OMPL V Recap

Week 1

To kick off the tournament, the King Kois took on their first opponents, the Accelerating Aegiblades. The matchup went south for the Kois rather quickly when Bushtush and Quantum Tesseract led their team to a solid 2-0 start. Despite both Bushtush and Sabella bringing the same type, Fairy, and even the exact same six Pokémon, Bushtush managed to set up a Shift Gear with Magearna, as it was able to KO Sabella's Klefki before it could shut down Magearna with Thunder Wave, and swept quickly. Concerning the Mix and Mega game, it was even for the most part. However, it quickly became evident once Chazm's Sablenite Mandibuzz fainted that he had no answer to the opposing Marshadow. This meant that he couldn't send out his own, fearing a countersweep by Quantum Tesseract's Choice Scarf Ditto. Chazm still had to send out Marshadow to revenge kill a couple of Pokémon in the late game, which ultimately led to his demise. However, not all hope was lost for the Kois. Up and coming AAA player iLlama and established Sketchmons player and OMGS winner Megazard both dropped their games. The former player couldn't stop his opponent rozes's Terrakion from breaking apart his defensive Pokémon, which ultimately led to his remaining offensive Pokémon to buckle without a defensive core to support them, whereas the latter player was unable to prevent ihhca's deadly rain sweepers, primarily his Swords Dance Mega Swampert, from sweeping in the late-game and lost. One win from either side would be enough to at least secure a tie this week, though it looked grim for the Kois, as they faced tough opponents in their remaining matches. PurpleGatorade and Chloe. both brought a balance team to their game, and after a long battle, Chloe. emerged victorious thanks to her Arceus-Electric cleaning up in the late-game. Lastly, TheBurgerKing99 denied the Kois even a single point by beating GL Volkner and ending the week 4-2.

The Mimikyus' chance to silence critics and prove that they're a serious team finally came when they played The Immortal's Bedroom Blisseys, another team many thought would not make it far this OMPL. The week kicked off when Zephyr Dragon Lord drew first blood, soundly beating rookie Mark_K while using some unusual Pokémon like Red Orb Hydreigon and Gyaradosite Nidoqueen, sets very rarely seen in a tournament setting. Speaking of unorthodox sets, Catalystic swept Fardin with the help of his Groundium Z Zygarde with Coil, Dragon Dance, and Substitute, relying only on Thousand Arrows to deal damage. Fardin was unable to prevent Zygarde from setting up and as a result lost quite quickly. Moving on, although many doubted the Blisseys' Sketchmons player's ability to win, this week wouldn't be the one to truly test The Ruins of Alpha, as his opponent himself wasn't rated highly either, so The Ruins of Alpha won in a slow game. The next game featured Laxpras and Lax. Based off of Team Preview, Laxpras had an advantage, as he brought many stallbreakers capable of dismantling Lax's team. A couple of them, a special Nasty Plot Lucario and a Terrakion, worked together to break Lax's defensive core down, collecting five KOs between them, enabling Laxpras to win. Continuing the Blisseys' hot streak, their BH player E4 Flint 6-0ed his opponent HeadsILoseTailsYouWin. After E4 Flint Pursuit trapped her Mega Gengar, HeadsILoseTailsYouWin struggled to break through Flint's defensive core and slowly haemorrhaged momentum, advantages, and inevitably, Pokémon. The score currently 3-2 in the Blisseys' favor, the remaining Monotype game would determine the quantity of points they finish this week with. As 1 True Lycan and Clearly were unable to play, both were substituted out in favor for Leru and motherlove, respectively. Although motherlove prevented Leru's Mega Slowbro from sweeping his team the first time, he was unable to repeat this feat when Leru restored his Slowbro's HP using Healing Wish and soon lost.

Lastly, two teams favored to make it to the finals, Ransei's Five-Star Jolteons and Bondie's Untitled Unfezants squared off. A win here for either team could prove pivotal later down the line, especially when deciding finals placements. The very first game saw two prominent Anything Goes players facing off. Both Thimo and HunterStorm brought hyper offensive teams, but Thimo ended up sweeping with his Choice Band Mega Rayquaza. It could be argued that the early-game paralysis could have played a part in his victory, however. To follow up, jasprose increased his team's lead by defeating morogrim. The game ended quite early, though; morogrim forfeited immediately after jasprose lured and effectively KOed his Giratina with a Fleur Cannon. Meanwhile, despite Akashi generally performing well and ultimately winning the Mix and Mega Open, he was predicted to lose against InfernapeTropius11, which he did. When IT11 knocked out Akashi's Arceus-Ground, nothing stood in the way of a Swords Dance Primal Groudon sweep. That, along with Racool's victory over Almost Any Ability Open winner Jrdn with the aid of a timely Ice Beam freeze, evened the score between the two teams. Since the score was 2-2, both teams needed just one more win to gain at least one point this week, which is commendable considering both teams are well-regarded. Wanka, using his solid Psychic-type advantage over terrors' mono Poison team, won this week but was matched quickly by wishes's loss to Official Fissure, meaning the week ended in a 3-3 tie, gifting both teams one point.

