Tournaments SPL XV - GSC Discussion

[vani]

Hello GSC enthusiasts! With SPL XV underway, this thread will be used to discuss GSC related topics, whether it's about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on.

SPL XV Commencement Thread
SPL XV Schedule
SPL XV Spreadsheet
SPL XV Power Rankings

Auction Results

GSC Cores
Likely GSC Starters
Likely Support and/or Substitute Players
Manager support

Alpha Ruiners - Siatam, Malekith
Circus Maximus Tigers - RealJester / false, M Dragon, Garay oak
Cryonicles - Conflict, Vileman, Nalorium
Congregation of the Classiest - Fear, d0nut
Dragonspiral Tyrants - Rubyblood, Mister Sauce
Ever Grande Bigs - Zokuru, susciety
Indie Scooters - vani
Stark Sharks - ggggd, Aliss, lax
Team Raiders - Kenix, Chiles Habaneros
Wi-Fi Wolfpack - ziloXX, ABR, D4 Repertoire

Projected GSC Starter Prices

26k - Conflict
20.5k - Fear
14k - Siatam
9.5k - Kenix
9k - Rubyblood
6k - vani
4k - ziloXX
3.5k - ggggd, RealJester/false, Zokuru

 

[Bohrier]

I read some where on smogtours that ImperfectLuck is doing GSC. Ofc he will have rubyblood and bd support

Edit: I have found out that he is banned. Ok.

 

[hellpowna]

Despite the disappointment of not being drafted, complicit perhaps in my not-so-positive results during this year, (surely a reason to work harder and come back stronger), I want to congratulate everyone drafted.
I am especially happy for Kenix, Chiles and Ruby, players with whom I have shared time and whose value I particularly appreciate.
I also wish all the best to Fear, not only a true icon of this tier, but most of all a wonderful person with whom i have bonded in the last period.
I look forward to many interesting battles with many interesting teams.
Good luck everyone!

 

[Fantos13]

Gl to everyone who gets to play this season; hyped for my goats vani and conflict, as well as hopefully Chiles, Aliss, Sus, Vile and Nalo to play <3

 

[RealJester]

Not really a huge fan of Power Rankings, but seeing as this thread is currently more desolate than my team chat, I thought I'd liven it up a bit by giving some of my thoughts on the players.
Alpha Ruiners - Siatam

One of the five and a half regularly active members of the GSC discord, Siatam's been directly responsible for a lot of the tier's resources being updated in recent times. This is reflected in his team choice, being varied and unpredictable while still generally preferring teching overall solid squads for a given matchup. In terms of play, he's very solid and has shown a knack for strong earlygame positioning, in particular. I think his biggest weakness is that he sometimes overextends in the team department vs veterans where he should be more trusting of his ability to outplay. Siatam's experience is likely to do him well vs a pool with a fair number of new starters.

Cryonicles - Conflict

, Vileman

Conflict's coming hot off of a Classic win, and there's no reason to think that his formula for the past several years will stop working now. His ability to read the game state makes him particularly strong at knowing when to pull triggers to reverse momentum, and his teams are well-tailored to his playstyle. If he can resist the urge to put counter on every single poke, it should be pretty smooth sailing for the Don. I also think that Vileman's quite good, and I don't really know how he's been scammed out of a starting spot for a million years in a row. I could definitely see him being subbed in if Conflict needs to move to ADV and performing well, so long as he doesn't take too many unecessary risks (Snorlax is supposed to switch out of Cloyster boom, pal). His high-octane offensive stuff can be a little one dimensional, so he'd need to be careful about overrelying on it, but he is a vigorous player that keeps up the pressure.

Congregation of the Classiest - Fear

My pick for the greatest GSCer of all time, Fear hardly needs any introduction. I think he wins the "Most Likely to Succeed" award this year for a number of reasons: his play is consistently sharp and measured, his teams can alternate between the established standard and creative, and he has an eye for finding and exploiting an opponent's weakness. Like Conflict, at times his team choice can get kind of wild, but I think he's generally a little bit better about reining it in. The major hurdle I could see for Fear this year is a decline in interest and time investment, but in the event that he needs to take a step back in effort, he has the ever-coveted d0nut support.
Dragonspiral Tyrants - Rubyblood

, BlazingDark

The Tyrants' lineup took a bit of a hit after A Certain Someone got banned, but thankfully they had Heckle and Jeckle on standby, both of whom are nice options for the slot. Both of them seem pretty similar in style (no surprise, seeing as how they're conjoined at the hip), although I am a bit surprised that it's not Ruby in the slot, considering how well he was playing in GSC Cup. Even still, I've teamed with Mister Sauce ™ enough to know that he's proficient in the tier. I feel like most of the games I've seen out of him have been vs relatively less proficient opponents, but I'm excited to see how his Starmie Armada fares on the big stage.

