RBY RBY OU Global Championship 2022: Finals [Won by SaDiSTiCNarwhal]

[velvet]

RBY OU Global Championship 2022

SPECIFIC RULES

• This is a standard RBY OU tournament
• This tournament will be a Global Championship. (explained below!)
• You may switch teams in between battles for your Best of 3s.
• Matches are to be played on Pokemon Showdown! (Main or SmogTours)
• Replays will not be required until Top 8.
• Activity calls will be made by me, potentially with neutral assistance from a RoA Forum Moderator. Coin flips will be done publicly on PS!
• In the event that something is added to or removed from the RBY OU metagame in the middle of a round, that change will be in effect starting the next round.
• Do not cheat. Cheating will result in a disqualification. Additional punishments may be applied as necessary. Cheating includes, but is not limited to:
  • Signing up with more than one account
  • Ghosting or being ghosted by another player
  • Manipulating match outcomes
• Do not harass or insult your opponents. I reserve the right to disqualify anyone breaking this rule. Additional punishments may be applied as necessary.

TOURNAMENT FORMAT

Each round will consist of 2 stages. The first stage each player will be given 2 sets of pairings, in which they play a Best of 3 vs both opponents. After the first stage is completed, players who win both their matches go through to the next round, while players who lost twice are eliminated. The players who went 1-1 battle it out in a tiebreaker Bo3 in stage 2 to join the two-time winners in the next round.

Example Breakdown (64 Players)

Round 1: Stage 1 - 2 sets of 32 Bo3 matches (64 unseeded players, subs period) & Stage 2
Round 2: Stage 1 - 2 sets of 16 Bo3 matches (32 unseeded players) & Stage 2
Round 3: Stage 1 - 2 sets of 8 Bo3 matches (16 unseeded players) & Stage 2
Round 4: Stage 1 - 2 sets of 4 Bo3 matches (8 unseeded players) & Stage 2
Round 5: Stage 1 - 2 sets of 2 Bo3 matches (4 unseeded players) & Stage 2
Finals: Stage 1 - 2 sets of Bo3 matches (2 unseeded players) & Stage 2
Stage 1 End: Players with 2 match wins go through, and those with 2 losses are eliminated.
Stage 2: Players with a 1-1 record play each other in a FT2W match to see who progresses (or wins the final)
TL:DR
You play two Bo3s each round against two different opponents
Win both Bo3s in Round: Advance to Next Round
Lose both Bo3s in Round: Eliminated from Tournament
Go 1-1 in Bo3s in Round: Play in a final Bo3 in Stage 2 - winner of the set moves on while loser is eliminated

Standard Rules and Clauses

• Standard Clauses / Mods
  • Desync Clause Mod: Desyncs changed to move failure.
  • Sleep Clause Mod: Limit one foe put to sleep
  • Freeze Clause Mod: Limit one foe frozen
  • Species Clause: Limit one of each Pokémon
  • OHKO Clause: OHKO moves are banned
  • Evasion Moves Clause: Evasion moves are banned
  • Endless Battle Clause: Forcing endless battles is banned
  • HP Percentage Mod: HP is shown in percentages
• Banned Moves
  • Dig, Double Team, Fissure, Fly, Guillotine, Horn Drill, Minimize
• Banned Pokemon
  • Mew, Mewtwo

What are we playing for?
A $50 Amazon Gift Card (sponsored by Lutra) will be given to the winner of the tournament!

This tournament will award points towards the 2022 RBY OU Circuit, which awards a ribbon to the winner of the entire circuit.

Global Championship Point Distribution

RBY OU Resources can be found here. RBY OU Sample Teams can be found here. The general RBY Forum can be found here.
Tournament Rules and General Guidelines can be found here. Scheduling Guide can be found here. Activity Win guidelines can be found here.

There will be two Bo3 sets. If one player wins both sets, they win the tournament. If each player both wins one Bo3, there will be a third Bo3 to decide the winner. Good luck and have fun to both!

