Smogon Masters II Recap
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Art by Blazenix.
Introduction
Smogon Masters is the newest tournament in the yearly trophy series, providing a static place for ORAS, SM, and SS in a non-team tour environment. Without it, ORAS would have no presence in a tournament like it, left out of everything other than SPL. With more generations on the way, SM and SS risk the same thing over time, allowing Smogon Masters to stand as a representation of the "fairy gens" in the circuit.
With last year's crown being another step on MichaelderBeste2's claim to many 2023 Smog Awards, and the quick ascension of his presence among Smogon's greatest, this year's tournament would have its own storyline to set. With over three quarters of last year's Top Cut participants signing up for another go, among over 700 others, this year's Smogon Masters was ripe for a strong second showing.
Swiss Early Rounds
Smogon Masters is split into two sections: a nine-week Swiss gauntlet and then a 64-player Top Cut. With three losses before elimination, the Swiss section is uniquely forgiving, enabling users to go much further than a tournament like Smogon Classic or the Official Smogon Tournament, where one loss in a Classic Cup or OST can have you sitting on the sidelines for the rest of the tournament.
However, with Swiss formats being much more particular about numbers, it was only until the afternoon before round one began that the signup count ticked high enough to jump from 512 to 768, with a load of byes introduced rather than necessitating potentially over a hundred substitutes. While a lot of players did begin to fill out those bye spots over the course of round one, it took three rounds for all of those byes to accrue their three losses for elimination. A handful of Top Cut participants encountered these byes, such as Suzuya, Ox The Fox, and Ewin in the first round, and uniquely Always!, who encountered theirs in round three—having gone 0-2 and then winning without fail for the remaining seven rounds to make Top Cut.
With many players arriving in the dreaded x-2 bracket each round, an early bloodbath began. Larry, who had made it as far as Top Cut round two last year despite going x-2 early, was unable to replicate the same storybook tale, falling at 1-2. Lily and yone fell at the same bracket, with noted Larry rival ima surviving one more round to make it to 2-3, alongside Xiri, OST finalist Antonazz, and entrocefalo, all unable to even up their record before bowing out. With 384 users (and byes) bowing out before the back half of the Swiss bracket, another 120 would join them eliminated at 3-3, with the tournament finally shedding half of its player list. 3-3 threshold would see the elimination of SPL sensation S1nn0hC0nfirm3d and Top Cut Play-ins participants Fc and the pharoah. At this point, those who remained all had reasonable chances to make it to Top Cut, though a handful had much better chances than others.
Swiss Late Rounds
On the opposite side of the bracket, by round six, twenty-four players were undefeated, ranging from tier experts like ChrisPBacon and Luigi to long-time legends like watashi and SoulWind. A change to this year's format ensured that once a player qualified for Top Cut at seven wins, they would skip whatever was left of the Swiss bracket. The field further narrowed to twelve, of which six would lock in the top slots immediately. Santu and Ewin, last year's Seeds six and nine, were joined by Trosko, Luigi, ninjadog, and Confide, a combination of previous year success, notable talent in the Masters tiers, and two underdog performances.
Elsewhere in bracket, away from the golden halls of the undefeated, former finalists were struggling. DonSalvatore, last year's second place, had fallen in round seven, barely positive in Swiss after facing a challenging bracket including z0mOG, lax, and Satanic Beast. MichaelderBeste2 himself would fall right before Top Cut, losing in the final round of Swiss to Storm Zone. With only Zokuru of the semifinalists remaining (xray having not signed up), the trophy was truly anyone's to grab.
At this stage in the bracket, it's almost easier to note down eliminated names who made further runs than expected, with most eliminations consisting of strong names from other formats, such as lower tier or OM names in hex and Clas or tier enthusiasts like Slowpoke Fan and dex. Powerful names elsewhere continued to be eliminated, however, with last year's 7th seed damien the genius bowing out at 4-3, Malekith falling at 5-3, and Luthier falling at 6-3, inches from the Top Cut that he had 44th seed in last year.
However, it would be unfair to discuss Smogon Masters II without discussing a series of bans happening elsewhere on the site that affected the tour. While a tour of this length always expects scattered bans here and there from misconduct or rule-breaking, either in tournaments or on the site as a whole, the wave of bans that the Kyurem suspect investigation brought majorly impacted the tournament, with functional byes suddenly sprinkled across the bracket. While none of those banned users had major impact on Top Cut or the final round of the tournament, a handful of Top Cut participants were paired up against a functional free round throughout the tournament.
