AGPL IV Coverage

Art by Pissog.

Introduction

Anything Goes Premier League, or AGPL, is the biggest and most prestigious team tour in the Anything Goes tournament circuit. With six teams and eight slots, this tournament gives several generations of this independent OM a chance to shine. Featuring slots for ORAS, USM, and SS, as well as a National Dex AG and a multigen best-of-three slot, AGPL allows some of the strongest Anything Goes players to face each other in a fight to be the best.

The fourth edition of AGPL saw both new and old faces in the manager pairings. Returning from last year was AGPL III's champion manager Icemaster, with a new team name and a new comanager in baconeatinassassin, whose knowledge and experience in the metagame helped to immediately form one of the strongest cores in the tournament. Also returning were Kate and the Limitless Lycanrocs, who had narrowly fallen short of winning AGPL III themselves, this time joined by former teammate and eventual OMPL X champion Will. Anything Goes leader cromagnet was back as well, leading his beloved Crooked Crobats in hopes of finally grasping an elusive team tour win, with a new comanager in RoA tournament specialist susciety. Playing again in name only were the Salt Mining Sableyes. The franchise had a rocky history, winning AGPL II and coming in fifth place in AGPL III, but with one of its former managers tournament banned and the other hosting the tournament, OMs main pannuracotta and former AG leader Guard hoped to bring glory back to the Sableyes name in AGPL IV. The final manager pairs consisted of Ubers Tier leader and 2021 AG Circuit finalist Fc and longtime AG contributor and AG Snake II winner lotiasite, and 2021 AG Circuit winner Skarph, whose last managerial stint in AGPL II had ended with his team in fifth place, now alongside another former AG Leader, the recently returned pichus, who similarly last managed in AGPL II, with her team placing second.

Draft

Crooked Crobats

• Managers: cromagnet, susciety
• Final Roster: pdt, cromagnet, PurpleGatorade, Farce Of The Death, SiTuM, TJ, astralydia, Iguana, Staxi, Geysers, rahul_3301

Lion's Den

• Managers: Skarph, pichus
• Final Roster: Zenithial, Skarph, Nineveh, MZ, Swas, Ballfire, polt, Royal1604, clean, Rhmsitb, Cam, Jordy, tier

Limitless Lycanrocs

• Managers: Kate, WSun1
• Final Roster: Chloe, Kate, Paycard, Aberforth, crying, SparksBlade, Satanic Beast, Inder, Ainzcrad, Rotten

Salt Mining Sableyes

• Managers: pannuracotta, Guard
• Final Roster: Guard, Dockiva~~, Lunala, Highlord, jonfilch, 80 yrs, GRNBLN, Quantum Tesseract, sasha, avarice, zioziotrip, Ren

Streaming Sky Serpents

• Managers: Icemaster, baconeatinassassin
• Final Roster: baconeatinassassin, keys, Icemaster, Trade, FatFigher2, The Strap, kythr, Tranqulity, queso, Alkione

Spheal Ordeal

• Managers: Fc, lotiasite
• Final Roster: lotiasite, Fc, Andyboy, Nevelle, Zesty43, Dr. Phd. BJ, Holy Ghost, Alpha Rabbit, Crunchman, QWILY

While the most expensive players in the tournament were the 20k second manager self-purchases of lotiasite and baconeatinassassin, the highest at-auction price was the Lion's Den's 17k purchase of highly regarded USM player Zenithial. All-rounder pdt, coming off of two back-to-back seasons of breaking even, would follow with a 15.5k bid by the Crooked Crobats.

The Early Weeks

In the first three weeks of AGPL IV, the Spheal Ordeal were a dominant force and the only undefeated team. They defeated the Crooked Crobats and tournament favorites Streaming Sky Serpents, as well as tied with the Salt Mining Sableyes in week two when they maneuvered out of a 2-4 losing position thanks to back-to-back victories from Andyboy and Fc.

