Tournament OMPL X - Week 4

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Isaiah

Isaiah

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Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Playoffs | Finals
Information Thread | Roster | Schedule | Standings | Usage Stats​

There are 8 teams this year. Each team will have have 8 players and at least 4 subs. The players are bought using the 120k credits that managers receive during the auction. Managers and co-managers will be allowed to purchase themselves as players for their team at a fixed price of 20k. The managers must inform the hosts (Isaiah, UT) of all self purchases before the beginning of the auction. Teams can win their matchup every week by winning 5 of the 8 matches that their players have to play.​
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The tier lineup this year is as follows:​
  1. SS Almost Any Ability
  2. SS Balanced Hackmons
  3. SS Godly Gift
  4. SS Mix and Mega
  5. SS NFE
  6. SS STABmons
  7. SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5)
  8. SS Anything Goes
All games will be played on the Pokemon Showdown main server or SmogTours in the most current version of the format corresponding to those listed above. The result between players may be decided in a best-of-one or best-of-three at the discretion of both players involved. If there is no agreement, the result will decided in a Bo1 by default.​
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Winning a round rewards a team with 2 points, drawing 1 point, and losing zero points. In addition, the manner in which the round has been won will also be recorded i.e. the difference between a team's wins and losses in a specific week's round (referred to as "Win Differential").​
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Playoffs:​
Each team will play one another for seven weeks. Based on the final standings, the top 4 teams will enter a Playoffs Round to determine the teams appearing in the finals.​

Tiebreaker
In the event of two teams being tied for a spot in the finals based on points and win differential, or a tie in the final round itself, we will have a tiebreaker round(s).​

Tiebreaker Rules: One metagame will be picked by each manager, and each manager will also pick one metagame to strike. Additionally, each manager will submit a backup meta to strike in case their choice is the same as the opposing team's pick. The third format will be determined at random by the hosts from the remaining unpicked, unstruck metagames. In the event that the picks and strikes from each manager are the same, the hosts will determine both the second and third format at random based on the remaining options. All three metagames must be unique, so no format can be picked twice.​

Substitutes
Substitutes are to be used in the case of extenuating circumstances, whether on the first day of the week, or the last. At the same time, players should be relatively well-aware of who all are available to play in the opponent's camp. If last minute substitutes are being frequently used or abused and the hosts find explanations unsatisfactory, the hosts still reserve the right to veto them. In order to further prevent this being the case teams are only granted a maximum of two substitutes per week. Any substitutions after the second will be vetoed.​

Trades
The hosts have decided to not include trades this year due to reasons outlined in this thread - all roster decisions will be final, so draft carefully!​

Scheduling
Scheduling should be done on Smogon Profile walls, plain and simple:​
  • If there is no communication on Smogon Profile walls and a game goes undone, it will be left to the RNG to decide the winner
  • If there is communication on only one user's behalf, the win will go to them. Feel free to call activity in this thread beforehand
  • If there is a very healthy back and forth regarding potential times and one user is a no-show, a manager may take the opportunity to sub out the no-show competitor; if this is not done, the user that showed up responsibly will be awarded the win.
TL;DR: Post on your opponent's Smogon wall, schedule your matches, and be reliable. If you can't play for any reason, let your manager know so they can sub you out ASAP.​
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Use these posts as a place to initiate discussion about bo1 or bo3 as well (or bo5 vs bo7 for 2v2)!​

Sportsmanship
Exhibitions of unsportsmanlike conduct with regards to the Other Metagame Premier League will be met with an infraction at the discretion of the OMPL host/OM mods. This is unlikely to include interactions within a team's private chat unless there is reason found to make an exception. This rule is meant to protect other users from being publicly flamed/bashed/provoked by another competitor for the duration of and following the tournament.​
​
All players must complete their matches by the given deadline. Any incomplete matches by that time will be subject to an activity decision (MAKE SURE YOU POST ON YOUR OPPONENT'S WALL); otherwise, it will be a deadgame. All matches should ideally be done on your most notable alt (the one you registered for OMPL with) to avoid confusion and all match replays must be saved and posted in this thread. The replays will be archived in a separate thread, and will be used to calculate usage stats.​

Substitutions & Lineups
Managers, if you wish to make any substitutions, you must post here tagging both the player you're subbing out, the player you're subbing in, the manager and assistant manager of the opposing team, the substitute's opponent, and all of the hosts (Isaiah, UT). This is to assure that everyone is in-the-loop and that the OP is updated accordingly to reflect the new match-up.​
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Managers, when you send in lineups, please send it in with the tier and Smogon username of each player fully written out for ease of transcription, following these guidelines exactly.​

Matchups


:Kommo-o: The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast) - [5][3] - The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa) :tyrantrum:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Itchy vs papiloco
SS Almost Any Ability: longhiep341 vs PandaDoux
SS Anything Goes: Nevelle vs WSun1
SS Balanced Hackmons: a loser vs Fissure
SS Godly Gift: Lily vs Mossy Sandwich
SS Mix and Mega: Ivar57 vs Quantum Tesseract
SS NFE: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs Stareal
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Finchinator

:linoone: The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [4][4] - The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills) :Spinda:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs London13
SS Almost Any Ability: Jrdn vs shiloh
SS Anything Goes: mncmt vs Skarph
SS Balanced Hackmons: Haruno vs xavgb
SS Godly Gift: Sylveon. vs FlamingVictini
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs ez
SS NFE: pdt vs TJ
SS STABmons: Trade vs Greybaum

:ponyta: The Malding Mavericks (Morgan and IBM) - [4][4] - The Wiggly Family (Dragonillis and Osake) :Wigglytuff:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Blanched
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs MZ
SS Anything Goes: Crunchman vs velvet
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs MAMP
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Meta
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs damflame 3
SS NFE: ojr vs tlenit
SS STABmons: Byleth vs Fc

:hawlucha: The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ) - [4][4] - The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi) :lopunny:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Junaa
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Axzel
SS NFE: jonfilch vs Jordy
SS STABmons: Clementine vs pannuracotta


Deadline:
10:00 PM (GMT -4) on May 1st, 2022
​
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Itchy vs papiloco
SS Almost Any Ability: longhiep341 vs PandaDoux
SS Anything Goes: Nevelle vs WSun1
SS Balanced Hackmons: a loser vs Fissure
SS Godly Gift: Lily vs Mossy Sandwich
SS Mix and Mega: Ivar57 vs Quantum Tesseract
SS NFE: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs Stareal
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Finchinator

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs London13
SS Almost Any Ability: Jrdn vs shiloh
SS Anything Goes: mncmt vs Skarph
SS Balanced Hackmons: Haruno vs xavgb
SS Godly Gift: Sylveon. vs FlamingVictini
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs ez
SS NFE: pdt vs TJ
SS STABmons: Trade vs Greybaum

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Blanched
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs MZ
SS Anything Goes: Crunchman vs velvet
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs MAMP
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Meta
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs damflame 3
SS NFE: ojr vs tlenit
SS STABmons: Byleth vs Fc

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Junaa
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Axzel
SS NFE: jonfilch vs Jordy
SS STABmons: Clementine vs pannuracotta
 
Last edited:
More perdictions
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Reece vs papiloco
SS Almost Any Ability: avyrie vs PandaDoux
SS Anything Goes: Nevelle vs WSun1
SS Balanced Hackmons: a loser vs Nihilslave
SS Godly Gift: Lily vs Mossy Sandwich
SS Mix and Mega: Ivar57 vs Quantum Tesseract
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Finchinator

SS Almost Any Ability: Jrdn vs shiloh
SS Anything Goes: mncmt vs Skarph
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs xavgb
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs ez
SS STABmons: Trade vs Greybaum

SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs MZ
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs MAMP
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Meta
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs damflame 3
SS STABmons: Byleth vs Fc

SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs The Number Man
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Axzel
 
purrrrrdictions

:Kommo-o: The Uh Oh Kommo-os (XxSevagxX and willdbeast) - [2.5][5.5] - The Temper Tyrantrums (OM and drampa's grandpa) :tyrantrum:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Reece vs papiloco
SS Almost Any Ability: avyrie vs PandaDoux - avyrie kinda tilted rn (bad) but i think they're better (good), so it evens out
SS Anything Goes: Nevelle vs WSun1
SS Balanced Hackmons: a loser vs Nihilslave - nihilslave, despite some questionable plays last week, i think is more consistent atm
SS Godly Gift: Lily vs Mossy Sandwich
SS Mix and Mega: Ivar57 vs Quantum Tesseract - ivar <3 but qt is the goat in mnm
SS NFE: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs Stareal
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Finchinator - LBDC has been decently impressive and i thought the rain bring from Finch last week was questionable