Ever Grande Bigs - Zokuru

, Susciety

Although he is certainly Eccentric (Gengar rank 1, anybody?), Zokuru's style is well-defined and his playing ceiling is high. Predictability is relatively more difficult to exploit in a small, centralized metagame like GSC, so I actually take less issue with his Strong Preferences here than I might in another tier. With that being said, there are still a number of ways to take advantage of the types of teams Zok likes most, as his NidoGar offenses and his stalls have a nonzero amount of overlapping weaknesses. He has the ability to succeed, but he'll have to Go Beyond his comfort zone and his obstinate view of the tier. Finally, I feel that Mr. Ruins of Alph Room Moderator complements Zokuru's style pretty well, and that he'll offer nice ideas for build diversity.
Indie Scooters - vani

Quiet, reliable, and persistent are the words I'd use to describe vani as a player. Like Siatam, vani grinds the circuit tours all year round, to good success. He's deserved his shot in SPL for a while and I'm glad that he's getting it now. In general, I like how he plays and I think he's good at not overextending in long games, but conversely, I also think that he could stand to hold his booms for a bit longer when he's playing offense. On the whole, I'm excited to see how he evolves in a high-stakes environment.
Stark Sharks - ggggd

, Aliss

I honest to god have no clue what to say about Pablo, outside of the observation that he desperately needs a smogon name change. While he did well last year, there was a lot of luck involved in his wins, and I'm curious to see how he continues to develop his style in this tournament now that he's starting full time. From what I'm told, he really didn't want to play GSC this season, so I think we're likely to be seeing Aliss sub in here. In the meanwhile, it's nice that he has someone to help him with the nuances of the tier and build for him in case he needs it. I think in the event that Aliss subs in, she'll see more success if she focuses on her long-term gameplanning; stall has been a bit of a hurdle for her in the past. If she's able to overcome her mental blocks, she'll definitely be a strong contender.
Team Raiders - Kenix

, Chiles Habaneros

Although it's probably a bad idea to feed his ego by saying this, I think Carapinga's a very strong, proactive pilot and pretty much always brings solid teams that give him room to outplay. Unfortunately, it seems that he has been whisked away to RBYland, although I can hardly blame him with how many strong challengers there are. I'm not too disappointed, though, as Chiles is a long-time lover of the tier that's finally getting his well-deserved shot. I think he takes a lot of high-risk, high-reward lines, which means that he's usually either giving a beatdown or receiving one. It remains to be seen if Kenix will try to steer Chiles away from his prediction-based, Heracross-loving style, or if he'll encourage him to embrace it.
Wifi Wolfpack - ziloXX

Generally someone who keeps a lower profile as a sub, zilo's stepping up to a full time starter slot. Although I'm not too familiar with his game as a whole, I've been impressed when I've played him, making frenetic choices to maintain tempo. Like with Chiles, I'm curious to see how much influence his support has on his team choice; hopefully he doesn't let his teammates convince him to load a team with 3 damaging moves total. Although I'm partially joking, I think that he should remember to use teams that he likes and that play to his strengths.

Good luck to everyone this season!

 

[gorgie]

zilo last? Zok over zilo? Aliss and ggggd over zilo? Siatam over Conflict? Interesting takes.

Let's see how it shakes out

 

[Siatam]

zilo last? Zok over zilo? Aliss and ggggd over zilo? Siatam over Conflict? Interesting takes.

Let's see how it shakes out

I easily secured the #1 slot on Jester’s PR by being on the #1 team when sorted by alphabetical order.
Shame what team zilo ended up on…

 

[Siatam]

Here's the teams that I used this year in SPL. I won't spend much time discussing the games or how I prepared for them, this is more an overview of the teambuilding and strategies each team uses.