The Lion's Den, Streaming Sky Serpents, Salt Mining Sableyes, and Crooked Crobats all found themselves in nearly identical positions, separated only by a few points of differential. The Lion's Den had the highest, being up one point, and the Crooked Crobats had the lowest with -2 thanks to a 2-6 loss against the Spheal Ordeal in the first week. The Limitless Lycanrocs trailed in the standings without a single victory to their name and faced a hard battle if they wanted to claim a spot in playoffs.

Many players put up strong performances in the first three weeks with undefeated records. Among them were, unsurprisingly, last year's final AG circuit duo Fc and Skarph, as well as ORAS AG veteran keys and Andyboy, who is no stranger to strong showings in USUM AG. Making their AGPL debut were OM players astralydia, Dr. Phd. BJ, and zioziotrip, as well as Ubers tier leader Aberforth, all boasting 3-0 records as well. On the other hand, established players like Trade, Ballfire, and pdt fell short, being unable to put up more than one win between them in the first half of the tournament.

Midseason Standings

The Later Weeks

The Spheal Ordeal continued to dominate the opposition in the latter half of the tournament, with a week four win against the Lion's Den keeping them undefeated and comfortably in the first seed. The Lion's Den's loss dropped them into third place, as the Streaming Sky Serpents' victory against the Crooked Crobats in the same week allowed them to overtake the second place spot. The Limitless Lycanrocs also secured their first victory against the Salt Mining Sableyes in week four, putting them back in a contending spot for a place in semifinals.

Entering the fifth and final week of the regular season, the Spheal Ordeal were all but locked into the first seed and guaranteed a place in playoffs. The Streaming Sky Serpents held a strong position in second place, being two points ahead of the bottom set of teams. The final four teams all held identical win-loss-tie records and were separated only by their differential, with the Lion's Den leading with a -1 differential and the Crooked Crobats in last with one of -6. There was a possibility for any team that wasn't the Spheal Ordeal to lose or gain a spot in the top three, so the stakes were higher than ever as the week commenced.

Leading team Spheal Ordeal were against the Limitless Lycanrocs, who were attempting to go from last place to semifinals in just two weeks. The Lycanrocs started strong, quickly putting the week at 3-0. However, the Spheals returned with three victories of their own to even the score. An unfortunate paralysis in a NatDex AG game between Kate and Nevelle put the Spheals back on top of the week, and Rotten was unable to secure the tie for their team, losing a best-of-three in two games to Fc and officially taking the Lycanrocs out of the running and guaranteeing the Spheals their pass to finals.

Second seed Streaming Sky Serpents and third seed Lion's Den faced each other, both hoping to keep their place in semifinals. The Lions managed to bring the week to a 4-1 start, but Serpents players FatFighter2 and keys took it up to 4-3. AG newcomer tier was unable to overcome Serpents manager baconeatinassassin, and the Serpents ended the week in a tie, guaranteeing themselves a spot in semifinals and forcing the Lion's Den to wait in anticipation for the outcome of the other series to see if they could pull through to playoffs.

The final matchup was the Salt Mining Sableyes versus the Crooked Crobats. The teams were ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, entering week five, but with the Lycanrocs knocked out by the Spheals and the Lion's Den in a tie, a win for either one of these teams would catapult them from the bottom of the standings to semifinals. The series remained close, with the teams trading wins and losses until the score sat at 4-3 in favor of the Sableyes. The final game of the series was also the final game of the week, so spectators watched with bated breath as sasha, playing one of the most important games of the tournament as their debut AGPL game, and Farce Of The Death, a NatDex AG main who had been finding success in SS AG this AGPL, faced off. Farce's team looked odd at first and had no obvious strong offensive threats except for a highly uncommon Flygon against sasha's more standard-looking team, but the bulky team proved to be too much for sasha, and they forfeited the match. Farce's victory tied the series, keeping both their own team and the Sableyes out of semifinals and securing the Lion's Den's spot in third place, a mere two points of differential above the Sableyes.