Highlight Match

Lax vs Laxpras

0 - 4

(Replay)

Two of the top AAA players faced off in their first matches of the season, and expectations ran high on both teams. While Laxpras was widely considered the better player, Lax was no slouch, and with the fate of the series at stake both players were determined to pull out the win.

Right from the start, both teams looked threatening; between Buzzwole, Skarmory, Tapu Fini, and Suicune, Lax's physical core was had multiple redundancies to make up for lures, and between Chansey and the team's great mixed bulk, special attackers wouldn't have a much better time breaking the semistall. Between three potential Defoggers and a lack of reliable opposing setters, hazards wouldn't readily wear down the team either. Laxpras, by contrast, brought a powerful bulky offense team featuring notable offensive threats in Heatran and Terrakion, a solid defensive backbone in Buzzwole, Zapdos, and Zygarde, and a wildcard in Lucario.

The game begins with early momentum to Laxpras, as he gets his Zygarde freely poisoned and confirms that Zapdos can't injure Zygarde. Unsurprisingly, however, Lax predicts the obvious Protect and goes into Suicune, getting it safely poisoned as well and regaining some momentum. From there, Lax clicks Roar, allowing him to scout what Laxpras switches in without having his own Pokémon forced out. This turns out to be a Desolate Land Heatran, which will be a major thorn in Lax's side for the rest of the game, as this stallbreaker hard counters Suicune and is extremely effective at demolishing most defensive teams. From there, Laxpras continues to gain momentum with a few solid predictions, netting him Stealth Rock and allowing him to force out the opposing Flash Fire Skarmory. He then trades most of Heatran's health for keeping Stealth Rocks up and removing the troublesome roadblock called Tapu Fini, putting him up 6-5.

From there, Laxpras executes a further series of incredibly solid plays, first succesfully luring in Buzzwole with Toxic Terrakion and then getting said Terrakion in freely on Zapdos to fire off a powerful Stone Edge. Unfortunately for him, however, it misses, but that's soon rendered irrelevant as Lucario reveals itself to be a special attacker just in time to cripple Buzzwole, which leaves the weakened Skarmory as Lax's sole Terrakion switch-in, a fact that Laxpras ruthlessly exploits despite another disappointing miss.

Under pressure, Lax makes a series of excelling plays, netting him a KO on Heatran and a solid hazard stack, but not before Heatran manages to set Stealth Rock one more time. This forces Lax to sack something to Terrakion, as Skarmory can't take two Close Combats after Stealth Rock damage, and his choice of Zapdos spells the end of the game; due to a lack of a Lucario switch-in he has to sack Skarmory, which in turn prevents him from keeping anything to switch into Terrakion. Laxpras is then able to sack terrakion to prevent Suicune from setting up, and then takes home the win 4-0 win with his Lucario. Despite the score, this match was a fairly close one, with the outcome of the game coming mostly down to a few crucial predictions from both sides.

Week 2

Two teams coming off of Week 1 victories in the Aegiblades and the Blisseys squared off this week. Amongst the lineup included many veteran and upcoming players, including the unbeaten Laxpras up against the unproven iLlama. However, the week started poorly for the Accelerating Aegiblades, as Fardin, coming off a loss, defeated Chloe. Shortly after that, the Blisseys' Mark_K and Laxpras were able to secure wins against both of their respective opponents, further setting the team back. To add insult to injury, Megazard once again suffered a shock defeat against the inexperienced The Ruins of Alpha, eliminating the Aegiblades' chances at a victory this week. Despite the Bedroom Blisseys' two back-to-back losses in both Balanced Hackmons and Monotype, they've done enough to secure a solid 4-2 victory over a well-regarded team.

