Hello everybody! These recaps are going up pretty late but in my defence, when 99% of these games happened I was away from home visiting Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Fantastic experience. In honour of this and US West's top-seeded placement,
here's some theme music.
I just got back a few days ago, and have to return to doing Experimental Chemistry. Less fantastic experience - if these are completely lacking in formatting, that's why. Anyways, I've been scouring these replays trying to get a grip on the post-Moon meta, still in flux, and I've come across a few things:
Veil is strong. Wesleyy has compiled all of the Veil replays, but it's clearly a powerful archetype, especially in a tour setting where you can guess with some confidence that your opponent won't bring a 100-0 matchup into it.
Of note in terms of Veil usage is Ceruledge, a ladder monster now returning to trophy tours for the first time since like 2023. Tera Bug/Flash Fire Bulk/Taunt/Shadow Sneak/Bitter Blade appears to be the popular set. This thing sets up to +6 extremely easily when nobody has anything to hit it with super-effectively behind Veil.
Speaking of nothing to hit a bug with super-effectively, Tornadus-Therian is overcoming its complete lack of accurate moves besides Knock Off/U-Turn/Grass Knot and finding itself a solid foothold in OU. Commonly paired with a Life Orb and Samurott-Hisui, it has rare access to special Flying STAB to hit stuff like Zama, Wellspring, Tusk, even Valiant...80% of the time.
Replay time. I have selected ten replays, some of which I caught live, some of which I just thought were cool. These are in whatever order I typed them into the Notepad++ doc in. I might edit in formatting/minisprites later - don't count on it.
[Africa] Yves Stone vs MAVERICK SHOOTERS [India]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-846609
This was, I think, one of the first games played in mainstage. I'm a longtime believer in both of these players; Yves Stone offered some true heroics for Team Africa last year, and MAVERICK SHOOTERS has been bubbling just around 3k-level as one of the up-and-coming builders and players for India. Yves has what looks like an effective-but-boring conditioning team; you don't really associate Gliscor + Clef + Lokix/Ogerpon-Wellspring/Pecharunt VoltTurn BO with making sheist plays but, spoiler alert, he manages. Mav's using a slight variant on the Wellspring/Zamazenta/AV Glowking core; this time Zapdos is the accompanying Electric-type, and Darkrai seems to replace Kingambit in the aggregate along with Treads, who is substituting in for Tusk. The opening is fairly timid to start, but Yves' Clefable takes a Hurricane early and is essentially too low to use much for most of this battle. After Yves Encores Mav's Glowking into Flamethrower, he doubles into Wellspring on Mav's Treads, allowing Yves to get a Spike up. Yves then goes hard Treads on Zapdos, which sure is obvious enough, but then he reveals Rock Slide, which Mav avoids with a switch to Wellspring. In the process of this sequence, Yves forces Mav to bring Treads back in to reomve hazards, which reveals one of the central conflicts of this battle; Treads allows Yves' own Wellspring in to Cudgel with little consequence, and Mav would probably rather not risk bringing in his own Wellspring to die instantly to Power Whip or U-Turn or what have you. Yves, in comparison, has much more stable Wellspring counterplay with Pecharunt, and can force switches more easily with the TurnShot (this feels clunky, what should I abbreviate U-Turn/Parting Shot to?) core.
After some turns of positioning and getting his Gliscor in safely, Yves decides he'd rather not deal with Wellspring at all and just starts clicking Tera Normal Facade, forcing Mav's own Zamazenta to consume Shield and force this threat out. Then again, Yves still has Pecharunt, which allows him to pivot to Wellspring and either Cudgel or get a spike back up at will whenever Mav brings in Treads. Eventually Mav is able to U-Turn and bring in his Iron Treads on Gliscor, and gets rocks up successfully before getting blown up by Lokix. The bug even gets one more Sucker Punch in on Darkrai before dying! Now, we're still on the issue that nothing on Mav's team particularly wants to take Cudgel or Tera Normal Facade, and Yves removes another bulky mon with the aforementioned Rock Slide Treads killing Zapdos. What follows is a slow whittling-down as Gliscor reveals Knock to eat into Glowking's HP and force a Wellspring sack. Mav's last hope is Tera Dark Darkrai, which fully eliminates Yves' Wellspring but tickles Gliscor and promptly dies to Facade. Now it's Pecharunt vs ID/Press Zamazenta and a crippled Glowking, and this is already favoured for Pecharunt but a SpDef drop just accelerates it - after forcing it to switch out, Yves reveals SD after 64 turns and just booms it while Zama's sleeping. I was impressed with Yves' work this game - nice to see him keep up the momentum from his 2024 work.