Coming out of the regular season, two players still boasted undefeated records. Fc had managed a 5-0 record in the best-of-three slot, where he'd faced tough opponents such as Skarph and Icemaster. keys also maintained a perfect record in the Serpents' ORAS slot, with wins against longtime players like Chloe and Iguana. Even though his team was out, Aberforth's first AGPL ended with a 4-1 record, one of only two positive records on the Lycanrocs and the best of any eliminated team's players. On the other hand, Trade would end their season in week five with a 1-4 record, a completely unexpected result after their 6-1 debut in AGPL III. QWILY, Rotten, and cromagnet put forward equally disappointing regular season records. AG veterans Chloe, Dockiva~~, and PurpleGatorade also ended up negative in this edition of the tournament, each with a 2-3 showing.

Final Standings

Semifinals

After a nailbiting finish to the regular season, the Streaming Sky Serpents and Lion's Den would find themselves face to face for the second week in a row. The series would start 1-1, with a pair of split victories in the two USM slots, one for Zenithial and one for The Strap. Unlike the previous week, however, the series would end decisively. Swas started the last day of the week off with a victory over baconeatinassassin. Ballfire, rebounding from their shaky start to the tournament, secured the Lions' third win over AG freshman kythr. Skarph defeated Icemaster in the best-of-three slot for the second week in a row, and Nineveh would wrap semifinals up with a little bit of luck in her ORAS game against the undefeated keys.

Despite their run ending in semifinals, both keys and The Strap put up impressive 5-1 records, with FatFighter2's 3-2 being the third of the Serpents' top three records, while both of the Serpents' managers put up uncharacteristically even 3-3 records.

Finals

Entering finals, the Lion's Den faced their hardest opponent yet: tournament-long number one seed team the Spheal Ordeal, who had just had a week off while the Lions fought their way through semifinals. These teams' last encounter had ended in a 5-3 victory for the Spheals, and they were eager to repeat this and clinch the AGPL IV win.

The finals series started off evenly, with the teams both gaining wins until it was 2-2. However, Alpha Rabbit and Nevelle turned the tides quickly with a pair of victories that put the Spheals in a commanding 4-2 lead, only needing one more win to finish their complete domination of the tournament. Skarph took another victory for his team, bringing the series to closer 4-3 and ruining Fc's undefeated record along the way, and suddenly all eyes were on the remaining game, 3-2 AG veteran lotiasite against 0-2 AGPL newcomer polt, who had just been subbed in earlier that week. With the Spheals clearly favored to win this match, those following the tour were surprised as polt managed a 3-0 victory over lotiasite, bringing the series to a tie and into a tiebreaker.

With SS as a guaranteed slot in the tiebreaker series, the Lion's Den chose ORAS as their entry, and the Spheal Ordeal unsurprisingly chose a second SS slot, given the strength of their team's SS performance the whole tournament.

The first match of the tiebreaker was the ORAS match between two players who had played USM the whole tournament, including against each other in finals. This time, however, it was MZ who came out on top with a rare Chilan Berry Mega Rayquaza, putting the Lions in a 1-0 lead. tier, a surprising addition to the Lions' finals tiebreaker lineup as a complete newcomer to the metagame when the tournament began, gained the help of a few well-timed paralyses and boosts from Dragon Dance to set up a Necrozma-DM and fittingly gain the victory over lotiasite and end the tournament with the mascot of the winning team.

Once finals were over, it would unsurprisingly be Lion's Den manager Skarph who had the best showing in the tournament, putting forward an impressive 6-1 record with five of those wins coming from the grueling best-of-three slot. Zenithial and Nineveh completed the Lions' top performers, each holding a 4-3 record. The Spheals also had several strong players, with manager Fc taking a 5-1 record. Alpha Rabbit also put up a 5-1 record, a redemption from his 1-4 AGPL III showing. Andyboy, Nevelle, and Dr. Phd. BJ all had strong 4-2 records, rounding out the Spheals' top performers.

