CAP 2024 CAP Circuit Championship - [Won By Joeshh]

Joeshh said:
Need another request for an extension... I'm so sorry
Click to expand...
image-removebg-preview.png
 
Joeshh vs Steam Buns (45:55)

One of the best finals matchups we could’ve gotten, I think. Joeshh has been one of SV’s better players since launch - or perhaps more accurately, been one of the better players in CAP, period, since his breakout performance in the SS CAP money tour. He consistently goes for crazy prices in auctions, makes deep runs in individuals, and is just generally rated as a great player within the community (rightly so!). An amazing builder too - Joeshh follows mostly orthodox building conventions but is never afraid to innovate, bring something riskier, or adhere to what is “standard” over his own intuitions. All that being said, he’s also never won a CAP individual, or had a crazy pop-off teamtour season - winning circuit would be the culmination and crystallization of years of “almost” results. I think is the most competitive CAP circuit playoffs we’ve ever had, and most people still wouldn’t bat an eye to see him in finals here. But whether he can take it all the way is a different story.

Steam Buns is the antithesis to this in a lot of ways. They hated SV at the beginning of the gen, and still seem to hate its generational mechanic. This is funny, because I think SV is a very Steam Buns coded gen; there is a massive skill ceiling on in-game skill expression and creativity in the builder, meaning you can sorta get away with using anything if you’re smart about it, which Buns clearly is. It is the least rigid generation in a very long time. And despite Buns’s early misgivings about SV, once they gave it an honest chance about 6 months ago, they’ve just been on fire. It is both incredibly entertaining and deeply painful to see Buns win with some of the teams they load. CAP’s very own crying, never a dull game. I don’t even know how I’d go about prepping for them. Load ditto to scan for sets I guess? The guy just has a way of getting inside your head before the game even starts. Steam Buns was certainly not on my shortlist at the beginning of 2024 for who’d qualify for circuit playoffs, but here we are, and I’m all here for it.

It’s hard for me to favor most anyone against Buns right now - it seems like they’ve just discovered a secret to prep that no one else has figured out or capitalized on. Load anti-cheese fat, get punished for being too passive. Load anti-cheese HO, run into standard(ish) argh balance they decided to randomly bring. It’s impressive, really! Still, Joeshh will make it as close as anyone, and I’m personally rooting for him to win. This ring feels like it’s been a long time coming for Joeshh, and admittedly my pride as a builder is somewhat offended when I see Buns win with 4atk SFLO Cetitan and Overgrow SD Serperior (and then they don’t even hit the field?). Either way, this should be a great set - spectators win regardless.
 
Joeshh vs Steam Buns (52:48)

I agree with Spoo that this matchup is fucking amazing, but I do think any of the top 4 would have made for an amazing finals as well. I'm slightly biased cause I'm friends with both of these two though lmao. Definitely let us know when you guys end up scheduling for so we can tune in!

As for the game, I'm actually not biased at all here despite losing to Joeshh earlier on in the bracket- cause I think I'm a combined like 0-11 against Buns in tour dating back to the goddamn SM days or something like that. It's bad, dude. Both players are definitely incredible pilots with incredibly different views of the game, and that 100% shows in what they've been loading this tour. Joeshh has definitely been more in-line with the current expectation of how SV is built, while still adding a lot of creativity that makes him a pain to prep for- I can speak from experience on that part. He can bounce between very standard looking stuff like the Ting-Glisc team he loaded vs Renegade while also piloting some more niche picks very well- he's won with Grasspon and Hatt this tour, for example, and everyone should get someone that loves them like Joey Shush loves Snael. (Just ignore the fact that he had to win 5v6 vs me cause he loaded Fezandipiti.)

Buns's brain operates on a different frequency than anyone else's, I'm pretty sure. I think I made a joke in one of the CAPCL threads about a different player saying "how do you prep for someone that doesn't even know what they're going to load," and Buns might take that an extra mile. He's the only player I've seen make Shox work, and he genuinely makes it look super viable pre-PPL buffs. He's won two goddamn games with non-snow Ceititan. Even his normal looking mons are strange- he's pulled up with Scarf and BU Sub Lando in the last two rounds, dispatching a really difficult side of the bracket in the process. Genuinely how do you prep for this knowing that just about everything in the game could be coming, and you can barely trust the usual suspects you've played against so often?

It's as close to a toss up as anyone can get and I can't say I'm rooting hard one way or the other; both of these guys are great pilots and better friends, and it's an incredibly fun matchup. I think it's a little goofy to predict a game of Pokemon off of intangibles like I'm an NFL pre-game pundit, but the slight edge I give to Joeshh comes mostly from the fact that he's played on "big stages" before, and pressure is a real thing this close to the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top