Week 1 vs. vani

(Replay)
The idea behind this team is using back Agility pass Smeargle + Marowak to take advantage of people sacrificing HP on Cloyster for early Spikes vs Snorlax. Most offense teams can't reliably stop Spore Smeargle from Baton Passing and only have Cloy to stand against +2 speed Marowak. Of course it is a lot easier for Smeargle to Baton Pass from the lead slot, so the rest of the team helps set up a scenario where Smeargle can set up Agility without being OHKO'd. (Aka get rid of the Explosion mons the opponent has or get Smeargle in on a Sleep Talker)
The Forre set is goofy and I don't recommend you run it on regular team. Spikes + Explosion is good, Toxic slows down Curse Lax, and spin supports Wak. Most prominently for Smeargle trying to BP on Zapdos to Marowak - prevents Hidden Power from 2HKOing. Drill Peck on Zapdos exists pretty much only for Exeggutor.
The opening line for this team is very simple, stay in with Lax and click click click against basically everything. Go Forre is the opponent reveals Curse Lax.

Week 2 vs. ggggd

(Replay)
I like Thief Gengar but I don't like how easily it is Pursuit trapped. However, if the opponent has Pursuit they most likely have some form of MonoLax. In that case Screech Tyranitar should be pretty good. This combination is my attempt to hedge my bets in various matchups to always have some sort of advantage. Reflect + Whirlwind Zapdos is here to help against Earthquake Snorlax which can be a little dicey for this team. If you're using this team you'll want to exploit Snorlax without Leftovers or use Explosion to remove it.
Semi-related, but I find it very interesting how the lead Jynx vs Zapdos line has changed in the past ~year. Most Zapdos stay in a Thunder Jynx T1 to avoid Jynx landing Thief on Snorlax. This evolution in strategy has significantly changed how I rate lead Jynx. It is no longer the instant momentum tool it used to be. If I faced lead Zap with this team against ggggd I planned to switch Jynx out.

Week 3 vs. RealJester

(Replay)
Wouldn't it be funny to disguise a team as Lax/Cloy/Kou/Egg/Golem/Hera? Wouldn't it be funny to also disguise the team as Lax/Cloy/Kou/Zap/Golem/Champ? In all seriousness this team plays closers to double elec + Machamp than it does your usual Hera boom offense. Rest Talk Heracross has a similar defensive profile to Zapdos but pairs nicely with Machamp with Seismic Toss to chip the opponent's Zap/Skarm. On the flip side Machamp can also sacrifice its HP to trade with flyers to make clear the way for Hera.
The team is pretty fraudulent against Curse Heracross so if you want to use it often its probably best to change Hidden Power Ghost on Machamp for a different coverage move.

Week 4 vs. BlazingDark

(Replay)
This is an offense team masquerading as a stall. It preys on people's assumptions about Blissey's typical role and sets. No recovery on Blissey is an unusual choice, but since 99% of Blissey are running SoftBoiled you'll just waste PP if you spam special attacks into it. Most people will just switch out their special attackers against Bliss. Since Blissey is also assumed to be Heal Bell support people don't expect the third coverage move. Ice Beam and Toxic are usually the two moves I reveal first to lure in the opponent's Spiker and bop Forre with a Flamethrower or Cloyster with a Present. Toxic Blissey is annoying enough for offense teams, but it can also be a hilariously effective stall breaker in the right matchup. (It sauces Lax/Kou/Skarm/Forre/Umb/Mie for example) Here's a fun ladder replay of Blissey cooking stall that I don't have anywhere else to share.
I like the idea behind team but the techs really did not work into BD's Spikesless team + Miltank team. I also got punished for my Forre greed. I wish I brought the Gengar > Starmie version which is my standard last slot on this team.

Week 5 vs. Zokuru

(Replay)
This team was graciously donated (read: stolen) from Kenix after he used it against me in GSC circuit champs. I liked the idea of using a Spikes-less team with double Growth Eeveelutions for wall breaking power. I think there is room for exploration with GSC Spikes-less offense and especially playing aggressively in the early game to exploit or prevent your opponent from Spiking early with Cloy/Forre. Unfortunately these types of teams are pigeonholed by the stall matchup and virtually must run some Growth mons. Trying to break stall on the physical side without Spikes is brutal.
Kenix's master copy may differ slightly from what I used, but I liked the utility of non-Psychic Exeggutor. Kenix also claims the team should use HP Grass Espeon to deal with Starmie, but Vaporeon should be sufficient in my opinion.

