we aren't hitting anyways.
So a switch around.
Wim's got down to Sash, Garchomp, we're looking at maybe just even taking it out before it can even wake up, because a fake out and just another heatwave will be enough to drop the Pokemon and even just playing a double KO for now too.
Yeah, and one of the unfortunate things about those continuous sleep power misses and into the Texas, the timing they also getting the Charizard back on the field, you can see the Sun is just faded, so if you are now, so yes, you've got the opportunity,
Just go for a heat wave again, just give it a win to cut.
We get the Chars off out, maybe fake out into that win to cut.
And hope that the Goalchamps does this move.
The other option is, could potentially try and get a honey shot.
Another one, I think, to that Goalchamp here, expecting 80 to win to cut
to be a bit more passive this game.
Yeah, definitely. It's got the option to protect.
I think this is yet another read that these players have to make.
to make it. I feel like we've talked about it quite a lot.
The reads that you have to make to keep ahead of the game,
especially in these mirrors, the small advantages
that you take in these particular mirror matches
and like when you switch from like this,
playing on the offensive to playing on the defensive
to try and catch your opponent off guard is so, so critical.
It'll stay a sleek pass to protect those.
So it's gonna take a lot of damage,
critical here as well and just another parting shot.
So even if we look up like on the next turn,
when it does, it's just really not.
The cool thing here though is that the Incineroar,
like usually it's not a benefit for Incineroar
to be on low health, but when you want to reset the sun
and the Garchomp's been sleeping for a couple of turns,
could be kind of nice.
You know, you bring the Incineroar back in,
it takes a moon blast, it takes rocks like Texan earthquake,
comes back out and you can bring the Charizard,
set up the Sun, set up the Venusaur, start putting yourself on the offensive again.
Yeah, and even if it does manage to survive the turn on the glitching,
you don't mind either because you don't make out to take advantage of it.
So it can give you the room to reposition it really well.
And yeah, things going a lot better from now on to on this game with that Venusaur.
But like you say, Ben, I think the priority here is to try and get that Sun set up again.
The winster card is going to be susceptible to any sort of attack now because the cards are protected.
So I think now could be a good time to see that Charizard go out like steady and strong.
So maybe go after that Garchomp, because that is the offensive threat.
Even with those intimidation, all you've done is look at the life force.
It's not going to be a threat, especially if Joe Hayde decides to switch it out
and maybe keep it for the last part of this game.
I wonder what's in the back as well right because if it's Garchomp, sorry if it's King
Gambit and Charizard in the back and Nelto is able to preserve Garchomp and Charizard,
that's a really good matchup to have at full HP in the back right and so and yeah it's
kind of preferred to have your Incider all come in to take a rock slide.
That Garchomp is going to be at like minus four right now right?
Yeah minus four yeah I think.
like that it's well it's gonna be at minus all of it now because it is gone
from the field but no flint, gargantuan's gone. You can finally bring in
something that can actually do a little bit more damage. Williams got set up for
the tailwind. In tenor two notably didn't go down so yeah you have the active
faker on the turn but that whole bring it in let it be KO'd bring in the
Charizard for free set the Sun kind of be able to go isn't really quite the
option there anymore but it will be Shohei did bring the Charizard in
match up with you. Yeah so maybe that's like you know also works for both of
these trainers right. Shohei's got the tailwind and the Charizard to put a
bunch of pressure on. I mean that's only going to last a few turns and you know
with the Incineroar coming in and actually surviving that attack the
fake out is in play it's gonna slow down the game a little bit and again we've
got that read whether or not the Windsor cock goes down to the fake out on
this turn or if you go for a fake out into the Charizard and just attack into the Venusaur
with the Venusaur and try and get some damage down onto the board. It's not a bad idea to
start like locking into a sludge bomb in this spot to try and get some damage down if you're
like just a little bit ahead on damage. Both of these Charizards have ancient power and so when
you when you play up against each other just like that little bit of extra chip really does help.
Yeah, it'd be interesting if you'd just see Shohei. Just go for that double protect with the...
...but walls impending Faker from the Incineroar that has just switched out now.
There's gonna Mega Evolve. And no protects coming out, just a straight moonblast into Venusaur.
But with a tailwind, you don't mind Mega Evolving bringing that sun into there because you're gonna be faster than Venusaur anyway.
Ooh, the Charizard, the He-Wave of Venusaur goes down to no Sledge Bombs, nothing else, and...
Yeah, it could have been the
Faco, but trying to bring the
Charizard it instead. So a
long difference on that turn
and put one just gone now.
And just more more real reads
coming out from show of A and
like it's so impressive to be
quite so accurate so
consistently, especially at
this level of competition,
right? And just just, you know,
taking those turns to be like,
well, last time I was here, I
and try and get something done.
And, hey, like, sometimes you get punished
for those kind of reads in the turn,
but if you get them right, and especially in this matchup,
you get so much advantage to be able to come through.
There's also the plays that you'd make when you're up a game
in a set that you would never do when you're down, right?
If you're up the game in the set,
you can play that little bit more aggressive
and go for those plays that would advance your board
stages so much more and call out your opponent
trying to find that small window of opportunity, right?
So being up that game and having that little bit more wiggle room,
you can see the more aggressiveness coming out
and being able to get rid of something like that Venusaur,
I think just put you in such a great spot.
I mean, you still have to worry about the Garchomp and stuff
that you have that tail when you have a full health Charizard.
Yeah, I think here, it's a tricky scenario
because I think if you're sure,
hey, you won't get initial damage against the Garchomp,
so when that King Gamba comes back onto the field,
It's going to be grinding and knockout with a sucker punch.
And the Whimzacock's really quite important here.
Maybe why Shohist then, well, end game is going to be my Whimzacock.
We do see the Garchamp because of that threat.
Protects here, which might open the door for an ancient power, which...
Ooh!
Did we get the boost? That's a question.
I've never seen the boost.
Are we about to see the boost?
We see the KO.
I don't think we get the boost.
No.
No, I...
Oh, it's for you, buddy.
seen so many. Have you ever seen the boost? Have either of you ever seen the
boost? Not on a stream. I haven't game yet. Does the boost even exist? I'm not
sure it does. I've not seen it in Champions. I don't know. They've been
playing Charizard for a while. They must get this through some time. I've never
seen it. For those watching at home, you have three analysts all shrugging right
now. Ends up, but we'll see another one. We'll see another one come through. We're
We got more to go with, but it seems just at this point,
two-inch of power coming on through a second KO on the board.
Kind of just a little too much for this Garchon to be able to do.
I mean, kill ends up, but Wimms-a-cott, Wimms-a-cott hits the field, and...
Preservation of the Wimms-a-cott, so I'm pulling.
Now you've got the double up, the moon blast, the second bench.
Gonna be enough to lock it up.
And this is just, you know, Shohei knowing the team inside out,
knowing their wing cons, saw down to a tee,
just making them such a great thing.
So hey, oh my goodness. Yeah, it's like just just completely textbook there at the end and just like taking the advantage that you create across the game and then just
Trading is as successful as you can like switching where you need to preserving the right the right bits just so you can get to the end came
absolutely
Textbook
Well, he's a world champion for a reason. It'd be a two-time world champion for a reason. All right, right. Well, let's see what we've got
we've got our next round of Swiss coming right up so we're going to kick it over to the castes to get this championship rolling
That's right
They are both world champions for a reason and I have to say my record for ancient power boost in one game is two
And let me tell you it felt disgusting
Yeah, you know why we didn't have like two chargers at once, right?
I think I have done the same thing although many many years ago. I didn't get a battle about 20 years ago
I did it so I'm due a game whenever you're ready. Whenever you're ready game
but our players are just about ready to hop into our Swiss round 10. Let's take
a look at the matchup out on the field. Of course we are heading into our win
and in round. All of these players at eight wins one loss they just need one
more win to qualify for the top cut later today and we will be watching two
of Europe's strongest trainers right now Antonio Sanchez and Giovanni
to tell me. These two trainers
are among the last to at least have a
little bit of slack remaining where not
eliminated by losing this game. I really
tighten this field now where a majority
of the trainers are going to need to win
out in order to make the top cut. Still
have to a couple more Swiss rounds after
this one where you do need to continue to
have fewer losses. So, uh, yeah,
it's crunch time now. Yeah, there are some
impressive elimination matches out there
in the field. I don't know if you all had
time to see at the bottom of that list.
versus Emilio Forbes, two of the strongest competitors
at the World Championships in general,
like multiple top cuts.
Of course, Emilio made it to the finals.
Both of them are on tournament life right now.
One of them will be going home,
one of them will continue for the opportunity
to compete for the top cut.
Yeah, just how it is at this point,
the World Championships, right?
I think even way back to round one,
you know, players are kind of commenting,
man, you know, this is a terrible matchup I've got.
I think it's this really good opponent.
But yeah, I mean, it's the best players in every region, right?
Every round is going to be really challenging.
And I think even maybe some of the trainers
We don't have that sort of accolade on the resume already.
They got here for a reason, right?
And hey, maybe this weekend, that trainer's
even more dangerous than someone who's
been historically better, right?
It's all about being high at the right time,
knowing your team at the right time.
And these trainers have been the best of the weekend so far.
This is where your champion's legacy begins
at the World Championships.
And we have two incredible trainers from Europe competing
to make it into the top cut here on stage, Antonio Sanchez
from Spain versus Giovanni Piscitelli from Italy.
And this is an incredible matchup.
I'm excited to see these two teams go up against each other
because you have on Giovanni's side,
you have the classic big six.
And then for Antonio, you have the other style of balance
team with Toxapex that has really picked up heading
into this tournament.
Yeah, and I think part of what was picked up
is like you kind of like this matchup, right?
I don't think it's like super favorite or anything.
You have some fun tools with Matchup.
Cinder is often pretty good.
Toxapex is an opportunity to make some plays here.
So it'd be fun to see how these teams interact.
also kind of just a great showcase of this regulation.
Even though all 12 of the Pokemon in this game
were available in regulation MA,
with the upgrades they could have done,
life war potentially being a big benefit.
Although actually, I believe only one of the two trainers
actually has won.
These teams have kind of been the teams to beat
in this regulation a lot of ways from the perspective
just of having the most raw power.
Absolutely.
Let's take a look at Antonio's team first here.
This is going to be the Toxapex variant of the Charizard team.
And actually kind of a throwback here,
We are actually seeing the Solar Beam still on Charizard with a lot of players opting
to remove Solar Beam for the mirror matchup going for Ancient Power instead.
Yeah, it's kind of fun where it would be a really strong regulation MA throwback, except
for this team, Arkit, that hadn't really been discovered then, where we kind of wound up
on this group of six Pokemon because of Wolf's NAAC run, which did not involve quite the
same team.
So even though you could have played this back then, I wasn't.
But yeah, so the Solar Beam on Charizard, typically see that removed when Venusaur
is present.
bit of a throwback there also the twist scarf on guard shop put number of options you could choose
but again the thing that's really interesting to me here no life orb right kind of one of the big
boost in power of a team scott with regulation and be instead of opting for different ways to
influence the battlefield this held items yeah no life orb here and some really interesting
text for some of these more traditional pokemon sylvion has dropped hyper beam in favor of yawn
so sometimes you see hyper voice and hyper beam with yawn but no quick attack
Antonio has opted to keep hyper voice and quick attack and drop hyper beam dropping that huge damage in favor of the more supportive
Yon and also you have to shut this out because you have the solar beam on Charizard
Venusaur is not carrying a grass type attack instead opting for earth power and sludge bomb to potentially help out against
Pokemon like King Gambit or even as we've been seeing that is Suya Narcodyne
Yeah, the vasculature on the other side of the field may have tears in its eyes of the tears of joy
It's like, what do you mean there's no Grass Moves?
Interesting way to build this team out.
So I think it'll be sort of fun to watch how this plays out,
where players tend to have like really strong flow charts
into the most common team market.
I think things are just enough different here,
where maybe it's going into causes opponent
to kind of need to think a little bit harder about this one,
where even though it's a bunch of familiar faces,
they aren't executed a little bit differently than normal.
Well, here is Giovanni Piscitelli on your screen here,
going for the new version of Charizard and Flowette
that has the ancient power and also going for the three attacks version of
Floette not the calm mind version that was seen early on especially in
regulation in a like you mentioned gotta see that life orb on garchomp the big
change for regulation in a giving garchomp so much more power and more
offense at the expense of some of itself yeah I mean it's just so powerful
aware we've seen throughout the course that we can how effective is to finish
becomes maybe the most reliable attacker in the format a lot of ways to
Slowly rocks like cannon will miss, but the other moves, you know perfect accuracy lots of damage
But even if you miss a prediction you still kind of move forward in the battle in a positive way
I think of the grass type moves to me or just such a fun story that you hear where of course
It's the Charizard that doesn't have the Venus or that has the ancient power attack
So, you know, maybe again allowing the Pokemon who are weak to water type attack or grass type text a little bit better
But that's one interesting tweak of the taxifix version of the team
You don't really want grass type attacks against this team anyway
There's not a whole lot to do with it.
So it may help the big six and smash up a little bit here
where I'm kind of like checked out of the moves
that he doesn't need here anyway.
Well, here we are, getting ready for our first game of this win
and end to top cut at the World Championships.
And of course, Giovanni will be leading with the classic
Garchomp and Charizard lead,
acing down Incineroar and Charizard from Antonio.
So getting that intimidate down onto that life orb Garchomp
It's huge, but lots of rock type pressure against these two rock or rock week Pokemon rocks looking really good here
And I saw those two pop up away cut that double the champion tiered there. He's been practicing
game ladder
Absolutely, but now you see you have the guard chump and Charizard able to fire off rock slides earth quakes and ancient powers
This incinerator looking pretty pretty spooked out by this and either of the parts that Pokemon really gonna be able to do a
a whole lot on Tony's side of the field.
So probably not the lead match we've been hoping for,
but you're never gonna be too shocked
when you play a team like this
and you end up against Charizard and Garchomp on turn one,
one of the most powerful lead combinations you've seen.
So I'm sure he's a pretty choreographed game plan
for what to do with physicals.
Yeah, and first and foremost,
it's get Charizard off the field staring down
both the Garchomp and Charizard,
bringing in his own Garchomp is Antonio.
That will allow the choice of Garchomp to be faster
than both the Charizard and Garchomp from Giovanni.
As Giovanni will go ahead and mega evolve his Charizard there,
gets the sun on the field,
while Garchomp will blink to the bakeout from Incineroar.
Here is the ancient power Giovanni knows
that Antonio is not going to just give up that damage
on Charizard, instead connects onto the Incineroar.
It's down below half, which will allow Incineroar
to heal up with its citrus berry.
If you see a bit of damage in the Incineroar though,
and I could also, you know a lot of folks
find this to potentially don't want to be intimidated,
so getting that damage down early,
And also you kind of just know there's no way I'm going to be allowed to
ancient power the opposing card so I might as well take that damage on the
center but now these choice star card shop is into the battlefield single
movement locked into the very interesting certainly the Charizard would
love to maybe try to get some sneak more damage off here if you're maybe
okay you know my opponent will also not allow me to get that free rock slide
probably going to go into a dark dragon claw into the opposing card shop so hey
you know maybe I can just leave Charizard out here I don't really care
that much about the dragon claw also be careful to protect the stout gear which
It's always kind of the way this is the choice Pokemon, but it's never going to see a switch immediately.
They're bringing in the King Gambit here, a perfect switch, and if you expect to be tanking any rock slides from that choice Garchomp,
actually going to see all four Pokemon from Antonio now as it's going to be Proxotext on the field.
Garchomp on Giovanni's side will protect here, has reduced attack, and catches the Dragon Claw.
So Antonio locking into Dragon Claw, Giovanni getting the King Gambit out on the field and feeling pretty good about that turn.
Yeah, I think a lot of great things there. I mean, King Gambit's a great switch, kind of no matter what there.
If you get it wrong and it is a rock slide, King Gambit's going to take that really well too.
I guess the only disadvantage is now the best Pokemon on your team to switch into the Dragon Claw.
Unless one of the two fairy type Pokemon are in the back, which are relatively unlikely with the sequencing.
You're going to have to take a Dragon Claw to something in that slot, but I'll get pretty good now.
Now, we have to see an interesting combination
of the TACS effects, the guard jump,
entering the field together for the first time.
We saw the weakness of the choice graph for that turn,
where the scouting switch was pretty easy
and now this is going to be a predictable turn,
but potentially the option, eventually,
for TACS effects to trap something in the infestation,
which makes it much easier to actually connect
with a choice attack.
Yeah, unfortunately, the King Gambit on the field
is actually quite happy to see TACS effects
on the other side, but like you mentioned,
nothing really wants to tank that dragon claw
on the switch and the charge are taking over,
almost 50% there, while Garchomp takes a critical hit,
Kowtow leave in return.
By switching out, this Charizard is now trapped
on the field with Tox effects.
And if you're the Tox effects player,
you love trapping your opponent's Charizard on the field.
Yeah, probably not as excited about that critical hit though.
Now in danger of potentially knockout from Sucker Punch,
and if Garchomp ends, it's probably fairly close.
And another weakness of the choice car,
I forget talking around it,
but if you're not familiar with this whole item,
you can't use that attacking move, right?
So I'm very good at playing in sucker punch with that because you're guaranteed to connect
if you don't switch that Pokemon out.
So I guard shop potentially pretty checked here.
And he's thinking just a little bit too much damage to feel safe.
Like a doctor practically a hand looking much better where not too threatened by any of
these Pokemon could keep spreading those into the station.
Good to go for a tactic or something.
But also you know, such effects work slowly, right?
And it's going to be that other slot that's in some danger.
Absolutely.
And the King Gambit showing that it is happy to take swings into any Pokemon on Antonio's
side.
project will be enough to pick up the KO onto Jar Chomp. A little bit more chip damage back from
the rough skin onto the King Gambit. We'll start adding up as there is another ancient power.
Boost! There you go Ben. See the boost on the ancient power there but maybe a little bit too
little too late for this Charizard. It is already at low health and has been infested by the Tox
effects but at the same time if you get to fire off a plus one attack from that Charizard you're
You're gonna deal big damage to whatever comes out.
Yeah, it's going to be interesting to watch this one
where Charizard, just healthy enough,
where it can survive two more turns in infestation
and still get attacked off.
So, reasonably likely, it'll maybe get a single swing.
And yeah, I mean, Charizard,
one of the most powerful attackers in this format,
without all of its stats being boosted by one level.
So, even one weather ball could do a lot of damage here,
but if they're trying to find it,
there's still that incinerator in the back
who could try to both stall a little bit
with the fake out to force the Charizard to protect it here
and you'll get one more Charizard's anti-station damage.
But also, if the Charizard doesn't protect it,
it would do enough damage to cause it to survive
one pure turn.
However, to give it coming in, you're being intimidated,
not looking so intimidated at all after the defiant boost.
And now doing enough damage, at least maybe
attack protection is a little uncomfortable
with being hit with the counter-counter.
Yeah, absolutely.
And the Charizard getting that speed boost in addition
to the special attack boost.
Of course, Ancient Power does have the opportunity
to use all of your stats.
Takes it so hard for Antoine to position here
until that Tarsart is off the field.
It can pick up Kaos on basically anything
except for the Tox effects at this point.
And the Incineroar is actually kind of an awkward spot.
The fake art is going to land it.
That's actually fairly huge.
That huge make out there.
Just the additional damage getting additional chip
onto the Tarsart.
The low kick, not enough damage to pick up the Kao
onto Incineroar even after the Defiant boost.
And there is the double up Toxic onto the Tarsart.
That plus the big doubt plus a turn of infestation should be enough to pick up the KO here.
It's really close.
It might be just like one hit point away actually.
I think it's just shy.
What nice.
Oh, yeah.
You just miss it.
Just misses.
I think one thing is really neat too about the Toxicon.
Forget about it.
But Toxicon is normally not a perfectly accurate attack.
It does always hit from the Toxicon.
So you know that this play is fairly safe.
But yeah, Chars are because of the defense boost from the Eastern Power just barely able to survive.
And potentially pick up a knockout here.
I think very likely we'll see a painful bucking here as Toxtapex wants nothing to do with that, but the Incineroar I assume cannot protect, so that's 13% not looking real sturdy here.
Yeah, it's a question of do you give up your Incineroar or your Charizard at this point if you are Antonio and it has to be the Incineroar.
It can protect actually, I'm sorry.
So, typically you only see that on teams with Paraston, but you have the option just to stall that out and let the Charizard go.
Another adaptation that's pretty interesting is that you miss that during the team preview.
Yeah, it does make sense like some octapex right where if you want to play the more defensive sort of win condition to give you
I'm not sure you would otherwise have so we'll use that for tactic
Hey looking pretty good there for it who we don't typically see in this composition. Yeah, absolutely
That is a KO for the protect incinerator by protecting here
That means that this Charizard is not able to do anything with that ancient power
The King Gambit also not able to do anything and the King Gambit will take another turn of infestation damage while the Charizard goes down
And Tux-Fex is just about back up to full health.
Yeah, I mean, this is the horrors of Tux-Fex, right?
Where if you catch the right Pokemon in there,
you know, even with the Charger,
you're kind of like completely affecting there.
I did kind of knock out...
I don't know, knock out, I guess.
Getting Sinnera climbed to be knocked out there,
just kind of by drawing attention, allowing,
I think, Gambit to get back to return.
But it kind of now what, right?
Where Garchomp's going to get back in for free,
and, you know, we've got this very weakened in Sinnera.
The Garchomp has already been knocked out.
So, until now, it's very low on resources,
but, you know, looking closer in the Pokemon town now.
low on resources but Giovanni is in a really awkward position here.
The only way that Giovanni can deal super effective damage to that tox effects would be via Earthquake.
It does not have stomping tantrum instead just Earthquake which would pick up the KO onto King Gambit
and there are no immunities left on the team.
Also, the tox effects can always just click Wide Guard and protect itself.
Yeah, I think it's probably fairly free of this drill.
Again, you know, you're really not called a Wide Guard, I think, you know, there's a risk of just getting this turn wrong,
I'm getting earthquakeed and really paying for it,
but I thought it would feel fairly safe
trying to go for a toxic here,
so wearing Garchomp down could be pretty effective.
Okay, well Incineroar tried to go for a double protect there.
Antonio does not want to give up damage
on the Charizard in the back.
Instead, just forcing Garchomp to take that life orb recoil
or getting a free turn extra turn with the Incineroar.
Howtow cleave feels good damage to the Toxic tech
because it does have that attack boost,
but there is the Toxic down onto Garchomp.
that is going to add up so quickly between the life orb recoil
and the stacking damage from OXIC.
Toxic's doing a great job in this game,
but it's pretty much getting worn down in a hurry here
to see the final Pokemon coming out onto the field here
to support it after the end of these animations.
And there's still a lot of damage left to be done, right?
You get bar chop, there's going to have a very difficult time
knocking out Toxic specifically.
So maybe if you can isolate that 1v1,
that kind of just becomes a win-in now.
But keep in mind as well,
but he does still have a boosted level of attack.
It's not in the field for what feels like forever,
but several years ago Incineroar did get that intimidate down,
which was reversed by the defying.
So potentially still a pretty threatening,
but they did a lot of damage to that couch house, please.
You know, you have to expect quite a bit of dodge.
Yes, but if this Charizard can help finish off
this opposing King Gambit, then maybe you're starting to cook.
Yeah, you may start having an opportunity,
but we also have to notice that Giovanni
has not shown this final Pokemon left.
And if that is what I think it is, that Basque Legion in the back will be so happy to let this Garchomp and King Gambit go down
and send its last respects off into any Pokemon on the field.
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean even the Chars are here. It's going to people with wide guard support, which is starting to feel mandatory given the host and island of the field here.
Probably going to take some damage in the way down, right? And he can say,
Fairly free Sucker Punch to King Gamma, let's say you know, Antonia's getting real weird here trying to make some big reason, trying to get his advantages.
Maybe starting up right there, he would protect like, please please another turn and yeah, it does dodge it.
Yeah, Kadoo at least waves one turn here with that protect, the Sucker Punch and Dragon Claw both firing up into the Charizard.
Pox effect now able to infest the Garchomp as well.
but Antonio is going to need to get multiple protects from this Charizard to have a hope if it's that Vasculation in the back.
However, Antonio has also held the Mega Evolution on the Charizard, which would allow it to set the Sun
and be able to deal super effective damage back to the Vasculation with Solar Beam.
I give you as many turns as possible as well as reducing any potential Wage Crashes.
The option, though, may be irrelevant by the time the Vasculation is revealed,
or if you can pick up a knockout with last respects, why bother.
Also, keep in mind with, you know, I haven't seen a lot of detox effects so far, unlike maybe what you'd see in a single battle, there is no recover on that effect, right?
So, it's 53% HP, maybe enough, but it's kind of like right on the edge of being in danger of a knockout for the King Gambit.
Charles is going to fail to protect, so we may not see Drat at all, although Dragonclaw is not going to pick up a knockout, and you see why there was no attacking move there.
Yeah, the Dragonclaw is not enough to pick up the KO on its own, without the sucker punch, additional damage.
I expect resets the infestation on to King Gambit which I believe was just let up the last turn and now
Continuing to heal up with leftovers the damage is stacking onto both of these Pokemon
Getting real close there. Garchomp goes down next turn. Yeah, you know, I don't want to pop off for a protect failure
I think that's actually a great play by Antonio. We probably should have I just so many amazing things for Antonio side of the field
Let's get a weird, like, oh, why does Charizard just double protect?
Why didn't it negative all?
Well, it didn't need to negative all, but it wouldn't really have mattered.
Now, both these Pokémon can protect.
They will both succeed because there was no successful protection in the previous turn.
And both of these Pokémon are going to go down to damage over time effects.
Then, critically, even if on the next turn that just leaves the Charizard being knocked out,
they'll do potentially have the max turns of drown for what little that will likely matter.
But, you know, you're charging some chip on Vascular Legion, that makes it huge difference.
And then also, the Toxapex, you know, even if Charizard were to go down and do nothing,
Which is this one's actually fairly unlikely if you more turn to get those damage over time effects
You know it's often from that it just the color and we see these types of effects versus basketball
Agent and games, but I think Antonio is done just enough to get Charizard
Enough ahead to help talk the facts that talk the best is probably going to win this one if Charizard goes down at all
That's my guy. I love this little guy
Just that needs to double protect here to pick up these ko's no damage dealt to Antonio's Pokemon instead
Toxapex will recover another 6% of health with that leftover 4% or 5% rather as the
Garchomp and King Gambit go down.
What a fun ending here, they look really sketchy for Antonio for a while there, but yeah.
Ironically what a few times we've seen where a pale protector is very beneficial for the
player who failed it.
Without that maybe Charles Lee goes down this turn and things get a little bit sketchier
on the following turn, but then it does become that Vasculage and Toxapex 1v1.
Instead here, Charles is going to get you negatable,
probably help out a little bit.
At worst, you know, absolute worst,
you know, maybe you get, like, crit by Aqua Jet or something,
but you're still giving Toxtapex a free turn.
Really great job by Antonio here to get those margins
and get the help that Toxtapex needed
to most likely close out this game more.
And this is Mystic Water Fasculation,
so the Aqua Jet will be dealing more damage
than the Citrus Berry,
but less than a life orb variant of the Fasculation.
But like you mentioned, no matter what,
what that water damage is getting reduced by the drought that you have to assume.
Antonio has shown such great restraint with this Charizard over the course of the game.
It's what you have to do with some of these mega evolutions that have immediate on the
field effects.
There's the mega evolution finally to Charizard why.
Will set the sun and reduce the power of Vasculigent water type attacks.
Without an awkward jet, then this Charizard will definitely be able to fire off a solar
being here absorbs the light and you can see the power of the grass type attack getting
damage, crucial damage down onto the basket legion. That's enough for just one kick of
infestation to KO the basket legion here but it targets down the Toxifex instead. Toxifex
goes down and Giovanni has found the out here is potentially just take out the Toxifex here
and pray and hope that a crit mystic water aqua jet in the sun is enough damage.
I believe you have a 1-24 chance to crick, so not great odds here, but there's more than zero, so see what happens.
It's a non-zero chance. There's the Aqua Jet. 8% health remaining for Charizard, with the crick, Giovanni would have gotten it,
but instead Antonio Sanchez is going to fire off this Solar Beam and take game one. What a wild endgame.
We've seen a lot of tax-effect end games over the course of the past few months of these tournaments,
I don't think we've seen anything quite like that.
Really methodical ending, really creative way to end that game.
And I think that's just what you have to do
as your Toxics player, where players at this level
are too good to fall victim to the most obvious lines.
So I have to be a little bit creative there.
I think I was like three or four turns in our other charge.
It was for protect this undershield.
Like, hey, attacking isn't what I need to do here.
I need to waste the turns of my opponent
to start getting closer and closer to that end game.
And turns it only ended up swinging one time
in the entire game.
But that one attack was absolutely bull.
twice, I guess, after the game was already over, but, yeah, you know,
one big attack that effectively ended it, where regardless of what Giovanni
chose to do on that ultimate turn, you didn't get a critical hit,
he couldn't win the game.
Absolutely. And really well played there from Antonio to see that line.
And Giovanni felt like he was in decent position throughout that entire game.
But even after getting the ancient power boost on Charizard, it really felt like
things were becoming very awkward for Antonio to position around that,
But the power of that Toxapex is just dealing damage over time.
Getting that fake out down onto Charizard especially to waste that turn, get another kick of damage.
You have to find these little moments where you can sneak in one extra turn.
Speaking of protects, by the way, I want to go back to that Incineroar Protect as well.
I look at your kind of strange techs when we first saw it, but it looks really good there.
And yeah, the synergy of this team just kind of makes a lot of sense.
Especially, again, you have that Choice Star guard chop there.
maybe gives you an opportunity to earthquake, but otherwise, you could not work.
At least for one turn in Santa Monica, protect itself.
Again, you know, we're looking at these teams,
like, oh, we've seen this combination of 60 Pokemon before, Scott.
Why are you excited about this?
Well, that's why, right?
Where I think these little optimizations allow you to play the team differently,
and we're gonna see the advantages there.
As we jump into game two also, I think it's sort of a tough spot for Giovanni.
We're like, okay, well, how do I adjust to this?
Well, if Toxa-Pax is the main reason I lost this game,
am I going to then adjust by bringing one of my fairy-type Pokemon?
It doesn't seem like what I want.
Yeah, definitely.
Toxapex would love to see the
Floette or the Whimsicott get
them trapped on the field with it.
Naturally going to be the Incineroar
and the Toxapex lead immediately
from Antonio getting that
Intimidate down onto a guard chop
and the Toxapex, you know,
sometimes with Toxapex you just need that one
extra turn and it really helps if you can start
doing that from turn one.
Yeah, and you know we saw the previous
game just play Antonio winning.
The first turn, definitely did not go for it,
now we won, you had to pivot around a little bit,
actually saw the guard chop coming into battle
on the second turn, or between, during the first turn.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, switching out immediately for it.
Yeah.
Let's see, yeah, keep things a little bit confusing
early in the morning.
But tactics, being on the field immediately
makes it a lot easier.
Also, immediately get that in tim base down.
So, that's good enough for the second game in a row.
Looking pretty good on this first turn,
and the guard chop has to be even wearier,
because again, those spread attacks,
much more difficult to use tactics
like the field, even though,
probably not feeling so threatened
You have to use it here on immediately forcing the basket legion out onto the field here
Both because it has a good matchup in it to the incinerator
Which does not have a dark type attack and also it would allow it to switch out if it were infested however
Antonio catches the basket legion on the switch in with a toxic instead. That's going to deal less damage immediately
But over time if basket legion wants to stay on the field, it's going to start stacking up so fast
Yeah, kind of a cool ball there too, or maybe getting exactly what he expected, you know,
and fairly unlikely that King Gamma's going to come in that situation, so it's only going
to be Charizard or Vasculigian.
And yeah, I mean, Vasculigian early in the game, a very different analogue than it was
lately.
We saw how powerful that last respect was when it was the final poke on the previous game.
Time to vex that nearly so concerned at this time where last respectac won't do anything
here.
Doesn't have to be more wary of the guard chop, though it has been intimidated and is
probably intimidated in an out-of-game sense by the potential of wide guards.
A vasculage, you're not going to want that toxic to add up.
Get that a battle right away.
Yeah, the only options for vasculage
and being to deal damage to itself with wave crash
and take ticks of poison toxic damage,
get out of the field here.
Garchomp goes for the earthquake as Charizard switches in.
Of course, this is why you pair Garchomp next to Charizard.
With the Intimidate, Poxifex is able to take that damage
quite handily, and the Life Orb Recoil
will start adding up onto Garchomp.
This does mean that Poxifex again
gets to start spreading toxic.
The guard chomp now toxic,
going to take ticks of poison damage
in addition to recoil damage every time it attacks.
And Antonio is showing us some other tricks this team has,
or you get to protect them,
and then we're looking pretty impactful there.
You know, unlike what we just saw on Geobotty,
sorry, Bill, you know, there's only one Pokemon
for Antonio who could switch into the first place,
the Charizard we saw.
How trusty was about conserving it in the previous games
to protect and then then give it ends,
and then, hey, this Hax effect's being that half recoverer,
but maybe why we're seeing toxic
to the unit station is that it does have the regenerator ability which heals it when it
switches out of battle and the station drops when Toxapex switches out so maybe it wouldn't
be so effective there but that Toxapex is going to stick if Toxapex feels like maybe
hey you know let me get out of the way I'm going to come back later and be in end game
one condition once again.
Yeah Toxapex could switch out right now and be back up to just about 100% health after
the regenerator.
It is going to be a winzakot adjustment from Giovanni Garchomp now switching out four
that Whimzacot as Incineroar will switch out for Garchomp on Antonio's side.
Cars are now finally will go for the Mega Evolution to get some big boost to its damage
and set the sun here.
Whimzacot catching the Garchomp on the switch is a pretty good position for it to be in.
Additionally, Whimzacot can threaten Encore into this Toxpex and really limit the amount
of options that Antonio is going to have moving forward.
There's the ancient power into garchop not feeling a little bit of damage
But always an opportunity to fish for those boosts if you have them
I didn't get the twice in a row there
I was kind of wondering if after we do we could have maybe manifest what that all is
Yeah, but hey, you know on Geobody's side of the field, I don't think you're ever complaining when you swap Whimsicott on the field with garchop of the same current
Also kind of a bunch of interesting things are available now
Of course both trainers are realizing that hey, you know Geobody doesn't have the Q-bed gambit in the back
I mean one of the reasons why we didn't see it swapped in on that first turn, but you know you have the tailwind threat
We're probably not one you do that tailwind wouldn't beat Garchomp just rock sliding here
So I'm probably going to need a little bit more than that
But it was at least somewhat of an offensive threat here though
It's not really a Pokemon you want to get trapped playing in Festation either
So a lot to consider on this turn as the Charizard considers defending itself
Charizard would like to protect this turn because Garchomp with the toy scarf is going to lock in to rock slide and Whimsicott will dodge it
The Moon Blast though firing back on to the Garchomp. No tailwind here, just offense. Garchomp hangs on with 4% health.
No encore onto the Tox effect means that Whimsicott is now locked onto the field here. So if you get tailwind up, that's great.
But also it means that Whimsicott won't be able to switch out. You won't be able to have two offensive threats. It'll just be the one.
one.
Yeah, notice Tailwind Sweeper wins the cat, wanting to have to do its best here, which
kind of makes it wonderful.
Was dodging Rax like good?
Yeah.
I mean, certainly not getting clinched was good, as that creates a great situation on
the desktop where you could just go for it, tailwind attacks the guard chop, it's like
you pretty much guarantee you could get something good, but yeah, the talk effects once again
is looking good.
Hey, maybe doesn't he just switch out the heal up after all, like unlikely to be targeted
here, where a heat wave is needlessly risky, where you could miss the guard chop, you could
get wide guarded.
So probably going to see a single target attack on that slot as Tucked Rax continues adding
damage over time. And of course, why go for any other attack than ancient power when you only need
to deal 4% and you can keep fishing for those. Two games in a row. Hey, we said it never happened
and here it is. Well, Charizard now at plus one, plus one, plus one, plus one, plus one, plus one,
but it will take a Toxic for its troubles. So every Pokemon except for Whimsicott is now Toxic
on Giovanni's side and that does put a timer on the Charizard. There's only so much it can do with
those boosts. Plus one status element as well which is not great but what is great is that part of
the field otherwise where Max Burns of Tailwind, Ancient Power Boost, maybe the best offensive
book about the format Charizard, is feeling great other than this little bit of poison though. It
probably doesn't have to worry about it. Let's not think about that right now. Of course the other
side of the field, the other side I guess, it's partner. Now less exciting here where you know
But again, the offensive Dynamo would have to contribute as much as they can offensively here.
Is it at least threatening some Encore's, which would make it harder to spell out the tailwind?
It's not like it's doing nothing here, but Moonlight's not going to be super very explosive
what's left of this team. Instead of just going to be forced to enter the battle here to
intimidate two special attackers to keep slowing things down.
It's still a terrible spot, right? You're probably going to go for a fake out into this tower.
Yeah, we're not going to think about that.
And why not get rid of a turn of trick room?
Again, as we've seen before about these both Munch and Protector,
Bunker and Dr. Vex's case, so maybe you get another turn of detail with that way.
And hey, you know, Incineroar is sort of uniquely great here too, and it's protected.
Can't be on point, because it's still a dark type Pokémon that is easy to prankster.
Ooh, going for the fake out onto Whimsicott means that Charizard actually gets to swing
with this boosted Ancient Power into Incineroar. That feels good damage, brings it below 50%,
but again, Incineroar heals back up with that Citrus Berry, and now the infestation has trapped
to the boosted Charizard on the field.
The Giovanni will not be able to switch that Pokemon out,
which means that it is just going to keep taking
infestation damage and continuing to stack
poison damage from the Toxic while being able to,
you know, pick up a KO on this Incinerator,
eventually, maybe, depending on how many
protects these Pokemon get.
Yeah, this Pokemon's HP are going down pretty quickly.
I mean, people kind of think of Tock to Pectus
as a small Pokemon, and sure,
again, maybe in single battles, that's true,
but this child doesn't gonna go down in a hurry,
The toxic going down before the infestation is key, there's more damage to the turn.
And we've seen it with only a couple of turns, Charizard already losing about a third of his health.
It's going to go down quicker and quicker after that, where, you know, it is very scary,
but Antonio is getting closer and closer to defending that craft.
Diorvani was able to sneak in that ancient power because Incineroar decided to fake out Wimzacot to prevent any on-course shenanigans.
Antonio deciding that he wants to make sure that the Toxapex can trap that Charizard on the field that turn.
Finally gets Enforced here into Investation, but the Ancient Power will connect onto the Protect of the Incineroar.
So this Toxapex is not going to be dealing any real damage anymore, at least until the Enforced ends or it switches out.
But all of the damage has already been done.
this project is adding up so quickly the infestation Charizard is already so
low only a couple more terms remaining for Charizard to be one more for
Windsor-Cott and you know being locked in infestation is not ideal here but I
don't know that it really matters yeah and also worth noting to the drought
expired for now as well of course you'd assume that there's a Charizard looking
in the back though I don't know that it's too likely that Giovanni Charizard is
going to be lucky enough to escape and reset its own drought yeah with the
drought ending here. Charizard loses access to that super powered weather ball which would be
basically the only thing capable of breaking through that toxapex at this point even with the
resisted damage. Ancient power just doesn't have enough damage on its own if it's not a super effective
hit. And yeah this toxapex has slowed this entire game down. Antonio just going for the
double protect option on Incinor does not get it but is able to survive another ancient power
because of that citrus berry. That means that Whimsicuff also has to swing at the Incineroar
finally picks up the KO there knocks out the Incineroar as it's going to continue to take that
damage over time. A little bit of infestation damage on to Whimsicuff pushing it even closer
with a huge critical hit there. As Toxapex healed all the way back up who needs to switch out and
get regenerator active it's already at 98%. And don't forget your rulers to note that they
that did technically do more damage with the critical hit, but you see the impact of Encore,
however, with Twinsicats surviving, just turned the tailwind Peters out, and you know, if that
Encore not occurred exactly when it did, the Tox effect almost certainly was going for a
toxic influence, it would have caused it to faint before it could have sent Tailwind. This is still
not exactly a great situation on Giovanni's side of the field, where you've got a Poison Vascular
Legion in the back, and both these Pokemon about to be knocked out, and it was a stretch of the
Well, actually, but at least you could get a tailwind to try to close up the game as quickly as possible here with
a Wozakat and Charizard on their last legs versus, but the Wozakat had been knocked out.
I think this is a much more dire situation for Giovanni, so great job hitting the anchor exactly when he needs to.
Yeah, this is a really awkward position here for Antonio.
Also, the Wimzakat may be close to being released from the infestation, which makes this protect kind of risky here.
here. Wimzacot is able to reset the tailwind here in expiring exactly when Giovanni needed
it too. There is the ancient power. One last attempt from the Charizard as Pox effects
trying to get a little bit of damage down on to the Wimzacot there with a normal infestation
but did not get a critical hit. The Charizard will go down to the poison here but this Wimzacot
needs to be able to be released from the infestation and it is. That was the end of the infestation
turns for Whimsicott and now Charizard can be on board into that protect.
Yeah that's what you typically think of as an explosive play that that could be huge
if these two poke them on remaining. I think now Antonio is probably in a position where
you have to go for the double protect on Charizard and hope that Octapax can pick up that big
knockout. You know we're kind of making fun of Whimsicott's offense but this time it's
Octapax who needs to pretend to be a striker here and try to bail out its friend. I don't
think we've seen any successful double protector in Antonio's opponent set.
I think so. He's two. He's two, yeah.
That's how it works.
So hey, maybe we'll leave it here.
We'll see it here, although with Garchoff and Trig, the field on the other side,
it may not matter all that much, where Charizard is going to be in trouble either way, though,
you know, a wide guard, I guess, would help out there if Charizard is able to avoid getting atcored.
All right, but it's going to be very important.
Charizard needs to hit a double protect to avoid getting locked into protect by Encore from Windsorcott.
Antonio will need that damage.
Charizard does not get the double protect.
No double protects for Antonio.
And actually going to encore into the Toxapex instead.
Giovanni realizing Antonio has to go for the double protect anyway.
Let me just make sure this Toxapex can't do anything.
Such smart targeting there from Giovanni.
Very risky, but it pays off.
Yeah, the Dragon Claw kind of clustered there too.
Kind of covers for a couple of different options.
If there's been a wide guard instead, you will go like riffing.
after kind of when you're embarrassing locking your opponent into wide guard, but also, hey, you know with the dragon claw
Get some safe damage down the charlotte still checked, right?
Yeah, the risk is saying and it's not going to be able to do anything for the name of the game
And I am the fast allegiance now entering the battlefield. These book one are both on timers
But they're both going to threaten a lot of damage with not suspecting giant water impacts things are still
Not over, but I don't know that actually being able to pull this one off like that prep the series of double
Yeah, there are both Vasculation and Garchomp are on timers, but the timer is still very generous at this stage of the game
Although Vasculation and Garchomp both do tend to deal damage to themselves when they are attacking
Of course, Vasculation most likely choosing to lock into the last respects instead to keep its timer as long as possible
Antonio is going to need to start getting some of those double protects
Yeah, but hey, you know, we've seen it happen before and that's what's so scary about touch effects
about Tox effects, sometimes even when things go really wrong,
there's still that chance of it's okay.
You know, probably be able to survive one round of attacks.
I mean, potentially be able to survive one round of attacks
against it, and maybe that's enough.
A Charizard going to go down immediately here,
but it does get Tox effect to turn to try
to make something happen.
Yep, there goes Charizard,
and more recoil damage from the Life Orb.
There is the last respects,
more than 50% damage onto Tox effects.
It cannot take another last respects,
and basketball Legion is still so healthy.
Of course, having switched out,
it reset the toxic timer on the basketball Legion,
though, Toxicpex needs a lot of turns
of fainful bunkers here
in order to actually survive through this office
from basketball Legion and guard job.
Yeah, Chetals, fair you from the attempt
to do the very incorrect math
at how many fainful bunkers are required,
but it's definitely more than two.
Yeah, we may find out all together,
or we may never know.
It could be impossible to figure out.
Yeah, maybe the greatest finds in
mathematicians in the community
can figure this out for them.
I think it's four, but I don't like strongly thick.
Yeah, you're not willing to risk it all
on four painful bunkers.
Yeah, I feel like we're probably not
going to find out of this one.
But hey, you know, we've seen stranger things.
Isn't two ancient power boosts in this set?
I think probably out of the tax a bunch of surviving here
are probably higher than that.
So you can do the math of that too if you want,
but maybe don't tag.
Well, if we assume that we're just going to see multiple painful bunkers here, and if
we assume that Giovanni is going to be able to get the win, actually Antonio decides to
do it.
Thank you Antonio.
You have saved me some vamping for the end of this match, and we're going into game three.
Giovanni picking that game to very strongly.
We were talking about budget stuff.
Encore, right?
Encore, yes.
The win's a kind of adjustment huge for Giovanni there.
So I think that's interesting to be talking between the games
that Windsor Cup was sort of a difficult Pokemon to bring
because of the tight matchup, but it's in it just the right time
they're able to be so impactful on this game with on core.
And then really showing also how impactful
was to get into the battlefield the right time.
It got in right as Garchamp did dodge that rock slide,
which could be further time.
Or like, oh, maybe you want Windsor Cup to get nacked out.
I think if that rock side connects that extra damage causes
Windsor Cup to go down, you don't get to tail in.
You don't get the on course later.
I think it really changes how the end of that battle plays out.
But regardless, really well played on Giovanni's side
throughout the course of that game,
doing a nice job of avoiding getting negative positions,
kind of limiting Tox's impact,
although certainly still the MVP of that match
of Franconi is out of the field.
Absolutely, definitely great call out there
on the rock slide, Miss, of the Whimsicott as well.
It's something we've been sort of seeing over and over again.
We talked about it in game one with the fakeout damage
from the Incineroar.
Every little piece of chip damage matters
on a Toxapex team against their opponent.
Because you need to keep those turns.
You need to be able to keep, get the KO
before the infestation releases,
and they can switch out or, you know,
survive the one extra turn they need.
And missing that rockslide,
allowed that Wimps to have to hang around for
probably two or three more turns
and it would have otherwise.
Yeah, and I think that's kind of the margins
that we see for these games here,
where it's just kind of how it plays out with Toxapex.
You're not gonna win or lose by a lot.
You know, we saw how impactful
that critical hit infestation was, you know, it did like 4% instead of 3.
Um, and because of that, uh, you know, you really need to get the damage where
you can get it, uh, if that's going to be your win condition or to avoid it
different than the other side, right?
So tiny bit of damage mitigation can matter.
It's often come down to one or two, uh, turns of damage over time effects, one
direction or the other.
Either side could definitely win.
We've seen that over the course of the games, and that was going to decisive
game three, as both these traders trying to pick up their ninth win,
want to see what they've chosen to lead.
All right, they're going for their ninth win and Antonio has chosen his
third lead combination while Giovanni is sticking with the tried and true, the Garchomp and Charizard.
Antonio will continue to lead the Incineroar, but this time paired alongside his own Charizard.
Yeah, and I, you know, Incineroar looking pretty good again, where we've had some interesting paths to these games,
but Garchomp and Charizard kind of both struggling to deal with the Incineroar, so you like that side of the field.
Again, Charizard into Garchomp, less great, but with the Intimidate down, you would at least survive Iraq side,
You have some options though, you know the threat of the ancient power making it difficult to actually go for one
However, and all the previous times we've seen that there's been no attempt to go after
Antonio's charge of the ancient power because it's just too risky of a play, right?
I would be happy to see if he goes for it, but no. It's a game three. We're on TV. We don't want anything silly
No, not gonna risk everything there. Tarazard has to retreat. Who must pressure from the Tarazard and Garchomp on Giovanni's side?
This is going to be a mega evolution from Giovanni to immediately set the stun and get
the stat boost onto Charizard.
Takeout onto Guard Chomp will prevent it from going for an attack here, feeling a little
bit of damage back with these rough skin.
There is the Ancient Power.
This time connects onto Guard Chomp.
Antonio every time a third boost, three for three in games here.
This Charizard is pretty scary.
This Charizard wants to be a world champion, it's going to do whatever it has.
That's incredible. A great move too also.
It's going to be using that perhaps you could riskally leave the Charizard in there.
It would not have gone well if that had occurred there.
So, Garchomp going to take less damage, but either way that boosts a few closing Charizard.
Pretty scary.
The good news is that you do have Garchomp in the center on the field to help deal with this Charizard,
which is probably the combination of two Pokemon that would be ideal,
but very quickly a threat you're going to need to deal with as now this Charizard has somehow managed to get boosted
to get boosted three games in a row.
Absolutely, and it's so scary
because in addition to the speed and special attack,
it also has a defense boost,
means it definitely survives this choice scarf,
Garchomp's rock slides.
Here it comes, you can see,
oh, but it actually breaks through the boost there.
Super effective damage on the Charizard
and it's a great hit.
Antonio's Garchomp wants to be a world champion,
just as badly as Giovanni's Charizard.
And now Garchomp is able to fire back a life warp
boosted earthquake with the Intimidate down.
Both Incineroar and Garchomp are able to survive that handily
while Incineroar is able now to heal up with the Citrus Fairy,
become healthy once again, and finally start pivoting,
getting a parting shot down onto that Garchomp,
now at minus two.
Now, that's a huge parting shot and a huge shot out as well.
Now, we often talk about how important probability management
is in Pokemon video game championships.
You can't always have a 100% chance
to keep the path you're taking.
Lift the manager out.
This is a game where this doesn't really
what's happened, right?
We've got much of a very low percentage option
causing huge swings in the game.
Of course, the ancient power boost, three games in a row.
But then completely negated by that critical hit.
Critically, critical hits do ignore boosts
to defensive fat.
So that charge I was acting as if it was a neutral defense.
And then because of that, the critical hit
enough to knock it out.
We've actually taken that rock slide pretty well.
We've probably done about half without the critical hit.
But the choice guy's also critical there,
where Dr. Biddyard earlier in the game
wouldn't have been quicker than the Charizard to be getting with the set that speed boost,
but you get back with Book Pook when having one level of increased speed,
the naturally faster Garchomp,
able to move first, get that big knockout,
and keep Antonio into skiing after it was starting to otherwise look kind of bleak.
Yeah, it was looking extremely bleak,
but the critical hit has allowed Antonio to get right back in here
and with the Toxapex on the field after getting two attack drops down onto that Garchomp,
feeling pretty good about itself right now.
King Gambit is coming out, so back to Game 1's plan for Giovanni.
Probably means that that Whimsical has been left back at home,
so Toxtapex should feel comfortable to do whatever it wants to here.
Yeah, Toxtapex may be going to easy focus once again, though.
King Gambit is going to get in safely this time.