Top Cut
After the conclusion of the Swiss stage, 69 players advanced to the single-elimination Top Cut. With a number of players that wasn't divisible by two, a Play-ins round was run alongside an extended round one. While two players, Xuwu and Rewer, surpassed their seedings to face down some of the top seeds, the three that didn't—DugZa, yovan33321, and Sacri' (seeds 64, 63, and 60)—each eliminated their respective top five seed to advance further in the bracket, despite seeding expectation. The next two of the top five seeds, Santu and Luigi, would each fall in the second round of Top Cut. By semifinals, there were no more remaining expected seeds, with even the highest seeded Drachenkeule in 22nd seed, having overcome 6th seed Ewin to reach that point.
With 64 players in Top Cut, the variance in name recognition was significant. Some, like Ren-chon or Sheik :, were seeking to make their first mark on high-level tournaments, while others like Akaru Kokuyo and LpZ were more well known for other formats. Of course, there were also titans of the game, such as shiloh and mind gaming, who have proven themselves across most formats, or folks who have become nearly synonymous with some of the tiers in Masters, such as fade or Sacri'.
With so many pathways to the finals, a number of players would leave their marks on the bracket, even if only one player could make the finals. Half of the players were eliminated within the first round, more if you count the Play-ins. After a few weeks, however, only two players were left for the finals.
Empo, one of the greats of Smogon, is defending an incredible 4-0 record in trophy tournament finals, having won three Smogon Tours and an OST alongside various circuits and team tournaments. ChrisPBacon is certainly more of a newer player, with six fewer years on the site and a single circuit victory in his corner, but plenty enough experience in the Smogon Masters tiers to have a good chance of disrupting Empo's undefeated streak.
ChrisPBacon's Swiss pathway as a 7-2 betrays the record slightly, having gone 5-0 against names like MeEsSm and Reze before losing to the seed one in Trosko, then making it through another round against DripLegend before another loss against Lusa sent him to round nine ahead of Top Cut. With a middling seed as a result, Chris eliminated a powerful bracket of ayk, yovan33321, sugarhigh, Star, and Drachenkeule to reach the finals.
Empo, on the other hand, faced a much more challenging Swiss stage, dropping to 2-2 by round five with losses against Sacri' and Dawn Dreams and spending the rest of the stage as a shark in the water, eliminating players like Kingsous, Baddy, and watashi in order to slip into Top Cut with a low 53rd seed. Magician, Shiloh, z0mOG, and DeeJ all attempted to end Empo's run, all falling instead. DugZa's seed underdog run ended in semifinals, taking the second game win against Empo across all of Top Cut but being unable to stop the run.
And so, finals began, with Empo seeking to extend his record and lock in a status as the greatest of all time with a fifth individual, an as-of-yet unaccomplished task in the history of Smogon. ChrisPBacon intends to stake out a claim as a newer presence on the stage, going from the SM Circuit winner of 2023 to the Smogon Masters winner of 2024, establishing himself as being able to play with and overcome anyone.
Finals Match Coverage
Game One – SS OU
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Team Preview
Empo vs ChrisPBacon starts off with an interesting battle of Terrains. Empo takes the field with an incredibly threatening team; besides the tried-and-tested offensive core of Urshifu-R and Tapu Lele, he has setup threats like Swords Dance Blaziken and Garchomp ready to sweep weakened teams at the drop of a hat. This is backed up by Zapdos and Melmetal that have the natural bulk and typing to provide some semblance of defensive sanity, but also pack a powerful offensive punch to constantly exert offensive pressure on the opposing team. Chris takes a more balanced approach with the famed Regenerator core of Slowbro and Tornadus-T, with specially defensive Garchomp and Protect Melmetal flanking them to form a sturdy defensive backbone. But his team is far from passive, with Swords Dance Rillaboom and Choice Specs Blacephalon providing a strong offensive punch to break through opposing teams, and Melmetal has good synergy with Slowbro's Future Sight + Teleport support with its powerful Double Iron Bash and colorful coverage options like Superpower and Thunder Punch. Empo's team looks to smash through foes while Chris's aims to use flexible defensive Pokémon to support his offensive threats, so we will see which player manages to impose their will in this series opener!
