Grand Slam XII Coverage

The Ubers Open saw many strong players fall early in the tour, with Ubers Winter Seasonal winner Vert being eliminated in the first round alongside pdt and Exiline. crying, Fogbound Lake, Punny, mncmt, Garay oak, Inder, and robjr all also failed to make it past the third round. Round four saw an exodus of strong players, with TPP, Lily, Finchinator, and shiloh all falling here, and Kate, RichardMillePlain, and Fc all followed just before the top twelve. Many of the favorites to win the tournament would leave the tour by the time finals rolled around, with Aberforth, Star, and Icemaster joining the ranks of the fallen by the time the top three were decided: entrocefalo, who'd had a series of breakout performances since the dawn of Gen 9, as well as Giannis Antetokommo-o and DAHLI, neither of whom was well known for their performance in Ubers tiers. Ubers Open this year was the final Open to conclude, with both DAHLI and Giannis Antetokommo-o (henceforth called "Giannis") in the position to qualify for Grand Slam playoffs with a victory, while entrocefalo was looking to extend a fantastic individual record in SV Ubers by winning Ubers Open right after Ubers Ladder Tour.

After the initial round, all three individual players in the round robin had won a set, and so the bracket had to reset. It showed how closely matched all three competitors were and held up Grand Slam playoffs an additional week due to both DAHLI and Giannis being able to make it in. The first match of this reset was played between the two Grand Slam hopefuls, with DAHLI and Giannis both knowing that winning over the other was vital to making it through.

DAHLI vs Giannis Antetokommo-o - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

Game 1 saw DAHLI utilizing a team based around overloading an opposing team with brutal special attackers, with the combination of Mewtwo and Miraidon often able to break through common forms of counterplay like Ting-Lu and Arceus-Grass, while Giannis has leaned into a physical offense overload with the combination of Koraidon and Zacian-C, which are capable of breaking past many of each other's checks for the other to sweep, with support from Gothitelle to try to trap the few examples that can take them on like Toxapex and Great Tusk. After DAHLI's Corviknight gets trapped by Gothitelle, he tries to get in his Mewtwo to set up and wreak havoc and takes out both Landorus-T and Koraidon thanks to a timely Tera Fire to resist Flare Blitz, before being revenge killed by Eternatus, which was likely Choice Scarf. After the Eternatus is forced out by DAHLI's Scarf Koraidon, Giannis tries to bring it back in on a double switch, hoping that his Arceus-Water comfortably taking a Flare Blitz would invite Miraidon in; however, DAHLI reads it well, picks up another KO, and switches Miraidon in on the Arceus-Water as it clicks Calm Mind. Reading the situation well, DAHLI Taunts the Arceus as it activates its Tera rather than firing off an ineffective Electro Drift but gets a tad unlucky with his next two Draco Meteors both missing, preventing him from getting any chip on the Arceus before being forced out by Zacian-C. DAHLI is able to prevent Toxapex from being trapped by Gothitelle and is eventually able to clean up with Scarf Koraidon's Flare Blitz, making sure to keep the Arceus-Water, which no longer resists Flare Blitz from becoming a Ground-type through Tera, from getting too healthy and knocking Koraidon out through recoil damage.