:linoone: The Honey Linoones (aesf and Catalystic) - [2][6] - The Spinda Wheels (xavgb and in the hills) :Spinda:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs London13
SS Almost Any Ability: Jrdn vs shiloh - i think jrdn slotting into aaa is a little funky, but he is good. however, i have seen what shiloh has been bringing in test games and it's pretty wild, so i have to side with him here
SS Anything Goes: mncmt vs Skarph
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs xavgb - career ended has been sus and strosh has been v good
SS Godly Gift: Sylveon. vs FlamingVictini
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs ez - despite ez playing pretty well last week, andyboy has been in good form + has more experience
SS NFE: pdt vs TJ
SS STABmons: Trade vs Greybaum

:hawlucha: The Hammered Hawluchas (astralydia and Dr. Phd. BJ) - [4][4] - The Larping Lopunnys (adem and DerpyBoi) :lopunny:
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs The Number Man - tnm is the man he will not lose
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Junaa
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs cityscapes - questionable week to start chew
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs lepton
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Axzel - saying this is a tossup is a copout but i do think this is more even than people would think, although axzel's win last week didn't really show his ability as a player
SS NFE: jonfilch vs Jordy - bolding the filch because i think his prep has been better than lop's
SS STABmons: Clementine vs pannuracotta - idfk
 
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Reece vs papiloco
SS Almost Any Ability: avyrie vs PandaDoux
SS Anything Goes: Nevelle vs WSun1 - nev had god mu vs skarph last week and threw it away but I believe he'll learn from this and pwn will. also it'd be funny to see him lose to nevelle LOLOL
SS Balanced Hackmons: a loser vs Nihilslave
SS Godly Gift: Lily vs Mossy Sandwich - shes so good
SS Mix and Mega: Ivar57 vs Quantum Tesseract
SS NFE: S1nn0hC0nfirm3d vs Stareal - idk
SS STABmons: LBDC vs Finchinator - this time i swear finch is gonna win i promise

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs London13 - londoat
SS Almost Any Ability: Jrdn vs shiloh
SS Anything Goes: mncmt vs Skarph - seems off but trust mence is heat he can match skarpherim :pimp:
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs xavgb
SS Godly Gift: Sylveon. vs FlamingVictini
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs ez
SS NFE: pdt vs TJ - LOOOOOOOOOOOOL
SS STABmons: Trade vs Greybaum - i like trades play more

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Blanched
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs MZ
SS Anything Goes: BasedWhat? vs velvet
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs MAMP
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Meta
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs damflame 3
SS NFE: ojr vs tlenit
SS STABmons: Byleth vs Fc

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs The Number Man
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Junaa - bacon is just a better player than juna, wish loti was playing this instead o-o would have been a very interesting and entertaining mu. should still be a good game obviously but yea
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs lepton - phd losing = fantasy
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Axzel - know axzel has been popping off but cmon, have to bold lydia also shes definitely gonna kill me if i dont bold her
SS NFE: jonfilch vs Jordy - better player
SS STABmons: Clementine vs pannuracotta

go luchas!! looking forward to peedeetee v teejay
 
Last week I dropped to 71% again. Shame, but honestly I feel like it's probably a limitation of the fact that I'm only calling w/l rather than giving %win; if a player has a 80% to win, my noting that won't get me better than 80% accuracy, after all. Still, I'd like to stay above 70% since that's definitely achievable.

The Honey Linoones - [3][5] - The Spinda Wheels
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs London13 I have it on good authority from @xavbg that this will be TeaGuzzler's 2v2 debut and that as a british player they're unbeatable at 2v2. Thus I will bold london as a placeholder.
SS Almost Any Ability: Jrdn vs shiloh I feel bad for PDT getting swapped out here but after a 3 loss streak i can understand why he'd feel dissilusioned even if its not his fault.
SS Anything Goes: mncmt vs Skarph No shade to mncmt but I'm not betting against skarph here.
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs xavgb Ihaven't really been impressed by Career Ended this OMPL and stresh is stresh
SS Godly Gift: Sylveon. vs FlamingVictini FV did manage to beat Lily which I am not discounting but the Linoone's GG slot has been very solid thus far this ompl and sylveon earned their fame for a reason.
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs ez Andyboy just beat Lydia so there's no way I can bold EZ against them.
SS NFE: pdt vs TJ In terms of playing skills this could go either way but TJ has been playing NFE for the last 3 weeks and pdt has not so I'm going to give him the edge.
SS STABmons: Trade vs Greybaum I'm going to bold Greybaum here but only because they played MnM earlier this season and I am biased.

The Malding Mavericks - [4][4] - The Wiggly Family
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Blanched Blanched makes their return to the ompl scene after week 1
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs MZ MZ's record is a bit unfortunate but they've been against some of the toughest slots this pool; I'm not going to hold a loss against tnm against them. Luisin has had some nice builds in past weeks though so this should be an interesting game
SS Anything Goes: BasedWhat? vs velvet Yes
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs MAMP Quojova defeated an entire team of BH players so just one should be an easy w
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Meta
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs damflame 3 The wiggly family MnM has been struggling quite a bit, while pairing beauts with tect has proven to be a solid - albeit cruel - core.
SS NFE: ojr vs tlenit Tlenit is tlenit and ojr has really been struggling
SS STABmons: Byleth vs Fc I'm not going to predict against byleth in stabmons just yet

The Hammered Hawluchas - [5][3] - The Larping Lopunnys
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs zioziotrip
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs The Number Man I will continue to place money on TNM in AAA
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Junaa Bacon
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs cityscapes Rip that this is chew's debut but they've always been rather weak to nonstandard setstheir standard cores don't handle and city is well known for using htose
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs lepton Can I continue my streak of betting DPB wins before they play?
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Axzel As long as lydia can stay calm and work through the lines, this should be winnable, but
SS NFE: jonfilch vs Jordy I wish jordy wasplaying MnM so Icould bet on them but alas they are trapped in NFE
SS STABmons: Clementine vs pannuracotta
 
I, as manager of the Uh Oh Kommo-os, must diligently inform you of the substitution of Itchy, a player managed by willdbeast, for Reece, a player managed by XxSevagxX, against papiloco of the Temper Tyrantrums who are ably managed by the dynamic duo drampa's grandpa and OM who I am hereby tagging to inform of the imminent substitution of an opposing player in the fourth week of the tenth edition of the prestigious Other Metagames Premier League, kindly hosted by Isaiah and UT.
 
