Recap of the WCoP X

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Introduction

The WCoP is back! Team Brazil, a side that put up an impressive display of spirit and skill to win last year's tournament, crashed out in rather disappointing fashion. It was Team US East's tournament to win this year. They put up a strong showing, particularly in the ORAS games, and bested Team US West, another team with a fantastic display this year, to reach the finals. They fought it out against Team Spain, a team that impressed a lot with their brilliant display in this year's tournament, in the finals, and saw the uprising of players like reiku, who had an outstanding record in the tournament. Although Team Asia and Team Oceania got knocked out early in the tournament, they put up a decent showing too, and you can certainly expect more from them in the upcoming editions of the WCoP.

Standout Matches

Now, Stathakis, BKC, and I are going to analyze some of the better-played games in the tournament. These matches were either hyped—for good reason, of course—or were very important in deciding the players' teams' fate in the tournament, whether they would move on to the next round or not.

Round 1

ORAS OU: Stathakis vs. FAJI

Stathakis's team	FAJI's team

Summary Analysis

This was a pivotal game for three teams: East, Brazil, and Afrabs. A win for Stathakis landed East in the playoffs, while a loss meant a tiebreaker between the three teams. At Team Preview, things looked like they could go either way. FAJI has only the Pursuit-weak Latias to switch into Stathakis's Keldeo, and Stathakis has Bisharp in the back to threaten it. Meanwhile, Stathakis has hardly any counterplay against FAJI's Volcarona, which has opportunities to set up on several different Pokémon that it forces out.

FAJI wins the lead matchup, leading with Latias as Stathakis starts with Keldeo, probably looking for an opportunity to land a big hit against FAJI's team. Stathakis immediately switches into his Jirachi, taking little damage from Draco Meteor and setting up Stealth Rock on a forced switch. As FAJI's Latias returns to the field to remove the Stealth Rock, Stathakis takes advantage of this by bringing in Bisharp on the predicted Defog. With nothing to switch into a +2 Bisharp, FAJI sacrifices his Latias, taking away two-thirds of Bisharp's health in the process.

At this point, Stathakis seems to have the advantage, as one of his only two Pokémon that resists Water in Latias has been removed from the game. After some jockeying around between Keldeo, Rotom, Bisharp, and Latios, Stathakis manages to get off a Draco Meteor on FAJI's incoming Jirachi. The damage reveals that FAJI's Jirachi is most likely a Choice Scarf variant, and, as a result, FAJI gets his Volcarona in on Stathakis's Rotom-W. The Volcarona sets up Quiver Dance while dodging a Hydro Pump from Stathakis's Rotom-W, which was likely meant either to break Volcarona's Passho Berry for Choice Scarf Keldeo to revenge kill it, or to bring Volcarona into Fake Out + Sucker Punch KO range from Mega Medicham and Bisharp, respectively. After getting a free Quiver Dance boost, Volcarona becomes extremely threatening, forcing Stathakis to sacrifice both his Rotom-W and his Mega Medicham to even get a hit on it at all.

Stathakis then sends in Bisharp on the boosted Volcarona in a last-ditch attempt to play Sucker Punch / Knock Off mind games with FAJI after being left with no other way to deal with Volcarona. FAJI decides to avoid these mind games altogether and to switch out his Volcarona, probably intending to target it with Jirachi's Healing Wish and sweep more easily later. For his trouble, Stathakis's Bisharp lands Knock Off on FAJI's Keldeo, putting it in KO range of Choice Scarf Keldeo's Secret Sword.

Stathakis jockeys around Keldeo with a switch into Latios, followed immediately by a switch into Jirachi, granting him the opportunity to set up Stealth Rock again after having it removed earlier by FAJI's Latias. This time, FAJI sends in his Volcarona on Stathakis's Jirachi. The two exchange blows and both end up crippled, with Jirachi low on health and Volcarona weakened and paralyzed. Stathakis sacrifices his Jirachi to the no-longer-threatening Volcarona.