Game 2 saw a complete separation in styles between the two players, with Giannis embracing a hyper offense approach, while DAHLI opted for a balanced approach, with Waterceus, Ting-Lu, Toxapex, and Ditto all providing a strong defensive backbone and all his breaking power coming from his two motorbikes cosplaying as Kaiju. Both players have reasons to be happy from the opening few turns, with Giannis getting up two layers of Spikes and DAHLI responding with his own Toxic Spikes. Giannis does not have Eternatus meaning poison chip damage will affect both Arceus-Fairy and Koraidon in their attempt to execute their offense, but Giannis's other three are unaffected by it, and the extra Spikes chip damage can be impactful with rolls from Zacian-C and Koraidon against Arceus-Water and Toxapex. DAHLI KOes the Froslass with his Miraidon, revealing it to be Heavy-Duty Boots and therefore a massive threat to Giannis's offensive plans, as it can at least tie with most of Giannis's team aside from Zacian-C. Said Zacian-C comes in and forces out Miraidon with a Play Rough, and the Toxapex gets picked off with a Wild Charge in Electric Terrain. DAHLI opts to go into his Arceus-Water in response, but thanks to the two layers of Spikes that Giannis set up early, the Arceus-Water is knocked out by another Electric Terrain-boosted Wild Charge. DAHLI's Ditto now comes in to try to take some revenge, knocking out Zacian-C and exchanging itself for Landorus-T thanks to its Rocky Helmet. Two Koraidon then see each other eye to eye, knowing that whoever wins the Speed tie between them has good odds to win the entire game, and indeed that is what the game comes down to, after a few extra turns of switching to Arceus-Fairy and Ting-Lu, Giannis's Koraidon wins the important speed tie and the game; at least, assuming it was a speed tie. Giannis's Koraidon won each "Speed tie" event between the two (such as Orichalcum Pulse activating), and given the structure of the teams, it would not be surprising if Giannis's Koraidon was Choice Scarf while DAHLI's focused more on breaking power, given the rest of the team (outside of Miraidon) was not too well suited to that role.

In game 3, both players have gone for teams designed around an offensive pair, hoping to wrest momentum into their own hands and take control of the game. Giannis has gone for the rain duo of Kyogre and Basculegion, while DAHLI has opted for the pre-Home classic duo of Miraidon and Iron Bundle. The two team styles, while similar in concept, play quite differently in practice, with Basculegion working best in later-game situations, once Last Respects has incredible breaking power, while Iron Bundle works best as a cleaner, hitting very hard with its unresisted STAB coverage and being an incredible nuisance to switch in to at all points in a game.

A second-try Ice Beam Freeze puts DAHLI on the backfoot, as his Haze Toxapex is no longer able to prevent Giannis's Kyogre from accruing Calm Mind Boosts, but that was an almost inevitable part of the interaction, with Kyogre's Substitute not being broken quickly by Toxapex's Infestation and Kyogre finding multiple opportunities to fire off Ice Beams while it did so, and DAHLI is forced to burn through his Tera with Ting-Lu to resist Origin Pulse and Whirlwind it out to try to deal with it later. This early momentum drain keeps on building for DAHLI, as, while he does KO the Corviknight early to potentially get somewhere with his hazard stacking, his Iron Bundle is unable to consistently threaten Giannis's team between Arceus-Fairy and Miraidon, especially as the Iron Bundle is forced to run Choice Specs to help with its sometimes underwhelming power. The first time it comes in, Giannis merely sacks his 1% Corviknight to Stealth Rock, and he cannot get it in safely again in the rest of the game, thanks in part to a surprising choice from Giannis to go for Choice Scarf Basculegion alongside rain, getting him a surprise KO on Eternatus that ends up deciding the game and ultimately the series and Grand Slam playoffs spot, where Giannis would lean on his Ubers heavily, having gotten almost all of his points for the playoffs through the Ubers Open.

The UU Open was the largest open in Grand Slam IX, with 438 total signups, a fact that could be attributed to either it being one of the first Opens posted or fan favorite Gen 9 addition Tinkaton being a staple of the tier. With a tour of this size, there were naturally a number of strong players in the running to try and win this Open, including the normal slew of tournament players like SoulWind, robjr, and MichaelderBeste2, as well as several known players in the UU community, such as Liz Angeles, Parpar, umbry, Estarossa, and, of course, Lily. With many of these players falling before quarterfinals, bar Parpar and SoulWind, it would ultimately be former top UU ladder player pokemonisfun and RU tier leader Feliburn who would rise to the top of the pack to face off in the finals of the Open.

Feliburn vs pokemonisfun - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

In game one, Feliburn leads up against an interesting stall team featuring a more unique pick in Naclstack, which is able to shut down his Alolan Muk on Preview. Feliburn’s Iron Hands and Thundurus-T have the potential to do things in this game, but on Preview it looks a hard matchup due to the presence of a Scream Tail, Quagsire, and Hisuian Decidueye.

The first few turns showcase the issues Feli faces in this matchup, as Naclstack walls his Alolan Muk, if at the cost of an Eviolite it doesn’t need in the matchup, and Hisuian Decidueye takes advantage of his Decidueye’s attempt to Defog away the Stealth Rock Naclstack set.