Week 6 vs. Fear

(Replay)
This is probably one of the most "standard" teams I brought this season for SPL. Not too much to talk about here, it uses the idea of Alakazam as a Gengar switch in and offense generator to ignore the issue of bringing MonoLax without Pursuit support. This also frees up Ttar to use a different set. This team is fine, not my proudest work. I'm kicking myself for not bringing Fire Punch Alakazam into Fear, but I had my fair share of self inflicted bad luck that game. Maybe I got Fear sweating for the last few turns with the unrevealed fourth move but probably not.

Week 7 vs. Vileman

(Replay)
This team is courtesy of Mr. 378 from a secret Santa tour back in 2020, but I'm pretty sure the idea existed for a while before that. It's a pretty typical paralysis Marowak offense with HP Elec Spin Cloy to harass other Cloy more effectively than Toxic + Curse P2 for Curse Lax countermeasures. Dragon Breath Lix also has the undeniable cool factor. It has more PP and does slightly more damage to Cloy than Body Slam but I think it's strongest benefit is the lower damage vs. Zapdos can make it more difficult for Zap to Rest off any paralysis.
For a bit of game commentary I didn't want to crit Vileman on turn 50, just get his Lax lower to hedge against him critting my P2. That made the endgame more uncomfortable than I wanted.

Week 8 vs. Chiles Habaneros

(Replay)
By this week of SPL I'd run dry on good team ideas to I dipped into something I've used a few times before. It is a typical double electric offense that drops the traditional normal resist for Porygon2. P2 is a safe enough check for Snorlax not running any status inflicting moves (or Belly Drum). Lax needs two crits in three turns to remove a P2 spamming Recover. Whenever Lax Curses P2 can do the same on the next turn. P2 often PP stalls out the opponents Lax (Return>DE for PP reasons), but also packs Ice Beam for fish for freezes against any Snorlax trying to be PP efficient. However, while this Recover spamming line is safe in most scenarios it's also very passive and can be exploited.
I would have liked to Curse up against Chiles' Lax to have a better matchup against his unrevealed last mon but wanted to avoid getting crit on the turn and the turn after I Cursed. In retrospect it may have been better to go for the Curse play for better odds overall (if Chiles got one crit he would've gone hard Zard the next turn). My power went out in the middle of the game and I had to finish it out on mobile. I wasn't in the best headspace for complex calculations, I basically autopiloted the endgame.

Week 9 vs. ziloXX

(Replay)
With my team guaranteed in playoffs by the time I played zilo I wanted to cook a little bit with some Laxless offense. This team is not reliable in the slightest. It basically gets one shot to pull off the Vap -> Jolt -> Zapdos chain and you hope it wins the game. I think the idea to use the combination of AA Vap and Growth Jolt to string Baton Pass chains against the two most common answers to Growth strategies (Snorlax and Zapdos) is pretty creative, but the team is probably better off just dropping Spikes for Snorlax. Vaporeon has Roar to kick out any Snorlax that try to Curse up against it btw.
This team did not enjoy running into special offense, but I can't complain about anything when I'm running Laxless.

Semifinals vs. Rubyblood

(Replay)
I'm a strong believer that with RestTalk Zap + RestTalk Kou you can run whatever the hell you want on Snorlax. This is the very standard double electric Machamp except I decided whatever the hell I wanted was Lovely Kiss/Belly Drum/Earthquake Snorlax. It paid off pretty well in my second game against the Tyrants. You can say I had some idea of their preparation for me after my game against BlazingDark.

 

[gorgie]

I appreciate your approach to the game.

Week 1, did you bet the house on vani not bringing any stall/skarm-based team? and do you think you'd confidently outplay him if he did?

Also if you care to, for retrospect's sake, it would be helpful if you linked to the game for each corresponding week

 

[Siatam]

I appreciate your approach to the game.

Week 1, did you bet the house on vani not bring any stall/skarm-based team? and do you think you'd confidently outplay him if he did?

