Recently in Tournaments
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Welcome back to Recently in Tournaments. It's been nearly a year since we last covered the tournament scene, and it appears things have come full circle since then with yet another major scandal plaguing OST's finals. Meanwhile, the second Smogon Classic is in full swing and Smogon Tour 21 is rapidly approaching playoffs.
Official Smogon Tournament XII
The big story, of course, is OST's finals being tarnished for the second year in a row. As the showdown between finalists njnp and Newrof drew near, host and Tournament Director Isa broke the news that there was "irrefutable proof that Newrof has been ghosted." Once again, a recreation of the bracket for everyone who lost to the cheater has been made, postponing finals to give them each their fair shot at the trophy. You can track the progress of the remaining players here. As of now, the finals are set to take place by June 13th.
Smogon Tour 21
With just one week to go until Smogon Tour playoffs, the competition between players vying to qualify is heating up. This weekend's DPP tournaments will be make or break for those with a clear shot at the Top 16. With only 9 points separating those tied for 1st (Ciele and xray with 41) and 15th (FLCL and Posho with 32) in in the current standings, this season has been extremely tight. Tamahome appears primed to take the lead spot this weekend; he's coming off of two wins in DPP so far and is comfortably ranked 4th (alongside PDC) at the moment with 39 points. BKC, who's currently sitting 1 point shy of 1st, has also had a superior DPP season compared to those in the lead; a strong week here could easily position him at the top going into playoffs.
On the lower end of the current Top 16 contenders, there might be quite a lot of shaking up this weekend. Sweepage and Posho, who have 21 and 17 points in DPP at the moment, should climb higher in the Top 16 if they can continue their success with the gen. Others will have to step up their game if they want to remain in the running for playoffs. FLCL, cosine180, and Mounts have had poor showings in DPP this season, and if they can't turn it around, they'll have trouble keeping up in a series this close. The three players now tied for 18th (hellpowna, Shoka, and Nelson) have had solid DPP records so far (12, 12, and 10 points, respectively); all three are in a superb position to crack the Top 16, which they are only 2 points shy of at the moment.
Smogon Classic II
Smogon Classic II is well underway. While it's too early to speak with certainty, the standings have settled down enough that only a small pool of players remain competing for the Top 12 (and even fewer for the Top 4, who receive Round 1 playoff byes). Alexander. currently leads the way, only dropping his Round 5 series in BW so far. With 21 points secured and a maximum of 56 possible, he's certainly the current favorite. In 2nd place, Tesung has 18 points at the moment but only a maximum of 33 available. Maintaining a valued Top 4 slot will likely be difficult, but not necessarily impossible.
Mael and Fakes, who are tied for 3rd, are poised to remain top contenders. Both have 17 points locked down, with up to 43 available. They also only overlap in ADV at this point, making them unlikely to directly knock the other out anytime soon. One of six currently sitting in 10th place, Shoka is the most potentially dangerous dark horse at the moment. Despite only clinching 13 points so far, they have the most available outside of Alexander. with up to 51 possible points.
Other News
Unofficial tournaments have undergone a fairly recent revamp in scheduling. Signups will now be spread out periodically throughout each month, meaning there will be a steady stream of tournaments to join and a more consistent tournament schedule to follow.
The (un)Official DP Ladder Tournament recently came to a close. After four week-long cycles, the Top 16 players moved on to a best-of-three, double-elimination playoffs. After topping the losers' bracket, babidi1998 needed to win two consecutive series against the then-undefeated NightFox. Not only did he proceed to go 4:0, but he did so using some creative and unexpected teams. Fire-type spam (Infernape, Heatran, and Blaziken on one team), lead Trick Scarf Claydol, and Slaking were among the unconventional strategies and threats he employed in the finals. You can find replays of the teams in action here.
The Other Metagames Grand Slam has reached its finals. After five Opens in Almost Any Ability, Balanced Hackmons, Monotype, STABmons, and Tier Shift, the Top 8 players faced off in playoffs consisting of best-of-five series. In true underdog fashion, the 7th and 8th seeds managed to battle their way to the finals. Lax and Kl4ng are set to square off for the title of first OMGS Champion this Sunday.
Despite some talk of this upcoming World Cup of Pokémon being an all-ORAS tournament similar to previous incarnations, WCoP XI will continue to use the all-gen format created last year.
Finally, we would like to congratulate Zebraiken, who was recently appointed Head Tournament Director following McMeghan's departure. Best of luck in the new position, Zeb, and thanks for all the hard work you put into Tournaments over the years, McMegs.
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