[US South] leng loi vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d [US Midwest]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-847091
This was one of the first games played as well, I think? I highlighted this early on - both were standout SV contributors for the victorious Classiest and know each other's tendencies and prep well so I was hoping for a banger here. leng has what I would call a relatively normal tryhard team - Garg/Moltres residual chip gang supported by Gholdengo for special damage, Wellspring and Zama as medium to fast physical sweepers - the choice of Treads over Tusk is also becoming more frequent on structures like this, trading the Tusk matchup and upfront power for faster, more guaranteed spins and increased overall bulk, especially if Assault Vest. Sinnoh has a slightly unusual offense team here: the most obvious synergy is hazard-setter Garchomp with Gholdengo, but there's a remarkable physical offense combo here consisting of Quaquaval and Weavile. Normally you expect, like, Wellspring and Zama on a generic offense, but this is not generic at all and looks to use them as complimentary upfront and setup sweepers respectively. Iron Moth gives the team a bit more speed and Corv is the closest thing this team has to an outright Wellspring switchin/threatener. Hazards are traded to start, with Sinnoh's Garchomp getting up both rocks and a spike while leng gets rocks up. leng switches out first to Moltres, and then Sinnoh makes an extremely Agency play and sends his Quaquaval right into a Hurricane, killing it instantly. Featured mon down. Sinnoh subsequently sends out Weavile and goes for a very aggressive banded Triple Axel, daring leng to switch to Zama, which she does. The Weavile has to run now, so Sinnoh sends out Helmet Garchomp to just trade 1-for-1, the Chomp's job having been accomplished.
leng scouts a Low Kick out of the Weavile with Protect, then uses a surprise Red Card Gholdengo to ruin Corv's U-Turn and force Weavile to take a third round of rocks - the Ghold still has to die at the end but it has one switch left, period. leng deploys AV Treads, who easily outduels Sinnoh's Ghold and then narrowly survives a Weavile Knock Off with 1% to beat and kill the Weavile too. I assume leng is HP invested here. Sinnoh takes revenge with Iron Moth, his last chance at winning - leng Teras her Wellspring on the turn Sinnoh baits it with Substitute, but this bait doesn't end up helping as Tera Blast Ground tickles the Waterpon and it just dies the next turn anyways. One more cudgel, and leng takes the game.
[Africa] Silent Waltz vs clean [US South]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-848602
I was interested in this game for three reasons: 1) clean is extremely heat and part of the strongest SV OU core in the tournament; 2) Silent Waltz is pretty cool, a ladder regular who's been pretty good whenever I play him (although I'm ass so this is not a good metric); and 3) I've been seeing this Tornadus-T/Samurott/Heatran core popping up a bit recently and I'm curious how people are coping with using three mons that mainly click sub-100%-accuracy moves. clean's team is kind of specially biased (apparently this is a slight tendency for South?) with Pecharunt and Raging Bolt supporting this core, alongside Iron Treads for removal, and it's also on the slower end with Torn being the quickest mon available. Silent Waltz has a double-Ice BO with hazard support from Ting-Lu and pivoting support from Pecharunt: considering there are two forms of removal here in Hatterene and Cinderace, I get the idea that neither Weavile nor Kyurem have Boots. Turn 1, clean has clearly EVed to live a Specs Earth Power with exactly 1% HP, getting solid EQ chip and allowing a switch into Torn for free, who can Nasty Plot up and easily two-shot Ting-Lu with Grass Knot into LO Heat Wave. Silent Waltz forces Torn to retreat with Weavile, but Heatran can switch into Knock easily, and clean now gets a free kill against anything on Silent Waltz's team with Lu removed; Cinderace is sacked to Heatran to provide the necessary chip for Weavile to come back and kill it.
