I found this to be most interesting, as I almost wrote it in as well but decided not to. Ting-Lu is a bit too good at its job, as it can tank the strongest supereffective hits like it's nothing and do something annoying in return. I don't think there is one game that I have felt Ting-Lu has been useless, because it at the very least can scout a set and give me insight into how I should play the game. There is zero risk of running this Pokemon, and there will always be some reward, ranging from scouting a set to stacking hazards to stopping a set-up sweeper to chipping down everything with Ruination and Earthquake... and hazards... and Whirlwind. I used Ting-Lu in 4 of my 8 OUPL games, and it would always do its job of getting hazards up, eating hits with ease, keeping many threats in check, and racking up chip for my teammates. Even when building, I remember trying to make a Greninja team for one of my matches, and one my teammates pointed out that nothing could 2HKO Ting-Lu. I looked, and sure enough, Life Orb Greninja Hydro Pump is an unfavorable roll to 2HKO Ting-Lu with Leftovers. That should not even be possible for a Pokemon allowed in OU, but it makes sense that when you take Vessel of Ruin into account, Ting-Lu's bulk is essentially 155 / 125 / 123, making Pokemon like Ferrothorn and Toxapex look like feathers in comparison. The combination of Ruination and Earthquake off its decent 110 attack stat keep it an offensive presence as well, as you cannot use Ting-Lu as setup fodder. The support Ting-Lu provides a team is pretty unmatched, and I am impressed that it got the most amount of write-ins, but it is not an oppressive Pokemon and is not too hard to hit supereffectively and break down due to its lack of healing moves.
I remember Vert raving about Pecharunt and Fezandipiti during World Cup last year. While I had very little faith in Fezandipiti (which still is not entirely wrong), I saw some potential in Pecharunt, but still mostly preferred Sinistcha at the time for a spinblocker and Galarian Slowking as a grounded Poison pivot. To no one's surprise, this is one of many examples of Vert being a visionary, as Pecharunt is doing really well in the current meta. This Pokemon is obnoxious like Gliscor but more manageable as common Steel-types and the aforementioned Ting-Lu are pretty great into Pecharunt. Fast pivoting with Parting Shot, a sky-high defense, solid defensive typing, and the RNG of Malignant Chain's 50% toxic chance and Poison Puppeteer's 33% confusion chance is gross. Fast Pecharunt is really difficult to remove against, and I brought it to OUPL finals and won my game. Pecharunt was able to come in Great Tusk late in the game, take only 64% from Headlong Rush, take out the red health Great Tusk with Hex to keep Stealth Rock up, and force red-health Choice Band Roaring Moon to lock into Knock Off to take me out and get picked off by a Dragonite Extreme Speed. I would not have brought Pecharunt if I did not think it was a strong Pokemon, and even though all the Pokemon on my opponent's team could easily 2-shot me, Pecharunt still managed to be quite useful. While it is annoying to deal with, the metagame needs more time to develop around its presence before I can say it is uncompetitive.