On turns 8-9, Feli is able to weaken Decidueye nicely with a well-timed Gigaton Hammer into Encore, potentially allowing for his team to be break through it later, but he fails to follow through with this and take it out on turns 12-13. Feli’s Kleavor is able to greatly weaken Quagsire after this, potentially allowing Iron Hands to get through and make progress. Unfortunately, Feli’s Iron Hands set appears to be unable to break through Scream Tail, making this seem more unlikely. On turn 48, this fate is sealed as Iron Hands unfortunately takes a burn from Skeledirge, making breaking pif's stall team seem harder.

Feliburn’s last remaining hope is his Thundurus-T, which reveals a Nasty Plot + Tera Flying set to potentially break through the team after all. Unfortunately, the Scream Tail is Tera Electric and is able to shut this down with Encore, sealing Feli's fate.

Feliburn faces another bulky team in game two, but one with a more balanced spin on it this time. On Preview it is hard to tell who has an advantage here, as the ability to break the balance team will depend a lot on the sets of Tornadus-T and Iron Hands.

The game starts off with general hazard trades, with Feliburn able to pressure the opposing Hisuian Decidueye enough to force it to use Roost instead of Defog a couple of times, allowing Spikes to stay up as Tornadus-T comes in. Tornadus-T reveals it is running Taunt on turn 19, an option that presents it with a shot at breaking through Scream Tail and Skeledirge as the game progresses.

pif finally manages to use Defog on turn 24 after Hisuian Decidueye is pressured a lot by entry hazards in tandem with Dragon Tail from Cyclizar, but Spikes are quickly traded again. On turn 29, the opposing Iron Hands reveals a Tera Ground set, allowing it to potentially break through Skeledirge. Fortunately for Feliburn, he is able to get Skeledirge in through some double switches and burn Iron Hands, removing it as a threat.

A telegraphed Encore from Tinkaton allows Feliburn to get his Iron Hands in on turn 38, but Scream Tail denies it any traction at that time. On turn 47 Iron Hands comes in again on Skeledirge and reveals Tera Fire to shut it down, removing the opposing Iron Hands and severely weakening Skeledirge in the process. Tornadus-T manages to break through Scream Tail at this point, since the specially defensive Tinkaton has been weakened sufficiently, allowing Feliburn to clean up with Skeledirge to win the game.

In game 3, Feliburn faces the stall team from game 1 again. Feliburn brought a Meowscarada this time, which may have some ability to break through the opposition, but the matchup still looks slightly questionable on Preview depending on the Thundurus-T and Salamence sets in question.

Turn 1 reveals that Meowscarada may be running Choice Band, making its breaking potential seem better, especially as Hisuian Decidueye chooses not to Roost initially and is forced out by Salamence. Feliburn is able to use Future Sight and Tinkaton to ensure that Alolan Muk is forced to take a Knock Off on Turn 6, opening more avenues to break through it with Meowscarada later.

On turn 10 and 11, Feliburn unfortunately misses Stone Axe twice in a row, severely crippling his Kleavor, but he is able to get Stealth Rock up on turn 12. The crippled state of Hisuian Decidueye from turn 1 then allows Feliburn to take out Naclstack on turn 16 with his Meowscarada, removing the threat of Stealth Rock from the game.

Feliburn is able to severely weaken Scream Tail on turn 18 at the cost of his Salamence, making a Thundurus-T endgame seem much more potent. Turns 20 and 21 see smart plays with Meowscarada and Kleavor to severely cripple Alolan Muk leaves Meowscarada in play against Quagsire, allowing Feliburn to remove Alolan Muk to then be removed from play as pif is forced to sack it.

Tera Fairy Skeledirge from the opposing side then becomes a threat as it forces Tinkaton out, gets set up against Slowking, and removes Kleavor from play. Unfortunately for Feliburn, the Skeledirge is also out of range of Meowscarada, but Meowscarada is able to cripple it in exchange for its life. Thundurus-T then comes in to claim the KO.