Week 2 shaped up to be another tough week for 0-1 team the King Kois, as they faced another well-regarded team; the Five-Star Jolteons. Things went sour rather quickly for EV's team, when during the Almost Any Ability game, rozes's wincon, a Calm Mind Poison Heal Tapu Fini, suffered a game-changing critical hit, costing him and his team the victory. Additionally, the Monotype matchup was flipped on its head once Sabella was substituted out in favor for HNBL, arguably an easier opponent for the rookie DBW. This proved to be ineffective for the Kois, as yet another match went the way of Jolteons. Following that, victories for morogrim and InfernapeTropius11 were the one-two punch needed to knock out the Kois and give the win over to the Jolteons with two matches to spare. Renowned ladder player Salvation and eager substitute darksylvion's victories for their respective teams proved inconsequential as the Jolteons took home a 5-1 win.

Once more, the Optimistic Mimikyus' second opponent were another feared team, the Untitled Unfezants, eager to prove themselves after last week's rather anticlimactic draw versus the Jolteons. It seemed last week's loss has had no effect on Jrdn, defeating fellow AAA council member motherlove. Add jasprose's quick win against aki0s, and the Unfezants were off to a very swift and solid 2-0 lead. The Mimikyus did not falter, however. Established Monotype player Lax, hot off the bench, salvaged a win against MPL victor Wanka, sweeping with Z-Conversion Porygon-Z in the late-game. Then, the Mimikyus tied the set 2-2 when Funbot28 emerged victorious. A 4-2 win or a 3-3 tie was now entirely possible for the Mimikyus. However, the Anything Goes matchup sparked some controvesy. Thimo's initial 6-0 victory against Catalystic was canceled, due to the players choosing to play in the Generation 6 metagame as opposed to Generation 7. The rematch ended up being a lot closer, yet still going in the Unfezants' way. Lastly, all hopes for even a tie was dashed when wishes defeated sin(pi) to close out the week.

Highlight Match

E4 Flint vs TheBurgerKing99 (Halliday)

0 - 6

(Replay)

At Team Preview, the game looked to be solidly in E4 Flint's hands. He had answers for every offensive threat on Halliday's team—Yveltal for Gengar, Registeel and Xerneas for Tyranitar, and Giratina for Primal Groudon. Flint's sole offensive presence was Mega Rayquaza, but since it's one of the most unpredictable mons in the metagame, it was unclear what, if anything, would answer it on Halliday's team. Xerneas also looked to be a threat, as none of Halliday's answers had recovery and could be worn down throughout the match.

The beginning of the match very much validates this view, as Flint scouts Halliday's Chansey set, gains free momentum from bringing in his Magic Bounce Yveltal on a Parting Shot, and then uses that to get his Xerneas in and activate its Toxic Orb immediately. Immediately afterwards, he reveals Lovely Kiss, which Halliday doesn't really have a solid answer for on his team, and then gets off a Quiver Dance on the switch into Unaware Mega Audino. From there, however, Halliday manages to bluff Magic Bounce, which lets his Pokémon take piddling damage from Lava Plume before phazing Xerneas. Halliday then makes solid use of his Stakeout Mega Gengar, removing half of Chansey's health and then landing a solid hit on Yveltal. He then reveals that his Primal Groudon is Light of Ruin, invalidating E4 Flint's Giratina as a check, and then predicts the switch to Registeel and OHKOes it with Precipice Blades. With both potential Mega Gengar checks removed by Primal Groudon, Halliday was free to pick off foes with Stakeout Moongeist Beam, as even on a neutral hit Mega Rayquaza couldn't switch in and Giratina couldn't survive staying in. While the game was looking bad for Flint, he still had one card up his sleeve—Xerneas. Xerneas could, in theory, sweep Halliday's entire team; all he needed was to wear Mega Audino down, and the entire game would turn around. However, it was not to be—a series of first-turn wakeups, followed by a miss from Lovely Kiss, gave Halliday the opportunity to double into his Mega Gengar, securing the KO on both Xerneas and Mega Rayquaza. Despite the 6-0 score, the match was one of the closest all tournament, with the game itself coming down into the hands of RNG and a few crucial plays on the part of Halliday.

