[Online Competition] ~Spooky~ Cup (Halloween 2015)

[PumpedAaron]

It seems like I really flopped this tournament. After 20 or so battles, I've only broken even. I'll post some Battle vids soon.

 

[Moody Magikarp]

It seems like I really flopped this tournament. After 20 or so battles, I've only broken even. I'll post some Battle vids soon.

tbh, I knew from the start this wouldn't be a hard format to flop in with the options being as limited as they are.

I was actually felling less turned off from it all and just blasted through my remaining matches today. I manged to win 24 games overall which isn't bad considering how I started.

This is the second tour I've finished with more wins than losses in, so I'm happy with it. For some reason I had more fun with the format today than when I first started.

I guess as soon as I realized I wasn't going to have great record, I played stress free. If next years is structured exactly like this one though, I may just bow out unless they offer a rare event Poke along with it.

Really looking forward to the next tour now.

 

[PumpedAaron]

tbh, I knew from the start this wouldn't be a hard format to flop in with the options being as limited as they are.


Really looking forward to the next tour now.

So much this! You know why I feel better about Scrappy Skirmish? A bigger pool of Pokémon to choose from. If they want to make another Halloween Competition, I would prefer it if it were either A, simply requiring a few members of the team to follow a theme, or B, simply restricting some moves, like, everyone has a ghost/dark move or something.

 

[Demantoid]

Kind of upset because I got disconnected in my last battle costing me the 1800s. Finished 35-10. Here was my team

Importable

Golbat @ Eviolite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Taunt
- Tailwind
- Super Fang
- Brave Bird

Volcarona @ Flame Plate
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Bug Buzz
- Heat Wave
- Protect

Scolipede @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 164 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Megahorn
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect

Rotom-Wash @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 4 Def / 140 SpA / 4 SpD / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Signal Beam
- Volt Switch

Hydreigon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
- Stone Edge

Granbull @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Atk / 4 Def / 180 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Rock Slide
- Snarl
- Crunch

Volcarona and Hydreigon hit as hard and fast as possible with boosting natures to try and outspeed other Volcs/Hydras. Volcarona has Flame Plate because Sash was taken. I didn't want specs because I wanted Protect and no berry because there were a lot different types of moves that threaten it. Overheat was chosen to ohko Aegislash. Hydreigon has Sash because I wanted it to get at least one attack off. Stone Edge kills most Volcarona in one hit. Golbat's evs were kind of lazy on my part but it takes consecutive Specs Dracos from Hydreigon most of the time. Golbat was super helpful later in the competition where more of the teams were similar, so Tailwind could help me a lot. Scolipede's evs allow it to take one Aegiaslash attack and LO recoil and outspeeds timid Volcarona when at neutral speed (also allows it to outspeed when they have the same amount of boosts. Earthquake was chosen over Poison Jab because I wanted it to be able to hit Aegislash. Rotom outspeeds Crobat and kills most variants. Signal Beam over HP Ice because it 2hkos Hydra. Rotom surprised a lot of people and was one of my favorites during the competition. Granbull takes one LO Flash Cannon from Aegislash and kills univested Volcarona. Crunch is for Aegislash. Wish I had run Facade over Snarl to help against WoW Rotoms.

Battle Videos:
VCRG-WWWW-WW3W-4RS5 - Look who it is (I looked on his youtube channel and this is actually him). Was pleasantly surprised because he wasn't running Minimize; it was actually a pretty real strategy for him. He was also surprisingly in the 1700s.
S78G-WWWW-WW3W-4RQ9 - This was actually my second battle against this person. I battled him a third time but that was the one I dc'd on (I would've easily won that one due to him having a worse lead the last time). This was the only team that ever managed to get tr up the entire competition against me.

Overall I was happy with the team and it finished around 1790, but I am a little dissapointed I didn't break 1800 due to the dc. Definitely sastisfied with the record for my first masters competition (can't even imagine how easy juniors was). Especially happy I got to use Golbat. I also apparently battled Artic twice but didn't save either of them. Looking forward to the Scrappy Skirmish and hope to do well in that one too.rip singles players

 

[Ursarox]

I finished 30-15. Here's my team.