Not infested, doesn't have to worry about being caustic as a Steel-type Pokemon,
so you're perhaps going to get certain looking for some damage onto the Starch out from his friends
if you're in a good spot.
I'm yet the weakest of the guards of the black in that rock slides are almost certainly going to lift the leaves battle here
So is it opportunity for Giovanni though?
You know later on he's going to need to look for some damage the guards of it is not yet in sucker punch range
Oh, guard chomp is able to fire off a rock slide getting some chip damage down onto both the basket legion
That has switched in for Giovanni is a guard chomp another crit onto the king game
But this time and a flinch like I said and Antonio guard chomp wants to be world champion
Yeah, it's got like the little annihilate angry thing at its forehead where it's like that's enough ancient power boosts
I'm taking care of this
There's the toxic that lands on to the Vasculation as well
So that is important tip damage on to Vasculation is an important missed turn from King Dammit
And now Vasculation is stacking that toxic damage. Yeah, that's big too
I think without the
Charging of Vasculation kind of like the next scariest threat on the team but already taking a bunch of damage and critically
Not enough of its friends have been knocked out yet.
Only one boost to that last respect.
And because of having to flee battle here,
Garchomp's going to come back out.
Another turn where Giovanni is just allowing this choice scarf.
Garchomp to fire off Rock Slide after Rock Slide.
Not very effective to both of these Pokemon here,
but King Dammit is finally able to fire back with a Kautau cleave.
Not enough to pick up the KO onto Garchomp on its own.
That will mean another turn of rough skin damage onto that Garchomp.
another turn of rock slide chip onto the King Gambit either way that is good news for Antonio
But Giovanni has now successfully been able to get that bar chop back in without the intimidate drops
But now has been invested still has a clock on it
It does have that timer though critically
Best religion avoiding the damage there, of course
It's like kind of a better focus on defense as it goes tough on the ancient traffic and effects
But maybe a great read there as well
I'm a go-champ's really done a shop here, right where I think the duck can charge out of loans like you did it buddy
great job, but it has really continued to whittle down that King Damage, of course the most difficult
Pokemon for Toxic Pecs to deal with, because it can't toxic it, so you would love even more
rust and damage, but effectively removing two turns of infestation that would otherwise be
required, and hey, you know, the Rock Slide Chip could batter a little bit too. We've seen how big
a difference that 1% can make when these damage over time effects are dealing set amounts of damage.
So it's also Chip and also the potential for King Damage to flinch every time a rockslide connects.
Yeah, it could be a sucker punch here now after the Couchhound Cleave to put it in range, but
It doesn't have to be right and maybe if you get cheeky like hey, I don't care that much about rock slide
I'm the go after taxa back to spend I got you up. You get a little more damage now
Yep, no sucker punch here. That just means both guard top and king gambit have to tank these rock slides
Will there be a flinch? There's one on guard top to on King gambit. No, but it is targeted into the baneful bunker
So this guard top it can't keep getting away with this. Yeah
I mean this is what happens when you ignore choice car start shots, right?
Yeah, sometimes it's gonna miss all the track slides and do nothing, but often it's just going to stop all of your Pokemon from moving forever
And that seems to be what's happening here
I'm curious what that guard shop was using you attacked where it gets like somewhat likely it was a double to the toxin effect
Where the cliff may actually have been better to avoid the poison unless you wanted the
Darshop to go down maybe which I think is fairly unlikely here
But starting to really run out of HP and G of army side of the field only two more turns of
of infestation tick on that guard chop,
it's talk to if I get able to stand and heal them.
Again, I expect they double up here now.
However, if you double up to try to pick up Toxaphex,
I think you're probably gonna pull short of anyway.
There's the threat of that rock slide once again.
Yep, there is always the threat of the rock slide.
You know, it has 30% chance to flinch,
if it connects, 90% chance to connect.
Wide guard coming out from Toxaphex,
so trying to prevent an earthquake coming out
from Giovanni's side, another rock slide,
another connect onto both Garchomp and King Gambit.
Does Giovanni get to move this time?
Well, he does, but the wide guard calling it out.
Rock slide whips into the wide guard.
And now King Gambit finally launches an attack
which into the Talk to Pecs with no defiant boost.
Talk to Pecs shrugs off that Caltow cleave.
That's just not enough, right?
Now Talk to Pecs is going to be able to protect out
this next turn, probably maybe even more HP back.
And he's a force that lost it already.
That's a forfeit as Antonio Sanchez has punched his ticket into the top cut of our world championships with some incredible talks of next play.
I think that was just amazing.
I can't imagine anybody looking to be the top cut is going to want to have to deal with Antonio.
His elimination bracket.
Really brilliant solutions, really to all those games, including the one that you lost.
But especially game one and game three there.
The tactics just looks so powerful, but his positioning was so good throughout the entirety of the game.
and it navigates some really unfamiliar game states,
I'm sure, with Charizard getting those ancient power boosts
in all the games.
Look at this roller coaster right here.
We're so back.
We're so back.
We're so back.
And then immediately afterwards, it's so over.
It's so over.
The rocks like crit hurt my heart.
Charizard's two and probably many of its bones as well.
But I think that's just how you have to play in this format,
right, where we kind of notice the same thing in regulation
at the North America International Championships,
but there is a lot of variance in this format, right?
Weird stuff is going to happen,
and if you're going to win this tournament,
you're just gonna have to be able to navigate
the sea of strangeness that you're in.
You know, be a lot of unfamiliar board states,
and I think you did a great job
of kind of not letting things get carried away, right?
I think it's very easy to tilt when not only
one of the most impactful 10% chances in the game occurs,
when it happens, three games in a row.
But none of the times that it happened
didn't really seem like it was like that big of a deal.
I don't think even the game that he lost,
like really the reason, so I think just a great job of controlling it right.
Certainly could have seen that third game go a very different way without that critical hit,
but also would have gone a very different way without the H of powers to begin with, right?
So, you know, the game gives and it takes some time.
I think that was a very exciting set.
And I think both players played really well, right?
I think that must have been a very difficult and stressful game where both players probably like,
okay, in turn one, I give a vision for this game, you know, turn two is going to go this way,
turn three is going to go this way, and it just got immediately thrown awry all three games.
So I think props to both of them for kind of staying locked in playing good sets and playing out all the games away where they could have won anything.
Absolutely. When you have a meta game like this that has so much variance in it, you know, adding ancient power to Charizard adds variance to the game.
It adds that chance to get those temperate that boost for the ancient power to all of your stats. Having choice carve Garchomp locked into Rock slide.
It adds all that variance. You have to be able to improvise. You have to be able to adapt.
I think you're so right, a lot of players see that ancient power boost on Charizard and think okay well this is, it's over.
I have now the strongest Pokemon in the game. I basically have a mini Xerneas on the field, but it's Charizard Y now.
How do I adapt to it? And Antonio stayed
really calm and collected and was able to find an outreach one of that time to happen.
Yeah, I think another thing I'm kind of left with thinking about what that said too.
It is really interesting that the one game that Giovanni was able to win is the one that Whizzicat came, right?
Yeah, I'm I think the end of the game three adjustment to go back to the game one game plan is really interesting
I don't think the game plan is really what caused the outcome right is kind of a twisty interning match
Yeah, you know when they got looking very good in that matchup
I think it'll be interesting we see ones a cut versus tax effects again later in this tournament to see
Yeah, whether whimsicke comes at all and then coming back full it is because on course just so devastating that matchup
Absolutely. Well, that was such a fun match for us to watch and I can tell I can see across the way that my friends Gabby
and Ben are excited to talk about that matchup as well. So let me go ahead and toss it right over to y'all.
Right, yeah, I think we, I think we got it, Evan. I think we got it first time nailed it.
Gabby and Ben here, yeah, talking about that match. And that was, I mean, that was the story of
Toxpex, wasn't it? I mean, that was such a well played set by Antonio. And I certainly think
watching Antonio play in our European circuit. I'm not surprised to see him have not just a little
bit of a different way to play Toxapex, but just such a controlled and such a composed way to play
it as well. Yeah, it felt like he wasn't trying to force Toxapex. You know, a lot of times,
at least when I'm trying to pilot those kind of teams, I feel like you want to flowchart it
very aggressively. You want to get your Toxets in, you want to get your infestations in,
and you want to get those in early so you have the turn so that they start to add up and you get that set up early on.
But he felt like he was very okay with just letting it happen naturally and he was okay with getting on-court into that infestation.
He didn't really let it rattle him and I think that really paid off especially going into that game three when it felt like even though the game two game plan didn't quite work out,
he still had it in control. He still knew his weak conditions.
Definitely. I think it's like that's the the real key there. I really like the callout game is like not trying to force it like right from
Right from the bat. I mean we saw it in some of the early games
It did of course like talk to pegs does stick around on the field quite a long time
Yeah, but it was in a good spot for most of those times and I've got a
Sneaking suspicion that you know if it was ever really under that much threat that Antonio would have repositioned it
I use his Pokemon really, really effectively.
So, rather than diving into a specific turn in that match,
because spoilers, there was quite a few of them
across the match, we're just going to kick it over
to just a little bit of a look at the matchup
and a little bit of a reminder of some of the open lists
as we go of these trainers.
And so, yeah, looking at this matchup here,
we talked about it already.
Toxopex being the real star of the show.
And I thought we'd take some time to like break down
why Toxapex works in a little bit more detail.
Yeah.
I like that.
I mean, you know, at face value,
I think the concept is pretty simple.
You know, damage over time.
It's this idea that you can get toxic, Toxapex, toxic,
set up onto the opposing Pokemon.
The damage that it deals onto the opposing Pokemon
will increase every single turn it remains on the field.
It will reset whenever that Pokemon is switched off
of the field and set back onto the field.
than you pair it with infestation, which as long as the Toxapex remains on the field and infestation
is active, that Pokemon can't switch out. So it's very synergistic. So completely, just making sure
those Toxics rack up their turn after turn. Sometimes you go for the baneful bunker, and if a Pokemon
uses a contact move on you, then you become poisoned and you can be locked in. I think one of the
cool things about Toxapex, and it's like Mega Gengar, but like mini Mega Gengar, like Mega Gengar
at home, right? Because if your Toxopex is sitting in a matchup against King Gambit that
hasn't had a defiant boost, maybe sitting there in front of a flowette, specifically
in these sort of matchups, even in this case, a guard chomp that's only got earthquake and
therefore can be blocked from doing any damage because of wide guard, you can sort of trap
in those Pokemon, but also traps the Toxopex in as well. And like, sometimes a player will
switch in a Pokemon you get the infestation on there and it's like well are you locked in here with
me or am I locked in here with you right but and it's a it's a great way for a control player like
Antonio to be able to shut off the options that their opponent has to be able to switch because
you look at this whole team loves to be able to switch around it loves to be able to reposition
it wants to be able to get the Windsor caught in and out it wants to be able to get the Basque
skilletion in at the right time wants to be able to reset that Sun with the Charizard.
You know, there's so many things that this team likes to do to switch around and then
Toxapex comes up and is like, nah, we're not letting it happen.
Yeah, and to carry the comparison all the way through, you know, unlike Mega Gengar,
this isn't your Mega Pokemon, it's a lot more bulkier and it can carry that leftovers recovery
item with it.
So, overall, it's there to stay on the field, it's there to enable its partner to deal
that big damage, and it allows you to play a slower, more control-oriented game, whereas
with Mega Gengar and those Parasong teams, you're really looking for those key three
turns.
And I think that gives players like Antonio the ability to run these teams that look more
like the big six, which the number is a little bit bigger than six, if you will.
I feel like it's getting a little more wishy-washy, if you will, as we get through the tournament,
that wished with Toxapex and play it in a different, a very different way but still sort of accomplish that same goal of you have this Pokemon to deal the big damage and Toxapex is there just to enable it.
Definitely and so there's something else that Toxapex can enable and it's just going to go over to Antonio's open team list here. I want to call out the item choice here on the
and the Garchomp is going for a choice scarf and being able to lock a Pokemon in with infestation
and then to be able to then pick your moves on the choice scarf Pokemon, in this case Garchomp,
like you can lock a Garchomp in.
One of the famous things like Garchomp versus Garchomp, Dragonclaw is not strong enough to
knock out an opposing Garchomp, it always lives with just that few percent remaining.
the combination of being able to train your guard chomp to be adamant as a start alignment instead of jolly doing that
Little bit more damage plus the 12% at least from infestation going into it
Suddenly guard chomp on the opposite side of the field is in KO range and your choice scarf guard chomp
You don't have to risk the speed tie between these two Pokemon
You can just go straight on the offensive knock it out and then like looking at the rest of if we go over to
and we go over to Giovanni's team,
it's only the Garchomp that has that earthquake there
to be able to do super effective damage.
Nothing else on the rest of the team
is doing super effective damage into Toxpex.
And that's one of, if not one of the multiple reasons
that it does so well.
Yeah, and I think we saw that interaction
a couple of times in that last set.
And I'm sure it came up multiple times throughout
the tournament as Garchomp has been one of the most
popular Pokemon here on the field.
Definitely.
And then, you know, in this, going back to this matchup set, we saw it in game two, certainly
the Whimsicott putting some on-clip pressure to like stop the Toxinpex doing what it did.
But also, big shout-outs to Giovanni, I said it during the previous round, I've never seen
the ancient power activation in our stream matches, even on the online ladder.
And then Giovanni's like, just hold my drink.
He's just going, getting it every single time.
And this Charizard, Charizard getting
the ancient power boost, isn't it?
Scott was calling it out on the broadcasts, right?
It's so, so powerful.
It creates so much of a positive threat.
But again, going back to this Toxapex,
we're going to keep rooting everything back to Toxapex,
right?
Because you've got the wide guard,
but also like with the fact that this Charizard here,
like it's going for,
it's going for heatwave and ancient power
and weather ball, right?
And so you don't have the solar beam to do like neutral damage.
You only have that fire type damage into the Toxapex.
And so even if you get the Omni-Boost
is not doing as much as you want it to
because everything's focused down into that Toxapex,
just trying to keep the game alive.
And Antonio was so smart that he didn't even
mega evolve his own Charizard so that he didn't reset the Sun
so Weatherball didn't even get that fire typing back
in some of those end game scenarios.
Like the way that he was positioning this Tox effects
went even beyond the Tox effects itself.
It was so well played.
Very, very much so.
I mean, the game that Giovanni was able to come out victorious,
the on-call was able to come in really clutch
in that situation.
but it still took the combination of Basque and King Gambit,
two of the strongest physical attackers in the game,
going for last respects,
which is one of the most powerful moves in the game.
That wasn't enough to finish it off.
And then the King Gambit comes in with the Caltow Cleave
to close the game,
but it's so hard to get into that position
because you're not able to switch through the match,
you're not able to get yourself into a good spot.
So I'm really impressed with how both of these players
really approach to match up and how you're both like Antonio was going for the same strategy
like pretty consistently overall. Yeah. But Giovanni was mixing things up and trying to
find those little like little holes to prod into to find a way around this talk to face.
He did it really, really well. He did. Yeah. And I think that just goes to show the caliber
of the players we have competing at this point. That was a winning in matchup for our asymmetrical
top cut and it's only going to get more difficult from here as we have what one more round of
swiss to go so this is going to be the last opportunity these trainers have to prove themselves
in the 2026 season as if they don't win this round game over game over well it could be game over
for some of these trains probably not for some others we'll have to see who's going to be making
it into our asymmetrical top cut but we're going to go to a quick break right now and
and we'll be back with our next round of Swiss
here at the Pokemon World Championships.
MUSIC
People come to Pokemon from all walks of life,
so I'm going to have a wander around here
at the Pokemon World Championships in San Francisco,
and I'm going to get some people's stories.
Both my boys are into Pokemon,
and it became a family event,
some time for us to share and buy together,
And so, you know, I picked it up over time and started getting a little bit better at it.
And sometimes I have to lean on them for support to help me catch some of them.
But, you know, I'm still learning and enjoying it.
I originally grew up on Pokemon, you know, so born in 89.
So big, big Charizard, the original 151.
What brought me here was about six years ago, back in the planning,
collecting, eventually, Pokemon store and then started to sponsor players
and play with them. And then now I have players that play in worlds every year.
Well, it started from when I was really little back when Pokemon cards first started coming out.
I played with my brother and grew up loving the video games as well. So on the original Game Boy
too. But as far as getting here to here and everything, I first saw worlds on stream about
two years ago. So back when it was in Hawaii, it looked amazing and I made it a mission every year
to go to every world after that. So it's been a dream. So now I'm playing the TCG competitively.
I'm going to make it as a qualifier next year, but it's been a dream just to be here as a spectator.
Well, my grandson plays. He's been playing for years, was ranked pretty high in the U.S.
But he's been worlds were like this is fifth or sixth worlds.
This is our third one that we played at his grandparents coming to support him.
So we're just supporting him.
And when he's playing and you got a bit of time to yourself, what do you find yourself doing?
Walking around trying to stay busy.
Because watching the game does me no good.
Now that we've heard everybody else's stories, it's time for you to ask yourself,
How are you going to get to Worlds next year?
They say every Pokemon is somebody's favorite.
We're testing that out of the World Championships here
in San Francisco.
I'm going to find some players, and I'm
going to ask them who their favorite is.
Favorite Pokemon is Mewtwo.
I think I just like the way he moved, his style is kind of
sleek, and I enjoy playing with him.
And actually, when I catch one, I'm happy and excited.
I think everyone is happy when they catch immunity.
That is a powerful Pokemon.
My favorite Pokemon is Milotic.
I just think it looks really nice.
And I'm a little bit sad because when it's printed in cards,
it's usually some kind of like walling defensive Pokemon.
And that's not my play style,
but I hope the one day I can play with Milotic.
So right now my favorite is actually Greninja.
I've just loved it in the anime,
loved it since I was maybe like 10 years old.
It's just a cool Ninja Pokemon.
That's it, basically.
Have you ever got to play a Greninja deck in the TCG?
Um, the Mega Greninja deck, yeah.
But I chose to play Festively this weekend.
Uh, Drutini, Dragonair, and Dragonite grew up on the original 151,
and, uh, I liked the fact that they swam and then eventually could fly.
I'm gonna ice cream, too.
How long did it take you to get your Dragonite fully evolved
when you first played the game?
Uh, before the Elite Four, for sure.
So, we'll talk to the world level 60.
My favorite Pokemon is Juratina.
I really like the two forms that he has.
And I like it because I played Lostbox,
and it was a very fun deck.
And the Juratina was really good on that time.
My favorite Pokemon is Mega Manectric
because he has a big hair,
and he has a matte face when he gets Mega.
I love it. The best answer of
her all day. My favorite
Pokemon. He's got to be
Rayquaza. I just think the delta
episode is really cool, and I
like it's dynamic with the
office. My favorite Pokemon is
Metagross, and I'm wearing it
here today. My first in the
world. Why Metagross? It's just
really cool, isn't it? It's
like powerful. It's smart. It's
got a mega. The shinies really
cool. I'm actually using it in
champions, which is amazing
So yeah, it's always been my favorite.
My favorite Pokemon is Spheal, because I think it's really cute.
And yeah, I have a whole collection at home.
She's all of the cards.
How big of a collection are we talking?
She's like all. I have one of these,
and then I'm trying to get people to sign them.
But yeah, still working on that collection.
My favorite Pokemon is Orengeru,
and it comes back from a control deck with Pidgeotto
that was premiered at one of the World Championships,
and I continued to play that after and after.
And that was until Sorton Shields,
where the new turn 1 rules came out and then that deck sort of went off.
My favorite Pokemon is Kairili.
It's because I play Unlimited 20 years ago. It's very good. I choose this.
I started to say Samurai instead of Oshawa because I realized not enough people appreciate Samurai
because he's on all fours. I guess that's the whole reason people are like,
like, oh, he's the worst of the line.
I don't know.
You haven't played the same route.
You haven't played, you haven't gotten into level 100
at least 30 different times.
I think you might be the biggest time
we're playing I've ever met.
And I say that with nothing but love.
It's actually Zorua.
It is Zorua.
So I am cosplayed as Evie because Evie Merch
is really easy to get a hold of.
Zorua, because I really like black and white,
it was the era that I grew up playing.
But I really did like the gimmick of like transforming into a different Pokemon and switching out and being able to basically trick your opponent.
My favorite Pokemon is Ditto because he is the bigger reminder that you really can be and do anything that you put your mind to.
So there we go. We've met some players. We found their favorite Pokemon. And now it's time for you to think, who's your favorite?
world championships in San
Francisco, California. We are
one round away from being at
our top cut, which is where the
best of the best around the
world will battle it out in that
single elimination bracket. So
let's find out who those camp
players are going to be. Hi, Aaron.
How you doing today? I'm doing
well. Hey guys, Aaron. Cybertron
Zang. We're here with another
episode of World to top cut.
He could be a banger because
in North America, actually two Bay Area locals as well with the World Championships being in
San Francisco. Can imagine just how much it would mean to them to be able to top put worlds here.
Imagine though that you have battled all the way through the bracket in the Swiss rounds,
just to face off against one of your locals. It happens sometimes that's the nature of these
competitions and just the caliber of the player that we have here. So let's take a look at our
standings one final time so that you can see who is in the running to be a part of that top cut.
If you were at nine and one, you've already locked your spot there.
You can take a loss and you're going to be there no matter what.
So congratulations to Zachary Weed, Antonio Sanchez,
Kerry D'Ortona, and Shohei Kimura for all making it there.
But if you're at eight two, this is the final hurdle.
You've got to win this one and you are in to the World Championships top cut.
Yeah, and it's an unbelievably stacked list of players.
Even just looking of course at our nine and ones,
you've got Shohei Kimura, the only remaining World Champion.
previous world champion looking to potentially get a second title.
He's like absolutely dominant in this tournament, right?
I feel like there's no one in the world that can pilot the kind of standard
compositions better than him.
And I think all eyes are definitely on him, but you know,
Kerry Zachary has definitely been two of the really strong players from North
America. Zach said an amazing season, right?
He got second at Regionals, second at EUIC, now top in the world championships to
have that kind of dominance throughout an entire year is really difficult.
and for Antonio and Kerry, these are players that have won regional championships before,
and now here are at the world's stage. And yeah, already punching their ticket,
must be relieving, you know, to have secured a top cut slot before the last round.
And it's just such a major accomplishment too, that you get to say that you've top cut the world
championships, but the job's not done yet. So let's turn our attention to the competitors that
that are going to be facing off against each other
in this round to win and in.
Emilio Forbes versus Raghav Malawiya
is going to be the match that we focus on our stream here,
but we are going to be broadcasting some of the other matches
on this list, on the feature streams,
so make sure that you go check those out as well.
There are some heavy hitting matches in these winning ends.
Yeah, I mean, every single one of them,
I wish we could watch.
We had the pleasure of watching both Chloe
and Philly yesterday, win on streams with some unique picks,
whether it be Cleaver, Mega Metagross on Chloe's team,
or the Mega Blaziken and Free Marina on Philly's team.
So both of them have a chance
to take their unique picks into Worlds Top Cut.
You also have Hiroshi,
who of course won the Japanese National Championships,
came into this tournament with a lot of pressure.
All eyes are always on the Japanese National Champion.
He is one game away from potentially making it
to his first Worlds Top Cut as well.
A lot of other incredible players there as well.
And you know, a lot of North American representation, actually, with Justin Payne for his world's
top cut.
Navjit Joshi, who got top eight at the World Championships in 2024, looking to get his
second top cut.
Just so much representation and I can't wait to see how the results shake up.
But it's going to be a really, really grueling match for all of these players.
Let's get started and take that one step closer to seeing our final competitors that will
make it into the top cut bracket.
and it's going to be this dual
weather team from this team
building group, the mega
Swampert and the mega Charizard
Rock of going to be the strongest
soldier left amongst this group.
Yeah, I think rung off seem as a
team. A lot of players expected
to see at this tournament, but
Emilio's team is honestly quite
different, right? We have. Of
course, the Serena that is a
Pokemon that is not a beard on
the World Championship stream yet
this year. Really valuable pick.
a really valuable pick, of course, to block fake out from the opposing side and potentially
Grimstiles parting shot. In addition, you've got the dual mega pairing of Aerodactyl and
Raichu. And I think Amelia has quietly been one of the coolest team builders in North
America. Of course, he got second at the World Championships many, many years ago using a
semi-perish mode with mega Gengar. And I was expecting him to actually just bring Wim
Scott Flow at Charizard to this tournament. And so when I saw that this was the team he
you locked in, I popped off.
Well, if you squint a little, then maybe like the Zarina
looks like a whimsacot and the Aerodactyls
just a different color charizard.
You know, the pieces are kind of all there.
But if you take a closer look on this team,
you can kind of see where you still
have a similar utility to a lot of those Pokemon.
You've got Tailwind on this Aerodactyl,
despite the fact that it can mega evolve,
you're going to actually take away one of those tech
offensive slots like Ice Fang in favor of having
that speed control option. Yeah, and Raichu and Aerodactyl as a dual mega pairing is cool
because you can bring bold into a battle and just choose not to mega evolve a lot, right?
Regular Raichu we've seen a lot of high level players at this tournament bring solely for
fake out a turn of lightning rod potentially, which is really relevant in this matchup given
that there's more Caledon on the opposing side. Of course, you also have focused Blast
and Serena here is used as an offensive kick over Phyragraph, which is normally used on
compositions like this to block that fake out. And of course, Serena has a lot of damage
I mean, we're staring down a mega Swampert on the opposing side.
Well, Serena says, look, I can just power with you
and get a one hit knockout on.
I think that's why Serena has been that sneaky pocket pick.
That grass type offense is something
that cannot be ignored in a meta like this.
You see a lot of Pokemon teams, including Venusaur,
as one of those picks with Leafstorm,
just so you actually do have some additional damage
or gigatrain, I guess is another one of those prominent options.
You can see this one on Raghav's side
is going to be the leaf storm.
And it's just been so popular this weekend.
It has, yeah.
And Raghav's team, seen multiple times on the stream.
Of course, what makes it so powerful is the flexibility
to use sun as well as rain.
One of the adaptations on this team
from when it initially debuted is
Tars are now running Hurricane and Mega Swampert
taking over Vasculation, which was initially
on this composition.
And so you can do a lot of cool things, of course,
using Peloport to switch in, turn that weatherball
into a water type attack, also make hurricane accurate as well.
And you can flex between the dual mega picks.
Now, I think on paper,
Swampert actually looks insanely powerful here, right?
But you do have to beat the Serena.
If you're able to clear Serena,
then Swampert suddenly feels like
you can actually potentially get a one-hit knockout
onto any of Emilio's Pokemon.
But the Serena having focus ash means
that that's a big hurdle to clear.
I feel like though we could maybe anticipate
that Raghav could have that pekatar sword,
but not mega evolve it,
just try to go for a hurricane while the Pelopter is on the field and then have that
Swamper in the back to clean up once you have removed that threat.
Yeah, definitely. I think that's one of the interesting things that you could do with this
team is that both Charizard and Swamper can be brought into the same battle. It's one
of my favorite things about dual mega teams because I was just saying that Emilio could
do that with Aerodactyl on Raichu. My big question for Emilio is, yeah, how comfortable
do you feel with Aerodactyl because it's very good into Charizard, obviously good into
very bad into Swampert and our Caledon, but here we go win and end for these two legendary players and a Swampert is going to start off the battle immediately as there's no mega from Emilio's UTR.
Got the caliper to set the reign so that Swampert, once a mega evolves, can activate its Swift Swim, get that additional speed boost.
But the Sneasler and the Can Gambit on the other side both have ways to stop that with the priority options from the Can Gambit and the fake out from the Sneasler.
Yeah, exactly. I think Sneasler here likely wants to go for a fake-out-of-the-swamper.
Earthquake is just so granting right now for me.
I think Gambit may be looking to then get a sword stance off.
I think for Emilia, a lot about this game will likely be Dan.
I either just burst down the swamper, but she after I've gotten his sword stance off.
You know, I wouldn't expect actually a plus-two-life of Sucker Punch to get a nothing pale.
This is tricky. But maybe after a little bit of fake-out-of-the-swamper that you get there,
Serena's going to be really important, but you don't want to switch it in because then the focus starts just getting broken.
Supper is going to mega bomb on this first turn as it has to eat the fake out so that could leave a vulnerable to an additional attack coming through from this King Gambit as Pelopter is next to fire off a weather ball.
Going into the King Gambit, the rain is going to help boost up the power of that move so Frasier can give it to a foul pass.
But as three swords and three sucker punches are about to hurt.
Yeah, this third is interesting, right? The sneaker also can do a little bit of additional chip damage because it has faith.
So, if you theoretically can get the extra trick
that they need, those are fiends with sucker punch
into Swamper.
Swamper though, so easily, can just switch out,
or if you didn't protect and say,
okay, you can break my protective fiend,
but your sucker punch still won't be able to go through,
King Gambit actually crucially taking under 50%
from that weather ball.
You're gonna actually expect Pelopters' weather ball
to do a little bit more, so that's a big deal,
because it means even if you get the turn ball
against Swamper, Pelopter likely will not get
the knockout onto King Gambit.
So, Swords Dance, Lightroom, King Gambit,
one of the biggest threats in the format.
Nemealum actually opting for a protect here,
So this guard chop, or sorry, just the swapper
just going for an earthquake, it does,
and Sleezer's just going to fall.
Yeah, no focus to actually be able to keep it around
since that's going to be held on this arena.
A super effective attack, Sleezer goes down
without another fight in this first game.
It's gonna give an option for Emilio
to bring in another Pokemon,
but I like to protect here from the King Yemmin as well
because you have to wonder whether or not
that our Chaladon is in the back.
If you add faith into that, then you do have to give over
powerful stamina boost to better our childhood. Yeah, I think that's a really great point. And I think Emilio did us the opportunity to just go for the faint
sucker punch there, right? And pretend to try to knock out slumper. The thing is, on these teams, I honestly expect slumper to be incredibly bulky, so I'm not sure you can get the knockout with that combo, but it's that
sacrificing the speeds right now, you can see just how much of an offense and threat the mega slumper poses, right? Haches can hit everything that Emilio's brought for super effective damage right now. So right as she comes in, you do have the ability, of course, to go for a fake
out here, floppering now, not wanting to fall to a fakeout-sucked-out combination.
Brutastar was going to switch in, which then of course could set up reflection of all of the third.
The right two, though, is going to use this opportunity to beg and evolve.
I mean, you get that no guard ability, so that these attacks can be 100% accurate.
But Zap Cannon and Focus Blast are often here, but the sucker punch won't fail,
as that swap is good.
Brutastar decides not to fake out on this turn, but for the Zap Cannon
to guarantee a one hit knockout onto this Peloponk is just going to be a final turn of rain for Raghav to not reset that in this game one.
Yeah, so Raghav there gets around the sucker punch, but maybe we'll be able to see a double up onto that slot because he's not going to extra attack off with Peloponk.
Swamper is still posing a really big threat though. Grimstar now has the ability to go for something like that Reflect.
With Reflect, that swamper should be able to survive the sucker punch from K'yamit.
However, you can double up off the Swamper with Focus Blast and a Sacrifice.
So, if you're wrong on that you might want to protect Swamper instead of Light Green for his Benreflect afterwards.
So, Fiel is going to be the last one that actually goes to read it in this game.
Okay, so that's going to reveal all the cards in Emilio's hand in terms of the four Pokemon that he has brought to this game.
As King Yama goes through the Sacrifice, F plus two with that sword stand.
It is not going to be enough to get the knock-out of the Swamper on this turn.
Swapper free to go for the earthquake finish the damage off of the King Gambit and feel the on takes a good try to yeah
Like this swapper is just happy to click earthquake after earthquake and we don't air it out the or stream of being brought into the battle
Really really difficult to have good resistances
But like you said Rosemary the rain is about to expire and because Peloper had painted earlier
No ability to reset it anymore
So that will get the speed advantage over to ride you after this turn from sorrow now pretty easily set up
a light screen if you want and right you of course this is the ability to go
for fake ups you can take up slump or hyper voice if you think that he's
whamper is going to go for the obvious protect we can then double up onto the
grim snarl and actually deny a light screen and so really curious what
rongoffs last Pokemon is because I think that Venusaur actually a little bit
more useful over our chaladon either way though this turn the key decision is
who do you think out with right now? Our chaladon would have to eat a focused
blast I don't think that that's something that it will be able to do very well.
Salford though is going to protect itself in danger of something like a fake out in the
back.
But, Aelio does call it.
The fake out into the Grimstarl is going to deny a turn of setup from that Pokemon and
we have a vulnerable to this follow up of the hyper voice coming out from the Sylveon
that is a knockout.
A great call there and Rogoff now down to just two Pokemon left as well.
And you can see Rogoff knew if I just clicked Earthquake there that's probably a double
knockout and that's me going up 1-0 in this set but that's a really difficult call to
go for.
is gonna be our child on in the back as well.
So, like I said, this might not be the perfect Pokemon
for you to have in the back.
That Swampert now committed protect.
No more rain means that Ryche can just launch
a focused blast into it.
My question is, will Ryche do 30% to Swampert?
If you're not confident on that,
you can quick attack with the Sylveon to ensure that.
And the, actually Sylveon here does not have quick attack
and so you'd have to go for a hyper voice instead.
But either way, I think the Swampert is the big offensive
threat, goes for the double protect, but does not get it.
So that is going to mean that Sylveon actually can go for the Protect here.
We're not going to see a blacked attack on this turn.
But Ry2 tends to go for the Focus Flaps, the KO of the Swampert,
and it is enough to get that 30% over the line.
Our Chowdong still has a chance to move in this final turn,
but the Flash Cannon foils at the Protect of the Sylveon.
Should be a locked game for Emilio in this game one.
Yeah, it was interesting because it felt like Swampert was just doing so much damage,
But Rogog's teammates weren't able to accomplish very much, right?
And so Focus Blast comes out.
That alone is just going to absolutely crush our challenge on doing 85%.
A nice protect by Emilia as well.
It felt like this game was decided by the fake out call, that specific turn.
Absolutely.
It's faster than Sylveon, so it gets the dragon pulse off.
You can see Raiju's so bulky actually, that he's taking 50% from that.
And a yawn from Sylveon here just to ensure our challenge is going to fall asleep.
Yeah, this is just the safest way for you to be able to get Moon Escape.
I think you don't want to open yourself up to a critical hit from the archaladon
So this could be a very easy double protect from the ride to the still be on let the archaladon fall asleep
And then you'll be able to finish it off from there. Exactly
So this game was really close right like that one turn if rock off makes the hard call out and clicks earthquake
I think you know that's the game for rock off
I think there's also a couple of turns maybe you know when the heliport just got one shot by the zap cam and that potential
a bit of pivot, but Focus Blast is going to come out here, knock out the arch out on, and Emilio
Forbes is going to go up 1-0 for both of them, and also future secure effective damage from
Earthquake, it still manages to pull off the game. That is just so impressive, because you're right,
there was just so much pressure that that Swampert was exerting turn after turn after turn, and the
fact that Emilio could sit there and really think critically about, can I get through this turn
while throwing out attacks.
Do I really need to go for a protect?
And he always paid the protects at the right moment,
especially with that Silvion at the end.
And I think what I really liked about how Emilio
kind of maneuvered that game is he sacrificed
Sneasler just kind of to get that initial fake out off.
But that was enough for the king gamble to get boosted
to scare away the Swamper.
So much about this matchup is,
can you have your Pokemon out at the right time?
Right, if Swamper is not on the field,
Raiju is actually incredible.
Like in one shot, the Pelopyrus, Mison,
there's so much damage to our child on.
the fake out pressure from it is also great, but Raichu is really, really bad into swamper.
So if you're robbed of you, ideally walk your swamper out on the field while Raichu is out,
but the bait out to force swamper out allows Raichu to come in and just really dominate for a couple of turns.
I do wonder if there was an opportunity to still bring something like the megacharger to this game.
Hindsight's always 2020, so after we get a chance to watch the game unfold, it's easy for us to look back and notice those small things that could have made a difference.
But it's tough because what if Emilio now decides,
okay, well, you think you're gonna bring Charizard?
It can just bring Aerodactyl.
Yeah, yeah, there's this awkward tension.
I think the main thing is Charizard feels
very awkward to bring because it's like,
who do you drop for it?
I think Raghav probably felt like,
well, my Pokemon choice is okay in that last one.
Let's see if there are any mix-up.
It is just gonna be Power First Waffer once again.
So I think, yes, while we're switching out previously,
you know, it was a big deal.
This time it's a complete mix-up though,
Aerodactyl and Serena.
So I really like this though, because Aerodactyl does have that offensive pressure on you something like the Pelipur, you can just drop a rock slide, or even try to force the Pelipur to go for wide guard, so it's not going to go for an attack on this turn, which really does keep this Zarina safe to go for a power whip into the Swamper.
Exactly, yeah, and I think what's so tricky here is if you're wrong, you can use your Swamper, well then the Ryche just takes over, right?
So one of the questions I also have is did Emilia potentially drop Ryche you because he's committing to Aerodactyl and was expecting a Charizard mix up?
I guess it's going to be regular Airdactyl still here with Mega Ritro in the back, but we'll have to see.
It's going to be a swap out of the Palo Piper, preserve the rain for later.
And it's a double swap.
Is it our Chow Don?
It is our Chow Don.
It's a great thing to switch into these physical attacks.
Absolutely. Airdactyl though doesn't play into those hands,
sets the tailwind just to make sure that you can actually get the speed control
and the power whip goes into the Dremstraw, but misses its target.
I was laughing there because I was expecting to go to our child on us, you got the fable.
Yeah exactly, but actually Emilio calling out that the slumper was going to protect
her switch and for a child on.
Unfortunately she does miss onto the Grim snore also costs some free damage onto that
slot.
A great repositioning by Raghav, I think Emilio probably won the trade in terms of
leads here and as you saw IronAxler did not mega-vault so I'm still expecting that Ryche
to be in the basket here it is.
Hey, Ryche it's a little risky I feel like to bring it in but as I say that you have
to remember that Ryche's ability before a mega-evolves is lightning rod. So while the
raid is active, our Chaladon does get a chance to have these one-turn electric shots, but
that's not going to be something that's going to be able to land into either of these Pokémon
as we see a double switch come through from Emilio. Rogoff, though, great call. Just go
score the dragon pulse into that slot.
Yeah, does not get baited into clicking electric shot there or flash cannon even, so really
nice call. And this time around, it actually does over 50% to Ryche with the dragon pulse.
So it looks like it is a roll.
Ryche now, of course, is out on the field.
It has the ability to go for a fake out,
and then the King Gambit can get a sword stance off.
But a Rogoff now, you know,
already able to get that reflect up,
it's probably gonna be pretty difficult
to deny the light screen,
because even if you fake out Grimmsnarl,
King Gambit can't follow up with a knockout.
But Rogoff recognizing, hey,
fake out pressure is online right now.
This is what I'm saying.
I want Swampert out on the field.
When Ryche is out on the field,
why not just switch out right now?
And it's certainly a protective of Ryche,
so that it doesn't fall to a double up drum.
They start chowled on the following turn.
The King Gambit is going to risk it all.
Goats for the Swords Dance to make sure
it's going to get that shot.
Attack boost, an electric shot now comes out.
I wonder if that electric shot was a prediction on where
I choose to potentially switch out.
Or saying, I don't mind giving you a special attack boost
because I know I'm going to have the Swapper out on the field
the next turn anyway.
And so, our chowled on every special attack boost that it
gets is quite scary, right?
And the King Gambit, you're taking advantage of the fact
that I can just get a relatively free Swords Dance off.
Reflect is up on the opposing side though, right?
So the sucker punch is not as threatening.
I don't think focus last plus sucker punch,
you can get the knockout on to the Swamper right now.
If it does, that would be really threatening,
but I think Swamper is quite happy about the position
that is in because of its full HP, it's got reflect up,
and it of course is in the rain up against Ryche.
Yeah, so even if you wanted to go for that double up,
that Swamper is going to be faster than the Ryche here.
So you actually can't get that guaranteed damage off.
So now what can Emilio do?
of the competitors have shown all four Pokemon that they have brought to the second game.
There's an Aerodactyl and a Zarina in the back for Emilio that you could use as defensive
switches, but neither of them feel particularly good to switch into an attack from the Swampert
on the other side.
So we see the commitment of the mega evolution from this Raiju and Swampert for our competitors
respectively.
So let's see how the rest of this turn plays out.
Yeah, my guess is a double protect here just because there's still one more turn of tail
in here on Emilio's end.
But it's not it's actually just gonna be an attack on both so focus blast comes out. Wow
It's a lot to our child off. It doesn't get the knockout. No, it's gonna make it very very close
So but if there's a physical attack coming up from this King gambit
Then you will see that Sam and a boost activate, but the earthquake just attacks the partner as well
So rather does get the KO onto the ride to very close to the King gambit
Thanks to that critical hit, but you also knocked out your own partner our child on yeah
It's not the first time we've seen a ground-side Pokemon knock out its own partner on the street this weekend.
Another style!
King Gambit trying to call out the double protect there, so Raga makes an aggressive play.
Guess a lot of damage off. I mean the slumper obviously now is really threatened by this plus four sucker punch, but a critical hit there.
King Gambit showing his bolt, right? Even with the critical hit, still able to survive, but it was a really action-paced turn.
There's still a pelliper in the back, so we saw the tailwind expire. Emilio had the guaranteed speed advantage on that last turn,
but that is now gone and that pelliper is waiting to come back out hopefully once the rain expires.
So you can guarantee the speed control for the swamper for the rest of the game.
Yeah, and what is so delicate here is the plus four sucker punch from King Amid into Swamper with reflect up.
I still don't expect it to knock it out to be honest.
Serena obviously still pressures power width into Swamper.
Swampert can protect this turn as Grimmsnorrow just goes for an attack into either of these Pokemon.
Both are posing a pretty big threat, right? The King Yam is obviously incredibly boosted.
This Arena here also has that focus stash, and so, you know, want to get damage into it ideally,
but yeah, the main awkward thing for Grimmsnorrow here is it doesn't really have anything to do, basically.
Other things make it's offensive attack, which is going to be that spirit break.
Yeah, but is spirit break actually going to be enough?
I mean, we're not going to actually see the answer to that.
to that. I was wondering if that would be able to get the K.R. to the King Gambit, but it is just an
ice punch into the Zarina, ignoring the King Gambit entirely, but Zarina is still up, so the
Power Whip connects this time around into the Grim Snarl, but that reflect is going to keep it nice
and healthy to make that a three hit knockout. A double up there from the Grim Snarls, it fires
on the Scarecray. What was that for this Zarina to go into the next turn? Really nice call there,
They're doubling up onto the screen and expecting King Yamba to either not attack or say,
look, I know I'm going to survive the sucker punch anyway, so then we just try to knock
you out.
Amelia, I think, predicts to protect from the slumpert end, so it goes for Power Whip
onto Grimstone instead, recognizing that there's actually not that much great damage
into Grimstone, right?
In the previous game, still, we almost answered to it, but it wasn't brought into this game,
and so Reflect is still up.
Pelopon now can be brought back in to reset the weather, right?
So you could switch Grimstone out into Pelopon, just go for an Earthquake.
Again, the big question is, is this plus four, life four soccer punch able to knock out Swamper?
But I think the answer to it is no.
Might have to risk it all though. You are one game up, so Emilio has a little wiggle room to play around with.
His Pelopon comes back in to reset the refrain for its partner, Swamper.
Can you give a go for the soccer punch? Plus four isn't enough to knock it out.
Even with the life war to help boost up some of that damage, until 20% is all who Swamper needs.
in order to fire back and take another KO.
1% left here for this Darina,
and that is going to be for sure a knockout.
One Pokemon left here as Emilio has to bring back in the Aerodactyl.
Yeah, I think Raghav just did an amazing job positioning Swampert in this game.
Emilio recognized that I can't win with Aerodactyl.
And folks, we're going to a game three.
I think those Sylveon in that last one, plus Sniasler and Metland,
there was a little bit of lack of damage output,
especially because Aerodactyl just basically couldn't do anything
didn't do anything in terms of offense to that one. It was brought in essentially to set up a tailwind, and I
think Emilio likely pivoted to Aerodactyl potentially covering for Charizard Venusaur, right? Because I think that's a very common adaptation
with these teams, but this turn so crucial as you see the Swamper just going for earthquake, King Gambit there,
have the opportunity to maybe just go for a sucker punch. Two sucker punches likely, you know,
would have done a lot into that Swamper slot, but instead, yeah, tries to go for that extra sword stance,
and you can see how valuable that reflect is with Rimsnarl.
By having reflect up, the King Gambit, even at plus 4 attack,
not able to get that one hit knockout.
And then Raghav making some really aggressive calls in that scene.
I think you're gonna protect King Gambit,
it doubles up on Serena.
And I think if you're Emilio, you're probably thinking,
I don't know if I really want that Aerodactyl once again.
But then if you're Raghav, you could be thinking,
well, if I just now scared you away from bringing Aerodactyl,
maybe it opens up the door for something like Charizard Venusaur.
Right.
But realistically, I do think the core of Archgrim,
really consistent on Raghav then right even in Emilio's win against that core in the first game. I felt like Raghav's Pokemon weren't necessarily the issue was for just about like how the Swamper was positioned throughout the course of the battle.
And in game two that was something that Raghav fixed. So I think that was a really great indication that we're going to see a great game three.
I think the pressure is on especially for Emilio here.
Do you just go back to what you had shown in the first game, right?
And for Raghav, do you try to mix it up and say, I'm going to hard call you out
and bring that Charizard Venus one?
I wouldn't expect it, but yeah, it's just going to be Pella or Swamper once again.
Falexy, Emilio is the one that made the adjustment,
and it's going to be another one for this third game.
Brichu and Zarina as the lead.
I like this a lot because you pressure would fake out and power away immediately.
And being here is normally the response into this.
would be switching in our child on potentially in order to get that free
stamina boost. But if you switch in our child on, well, then focused last one
right. She was just incredibly brightening. So one play that Raghav might
want to consider going forward is like protect Swamper, switching Grimmsnarr on
turn one, then turn two Grimmsnarr can set up a screen as then you pivot out the
Swamper or even stay in with it. But I think for Raghav, so much of this
dynamic is conserving the Swamper. And I think Emilio's lead here is really good
because now you're so much off into pressure with both of these Pokemon.
And reminder that in game 2, Zarya actually missed the first power with that click.
That was damage that really could have started to add up on that Grimstar.
And you have to imagine if that had connected, does that Grimstar go down to the power in the reflect on the second one?
But it's not going to be any swaps to start this game.
Just the mega evolution immediately as this ride to takes on its new form.
And let's see if this whopper is going to follow as well.
Yup.
is and so of course the Pelloper here does not have the protect right and so
that Swamper you know to maybe both of us attack here so I'd like right you kind of oh my goodness
yeah right he doesn't go he go doesn't pick up either I think calling out that Swamper was going
to protect her switch and that right she just goes down I mean rock up might just get a double knock
out to start this game yeah I think that critical hit is not mattering against this right shoe that
is just going to be a one-bit knockout.
Earthquake, letting it rip, going to go for the one-kick,
was expecting something like the Archialid
on a come-in switch into that slot.
And there's the tailwind.
I think this game honestly might just be over
from that turn one.
Emilio was saying,
pick up plus power with the Swamper.
Surely you're not gonna let me do that, right?
You're gonna switch in Archialid on potential
either of these slots.
I used to make a really aggressive prediction,
but I honestly don't see a great pass for him
out of this.
Raghav says, you know what?
I am just gonna earthquake.
I am just gonna tailwind.
Even if you go for a double up onto the Swamp Rant, at least get my tail wind up, right?
But Rockup just says you kind of have to respect it and Emilio tries to call it out, doesn't get it.
And it's just going to be such an uphill battle for him.
Rockup can probably taste Top Cut, but he's still got to get over the finish line.
Yeah.
Emilio's still going to give it everything that he's got because you have this wide and final game.
See if you can turn it around and achieve that World Championship Top Cut.
But another earthquake, a lowly from the Swamper,
is going to bring this King Gambit down to less than half of its HP.
Pelopter was hoping to finish off this Arbina here,
but King Gambit still got the way with his sword stance.
On a something good turn, there's not going to be a reflect in play,
but we saw that even at plus two,
this Swamper took between like 30 to 50%.
Yeah, I think the play that you probably want to go for
is supper punch into the Pelopter, right?
Try to one-shot that, and then Swamper's ice punch,
should have knocked out Serena from that range.
than you get a double knockout with power with, but if you're Raghav, you can say,
look, I'm ahead in the game, I'm going to trade, or you can say, protect Swamper,
switch the Grinstaur win potentially, right? And I think the main thing is, yeah, Raghav
definitely has so much offensive pressure right now. Question is, is he willing to trade? It is
going to be the wide guard, so the wide guard gets around Sucker Punch, which then means that
Swamper can follow up with an earthquake. And again, it's Sucker Punch, game to the power first slot.
Going to fail on this one, as the Swamper goes for its earthquake, should be a knockout onto the
If it's not under this arena, maybe Zarina could actually try to get some revenge for its teammates.
Can Gambit, sorry, that sword see it's just not enough for this third and final game.
This power was does connect into this Womper.
So a great one hit knockout.
It's going to help us start to even up the Pokemon count, but there's still a lot of work cut out for Amelia.
Two Pokemon remaining. Let's see what's in the back here as Rod still has three to go.
Three to go. Yeah, and with that tailwind pressure as well
Expecting Grimstone our child on like that previous one and it is gonna be our child on hitting the field here immediately
Now with no right you okay, it's gonna be Sneasler
So you do have two things you know that offer a lot of offensive pressure
However, the thing is that the Sneasler here has faint and so it normally often likes to carry protect
But this set does not have protect right now you have fake out open
But still one more part of tailwind over on Rockoffs end as well
These are actually I would say is probably the best Pokemon a half year just because of the speed advantage
But if you don't fake out the pelliper a pelliper just gets a hurricane off and take either of these both one right?
So it feels like you kind of need to fake out the pelliper
Serena the question is can it survive a dragon pulls potentially at 47%
I actually think it is quite close our child on a lecture shock should not gonna want me to knock out
I'm gonna either of these but
Still really really tricky here because the question is how do you ever deal enough damage to a citrus berry pelliper at this point?
hurricane just knocked out both of these. They protect makes sense here. Try to
stall out the tailwind. Maybe it's gonna be a close combat into our
chaladon. Nope, it's gonna just be that fake out. Make sure you can't hurricane,
make sense. Dragon pulls in to protect. So, tailwind now at least is stalled out.
Yeah, that's going ahead. Help on this subsequent turn for this Smeasler to
guarantee some damage onto either of your chaladon or the pelliper if there is no
protect. But I don't know if Sarina's power whip can actually deal enough to
I feel like you'd probably go for a diorqual power whip, I don't even think that's gonna get the knockout, but if you get a diorqual status condition or a critical hit with either, that's good enough, or maybe the pelliper actually just falls into that combination.
