SCL III Coverage

By Theia, Aberforth, Nyx, royalfluxh, Estarossa, Floss, Danny, Dugza, TheShoddyStrawman, and zoe. Released:2024/02/03

Introduction

Smogon Champions League, or SCL, is a team tour focused around showcasing some of the best players in most of Smogon's lower tiers (not Monotype, despite their best efforts to kick LC out of the tour), bringing old faces and new talent alike to the big stage to battle for what is arguably the ugliest of Smogon's team tournament trophies.

Managing SCL this year were a number of returning faces, including SCL I champion Stone Cold, now alongside public Smogon enemy Leru, with the Orange Islanders; Star, back for a third season with the Indigo Platoon and joined by Tony once again; shiloh and Gingy with the Uncharted Terrors for the third year in a row; controversial pick Amaranth and -Howkings returning to the Technical Machines; Luthier returning with the Power Plant Dynamos, now with Tricking instead of Excal due to the latter being manager-banned for being unable to submit a proper roster; Hayburner back to manage the Arena Spartans with former Orange Islanders manager Vulpix03; and Garay oak with his third team in three years, managing the Circuit Breakers alongside Lunala, a decision that caused zero controversy whatsoever. New to managing SCL this edition were Raptor and njnp, hoping to turn around the terminally ninth place Mt. Silver Foxes; ima and Vert, taking up the Showdown Shoguns after the team's poor SCL II showing; and Smogtours's favorite Tournament Director false and Sjneider taking over the Studio Gibles.

Auction

: Managers: Hayburner and Vulpix03; Final Roster: Lily, TheFranklin, Ox the Fox, GXE, Niko, Mana, Sage, Tenzai, Icemaster, Toxigen, goldenghost, Wail Wailord, Taka, Jytcampbell

: Managers: Garay oak and Lunala; Final Roster: Nat, umbry, Highv0ltag3, M Dragon, gum, Gondra, tazz, Meminger21, Sylveon used calm mind, Elias PSY, eifo, babyboyblues, ishtar, bage1, London Beats

: Managers: Star and Tony; Final Roster: MichaelderBeste2, McMeghan, Ajna, Finchinator, Scottie, Xrn, zioziotrip, Santu, SiTuM, Axrtix, Lunar., SEA, Achimoo, Potatochan, teal6

: Managers: njnp and Raptor; Final Roster: mncmt, Floss, Carkoala, Thiago Nunes, Ann, Highlord, Xiri, Akaru Kokuyo, Togkey, Askov, mimilimi, Drifting, hariyana grande, asa, Éric

: Managers: Leru and Stone Cold; Final Roster: Exiline, JRL, pdt, Hacker, Welli0u, Wolf, robjr, Danny, DugZa, aesf, Rubyblood, Amukamara, Frania, hellom, Lokifan, tier

: Managers: Luthier and Tricking; Final Roster: fade, Kushalos, Separation, Beraldo, BIHI, Baloor, DAHLI, tko, Ash KetchumGamer, Feyy, Mashing, raf, Collette, s7a, clean

: Managers: ima and Vert; Final Roster: Gilbert arenas, blunder, lax, SoulWind, Storm Zone, xqiht, watashi, CTC, bb skarm, eragon11145, Edgar, Eniigma, Sabella, feen, LpZ

: Managers: false and Sjneider; Final Roster: Fc, mind gaming, Fogbound Lake, dcae, Eternal Spirit, zee, etern, z0mOG, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, GoldCat, justdrew, cleann, Dr. Phd. BJ, ninjadog, Cam, Clementine, Piyush25

: Managers: -Howkings and Amaranth; Final Roster: Malekith, Punny, Aberforth, TPP, entrocefalo, qsns, Savouras, freezai, Chloe, Acehunter1, JustFranco, Guille, Elfuseon, Expulso, Glue, vivalospride, Pokeslice, sempra, Isza

: Managers: Gingy and shiloh; Final Roster: Nails, sensei axew, xavgb, Feliburn, procorphish, Accel, Actuarily, oldspicemike, Laroxyl, RichardMillePlain, Meru, wesh papillon, Inder, Joeshh, avarice, Shaneghoul

Early Weeks

Week one really set the tone for the tournament, as one of the managers immediately DMed me to ask me "so, hypothetically, if I wanted to start three of my bench players in OU and then sub in my OU starters over them to get more advantageous matchups, is there a rule to stop me from doing that?" (The answer is yes.) And then DOU unbanned Basculegion-M four hours after week one was posted, which we did not allow in the tour for that week, much to the relief of the DOU players.