I knew going in that this wasn't a balanced team and lacked speed, but I wanted to try out soakninja, Mr.Mime and Granbull . I had fun with this competition overall. I didn't have too many really exciting battles, but these two are decent
RU3G-WWWW-WW3W-4V9M
7H4WW-WWWW-WW3W-5W6R (soak + shedinja can work)

 

[ProjectTitan313]

I did uh... *counts* 11 battles, 9 wins. Like, total, not just today. I had a lot of work this week ._.
Condensing my team from semi-readable notes to something presentable, I know for a fact I have about 1610 - 1616 rating. Crushed some guy's score mere minutes before tourney's end.

Damn I wish I had more time, I was doing amazing.

edit: how the fuck are you guys getting battle box screens, I am not getting that option.

 

[Mishimono]

I did uh... *counts* 11 battles, 9 wins. Like, total, not just today. I had a lot of work this week ._.
Condensing my team from semi-readable notes to something presentable, I know for a fact I have about 1610 - 1616 rating. Crushed some guy's score mere minutes before tourney's end.

Damn I wish I had more time, I was doing amazing.

edit: how the fuck are you guys getting battle box screens, I am not getting that option.

Ya how do you do that?

Kind of upset because I got disconnected in my last battle costing me the 1800s. Here was my team
View attachment 51876

Importable

Golbat @ Eviolite
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Taunt
- Tailwind
- Super Fang
- Brave Bird

Volcarona @ Flame Plate
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Overheat
- Bug Buzz
- Heat Wave
- Protect

Scolipede @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 164 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Megahorn
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect

Rotom-Wash @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 140 HP / 4 Def / 140 SpA / 4 SpD / 220 Spe
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Hydro Pump
- Signal Beam
- Volt Switch

Hydreigon @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Protect
- Stone Edge

Granbull @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 244 HP / 76 Atk / 4 Def / 180 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Rock Slide
- Snarl
- Crunch

Volcarona and Hydreigon hit as hard and fast as possible with boosting natures to try and outspeed other Volcs/Hydras. Volcarona has Flame Plate because Sash was taken. I didn't want specs because I wanted Protect and no berry because there were a lot different types of moves that threaten it. Overheat was chosen to ohko Aegislash. Hydreigon has Sash because I wanted it to get at least one attack off. Stone Edge kills most Volcarona in one hit. Golbat's evs were kind of lazy on my part but it takes consecutive Specs Dracos from Hydreigon most of the time. Golbat was super helpful later in the competition where more of the teams were similar, so Tailwind could help me a lot. Scolipede's evs allow it to take one Aegiaslash attack and LO recoil and outspeeds timid Volcarona when at neutral speed (also allows it to outspeed when they have the same amount of boosts. Earthquake was chosen over Poison Jab because I wanted it to be able to hit Aegislash. Rotom outspeeds Crobat and kills most variants. Signal Beam over HP Ice because it 2hkos Hydra. Rotom surprised a lot of people and was one of my favorites during the competition. Granbull takes one LO Flash Cannon from Aegislash and kills univested Volcarona. Crunch is for Aegislash. Wish I had run Facade over Snarl to help against WoW Rotoms.

Battle Videos:
VCRG-WWWW-WW3W-4RS5 - Look who it is (I looked on his youtube channel and this is actually him). Was pleasantly surprised because he wasn't running Minimize; it was actually a pretty real strategy for him. He was also surprisingly in the 1700s.
S78G-WWWW-WW3W-4RQ9 - This was actually my second battle against this person. I battled him a third time but that was the one I dc'd on (I would've easily won that one due to him having a worse lead the last time). This was the only team that ever managed to get tr up the entire competition against me.

Overall I was happy with the team and it finished around 1790, but I am a little dissapointed I didn't break 1800 due to the dc. Definitely sastisfied with the record for my first masters competition (can't even imagine how easy juniors was). Especially happy I got to use Golbat. I also apparently battled Artic twice but didn't save either of them. Looking forward to the Scrappy Skirmish and hope to do well in that one too.rip singles players

No Specs Volcarona not impressed

cant say edit: don't double post and stop with the one-liners

 

[Ursarox]

edit: how the fuck are you guys getting battle box screens, I am not getting that option.

Ya how do you do that?

Log into PGL and click online competitions on the right menu, then click to competition participation records at the top right, then click competition entry history and click the battle box for the spooky cup. Then, take a screenshot and crop it and copy and paste it in. I probably should have made mine bigger since it's barely legible, but oh well.