clean now brings out Samurott to start Ceaselessly Edging, and uses the rather cool Tera Poison to eliminate any threat from Pecharunt and knock it out. His own Pecharunt is Helmet and not safe to attack with Silent Waltz's Weavile, so he ha to go at it with Kyurem, and Dracos into clean's Raging Bolt who dies instantly. Tornadus just comes right back and revenge kills the Kyurem, then Nasty Plots up as Silent Waltz goes for a last-ditch Healing Wish to see if Weavile can salvage the game. Knock instagibs Torn, but Iron Treads reveals Chekhov's 1 HP and uses Custap Endeavor before dying, dragging the Weavile into range of Samurott's Sucker Punch. So, what have I learned? The best way to use Torn-T is as a Grass-type.
[Canada] LOOR vs Drifting [Oceania]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-848787
Drifting has an interesting-looking team, in that it looks really fat on team preview but I think it's actually setup spam in disguise. You've got Dragonite and Zamazenta, both aiming to pull off an endgame sweep with the help of Ting-Lu's chip. Volcanion and Gholdengo are intermediary fat-breakers here, and the Cress could be Lunar Dance - supporting Dragonite/Zama's attempts at sweeping, if they happen to lack recovery - or even just another CM sweeper for all I know. LOOR's BO core of Gholdengo/Garganacl/Great Tusk is pretty well-tested, being around since I think late 2023; Ghold keeps the rocks up and benefits massively from Garg's residual chip once Shadow Ball can start ripping through teams. These three and Kingambit are accompanied by two Regenerator Ground resist/immunes in Hydrapple and Tornadus-Therian, the latter being LOOR's main form ofspeed control. The battle opens with a brief volley between Volcanion and Tornadus in which Volc loses its boots and both get taken down to about half; Drifting switches out to Ghold first and gets a Thunder Wave off on LOOR's Gambit switch-in, but LOOR doubles back to Tusk on Drifting's Ting-Lu, meaning LOOR can now get up rocks that Drifting has no way of removing. The Australian is on the back foot here, and LOOR's double-Regen means he can force switches more frequently, necessitating a Volcanion sacrifice on turn 9.
Drifting gets up his own rocks with Ting-Lu, but he can't get anything going with Cress as LOOR can always just go hard Gholdengo and force a switch - a smart double into Hydrapple earns the Canadian a free Nasty Plot as Cress comes back in. However, Drifting reveals Calm Mind Cress as Draco does just under half, which means Cress can get back to full before LOOR inevitably forces it out again. The other issue for Drifting is that Ghold can't really get anything going either, since LOOR has a full-health Kingambit. This Gambit, despite paralysis, impels Drifting to bring out his Zamazenta and start trying to set up - but LOOR ripostes with Tera Poison Hydrapple, claiming a kill on Zama before being revenged by Dragonite. Now, when there's a full-health Dragonite, there's a way, and Drifting gets +2/+2 with Tera Normal before taking out LOOR's Tusk and Garganacl in rapid succession, though the Garg narrowly lives an EQ and puts it in range of Gambit. In a narrow mindgame, Drifting ESpeeds twice but LOOR attacks normally on the second sturn for the kill with Low Kick, stopping the sweep in its tracks. Drifting manages to get rocks up and kill the Gambit with Hex, and now LOOR has to figure out how to win from a 2v3 where the opponent has a half-health Ting-Lu and LOOR has two special mons. But if you've been watching LOOR's Ghold carefully, he's been playing it like it's Choiced, and it honestly looks like it - Make It Rain gibs the crippled Ting-Lu, he sacrifices Torn to reset, and then outspeeds and KOs Drifting's Ghold with Shadow Ball, followed by two more SBs to finish off Cresselia. Really enjoyed this one.