Highlight Matches

SS AG - Skarph vs Fc

Starting the finals bo3 series, legendary AG player Skarph and the comparatively new Fc play SS. Both load up quite similar Kyogre + Ferrothorn teams, and both are also using Yveltal and Necrozma-DM; what's interesting is the two remaining slots on either team and how each player decides to use them. Skarph has neglected to use the common Eternatus and instead uses the extra team slot to create a Fairy spam core with Xerneas and Zacian-C; if he can manage to overload Fc's three Steel-types with one of these, then the other one is set up to win. Fc, on the other hand, has opted for Eternatus and Calyrex-S, giving him more longevity and a powerful wallbreaker in the back. The game starts quite simply with both players playing aggressively. Fc leads with his Kyogre, hoping to claim some easy KOs, seeing Skarph's lack of Eternatus; in return, Skarph goes to his Ferrothorn, but seeing how it gets 2HKOed by Choice Specs Kyogre, he decides to defensively Dynamax Ferrothorn quite early and claims Fc's Kyogre with a critical hit turn 2. Skarph doesn't let off the gas and continues to play the game very aggressively, taking full advantage of his lucky break. Eventually he gets his Xerneas in against Fc's Ferrothorn, and Fc has to be cautious of a Geomancy set, which typically carries Substitute and turns Ferrothorn into setup fodder. Running out of options, however, Fc opts to leave his Ferrothorn in and let the Xerneas set up Substitute and use Geomancy. Eventually, Fc's Ferrothorn goes down, but Skarph's Xerneas has been damaged immensely by having to set up multiple Substitutes and is now in KO range of any priority move. Instead, Fc opts to get the revenge kill with his Choice Scarf Calyrex-S, only to be forced out the next turn by Yveltal. In response Fc sends out his own Yveltal, while Skarph pivots in his Zacian-C, forcing in Necrozma-DM and taking it down with Crunch after Spikes and Behemoth Blade chip. With no more Pokémon walling it, Zacian-C is in a fantastic position to win; however, with it being low on health and Fc having Calyrex to force it out, that seems unlikely at this point. Some more turns go by; noticeably Skarph sacks his Ferrothorn to safely get in his Yveltal to remove the entry hazards on the field and U-turn back to his Zacian-C, forcing a KO on Fc's Yveltal. With Fc bringing out his Calyrex-S, Skarph goes to his Kyogre, revealing a bulky set with Leftovers and Rest; taking advantage of this, Fc goes to his Eternatus and reveals Cosmic Power, potentially being able to win the game. While he's setting up his Cosmic Powers, though, Skarph takes advantage of the free turns to switch in his Necrozma-DM to paralyze Eternatus and then goes to Zacian-C and reveals Rest and Sleep Talk, being able to put pressure on Eternatus; however, with Eternatus holding Rocky Helmet, Zacian-C would quickly get worn down. Eventually, Kyogre and Eternatus enter a stalemate, and while Eternatus eventually comes out on top and KOes the Kyogre, the earlier Thunder Wave from allows Necrozma-DM and Zacian-C to safely recover against Eternatus. Fc makes an aggressive play and goes to his Calyrex-S as Zacian-C uses Rest; going for a Dynamax sweep, however, it is unable to KO Yveltal, so Skarph takes the win.

USM AG - Dockiva~~ vs cromagnet

Twelve Pokémon on the field, five of them are Arceus, yup that's USM AG alright. From Dockiva, we see a more balanced team; Mega Gengar is fantastic for enabling threatening sweepers, so we're probably going to see an offensive Necrozma-DM and some offensive Arceus, while cromagnet loads up some good old offense. One of his Arceus is probably Extreme Killer, but the other two could be almost anything. We see an Arceus on each side of the field on turn 1, and cromagnet's Arceus-Ground goes for Stealth Rock as Dockiva takes it down with his Arceus-Water. cromagnet responds with his Xerneas, forcing in Dockiva's Groudon as he goes for Geomancy. On the next turn, Moonblast does over half to Groudon as Xerneas gets phazed out, sending in a second Arceus-Ground. Dockiva goes back into his Arceus-Water as cromagnet reveals Calm Mind. On the next turn Arceus-Water gets lucky and dodges Thunder as Arceus-Ground barely tanks a Z-Liquidation. Dockiva opts to keep Arceus-Water and sacks his Groudon, also managing to safely get in his Gengar to remove Arceus-Ground. cromagnet goes into his Arceus, and takes 50% from Sludge Wave, but Gengar hangs on from Shadow Claw and KOes a second Arceus. cromagnet sends out his Mega Rayquaza in response, eating a Sludge Wave as he sets up with Dragon Dance before going for the KO with Earthquake and revealing Life Orb. Arceus-Fairy comes in and barely lives the +1 Dragon Ascent but manages to revenge kill Mega Rayquaza. Necrozma-DM takes Mega Rayquaza's place and sets up Swords Dance before using Ultra Burst, and putting itself in a position to win. Dockiva sends in Yveltal, reveals Choice Scarf, and KOes it with Dark Pulse; however, this turns Yveltal into the perfect setup opportunity for Xerneas, as it comes back onto the field and goes for Geomancy. On the charge turn Dockiva goes into his Necrozma-DM, though, following up with doing a little bit over half with Photon Geyser, surviving a Moonblast, and KOing Xerneas to round out a very close game.