So, it still feels so, so, so difficult for Emilia, I think that turn one just set him behind so much, but he's been making the right place to keep himself in this one, so this is going to be a really crucial turn, I think if Rock-Out gains too big of an advantage here, it will just be over.
So let's see. You also could have attempted double protect here.
Pelopon's actually going to switch here and it's going to be Venusaur as the last one.
I think that is a really smart adjustment as well.
Hey, I mean, you're still going to be able to do a lot though with this Direclaw.
That's going to take his Venusaur down to less than half, but the power with Mrs. It's Mark.
A Direclaw will be enough to finish this Venusaur up on the next turn.
He actually does take that Dragonfall.
As you can see, Raghav wanting to swap out there.
there, one to obviously conserve the Peloponbe 2.
Now you can also reset the rain.
I think if Dragon pulls Kaos to the Serena there,
probably it's just over, but that's what I was saying.
Maybe it's bulky enough to survive.
So Venusaur is a mix-up here, actually,
I think is quite powerful because if you switch in
a little bit more effectively, it does pose a threat.
But the thing is now, there is the offensive threat
of close combat into the Archalodon slot, right?
And so Karina actually going for a protect here, right?
Emilio playing his heart out right now.
His rockup go for it is gonna be close combat
to arch out on us, gonna do a lot of damage,
but it does virtually survive.
It's going to leave this Sneasler pretty vulnerable.
This Enosaur does not have Earth Power,
which is one of the tech offensive moves
we sometimes see on this Enosaur.
The White Herb is going to cleanse the stat changes
that come through problems of close combat.
This is a turn that Emilio is going to get right,
drag a pole snow into the Sneasler.
It's going to help to soften it up a little bit,
but this Arina is going to stick around for the next turn.
Yeah, I mean Emilio's doing a great job of flying back into it and Rose like you called out the Venus we're not having something like that
Earth power means that it can't do too much in the Sceesler other than going for sleep powder there
But Emilio has gotten a good chain of turns here our chowdown protects like you still have to deal with Pelopera in this endgame
But Emilio is getting closer and closer right now
Protect though keeping this our chowdown around in the face and throw out that both combat
But the triple axel can it get the three hits and knock out this Venus or it only needs two
and all of a sudden Emilio is way back in this 2v2 in this game number three.
Oh this is so tense right now. Our childhood heals back a little bit more
with those leftovers. There is still this offensive threat of heliport in the
back. I felt like this was always the biggest win condition for Rogoff right
because Hurricane does get a 1k knockout onto both of these but it is
feeling so so scary. I think if you're a Rogoff you probably felt like that game
was just over after turn one. Emilio has made a lot of really great calls. The
stay in it and now it's gonna be close combat knocking out our child on here we go hey that's one
Pokemon down Pelfer by itself still have the ability to get KOs into either these close
combat defense drops are going to stick so this Pelfer can do some damage here tower with them from
the Zarina gonna have to take it down low enough then either the Sneezer or the Zarina can finish it
off on the next turn Cedarsbury recovering looks like it might actually make sure that this Pelfer
can fall to a follow-up on the next one.
But Hurricane for now takes out the Sneasler,
and it's a very tense 1v1 for a spot in the top cut
at the World Championships.
Emilio needs to hit this power whip,
needs it to do 48% to move on.
He has fought so hard after that turn.
Here we go, power whip connects.
How much does it do?
It's going to do a nice.
10 hours, Emilio does it.
A top cut guaranteed for Emilio fourth after taking down the final fashion of hope for Raghav.
Another successful event for Emilio.
What a show, an epic showdown for a three game set.
I cannot believe Emilio won that after turn one, right?
Like, that was such a huge deficit, like it's a clawback throw,
but he found the perfect sequencing of events.
And for Raghav there, opportunity to potentially power whip or hurricane into the Serena slot
instead of the Sneasler. Didn't know if Direclaw would necessarily do enough there either. Power
whip of course just such a powerful attack but it's accuracy not the highest. Paul smiles for
both players there though and I think Emilio must be feeling so relieved to have found a way to
clutch that one out. Absolutely incredible playing from behind showing why you don't give up even
it turn one and aggressive prediction doesn't go your way.
100% because right off the gate that right you fell to a one hit knockout from that swamper
going for the earthquake connecting onto both. Power whip though getting some revenge here
from the Zarina got Emilio back into this. Even though the Zarina ended up missing a
power whip in this third game as well onto the Venusaur just some chip damage and had
that critical survival of the dragon pulse just to give Emilio enough of a
fighting chance triple Axel getting those two hits as well as he got this
Venusaur and then all of a sudden it really was just such a tense Razor's
Edge final showdown for these Pokemon. Yeah the main thing like I think was the
switch out from Pelipper like maybe there was the opportunity to just stay in.
The question I you know still have is whether or not Direclaw plus Powerwhip
I think there were a lot of opportunities where Ragaugh probably knows how if I just made my target into the other slot, I'd probably just win the game, because he had the advantage for so much of that game, right?
There was the opportunity when it was Hurricane into Serena on turn 2 of the game, could have been a wetterball potential to K'Hanbitt, for example.
For Amelia to have found a path back into that game was absolutely perfect defensive play with fake out and protect Salao Tao and protect Serena at all the right opportunities,
opportunities knowing like our child on when you don't have that special attack boost is not the strongest offensive threat dragon
Pulse not able to do over 50% to so many Pokemon right and so just threats the needle and what Sneezer being that final perfect
Pokemon getting that close combat off of our child knows that burst damage that you need and so that was that's what the world
Championships are about like and that is why Emilio is such an incredible player
Of course, we're all got honestly played incredibly as well. It's just that hard call on turn one
I think that will probably be a game that he's going to sit back on and reflect on a good bit.
It's really, it hurts when you get so close to the top cut at the World Championships.
And it felt like it was his, but Emilio claws back and found,
honestly, I think maybe one of the most incredible comebacks I've seen this season.
Commiserations though, I mean, that just the fact that you are the one went away from the top cut
is still an incredible accomplishment.
And so I hope that even though maybe you are going to think back on that game,
that rock off. You're still proud of yourself. This is still a great performance and for all
of our competitors that were just playing their winning ends. This is going to be a
world championship that you can hopefully remember and keep us one of those top accomplishments.
This world has been so hard. You think about the number of competitors that fell at 0 3
1 3 just kind of, you know, falling out as we get through that first day to make it this
I do hope that they can see that as a as a great win. Yeah, and the margins are so razor thin right in the end
Serena did have to land triple axel twice into the game or phrase the two hits right there
And then double power whip into the pelliper as well
This Pokemon is really great if it hits all of its moves
It is not one of the more consistent Pokemon because powerup and triple axel are both such high variance moves
If any of those moves miss at any point frog up's moving on to top cut right and so that is how
you're going to be able to
see how close things can feel.
But when you're playing for
behind, you do need things to
go right and arena clutched up
and showed why it can be a
really unique pocket pick in
this format. Like you mentioned
that power whip damage. There
aren't that many strong physical
grass type attackers in this
format. Normally we see it for
you know, it's ability, but the
combination of the utility of
the ability as well as its
damage up, but it's just a lot
and to see it clutch up here on
stream to advance the top cut.
I mean, yeah, can ask for
anything more. What a cool
said. We are going to take a
breaking down some of the competitors that have moved on to that top cut. So please don't go anywhere.
Hello everyone, I'm Kyle Pukasukovic. I'm on the product development team for the TCG at TPCI,
joined here by Chip and Azul, and today we're going to take a look at some of the cards from the
classic collection from the 30th Celebration expansion. One of the first ones we can take a
look at is this Magikarp. It's a very cool card I remember when this card initially got revealed
during the Scarlet and Violet era of the game, just the general excitement around it. It's beautiful
and seeing it now in this new 30th anniversary style with this golden border makes it pop
So nicely, and I mean, an iconic Pokemon as well in Magic Carp,
one of the original Pokemon, so I always love to see that getting some love.
Yeah, I'm very emblematic of one of the innovations of the Scarlet Moon Violet era.
The introduction of those illustration rare cards, this is very much an embodiment of what that new art style kind of represents
and that new kind of card rarity.
Azul, we also have, maybe a curled back of it, more to the past, maybe two thousands or so with this Dark Tarana card.
Yeah, yeah, the Dark Taranis are looking super good in its new gold border, of course.
And I think for competitive players, a big throwback had a lot of success back in the day.
Most commonly comes to mind is Ross Cawthon's second place at the World Championships in 2005,
right? So a lot of history in the competitive scene with this one.
Yeah, Ross Cawthon, only player to qualify for every World Championships to date,
and that's kind of where his legacy began, was with this card right here.
And we'll also bring it to this Lugia that's from the Aquopolis extension going even further into the past.
You can really see the gold border on this one.
And it's affectionately referred to as, like, crystal Lugia due to its crystal-type Hokey body.
One of the first Pokemon that, if you attach different types of energy to it, can change types.
And its attack costs represent the different types it can turn into as well.
And I think just a very iconic card as well, very striking artwork.
That brings us to one more, and we haven't revealed yet.
And so for the first time, we will officially reveal drumroll, please.
Baset Pikachu brought back here for the 30th anniversary classic collection.
I mean, what a callback, right?
To the very first expansion for the Pokemon TCG.
Our work done by Arita-san, of course, just totally iconic.
love to see it included.
As well, do you get any memories,
seeing the original Pikachu artwork for the TCG?
Yeah, I remember having the original card
back way back in the day.
I don't even remember how long ago it was now,
but it's really cool to see it represent,
once again, here in the 30th anniversary set.
Yeah, and once again, these are just a few of the 30 cards
you'll see in the classic collection
in the 30th celebration Pokemon TCG expansion.
But we also have some more cards to look at as well.
as well. We'll get a glimpse into what the future of the Pokemon TCG might be like with
some of these futuristic rare cards illustrated by Yoshiro Optin, and we have a couple different
ones here. Some you'll find in the 30th Celebration expansion, such as this Mew EX and Mew 2 EX.
And some you'll find in an ultra premium collection product such as these Pikachu EX.
Yeah, I mean, I think there might be infinite possibilities for the Mew, because of course
its ability allows it to utilize the attacks of any of your benched Pokemon as long as
you have the necessary energy required. So this is going to be a card I'm very excited
to see what the community can come up with when they get their hands on it.
And also a card that like as new cards come out in years to come, it'll be a card that
you'll always come back to as a potential option. It is so versatile in the ways you
could potentially use it.
Yeah, very fitting for Mew of course. Over the years we've seen lots of different Mew
cards in the TCG being able to use all sorts of different attacks and always feels like
there's some way to use this kind of card. It is on the low end of HP for a Pokemon EX with just 160,
but being able to use pretty much any of the attacks of any of your Pokemon,
hey, there's probably a use for that somewhere, right?
Yeah, well, I know.
Yep. And then we can also shift our attention to the Mewtwo EX. You know, we have a shift here,
we kind of have a split of day and night. Mew representing the day theme and Mewtwo
representing the night theme. Mewtwo EX has this photon bullets attack chip. What do you see in here?
Yeah, I mean Mewtwo of course another iconic pokemon spread potential always very good you know
targeting down multiple pokemon with just one single attack has a lot of potential softening
things up to be easier KO'd by a different pokemon perhaps or using photon bullets turn after turn
and after turn can really build up a lot of damage in play,
potential board wipe scenarios, multi prize turns.
I love cards like this.
Yeah, and you can see, you know, much higher HP
than the Mew EX as well.
230 HP as well.
Can you see any potential here for Mew 2 EX?
Yeah, yeah, I think might be missing a little bit
of energy acceleration for the Psychic type right now,
but the spread attack, you never know what you're
going to be able to combo that with to be able to make things
awkward for your opponent for sure absolutely we can shift our attention
over to these Pikachu EX cards as well you know Pikachu one of those Pokemon
that is frequently featured as a Pokemon EX even though it's not a fully
evolved Pokemon we'll start off with the day Pikachu EX with the pika pika
parade attack chip what do you see in here yeah so a very powerful effects
being able to throw a ton of Pokemon into play normally these call for family
style attacks, bring out one, two, very rarely three Pokemon.
This one allowing you to just fill your board with basic Pokemon.
We see players utilizing that A-Spec precious trolley currently
in the meta game from time to time when they want to do that.
Now, if players want to use a different A-Spec in their deck,
they have an option to still pull a bunch of powerful Pokemon out.
And there are so many powerful basic Pokemon in the game right now,
Throwing a Mega King Discon, perhaps a Latias EX into play right away doesn't seem too bad.
Yeah, and as always we'll take a look at the Knight Pikachu EX with the Zip Zap Frenzy Attack.
You see any fun combos you can pull off with this one?
Yeah, I mean this is once again, I feel like similar to the Mu EX, almost limitless potential,
allowing you to accelerate any number of basic energy into play from your hand.
We do have the Energy Search Pro A-Spec in the format still, so that'll be a very cool combination.
So much of the Mew, lots of potential,
lots of future potential I think
is like the big ones for these two.
It's got an amazing look at these futuristic rare cards
and we have 30 years of Pokemon.
We're celebrating how far we've come,
especially with the Pokemon TCG
and taking a look towards what the future might hold as well,
getting a little glimpse with these futuristic rare cards.
And it's exciting to see what we have here
and we'll continue to see what the future holds
for the Pokemon TCG.
Welcome back traders here we're at the end of the Swiss of the Pokemon World Championships
just after round 11. My name's Ben joined by, of course, Rose and Aaron here at the Analyst Desk
to have a little bit of a, a bit of a reflect on what we've seen so far in the world championships
coming into our top cut before we start looking forward, of course, to our top cut and whittling
down those two trainers that are going to be making it all the way into Championship Sunday.
Now, that match between Emilio and Raghav was absolutely crazy.
That game three, turn one, I think we were all in the backstage in the green room
while you guys were casting and we're like, okay, we see turn one.
We're thinking, okay, cool, Raghav's in top car.
Like that's the match over.
And then somehow Emilio found a way to come back from that match.
What was that like to cast for you?
I don't know if there are better words to describe it because I think it really did feel like Raghav was already one turn in, but in the door of the top cut.
But I think it's just the fact that it speaks volumes to Emilio's expertise as a player. That's why he's a four time regional champion is because Emilio has a way of looking at the game where you can kind of see those small avenues to thread the needle enough in order to bring himself back into those spots.
Yeah, and I want to give Raga of credits to his performance as well, because you know, I was like, well, it feels like the game is over after turns one and two, but I don't think Raga necessarily made any mistakes after turn two, right?
You went for plays that were all logical, and I think Raga was probably thinking, well, I can take these neutral trades because I'm so far ahead in the game, right?
But the critical survival with the Serena, for example, the Caisler being able to do so much damage with close combat, like, I think Emilio just found the perfect sequence of moves to counter what Raga was doing.
I think every play that
Rogoff made after turn two
still made plenty of sense.
I think that's the game.
Let's really, it's probably
gonna be really tough for
Rogoff in that he's probably
thinking if I just made one
aggressive prediction
throughout the any course
of those turns, right?
When I already had the lead,
like that, that would have
just been it.
Whether it be targeting
Sneasler on the turn, Serena
protected with Venus or or
the turn that lat Serena
protected when it was
Pelop or Swamper.
Right?
Like there was multiple
like protected on a
hurricane, right?
And so I think like
Emilio's use of defensive
playing saying you have to
to respect the offense my Serena has, Raghav respecting that offense consistently meant that
Emilio was able to like basically weave in enough attacks especially with that sneeze or getting
those close combats off and in the end our child don't also have the potential to go for a protect
it didn't but Emilio calls it targets right into it right and I think Raghav was also probably
thinking about the odds a little bit we're like oh even if I get all of this wrong well you still
have to hit your triple axles and your power waves but it was the perfect combination of things where
Emilio finds the right counterplay to the right, once again, Raghav plays makes sense, right?
But Emilio finds the perfect counterplay every turn.
But I feel like, I want to build on your point there, Eric, because there's also the conditioning about the amount of times
that Raghav chose to go into the Sarena when it went for a protect.
There's that conditioning.
And even though, like, if you look at those final turns where the Sneeze of the Diplop
probably doesn't get there on the Pelipper from about half health, like,
if it's just a hurricane into that Sarena on that turn.
But again, you've got to play the odds.
And Raghav's like, well, this Sarena has played so defensively.
Emilio is respecting the damage that Raghav has
and the lead that he created.
And then there's the switch.
And there's the weave into the game.
As you say, you're still going to hit your power pips, right?
But you're still in a position where Emilio's taken that one little line,
that. I'm not sure what you
think. But one little sort of
sliver of hope to try to make
it through that match. I want
to just also say that it's so
easy again in hindsight to take
a look at the game and
recognize these small points
where a different decision or
different play could have swung
the favor of the game and as a
competitor, you both have
experienced this as well and
very high pressure in 10
situations. It's hard to make
possibilities that could happen in this one tiny micro universe of this one match.
And so I just want to give again credit to both of our competitors.
Everyone that has competed at the World Championships this weekend and
maybe have had those moments on stream that are easy to nitpick and
call out because it's hard.
It is so hard and you're playing as the best of the best at Worlds.
But this is the World Championships.
I mean, this is where those small adaptations.
This is where all the prep that you put into coming into the World Championships.
This is where it all matters, right?
You do the rounds, you do the playing
against these different competitions.
You're training against friends
that you're working with towards the world championships.
And, you know, like those little micro-decisions
of the things, that's where the magic is
in the execution here at this level of competition.
And we've had, you know, a few upsets.
We've had trainers come in that we were expecting,
hey, you're likely, you're coming in on absolute tear.
this could be your event that
have gone home in phase one.
That's just what happens when you get to this sort of pressure cooker of an event.
I think that first turn and that game three in particular is something that I would really emphasize.
Anyone watching the stream, newer viewers to take a look at because I think most people would probably just click the forfeit button right there and say,
that's it. I made a hard read. It didn't work. I'm so far behind. I'm not even going to try.
But Emilia just showed if you can find a path to victory, you have to play perfectly, right?
right? There's just no room for ever. Once again, like, Emilio string together the perfect sequence of turns turn after turn after turn after turn and also had to, you know, not get unlucky with the Mrs with Serena. But in the end, it was enough. And so I didn't come back some Pokemon are always some of the most
exciting things to watch, right? And to be able to find a path back into the game and you can slowly feel the tension building. I think you could see it in Raga's face that he's probably, you know, I'm saying it was like, you're so close, but you still have to close it out, right? And in the end, I think Raga
I'm not sure if he's going to
get the knockout. I'm not sure
if he's going to get the
knockout. I'm not sure if he's
going to get the knockout. I
slowly realized. Oh my goodness.
Wait like, Emilio is getting
turned after turned up the turn
right like the same feels like
it's slowly slipping away from
me, but I still have a chance.
I still each part. It's like,
okay. He's like. Climbing back
up the rope a little bit, but I
still have plenty of room to
work where but then it gets to
that final turn, and I'm sure
he's also probably thinking I
should have maybe just
hurricaneed the Serena slot
and said and taken the dire
claw, but if you're not sure
about the damage calcs in that
situation, you think both
and that doesn't always go right as well like if you leave the Diaclore open
there's a possibility well how Diaclore works you know it's not it's not a
guarantee there either so let's move forward let's look at our top cut
bracket here see who is gonna be up against who so we have our three players
there in yellow that have made it well enough through our tournament to have a
a buy in this top 16 round.
A reminder, this is an asymmetrical top cut.
We have 13 competitors overall in this bracket.
So three of them getting a buy into our top eight.
The rest of them are fighting for their place.
Zachary Weed, second place at the Las Vegas Regional
Championship, second place at EUIC, top eight at Worlds.
He's had one of the most phenomenal seasons
I can remember in North America.
And I, yeah, I'm not surprised to see him here in top eight.
he has quickly risen to become one of the stars in North American VGC.
But yeah, just absolutely dominant as a top three seed here.
And Antonio Sanchez has gotten top eight at the World Championships before.
And so another top cup performance here, of course, won a regional championship as well.
We got to see him play on stream and Takuma representing Japan being the third player to get a buy.
And Takuma actually got 40th at the Japan Nationals.
I mean, that tournament is very, very hard.
and so I think even just saying you get top 64 you qualify to the world championships is very impressive
but Takumo comes into this tournament ends up doing very well off the back of that recent success
at Japan match where you get to play Pokemon champions and then you also come in with a really
cool team that has Dragonite focuses a lot on that mega flowette and so I'm really excited to see
just how far to take it and then looking at our top 16 bracket I mean talking about Japan
national championships we have Hiroshi who was able to win this year's Japan
national championships showing their caliber of play getting into top 16.
Versi Navji Joshi, a previous top eight at Worlds in 2024, doing really really
well in that tournament. Carson versus Zhao is looking like a really cool match
as well because Carson's running a more Charizard focused team right and Zhao
is running the Lichenrock, Frostlass, Megasco Villain combination there, one of two with
Zachary Reid, weed that's been able to make it through to our top cut.
Yeah, Carson, you know, played in the seniors division over a decade ago and took a long
break from VGC, came back and actually has been on a tear this season, winning a regional
championship as well.
And so really, really great to see them back here.
I honestly had not been able to see very much on the international stage before and so they think this is a big, big performance for him.
And this is a player that recently aged up from the senior division. It's actually the Sao Paulo original champion from 2025 in seniors.
And so the fact that you've recently aged up from the master division, you're getting a top six seed at the World Championships.
I think that's a really great player to keep our eyes on and also one that I think a lot of competitors are looking at, like these young upstarts.
There's always one from every generation that comes up to the Masters division that just comes in and starts humbling us old heads, you know, coming in and showing, like, you know, they've got, they've got the, I see this is like in a lot of the circuit where these young players age up and they've just got no fear.
I think that's like one of the things I really find exciting about watching them like they used to playing with the masters both in their like local communities but also like in terms of what we have in our grassroots and online circuit so it's not like a big step up from seniors to masters and even seniors is very very competitive and certainly at the top level so if you're able to like take that transition into masters and keep it going like you know the sky's the limit.
that. Absolutely. Yeah. And
there are some players in that
top cover. No familiar or very
familiar, I should say with the
World Championship final stage.
Of course, we have a war
champion, Joe, uh, Joey Camero,
and we also have Emilio, who
just won on stream, of course,
came so close to winning worlds
getting second. Many many years
ago. He's had multiple top cuts
at the World Championship stage
I'm sure his heart rate after both that last set and the set before where I think he yeah had
Misclicked self-targeted his own Pokemon to knock it out by accident and then one by one percent in the end like to
Clutch up a game three. He's probably multiple points throughout the last hour thought. Okay. Well, that's it
Well, it's over but it keeps his dream alive
And I feel like yeah on the other side of that coin like Shohei has shown us
So often over this stream
We've got to feature him quite a few times on the broadcast and every single time like
I've never seen really someone play these sort of Charizard flow at compositions as
Impressively like on the front foot as
Shohei has been showing us this weekend right? It's like even in the mirror like you played the mirror around eight yesterday
we played effectively a mirror in
in one of the rounds that we had on today.
And every single time he's just positive switch here,
calling the protect there,
like not letting any like little bit of the position
that he's got go to waste.
And really, I'm just so excited to see how far he can get.
Maybe this is, and we've been talking about this coming in,
like there's only one chance for us to get another repeat
world champion and Shohei has been showing us
that maybe he's got what it takes.
We'll have to see if that is what's going to be coming to pass, or whatever else we could see.
Who could become our next world championship? We'll find out after this break.
and San Francisco as you can see.
We've got the World Championship side.
We've got the Pokemon XP side.
I hear it's absolutely insane in there.
Let's go take a look.
We got to get me popping out behind everything that we can.
Let's take a shot of it.
Hey, how's it going?
Beautiful pieces, bring it in close here, I want you to take a look at this for everyone
at home.
This is a fantastic piece, this is the beautiful save a lie we have right here, without question
one of the finest we have, beautiful, sparkly, we have the Eevee right next to it, and finally
the jiggly puff, very nice collection.
The official meant limit one per customer, but I count as two customers, so I will take
two.
No.
King Pikachu.
We have now transitioned from the world championships to the XP area.
steam, extremely cool, in my opinion, cooler than the world
championship area. I'm probably not supposed to say that. Let's do
some pop outs. Boom.
Okay, okay, get a picture of me with the umbrella.
There you go.
The world championship play mat and bag also limit one. These
are different, though, so I can take them. Yes. Yes, I got a
Yes, place is poppin.
Beautiful, special, elegant.
One of them's going on a trip.
One of them's blasting off.
Another one would be in a spaceship.
I think I like Kearley the best.
I have been excited to see this the entire time.
This is the item I've had my eye on more than anything else.
This jacket right here.
It's beautiful, it's special.
I'm not exactly sure where I can wear it,
and I want it very bad. I'll
be back for it. This time. I'm
not allowed to shop for this
right now. Hey, Pokemon
trainers. Welcome to Pokemon
Championships history, a series
where we showcase important
moments throughout the history
of competitive Pokemon. I'm
Jake Muller, and I'd love to
take you back to the world
Championships in 2015. The
year mega kink is con claimed
her biggest victory. But first
to 2014. Pokemon X and Pokemon Y introduced Mega Evolutions to competitive Pokemon, and
Mega Kangaskhan dominated the metagame throughout the entire season. However, when the 2014 World
Championships ruled around, Mega Kangaskhan fell to the wayside, failing to make a single appearance
in Top 8. Although Mega Kangaskhan surged back into the metagame as we moved into the 2015 season,
its place at the top became crowded thanks to the introduction of even more Mega Evolutions
from Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire.
As the world championships loomed, the community wondered whether Mega-Kangaskan would once
again be pushed out of the minigame by a high presence of Pokemon that could counter it.
Anticipating this, many players from Europe and North America opted not to include Mega-Kangaskan
on their teams, fearing history would repeat itself.
Japan, however, had something else in mind.
two months prior at the Japan National Championships, Shoma Honami claimed first place with an early
version of a team structure that would come to be known as Chalk, which featured Criselya,
Keetran, Amungus, Lander Assyrian, and Mega-Kangaskhan. This team composition
boasted an unmatched combination of power and flexibility, leading Shoma and many other Japanese
players to ride the mega kengis Khan wave all the way to Boston. As the 2015
world championships progressed it became clear that chalk was the team to beat
even though the competition was full of teams with outside mega evolution picks
like mega mawile mega charizard x mega salamence and mega charizard y
of the top eight players used
teams that followed the chalk
guidelines, including Shoma
Honami himself. While the
extraordinary success of this
team composition at the biggest
event of the season was
astounding, even more
interesting was the variation
seen within chalk just inside
this top eight. While all six
teams had both mega kankes con
and landeris therian, many
players opted for some alternate
options for the remaining
Pokemon.
Petran was substituted for a different Fire-type Pokemon on two occasions, with one player
using Entei and one choosing Volcarona.
The sixth Pokemon on the team ranged from Thunderous to Aegislash to Taranitar to Scrafty.
Sylveon made an appearance in Place of Criselia in one instance, and one player even gave
up Amungus to run both Aegislash and Thunderous.
The two teams in top eight at the World Championships that did not make use of Mechikengis Khan
were both defeated in the quarterfinals,
meaning that MegaKangaskhan was guaranteed
to have her day in the sun.
Players shake hands, knowing that the game is over,
wrote on washed balls, and the crowd reacts.
Ladies and gentlemen, Yosuke Advancing,
we've seen him.
This is the second time on stream
playing incredibly, incredibly well.
After taking down Naoto Mizoguchi in top four,
Shoma Honami would be met in the finals
by fellow Japanese player Hidiyuki Taita,
whose Volcarona set him apart from the rest of the field.
Oh my god, he's done!
We get another kill in the field!
The championship match was a back and forth affair.
Shoma 1 game 1 thinks the consistent damage output from his lander's theory
and clever use of disruptive attacks, like Thunder Wave and Swagger.
And here we go, will it be able to hit through confusion?
Is the question, no, it hits itself!
Huge! Shoma very excited!
But Hideyuki turns the tides and even the score at 1 game all,
after his Pokemon broke through confusion on crucial turns.
A lot on the line for these two trainers, almost $20,000 in prizing here as it hits
through with a big shadow sneak.
I think that will pick up the faint here on the Thunderous.
It is definitely at this point looking like Hideo K's taking it to a game three.
In the deciding game, Shoma made expert use of Hitran's defensive utility and offensive
power, proving that the original Chalk Fire-type Pokémon was still number one.
should do a done here. Oh my gosh! Picking up the fate on Hideyuki's Pokemon, as well as catching the burn.
Activating the weakness policy there, but the burn is absolutely huge and it's only a matter of protect before this one is over.
Fittingly, MegaKangaskhan re-entered the field right before Hideyuki conceded defeat.
Shoma's decision to stay true to his run to the Japan Nationals title, with the original components of the Chalk team composition paid off as he became the 2015 Pokemon World Champion.
Shoma, HONAMI is your 2015 Pokemon video game world champion.
Thank you for watching and let us know some of your favorite moments in VGC history by using the hashtag play Pokemon.
Welcome back everyone to the Pokemon World Championships here in beautiful San Francisco.
In addition we've got Pokemon XP happening right outside these doors as well.
I love that we just got to see how Shoma Honami became a world champion back in 2015
because it's time to get ready to crown a new world champion here in San Francisco.
Well, that gets real simple from here. If you don't win, you're done.
Exactly. Every player in the bracket is a single elimination bracket.
Win, you get to keep playing, lose, and you go home.
Go home as a top cut competitor at the world championship, so pretty good.
But at this point, each and every one of our players
knows that they have a shot at being the world champion.
Exactly, Evan.
I think we're kind of at that point in the tournament
where, hey, a few weeks from now,
I think everyone who's gotten to this point in the tournament
is going to think, I had a great run.
I had a great world championship.
I'm proud of myself.
Right now, it's a little bit different, right?
Where you don't know when you're going to get a chance to do this.
Again, making the top cut of world championship is so difficult.
And you can't waste this opportunity, right?
Everyone kind of realizes, hey, I've got this point.
I could do it.
Like, this is no longer just a dream.
It's achievable and it's really important to cash it in.
One of these trainers is going to.
Absolutely, and we are going to be playing
our first round of the play-in rounds of top cut
to make it to our top eight,
which means that the players who are competing
in this round only need to win, what?
Four more rounds to beat the world champion
of the Pokemon first champions world champion.
That's wild.
They've already played 11 sets of Pokemon so far.
What's four more?
When you think about it, these players have played thousands of games to practice over
the course of the season.
They think it's all now going to come down to four rounds, maybe a dozen games to be
the world champion.
It's so close from where they started at the beginning of the year.
Incredible achievement by all of these trainers to get to this point, but it would be a shame
to lose now.
Absolutely, and I'm so excited for all of our competitors who have made it to this
op cut stage of the tournament, both because I know that it feels great for them to have
that opportunity, but also because I am excited to see what these competitors can do when,
you know, the pressure is on it to make or break moments. This is the time where you
stamp your name in the history books. We've got some incredible competitors to watch out
for. Absolutely. I'm very excited for all of these trainers for the particularly our
next actually really fun. But everyone who gets this point in the tournament, right?
I mean, they're they've proven themselves to be a player to watch for seasons. Absolutely.
We're going to be watching our first match up here.
What I'm so excited about this tournament is that it is a truly international tournament.
This is the world championship for a reason.
We have people from so many different regions here competing at the world championships.
Regions that, you know, when we first started doing this 13 years ago, people had written
off as saying, oh, well, there's really just North America and Japan.
And honestly, there's really just Japan and Ray Rizzo at that point.
So it's so exciting to see the growth of the game and see how many opportunities some of these regions have been able to get.
And I'm personally extremely excited to see our Latin American competitors,
especially because we are going to be able to see them follow their journey next season as part of the official stream broadcast.
Exactly. Yeah, I think I'm really excited to get more tape on some of these players, right?
We're really excited to get to see the Latin American players we do have in top cut.
You're trying to join Paul Ruiz as a world champion from that region.
But yeah, I mean, it's like we always read about their accomplishments, right?
We don't get to see it as much.
I think tuning in next season will be really fun.
Kind of get to see more from what those players are doing.
And yeah, I mean, and are you going into this tournament too?
It wasn't Japan or North America, but I think it seemed like a lot of
players felt like it was like Japan and Europe were the only regions even this year.
Or Thailand and Italy.
Yeah, right.
And yeah, top cup bracket looking a little bit different, right?
Kind of proving that, hey, we shouldn't have written off some of the trainers that we did.
And I think it's going to make this really fun, right?
A lot of different light of them.
really nice mix of teams and top cut as well.
You know, mostly expected poke,
one of those some really cool surprises as well,
but that's the way these teams are piloted,
I think it's really going to make the difference.
And everyone who's gotten this point
is an absolute master of their own team.
Yeah, and that's what's been so exciting
about watching this tournament is,
you know, the meta game has some very much
top tier threats, you know, top teams that everyone
should have practiced against going into it,
but it's not the same meta where it's like,
okay, I know exactly what my lines are
every single team or like if I'm gonna play against big six, I know exactly the flow chart that I'm going to go in for
There is a lot of variance in this, but it's also just such razor thin margins
I don't know if there are that many teams that feel like they have a
Overwhelmingly winning matchup against the other teams in the meta right now
And a lot of trades become a little frustrated right because they're kind of used to oh you have my prep
Maybe I can just like team dip people a little bit
Let's just out this this year playing out right where you kind of just have to be really locked in every game
to navigate some really difficult conditions in each matchup.
And especially, I mean, like there's
little training differences, right?
You know, oh, I'm a little statical, a little bit different.
Oh, I've changed the move.
I've changed the item.
But it's hard for that to be the difference
between winning and losing a match.
So these trainers are, they've been very stressed so far.
And we're entering the most stressful part of a tournament
now.
Absolutely.
And let's take a look at those competitors who
have qualified for our top cut bracket.
Of course, you can see there are three players who,
by virtue of their record and strength of schedule,
have qualified for the top eight already.
And they are three player or two players
that we have seen on stream a few times already,
Antonio Sanchez and Zachary Weed,
but also Takuma Yamazaki from Japan
has also advanced to the top eight.
So they are close.
Three players are guaranteed a spot in the top eight
and the remaining competitors
are fighting for the opportunity to join them.
Yeah, all these players finished with two losses or fewer,
but the very top trainers, the fewest losses
than with the best opponent records
the ones who are able to get those buys to move on as everyone else works to join them here.
A lot of big memes that we have on this side of the field where any of these players could very
feasibly become the world champion. We've got to see a number of them on stream before and there's
some pretty exciting achievements to the side. We have a former world champion in Joe Hayekumura,
a former world's runner-up in Emilio, right, where I think both these trainers probably,
you know, really adding to a legacy starting to get into like greatest of all time conversation if
they're able to win this one.
Yet no one has ever been able to replicate
what Ray Rizzo did in 2011,
which is winning a second world championship,
let alone back to back like Ray Rizzo did back then.
However, the competition is just so much more fierce now
here in 2026 that if Shohei Kummer is able
to make it all the way,
he is our last remaining world champion
chasing that second crown here,
but you have to consider him as one of the greatest
of all time if he is able to accomplish
a second world championship.
But like we mentioned, so many great competitors
from across the world here.
I'm really excited that we have Brazilian representation.
We have Canadian representation.
We have so many incredible competitors here.
It is a world championships.
Lots of leave you waiting too much longer.
Got a match ready.
And I couldn't be more excited for this one.
Yeah, this is a matchup that Scott has been bragging
about calling from before the world championships.
Not necessarily that they would be facing each other
But two of your players that you are most excited to see here at the absolutely at the caster bias ball for me where you know
Give me a lot of fun to watch when I always tell you I'm excited. That's my job
But this time I'm telling you the truth. I think two really exciting players here
I just really love watching Carson in our domestic circuit here in North America
I just think he's so scary to play against I think a Pokemon DGC when you get to a point where you're good enough
It kind of just feels different watching you play,
kind of just exert pressure by virtue of being so good at capitalizing on your game,
just so good at creating advantageous forward positions.
And I think of the more offensively-oriented players in North America,
they're sure to me there was nobody better than Carson.
And with the way this format's playing out, where players couldn't quite figure out defense,
where every game at smaller margins you kind of have to make a read,
to me it seems like for all the North American players,
Carson could be the best suited to that sort of tournament.
Absolutely, and you can see Carson's accomplishments there on your screen,
very accomplished back in the senior division.
He aged up into the Masters Division, competed through 2018,
took a break, and came back with a vengeance,
starting at the end of Scarlett and Violet.
It's our current Seattle regional champion,
just proving that the skills don't go away.
They're just always there waiting for you to come back to them.
Yeah, I think he's been incredible for the long break as well,
where he just immediately is like,
oh, wow, why don't you just immediately be the scariest player in the world?
Very awesome.
I'm really excited to watch you watch.
I haven't got to see as much footage of him,
but I think he was someone that players should have been a little bit more
afraid of coming into this tournament.
Luffy was eighth in championship points in Latin America,
but he's really been grinding the online tournaments coming up to this event.
I think we've kind of mentioned repeatedly throughout the course of this weekend,
where since you can't team two people really in this format,
it's very important to know your team and its lines well.
He's been playing this team a lot, I believe,
two weeks ago on the last Western online grassroots tournament.
He gets second place using the same team.
So he's played high stakes batches with this team already,
And I don't think anyone's maybe too excited to play against either of his trainers.
So it's not surprising to see both of them in the top cut.
I think we should get a really exciting match here.
Yeah, let's take a look at Carson St.
Dennis's team here, a very familiar grouping of six Pokemon.
But you always have to look at these small differences here.
Whenever I see a team like this, I always look at the King Gambit to see which one it is.
It's purple and four attacks.
I look at the Charizard.
There's the solar beam over the ancient tower.
But also, you have to look at the things you weren't expecting to see different, and I see that Rock Tomb on Sneaseler.
Yeah, I love it. And there are a whole lot of changes here, right?
Like, you know, don't change the things that aren't broken, but I love Rock Tomb in the hands of a player like this one, right?
Where you just have to think about board states a little bit differently.
And notice that you do pretty impactful rock-type damage, where it makes it much more effective.
It can say like Charizard or Pelipper or whatever, you get a super effective attack.
But also the speed drop on it is really impactful.
always drop speed by one level so you know players are kind of just playing
around checking certain end game situations like oh I know this Pokemon
is faster than that one so I can just preserve that to have them finish off
even a Sneaseler can't knock out the opponent. Being able to lower its speed
potentially allows one of its friends to flip an end game situation. I think it's
really cool especially for a player if it's proven to be as good at navigating
matches and kind of creating bad situations for his opponents as Carson has.
Absolutely and having that as a secondary speed control option alongside the tailwind
on Wentecott gives him so much flexibility and he is going to need it going up against
Joao Felipe Leche here from Brazil running the Scovillain and Frostlast dual mega team
that also has that Lycan Rock which is a big part of this team and is designed to be matched
up so well into Charizard teams.
Yeah I mean look at to see that Lycan Rock almost for sure this matchup I think players
are always a little surprised when they see Lycan Rock if you haven't really been following
this year's video game championships.
Not traditionally a Pokemon that we see
in this level of competition,
but it's so uniquely good, right?
The only Pokemon capable of using
that increased priority rock type move
that, hey, no matter what speed control is happening,
I'm gonna dunk that Charizard
if you leave it unprotected against like it rocks.
So what are you going to do about it?
Like the rest of the team is pretty fun too.
We start seeing it the week before
the North America International Championships in Turin.
That really hasn't changed at all in regulation in B.
Just the team that a lot of players
have found a lot of comfort on, like, hey, you know,
maybe I don't have anything new for this format,
but I'm going to play it really well.
And I think I have the tools to beat every matchup.
The one big change being that lifeguard held item
wasn't available before, was previously usually Citrusberry
on that Vasco legion and said lifeguard here for Joao.
So going to be a little bit more offensive.
I mean, not as bulky as it used to be.
That was kind of a fun synergy with the Aurora veil
from Foss last, but it just showed a lot of damage compared
to what we saw in regulation in that.
Well, here we go.
Game one of our first top-cut match here
at the World Championships.
Joao will be leading Crosslash next to that Lycan Rock
and immediately catching the Charizard and King Gambit.
And immediately you see why Lycan Rock has a place
in this meta against these teams,
threatening super effective,
flawed super effective damage
against both Pokemon on Carson's side.
Yeah, Lycan Rock is immediately terrifying here.
Not only does it have the Accelerac or the Rackfly,
you're trying to take out the Charizard
and close top effort King Gambit as well.
And it also covers a lot of the switches pretty well,
right where there are any Pokemon other than Sneasler who's going to be too
excited about taking out those attacks.
And that will focus you in the back butchers.
Sneasler coming in, Frostlass is a little bit concerned about staring down
Charizard and losing the weather war from the jump.
But that Sneasler coming in will threaten Facebook to pick out pressure as the
Xcelerock connects on to Wim the Caught on the switch in.
Ironhead from the King Gambit will be able to connect on to Lichenrock and
bring it down to its focus set, and now you have, again, a Pokemon for Joel that threatens Quad's super effective damage on both Pokemon on Carson's side.
Yeah, the tech chart not working super well for Carson here, but I don't think he's going to be too upset about the trade.
Funding it out to both sides, switching out their Mega Evolve in Pokemon there, not Mega Evolved yet,
because the weather war is a little bit difficult, he's not just right, where typically you kind of want to be the one who Mega Evolves second in order to get that advantage there.
Frostlast typically naturally quicker, but both sides still lag for now.
Leica Rock having to escape to deserve itself as a win condition later.
Don't want to let that go down while Charizard is still at full health.
Yeah, free sucker punch there would mean that Charizard could start running over this team,
especially after Wimzacot is able to get the tailwind up.
There's the Topolberry activating to reduce the power of that close combat,
just enough to allow King Gambit to hang on with 9% health.
that is going to drop the defenses of Sneasler but immediately regain them with the White Earth and activate the Unburden,
allowing that Sneasler to be able to match the speed boost from the tailwind on Wim Zaka.
Of course, King Gambit is happy to take an Iron Head on the switch.
Yeah, can I switch there from Julow? Not taking too much Gambit from the Iron Head of this King Gambit and also creating a situation for the opposing King Gambit.
We're not always there to worry about the Sneasler now, but there's a lot to do anything other than sucker punch.
It's a danger of being supper punched itself and knocked up before I could do anything.
I'm not going to do a whole lot of damage in the battle between the King Gambits,
but when you only have 9% HP, you're kind of checked there,
which really reduces the impact of his tailwind, right?
Sneasler's still the fastest poker on the field after I'm burdened.
King Gambit checked by his opposite numbers.
So nice job right you out there.
It doesn't have the speed advantage from a speak to troll perspective,
but with the reality of kind of how these poker on can actually does.
So Carson's still on the back foot, going to need a little bit more maneuvering
to really get an advantage onto the battle for the year.
King Gambit will retreat again, not trying to give up any Pokemon for free here as Garchomp will switch in.
No priority coming out from Joao, and Whimsicott is still faster than the Unburdened Sneasler in Tailwind.
That close combat now connects on to the Garchomp on the switch and does a lot of damage.
A double up into that slot likely to pick up the Garchomp on the switch in here.
There's the Kowtow Queen coming out from King Gambit, connects on to Garchomp, and it is enough.
loses Garchomp immediately on the switch.
That's a big knockout too.
You know, Pokemon that could otherwise have really helped out
with dealing with that like and rock in the back later.
So, you know, it's pretty good for Joulau there.
Charizard going to come in now.
Doesn't have to worry about the like and rock immediately.
And then you're kind of looking at this from Charizard's side.
It feels like, hey, like, I almost have to send out Charizard.
Otherwise, it's just going to be checked and useless later
in the matchup.
So some important progress here from Joulau.
And then also important to keep it my juice.
Sneak on top is now going to reduce stuff.
Once again, he's the fastest Pokemon to fill in with Salem.
It is in range of being knocked out by that Moon Blast now.
So potentially, you know,
there is a better situation for Karsten now.
He had to lose a Pokemon to do it,
but Wim Zekat checking Sneezler
and Charizard checking King Gambit.
So now what will Joao do in response
to being threatened with a double knockout?
Yeah, exactly right.
You're usually expecting to get more damage
out of a life warp dart top,
but getting this Charizard in position
may just be enough.
Still holding on to the Mega Evolution on a Charizard
does not want to give up the weather war right away.
Wimsicott will be able to pick up the KO on two scenes or with a second moon blast King Gambit just trying to protect itself so it can still threaten some damage on Priority's sucker punch.
Here comes Lycanroc immediately needs to check that Charizard.
Zero hesitation there, just says the Lycanroc out immediately, but this is a very interesting situation, right, where you'd love to slam that Accelerot into Charizard, deal with it right away, but Lycanroc's only at a single hit point, right?
hit point right in. Whimsicott fastest Pokemon in the field and certainly not in range of a
sucker punch from here as a fairy type you over this that dark type attack so what will happen
well char is already protect well like in rock protect the trainers are going to have to make
a read here potentially a lot of ground to be gained but i think if i do have those pokemon
go down here without doing anything it could be a huge advantage for the opposing trainer.
And that whimsicott is threatened maybe by a double priority target there the accelerock
had dealt a lot of damage previously that is black classes king gambit giving it maybe
It's just enough to get over the hurdle of the type resistance.
But, Charizard is ready to just go on the offensive,
protecting Whimsicott from any attacks coming out from Joao.
That is the Accelerac into Whimsicott,
not targeting down to Charizard.
That they double-target into Whimsicott.
Carson calls it correctly,
perfectly launches a heat wave back and picks up a double KO.
Huge double from Carson there,
and that's what we saw from him all season in North America.
They're very precarious position there,
but reads just like you did.
Hey, that could be a double on the Whimsicott.
It's too obvious for me to not protect my Charizard,
so he just lets it attack.
And I get a more double knockout
and immediately picks up that first game.
He's now a game away from moving on to the top eight.
That is the power of a perfect play.
Carson St. Dennis making the exact read he needed.
Getting both of those KO's,
the only two Pokemon remaining
that could check that Charizard and Joao knew.
Immediately this game is over.
I have to go to game 2.
That really great shot by Carson throughout the course of that match.
Sacrificing the guard chop when he needed to in order to get back into an
advantageous position, getting that tailwind up, and getting enough damage in the
Lichenrock. It's so important with those Charizard teams to sash the Lichenrock.
It's a very frail Pokemon. You still always have to hit it twice because of that
focus sash item. I didn't really have to give anything up on that first turn to
sash the Lichenrock. I think to me, as much as I read, that was also the other
decisive turn in that game. Just too much to give up for too little and a really
great job by Carson there. I think, you know, the early positioning kind of seemed like it wasn't
due to the advantage, but he did a great job of picking exactly the spots he needed and got
himself a great win in that first game. And I had to point out every time Joel had the extremely
effective damage on both of Carson's Pokemon, at any moment if Carson had gotten a read incorrect,
his Pokemon were taking massive damage and he had to play that so perfectly from the jump to
avoid all of that. It's like he can read his opponent's minds. He's been so good at this is
is why I was so excited to watch him,
where Carson always just seems to play these sort of teams
that are kind of a very small margin for error.
And again, that's just kind of this whole format now,
where I think he was a little ahead of the curve
playing that way back in Pokemon Starlight, Pokemon Violet.
And now that everyone has to play his game,
he's got a little advantage, I think.
It would have been so easy for him
to make a big mistake there,
kind of just look silly,
maybe get blown out in the first game,
but he gets every read right.
And this is a terrible position to be in,
I feel like, if you're a Joao.
You know, where this matchup, you know,
it's a fresh game in game two,
but I think with Carson being a player
who's still good at making those reads.
Now he gets two chances to do it again to move on.
Absolutely, and that is such a scary place to be
if you are Joao.
However, like you mentioned,
this is a team that Joao has been grinding.
He understands the lines,
and just because he got them wrong in game one,
does it mean that he cannot come back here in game two?
This is a team that has a good matchup
into the style of Tarazar's team,
and Person had to play out of his mind to get there.
Can he do it again?
Here is the King Gambit and Tarzard led for Carson
and Joao, again, the Frostlass and the Lycanroc.
The familiar Pokemon in the field,
I think that makes this even more fun, right?
Now you have the conditioning of game one.
Okay, well, I know what my opponent did last time.
Will they do the same thing or will they mix it up?
Again, Lycanroc threatening a ton of damage
onto either of these Pokemon.
A close combat and the King Gambit could be huge
if he gets the same players last time,
but maybe he won't.
So far Frostlass switching out
just like he did in the first game.
They're coming back in for the crosslash just like in the first game, but this time
Carson is switching it up instead of switching out the Charizard instead going to mega evolve the Charizard
Hopping for an offensive move here
That is going to set the drought and it will go for a protect one of the rare
Opportunities where it does make sense to mega evolve and protect and this time he gets it right
Another turn where Carson gets it right, the Acceleron into the protect and the
Ironhead breaks like in Rocks Focus S once again.
It was a get in that very scary spot, but I think this is an interesting situation
we get on this subsequent turn.
Charizard won his protect, he is vulnerable to that Acceleron, so a lot of
attention to switch it out of battle.
However, King gave it the pretty important Pokemon this matchup, especially if
he isn't able to get that tailwind up and he needs increased priority to help out
a little bit.
You know, this variant of King Gambit, it's a little bit weaker on the defense side than what we see for some others.
Unlike his opponent's King Gambit, not able to protect critically well, basing the threat of two different close combats on this turn.
Or, I fake out at a close combat if you want to dodge a potential sucker punch into the like-a-drag slot.
Yeah, and of course, with Charizard staying on the field and protecting, it is not protected from the ability to dodge the fake out or an Acceleron as a result.
Carson is forced to switch that Pokemon out, bringing in the Garchomp once again.
There is the Accelerot now connecting on to the Garchomp and the Ropskin, finishing off
the Wike and Rock.
A perfect switch in there to get the damage that you needed and a Sucker Punch connects
on to Sneasler.
That's going to deal just a little bit of damage and open up the close combat here into the
King Gambit.
First of all, we'll go ahead and munch on that topo berry to reduce the damage in King Gambit again
Barely hanging on thanks to that resist berry and really nicely done there King Gambit also kind of safely getting some damage there
Why I'm gonna make sure to get some damage on sneezler even with a double target that would have been guaranteed to at least weaken it a little bit
And I want a huge place which is that garage up in there, right?
Rough skin looking real good over the course of this event so far
But I think you have a knockout and once again that hopefully that's supposed to counter Charles are going down for nothing
You know, and I think at this point,
you have to be very careful to make sure you manage the resources.
You still have a chance against Charizard.
Frostlass is not going to be able to do it on its own,
so it's easily now switching out.
And we see Fasci Legion as the final Pokemon from Zulao.
OK, Fasci Legion out on the field.
No switch coming out from Carson.
That means that Frostlass is able to mega evolve,
is able to set the snow.
Frostlass now has temporarily taken control of the weather.