Week two happened at the same time as all of the quickdrops from DLC 1 into lower tiers, which meant that every single lower tier was rushing to do quickbans before the week went up and that I got irate DMs from lower tier TLs asking why I was not delaying the tour a week to give them time to tier (because the tour was already something like two or three weeks behind schedule due to the DLC drop already). Someone had also started a misinformation campaign that drops wouldn't be legal until week three, for reasons unknown to this day. We also found out at this point that the Shoguns only had three of the hosts and one opposing manager in their lineup DM on Smogon (though the Platoon were not to be outdone by this maneuver and had added every Smogon user with the name Michael to theirs) and that a number of managers struggle with reading comprehension and switch the DOU and Ubers slots on their lineups (this will happen a lot.)

Week three was (thankfully) mostly uneventful, bar the one of the only bans in the tournament happening at the end of it, which put the Dynamos down a PU player.

Week four kicked off with shiloh asking the host team to hold the week to see if the DOU double suspect of Basculegion-M and Flutter Mane that for some reason had a week-long voting deadline with voting that started on the Sunday week four was supposed to be posted (Spoiler: The vote did not resolve). This, of course, resulted in Smogtours exploding because week four was posted at 9 AM on Monday instead of 11 PM on Sunday and, as we all know, tournament players are known for fitting all of their games into that 10-hour gap and not playing 50 games on a Sunday.

Despite what Finchinator may tell you, there are intellectual brownie points to be earned by disproving the Power Rankings, and the Mt. Silver Foxes set out to earn as many as possible in the first half of the tournament, taking down the Shoguns, Gibles, and Spartans in convincing fashion (and losing to the Machines), with 3k LC starter Éric a standout with a 4-0 start to the tour. The Dynamos and Spartans, two teams predicted to do well, fell to the bottom of the standings, with the Spartans unable to put up a single win at all, having 3-1 Niko as their only positfiive player.

Midseason Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Points
Uncharted Terrors	3	0	1	7 (+8)
Mt. Silver Foxes	3	1	0	6 (+10)
Studio Gible	2	1	1	5 (+6)
Indigo Platoon	2	1	1	5 (+4)
Orange Islanders	2	1	1	5 (+4)
Technical Machines	1	1	2	4 (+0)
Circuit Breakers	1	1	2	4 (+0)
Showdown Shoguns	1	3	0	2 (-8)
Power Plant Dynamos	1	3	0	2 (-10)
Arena Spartans	0	4	0	0 (-14)

Later Weeks

The back half of the regular season started, naturally, with week five. The problem with week five is that Luthier took a leaf out of his old comanager Excal's book and gave us a lineup with a player not on his team. Annoying, but we can just revert his lineup to week four's, no harm and no foul, right? Wrong. If you've never hosted a tournament, something you should know is that the best way for managers to communicate team lineups is in a groupchat (preferably a Smogon DM) with every member of the host team. Not everyone does this, and in this case, the Dynamos were exclusively sending lineups to me in a Discord groupchat, and I passed them into the hosting chat. At 10 PM, I was sent a lineup that I passed to host chat without reading it. At 10:52 PM (eight minutes before the lineup submission deadline), the lineup was edited but the groupchat not bumped, so I was unaware of the edit. The week went up with the invalid lineup and we reverted it to week four's as soon as we noticed. However, Dynamos management contested that we should use their edited lineup because it was technically edited before the deadline even if we weren't informed of the change. Unfortunately, the host team had the misfortune of the Dynamos playing the Machines that week, and Amaranth's reaction to the decision not being posted until 6 AM on Tuesday can be easily found by searching terms like "unacceptable," "mishap," and "absurd" in the SCL channel.

In week six, the Breakers forgot to submit their lineup but thankfully did not cause us any issues (shoutout to eternally nice user Garay oak). The Spartans also started giving wins this week, a practice fairly common in unofficial team tours because no one has any honor once their team is mathematically out, but pix and Hayburner somehow got them to play all of their games, which puts them high on my personal manager standings for this tour. Nothing happened in week seven, and Nat got banned in week eight for three weeks, but this was a blissfully uneventful few weeks.

Going into week nine, the Machines, Gibles, Foxes, and Shoguns were all in reasonable contention for the fourth seed in the playoffs, so naturally the entire thing came down to an activity call when Highv0ltag3 failed to show up for their game against z0mOG, and the Circuit Breakers didn't provide a substitute when asked. Because this occurred on a Friday, people were outraged that the host team didn't overrule this act call that was completely in line with the rules to force z0mOG to play a sub. M Dragon declared that something like this would never have slid in his day, and he's probably right, considering that M Dragon's day was 2013. With the Gibles given an act win, they tied the week and moved into the playoffs instead of into a tiebreaker with the Machines, who had failed to secure their own spot by losing to, of all teams, the Spartans.