Week 3

Although the Accelerating Aegiblades may not have began the tournament in quite the way they've expected, Week 3 gifted them the opportunity to truly prove themselves against another top team, the currently 1-0-1 Jolteons. Both sides were more than capable of taking this matchup by storm. Jolteons' Monotype player terrors drew first blood, utilizing the same Poison-type team used in his Week 1 game, though this was quickly met with a loss in Sketchmons at the hands of MiyoKa. Next up was Chloe. vs. HunterStorm, a hotly anticipated series between two proven AG players. Both players opted for a mixture of balance and stall playstyles in all three games, but eventually HunterStorm took the set 2-1. Once again though, another Aegiblades win swiftly followed, as Megazard, playing AAA this week, put himself on the board and swept Racool with a Turboblaze Volcarona, tying up the series 2-2. Clean and decisive victories in both Balanced Hackmons and Mix and Mega meant the Five-Star Jolteons closed out the week with another win.

The Unfezants vs. Blisseys fixture is another matchup crucial in determining the top 2 placements. Highlight games include Wanka vs. 1 True Lycan (who has yet to play a game despite his tremendous skill), E4 Flint vs. the undefeated jasprose, and aesf vs. Laxpras, two veteran AAA players. The week, however, started off in quite an unexpected way. The Ruins of Alpha, the undefeated rookie Sketchmons player, takes a game from yet another formidable player. This upset could have dire consequences for the Unfezants in the future, as their remaining matches are all against tough opponents. This didn't falter Akashi, though. Despite his 0-2 record he stood up this week and took out Mark_K convincingly. His teammate aesf couldn't replicate this, however, dropping his game against Laxpras, setting the Unfezants back. Fardin, only needing one additional win to secure at least a tie for his team, couldn't manage to defeat the Unfezants' Thimo, who utilized a rarely seen Pokémon in Noivern in his victory. With the score currently 2-2, the two upcoming games are very important for both teams. However, it was the Blisseys who were able to win both the Monotype and Balanced Hackmons games, leaving the score 4-2 and granting them the win.

Although neither the Optimistic Mimikyus nor the King Kois had an exceptional record in this year's OMPL, with both currently at 0-2, they could still make finals provided a lot of games went their way. This matchup began with GmU pokeboss9 vs. GL Volkner, both known, though not for their tournament performances. With the aid of a timely paralysis, GmU's Shell Smash Primal Groudon tore apart GL Volkner's team, KOing four Pokémon, giving him the win. This, added to Catalystic's win, gave the Mimikyus the 2-0 lead they so desperately needed. It wasn't all smooth sailing, though. A 6-0 sweep at the hands of Chazm's Xurkitree and a Flying-type vs Flying-type mirror match loss vs the Kois' Sabella meant they suddently were 2-2 and looking at a potential loss, considering their remaining matches. Not about to be outdone, the Mimikyu's Lax pulled off his own Xurkitree sweep, clean sweeping rozes in AAA. This meant that the King Kois had to win their final Sketchmons game to even finish the week with a point. After a hard-fought game, ihhca was unable to pull off a late-game Mimikyu sweep thanks in part to a Scald burn, allowing Dr. Phd. BJ to take down his team's mascot and finish the week 4-2.

Highlight Match

The Ruins of Alpha (drampasgrandpa) vs Jrdn

3 - 0

(Replay)

From Team Preview, it was obvious that both players had unconventional teams. Drampa had a strange sand + Grass spam core, which had a surprisingly good defensive backbone; Tyranitar could take on Flying-, Fire-, Poison-, and Ice-types for Tapu Bulu, while Tapu Bulu could take Fighting-, Water-, and Ground-type attacks while also providing passive recovery. While both were weak to Steel, Drampa had that covered with Kartana, Excadrill, and Overheat Serperior—a potent lineup for someone previously considered a wasted draft. Jrdn, on the other hand, had a Psychic spam core featuring Tapu Lele and Alakazam, backed up by a Stealth Rock setter, a setup answer, and the ever-unpredictable Landorus-T. These Pokémon also supported his offensive core with their typing, as they could handle many of the fat offensive Pokémon that gave Psychic spam trouble: Landorus-T answered Tapu Koko, among others, while Seismitoad could wall Greninja and Skarmory answered Kartana. It was a bit more of an eclectic pick, but with him being one of the best Sketchmons players out there, it was assumed that whatever Jrdn had would serve a purpose.