Battle
With numerous offensive powerhouses ready to rumble, the battle starts off...with a pink salamander staring down a collection of nuts. A classic SS OU handshake ensues, with Melmetal risking a potential Scald burn to hit its foe with Toxic, while Slowbro leaves the field with Teleport to bring in the extraterrestrial Blacephalon, as its Fire-type STAB attack now threatens Melmetal with a premature reincarnation back into little Meltan. A cautious Protect from Melmetal reveals that Blacephalon has chosen to use Overheat, a move that melts nearly Empo's entire team due to the lackluster special bulk of Urshifu-R and Blaziken. Garchomp was the only Pokémon that can stomach such an attack without fainting to the second one, and it was naturally Empo's switch-in to such a threat. This allowed Empo to set up Stealth Rock with Garchomp as Chris switched to Slowbro to handle the looming threat. Garchomp then unleashed a Scale Shot that bounced off Slowbro for 17% before the Kantonian Hermit revealed Ice Beam to draw first blood in the match. One threat down, but five more to go before Chris can take the match.
Empo sends in Tapu Lele to force out Slowbro with the threat of Moonblast or even Thunderbolt, and he predicted the switch to Melmetal by using Future Sight, threatening an incredibly dangerous chain attack, since Urshifu-R can always switch into Melmetal even if it is running Thunder Punch. With a storm incoming, Chris masterfully navigates through this by switching to Tornadus-T, which outspeeds Urshifu-R without a Choice Scarf and can KO it with Hurricane, which is what happened, as it unleashed an actual storm on the aquatic bear to stave off the one threatening to sweep him away, but Future Sight hits at the end of the turn to deal a staggering 88%. With two Pokémon down, Empo needs to claw his way back into the match, and he uses the threat of Tapu Lele to force out Tornadus-T and double switch to Blaziken as Chris predictably sends in Melmetal. Not to be outdone in the game of hard reads, Chris calls out Blaziken trying to set up on Melmetal by staying in to Superpower the fiery chicken for 77%. After sacrificing Tornadus-T as Blaziken reveals Knock Off, Chris sends in... Slowbro, which is notoriously weak to Dark-type moves. But the pink salamander survives the onslaught with the help of its Colbur Berry to claim its second KO of the match, maintaining Chris's lead in material.
With his most dangerous offensive threats gone and being down 3-5 in material, it would be understandable to assume that this match has more or less slipped away from Empo's grasp. But great players are never truly down until the game ends, and the greatest players like Empo can even call down assistance from Arceus to smite their opponents when their stellar play might not have enough juice to bring the game home. Empo brings in Zapdos to unleash a powerful Hurricane, showing the world what a force of nature truly looks like as it takes almost a third of specially defensive Garchomp's health while sending it into a state of confusion. Another fearless barrage hits and brings Garchomp down to 38%, which is compounded by it hurting itself in confusion. A third hit brings the dragon down to its knees, but Garchomp finally comes to its senses and lands a Toxic to salvage some value out of this interaction. With Zapdos poisoned, Chris sends in Melmetal to take yet another Hurricane as Empo clicks the move, like hitting four consecutive times happens 100% of the time rather than 24%, and heals off a fair amount of the damage with Leftovers recovery. It then uses Protect as Empo switches to his own Melmetal to force Chris's out with Earthquake. After some pivoting with Rillaboom and Slowbro, Chris sends out Melmetal once again to deter Empo's own steel giant from swinging its nuts with reckless abandon. However, said nuts were not to be denied this game, as Empo's Melmetal makes Chris's flinch with yet another Double Iron Bash as Grassy Terrain runs out, necessitating another switch from Chris to preserve his only true Tapu Lele counter.
With the game going from what looked like a comfortable win to a tricky affair, Chris needed precise play more than ever to navigate through these uncertain waters that Empo's call to Arceus has dragged him into, and he sacrifices a bloodied Garchomp to safely bring in Blacephalon. The Ultra Beast does not clown around once it hits the field, unleashing a powerful Overheat that turns Zapdos into a bucket meal from a fast food chain. Empo attempts to revenge kill the rampaging trickster with Tapu Lele, and Chris is faced with a difficult decision: staying in is madness, since Blacephalon was the only Pokémon that reliably destroys Melmetal while threatening a KO on Tapu Lele with Shadow Ball or Overheat, but the remaining three Pokémon can all contribute late-game, and besides Chris's Melmetal being a true counter to Tapu Lele, as long as it doesn't eat a Focus Blast when switching in, Slowbro can tank Psychic-type moves and Focus Blast from Tapu Lele well while also checking Empo's Melmetal, and Rillaboom can annoy Tapu Lele with Grassy Terrain-boosted Grassy Glide and Knock Off while threatening Melmetal after a Swords Dance boost. Attempting to cover both the hard Focus Blast read and the straightforward Psychic-type move, Chris goes to Slowbro, but Empo makes an incredible read by clicking Moonblast to send the pink salamander back to Azalea Town. Chris then nabs back some progress with a smart Superpower on the incoming Melmetal to chunk it down to 46%, but Empo simply swings those steel nuts once again on Chris's Rillaboom to make it a 2-2 endgame. Game on.