Quagsire attempts to swap into it to block Volt Switch and hope it doesn’t have Grass Knot, but Tera Blast Flying is able to remove it anyway. Thanks to Scream Tail having been weakened earlier, Thundurus-T now wins Feli the series.

RU Open continued a trend seen throughout other opens, with players like Ninja, Beraldo, Feliburn, and Elfuseon all falling within the first two rounds. The upsets continued in round three, which saw all of SoulWind, TPP, Garay oak, Booty, pdt, and ninjadog exit the tour in a single fell swoop. By the time the RU Open reached the top twelve, eifo, TheFranklin, Floss, MrAldo, and DugZa had also fallen out of the tour. Ultimately, none of the tier's most well-known players would take a spot in finals, with the final three being made up of crying, Vulpix03, and Star.

Star vs Vulpix03 - Game One | Game Two

The start of the round robin finals of RU Open featured pix against Star. Pix brings a classic hyper offense with massive threats such as Oricorio-G, Iron Thorns, and Revavroom. Meanwhile, Star brings a fairly straightforward balance team with the standout threats being Hisuian Sneasel and Rotom. After an unfortunate freeze on Rotom allows pix to get three layers of Spikes, it's looking like an uphill battle. Star is forced to Tera his Copperajah to be able to safely Whirlwind against a Quiver Dance-boosted, potential Tera Oricorio-G. Despite this rocky start, Star pivots his Krookodile in spectacular fashion, stopping Revavroom and Paldean Tauros-F from getting out of control and quickly eliminating them. Iron Thorns suffers a similar fate, as pix slowly runs out of offensive threats. Excellent use of defensive tools such as Vaporeon and Altaria as well as Krookodile gives Star a great win.

Game two presents a fairly equal matchup of bulky offense teams. Oricorio-F is a massive threat on Star’s side, which will surely have to be played optimally to break through pix’s solid defensive core of Arcanine, Altaria, and Florges. As Oricorio-F starts boosting alongside Florges, pix fears the threat and switches to Bronzong, which then proceeds to Tera Water and Trick Oricorio-F a Toxic Orb. Oricorio-F is able to get rid of Florges before going down, but the damage seems to be done, as a mixture of Appletun, Krookoodile, and Passimian tears down pix’s team, securing Star a victory through a convincing 2-0 set.

Star vs crying - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

What would you do if you were at the cusp of victory? Bring your most solid team? Surprise your opponent with your most hidden gem? Triple Rock type was crying’s answer. The trio of Sudowoodo, Naclstack, and Lycanroc must’ve incited fear in Star’s heart, but his previous win against pix still gives him a strong advantage, even if crying has won the mental war….Unfortunately for crying, her main offensive threat that is not made out of rocks is Clawitzer, which has a significant amount of trouble breaking through Star’s balanced offense featuring Vaporeon. It’s a pretty good matchup for Star, who Terastallizes his Vaporeon into a Fairy-type and puts in pressure on crying’s Tera Dragon Naclstack. In the end, Mudsdale proves to be too difficult to break for Lycanroc, and Star gets a convincing win against crying in game one.

Game 2 features a fairly equal matchup. This time it is Star who has a Naclstack, but his main way of breaking crying’s team will be through solid positioning with Salazzle and good use of hazard pressure with Qwilfish. crying’s balance team features the very threatening Samurott, but it will need to break through Qwilfish and Tsareena to truly make an impact. The game starts off well for crying, who manages to force the opposing Bronzong into Tricking itself a Choice Scarf. After this, it is Copperajah who is able to reliably pressure and phaze out different threats from Star’s team such as Qwilfish and Tsareena. Altaria turns out to be too good at negating hazards, and Samurott slowly starts breaking through Star’s Water-types as well as fast threats such as Krookodile and Salazzle. In the end, it is one Naclstack that remains on Star’s side, but Rotom-C quickly disposes of it, reminding the viewer that Rock-types might never win in this series.