It's just going to force Garchomp to protect,
so it doesn't take an extremely effective blizzard
for its troubles, and the sucker punch into the Sneasler slot instead whips into or potentially
into the Frostlass, and there comes the Aurora Veil to make Joao's team even bulkier and
more difficult to break through.
Huge read from Joao, right?
I think almost certainly a sucker punch into the Frostlass slot, and that's big.
You know, if it's attacking with a ton of damage, right on the edge of the 1-8 knockout,
instead of there's a free Aurora Veil up, it's going to help both of these Pokemon take
a sucker punch better from this team game, and it critically helps through the remainder
of the game.
It can be difficult to deal with this Charizard still,
so I think every bit of defensive step helps
maybe allowing some of these pokemen
to survive one more attack
and also have that Blizzard now threatening
the guard shop relatively safely where,
but not so safely as Charizard comes in.
We see the value of mega evolving Charizard
earlier in the game.
Since it's that regular Charizard,
just change the weather and Frostless barely survives.
Barely survives thanks to the Aurora veil.
There's the Blizzard connects with both Pokemon
outside of the snow.
King Gambit goes down.
Charizard takes a third of its health on the switch in,
but of course that would have been all of the Garchomp's health.
Here comes Vasculage, and no Pokemon have been knocked out,
or just one Pokemon was knocked out,
and that is enough to pick up the KO on the Charizard.
That means that Joao is now in such a huge position here.
Very strong to have that weather setter off the field.
Yeah, that is really big.
You're not critically hitting the blizzard
on both Pokemon in the sun, much less accurate that way,
but this really improves the position,
able to just pick up that knockout and Charizard,
if Blizzard had missed that flight, would have survived.
I've been able to at least have a much better chance
this game, probably Wimzakot would have come in,
made it a little set tailwind up,
and we have a very different game state.
Instead, Garchomp facing down this cross last now,
and may be able to pick it up with the help of Wimzakot here,
but it's going to get out of battle for now,
and Garchomp's got a lot of work to do.
Yeah, Garchomp has a lot of work to do,
and not a lot of time.
Going to spend this one turn protecting itself
so it does not risk getting hit by another Blizzard.
There's the moon glass this time going to connect onto the basket leads and just feeling a little bit of damage to that Pokemon
That protection protects the guard top from that last respect
But that just means that Sneasler and Sneasler's fake-out pressure gets in for free. Yeah, it's an incredibly important site
The last game was carpeting to resist something. Wow. And now Gershom probably needs to hit a double protect this day
And this game double up in that slot would be very devastating if it's not gonna directly be very close with that life
It fails to double protect went for it, but doesn't get it.
We are not seeing a lot of double protects here at the World Championship.
The Drowow even goes for the fake out onto Whimsicott recognizing that Garchoff had to go for that.
And instead it goes down.
Vasco Legion picks up another KO.
It is just Whimsicott remaining.
And yes, we get a game three in top cut.
So easily it can go either way.
either way. I was showing why he's one of the best players in the Latin America region,
doing a great job of locking that one in. I wouldn't impress a victory as well. It kind
of seemed like he gave up that likelihood not to be able to do easily, but no. He had
a plan for this one, able to come away with the win despite losing the Charizard counter.
Maybe in Carson's side, the other way, he just couldn't stay in a position where he
could really take advantage of the Charizard at all, right? It seemed like it was so big
and maybe it would have been if the Sun was able to cause that blizzard to miss, but Frost
This last clutching gap, able to get that extra damage
in and out of the Charizard.
Because of that, but King Gaman and Charizard
going down to that turn, creating the advantage from Joao
to finish out the game.
Yeah, without any of those additional resources,
Carson just could not law his way back into that game.
And Joao, like you mentioned, just proving how easily it
can go the other way.
When you have these close matches, these deed heavy matches,
it can really turn on a dime.
And that makes this game three so exhilarating.
Even if it looks exactly the same from the Pokemon choices,
the different choices that the different lines
that are going through these players' head are immense.
I'll be really excited to see if we see once again
kind of the same league combination,
this sort of mind game each other, just at an angle.
I do think with these two team matchups in particular,
I mean, I'm sort of stressed with so much time
before this tournament,
thinking about what they want to do in this matchup.
If you played a little bit differently
because of which your opponent has made
or like who your opponent is,
but you know, they probably played this match
in their heads for weeks before this tournament.
Oh, Scovillain, spicy on the field next to the Lycan Rock.
And the Siezler up against the Charizard.
So Scovillain changed up from Joao,
bringing that Pokemon as the Mega,
and most likely leaving Frostlass behind.
Now, Frostlass looked really good in that last game,
but had to get pretty lucky to do it, right?
Maybe Aurora will be able to potentially be impactful,
but wouldn't really not matter,
because that double hit Blizzard wanted him to be big.
But maybe we're not talking at all right now,
and maybe we're talking about energy
with the Blizzard issue.
So, opting for the Scovillain and Savage,
for this very physical Pokemon heavy line up that Carson has been bringing.
So don't get pretty impactful here, you know.
Any Pokemon that hits a megascovillain will be spurned and everything with Charizard
can be pretty upset by that.
And hey, there's a Pokemon in the team whose job it is to knock out Charizard.
So, like in Rock and Handle Charizard, it's a govillain to handle everyone else.
It's a pretty positive team to it, right?
That's why this team is supposed to be favorite in the Charizard.
Absolutely.
And Basquieligian coming out, Joao, is going to protect the like in Rock.
Not going to let that focus act be broken immediately.
There is a double protect, so while it's fishing for a good moody boost onto this Scovillain,
of course moody will increase the special defense and drop its speed.
That special defense you would probably rather have defense, but that's one of those too
that you consider a jackpot.
Yeah, I think we're doing pretty good about it, right?
It's going to make it much easier to deal with the Chargill, where the Strix govillain
survived that long.
Again, defensively better.
You want to make sure you burn both of these post-movements you can, but are you really
willing to get both of these Pokemon thrown to kick out Scovillain?
The argument's probably a losing game for Tarzan, so he's got to figure out how to deal with this one.
If you really prefer your special attacking Pokemon to deal with Scoville in order to get rid of those burns,
but not really going to be an option here, and Lycanroc to switch out like, hey, think that look is so good for you.
We got to save this guy for later.
Yeah, I don't see King Gambit or Tarzan, so Lycanroc has no business being on the field right now.
But what does have business is the Mega Scoville, and like you mentioned, any physical attackers that,
For any attackers that hit into Scovillain at all, will be burnt by a spicy spray.
You can see that's why Fast Collision is protecting.
The Direfly is not enough damage to pick up the KO onto Scovillain.
Let's get a paralysis.
These are will be burnt for its troubles.
Carson's plan here is to just stall out and only have one Pokemon over two turns that Sneasler be burned and take out the Scovillain.
Steelers are definitely the best Pokemon to get priority if you pick somebody.
Still useful if it's burned.
They're not going to deal as much damage if you burn a half of the Pokemon physical damage,
but it does allow it.
You still use fake outs.
You can still get a status effect from Direclaw.
You know, it's doing more than nothing.
One of these other Pokemon with their job is just damage.
I'm not too excited here.
However, the best collision reports have potentially a decent spot here.
I'm getting the awkwardness of having to figure out which best religion is faster now.
But at least Skovillain almost dealt with.
Skovillain almost dealt with, but also kind of scary to have Skovillain dealt with
on this team because now the close combat picking up the
skill bill and that is just powering up Joe Al's last
respect which would be able to pick up a KO into the opposing
Vasculation. There is the white herb activating to
fix on all of the drops from the close combat as one Vasculation's last
respects without any painted partners is not enough to pick up the KO
but that life for Vasculation with one painted partner
Absolutely hit it.
Now, Kory takes some recoil damage here as well.
So the faster Legion had the best way
to be able to attack twice more.
But twice could be enough in this situation.
Even though the Pokemon count, and the Carson
still has the mega-volve Pokemon, which is helpful here.
But we're kind of running out of resources in Carson.
So I was feeling like I kept the porn.
Ceasar's going to have some problems here.
Charizard starts to wear the light.
And Rocky does call the Charizard switch coming into battle.
And now this is looking like a pretty advantageous situation
for Jawa once again.
You know, in Xcelarok, you know, the Charizard
attack easily with that skilletion.
Just don't worry about like an rock potentially getting sash here,
which you really want to avoid, but pretty apt to take this position.
So, Johnson, can you get this read right?
I think both sides kind of feel like, hey, you know, if I get one big one right,
I'm really close to moving on to the top eight.
And this is definitely a moment where there could be a big lead one way or the other.
Charizard retreats.
Person is not ready to put all of it on Charizard right now.
Instead, bringing in the Winsicott.
Wow also not willing to put it all on like a rock protect, but that is protecting in front of a whizakot on the switch
Little dog to be close combat this time around
But that's these learn out goes down to the last respect because of it this basket
You get like you said it only gets to swing twice, but that might just be enough
Yeah, that's a big knock that Charles are number one before spec on to the battlefield and things are getting really dicey for Carson
You know, Windsor cut, maybe if it had,
or if maybe Skeezler'd be able to knock out the Vasculage,
you could try to touch Lichenrock a little bit more easily
with an Encore or something,
but there's still a Pokemon remaining on Dua's side of the field,
so it makes this much more difficult to deal with.
Charizard probably going to have to protect here.
interested during Lichenrock, he's gonna flee for now,
try to have more flexibility, anticipating the Charizard.
He's not going to leave it so vulnerable this turn.
Okay, well, King Gambit is switching in for the Lichenrock.
That means that carpet is able to now mega-evolve
his Charizard.
Why?
Cars are now out on the field, sets the sun, going to make sure that its fire type attacks
are even more powerful.
Aske legion goes for a protect, does not want to paint this turn.
Wimpsicott not going for an encore instead of a moon blast into the protect and the
weather ball catches King Gambit on the switch in.
That does mean that Lincoln Rock gets to come in for free and without the risk of being
encore to do the resets.
Yeah, so that win is probably going to go on offense, and appropriately this game could all come down to a read.
And if there isn't a missile rocket into the Charizard slot, maybe you can do some big damage here and start flipping this game around.
But, you know, otherwise, Charizard's really still being threatened by this Lycanroc.
A double win, but wins the cut, not so free to either.
A vasculation somewhat being checked by, while win the cut will be quicker of an either Lycanroc or vasculation.
So, really precarious position for the spectators. It's so close.
This is so tense and that Vasco Legion just protected,
so it may not have an opportunity
to go for, to protect this time around.
It would have to go for a double,
also risking being on board,
or just being picked up by a KO from the Whimsicron
and a Moonblast here.
But can Lycanroc beat both of these Pokemon?
Now Lycanroc is going to actually end the game.
You know Vasco Legion can't do an internal
at this level, hell, it's a tail end,
you know the tail end, oh, it's so happy
about that tail end and no protect.
That's because the Accelerate connects onto Charizard!
One, two, three, oh!
And with that, Joao has defeated the major offensive pressure
that Carson has remaining.
And with the last respects connecting up to Whimsicott,
brings it down to Focussage, but that is it.
Joao, the lead linty is moving on to our top eight.
What an incredible performance.
You're Carson, I mean, so many great leads
over the course of this season,
but when it came down to it,
Joao able to present Brazil on the top eight
by making the read when he needed to.
a little bit of a crushing and moving out here.
Wouldn't be incredible match by both of these trainers.
Wow, and that is just what this meta is like right now.
Everything is, the margins are so thin.
It all comes down to these individual moments
where you can get the read correct.
None of those were wrong plays.
They were just one competitor making an understanding
the board seat and understanding their opponent
a little bit better.
What great poise by Joel throughout the course of this set.
You know, again, you're liking Rock.
It's supposed to have some advantage against Charizard, but it's not so easy, right?
You kind of see that in the first game where you know you have some theoretical advantages.
You still have to get the positioning.
And Carson is so good at making it difficult to push those advantages.
The good would have been very easy to fall behind for the first game and kind of just make a mistake
and get back out of this one.
But Jowell really locked in.
It's a great job of avoiding making any game losing mistakes in the subsequent games.
It had exactly enough resources, right?
That vasculage and just barely surviving as long as it needed to.
That final attack, clinching the win, looking really great there.
And then, hey, you'll like and rock.
Finally was able to survive a game, right?
Went down so early in game one and game two.
But in that third game, finally that end game win position
that you dream of it being gets charged.
Hey, you know, this team might be looking a little long
in the tooth after being created so early at regulation MA.
But here we are at the World Championships,
the end of regulation MB.
And it's moving on to the top eight.
Absolutely.
And I am so thrilled for Joao to have advanced to the top eight.
This is his first season in the Masters Division,
having aged up from the seniors division.
And let me tell you, my first season,
I was nowhere close to the top eight
at the World Championships in the Masters Division.
So congratulations, Joao.
Incredible play, extremely well deserved.
Yeah, incredible play.
And he's an incredible season to you.
I think he's really put the work in again.
You've been grinding online.
He's been making sure he's prepared for this tournament.
I think a lot of trainers found this format
to be very challenging.
It's not, to me, like maybe a number of trainers.
maybe I didn't put the prep in they would have liked to because it was hard.
And you know, it's a while pushed through.
He did what he had to do to make sure he'd be ready for this tournament.
He's getting his just rewards.
Congratulations to Carson as well.
I think it's probably an incredible season.
You know, sometimes you play another really great opponent.
Not everybody can win, but really excited for July.
I think it's always fun to kind of see the youth in the competitive circuit
started moving up and kind of establishing their name in this top age division.
And excited for Brazil too, right?
You know, it's not too often we get a player from Brazil this deep in the tournament.
So, hey, you know, maybe we'll get our Brazilian World Champion this year.
Absolutely. That would be our first Brazilian World Champion,
the second from the Latin American region,
and incredible play there from Joel to make it into the top eight.
You know, we have a new generation of Pokemon.
This is the first World Championships on Pokemon Champions.
And it's these moments where sort of the next generation of legends and competitors
that people start seeing their names on the match slip and say, oh, no.
I'm intimidated by the idea that I have to play against Joao who just got the top eight in the world championships.
Incredible and I'm so excited for the kids. All right, right?
You know, we've seen a few times every year now.
So these graduating seniors are just so powerful and Joao may be the most powerful yet.
Absolutely. And Joao, the powerful is down on stage and ready for an interview to tell us about how it feels to be in the top eight of the world championships.
Thank you so much. I'm here with your first top eight finalists of the 2026 World Championships.
Jorahal Khalid Leche. Congratulations. Thank you. So we have not seen you yet this weekend.
You had an incredible run in Swiss. Please tell us about it. What has been your experience
been like here at the World Championships? I love being the World Championships. It's
an awesome experience. My Swiss rounds were very tough. I started out with a loss and
I had to like come back after that, but I managed to do it. So I'm really happy.
Evan just called you Joao the powerful and if you started with a loss and came all the
way into top eight, I can't help but agree. You ran your team with Megascovillain and
Megafrost last so powerfully throughout that matchup. What made you decide to bring these
Pokemon.
It was a team that like I've been using for quite a while,
so I had a lot of comfort with it.
Even though I'm not sure if it was the best team
in the tournament, I'm very happy to play with it
because it's a team I've been playing for a long time.
So I feel like I'm good with it.
It felt very comfortable to you, right?
Yeah, for sure.
And do you think that comfort allowed you
to make some of those plays?
I mean, you brought Megasco Villain in that final battle.
What was your thinking behind that?
Yeah, I was thinking he was leading Charizard and King Gambit, and if I managed to get a burn onto the King Gambit and acelerate the Charizard, that would put me in a great position.
And I was kind of expecting a change of leads, but Covenant is generally good into his Pokemon because he has a lot of physical attackers, and the only one that really can KO it easily is Charizard.
So I think it was a good Pokemon to bring on Game 3.
It was a great Pokemon.
I mean, it got you here to top eight,
as well as some amazing friends and family, I'm sure.
Do you have any shoutouts you want to give to anybody at home?
I have a lot of shoutouts.
I have shoutouts for the people from Brazil watching,
shoutout to people from my school,
people from my prep group, Gloria, Andrew, Austin,
a lot of people.
And, yeah, I just don't know, I couldn't make,
I couldn't have made it here without the help of a lot of people.
So it feels really good.
Congratulations once again, Joao.
I'm making top eight here at the World Championships.
Best of luck in your next match.
And we're going to go ahead and head over to Ben's Battle Breakdown
to see what we have coming up next in our tournament.
Thank you so much, Gabby.
that. I mean, that was a
absolutely crazy game and.
Using a team that as you said,
Scott before like we saw it like
at the end of M a really come
into its own insurance and then
since then it's just it's just
never really stopped right?
It's always been there. Even
the grassroots tournaments. You
see it like getting this
consistent like top 16 top 8
the world championships here it is again it's twice in the top eight I really
like it where I think it's like the sort of you know it in most years I feel
like that kind of like wouldn't be the right way to approach the world
championship this format's been so much about comfort right like I don't know if
this team was ever like the strongest team in the format but it always seemed
like the people who liked it really liked it and like kind of from the moment
that they tried it after turn like oh man like I am the strongest soldier of
this team I don't play anything else ever again and we could be in your
regulation and they may still be playing the right format for that sort of thing
right where your company is so important and hey you like I know you know what
this does but like that's great beat me on it and it's not so easy yes that's
what's really surprising to me about it is because I expected people to have
figured out how to beat it by now there is no beating it I'm calling that out
now like I think like it's the perfect combination of everything right like
the like and rock covers the Charizard the Sneezer that covers the mega flow
these are the two most powerful Pokemon in the format.
I hear like, the way that I look at it is,
uh, Frostlass and Scovillain as the two makers,
kind of like everything else.
Uh, maybe, when you were the exception of King Gambit,
like a little bit,
Scovillain does a little bit of Colomai,
and Frostlass does a little bit of Colom B.
Yeah, I think what can be really cool about it is like,
the team has chemistry that I feel like other teams don't, right?
Uh, and like, yeah, I think like, uh,
it has some really great abilities to kind of counter
the strongest Pokemon in the game,
and then with what's left of it,
It all just plays really nicely together.
I think one thing that trainers were kind of finding difficult
about preparing for this year's World Championships,
it's like you just seem like every team
had something wrong with it, right?
Especially if you're working with a really high power
Pokemon, there just isn't like a perfect mix of them
that doesn't have any weaknesses.
And this team, I think, maybe you're dropping a little bit
in raw power, or I don't think anyone's coming
to terms with it.
Yes, I believe the two strongest mega of all Pokemon
are Frost Lassence Govillain, right?
That's a crazy take.
But it doesn't matter necessarily, right?
Because they play their role on the team.
They enable these other Pokemon,
Maybe you do have three of the strongest non mega evolving Pokemon the team and also like in rock is there to do its job
Like and King Gambit's there to fulfill the the role of the mega Pokemon
You're right. Yeah, the mega Pokemon is there all along. You just got a fish are yeah
Yeah, yeah, you know these mega stones just in glasses instead
I think that's just so brilliant right where I mean we get too caught up in like the idea of like power outside of a vacuum
And these are all Pokemon that make each other better
that. Yeah, definitely. It
is like the sum of the parts
make the team rather than just
the individual components
being the Pokemon with like the
most stats overall. One thing
I wanted to touch on taking a
couple clips from the match is
like how important this like and
rock is across the set. How
many reads that both of our
players were making in those
moments because like. The next
round that Joe is going to have
this is a position from game
one where we've already seen a
the like and rock go for an
Xceleroc into the Charizard. And
the question is like, do you
Xceleroc again? Right? And you
get these positions. Pretty
often. But the key thing here, I
think was that the King gambit on
King gambits on Carson side has
and put it into a position where, like, it doesn't matter what attack hits it, any attack going into this Lycanroc is going to be able to finish it off.
And once it's done, like, this team really does struggle with Charizard, right? This is the, the Lycanroc is the key linchpin of being able to actually deal with it.
You've invested an entire Pokemon in dealing with the Charizard and saying, like, I don't have a matchup into Charizard, but I have this one Pokemon, and that is exactly what it's for.
for is to have a priority rock type attack to knock out Charizard.
Regardless of the speed control.
Yeah, I think it's like you're kind of looking at this team, right?
You know, we see Garshaw up on almost every team.
You can speak us the absent here, right?
You know, there's like kind of a secondary checks for Charizard.
And while we found, I think impressive, maybe to be the most thing,
the thing was most impressive, but the says that you managed to win a game.
Well, like and rock did not help really at all dealing with Charizard.
It just, yeah, and again, it's so critical because the rest of the team
beats up Charizard's friends really well, right?
And that's sort of the point.
But keeping Lycan Rock in front of Charles on the right turns is really difficult.
That's why we don't see more of this team and it kind of requires those players like,
okay, I've decided to one trick this team until the end of time because there's a lot of finesse
needed even though if you actually get the 1v1 it's so easy. I'm talking about finesse, I mean,
let's let this clip roll out, right? Because this was the turn where the Windsor cock goes for the
protect and then there's the double up of the sucker punch and the Excel Rock, thinking that
maybe Carson was going to go on the defensive and you got to call out this play from Carson,
right? And this is game-winning turn on the spot there. As soon as, as soon as the protect gets
locked in on the Whimsicott, this Charizard just gets to go absolutely crazy here and just go
straight on the offensive, go for his mega evolution, and go for the heat wave there. If my
buttons are doing the, doing the business here, is, uh, why this game went in Carson's favor.
This is, this is the turn that basically confirmed to me I could never play either of these teams
I was like, Oh, I'm going to
get this match up. Because the
moment like I was realized. Oh,
wait, which one do I protect?
Do I protect women's a cop to
protect Charizard? I have no
idea which one do I protect,
and I know I lose if I get the
wrong one, right? Isn't it?
It's important to call out here
that. Never have a player's
really have any idea exactly
how this turn is going to go,
right? Because, uh, you know,
women's a cop can go for maybe
an encore into the lichen rock
that may be a little bit later.
Right? That still blocks the
sucker punch. You need the
the the wins are cut in that turn right and so it gets really dicey here the game the game is a forfeit
Straight away on the job because the big parts of
Shows team are really taking care of and I think that's really important to call out like in this match up like even if you
Have a Pokemon like like a rock and so good against the Charizard like you still got a you still got to get the turns right when they matter
Because we maybe one of those difficult teams to do it with right where like in rock
You know it bought us bad as you can get on the defensive side
You know the absolute poster child for the focus sash held item and I can see here that first
How easy it is for things to go wrong and like you know you have like the hardest counter for charge are theoretically in the game
You know
You have one of the best players of like a rock still it goes wrong sometimes
Definitely moving on to game two right where we had this this situation again
We're coming into it after the first excel rock, right?
I mean, is it like one of the key, key through lines through this match is like, can you get Excel rock off or not?
And the first two games, it was a distinct not as it turns out.
And like after this Charizard, it's already burn its protect.
So it cannot protect itself reliably, at least on this turn.
You've got the, the Sneasler, threatening a close combat into here.
There's a close combat coming into the King Gambit as well.
There's the Excel rock pressure on the Charizard that's just gone for the protect.
But also you've got the like almost safe play of just going for a fake out into the King gambit
We stop that from moving then the Excel rock goes into the Charizard
It looks like a lovely objective play in this situation
And I love how Carson was able to deal with this and just being able to like hey hang on a second
I'm just gonna switch the Charizard out
So smart.
And like the Excel rock, yeah, it's an upside that it's got its tough claws as an ability,
right?
A few more damage to be able to knock out these Charizards, a little bit of a downside
when there's a rock, a rough skin on the other side.
Yeah, yeah, it's got tough claws, but the skin was even tougher.
And, you know, I can think about the play again, too.
I kind of missed it in the moment.
I wonder a little bit if perhaps that draw was conditioned by what happened in that turn
you called out from game one, right?
I was like, oh, like, Charizard kind of got me by attacking in a turn where I thought
he wouldn't.
I don't lose in the same way again, and that just caused him to lose like and rock in a different way. Yeah, and there's here is the switch into Garchomp here the rough skin gonna be activating knocking out that like and rock from one percent.
But I think the really key thing here and where this was a little bit of a great switch up for Joe is when we go a little bit further, we haven't got a time stamp on it.
it, but when we got a little bit further and there's the Basque Legion in the back and that adaptation, I think was the
Best thing that I did in this whole game was like identifying it with the life orb even after just one Pokemon gets knocked out
Basque Legion's Basque Legion's coming for you.
Basque Legion was so important in that game. Just having that offensive pressure outside
in the Sun
have with the ghost type last respects there after one KO you're fine letting your like and rock go down because you had a
Second option to start blowing up the Pokemon on Parsons
Yeah, I think it's really big too because we are kind of talking before like okay
You know maybe one of the weaknesses team is a bunch of raw power some others
But I think you can make a pretty good arguments
Okay, I want the most offense I can possibly get from two non mega evolving Pokemon what you poke one
Should I big and what item should I give them?
I think giving the life orb to Basque Legion rather than to something like Garcharp or King Gambit
given King Yambet those black glasses which is nearly as good, but it's like uniquely good for King Yambet because it can get by without coverage.
I think that's probably actually the best you can do with two Pokemon.
And we kind of really saw that throughout the course of the two games of Joao 1 where basketball legend was horrifying.
Even with like one knockout on its team, Lasreplex is kind of just mowing down everything.
Yeah, exactly. It leads us into our game three here.
And this is after the Skow Villain goes down, right?
It goes for the Diaclore into the Skow Villain, gets the poison, but takes a burn for its troubles.
And this is a really cool turn here where Xiao brings the Lycan Rock in after the Skow Villain goes down.
The Basquilligians trading last respects, but even if it was a Speedtide,
while still was able to make it through the last respects, base power is not enough to carry a Basquilligian.
It's kind of the cool Pokemon, like, just from a little side note, like, from a design choice,
it's like, it's the most powerful thing, but just wait for it, like, eventually.
Like, there's a nice little balance there.
But now, of course, you've got the Excel rock again, threatening down this Charizard, whether it protects or not.
But I think the key thing here is getting the burn on the Sneezer.
now the dive floor, which is
resisted into the Basque legion,
14% isn't much, but like it's on
the edge. It's another point
where you're like, Hey, hang on
a second. Does this KO and then
you like it looks to me while I
was thinking watching the maps
like. Does this last respects
just go into here and the like
and what go into here and is
like, Is there anything that
Carson can do about that
It's unclear to me, and it was such a really interesting sequence of events that led us
here.
Both I think Carson making the right calls on only targeting the Skow Villain with the
Sneasler, but the way that Joel was able to then capitalize on the Skow Villain going
down by making sure that Sneasler had to double target it, boosted the last respects, allowed
it to pick up the KO on the basket legion proper on Carson's side, which then allowed
the Lycan Rock to come in on the switch for free.
Really clever sequencing of events there.
Yeah, I thought both players were just so smart
the way they played this one.
They both seemed to have prepared in their slides.
I feel like we say this sort of thing a lot,
like, oh, both players are so great.
I'm so proud of all of our trainers.
But this time I really mean it, right?
Where I think it was like exactly the right way
to play that recarcent, especially given the moody boost
that's goviling out, but I was ready for it, right?
I think they're both just so practiced, so experienced,
then you had to play that line so well.
And it's easy to see how both the trainers got to this point
in the tournament.
100% as like and that game free was just the main difference right between that made it like so far in trials favor is
Like a rock still got its sash
You know and that's such a difficult thing to get through making that last call on the Excel rock into the Charizard like as like well
I've tried it five times before
Surely this time surely this time. Yeah, just like a really great
team. We're going to be
going to be a great example of
how this team functions into
Charizard, and especially a
great example for what's coming
up where Giovanni is playing a
Charizard the all of these
things that we've been talking
about will matter for that top
eight match and just a little
reminder to everyone at home
that we will be able to feature
all of our top eight matches.
But not only that, of course,
all of our top four matches
Yeah, it's a really exciting point of the tournament. We've got down to eight players without further ado
Let's head it over to our casters and get our top eight going
We have the eight best Pokemon trainers in the entire world picked out and with
each match we get closer and closer to determining who is going to be our next
Pokemon world champion. Welcome back everyone. Sierra Dawn Lee provost on the
desk to get started with top eight of our competition. Oh my gosh we're here
already only eight trainers left. I know I can't believe we're at this stage yeah
Yeah, yeah. 16 foot mass.
Top 8. But yes, getting into the top 8 itself, you know, is just such an incredible accomplishment.
And it's very exciting to be at this really crucial point of the tournament to see who will be progressing on.
Obviously, Scott mentioned it earlier. If you lose at this stage, that is it.
Your tournament run is over, but if you win, you are on a road to hopefully get a little bit closer to Championship Sunday.
And it is the top eight trainers quick math once again, but for the trainers to make their way to this point
It's just been absolutely incredible and with only a few match wins away
From finding yourself in that championship Sunday or potentially with that world championship title
They've all won a few matches of Pokemon before it's why they're here at this point and any of them to be our next world champion
This is incredible list as well. There's so many different storylines coming coming to light
Yeah, and lots of different team comps as well, which I think really shows the innovation skill level of these trainers to kind of go with different options as well and those
Talked about it time and time again those micro decisions that make all the difference on the battlefield
And that's what it will come down to a lot of the time
How comfortable are these trainers with these teams that they've put all of their confidence into and it's been like you say
Amazing to see and witness a lot of the journeys we've had so far
But for a number of these trainers, the journey still got to continue.
We've got another chapter to compete until we get to that final one tomorrow.
And these matches are just getting closer and closer of course.
When you have the caliber of player that we have, well to be expected,
but it's been so exciting.
But let's get started with our first top eight match.
This is going to be a fun one, everyone.
We have Antonio Sanchez going up against Hiroshi Onishi.
And looking at two teams that just put so well positioned going into the event and two trainers with very fantastic accomplishments.
Yeah, well, we know Horishi is the current Japan national champion from earlier this year. Incredible accomplishment.
And then continuing that form into the World Championships, into the top bit of the tournament.
But Antonio, no stranger, we had them on stream earlier.
Antonio obviously winning that regional in Liverpool in 2024 season.
Since then it's been very consistent with the results.
getting into day two consistently, getting into top eight,
and just an incredible player.
It's never had that huge win outside of a region
or one of the major events.
Could this be the one?
Antonio definitely capable of it,
incredibly skilled trainer,
but got a tough task ahead of him.
And not the first world top cut
when you look back at 24 with that top 16 at Honolulu,
but now having already won up that being here in top eight,
you know that he's gotta be hungry to take that.
Even one step further,
now that you've been afforded that opportunity once again.
But of course, for Hiroshi to win the Japan National Championships,
go into the World Championships with that title
and be able to accomplish this type of run
with that National Champion buff,
it would just be incredible to be able to see him go all the way.
It would be either trainer, it would be a joy to see
lifting that trophy on Sunday,
but of course, one has to overcome the other
before we get close to that.
and both have very similar teams on the face of it,
but there are some big differences
that are gonna play a huge part in this match
and who will be able to come out on top of course
and start with Antonio's team here.
Tox of Pecs was star of the show earlier,
is the big difference really between the two teams
and can be the difference maker for Antonio in general.
It's a Pokemon that we saw really pop off at NAIC
and the amount of mileage you can get from it
and just how careful your opponent has to be.
Of course, it is just so bulky.
It can be a real pest to deal with,
but if you're also over compensating for the talks effects
and trying to throw too much into that,
there's so much offensive powerhouse pieces on this team
that can really make the difference.
Sylveon, I feel like, has been the star of the tournament,
and of course, you can't discount the others as well.
And even Venusaur, this set having that sleep outer variety,
if you land one of those sleep routers,
that has the opportunity to completely
turn to the hides of the match.
Yeah, especially if the Charizard from Marishi comes out,
It sets the sun that chlorophyll is activated, that venous soul is then enabled.
That sleep powder, if it does hit like you see, it can be the difference maker.
This choice scarf on the Godchump as well does create a few issues for Horoshi,
where they're going to have to really lean into their whimsy cock.
There's speed control option to get ahead of that.
So they do go down a Charizard route, then it needs to be able to supersede that.
Do you bring the flowette here?
You mentioned the venous soul that Antonio's got access to.
That's another great Pokemon that can sit in front of it, way more comfortable than other options and can threaten back with that sledge bomb damage.
Looking over at Hiroshi's team, we had called it some of the similarities when we are looking at a Mega Charizard, right?
But this one just has a lot more offense across the board, paired up with this Gwimsacott.
And being able to pressure something like an Encore or even just outspeeding for a lot of these speedier pieces can just completely push the momentum in your favor.
But it's what mega you want to go with as well as you do have a Charizard over the floor
I feel like the Charizard could be really strong one in this match, but still you have options
You do have options
I think the pivotal piece is gonna be that wins the cup because it can help disrupt what is a big phone in
Roshi side in the toxa pecs if you can hopefully lock it into something like a wide guard
Then it really becomes a bit of dead weight for Antonio and then gives you the ring to maybe leverage some of these big pieces
like you see the Charizard that has got engine power that's an advantage in Hiroshi has over Antonio so even in front of an opposing
Mega Charizard you can threaten with that attack with super effective damage, then you look at the Float as well
It's got that burst damage in light of ruin and it can support the whimsy cut as well
But there are some big threats and a couple of poison types they don't want to see
Two very capable trainers, but only one can move on to top four between Antonio Sanchez and Hiroshi Onishi
Let's get into it and find out who's very aggressive lead from Hiroshi
But Antonio has it well Garchamp and King Gambit on the one side
Unisor and Charizard for the other you've got to be careful if you are Antonio with that Garchamp
Obviously, there is the Rocks line threat there and you can't go to protect
Just get the Sun in play and then take advantage like you mentioned in the other view all that sleep party
You can put the Garchamp to sleep and then the three's at the Charizard to help deal with the King Gambit
the thingambers on her or she side has not bought a protect so right now sit in
front of this Charizard with his friend so you did see the play of Charizard
mega while Venus off put that gosh on to sleep then the Charizard can go straight
after that thingambers the one thing you would say the thingambers has in his back pocket is an
opera berry it will give at least one extra turn in front of this Charizard to get an attack on.
The evolution was a Charizard to go ahead and get a rest of the on this turn and of course bring
the Sun about to leave powder Garchomp for Hiroshi won't do anything on this turn as it has to take a mandatory turn of sleep 75% of the time. It is a great move. But King Gambit, Aucubarie will definitely help to take this hit just down to below half and let the Garchomp's able to shrug it off now that should be up to King Gambit to be feeling the damage trying to equalize just a little bit and it will be a
How does he leave into Charizard? A lot of damage into it.
Yeah, it's nice damage into Charizard.
He's with the Okubari, he's off with that Charizard up.
Is it in range of the Superflinch?
He's probably saying not after that Charizard.
He's damaged.
The Venusaur as well is bringing in the King Gamma with him.
If Baron is Cauchom, he's going to be free.
Is it going to wake up this time?
If he can wake up, we can threaten this Charizard.
But do you need that King Gamma in a vulnerable spot now,
where it's potentially threatened by both that Charizard?
And if you go for the stretch potentially being so good at some things, you can take that King Amit out on the way.
Not wanting to potentially get sucker punch, Charizard has to swap out as no sucker punch said King Amit to just eat up this earth power as being a sword to claim the first kill in the match.
King Amit goes down for a guard shot. Time to see if it will wake up. No, another turn of sleep. No damage coming out from Hoshi's end of the board.
It's a nice play from Antonio, taking advantage of the ball position there, if you don't switch
that King out, I'm going to take it down.
Thankfully for Antonio, the guard jump saves his sleep, now it has spent its turn, it's
got a chance to wake up this next game, but you've got your guard jump on the field for
free, it'll be interesting to see which Pokemon comes in for hosh, which mega if they went
for, is there any more towards that floor, that's going to have issues against that Venus
soul, and if it is the Charizard, that is going to have to deal with the guard jump,
probably enemy number one. Yeah, especially to with that Shui serve over on the Garchon
Sture, you're giving up a little bit of damage for that, but you're just oh so speedy. I mean,
into the match though, basket region instead of trying pressure. Of course, with these
water type attacks, they won't be doing quite as much damage, so doing like the last respects
isn't really good to get either, and both Pokemon Antonio's and the board are full health.
Yeah, the one thing that you would say in normal situations is that Venus would threaten
that basketball league and it doesn't have a blast type attack, it's just got the earth
fire and the sludge bomb. So basketball league isn't sitting in a bit more of a
preferable state right now, it's not really going to be threatened by a knockout from
that Venusaur because if it's the boost in the stun, so if you can get an attack off
onto one of the Garchomp old Venusaur, it will help soften it up. You just got to hold
the wrong Garchomp and get it up.
Will it be protect for the basketball league and to not get put to sleep as Venusaur attempts
to fire off another one for the guard chomp though it will be Antonio is
moving hers and all Eddie with Amacel's intimate guard chomp for her oh she goes
down. Yeah it's a big turn for Antonio and you can see there maybe the possibility of trying to get the
thing there, drawing those attacks into the guzzle protect maybe but no Antonio not falling for it
going straight after the target in the guard chomp. There was a bit of a scene
up there now this Charizard is forced out into the field guard chomp is locked
into the Dragonfall though, so there is no threat of that rock slide, but still this Dragonfall
is going to be hitting pretty hard. And you've still got that threat to the Sleep Hatter.
Is it going to go into the Basque League and that you protect it?
It's going to start to go after. And you've got the focus that there's a little bit of security
for that Venusole. You go after the Charizard with just that Dragonfall.
Trying to double up it into it, but again, with how fast this Venusaur is thanks to the Sun,
a Sleep Hatter connecting can just completely stop her off to the side of the board.
It's cracked a little bit of a swathe for Roo though instead of her to join the freight in place of that garchop
So an opportunity to have that move reset
Mega evolution so late into all of it make sure you get the most momentum out of this Charizard
Because it definitely has to make some up no sleep powder though instead just full offensive freeing Charizard down to about half
He weighed in retaliation in general will take the hit well, but Venus or it gets brought right down to its focus sash
Yeah, it's a perfect Pokemon in the back, but Antonio, getting that all-important intimidating onto the Basque Legion, and the bird coming out onto the Venusaur, it's not going to stick around one this turn.
It will go down, the last respect's coming out, and not going to be that effective, needs to be a general bridge switch there.
Losing the Venusaur though, I don't know if Antonio minds this too much, because it gets that Garchomp back out onto the field, right?
And now it's going to be able to lock in with the Rockslight, it will potentially be able to get rid of the Corridor through which damage suits that Basque Legion as well.
Have you got enough of the tank to be able to take down the Vasco legion in Cinerol on Antonio's side?
Does not have a kill.
I've got to take advantage of that.
Thanks for nothing, Focus Ash.
This is all I'll say.
Venusaur going down, which you wouldn't maybe want to do that sludge boat damage.
That second hit into the Charizard to try and take it down, or even just the sweep powder.
But at least Garchomp coming back out, we hit that same thing the last time.
You have the Twi'etsker.
If you walk into a move, what is it going to be?
Because something like the Foxlight trying to take off this Charizard,
but it's the basket leading to both sitting at a lot of health.
Yeah, it is. It's going to be
re-conflicted about what it goes home next.
I mean, the last respect is going to be doing a lot of damage.
There is only one turn of the stun left as well.
The ins and outs does have fake outs.
So cancel that charge or damage turn.
And after that, though,
it probably will be a case of get through this protector
and see what the start shot locks into
and then approach that next turn, respectively.
Maybe without the stun, the basket leading to them
will be a little bit more threatening,
especially with that little crash to the after just so they can have access to trying to get rid of that in general.
Just a swap for Rue for the Garchomp, no luck yet.
Charizard instead for Enchirio coming back out.
And this is a great way too to maybe just brunt some protectors.
You now get your Charizard in.
Oh, not for free!
Vascular Legion goes on the offensive, so the swap in, Charizard goes down!
You might now see a pot and shot here from this Incinero and Vascular Legion to lie that attack hurry even further.
And then you can drop another Intimidate and then you've got that active fake out.
It's quite a smart play for Mantonio.
The Roshi pulling themselves really back into this game so well.
But now you're going to have that fake out onto what was just the protective Charizard.
You can stop that and extract, concentrate all of your efforts down onto Vasculation.
It's just going to be further with him to the now, even though it always comes to the field.
Now Garahton 3 hits the field, Incinera comes out.
And as you said, that attack where Vasculation is even lower.
And now, since the Charizard has burned for tech, do you go for the double or potentially bail it?
Or do you just go for the attack as both options are tough?
At least if Garchomp does lock into something like that rock side, there is always that opportunity for the miss, right?
But the odds aren't necessarily in your favor for that, so do you risk this match on that moment?
Yeah, I think it's a really tough call here.
I think if you go for the tech, if you go for it, it'll make more sense to if you get it, then it works out really well for you.
Now, the Baskilligen's the biggest problem for Antonio to deal with right now, because it looks like Jukka has the impact he wants.
It does land on the Charizard, no fake out as well.
Antonio's going to maybe cycle another part of his shot into this Baskilligen to try and weaken it even further.
First off, we get to see the last respects into the Garjop and you can weaken it all you want.
When the critical hit comes through, the Garjop won't be able to survive.
Vasculage and brought down to 45% health.
Seeing Cynaror clear blade's not necessarily too effective,
is not quite doing enough.
Get the run this one back,
but it's only going to be these two folk, come on.
Yeah, and I think in Cynaror,
probably just going to be able to close it up.
That clear blade stun you just seen
is going to be enough to get the knockout key.
You've got to consider as well the life of recall.
Although last respect has been powered up to the maximum,
not going to be able to do it, but is this way fresh?
A couple of rounds of Intimidate, but with Ratch coming on through into the Incinerator is enough damage.
Vast Illusion wins the 1v1, and Hiroshi takes the first game in the set.
Yeah, the potting shots, the plays, the intricate getting in and out was just not enough to weaken that Vast Illusion to the point where it was able to be overcome by the Incinerator there, and, you know, I think really well played from Hiroshi.
Antonio managed to feel very well in a lot of scenarios, especially that early game of the Sleep
Powder is getting rid of the King Gambit, but didn't really have the answers to that
Basque Legion when it hit the field, unfortunately. I think a little bit of a real awkward Pokemon
to deal with when you've got no grass type attack on your Venusaur, you've got no way to change
moves on your Garchomp as well. It really made it difficult to land anything into that Basque
Legion. I think the Charizard as well was probably the best method to deal with the Basque Legion
It has got solar beam, but we saw it coming in getting caught on the switch without last respects really just left Antonio with
Very few resources to kind of come back and clean up the game
And the amount of damage at the end the last respects critical hit into Gartons
Got to feel good and then still having enough momentum to take down the incinerator now for Antonio
Where do we switch it up for game number two the Venusaur it was nice when you landed the sleeper
It was nice with the earth power but a couple of options may be lacking to try and take care of that basket
We can have ran away with the end game
Maybe something to prioritize a little bit sooner
But let's find out as we head into game number two here
Garchomp and Kinggamut is once again for Hiroshi and on the opposing end will run back to Charizard
But now with Incinera
A little bit of a switch up, that early Intimidate is going to be good in one respect
On to the opposing Garchomp but not on to that Kinggamut at the fine ability activating
So it is going to be a little bit more threatening.
You've got to get through this next turn.
See, the King Gammon doesn't have tech.
So it is a nice, easy target for that Baker to slow down here.
But you probably want to go after the guard jump.
It is threatening bigger damage on the Charizard
with potential walkslide as well.
So choices are, do you keep that Charizard on the field
and maybe just leverage your Baker here
to get something in a little bit more
preferable machine that much.
It's for us.
And no switch.
While Charizard's here, we're gonna make the most of it.
First off, with the Mega Evolution, and again, bringing around the drone, and the Sunshine.
Off the scene, though, because Garchomp on the opposing end can be a very scary threat.
But one that will be taken down for now, with tanks of that fake out.
Garchomp can't act, and Heatwave, there is going to be a...
Okay, it's gonna be... there is gonna be an Akkaberid, but it will be a double connect.
King Gamda's gonna survive this hit.
Now, with an opportunity to respond with Kautau Cleave into something like this Charizard,
could be a great way to do some damage, but Low Kick into Incineroar does even more, bringing it down to just a bit.
It's a nice Low Kick, and the Alkabar used a good use there, just something that Incineroar now is going to be susceptible to going down to a potential.
But it's quick, if that's what you're choosing, from that Gaucho, you would have to in that scenario switch out the King Gamma if you're Horoshi and kind of poke all the boost that you've got.
Charizard is still sitting in not a terrible position though.
I'm wondering has Antonio brought the Tox effects this game though?
That is something that you could maybe give it in to here.
You're not expecting an earthquake.
Your Garchomp is minus one as well so I could try and get it on the field.
It's as possible if it is there but we'll have to wait and see.
Charizard not in the greatest spot though right now in front of you.
It certainly is not which is why protect from Antonio to keep it safe past this turn.
Dirty take on a lot of damage as well as he will you just don't want it to be taken a sucker for test taking any damage
You don't want to take any with that sucker pun now with follow up rocks live incineroar is
Quite good through this turn, but are we gonna see it act? Yes?
Blair bless dry and take care of this threat of the king gambit while you can yes good trades yet
You know easy stuff that potting show this is a dollar jump right we cannot let it further
but the moving rest of the King Gambit is very valuable here and the Incinero is still
sticking around as well so there is potential to swap that out and then in that case we
will see it later on if you want to. You've got to be careful as well if you are Antonio
now because there's two rock threats in the field, we've got Karachi, Charizard if it
mega rolls it's got that ancient power and then you do have the Rock Slide as well and
the Rock Slide is pretty straightforward here, we'll pick up the knockout onto Incinero because
with Amateur Story taken and that Charizard will be in range, it depends on the speed,
interactions as well. Which Charizard is going to go first or oh she does surpass
Antonio's can get that into power-up with the rocks like so. Antonio's Charizard not in again
the best of positions right now. There's always just that little bit of variation with the folk
with the speeds of the Pokemon so it's time to see if potentially there's a ski tie or who is
going to move first but a switch out is another way to reserve instead of playing any sort of
to those speedtide games, go ahead and threaten with not just one, but two Pokemon switching
out. Talk to Pax. It's going to be a switch up here in game number two.
Yeah, I'm going to get that negative release from the jersey. Why? We'll see if it is the
Ancient Power. There's also a chance that comes out of the boost, which would be a huge
help to Horoji. A fence to try. We're going to see the Dragon Claw. It is cold on the
Switch Inn. Great cold there. And is it going to be swallowed up by the Ancient Power?
Decent amount of damage with the Dragon Claw, but OVAP Wave instead hit into both of these targets and bring Garchomp for Antonio down to just a bit.
Burn onto the Tox effects as well. That's not what you'd want to see when you're relying on this Pokémon to be sticking around for so long.
This is going to negate the amount, like, the leftover recovery that you're trying to get.
Yeah, that makes it very difficult so you utilise the Toxic Fex in the way that you want to
set an appeal, kind of just tip away and disrupt.
Now it is going to be pretty much staying where it is and every bit of damage will count now,
so really fortunate for Horoshe.
They do have access to why God this turned, or do you start getting things on the time
that you go for the trap, you go for the Toxic onto a set of fields.
You can go Toxic pretty comfortably here.
You know that you can damage the only immunity on Horoshe's side has fallen,
falling so when you go after and it lands it will take effect. The gall jump down and turning
your side as well is golf. Has the access to go for the dragon clone to the opposing gall jump?
Probably will be enough to pick up the knockout there. How do you choose to go through this
charge that we have? You're going into a protect. So, protect on the turn. Stay good past this
rock slide and just pick up a little bit more into the gall jump on the opposing end. A flinch
would always be nice to try and make sure this aspect isn't taking any more damage but instead
just this earthquake this will hit into both of the pokemon onto antonio's and something that
box effect does not appreciate at all and garchon does not have a way to get through wow the earthquake
there really bold decision by haroshi knowing that why god is an option but saying well if you
don't go for it i'm gonna really reap some rewards you see the tongue to come out onto the garchon but
I think a turn too late, and so much damage as well with that critical hit, and the top two pecs isn't in a real
potential, because now any sort of damage onto it will probably be enough to pick it up, and it's not
utilizing any sort of roll that we use to think, or is she dealing with it so so well.
And there is always the potential to try and swap it out against Rikari, that way, but when the pieces
on your team are kind of dwindling away, and you've taken so much damage into something like that in
already that's also a difficult one because you know that the Pokemon you
send in for the talks effects might just be taken down and then you're left
with only two options left Antonio definitely in a very tricky situation
yeah and now you can bring in the Incineroop here so much damage so far but
you will be able to utilize that takeout onto the Charizard of the Gargoyle
probably want to go for the Charizard though, more than anything. If you go up to the Garchard,
the rough skinner is probably going to take you down, but you are in a real pinch here where
a heat wave is going to be enough to clear the top specks and incinerate it. That isn't a chosen
target, and even a rock slide, which is an easy choice for the Garchard. I mean, even at this
point, you're talking about rock slide, heat wave, you do have to be careful on the top specks
with the wide guard right but then Hiroshi you go and see that the health bars on the other
Pokemon are so low you can even just pick them off with a single target it's at if you're worried
double in through the one slot. Talk specs will take the opportunity to switch out some recovery
but with Charizard coming back in could potentially just get hit. Incineroar Wood Protect is always a
fun little team building thing and Earthquake coming out from Hiroshi will do nothing into
to consider. And Charizard Swap looks like it's going to be good. It'll be the follow-up, though, from the
opening end. Oh, it's called it. And Ancient Power into Antonio's Charizard is going to bring it oh, so low.
Yeah, what a great call from Horosian. That moving lawn pretty much locks up the game and makes it very difficult for
Antonio to get back into this in any sort of way she performs. Now you've got the situation where that
fake-out's burnt. There's no why God supports to protect against the income and the rock slide, and that is
going to be enough to say, Paul, please,
Pokemon down if they leave themselves vulnerable in this position.
The rock side, all the ball, come on, for Antonio.
Aris, though, low.
Again, if you're worried about the accuracy,
you can just go for a single target.
And Senorah is going to swap out.
Tosspex comes back in with a little bit of a new lease
on life with a little bit of recovery.
But you've got to play so carefully here.
And Hiroshi has such a great earthquake.
the top six coming on in is not going to be well-posed against this one. We saw how much
damage it did last time. It's not going to be enough things to how much work this incident
has put in, but it's still in a tough spot.
It's really helping out there against, well, with the top six here, but you can see who
on respect it is taking a little bit of recovery, but that is undone by that burn that was so
impactful. And the go chomp is on the timer as well. So it's not got many turns left before
that poise he takes does take it down but this combination of earthquakes to kind of cover anything that is in Charizard like Incineroar is so good and then you combine that with that ancient power from the Charizard as well which is covering the opposing Charizard and any potential switch.
The Incineroar if it decides to come back onto the field did further weaken that car chop. The real difficult situation for Antonio to find themselves in but they're doing everything in their power to try and get back into it.
and it'll start with that protect,
Charizard, yet again, the double protect
and Toxics with the Baneful Bunker,
so no damage will come out onto Antonio's side of the board.