ORAS AG - QWILY vs Chloe

ORAS AG stall is very unique, using Pokémon like Tyranitar, Skarmory, and Mega Diancie to take on the insanely high power level, and running some interesting sets to boot. Here we see QWILY load it against Chloe, who is using a more standard balance team. The first few turns are pretty simple. QWILY scouts Mega Rayquaza with his Diancie as it goes for Waterfall, and on the next turn he goes to his Arceus, which is Dragon-type, as Rayquaza goes for a second Waterfall predicting a greedy Stealth Rock from Diancie. After some pivoting, Chloe manages to get in her Arceus-Ground as Tyranitar goes for Stealth Rock, immediately removing them as Mewtwo is sent in. Mewtwo burns Arceus-Ground as it gets chipped down by Judgement, being forced to Recover as Chloe goes to her Arceus. QWILY brings in his Skarmory, predicting a Swords Dance, as Arceus reveals it's running a niche special set and goes for Hyper Voice, barely doing under half HP. Skarmory then reveals Red Card and phazes Arceus out but gets a bit unlucky, as Primal Groudon is sent in. Chloe goes for Stealth Rock as QWILY risks losing Skarmory to a Fire-type move and recovers. The turn after, he brings in his Arceus-Dragon as Chloe goes to her own Arceus again; this time, he trades a Toxic on her Arceus for about half of his Arceus-Dragon's HP. As he brings in Chansey to deal with the special Arceus, Chloe goes to her Mega Rayquaza as a response, making a clever prediction and using Waterfall as he switches in Tyranitar. QWILY goes into his Arceus-Dragon to recover some HP against the Rayquaza, but his minimal Speed investment means that his dragon is the slower one, so Rayquaza nabs another KO. Chloe then brings in Primal Groudon on Mewtwo's Will-O-Wisp, going for Thunder Wave against Skarmory, while QWILY removes Stealth Rock as Arceus comes back in. Skarmory swaps out for Diancie as QWILY trades it to deal with Arceus. Arceus-Ground comes in for the revenge kill and gets the critical hit on Mewtwo on the switch, taking the opportunity to go back to Primal Groudon on the forced Recover. Then, as Mewtwo decides to chip Primal Groudon with Psystrike, Primal Groudon gets a lucky critical hit to KO Mewtwo with Precipice Blades. As Diancie comes in to force out the Primal Groudon, Chloe's Blissey tanks an Earth Power with ease, barely survives Diamond Storm, and KOes Diancie with Seismic Toss, finishing the game.

Final Thoughts

After a long and difficult tournament, the Lion's Den emerged victorious, toppling the undefeated Spheal Ordeal in order to claim the title, a victory made all the more impressive by the fact that a third of the team didn't play a single game in the entire tournament. Their determination and perseverance brought them to the top, and Skarph and pichus both finally gained managerial redemption for AGPL II.

AGPL IV showcased some amazing games from top talents in the metagame, as well as gave the spotlight to several newcomers and their incredible performances. To see all of the games from this tournament, check out the AGPL IV replay thread, and stay tuned for AGPL V!