Also if you care to, for retrospect's sake, it would be helpful if you linked to the game for each corresponding week

I did not expect vani to bring stall in his match against me, but I feel the team has the tools to be competitive against stall even if the idea to target Cloy early falls flat. The Fire Blast slash on Marowak is primarily because I was concerned about Skarmory, probably would've gone HP Bug if I was betting it all on facing offense.

Added replays to the post too.

 

[cherryb0ng]

It's so strange for me to see this event is finally coming to a close. I've been eliminated from like 4 tours since the beginning of this.

But I always appreciate all that is being done in SPL to advance team building. I remember when we had complained last year and perhaps even the year before about players not making it in. But it's hard to say that this year's spots were undeserved. Lots of players have found their comfortable ground. I also like Jester's writeup on each players' individual skills, something that is really hard to do with the overwhelming amount of data one can end up analysing for too long.

Really appreciate Siatam's BP team

 

[Fear]

Although I’ve been playing SPL since 2017 I have never made a post like this ever before. Partially because of my belief that concealing one’s own thoughts behind team building to keep your potential opponents (older and newer) in the dark is an advantage you need to hold on to as long as possible if you are to make long term impact. This might seem unimportant in GSC, a gen where IVs are maxed out and your item is usually leftovers but remained a key factor in how I interacted with a larger audience over the years.

However, with each passing year I’ve increasing constraints in signing up and every time it’s ‘my last year’. The truth is that I hate missing out because I feel like I’m very invested in this particular tournament (not like I have free time to participate in anything else) but also in the development of GSC OU as a generation through the years. This (so far) outweighed the steep time investment cost, required to participate in such a tournament for a grown adult, despite acknowledging that (at least for me) SPL lost a lot of its original magic. The scales, however, are balancing out. Eventually all good things will come to an end, and you start wondering what you left behind.

Thus, leaves us with this post-SPL team dump post. I will refrain from commenting too much on the games themselves, but I’ll give input if I feel I must. Special shout outs to the friends that helped me out with tests and/or input; RealJester and hellpowna you guys make me that much more passionate about GSC. I’m sure both of you have a bright future ahead. Also d0nut , for the on point weekly assessments and having someone to trade back and forth discussions regarding picks and teams. Last but not least M Dragon and BluBirD ; we did not get to test or discuss much GSC this time around, but your company throughout the season is greatly valued.


Week 1 vs BlazingDark


I’ve used this team in the past with dual drums and this time due to the lack of proper information about my opponent I opted to go a tad more defensive than usual. This team typically wants to set up a Quagsire sweep while keeping Snorlax and Starmie as backbone. I made an assessment in the builder and traded EQ for Sleep Talk on Lax solely to be better against Nidoking and Exeggutor as my opponent typically preferred playing offensively and I was confident enough that monolax could also end up preserving itself vs Roar Tar and Golem. This came at a cost as it was shown in the actual match since it became an entry point for Rhydon that wasn’t threatened by +1 BSlam and eventually found the opportunities to break in tandem with Raikou. The Zapdos set is strange; typically this team wants to run the standard Restalk set to free up the Snorlax for more offense but seeing that I had restalk on Lax, I decided to use Reflect and TW to help set up Quagsire. Looking back at it, I regret not bringing Earthquake Lax and definitely the team appreciates having the coveted Curse EQ to threaten typical spike offenses; definitely change that back if you’re using it. As for the game itself, I rushed the Quagsire set up and I went aggressively on my opponent because I was heavily out resourcing my opponent. I figured I could have ended it with multiple ways still having Lax, Star and Miltank and would rather to avoid weird +1 Bslam scenarios of his Lax vs with Miltank. Quag did min damage on Lax tho (89%) and follow up Pursuit left it at 1% which eventually costed me the game since this forced me to try and prevent Lax switches (leftovers recovery) by randomly attacking instead of focusing on preserving/stalling. I also never thought I’d see the day Zapdos lived a fully boosted HP Rock. Talk about a bad day for Quagsire huh.



