Nineage said we should analyze the matches, so I'll go ahead and try my hand at it:
heysup vs zf -
At a glance, it's pretty clear what zf's team does, when considering how Tirtouga is the only Pokemon that really fits the role of a dedicated wincon in that build. Lure in and Knock Off or KO Tirtouga's checks, and find the opportunity to set it up and sweep. The build itself is actually pretty interesting; Drilbur looks like the obvious sr + spin variant for a Sturdyjuice Tirtouga, but since Tirtouga is in fact an Eviolite variant and so doesn't particularly need hazard removal, Drilbur can instead run an unexpected coverage move (confirmed after the battle to be Poison Jab for Cottonee). Skrelp + Download Porygon forms a very effective defensive backbone that also provides a great deal of wall-breaking support, although for some reason zf brought a Trace Porygon, which could lose momentum on an otherwise fairly offensive team.
The best way to describe Heysup's team would probably be that it looks very Heysup-y. It looks like it primarily focuses on making sure any opposing Pokemon won't be doing very much, with multiple safety nets/glue Pokemon/revenge-killers in Croagunk/Fletchling/Magnemite/Onix. Staryu ensures that all of these Pokemon can do their jobs consistently, and Aipom provides some immediate offensive presence.
There isn't much to say about the battle itself, because the game did not turn out favourably at all for zf in terms of match-up; he simply did not have the means to break through Staryu. Cottonee was the only Pokemon on his team that could stand up to it, but Staryu is much easier to keep healthy than Cottonee, which often struggles from being worn down. Heysup played his advantage well throughout the match, using Staryu to wall and slowly wear out most of zf's team in a manner that zf did not have the means to respond to, eventually resulting in an easy victory for Heysup.
op vs blarajan -
Some people have commented that they felt otherwise, but I actually really like blarajan's sand team. It's a nice mix of hard-hitting potential sweepers and bulky Pokemon to fall back on; Vullaby and Magnemite double as offensive pivots to ensure that the defensive Pokemon don't slow the offensive Pokemon down. Sand in LC tends to be frowned upon as a thing of the past, now that weather is no longer permanent. However, many teams, especially offensive ones, find themselves forgoing Ground resists when they can outspeed and revenge-kill Diglett and Mold Breaker Drilbur, a trend that ORAS sand severely punishes. Although most of blarajan's damage output in Corphish and Drilbur struggles against Grass-types like Foongus, Vullaby is able to check them without much issue. Additionally, since Drilbur and Corphish share a number of checks, it allows for one to weaken these checks so that the other can clean up.
OP has brought a more traditional offensive team that, from team preview, appears to be based around the very threatening SD foo + carv core. As it turns out, Mienfoo is just a Taunt variant, although this makes sense in retrospect because the team has no other way to deter hazard stackers. The team is heavily geared towards a Carvanha sweep, with Honedge and Diglett to trap Carvanha's checks, and itemless Archen to set up rocks and generally wall-break.
In terms of match-up, both teams had their advantages. OP's only switch-in to Corphish was his Foongus, which isn't overly difficult to break through after it has been Knocked Off; in addition, he had no safe switch-ins at all if LO Drilbur got in safely. On the other hand, he did have Aqua Jet Carvanha to ensure that Drilbur would not be able to outright sweep, and blarajan's team would be in a tight spot once Carvanha managed to get in. Furthermore, OP had the means to trap Magnemite and Knock Off blarajan's Foongus, paving the way for Carvanha to clean up. I think that overall, OP had a slight advantage from how much Carvanha pressured blarajan's team.
The first decisive point in the game occurred on turn two, after OP successfully pivoted Archen in on Vullaby, when he went for the Stone Edge. Blarajan was not aware that offensive Archen commonly runs Stone Edge and elected to go for the slow U-turn, thinking he would have enough health remaining to use Roost later if Archen chose to use Rock Slide or Acrobatics. Archen's Stone Edge weakened Vullaby enough to be KOed from switching into the rocks that Archen set up the next turn. Now that blarajan's grass check was down, OP's Foongus was free to wreak havoc, with blarajan's only decent stop to it being his own Foongus. By getting Mienfoo in on Corphish's Knock Off, OP was able to force Corphish out, soon leading to blarajan's Foongus being Knocked Off. This allowed the next decisive turn to happen, when OP's Foongus's HP Fire crit blarajan's Foongus for the KO. With that, OP was able to gain a substantial lead, blarajan having to carefully play around Foongus only to be met with the still healthy hard hitters on OP's team, and OP took advantage of his lead to begin his own undefeated streak.