The Platoon kicked it into high gear, winning every single week in the back half of the tournament to secure the first seed with an impressive 15 points. The Terrors fell into second/third seed while the Islanders won three more weeks to tie them, pulling their way into the top three from fifth seed. The Foxes, after their early push, lost four of the remaining five weeks, dropping them down to the sixth seed. The Machines looked to be poised to take the fourth seed, but the Spartans, who were mathematically out by week five, decided to show up for their second win of the tournament to gatekeep the Machines, resulting in an incredible implosion as fingers were pointed at the managers, at Malekith and TPP going for a combined 3-15 over the regular season, and not at Highv0ltag3 for not showing up for their game.

Final Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Points
Indigo Platoon	7	1	1	15 (+22)
Orange Islanders	5	3	1	11 (+10)
Uncharted Terrors	5	3	1	11 (+10)
Studio Gible	3	3	3	9 (+2)
Technical Machines	3	3	3	9 (-2)
Mt. Silver Foxes	4	5	0	8 (-2)
Power Plant Dynamos	4	5	0	8 (-4)
Showdown Shoguns	4	5	0	8 (-4)
Circuit Breakers	2	4	7	7 (-12)
Arena Spartans	2	7	0	4 (-20)

Semifinals

Going into the semifinals, fourth seed Gibles would be facing the incredibly dominant first seed Platoon, while the Islanders would face the Terrors. Instead of running down every game that happened in these series, I can simply tell you that both ended in a tie, leading to the first tiebreaker(s) in SCL history. This tiebreaker also occurred right after December tier shifts, which, fun fact, there was no precedent for if tiebreakers should be played with or without shifts (we settled on without after shiloh argued about it with me and then went to Merritt about it).

The Platoon unsurprisingly chose LC, as Scottie was 10-0 and the Gibles' LC was a combined 0-10, while the Gibles unsurprisingly chose PU because S1nn0hC0nfirm3d was 9-1 and the Platoon's PU was Santu with a 5-5 record. The Platoon did not slot Santu for the tiebreaker, however, instead opting for MichaelderBeste2, and of the numerous players who played LC in the regular season, the Gibles opted for none of them and played ninjadog instead, whose first LC game of the tournament had been losing to Scottie in the semifinals after locking himself out of LC in the regular season. Scottie and S1nn0hConfirm3d both won their games as expected, taking the tiebreaker down to Finchinator versus mind gaming, a game that was largely decided by Finchinator's Galarian Slowking getting paralyzed and ending another SCL run for the Platoon just short of the trophy, something that many believe to be karma for Tony and Star going back on their promise to play teal6 in the tiebreaker if one happened.

The Islanders picked UU for their tiebreaker, where pdt was currently 7-3, and shiloh made me wait twelve hours past the deadline to pick DOU, where Nails was currently 5-4. With the Islanders' best-performing OU slot in Rubyblood reportedly having quit Pokémon (ignore that he signed up for SPL like two weeks after this), Welli0u took up the OU spot in the tiebreaker, while the Terrors made the easy decision to play xavgb. The first Islanders-Terrors tiebreak game didn't even take place until after the whole Platoon-Gibles tiebreaker was over, then all occurred within a two hour span of each other. Nails handily beat JRL in twelve turns, then pdt did the same to Accel in 29 turns, once again bringing it down to the OU game. xavgb was strongly favored to win, and he seemed to have control of the game until Welli0u brought out a physically defensive Rocky Helmet Gholdengo that tanked two Acrobatics from a +2 Tera Flying Hawlucha to secure the Islanders their spot in the finals.

Finals

Studio Gible (5) vs (5) Orange Islanders
SV OU: mind gaming vs aesf
SV OU: Piyush25 vs Welli0u
SV OU: Fogbound Lake vs Wolf
SV Ubers: Fc vs Exiline
SV DOU: z0mOG vs JRL
SV UU: Eternal Spirit vs pdt
SV RU: cleann vs robjr
SV NU: etern vs Danny
SV PU: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs DugZa
SV LC: ninjadog vs Hacker