 

[OmegaX]

My team:

Some videos I recorded:
8SCW-WWWW-WW3W-58FG
PJ6G-WWWW-WWW3W-58G8
4RCG-WWWW-WW3W-58H2

My regret is not teaching Protect to Scolipede, that would have won me some battles. Also, Crobat should've had Super Fang or Tailwind instead of U-Turn but I don't have access to move tutors because I'm lazy :P

The EVs probably need some work but I didn't have much time to do research, I barely finished breeding, and training my team on the last day before the start of the competition:

Crobat @ Mental Herb
Ability: Inner Focus
Evs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Brave Bird / Quick Guard / Taunt / U-Turn

Weavile @ Focus Sash
Ability: Pressure
Evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Fake Out / Night Slash / Icicle Crash / Protect

Noivern @ Haban Berry
Ability: Telepathy
Evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
Draco Meteor / Tailwind / Super Fang / Taunt

Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
Evs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpA
Nature: Modest
Thunderbolt / Hydro Pump / Will-O-Wisp / Protect

Exploud @ Choice Specs
Ability: Scrappy
Evs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Modest
Boomburst /Overheat / Focus Blast / Surf

Scolipede @ Life Orb
Ability: Speed Boost
Evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
Megahorn / Poison Jab / Rock Slide / Baton Pass

 

[ProjectTitan313]

Ya how do you do that?

Oh derp. Competitions homepage -> my participation records

Arbok:
Careful, 252 HP, 4 Atk, 84 Def, 156 Sp. Def, 12 Speed

I shit you not. I built my team around an Arbok.
The only relevant resists to Glare are Galvantula and Rotom-W/H. Thanks to intimidate, a bulky spread, and nearly every foe dismissing it as a threat when Hydra/Volc are next to it, it was able to Paralyze 2+ foes every battle, and render them basically useless with stat drops, Paralysis, and Rock Slide flinches. Hydreigon/Granbull also added to the misery, while Rotom-W, her main partner-in-crime, tormented virtually everything with TrickScarf and Confuse Ray to complete ParaFlinchFusion. Weaknesses? Ha. Between Hydreigon and Volcarona's domination of the tourney, plus large numbers of Dark types, you'd have to be basically insane a Psychic type. Ground is limited to... Krookodile, Granbull, Hydreigon, and Marowak. All of which are, at worst, crippled by Granbull, or demolished by Arbok (in Granbull's case). Plus, you know, 2 Ground immunities.
Coil seems odd, but considering most matches went 7+ turns and my opponent got to move about 1/2 or less of them, it wasn't hard to set up. +1 Atk/Def makes Arbok surprisingly tough, and Gunk Shot (which won't miss) has quite a punch as well. Rock Slide, we all know the damage is a mere side effect of the flinching, and again won't miss after a Coil.
MVP of the team - lead with it in every battle, never regretted it. If it actually fainted, it caused far, far more damage than I recieved.
No specific benchmarks, it just has pretty looking stats at level 50.

Rotom-W:
Modest, 112 HP, 164 Sp. Atk, 212 Speed

Almost always brought it; usually in the back.
TrickScarf, I thank Demantoid for talking me into it, was a horror in a metagame devoid of Megas to block it.
Have you ever fought a Paralyzed, Intimidated, Scarfed Dusknoir locked on Rock Slide? I have. It's a horrible, yet satisfying, feeling.
Utility was nearly endless. I replaced Signal Beam with Confuse Ray at the last minute, and am very grateful I did. When walled by Hydreigon, opposing Rotom-W, etc. firing off a free 50% chance of winning was great, and saved my butt against a Hydreigon sweep. One of the smaller heads bit the middle in the throat, creating an opening for my near-dead Volcarona to angrily buzz it to death.
Outruns Adamant 252 Kabutops (base 80) without Scarf, and 252+ Crobat when Scarfed. Sp. Atk... 2HKO's 4/0 Hydreigon with Signal beam but is obviously moot, whoops. Remainder in HP.