The Garchomp doesn't accomplish anything.
Neither will Hiroshi's Charizard and the Toxics.
We've seen them stack up onto the Garchomp,
burn after turn, its health is dwindling,
but it's not enough to take it down.
If you want these two Pokemon to stick around,
you're gonna have to rely on the triple
the Charizard into double for Toxapex. Yeah, now do you go for the wide guard here expecting
potentially an earthquake into power combination in the machine so much? The thing is that Heroshi
could go for it, just go Dragon Claw into power into that Toxapex slot, you know how to protect it.
No triple, the attempt Charizard won't, anything, neither will the Toxapex, both fail. These Pokemon
are gonna get hit and taken down. First off, Dragon Claw. We're going for the single target
attacks had to cover for the potential of that wide guard and that's not good that's
going to be one KO on the turn. Toxicx thankfully does get the leftovers
recovery before any sort of that damage kicks in but of course Garchomp's work
of Roshi has overstayed its welcome. Toxicx will take it down. Yeah the Garchomp
getting some real value out of it. Roshi using it right down to the last minute
there. The Toxic's kicking it over but the Basque Legion the perfect cover one
to bring in against what is going to be Incineroar and Coltifex.
You've got that Last Respects pretty powered up, right?
You've got Ancient Power as well that you can hit that Incineroar with.
You've got Pokemon and Antonyos side so, so, so long.
Anything that hits them is going to knock them out.
That's exactly it. Sure, the Last Respects is boosted.
Sure, you can do a lot of damage.
You don't need to do a lot of damage in this state.
But Pokemon on Antonyos side have been whittled down turn after turn.
And we're going to go out in our own way.
They go to the side to hit.
Taskalige and with the awkward jet to take the final KO.
And it's going to be Hiroshi Onishi to take the set 2-0.
Making his way to top 4 here at the 2026 Pokemon World Championships.
Coming into this event as the national champion,
you get a lot to prove and he has proved a lot so far.
Yeah, what a convincing victory and such a strong performance from Hiroshi.
where you go into this match thinking how are you going to deal with this Toxapex with that
wide guard that blocks all of these spread attacks that you're going to need for the Toxapex,
but you didn't need it. Didn't need it, had a plan and laid it out perfectly and really was just
elegant in the way that they set up from start to finish, taking advantage in game two in particular
of that King Gamma, the Incineroar lead there and utilising the Okcaberry. Maybe it didn't get a
knockout itself, but it's softened things up and put things in place to be close to getting knocked
out later on the game which made it a lot more difficult for Antonio. The big turning
point here was that burn onto the top of the pecs. If that hadn't happened, it might have
made it a little bit easier for Antonio to kind of utilise that Pokemon and leverage
it a little bit more like we've seen him do time and time again, but unfortunately that
burn, just undoing the leftovers recovery each and every turn. The use of ancient power,
catching that Chorazol on the switch, brilliantly done, but it just made Antonio's life so difficult
to get any sort of momentum
back in this game. It was also
because of constantly just
having just being on the
back foot within this match.
Roshi just had so much pressure
on the board when it's a
large on that's earthquake
and turn after turn and being
allowed to put that much
pressure out. Antonio
constantly having to pivot out.
You call one of these swaps
get good damage in. You're just
so far ahead and the amount of
time to found ourselves in the
position. Roshi just had such a
strong start to the match was
able to constantly get in those
over time and when all of his Pokemon are faster and they put out so much
pressure there was nothing else Antonio could do you had to make the
switches and hope that Hiroshi isn't going to call you or miss up along the
way. Yeah exactly that and I think as well some of the kind of advantage items
that you've got on your side if you're Antonio unlike that Chloscov, Garchomp
kind of came back to be a little bit of a hindrance more than an advantage in
that set in particular and that that's testament to Hiroshi and how they
identify that as a threat and then took advantage and flipped the tables and said you know well yeah
you might be in a good position right now but what I'm going to do next is going to make it a real
detriment to your game plan and yeah just so so well done. It was just an incredible match and big
congratulations to Antonio for making it to this point. For Hiroshi you want to step closer now
to be in the finals or be in our champion. Yeah one step closer and yeah familiar with this
environment. He did it very recently in a different champions format in MA at the Japan Nationals.
But yeah, he's going to take that experience and hopefully push them on to getting one step closer to championships Sunday.
I mean, top four is an incredible achievement. We have to go here from him as Hiroshi is on the stage now for our interview.
Thank you so much, Sarah.
I'm here with your first top four player of the 2026 World Championships, Hiroshi Onishi.
Hiroshi, congratulations on making top four.
You are also the reigning champion of the PJCS, the Japan Championship Series.
How does it feel now to be here in top four at Worlds?
to compete with this weekend.
There are a lot of really strong teams in the format right now.
But when I was making my choice, I tried to choose the team that best fit me to bring to the tournament.
Very nice. Going into this battle, I think Toxapex was one of the biggest threats on the opposing side of the field.
What was your strategy to compete Toxapex, especially in that game, too?
Especially in Game 2, it's a tough game, but what's the strategy to fight against this tough game?
In the end, the most powerful strategy was to defeat the most powerful enemy, and that's when I started to think about it.
In the end, I was too confident that I was going to win.
be aware of, but in the end I got a critical hit and it really didn't make that much of
difference.
Those critical hits can help out indeed.
Thank you so much Hiroshi.
Do you have any shout outs to any family or friends who might be watching at home?
Everyone here is cheering for SNS.
Everyone here is cheering for SNS.
Thank you, everyone.
So for everybody here and everybody out on social media
who's been cheering me on, that really gives me a lot of power.
So thank you so much.
Congratulations, Hiroshi.
Once again, on making it into top four here
at the World Championships.
Let's go ahead and take it over to Ben's Battle Breakdown, too.
Well, break it down.
I'm going to show you the
world championship.
Certainly a lot of power in
that last match. She's doing
so so well there. But while
we're in top eight here at the
world championships, that was
our first one. We know our
first player that has made it
into our top four. Let's go
over to the standings and just
keep this moving along and see
who's next that we are going to
And our next match is Jowl versus Giovanni, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they've got in store for us.
It's actually too, yeah, like looking at Jowl and what he's been able to accomplish on this world championship.
But in this last year, as a player and even previously, I think the globe has just been so impressive.
And to be able to see him make a run like this through the bracket is incredible.
And Lee, for Giovanni.
Yeah, I mean Giovanni is just an incredible player in general and probably not one of
the favourite Italians coming into this event but it's really done.
They're really proud getting to top 8 and I'm sure they are not done yet.
We saw them on stream earlier and they were very close in taking a victory.
They took a right down to the wire just not enough to take another line in the end but
they've got themselves into top 8 and they're going to be going again and that's the main
thing.
again. We saw how they had all the advantage with those ancient
power boots. Yeah. That's wild. They can harness that energy
and take it into the top air and beyond. And of course,
Stefano as well, also from Italy, Italy, definitely one of the
strongest set of players that we have in the game right now.
Stefano really came by no means out of nowhere, but really
came to the fore after he won his first regional championships
and still continuing that consistency, especially like seeing when he won it with an icy win, Chen Pao,
which at the time was like, it was a meta team that he was using for that one little change,
that one little adaptation that really took him, took his team and his play to the next level.
I want to call it Japan on this bracket because we just got to see Hiroshi win on broadcast
and we still have two more Japanese players fighting through top eight.
that's what we're talking about.
We're talking about the
Kuma going up against the
following out and then you get
as well. This was our mega
Dragonite player that dragon
and we didn't get to see what
such a cool team. I'm really
excited to see how that's going
to fare up against Zachary, who
is I mean one of his best is
evident by his season and his
run here at Worlds. Yeah 100
percent. I mean, it's calling
that we have left from Japan
that's still sticking with the
Charizard bandwagon that we've
kind of all been on as well.
But seeing that sort of
consistency coming out, those
two other teams that both have
Mega Dragonite have two
different Pokemon, Whimsicott
compared to Garchomp on the same
overall five Pokemon otherwise
composition and so like, you know,
it's still some slightly different
approaches, but that commonality
and use it.
Yeah, it's always really interesting in that lead up
to Worlds, especially when we have a break,
as long as we have, between our last official event in ASE,
into now, is all the meta development per region, right?
Especially the per region, because of that team building
groups.
We also do have scenes that have those different grassroot
scenes.
And Japan is definitely known for having a really strong
grassroot scene.
They put a lot of preparation in.
And when you have those different sub regions,
you can really get more push out of a meta, right?
that's why after a bit of time,
we will see these really cool picks come out.
And to see that that is what is coming out
is this mega dragonite out of all things.
I think it's just so exciting.
It's not just all mega cars aren't out here.
We get some really cool team building.
Definitely.
It's like mega dragonite was definitely something
that we're gonna be seeing a great deal of in our top cup.
And let's have a little look at the two players
that we're gonna be seeing in our next round.
We've got a breakdown of Shwell's run through our Swiss.
This is phase one.
He said in his interview that he lost round one
and sort of had to come back from there,
but also taking a loss in round seven
against former world champion Cherque Cherque Kimura,
but still being able to, since then,
win out every single one of his rounds
to make it here to the top eight.
It's an incredible performance.
Even when you go back to that lost round,
Warnett is a similar mirror.
We don't know the year.
intricate details of each team, but you're assuming that they're very very very similar options on both sides of field
They can always be different, right? You can get one long move, but then you can kind of let that go and then pick themselves up again
And continue on such a strong run after that
You can see the variety of teams as well that they've had to come up against, you know
So just the same archetypes over and over again
This team has built so well it can kind of match up even to some of the newer more popular
that we've seen come to the
full. It's the right you there.
We've got the star actor, the
Golden Goal as well. So it
handles itself very well. And
Joe was very, very well
accomplished with it to have to
bounce back from that round one
loss and then going up against
Oh, and then taking the win.
You just had the craziest 180 of
all time to put yourself on a
winning way. And I feel like
that just sparked so much
confidence for yourself going
on forward in what you can
accomplish. And the fact that
that, yeah, you go into phase two out of 62 record, you made it, which is, it's going
to be difficult, but to be able to win out since then is just incredible. And looking
at the day, it's incredible.
That comes up and I'm immediately like, okay, I guess I'm on Justin Tang, Carcensen Dennis.
What fabulous opponents as well. Not to mention Alexander too, like all of these names are
so, so crazy. And they're now about to play up against you.
like this tournament doesn't
get easier as you carry on
winning, right? It gets harder
and harder and harder. That is
just an incredible list,
especially to again at the X
and two going into phase two.
So you just knocked it. That's
not like, oh, we're growing up
against these people and it's
fun match. No, you just knocked
out this list of individuals
from the World Championship.
That is incredible. So I was
completely audit here this
weekend and to see that from
such a young, great player is
truly inspiring. Yeah, it's
Yeah, it's incredible and it's one of those stories that we tune in, we watch, we're here,
we're present for the World Championships and why we love it.
There's these younger players coming in and just making and putting their stamp on these
events and saying, I'm a serious contender, I've got to take, set up, take note and we'll
see whether the journey continues after this.
I'm sure it's going to be great, but it's not finished yet.
So until stories, still a lot of action to come.
Well, let's look at our other competitor here in the Top 8, Giovanni Ficcatelli,
hailing from Italy, playing a little bit more of a standard composition
that we were expecting coming in to make a big, big splash here.
That mega-charizard, why mega-flow-out?
But again, another player taking a loss in round one,
bouncing back and making it all the way through here to the Top 8.
Must feel confident in his mega-swamper matchup,
considering he's taken around...
I think that's just the way to
do it. You lose around one and
it gives you the energy to
tell her on what we'll let you
test that one. I think so. But
one of the things that's
actually I think quite quite
interesting to see coming into
this particular match is that I
Giovanni played against Claudio
using the same composition that
he's about to go up against
playing out in this match.
that he's about to go up against playing foul in this matchup.
And he was able to be victorious in this matchup.
It's a match where usually the Megasco Villain,
Megafros last kind of composition,
usually gives this more, I'm going to call it standard team,
but tried and tested team of the Charizard flow.
It usually gives it a hard time, right?
And Giovanni's already shown in this tournament
that he's able to overcome it.
That's one of the things, and that's something we got to see
it. And I see as well as this
variation of team that he's
going up against with this
like a rock. It is very strong
into these charts. Our teams
that cannot be doubted. But
when you have such a strong
pick into it, you got to figure
out your answers. You got to
figure out your game plan into
it. And if you can take down a
piece like the like rock early
on or your opponent doesn't
preserve it quite correctly,
you can exploit that team and
be able to take the win. That's
why Charizard is still so
successful. Why it still has
such a high usage. The like
rocks haven't eliminated the
Charizard not even close yet.
There's still a few left of them kicking,
but we're going to be kicking it over to a short break now
while we get our next top eight round set up.
So stay tuned. We'll be right back very soon.
2020. 26 Pokemon World
Championships in San Francisco,
California. The day has been
an exciting one as we have
already started our journey
through the top cut single
elimination bracket. My name
is Rosemary Kelly and I'm
joined by Aaron Zang and we're
so stoked to be here to bring
you through our next top eight
match. First of all,
congratulations to King Gambit.
You are now officially a world
champion as it is on all the
remaining teams here at the
World Championships. The only
was Antonio who just got eliminated.
And so if you've played this format at all,
you probably know how good King Gambit is.
It really kind of feels like a Swiss army knife
in that it can flex onto so many different teams.
It has incredible overall stats.
But what's interesting is we've seen a lot of variations
of King Gambit's, right?
We've seen Focus Ash popping up as an item.
The type resist buries like Aukabary as well as Stropelberry,
Black Glasses and Life Orb in particular
was a really big set coming into the World Championships.
You can run four attacks on it.
You can run for tech, sword stance,
and no coverage moves other than CalTown's sucker punch.
And so this Pokemon has just been really, really dominant.
So I'm not surprised to see it win the world championships,
but I didn't think we'd be crowning it this early on.
Yeah, I mean, just adding on to that,
I can't believe we also saw some supreme overlord steps
for a little while there when Incineroar
was sleeping behind the wheel.
But we are ready to go for our next top eight mad congratulations
to our King King Gambit.
And let's now see who will also move on to the top four.
We've got Joao Felipe Leitchi versus Giovanni Picciutelli.
An exciting one, Joao.
Phenomenon graduating from the seniors division.
It's the youngest player in our remaining top eight here.
And Saul Paul really great comeback
after being down the game in that previous top 16 match.
Of course, he is running one.
A lot of players actually call it Italian ice.
This was a team that was developed
by a group of top Italian players
before the North American International Championships,
because I'm afraid it's being about to have that life
or one basket region.
For Jalal, this is a dream run.
You see his accomplishments on the screen.
And seniors had some pretty good success.
One original championship, top eight at LAIC,
but here he is in the Masters division,
matches his best finish as a top eight finish in Masters,
but it's at World, it's not regionals.
Yeah, it's just so impressive.
Sometimes you always have that question mark of,
was the seniors run something where maybe
The power level of seniors was not the same as what you might experience in the Masters
Division and Joao proving that no, this is not a fluke.
This is his moment within this top cut.
On the flip side of things, you do have Giovanni Piscitelli.
You're talking about how this Italian ice archetype of Joao is one that you would imagine.
Giovanni has actually had a lot of experience against given that he is an Italian player
and has performed against a lot of the top competitors that also had that Italian-ice archetype.
Our analysts did such a great job as well of breaking down some of the runs that both of our competitors have had.
And Giovanni has actually beaten this sixth already earlier on in the tournament,
whereas Joao has lost to this quote-unquote big six archetype that we have seen competitors use.
Yeah, what's interesting is both of these players surely have grinded the respective matchup so much
coming into this tournament because these were two of the top teams, but it doesn't matter how much practice you put in.
Sometimes the execution can play out very differently and when you're playing at the absolute highest level,
your opponents might take lines that you just did not see in practice when you were grinding in because they've got to hyper-optimize the matchup, right?
So we take a look at Joao's team here.
Of course, the unique pool mega feature of mega Frostlass as well as mega Skobill, and Frostlass being able to provide a lot of offense with that Blizzard,
which really checks Kar-Chomp, a Pokemon that otherwise can hit Sneaseler, King Gambit, Lycanroc for lots of damage.
Skullvillian on the other hand gives you a little bit more defensive capabilities with redirection,
being able to burn a lot of those deep physical attackers.
When Joao played against the Teemo's very similar to Giovanni's in top 16,
you actually saw him flex between both of them, and so I think both are very viable here,
but of course the key Pokemon to pay attention to, in my opinion, is going to be that Lycanroc,
if you're expecting Charizard to be opposing in.
like to be posing in.
Lichenrock exists on this team to be a huge checkmate
into Charizard, but from how Joel into the top eight,
able to like sell a rock and opposing Charizard.
And the threat of it is so, so big.
And as the Charizard player,
if you're gonna bring Charizard into the matchup,
it is this constant dance of when do I actually have
my Charizard on the field and attack.
And it can be really hard to take out this Lichenrock
because you look at Pokemon on Giovanni's team,
like the Garchomp, maybe even the Baskillige
to be able to pick off this Pokemon,
the focus dash makes it tough to invest just one attack you require to so let's
take a deeper look at Giovanni's team this is again kind of looking at that
Charizard with a more updated moveset you've got ancient power for
opposing mega Charizards instead of something like the solar beam that we
saw be popular at the beginning of before that yeah and this is a really good
callout because the lack of solar beam means that like rock actually becomes
even more difficult to deal with right sometimes when you're using a team like
this if you have solar beam you predict that the like and rock to switch in you
can nail it with a solar beam but here you're not gonna do that much damage with
any of your attacks. King Gambit's one of the key Pokemon I'm actually looking at
on Giovanni's end because it is the Choblberry 4 Attack King Gambit which
means that this Pokemon has incredible coverage into Joao's team right? You're
able to hit Frost Slash King Gambit like in Rock Basket Legion for super
effective damage but the King Gambit also has to be a little bit scared because
of course there's the Sneezer on the opposing end to close combat as well as the
Skow Bill and so here we go we're jumping into game one there's so many
different variations of Pokemon that both players can bring. And it's going to be a
Floette here. Charizard dropped out of respect for the Lakinron.
Floette coming to the battle means that we are likely going to see the Mega Evolution
invested into this Pokemon to be that there's a Charizard in the back there. But it would
not have the ability to Mega Evolve if you select it for the Floette on this turn. Looking
across the way, we've got the Lakinrocks, Govillain, for Juaul.
Yeah, I think what's interesting in this matchup is a lot of times players still end
the freeing Charizard, despite the backers of Lichenrock on the opposing team, because
the idea is, well, if I knock out Lichenrock, well, then Charizard's clear, right?
But often really difficult to accomplish that, so the Scoville, and defensively, is actually
quite great in the flow.
It won't do that much damage, it can burn it, right?
And so it's going to be a mega evolution to immediately start up the game here.
The burnish is going to help to get that residual damage at the end of the turn, but since
the Lichenrock is that special attack, where it doesn't actually have that negative effect
of having its damage halved.
Can you see the whimsicott go for the protect though as both the skull villain and the flouette
end up investing the mega evolution like in rock still one of the fastest pokemon on the
field gets to fire off a rock slide maybe it can flinch this flouette in it's tracks
and that is what happens on the first turn of the game over heat now connecting from
the skull villain you're gonna drop your special attack but you basically just drop this flouette
too a great trade of your stacks.
Yeah, I mean, that would have been a huge basing gleam to get off, right?
Like, we bring Light and Rock down to the focus sash there.
Fast rocks like I feel like they've really defined this format,
whether it be Light and Rock, Garchomp, or Eridakko,
so showcasing why this move is so unbelievably powerful.
Would have done, right, a fair amount of damage from the Floette
if you are going for that basing gleam.
Yeah, like, it just really gets the Light and Rock quite low.
So not the turn that Giovanni wanted to see.
Now you risk Light and Rock just going for something like that,
that is Accelerock, right?
Like when it's got to tailwind,
but then pull out the scope of the game.
So Giovanni, maybe you want to consider protecting the flow
or just switching out on a King Gambit or Garchomp.
You have to switch out here.
That blow let's so important to have that damage for later,
and it's gonna be the Garchomp that ends up taking its place.
Moose Akai with some move blasts.
Set him, setting up something like the tailwind
because you know that that Lichenrock damage is important.
Lichenrock though, still around to deliver
another set of rock slides
as the skill building has yet to move.
Another overheat that Moosekot has already taken
a lot of damage and at minus two,
it's still good for the knockout.
Yeah, what a light out start here,
especially given that it wasn't even Charizard
on the opposing end.
Lichenrock showcasing how it can put in a lot of work.
Even if it's not staring down that Charizard,
and no tailwind crucially set up
from the opposing end as well.
So, feel like Joao has built up
a really big early lead here.
Well, that comes back.
Once again, though, still ready to buy that Lichenrock.
Of course, the light here could protect
and then Dark Trump could angle for an earthquake,
for example.
But if you earthquake, you're going
to be attacking the Skull Villain, which
is going to burn you for the remainder of the game.
Yeah.
So it's a really difficult position here,
I think, especially given that you're all
still as two Pokemon in the back.
The basket region is slasher.
You're like the most likely.
The Black Glasses, Horsesands, King Gambit
set generally doesn't feel very powerful in this matchup,
especially when you stare down an opposing King
Gambit in Charizard.
And so making a basket region also
such an immense threat but for Joao right now definitely has the lead. What is
Giovanni going to do with this blowout? It is going to be the protect.
Hoping that that's going to negate a priority at Cell Rock but the Garchomp
is able to strike first not to KO onto the Lycan Rock but low enough that you
maybe get a chance to clinch it and stop it from moving after some of this luck
is already gone against you. You'll have to get burned for your troubles
So, it kind of helps to even the scale a little bit.
Yeah, and with this Govillean being at minus core special attack,
there's very minimal damage at this point.
But I think getting the fur on Garchup is still a really big deal, right?
Because now the Floette is still threaded by an Exalorock.
It was a rock side coming out here instead of the Earthquake
trying to get some super effective damage on the Govillean.
But as a result, the Lighting Rock does not end up fainting.
So now Floette in a precarious position is going to switch out.
Expecting Gampage coming here and it ends in two games.
The game is still in a vulnerable position, but the Skull Villain now leaving the field
is going to help this King Gambit out so it's not going to end up getting burned if it attacks
into the slot right now as it does take the Excel Rock, so Floette, getting out of dodge
with that one retreating back into its pokeball, but the guard chops the next, the second Rock
Slide to finally knock this Lycan Rock out once and for all.
Yeah, and Joelle actually reveals there is King Gambit in the back.
The main reason you potentially want to bring in this matchup is to kind of checkmate Vasco Legion,
but there's no Vasco Legion from Giovanni's end this time around.
And so I think the Gambit ends up feeling a little bit worse, although of course, the Sleezer is the final pick here.
So now you actually thread in with close combat onto Sleezer, Sucker Punch into Garchomp,
and that little bit of damage on a King Gambit actually can go a long way, right?
It is going to be the Troubles vary, but when you get the little bit of Chip,
that often is enough for you to just get the knockout with close combat.
And so I think Joelle in a really strong offensive position right now.
Sneezler just such a great final Pokemon to have.
And yeah, I think now it is on Geobind to try to respond.
But it's so difficult when the flow is so low,
you can't gambit, it has that priority damage.
And with the burn on guard job,
you won't even be able to get a knockout,
even if you get an attack off.
Yeah, you would love to be able to get that spread first quick damage
into both of these targets,
but you also have to be able to protect your own can gambit,
which does not have protect.
So you can't even go for that.
I would say Gambit from Giovanni also hoped to land a low kick into the opposing King Gambit.
That'd be a pretty neutral turn.
A little bit better though for Dual, as Garchomp continues to take burn damage.
Yeah, exactly. Like, I think that's always a safe play in that you get a little bit more burn damage
and then the Garchomp now is even higher probability of getting knocked out by a Stucker Punch by the King Gambit, right?
So I think Stucker Punch close combat still a play.
My question is, sometimes with these teams, the Sneezers won't actually have that much
offensive investment.
And so if that is the case, then can the King Gambit, with the total barrier on the opposing
side, actually survive back close combat even after with a little bit of chip damage?
So once again, I think Joel's play here is backhand.
Sucker Punch, guard chop.
I can close combat into King Gambit.
How does Giovanni respond?
And the answer is going to be switching out back to King Gambit.
Maybe the Clawat to come back when he takes its place, if it ends up taking something
like that, Sucker Punch, it will fail.
So that is one attack that has been mitigated
and the close combat heads in that direction as well.
And so while that goes down first troubles,
but does this actually give an opening for Giovanni
to actually win critical super effective damage
into either of these Pokemon?
See the white are consumed there from the Sneezer
so it can't actually reach.
Oh, what a play on my Giovanni.
There's the earthquake.
The burn though is going to keep the Sneezer around
for the next turn.
It will, yeah.
that was like the one play Giovanni could do to keep himself in the game.
So I want to explain that because sure, many of you were just expecting
Sucker Punch to go to Garchomp.
But like I said, sometimes with these Sneaslers, you don't have that much
attack investments, so Joao was worried, saying, you have Tropal Berry.
I might not KO you in close combat because of that, even with the chip damage.
So I'm going to double up into your King Gambit.
Giovanni recognizing that says, well, I'm going to switch out, you have to
double up into it, and I'm going to get a huge Earthquake off.
To your point though, there's the burn.
Is it enough right now is the big question because Sneasler still has
Pressure with close combat.
My question is, can King Gambit on the opposing side
knock out Sneasler with a sucker punch?
I would not expect it to.
The Sneaslers on these teams normally have
a lot of physical ball.
And so, Sneasler actually just going for a protect here.
We've talked about going for these protect
to just get more burn damage out.
Also baits out a protect on the opposing guard chop
potentially, but it's not going to be a protectly conflict.
It's a double protect here, Verjuau,
just to set out what Giovanni wants to lock into
for these attacks.
Honestly, Giovanni wants to actually try to get through
this end game after giving him a second chance
and a second flight, Garchomp continues to get low
as that burn damage is stacked up over time.
So if we were wondering whether or not
the Sucker Punch from Joao's King Gambit
would get the knockout, it definitely will now.
Yeah, I think Joao probably wants to just go
for the double off on to the opposing King Gambit.
Although the opposing Gambit is faster,
can Sucker Punch first, right?
And so as a result, Joao doesn't want to take any risks.
Actually switches out, which makes a lot of sense.
Aids out to protect from Garchomp.
This Garchomp is on a timer from that burn.
And it is the soccer punch here.
Some nice call by Joao.
Yeah, but it's a soccer punch from the other side, too.
And the folks up there are going to fail.
But now that you have this Scovillain on the board,
you actually can help to keep your own game
but safe from something like an opposing low-to-clot rage
powder.
Exactly.
Rage powder plus soccer punch here should just be game over.
Megascovillain was honestly quite incredible in this game.
You could see how that burn on Garchomp
just completely neutralized it.
But you're going to be the protect coming out
the scovillain. I think it also makes sense at this point with the turn
ticking down on guard chop. It has done a significant amount of damage right just
saying okay now you're just one turn away from painting but to me this game
feels over. Mega scovillain was absolutely incredible in neutralizing the
number one threading guard chop. Really unfortunate clinch to start the game
but I didn't get to do any damage in this game and yeah wins the cup didn't really
get to accomplish very much either. Equipment has won moonblast and then got
knocked out by an attack on a subsequent turn and you have to wonder
whether or not this game would have looked a little bit differently had that
little bit of damage or had one stop being able to set up something like a
tailwind. I really like how patiently Jolana's played this game you know I was
talking about this going through a sucker punch close combat but in that
situation you might not know how fast your King Gambit is relatively opposing
King Gambit you can get crit, sucker punch now cleans up the guard chomp and
Skovillian loves seeing opposing King Gambit like these are the two absolute
best Pokemon I think for Skovillian to go up against it's just gonna be over
coming out here. No need for
rage fodder and it obliterates
being gambit as Scovillain puts
on a master class in this game
offensively. We've been talking
about some of the most powerful
mega evolutions in the format
being Charizard. We've seen a
lot of really cool ones but
let's not forget that Scovillain
has been at the top of a lot of
people's radars but maybe flying
under a heading into this
tournament. Absolutely yeah and
I think you know what's
interesting is normally we think
about the Scovillain as a
defensive tool as once again
once again you know replaying here some flinches I think at this point there was
the opportunity for Garchomp to potentially earthquake right by
Brock sliding actually doesn't tail the lichenrock and the lichenrock then has
pressure into the flow that's not kind of forcing a switch and sucker punch here
failing I think this was a really nice play by Giovanni to try to keep myself in
the game the reality is he was already immensely far behind and in terms of the
Pokemon choice right with flow like going down so quickly Garchomp and King
Gambit often just don't have enough firepower and the way Joelle conserved
this scobelin was brilliant. So one of the things about scobelin is it doesn't like going
up against Charizard and actually does no damage into it. Charizard can kind of obliterate
it, but with Floette being the commit here, the scobelin actually had a really great time
and the point I wanted to make to you, Rosemary, was we talked about scobelin as like a defensive
tool for rage powder and burns, but we saw overkeep, like what, three different times
in that game. It mainly just, yeah, it didn't even really go for redirection. It was like,
all right, let me get Chip onto the Floette. Let me knock up the Whimsa Claw. Let me knock
some kind of special attack
moody boosts and that can
definitely have to go off the
rails very quickly. As we
enter into game two is one
game. We are going to see a
bit of an adjustment coming
out from too while easler and
King gambit in front of
Whimster top. Floette as a
from Chihuahua, Sneasler, and King Gambit in front of Wimster top Floette as a run back for Giovanni.
Yeah, so Giovanni, kind of just saying, I'm gonna stick to the Floette. I think Charizard is a
bait here because once again you have the Lichenrock and I don't want to play this guessing game of
having my Charizard against it. So King Gambit here is the Blast of Swords Dance set and so you're
not gonna do a lot of damage right now, right? You could go for something like a Swords Dance,
but I think right now I favor Giovanni's position just because the Floette is exerting a lot of
up into pressure. The Sneasler right now, of course, does have access to that fake out.
And what you look at is, it's not a mega. That makes me think Charizard is in the back.
Very possible. I'm actually just going to use Light of Ruin to trigger a one-shot onto this
Sneasler. It's so close, but it's just not quite enough. So the Sneasler is able to fire back a
dire clock, and that's going to eliminate the floor when after it took so much recoil from the Light of Ruin.
Not a cool adjustment in not mega-volving, but this is the bolt that the Stasler sometimes
had survived for Light of Brune outside of Mega Evolution.
The Epic gets that sword stance off, and that's really scary.
Now, J'O'Lencourt has the ability to go for fake out there, for faking out in front of
a windscout with Oncourt is always really scary.
However, it is going to be the King Gambit coming in from the opposing side, so it's
going to be a pretty strong Pokemon, right?
At this point, Giovanni has brought three Pokemon that resist the Dark-type attacks from King
Gambit, so I think that's smart.
I also think the lack of a mega evolution there makes it surely it's got to be Charizard in the back, right?
You don't want to bring Charizard into a boosted King Gambit.
So, I think Giovanni's goal right now, I really just did not get the King Gambit and get it out of the way
so that Charizard can hit the field and for Joao maybe you consider conserving it.
I mean, if there's a Scovillain in the back, you could protect King Gambit, sacrifice Sneasler, gets a Scovillain in,
and that combination was really scary. It's going to be a swamp here, and it is Scovillain, okay?
It's not going to be able to contribute a lot to this turn, so you're going to get it out in favor of that Skull Villain.
And Charizard does make it appear as Giovanni's fourth Pokemon in this game too.
A Protect on the King Gambit is going to keep it safe, but the Whimsicott is actually targeting its move blast into the partner.
So a nice little bit of chip damage there onto the Skull Villain that he moved from the Charizard should be able to clutch up on the next one.
a defense boost at special defense balls from the moody boost.
Gonna make it even more vulnerable to these two special attackers on the other side.
My big question for you, Rosemary, is does this Supper Punch knock out Charizard?
Charizard runs all kinds of different spreads in the format.
We've seen players train their Charizard, even survive Life Floor, plus two Supper Punch.
That's like a ton of HBs defense investment, basically Max Max, right, close to it.
So, even if the Charizard can hang on even with the sliver of HP,
that heat wave will get a double knockout like we especially with that special defense drop on the
skull billet if it faints that's game over here we go is it just going to be sucker punch and it's so
does Charizard survive with the speed advantage and Giovanni's favor you have to imagine the one
way around this would be for going for that priority sucker punch before we get there we do
see the mega evolution as skull villains protects itself so Kenneth can get away with a huge knockout
What is it going to do?
It goes from Hade on with just enough
to be able to get an attack off on this turn.
Moon Blast will fail.
Heatwave comes out.
Protect is going to help disco villain burst
and it connects into the King Gambit.
King Gambit will go down,
but I think if you're a Cholaou,
you're pretty happy about that, right?
If you look at the four-focus punch Yobani brought,
you don't really need to sucker punch
or watch the sucker punch any of the other Pokemon.
Getting that one big one in a Tarsard Offend
is the big, big attack.
And so, big lead I think still over to Joao, what is going to come in right now, right?
Because the Charizard is really, really low.
It'll faint to really any priority attack, a fake object, a solo rocket, an awkward jet,
right?
And thank you for Joao, you also have to consider, well, I know that there's still that King
Gambit in the back, and I probably want to conserve my skill bill.
And the skill bill in Vasco Legion is what looks really tough right now.
Of course, the Whimsicott has all four pressure in the skill bill, so you can offer a skill
bill in.
And then Vasco Legion is bringing awkward jet into Charizard, so then you can potentially
with Charizard and a King Gambit and go for Encore onto it in the subsequent turn.
So, Diabani's not out of it yet.
I think Encore is such a big tool.
It's one of the main reasons why Wim Sakat is brought out of this matchup.
But Charizard keeping up that much damage,
so I was getting closer and closer to the semifinals.
One more turn of tailwind left.
So, does Diabani actually want to try to leverage that with the Charizard
while you have a chance?
Maybe you do want to flirt with Fire if that basket leading is not going to go for a priority attack.
But things better of it.
can gambit comes out so villain tries to shed his stuff on the
Unlucky moody rolls that it has gotten in this match and that's also going to help redirect away
Last respect comes out
You're bringing wins a lot down to that focus dash and that's a great move selection to lock into knowing that that's what of all
Of course on the other side. Exactly. Yeah, joel gets another great play there
And I think for Giovanni that play like he did also makes a lot of sense of joel makes a mistake there
and stays in with the Scovillain and it gets locked in.
Well, suddenly you actually completely turn the tides, right?
That could have been an attack just to knock out the Sneaseler,
but the basket leaves you and gets so much damage in a limb secrete.
Once again, the King Gambit on the opposing side also can't protect right now, right?
So you can always launch a make out into that slot if you wanted.
You also could just go for close combat that no one has expired,
although you risked some sacrifice from the King Gambit and to either Pokemon right now.
But a big turn for Joao, what's really, really important though
So it's making sure that you can serve the Bastion Legion ideally to get that awkward
jump to finish off Charizard.
The Bastion Legion is going to retreat for now, exactly as you called it in Skowvillian.
It's to make a reappearance.
It isn't really under threat right now, getting knocked out to the Lipspot or the King Gambit
here, so you can bring that Pokemon in safely before considering a mega evolution in Sneasler.
Doesn't it?
Fall for the Protect.
Side-syn fake out this King Gambit so it cannot get an attack off.
And we're going to see a special attack drop here on the Skowvillian.
and that's a moody boost you like to see.
I was gonna say, okay, Overheat is just,
I mean, I think it was gonna one shot everything
from the range that they were now, but even more so.
Now for sure.
So, I mean, another great play, I think, by Joe out here,
as Skilville manages to come in for free right now.
There is, once again, all four pressure into the Sneasler,
but King Gambit is gonna be the one swapping out.
Great play by Giovanni.
I think Giovanni recognizes that he can serve this
ideally to beat the Vasco Legion,
but how do you deal with Skilville and at this point,
He's looking so threatening.
Going to mega evolve now after biding its sweet time
with this special attack boost.
Going to see a skill building to go all out on the offense.
He's going to protect himself.
Going to keep him safe from the move last.
Maybe a missed opportunity for damage there.
They're going to skill build and as the gigatrain is going
to help finish off this whimsipot,
give him a little bit of HP recovery back,
and set the skill building up for success in the endgame.
Yeah, and just getting skills strapped up at this point.
What is it on boost down? King Gambit is going to come in in the back, but once again you have to stare down this Govillain.
I think he can probably just go through something like a rage fodder with Govillain and then go for a Gaird Bond Charizard, right?
The King Gambit is kind of checkmated by this Govillain. Can't protect. If you go for a rage fodder on the pack, we'll go into it.
So, barring some really weird speed interaction with Charizard is faster than the Sneasler. I think that Joao should be able to advance to the top four.
So, honestly, I've been playing, I would say, flawlessly throughout this set, and has made
Megascobal look like an absolute boost of a Pokemon.
Joao lost to this team from Shouhei Kimura earlier on in the tournament, but has clearly
learned a couple of things to apply to this match versus Joao Bonny.
There's still a back religion in the back for Joao to depend upon to finish off this
game in style, but there's this game gambit in Charizard that Joao Bonny has that maybe
will help him keep the dream alive.
Skull Villain, rage powders, draws away the attention
as he's led to score first.
Close combat into the King Gambit.
Choppelberry is going to activate the help
of make this close combat survivable.
And so King Gambit hands on with his sliver.
The widerb is gone already,
so there isn't going to be a plethora of these stats dropped.
Okay, I was thinking about game two.
That's going to help actually
to get this unverted activated.
But he was connect, double onto these Pokemon,
but Skullvillain actually survives that.
So this map is just revised.
Doesn't have being dire upon a Charizard,
but I think because of the burn that will now come out,
you can see a Javani shaking his head.
Skullvillain will say it will be a double knockout,
but that King Gambit now will think from burn,
not after this turn, but the following one.
As the Legion comes in, you'll protect.
And as you called out Rosemary in the beginning of this,
there's no solar beam on that Charizard.
So you cannot even hit that Basquit Legion
for very much damage.
So all Joannis to do now is bring out Basquit Legion,
Protect King Gambit Bates, Aqua Jet KO Charizard,
and he is moving on to the top four,
the 16-year-old prodigy.
Great timing at the sun, expired on that last turn.
Vascular Legion does get to close this one out for Xuao.
An impressive run for Xuao in this 2026 season.
This freshly aging up from the senior division
goes on to the top four of the Pokemon World Championships.
Protect now so King Gambit will fall to the burn damage
As the cars are going to fall in the next turn.
Sucker punch, Will, ancient power coming out.
Oh, ancient power, Will.
One last ancient power for the road here for Giovanni.
No boost coming out.
He got a lot of those in one of the previous top cut matches.
He knows this one is all but over.
I love the adjustment to Winston-Cott-Flewett
and not Mega-Bullwing-Flewett.
I think that's one of the big things to this team.
But Joao, he is going to be moving on to the top four.
He looked really good in that sex.
Absolutely lights out there for this young Brazilian player.
What a commanding performance and just a dominant one throughout these stages of the World Championships.
Now onto a top four. Just how far can you truly take this miraculous run?
That was so fun to watch and I think it made such a good argument for Megascovall.
This team came together initially when the team that Giovanni was using was really rising in the meta game
and you could see all the tools that Joao had to deal with it, right?
I think the King Gambit actually coming in, I thought he made really effective use of it.
It is not an easy Pokemon to use in this matchup, which is why on paper you often consider dropping it, right?
But managed to get that plus 2 sucker punch off into Charizard and Wall of Disnok at the knockout
brings it so low that basically one other move will finish it off, right?
So, finding the perfect angle for King Gambit, just flawlessly done here.
And even though the Charizard managed to survive, at this point, I feel like the main downside is that
Wimsikot was just never providing any real value other than going for Encore.
But Joao really never let himself get Encore as a result.
Wimsikot actually often feels like dead weight.
And in this end game, Joao's saying, look, even if you attack with Charizard,
it doesn't matter because I know I'm going to get close combat guaranteed into King Gambit.
And if you target me, I'll get the burn as well, right?
And so, really smart targeting there.
like I think, yeah, could have targeted Charizard as well,
but the gambit with the inability to protect these,
you guarantee that damage.
He knew basically just just gonna close out the game
against these Pokemon.
And so the fact that Lacking Rock didn't come out,
Charizard did come out and Joel still won
as a testament to the amount of flexibility
that his team has.
Right, I mean, just having anything that has that priority
damage in the end, the Aqua Jet or the Sacrifice
would have been enough.
That's really what these teams are designed for.
You have these cleanup crews that can come in
after your other Pokemon have done so much damage that get a chance to actually finish and secure those knockouts and
So I'll really putting on a master class and why this team and this archetype has been super dominant in these last couple of months
Yeah, and Rosie now you and I were talking before we got on the broadcast
But we were saying like in this matchup
There's just so much that both players can do right you can lean into either mega evolution and for Giovanni as we saw you could
I should bring both mega evolutions as well.
And so part of what makes this team so powerful in the metagame
is it's the amount of different modes that you can go with.
But let's hear a little bit more from Joao,
who is now advancing to the top four
and throw it down through the interview.
Big congratulations.
Can we give it up for everyone for a quarter finalist
here in VGC?
Joao!
You're now talked for of the Pokemon World Championships.
there is a crowd out there cheering for you.
Your friends and family here, how are you feeling?
It feels amazing.
I don't know what to say, but I'm just glad to be here
and I'm very happy to have made it this far.
And yeah.
This has been an incredible run for yourself
and I wanna talk about earlier today when we saw you
and going into the weekend,
did you feel that confidence that you could be here
in the spot at Top 4?
Yeah, my goal when I started playing was like always to be the best sometimes I think I can't do it, but at the end it always works out some yeah.
Regardless of what happens from here on out, the conversation amongst the players, the fans, the analysts and everything has been of how good you are of this prodigy, how amazing you are at Pokemon.
like do you do you feel like this is your year just upcoming because you're so young you just
say tough to the master if you're so good like how does it mean feel well I don't know if this is
my year but I hope it is I'm gonna try my best to make it to finals in the next match and win it all
you've certainly made a statement so far and I want to make sure you can get rested up for that
but I want to give you the opportunity while you're here on this stage yet again if you had any
any words before your top four
match or anyone else that you
still want to give shout outs
to.
I want to shout out my dad,
which I forgot to shout out on
the last interview when he was
like the most important person
like for me to be here.
And I also want to shout out my
brother, Cisco, who's doing well
at juniors, very well at juniors
as well.
And I'm rooting for him.
And yeah, it runs in the family.
Can congratulations.
It's been an honor to be able to
see you play here and best of
going on into your next match. As for us we have two of four of our quarter
finalists. Let's head back over to our casters and find out who our next two are
going to be. Hey very much to our right. Yes, well really showing us how aging up
into the Masters division isn't necessarily as daunting as it could be.
On the biggest stage we have in competition making it all the way to
the top four. Ben Kirakou here with the wonderfully pro boss team. Have a little bit of a deeper
dive into a couple of those moments that we had with Joao's stamping their ticket into
the top four before we look at our next top eight match here at the World Championship.
Yeah, you know, for how young Joao is, they're so composed when they're in game in the
battlefield, they're really locked in and, you know, it really shows through in the matches
and how commanding and dominant they are in them, then the lines and understanding they've got of
the team as well, just to overcome multiple opponents now that we've seen. And yeah,
just incredible to see what an achievement gets up for, but not done yet. Not done yet.
One more to get a step closer to championship Sunday, but doing all the right things and just
so, so impressed. And yeah, rooting that they can carry that on into the rest of the tournament.
definitely. Oh, we got a little little clip here for game one. I think one of the most difficult
moments that we had in that game one of like, how do you how do you secure this end game? Right?
So we had the early game where the Lycan Rock was able to get a little bit of positive pressure
going down onto Giovanni's team, but then wasn't able to stick around very long. It's a Lycan Rock
that's not a surprise to anyone at all and Giovanni was able to deal with that, not bringing the Charis
articles to this matchup. We know in this position that the flowette was sitting in the back on a
pretty low HP percentage. And the question mark here, right, is whether or not you can just go
for the close combat into the king gambit to suck a punch from the king gambit into the guard
It's not like putting on loads of offensive pressure, but it's still present in the game. You still have to respect it. Um, but the big thing in our uncle this out during the round is these
our uncle this out during the round is these Sneaslers here they're pretty they're pretty bulky
and they're pretty low in terms of their offensive output so even though the King Gambit is on just
89 percent and usually if you've got a pretty invested Sneasler that would be a clean KO
that's not necessarily guaranteed in the board state that we've got here no and I think that's
one of the the understandings of Jowl Polly and gets with that Sneasler is it going to be enough
although the King Gammat has taken that small margin of chip damage there. Is it good? The question is at this stage of the tournament as well
It's a big call to make. Yeah, that's gonna be enough because I'm committing to it. Like you said the garchomp
It's not gonna be hitting as hard as what we normally regularly used to seeing it's still got the life
Or they're still gonna have that boot. Yeah, and the close combat will lower those defenses
Yes, and so you might activate the white herby will undo those and get the speed boost
But you could put yourself at a detrimental position if that King Gamma does switch out to come back in and then sucker punch later, you know
Definitely because this is the other thing right is that hey, maybe the 89% is just like a little bit too much
Hp where you're not comfortable and we don't know at this point in the game like
Overall is it this way round in terms of the speed order?
Like does this this King Gamma go for a sucker punch first or is it in this order, right?
and you go, you try to fail a,
you try to go for a sucker punch and fail it.
And so there's this big temptation then to go like,
hey, I need to suck a punch into this King Gambit,
then close combat into the King Gambit,
just to guarantee that that's going to be the KO here.
And just playing this, this clip along, right?
This is the call that Giovanni made so, so well, right?
Where he decides to try to keep himself in the match
and try to be able to, you know, make sure that King Gambit's there for a potential end game,
switching it out into the flowette, calling the sucker punch, but then also the flowette
goes down, the white herb activates, and we're sort of kind of back to square one, where this
guard jump is getting like closer and closer to being 100% in sucker punch range.
Yeah, and it was a good sacrifice, I think, if you had Giovanni to bring in that flowette
the right time because you don't really want to mess around at this stage of the game as well
with those guessing games especially when you don't know the speed interactions but so much so
flowed comes in takes that and then you've got like you say you're in a you're back in the same
situation but you're in a worse situation as well and the same point because the goal jump now taking
that it's a tick of chip and you're not really any further along in the battle yet there it's great
but yeah, it doesn't really progress you any further,
but maybe that's just down to how well Jiao manages these situations
rather than falling all traps and going for the soccer pitch in that scenario.
I think there's a big example of the way that Jiao has been playing in this tournament
of like showing so much patience in the way that he's going about his games.
Wrapping up the second game was like,
well, just going for a protective return
and letting the burn kind of do its thing.
And just using that residual damage to put himself in a really good position and that's so important when you're playing at this level of competition
We're not saying like hey, don't make a read don't make a call, but also a bit the right time
Exactly that couldn't say it better myself
It's like this is this is the time where you've got to keep your composure
It's still only six Pokemon that you're having to go up against and yeah, okay
They're handled by some of the best in the world playing absolutely on form right?
So not necessarily as easy as that, but Charles giving us such a great great showing
Let's have a catch up with our bracket now seeing our first two players that are going to be making it to the top four
Hiroshi and trial punching their tickets there
They're going to be playing up against each other in our semi finals
But the next match that we're going to be seeing is to kuma versus to father
Yeah, and this one in particular going to be another absolutely fantastic top eight game to decide who our next top four
opponent will be no and we've already got one top four match lined up and that one is going to be incredible
But before then we've got two more sets to determine
Yeah, those those remaining top four players and what a way to do it. You know, we've got Giovanni and
Jal that have just set the stage set the standards
So I'm sure our next players will be meeting those and probably exceeding expectations.
And of course, after that match, we're going to have Yuya as well versus Zachary Weed.
And that I'm really excited about.
Zachary has been on an absolute tear during the season.
Representing that, Frostlast and Lycan Rock team.
I'm just going to say, it was on my cast of predictions for a reason.
But you've got to turn up when you're playing that team.
It's not the easiest, maybe not the most intuitive team.
It's not the biggest collection of stats, it's a team that really works with its, you know, synergies as well.
We've got a little bit of a player run though, Lee, to set us up for our next top eight match here in the World Championships.
So let's have a look at Takuma's run through the tournament.
Yeah, we can see that they started the day one proceedings against a former regional champion here,
here winning one of the first regional events in the European season against
Emmanuel and yeah coming out of that convincingly well especially against
the hybrid rain what looks like a parish trap sort of scene that we've seen
throughout this weekend overcoming that with no problem at all I love
Takayumi's Dragonite choice as well we talked about this briefly last on the
analyst desk about that integration foregoing the Charizard and saying make
the way to go, but then yeah,
we can take a look at day two as well.
And not getting off to the best start.
Pwn and first in the day, Stefano,
taking a loss there, but since then
has been able to win
out against the double mega star
actors that they faced.
I'd love to have seen what happened
in that match against Stefano, because
we see it time and time again,
players playing in the Swiss
and then coming up
into top car and the records
right? And so, you know, even
though Takumi is going up
against Takumi, sorry, going
up against Stephano again. Will
the result be the same like
after every time that you play
a particular matchup and
certainly particular player,
you go when you're not on the
winning side, you walk away
from that matching page. You
know what could I have done
that will come to pass in our top eight.
You can see the incredibly tough run
that Stefano's had in day one.
In particular, it's a progress to day two.
You've got some big, big names there.
Wolf Click, named me round four.
They were able to overcome.
And then, you know, continue that.
Tarant, Erdi as well, last round of the day.
Just incredible.
All of these players are very accomplished.
But what a run Stefano had,
kind of losing round one and then going on the bounce,
undefeated to finish off the day.
Then coming in to day two here.
Takuma with their first opponent we've already seen will be their top 8 opponent.
I think like getting back to your point, Stefanos is going to feel very confident.
Whereas Takuma probably not that confident.
But that's not a bad thing because you can learn a lot from a defeat.
Sometimes more from a defeat than you can from a victory.
So, you know, these players will be familiar with each other's teams.
But as we've seen time and time again over this weekend, it's micro decisions.
The micro changes throughout a game.
It can make all the difference.
And it goes both ways as well, right?
the thing that was coming out to me on the second part of Stefanos run is that they took a loss to Zachary Weed,
who is also on their side of the bracket. So if Zachary is able to win their top eight match, as well as Stefano,
then there's going to be a rematch after a rematch. They're going into the top four, and whether or not either of our players are able to flip the script on exactly what went down in the previous times that they went up against each other.
especially in the same tournament like it's it's different to when you've played a player like
Tournament after tournament right and maybe you're using different teams
Maybe you're coming at it from a different place, but this is this is the same team
This is the same tournament and all these players are on some of the runs of their lives right now
And to see like how they adjust to those sort of matchups the repeat matchups is so so exciting
Exactly that and I think it's great to be able to kind of point out that these players have faced each other before
is it changes the dynamic of the game. Normally we'd see that game one where players are overcautious
sometimes where they're trying to fish out information, trying to judge those speed interactions
a lot well. A lot of those might have already been worked out so that's something that we can
take into this game and know a little bit more about why some decisions have been made over others
as things play out. This is getting so exciting Lee. So we're going to key it to a quick break
while we get our third top eight match sorted.