Game One: DOU - z0mOG vs Jrl

For DOU, the Gibles' z0mog went up against the Islanders' JRL, with z0mog bringing a Chi-Yu + Flutter Mane core backed up by Ogerpon-W and Glimmora in addition to a Landorus-T and Iron Hands to round out the team and JRL going for a team with Kingambit, Volcanion, and his own Flutter Mane supported by Tornadus and Rillaboom. On the first turn, z0mog seemed to be in a decent position due to Chi-Yu landing an Overheat on the Volcanion switching in as well as Landorus-T's U-turn allowing Glimmora to get in against a Flutter Mane and a damaged Volcanion. However, JRL's Flutter Mane revealed Icy Wind despite Protosythesis boosting its Special Attack as opposed to Speed, allowing Volcanion to outspeed and KO Glimmora in addition to putting z0mog's Flutter Mane in a bad position, flipping the momentum of the game. z0mog sent out Ogerpon-W afterwards in an attempt to get the game back in his favor, but it failed to KO Volcanion and got punished with a Will-O-Wisp, making it exponentially less threatening for the rest of the game. After that point, z0mog had to leverage Chi-Yu as much as possible due to the KO on JRL's Volcanion making it considerably more threatening, but as it got a solid hit off into both Rillaboom and Kingambit, it took a High Horsepower, cutting down its HP considerably. After that, z0mog's Flutter Mane fell to a Grassy Glide and Sucker Punch despite having used Tera Fairy. After a sequence between z0mog's Iron Hands and Ogerpon-W caused JRL's Tornadus and Landorus-T to lose a substantial amount of HP, and JRL's Landorus-T was revealed to be a highly unusual special attacking set usually seen on its Incarnate forme and especially rare in high-level tournament play, Chi-Yu dodged a crucial Sandsear Storm and finished off both, bringing the game to a 1v1 between Chi-Yu and Flutter Mane, with the latter KOing the former despite the lack of a boosting item, giving JRL the victory.

Game Two: OU - mind gaming vs aesf

aesf loads an offense team with the classic Zapdos + Galarian Slowking + Great Tusk core and notably pairs them with Ogerpon-W, which is an offensive threat itself that also provides a crucial Water immunity against foes like Walking Wake and Manaphy that would otherwise be problematic for the aforementioned core. On the other hand, mind gaming brought a similar-looking team that lacked Great Tusk—or any hazard removal for that matter—which means most of the team, including offensive threats in Dragapult, Meowscarada, and Zamazenta, are running Heavy-Duty Boots, especially due to the former two's tendency to pivot in and out of battle with U-turn. Moreover, Dragapult also has more freedom to spread status with either Thunder Wave or Will-O-Wisp to make use of its stronger STAB move in Hex, especially in conjunction with Zapdos, Galarian Slowking, and Heatran's propensity to spread status. On turns 15 and 16, aesf's Kingambit gladly trades with the Zapdos—not even using Sucker Punch at all to prevent the bird from using Roost freely—to open up the team's other setup sweeper in IronPress Zamazenta to put in work, especially after mind gaming's Galarian Slowking is forced to Terastallize away its Fighting resistance in front of Great Tusk on turn 25. The free entry for Zamazenta in front of Meowscarada gives it the perfect setup opportunity, especially since it reveals Tera Fire to resist Flower Trick and gain an immunity to Dragapult's potential Will-O-Wisp. Luckily, the dog manages to pull through the paralysis on a crucial turn 33, preventing Dragapult and Meowscarada from running through its team and thus clutching the game.

Game Three: PU - S1nn0hC0nfim3d vs DugZa

With the Islanders being up 2-0, having claimed the first two games of the finals, the third game of the series was one of the more lopsided matchups with S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, who was sporting a solid 10-1 record at the time, facing off against DugZa, who had fewer than half of S1nn0hC0nfirm3d's wins with a lackluster 4-6 record.

With the finals being played in a completely new metagame, both players faced off with very different-looking teams. S1nn0hC0nfirm3d opted for an offensive team that incorporated three of the four new Pokémon—Eelektross, Floatzel, and Palossand—that PU was blessed with in the December shifts. Conversely, DugZa opted for a more bulky "semi-stall" team, featuring the rare Ditto.