Volcarona:
Modest, 244 HP, 36 Def, 52 Sp. Atk, 60 Sp. Def, 116 Speed

Volcarona is 32% of the metagame, the rest is Hydreigon (32%), Rotom-W (16%), Crobat (16%), and everything else (1%).
I went bulky; Arbok and Tailwind eliminated the need to go Timid, and Hydreigon / opposing Volc being so omnipresent meant I had to handle them thoroughly.
I would of used the HP Rock one cannibal gave me, but I needed Tailwind more than a *almost* OHKO on opposing Volc when Fiery Dance 2HKO's anyway.
Fiery Dance seems odd, I know, but considering all the free turns I had to inflict free damage + setup in one turn... a +2 Volc against a Paralyzed team is horrible, and made up for the lack of QD. Fire Blast would of sufficed but free Sp. Atk boosts and 100% accuracy is so fun.
Spread tanks 252+ Specs Draco Meteor from Hydreigon, OHKO's 4/0 Hydra with Bug Buzz, and outruns Crobat at +1 (when I was considering QD). Charti lets it live a non-STAB Rock Slide from everything in the tourney.

Hydreigon:
Modest, 4 HP, 252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed

Like everyone, I brought it to almost every game with little to no regret. LO was for power and flexibility, allowing Protect and extra Rock Slide flinching (fails to OHKO Volcarona, but still, nice damage) since Flamethrower/Earth Power were basically irrelevent. Arbok and Volcarona, again, eliminated any need of Modest, and with Rotom-W weilding Scarf so well, LO was a natural pick.

Granbull:
Adamant, 252 HP, 228 Atk, 28 Sp. Def

I admit, I regret not running some Speed, but overall, very impressed.
I've used this a long time, mostly in the Maison, and it was a prefect fit for this tourney.
A solid counter to Volc, Hydreigon, Krookodile, Exploud, Noivern, non-WoW Rotom-W, Weavile, Gengar, Kabutops, and Liepard, it found itself in almost every match, and probably killed more shit than Hydreigon did.
Defensive/Offensive glue, with quite a bit of bulk, and Snarl+intimidate support, all in one.
Spread OHKO's 4/0 Kabutops with CC, along with every other relevent threat, and after that I optimized bulk. Adored it.

Dusclops:
Bold, 252 HP, 108 Def, 148 Sp. Def

Never used it. Not even once.
Dodges a 2HKO from 252+ LO Kabutop's Waterfall in Rain (no joke), remainder in Sp. def.
Night Shade because it's Dusclops, Trick Room for ultimate Speed control, Pain Split because it's a Dusclops, and Disable because it's a- no because I'm an asshole. Most pokemon only carry 1 move, at most, that can really hit Dusclops, abd after Disable, are utterly walled.
Disable also stops Choiced mons dead, and adds the sheer fucking hilarity of TrickScarf + Disable for an auto-Struggle situation.

So yes, I ran what was essentially Arbok + a 4 mon team and crushed everything set before me with sheer dickery.

 

[cannibal]

Weavile @ Focus Sash
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk. / 252 Speed
Pretty standard set. I used this as a lead in most games. Could threaten Golbat/Crobat pretty well, and most things didn't like taking Knock Offs, especially with so many Ghost-types floating around. I rarely used Fake Out and usually just went straight for Knock Off.

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Nature: Modest
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Sp.Atk. / 252 Speed
I wasn't planning on using Rock Slide at first, but after seeing ProjectTitan313 use this, I decided to steal his set. I don't know if I ever actually ended up using Rock Slide, though... Either way, I brought Hydreigon to almost every game with no regrets.

Aegislash @ Weakness Policy
Nature: Quiet
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: I forget. Something mostly defensive xP
I wasn't sure about Aegislash in this tourney, as it is slow and is scared of all the STAB GHost-type attacks flying round (not to mention Volcarona/Crobat's Heat Wave). I didn't personally use Aegislash that much in this tourney, as it was very situational in this format.

Volcarona @ Lum Berry
Nature: Timid
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 Sp.Atk. / 8 Sp.Def. / 248 Speed
IVs: 31/0/30/31/30/30 (HP Rock)
I used Volcarona in quite a few matches and didn't ever really regret bringing it. The cute little mothy was definitely a top-tier threat in this format. There were plenty of things with Rock-type attcks for just this reason. However, I found that once the threats to it were eliminated, Volcarona was usually able to sweep fairly easily. HP Rock was mostly for severely hurting opposing Volcarona, but probably could have been dropped for something something else because it fails to kill.

Crobat @ Mental Herb
Nature: Timid
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk. / 252 Speed
Crobat was usually used as a lead. Crobat's speed came in handy, and Brave Bird hit most pokemon in this meta for respectable damage. I rarely used Crobat, though, partially due to the prevelance of Rotom. It didn't really like Weavile, either.