In the first turns of the game, Drampa gained a quick advantage when he led with a surprise U-turn Azumarill, but he soon squandered that by setting up a Substitute with his Serperior, as that left it easy prey for Volcarona's Substitute-bypassing Bug Buzz and forced it out before it dealt any damage. From there, the momentum continued to switch in an almost turn-based fashion—first Jrdn's Volcarona was forced out by Drampa's Tyranitar and allowed Drampa to get free Stealth Rock, then the Choice Scarf Landorus-T forced out Serperior and dealt major damage to Azumarill. Drampa exchanged his Serperior and Tyranitar for Jrdn's Landorus-T and Tapu Lele plus free sand, and then he crippled his Tapu Bulu to beat Seismitoad. There, however, Jrdn overpredicted and turned a somewhat advantageous game into an uphill battle, as Drampa tossed the entire game into the air by switching his wincon, Excadrill, straight into Volcarona—which had just switched to Skarmory to better handle the predicted Azumarill switch-in. At that point, Excadrill could threaten the entirety of Jrdn's team, which he used to bring Alakazam down to its Focus Sash.

Sand ran out that turn, however, so Jrdn picked up a KO on Tapu Bulu before pivoting to Skarmory, tying the game safely. He then doubled into Alakazam on a predicted Excadrill switch, but there his predictions ran into the hands of RNG and his Focus Blast missed Azumarill, which it had a good chance of KOing, and then he lost Alakazam to Aqua Jet after mispredicting Drampa's next move. At that point, it was over—if Volcarona set up before Azumarill was burned by Beak Blast, it would be easily revenge killed, while if it waited until after, it would simply be 2HKOed. In the end, Jrdn chose the second, but it didn't matter—Drampa's Grandpa had won another upset victory.

Week 4

As the tournament slowly came to a close, it slowly became apparent that the current top four teams all had a solid chance of making finals. Two of them, the Accelerating Aegiblades and the Untitled Unfezants, were paired in Week 4's first matchup, and there was a lot on the line. A win here would propel either team's chances of finishing within the top two. To begin, Megazard's Sketchmons replacement MiyoKa started off strong last week but dropped the ball against Jrdn this time around, though it could be argued Jrdn's early-game Ice Shard crit on Serperior played a big role in deciding the outcome. Meanwhile, aesf rebounded from his loss last week to defeat Megazard, a player struggling to show up on the big stage despite his OMGS victory earlier on in the year. To make matters worse for the Aegiblades, OMPL newcomer The Trap God performed well above expectation and managed to balance the game enough that RNG brought him a victory. With the score currently 0-3 in the Unfezants' favor, one more loss would not only secure a clean Unfezants victory but also spell disaster for the Aegiblades, ensuring they would have no chance at making the finals. Thimo, despite being favored to win this week, lost against Chloe., gifting the latter's team a golden opportunity to make a comeback. This fleeting moment of hope was not to last, however. wishes, switching from Sketchmons to play Monotype this week, unexpectedly managed to defeat Eien, mainly due to the former's favored type matchup (Electric vs. Water), especially with several specifically anti-Water sets. To rub salt into the wounds, even though the Aegiblades had already lost, the remaining game also went the way of the Unfezants. Jasprose played around TheBurgerKing99's Stealth Rock user well to protect his Sturdy Shedinja, which ultimately paid off, as he was able to sweep with it in the late-game, ultimately ending the week 5-1 in the Unfezants' favor.

Despite the Jolteons and the Mimikyus' disparity in standings, both teams still had the ability to make it to the finals. The Jolteons needed just three points to guarantee a finals spot, whereas anything less than a victory this week meant the Mimikyus would miss out altogether. Despite the severity of this matchup, both teams opted to use a few unproven players such as Bluxio, Pepa120, and yoman5. The first game was between two players new to AG in this tournament, GmU Pokeboss9 and Pepa120. Hot off his win last week, GmU won this week again after setting up and sweeping with his Calm Mind Arceus-Flying. Additionally, both Bluxio and yoman5, both currently winless players, managed to get on the board by beating The Official Glyx and Official Fissure, respectively. Although Zephyr Dragon Lord lost to InfernapeTropius11 (who currently has yet to lose despite playing four times), the Mimikyus' had carved themselves a solid 3-1 lead and, considering the remaining matches weren't that bad for them, were poised to get their second win in this tournament and keep their finals dreams alive. However, things were about to take a turn for the worst. The Balanced Hackmons game ended almost as soon as it began. Funbot28 stood no chance when morogrim's Sheer Force Primal Groudon set up a Shell Smash on turn 3 and proceeded to tear apart her team. To make matters worse, Clearly failed to attend his game and thus his opponent terrors was given an activity win, meaning the matchup ended as a 3-3 tie. Despite the anticlimactic ending to the week, this result was acceptable for the Jolteons, but it also meant the Mimikyus no longer could make the finals, tragically cutting short their hopes at winning.