Set One
SaDiSTiCNarwhal vs Serpi

Set Two
SaDiSTiCNarwhal vs Serpi

Replays are mandatory.

Deadline
Deadline is Sunday, August 7th at 11:59 PM EDT (GMT-4).​

 

[Serpi]

playing on sunday 4pm +2

 

[MAX UND MAX]

Serpi wird von der Smogon Gemeinschaft sehr unterschätzt und sprengt dieses Jahr alles in die Luft

 

[Gefährlicher Random]

Serpi wird von der Smogon Gemeinschaft sehr unterschätzt und sprengt dieses Jahr alles in die Luft

 

[SaDiSTiCNarwhal]

Never easy going up against a guy like Serpi man, but I found this to be a hell of a series and I am proud of my play. Gonna be adding some game commentary since I always thought that sort of thing was cool.

This first set felt like an absolute chess match to me.
SET 1
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-641291

G1

Going into the set I intended to bring a solid amount of Zam lead due to my Jynx spam earlier in the tournament. The Gar Jynx was a curveball straight out the gate, but it didn't end up being too tragic. I made a nice EQ prediction just to prevent the pivot and the damage difference vs. Lax/Chans wouldn't mean too much if I wanted to Slam. I was content with eating boom from Gar here, and I do the same in Set 3, and while I thought it would be quite manageable to play with 20% Lax, it ended up being a doozy. Unfortunately I was not rocking a Normal move on Egg this match, or else I might have gotten a great amount of momentum, but instead ended up getting crit by Jynx on T19 much to my dismay. I'm now in a tricky spot, especially after the Tauros crit, so I decide to sack/pivot Zam to get in Zap. At this point, I think I'm really fucked; Chansey, Zapdos, 20% Lax, and beam range Tauros vs. Chansey, Lax, 75% Tauros, and what I assume to be Zapdos from previous experiences. Seeing as it was Ice Beam + Reflect vs. my SToss + Reflect, I decide that PP stalling to the point where I can get something along the lines of PP-less Chansey & Lax forced to Rest. This is where the 20% Lax is a serious pain, cause I can't even Reflect on Tauros switch (vs. assumed Rest), and even if I was like 25% say, there's the Zap. So even if I had chances to bring in Lax vs. Serpi's Chansey, I feel like that would never really net me much and probably even detract from my position.

Fast forward to T145, nice crit and avoided the Slam para, but I was scared to Drill Peck in case Serpi did something crazy like switch to his own Zapdos since now he had the HP advantage in the ditto after the Slam damage. T156 I finally bring in the Lax and I feel like there is no point in Resting like I mentioned earlier, so I go for Slam damage putting Tauros in TBolt range or even Hyper Beam range if it becomes that tragic. Once again I am too scared to fish Drill Peck crit on the Chansey switch. T164 I make the decision to sack Chansey, as while it could offer me a T Wave vs. Zapdos, I find it unlikely Serpi would elect to allow me the opportunity to do so; additionally, I wanted to keep Lax because there was a chance I could Rest it up and win the PP Stall war vs Serpi's Lax since I was EQ. T165 I'm not sure whether this is an overpredict from Serpi or Beam was unnecessary for his victory, but it allows me to take out Tauros while coming into Zap for free. I proceed to do so, and very fortunately, I win out quite hard on the Zapdos ditto. On turn T175 you'll notice I TBolt, as I don't want to risk killing Chansey, and hope Serpi (blunders?) and kills me, allowing my Lax to come in and finally Rest. He makes a good move and goes into his own Lax, and now I believe I may have thrown and might have had to risk T Waving through para to ensure my Lax can rest. At this point I was very very scared of losing to Hyper Beam Lax through speed tie losses. I end up getting Reflect up with solid HP, but Serpi's Lax was doing a Tauros cosplay and repeatedly crit me in quick succession to give me a serious headache. Surprise surprise, it came down to Tauros hitting a Hyper Beam and in the end the king HIT.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-641299