AAA Review of Week 3 by gman fan and Oshawott hater Osake



1650871144548.pngluisin vs PandaDoux
1650871132078.png


This game was the battle of current players in 2-0, and also current outsiders of the AAA pool. I said last week I was quite excited to see this game and, in-game, I enjoyed it a lot (despite what other people said) and it was a fun game to watch. However, I was kinda deceived by teams brought on both sides.
luisin brought a fat + zydog team with Double Scarf (Mew and Genesect), that was already used by MZ W1. Moltres was Dland for Weather Control, Skarmory was Primordial Sea, an interesting choice that I personally don't like that much cuz I prefer Flash Fire, but beauts explained it was for Moldy Tran so why not, and a weird Mold Breaker Blissey. The reason is that, a few hours before the game I 6-0'd beauts with CM Bounce Mew so they decided to run Moldy Blissey to beat Demon Mew. I'm not a huge fan of this tbh, cuz Blissey loses a lot of its utility with such a bad ability, but it wasnt that annoying this game. The team was kinda entirely relying on zyg to make progress, which led to a quite long game since there was a DS Mew on the opposite side. PandaDoux brought a team that felt different from its other teams at preview, looking quite offensive with Volcanion/Zarude/Togekiss, and a solid defensive core with Jirachi, Landorus-T, and Mew. However, it appeared the Zarude was Scarf - a set Panda's has been using a lot and that is, in fact, quite threatening, but it still lacks wallbreaking power - and the Volcanion had a reallyyyy weird set with Defog Toxic Rock Slide and Scorching Sand, with Regenerator and Heavy Duty Boots. Landorus-T was Water Absorb, but we'll come back to this later.
The MU at preview was kinda hard to say, but once the sets are revealed it's pretty much in luisin's favor, because panda's team doesn't make progress without Togekiss, and it had the worst MU ever (PSea Skarm + Moltres + Blissey + RegenScarf Genesect and even Mew can eat, that's really hard LOL); with a banded Zarude, things could have been way different tho since luisin's only path of progress was Zygarde-10%, and Panda can handle it for a long time, so I think Zarude would have won faster.
First turns were classic, both players scouting others sets and revealing their sets and after 13 turns both teams were fully known, except luisin's Genesect. Blissey being Toxic could have been huge for Togekiss, but with 4 mons in the back it wasnt a big deal; Volcanion being Toxic was annoying for Panda tho, cuz now it loses to the hazards setter of luisin, Skarmory, and that's my main concern with this Volcanion : yet it ~checks Fire-types in the tier, it's passive af and it's a really bad Defogger that loses to every Rock (or Spikes) setter except Heatran, which is not something you want. That's an interaction we saw plenty of times in this game, Skarmory just Spiking again in front of Volcanion and keeping the hazards pressure all the time. Anyway, the game continues and luisin is able to bring zydog twice, first time he scouts Mew's set, second time he gets a huge Toxic on it, and at this point the game looks really hard for Panda : Mew is Toxic so it's easier to pp stall, nothing makes progress on his team, and hazards are always up on his side. Panda reveals that his main way of progress vs Skarmory is Volt Switch DS Mew which is kinda annoying, and then luisin's shows his "lack" of knowing AAA; he's able to burn the Landorus-T on turn 29 which is always cool, but then click Flip Turn to pivote out and is caught by Water Absorb Landorus, losing his Mew. That is not that huge, because Mew wasn't that helpful on this game, but he could've been able to Trick back something and wins a PP Stall war way more easily I think. I'm not blaming luisin or anything, it's normal to not know Water Absorb Landorus-T when you are relatively new to AAA, but the BU/Sub/Lefto Landorus-T in a team with 0 Barras answer was logically Water Absorb. For anyone interested, this set comes from here (watch bozo Dj Breloominati♬ being owned AS ALWAYS). The game then follows a kinda boring path of pivoting + hazards stacking, and occasionally Zydog is able to come in, waste a pp of tarrows vs a pp of soft on Mew; in the same time, Skarmory wastes a LOT of Roost PP, which can be pretty huge against Zarude in end game, as it only has 7 Roost left at turn 91. Turn 91 is a little bit weird : Panda is able to bring Zarude in against Blissey at 50%, and then luisin switches on Genesect to eat Darkest Lariat, takes 57% so is forced to switch-out since Zarude is Scarf too, hard switch on Skarmory that is at 60%, is 2HKO'd by Lariat, and the sack Blissey, which is a weird process cuz they could have sack Blissey in the first place, and if they did not expect to take that much on Skarm, they could/should have calc on Genesect I think, to see that it was TC or Adapt and not weaken Skarm for nothing. That is the winpath for Panda, Skarm is weaken and if he can prevent it from healing, he certainly cleans with Zarude. If he's not able to do that, Zyg + hazards will probably long term cuz luisin will not let his Skarm low health again. Then follows another weird sequence : Genesect comes to RK Zarude, pivotes on the incoming Volcanion, which means Skarmory can heal, but luisin decides to send Zydog (ig to not risk scorching burns on the Roost), does 75% to the incoming Kiss, prevents it from healing by switching on Moltres, U-turn on the incoming Volcanion, send Zyg again, but then double switch on Skarm and well, it works perfectly bc Panda sends Landorus-T, which is a free heal for Skarmory and the sequence is perfect for luisin, and if they red the sack of Lando-T to heal Skarmory well that's really really well played. I'm saying it's weird cuz I feel like Panda could have play this differently, not "better" but it was like personal choices, he could have send Lando the first time zyg came to rk with Zarude and claim another kill, send Mew at some point, etc, and this sequence pretty much sealed the game bc Skarmory is know healed and Zyg + hazards make infinite progress. Panda could have had a shot with Zarude since Skarmory only had 6 Roost left, but luisin played that endgame perfectly and Zarude was unable to come a second time to have a chance. That endgame by luisin was really played insanely good and I'm really impressed, and they are certainly the most impressive player since the beginning of OMPL, and they totally deserved to be in 3-0 which I would not have expected, so wp luisin !
That was a great game imo, and seeing luisin's games is a pleasure cuz they are playing so good MU was probably in luisin's favour but that's also building issues imo, and Zarude still had a chance at some point so it wasn't 100-0 MU.
I'm quite excited to see their games, and I once again recommend you to watch luisin's games if you had to watch one AAA game every week : good builds and god plays.

1650871361347.pngshiloh vs avyrie1650871350036.png

damn this first game was quite long to analyse ! let's move to the second one, shiloh vs avyrie. The stakes were high because :
1650871022539.png

1650871054944.png

now admire Redflix LOL get good bro
avyrie brought standard stuff with Zap/WS Skarm/Heatran (I guessed it was Water Absorb and avyrie confirmed)/Scarf Regen/a secondary Scarf with Tapu Fini (I think?), double Regen Scarf seeming to be a trend/and strong wallbreaker with zyg. On the other hand, shiloh brought more standard things too, but still not seen much with Talonflame/Triage Lele/DS Skarm/Bounce Blissey, and then two cools Regen mons in Nidoqueen and Rotom-Wash. MU was certainly in avyrie's favour with zydog that was able to click arrows vs 3 mons out of 6 and with outs vs every shiloh's threats. However, yet the build looks fine, I am not sure to understand the WS Skarm here, cuz you usually wants it to steal Regen from RegenVest like Landorus or Jirachi, and I don't feel like it helps much Zyg ? ig it helps Zapdos but I don't feel like it synergizes well here, but that's not a big issue Skarm doesn't have a ton of available abilities anyway.
The game started pretty quickly, with avyrie revealing magma + heavy slam Heatran to put Blissey at 50%, and zyg is able to in front of Blissey, clicking Arrows and doing a solid 31% to the incoming Skarm, that is now weak to Arrows. However, here avyrie made a mistake by reclicking Tarrows, cuz Skarm is able to Toxic it which severly hinders its ability to wallbreak efficiently now. After this key turn follows another one : shiloh sends Lele to RK zyg, avyrie sends Genesect, and get OHKO'd by Focus Blast thanks to a lucky crit. This crit certainly sucks for avyrie cuz he loses his main form of Speed Control, Lele answer, and a cool Regen pivot. The rest of the game shows how important hazards are and how no Defog (or Scarf Defog Fini, idk) is really a pain, as with TNM game, cuz shiloh just pivotes around avyrie team with its surprisingly good Rotom that had an excellent MU, is able to kill Zapdos (that still had a shot to hard luck the game at some point lol, broken mon), and then Talonflame kinda wins. avyrie was kinda unable to use Zyg this whole time with hazards pressure + Toxic, and was always under pressure due to its lack of pivoting without Gene.
This game was probably less thrilling than the previous one, but it showed interesting stuff, and in particular the strength of pivoting + hazards to prevent a broken threat to tear you apart, which is part of offensive counterplay that a lot of players forget. Rotom-W kinda impressed me this game too, cuz it did a lot and actually Volt Switch + Water move to threaten Ground-types and prevent them to block VS is actually pretty good. The haxx was harsh for avyrie but I think shiloh's team had better outs vs unfavorable MU and it showed out here.
This one was shorter but it's tiring to do long analyses and I felt like there were less things to say :v