Rotom-W @ Sitrus Berry
Nature: Modest
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Sp.Atk. / 6 Sp.Def
I brought Rotom-W to every match and had no regrets. It was just a good general pokemon to sponge hits and dish out damage with Thunderbolt. I never used Thunder Wave, although it could definitely have its uses.

Overall, I only played 6 matches total (5 wins, 1 loss), so I don't have too much to say other than I had fun and decided to quit while I was ahead. I always find myself doing that in these kind of things... xD

Battle Videos! :D
R87G-WWWW-WW2V-Y7E7
ETGG-WWWW-WW2V-YBW6
V8EG-WWWW-WW3W-4679
B6AG-WWWW-WW3W-468K
SNYG-WWWW-WW3W-469J

 

[ProjectTitan313]

-snip-

Oh yeah, I used your Scrotom. Forgot to mention.

I forgot battle videos guys:
66SG-WWWW-WW2V-Y5R9 Yes, I really did just spam Rock Slide until I won.
XL6G-WWWW-WW2V-ZK6P My bad, I didn't bother to Paralyze that Scarf Dusknoir. Not sure why his Hydreigon sucked so much, LO/Specs easily OHKO's Arbok, and since his Gengar was Scarfed, Hydra wasn't, nor was it Sash...
QNTW-WWWW-WW3W-5F32 LO Granbull. This guy had balls, respect where respect is due.
LUUW-WWWW-WW2V-HTBN I truly have no shame whatsoever. Right from turn 1, I took my highest ranked opponent of the tourney by the horns and commited unforgivable atrocities. Granbull doesn't need TR to sweep, nor does it need AV to tank STAB Hydro Pumps \o/

 

[Pyritie]

I'm 3-1 and not sure I'm going to continue; I still haven't figured out why Focus Sash didn't kick in when it should have, and if it's some glitch and could happen again, then that means I'm down a team member.

I know it's too late now, but in the future, if something strange like this happens again, save a replay! Then you can share it with this forum and we can try and figure out what the problem was.

 

[cant say]

description and importables

So for starters, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to build around for this. I complained played on PS! a lot and hoped I'd run into this competition's version of Magnetic Flux + Baton Pass Minun from the Pikachu Cup, but unfortunately every single team was just Hydreigon, Volcarona, Scolipede, Rotom-W, Granbull and Crobat (at least Demantoid showed some creativity and used Golbat instead, lol) and I was extremely bored with the arms race that was "whoever manages to kill more stuff with Hydreigon wins." In the meantime I was busy assembling a would-be dream team of contributors to start back the old Facebook giveaways where we decided to give out a Hidden Power Volcarona for this very competition. I decided to steal one for myself and make it the first member of my team...

Facebook (Volcarona) (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 248 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Bug Buzz
- Fiery Dance
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Protect

lol it wasn't actually called Facebook, I just had that on the teambuilder coz it didn't have a nickname otherwise...

We decided on speed > power for getting the jump on all non-scarf Hydreigon so we can bop them with a Bug Buzz asap, as well as smash opposing slower Volc with HP Rock. Swarm would have been much better for this set since I was running Sash, but we went with Flame Body for the giveaway so I didn't have a choice. Fiery Dance > Heat Wave for Wide Guard Aegi who otherwise messes me up (esp coz I can't rely on Hydreigon for it), it also give me a way to boost without needing Quiver Dance.

After that I really didn't have any idea of what else to use. I really didn't want to do what everyone else was and just stack my team with threats, but it was really hard not to. I already had a shiny Hydreigon on my cart from an old Maison team I used to play with so I decided that was an obvious choice..

Gorynych (Hydreigon) (M) @ Wise Glasses
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Dark Pulse
- Dragon Pulse
- Flash Cannon
- Protect

Pretty self-explanatory, Dark Pulse + Dragon Pulse were crazy good coverage here, and Flash Cannon rounded it out nicely. It was Life Orb but I decided to throw in Mawile (see below). I didn't want Specs since so many things threaten this guy that he really needs Protect so you can kill those things off. Wise Glasses is admittedly a bit of a lame choice but I had no idea what else to do..

To round out my trio of offensive mons I thought I'd go with Scolipede, I liked how it was able to take on a lot of the meta save for Aegislash with it's Bug STAB for Hydreigon / Dark-types, Poison STAB for Granbull / Mr. Mime / good neutral coverage in general, and Speed Boost + Rock Slide for Volcarona + Crobat (who beat it otherwise) and clutch flinches in general...