So, about Rock-types…. crying brings out the one and only Klawf game 3. Barraskewda is her main offensive threat, and the solid defensive core of Altaria, Klefki and Dragalge will have to withstand Star’s Magneton and Salazzle. It doesn’t help that once again Star brought Vaporeon, making it a bit harder for Barraskewda to click. One final question, what do you do when you find yourself between a rock and a hard place? crying decides to go all out! But Star strikes first, utilizing Magneton and Terastallizing it into a Water-type to quickly dispose of Krookodile and weaken Dragalge. crying starts setting hazards with her Klefki and hitting Vaporeon with strong Close Combats from Barraskewda. This proves to be inefficient even after Klawf Knocks Off the Eeveelution’s Leftovers. In the end, Star has cleared the rock in his path to victory and become the new winner of RU Open. Sisyphus’s myth says that the character is destined to push a rock up a hill for eternity over and over. Maybe he should’ve asked Star for help.

The NU Open saw fewer upsets in the initial rounds, though notable names such as Pokeslice, skierdude101, Star, GW, shiloh, and etern still all exited the tour before round four. With the competition becoming ever tighter, the tour's quarterfinals consisted of incredibly strong players like Danny, Xiri, and Malekith; however, after eight rounds of grueling battling, it would be GXE, mncmt, and SoulWind who would reach the finals of NU Open. All three of these are accomplished players who have shown their mastery of the NU tier. Between mncmt and Soulwind, if either won this tournament, they would become the first seed going into Grand Slam playoffs. However, for our third competitor, much more is at stake here, as GXE must win this set to qualify.

GXE vs mncmt - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

The first thing that blatantly stands out in game one is GXE’s team's seriously lacking Magneton counterplay. mncmt takes advantage of this with an aggressive switch to Magneton as GXE sets up Stealth Rock with his Sandaconda. This switch allows mncmt to Terrastallize his Magneton into a pure Steel-type and OHKO the Sandaconda, really setting the tone for this match. GXE tries to make some kind of a push with his Jolteon, but it's not enough, as Jolteon is not strong enough to truly muscle past mncmt’s defensive backbone. Magneton continues to claim KOs until it is neutralized in a trade with GXE’s Sucker Punch Grimmsnarl. A poorly timed Will-O-wisp miss on Hisuian Sneasel closes out the game in mncmt’s favor.

In game two, they both bring relatively standard balances again, with the only exception being an underrated pick from mncmt in Sableye. mncmt’s Magneton is once again threatening to GXE’s team; however, the counterplay and revenge killing possibilities are much more linear and don’t force a direct sack war, such as in game 1. GXE’s Oricorio-F stands out as a clear potential wincon as it generally runs Taunt to prevent foes from using status or Haze to stop its Quiver Dance boosts. On turn 7, mncmt’s Hisuian Sneasel sets up a Swords Dance on a forced switch for GXE. Comically, mncmt's Hisuian Sneasel dodges a key Will-O-Wisp for the second time, putting him significantly ahead at this point of the game. GXE manages to force it out and pressure mncmt’s team with hazards from Hisuian Qwilfish. As mentioned earlier, Oricorio-F is an immense threat to mncmt’s team, so after GXE successfully dispatches mncmt’s Sableye, it has free reign to set up. GXE does just that and wins the game quickly after that with Oricorio-F.

mncmt reuses his game 1 team as GXE brings a much more exploratory bulky offense in game 3. From Team Preview, Magneton appears to threaten GXE’s team (see a pattern?) In contrast, on the other side, Tauros could pose a significant problem for mncmt, as its Life Orb set often runs a special move that can hit Sandaconda, the tier's primary physical wall, for super effective damage. The most notable part about Team Preview is the lack of Sandaconda on GXE’s team, which is considered abnormal due to its almost mandatory presence on most teams. mncmt plays this a bit rushed with a turn 1 Tera attempting to dispatch the Tauros immediately. GXE scouts that out with his Hisuian Qwilfish. By turn 3, mncmt once again has a +2 Hisuian Sneasel versus a team that appears weak to it. Surprisingly, however, GXE brought an extremely bulky Mesprit, which easily stomached the Night Slash and dispatched the Sneasel. The Mesprit continues to perform wonders by eating a U-turn from Scyther and keeping the momentum easily in GXE’s favor. GXE then continues to surprise with a great Gunk Shot from Hoopa into mncmt’s Grimmsnarl. The mixed Hoopa ends up trading with Sandaconda, putting GXE decidedly ahead. mncmt attempts to make a last-ditch effort by sacrificing Magneton for a portion of Jolteon’s bulk, but it is too little too late. GXE takes the first set.