The match starts off with S1nn0hC0nfirm3d's Floatzel using Flip Turn to bring in Skuntank against DugZa's Lurantis, revealing Choice Band in the process. Skuntank is then able to Knock Off the opposing Hisuian Avalugg's Heavy-Duty Boots on the switch, which proves to be pivotal later on in the game. The match then continues in a fairly straightforward way, and both sides manage to get Stealth Rock up in the next few turns. With Avalugg losing its item and hazards being up, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d's Skuntank is able to successfully pressure DugZa's team while preventing Avalugg's recovery by using Taunt on turn 14. Avalugg claims a sacrifice in Palossand the following turn as it forces out Skuntank and is successfully able to KO Floatzel on turn 16 as well on a predicted double switch. The match then continues with DugZa switching in Muk against the opposing Eelektross while preserving his low HP Avalugg; he sacrifices Muk soon after, which was arguably a poor choice, as it results in S1nn0hC0nfirm3d's Eelektross being much harder to switch into. Ditto successfully revenge kills the opposing Skuntank the following turn, and the next few turns continue in a quite straightforward way until turn 22, with DugZa's Articuno and S1nn0hC0nfirm3d's Farigiraf facing off. The Farigiraf is revealed to be a Nasty Plot + Trick Room set, which was always tricky to deal with for DugZa's team, and the Hurricane miss complicates the situation. The next few turns end up going back and forth between Farigiraf clicking Nasty Plot and Tera Dragon Articuno clicking Haze and Roost or being forced out before Trick Room ends. S1nn0hC0nfirm3d also has to be cautious to position himself so that DugZa's Ditto is not able to reverse sweep after copying his Farigiraf. The Farigiraf then opts to switch out against DugZa's Palossand without revealing its Tera type, and the next few turns are a back-and-forth of switching and attacking between the other Pokémon until S1nn0hC0nfirm3d is able to bring in Farigiraf safely again on turn 38 against Lurantis. It then sets up Trick Room and continues to pressure the rest of DugZa's team, and just as DugZa's Articuno is about to successfully PP stall it out of Psyshock, it reveals itself to be Tera Fairy, blasts away the Dragon-type Articuno, and continues to sweep the rest of the team with ease. Despite both sides having some shaky moments in the game, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d emerged victorious and, with that, secured one of the best team tour records ever with 11 wins and a single loss throughout the tour.

Game Four: LC - ninjadog vs Hacker

SCL finals was between rising star and SCL newcomer Hacker, winner of the LC Circuit last year, and ninjadog, a longtime veteran of the tier and winner of the LC Open in 2021. Hacker had an average record of 4-5 for a newcomer, while Studio Gible had a lot of trouble getting footing in LC this season, going 1-8 in the tier.

The game starts off with Hacker leading Wingull into ninjadog’s Foongus. After scouting with Protect to see if the Foongus is actually a Zorua, Hacker misses a Hurricane. This results in Wingull taking a Spore and Hacker losing his most potent progress maker. After exchanging some blows with each side’s Mienfoo and Vullaby, ninjadog manages to claim Hacker’s Glimmet as it uses Stealth Rock on Vullaby. Ninjadog's Vullaby gets a lucky critical hit with U-turn on Hacker’s Hisuian Voltorb but gets paralyzed. Hacker plays aggressively, claiming ninjadog’s Glimmet at the cost of Toxic Spikes on his side without his own Glimmet to absorb them. Soon after, both players use Tera Ground in the hopes of taking the opposing threat; Hacker uses Tera Ground Vullaby to remove a potential Tera Steel Mienfoo, while ninjadog uses Tera Ground Mienfoo to avoid a super effective Brave Bird and take it out with a High Jump Kick on the crack back. Neither attack KOes, but both sides remain relatively even for the rest of the battle. ninjadog gets Life Orb Alolan Diglett in safely against Vullaby, forcing Hacker to scramble to be able to deal with it. Unfortunately, his lack of resources left him trying to outplay his opponent. ninjadog plays it extremely straightforward, not allowing the win to slip out of his hands. Getting a second win in Little Cup for Studio Gible, ninjadog emerges victorious.

Game Five: NU - etern vs Danny

On Preview, the matchup looks relatively even; on Danny’s side of the field, Brute Bonnet and Salazzle look relatively threatening, while on etern’s side, Snorlax and Mismagius can cause some problems for Danny. Both players lead with their Ground-types, where etern opts to get up Stealth Rock early as Danny gets some irrecoverable chip on the Sandslash. Danny gets his hazards up on turn 2 as etern goes Altaria to apply some pressure. Danny clicks Snipe Shot as etern goes hard into his Toxicroak. On turn 5, etern clicks Gunk Shot and gets what is seemingly only an annoying poison on the Palossand. From turn 8 through 10, we see a bit more positioning plays as Danny manages to get his Avalugg in on the Snorlax. etern opts to go into Klefki on the Avalugg as Danny removes the hazards, revealing Iron Defense after as Danny goes for an Earthquake. From turn 16 through 29, etern reveals the real threat hidden in the weeds. Snorlax comes in on turn 16 on Danny's Chansey and begins to set up. Danny attempts to go to his Palossand in order to drop the Snorlax’s Attack stat with Chilling Water; however, because of the Gunk Shot poison from earlier, Snorlax is actually the one to stall out Palossand instead of the other way around, forcing Danny to make otherwise strange plays. On turn 30, Danny tries in vain to get some chip damage on the Snorlax with Inteleon, and two turns after, he uses his Tera on Brute Bonnet in order to maybe get a critical hit on the Snorlax, but to no avail. All later turns are seemingly irrelevant, as etern opts to switch out his Snorlax in order to weaken Danny’s already crippled team. On turn 44, etern sacrifices his Sandslash to the Brute Bonnet’s Spore. Danny attempts to make some kind of progress with his Salazzle by setting up a Nasty Plot and breaking through the Altaria, but it is scared out by etern's Mismagius. By turn 59, etern manages to get his Snorlax in on Danny's Chansey and sets up to finish the game. This game is an example of how devastating small things can be.