A side effect of Rillaboom switching in the last turn was that Melmetal will now reliably recover itself out of Shadow Ball range from Blacephalon after a Protect, so Blacephalon can only OHKO it with Flamethrower or Overheat. But therein lies the problem: Tapu Lele's fantastic special bulk means that it lives Flamethrower and then threatens a revenge kill on Blacephalon, which muddies the endgame. On the other hand, Overheat just wins the game for Chris as long as it hits—Tapu Lele cannot switch into the move, while Melmetal is obviously vaporized by it. With the promise of winning 90% of the time, Chris opted for Overheat as Empo scouts with Protect. The message is loud and clear. Chris will decide the game right then and there on his own terms—he will play the overwhelming odds and dare Empo to appeal to the deities of Pokémon once again. And Empo was likely in his local church while playing this game, as the great flames from Blacephalon went to the right of the massive steel nuts in front of it, and those nuts made the earth tremble as it KOed the rest of Chris's team with Earthquake after a smart pivot to Tapu Lele to absorb Superpower from Chris's own Melmetal. With courageous plays and an even braver effort from the powers above, Empo comes away with what will be known as one of the great escapes in Smogon history for the years to come. "Unfortunate" does not begin to describe this series opener for Chris, but he will not be throwing in the towel just yet, as he is arguably even better on the Alolan shores as the 2023 SM OU Circuit Champion. Will Chris be able to make bacon out of the moldy guanciale thrown at him after such a heartbreaking loss?
Game Two – SM OU
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Team Preview
Empo is running a classic sand balance featuring the archetype's standard offensive and defensive cores of Mega Tyranitar + Excadrill and Celesteela + Toxapex. This team seemed to be a targeted and strong pick against a highly probable balance or fat team as expected from ChrisPBacon, as Mega Tyranitar matches well into common faces like Mega Latias, Cresselia, and the Chansey + Slowbro core, especially with the proper coverage moves to handle their common teammates like Gliscor, Ferrothorn, and Magearna. Moreover, if Clefable is the team's Stealth Rock setter, then it gives Mega Tyranitar more freedom to run an extra coverage to truly put the force against these walls. Clefable's ability to set up Stealth Rock effectively against these builds is mostly attributed to its longevity and resilience in the face of chip damage, something that Mega Tyranitar lacks. While Greninja can either be the million Protean set variations or even Battle Bond with Choice Specs as the team's other wincon to accompany Excadrill, either set can provide Spikes, as thanks to Excadrill and its Rapid Spin as the team's entry hazard removal, the team is also adept at reliably stacking its own hazards while simultaneously having a solution against opposing ones without having to remove its own.
However, this expectation would come to a halt, as ChrisPBacon went towards the opposite direction by using an offensive VoltTurn team—an archetype he doesn't seem to be fond of running in general based on their current Smogon Masters run—being supported by the classic pivoting core of Landorus-T + Rotom-W + Magearna for role compression and defensive utility as well. While Kartana and Weavile pair well with either Mega Charizard, it's safe to discern Charizard is holding a Charizardite X; as the team's sole Stealth Rock setter is Landorus-T, this means Kartana will more likely be the team's speed control with Choice Scarf instead, whereas Mega Charizard Y teams generally prefer running a utility set on Kartana. While Empo's Excadrill is still faster than it and everyone else, the combination of Rotom-W + Landorus-T should keep it at bay alongside Magearna and the former to help against Greninja. However, due to their lack of longevity for longer games, it's on ChrisPBacon to manage their health carefully while being able to take advantage of its offensive core to overwhelm Empo's team first.