Stathakis switches in his Keldeo, and FAJI, unwilling to sacrifice anything else, allows it to pick off Volcarona and switches in his Jirachi. Recognizing that FAJI may try to heal his Keldeo with Jirachi's Healing Wish, Stathakis switches in Latios. FAJI uses Healing Wish to bring his Keldeo back to full health, but he must switch something into Stathakis's Latios. He opts to bring in his Landorus-T, which tanks a Psyshock extremely well, revealing a physically defensive set.

After some more exchanges, the endgame situation is as follows: FAJI has a weakened Landorus-T, a Keldeo at 30% HP with no item, and a full-health Diancie, while Stathakis has a weakened Latios and a weakened Keldeo, presumably holding a Choice Scarf. Stathakis could simply bring in Keldeo and click Hydro Pump, winning if it hits three times in a row, as everything is weakened into its KO range. Having already missed Hydro Pump earlier in the game, he instead goes for Scald, allowing FAJI to bring in his own Keldeo on Stathakis's Keldeo. Fearing Secret Sword, Stathakis switches in his now-useless Latios as FAJI doubles switches into Diancie. At this point, if FAJI's Diancie has Rock Polish, it can safely boost its Speed and win the game, a situation that Stathakis risked by opting to not use Hydro Pump.

Alas, FAJI's Diancie lacks Rock Polish and simply KOes Latios after taking a Psyshock, allowing Stathakis to finish the game with Secret Sword.

Semifinals

ADV OU: BKC vs. undisputed

BKC's team	undisputed's team

Summary Analysis

This was the eighth game in the semifinals series between USA East and USA West, with USA East narrowly leading by a 4-3 margin. undisputed was BKC's tutor near the end of the DPP era, and they had played an ADV game in the most recent SPL with BKC coming out on top of a close battle. undisputed had a 3-1 record going into the game, having gone 2-1 playing DPP in the qualifiers and making the switch to ADV for playoffs, where he had a win over Oceania's Golden Sun in the quarterfinals. BKC was 2-2 in ADV, having clinched East's quarterfinals victory over France with a win against Ojama.

undisputed's Gengar grins at BKC's Starmie to begin the match. The starfish threatens an OHKO with STAB Psychic; this move usually indicates a Rapid Spinner, seeing as outrunning and OHKOing the most common spinblocker is the biggest part of that set's role. However, certain offensive sets eschew Recover, which occasionally is a waste of a slot due to Starmie's relative lack of bulk, although it isn't exactly frail. Psychic not only guarantees an OHKO on Gengar, which really is a big deal, but also destroys the ever-dangerous Heracross while also being a 100% accurate STAB attack for situations where a Hydro Pump miss might prove fatal; while uncommon, BKC used this set to great effect in round one against JabbaTheGriffin.

undisputed's Gengar has many possibilities and doesn't say much about his team. It could be a special offense team that has a fast, powerful Gengar deny early Spikes and lure the walls that undisputed wants out of the way. It could be a full stall team that has a bulkier Gengar to protect his own Spikes against the threat of Rapid Spinners while contributing to the spreading of residual damage with Will-O-Wisp. It could be almost anything, but the safest guess is that it's some sort of special attacker; although that doesn't narrow it down all that much, considering how many possible moves Gengar can viably run, the Mean Look set and gimmickier physical variants are the only sets that don't utilize Gengar's high Special Attack stat and aren't very common. No matter what set he's running, undisputed doesn't want to stay in here because even though Gengar isn't immediately KOed by Psychic, it isn't guaranteed to KO Starmie back with Thunderbolt, and should he be running a physical set (which needs a Choice Band for Shadow Ball to KO) he doesn't want to reveal it this early—plus, at the beginning of the game, almost no matter what the team is, there's probably a solid special tank that can easily switch in and threaten Starmie.