Despite the Bedroom Blisseys' solid first placing, back-to-back losses could still result in them missing out on the finals, meaning that although on paper their Week 4 matchup against last-place team the King Kois matters little, it could have a big impact if the Kois could pull off an upset win. To kick off this matchup, two respected Mix and Mega players, Mark_K and Chazm, played a best-of-three series. Chazm opted to use offensive and hyper offensive teams whereas Mark_K used balanced teams throughout. Game 1 lasted for 140 turns, but it ended when Chazm forfeited, as he recognized he'd eventually lose once Mark PP stalled his two remaining Pokémon, Magearna and Arceus-Fairy. Game 2 started off better for Chazm. He was able to pick off Mark's Pokémon using the assortment of stallbreakers he brought, though the game ultimately ended thanks to a timely Judgment crit on Mark's Zapdos. This didn't phase Mark, however. He brought the same team to game 3 and convincingly defeated Chazm to take home the win. Moving on, the second game was considerably shorter. darksylvion couldn't stop Laxpras's late-game Minior sweep and lost within fourteen turns. Additionally the Kois' Sabella trumped 1 True Lycan despite the former's type disadvantage. With the aid of some luck, Sabella's Nasty Plot Celebi took down four of Lycan's Pokémon before the latter's forfeit. In Sketchmons, ihhca ended The Ruins of Alpha's win streak by sweeping with his Z-Conversion Porygon-Z, leaving the overall score tied at 2-2. Taking into account Fardin's loss to PurpleGatorade, the Kois had secured at least one point versus the strongest team and were on the cusp of even defeating them outright. Though it was not meant to be. Despite their close game, GL Volkner was unable to defeat E4 Flint, and thus this series ended as a tie. Despite this series not mattering in the grand scheme of things, it brought to light a few chinks in the Blisseys' otherwise impenetrable armor.

Highlight Match

Chloe. vs Thimo

1 - 0

(Replay)

Chloe. and Thimo are widely considered two of the absolute best Anything Goes players, particularly in creativity, but they are both extremely unconventional in their teambuilding whenever there's an important match on the line, and this week was no exception. Thimo's team was an eclectic mash of playstyles—Primal Kyogre is not a standard stall pick by any means, even the defensive set, and successful Anything Goes teams without any Arceus are as rare as hens' teeth. Chloe., meanwhile, made the extremely unconventional decision to run not one but two rare Choice Scarf users, Zekrom and Jirachi, and then supported them with the rarely-seen normal Groudon—a major departure from the dual Defog Ho-Oh balance she usually favors. Nobody really had a chlue what to expect from the match—Thimo seemed to have an answer for every Pokémon on Chloe.'s team, but a lot would depend on just which Arceus formes and what Mega Rayquaza set Chloe. decided to bring to the table this time.

Right off the bat, Chloe. and Thimo basically traded Megas, with both of them crippling the other's. In theory, Chloe. was better off, as Sableye was then largely rendered useless as a wall and she could always revive Mega Rayquaza later with Jirachi, but Chloe's Choice Band Rayquaza, one of the strongest wallbreakers in the game, was now in range of a round of Stealth Rock or Rocky Helmet damage, severely limiting its use. Thimo was now free to use his Primal Kyogre much more freely, as any move that Mega Rayquaza could use to damage it would also get it KOed by Skarmory if Thimo predicted it. With this, Thimo was able to limit Chloe's Groudon to chip damage and Stealth Rock, and while Zekrom immediately forced it out, Zygarde could still safely switch in to lock Outrage without needing any predictions. It continued in a status quo for a few turns, but Chloe. overpredicted and attempted to catch Skarmory on the switch with Trick to cripple it, allowing Thimo to bring his Primal Kyogre in for free and remove Chloe.'s Extreme Killer Arceus from the game when Chloe. was forced out.