1650871622196.pngMZ vs The Number Man1650871647248.png

I hate this game and I'm kinda mad about it, made us lose the week cuz once we're up 0-3 kinda hard to believe in a win, but I'll still try to make a good comment about it.
TNM brought a very TNM team with Pixi Koko as its main breaker, and classic stuff with AV Chomp/Regen Mew/Heatran/DS Buzz/Pex. The Pex appeared to be a weird set with Magic Bounce and Infestation, and I'm not really of what it does ? not convinced but why not ig. MZ on the other side brought a classic team too with Barraskewda as Speed Control, a defensive core of FF Corvi/AV Jirachi/Kommo-o, with an unrevealed Mew and a Chandelure.
The MU was heavily in our favour, with Pixi Koko facing Barras + Chandy + AV Rachi that can deal with it quite well, and FF corv walled Heatran that could have tried to make progress. On the other hand, even if we didn't have a breaker that wins alone we had a lot of ways to make progress and we'd pretty much win long term with Barras/FSight/CM Mew/Iron Def Kommo-o, in particular since the Pex wasn't Black Sludge or Rocky Helmet (I have no idea of what it was, Shuca Berry ?) and didn't have Haze so Mew could beat it. Sadly, an error of building totally ruined the game cuz Jirachi wasn't Regenerator, and was Serene Grace. That's kinda a sad end because the game was kinda lose vs Pixi Koko without it, and I tested the team 5 minutes before the game with MZ but he forfeited t5 to play, and if we had finished the game we would probably have fix this mistake and it kinda sucks.
The other wincon still had a shot during the game, particularly Iron Def Kommo-o and CM Mew that could have win with perfect plays by MZ until the end, but the Heatran got a crit on Magma Storm and it ended the game like that. It was a sad game tbf, I was quite happy with the team I built and seeing it lose just bc I was too dumb to check Jirachi's Ability is kinda annoying. i didn't analyse the game much because there is not a lot to say, without Jirachi MZ had to play very aggresively but couldn't take the risk to lose his wincon at any point and on the other hand TNM couldn't make it any progress with its 5 other mons, so its just pivoting around in the hope for an opportunity, but MZ had 5 mons vs 6 :/
Since this anlalyse was shorter, I'll use this game to explain a little bit what I mean by "having outs vs unfortunate MUs" cuz I think my team is a great example of that. Not saying it's an excellent team, it probably have flaws, but this team is build to have very few unwinnable MUs : the main breaker is Barraskewda, that is able to make progress against a lot of teams just by pivoting. Corvi was Flash Fire cuz I'm always weak to Talonflame so I feared this, and since I didn't have any Defogger it had Defog but it would've been BU eventually. The Mew was kinda inspired by XxSevagxX, it was both able to setup and it can really wins a lot of games on its own, and it's still useful in general, bouncing hazards, soft checking stuff like zyg-10% and Chomp, etc. Then the Jirachi offers the needed counterplay to Zapdos/Lele/etc, but it adds a great support with Future Sight that helps Barraskewda to pivote around and chip its answers, and the added power of Future Sight pressures stuff like Pex/Kommo-o, and chip the opposite team even more. Then we have the Chandelure slot; this slot was kinda hard to figure out and even know I feel like it could be changed; it's probably the slot that you can adapt to the player that use the team and its opponent. The first mon was Chomp, but it couldn't be Regen and it probalby hadn't enough longevity against TNM builds. Overall, the goal was to threaten Barraskewda answers on the switch and threaten Pex ideally cuz it kinda farms the team even with Fsight support. The set was not revealed but its Substitute Taunt Double STAB, which loses to Bounce Blobs but they aren't that common, and overall is pretty good at making progress long term. Taunt in general is an insane move, it's just hard to fit cuz you have to give up on setup or coverage, and this Chandy with CM would be broken but sadly you can only have 4 moves. The last slot covers Zarude weakness cuz TNM uses it a lot, and also helped vs Barras and Dhelmise. It provides Stealth Rock, which is a mandatory tool on that kind of teams I think, but this defensive Pokemon was also able to threaten stuff with Iron Defense + Body Press, and it kinda had a shot at some point in the game.
With all those tools, this team has several ways of making progress even if you load into a couter to Chandelure or Barraskewda you have several ways to make progress and have good odds to win long term, and this is what I mean when I say "relying on one breaker to make progress or get walled'.

1650871669911.pngBeka vs pdt1650871659833.png

Looking at preview, Beka's (Mao112) team really looked like the Stall panda spammed during the last AAA Seasonal with Talonflame > Hippowdon, and with an annoying defensive core of Ferro/Chansey/Mandi/Pex that looks like solid like that, but I've always find that it's the kind of defensive stuff that are not so hard to weaken long term since they are pretty passive. Chomp, that appeared to be offensive Regen SD LO, and Talonflame, were the offensive core and they are both quite threatening breaker that can make a lot of progress on their own, which is logical considering the backbone of the team. pdt brought a heat team that felt like something geerat would have bring/build, with the signature Thundurus, a cool Volcanion, and then more classic stuff with Chomp/Gene/DS Mew/Blissey.
The game quickly reveals that the thundy is knock + u-turn to weaken AV/blobs to open the path for Dland Volcanion, and it's actually an interesting tech. Sadly running this thundy in Regen Chomp + Ferro, and with Magic Guard Chansey, is really sad for pdt, and he had outs to make progress, with knock + volcanion, SD Chomp, and even Counter Blissey to get some surprise KOs, but he ran in a painful MU, using DS Mew as its only out vs Talonflame and Chomp, which works for not-so-long game that would have happen without this horrible MU for his offensive core, but lose long-term vs it and he kinda had no chance in this game.
There were 3 key turns in this game however, if I had to resume it in a nutshell :
-Turn 12 : Volcanion doing 33% with Focus Blast to Chansey when it did 32% with Weather Ball kinda made me laugh. This had no impact on the game, but it proves how strong are Primordial Weathers, and that you don't need much coverage to work lol
-Turn 41 : Blissey revealing Counter in the wind. Sad moment cuz Ferrothorn would pretty much have died, which would have give pdt a fine chance with Thundy to chip Garchomp little by little and eventually koff Chansey at some point. Not sure of why Beka clicked Spikes here, but it worked so :eh:.
-Turn 64 : pdt somehow was able to setup Chomp, that was the only one to have a decent chance vs Beka's team despite Talon/Chomp revenve killing it, and ferro/buzz that could ate hit (so yeah this decent chance was hard to use), and is able to 2HKO DS Mandibuzz with Stone Edge (cuz it was weaken a bit), and then miss... the miss doesn't really change the game, cuz Chomp/Talonflame were probably finishing at this point, but this kinda resume pdt's game until now : unfortunate. They do not deserve to be in 0-3 and overall played their games better than their opponents, and that's kinda tragic to see pdt going in 0-3 once again bc he plays well. idk if he'll ask to be sub out after this game, I would understand it tbf cuz it must be frustrating, but I'm pretty sure they'll win some games if they continue bc they played their games better...

Here ends the AAA Review of Week 3 ! Some analyses were quite long, some shorter, I'm trying my best to bring out the important points of every game and what I feel should be reminded of those games.
Stay tuned for AAA Review of Week 4 and for ojr's and a loser's reviews, and have a nice day everyone !

Also, don't forget to wish UT a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, he's awesome and deserves a LOT of love :heart: :heart: :heart:

won vs beauts, gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8almostanyability-1560164007-7m9fmcqnc30hdkdd069xuphho03j5pspw
(pls make this count for w4)
 
only doing ag and mnm + interesting ones cause im lazy

SS Anything Goes: Nevelle vs WSun1 - nev been on a slump lately, unless he picks himself up, this should be a sweep for wsun
SS Mix and Mega: Ivar57 vs Quantum Tesseract - interesting mu, i think qt is the better play and builder here so im gonna give him the edge here.

SS Almost Any Ability: Jrdn vs shiloh - heat fucking mu, the best one in the aaa slot for probably the entire tour. both have super good fundamentals, but the support jrdn has with aesf and friends is just gonna be too much here for shiloh
SS Anything Goes: mncmt vs Skarph - hmmm, i think skarph will just dominate this game; tho mncmt did beat him in uwt in the past iirc, but this is ag with dyna, bit different
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs ez - hm i think this will semi close. stresh is probably building here and the team they used last week was nice and the plays too. i think ez will come in with the better team, but andy will have the surprise tech that will give the advantage and just capitalize on it from there and win

SS Anything Goes: BasedWhat? vs velvet - hmm, basedwhat is the better player here and i thin will have the better team too
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs damflame 3 - tect been on form lately

SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Junaa - yeah as long as bacon preps for the HO mu, he should always take this
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Axzel - lydia played absolutely terrible last week, altho i believe she will have the mu, i really dont believe in her capitalizing on it, gonna give it to axzel
SS STABmons: Clementine vs pannuracotta - last week couldve been a solid chance for pannu to prove he is actually solid since he was playing an established player in fc, but instead went for a cheese, even if the week ddint matter it was unfort. idk his opponent but im still give them the edge here
 
Some predicts for this week, looking forwards for the 2v2 this week since it all looks heat.