BKC takes advantage of Tyranitar threatening common Starmie switch-ins—Blissey, Snorlax, Regice, and certain variants of Celebi, Jirachi, and Zapdos—and double switches it in. It's not just the threat of powerful physical attacks that'll scare them out and allow for further scouting; it's also Sand Stream that nullifies Leftovers and makes certain Pokémon, such as Starmie, more threatening. Tyranitar also has a decent matchup against almost every Gengar set, so should Gengar stay in and use Thunderbolt, BKC will still be in a fine position. However, undisputed switches to Snorlax, and BKC has the upper hand. Snorlax certainly has ways of messing with Tyranitar, the king of the ADV metagame and one of Snorlax's most common enemies—Counter, Focus Punch, Earthquake, and paralysis from its STAB Body Slam. However, it prefers to not fight Tyranitar in a one-on-one situation like this, especially when its health is needed for Starmie due to the possibility of other powerful special attackers, so undisputed will almost certainly switch here—because his team's at full health, he can deal with Tyranitar. BKC presses his advantage and uses the uncommon Roar as undisputed's Gengar comes back in—this is risky on undisputed's end, but BKC is known for his love of pummeling Tyranitar's usual switch-ins with a Choice Band-boosted Focus Punch. Plus, seeing as BKC has already aggressively predicted from a favorable position, there were good odds he would do so again, and he did just that; however, he gets to scout a little more, dragging in undisputed's own Tyranitar.

While Roar implies that BKC almost certainly has Spikes to use and removes the possibility of a CB set, it doesn't say much about Tyranitar's other moves. It could be a physical attacker, a special attacker, a mixed attacker, or even a Dragon Dance sweeper. Nothing is known about undisputed's Tyranitar yet; it could be absolutely anything.

BKC switches to his Flygon; the only moves that Flygon fears from Tyranitar are Ice Beam and Choice Band Focus Punch, neither of which were going to be used while staring down another Tyranitar. It ends up eating a Hidden Power Grass, which makes the likelihood of a Choice Band set quite low, but the possibilities are still nearly endless. While Tyranitar can certainly be specially inclined, it is very common for a physical set to tack on Hidden Power Grass.

BKC switches back to Tyranitar; undisputed had shown one of the most common Flygon responses, Gengar. It also scouts for Ice Beam—Flygon had shown Leftovers, meaning there was no threat of a Choice Band Earthquake taking Tyranitar out. A Tyranitar with Ice Beam and Hidden Power Grass is almost certainly fully special, which will lose to a more physically inclined Tyranitar one-on-one, and BKC's chunks undisputed's for over 50% of its health with Earthquake, although it's not without drawbacks, as the Hidden Power Grass stings quite a bit.

undisputed doesn't want to stay in here, and now that he's sufficiently scouted BKC, he switches in his counter, Swampert. Tyranitar's Rock-type partner in crime, Aerodactyl, must exercise caution lest Tyranitar hit Swampert for a large amount of damage and open Aerodactyl up. BKC predicted the switch and clicked Crunch, which would destroy the Gengar that switched in last time or get a decent hit on other Pokémon that counter Tyranitar, such as Claydol and the two Ground-types that have appeared so far. A Skarmory appears, and it doesn't survive the Hydro Pump that it eats, suggesting either a lack of Special Defense investment or a good amount of Special Attack investment on Swampert (which it often runs to guarantee KOs against bulkier Dragon Dance Salamence). The threat of Toxic forces Swampert to retreat, though, and BKC takes this opening to set up Spikes—the odds of Gengar switching in means that Toxic would be useless. However, a Zapdos comes in, knowing that Toxic wasn't coming, and Swampert is forced to switch out after using Protect for extra Leftovers recovery.

Flygon comes in and eats a Toxic; BKC figured that Zapdos didn't have Hidden Power Ice due to Tyranitar having Ice Beam, which is the best Flygon lure in the tier; more would be excessive, especially when Zapdos can batter away with Toxic and a decently strong Hidden Power, undisputed's bulky offense team is not the kind that wants to give Swampert any breathing room. BKC goes straight for Rock Slide, getting a nice hit on the Gengar switch; undisputed wants to be somewhat conservative with his Swampert, which does not take too kindly to STAB Earthquake especially with a layer of Spikes down. However, undisputed is in a very good position now and can easily make some predictions to press it; BKC's Tyranitar is possibly 2HKOed by Thunderbolt and he's shown nothing else that wants to switch in. Knowing that Aerodactyl can take one and threaten it out—it's not uncommon for Aerodactyl's health to be irrelevant until it hits zero due to its immunity to Spikes and Sandstorm—he switches it in, but undisputed predicts by throwing out Hypnosis, and it hits. BKC's in the same pickle and makes a risky Flygon pivot—Ice Punch also achieves the 2HKO on Aerodactyl, but Thunderbolt was the better move to damage Tyranitar as much as possible. undisputed surprises everyone with Shadow Ball, which still hits Flygon for good damage and forces another switch.