G2

This game had a pretty standard opening, thankfully I didn't get frozen by the Mie. After a couple freeze fishes I chose to just T Wave since I'm playing Amnesia Lax, so its favorable anyways and covered the Lax double; I got the T Wave into the Lax as well just for good measure. I didn't want to get overzealous, so I tried to slowly work the HP on Serpi's mons down to a point where Amnesia Lax was super threatening if you're wondering why I don't Amnesia after the first round of Slam damage. I was cool trading damage vs the Egg as well since I was Amnesia Rest. Serpi had a good DEdge T20, but fortunately for me I don't get parad when it mattered here into a good read on his Boom. T26 was really scary, probably the pivotal point in the game. With 53% Cloy, 68% Lax, and Zam in the back, Serpi's Tauros was way too scary, and I thought that if I couldn't hit that Hyper Beam I'd either lose the game anyways or it would be very difficult, but easier than if I were to sack my Cloy or Lax. Maybe I could have sacked Chansey here as its mono Ice Beam wouldn't be overly useful. At the end of the day, I win the tie and bag up the Tauros, putting me in a great position.

I felt great vs. Rhydon & Zam lasts, especially the latter, since I thought Zam + Cloy + Amnesia Rest Lax would easily spell doom for Serpi. I get T34 wrong and ended up getting giga punished with my Zam subsequently paralyzing, at which point I'm now saying "F*********ck" since now I have to play around the Zam with my Chansey, which will give leeway to Serpi's Lax that has been stuck most of the game, and resting Cloy/Lax will be hard with his Zam free. T47 I take the initiative and bring in my Zam to heal it up, since without doing so I don't believe I can ever win. Once again I get an unfortunate Zam ditto T61/62 and end up back in the same spot I was in earlier, but it's a little better since my Cloy is much healthier than before. T72 no way am I letting my Lax get Hyper Beamed when I'm envisioning the Amnesia + Rest as a part of my eventual wincon vs the Chansey + Zam; eating Hyper Beam with Cloy allowed me to get great damage vs the Lax, where even if I hadn't crit, the damage would mean good things for my Lax or Tauros. Now I'm definitely loving my position because as long as I can get Zam paralyzed, my combination of Lax + Cloy + Tauros should be able to overwhelm it. T83 was a very painful miss, because barring Psychic crit I had a theoretical win in Lax Slam; next turn I got frozen as well, leaving me in agony . T93 I once again get my Zam in to Recover, a move necessary for my victory. There may have been missed opportunities in the Zam ditto that ensued, such as T155, but I was scared of killing Zam only to get full parad vs Starmie. Now my PP was low from the Zam ditto and opposing Mie was able to sit on me with Recover, so I do the only thing I think I can do, get my Cloy in on a Recover turn and Boom. If Serpi stays in, I can just SToss, and if he switches I'm content to play the PP war with my Zam & Chansey. Game ends with my Zam clutching up two STosses, and me closing out Set 1 with a dub. At this point I'm feeling exhausted after two 150+ turn games and more to come, but those were some of the most intense matches I've ever played and felt like a king winning them.

SET 2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-641310

G1

Once again I bring the Zam lead, sadly into Jynx and the early sequence was quite unfavorable for me, as I once again do not have Normal move Egg. With Jynx at 100% it's very difficult for me, so I try making some aggressive plays to maybe get something lucky in the process. I end up wasting 7 Softboiled PP that may or may not come in handy later. I once again come out on top with a good T Wave into Lax and mine exits pretty healthy as I bring in Egg, but its still hard with no Normal move. Pretty nice Cloy T33 from Serpi to potentially punish a Hyper Beam very hard. T34 was TBolt from me, so nothing unlucky with the para, but I was considering Ice Beam. Now its deciding between EQ or Slam from Serpi, and admittedly it might have just been better to go Egg, because without para, getting in Egg could maybe get me a really good position with the Jynx sorta low. However, I Ice Beam, get paralyzed, and to top it off I get paralyzed from the Body Slam as I switch, making me go from a pretty decent spot to what I felt to be horrendous. My Starmie in the back is actually quite great, and while it had neither Surf nor Blizzard, the Ice Beam damage from Chansey would have made the wincon much more imaginable. End up losing my Lax on T46; maybe I could have gone Mie to try and preserve my Lax, but it would probably be too hard to manage it later and risking a para on my Mie would just be gg vs Cloy + Don. I get a nice Slam crit on the switch and predict Serpi to scout either TBolt or absorb Hyper Beam so I go for a madman Blizzard only to miss.