GXE vs SoulWind - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

In game one, GXE brings a team that we have seen before (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it), and SoulWind brings a Magneton VoltTurn balance team. Magneton seems scary again for GXE, whereas GXE’s Hoopa appears like it can be a massive threat versus the balance teams it tends to prey on. GXE shows he has changed his squad slightly after game of his match versus mncmt by clicking Tera Ground Tera Blast versus SoulWind’s Magneton. SoulWind rightly scouts for something fishy and goes to Dudunsparce, which is almost taken out in the process. An overly aggressive double to Jolteon by GXE allows the Dudunsparce to Roost off some of that damage, getting to about half health. However, this health advantage for GXE’s Jolteon allowed it to Calm Mind and beat down the Dudunsparce. At this point, the game becomes a sack war between the two Hoopas on both sides, and SoulWind's happens to be Choice Scarf, which ends up winning the game for him.

On game two's Team Preview, GXE reused the same game 1 team and has a decent matchup once again for his Choice Specs Hoopa. This matchup is much more in GXE’s favor than the generally even matchups we have seen thus far. Significantly, the core of Articuno and Drifblim walls most of the offensive Pokémon on SoulWind’s team. Articuno is excellent for Lurantis and potentially Hoopa, while Drifblim checks Hisuian Sneasel, Tauros, and Coil Sandaconda. In practice, it was not the defensive core that shined, but the offensive core of Hoopa and Jolteon. After SoulWind seemingly traded his Lurantis for most of Articuno’s health, GXE’s Hoopa wasted many of Chansey’s Soft-Boiled PP, allowing the Jolteon to freely use Volt Switch and pressure SoulWind’s team. Ultimately, Jolteon could position itself to Volt Switch and KO the remainder of SoulWind’s weakened team.

GXE brings another tried-and-true team game three with his Oricorio-F balance team. SoulWind takes a page from GXE’s book and reuses his team from Game 2 with a slight change: Whiscash over Sandaconda. For the first ten turns, GXE allows SoulWind to place hazards on the field while he gets crucial damage on SoulWind’s team with Serene Grace Dudunsparce. The next few turns are spent by SoulWind attempting to position one of his physical attackers to threaten the Dudunsparce. Once it is forced out, Sandaconda is traded with Tauros, giving GXE a free turn to set up with Oricorio-F. SoulWind makes a great move, biting the bullet and risking Taunt to Trick the Oricorio-F and cripple it indefinitely. From turn 20 onward, SoulWind makes an interesting series of plays. He goes Grimmsnarl instead of Chansey on the Oricorio-F and clicks Parting Shot to drop the its Special Attack. The different line makes sense, however, on Turn 21 as SoulWind’s Hisuian Sneasel Terastallizes into a Fire-type, getting a chance to Swords Dance, get a few Trailblaze Speed boosts, and knock out Oricorio-F in a great position. However, after revealing its entire moveset, it shows that it cannot hit Fairy-types, and thus, Dudunsparce can Tera Fairy and clean up the rest of the game and win the NU Open for GXE, allowing him to qualify for playoffs.

The smallest Open in Grand Slam XII, the PU Open saw many PU's best-known players fall in the first four rounds. Drud, gum, sensei axew, ishtar, Leni, Chloe, and Shaneghoul all failed to crack the top 24, with avarice, zoowi, and zS joining them before the top twelve. Vulpix03 and fish anemometer represented the PU council in quarterfinals, but it would eventually b3 crying, Floss, and robjr who took the tour's top three spots.

crying vs Floss - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

The round robin finals of PU Open started off with a powerful game one from Floss against crying. Floss’s hyper offensive team against crying’s unusual bulky team feels like a fairly irregular matchup, but Floss is quickly able to dismantle crying’s defensive core of Gabite, Tinkatuff and Dunsparce simply with Nasty Plot Alolan Persian. Even would-be-banned threat Tauros is unable to do much damage to it, and the game ends in a quick victory for Floss. 9/10 doctors woulda bolded Floss in this mu, but will crying be able to make a comeback after such a devastating loss?