Skarmory comes in and pivots out to Starmie, knowing that the move used wouldn't be Shadow Ball (which wouldn't KO regardless)—Thunderbolt would've been used against Aerodactyl. Starmie eats a Will-O-Wisp, meaning that undisputed is possibly using a never-before-seen twist on the already uncommon (but quite potent) dual status Gengar. Natural Cure means that Starmie doesn't mind the burn once it switches, which we see immediately, as similarities to the first turn show; Starmie switches out of Gengar going to Snorlax, but Skarmory comes in this time. Scouting for Fire Blast and trying to heal up with Leftovers, BKC switches Tyranitar in but is met with Gengar again. Fearing Brick Break due to the physical nature of undisputed's Gengar and not wanting to take a burn in any case, Starmie comes back in, but undisputed makes a solid move and clicks Explosion, removing the threatening starfish from the battle and making the score 5-5. It's a great example of how surprise sets can be effective, this Gengar really caused havoc.

With one dangerous special attacker down, BKC sends in another, revealing his own Gengar. undisputed sends in the threatening Zapdos, looking to capitalize on the sleeping Aerodactyl and weakened Flygon; the order that the Pokémon take damage from sand shows that BKC's Gengar is faster. Thunderbolt is used and BKC switches Flygon in on it; undisputed would prefer Zapdos to stay healthy and makes the switch to Swampert, which BKC also cannot switch into too safely. BKC takes advantage of this and switches right back to Gengar.

Giga Drain is the obvious threat here; however, its low Base Power means that it can't quite muster a KO, especially with Swampert using Protect for Leftovers recovery. BKC uses Ice Punch on the Protect to potentially bluff not having it, which appears almost useless seeing as even if he does have it, it almost definitely won't KO and his Aerodactyl is sleeping, meaning that undisputed doesn't need Swampert too healthy and will gladly let it get dented to KO Gengar. If it is just a bluff, undisputed has an incredible advantage and will almost certainly win. However, BKC's restraint with Ice Punch on Protect ends up being crucial, as on the next turn BKC reveals Hidden Power Grass, an incredibly rare move on Gengar whose extra ten Base Power allows it to cleanly KO Swampert.

The game is far from over, though, as undisputed reveals his last Pokémon—an Aerodactyl of his own, whose Rock Slide KOes BKC's sleeping Aerodactyl. Tyranitar comes in and gains a bit of Leftovers recovery; its Rock Slide 2HKOes Snorlax and undisputed's own Tyranitar while OHKOing Aerodactyl and Zapdos. undisputed decides to exchange his Aerodactyl to put Tyranitar into the KO range of Zapdos's Thunderbolt, with the nice flinch chance as a bonus, but it ends up missing and, in a cruel twist of fate, is taken out by the same move. The damage taken was between 37% and 44%, with BKC's Tyranitar standing at 68% HP before the turn.

undisputed goes to Snorlax; not wanting to unnecessarily sacrifice his Tyranitar, BKC makes the safe switch to Skarmory, which he's willing to sacrifice as long as it damages Snorlax as much as possible so that his other Pokémon to finish off. He gets his remaining two layers of Spikes as Snorlax chips away with Body Slam before being phazed to Zapdos. With his Tyranitar healthy, BKC knows that even if his switch to Flygon is predicted, he's still in prime position to win; undisputed does just that and finishes Flygon off with Hidden Power Grass. Zapdos rips a chunk out of Tyranitar but is finished by Rock Slide. undisputed's Tyranitar's Hidden Power Grass doesn't quite take BKC's Tyranitar out, but rather than KO undisputed's and risk a Snorlax sweep, BKC's Tyranitar Roars Snorlax in so that BKC can phaze it with Skarmory should Rock Slide misses arise. Instead, more luck kicks in on BKC's end, as he gets a critical hit with Rock Slide to KO Snorlax and end the game, as Gengar would've finished Tyranitar off; however, this instance of hax didn't make a difference because Snorlax would've had to use Rest to avoid being KOed by Spikes on its next switch in, so Skarmory would've phazed Tyranitar in, phazed Snorlax in again to bring it to 75%, and finally phazed Tyranitar in again to KO it, and then Gengar would've switched in and used Explosion on the 50% Snorlax to end the game. The Rock Slide miss against BKC's Tyranitar allowed him to handle undisputed's last three Pokémon with much less prediction; had it hit, it still would've been anyone's game. Regardless of this move giving everyone headaches as usual, this was an excellent game and a great example of high level ADV OU.