Week 2 vs Zokuru


I wanted to play exeggutor this week. Not particularly for my opponent, just straight up surprise with a style that would be unexpected. This team typically spreads paralysis via Egg and has strong abusers in Machamp and Tyranitar to follow up. Interestingly enough, I brought Ice Beam Cloyster because of the interactions it has vs paralyzed Zapdos so Machamp has a cleaner sweep vs Offense. My own Cloyster wants to explode a potential starmie or tentacruel vs stall so I figured I’d milk as much as I could from para support. Team is pretty straightforward and can hold for a while into prolonged games enough to at least find an opening.



Week 3 vs ZiloXX


I wanted to bring Nidoking and Curse MSun IceBeam EQ was the main focus of the team thinking I’d catch a Zap Gar offense and oh boy what I got. Forre Starm Quag didn’t allow me to properly showcase the marvels of this set vs typical offense. Team wants to open up either a p2 or a nidoking sweep and the sets chosen work towards that purpose with Snorlax peeling Steelix, Cloyster, Skarmory, my Tyranitar threatening Steelix, Tar, Golem, Rhydon while P2 covered Cloyster, Skarmory and threatened opp Tyranitar and Gengar with paralysis. A fun team all in all but the cute synergies were put at a stop in front of a RestTox Tar that made the game literally impossible with what I brought. I recommend Thunder > Morning Sun on Nidoking if you are trying this just so you can break stall a tad easier (also vs Starmie balances) and this will also allow you Ice beam back on P2 so you can better fend of grounds while adding another layer of breaking via freezing.



Week 4 vs Vileman


After a horrible start I felt I was fighting an uphill battle cause I knew the score didn’t represent me the slightest. I had something else in mind vs Conflict but seeing as they slotted Vileman in, I wanted to play a different style and offensive Raikou fit against Vileman’s typical offense style. After some research I got(more like stolen from Tricking/ABR) this cool Raikou, Dnite, Vap offense going and decided it would do the trick after some minor edits, seeing as I haven’t brought either Vap or Dnite in a long time. The team feasts on slower balances via explosions making room for a Vap sweep (classic borat combo) and adds up a modern twist with boomlax and mixed Nite to help keep up the tempo. Unfortunately, not hitting those dynamics vs lax had me cornered at the end but thankfully I got the win. This team could also be played with acid armor vap on the last slot as well as Machamp.



Week 5 vs Chiles Habaneros


A 180 degree turn this time around with a Blissey stall, a mon I think I haven’t publicly played ever before in tandem with Skarmory (if you haven’t yet figured it out already with Egg, Nido, Vap, Dnite picks, this was the season of catch me if you can on the scouter). Spin Cloyster is not something I particularly enjoy playing but it can work with dual flyers alleviating some of the pressure you get by not being able to spin when you want. The Misdreavus set I brought was my special touch on the team, highly accelerating the pp stalling vs monolax or even things like machamp’s cc or Tar’s Slides. With Zapdos, Lax and spikes the team has just enough power so that you can’t simply ignore it offensively. TboltFlame Blissey worked as bait towards opp cloyster as I couldnt toxic it with mine (also good vs starmie vaporeon) and it was stronger for that 1 surprise turn than any other option. With these said, I wouldn’t really recommend playing this team because its not easy trading into Gar offenses or Starm Zap balances and can crumble really fast once you start losing pieces. You can also play LightScreen on Bliss with Rest > Spite and Tbolt > PSplit on Missy since you carry heal bell and go for a classic approach. This team can go with many other variations as well.



Week 6 vs Siatam


What’s more unpredictable from Skarmory stall? A back to back Skarmory stall! This is nowadays the go to stall archetype with good reasoning as it covers most offensive bases while not staying behind on offensive potential. I opted for an aggressive version with surf on lax over Earthquake to help breaking with Tyranitar, as I felt confident that flameCurseTar could win even if I had to play spikeless and I didn't want to be toothless offensively vs someone as unpredictable as Siatam. For this reason I also played Explosion on Forretress. In game, the ending sequences vs Alakazam might have felt awkward, but I had plenty of recourses left to scout it and kept enough tools to play against either of its sets. These 6 are often found with more defensive sets and can also be ran with many alterations.