Such a convincing win over the creative crying must’ve put Floss in a fairly positive mental attitude towards his future games, but as is often the case with crying, her pivoting and building skills find a way to always surprise the competition. Floss feels confident enough with his previous hyper offense team enough to bring it again. After all, he barely showed any sets, and the offensive nature of the team will always make it hard to play around, right? Meanwhile crying, in typical crying fashion, seems to have something up her sleeve. Unusual threats fill her team such as Falinks, Camerupt, and Scovillain. A turn one flinch stops Floss from setting up hazards with Lycanroc-N, but a double switch back to it on Tinkatuff gives him that chance. Floss seems to quickly take control of the game again, this time with Nasty Plot Misdreavus being the main star in breaking through defensive threats such as Camerupt. Play Rough Tinkatuff catches Floss off guard though, as it takes out his Alolan Persian, a reminder of the fact that crying won’t go down the same way as last time now. As Tinkatuff falls while Encoring Fraxure into Stomping Tantrum, crying finally reveals her ace. She clicks Substitute on the Indeedee-F switch-in. No Retreat is clicked, breaking the Substitute. Then, Falinks Terastallizes into a Steel-type, taking minimum damage from Psychic as another Substitute is set. With five seconds left on her timer, Falinks is in prime position to win. The path is set though, Floss’s hyper offense has fallen, a couple Close Combats seal the deal. We’ve got a game 3.

The stakes rise as game 3 takes place. Floss seems to have a good matchup with a balance team with a solid defensive backbone of Misdreavus and Articuno. His Crabominable should have a field day against crying too! With that being said, crying has some…. interesting threats such as Dragonair, Frogadier, and Wugtrio. The game begins with a quick removal of Misdreavus against Sash Alolan Dugtrio. Dragonair becomes the next victim of Floss’s Alolan Persian, but the damage it dealt is enough for Choice Band Wugtrio to revenge with Triple Dive. In comes Lilligant on Floss’s side. The now-banned threat quickly Terastallizes into the Poison-type, weakens Crabominable, and gets rid of Wugtrio. It’s looking like Lilligant will be the winner here, but Articuno manages to freeze and eliminate the Terastallized Quiver Dancer. Floss seems on the back foot now in terms of offensive pressure, as Wugtrio brings down Articuno and weakens Crabominable. Counter Frogadier seals the deal on Alolan Dugtrio, ending a series of unpredictability, tears, and back-and-forth momentum with crying as the victor.

crying vs robjr - Game One | Game Two

crying finds herself at the finish line in the PU Open finals round robin. She only needs to defeat robjr to obtain her winning spot as champion of the tournament. No more quirky threats from crying’s side; it's all rain against robjr’s team, which seems adequately prepared for rain with Pokémon such as Lilligant, Articuno, Tauros, and priority from Skuntank. Beartic strikes first on crying’s team, setting up Swords Dance and removing both Tauros and Skuntank, before Tera Grass Carbink saves robjr from a painful defeat at the hands of the bear. crying is far from done though, as Basculin weakens Carbink significantly with Wave Crash despite the latter’s Grass typing. Golduck in the back is enough to weaken Articuno and put Perrserker in a winning position against it and Lilligant.

Apparently, there was some sort of pact in finals that if you used HO once and won, you gotta bring it again game 2, since crying decides to load up rain once more. Here’s hoping that robjr’s second balance, featuring Mareanie and Articuno, manages to pull out all of the stops. A quick Tera Grass into Iron Defense on Carbink from robjr makes the rock quite threatening to take down for crying, who has to weaken it with Golduck before it goes down. Despite being able to revenge kill Carbink with Beartic, taking a Will-O-Wisp from Misdreavus should pretty much seal the deal as crying slowly runs out of offensive threats. Despite this, crying is able to optimize her use of Electrode and Tauros against robjr’s remaining Pokémon, not only winning the battle but crowning herself the winner of PU Open!