Bush Tucka (Scolipede) (M) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Speed Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 84 Def / 4 SpD / 164 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Poison Jab
- Pin Missile

Finally, a non max/max spread! I used Jolly + 164 Spe to outpace max speed Volcarona so you can get the Rock Slide off, the spare EVs from that were put into Def to help it take opposing Rock Slides, as well as Brave Birds from Crobat (with Murkrow's help, more below). I chose Pin Missile because X-Scissor was a 2HKO on Hydra, and don't like Megahorn's accuracy. Pin Missile OHKOes Hydra with 4 hits, so if you're lucky enough you get the kill, if not, it's a 2HKO with 2/3 hits so you don't lose anything from running it over X-Scissor (apart from 5% miss chance).

Now I needed some speed control + friendly hax to make it interesting. I had previously considered running a full Prankster and/or SwagPlay team to spice things up a bit, but I took the best two (imo) from that idea and slapped them on this team...

Adelaide (Murkrow) (M) @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Thunder Wave
- Swagger
- Feather Dance
- Protect

Specially defensive for all the big names here, with Feather Dance to patch up its own, as well as the team's physical defence. Worked great against Crobat, Scolipede, Granbull, (physical) Aegislash and Krookodile.

Bentley (Liepard) (M) @ Tanga Berry
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 84 Atk / 4 Def / 164 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Thunder Wave
- Swagger
- Play Rough

Just a secondary Murkrow but with Fake Out and an actual attacking move. I used max speed for other Liepard, 84 attack to guarantee the OHKO on Hydreigon with Play Rough and the remaining EVs in SpD. This, combined with the Tanga Berry, ensured I was able to take on opposing Volcarona a bit better, and hopefully be able to get some hax off against it. It did mean he was frail on the physical side but I felt like having a better shot at one of the top threats was the right call..

Now this is where I got stuck. I realised that Trick Room with (Quick Guard) Mr. Mime, Granbull and Exploud was gonna be annoying for me. I decided that Mawile would check this semi-reliably and function well enough against other big-name threats with all the T-wave support I had.

Venus (Mawile) (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Rock Slide
- Protect

This is why I don't have Life Orb on my Hydreigon, as combining it with Sheer Force was too good to pass up. Fairy STAB is great in this meta, and Iron Head dealt with Granbull / Mr. Mime and the Poison-types that resist Play Rough. Rock Slide was the obligatory coverage option for crushing a paralysed Volcarona and other things like Crobat and Scolipede. Only used in a couple of battles on-cart but was a joy on the sim.

So... I finally had a team that I was actually happy with (and with very minor breeding involved) so I was excited to give the competition a go. However I was interstate over the weekend, the hotel wifi didn't work, I'd used up all my mobile data for this month already (and too tight to get some extra), and I got home at 1:30am Sunday night / Monday morning! I had to get sleep before work in the morning so I decided to play for about an hour and aim for 1600 and call it. My first match was against a Bright Powder Sableye spamming Confuse Ray that managed to out-hax my own plan which saw an early loss. After that I had a solid run of I think 7/8 wins and broke 1600 (didn't even hax my way there, Volc is just that good) but then decided I was having too much fun to quit and figured I would just push my alarm back a little bit, lol. I then went on to lose the next 3 and quit out of frustration! In those losses I managed to; not land Pin Missile once / get owned by an un-haxable Rotom-W (T waved my whole team, cured itself of confusion on the first turn every turn and suffer several dual paralysis procs giving my opp free turns galore) / choke and Protect my Volcarona instead of attacking which would have won me the game / get baited into using Fiery Dance on an incoming Flash Fire Houndoom who managed to fight through paralysis and confusion to Heat Wave my team to death...

Overall, I'm glad I was able to finally make a team that I liked, but I'm super disappointed that I didn't get to enjoy / play the full competition as it feels like the all the prep I made was in vain. (maybe we will have to arrange a post-competition tournament? haha)

Onto the Scrappy Cup where hopefully I can prepare better / be free to battle more!

thanks shiny finder and Fluke for the Volcarona and Murkrow + Purrloin respectively n_n

 

[Kong Harald]

Ended about ~1763.