So stay tuned, we'll be back very soon.
San Francisco, California.
My name is Evan Lattin.
I am here for the bottom half of our top eight.
It's like good friend Scott Glauza.
Scott, we have already identified who our first two
semi-finalists are going to be.
Now it's time to find out who the next ones are.
Very excited for yet another fantastic match.
And excited to see which teams make it too.
I think with this game, the first Pokemon champion,
World Championship.
I think, well, the humans and the Pokemon kind of,
trying to make a name for themselves, right?
They could be pretty interesting and kind of maybe impact things as they move forward and I think both these teams are kind of interesting in different ways as it kind of like pertains to being representatives of this meta game.
Absolutely. You can see our top eight competitors here are Takuma Yamazaki and Stefano Greppy. Both of these players are running some very interesting teams. Takuma, of course, is running basically the big six team but has replaced the Charizard with Dragonite instead.
Well, Stefano is running a variant of the same team that we saw at the North American International Championships.
The same six Pokemon that Eric Rios brought to become a finalist at that tournament.
Yeah, that team was very popular for a while afterwards.
Still really strong.
Depends on the struggle with the couple variants of the Charizard team.
But it doesn't have to worry about here.
We get that Dragonite instead.
And I'm pretty excited to see this.
We even had a ton of the Mega Dragonite variants of this team on stream.
And I think it probably comes to the surprise of some players.
I think a lot of trainers kind of want to take them to seriously.
I know when I was asking around trying to prep this room,
hey, you know, like Mega Dragonite,
is this the thing that we're gonna see?
Is this the thing that we're not gonna see?
I mostly get a lot of, nah, it's not.
You're not gonna worry about that.
But Jokes and I, here it is,
game away from the semi-finals.
Yeah, top eight, actually two Mega Dragonite here
in the top eight at this bottom half
of the top eight bracket here.
And it is a really interesting adaptation
because you see a lot of players
who are dealing with the Charizard mode
of the big six team
by just putting Rockslide on something,
You know, but using guard chop as a way to check it using like in rock as we've already seen at the top half of the bracket
That works really well against Charizard. That is extremely weak to rock typing
Let's go against dragonite, especially with multi-scale active. Yeah
I think it does a lot of the same stuff right you still get like the heat wave if you need it
Kind of similar defensive profile though again, you know
Enough not weak to the same thing but it messes up a lot of people's a counter play
I think there's a lot of other fun stuff on this variant of the team as well
Well, to me the most interesting thing is that Faint on Snazor, which opens up a lot of stuff on other Pokemon.
Typically, Steve, they're not going to make room for this, because you're giving up Protect Forward, or like Quick Guard, like you'd see on these setup teams.
But I think for this team in particular, it's really interesting because of all the priority, also the Choice Scarf on Darchop.
And even kind of with both Last Respect and Light of Rune on Floy.
You get a lot of situations where one slot needs to protect because they can't survive, and Faint takes it away.
Or you almost guarantee you're going to get a knockout unless you miss an attack or something, because you're threatening so much unavoidable power into a slot.
power into a slot and it gets really cool. The team like this one lets you play kind of like
with more safe aggression other teams where in this read heavy format you can kind of get some
guarantees that other teams can't get. Yeah it's a fascinating attack that hits through protect and
breaks protect for a Pokemon trying to avoid damage from another attack on the field and it is a
very strong attack that most Pokemon that get access to it just don't have room for. They need
every other attack on that's available for them and Sneezer is one of the Pokemon that does
sometimes have that four slot as rotating. See coaching, rock slide, protect, quick guard,
and now faint as well. So it makes a lot of sense that we'll be seeing that, but
it could run into some problems here because of that four rigor wrap over here on Stefano's team.
Yeah, and that quite as fun in this match as the normal lead. I think it's going to create some
really great mind games between the two players that Armortale going to block faint, which not
Not only stuff to damage, but of course, also the protect
to penetration, and I think because of that, both sides
kind of would have to guess a little bit more
where we're going to lose that safety.
Okay, you know, an open team share that gets fun
that they both know that each other has this thing
where they attempt to use those in the field,
you have to be afraid, well, is it safe to protect here
if I don't want to switch my free graph in?
But then on the other side, it feels like, well,
is it safe to fit in here when free graph
potentially could come in?
I think it makes it a lot of fun.
I've seen a lot of very difficult, complicated turns
for these trainers over the course of the weekend.
I think the interaction between these two Pokemon are going to keep them both guessing throughout the course of this match
And you also have to shout out on this version of Stefanos team the rock tomb on
Garchomp giving Stefano access to
Stingled target rock type damage that also lowers the speed of the Pokemon impacted
So you usually tend to use rock to when you need that extra oomph because you don't want the spreads the reduction in damage from the spread type
Rock slide
Rock tomb of course, maybe a little bit more useful here with the dragonite
not trying to get those KOs like that. Yeah I think Christian's matchup to you know kind of like
pairs well with the trigger after you can lowers the speed of and you can't use priority to get
over it which is the solution that you'd really want to use for his opponent there. So a pretty
fun combination of tricks. For now we do see that space learn turn one though probably not going
to need to faint from here and then the Aerodactyl and Sylveon facing the family. Yeah so Tailwind
mode is what's being threatened by Stefano right now leading with Aerodactyl and Sylveon
does have access to the Megastone on Aerodactyl, so can go ahead and boost the power.
Also has access to Ice Fang, just threatening that Garchomp immediately.
However, Garchomp does have the Choice Scarf here, so it will be able to house Fee.
Yeah, now it wins the card, so it will go quickly in.
Pretty fun the other direction as well, where, hey, you know, if you focus too much on that Aerodactyl,
you do have to worry about Sylvia, but Faker going to stop a potential devastating Hyper Voice here.
No Hyper Voice coming out from the Sylvia, but a Rock Slide will connect onto both Aerodactyl
and Sylvia no mega evolution, but a flinch on Aerodactyl.
The rock slides are a common for you, Stefano.
If you don't have access to priority,
you are at risk of flinching every turn.
That is devastating, turn one.
Aerodactyl is a pretty decisive Pokemon
of the North America International Championships,
kind of being the flincher.
But here it has become the flinchy,
now in range of being knocked out from another rock slide.
And Sylvia, I'm endangered now from this lazler.
So, Stefano immediately, way on the back,
It's a tough spot.
Absolutely in the driver's seat here.
Stefano has to figure out a way to claw his way back into this game.
Now, because the guard jump is choice scarf,
Stefano knows that he can switch in his own guard jump here
safely to change this rock slide.
The protect comes out from being Sylveon,
making sure it does not take any damage this time.
And guard jump only takes a little bit of chip damage from that rock slide.
slide while the direclaw will flip into the protect.
A great defensive switch there.
Able to stabilize that turn, but probably not quite
out of the water yet.
Still, Sylvia, kind of being pinned by the Snezler,
so maybe having to make one more switch.
And having the complicated situation, OK, well,
what can I switch in?
They can potentially still take a rock slide and a direclaw
into that slot.
Of course, the guard shot may be threatening a dragon claw
to its opposite number there with the twist scarf
guard shot on able to switch.
So underside, or under the switch,
those switch attacks somewhat likely to switch Pokemon
if it doesn't want to risk taking that dragon claw in return.
So, interesting options available for both trainers.
One thing to keep in mind too is that Aerodactyl
doesn't have to at least protect or wide guard.
It's a very aggressive set there with three attacks at the other end.
Well, there is Sylveon switching out
for that Aerodactyl back out on the field.
So, Stefano hoping that the pressure from guards up
is enough, but no.
Just continuing to fire off rock slide after rock slide,
and Aerodactyl will go down.
Next, I'll do both Pokemon, the Aerodactyl, and the Garchomp here, and talk them up.
There's always a shot that you can get a flinch with this choice star, Garchomp,
plus the Direclaw connects and gets the paralysis even worse.
Now, there's even less chance that Garchomp is going to be able to break through the flinch
and the paralysis, but it does.
Sneasler goes down because the rough skin broke the focus set,
and now Garchomp is finally taking some damage here, just above 50%.
That's a big knockout for Stefano there, where I think the game was in danger of getting away from him,
but still a pretty impactful situation there.
Knockout and Sneasler's great, you love to see that, and you weaken the opposing Garchak,
but I think what made me keep in mind there, the Nerdactyl's holding Aerodactylite, but you chose not to Mega Evolve, right?
Not really any reason to do that, unless there is a Pokemon in the back that...
Ah, perhaps we'll also use that Mega Stone instead, which is some critical information from Takama, right?
Where you can basically be assured that Charizard is in the back, so preserving that Garchak and that Rockslight is big,
but also really limits the f***ing actions, right?
Like, well, either I can switch in HR's,
or where I already know my opponent has Choice Rocks
on the field, or I can bring in Sylvia,
which is a little bit predictable here,
and probably something my opponent's going to try to check
with his replacement Pokemon, and here he is, it's Fluet.
And this is kind of a not great replacement Pokemon here,
though Fluet does not want to mega evolve here,
because that carry aura could just continue
to boost Sylvia's quick attack into that guard chop.
Yeah, as long as it doesn't hack you out,
you're probably good.
You kind of assume it's okay.
We've got to deal with a paralyzed guard jump,
Sylvia in itself, and Charizard.
It's as long as you can survive a single quick attack
and then finish it off with like,
maybe a rock slide and dazzling beam or something,
you're probably good.
However yet, that's a way to throw the game.
You know, you get the boost, quick attack,
you get like, crit or something,
and things suddenly look very bad
from a very good position.
But this is a huge leap we're talking about,
looking very close to kind of closing out this first one.
Well, here comes the mega evolution from the Floette.
So we'll be able to boost its own stats
and also boost the power of all fairy type attacks on the field.
And now, Mega-Float, the fairy aura is radiating
and Sylveon is just going to choose to protect for this turn.
Not trying to risk anything as Garchomp goes for another rockslide.
Of course, it cannot choose any other attacks until it switches out.
That's just gonna deal a little bit of damage to the Garchomp,
but of course, there is the clinch chance,
there is the paralysis chance,
but even more, there is the faint chance to this deathly.
100% faint chance there as Garchomp goes down.
And not too much that Stefano could do there.
I'm going to have to bring that final poke.
And to give it his charge, I definitely just bank an eatery.
Critical quick attack or a rock slide missed to stay in this game.
It's been a very strong early game to talk about here.
And it is the Charizard for Stefano, the final Pokemon that he has available in game one here.
Of course immediately threatened by the choice scarf Garchomp.
Most cars are can end up surviving a single rock slide from the from a toy scarf garchomp especially
But it's a lot more would love to have full health after the the rock slide
Yes, but how can you survive both a rock slide and a gasoline thing because you still have to knock these Pokemon out right?
You'll flow it especially bulky enough
You wouldn't think a single attack would knock it out especially because you still have to deal with car chop as well
You know, I mean even like the world's biggest heat wave maybe to get through that one
So probably rocks like this most or with me here.
Charles is gonna protect plus you at least avoid that rock slide for now.
Yeah, can at least hope that it gets to avoid a rock.
Will not have to even try to hope for it avoid there as it will connect on to Sylveon.
There was no quick attack that came out.
So Sylveon is trying to survive this dazzling gleam and fire off a hyper voice to pick up the KO.
Dazzling gleam connects and that is plenty of damage to knock out the Sylveon.
And now all Stefano can hope for is a miss on the rocks like to at least stay in the game a little bit
I saw a lot to deal with you. So an underneath Pokemon on Takuma side of steel as well
I could relatively good chance at spasculation, which would be a real problem here as well
But hey, Charizard's not giving up. It's gonna do everything he's doing here
It's gonna try to drive to rocks like I'll pick up some big damage on these Pokemon and hope that that final Pokemon is something
We can handle. Yeah, this is the top eight of the world championships if your odds are not zero
You're gonna keep trying of course with the rocks like connecting with no spread the targets available
Chars are will go down
Yamazaki will take game one out that looks very strong for Takuma
He was of that first turn flinch really preventing Stefano from getting anything going
Yeah, I mean really couldn't have been better for Takuma there and there's two critical engines in block
You both get that flinch a turn one which I've not alone may have made that game on playable the direclaw for house
is kind of big too. Not just because it kind of finished the game off, but also avoid losing
some information you might have wanted to know, or car chop it with hat with its speed reduced.
Definitely going to be slower than, for instance, the opposing mecha flow out where you don't learn
anything about either of your training, which you know, you can probably make an assumption there,
which now you're expecting this Pokemon to be trained, especially at this point in the tournament,
you know, maybe get some bad review from previous matches from your opponent, but never really in
that one because of the RNG. And that makes this second game very interesting to prepare for, right?
like hey you know I think I played the right line I just need to get luckier or do you really mix
things up like hey you know I don't want to risk getting eliminated in a situation like that one
where I didn't have too much control over my own fate yeah no easy ways to deal with this and
you know it's kind of the sort that both sides are choosing to live and die by right you know it's
an aridactyl versus a choice scarf guard job you're not locking these pokemon in because you're afraid
to click rock side yeah absolutely that is actually the primary reason you would choose to use those
Pokemon, especially the aridacle over a whimsical that gives you much more regular access to the tailwind and you know
There is an argument to be made for that
There is only 27% of the time that the game goes the way that it went in game one. Absolutely
You know, I think there's also other deviations you can make too certainly
I can mix it makes up your Pokemon a little bit more
You know the double mega approach it was super great there where maybe you consider leaving one of the two of them at home
I think also unfortunate for Stefano there, I think you can guess relatively accurately
basket legion with the Pokemon we never saw.
It's likely.
Love to have gotten that information confirmed.
Just to get some more information about how Taco Bell is approaching this match up.
A little bit different playing the Dragonite version of this team than the Charizard.
So I think just for comfort in game planning with these games or Stefano can no longer afford
to drop a single game.
Just to kind of figure out how your opponent's doing things, not to get surprised by anything.
Okay, well slight adjustment here from Stefano bringing the King Gambit alongside of the Aerodactyl,
while it is the Sneasler and the Garchomp once again for Takuma.
So still the option for Garchomp to just lock into Choice Scarf Rock slide and see if you get that 27% again.
Yeah, I mean, why not? Right? I mean, so, uh, it's so exciting that you did the last time.
See, they're kind of making this even more complicated, too, where now that you've put one,
really want to be hit with a close combat and you're threatening fake out as well.
I think, you know, tempting not to take out gear since you both have to worry with the
Grigorap, but also in close combat, potentially like really good at I3 of these Pokemon shows.
Not like a huge incentive to try to make that read.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I have to wonder if there is going to be a mega evolution from Aerodactyl this time
around.
Last time, Sumano wanted to bring both of his Megazin.
Here is another major adjustment, the trick room mode and the priority blocking mode of
Grigorap.
Here is the mega evolution immediately.
This will allow this mega aerodactyl
potentially to be able to pick up a KO onto the Sneasler.
It has to survive.
This rock slide has to not flinch here, however.
That is a connection and another flinch.
Two for two on turn one.
Followed up with the close combat
and disaster strikes for Stefano.
Aerodactyl goes down immediately.
It's been absolutely brutal for Stefanos for once again, just doesn't get to execute his game plan and yeah
That blinker off switch is completely whipping there doesn't go for the fake
I got a close combat. You look so juicy there with those two Pokemon out. I just don't think the bait was strong enough
Also worth seeing that you know that mega evolution you think it was Charizard
That's probably the one that was replaced with trigger up here
I it's going to be really difficult for Stefanos to get back at this one
You know the mega evolution could have created some variants there or could have protected him from some variants
Oh, at least you would need more than two rock slides to pick up the knockout, but you know,
Sneezley taking care of that and we see Sylveon entering the battle.
So yes, that does confirm the Pokemon that the final is selected this time.
And boy, this Sylveon has got a lot of work to do.
I guess at this point, you're probably hoping that maybe Sylveon will just attack you successfully,
get a trick room off.
Please don't flinch this time.
And then maybe Sylveon and Trick Room could sweep through these mostly quicker Pokemon.
Yeah, at this point, you are really hoping that Furrigerap can get the trick room down.
You need to be able to survive close combat and rock slide, which Phirgiraph should be able to do quite easily with that citrus fairy.
But knowing that, you then also have to survive a rock slide and a dire claw which could put you to sleep or paralyze again.
However, it looks like PacoBot is not opting into that, instead switching Garchomp out for the King Gambit to prepare himself for this trick room.
Sylveon will go for the protect.
Sneezer keeping Stefano on us there with the Dire Claw,
making sure that Stefano is not able to sneak something in here as Trick Room will go up.
I mean, Stefano gets the Trick Room up. I think that's the right thing to do here.
However, one of the reasons why we don't tend to see a lot of Trick Room
in these early formats of Pokemon Champions is exactly what you just saw.
Oh, it's the very obvious, very telegraphed Trick Room.
I'm going to pin the other Pokemon down. I'm going to bring in King Gambit,
a Pokemon that, well, he isn't like a Trick Room sweeper in a traditional sense
Sanchez because he's like probably the single best Pokemon is regulation. He is very slow and very good against most Pokemon trick for
his team. He's super effective against either of his Pokemon. He's going after Phyrogram first.
Oh, but does not get it. Phyrogram is able to hang on with that Citra Fairy healing right back up to 38%.
Phyrogram is able to fire off the psychic into Sneasler, which activates the focus sash.
So Sneasler now is able to stick around.
Stefano will need to use Hyper Voice to pick up the KO onto that Sneasler, but instead opting for the Hyper Beam.
This is headed straight for King Gambit. It connects, and that is not enough.
King Gambit has been trained to survive a Hyper Beam from that Sylvium,
which means that Sneasler gets to pick up the KO in return with Dire Claw.
There is nothing Stefano could do there.
Oh, that's a huge trade.
Hyper Beams kind of be countered to that counter, right? Like, oh, you know, I have the top Pokémon,
So I'll just pay what it takes to get rid of it,
but not quite enough damage there.
And you need a little extra from Thunderbolt or something.
With that flying out,
you'll always think King Gambit is still really scary.
Also a lot of priority tasks in this team, right?
And even if you're actually able to get a little advantage
on Stefano's side for what it means to the stripper
of losing the Armortale to be big,
but it's just only King Gambit is that final Pokemon.
And hey, you know, at least you're still
in a fairly good position here.
Maybe 4Grap can target King Gambit.
King Gambit can target Sneasler.
At least you can even up the Pokemon score.
very interesting and tense moment here,
especially not having gotten information from game one.
We do not know how these King Gambit
are going to match up under Trick Room.
Of course, their alignment is both adamant,
so they're both showing the same information
on their team sheet for each other.
But this Perigarap was able to survive that kowtow cleave.
There is the shot that could hang on
for just a little bit longer
if King Gambits decide to go after each other instead.
Or someone could sneak in a sucker punch
or a Stefano cab.
Instead, he can game it, will be switching out
for the Garchomp to avoid that sucker punch from Stefano,
while Maricarap will now finally clean up the Sneezer
with a second sidekick.
So it's a big knockout, at least you get one,
and the nice thing about Garchomp entering the battle,
at least it's a little bit more predictable here,
where it can't protect, but it's still very healthy,
and neither of these Pokemon have a super effective attack
against it, so even a double up is gonna be pretty close.
Now you can't double up both Pokemon, right?
Or certainly, I guess that would be a double up King Gambit, I guess.
But I don't think two attacks is gonna be enough.
You really need at least three to pick up both of these Pokemon.
So, at least one more attack going to go the other way.
And there is still another Pokemon that is in the back for Takuma.
We have only seen the Ceasler, the King Gambit, and the Garchomp.
If it's going to be the Floette, there's only two turns left of Trick Room
that Takuma has to spell out before this for Rigoraph and King Gambit are sitting ducks.
Yeah, it's like getting really close.
I mean, I think the bonus is a great shot.
How about this early game?
We see these sucker punch go down.
Pick up King Gambit.
So two to two Pokemon count now, but now what?
Jet King Gambit goes down to that sucker punch.
The final able to pick up that KO.
Carrigrap now firing off a psychic into Garchomp.
That is a, well, with the special defense drop
that comes close to a two hit KO,
if it can survive this earthquake,
both King Gambit and Carrigrap will survive
the earthquake here.
The choice card not having the full power of something like a life or
but here it is, the Dragonite is the final choice for Takuma.
Boss is really interesting, so I think you're getting a little bit scared here.
You is psychic enough to pick up this guard shot.
Navi's special defense is devoid.
It can be fairly close at that point.
Well, you've got a two against one, but Dragonite's not going to be one shot from this position for sure.
Perhaps going to pick up a Pokemon immediately here and then get an advantage from the trick from expiring.
Also, a heat wave maybe fits up both Pokemon if your Dragonite hit both, but do you risk heat wave missing?
that you do have to hit both of them
if you are going to go for that option.
There is the mega evolution coming out from Dragonite.
Mega Dragonite now on the field.
One turn potentially away from making it into the semifinals.
The psychic is not enough.
Garchomp hangs on with 10% of its health
while King Gambit targets down the Dragonite.
Hoping for the psychic to be enough.
It's a flip on the Dragonite,
but Earthquake from Garchomp is enough
to clean up both of Stepano's final remaining Pokemon.
And Takuma Yamazaki is headed to our semi-finals.
And it's just that clean right there
where there's not much that more Stefano could do.
I think he played a really nice set.
It's the right thing to try to battle back there.
But Erdachael just never got to play the game, right?
When you get flinched at the beginning of each game,
you're trying to use a tailwind based strategy,
or even a rock slide based strategy, the second game,
where maybe Erdachael is just going for an ice fang
to try to pick the guard jump up or something
and then go to the trick remote anyway regardless.
And we never really get to find out
because Stefano really never got to show us what he's doing.
a tough way to lose the top eight sets,
but congratulations to his opponent
who played that exactly the way he should have.
Yeah, absolutely.
When you are faced with that turn one,
if you are talking about that is exactly what you do.
You go for the rock slide.
You try to get the flinches if you can,
because if you do, you might just win the game immediately.
And credit where it's due.
Stefano really clawed back in that game too.
The trick room mode gave him so much more of an opportunity
than the, you know, faster mode with the life or Garchomp
and with the Charizard of Game 1.
Yeah, I mean, you almost see it work.
You see why this team is so powerful
or having the option to go faster,
the Urdactyl on the tail end or slow
with the Frigurett Sylvia mode is so powerful.
Like, you know, Team Gambit is there to counter this.
You know, the first Pokemon we know
was going to be a Masters Division World Champion
was on all of the remaining teams.
And I think critically, had to use Sylvia
at all the early to finish things off.
You have the last two Pokemon on Tachymasider,
both dragon type Pokemon.
You'd love to have had Sylvia available for that,
but King Gambit forcing his opponent to give up that Sylveon
and that just kind of puts in a situation
where there just wasn't a way for the pieces to work.
Yeah, and you have to really credit the training
on that King Gambit as well to survive the hyper beam
that came out from the Sylveon.
That is absolutely something that Sylveon players
have been using to defeat King Gambit in trick room like that.
It's supposed to counter the King Gambit.
It's an all-in strategy because you need to get the KO,
otherwise you're literally a sitting down.
Yeah, and of course, you just had KO'd, right?
I mean, there's some problems there.
You can't attack the turn after using Hyper Beam,
so somewhat likely you'll still be on the next turn anyway,
and your trick room gets stalled out a little bit more.
But we certainly would have been better than what happened,
where even though I think Stephon,
did a nice job of getting as close to the putt.
I mean, I just had a huge deficit to try to make up
after the mega-evolve Pokemon went down so easily.
It's just a tough break.
It's been a very rock-slide-centric format,
and hey, I think that's kind of the job of these trainers, right?
Hey, what's the best way to attack these regulations
of these tournaments, Ron?
A lot of moves got some sort of balance adjustment
with both champions.
Rockside did not write.
It's the same move that we've known
since the early days of the video game championships.
It's been feared for years and years
and we see why here, right?
Where, hey, yeah.
Rockside rolls your way, they can win you games.
All right, well, speaking of winning games,
it was Takamaku one hour last game
and is now a semi-finalist here
at the World Championships.
Let's hear what he has to say about that match.
Thank you so much.
Let's give it up one more time now into top four, it's Sakuma!
Big congratulations.
How do you feel going into that match?
How do you feel now that you've won that match when you're in top four?
I'm happy to win the championship.
I can't believe I'm here.
Even in that game, a lot of lucky things happened.
So I'm really happy to be able to win that match.
I want to talk about this team in the Mega Dragonite.
That was a really cool pick into the weekend.
Why Mega Dragonite?
You thought it would win the world champions?
Why did you choose Mega Kairi?
I was able to use the Mega Dragonite, which is very popular in the meta, and I came up with the idea of working with my friends.
so I copied this idea and it managed to get me here.
Great choice coming into the event.
Now you've made it to top four.
How do you feel going into this top four match?
Do you feel confident about potentially being in the finals?
I want to do my best to win this match.
Is there any message for those who are cheering for you?
Well, I couldn't win this match because I was the only one who could win.
I'm really happy to have you here today.
I'm really happy to have you here today.
Thank you for your time.
game. It's a great match. It's
certainly a community that
brings us together and allows
us to have these deep, deep
runs. It's very rare that we see
players that don't have a
shout out for players that have
helped them along the way.
What a great match to that.
You've been able to show us here
in top a congratulations again
on making it to top four, and
move into very, very soon, and it's so exciting to see how this bracket is shaping up.
We've got three out of four of our top four players already.
Yeah, and one more last top eight match to go, and this one's going to be just as exciting as the rest of them,
because we've got Yuya, who came into day two, the undefeated player, managed to overcome some bumps along the road
and got themselves into the top eight here, going up against a formidable opponent who's been
In Hot Street, this whole weekend, exactly, we've been playing that four-slash-like-rock team
extremely well, going to be very difficult for you, but another player that has got that mega-dragonite as well
is a very exciting interaction between these two teams and how they dynamically go against each other.
Yeah, you and Takuma, if they weren't working together, had a sort of similar inspiration for the teams that they're running.
Only one Pokemon different in their six Pokemon teams, but one Pokemon can make all the difference
and the way that that plays.
And you are definitely showing us why they're here in the top eight.
Zachary is well, I do want to call out Zachary as being a player
that I really enjoyed both watching in this season,
but certainly in this tournament as well.
And listening to his interview earlier today or yesterday,
my mind's blanking on which one it was.
But when he just looked so calm and collected
and the way that he was talking about the game,
the mentality of just, you know, it's okay if things get a little bit hard, right?
Just keep on going, keep on, keep on trucking away, so to speak.
And, you know, you can overcome those things and it's about the enjoyment of the game,
as well as just the competitive elements that go along with it.
Yeah, and I think we saw that composure from Zachary at EUIC.
You know, early this season came so close to getting that title.
Unfortunately, not getting over the line there, but I mean, replicating the run
here would be a dream for Zachary hopefully to get themselves into that position on Sunday where
they've got a chance of taking the title more than capable of it. I think in that calm and composed
nature that they bring in the approach to the game that they go about I think it can just
really help them in their stead to try to achieve the championship title and it wouldn't surprise me
to see Zachary win it and I think they've had such a great season the accomplishments that they've
they've been able to get throughout this year, which is so tough.
Season in VG is so, so long.
So to have that consistency over and over and time and time again,
different formats, different games now, I think it's just a huge accomplishment
and really something to...
It just, yeah, I'm wax lyrical about Zachary.
We know Lee, we're 100% because that's what it's all about.
Let's take a look at you use run across this because you use coming in here with the mega dragonite
We've been talking about it so so much across the season. There is the undefeated
Sea of green there across all eight rounds
And I've been loving looking at all of these records that our players coming into at the top eight
I've been able to go up against because
Contrary to what we might have thought going in there's been such a variation out there in the field
We've seen a lot of that on stream and none of these players that have made it into top eight have done it by just playing
Up against Charizard flow it round after round after round you see so much
Variation and look at some of the names there. I mean Marco Silva, Stefan Mott, Darwy C
Just in time well, I could say all of them
But you know, it's such a such a fantastic set of accomplishments to be able to overcome
All of these trainers. Yeah, exactly that and I think the diversity of teams as well
that they've come up against. Like you say, it isn't just the same two, three, four teams
that they've come up against. There's so much diversity, so much
Differation in the tactical approach from each and every player that they've had to adapt on the fly and really
know the ins and outs of their teams to overcome their opponents. So this is the run going into day two,
which has led to them getting into the top eight. Not the best start today, but against
really tough opponents, but able to bounce back in rounds 11
and then that top 16 match against Amelia Forbes as well to make their way into top 8.
It's such a nice comfort blanket going into phase 2 at 8 I know.
Knowing that like one for three, if you take any of the players that have played here at the World Championships
and you said, hey, you've got to win one out of three of the next three matches that you're playing,
you'd say odd on to be able to make it there and get that top three.
likely it can happen of course like you've still got to be on your guard
you've got to be playing a game right but as long as you're on form you know
you're showing us that they can come back and of course been undefeated since
then we're in the knockout stages of the event having to play in our asymmetrical
top 16 and then going on to top 8 now Oren Zachary was able to skip that top
16 round and go straight into our top 8 so has also had an opportunity to have
have a little bit of a breather, 11-1 instead of 10-2.
It's an incredible record really on the face of it and this is their day one schedule.
Again, we'll go through the names, the top players right the way through.
We actually had the feature match to be able to get Zachary on stream round three against
Portia and that was a very warm side of the event as we had the repeat from the EYC finals
there.
So Zachary showing on stream how strong they could be, giving a bit of a showcase of what
they had in store for the rest of the floor this weekend.
But continuing that on, did have a little hiccup
along the way round five, but didn't let that get to them.
And that's their last loss from here.
They've been on an absolute storm.
And again, facing off against a variety
of different teams as well, that's, you know,
I think the one thing I would say about Zachary
bringing this team and Pesza brought these teams
that are more established in the format,
it is something that your opponent is gonna be prepared for.
They've had time to practice against this team.
I think it just gives even more credit to Zachary's performance as we can using something that is very widely known by the player base
But also like one of those teams where you can make some different decisions as well
And yeah, I think there's been going into this tournament
I would have expected Sneasler with gunk shot to be the Sneasler of choice, but I believe Zachary and
various others have taken the taking dive floor as like hey
just when I hit those moves and that consistency then shines through with that big win streak there
overcoming Carson overcoming Stefano overcoming Shohei they're going into our top eight and now
about to face off against you yeah so this is like a really great example of like why comfort is so
so good because even if you have a little blip along the road as Zachary did in round five of the
the next year. Then. Let's
call it what it is. It was a
bit just a tiny bit seems like
it. Hopefully that's all it
was because Zachary now going
to be going into top eight
will be looking closely with an
eye on top four to progress on
from there. But of course, got
probably a little bit of a new
challenge with that dragon
eyes. Not expecting that team.
That's probably an unexpected
team that you would think to
face coming into the world
championships, but it's one
that's presented in front of
you. Can they overcome it?
find out so I guess Lee should we find out throw our casters and get this last top eight on the road
for you. My name is Rosemary Kelly and I'm joined once again by Aaron Zang and we're
here to bring you through our final top eight match which four trainers will stand above
the rest to continue through this top cut. You tired of rock sliding yet Rosemary? Because
I want a little bit more. I want more rock sliding. You do? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm going
to have you keep that opinion. Okay. I'm not going to share that one. But yeah, you're
right. We're definitely going to be in for just a little bit more. But I do feel like
that's kind of the nature of
this particular meta game.
You have to kind of think
about what is that small edge
that I might be able to take
within these matches.
And unfortunately, sometimes
that actually is in the RNG
realm.
You know, I was trying to think
like Rockside.
I feel like I've seen it
flinch so many times and just
use so many times throughout
the course of both this event
and the NAIC Top cut.
We've got yet another Rockside
Pokemon in this next one.
Trying to think, do we have
one or two?
It's actually only one.
No Garchomp here. Only one.
Just Lichenrock, but today is going to be another one of the Frost Slash Skobill
in teams with Lichenrock. We just saw have a very, very dominant performance.
Now there's one in the top four. We'll see if two of these teams are going to be able to advance.
Once again, this team came out at the end of the regulation MA format.
Zachary Weed here is piloting it, trying to bring it to a top four finish at the World Championship.
He is up against Yuya, who does not have Charizard.
You look at Yuya's team and normally you'd expect to see a Charizard over Dragonite,
it's going to be a mega Dragonite on that composition.
It's really exciting to see that because I think Dragonite is one of those.
We've seen it sometimes jammed onto these rain teams because you do get those 100% accurate hurricanes when the rain is active.
But this one is going to be a move set of Dragon pulse, heat wave and thunderbolt.
Dragonite just has such amazing coverage options that it really does feel like it has a nice place on this team.
Exactly. Used for its immense bulk and ability to stuff really good coverage across the board.
Seth has inner focus as well before mega Evolvings,
used to get around potential fakedouts.
And it is just a very bulky mega evolution,
although it is staring down a ice type Pokemon
that's generally gonna be the number one threat
to the Mega Dragonite, of course,
in the Mega Frost last year.
Saw the players' accomplishments there.
Zachary has been one of the most outstanding players
in North America this season,
dated to the finals of a regionals
and at international championships.
Here he is at top A at Worlds.
And for Yuya, it's a big opportunity for him
Best finish was top 32 at the Japanese national championships.
Here he is, trying to go all the way up worlds.
And with a team that is otherwise relatively very familiar outside of that mega dragonite,
you do have the mega flowette that's going to have three different fairy tech options
to take advantage of that fairy aura ability, it gets when a mega evolves.
But then of course you have the usual suspects of this regulation with the fast religion
Kingya, but Sneasler and Wimson Cod.
Rosemary, I lied.
you know how I said, oh, there's no guard shop,
there's no Rockside?
No, it's on the Sneasler.
Yeah, take a look at this, Sneasler,
Sneasler running the Umberd instead,
but with fake out close combat, Direclaw,
and of course, Rockside.
Now, Rockside often used on Sneasler,
mainly to help out against opposing Charizard,
but also, it's just a move that can get you out of a pick goal
and give you some additional coverage, right?
Actually, into Frost Slash,
close combat and Direclaw are both quite poor,
but Rockside allows you to hit it
for super effective damage,
but he thing once again for UES team
is the ability to go with Eider mega evolution
and dragonite now flow it on paper often feels okay into these cross last go
villain teams but there's a good bit of defense and you also have to worry about
sco villain right because scovo just resists all the fairy type damage we
saw it being led in the quarter finals against a mega flow at and just to
stand and also burn at the opposing flow at so taking a look at Zach's team here
no major surprises this is generally what you expect we've seen some
adaptations on Sneasler, sometimes with Direclaw, but this one is running that gunk shot. It'd be a
really good attack, but of course not the most reliable at 80% accuracy. But if it does hit the
flow out, that is a one hit knockout. So that's a really great eject button that this Sneasler can
use to get one of the biggest threats in this matchup out of the way. Zachary Weed, the last
hope of the United States to make it further into the top cut of the World Championship,
to potentially even take home the whole thing. That is going to be a Pokemon that I think we
We have to keep our eyes on there's that chocolate berry King gambit on the other side
It does have a lot of different attacks that will be able to hit Zach's team for super effective damage
Really great points, and I think one of the big questions I have is your yuya
Do you think about that dragonite because let's say frost last doesn't come out and it's gonna be a scovill in command
Dragonite suddenly becomes a lot more powerful, but dragon is just so weak into that process
There's gonna be a big interesting dynamic here between the both players and it's gonna be scovill in here
So
Pokemon that can survive on its own merit.
We saw some moody boosts come through that didn't make us go villain a bit more of a threat
But you do have to imagine that this is a Pokemon that doesn't want to be on the field without utilizing mega evolution
Absolutely, yeah, and a mega evolution really threatening because then you can thread in the basket with a bird, right?
And so I am already really curious if UDOT has that dragon
I think that right now Zachary has a lot of offense coming out from the life and rock with rock
White still going on DC construction with an overfeed as well.
Basketledge and Wavecrush is also really quite threatening,
but you won't necessarily get a one-hit knockout if you're here
because the focus is actually like in Rock.
Wimpscott here could choose to go for a boom last.
You wanted to double up onto the like in Rock, right?
You could also go for a potential attack.
Goal is not in a mega ball, so going to start off with that protect.
Watch this scout out for a moody boost here at the end of the turn.
If Wimpscott is going to fail to get damaged down,
then that's still going to be cause of the protect.
And if the Rockside comes down, that's one of the downsides of bringing this move is you can miss.
The misses with the Bastille Legion with some critical damage, but it does connect onto the Lichtochon.
That was a double up of damage into the Skogeligo, so a great protect!
As for the Booty Boost, Boity has special attack drop. Ouch!
Yeah, so Skogel actually opting to protect and ends up being a good turn for that.
The Rockside dodge, obviously not ideal, but Skogel in there should take two of his last end-waste craft combination.
You guys say, look, I'm going to get, like,
a plump burn if it means knocking out your mega evolution
immediately.
So now, Wings God obviously has on-court pressure
on to the spillbill.
Spillbill, you consider switching out?
Or you could maybe just go for mega evolution, rage powder,
redirect the wave, crash the wave, right?
You know, we didn't see the mega, so now I'm curious.
Is there any chance it's actually a mega frostbust
in the back?
Spillbill is going to switch out here.
So does not want to get on-court, just passing the engine,
3D state switching here.
It is going to take the wave, crash a little bit better
as it's going to be a loop to cut protecting itself this time around.
Like a rock, throw down another rock slide.
You wanted to see it, Aaron, to hope that you are going about the wish
that you're having come true.
I found Collision Fletcher. Aaron, I played you for that one.
It's regulation, and me, baby.
Rock slide, this side connects on the path to Legion,
and a flinch comes out, does what Rock Slide does its best.
So, Basilision gets to come in for three.
Now, of course, Black Hierarchy and Vasculation, both applying a good amount of offensive pressure.
This focus I should think is huge pain for you to deal with.
You're a Vasculation ally, you could consider it felt more about to lighten your off with something like a blue blast and an awkward jet.
Lighten your off though, could just go for protect, and then the opposing Vasculation could be ready with lots of specs.
Often I think players protect in front of the Wings of God and then switch out afterwards to get around all four, right?
And so, I think Zag finds a good position to bring that Vasculation in, and here's the awkward move that I was talking about. Wow!
We're gonna bring that Lycan Rock all the way down to a focus stat.
As Aqua Jack can still be very powerful, try to get through some of this speed.
Like a recoil course comes through and then we get to see the rest of this turn play out.
As Moon Scott goes to the Moon Black,
Zathria can burn the KO onto the Lycan Rock,
so now that's no longer going to be a direct event.
Ragnite is creeping in the back for Yuya,
but the back allegiance for Zathria has now gotten a power stack too that lacks respect.
This is like a rock allies is taking out and that's going to even up the Pokemon town
Yeah, really good call out there about the life and rock painting because I think that he is one of the primary
Test of Dragonite. Well, that's that actually have cross-bass of the fourth one. Let's go curious about that
Also curious that you get deep the mid to the dragon. I'm right. I think he's creeping you my primary drop
I know yeah, it's gonna be people editing the field here. And so
I feel like being one step
ahead in terms of both of
choices in this first game.
Absolutely. I mean, that's the
bright Pokemon that you want to
see on the other side, but you
got to worry a little bit now.
Just these are trying to fake
out your flat. You want to try
to actually play around that
potential threat and you worry
at all that the news. God might
switch in and on course,
users to be down. Yeah, right?
Here's another fascinating
story. I'm going to show you
Yeah
It's just faster you just go for come shot last year, right?
So they got also works just to make sure that you you know cover for a couple on this
Maybe saying look, I don't think I'm gonna be faster. I'm just gonna give up my basket region here
Yeah, there's going to be another off the jet and then a back to Legion fires off the last respect that's two KOs
for that
as we have to bring in X-File and Final Pokemon for first game.
What is it going to be though?
Because I think if it's King Gambit, it's going to feel really tricky.
You can't get around Sneezer just going for a dump shot, right?
So it's going to be just Sneezer.
I think it's probably going to be your best bet here.
Fake out now, active on it.
You can't go from fake out into Zack's Sneezer.
Zack's Sneezer here does have pretend.
So if you're Zack, you can consider just going for a double protect potentially.
One thing that Zack might also be thinking about is how can I potentially get Skogun out?
actually get still going out on the field and have redirected career later on in this game, but your theory doesn't pull at this dazzling game, of course, that's going to be a nice week out of the crowd.
So, Skisler in the back for Yuiya gives him a lifeline, now, of course, right in the obvious cave-out, he needs to just protect himself back from him.
You don't have to worry about the fake-out, affecting the battling of the very leaves, because that is, it goes tight, you don't still fire off and attack with that Pokemon,
If he begins to get through with something like a defensive protect from Yuya, but it is just a double protect anyway.
That way you can feed the mega evolution.
Come out, you know that that takeout is for sure off the board now.
Takeout and Light of Rune here gave me an agent that ideally knocked out Vasculin, but Zack does double protect.
Now this texture, you know, Sneasler is bringing Bumpchall onto the flowette, right?
Which that was obviously really scary.
so you protect blowing up with the opposing Snezler doesn't even do enough to
damage right they can so I feel like I really favor his actress position right now
and that's the wrong slide that's the only way out of this you just these are
does go first you always see a flinch 30% chance to do it
it's going against Snezler
here's a flinch for the zone shot
it connects a one hit dog out on this blow as to take out this mega evolution
one Pokemon last year for you guys in this first game in the Snezler
But that's the legion, Bungie, so you can pick up one out of the Rocks slide.
Got one, but I don't think that is the right one.
It's a 3v1, Yuya recognizes this game is over, and Zack is going to take this very first game.
Honestly, really, really clinical.
Cursely, that was a really big turn, right? Being able to land that Gung-Chon.
Gung-Chon already is a high variance move.
You factory in Rocks like Blitzchance as well, and it just becomes so, so scary, right?
It's like, just slightly in your favor, and so that, however, is why you use Gung-Chon's easler.
able to just spread it and basically all flow into the format, even physically defensive ones with a knockout.
And to me, what was a big deal was Dragonite was dropped in this one.
Once again, it's not the most intuitive Pokemon to bring into a matchup.
But for us last but Zach, I feel like was one step ahead in Team Preview saying,
I'm going to bring Scoville in and I'm going to make a call, right?
And so you're probably thinking, wow, okay, well, it really didn't feel very good there.
It got absolutely trapped against Sneasler in this end game.
So in terms of adjustments, maybe you start looking towards that Dragonite,
But if you're Zach, then you say, well, okay, I think you're gonna give it a dragonite now. I'm going frostlass
Now frostlass would be a really great counter call if you do decide to bring that dragonite
But I feel like even still I like the skill villain in that game
Just even being able to have a rage powder for later on you have to worry about the trust that there are three very powerful
physical attackers on you decide that it still feels good to bring the skill villain. I think that's a great point
Yeah, and we've seen school and like rock being led consistently into these teams with whims to come right even with no
Chars are that like and rock still putting in a lot of work
So your point Rose. I think you yeah has two things to consider one. How do I just beat like and rocks go villain and two
Okay, it could Zach actually mix things up and go with frost last because he's one game ahead
And so I think there's a lot of scary things to consider and your point
Yeah, I don't see the easiest response to like and rock and scoville
It seems like a pretty safe consistent lead because of how physically oriented you just see this
And you can even consider maybe trying to set up a tailwind with the whimsicott this time around
But it did feel like the whimsicott was stuck in a really difficult position
And maybe even more so because you see King Gambit and Scovillian on the other side with that whimsicott fast
Allegiant yeah, so King Gambit comes out now red and fast. Allegiant immediately and this is what makes whimsicott so awkward in the matchup
It doesn't really do damage
You're gonna moonblast for a little bit on Skobill and a little bit on King Gambit, but right now King Gambit's like
Hey, I've got soccer punch on your Vasco Legion. I'm block glasses, right?
And so I think Yuya already starting behind in this match,
committing to the same lead as the previous one. Does Vasco Legion switch out?
It does. Does not want to take a sucker punch. Zack, you get a pretty big lead here by just going straight for swords dance.
Yeah, that would have really threatened a ton of the image on anything that's just back in.
If you were curious whether or not Black Blast is set for punch with one hit knockout basket legion out plus two
It definitely will skill villain does not wait
Anytime to go for the mega evolution this time around it is going to do that right away
It's got does it's landed move blast in
Oh, it actually does a lot. That was a critical
Drop means I can give it is going to get a plus two to fire boost
I'm really great play by Yuya there though manages to date the slot into Vasculage and Zack tries to play aggressively says
You know, I think you're gonna expect the sucker watch me so obvious. You're gonna expect me to sword stance
I'm just gonna go for it
But Yuya ends up getting the better end of it and you know, I was saying hey whips got into this
It doesn't do that much damage, but hey when you get a critical hit
That's pretty darn good and every time I see move less being clicked into King game
But I always get a little bit nervous because of the fact that the defiant can't activate
So you're you yeah, you're probably not really stoked about that right the good thing is at least for Pokemon viewers this upper punch right now
But Scoville in is actually you know putting on a lot of office the pressure into this duel right now
These are of course can go for a gyro follow do significant damage into it
So to worry about the spicy spray that will not help with this needs their damage output
But this go villain is going to say goodbye for now as back to leading comes out to take this place a lot of information now about
without what Zac has actually brought to this match.
And we're going to see this King Amur protect itself,
knowing that there is a fake out on the other side
and even a close combat if the Sniper wanted it.
Really safe play there by Zac.
Wanted to cover through a Direclaw
into the Skow Bill and so on.
And also says, okay, well, if you attack,
at worst it's going to be something like Direclaw
on Moon Blast, right?
So King Amur right now still exerting a lot of offensive
pressure with Sucker Punch.
One thing to note about Yuya's team is that
on the Sniper, there is no protect
for any non-attacking moves.
You can always Sucker Punch that slot if you wanted to.
right now for example you pressure with sucker punch and awkward jacking
these are slot and with that who's our king gambit if the flow is not all key
maybe you can knock it out
that would be a lot of counts
i yeah i i i would have been a true a shame
oh man would that be crazy to see it really would and that would completely
turn the tide into zack's favor we're gonna see the flowette mega evolve first
as basket legion protects next so what's the follow here from this king gambit
isn't going to be the sucker punch there and it is.
The bluet actually does take a significant amount,
but that is going to still be a pretty healthy survival
so it can go for the jazzling gleam on this following turn.
Now that the theory ore is activated,
and this can give it, it also takes a lot of damage.
I thought maybe that could knock out,
but that is a survival.
It survives.
It's interesting because obviously you can just
awkward jet slot that slot now, right?
But, Masculine Legion, like I said,
maybe sucker punch awkward jet gets there 38%.
How crazy do things that are life form?
Aqua Jet can finish it off, and Zac might be like,
well, I don't know what your defense is spread in,
so let me just get a good sense of it.
There is a lot of offensive pressure right now
from Yuya's side, right?
The Flood, of course, also personally has that Light of Rude,
which we saw previously,
which you can use to kind of puke the Basque Legion.
So right now, your Basque Legion's
bringing Aqua Jet into King Gambit.
If you're Zac, maybe you consider protecting your King Gambit.
But if you do, you also risk the Fast Duage on your side,
just aggressively getting targeted down and baiting, right?
But yeah, that Boom Blast activating that divide
is so strong.
doesn't finish off low end.
Wow.
Just a knockout there onto the mega evolution.
Low end is down and cannot contribute any more damage
into the second game.
And so that is a big knockout, a trade.
Blow for blow with these aqua jets.
Well, from Moosa's can gambit, that's a fire boost now.
No longer a threat in the second game.
I feel like Zachary has good control of this game,
but right able to eliminate a huge mega threat
in that collect.
Still got a skill building.
What's the guy's gonna come back in once plan hope us not doing that much other than maybe going for moonblast or on for
You thread in tailing right now, which is nice
And still the one actually has a pretty nice offensive matchup in both these with over heat as well as giga drain
And so what was got here can render the Vasculage in somewhat useless by going for an all-coron slap-slots
So don't can't redirect it Vasculage it could protect or even switch out potentially
You if you're is accurate though also have to respect something like moonblast plus wave fresh double office was still villain
right and just try to eliminate that because I think right now you just probably thinking oh man like I I gotta knock out
Skobulin at some point you know there's these are with dark on the back which is helpful
But it's just so scary because the Skobulin protects Vasco Legion so nicely here
Oh, it's going to be a rage powder to redirect away the attack so that Vasco Legion is free and clear to go for something else
It's limpsick. Yeah, there's the odd war had dog land the encore because it's a brass type
That encore is not going to get redirected away by the rage powder
or self-assuant, there's no choice except to continue to go for Aqua Jet while it is on the field.
I think in that position, Zach's saying, well, the Aqua is so obvious, I'd switch out so often on Aung for her,
you're gonna double off onto my Vasculiating or onto my Skowvillain, I should say, and Wavecrash comes out,
and you could see Skowvillain trained to be able to survive that.
But I do think the Tides turn a little bit more in Yuya's favors now, right?
Because you have locked the Vasculiating into Aqua Jet.
That's not gonna be a very powerful attack.
You're a whimsicott, thread in some potential knockout onto Skowvillain with the Moonblast.
You can last respects the Vasco Legion slot as well.
So the turn for Yuya there is that saying, you know what,
I'm off the game and if I get this turn right,
I can see the win right in front of me.
But Yuya goes for the save on war play
and it rewards him really, really heavily.
I think the thing about on war is if you get it right,
it actually gives you a huge advantage
because it negates the turn
and then the following turn
you have to play around it as well, right?
And like deal with the consequences of it.
And so for Zach right now, the question is,
do you actually switch out?
Like maybe you're actually content just staying in
with your Vasco Legion and off the journey
because you know the switch is so obvious.
And what is that fourth and final end of that?
Has it been revealed yet?
So it's possible to be the Snazer or the Life and Rock?
Those are the two that make the most sense
since that mega evolution wasn't invested into the Skowvillian,
but there's no switch.
It's just another Aqua Jet into the opposing Vascular Legion.
As Skowvillian protects itself,
so it doesn't get knocked out on this turn,
that's going to get one attack.
The Moon Blast from the Wimpscrawt
cannot land on its target,
but the last respect comes out.
It is a knockout despite the burn.
And so there's a free switch here for Zack,
but is it too little too late?
Yeah, let's see.
Like I mentioned, yeah, staying in with the awkward jet,
saying, look, I don't want to switch something in
and eat up too much damage.
It's also a testament just how powerful
Basco Legion is that your burn still gets the knockout.
