DOU 2018 Doubles Invitational [Won by nvakna]

MajorBowman

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Standard Rules and Clauses
  • Endless Battle Clause: Players cannot use any moveset on any Pokémon capable of intentionally causing an endless battle. Thus:
    • A Pokémon may not carry Recycle and hold a Leppa Berry in conjunction with Heal Pulse and Milk Drink, Moonlight, Morning Sun, Recover, Roost, Slack Off, Soft-Boiled, or Wish.
    • A Pokémon may not hold a Leppa Berry while carrying Recycle and Pain Split.
    • A Pokémon may not hold a Leppa Berry while carrying Recycle and Fling.
  • Evasion Clause: Players cannot use the moves Double Team or Minimize.
  • Moody Clause: Players cannot use a Pokémon with the Moody ability.
  • OHKO Clause: Players cannot use the moves Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill, or Sheer Cold.
  • Species Clause: Players cannot have two Pokémon with the same Pokédex number on the same team
  • Pokémon Restrictions
    Players cannot use the following Pokémon:
    • Snorlax
    • Mewtwo
    • Lugia
    • Ho-oh
    • Kyogre
    • Groudon
    • Rayquaza
    • Jirachi
    • Dialga
    • Palkia
    • Giratina
    • Giratina-Origin
    • Arceus
    • Reshiram
    • Zekrom
    • Kyurem-White
    • Xerneas
    • Yveltal
    • Solgaleo
    • Lunala
    • Magearna
    • Marshadow
    • Necrozma-Dusk Mane
    • Necrozma-Dawn Wings
  • Move Restrictions
    Players cannot use the following moves:
    • Dark Void
    • Swagger
  • Players cannot use the following moves on the same team:
    • Gravity and sleep moves with below one hundred percent accuracy
  • Item Restrictions
    Players cannot use the following items:
    • Eevium Z
    • Gengarite
    • Kangaskhanite
  • Ability Restrictions
    Players cannot use the following abilities:
    • Power Construct


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Welcome to the 2018 Doubles Invitational
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This tournament is the culmination of each of the tournaments held during the 2018 Doubles OU circuit. The top 16 players will duke it out for the title of 2018 Circuit Champion and a fancy new ribbon!
Top 16
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(1) SMB vs nvakna (16)
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(2) emforbes vs AtmosphereVGC (15)
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(3) EmbCPT vs Kaori (14)
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(4) Demantoid vs The Cheesen One (13)
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(5) AuraRayquaza vs Mr.GX (12)
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(6) Mint16 vs Mishimono (11)
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(7) lady lumps vs Croven (10)
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(8) MajorBowman vs Memoric (9)​
Top 8

(thanks to rozes for the art!)
EMFORBES-CROVEN.gif

(2) emforbes vs Croven (10)
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(3) EmbCPT vs Mint16 (6)
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(5) AuraRayquaza vs The Cheesen One (13)
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(16) nvakna vs MajorBowman (8)​
Top 4

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(10) Croven vs Mint16 (6)
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(16) nvakna vs The Cheesen One (13)​

Finals
(thanks to rozes for the playoff art!)
CROVEN-NVAK.gif

(10) Croven vs nvakna (16)

As always, replays are required for this tournament. Also, be sure to post your match times so we can watch live and possibly even stream!

This is a single elimination, Best of 3 SM Doubles OU tournament.

The full bracket can be found here: https://challonge.com/2018douinvites

The deadline for finals is Monday, December 31, at 11:59 PM Eastern time (GMT -5).

Good luck to everyone, looking forward to some great games!
 
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There are some really cool match ups already, should be fun to watch!

(1) SMB vs nvakna (16) - It's hard to predict against the first seed, especially one as consistent as SMB. He has shown his skill several times over and is definitely an easy favorite to take this whole thing. With that being said, he does have very similar styles to all of his teams. Nvakna had to work real hard against good players to reach the top 16, and from his games you can tell he knows how to play doubles. If nvakna can figure out SMB's style and bring some solid positive match ups then he could definitely win this, but its hard to predict against the two time Seasonal champ.

(2) emforbes vs AtmosphereVGC (15) - My favorite to win this whole thing. AtmosphereVGC has shown he can hang with the big boys, but Emilio is the best at the moment.