The Honey Linoones - [3][5] - The Spinda Wheels
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Adam3560 vs London13 - Been on quite a nice hotstreak, i wonder if Adam can beat it but for now London is looking solid
SS Almost Any Ability: Jrdn vs shiloh
SS Anything Goes: mncmt vs Skarph
SS Balanced Hackmons: Career Ended vs xavgb
SS Godly Gift: Sylveon. vs FlamingVictini - GG slot for them has been great so far
SS Mix and Mega: Andyboy vs ez - game against Lydia was well fought so ima give it here too
SS NFE: pdt vs TJ
SS STABmons: Trade vs Greybaum


The Malding Mavericks - [5.5][3.5] - The Wiggly Family
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Blanched - he finally won one and will now go 5-2
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs MZ - honestly not sure in this one, could go both ways looking at records and builds etc
SS Anything Goes: BasedWhat? vs velvet
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs MAMP
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Meta
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs damflame 3
SS NFE: ojr vs tlenit - been a bit rocky so gotta bold tlenit here
SS STABmons: Byleth vs Fc

The Hammered Hawluchas - [4][4] - The Larping Lopunnys
SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): yuki vs zioziotrip - looks promising and a nice start for ompl 2v2
SS Almost Any Ability: Beka vs The Number Man - tnm
SS Anything Goes: baconeatinassassin vs Junaa
SS Balanced Hackmons: ItsChew. vs cityscapes
SS Godly Gift: Dr. Phd. BJ vs lepton - god
SS Mix and Mega: astralydia vs Axzel - been absolutely popping off recently so i think they deserve a bold here
SS NFE: jonfilch vs Jordy - jon
SS STABmons: Clementine vs pannuracotta

also Happy Birthday UT
 
a loser's OMPL BH Review: Week 3
a loser vs xavgb
:Groudon::Giratina::Regigigas::Xerneas-Neutral::Chansey::Yveltal: vs :Xerneas-Neutral::Melmetal::Eternatus::Zygarde-Complete::Regigigas::Tapu Fini:
I wasn't at all surprised to see Xerneas on stresh's side but the rest of the team didn't look like typical stresh team's I'd gotten used to seeing. I only realized after the game that I didn't bring a Steel-type, so we'll see how that factors in against Xern and Etern.

I led with Imposter Chansey to see stresh's Prankster Tapu Fini and we both pivot out into our Poison Heal Regigigas. Mine gets hit for a big chunk of damage on a crit from Facade while getting up a spike and I'm forced out as stresh's uses Flip Turn to bring in Xerneas to face my Giratina. I send in Groudon to face Xerneas as it spins away the Spikes and chip it with Rocky Helmet. I'm not sure what stresh is thinking about this switch but he brings Gigas back in and I respond with Giratina. He clicks Knock Off to do 24%, which isn't much, but then I try to get some momentum with Teleport while stresh just clicks Knock Off again and this chips Giratina into range of being 2HKOed. This was bad for me because I had to bring Giratina in safely in order to check Gigas now and ended up with me losing Imposter's Eviolite. On turn 10, Don and Xern face off again and this time stresh goes for Quiver Dance while I click Thousand Waves again. He must have hoped I was Ice Scales but comes up empty on Boomburst when Don is revealed as Soundproof. Xern goes down from Poison Fang and Rocky Helmet after a few turns and stresh sends in Eternatus. I realized here that I could have made a play to use Parting Shot and get someone like Imposter or Regigigas in for a free turn but didn't want to let Xern get away had it chosen Strength Sap again.
Anyway, Don stays in to face an unknown Etern and promptly dies from Dragon Energy. I bring Imposter in and see an oldie but goodie Etern set stresh ran before of Dragon's Maw with D-Energy / Sludge Bomb / Volt Switch / Shore Up. The one I'm familiar with ran Dragon Fang Modest and this looked to be the same. And this was not a good sign either because I have absolutely zero safe switch-ins since it OHKOes itemless Imposter if attacking from full health. So I'm in a big hole here but in a series of decent turns (or lucky guesses) I manage to get a layer of Spikes back up and find out that Giratina spinblocks stresh's backup spinner, Zygarde-C. This was a good sign for me until Zyg-C crits Tina with Core Enforcer as it used Teleport. Perhaps this was a bad move on my part to pivot there but it definitely drained my momentum as 37% Tina can't come in to face Zyg-C anymore outside of gambling on very low rolls. A few turns later I risk it anyway and hard switch in Giratina after scouting Melmetal again as stresh attempts to Rapid Spin. This was good for me but also troublesome as Zyg-C can continue to spam Core Enforcer and fish for crits while I have to recover, all the while fearing that stresh brings in Eternatus to claim a KO. I tried to keep stresh guessing on when I'd use my recovery move and end up catching an Etern switch-in with Core Enforcer to bring it down to 30%. It pivots out to bring in Melmetal and I didn't want Giratina getting too low again so I heal up while getting hit with Nuzzle. This wasn't ideal by any means but having Tina at 54% and potentially giving stresh a free turn had Melm pivoted would have been worse. I end up getting three layers of Spikes down, which was really nice, but short-lived as I sent in Xern to bait a Core Enforcer from Zyg-C only for it to spin them away. The next several turns feature a bunch of pivoting from Xerneas and Melmetal, with both sides trying to find openings. I finally grow impatient and try to force an opening by bringing in Yveltal and clicking V-create against a chipped Melmetal, knowing I can't KO it without a crit but also knowing I had to make some progress somehow. It gets chipped to 13% as it Nuzzles Yveltal and I spend the next five minutes debating what move to choose before realizing that stresh got DC'd. I settle on Boomburst to catch any switch-in for big damage and maybe a KO but end up with a full para instead. Zyg-C comes in and spins again while Melmetal regens back up and its back to square one. From here, Giratina ends up catching an untimely full para while facing Zyg-C and is forced out and my Gigas ends up going down to Etern on a risky play from me where it lived anything but Sludge Bomb and I'm never able to get any more momentum after this.

Not having an Etern answer was pretty bad on my end but I definitely wasn't expecting Dragon's Maw from stresh in this game. Their team was interesting, with really only Zyg-C and paralysis to deal with Steel-types but lucky for him I didn't bring any.

Nihilslave vs quojova
:Groudon::Xerneas-Neutral::Chansey::Regigigas::Zamazenta-crowned::Lunala: vs :Dialga::Celesteela::Xerneas-Neutral::Groudon::Regigigas::Eternatus:
Things look pretty even at team preview with similar cores of Xern / Don / Gigas / Steel-type and no clear standouts in matchup. quojova continues a trend of not bringing a Ghost-type.

The game starts out with a fairly interesting, yet boring, 35 turn stalemate between Nuzzle FC Lunala and Prankster Glare Groudon. Neither side wanted to get the switch wrong and have someone be paralyzed or have a set revealed early, I guess. Nihilslave finally breaks the pattern and sends in Magic Bounce Zama-C to bounce back Don's Glare, finally forcing quojova to switch it out for the first time and bring in Eternatus. But it just Volt Switches on Lunala to bring in Don again and they start playing chicken again but this time with both parties paralyzed and Lunala more threatening with powered up Hex. Nihilslave continues to mix in Nuzzles to keep quojova honest with unrevealed Xern and Gigas still on his side, but quojova makes a gamble and sends Xerneas in on a Hex and activates its Toxic Orb. Over the next several turns, some double switches allow for both sides to activate the remaining Toxic Orbs safely and Xerneas, after getting chipped by Dialga's Anchor Shot, is denied healing via Strength Sap by quojova's Magic Bounce Eternatus. Etern gets scouted to reveal Sludge Bomb / Trick / Volt Switch / recovery and at 50+ turns in the game is still looking pretty even with not much progress made. No hazards have been used, but Nihilslave did reveal that quojova's Gigas has Spikes.
Nihilslave continues to scout, showing that Dialga is Fur Coat with STABs and Rapid Spin. A spike is finally set by Nihilslave's Regigigas and he proceeds to successfully spinblock Dialga by the skin of its teeth with a paralyzed Lunala. Then the two sides play chicken again as Nihilslave brings in Imposter to face Eternatus and PP stall but quojova never tricks it the Black Sludge. Ten turns later it gets another chance and uses Trick but Imposter just tricks it back, successfully PP stalling. All the while quojova is attempting to get Dialga back in to spin away the spike since Lunala is chipped down well in range of being KO'd by Core Enforcer. Dialga does come in a few times but manages to full para each time as Nihilslave responds each time by sending in Xerneas to take the Core. This creates another pattern of plays where Xern Boombursts the Etern switch and Imposter stalls Etern. Finally some new faces come in to shake things up, as Gigas and Don come in for a bit, but one thing stays the same as Dialga full paras yet again. We get the same Imposter / Etern turns and Dialga finally is able to get a move off and clicks Rapid Spin at the same time Nihilslave changes it up and brings in Lunala. This was bad for quojova but is justice was served quickly as Lunala gets the para this time and goes down to Core Enforcer. However, Groudon comes in after and forces Dialga out to keep the spike on the field. Nihilslave is now in position to spam Thousand Arrows with their Groudon as quojova has nothing that can switch in without being 2HKOed. During this Thousand Arrows spam sequence, the spike takes its toll wearing down Don and Dialga and Don eventually is sacked so that Regigigas can come in safely. Zama-C is sent in to face Gigas and traps it while taking half its health from Precipice Blades. Gigas is able to keep the pressure on Zama-C as long as it keeps hitting blades but it eventually misses and has its ability removed. quojova tries to get smart and predict a switch an the turn Gigas would faint to poison by using Spikes only for Nihilslave to stay in and bounce the spike back. But not all is lost, as Dialga has a chance to come in and finally use Rapid Spin in peace. Psych! It of course is too paralyzed to function here but it actually does remove the Spikes seven turns later, finally, but is still chipped down to 21% health. It continues to barely hang on and check Regigigas, taking around 13% from Facade and getting out of range thanks to Leftovers, but manages still to catch more paras until finally using its first Recover at turn 137. However, this glory was short-lived as not long after this Dialga has to face off against Groudon and gets two more full paras before finally going down. quojova's last wincon is now Triage Celesteela, which funnily gets turned into Magic Bounce by Nihilslave to protect it from Topsy-Turvy. It takes down Xern and Don without catching paras and has to face Imposter after this. Imposter starts by critting Steela down to 14% with Oblivion Wing and Steela hits Imposter for 94% with Flame Drive Techno Blast and Chansey goes down to Black Sludge damage. But the crit put Celesteela well in range of being KO'd by Regigigas the next turn and Gigas finishes off the game for the win.