Week 7 vs Vani


I’d lie if I said I didn’t think of bringing stall a third time in a row especially since I started getting lazy after my team was nearly eliminated. Eventually though, I brought a Starmie balance (usually starmie plays nightmare in similar archetypes nowdays) that aimed to Para support for screech Tyranitar. Note the bug Forre while not a common pick, worked well in tandem with screech and para support while also covering Egg, Starmie and other psychics. I also hadn’t brought a single Gengar this season and I wanted to play it. I felt this team would get at least a neutral match up. Despite netting the Exeggutor with Forretress, pulling the shorter straw on the Zap v Zap duel and facing the threat of a backline Machamp or Vaporeon forced me to preserve the (not shown up to that point) TW Starmie + ScreechTar over lax which paid off in the end as it was probably the only way to win the game.



Week 8 vs Alice


By this point I had asked to sit out already but fractions of chances forced me in another week. If I can be brutally honest I felt pretty tired (signs like that make a man wonder if its time to stop). I had achieved turning around a lousy tournament start which satisfied me at least. For the last game I wanted an encore Alakazam and the Golem Zam P2 squad is a solid team that I also played last year that fit the bill. I also felt I wanted to do p2 justice because that week 3 game wasn’t representative. Lead Lax baits cloyster and sets up a p2 sweep while alakazam functions as some sort of pace control with its insane speed (toxics Tyranitar for either normal). The remainder of the team is pretty simple, with the basic spike cloyster and spin Golem combo with Zapdos being the team's much needed defensive backbone.


Week 9 vs Tigers

I opted to stay out.


Although I don’t consider this a great year in particular (everything lives and dies with the team), ending up 6-2 after a bad start and having the best regular season record is something notable that salvages the commitment. If you reached this far, I hope you enjoyed reading this commentary and watching SPL. Until next time(?).

 

[Rubyblood]

I've never been so happy since that day when I won with the Tyrants this SPL and ended up playing my favorite tier with a win in the finale game.

I'd be lying to you if I were satisfied about my last final gsc cup or winning spl with 3-1 in GSC because I have higher goals than that. I need to work on my level of play, especially in terms of the way I finish games, where I clearly have an advantage thanks to good openings or good preparation. This is clearly what Heroic Troller mentioned in his s/o.
By the way, I'd like to thank you for being honnest with me, for not hesitating to tell me when I haven't played optimally. I'm really lucky to have been able to be your teammate, not only because you've been one of the best value spl players for several years in SPL or because you're the best player RBY all of time, but above all because of your incredible activity throughout the tournament in addition with your leadership, your mentality Your discipline allows the whole team to progress and yourself.
Now I will force myself to have the same discipline as you are. Just thank you Troller

I would also to make a tribute to Conflict and Fear for taking part in GSC slot over the years with a lot of consistency and great performances . All the players who love this game will never forget the legend that you are.



So I decided to play GSC very seriously, trying to play my own style even though it's difficult in a tier that's been established for many, many years. I'll do everything in my own to become an established GSC player and try to be retain several more years to be the GSC slot of tyrants and win the next cup.


Special mention to Siatam for his excellent work in this tier over the last few years, every one of our matches was great. I hope we'll have the chance to play again. You're a good rival.


For sure a big thank you to Century Express and BlazingDark who were the most important people in my gsc apprenticeship and players I admire a lot. I'm eternally grateful to you friends.

See you soon for mores GSC games, Let's show that tier is the best !

Thanks for reading.

 

[BlazingDark]

I don't have much to say on my part and will mostly resume it in the spl shoutouts i am writting, but for now i just want to bounce back to something that i saw very much a lot around the community even before SPL starts.

I look forward to see you all in the upcoming GSC Invitational and really want to see that tournament explodes, there was way too much shit being said before and it's the best opportunity for every big GSC players rn to shut everyone off, and i especially want to give credits to Maître Apagnan (previous invitational hoster) and Siatam for having been one of the very few ppl to care as much about the GSC community and playerbase developping because otherwise it wouldnt have really gone like how it is today, we can praise them for this.