Game Six: RU - cleann vs robjr

The game between robjr and cleann was one to watch for, as both players were heading into the finals in good spirits. rob had just come off his most impressive win of the season against Feliburn, whereas cleann had upset Ajna in the semifinals against all odds to pick up the Gible's first win in RU. Both players loaded up balance hazard stack teams, where cleann's team leaned towards the offensive end with a wallbreaker in Choice Specs Toxtricity, while rob's team had a bulkier leaning to it. The aforementioned Toxtricity proved itself a threat quickly with a turn 1 Tera to attempt to break down rob's team with Boomburst, which was further facilitated by the unexpected Flare Blitz Talonflame that brought down Tinkaton to low health. However, cleann's Toxtricity was dealt with by a combination of a critical hit and Toxic Chain activation by a +1 Fezandipiti, which opened up the pathway for rob's Galarian Slowbro to take over the game with no Pokémon left that could pose a significant threat to it. cleann's own Fezandipiti attempted to put up some resistance by attempting to stall out Glowbro's Psyshock PP with help from Moonblast's Special Attack drops, but it was an ultimately futile effort. robjr concluded with a 7-4 record in RU, with wins in both playoff series capping off a strong season for him.

Game Seven: OU - Fogbound Lake vs Wolf

With both teams running Rillaboom alongside teammates that take advantage of its Terrain, Wolf leans into a hyper offense variant with classic faces like Air Balloon Heatran as the Stealth Rock setter and a setup sweeper in Grassy Seed Hawlucha, while Fogbound Lake takes a slightly bulkier approach in hazard stacking with a Ting-Lu that runs both Spikes and Stealth Rock alongside Gholdengo. The beautiful reveal of Tera Poison on Ursaluna manages to flip the matchup against Zamazenta, and due to its newfound Grass resistance being crucial against revenge killers like Rillaboom and potentially Energy Ball Iron Moth, it manages to force a trade with Zapdos—which needs to chip it down into Gholdengo's KO range—as well. While Zapdos being gone might mean Wolf's Rillaboom, Zamazenta, and Hawlucha will go ham, Fogbound Lake's bulky Gholdengo in the back should still stave off the remaining opposition bar Heatran. From turn 12 onwards, the brave Ting-Lu commits to setting as many entry hazards as possible, even with the risks of Hatterene potentially switching in or it having to expend its Tera Ghost—which is mostly used for spinblocking pursposes, especially on sets that run both hazards—in front of Zamazenta's strong Close Combats to do so. With Ting-Lu no longer alive, Fogbound Lake manages to pivot around Heatran's attacks until it's at -4, where Gholdengo can safely come in. With entry hazards significantly cutting into Wolf's remaining team as planned, in conjunction with its ability to fish for paralysis shenanigans—especially with Wolf's attempts of going for the safer play with Earth Power on Heatran instead of Overheat that unfortunately backfired—Gholdengo remains unbreakable and completes its prophecy of reverse sweeping.