This was a very ugly game as both sides experienced 12 full paras each. Lunala was fully paralyzed 11 times and Dialga was fully paralyzed 8 times, but each of Dialga's full paras were in more important moments in the battle. Nihilslave's offensive Groudon ended up being a big threat to quojova's team with Thousand Arrows. quojova's teched out Triage set had potential to do lots of damage but would have to deal with Topsy Zama-C, Nuzzle, and Imposter, all while hoping Nihilslave didn't misplay.

MAMP vs cityscapes
:Ho-Oh::Regigigas::Xerneas-Neutral::Celesteela::Blissey::Melmetal: vs :Kyogre::Xerneas-Neutral::Ho-Oh::Dialga::Kartana::Regigigas:
cityscapes shows up with two "steel-types", Xern, Gigas, and Ho-Oh while MAMP brings two actual Steel-types, Xern, Gigas, and Ho-Oh. MAMP continues to sponsor Melmetal's case for viability.

The game gets off to an interesting start as Ogre and Gigas Nuzzle and Knock each other, respectively, leading the audience to believe MAMP's Gigas might not be Poison Heal (or is carrying Psycho Shift). But over the next couple turns it looks like Gigas is RegenVest as it Nuzzles, Knocks, and U-turns in front of a Fur Coat Dialga who strangely reveals it is packing Bolt Strike. city sends in Kartana off a U-turn and MAMP scouts the set but doesn't share it, and me knowing the set wonders what MAMP thought at this point about the matchup. MAMP gets Blissey back in on Ho-Oh and after its Toxic Orb activates city claims no surprise here. MAMP's Ho-Oh then bounces back at Stealth Rock attempt but again, city is unphased by anti-Xerneas building strategies. Blissey comes in later on city's Regigigas to steal Poison Heal and city reveals the improof is Kartana, who doesn't waste time healing at 51% but rather clicks Glacial Lance to hit a Ho-Oh switch-in and get it in range of a KO. MAMP responds by bringing in Prankster Melmetal to trap Kartana, but city doesn't mind as it can spam Low Kick and force it to recover. That is until Melmetal Taunts Kart, forcing it to take Rocky Helmet damage, but Melmetal still has to spam healing moves. MAMP ends up switching out to bring in Xerneas to take a Low Kick and city takes a moment to contemplate Fire-type coverage on Xern before just clicking Anchor Shot as MAMP brings in Celesteela. Things get back into a pivot dance for a minute until city's Gigas and MAMP's orb Imposter start setting Spikes, all while MAMP's Ho-Oh doesn't have a chance to heal up.
Dialga and Celesteela then face off and MAMP risks taking Bolt Strike in order to spin away the Spikes it is laying in between misses and full paras. This works until it doesn't, as Dialga lands a Bolt Strike and gets the paralysis, next turn full para, and KO to boot. city is finally able to send Xern back in safely and spins away the three layers of Spikes that had been eating at the team. Kartana and Melmetal go at it again and this time Kartana is on the offensive, trapping Melmetal first and whittling down its recovery PP thanks to Low Kick's high PP. MAMP makes a gamble and denies Kartana healing while in range of being KO'd to force it out, but this just winds up with MAMP having to sack Ho-Oh. But MAMP is able to get Spikes and even rocks back down over the next series of turns, which majorly limit Kyogre's ability as a pivot and wear down Dialga further. So around 100 turns in it's 6-4 city but city has 4 mons at less than 50% health and a stack of hazards to deal with. MAMP has Blissey in on Ho-Oh and is kinda forced to PP stall despite taking Toxic damage as none of the rest of his team can come in on a V-create too easily. city decides to break the PP stall by sacking Dialga to hazards so that Xerneas can have an opening. Xern comes in and actually Saps instead of spins thanks to MAMP's Ho-Oh being gone and the hazards stay up for the time being. Ogre finally goes down to hazards + Gigas and Xern is sent in response to spin away the pile of hazards. Things are looking pretty dire for MAMP as he sends Blissey in again to face PH Gigas and tries to catch Kartana with a Precipice Blades, all while being chipped fairly low. But Blissey gets a big crit to KO Gigas from 75% and this opens up a safe window for city to bring Kartana in. I'm not sure if the crit actually hurt MAMP or if the game was already over but city gets the win shortly after this.

city's team was neat and featured a fabled set, Flower Veil Kartana. This set was discussed after I brought Soundproof Kartana against TTTech in the playoffs last year but only in theory, so as far as I know this was its competitive debut. MAMP's team indeed had heavy Regi/Xern counterplay with Orb Imposter, Bounce Ho-Oh, Celesteela, and Melmetal. Sadly for MAMP, this couldn't stop Regi/Xern + Kartana despite a good effort.

TTTech vs Career Ended
:Ho-Oh::Groudon::Giratina-Origin::Blissey::Xerneas-Neutral::Zamazenta-crowned: vs :Solgaleo::Kyurem-Black::Zygarde-Complete::Regigigas::Zamazenta-crowned::Xerneas-Neutral:
At preview, we see career with a Regi/Xern core and likely a Kyu-B / Solgaleo improofing core while TTTech's squad is looking quite different from the usual with Giratina-O standing out.

After a lead scout, both sides activate Toxic Orbs of Gigas, and Tina-O, respectively, and TTTech's Zama-C takes a Nuzzle from career's Xerneas. TTTech sends in Blissey after the Nuzzle to reveal it is also Toxic Orb and doubles out to Groudon on an anticipated Volt Switch from Zyg-C. Don clicks Precipice Blades to chunk Gigas for nice damage, leading me to believe it could be Soft Sand Soundproof. Both sides dance around for a while with Don, Blissey, Xern, Zyg-C, and a PrimSea Solgaleo all making appearances until career brings Kyu-B in off a U-turn to show Mold Breaker. TTTech sends in Xerneas, who takes 74% before shrugging it off with a Strength Sap from the incoming Regigigas. Kyu-B gets back in off another pivot and just U-turns in front of Ho-Oh and ends up tickling Zama-C with it instead. Career attempts to get Spikes up with Gigas but TTTech boldly sends in Bounce Ho-Oh to deny them. After some turns of baiting, TTTech gets Tina-O back in against Solgaleo. At this point, only Core Enforcer has been revealed but it uses Nasty Plot as career bring in Xerneas to face it. TTTech takes a pretty big gamble and stays in against Xern, taking 88% from Boomburst and paralyzing it in return. Tina-O has to dip and TTTech sends in his own Xern as career's catches a full para. Then both sit around, unable to move, and TTTech makes some interesting switches that almost end up with Tina-O getting owned. Then both sides make double switches that result in Kyu-B vs Groudon. Kyu-B with a free turn like this is incredibly scary and TTTech decides to sack Don and reveals Prankster Glare to cripple Kyu-B and it lives to see another day after a full para. After this, TTTech plays Russian roullette and sends in Zama-C to hopefully eat a Glance but instead has it fall to V-create. After a few more turns where Tina-O had some chances to heal up with PH, career brings Zama-C in off a Regi U-turn to face Tina. Not scared of an unrevealed set, TTTech stays in an Nuzzles Zama-C as it uses Belly Drum. Zama-C is chipped further by Hex as it, for some reason, uses Imprison here before being KO'd by Hex the following turn. Kyu-B, now paralyzed, gets some more free turns and TTTech tries to dance around it as best as he can and manages to only lose Xern and take out career's Zyg-C in the process with Blissey. Tina-O comes back in off a pivot and uses Nasty Plot again to setup while at full health. Xern then is taken out by +2 Hex, a higher end roll of the 77.1 - 91% range, and is able to clean up the rest of the battle in the next few turns.