star vs fitzy -
Fitzy's team looks like it consists of two offensive cores that can operate independently of each other, depending on the match-up. HP Fire Carvanha (I assume it was HP Fire - I don't think HP Flying or Steel would do enough damage coming from mixcarv to be worth using; please correct me if I'm mistaken) is an unorthodox but effective lure for Ferroseed, which paves the way for Snivy to sweep, definitely a tough core to beat for slower teams. We also have a classic Timburr + Pursuit trapper core in Timburr + Honedge, with Honedge getting rid of Gothita, Abra, and to some extent Foongus and Gastly so that Timburr can sweep without issue, a combination that greatly threatens more offensive teams. Gothita has the versatility to support both of these cores, and defensive Archen is likely there to serve as a reliable Fletchling check that can also get rocks up (it doesn't look like the team needs Defog, again please correct me if this is wrong).
Star's team is based around LO Torchic and Scarf Magnemite to put immense pressure on the opposing team, not only with powerful attacks but with Baton Pass and Volt Switch, respectively. Diglett eliminates checks shared by both Torchic and Magnemite, running a Sub Aerial Ace set to mitigate an otherwise serious Snivy weakness. Archen checks Fletchling and gets rocks up, and Skrelp and Cottonee patch up holes. Toxic Spikes on Skrelp seems like it was just a filler move, but it ended up playing a very large role in this battle.
This was definitely my favourite match of the week. Both players performed fantastically as expected, but the way the unusual sets on both sides paid off really sealed the deal. At the start, it looked like the match-up was slightly in Star's favour. The amount of pressure Star could put with his Magnemite on a team without any Electric immunities was offset by how threatening Snivy could be if fitzy played around around Torchic. However, Torchic, which looked to be LO by the lack of recipients on Star's team, was also a nuisance, considering that Berry Juice Archen would not be able to switch in on a powerful Fire Blast repeatedly. When a surprise U-turn from Star's Archen on the incoming Honedge got Torchic in safely, though, fitzy revealed that his Archen was a defensive variant - certainly able to check Torchic throughout the match. Torchic then passed to Skrelp, and fitzy was forced to sack Honedge to get Gothita in safely to trap Skrelp. This gave Star the opportunity to get Toxic Spikes up - seemingly a questionable move at the time, as it would give fitzy's Timburr a Guts boost. But when Snivy came in on Diglett, it became clear what Toxic Spikes was for - it allowed Diglett, which was an unusual Sub + Aerial Ace variant, to actually win against a normally solid check in Snivy, by subbing four times to let poison bring Snivy into Aerial Ace range. It turns out that Toxic Spikes was unnecessary for this situation, because fitzy going for the glare on what would have been an obvious switch to Torchic or Cottonee in every other scenario allowed Diglett a free sub. But fitzy wasn't out of the game just yet! When Star decided to save his Diglett upon being faced with Carvanha, fitzy revealed HP Fire, promptly 2HKOing the Cottonee switch in. This is the part where Toxic Spikes got the chance to shine, which is especially notable because it is almost never seen in high level LC play due to level 5 rolls. First, Star ensured that Timburr would not be given the chance to heal back the damage taken from poison with Drain Punch, wearing it down so that fitzy was forced to sack it to attempt a Carvanha sweep. He then stalled out Carvanha through LO recoil and poison damage for a thoroughly deserved victory.
kingler vs zorodark -
Kingler's team is similar to
tazz's rmt (to be honest, I didn't catch the similarity myself; kingmidas did), widely considered to be one of the strongest teams of ORAS in how solidly built and consistent it is. The idea is simply to use a bunch of consistently effective Pokemon to wear the opponent down, paving the way for a Corphish sweep. Kingler has decided to use Diglett over Gothita as his trapper, which makes it harder to trap Ferroseed, Fighting-types, Chinchou and birds, in exchange for better dealing with Steel-types and Fire-types, as well as more general utility. Zorodark has brought an offensive team that can rely on either Shelldig or Fletchdig to sweep, plus Staryu to get rid of the rocks that hamper Fletchling and Sash Diglett, and Mienfoo and Pawniard to provide the Knock Off support that both Fletchling and Shellder appreciate.