Game Eight: OU - Piyush25 vs Welli0u

Zapdos + Galarian Slowking makes another appearance on Piyush25's offense team with potentially Choice Scarf Enamorus to provide speed control and Healing Wish support for the two setup sweepers in Ogerpon-W and Kingambit, facing off against Welli0u's hazard stacking bulky offense that features Hisuian Samurott + Clodsire as the hazard setters alongside the mandatory Gholdengo to prevent most methods of hazard removal. Speaking of, Clodsire is the highlight pick here, since it's commonly seen on fatter structures only due to its relative passivity; luckily in this matchup, aside from walling Enamorus, it's a very sturdy answer to the annoying Zapdos—especially since the tier's other Ground-types like Landorus-T and the omnipresent Great Tusk hate facing it. Piyush takes the early lead on turn 6, when Ogerpon-W—which looks to be an absolute threat in this matchup due to the only Water-resistant Pokémon, Hisuian Samurott, wanting nothing to do with it—Terastallized to flip the matchup against Tornadus-T and eventually gets brought in safely via Galarian Slowking's Chilly Reception on turn 11 to claim another KO on the Choice Scarf Gholdengo. Trying to maintain their lead, Piyush trades their mid-game Kingambit for damage on the Hisuian Samurott and Zapdos and manages to send Stealth Rock to Welli0u's side with Cinderace's Court Change. However, from turn 26 onwards, Welli0u is able to turn the tides with Zamazenta; not only does it take care of Zapdos with a well-timed Stone Edge, but by using Tera Steel to prevent Enamorus from revenge killing it, it also forces Piyush to sacrifice not only Ogerpon-W but also Cinderace, as Galarian Slowking needs more health from Regenerator to survive another hit from Zamazenta. At this point, Welli0u is able to get Hisuian Samurott in on Galarian Slowking, and Clodsire is able to close out the game.

Game Nine: UU - Eternal Spirit vs pdt

The lead matchup for this game was interesting, Eternal Spirit (Gama) had some definite threats like Gyarados and Tyranitar that could potentially prove challenging for pdt, but likewise, pdt's Enamorus-T and Scizor looked dangerous. Both sides' Tornadus-T could definitely be threats too, although a Tyranitar and Enamorus-T would prevent their own Tornadus-T from being the answer, at least short term.

The first few turns see Gama manage to Knock Off pdt's Tornadus-T's Assault Vest while pdt gets up Stealth Rock and reveals a Booster Energy Iron Treads set. Gama shortly after removes Stealth Rock with his own Iron Treads, which pdt uses as an opportunity to set up with his Nasty Plot Hydreigon. Unfortunately this attempt is short lived, as Gama stops it with his Assault Vest Tornadus-T.

pdt follows this with an attempt to make progress by setting up his Scizor against Gama's Iron Treads. Gama correctly predicts that pdt's Scizor is running Close Combat and Terastallizes his Iron Treads into a Ghost-type, resulting in pdt losing his Scizor. However, this use of Tera helps make counterplay against some of Gama's other threats more predictable late-game.

Gama uses pdt's revenge killing of Iron Treads as an opportunity to get his Stealth Rock up as he loses it, after which a short exchange sees pdt's Tornadus-T get severely weakened to Gama's, and his Iron Treads gets sacrificed against Meowscarada.

This was the perfect opportunity pdt was looking for to get his Enamorus-T onto the field, though, as he proceeds to set up and beat Tyranitar with Tera Fairy. The rest of Gama's team quickly falls to this enormous threat as Hoopa-U fails to kill it, and Enamorus-T fully heals back with Draining Kiss and sweeps the rest of Gama's team as he fails to land a Waterfall flinch with Gyarados, ensuring pdt's victory through a well-timed setup with Enamorus-T.

Game Ten: Ubers - Fc vs Exiline

The final game of the series was in Ubers, between Fc for the Gibles and Exiline for the Islanders, and Fc had to win this game at all costs to force a tiebreak to occur. At Preview, we see a clash of the two dominant playstyles of DLC 1 Ubers, balance leaning towards bulky offense from Fc and straight up hyper offense from Exiline. Fc has a number of Pokémon that are able to easily go one-for-one against hyper offense, but he needs to be careful to not allow any of Exiline's dangerous sweepers the opportunity to set up. On the other hand, Exiline has a strong arsenal of powerful setup sweepers and has to try to force opportunities to safely get them in. Fc strategically led with Miraidon, denying Exiline's Glimmora the ability to get up more than just a singular layer of hazards, and notably, no Toxic Spikes. Miraidon was not the only Pokémon that could've prevented this, but it does prevent anything else on Exiline's team from coming in afterwards to set up. Despite this, Exiline brings in Rayquaza and clicks Dragon Dance, as Miraidon clicks Draco Meteor to bring Rayquaza down to its Focus Sash. Fc then cleverly switches to Landorus-T, which is holding a Rocky Helmet, to take out Rayquaza quickly. Exiline then tries to get back onto the front foot with Scale Shot from Koraidon, but it only hits four times and leaves Landorus-T on 1%, which allows Fc to reveal Rock Tomb and negate the Speed boost. From here on out, Exiline tries to get back into the game via the use of Double Dance Miraidon, Swords Dance EKiller Arceus, and Trick Room Calyrex-I, but Fc simply had enough sacrifices to be able to reliably revenge kill each of these, securing him the win, and pushing the series into a tiebreak.