Career's team looked to have more offensive firepower and definitely put him in a better position to win compared to the first two weeks. But TTTech's team had a nice matchup thanks to his own Xerneas and wildcard PH Tina-O.

Metagame Observations
Etern and Zama-C fell off in usage pretty sharply this week while Xerneas was featured in every game on both sides and Regigigas was right behind Xern with seven uses. Melmetal was surprisingly used twice this week and was able to put in solid work overall. The trend of Swords Dance Gigas didn't make it past Week 1 but Spikes Gigas has been the highest use for the past few weeks. Every Gigas this week except for MAMP's RegenVest variant used Spikes. Fur Coat Dialga got two uses this week and put in some decent work too. Toxic Orb Imposter has been seen quite a bit so far this OMPL but I've yet to be impressed by its contributions. Battles this week averaged 119 turns.

Upcoming Matches
a loser vs Nihilslave - two builders with interesting styles face off here in what I think should be an entertaining battle. Tune in early Friday to watch it at 8 am GMT-5! (I got it right this time)

Career Ended vs xavgb -
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Career Ended got some hype in the BH rankings, draft guides, and encyclopedias but I feel like this comment from stresh really pushed the hype to the next level. So far he hasn't quite lived up to the hype but had a better showing last week. It's time to make stresh think "fml" again.

quojova vs MAMP - both sides are coming off tough losses and looking to bounce back. MAMP's schedule is only getting tougher after their 2-0 start and quojova will aim to get back to even after an unideal 1-2 start.

ItsChew. vs cityscapes - well, we thought ItsChew. would debut last week vs Career Ended but that got scratched as TTTech subbed in. So I'll repeat my thoughts I had on the decision last week: I'm not sure I fully understand this decision but it is always nice to get everyone some playing time.
 
Schedule W4 The Malding Mavericks vs The Wiggly Family: (GMT=0)

SS 2v2 Doubles (Best of 5): Chris32156 vs Blanched : Friday 11 PM
SS Almost Any Ability: luisin vs MZ : Saturday 2 PM
SS Anything Goes: BasedWhat? vs velvet : Friday 10 PM
SS Balanced Hackmons: quojova vs MAMP : Saturday 4 AM
SS Godly Gift: crying vs Meta : Sunday 10:30 PM
SS Mix and Mega: TectonicDestroyer vs damflame 3 : whenever tect is happy with a team for more than 10 minutes (i.e. never)
SS NFE: ojr vs tlenit : Sunday 4 PM
SS STABmons: Byleth vs Fc : Sunday 2 AM

If Americans are still confused
Have fun everyone!
 
OMPL Week 3 NFE games coverage

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Usages:
4 times:
Clefairy / Raboot / Vullaby / Piloswine / Hattrem / Thwackey
3 times:
Gurdurr / Wartortle / Corsola-Galar / Tangela / Electabuzz
2 times:
Roselia / Marshtomp
1 time:
Machoke / Koffing / Rufflet / Ferroseed / Mareanie

Overall Usage:
19 times:
Vullaby
18 times:
Piloswine
12 times:
Raboot
11 times:
Roselia
10 times:
Corsola-Galar
9 times:
Wartortle / Electabuzz / Gurdurr
8 times:
Thwackey / Hattrem
6 times:
Clefairy
4 times:
Ferroseed / Tangela
3 times:
Machoke / Marshtomp
2 times:
Duosion / Hakamo-o / Lampent
1 time:
Linoone-G / Charjabug / Koffing / Rufflet / Mareanie

Usage compared to last week:
+4:
Clefairy
+2:
Hattrem / Thwackey / Wartortle / Tangela
+1:
Raboot / Electabuzz / Marshtomp / Koffing / Rufflet / Mareanie
+0:
Machoke / Ferroseed
-1:
Gurdurr
-2:
Corsola-Galar / Roselia
-3:
Piloswine
-4:
Vullaby

Building trends:
- Clefairy is back on track. After a complete no show in week 2 Clefairy has taken week 3 by storm being one of the most used mons in the week. Its splashability and versatility is a great asset in building as we saw sets like knock stoss encore, trick wish, trick cm, cm psychic all in action this week.
- Piloswine and Vullaby DROP. After completely dominating the first 2 weeks in usage we saw a huge drop in usage for the top dogs of the tier. This is a sign of more experimentation
- Roselia drops yet again, it just seems the metagame is adapting to it and that people are trying to build against it rather than building with it.
- More diversity in building. We see some newcomers this week with stuff like Koffing, Rufflet and Mareanie. We see more non-Roselia grasses too as Thwackey and Tangela rise as well. We see hazard control get more diverse too as Wartortle and Hattrem get more use as well who were lesser used in last week.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1560320257
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the teams:
from stareal we see a raboot machoke spikes team. interesting here is that he decided to go with marshtomp over pilo for the rocker. this is a trend we see more this week overall. the clef could be kinda anything at preview but in the game it actually ends up being knock stoss encore soft. I didnt account for encore which will really bite me later in the game. as for myself I decided to go with a pretty slowish team reliant on thwackey as wincon. I also have a wish clef which is good for my hattrem as it wants to stay healthy to beat both hazard setters in this game. I would say that the matchup is pretty even here. stareal has a huge threat in machoke since I do not like switching into it at all. on the other hand my thwackey could definitely have a good endgame with SD here if I get it into a good position and my hattrem is really annoying for him to prevent hazards from going up.

the game:
we see early on that we both just try to knock each other a lot. at a certain point I get up rocks as he gets the machoke in. I couldve also opted to attack there and get damage on machoke to give it less chances to come in, which mightve been better. I try to pivot around machoke but stareal reads me quite well and gets a lot of value out of bringing machoke in. the machoke knocks off clefairy and kills vullaby in exchange for losing his eviolite. then I try to play more offensive after this early loss by trying to get in my piloswine on a switch to clefairy / vullaby but he pivots into marshtomp instead. which allows him to fish with scald, then I do get the play right but miss icicle crash on marshtomp. on the 2nd scald he does get the burn and now I feel a lot more pressed to make progress quickly. I try punish his switch again but he just stays in and clicks rocks, reading me like a book. now he gets another chance with machoke but I get the turn right as he doesnt knock my gurdurr. I knock his roselia on the switch which is nice but im still way behind. I decide to remove rocks now at the cost of taking an sbomb, knowing I could wish it later. then he tspikes on my hatt which I did not expect at all lol. then he calls me out on my double yet again and tspikes up. at this point its looking very bad for me with this tspike up and my only winpath is trying to win with thwackey but I actually still need damage on raboot for glide to kill. I decide to high horsepower thinking that he will definitely keep the rose alive for thwackey but he decides to spike which is interesting. knowing that he is completely walled by pilo with roselia I decide to get up rocks to chip vullaby for my SD thwack. I wish as he gets up rocks which do not matter that much anymore for me personally as I just need to get the set up with thwackey and the chip on raboot. I wish pass to gurdurr as he crits eq which is not very big but still annoying as this gurdurr is supposed to check raboot as I kill off the marshtomp. I really shouldve mach'd here on his uturn with raboot which wouldve put him in glide range but I just thought that there was no way he was giving it to me that easily lol. drain punch didnt make much sense from me either though I cant defend that play at all. the turn after I decide to just mach to be secure on his uturn. but he doesnt uturn which really felt painful for me cuz it was kinda a throw to just let it get drained there from stareal. I have to find an opportunity to set up with thwackey. I decide that forcing his raboot to click high jump kick will make him fighting type which will force him out afterwards with thwackey. he doesnt do that and goes clef on pilo. I decide that this is fine for me cuz in my mind I can just set up on clef with thwackey. I try to put his clef as low as possible to where its useless while still keeping it alive to provide the free SD set up. well then the clef reveals to be encore and I straight up lose. I shouldve accounted for encore looking back on it but I "tunnelvisioned" way too hard on 1 winpath. I could have tried to force flare blitz recoil from raboot onto killing clef and putting it in +0 glide range from thwackey as an alternative winpath which was not reliant on him not having encore clef.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8nfe-1560414861-iyf11s2xa8u0ylx6xwh0y51o1dlmv43pw
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the teams:
we see a very balanced offensive team from tlenit with the first koffing of the tour which is a refreshing sight. the koffing gets a great matchup here into dual grass and hattrem + gurdurr hazard control and also a corsola which hates tspikes. there is a lot of potential uturn / flip turn momentum action going on with this team which I really like from this team. from leo's side we see something similar to what I brought but he has a different swing on it with grass spam (ugly ass groundless too) which can be very potent with overwhelming certain grass checks which is a nice idea. I have definitely tried this core out before back in NFEPL golbat meta and it can be destructive. I think this matchup is pretty tough for leo on preview as his grass spam has to get through both vullaby and koffing while vullaby can uturn out of the grasses into the raboot to pressure even more.