Battle
The game starts off with a Landorus-T lead from ChrisPBacon's side, which is a pretty safe line of play, as it sets Stealth Rock early while taking advantage of a potential Tyranitar lead attempting to Mega Evolve and set its own Stealth Rock. Empo catches it by leading Clefable, presumably a physically defensive variant for the otherwise troublesome team's matchup against Mega Medicham, as it eventually revealed to be the Stealth Rock setter on turn four after trying to scout for Landorus-T's set in the first turn. This Stealth Rock is highly valuable here, as it significantly punishes the offensive core of unrevealed Charizard and Weavile while chipping the Spikes-immune Rotom-W and Landorus-T better for Excadrill. Realizing this, it also puts ChrisPBacon in an uncomfortable position; since he needs to keep Rotom-W very healthy for Excadrill, trying to switch in and use Defog willy-nilly is very punishable.
After Empo's Celesteela gains the safe entry on turn six, Stealth Rock from ChrisPBacon's Landorus-T is being traded with a huge chunk of HP, which is a worthwhile trade to open up for Excadrill's sweep. Empo's team is also not as vulnerable to Stealth Rock, and even if he wants to remove it, Excadrill itself can easily remove it by forcing a switch on Magearna, Weavile, and the presumed Mega Charizard X, especially since, depending on the set and its coverage moves, it can also switch into the former safely. The Heavy Slam damage also reveals that Landorus-T is running minimum-to-no bulk, and since it also hard switched out of Clefable on turn one instead of using U-turn, it's safe to assume it's running the offensive Stealth Rock set with Swords Dance + Z-Move, especially because of the low opportunity cost in tha none of its teammates are reliant on Z-Moves to function.
Catching the Rotom-W switch with Leech Seed and eventually hard switching to Excadrill on Volt Switch on turn nine is just part of Empo's process to slowly chip down Rotom-W. This is also the time where Clefable's survivability is put to full force in the next couple of turns, as nothing on the opposing team can immediately threaten it, further highlighting Clefable's prowess in the entry hazard interaction with Defog Rotom-W. On top of the dangerous Stealth Rock hovering on ChrisPBacon's side, the unrevealed last move on Clefable also puts fear on a Roost Charizard switch due to the looming fear of a potential Thunder Wave. The Volt Switch by Magearna on turn 13 might also signify the lack of either Flash Cannon or Iron Head, letting this annoying Clefable go scot-free even more.
The Charizard switch by ChrisPBacon on turn 15 is a great midground option, as it's a rather safe play into Clefable at this point in time since the turn 14 Moonblast by Clefable against Kartana, which is also a similar interaction seen on turn 11; this gives ChrisPBacon enough confidence to deduct it's not using Thunder Wave, which would have been used in those scenarios. This double switch would also cover the potential Celesteela switch-in looking to handle the Choice-locked Kartana, which is what happened. ChrisPBacon made another great play, as after revealing the Mega Charizard X as expected, the Earthquake catches the incoming Toxapex to threaten it with a 2HKO. While ChrisPBacon might have taken advantage a predicted switch on turn 17 with Roost, Toxapex putting Mega Charizard X on a timer with Toxic might have sealed the game.
Toxapex eventually kept itself healthy and, alongside the team's other defensive pieces, proved itself to be tough for ChrisPBacon's team to break through. After he sacks Landorus-T to the Corkscrew Crash on turn 23, the healthy-enough Rotom-W gets a free switch to pull off Defog, which greatly relieves it of the entry hazard pressure. However, after Magearna performed its supportive cleric duty on the previous turn, the double-poison reveal with Toxic Spikes on turn 25 allows Toxapex to chip Mega Charizard X every time it comes in, which basically can't be solved by just Heal Bell alone. While Rotom-W can remove Toxic Spikes with Defog and Heal Bell Magearna can cleanse it from Toxapex's Toxic, this cycle being repeated would just put ChrisPBacon on the backfoot further and further. This becomes even worse, as Mega Tyranitar comes in and picks up the KO on Magearna to stop this sequencing from ever happening in the first place. Thus, with Rotom-W being significantly chipped, the Kartana's low health leaving it unable to take on a neutral physical attack, Weavile's Ice Shard not being a sufficient revenge killing tool in this scenario, and Mega Tyranitar's sand active, Empo's healthy Excadrill in the back has essentially won him the game right this moment.
Conclusion
Congratulations to Empo for winning Smogon Masters II! The newest tour on the block, Smogon Masters has quickly proven itself a tour of kings, introducing a wider audience to the Swiss tour format and showing off literally hundreds of high-stakes matchups across the ORAS, SM, and SS formats, three generations that many can even remember as being the modern gen OU. As time moves forward and these generations grow further behind us, Smogon Masters will be a tournament to crown kings and to hold a place in the history of Pokémon generations.
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