One of the largest Opens in Grand Slam XII, no doubt helped by the massive size of Grand Slam XI's LC Open, this tournament was not immune to the early felling of many of its prominent players, with round one exits from Lokifan, gali, Corckscrew, and xavgb. TheShoddyStrawman, tazz, and Laroxyl followed soon after, and Acehunter1, Hacker, Scottie, and Éric were all defeated by the time the tour reached the top eight. With nearly an entire SCL's worth of LC starters eliminated by quarterfinals, Eniigma and HSOWA marked the last two LC mains to go, exiting the tour in quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, leaving two players to have solidified themselves as the best in the entire tournamentafter eight rounds of battles, namely Sylveon used calm mind and Fc. Both of them were already qualified for Grand Slam playoffs and are established players, with Fc having been a top Ubers player for quite some time, as well as participating in multiple LCPLs, while Sylveon had a meteoric rise to fame with strong performances early in the year in various tournaments.

Fc vs Sylveon used calm mind - Game One | Game Two | Game Three

In the first game to decide the winner of the first LC Open in the ninth generation of Pokémon, Sylveon used calm mind and Fc were facing off against each other, and looking straight at team matchup, you might notice that there is not a lot of offensive counterplay to Sylveon’s offensive pieces in Pawniard and Grookey. Mareanie would theoretically be able to be a soft check to both, but the possibiliy of Gothita trapping it makes that really challenging for Fc to navigate this game. On the flip side, Fc’s own Pawniard is very dangerous for Sylveon, as their only consistent counterplay is Mareanie, which gets trapped by the previously mentioned Gothita, and Will-O-Wisp Drifloon, which cannot switch into Pawniard. Sylveon was able to grab the momentum in his favor early, by trapping Mareanie with Gothita and using his own Drifloon to burn Fc’s Pawniard, making the only threat left on Fc’s team Hisuian Voltorb. Fc seemed to have a little bit of a comeback with Pawniard, as, despite being burned, it managed to kill both Syvleon’s Drifloon and Glimmet. However, Fc was still set back in the game too much, and the combination of Grookey and Gothita in the endgame was impossible for Fc to escape.

What is some of the best counterplay you could have for a hyper offensive sun team? If you said excellent speed control and great priority you would be incredibly excited if you played this game two in Fc’s shoes. Alongside that, Fc has a large number of incredible attackers to pair with Sticky Web, such as Mudbray, which can OHKO the majority of Sylveon used calm mind's team, as well as Hisuian Zorua, which outsps the entire team with Sticky Web up. Sylveon showcased strong play to start off the game by getting damage on Surskit for Charmander to revenge kill it with Hattena preventing Sticky Web from going up. Fc was able to quickly maneuver the game back in his favor by using Mudbray to take out Sylveon’s Alolan Diglett, followed by Tera Blast Flying to take out Sylveon’s Capsakid. Sylveon was never able to recover from this, as Nymble was able to revenge kill everything, giving Fc a great first impression by ruining Sylveon’s sunny day.

In the final game to decide who would go down in history as the first winner of the LC Open in the ninth generation of Pokémon, at Preview, it looks to be an interesting matchup, as Fc loaded Sticky Web, while Sylveon brought hyper offense with strong attackers such as Numel and Axew. Alongside this, if Sylveon's Shellder is able to get off a Shell Smash, it could threaten an OHKO on all of Fc's team. The battle starts off with Fc seemingly getting early momentum, as he was able to get in his Pawniard against Shellder to prevent it from getting a Shell Smash and pressuring Sylveon's team. He went for the aggressive Low Sweep, attempting to remove Sylveon's Pawniard on the spot, but was met by Shellos instead. Sylveon was able to successfully set up Stealth Rock the following turn, while Fc attempts to get Sticky Web up immediately before any potential threats get out of hand. Unfortunately for Fc, Sylveon saw the Sticky Web coming and sent in Shellder directly, which allowed it to maintain its speed. Fc made a critical blunder the following turn as Shellder was able to freely set up Shell Smash while taking minimal damage from Hydro Pump. After this, Fc did his best to handle Shellder, but a quick Water-type Terastillization to knock out Crawbrawler quickly gave Sylveon an even greater advantage, as from there Shellder was able to OHKO all of Fc's team. It was a short game but a powerful reminder of how threatening Shellder can be from a single Shell Smash. Congratulations to Sylveon used calm mind for becoming the first winner of the LC Open in the ninth generation of Pokémon.