ORAS OU: cosine180 vs. reiku

cosine's team	reiku's team

Summary Analysis

Looking at both teams, reiku definitely has the advantage over cosine180. Mega Gardevoir and Mamoswine pressure cosine's team to a great extent, and reiku exploited this weakness with ease.

reiku leads off with his Gardevoir to pressure cosine right from the beginning of the game, as we see cosine lead off with his Landorus-T. Judging by the looks of it, it is probably a Choice Scarf variant, as cosine has two other potential Stealth Rock setters on his team in Jirachi and Garchomp. Turn 1, we see cosine's Landorus-T go down to Mega Gardevoir's Hyper Voice, unfortunately, getting struck with a critical hit in the process. This probably doesn't matter if Mega Gardevoir was Modest, as it has around a 65% chance to OHKO Choice Scarf Landorus-T, but that probably isn't the case because getting outsped by the likes of Timid Manaphy, Mega Charizard Y, and maximum Speed Kyurem-B in the current metagame is not optimal. This also deals a huge blow to cosine's chances of winning the game because, had Landorus-T survived the Hyper Voice, he'd have gotten the KO on Mega Gardevoir, have had an extra Pokémon to sacrifice later on, or would have been able to use Landorus-T to revenge kill the Tornadus-T on reiku's team.

cosine then brings in his Lopunny against Mega Gardevoir, taking this as a free opportunity to Mega Evolve by going for the Fake Out, and reiku uses this to switch to Garchomp to land chip damage on Lopunny with the combination of Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin. cosine brings in his own Garchomp and sets up Stealth Rock, while reiku goes straight for the Dragon Tail. reiku's Garchomp doesn't take Rocky Helmet damage and deals around 50% to cosine's Garchomp, which means that it is one of the more offensive variants of Garchomp; after that, Latios is dragged out. reiku knows that he has a more than safe switch-in to Latios in Ferrothorn, fearing only Hidden Power Fire from it, and decides to switch into it. Cosine goes for Psyshock, expecting Tornadus-T to come in because of the fact that Hidden Power Fire is probably more than likely on cosine's Latios, as he doesn't have a lot of ways to break past Ferrothorn (Tornadus is a better switch-in regardless), cosine goes for Psyshock again, expecting Tornadus-T to come in because he expected Hidden Power Fire, but reiku decides to risk it and deal heavy damage with Gyro Ball. We then, finally, see cosine go for Hidden Power Fire as reiku decides to switch to his Mega Gardevoir, probably wanting to sacrifice it. What's the result? A dead Latios and a dead Mega Gardevoir (should've fainted on Turn 2 imo).

Both players then bring out their Keldeo. Judging by the damage output from both players' Keldeo, reiku's is probably a Choice Scarf variant, while cosine's is a Choice Specs variant. Cosine then switches to his Garchomp as reiku switches (somewhat unneeded, as the damage output gave away the Keldeo sets, so cosine's Keldeo would've gone down to a Secret Sword)to his Tornadus-T. reiku then goes for Hurricane, but it doesn't land, which allows cosine to set up Stealth Rock.

cosine is put in a situation where his Mega Lopunny can probably pull through. I felt like he should've gone into his Jirachi when his Mega Lopunny was up against Keldeo, as the damage output gave away the set, and he could've probably pivoted into his Keldeo or Lopunny on the Ferrothorn switch to improve his chances of winning the game. He decides to go into Jirachi after Keldeo goes down so that he can go for Healing Wish and restore Keldeo's health. reiku then makes a smart play of going into his Tornadus-T and going for Superpower rather than Hurricane, as all he needed was around 45% damage on Keldeo so that his Choice Scarf Keldeo could come through, and it did.