That being said, i want to tribute hellpowna for all his working and dedication to the tier, i can already say that this italian goon will heavily participate in the upcoming prime era of GSC

Rubyblood you're a fucking belgian drunkard and yet you've successfully made your way as one of the best players of the site overall rn, i'm proud of you

OmBrArch you are making progress , we're not always sharing the same opinions, but i acknowledge your work and dedications to the tier, it would be deserved for you to pull up a good performance in a near future even tho you're a fucking communist, i like you bro

yone la vf de black lagoon mérite le prix nobel

Skyrio pour m'avoir passé une night mie thunder lax en 2021 une fois pour niquer un random brésilien

 

[yone]

yone la vf de black lagoon mérite le prix nobel

Toi dire des choses bons à entendre, moi partager même avis. Même quand toi fumer moquette, toi jouer trop bien.

 

[Vileman]

So I wanted to make a long-ass post at some point going through my games and such, but I honestly don't feel like I have the energy to do that for now. Instead, I'd like to share the 2 teams I built myself for this tournament. Both have (probably?) been already built at some point but I was happy with how the came up and they also happened to do well in the games I used them.

Introducing:

I was actually inspired to build this after talking a bit about machamp with susciety . It's just so potent and dangerous once the defensive backbone of a team has been pushed at all, so figured a great way to push that to the limit would be with boom spam. Initially i had cloyster over forry but Conflict suggested forry as it could lure out zapdos easier, and also switch into snorlax with more ease. Eggy is p much always gonna explode turn 1, nabbing a ko on nidoking or jynx can be Huge as there is no sleep talker, so just tanking the ice beam/lk and miracle berry waking you up can lead to a beneficial trade.
Snorlax is a fun one to use. You're a bit left open to gar but you've got hp ghost forry to nab some % and everything else on the team pressures it. But more importantly, getting the KO on either cloy or golem/rhydon puts you ahead as f as you now have way more booms to get away with. It also makes machamp's life easier, particularly not having to deal with cloy's boom or missing vs golem. There's obv more stuff like hitting lix for nice damage and actually pressuring out skarm too, which is also big for machamp.
Gengar being honest could be explored a bit more. The mean look psong dbond set could probably be fine here, or some other alternatives with diff coverage, but this is my go-to gar when I have to cover a potential +1 eq lax which i cant let get too much momentum. Still it can get stuff like a +1 lix or +1 machamp, it's just a fast glue, pseudo revenge killer while doing the usual gar stuff.
Forry is fun too as hp ghost and giga hits p much most of what you wanna hit. Opposing forry can be somewhat annoying but you just go gar/zapdos and get stuff done, and just blow up something else as they expect you to spike (hint: you dont really need to spike, but people may think you do. Use that to boom something!)
Zap is just standard phazing set (hp ice bc gotta pressure egg here) and machamp hits most stuff nicely with hp ghost. As much as I detest the dv loss, hitting all of mie, zam, gar and eggy for a decent chunk does wonders here.
All in all a fun, potent team. There's obviously some concerns like psychics, but usually you just either boom them ASAP or get a para with zap.

And now my fav new toy:

I've wanted to try meganium for a long time now, SD sets in particular. I was always hesitant as I felt the coverage never really hit everything you need to and once you get statused meg is p much useless. Glad I realized that's good enough when paired with miltank and BD DE snorlax.
So main idea is: vs offense SD meganium lowkey owns. Outside of stuff like moltres and jynx, meganium is winning the 1v1 vs most things, if you get to spread paralysis the job is done even easier.
But what about stall? Skarmory just walls you forever lolol!!! Yeah obviously. Still, you SD and skarmory is p much forced in. Long term, you can get skarm parad -> belly drum lax goes bonkers. I wanted to try double edge in particular as that has >90% chances to2hko skarm, while return never gets the 2hko. It's just a menace vs stall, so get key mons parad/weakened, figure out how to get lax in to drum and get it done.
Now this kinda means that spikes can be dangerous as lax kinda also happens to kill itself with recoil after a drum. You want to minimize chip damage to the min, so ended up going for spin cloy here, yuck i know. Still, it fits nicely here as you kinda really need spikes in this meta and forry didn't give me as good coverage vs stuff like steelix who is annoying for stall usually. It's also nice to have it as a lead as people may believe they're making huge progress with damage only to later on reveal rest.
Finally, skarmkou is the standard cover-all defensive core while miltank provides much needed heal bell support, which is appreciated a ton in this team.
was lowkey sad meganium didn't get to hit the field in the spl game ;_;

Anyways, those are the teams. I'm really happy I got to play this spl, looking forward to more