Finals Tiebreaker

Studio Gible (2) vs (0) Orange Islanders
SV OU: mind gaming vs Welli0u
SV DOU: z0mOG vs JRL
SV PU: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs pdt

Game One: OU - mind gaming vs Welli0u

Trying to redeem themself from the most recent loss in the grand finals, mind gaming brings forth a highly offensive team to face off against Welli0u, whose defensive core of Garganacl + Amoonguss + Landorus-T seems to match up well against the whole cast of the opposing team, including Gholdengo if Garganacl runs the appropriate Tera type. Winning the mind game on turn 3 by knowing that Sucker Punch will not be used due to predicting a switch, Gholdengo manages to nail Kingambit with Focus Blast, making itself and fellow teammates like Choice Specs Dragapult and non-Low Kick Kingambit even scarier. Consequently, this forces Garganacl to reveal Tera Electric on turn 8 and become the team's expected Gholdengo check, with the Steel resistance also being handy against Kingambit's Iron Head and the Fighting neutrality helping with Zamazenta's Close Combat. After chipping down the physically defensive Landorus-T significantly, mind gaming pulls the trigger and sacrifices his Cinderace on turn 17 just to get off the Court Change. Moving Stealth Rock into Welli0u's side of the field not only provides mind gaming with a reliable way to chip Amoonguss and Garganacl but also notably means Landorus-T will be KOed on switching in, which stops any attempts of Intimidate cycling on the team's physical attackers—Kingambit and Zamazenta—and prevents Stealth Rock from ever going going up on mind gaming's side again. Therefore, with the stage set, mind gaming's Kingambit—with Terastallization still available—is in prime position to sweep. However, the dream was cut short as Welli0u's Destiny Bond Iron Valiant worthily traded its life to take the Kingambit down with it. The game state now shows both Dragapult are huge threats to each other's team; aside from being the fastest Pokémon remaining in the game, the lack of Draco Meteor switch-ins is now very apparent for mind gaming's Choice Specs Dragapult, while Welli0u's Heavy-Duty Boots Dragapult can threaten the two Ghost-types with Hex and Zamazenta with Will-O-Wisp. However, the nail in the coffin occurs from turn 30 onwards, when mind gaming manages to pivot around Welli0u's Dragapult to bring his Gholdengo in safely, with the surprise Custap Berry luring the phantom dragon to stay in and get cleanly OHKOed, which eventually gives the team the upper hand in this tiebreak series.

Game Two: DOU - z0mOG vs JRL

JRL and z0mog got their rematch shortly after the semifinals as DOU was picked to be played in the tiebreaker. This time around, JRL and z0mog brought the same five Pokémon: Tornadus, Landorus-T, Iron Hands, Ogerpon-W, and Gholdengo, with z0mog having Chi-Yu and JRL Volcanion as their last slots. The game went back and forth until turn 4, when JRL attempted to get Gholdengo going with both Tera Dragon and Nasty Plot. In response, z0mOG used Tera on his Chi-Yu to threaten to KO Gholdengo with an uncommon Tera Fairy Tera Blast (try saying that five times fast) set. The game after that point became one of positioning, with both looking for an opportunity to turn it in their favor. z0mOG managed to strike the first meaningful blow by KOing JRL's weakened Ogerpon-W as well as protecting his Tornadus for the endgame, at the cost of Landorus-T fainting to a +3 Make it Rain. Chi-Yu then took Landorus-T's place, KOing Iron Hands as Gholdengo used Protect, turning the tide of the game in his favor. JRL switched Gholdengo out in order to preserve it, but z0mOG's Tornadus set Tailwind as it was taken out, making the Gholdengo replacing it extremely threatening, especially next to Chi-Yu. After that, JRL attempted to counteract z0mOG's Tailwind with his own but wasn't able to get in his Choice Scarf Landorus-T in time, allowing z0mOG to KO both JRL's Tornadus and Gholdengo during his last turn of Tailwind, giving him the deciding win of SCL III.

Conclusion

Congratulations to the Gibles for their hard-earned victory! Despite the struggles in many of the team's slots, they pulled through time after time against teams perceived as much stronger than them to obtain their green trophy. Unfortunately, Gibles manager false didn't fully share the happy sentiments about his team, and McMeghan's helpful guide on deleting trophies from people's badgesets being posted after this tour was surely coincidental.

Check out all of the replays from SCL III and stay tuned for SCL IV, which will take place in the DLC 2 metagame and surely bring with it another talented group of players, new and old, ready for the spotlight.

HTML by Steorra.

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