Finals

ORAS OU: TheEnder vs. SoulWind

TheEnder's team	SoulWind's team

Summary Analysis

This game was hyped for good reason: it was the first game to be played between Team US East and Team Spain for the finals of the WCoP. Both players have a decent chance of winning by the looks of it. SoulWind's Excadrill dents Ender's team pretty heavily under sand, relying on only Landorus-T to handle it, while Ender's team pressures SoulWind's to a massive degree, with Thundurus and Bisharp weakening the team to an extent where Mega Lopunny can pick off SoulWind's team.

Ender leads off with his Thundurus to weaken SoulWind's team right from the start as SoulWind leads off with his Hippowdon. Knowing how threatening Mega Lopunny is to his team, SoulWind decides to go out into his Excadrill, anticipating the Grass Knot, and Ender decides to make the good play of going out into his Landorus-T, which allows him to set up Stealth Rock. SoulWind then switches back into his Hippowdon as Ender gets up Stealth Rock. SoulWind then sees this as an opportunity to set up his own entry hazards, and Ender reveals that's he's running a Swords Dance variant. This puts more pressure on SoulWind's team, as something is going to be forced to take a hit here because his only Pokémon that can switch into Ground-type moves is Tornadus-T. Ender gets off some huge damage on Hippowdon, which helps Mega Lopunny later on in the game, as it is phazed into Thundurus. SoulWind goes for Slack Off as Ender decides to set up a Nasty Plot, hits Hippowdon for a whopping 82%, and finally gets phazed.

SoulWind decides to save his Hippowdon to set up sand later on so that Excadrill has a chance to win, and he brings out his Manaphy into Latios. Latios wins 1v1, and then we see SoulWind's Gardevoir come in. Ender decides to sacrifice his Latios, getting off some decent damage in return, which allows him to bring in his Lopunny and Mega Evolve. This forces Mega Gardevoir out into Hippowdon as Ender goes for the safe Fake Out and then sacrifices Mega Gardevoir. This ensured that Excadrill would get at least two chances of potentially winning the game, but these chances looked bleak with Landorus-T still healthy. SoulWind brings Excadrill into Mega Lopunny as Ender makes a really nice play by switching into Manaphy, predicting the Iron Head to damage Landorus-T enough so that Excadrill could pull through. Manaphy then goes down to Earthquake, and Ender brings in his Mega Lopunny to stall out the last turn of sand by going for Fake Out.

SoulWind sacrifices his Hippowdon to set up sand and gain a final chance at cleaning up with Excadrill. These chances, however, look very bleak with Bisharp, Mega Lopunny, and Landorus-T waiting in the wings. Ender brings out his Landorus-T against Excadrill, trying to stall out the sand turns, and Mega Lopunny finally comes in, lands the Power-Up Punch, and cleans up SoulWind's team comfortably.

DPP OU: august vs. pokebasket

august's team	pokebasket's team

Summary Analysis

This was the second game in the US East vs Spain finals. At this point in the series, US East had a 1-0 lead thanks to European expat TheEnder. Many say that the first game is the most important, as it sets the tone for the series, but the second game is equally important, as it decides whether a team behind by a game is going to equalize or if the team ahead is going to run away with the lead.

The game starts off with august leading with Aerodactyl, the classic offensive Stealth Rock lead, while pokebasket leads with Tyranitar. Most lead Tyranitar are either bulky Stealth Rock variants or Choice Scarf sets; both somewhat fear Aerodactyl, as most Aerodactyl are guaranteed to set up Stealth Rock and attack at least once due to their Focus Sashes. august is not running a Focus Sash on his Aerodactyl, but he does not need to fear Stone Edge because, in most cases, Tyranitar will use Crunch on Aerodactyl to break its Focus Sash. Because Crunch 2HKOes and Stone Edge cannot OHKO a Pokémon with a Focus Sash, Crunch is the safer move due to its 100% accuracy. Taking advantage of this fact, august's Aerodactyl sets up Stealth Rock while comfortably tanking a Crunch from Tyranitar. Aerodactyl then hits Tyranitar with Earthquake, taking away half its health but fainting to a second Crunch.