the game:
early on we see tlenit leading off with koffing trying to get the tspike up asap which is a good idea. leo doesnt really handle this very well as he tries to break through the koffing but the koffing having pain split and thief makes this a very tough task as he ends up with no eviolite on his own tangela + chipped to 59% cuz of neut-gas and tlenit gets even 2 layers up of tspikes while keeping his eviolite and staying at 60% himself. this lead early on is so huge for tlenit coupled with the tough matchup for leo I think its gonna be very hard from here on out (and we are only on turn 5). Leo gets on the aggressive and gets his gurdurr in on the vull switch and also gets the nice knock read onto koffing. but koffing takes nothing from that and pain split will undo every % he did. raboot will be able to pivot in on leaf storm and give tlenit some good positioning again. the wart is just gonna stoss this gurdurr while taking absolute nothing from drain punch this is where the 2nd layer on tspike really starts showing how painful it is for leo as even seismic toss somehow becomes hard to switch into for leo? I dont really get why he doesnt go clefairy tho? tlenit makes a nice pivot into thwackey, predicting leaf / giga from tangela. as leo sends in his corsola which is also now affected by the 2nd layer of tspike. tlenit even reveals to be taunt thwackey which really seems to be putting the nail in the coffin for leo. knock crit is definitely not nice for leo but with taunt im fairly this was a losing exchange for leo anyways. tlenit makes a really nice koffing play on the thief from tangela because not only did it cover sbomb / thief but it also makes the poison damage stick guaranteed because when it switches out it will always switch out first because its faster than koffing. as tlenit makes a good play again with the thwackey pivot not allowing corsola to heal. he gets leo's thwackey poisoned and now everyone on leo's team is hit by tspikes that is affected by it. uturn chip does a good chunk and vull will eat the knock. as both uturn out and tlenit brings in raboot. as the raboot reveals to be cb and does 60 to clef and leo is forced to pick a sack. leo tries to keep himself in the game with some nice uturn on tlenits switch but uturn from tlenit + tspikes are slowly making him collapse. we fast forward here to turn 30 where tlenit flinches the clef with crash which doesnt really matter but it speeds up the game since with taunt thwack and a cb raboot in the back this CM clef was never winning. the game is pretty much over from here. this game was very unwinnable for leo I think but still played well by tlenit nonetheless.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-622354
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the teams:
from jons side we see yet another voltturn based team which is similar but has a different backbone compared to tlenit's. because the team is so offensive it has singular hazard control in hattrem which I think is good on these structures. it reveals to be cb thwackey which I dont really like because I think u really want the pivoting bulk on this offensive team to come in multiple times. jon's team seems also be lacking in knock users as his only knocker in thwack which is really dire esp when its gonna be cb. from mncmt we see a pretty standard squad but with rufflet as filler 6th. rufflet is definitely a cool pick but it hates facing ebuzz so thats unfortunate for mncmt. overall I think I like mncmt's more overall and would give them a favorable matchup on paper even tho hattrem could prove to be an annoyance if offensive.

the game:
we see a smart lead from jon leading off with thwack as he absolutely needs to start knocking with thwack early. mncmt is just fine with taking the knock trade t1 and just switch out to rose after which is a really good sequence for him. the rose starts being an insanely annoying mon to switch into as it usually is. jon absolutely does not want his hattrem getting sbomb poisoned and gets it in on a giga which is nice. sdef rose is an absolute insane mon though as it takes 60 on a crit from hatt psychic which reveals that the hatt is not as offensive as it would like in this matchup. mncmt makes a a nice play catching the raboot on the switch on an expected synth. jon does lose a lot of momentum by not uturning on the wart which gives jon some nice positioning. Im surprised that this raboot didnt uturn though?(we know its not choiced from later in the game) the bu rufflet doesnt really make progress here so im confused why it was chosen over rose. as it gives jon free rocks but the crash miss really stinks for him. mncmt makes a good knock play on cors and gets the rose back in again. giga drain on the pilo is really nice for him too cuz the recovery puts him in a good position to check a lot of mons on jons team. the pilo does force damage onto gurd again which is good for all of his offensive pivots. I think mncmt tries to catch some doubles by knocking which was a fine play cuz he didnt lose very much from making the knock play. then he lets wart take significant damage which is weird to me and apparently it forces the cors out which I dont really get as shade seemed pretty free. mncmt gets a free rose but jon makes a great pilo on the sbomb. mncmt doesnt seem scared of a fast pilo though or he just calls the double out and gets a nice position vs thwack again.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8nfe-622367
1651157306576.png

the teams:
from ho3n side we see a different dual grass compared to leo. this is the more defensive dual grass combo which still works p well but for different reasons. overall ho3ns team looks kinda passive for a raboot spikes team but I see what he is going for with a more outlasting approach and getting raboot in at the right times to make progress with all the passive damage going on in the team. the cm clef has a terrible matchup into mareanie which sucks for ho3n cuz its a cool mon that is pretty underrated and is actually hella annoying for everything else on tj's team. we also see a leftovers marshtomp? tj's team looks grimy as well and reveals a rest stoss electabuzz and an aroma rest talk hattrem. ho3n is gonna have a tough time trying to break through this team. ho3ns tangela can be a threat though and could prove to be an issue if its not brave bird vullaby.

the game:
since this game is very long I will not go into detail about it and im also very tired of making this post at this point. sorry to everyone who was specifically waiting for this game analysis in particular.
on turn 1 we see a very huge turn where both players take a huge risk with their tangs and tj gets punished very hard. then tj goes into vull as the vull gets knocked but the tangela toxic'd is very good for him as tangela crippled with toxic gives it a lot less playing room. clef gets knocked but its trick so corsola has no evio anymore but he does get up rocks. as soon as mareanie reveals haze it forces out clefairy. what follows is both sides not making any form of progress cuz ho3n doesnt get any sbomb poisons. for some reason the lefties marshtomp is actually being an amazing ebuzz check cuz the main attacking move to hit it with is seismic toss. marshtomp reveals rest and sleep talk and pulls eq which is a big blow for tj he even pulls it a 2nd time on rest from ebuzz which is really unlucky for tj. but then the hatt reveals aroma which makes it not as bad as it seemed for tj. we see tj get some kind of progress cuz the cors gets moonblast disabled from cursed body and he gets to fire off free night shades burning some softboiled pp. ho3n's tangela is getting pretty low at this point and with hattrem to be revealed aroma its gonna be very hard to create progress even with sbomb poisons. corsola is gonna drain some more softboiled pp and its looking pretty bad for ho3n because I dont see him winning longterm. tj doesnt let his cors get toxed and toxics the wart which is super good for tj because ho3n only form of removal is now on a timer with no reliable recovery outside of rest. tj doesnt let up the pressure and does not allow ho3n to get up rocks as tj again gets to aroma the vulls poison. tj has been kinda unlucky to get no scald burns but its still looking very favored for him. ho3n tries to fish for crits on hattrem with marsh eq but he doesnt get it and actually drains his own eq pp for the ebuzz. ho3n just does not seem able to create any form of progress even with as much doubles and uturns as he wishes. tj goes into cors on ferro and this actually allows ho3n to get up a spike which maybe gives him a shot at this stage? but its looking hard for ho3n to even make good use of the spike. at some point tj does get the spike off and ho3n gets the sbomb poison on that turn too but he cant kill the vull cuz of toxic poison forcing him to switch as vullaby lives another day. ho3n gets unlucky sleep turns with sleep powder which allows tj to get rocks back up again. and the corsola gets back to almost full as well. tj tries to make a nice double into electabuzz catching the clef switch but marshtomp makes him forced out and forcing hattrem to rest. ho3n gets the play right with tangela by leaf storming but cuz of cursed body he cant finish it off and is again forced to rely on sleep powder to keep him low. tj again gets an early wake up which just makes it impossible for ho3n to win from here because corsola looks unstoppable at this point. ho3n pulls some nice doubles but at some point tj anticipates a tang switch and gets the opportunity to rest ebuzz and now ho3n has to worry about that as well which makes this game look even more over at this stage. even with ho3n getting toxic onto corsola which was a nice play but it all feels too little too late at this point. especially when tj gets the aroma off again. from here on out its just game over for ho3n for real this time. overall a very cool fat team built by stresh for tj which pulled a good mu here and ho3n was unable to break it.

jeez this took me long this week I was very busy :C, probably no post next week as Ill be on vacation :quagchamppogsire:
 
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