At this point, Chloe. was almost entirely reliant on her Zekrom to wallbreak, a difficult role for a Choice-locked Pokémon. Mega Rayquaza had three potential walls, each of which was only weak to one of its three moves, and two of them could turn a correct prediction into a flat win, and while Arceus-Steel wasn't particularly threatened by anything on Thimo's team, it couldn't sweep with a Skarmory in the rear. Chloe was able to pick off Zygarde-C, but a three-turn Outrage roll allowed Skarmory to bring it down to 27%, which meant it would last at most another turn on the battlefield even if it switched out thanks to Spikes. Here, however, the tide began to turn. Thanks to Primordial Sea overwriting even strong winds, Thimo had no safe way to switch into Mega Rayquaza—both Skarmory and Chansey died to V-create, and both Kyogre and Tyranitar died to Waterfall. Chloe. managed to win the 50-50 and bring Kyogre into Iron Head range, at which point it was all over. All she needed to do was get rid of Jirachi, which she proceeded to do with Healing Wish after picking off Kyogre, and then sweep with Swords Dance Arceus Steel. As the last Pokémon on Chloe.'s team, Arceus-Steel couldn't be phazed by Whirlwind, and Thimo lacked Iron Defense and Counter, so he couldn't wall it that way. Arceus-Steel was able to freely set up to +6, remove Skarmory with a few Stone Edges, and then clean the remaining two Pokémon to take home the win for the Aegiblades.

Week 5

Considering the top three teams at the time were all within touching distance of each other, a couple of this week's fixtures had extreme consequences for them. Mimikyus vs. Aegiblades wasn't one of them, however. Since both teams were placed in the bottom half of the standings, this matchup wouldn't have any impact on the tournament at large. However, the players still fought fiercely for pride and glory. The matchup's first game was Sketchmons, which Megazard won in a very convincing manner. yoman5 quickly saw his chances at winning dwindle as Megazard effortlessly picked apart the former's team one by one. Shortly after that, in the Anything Goes match, Catalystic couldn't handle Chloe.'s hyper offense team once Sticky Web was set up and forfeited rather quickly, on turn 13, when a +2 Arceus OHKOed one of his key remaining wincons, Zygarde. It seems that all of a sudden the Aegiblades, despite their tournament-long slump, were determined to finish their run on a high note, and it didn't stop there. Quantum Tesseract defeated Zephyr Dragon Lord, a player who had yet to win after taking down Mark_K in the tournament's first game. TheBurgerKing99, using several underutilized Pokémon such as Mega Ampharos and his very team's mascot Blade Aegislash, lost two games to motherlove thanks to the latter's Contrary Mewtwo pulling off back-to-back sweeps. Sadly, due to a lack of communication between the parties involved, the remaining two games weren't played, and thus a win was awarded to both teams thanks to a couple of coinflips, which resulted in an Aegiblades victory.

The Untitled Unfezants, taking into account their placement at the beginning of Week 5, had the slimmest chance at making the finals out of the three teams that could, though this was largely dependent on the Blisseys vs. Jolteons matchup. The most ideal scenario was if both the Unfezants and the Blisseys won. This would result in both teams making the finals whilst avoiding any tiebreakers. If the Unfezants tied, their only chance at advancing was through the Blisseys winning, and naturally if the Kois won this week they'd drag the Untitled Unfezants down along with them, leaving the Jolteons and the Blisseys in the finals together. Having said that, the Unfezants couldn't get off on the right foot because Sabella of the King Kois won the first game. However, this was quickly responded to with two wins, in Sketchmons and Anything Goes. Regarding Sketchmons, ihhca had no answers to Jrdn's Calm Mind Mega Slowbro after he collected some key early KOs in Mew and Tapu Koko. Additionally, Jrdn's defensive core of Amoonguss, Rotom-H, and Slowbro proved too sturdy for ihhca break through, resulting in a loss. Thimo's win was equally, if not even more, dominant than Jrdn's. After taking a few turns to play around PurpleGatorade's Choice Scarf Yveltal and get up some hazards with Deoxys-S, he set up Geomancy with Xerneas and destroyed Ferrothorn with a Hidden Power Fire. PurpleGatorade was all out of solid options to handle Thimo's threat and forfeited quickly afterwards. However, after developing a solid 2-1 lead, things quickly turned sour for the Unfezants. An untimely AAA substitute saw Akashi fill in for aesf, arguably quite a heavy downgrade considering the large experience difference that separates the two, and promptly lose to darksylvion, who himself rebounded quite well from a tough loss in Week 4. With the score currently 2-2, the Unfezants needed to win the following two games to be tied for second place at the very least. The Trap God continued to demonstrate his skills in Mix and Mega by taking out Chazm by playing around the latter's wincon superbly. However, jasprose wasn't able to replicate his teammate's success and lost to fsk, mainly due to his Choice Specs Primal Kyogre, aided by Sticky Web, which jasprose had no switch-ins to. Impressively, the Kois managed to tie against a formidable team, but this tie would have major repercussions for said formidable team, as it forced them to rely on the Blisseys performing to even stand a chance at advancing to the finals.