It is going to be the seasoner coming out right now, though.
So, this is looking quite scary, I think,
for Zack in the, you know, the Basco Legion here
to get another attack off.
I mean, you can thread in a moot last into the Scovillain,
for example, if Baskillige is somehow able to get a last
respect for Wavefresh from a Sneasler, that would be huge.
Sneasler right now, of course, does have fake-out pressure
online, though.
The Baskillige will faint after one more tick of life
or pulse will burn, obviously.
I think, yeah, getting the awkward turn right
makes me favor Yuya more, but it still
is really close right now.
OK, what's that going for the defense?
Does that mean that maybe we see some damage come out
from the Sneasler into the Baskillige?
It's going to get rage counter from Scovillain to guarantee that this Sneasler is safe from
an attack from the basket legion as the Aqua Jet comes through to pick it off.
That's burn damage though in her life orb recoil at the end of the turn so is that going
to add up to be enough and it looks like it will once the burn comes through at the end.
But Sneasler tries to use the gump shot into the limpsick gomp that has protected itself.
Can Sneasler clutch out a 1v2?
I think the answer is just going to be no, right?
You get to bring out the Sneasler now on Yuya's end and you can go for fake out into
a tailwind then start launching close combat at Moon Blast.
It's just because of the 2v1, like when it's got to be able to get a single Moon Blast
off into Sneasler and be able to set up Heroin should allow Yuya to take us to a game 3.
So here we go, fake out comes out.
You can't really protect because then you get on board, right?
So then you also get up chip damage from that.
So fake out going to stop the Sneasler and his tracks and Lipsicott just confirms the
damage and on the next turn and looks like this is going to be wrapped up.
the game count and we get to go to a game three to see who will move on to the top four.
Yeah, and it was a mix up right here in terms of the lead adjustments from Zach, the King Gambit,
the Red and Fasculature now, but I think a couple calls went and Uya's favored here.
Winscott actually opting just to go for a protect right now as Sneasler will move first,
get that close combat off and does enough to bring us to game three.
Important information there as well to actually be able to see that Uya's Sneasler did get the close combat off.
close combat off first. Yeah, until a lot to consider heading into a very critical game three.
Only one of them could move on to the top four of the world championships. I think if you're
exact, you're probably thinking I had a couple of opportunities in that one. Things just didn't go
my way on specific turns. This was nice, obviously, and getting the boost with the Divya. But I think
one thing that Yuya did really effectively was bring multiple Pokemon. I didn't really care that
much about the sucker punch damage. This turn was huge, by the way, because I was talking about
about sucker punch aqua jet, maybe just tailing flow. And as we saw later, aqua jet did knock
it out, right? So had the double up went up there, then the king gambit would have been
healthier instead of being at just 2%, which allowed it to paint from aqua jet. But to
me, I think the on core was what was kind of the key deciding factor in this end game
where that got on core blocked and then it put basket legion in a really compromising
position.
Yeah, you saw the theory though, right? Because you do have this go villain, at least the
rage powder can help to redirect away the attacks in the basket legion. But it can't
you against this grass type
encore. And so that is
unfortunate, but a call you
have to make when you're in a
position like that. So heading
into this game three, do we see
a mix up? Is there actually
going to be an appearance on
the mega dragonite for you? Yeah
and the mega process for Zach.
I don't know. I was hoping to
see it in the last game. I
think you might say I think
this is just the best line
that I have to take like
when Scott basketball, you
make certain a lot of offensive
pressure. If you're exact,
right, you could be King
Gambit again, but King Gambit
right? Because he got multiple turns wrong against the basket legion and it with all the resistances it didn't do very much. So let's see if he brings it back it's not gonna be the life in Rocks. I feel like it's more consistent because Rocks like those 30 to 40% consistent against everything.
It's gonna be the run back of the basket legion and the wins the clock. And so there's a lot of offense on both sides.
So what is interesting here is what do you just go for Moonblast wavecrashing to Skogilin again, right?
Skogilin protected last time. Let's say you predict that. Well, you can Moonblast awkward at the opposing life in Rockin.
So even though we've seen the exact same leads, I think turn one and really give whoever gains the, you know, advantage and gets the turn right.
It really just allows it to snowball. And so let's see, okay, Skogilin is going to stay in. It is just going to mega ball.
mega evolution is going to help the skull villain to have that spicy extract for the physical
attacker of this fast religion. We'll see what actually happens on this turn is when
Scott's going to go for the protect first. Be sure I can keep that focused fashion tactic.
Fast religion is also going to go for a protect. Now you have the information that this skull
villain did end up committing that mega evolution and like and rock can knock at those rock slides.
Yeah, so going for the double protect just to say, look, I want to just scout for what you do this time around and whatever you click while now I have Oncour pressure to either slot next turn.
So ends up being a little bit safe, right? And now you do pressure Oncour in slow light and rock in the rock slide or in to Skogilin for gigatry, right?
And so same play exists where I talked about earlier, which is Moon Blast plus Aqua Jet into light and rock. That seems kind of unlikely, right?
right because Skilvillian could go for a rage powder potentially, but it is, and yeah no rage powder!
No rage powder to just draw the attention away so Light and Rock gets brought down to its focus
as by that aqua jet. So there's another follow-up here from the way to the clock, this Light and Rock
is just going to go down. So connects Skilvillian, make up enough of the deficit as Whipsacock's
Moonblast lands. Light and Rock is now out of this third game. Skilvillian has the pressure here,
over-steep super effective into the Whimsecline.
It's a giga-drain for it, the Vascular Legion as well,
but Vascular Legion does not get felled
by that one giga-drain.
Not the worst trade I think at the end of the day,
Lichenrock going down without getting any damage off
does not feel great if you're Zaka,
but I think Zaka was saying,
you're not gonna go for Moonblast's Aqua Jet.
I can rage-potter that Aqua Jet away,
and so you, like I said, that is a protective play to make,
and the question is whether or not
Zaka's gonna want to cover for it.
Govillain still gets a lot, though.
Vascular Legion in safely from his end,
So now you thread in Aqua Jet into the basket legion on Yuya's end and just an overkeep
potentially into the Limsa Cup, right?
So I think Zax's position is actually still fine, even though Lyca Rock can get any damage
off it.
But once again, on-core, this is why Wings Cut is such a valuable tool in this matchup.
Vasco Golanelle is going to be locked into Giga Drain.
But this Aqua Jet's going to pick off the basket legion, and so too, a Pokemon down
for Yuya as that basket legion was a pretty critical piece of the puzzle.
At least it was able to take up the light and rock before it was self, but now the Wingspot has its focus as broken by this Govillain.
And that was 30%.
30%, yeah, that's not bad.
Govillain's offense is actually really putting in a lot of work.
Now we know it's Govillain, however, it's locked in the gigadrain, and then of course if you argue yet you can grind in on-core into the faster region as well, right?
And force that into Aqua Jet.
So, what do you do now if you're Zachary?
Because the Flood isn't a really strong position, right?
I would expect Sneasler to be Zachary's more Pokemon.
You really don't want to switch to Easler in, and you'd have way too much Mary-type damage,
especially if Yuya makes an aggressive prediction and just goes for something like, you know,
Fasling Wing, who last double up into that slot.
These are faints. It's a disaster.
And so, you can see the power of on-core gear.
I think Yuya has a save on-core into the Vascular Legion.
Zac could maybe protect Vascular Legion, switch to Go-Villain out,
or even protect Vascular Legion, and get a gigatron off of Go-Villain,
saying, look, you have two fairies out right now.
They're not going to do much damage in the mean.
I'm fine being bought into Gigatron.
I'm just going to keep gigatroning your Flawette.
All of that damage ends up adding up eventually, so I think you have to worry a little bit about that scovillain getting too much damage.
And you can feel he's going to heal you at the end of the turn if you actually have had some damage taken.
So scovillain's going to have to be dealt with at some point or another.
Back e-legion first to protect itself and then scovillain gets to attack.
And the back e-legion keeps itself safe from a move blast from this wincecott.
Now slow back with the Dazzling's initiative chip to the Skobulin, but again, is this going to be just a light tickle that the Skobulin can heal off with a gigatrain?
Yeah, I think the answer is yes, and this is why I kept saying maybe Dragonite, maybe Dragonite, or maybe Dragonite's offense would have been a little bit better in this position.
That is not a bad trade hit for Skobulin, right? Skobulin's like, hey, thanks for the damage, I'm going to heal back up and enjoy your burn on the way out as well, right?
So it's a really good trade here once again though
There is the threat of on for now into a basket lesion slot
So you would think maybe basket lesion wants to switch out if you switch out into that Sneasler and you need up a moon blast
And as we lean hey that might just be a knockout. So Sneasler comes in
Do you go for Angkor here?
And so Sneasler will make sure that that fails a flat and the following up with a moon blast
That's still a lot of damage that this Neesler's going to eat,
but it's a round for the next turn as Skobily gets off another impressive gigadrain,
one more, and this Floette's going to get knocked out.
Can we just point out that two turns ago, we had Max HP Floette, Max HP Skobilyne,
and now we have Max HP Skobilyne, 27% Floette.
Like, that Floette has really got it shipped away.
The Skobilyne's offense is actually been really impressive,
and yes, Neesler, watching after survive that Moonblast,
like I said, Yuiya could have doubled up in that position,
going for Moon Blast with his Glimpsicot, instead tries to on-court the Basque Legion,
does not get it out of fear of Aqua Jet coming out and finishing Flo-Let.
So big momentum swing over to Zac now. Sneasler of course out on the field,
does have the ability to just go for a fake out. As always, if you fake out then you have to worry
about getting on-court potentially afterwards, but it is something like a mutualized either spot.
By the way, I still don't see an answer to Skullvillain right now.
I don't either.
It's got to be the Sneasler in the back, right, but you got to get it out eventually,
and so her ad is going to be a Wimpscot for Tech.
Govillain can start to knock out under this blowout with just a single giga drain
and then you also have overheat to try to knock out this Wimpscot.
Either way, I see this Govillain being the big winner here.
Even though Sneasler doesn't get a chance to fake out the Wimpscot
and gets knocked out with that Dazzling Gleam,
it's Govillain attacks this blowout which it does.
That's another Pokemon down and it's only Wimpscot
that stands in Zach's way of moving on to the top four of the World Championship.
You got one more in the back, right?
One.
Is this the Sniezler coming in?
Maybe it's the Sniezler, but I'm just saying, like, at this fast religion, you have to worry
about it.
It's sitting down there.
Maybe it's the King Gamma and it keeps you in there.
Sniezler.
So Sniezler here, probably the best Pokemon.
If it's King Gamma and a regular Dragonite, I would have thought the game was over.
I mean, this still looks really dire, to be honest.
I'm trying to think, like, you can't double protect, right?
Because if you double protect, then, of course, you lose to an Alcor.
You have to really be mindful of offering up its knees or to just go for an immediate fire call in a stove. Oh, and like I think
Zach's in a really commanding position given the offensive match of the stove building in basket region
This needs to find the right sequencing here
Make sure you do not lose call for here we go
It's just gonna be office coming out full blast into basket region 90 down to 51 that did 39%
and now we are one Pokemon away from Zack moving on to the top four. Overheat connects, Skullvillain's going to lose some special attack stats, but at this point the damage is gone, Sneezle's at 33% and the 4 of it comes through.
That's we who's on to the top four of the world championships.
Well, we started this, I told you, I wanted to see a rock slide, and boy, did we see rock
slide.
He saw rock slide and every one of its forms, it gives it and it takes it away.
That move can be powerful or it can let you down and that double miss, heavily unfortunate
for that to seal up the game for you, yeah.
Yeah, to be honest, I think even if you get the double flinch there, like Zach still gets
another turn to play with, right?
So it was very, very heavily favored in Zach's, uh, yeah, in that final turn, uh, but the rock slide, you know, you always go for it as like a last ditch effort, get some damage, also go for a flinch.
But to me, the main defining factor in game three was once again, mega scovillain came out, mega flowette came out on the opposing side and the flowette just traded terribly into a scovillain, right?
So that's what we kept saying, dragonite, dragonite, dragonite, immediately dragonite, baby dragonite.
And if it were a dragonite in that end game, it actually is pretty bulky, right?
You've got decent damage with the Dragon Pulse.
You've got Keep Wave and Thunderbolt as well.
Pretty good coverage across the board,
but Yuya just sticking to flow out in the end
and getting Zach making the adjustment back into like
dropping that King Gambit and does not get flinched
here in the end.
And Zachary is going to get a trophy here
moving on to the semifinals.
Still an impressive performance there by Yuya.
Coming out of the Japan national tournament
right into this one with a top three two result.
the world championships is an impressive achievement. It's pretty good. Yeah. And I just wish we could
have seen mega dragonite because I think, you know, he was one of the premier mega dragonite players just coming out of day one.
It's not a Pokemon that's made a ton of appearances on stream. We had a couple of mega dragonites in day two here.
Yeah, basically one of the best pilots of it throughout the tournament, but definitely an amazing run throughout the course.
the game. I think that's a
really good way to play. I
think that's a really good
way to play. Yes, and man, I
got to say like seeing rock
slide on a sneasler just
instill so much fear in my
heart, knowing how fast it is
and ability to get flinched
just across the board, but in
the end, it is not the most
reliable there in that end
game. And once again, I think
like Zach was in a really
favorable position given the
bulk of basket region and
school Dylan and he spoke on
our training ways to
guarantee that you can survive
one big attack normally, right?
And so I thought Scoville and
It's not going to affect the game that much.
I'm just I'm just kidding.
But yeah, I think it's just been an amazing performance.
Let's hear from Zach.
He must be elated that he's moving on to the top four.
Thank you so much.
I'm here with Zachary.
Weed your final top four player here at the 2026 World
Championships.
Let's hear it up.
Zachary, I know it's been a crazy season for you.
season for you. What does it mean to be here on the stage knowing that you've
walked in a trophy here at the World Championships. I am kind of in disbelief
to say the least. I was messaging all my friends the week before this event. I was
saying oh my god I can't wait to go 4-4 at this tournament and well this is a lot
better than 4-4 I'd say. I mean there's still a 4 in the number so you got that
part right. Yeah. All right well let's talk about that last match because it was
I'm looking pretty dicey there for a while, especially with you as whips a cot. I mean, what was your strategy playing around those on course, especially when it looked like that whips a cot could have locked you into protect or awkward jet a lot of those turns.
Yeah, the whips a cot was very scary for sure, especially because it could set tailwind allow the basket legion to pretty much sweep my team if I didn't play well. But I realized that even though it can click on core or and it can click tailwind, it's not really offering much of a damage threat.
damage threat most of the time so with my Scovillain on the field I can I can
just say I'm fine getting Encore into Gigadrain because you're getting trapped
basically trapped on the field with a Pokemon that's doing maybe 10 to 20%
onto my Scovillain at max so I was fine with taking the Encore as if it meant I
was just able to keep doing damage of some sort. I mean not only just doing
damage, but healing damage. We saw your Scovillain heal up half the damage it took every single
turn it felt like. It seems like it's your MVP of that battle.
For sure. When I used to play this matchup, I tend to lean towards Frost last more, but
the more I've played with the team, the more I've realized how good Scovillain is because
most of that team just cannot deal with the fire typing and the burn at all. Combined
with some gigadrain or overheat chip.
It means that a lot of their Pokemon
get chipped down very quickly in range
of all your priority attacks.
So out of curiosity, in that game number three,
when Lycanroc went down early with that double KO,
did you really have to pivot your game plan
to be focused more around the skull villain,
or was that your plan from the start?
Going into that turn, I knew that he was gonna
double up in KO something.
I was fine with it being the Lycanroc,
because it meant that Scovillain could just stay around and be an absolute wall for him.
And honestly, once the Basque Legion is gone, there's not much stopping Scovillain from completely taking over the game.
Maybe he could have played a little bit more aggressive and tried to call out a Aqua Jet Moon Blast,
but ultimately I was fine giving up the Lichenrock for basically nothing, knowing that my position was still completely fine.
Well, Zachary, congratulations again on making top four.
Are there any shout-outs you want to give to anybody watching at home?
Shout-out to my family, my mom here in the audience with us.
All my friends watching, my local scene, and just everyone who helped me this weekend.
I love everyone.
Congratulations again on making top four.
Let's hear it for Zachary and all of our top four finalists here in San Francisco.
to the top four matches.
We're going to have a little
bit of a run down to the top
eight. Let's go one more time.
And now let's go ahead and talk
to Ben about our finalists. We
have some incredible top four
matches come coming up, and I
can't wait to hear him break it
down. Yeah, you're still
cheering, but keep on cheering
because Zachary's done so so
well to make it into our top
four. Ben has got here to have
a little bit of a rundown of
Well, but we haven't really seen it pop off in the way that Zachary made it pop off in that match
Have we yeah? I mean I think it looks like a very different Pokemon that match and pretty much every other time
We've seen it right where I typically use basically just for an ability right when it's broken
Hey, you know all rage powder. I'll get you know some burns out there
I'll support the team and I'll kind of go on my merry way where he was a school sweeper than that one
Because yeah, I just wasn't never good way to deal with it and you know the special attacks down that Pokemon isn't bad
right? I put you that giga drain where you're not just like immediately nuking your own stats and
right? Yeah, I mean, it's not what I was expecting to see in top eight. But maybe we're seeing more
and more of why this team keeps surviving, right? It's a little more flexible than maybe it appears.
Yeah, it's like, you know, it's not just also you get those moody boosts that we saw, and like,
sometimes they work for you, sometimes they don't work for you. We saw a scovillian get a
two plus special attack boost at some point today, and we're like, oh, that's a that's a scovillian
we're gonna look out for. But in that match, especially in game three, where playing up against
the Mega Flowette, I mean, that's like one of the reasons that Scovillian is really part of this
team is to just sort of like, be Scovchilling against Mega Flowettes and any other fairy type
damage like from the Windsor cock in front of it and just like, hey, yeah, sure, won't call me into
Gigadray, no problem, I'll just keep recovering all of my health. Yeah, I think it's a lot of fun too,
because you get like, to forget that element of the matchup sometimes, like, obviously like
They can rock Sarah for Charizard.
Just go villains a big jerk to most of the physical
attackers in the team,
but it does have the type batch up advantage
against flow at you, right?
As we saw that match,
it's not gonna knock it out in a hurry or anything,
but you would get there eventually
and more critically,
flow reserve is really doing anything to it back
where, yeah, it was definitely a,
you know, you're trapped in here with me sort of situation.
And looking at this matchup as well,
I mean, this is not something that I feel like Zachary
would have prepared for specifically.
a lot of players don't come to this sort of archetype the way that you and Takuma most importantly now being the match that we're going to see
after this with Zachary versus Takuma in top four and and say hey this this Charizard just ain't pulling its way let's put a dragonite there instead
which to be fair it's a strong Pokemon it's got lots of stats it's got multi-scale which is probably one of if not the most strong abilities in the game
But I think that what's really interesting about this matchup here is like if you focus on the Scovillain if you're Zachary where it's like, hey, Dragonite looks really cool.
You've got like a little bit of cover with the Basque Legion as well. We saw how much those life or wave crashes do.
But also you've got a little bit of pressure from that Whimsicott with the Encore that really changes the way that this Pokémon goes.
But if you bring those free Pokemon and then instead
Zachary decides hey, you know what? I'm going for the frostlass right this changes the matchup and flips it on its head
Yeah, I thought it was pretty interesting too because I think if you look at this matchups
There's a dragon right there. I think for a lot of players
It's like a glowing beacon on frostlass and you're like, oh, I have to this is my chance. There's a four times weakness
I'm gonna get them and I really wouldn't have been on the right way to approach this matchup
I think it's neat because again, I think probably both of these mega Pokemon are a little bit under appreciated, right?
Where they kind of lose a spotlight to the supporting cast here
But there's just so much that they can do in this matchup
But I think also kind of just showing a willingness to bring out their mega Pokemon also makes it so much more difficult to play against
Where it's like a really deceptively difficult team preview. Yeah, there's like there's so many different branching paths here
I think it's most notably important to say that
But Zachary's got a face basically like this matchup again.
But instead of the wins,
it comes on you as team that he's decided to go for.
Takuma's got a guard job.
And so none of the encore pressure is going to be present
in Zachary's top four, which was like overall
a little bit problematic.
Maybe we're going to see a little bit more rocks slide
going on with the guard job that Takuma's running
like a choice car on that.
And just having the opportunity to play that
and just spread a little bit of damage out,
break the focus action like and rock things like that really like swing the match up in a different way and have a
Zachary like even though five of the Pokemon
The same like what you do against it changes so dramatically. Yeah, totally
And I think for us maybe even more tempting in that situation where you get the dream of all I got
Brother you flying blizzard I
But even seen the comic in the old days. I mean, I think it's interesting to begin here
You have the option of bringing it
get the option not bringing it.
They got Scoville, and still pretty good
against both of those Pokemon also,
where that rock side's gonna hurt a lot the first time,
but after that, especially Choice Grip, Garchop,
become much more of a flinch bot
than a real offensive threat.
So maybe you just kind of like play the odds
in that one a little bit.
I think it's just, it's fun in that regard, right?
Where it's so complicated to play against,
kind of in both directions.
And I think it'll be really fun to watch that
as a three game set, where either of them
could very feasibly bring any of their Pokemon.
I think it's always the most fun match to watch.
you get to the stage of the
tournament like all of our
players are playing so so well
and brings me onto a point in
game three that we saw where
this is this is pretty early in
the game right and so we had
the. In game one we had. One
or two I can't remember we had
the situation. I think it was
one where the like and rock goes
and the basquit legion goes for
an aqua jet here and a moon
whimsicott goes for a moon glass
here, KO the lycan rock and leave
the Scoville and kinda ready to
have to fend for itself in the
rest of the game, right? And so
in this turn, you've got this
situation where both players are
like, well, okay, I've seen this
story before, right? I know what
can happen in this particular
scenario, but I wanted to call out
specifically like the mental
that the players had to actually sit in this turn and just like, say, hang on a second, right? We're in this position yet again. Do we do the same thing again while my opponent makes a read or do I try to make a read on top of a read?
I think it's particularly interesting at this point in a tournament where it's a little bit different than playing a Swiss round where they've known their opponent for probably a couple of hours at this point.
They've done some prep knowing the match up and they know what they think the best line is matches right in the wall
How much you improvise versus how much you kind of trust it before the game?
I believe this is the right thing to do
What players kind of just choosing to stick to their guns here and make the same moves that they made the first time
Yeah, it's like and here you see like the lichenrock was a
Zachary and he said it this interview is willing to risk that lichenrock going down
Because that's go villain was in such a good position and here it is going down to that double up yet again
But I think unlike in game one, we saw that we see the giga drain coming out here into the Basque legion and I want to pause it here as well just to like highlight how much HP this Basque legion has left just 12%.
And when you're playing Basque legion against Basque legion, especially when they're both carrying the life orb, like you're happy if you're Zachary to make that trade and holding that line is like what you say, I'm going to rock slide.
if it goes well great thumbs up we're we're making some progress in the match if it doesn't what I'm getting is a lot of damage on a life or
Basque legion and actually I can use aqua jet to just start picking out the pieces. Yeah, I think we're playing as the back legion to especially early in the game.
It's so exciting to get to make that trade where the best legion probably the format's greatest late game sweeper but getting it this low this early kind of insures
like well it's probably not going to switch out at this point where it's kind of committed itself
but even if it does you know there's no like series of late game loss respects I have to worry
about right I think it's just such a nice way to get this set up where you know a potential
threat where it actually could just you know wax go villain from full health in a perfect
scenario it's just never gonna occur in a game like this one exactly and then when you've got the
in this situation you know that we don't know this yet but you know this that they've got the
the flow it in the back and that like you're wondering how in this at this point you probably
thinking like how am I actually going to deal so much damage to this mega scope villain
to get it down and like yeah okay if you if you go for the encore and you try to lock
the scope villain into a very far to say or a not offensive move it's gone for giga drain
already right so like that's the the worst case scenario it's not going to be locked
into to overheat as well. But in that situation, you're only like slowing down the progress
of the match. You're not actually like making any progress of your own. I think that's something
that Zachary did set up so, so well in like holding firm, making that trade, keeping calm
under the pressure.
Yeah, I think it's a real mastery of the team show on there, right? We're at Canyon. I think
a lot of players just kind of view it as a spicy spray bot. And I understand no, like
in this situation, I can use to go down in a different way than most people think of
when they think of this team,
allow it to pick up multiple KO's in that game,
it set a couple of Pokemon's health bars worth of damage.
It's supportive until it needs to do something else, right?
And I think it's just really smart.
Kind of like, hey, you know,
every Pokemon has a bunch of attributes
and it has a theoretical role on the team,
but situation can change.
And you see why he says it's a strong season, right?
Again, not a player that was on,
the player's to watch graphic,
but maybe just below it.
Or he had two really impressive second place finishes
this year at both level event.
And he's only a single round away
to the finals. We've had a
great time. We've had a great
time from getting to a final
yet again. Yeah, so you called
this out beforehand. Yeah, as
we come back to the standings
of the match. See all four of
our top competitors here
ready to go into our semi
finals. Zachary has made it to
the finals multiple times, but
haven't quite gotten over that
line. We've been talking about
it already and Sula Victor
in threatening to, you know, get to that sort of same level of credentials, but maybe he can take
it all the way. Yeah, yeah, I think we always feel a little bad for those trainers. You always seem
to just be so consistent, but just can't quite get over that hump. We'll have to see if that happens
for him, but I feel we're very deserving trainers in these semi-finals, and I can't wait to see
which of them may get to the exciting finals in the big arena tomorrow. Well, let's get ourselves
set up for our top four. We're going to go to a short break right now, but stay tuned. You won't
I don't want to miss this here at the World Championships.
the world championship title.
I'm Sarah Dawn joined here by Lee
Robos. We only have four trainers left.
The best of the best.
Yeah, it's really coming down to the few remaining trainers.
One of these trainers will be moving into championship Sunday
to tend themselves for that title.
The other will have done an incredible job.
Which one will it be?
Well, they're going to give it everything in this next match
and both of these players have been incredible.
All of our top four players have been incredible
to get to where they are in this tournament.
We know the level of competition
and they've had to come up against time and time again,
each and every round to get to this stage.
It was just a phenomenal achievement.
It has been incredible to watch the ball.
Let's head over to the stage
and introduce our first top four match.
What an incredible one, two very different stories.
We got Hiroshi Onishi going up against
And this is just incredible.
Berker Oshi, we saw him just a few months ago take down the Japan national championship.
Such an accomplishment and going on a run here that a couple have managed to do before him.
Going from that national champion to that world champion and he is so close to making that a reality.
But for Jarl, this season has been amazing for him.
for him and it's his first season here in the Masters of Vision to already put
that much of a statement on the game is incredible we've got to see the
achievements he's had within seniors looking at the regional championships
looking at the runs he's made at internationals but now on the biggest
stage incredible this could be the opportunity at first year to become
world champion for such a young trainer a potential prodigy in the game yeah
It's an incredible thought isn't it both stories are remarkable. Let's see which one plays out
We'll start with a quick overview of Horoshi team same six Pokemon that they use to success to take that Japanese national championship
So with some alterations coming into this tournament, but it is that strong Charizard and mega flow at combination
They're gonna be supported with that wins the card that provides the speed control the disruption with that Hong Kong
And then you've got like kind of the balance car from that come in and just get that physical damage out
the field when needed, but the two team of Pokemon and disruptors as well, like King Gambit,
four attacks there, the Okabari to give room against opposing Charizard, and then that
fasted agent. Mega Charizard sometimes, or sometimes not paired with the Mega Flowette,
have been the dominant Megas here for Pokemon champions, but, wow, his team is a team able to
bring that down, and a team that he's very familiar facing up against. Some variation of Mega Charizard
throughout the tournament. He has taken down seven of them looking for that eighth and if you can
preserve pieces like that lichenrock, well then it could be a very easy task but of course he has
to be so careful with every single piece of the puzzle here. Yeah, this is a big test for Horshee
because this team in particular, like you said, Sierra, is made to go up against these Charizard
Mega Flowette teams. Being able is going to be that lichenrock, but like you say, you've got to be
very careful with it. You do have a bit of security because of the focus slash there, so two hits are
going to have to go into that to remove it from play, but Jow can take advantage of it and utilize
it to get rid of the opposing Charizard and then freeze up the mega choice on Jow's side of the
field across last wall, the Skull Villain that can do so much damage to a lot of players.
And with these two teams and very capable trainers with very different backs, it's time to get started
here with Tom Ford, determine who is going to be our first finalist on Championship Sunday.
Vascovillian and Wim Scott in the lead for Hiroshi on the opposing end that
like a rock right away make it in here it's next to Scovillian.
Yeah the Scovillian coming out now is really nice to job. They're gonna have to
get the pressure on to that Vascovillian and also the fact that they can mega
evolve in it. That Vascovillian is actually in them, it's
packed, it's pulled into them by the rage fighter then he's gonna burn and that's
so valuable going deeper into the game. The like of North does have to be a bit
heavy, you don't want to give up that sash tree early on in this game and you're
You're not really going to get the damage onto the Vasculation or the Wimpy Claw.
It's going to be very impactful.
The one thing you could say if you want to break the Slash on the Wimpy Claw,
you can probably do that now if you want to get some damage there.
But like I've seen, switching out,
want to be positive for later when a Charizard will be in the next few weeks.
You've got to keep that lichenhawk so safe.
But keep it the Focus Slash safe on it as well.
Provides so much threat later on.
So a Squawko makes so much sense,
as well as Mega Evolution for this govillain.
Make sure you get your ability on a play.
Moonblast though, right away,
we're going on the offensive end for Hurochi.
First attack, not necessarily the most amount of damage
in that spicy spray.
We'll be damaged over time with that burn.
Following up though with the back legion,
wave cracks, all out offensive.
The double up will be enough to take Skovill and down.
That's a huge big knockout there
and makes the difference with that life hold
to take that Pokemon down.
but at the cost you are burning that
bascalation so it's not going to have
much impact going forward in this match.
Is that what the Skull Villain was used for?
Maybe we'll see how things play out
and Jow's failure.
Thought that would sneeze along to the field.
Now I'm going to have active bakeout,
can go after that Wimzikov.
So prevent the tailwind, this next curve
as the King Gamma comes into a prime position
and it is going to be going after that
bascalation now and it is in range of a
sucker punch, easy sucker punch
while a sneezer could deal with that Wimzikov.
And if you're scared about something
like that K-Code, you can go ahead and just click that Protect button on the
Whim Scott and be so good through the turn. Baskin-Legion as well, but the
King Gambit over for Joao's side of the board does have that source in. If you
all of a sudden catch heroes, you make it a passive play, you can go ahead and set up,
which could help this King Gambit not just get through the Baskin-Legion, it
doesn't even help for the Baskin-Legion, but it could set it up for a prime
position for all down the rest of the match. No protects though, but also no
It's just going to be a tailwind in a follow-up wave crash.
Burn definitely showing up here the amount of damage,
but King Gamut down to almost about half is decently respectable.
Have to see the follow-up from the season, though.
Close combat into the Winds of God is not necessarily the damage you would have wanted,
but when you do get that stat drop defense and the special defense,
it'll activate the White Herb.
All those disappear and you'll be extra speedy from here on out.
on out. King Amit, you eat the end of the year, you have to wait for a passenger.
Swordzand right now makes King Amit extra scary.
Yeah, and it's a really small play from Charles here going for the close combat.
That's actually that white herb. He plays with the opposing team as we see Hiroshi,
so that's where we end up. And now take the opportunity when it's there.
The Basque Legion is not as much of a threat when it's burned, so you get that soul stance.
You become a huge threat going forward in this match.
Now you can dispatch, you can go for the sufferpunting of the Basque Legion,
but you just go for the cat her plea to try and guarantee getting it not waste the
surface maybe hasn't had to come out is in the last stage damage from the
basket medium and go for the ones that got again the ones that go can threaten
their own calling to this thing so it could kind of put the stoppers on maybe
going for preferred attacks into the back when something else which is in for it
but knowing damage it seems from that close come out already not the worst scenario
it got its boost and it wants to make sure it can keep them and stick around
But on-core women's got in through the Sneasler.
You're locking it into an attacking move,
but it's a close call, but that doesn't do much
into the women's caught in, well,
not the unit, into Vasculation.
Target of choice, Vasculation did try and target down,
but with the on-core, it does mean
that the targeting switches up a little bit,
and Vasculation is not affected at all.
Yeah, it wouldn't be the worst case scenario,
but if it's into the Vasculation
and that close call is selected on-call,
then it is the worst because that Vasculation
gets another chance to stick around,
around get some more really important damage on the outside of the field now. They're not taking
real use of these kill intons. I don't think Zhao minds that too much. You want to try and
stall out these kill intons, all the run pain intons in this game. As soon as that's gone,
you can deal with the winter caught in the meantime as well. Then, that is fine because we're not
going to see any more of it depending on what is in the back to come in. We need to know the
lighting of all of those Pokemon so it can come in and really take advantage of the actual speeds
start to miss the ball.
With these two Pokemon though,
oh, it will be a separate bunch landing into the Vasculation.
That's one way to try and play around
all out of the King Gambit.
But comfortable to try and go for the attack.
Will it go down?
Follow up though, maybe even just trade,
but King Gambit will hold on, not enough,
even with that critical hit.
Follow up close combat from Cesar.
You're locked into it.
Ribbits got it already taken so much damage though,
even though he's still with the burn turn after turn.
Pokemon go down now
It's gonna be interesting to see which Pokemon on the back of our road
You've got so much value out of that basket even despite it being burned has
Be able to get damaged on the ball pick up a knockout along the way the wins across high set that tail
We're in and being a very disruptive present locking the sleeper into on course that
As a cross-combat is that going to pay dividends now
with the remaining two Pokemon to make a win in the field.
That's going to be the big question.
Using two Pokemon on the same turn
and having to fly with the last few is going to be a tough one.
But when you have a Pokemon like Fluwet making an appearance,
oh, and next to the Garjump, it definitely feels a lot better.
You have one turn up this tailwind to play around with as well.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily help you up against something
like that, Sacrifon, but it means you have to call your turn
very, very carefully.
Why eliminate this boss to King Gambit?
Well, also not falling back into a Sneasler that still can hit some
really really powerful close contacts.
It can hit the close contacts, Floyd. It's not going to mind taking us too much,
but like you say, that's a hundred hits plus two.
The black glasses are boosting the attack power of that as well.
So you can't just ignore that.
You have to respect that threat there with Floyd.
You can make a revolve, you have access to dust,
and you will do respectful damage into the Sneasler,
and it will get rid of that King Gambit,
here in the way for that lighting off to come in.
C1 prioritized the flowette, all the guard jump.
You probably see the guard jump once that came down
before guard jumping, you can feel
your opponent's left hand and the light coming back.
And with the last front of Taylor as well,
of course, you have to see him go on the offensive
to try and take advantage of it.
But we could also see as well just go on a little bit more
of a defensive play, but it'll be you
guard jump protecting and only flowette
trying to attack on the turd.
Try to call out that potential sucker punch,
But it goes into Floette and Set and there's still a lot of damage.
Close combat trying to split that difference.
Now we just get slow with this dazzling gleam.
So much damage though, King Abbot goes down,
but Sneezer hangs on my chest the thread.
It's a good survival for the Sneezer
and just showing how well it's been trained defensively
compared to the normal kind of just attack,
hand, speed or engage.
Really useful for the survival there
because now you're gonna get another chance at that close combat.
If you can go into the bar jump,
There is a possibility.
Cross combat, cross combat might be enough to kick the knockout there.
You better be worried about that.
Simple carries as the guard jump has access to you.
You don't want to activate that and then miss the knockout and allow the guard jump just to earthquake.
But of course you can't earthquake when the flowette isn't protecting.
The flowette can't take the earthquake.
So you've got to make some big decisions here.
The guard jump has to go from attack to standoff.
And Sneezler feeling confident not having to go for one will protect us.
Just the double protect comes out from Zorale's end.
So both Pokemon seem safe and now just a gargoyle with the earthquake.
One Pokemon protects, two Pokemon protects.
Guess what didn't go on the field?
Your own Floette brought down to just East River
as the closing moments of this match.
You are just in such a commanding position.
Yeah, that's not terrible.
I mean, the Floette, you don't really want to take in that damage,
but now you're in the scenario where you can protect the Floette
and both Pokemon on the opposing side,
Well, they kind of have to attack. They can go for double protect, but it's risky because then it's taken Earthquake damage.
The problem is, again, can the Garchomp take a double up from this close combat. That's the big question.
We're going to see that here. Is Direclaw fishing for status, maybe?
Direclaw first into the Garchomp. Isn't quite too much, and Rockclaw maybe not with him in the last search he would have thought, as he will go down Earthquake.
The question is going to be though, oh that's just so, feel so bad for when it goes down to the garjump.
Now we need the Liger Roster to show up big, taking so much damage,
brought down into its focus stat, can it do enough into the garjump to win it out?
What?
That's going to be the hit, but in rough skin, Liger Roster gets K-Yod in her Roshi to take the first game in the set.
Yeah, incredibly well done there from Horo. She really compels throughout and just coming through with the goal jump at the perfect time despite getting that early burn onto the basket legion which you built would have put them further behind and they looked like they were really making the most out of the
and the basket legion and that's not just the suffering of the team on Jow side and really take advantage and put
There's pieces. There's final pieces the flow and the goal job in great position when they finally
I will never disrespect gar chomp and the amount of hits it can take ever again getting into the end game the amount of
Pressure that I was able to put on with things like this sneasler
I thought it looked a little bit stronger, but Garchomp even feeling so confident in not just doing a lot of damage
but peyowing that
Floette in favor of getting all the damage on the opposing end of the board paid off huge
Always trust in Garchomp in a game number two
Well, I can see if Joel can make a bounce back here as Leica Girok and Kovalin in the lead
Going up against the switch up, Charizard and Garchomp
Yeah, the Lycanok likes seeing that Charizard. So how are you going to have to be very careful with that problem in particular?
Godchomp also not really a big fan of the Skullvillain because you go for that earthquake, yes, you're not in the Charizard, but you will activate that spicy spray if you use the Skullvillain at a negative level, and that's likely to happen.
Although Charizard can also kind of check that Skullvillain, but this is a beauty about the Lightning Rocks.
You've got that sash, you've got the Enable of Mint. Go after that Charizard, check it with Anisdela Rocks.
So you tech this Skullvillain this turn and hopefully get that burn once the dodge jump is decides to go down the route of attacking.
You've got to be also careful with this Charizard. Mega Evolution though.
If you are taking a hit from this Lightning Rock, it could spell this faster for this Mega Pokemon.
But looks like we're gonna make the call and we're gonna go for it is not one
But both trainers are going to mega evolve when we talk about the necessity of the skull villain and getting that space to spray
You need to mega evolve for that now to see where the damage is coming out like and rock will
Protect the call Charizard does not have to worry about taking a rock-type attack and instead can go on the offensive
First one to attack though is gonna be that garg-jump and will hit in to this go villain enough to start squishing it up
get some damage, but you do take a burn before that.
Thought to see how the technical got is later on,
but now the follow up charge arc, we're going for the accuracy,
we're going for the KO to eliminate the skill villain from Zua.
Yeah, such a great play from Horashi,
knowing that there's so much pressure on that charge arc from the lighting roll.
Are you going to protect it?
Well, I'm going to stand now, I'm going to hold your bluff and attack,
and it gets to the whole room before that now.
The Omega has fallen, the Garchomp has taken turn,
but it's still in a decent place where it can't just throw out constant airquakes.
All you gotta think about is breaking the sash on that light.
I feel pretty free to go for protecting the Charizard here.
The one thing that I would say is protecting against King Gambit, playing passive against it.
That's where players can pull up free.
If you allow this King Gambit on the opposite side, etc.
But as the sword stands, then we know how that can go.
That can slow down health pretty quickly.
The fact that the Garchomp is burned definitely feels just a little bit better in this board.
say with the Sasha will be an attack on the Leica Rock with a protect last turn.
So double up here if the Leica Rock does it, it can be scary but Leica Rock again calling that we're not seeing something oh so offensive as
these are comes out of this is just a double up this could be disastrous.
Earthquake first, first it is burned which is going to limit the amount of damage but
Sceesler still taking a significant chunk.
He-way following up in the sun into both targets
is enough for Hiroshi to get the double KO!
Foundationing here has just been placed in perfectly by Hiroshi.
North Wardens commit with that life,
and Rock has been the former for Jiao,
and now that Charizard taking full advantage of the freedom.
Two turns and with that, Hiroshi only moves on!
the championship Sunday.
You're a Japan national champion, one step closer
to maybe becoming a world champion,
joining those four men in history
with such a commanding game too.
Yeah, and a risky play as well,
but I mean, it paid off for Hiroshi
and you've got to give them huge credit
because it takes bravery to make those decisions.
It's such a high stakes game to keep that charge out.
In front of the life and rock and say,
I think you're gonna think I'm gonna protect so I'm not gonna protect and I'm gonna take advantage get rid of the skull villain
Well, that's on the field take advantage of my coach
I might not mind it being burned because all I'm doing is getting this
The softening these Pokemon have the damage that I need for the Charizard to clean up after that
And that's exactly what we saw and Jow just couldn't get that handle of getting the like and rock attacking into the Charizard
It's such a hard decision to make because if you get it wrong
Sash is broken and you're in a real detrimental place
That's the thing. Again, when it's a play that seems so telegraphed, you have to think
about case like surely, surely my opponent is not going to let me just take the Charizard
here, right?
So we talk about the zoning game, but it's Hiroshi just making these really, really bold
plays and Joao calling out.
It's those 50-50s in Pokemon VGC that make the game oh so exciting and when somebody
can get them right to turns in a row, it can be the difference maker in a match.
And it's also those two terms that if that like a rock did a tack and draw was just like
it's not joy for her. She was just careless with the Charizard. Well, we could be talking
about a game three right now. There's such tough decisions to make. But I mean, really
big kudos to both of our trainers. Oh yeah, huge congratulations to Joe who managed to
get to top four. You know, we've mentioned they just aged up into masters coming into
the world championships and having such an incredible performance this weekend with
They're a very, very familiar team to a lot of players.
I think that's just incredible to see,
and I'm sure they've got a very, very
bright future ahead of them.
But to Horoshi, they have made it possible to repeat
what some of their other region players have done in the past,
going and winning Japan Nationals,
and in the same year, winning the World Championships.
They are cementing their place in Championships on day,
giving themselves a shot of lifting that title
at the end of the event.
we saw in 2015, we saw it in 2017,
and we have a chance to repeat history here,
which is so exciting.
And the matches that we've gotten to see
coming out from Vero V,
I don't feel like there's any reason why it couldn't be him,
but even just the opportunity again,
to be playing in the arena tomorrow
is gonna be unlike anything else.
The biggest congratulations to him.
There is trainers that chase that stage,
that opportunity for a lifetime,
and to be so close to getting that world championship title,
so well-deserved.
Yeah, so, so well-deserved.
And using the same six Pokemon,
that did them so well at the Japan National Championships.
You mentioned throughout the stream
that there have been alterations, changes, and updates made
between the AB and the MA format.
But I think it just goes testament to show
how comfortable they are with the six
and they know their lines
and know the ins and outs of how to go up against
even teams that are built to kind of counteract whatever they bring into the tournament.
I'm just still thinking back to that game number two in those first two turns and if those are the type of plays that Hiroshi is making tomorrow or even if it's not, his opponent is going to have a rough time trying to prectinate because then how do you prep against someone who's just so, so confident because again, you get that wrong the other way, you lose on the spot.
Yeah, I think if we saw the acelerock into the Jorazal turn one
There's a completely different story because then the garchon gets burnt and then yeah
Where's your big offense coming because then the flow at snow in the back like you know, we saw her
Oh, she's leaning to in game one
So yeah, it is this very fine margins 50 50s and it's just making the right one at the right time
Unfortunately for Jao it was just yeah, and you can understand why if you get that wrong
than Lycanok Falls and then the Charles, I was kind of freed up to just do what it kind of did there anyway.
Those 50-50s are so tough to make, but for Hiroshi, our first finalist here at the World Championships,
it's time to go here for him as we head over to the stage.
Thank you so much. May I introduce you to your first finalist of the 2026 World Championships in the video game, Hiroshi Odishi!
Congratulations, Hiroshi. You had a very tough matchup in that round, especially in Game 2.
Your mega-chars are especially in those first couple of turns. What were you thinking in that matchup?
Congratulations on the final scene.
I think we were in a very bad situation last time,
but especially in the second round.
I'm sure you recognized that the Megalizer was a bit of a disaster.
What did you feel when you saw that last time?
Yes, especially...
Oh, thank you very much.
In the second game, we had a bad situation with Lugargan and Deserton, but we were able to win the first game, and we still have the chance to win the next game.
more advantage for him so I took advantage of you know I took that read made that the big play
managed to turn around in the end. You made a big play in game number one as well when you
didn't protect your filalette. Were those big plays what got you all the way here to the finals at
the world championships?
reads and I was able to get this far on that what gives you the confidence to make those big plays
I think it's a matter of trying to remember my skills.
who helped you get here and helped you along your journey.
You know, I touched on this in one of the previous interviews as well, but there are so many people who have supported me thus far
and practiced with me thus far, and I'm just so grateful to every single one of you. Thank you so much.
Thanks to you guys. You're able to come as far as I've come.
Let's hear it one more time for your first finalist here, Hiroshi Onishi.
Thank you once again and best of luck in the competition tomorrow.
Let's go ahead and take it back to Ben in the analyst lounge to break down. What's coming up next?
Thanks so much Gabby. Yeah, wow one finalist that we know who is gonna be playing tomorrow on
Championship Sunday Hiroshi. Congratulations. Yeah, not only winning Japan national championships
But also then going the distance here at the world championship
just one match away from becoming the world champion. And after that performance, holy moly,
if I'm on the other side of the bracket, I am quaking in my boots over here.
100%. We were talking before we went on air, like, the biggest predictor is what you said,
like, the biggest predictor of success for the world championships has been historically
the Japan national championships. And we would have to go back and just double check all of our
Japanese winners of the World Championships to make sure, but like, if not all, most of them have also won the Japan National Championships that year, and so, if it's gonna happen, if there was any sort of predictions, if there's any sort of smart money on this, going into
two championships Sunday, Hiroshi has proved that he is capable of taking it all the way.
Yeah, I would always feel comfortable saying that I think the winner of the Japanese National
Championships is a favorite to win the entire tournament at the World Championships. And Hiroshi
proving exactly why that is just unmitigated aggression and confidence coming out from that
player in incredible Saturday. I really enjoyed watching it. I can't wait to see what he brings
the game. I mean, I mean,
it's like, you know, it's
going to be a great place to
the chase center tomorrow. Can
you imagine those plays at the
chase center? Like I mean, it's
one thing doing it on the
world stage. It's one thing
doing it in top four, but in
front of that live audience and
all of those lights. The floor
is probably going to be doing
something crazy as well, right?
Just like last year, but that's
the beauty of these seeing
I had to take it all the way and
Just makes me more and more excited. Yeah, I'm so excited. I'm so thrilled for Hiroshi to have a editor
This is a player who has been grinding it out once Pokemon champions came out was one of the people who set the meta in
Regulation M a through his performances on the online ladder and through other tournaments and obviously winning the Japanese national championships
absolutely deserve for him to make it to the final stage tomorrow and using a
similar composition to what he's using in the world championships right now I
mean this has been such a story of this format as a whole through MA into MB
that through line of hey are you comfortable with the team that you're
running not just is it the best team is it the best team for you to be able to
play and I think her as she's hit on there's like maybe both yeah because
Yeah, this is the strongest it's got the most stats of any team pretty much in the format
It's got it's just one of the most powerful but also one of the most bulky teams
It's got the speed on its side as well in many situations
It's got the ability to set itself up and set some positions not relying on things like sleep powder to
You know try to get an advantage. So it's got a little bit of a consistency very consistent advantage in the way that he's playing
And that's allowing the skill of Hiroshi to shine through and shine through this whole
event.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, the thing that we've been talking about in the run up to the World Championships
is do you want to be like the 15th or 20th best big six player in the field or do you
want to be the best pilot of the team that you are the best of that you are bringing
to this tournament?
And you know what turns out is being really good is to be the best pilot of the best team
in the format right now and Hiroshi made it to the finals for exactly that reason.
like, just just just do that.
like it. But it's a completely
different story and the way
that Hiroshi played that match.
Definitely worth talking about
not necessarily some of the
turns that we had, but we have
got a couple of little parts of
that match that I want to go
back to and just think about
like the macro the game.
100% because the way that
Hiroshi played this game one,
Right, so we saw in the early stage that the megascove villain got taken down to a combination of moonblast
just doing that little bit of a chip, sco villain.
He's trained normally to be able to take a wave crash from a life-or-basket legion and not after moonblast, right?
And so, you know, this sco villain going down is a really big deal.
Now, in a lot of these match-ups, you get to this position, you're like,
like, Oh, Basque legions, like
the most powerful, one of the
ways that's the ace in the
whole, the end game, like the
final part of the puzzle that
you want to be trying to win
the game with, right? But the
way that Hiroshi, like, played
this game, it seemed like the
Basque legion was like a means
to an end, right? And so in
this situation, and we're not
going to go through the turn,
because this guard chomp is the key to the matchup.
When you look on Jarl's side, you've got the King Gambit,
you've got the Sneasler, right?
You've got the Lycan Rock.
None of those Pokemon like taking Earth Deck.
Yeah, they quite dislike it very much.
Dislike it very much.
And so what we've seen time and again with this matchup
is like, hey, the Skow Villain comes in,
the guard chomp gets burned,
and then the guard chomp can't do the fun ground shaky thing.
that it really likes to do in these situations and put loads of pressure on the field.
But as it happened, you know, if we do a little bit of fast forwarding through the match,
uh, oh, wait. There we go. Nailed it. There.
Um, the Godchomp is coming in, and it's coming in on 100%.
And not burnt at all.
Not burnt at all. And there's just not enough damage here or here with a king gambit like on low HP.
There's still the flowet that you've got to be able to consider.
And so one of the ways that you beat a King Gambit,
I give it too many things to target at the same time.
And this sort of setup, this playing something that looks like a downside
at the front end of the game, but actually turns out to be an upside
at the end of the game was so, so clever from Hiroshi.
Yeah, absolutely.
And managing that Scoville and is such an important part of this matchup
because outside of the flow at and to a point, the Windsor caught
with the four Pokemon that Hiroshi brought for this matchup,
Scovillain is enemy number one.
If your physical attackers are getting burnt by the Scovillain,
then you're on the back foot,
but you have to make, choose which poison you want, right?
Yeah.
And by picking the Basculation and sacrificing that piece
to knock out the Scovillain, you're totally right.
It completely opens up.
The only Pokemon remaining are all weak to Earthquake,
and it doesn't even matter what's next to the Garchomp.