[Canada] LOOR vs Cow [United Kingdom]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-849549
Cow has webs with a Glimmora, which feels very Meteor Beam-coded on a structure like this. Very specially heavy webs in general. The more interesting bit here is LOOR's squad here - Samu/Torn doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, and it's paired with Ogerpon-Cornerstone of all things. Sturdy is a fun ability combined with SD and nearly-unresisted coverage, and being neutral to Brave Bird also helps too. Tornadus/Pecharunt does about what you expect in terms of pivoting, Treads and Zama do the same thing they've done for 3 years, but I'm mainly just curious about this Cornerpon. This whole team is really aesthetically nice looking too, just looks like a bunch of demons. It immediately shows another reason why it's good, as it leads into Araquanid and just oneshots it with Cudgel. No webs today. We are, however, immediately shown one of its shortcomings, as it immediately has to run from Gholdengo affording Cow a bit of momentum to get his Glimmora into position. A fast Meteor Beam comes out for the kill on Samurott, and Cow's Glimmora continues to hustle with massive chip and a 10% poison on Cornerpon, trading 1-1 and getting up 2 Toxic Spikes in the process. It doesn't get any better for LOOR as Bleakwind immediately misses on Dragonite as it sets up, forcing LOOR to go into Pecharunt and Tera Dark Foul Play to escape the scenario, and this results in one of the craziest turns of SV I've ever seen - not knowing Tera Dark is coming, Cow Tera Ghosts and Tera Blasts, which just results in Dragonite fucking dying from full.
The forced Tera allows Cow's Valiant to come in and revenge with Moonblast, though it should easily die to a Bleakwind Storm - never mind, it missed. Worst move ever, man. You pick this shit over Hurricane to miss less and then it misses anyways. Cow seems to psychically know it'll miss and Moonblasts for chip before retreating to Raging Bolt, who's promptly hard-walled and killed by Treads. Still, even as LOOR goes back into Torn on Valiant and eats a Moonblast to drop to 8%, this should be a dead Valiant, surely Bleakwind doesn't miss, right? Never mind - Vacuum Wave comes out to kill. This still should be a win for the full-health Zama and Treads, though - Zama lives a Moonblast and will out-Crunch this obviously super-offensive Gholdengo, and even if it doesn't, the Treads should beat both of them after the chip from Zama. The Ghold dies, but gets off a Trick with its dying breath, crippling the Zama - now it's a half-health Valiant against a locked Zama and a Treads. Cow gets the Calm Mind on LOOR's switch to Treads, that's part 1. But this still dies to an EQ, and there is no conceivable universe where this Val has Vacuum Wave x Focus Blast, right? Or you could just crit Vacuum Wave and instantly kill the Treads. That's tragic, man. Now Zama drops to a Moonblast when this Valiant probably should have been dead three times over at this point. Look, all I'm saying is that bringing an extremely sheist team is a moral victory in itself.
[France] Juyenfun vs HSBT [Argentina]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-848936
Juyenfun, aka Juyen RPPLF, is one of my favourite new players to watch this World Cup - he's a longtime ladder hero with a preference for weird offense and mons on the lower end of the VRs. This is the game of his that I enjoyed the most. Juyen has an extremely pre-DLC-coded team here. It is a normal HO structure if you squint, two fast mons, two setup sweepers, and two Steel-types including a spinner, but I don't think we've seen Ceruledge, Primarina, and Enamorus all together since 2023. HSBT has a variant on the Kyurem/Scizor/Valiant HO backbone, a Fairy/Steel/Dragon core that became extremely popular last year; this time it's supported by Tusk and Pecharunt, the former further empowering Kyurem to run non-Boots, and Raging Bolt for double priority. Juyen opens by damn near oneshotting HSBT's Scizor from full with what has to be Specs Primarina, what the hell? This isn't a setup sweeper at all. HSBT possibly considers the possibility that it's Mystic Water or something, and Tera Ghosts their Kyurem to DD up and go for Shadow Claw (that's fire lol), but yeah it's Specs and still dies in 2 Surfs. Primarina finally dies to Pecharunt, but subsequently gets outmuscled by Juyen's Tera Ground Enamorus. HSBT forces Enamorus out with Valiant and tries to SD up on Juyen's Corviknight, but Juyen U-Turns into Scarf Meowscarada and ends the possibility of a sweep. With that threat eliminated, Tera Ground Enamorus is free to wipe out HSBT's remaining mons of Tusk and Bolt. But the Ceruledge did nothing and got sacked, so who really won here? (Juyen still wins.) Specs Primarina is one of those mons where you forget it has 126 Special Attack until it's too late...