The final fixture was arguably the most anticipated. It would see the top two teams do battle for the first time. As the Bedroom Blisseys had the point advantage heading into this, the likelihood of them entering the finals was far higher than for the other two teams in the running. One of these, the Jolteons, were looking to a victory this week to ensure they made the finals. With everything on the line, both teems needed to give it their all to advance. The first game played was between Official Fissure, a player who had only won once despite his high price tag, and Laxpras, a player who had yet to lose in Almost Any Ability. The match was dead for the most part. Although Laxpras managed to KO Official Fissure's Mega Alakazam, a Pokémon that heavily troubled his team, with his own threat Snorlax, it was soon struck with said Alakazam's Future Sight and fainted, resetting the state of the game. Eventually Official Fissure buckled when Laxpras's Triage Golisopod swept in the late-game. Shortly afterwards, the Blisseys' Balanced Hackmons substitute draegn played his debut game against the 3-1 morogrim and delivered. Despite his opposition using the rare and underexplored rain playstyle, he wasn't fazed and muscled past morogrim's team with his Quiver Dance Xerneas. To make matters worse for the Jolteons, their Anything Goes player HunterStorm, expected to take the win over Fardin, lost in two back-to-back games on the same day, resulting in a very quick 3-0 deficit for the second-place team. With these three wins, the Blisseys had secured their place in the finals, but the Jolteons needed to win the following three to not fall to third place. Things looked less grim for them when both Racool and InfernapeTropius11 defeated their respective opponents in quite close games. As the score was 3-2, it all boiled down to the Monotype game between two respected and formidable players in 1 True Lycan and terrors. As neither of them were able to meet for their game, both players were substituted out to create a new matchup: Leru vs. Salvation. The combination of Salvation's Tapu Koko and Tapu Bulu heavily pressured Leru's Water-type team in the early game, but the latter gained an advantage once Suicune KOed Tapu Koko and PP stalled Tapu Bulu's Horn Leech PP. At the end of the day Leru was unable to break through Salvation's Clefable and lost shortly after Suicune fainted, allowing the two teams to eventually tie 3-3. Taking into account the results of both this and the Kois vs. Unfezants set, the Bedroom Blisseys end Week 5 in first place whilst the Jolteons barely finished in second place thanks to the efforts of the King Kois.

Highlight Match

morogrim vs draegn

0 - 4

(Replay)

As the season drew to a close, the competition for the two final slots became fierce. While the Bedroom Blisseys had guaranteed themselves a spot, the other slot was still in doubt, and the Jolteons were anxious to remove their most difficult competitor from the running by pulling out a win here. On the Blisseys' side, the match was important for the same reason—a loss here could spell the end of a season for them, and they were relying on a backup Balanced Hackmons player instead of their usual starter E4 Flint. To make matters worse for the Blisseys, morogrim's team was an odd one, while draegn's team was standard for the metagame, featuring common threats such as Xerneas, Primal Groudon, and Registeel. morogrim's wasn't entirely clear, and in a metagame as varied as Balanced Hackmons unknown Pokémon are far and away more dangerous than in standard ones.

Once the battle began, two things became quickly clear—first, that morogrim was, in fact, bringing the rain that Ash-Greninja needed to function as an offensive threat, and two, that his Chansey was not Imposter, which meant he had an actual answer for Lovely Kiss Xerneas on his team, relieving the need for extreme offensive pressure. While an unfortunate Water Spout roll allowed Xerneas to survive and get healed up by Z-Parting shot, morogrim was still in an excellent position. Neither of Draegn's sweepers, Primal Groudon and Xerneas, could actually beat Fur Coat Chansey on the switch unless it had been seriously damaged beforehand, and draegn's team didn't have any real counter to the powerful Water attacks that morogrim's wallbreakers could throw out. Even Mega Gyarados, resistant to Water, was KOed from 75% by Greninja's rain-boosted Water Spout, and Registeel fared no better. After the rain ended, however, Xerneas was able to force out Greninja, and a long sleep turn was enough to get the KO on a weakened Chansey. With Chansey gone, morogrim's team couldn't touch Xerneas, and despite the relatively even score draegn was able to finish the game right then and there and tie the week for the Blisseys.