(3) EmbCPT vs Kaori (14) - Game of the round. Edu is considered by a lot of people as the goat, and for good reason. His consistency, his play, his building! Edu is definitely a complete player, and in my opinion rivals Emilio as best player at the moment. With that being said, Sam is so good when he is motivated. Sam can bring anything and play it top tier, and that is scary. Edu, a lot like Emilio and SMB, has a certain style he typically sicks with and plays masterfully. However, Edu has been changing up his team styles recently, so honestly this match could go anywhere. I am going to go with Edu just due to his sheer consistency, but I would not be shocked if Sam takes this one.

(4) Demantoid vs The Cheesen One (13) - I don't know a lot about The Cheesen One. Demantoid on the other hand is consistent with his wonky teams, and that hard to read style should be able to push him to the next round.

(5) AuraRayquaza vs Mr.GX (12) - I'm a fan of Aray. He has definitely proven to be a top player over the past few months. I don't know what kind of training him and Emilio did with each other, but it definitely pushed Aray onto another level. As for Mr.GX, I've actually only seen him use a hard tr team and Suicune, so I don't think Aray will let himself be weak to either.

(6) Mint16 vs Mishimono (11) - Animus is such a good player, but lacks confidence. I would predict him to win here if I believed he thought he could win. Mishi played real well in the recent seasonal as well, scoring a second place and beating some of the best players to get there. Should be a good match, definitely one of the closer sets.

(7) lady lumps vs Croven (10) - Going to be honest, I think Stax just outclasses here. Croven is real good, but I haven't seen anything crazy out of him this year. Stax has one style and he doesn't ever switch from it, so if Croven can find a way to exploit that then he has a shot. But in the end, I think Stax is one of the few people who can take down Emilio, SMB, or Edu.

(8) MajorBowman vs Memoric (9) - I had a hard time with this one. Memoric is real good and has looked better at the moment. On top of that, Jake struggled in Snake and is real busy. However, I think Jake will work hard for this, and I really do feel he could make a good run in this tour given he has the right amount of time to prep.
 
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(1) SMB vs nvakna (16)
(2) emforbes vs AtmosphereVGC (15)
(3) EmbCPT vs Kaori (14)
(4) Demantoid vs The Cheesen One (13)
(5) AuraRayquaza vs Mr.GX (12)
(6) Mint16 vs Mishimono (11)
(7) lady lumps vs Croven (10)
(8) MajorBowman vs Memoric (9)
 

talkingtree

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2. emforbes vs 10. Croven - Highlight of the round for me, I'm picking what I think is somewhat of an upset because I'd usually favor emforbes, but Croven's been using solid teams that catch opponents off guard and piloting them well; I think he wins a close one fairly, loses a blowout, and steals a win, not necessarily in that order. (not just picking you because you asked to see predictions)
3. EmbCPT vs 6. Mint16 - Edu has the creativity and flexibility to prep more strongly for Mint than Mint will for him. I was impressed by Mint for the most part in his first round, but I think Edu has the edge in pretty much every area here. Certainly not one-sided, none of these are, but I think this one has more of a favorite than the seed differential would otherwise show.
5. AuraRayquaza vs 13. The Cheesen One - ARay looked more solid in the first round, but TCO had a tougher opponent to deal with so I don't want to rely on that too much. If I'm being entirely honest I rarely understand all of the plays ARay chooses to make but they tend to turn out well for him and his unique take on the meta that's made him the subject of some memes in the past makes him tough to pin down.
8. MajorBowman vs 16. nvakna - Going with the guy who I've seen sometime in the months between April and November, but after watching nvakna's three set wins so far I'm much less certain of this outcome than I would've been before seeing him. nvakna still knows how to play and his teams have never really been standard enough to make him struggle with metagame shifts - what's slightly more popular won't affect his building style as much, so missing out on a few months hasn't hurt him too badly. Still, MajorBowman is motivated to do well after a shaky Snake draft and I think he'll take this one.
 