[US West] Fusien vs lax [US Northeast]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-848613
This is thematically a cool matchup, both SV OU trophy holders, lax - the old hero of West, now on Northeast - facing Fusien - one of the new faces of West. In-game it's also a cool matchup with lax bringing Hydrapple Sand, a playstyle which has been boucing around here and there but never really got a strong hold in the meta at any point. Zama and Deoxys serve as dual speed control in case sand is ever compromised. Fusien has a fast-paced HO with Hatterene as sole removal, accompanied by Lando and a bunch of brokens. Look, I know this is a lazy description of this team, but it's Ghold/Dnite and Zama/Darkrai speed control, we've seen these cores before. Turn 2, Fusien's Darkrai uses Knock on Corviknight and does 29%. What the fuck? That's, like, max attack Darkrai and less than full physdef on Corv. The subsequent Dark Pulse does a suspiciously low 35% as lax U-Turns to Zamazenta, trying to catch the Lando with Ice Fang but settling for a bit of chip traded; the two double into Ghold and Tyranitar respectively. This Tyranitar is also clearly max attack max speed, because Make It Rain oneshots it from full. I thought this was Specs at first but you'll see it isn't - there are calcs happening in this battle that I have never before seen. lax uses the threat of Excadrill to goad Fusien into bringing out Zamazenta, which itself is subsequently walled by Hydrapple, which itself has to flee from Hatterene and prompts lax to switch to Deoxys. After tickling each other and removing Deoxys' Assault Vest, lax activates Eject Pack Psycho Boost to pivot hard into Excadrill, but Fusien tags it with Mystical Fire on the pivot and lax ends up just sacking the Deo anyways.
Mystical Fire doesn't quite outdamage Corv's Roost, and Fusien is forced out by an extremely invested Brave Bird. Fusien gets rocks up but subsequently has to sacrifice his Zamazenta to lax's Helmet Hydrapple, who 1v1s it cleanly. Fusien tries to get a sweep going with Nasty Plot Gholdengo, but seemingly lacks Shadow Ball and can only get chip on Corv before having to run from Drill. lax doubles into Hydrapple on Lando and crits a Giga Drain on Darkrai for a nice kill, before Fusien returns fire and cleans out lax's Corv with Make It Rain. lax's Zama looks like a pretty major threat here, even after failing to OHKO Lando with Ice Fang, and narrowly lives a Make It Rain to put pressure on Hatterene's healthbar too, enabling a Hydrapple cleanup after lax sacks Excadrill. The Ghold, now out of Make It Rains, is faced with Hydrapple and has to click the 4x resisted Thunderbolt to escape this situation. Fusien immediately gets the first-turn paralysis into full para on the turn Ghold would die. Immediately realizing that now he's In Serious Trouble, lax sacks Zama to try and close out the game with more health on Apple, but once again gets full paralyzed as Fusien misclicks another Nasty Plot for fun and brings the apple down to critical health. lax eventually breaks through and finishes the Ghold, but Full Health Dragonite is here to click Tera Blast Flying and beat the apple - Tera Fairy can't save it. If not for the full paras, Hydrapple walks into the Dragonite 1v1 with about 70% health and a crippled Zama in the back, against a Dragonite lacking Extreme Speed (Fusien showed his set.) I think this might have been winnable but we'll never know. Sad to see sand go out like this but still a cool showing with some funky sets from both sides.
[Canada] LOOR vs Ox the Fox [US South]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-849940
Okay I know it's overkill to cover three games from the same guy but Grassy Terrain in 2025? I'm locked the fuck in. I've always had a soft spot for this playstyle, it's objectively not very good right now based on usage but it enables some next-level greed when everything resists Earthquake and gets healing. One popular use is to enable the hell out of setup sweepers and extend longevity of pseudo-bulky offensive mons; to that end LOOR has a Hatterene, a Zamazenta, a Wellspring, and a Gholdengo, all of which can switch into one hit but now can switch into two or three thanks to GT. Ox has the classic Glowking/Kyurem combo which essentially turns Kyurem into the Incredible Hulk (especially if Specs), accompanied by three physical brute-forcers in Gambit/Tusk/Zamazenta. Rotom-Wash occupies a physically defensive pivot role here opposite to Glowking. LOOR leadgoats and immediately doubles into Lando on Ox's Rotom, trading most of Lando's life for rocks before both click pivot moves into Hatterene and Glowking respectively. LOOR catches a Sludge Bomb with a clean Gholdengo switch, then goobs Ox's Kingambit right after it enters with a Focus Blast. Now running dangerously low on things that switch into Wellspring, Ox gets up rocks before having to bring out Zamazenta against it, both trading chunks before LOOR retreats into Hatterene, who hard walls it. Ox sacrifices his Glowking to Psyshock and gets the revenge kill with Tusk, but now Wellspring is right back here.