At this point, august knows that the two most common lead Tyranitar sets are bulky Stealth Rock and Choice Scarf. This grants him a free switch into Gyarados, which can either outspeed a bulky set or comfortably tank a -1 Crunch from the Choice Scarf set. Gyarados outspeeds Tyranitar and KOes it with Earthquake, revealing that pokebasket's Tyranitar was not holding Choice Scarf and likely carried Stealth Rock.

After some time, pokebasket switches in Clefable to replace his fallen Tyranitar. This signals to august that pokebasket's best Gyarados answer may be Clefable, which is a shaky check; otherwise, pokebasket would bring in a stronger check in the early-game. With this information, august preserves his potentially very useful Gyarados and switches in his Tyranitar, which is guaranteed to be able to take any hit that Clefable can throw. It comes in on a Thunderbolt, which deals little damage but paralyzes Tyranitar, potentially crippling it if it's a Choice Scarf set. august nails Clefable with Pursuit as it switches out, revealing that it is some Pursuit variant of Tyranitar with less power than that of a Choice Band set. pokebasket responds to this threat with his Gliscor, which is capable of shrugging off most moves that Pursuit Tyranitar would carry. august, not wanting to let his Tyranitar take unnecessary damage, switches to Shaymin while pokebasket doubles back into his Clefable, betting on august switching into something less threatening and giving him an opportunity to heal Clefable. pokebasket takes this opportunity to heal Shaymin, and then both players switch Pokémon, resulting in a Bronzong vs Tyranitar matchup. At this point, august recognizes that pokebasket's team is an old team made by Earthworm, consisting of Tyranitar, Clefable, Celebi, Bronzong, Gliscor, and Magnezone. This imbalance of information favors august, who has a Heatran in the wings to fight pokebasket's team, which has no Pokémon that resist Fire still conscious.

As Tyranitar and Bronzong exchange hits, august switches his Gyarados into a predicted Earthquake and gets Bronzong into Waterfall's KO range after making it flinch. With his back to the ropes, Pokebasket switches to his Celebi and uses U-turn as august switches Pokémon, gaining momentum and bringing in his Gliscor for free against august's Heatran. august goes back to his Gyarados on a predicted Earthquake and uses Ice Fang, knowing that it will hit both Gliscor and Celebi, which is pokebasket's best switch-in to Gyarados. Pokebasket stays in, his Gliscor dodging the Ice Fang and landing Toxic on Gyarados. After this turn, pokebasket brings in his Celebi on Gyarados's Waterfall. At this point in the game, august seems to have a large advantage, as the only things stopping his Heatran are Clefable, which can't switch in, and Gliscor, which also has trouble switching in. If he chooses the correct move, pokebasket has no switch-ins to Gyarados, as his Celebi is weakened and provides a free switch for the ever-threatening Heatran.

august switches his Heatran into pokebasket's Celebi as it is forced to recover to fight Gyarados later, and pokebasket must choose among his remaining Pokémon to sacrifice, as his entire team is 2HKOed by Heatran's Fire Blast. pokebasket chooses Clefable, which is promptly 2HKOed by the Heatran, giving his Gliscor a free switch in. Not wanting to play around it, august sacrifices his Gliscor and reveals that his last Pokémon is Jirachi, which is likely mixed because it entered after Gliscor. The Jirachi is indeed a mixed set and KOes pokebasket's Bronzong.

pokebasket brings in his Magnezone and sacrifices it to cripple august's Jirachi, though august saves it as death fodder for later, switching his Shaymin into Gliscor. Shaymin reveals Hidden Power Ice and knocks pokebasket's Shaymin very nearly into the KO range of another one, and august brings in Heatran on a predicted Recover, but pokebasket U-turns into Gliscor, forcing august to sacrifice his Gyarados. This allows Shaymin to come in once again, and it 2HKOes Gliscor with Hidden Power Ice, leaving pokebasket with just Celebi to fight Shaymin, Heatran, and Gyarados. august wins easily from here, scoring an OHKO with Heatran's Fire Blast.

Interview with the Captains

I interviewed the captains of teams that made it to the semifinals of this year's WCoP, an excerpt (hover your mouse over their avatars to see who is speaking):

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