It's just going to keep quaking the Earth.
like, you know, even if it starts to get attacked, it's going to have a snack, like it's going to be able to just hang on.
And again, this choice of item, we talked about the consistency a minute ago of the team at large, you know, you see the choices a lot of the time, it's a life orb, as it got introduced, like guard jump, one of the best Pokemon in the format.
What happens if it's 30% stronger, right? We love that. Pretty good, as it turns out, but actually, like, this has been a trend in the metagame, like guard jump,
wanting to go a little bit bulkier so you can go toe-to-toe with those life or
guard chomps but actually try to come out on top.
Yeah what if guard chomps actually had 25% more health?
Yeah, yeah. As a good thing, it doesn't have both at the same time.
Yeah, I would like that.
I mean that's kind of like mega guard chomps, but that's a whole other conversation buddy.
We're not getting into. So then Hiroshi, a game up, right?
and going into Game 2 where, in fact, let me just get to it because this Game 2 was absolutely crazy,
right? So we had... hmm, not sure where we are. Do you know what? Oh yeah, this is it. Right, so
turn one here and we've got Charizard on the field in front of his enemy lichen.
Yeah.
This, you're smiling, and I don't know why you're smiling ever, because this is exactly
what we're all coming here to see like this matchup.
This is what the Lycan Rock is for, and the Scovillean is for burning the Garchomp, right?
So this looks like an unbelievable position for Jal, right?
Yeah.
If I'm Jal, I feel so happy about this lead matchup.
I have all of the pressure right now.
I could pick up a KO onto that Charizard whenever I choose to,
and I can burn that Garchomp and make it so weak for the rest of the game.
I feel great. This is exactly what I hoped for.
Unless.
Unless.
Unless.
Unless I'm playing the Japanese National Champion
who decides to make the most ridiculous call-out,
the kind of call-out you can only make
when you're already up one game in a set.
I- Exactly that. I mean, this is-
I think this is the most important part of this turn, right?
And the- the next turn, which is the only two turns of the match.
you've just joined us. Just
having the game advantage and
being in a situation that you
like. Well, okay, if this goes
wrong regardless of which way it
goes wrong, I'm on the back foot.
I'm probably not getting out of
this game feeling good about
myself in like I don't want to
necessarily have to go to a game
three and start trying to, uh,
like figure out these reads again
and again and again, right? And
so, uh, do you know what? Like,
I'm either gonna take the loss
later or I could like take a risk now if I lose on the spot fine no problem hold
your hands up and say like I I made a call it didn't work out we'll try again
we'll try again right but now it's not even the heat wave it goes it goes by
the weather's all calling it as well like this is committing to the to the to
the prediction yeah 100% accurate weather ball you are you're losing to
the Xcelerock, but you're 100% knocking out that Scovillain, if Lycanrock does what it does there,
and protects, because Charles is like, there's no way I get this Charizard for free. And Hiroshi's
like, you're right, there isn't, because I'm going to knock out your Pokemon in that.
Exactly, and then turn two. And like, our players have reset, right? The only difference now is
that because Lycanrock has just protected, it's less likely that it's going to protect again.
What does that mean? It's more likely to go on the offensive. And, uh, you know, Hiroshi's like,
I'm not sure what's going through his head at this point. And I'm wondering if it's like,
I got away with it once. Yeah, am I, am I going to get away with it again? And, but it's still
a difficult position, depending on what Pokemon are in the back. And so like,
Shao's like, rightly saying like, Hey, yeah, surely, surely he's not going to let me,
I think that's a good idea.
Yeah, go for this again.
Switching out into the
Sneasler. God Trump even burn
doing what it does best.
He played. Two KOs, only one
Pokemon left for Joe, and
there's there's nothing left
for him to come back to. Yeah,
the most fitting use of that
double KO graphic. I think
we've ever seen here.
Incredible call out there
again because Joe is on the
back foot at that point. He
by, you know, just going, like, going for an Accelerak into a protect and losing your momentum
again. So he's trying to reposition. He's trying to say that, oh, great. I know that I'm in the lead
right now. I need to get even further in the lead. I need to make sure I have the advantage
on the Pokemon sense in this current moment. I need to get further ahead to the next turn.
And Hiroshi says, okay, but what if I just click keep leaving Earthquake instead?
I mean, it seems so obvious right like I mean just going for any sort of defensive play, but I don't sound like a broken record, but it's coming back to like the game one game one up and on this stage, like it's such a I think a mark of respect on both players.
the way that that turn plays out, right?
Both players are actually respecting,
not disrespecting what the other one has at their disposal,
right?
And so this repositioning could have ended up
pretty bad for Hiroshi.
And Hiroshi's respecting that by actually calling the bluff
and saying, like, I'm just going to go for it.
I'm going to go straight on the offensive
and not saying, like, do you know what?
Like, this is a tough situation.
I'm going to play negatively.
No, I still have a way to have an explosive game here.
Yeah, that's absolutely correct.
And it's a great point to make that both of these players
were absolutely respecting each other's options here.
You know, you make that play game one or turn one of game two
because you understand that you have no moment
if you're a hero, because you have no shot here.
Like, oh, my Pokemon matchups so poorly
against the Pokemon out on your field
that I have to switch.
And because I have to switch, and I know that you know
that I have to switch, I won't switch, and instead I'm going to start picking up the
KOs and the same the next turn around. It's like, okay, I recognize that, you know, you're
feeling behind and, you know, you're all still threatening again and you want to try to pick
something up. But if you whiff into the protect, you're already so far behind that you're not
going to be able to come back into the game. So I know you have to make a play. I'm going
to respect the play that I know you have to make, because you understand what's going
I'm going to punish you for it.
It was beautiful play and her two for a two game set her two game match game to turn game incredibly beautiful.
I loved watching that so so brilliant and I can't wait to see what her as she has in store for us in the finals tomorrow.
But Evan, are you ready to find out who our final finalists is going to be here at the World Championships?
I can't wait.
I am so excited.
I love both of these teams.
I love both of these players watching them throughout this tournament for our final semi and I can't wait to see who's going to join Hiroshi and Chase.
Well, without further ado, let's take it away. I will see you, Custards.
Thank you so much for the final time today. Aaron and I are here to walk you through this final top four. Aaron, Hiroshi, Onishi, waiting there in the finals. Who's it going to be that's going to join him?
It's going to be an intense battle.
Of course, on one side, you have Zachary Lee.
Zach has made it to the finals of a regional championship,
an international championship.
Now he's one game away from potentially making it
to his first world championship finals.
You imagine your first world finals being in Chase Center.
I could not even fathom what that feeling would be like.
And for Takuma Yamazaki, that is also an accomplishment
that he is greatly looking forward to.
they both stand in each other's paths. Takuma coming off of a top 64 at Japan Nationals this year
to make it to the World Championships. But Zack, as you said, has had an impressive 2026 season
and the fact that he gets to end it off with at least a top four here, Worlds is so cool.
And he's staring down a team that looks very familiar to the team that he actually just
defeated in order to make it to the semifinals. The only difference is a choice scarf garchomp
over Wimsecot. So, Zac has some experience playing against this archetype. This is kind
of this new duel of Mega Dragonite, Mega Floette. The rest of the Pokemon are what we generally
see throughout the course of the event. But, I do think the inclusion of ToyScarf Garchomp
as well as Mega Dragonite as the duo here can be threatening to Zac's team. Previously,
when Zac fought against the composition, it was Mega Floette that was really prioritized,
right? And so, trying to get as much damage off with Mega Floette, you've got this dual
mega flex. Dragonite strong enough to be brought actually even as a non-mega evolution, but
Floette often being the heavy damage dealer, West Dragonite's a little bit bulkier, and
you also have no protect on the Spiesler, the King Gambit, or the Garen chop. Spiesler
here actually opting for these baits.
I'm actually wondering if the moveset adjustment on this particular mega Dragonite versus the
one that Zack faced in Top 8 is actually enough to bring it as you said. You've got Dragon
and I think it's a really
powerful option to help get
around something where Zach
does have a couple of faster
pieces.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So once again, I think I would
love to see Becky Dragonite
here on the world stage, right?
I think that actually in the
top eight match, Zach had
constantly dropped an egg of
frost last course.
Maybe frost last is probably
the number one best Pokemon you
could have in the format
against the dragonite and the
guard shop on the opposing side
here.
But once again, taking a look at
taking a look at Zach's team, it is that dual mega pairing of Frostlass and Skow Villain.
Skow Villain being so frequently led with this team and I think the number one takeaway I've seen
from the top players using Skow Villain is how effective they are in being able to deal actual
damage with it. We saw it basically kind of solo through a mega flow at in the quarter finals.
We've seen it dish out massive amounts of damage with Overheat as well. Do not discount this Pokemon
as a damage dealer, also being able to of course burn so many key Pokemon, Vasculation, King
Gambit, Card Trumps, Thiesler.
Those are basically the best physical attackers that exist in the game and part of the reason
why Scobillen exists is to be able to neutralize their damage on putt.
I also wonder whether or not the addition of gunk shot on this Thiesler is something
else that might push the cards towards that mega dragonite there for Takuma.
We saw that gunk shot, the one hit knockout on that flowet in the quarter finals and so
So you have to wonder if that's going to be something
that's going through Takuma's head.
Yeah, I think if you're a ham, you're probably really
trying to cover for leaves around the Megasco villain,
right?
Megasco villain, like it or not.
Megasco villain, King Gambit.
So for Zack, do we see a mix up here?
I'd love to see Dragonite making up here.
And there's Frostlass, so no Skobill insane.
Look, we don't respect your Dragonite.
No, Dragonite.
Dragonite's vasculated for Takuma,
and for Zack, it is because Frostlass and the Snoozler.
Frostlass, not one of those Pokemon
we generally end up seeing brought to a battle unless you are ready and willing to mega evolve it.
Yeah and so Frostlass here in a pretty decent position, I mean hey it threatens
super effective damage both onto Dragonite as well as the Vascular Legion.
Zack of course also has the fake out on the Sneezer. Sneezer won't do very much damage
with Bumshot or close combat but you can run in for example fake out into Dragonite or Bumshot
into Blizzard immediately. Vascular Legion I would expect to potentially survive a Shadow Ball
from the Frostlass, but if you're exact,
you can play really aggressively,
double up onto either slot,
or just say, hey, I'm gonna set up
a free Aurora build right now.
Yeah, it's going to be,
the Snezler is gonna take out for the Lycan Rock,
and that's going to make it appear
as a health threat and a dragon like that
ends up maybe evolving on this first turn.
So going out that multi-scale intact
as you are still at full HP,
and there's no fake out on the other side
that can help you to get around that.
Frostlass protects itself,
to enter into the next steps of this turn,
and Blast Legion does the same.
So can Dragonite get away with some free damage?
Onto the Lycanroc that just switched in.
Heatwave comes out.
It can't connect on this Lycanroc
and break its focus dash.
Yeah, so Dragonite attacking in front of the threat
of the frost last and says, look, I've got the multi-skill,
even if you blizzard me at the end of the world.
I think I'm most probably pretty happy about that turn, right?
You don't really take any damage.
Lycanroc comes in, but now it is vulnerable
to eating up an Aqua Jet.
Of course, Dragonite now is vulnerable
to eating up something like an Xceleroc
plus a blizzard combination or just blizzard rock side for example, but if you click rock side and you get aqua-jetted
Well, then lacking rock doesn't really accomplish anything, right?
So I think the Vasculation right now still looking really powerful offensively and while Frostlass is really good into this duel
The fact that they both will potentially survive one big attack is quite a big deal
So I think the main interesting dynamic this turn is is there going to be an aqua jet into the like and rock slot?
Damn it's switching here perfect to deal with the school unless it's a close combat into Dragonite
It also be a protect that comes out from this like a rock right to try to get around something like the aqua jet
But the braw flat is going to take the opportunity to mega evolve set the snow and maybe even serve something like and roar avail
First though we see the Xcel Rock which is going to connect into the King Yambit that would have broken the multi-scale on the Dragonite
Get the aqua jet so that's all that like a rock is going to contribute to this first game
The frost last still get the chance to attack as we see the life or free coil comes through for the basket legion
If it's a shadow ball, there would be pretty big
But it's got the blizzard to connect damage onto bolts, but it's going to be very ineffective
Yeah, it's a little freesier though, okay
Every time the blizzard animation comes out
My heart skips a beat exactly, but Takuma going for the perfect bait there with the dragonite sink
I think you kind of need to respect this right because dragonite is actually quite good
It's everything that's not the frost last
and manages to secure Knocked Out to Like and Ruffle,
not taking very much damage.
After Life Orb, Shadow Ball from Frostlass,
I think they have been a knockout
onto that Bastion Legion, right?
So a really favorable turn for Takuma there.
Sneezer now, however, does come out,
and once again, the King Gambit on Takuma's team here
does not have to protect,
and so it is extremely vulnerable right now.
You can just go for something like a close combat
into that spot, Shadow Ball.
But the question here is,
are you fearing the Sucker Punch?
It's so, you could go for an Aurora veil,
I mean, Garchomp is going to switch in with the close combat a little bit more effectively,
but it's just a fakeout.
And so fakeout into Garchomp does some chips, Neasler, though with a rough skin recoil is
going to have to take some in return as Proxlash cannot land that shadow wall.
An opportunity to have gone for another Blizzard there, but really ineffective in front of
that King Gambit back you lead him.
Exactly.
Yeah, it would have to be a hard read that there was going to be a switch out there.
So it's not every day you see a guard chop willingly switch in against a mega frost last
But as a reminder this is going to be the choice scarf on the guard chop
And so right now it is posing a huge offensive threat for example
You could go for a tech with basket region go for an earthquake with guard chop
Still have the multi-skill action on dragon as well
So space would does not want to take that earthquake going to pivot in basket region here
Zack's got expert doing some damage with this frost last has been to be stopping tantrum no protects those switches
So if Gartan goes first, Toyska going to lock it into the stomping tantrum as long as it stays on the field as fast as he can get taken down by that shadow ball that we would have liked to connect in the turn prior.
So that's going to be another knockout. 3v3 here as Takuma and Zachary have to think about what's coming next.
I think Zach's probably pretty happy about that turn at the end of the day, right? Managed to get a key knockout and also conserve Frostlass's HP because we make any damage there.
And so, I think what is really scary about this Rosslas is it's offensive spread into the guard jump of Dragonite and the Basque Legion, right?
Blizzard just destroys the Bull Dragon dual.
So, King Gambit now, really the perfect poke point to switch in, does threaten with Sucker Punch.
But, Zack can play around that Sucker Punch potentially by going for an Aqua Jet.
King Gambit's Sucker Punch extremely threatening into both poke points here.
Zack could always potentially go for something like a Protect and then kick it out into Scezor as well.
Crosslash builds up a roarville.
It's not quicked so far in the game,
but that's another way to get around Sucker Punch.
So right now the Sucker Punch mind game is real, right?
Does Takuma go for a Sucker Punch and feel it?
Does Akri hard call out and say,
look, I think you're actually gonna count how clean you need.
And if this King Gambit is a top of theory,
what's the likelihood that a Sucker Punch
is actually going to knock out the Crosslash here?
Not gonna get that question answered,
but it is going to be a protect.
I think even though it was a Sucker Punch,
it's a vacuated instead.
No Aqua Jet, no damage.
And that is now two Pokemon here for staff and Sceasler has to come back out.
The hard call out there, this is what I was saying, basketball each could click off which
at a get around that, could have switched into Sceasler, but the perfect burn for
Akuma here and the Sceasler will come in.
Gambit once again still does not protect available, right?
So right now you're breaded with something like fake out plus a lizard, but it's looking quite scary.
Conserving the Garchup will be nice, right?
So the question here is, do you potentially switch it out?
Do you think you're going to eat fake-out-plus blizzards
into the Garchomp slot?
If so, you've still got that dragon in the back.
Snow is slowly about to expire as well.
So you can land just a little bit of damage
in a frost slap with a subtle punch.
Garchomp, if it switches out and comes back in,
maybe can clue things out within Earthquake, right?
But maybe if you are, Huckamaw, you make that read,
maybe protect frost slaps, post-combat, and if you can't
damage it, right?
This turn, a fucking question I have is,
what does Garchomp do?
It is going to switch.
Does Akri call this?
Well, if the Dragonite comes in, seek out into that slot, plus the Blizzard would take out...
Whoa!
Dragonite, and the center punch is going to bail, so that means that this problem has ended up using a Roar Veil on this turn.
So King Gambit does not get any damage down.
Can Sneasler do something astronomical here?
Get the close up!
What a turn!
It's very crazy!
Top of the theory activates to soften the blows, but this King Gambit still can't hit one!
the game over. That's a really
hard play to make when you're
staring down to make up plus
Blizzard and so an amazing
turn there. Sneezer's wider
back to make some now it is
fast as well with that on
burden. No snow, though, so
that means these blizzards
Rosemary can miss only 70%
accurate. Bar chop will be able
to come back in, though, of
course, reset its move, but it
perfectly time to roar veil and
an amazing burn by Zachary
there. And that's what we're
and an amazing burn by Zachary there, just phenomenal play.
And this really feels like both players are just trading
blow-for-blow, very, very high level right now.
This is the world championships.
You've got to be confident to make these reasons.
Sometimes that's going to be the little bit of a difference
that makes a big difference in your game.
This guard top has to come back out.
So now, if you're talking about what do you lock into
with this choice spot?
That is the question.
Yet, you go for Earthquake, which of course will deal
a lot of damage, because the speed order will be
first, right? You get a big attack off. The other question here is, does Sceesler consider
protecting, right? And Frostlass then could just go for a Blizzard wiki, uh, a Rouraville.
You also could say, well, if I don't feel like Earthquake is the right move to lock in,
I'm just gonna hedge my bet on Rockside and look for a flinch. If I get the flinch on Frostlass,
actually that might be enough for me to still win the battle. So, it still feels so tense here.
I would give the advantage to Zachary. Sceesler is going to go for the protect. So, is it a
that rocks like right now or is it just earthquake lots of 30 for the
guard chop that's what's gonna be the move that it lost into with the choice
start 30% come true we're gonna cross last really look at it for Zach here
now all the guard chop play connect us to the dragonite and the healthy scale
does not keep it that healthy so much damage here dragonite probably gonna
follow up with the heat wave respect that's enough now for us I think it's
still in Zach's favorite here though right because you just knocked out the
dragonite and okay no cross class hangs on Mary help me with that Aurora veil
and so I mean Scezler now will once again be able to move first being able to
land blizzard through Rock's life so so scary right now it is a big miss on
Garchomp right a connector I think would have just immediately ended the game
and so back now gets another chance you go for a close combat into the Garchomp
or you can just try to die or fall, finish off Dragonite and then Blizzard to finish off Carshop.
Carshop here has to click the rock slide, right? With Dragonite you can either decide to protect or maybe go for another key wave,
but it is so tense right now.
So many anasterd moves and secondary probabilities that can activate with the Spiral 2v2 for the first game.
And it really does come down to this.
Can the rock slide connect onto the rock slide?
to the Frogslash, but Broxlash goes first with the Frogshot,
and that's going to be a connection.
Dragonite goes down, and now it's a 2v1.
Looking for Barchomp, dude, the impossible to take the bolt out.
Broxlash connects, Broxlash now, down for the count,
and so 1v1 between this Measler and this Garchomp.
Yeah, but firstly, Measler, having had that alert and activate,
he'll just be able to outspeed Barchomp.
This is Toyscart Barchomp locked into Rockslide,
and I think we're going to see Zachary take this first game.
close combat comes out.
You're gonna get the knockout,
but it does a hefty amount.
And if I, you know, I were gonna say,
if Bartop were faster here at the rocks,
like, you know, you get the flinch chance,
the defense drop, you can actually add up
with the roar of Hill up here.
Rocks like doesn't do enough.
And another close combat will bring us
to game three here.
Whoo!
A lot of variables in the final moments of this game one.
And we still have a second game to play out here.
And Zach is one close combat away
for being able to lock this up
and bring us into the beginning of the next one.
There you go. Garchomp's down.
And let's think about game two.
I can't express how much of a momentum
it was from that one turn.
Aurora failed.
Dodging the sucker punch, close combat,
knocking out the scambit.
It felt like it was a really dire situation at that point,
but that one play instantly squeezed the momentum back
into Zachary's favor.
Really incredible play.
And this is what we were previewing, Rosemary, right?
We said, OK, well, Zach played against something
that was similar in top eight, but there
is a choice for Garchomp.
And I think one of the key learnings
that Hapuma may have had watching Zax top A was like,
wait, hold on, I feel like Dragonite is really good
in the snow villain, let me bring Dragonite.
But instead, the Frostlass ends up getting picked
and it is so good into this dual dragon combination.
And so, you can see how valuable that Auroraville
is allowing Frostlass to survive rock tide and heat wave.
Wow, just such an intense first game there.
And then the gunk shot connects.
Yes, that's the other key, yes.
That is really important.
Heat wave two under the Frostlass.
My guess was that was going to go for a gum shot and shadow ball there in a Dragonite because at that point the
Garchomp is not a factor in the Sneasler. You just need to knock out the Dragonite once Dragonite beats the
Sneasler wins that one you won against Garchomp, but still yeah exactly. I mean anytime you see late game
Scarfrock's like just so so scary, but Frostlast does manage to attack through it outside of snow into Dragonite
So going into game two
You know one of the questions is okay
Are we gonna see Dragonite again because it honestly did not accomplish very much in that last game
game, partially because of the
threat of crosslash. So you
could consider adjusting to the
mega flow at instead. What if
that goes to Megasco villain
instead, right? Say, okay, I
think you're going to drop
Dragonite now. So it is this
kind of rock, paper, scissors
between the mega evolution. But
that is up one game. He's looked
so good into this kind of team
composition. Let's see if there's
a mix up from either players.
Takamo spent a lot of time in
that first game repositioning to
play around the crosslash.
The second game is the Vaskry and Skowvillain's end.
The Vaskry should blow it for talking balls.
Yes, these are the adjustments I was talking about,
and I would say it generally favors Zachary more, right?
Because the Skowvillain is just such a nuisance
in being able to burn these.
You saw how effective it was in handling,
even just flowette, in the top eight.
However, if you aren't talking about it,
you do have a lot of offensive pressure, right?
Something like a mega evolution,
dazzling coming plus wave crash was a lot.
Vaskry can go for something like mega ball
with the Scovillain, just actually protect it,
and then just bait trash into Pokemon's Floette.
So you have to be very careful.
And then right now, if the life worth asking Legion
is just exert so much offensive pressure into each other,
you also have to respect Floette potentially saying,
you know what, I'm gonna call out a protect your Scovillain,
and I'm just gonna click my light of ruin.
Big difference though, in between the last time
we saw these Pokemon face off against each other
is that there's no wings to cross
that can threaten them on court in either slot.
She's gonna have to worry about whether or not
Ragecider is going to punch you,
to get lost into something like an aqua jet that may be a little bit unreliable.
But we will see the four let mega evolve as well as the scovillain to match.
So both mega evolutions extended in this second game.
But now what do these fast legions do?
Let's see. First of all, is it going to be a rage powder here?
Protect on the Valkyriesian, okay?
At the good start for this fast legion, but the scovillain is still vulnerable.
A Davening Ream comes out, which is going to connect into Skull Villain that's going to
prove his soul in a burn to the Flowette, which will start to stack up that damage over time.
But Bakulee Jin for Takumon still gets a chance to attack here.
An A-Filem's Reflect tried to call out this Bakulee Jin on Zachery's side, attacking,
as Skull didn't get to fire up and overheat.
That's going to be a nice stack of damage now between the burn as well as that Overheat damage.
Yeah, I think great turn for Zachary there right that's already a lot of damage on a flowette if you go for protect with the
You know still villain. I mean right now
I think we'll add maybe to survive off with Jeff as much is such a strong quote line here
Let if we like doesn't have any full technical see if potentially facing to it either way though
Talk about had to be potential to double up on still villain there immediately go for the knockout onto it
right go for Dazzling's name and wave crash, but doesn't end up coming out there and now
Zachary gets a lot of key damage and media line to flow out
However, now Skobillian's damage output is obviously greatly reduced.
You can just go for a rage powder once again to kind of protect your Vasco Legion.
But if it's Dazzling Glean coming out, well, then the Vasco Legion still keeps up a ton of damage.
So let's see if Zachery can advance his position after that strong third one.
The Vasco Legion is going to protect, because another thing I saw on the table
was something like an off-widget into Tacoma's Vasco Legion followed up by a Beagle Brain.
But this Skobillian is at minus two, and it's going to be a moon blast into the Vasco.
So he got the other side, not a one hit knockout,
so he could see.
Oh, that's perfect shot, but that's not going to land.
The last respect, try to hit the opposing basket legion
and will fail.
I really feel like we are just watching a boxing match
between these two and they are truly trading blow for blow.
As in this case, Zachary gets the advantage on turn one,
but then Takamaw makes an amazing play on the second turn.
I mean, moon blasting there in front of basket legion
when Skobelin could just go for a rage pot
or seems pretty wild, right?
but the expectation is for Skobel and to protect there,
and so, lots of damage onto that Vasculation given now.
Of course, there still is no burn
on the opposing Vasculation either,
so it is very threatening.
Something like Dazzling Gleam and Wavecrash right now
is quite scary.
Off the deck comes out, does get the knockout!
It's survived!
Oh, my goodness!
No way!
Well, when at 1%, it can still fire off another attack here,
and the Dazzling Gleam is good to connect it to full.
Vasculation took so much chip from the life orb
that that final tickle is going to send it back
into his pokeball.
But now Vascularian can go with the Wave Crash.
That is going to be a two knockout for Toppa Ma in the second game.
Vascularian finally gets burned, but both Skovillian and Vascularian are out here.
For example, he's got two Pokemon left he can bring in.
Yeah, my big question is what is in the back, right?
If it's something like Sneezler and King Gambit,
you do pressure with something like Bake Out and Swords Dance, right?
Toppa Ma may want to switch in that Trace Garg-Chomp,
but if you bring in Garg-Chomp and there is Sneezler Gambit on the opposing side,
You risk big out in a Garchomp, King Gambit, sword dancing, right?
And so big question is what do both players have in the back?
The advantage, definitely over to Pokemon right now.
But Zachary, with that King Gambit, that sword dance,
that black glasses, that is always a Pokemon you cannot count out in these end games,
like Rockwell Sloth, UCS, Rock Slide.
It is going to be Garchomp coming in.
So is it Sleezler Gambit on the opposing side?
There's the King Gambit, what's next to it?
And it's a Sleezler too.
I mean, you just have to bring it up top, King Gambit,
just to give you some 50 damage into what's in the back, but yeah.
Exactly as you call it, Aaron.
So, I think this is really interesting
because you look at Guard Shop and you think,
well, okay, Earthquake is now just incredibly powerful
into everything, right?
But is there gonna be a Dragonite in the back?
Probably not, and so you don't really want
to put that Earthquake because you want
to be damaging yourself.
Guard Shop, of course, does have the
stopping tantrum here as well.
An interesting thing, if you fake out into that Guard Shop
with the stopping tantrum threat
and the one-hit knockout onto either slot
the following turn, Vascular Legion right now
can still go through a wave crash
to deal decent damage and plus diesel,
that burn is a really big deal. So the question for Zachary right now is, yeah,
do you go to the sword stance? I think take out into Garchomp sword stance with King Gambit
kind of feels like the same obvious play. And then my other question is, what is the
4-4-1 in the backboard pocket? All right, so talk because right at this moment,
this Garchomp does have the speed advantage against you. So when the lifeless tasler is able to
consume its wider, activate the unburden, and then you do get that sword stance,
sucker punch to have that priority action against the Garchomp, then this is going to be
advantage over to Takuma, but you do see the wave crash come through. These are
taking a lot of damage, but can Gambit does get the sword stance off, so can it be
enough to actually get the knockout onto the guard chomp on the subsequent turn?
Yeah, I think right now, I'm Zachary, I'm thinking I'm gonna protect
Sneasler, I'm gonna sucker punch your guard chomp. You're basically just
trying to not do much, and if I'm in Takuma's shoes, I would consider off
with getting the Sneasler, and just going for the stomping cantramon in King Gambit.
You could also make the read that it's going to be sucker punch coming out, and
to say, you know what, I'm going to swap Garchomp out into my final Pokemon.
The final Pokemon likely is going to be King Gambit or Sneasler.
Both of those have a fighting type attack, which can just get a one hit knockout
until you're closing King Gambit.
So I still very much favor talking about this position right now.
Zachary gets the story, stands off, I think that is the one cool
that kind of keeps himself in it, but that wave crash still gets so much damage, right?
And so my other question is,
Sneasler potentially survived a life of Akwajet.
Okay, no switches, no protection.
Oh, it doesn't, he's so high!
And that should just be it.
I think even with the sucker punch coming out here.
Yeah, if it's a sucker punch into the guard chop, it's not going to pick up the knockout, but it is
not going to be enough. That is unfortunate and will send us into a game three that is to stop the
canterons to finish off the King Gambit and he's got a tie series.
Wow, you know when the leads came out it was like, oh, mega-flow on one end, it's the mega-skill
build on the other. I feel like this should favor Zachary, but the offense that comes out from this
Floette Vasculation duo is just so strong and with no frost last bar chop is able to come in and threaten with so much damage in this end game
That end game by the way also highlights why some players have moved on to light forebunking gambit
It doesn't work on this team because you need it on Vasculation
But this clutch survival as well 1% like I was saying I'm like well
It's around that range where it might be you know the initial overkeep was nice
But just has enough to hang on retaliate back with the damage output as well
And so, Floette and Vasculation look quite solid there.
And the thing is, I think that duel is actually still pretty good into a frost-last adjustment as well, right?
And so, if you're Zachary, you want to cover for the Floette and Vasculation,
King Gambit can thread in Vasculation as a lead immediately.
The hard thing about using King Gambit in this matchup is that there are just so many resistances to it, right?
Like, you've got the Floette, you've got the King Gambit, you've got the Sneeze there on the other end.
Right.
And I feel like we saw that in Top 8 with Zachary as well.
We brought Gambit, didn't really work out super well, right?
The question is, do we see it once again?
It's not the easiest book one to use,
but checkmates the basket legion on the opposing side
so effectively.
It is a lot tougher when the ping game
that only has access to those dark type attacks.
I think that's really where you look at Takuma's
having a bit of the advantage there
and a lot more coverage with the fact
that you still have iron head and low kick.
So I don't know, it's a really, really tough call.
You know that it's a tense situation,
you're in the top four, Grand Finals is right in front of you.
you can taste it and both of these competitors of one game,
you can see the tension and the stress.
And once again, just this dynamic
of which mega evolution can you go with, right?
Floette, overall, it just feel better in that one.
You stare down a skill building,
which normally is not the mega,
like you would like to see, I think,
but it still just did a lot of damage, right?
So I think Chocomot might say,
you know what, even if you go back to Frostlass,
I'm still okay going with Floette.
I would love to see Dragon, I make an appearance again,
but that's just my guess.
and for Zach could see a run back
and maybe King Gambit gets dropped.
But here we go.
It's gonna be another lease.
He's learned back to Legion.
Thinking that Leesler might not be too bad.
You do have fake out in this situation.
It's also perfect because you see a flowette
on the other side and hit it with a gunshot.
Exactly, yep.
I think this is a lead that covers for what
Takamo went for in the previous game
and he does run it back here.
And so right now you have pressure like you said
with that fake out or that gunshot.
There's a lot of offense from Zach's side as well.
You are, Zach, you could make an aggressive prediction here and say,
you know what, there's no way you're going to ever let me target Floette.
I'm going to double up on your basket region with something like a gum shot
and a last respects immediately.
My question then is whether or not that even gets the knockout,
but I think it'll definitely come really close.
Yeah, I mean, I would love to see that come to fruition,
but I also feel like there's a way to play around that,
and that's just with protecting the basket region here.
Yeah.
We're going to just go for a double protect just for the safety,
so I can help to at least stall out for the safe house.
But that's actually gonna make a buy for now,
as Garchomp now comes out to take its place.
That is a Pokemon that will have a lot better resistances
to a gunshot that could come out from the speed blur,
but it protects itself on this turn.
Holy, holy, holy.
Will the last respect come out?
Oh my goodness.
And it barely measures the knockout
of the Chocomons back to Legion.
Life form, very powerful,
but not enough to get it over the line for this one.
Wow.
Holy, holy, holy, holy.
It's all last respect.
No, put in hold, knock each other out.
That's not a bad trade, though, at the end of the day,
because now you get your guard chop in and it's a sneasler just protected so it is incredibly
vulnerable to an earthquake we're stopping and from right now oh my goodness is this just such a
fast pace set the big question i have for you rosemary is is there that frost last in the back
right because if so well that's pretty good into the guard chop so what do all trainers bring in
right now really really intense first turn though last respects even with those specs adaptability
life course is pretty good. And there's Crosslash coming out. So that is the adaptation we talked
about as we'll let make some return here. I think it's a great call though. I mean you still have
to worry a little bit about the fact that Scarchoff is faster than you with that choice Garth.
But Crosslash can help to make sure that the Sneezer doesn't get taken out by a stuffing
can't turn back the Aurora Veal as a potential here. A lot of different paths we can walk down
on this turn. Yeah I mean Garthrup is exerting pressure with something to enter more earthquake
right now, right? And so you would think, well, I want to knock out the Sneasler. You just protect it.
I don't want you to get a gunshot off into me. Sneasler could just say, hey, you know what?
I'm going to switch out. Process is going to mega ball.
I'm going to one-shot your guard chop. And once guard chop is made, Sneasler is in a phenomenal position in the end game.
So I actually think this is a really key turn and the main dynamic to pay attention to is guard chop versus Sneasler.
Who will make it out of the turn? And if your guard chop, you say, you know what?
I don't feel comfortable with any option. You could just click rock slide.
and that is always kind of like dead on a jail card,
but it's gonna be the pivot here
instead of expecting a switch.
The Sacri, switch out the Sneasler here.
He does.
Okay.
Oh, this is so intense.
You wanna be able to see that epic showdown,
but it's gonna be the King Gambits
with Infer Chocomot and the Lycan Rocks for Zach
as Mega Evolution finds itself again on this crosslash.
Could be a big turn.
Hey, so I think trying to fade out the Garbush up,
I would think, and just go for the Blizzard
That is the case. This is a very favorable turn for Mokima, right? Like, here he was risking the game.
Don't shot into that slot.
Zack said, okay, I'm gonna switch up because surely you're gonna respect that, right?
Here we go. It's gonna be Blizzard. So the main scary thing here is they can freeze right now.
There's okay damage on a flow at 33%. Is there a freeze onto either?
There is not! And it's gonna be a huge move last in return into the Frostbast slot.
Wow. It's gonna take it down to 23%.
And so that is a lot of damage treated.
I don't know if the Blizzard is actually going to have to add it up to enough.
Now, this Lycanroc did get in scoffery with its focus dash intact.
It did, exactly.
And right now King Gambit would love to sucker punch either of these, but Lycanroc can just
excel rock to get around it, move before the sucker punch, and Frostlass can Aurora
bail.
However, let's say you hover for those, well then what if Frostlass just goes for Blizzard
and Lycanroc goes for close combat, right?
There also could just be rocks like blizzard potentially trying to knock out flow out or excel rock plus blizzard into flow out
So lots of options right now king gambit does exert a lot of pressure here likes rock
Go starting off with a protect
Focus ashes a very valuable resource in this game
My games, but the second punch works from the public can give it
But life is down and you know
It's just the sneasler and the like and rock left as flow egg goes for another attack with the dazzling blink
So protect good to keep this like a rocket boy, Steve.
But can Sneasler fly the rock? Close this, how?
Oh my gosh, this is so tense because we know there's a guard chop in the back.
We know that guard chop, of course, can just click Earthquake.
If Sneasler is able to get that from Burden to activate, though,
with close combat before guard chop picks the field,
you'll get the speed advantage, which will be a big deal.
I think, actually, that does not happen.
You're going to be in a really difficult position here.
And so, to act as talent to his final two,
to help mark does have a lot of offense and pressure but also still has to
respect the bullet here
things that would love to close combat king gambit like rock would probably
love to get a rock side here maybe fish for a flinch as well so tense especially
with that choice car bar chop leading as a final boss and don't forget there is
still that focus action like rock as well
you sucker punch the like rock right this is
so that's one way that this game can be taken from you at the dog shot cannot
knock out this bullet on this turn.
Top of Barry actually can't take this tin gambit either,
so you do get away with one Pokemon KO,
but you're gonna drop your defenses here
on the Lycan Block,
and if you still close this out,
with that Toyscarp Garchomp waiting in the wings,
dazzlingly now,
break that focus dash,
as you get brought all the way down to one,
and Sneezer takes a lot of damage too.
And that should just be it, right?
Gumshot.
That is the gamble that you take.
Troisgarve Garchomp now hits the field and Sneezer's Umberton has not been activated, so Earthwick now will just be able to finish things off.
And this is what makes Gungshot such a high variance move on the Sneezer. I mean, had that connected, that would have been a double knockout.
It would have been Sneezer plus Lycor walking into Troisgarve Garchomp.
I think in that position, Troisgarve Garchomp actually still looks okay as well.
I also wasn't sure if the close combat was going to knock out Team Gambit to be honest.
I'm curious on what the damage roll is there, but for Takuma, I think you can see Chase enter
in his future.
So going to be a protector from the Sneasler though,
so you can figure out what this Garchomp is going to walk into
as the flowette is going to protect itself as well.
Like a rock does go for the Shell Rock,
hoping maybe that that wouldn't have been enough damage
to actually take the flow out from here.
But Garchomp has locked itself into Earthquake,
and I think that is game set match.
Takamaw going to move on to the finals of the World Championships.
Dakarie, the last hope of the U.S.
The Sneasler just cannot finish this 1v2.
And to bring a Garchomp into a matchup with Frost Slider,
Sryfire's excellent positioning defines the perfect call.
It's key heard in this one was when it was Garchomp out against Sneasler
and Sneasler switches.
Blood up for a double, but not really gonna matter here as Garchomp's earthquake
is going to deliver the finishing blow
and Takamon will be moving on to the finals here at the Pokémon World Championship.
Amazing effort there by Zachary in the top four, but it's going to see Japan versus Japan.
And we look forward to the grand finals tomorrow.
And you can see the emotion, what it means to him to be able to play in the chase center tomorrow.
An amazing performance by Zachary once again who has had one of the most dominant seasons I've ever seen in North America.
Second at Las Vegas Regionals, second at EUIC, top fourth at the World Championships.
He has gotten a medal and trophy at all of those events,
has easily become one of the best players in North America,
and is super-starred to watch out for in the upcoming seasons,
but his season will end here.
And what a game three this was.
This whole set truly just felt like two masters going back and forth.
Every time I felt like one player would get an advantage,
then the next turn the other player would kind of pull things back
and reel things back in, and it was just a tug of war,
slowly and surely throughout this entire set,
and just so fun to be able to wash rows right out the gates in that third game. You see the
basquit legion trade their eighties against each other, you know, life or recoil, making that
lack of respect to KO and then the basquit legion knocking itself out to its own life or recoil.
And then these next couple of turns, there was a lot of damage, I think that was left on the board,
but you have to make those tough calls or you're going into protecting here. Do you expect to switch?
do you really want to try to play into that trap card?
Yeah, I would have loved to see how this game would have played out had the gunk shot hit
because I think it would still be this situation where it's full HP Garchomp against Sneasler
plus Liking Rock, right? And the Garchomp should just be able to clean up things pretty easily
with Earthquake in that position. So that's what I was saying, like maybe the other play to go for
is go for close combat on Slikking Gambit, rock side into the Flo-Wet Slot instead.
But Garchomp is so strong in that endgame where I think even if the murder boost is active on
on Sneaseler, it's probably still not enough. Maybe it opens the door for like a critical hit close combat.
Yeah, but a perfect conservation of that scarf garb chop. But once again, it was that one turn where you have garb chop and you have the Sneaseler and
Garb chop switches out, baits out the Blizzard, baits it out perfectly and Floette Stas and Gleam just does so much damage.
There's a reason why when this Pokemon got introduced, everyone was saying it is so good.
But turns out, yeah, when you have really good base special attack and you are one of the few really strong special attackers and you have an ability to
a booster special attack or fairy damage.
Pretty good.
And adds up quite quickly.
And even against a team that has a lot of bulk, I mean,
Dazzling, Gleam able to do over 50% so frequently
to all of these pokeballs.
Yeah.
And what a difference just one Pokemon even made
in this matchup.
You saw Zach play this out in the top eight,
that Whimsecot.
Holy.
Really big deal.
But something that Zach was able to effortlessly navigate.
And then now you get to this top four
and that choice scarf guard chop
actually taking that Whimsecot spot,
completely shifted the dynamic of the matchup.
The tale is all this time,
GuardChomp has been dominant in competitive EGC
ever since it was introduced in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
Back in the day, you had ChoiceGuard GuardChomp
paired with Zapdos with Discharge,
and I've met a games moved on,
as generations moved on,
it was GuardChomp that always stuck around.
Landriss Darien stole its thunder
for actually quite a while, saying,
hey, I'm stronger, I also have a really great ability,
but no lander is in the game.
Garchomp comes back in full force
and reminds us of why it's been one of the
all-time historic Pokemon in UTC.
Well, this may be the conclusion of the match.
The day is not done yet.
Let's hear from our second finalist on the stage.
Let's give a big congratulations
to our second world's finalist,
Takamaya Mizaki!
Takuma, congratulations on making it to the finals of the 2026 World Championships.
How does it feel?
Congratulations on your final match.
Please tell us how you feel right now.
I don't feel like I'm going to die.
I don't think I will.
It's completely unbelievable. I'm so happy.
Your last performance at the Japan National Championships
was not quite as high of a finish.
So I imagine, does this come as a surprise?
So I was able to see that in the Japanese National Championships.
I did make it quite as far.
To be honest, my goal was just to make it here to Worlds and be able to stand here on stage.
So I wasn't thinking about aiming for the championship or anything like that.
So it's completely unbelievable that now I do have this chance to compete with the championship.
Well, the stage only gets bigger and more amazing from here.
So we'll see you tomorrow on Championship Sunday in the Chase Arena.
But for now, I want to talk to you about your top core match as you brought that choice scarf garchomp into a matchup against Vega Frost last,
which on paper doesn't look that great. So what was your strategy? What were you thinking?
The team is very close to the opponent, but the strategy is to fight against a weak opponent.
Yes, the team is very close to Kaiju and Gamilius, so it's very difficult to fight against a weak opponent.
In the first round, I thought there would be a scobila, so I gave it back to him.
But the opponent was good, so I gave him a second try.
And in the second round, I gave him a scobila, so I was good at that.
But I was able to win it well, and I wanted to win the third one the most.
So I won the game with the way I played the game.
Yeah, mega frost is a really tough matchup. We need to bring mega dragonite and gargantua.
So, you know, the first match was a little rough.
And then the second match, honestly, like I read that my opponent would bring school villain instead.
And that match went well for me.
And then in the third match, you know, they brought,
I'm a fast house, but I haven't floored well.
I reached for the final two games, and that worked out, and I was able to win.
Congratulations on your win, Takuma.
Do you have any shout-outs you want to give to anybody who may be washing at home,
or anybody who supports you on your journey to the finals?
Do you have any message for your family and friends who are watching this video?
Well, I've been to the gym before.
But this time, I was able to come here with my friends and practice the same part.
I got various advice for this game.
I think I can get back to this place.
I want to use this time again.
Yeah, so I've practiced with so many different people and you know, it's really because of all the health that I've gotten, all the support from people around me and advice that I've received that I was able to get here. So, very thankful.
Well, thank you Takuma so much for your time and let's hear it one more time for our second finalist Takuma Yamazaki.
So make sure to tune in tomorrow on Championship Sunday where you'll see Hiroshi Onishi and
Takamori Yamazaki face off in our Grand Finals in the Chase Arena, but of course that's
not everything that's been going on here at the World Championships and of course at
Pokemon XP.
There's been some incredible experiences at this event that you probably would not want
to miss, but fortunately we have a lovely recap for you to see.
So let's check it out.
Welcome to the
I can feel the energy. I can sense the excitement to compete.
More than 2,000 trainers have descended upon San Francisco to test their skills.
And fight with all their might to become the next Pokemon World Champion.
time I think it's going to be
different and every time it's
exactly the same. We look back
at the replay of all of the
things that have been going on
in this world championships and
you think at the start of the
event. Wow. All of that to look
forward to at the end of it was
like how did we get here so
quickly? It seems like only a
moment ago, but what a world
championships. It has been
way to championship Sunday and in what commanding top four matches that we had
them show off their skills. Yeah they both looked really great in their sets
of course Hiroshi had a quick 2-0 victory and made some incredible callouts
while I think Aaron explained it best in this last matchup where Takuma and
Zachary were going blow for blow like two champion prize fighters in the ring
back and forth and back and forth and I can't wait to see what both those
competitors have for us tomorrow.
You know, and in some ways, the skills
appropriate to me, too, that we're ending
with two Japanese players in the finals.
I feel like the players from Japan
have done so much to innovate this meta game of Pokemon
champion so far.
Kind of makes sense.
Hey, you're a tournament where it's mostly teams that
we're all familiar with from the past,
that the players from the region,
that most of those teams that originate from,
were able to come out on top.
Yeah, 100%.
And then, you know, it's how you execute those things
in the moment, like, especially Takumi was saying,
like, in that matchup, maybe not something
that he was necessarily prepared for, but not necessarily expecting to make it to this
stage of the tournament, but still holding his head high and showing like even in those
situations, you can still make a read. You can do something different. You can find a
way through your opponent once you've gone blow for blow and figure out exactly how you're
going to make it to the end game. Yeah. And I think that's what's so beautiful about our
game and watching this tournament especially is to seeing the level of play that everyone
brings to every single round.
I mean, we started round one
yesterday with two incredible matches
and we didn't stop.
Like it was all gas, no breaks
from the jump at this tournament.
And it's no surprise that we have
two incredible players to duke it out
for the title of champion,
the first champion of champions here
in San Francisco.
I think maybe one of the most stressful tournaments
in competing ever to where there's no easy matches
in this whole.
I don't want to do it.
Every match is so close.
every match has so many situations.
You have to get calls right.
You can't just play passively and kind of kind of grind out
matches the way you can in some other format.
Real women's in here to help players just pivot
into the best situations on game.
You've got to make those reads.
You kind of saw that with nearly every top cut match.
So I'm really impressed by all the players
able to make it to this point.
And I think the players who, what keeps you really
be proud of themselves, what a crazy tournament this has been.
you
you
you
you
you
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I really want to shout out this team that Takuma is using here with the Dragonite over
Charizard on the more traditional big 6 core.
It dominated day one.
This is a similar team that Yuya used to go undefeated in day one and of course Takuma
only dropped the one match in day one and has now made it all the way to the
finals. That is an adaptation of one of those small changes, one Pokemon change
that has obviously completely changed how opponents play into that lineup and
it definitely paid off on day one for both Yuya and Takuma. Now Takuma is at
the finals using this variation and I think it's gonna be really exciting to
see how this new version of Big Six that drops the Charizard for Dragonite
match up against big six classic.
Yeah, I don't think we could ask for something better really like.
It's not quite new school against old school, right?
But it's like the the the adaptations to the formats and the changes and
how that swings the match up.
And I certainly dragonite puts I think quite a few spanners in the works for
a lot of teams that we've seen in the format.
We've seen two of them making it all the way to pretty much this this stage
of the competition for a reason.
Yeah, you made it to the top cut as well with the same team.
So something's working here.
Just a very appropriate final boss.
Res, hey, was this the right adaptation?
Well, here you are, our last round of the tournament.
Let's beat the team that everyone thought
was the strongest coming in.
To prove that your team is actually the strongest.
Yeah, 100%.
I kind of wait to get to Championship Sunday
in the chase arena as well.
In the meantime, if you've been following us
or if you're going to be following us tomorrow as well,
we've got the Twitch drops that we've been going on.
Needing a little bit of watch time, only 30 minutes.
If you haven't already done that,
and that was a great opportunity on the restream,
or of course, put it in your diary for tomorrow
to be able to make sure that you get those quick coupons,
the teammate tickets, and the training tickets.
Yeah, saving the best for last year
with those training tickets for watching tomorrow.
I definitely have made use of that.
I go through my training tickets pretty quickly.
Yeah, I don't have too many left either.
And hey, a great thing, if you see a team maybe
that you thought was a lot of fun watching,
if you want to try it out yourself,
I could pretty much just wipe out the VP cost
If you pick this up, so I definitely make sure to tune in and don't forget to get the incineroar as well
His conversion rate could have been a little bit better from day one to day two, but still a very powerful Pokemon
I'm sure you'll find some use for him
Yeah, like, you know, and if you want to just have a little bit of extra spreek red going into your online matches and post-worn championships
Enjoy worlds 26 getting that really great swag t-shirt and the cap as well
So when you go up on ladder, it's like, hey, you are watching the world championships.
You are watching the world championships this weekend.
Because they're wearing the white hat, where they were competing in the world championship.
That's what it is.
Also, don't forget, those O's are actually zero.
So, N-0-Y, word zero, world's 26.
Yeah, it rolls off the tongue, right?
I mean, after the Trivada game course, Evan and I have some history with red world's t-shirts.
t-shirts, so I'm struggling here, but I hope they put it better in it than I did.
They'll put a blazer in and then we'll be set.
Well, if you're not set after all of that, then we also have our drops for the Pokemon Trading
Card game. Pokemon Go and Pokemon Unite, so much there that you can get a hold of. So do make sure
you tune in to all of the broadcast tomorrow because on Championship Sunday, we get to crown
on our finalists and our winners in each of our games.
Pokemon Unite followed by Pokemon Go,
followed by Pokemon Trading Card Game
and of course, champions at the end.
And you don't know how to make sure
you've got your account linked.
Here's a little bit of an instruction
to make sure that you get that going.
It's also in the Twitch chat as well.
While you're watching,
you can get some extra instructions from the watch.
Make sure you actually get all of our goodies.
Yeah, you did the work.
You watch the stream.
Make sure you get your goodies.
definitely. So we're going to be kicking things off tomorrow at 9 o'clock Pacific and I said this
last yesterday at the end of yesterday I'm not to be trusted with any time conversions. You know
what time you're in but 9 o'clock Pacific the same start time that we've had both yesterday
and today we'll be kicking things off with Pokemon Unite on Championship Sunday so make sure you
tune in you set your alarms and make sure in the meantime that you are following all the channels
and of course follow us on all of the channels as well YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, you name
it, hashtag play Pokemon or play Pokemon in most places as well. Thank you to everybody
that's been watching along the stream today. We've had an absolute blast. We've got our
championship Sunday ready to go. So we're going to sign things off here and get ready for that.
we cannot wait to see who will be our 2026 world championship. So from us, thank you very much
and we will see you tomorrow.
you