As a result, Ox has to Tera Steel to get out of this interaction alive, removing rocks in the process; LOOR sacrifices his own Lando to get in his own Zamazenta. However, when Ox switches his Rotom in, LOOR reveals not Body Press but Close Combat, which cleanly 2HKOs the Rotom. Ox's own Zama forces it out but isn't invested enough to do anything to LOOR's Gholdengo, who Shadow Balls it down, clearing the path for LOOR to click CC more and finish off a great run. But I feel clickbaited - the Rillaboom didn't even come out!
[France] Juyenfun vs SirPeanutCronch {Africa]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-847664
Okay. This team preview looks like two SPL XIV teams. On Juyen RPPLF's side, we have Kyurem/Weavile ice-spam accompanied by Iron Valiant for speed, a core which I have dubbed "the girls the gays and Kyurem." This offensive cluster is accompanied by three support pieces in Iron Treads for removal and dual pivots in Pecharunt and Rotom-Wash - Treads also takes the position of the Moonblast resist. SirPeanutCronch, henceforth Peanut, seems to have rescued a Grassy Terrain team from early 2023 and thrown Wellspring on there. I've expounded above on why Grassy Terrain is interesting, and Peanut is using a different, slower set of setup abusers in Garganacl and Skeledirge, who both love being neutral to EQ and getting free health. Juyen starts by immediately trying to Hydro Pump Peanut's Garganacl, and reveals Covert Cloak to that end meaning he technically wins this interaction, but it would cost all of Rotom's Pumps so he instead opts to Volt Switch out to Treads on the Recover and get rocks up. Juyen's Pecharunt is a robust enough Wellspring switch-in but cannot touch Garganacl, allowing Peanut to even the hazard field. A switch to Rillaboom on Pain Split gives Peanut a bit of momentum, but it's immediately defused by Wood Hammer doing a whopping 31% to Pecharunt. Rocks are removed, then set up again, and the two trade pivot moves but a key interaction comes when Dirge and Rotom eat paralysis and a burn respectively.
Peanut isn't quite bleeding out fast due to the rocks, but the Rillaboom and Garg are not net healing especially after the Volt Switches and have to start fleeing encounters more frequently. Juyen eventually forces Peanut's Skeledirge to come in on a Kyurem Scale Shot, which does over half. As a result of all the chip, Peanut has to switch Garg out of Juyen's Weavile, but Juyen aggressively SDs instead and Tera Ghosts on the incoming Corv Body Press. He does, however, get a bit unlucky - the first Axel hits once and the second fails to kill, giving Peanut enough grace to pivot into Tusk, hit Tera Fairy on the Low Kick, and Knock for the kill. Corv's still dead to rights, and when Juyen sends out Iron Valiant, the paralysis pays off as Skeledirge freezes up and enables a Shadow Ball 2HKO. Juyen Calm Minds on Garg's Recover, CMs again on a recover, CMs on a third Recover from full health - jesus he's 3-for-3 - and leaves the Garg low, forcing a Tusk sack for the Rillaboom revenge kill. But it doesn't Grassy Glide, and the Valiant gets another kill before dying to Salt Cure. That was a super tough sequence ngl. After this chain of events, the game ends in the most poetic way a Frenchman could win a game: with a Kyurem cleanup.