Level 51

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2. emforbes vs 10. Croven
After having the remaining half of his teams decimated in the Gengarite ban and his go-to teambuilder qsns recently engrossed with Smash, word on the street's that Croven's had to turn to unconventional sources of teams, buying janky teams off the dark web for undisclosed amounts. While they managed to eke him past a Mega Latias / Mega Aggron-wielding stax, his limits are sure to be tested when he plays against Worlds Loser 2018 emforbes, who is himself struggling with MGar withdrawal symptoms. Will emforbes be able to overcome two games' worth of bad Poison-types, or will Doubles Invitational Top 8 be the most boring Top 8 ever, with Croven being 1038229292937829x better than the other guy? Only time will tell, but for now my money's on Spaceman Spiff to rocket past this match.

3. EmbCPT vs 6. Mint16
In his Top 16 game, Mint16 showed a number of key attributes: for one, he's capable of beating Princess Mishimono herself, saving the world from her evil grasp on the competitive Pokemon scene and restoring to this world goodness, justice, dignity, all seven cardinal virtues, moral uprightness, orange juice, beauty, integrity, and a bunch other stuff. More importantly, though, he also showed that unless he literally uses an Edu team, he's absolutely incapable of actually putting a Ground resist on his team, which is a statistic Edu's sure to look to exploit in his prep for the match. If the two continue their streak of being so alike—using the same teams, leaving the same DOU Discord servers—this could end up being a very interesting match indeed. It's a toss-up for me.

5. AuraRayquaza vs 13. The Cheesen One
I'm not authorised to throw too much shade here because I'm not qualified for the Invitational myself but as an outsider I can safely say that one of these users is really not a top tier player at all. I was absolutely shocked to see his name even appear in this thread, much less get past their Top 16 match against such a well-known opponent. How did AuraRayquaza manage that?

Throwaway jokes aside, I sincerely can't hold too much stock in TCO - he had three shots against Demantoid and couldn't even win the nickname game in a single one against DeXtoid nicks. On the other hand, AuraRayquaza has proven himself quite the upholder of nickname justice, having recently saved us from having to see Real Steel and Moustache until next year at the earliest, and although he isn't exactly a stellar bequeather of nicknames, at least he sticks to the Latin alphabet. Definitely pulling for AuraRay to take this set in a battle of intrigue, extremely hard throws, and Japanese nicknames, though I'd love to be proven wrong on the latter two. (please)

8. MajorBowman vs 16. nvakna
Definitely haven't heard anything from nvakna since like end May, when they made a cursory statement in the DOU Discord about the Nihilego world being "close enough" to Metroid Prime, but since they did in fact win their Top 16 match I can only assume that they are indeed still alive. nvakna, it seems, has somehow managed to use such outdated teams that they sort of wrap around to being ahead of the curve via a Java underflow, so he should be set in that regard. On the other hand, he's up against Doubles Colonel MajorBowman, whose vast Private collection of teams, along with his General skill in playing DOU, is sure to Warrant some concern for nvakna. I'm predicting Jake to deliver a major blow, man, to nvakna's tournament hopes, and take the W here.
 
Back with some more left side predictions:

2. emforbes vs 10. Croven
I doubted Croven last round and he ended up playing really well, taking out my boy Stax (rip). However, Emilio at this moment is a whole different monster. I don't think I have seen any signs of struggle from him at all in his last few tournament games. Emilio knows how to control a game, almost always making the correct plays to position himself into winning situations. If Croven wins this set though, I'll vow my allegiance to him and expect him to win this whole thing.

3. EmbCPT vs 6. Mint16
Kyle is actually really good at this game. Sometimes he really impresses me to the point where I'd argue he is one of the best. However, he also has huge nerve issues. Kyle tends to doubt himself a lot, and now he is playing against Edu who is basically the goat. I don't really need to say much about this, Edu should win but Kyle has the potential to take it.

5. AuraRayquaza vs 13. The Cheesen One
I still don't know a lot about The Cheesen One, but he has to be good to get this far. With that said, Aray has proven to me that he is a top player at this time and I just feel strong about him making a good run here. I can't go into too much detail since I haven't seen enough of The Cheesen One, but this is a wild card match to me.

8. MajorBowman vs 16. nvakna
Jake vs the man who brought hard tr with a lv 2 Togedemaru.. I don't know about this one. Nvakna may have pulled the big upset against SMB, but it was with some luck. Jake actually also looked shaky last round, and did get some luck to help him solidify his wins. Once again, if Jake had more time to practice and prep I'd 100% be with him, but finals are deadly man. With that said, I think Jake of all people will know how to prep for wild cheese strats and should be able to pull this out.
 

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