Was going strong with 26-4 and a ~1800 rating, but then I went on a losing streak with some bullshit hax, as well as 2 completely fair losses (one of which was against Demantoid). Was bound to happen in the most haxed-based meta gamefreak ever came up with, but still annoying lol. I only saved the last 2 battles due to VS recorder being full for a long time. Luckily, my opponents uploaded some of my other battles to PGL.

These videos illustrates how a typical battle looked like, with rotom and crobat (usually) dictating the game from the start.

#29 VVNW-WWWW-WW3W-4XN9
#30 VVNW-WWWW-WW3W-4XN9
#33 BEAG-WWWW-WW3W-452S

Some other battle videos:

#27 YMAG-WWWW-WW2V-TKEP - Featuring one of the best comebacks in my life
#44 Y9PW-WWWW-WW3W-4YBE - Revenge against Demantoid
#45 M9NG-WWWW-WW3W-4YVZ - RIP Gravity+Hypnosis, last battle

Most spectacular loss: My opponent led with chandelure and Aegislash. Used SD and trick room on turn 1, which caught me completely off quard. Had no chance from there. It was against a british guy.

Most frustrating loss: So many on day 3, but one stood out. I was in complete control of the game, but my opponent burned my rotom with heat wave. Early, I was still in complete control, but after several turns, my rotom eventually went down to the burn. In the end, it was my max HP aegislash vs max HP Crobat + 1 HP Granbull. I King's Shielded to scout, and was hit by Bite and Crunch, lowering the attack of both my opponents. What's better; I knew I was faster than his granbull. At that point, I went from 99% to being 100% sure about winning). Targeted Granbull next turn - flinched by bite (activating WP), hit in shield forme by granbull. KS to lower attacks further. Next turn didn't flinch so KO'd granbull. KS again to give crobat -6. Next turn - bite flinches. It did 14 damage, I was left with 11. GG (lol no).

Best win: Idk - I'm quite pleased with my overall play (especially in the middle of the tourney, when I went 15-1 at some point). A lot of great wins, but quite hard to remember the individual battles in a format with so few viable pokemon lol. Battle #27 above certainly gave me one of the best feelings, since I was already so frustrated at the time due to hax.

Here's my team, most of which I am very happy with, and will come back to when rankings are revealed:

 

[lucariomaster2]

Let's just say this competition was not one of my best. I finished something like 13 and 12 (didn't do the last 5 battles) and peaked at 1550. At least I learned that Dusknoir/Parasect is a really, really bad Trick Room core.

My team was Dusknoir/Parasect/Murkrow/Marowak/Hydreigon/Weavile; I won't post full sets unless people really want to see them since this team just plain doesn't work. At least they're all in fancy Pokeballs!

The one part that actually worked as intended: Marowak. Thick Club Marowak is absolutely terrifying in Trick Room, and Murkrow is a fantastic supporter for it with Prankster Quash.

 

[Kong Harald]

The time has come - the results are out! Some immediate thoughts:

- Sejun is rock solid as usual in 3rd place.
- I think the winner at 1897 is none other than Shoma Honami, due to a twitter post he made recently. If that's the case, we have 2 world champions in top 3...
- I'm quite surprised that Scolipede didn't make top 12 in usage, it performed very well for me
- Japan/Korea takes top 30.
- Below the top players, it was incredibly close for the next places, with tons of trainers sitting at around 1800.
- Only 15,6% used Electro Web on their Rotom?? Such an amazing move in this meta

As for myself:

Edit: Sorry about picture size. I don't know what happens, the image really isn't big at all :S

 

[OmegaX]

I ended at rank 765 with 1623 points after 28 wins and 17 losses. I hope I'll do better in the Scrappy Skirmish.

 

[Ursarox]

I finished 632nd with 1634 points. It was a pretty fun competition overall.

 

[Demantoid]

Here's my results, frustrating since the game that I dc'd on would have easily gotten me first in US and probably top 10 in the world. Still pretty good results for my first Masters competition and hope to do even better in the Scrappy Skirmish. The person in one of my earlier replays was second place.

 

[ProjectTitan313]

No. 925 / 1612 Points
9 Won 2 Lost 0 Tied

I'd screenie but 1) its not that amazing and 2) Dropbox is shit nowadays and Photobucket was always shit.

Had almost no time to battle because work.
Not nearly as good as Demantoid (wtf man) but I'd say I did good with a 5 mon team centered around Lord Arbok. Shame I couldn't of won- I mean battled more. I greatly enjoyed spreading status and death like Scarmiglione.