I think that kingler had a noticeable match-up advantage here. He had multiple countermeasures for everything on zorodark's team, including Fletchling and Shellder, most of which could get around Diglett, especially a weak Sash variant. On the other hand, zorodark lacked good switch-ins to Kingler's Mienfoo and Corphish. Kingler took advantage of this, bringing Corphish in on Fletchling's predicted Overheat and quickly taking out Staryu. A few turns later, zorodark attempted to trap Snubbull with Diglett, which turned out poorly for him, as Snubbull was running more Defense EVs than he had expected, furthering kingler's advantage. A critical hit from Snubbull's Play Rough on zorodark's Pawniard (I think it was scarf Pawniard from that roll? Maybe it was bj or LO) just about ensured kingler's victory. But then, kingler, who had been playing quite well up to now, decided to sack his Snubbull, even though it would have been helpful against zorodark's Mienfoo. This nearly cost kingler the game, when zorodark's Mienfoo's High Jump Kick crit kingler's Mienfoo, and then kingler lost a coinflip with his Corphish. However, zorodark's Mienfoo missed HJK on the last turn and KOed itself, granting kingler the win anyways.
mambo vs madoka -
Madoka's team is straight-forward bird spam hyper offense, built around a core of Doduo + Fletchling. This combination is often shafted aside nowadays when discussing bird cores, most notably in favour of Drifloon + Fletchling, which madoka herself is better known for using; with that being said, it is still very threatening, with Doduo using Knock Off and a powerful Brave Bird to take out checks so that Fletchling can sweep. Drilbur is an obvious partner for most birdspam teams thanks to its hazard control and good type synergy. Honedge, Abra, and Ponyta soft check various threats that force the frail birdspam core out. Croagunk initially appears to be a standard mixgunk variant to check bothersome Shell Smashers more reliably, but it is in fact a Bulk Up variant to serve as a back-up wincon, which leads me to believe that the Fletchling is running HP Grass.
Mambo's team looks like a mishmash of mostly viable Pokemon plus Wynaut that happen to have a good match-up against many of the Pokemon madoka tends to use, in particular Fighting-type set-up sweepers, Scarf Electric-types, trappers, and Drifloon. It is surprisingly solid when taking into account its use of otherwise mediocre sets, aiming to set up a Corphish sweep, with Amaura as a Stealth Rock setter and the two trappers to remove Corphish's checks. Croagunk and Cottonee act as all-purpose glue Pokemon so that the team isn't shut down by any one strategy. It seems like a good deal of the team's strength stems from its surprise value - nobody expects Wynaut, or assumes that Amaura is an Eviolite Stealth Rock variant.
Madoka is normally known for building incredibly solid teams, able to break even or go positive against just about the entire metagame. Something must have gone quite wrong for her in this particular match. It was already clear from team preview how lopsided the match-up was, and Mambo took advantage of this flawlessly. Madoka only had one switch-in to Corphish, her Croagunk, which was problematic because Mambo had not one, but two ways to trap the Croagunk, easily giving Corphish the opportunity to sweep.
Despite this, the game was very entertaining to watch, in part thanks to Mambo's somewhat odd yet effective team, and in part due to the sheer ridiculousness of arguably LC's strongest player getting dropped by LC's funny joke poster. Madoka absolutely needed rocks up right from the start of the match to have any sort of chance and led with Drilbur accordingly, which Mambo exploited with his Corphish lead; now she couldn't even switch to Croagunk, for fear it would get trapped if Mambo doubled. Since Croagunk was madoka's only Corphish switch-in, she was forced to reveal its physical set on turn two, which let Mambo knowing he could directly switch his Wynaut in later on. With Croagunk gone, madoka's only hope was to weaken Amaura enough for Fletchling to break past, and an opportunity seemed to present itself when she got her Pursuit Honedge in on the Amaura - until Mambo revealed that it was Eviolite Amaura and set up rocks, eliminating the possibility of a Fletchling sweep as well. The game was as good as over at that point, with Amaura and Diglett cleaning the remainder of madoka's team to conclude Mambo's upset victory.
I have seen people speculating that this loss may be enough to cause madoka to tilt for the rest of the season. I have reasons to believe that this will not be the case (for example, perhaps she just isn't used to the SPL experience yet), but of course, I am not madoka, so I do not know exactly how she will take the loss. I would nevertheless like to point out that madoka is, frankly, so far ahead of the majority of her competition in terms of raw ORAS LCing ability that even if she does tilt, she would still probably end up doing well.
This is just how I personally viewed the matches, so feel free to disagree. It would also be nice for the players to let me know if I was mistaken anywhere when trying to describe your teams/plays. I think that for the most part, the games were very well done - they were certainly all a ton of fun to watch! Looking forward to spectating next week