[India] vk vs oldspicemike [US Midwest]
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ou-848432
Iron Boulder and Primarina on the same team. India has cooked something truly diabolical here. The Primarina/Raging Bolt special-spam core isn't massively shocking by itself, this kind of low-speed breaker combo can muscle past a lot of fat by itself, and the Lando/Pech pivot gang helps to let them come in on things more frequently and force trades. Boulder as vk's choice of speed control is very fascinating - 124 outspeeds everything below Weavile and Darkrai, notably getting the drop on Torn, Cinderace, Valiant, and Moth among others. oldspicemike has a fairly fat BO team with two offensive wincons in Raging Bolt and Zamazenta, followed by a bevy of defensive support for them. Ting-Lu mashes Ruination and hazards and there's Alomomola healing support, but you'll also notice the dual Defog support in Weezing and Corviknight, so I'm inclined to think this team got fairly greedy on the Boots. The first few turns are eventful but ultimately quiet, with mike trying to fire off a Draco but getting stuffed by Prima, but the big result of the first 10 turns is really just vk getting up rocks and racking up about 50% chip on Corv. These rocks are dangerous for mike because he has almost no Boots (the Alo is Helmet), and hasn't had a chance to safely Defog against vk yet, so all of these momentum plays net favour vk. Worse yet, mike's Bolt has yet to do any damage, because vk keeps getting the Lando/Prima Thunderbolt/Draco turns right, and vk has really only lost health on Lando. When vk manages to get Prima in on Alomomola, he nearly sneaks past Wish/Protect with a late Psychic Noise reveal, only to miss the Moonblast roll as mike pivots into Zamazenta the next turn, ready to get this over with.
mike immediately hits Tera Steel Heavy Slam, trying to flatten the Prima, but vk senses it coming and absorbs it easily with Pecharunt, scaring it out. vk kind of has to hustle back and forth between Prima/Pech/Lando to handle it, but he has enough HP on the relevant mons to make it work. The problem still remains that nothing really wants to switch into Primarina, but a brief respite comes for mike as vk Surfs his Bolt and switches to Lando as mike Dracos, landing the first kill of the game. However, this has just enabled The Threat to enter: SD Iron Boulder. vk immediately SDs on the switch to Weezing, then Zen Headbutts to OHKO Smoke and Stack from full. Then he Mightily Cleaves Corviknight for a 2HKO. Then he Cleaves the Bolt Mightily as well. Then he Closely Combats the Ting-Lu - you get it. After precisely executing the first 35 turns, vk set his Boulder up perfectly to get off a flawless sweep.
Okay. After hundreds of games, we are finally into playoffs, and this WCOP has some of the most surprising results yet. The highly rated US West and Italy stand alone atop the standings, but 3rd place is split by Brazil and Africa, both teams that came up from qualifiers last year; this is Africa's best placement ever and Brazil's best in a long while. Chile is also safely into playoffs with a 17-13 record, keeping last year's momentum going despite the loss of their chief cheerleader, tied with a resurgent US Northeast employing a handful of new starters. A double-tiebreak scenario will decide the last two seeds. India is looking to maintain their regular top-8 presence in a duel against the best-performing China roster in years, the winner facing US West, while longtime WCOP powerhouse Germany fights the post-Akalli France for the right to face Italy.
On the other end of the sheet, the UK and Portugal will be returning to qualifiers in 2026. Last year's champions US Midwest and one of the pre-tour favourites US South are both at risk of relegation, with both teams trapped in a three-way brawl with Belgium in which only one is safe. Post-nerf Europe have also slid into a negative record, missing playoffs for the first time in a while much to the delight of Darkk. Argentina's first mainstage appearance wasn't unsuccessful with a 14-16 record keeping them safe; Oceania, the Netherlands, and my country Canada all finished right in the middle with 15-15 records.
In case you don't want to read all of the matchups in prose, here they are:
Playoffs:
(1) US West vs [India vs China] (8)
(2) Italy vs [France vs Germany] (7)
(3) Brazil vs Chile (6)
(4) Africa vs US Northeast (5)
Relegation:
US Midwest vs US South vs Belgium
I am generally on the side of "I hope everybody has fun" but I think it'd be extremely cool to see China/Chile/Africa make a deep run, these teams were clearly not flukes last year and I've seen some great stuff from them.
That's all from me. I'll look at the tiebreaker games too, and will probably cover another batch of 10 for the next round before getting ahold of everything for subsequent rounds.
[Italy] Tricking vs Mako [Chile] 