Maybe this is a stupid play, maybe its 500 IQ. Either way, I find that in a metagame with relatively little variation makes these kind of critical predictions the separator between good RBY and great RBY. Such reads on your opponent feel so good when they pay off, but are not so easy to make. It's easy to get wrapped up in the motions, switch here, Rest @ this %, etc., but to make unique moves and have them pay off feels so good. It's probably not exclusive to RBY, but something has to separate players when 3/6 mons are typically the same on both teams.

I'm still not feeling that great even after taking out Cloy so I go for a Blizzard instead of Slam in the Tauros ditto. I make a play to try and get something by bringing in Tauros T58; maybe the game would be different if I just went for Blizz here on T60 but I thought I could cover a potential Chansey midground while also having a very good chance at killing Don anyways. I could check the Tauros coming in with Mie and then eventually get to the same point I wanted to anyways where I thought my only chance at winning was booming Egg on Chansey and cleaning with Mie. I missed my chance 3 times though and ended up exploding into 1% Rhydon so good on Serpi for that. At this point my only chance is to freeze Tauros/Lax on the switch and Softboiled but I don't get that. Ends up being Starmie vs. TBolt Chansey and I lose the game.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-641315

G2

Based on the opening I was expecting just a Sing Chansey but nah, another back Jynx. Missing a couple times didn't help but the SToss Jynx is actually so huge to combat opposing Jynx lead. I end up taking the L and going Chansey to force the 50/50 of double back on LK or Blizz and I chose right here but got frozen on the 2nd Blizz (the ghost of Pohjis haunting me from last round). I end up getting the next play correct though and getting my 10% Jynx slept, but my position was ruined the moment I tried to defend against TBolt Chansey, as I ended up eating the Blizz from Jynx and my Starmie switch in is my own TBolt-less Starmie. I think that here I probably should have just went back to Starmie instead of slamming, but hindsight is 20/20. I really really needed by Starmie to hit T Wave T28 but instead I got crit parad LOL. At this point it's basically gg but I attempt some bullshit with my Egg where I somehow end up getting the boom I need to have any chance at the game T44. Personally I think this was an error from Serpi as he probably should have just stayed in on Egg forever unless I was doing over 50% with Psychic. Tauros war ensues, and I win, but it doesn't matter unless I can get a magical freeze on the Snorlax and I don't so Serpi's Lax cleans up and on to Set 3 we go. Definitely a step back from the previous 2-0 last set but I still feel like I was playing to the best of my ability.

SET 3
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-641317

G1

The first time it was Psychic vs. Gar in the lead I made the conservative play of staying so this time I wanted to try and take some initiative and try and build a strong lead. Serpi actually opted to TBolt and very unluckily paralyzed my Egg, and this is the situation I referenced in Set 1 where I believe that I can eat the obvious boom and still be in a fine spot. I get some luck here and dodge a Sleep Powder allowing me to get in my Egg sorta safely. I'm still under threat of Hyper Beam, but I was at like 87 HP if I recall so my odds to die to DEdge were not that scary; I just boom because I don't see any reason not to. I'd rather take something out or critically damage it than overpredict and lose all value entirely to opposing Egg. I think that T10 I would have conserved my Egg if I were my opponent, but I'm allowed to take out the Egg for free and if Chansey were to come in it would be risking a freeze so always pretty good for me. T13 I'm content to TBolt once even if Lax comes in I feel that I can deal with it and I end up getting boomed on. Sorta sucks to lose paralyzed IB Chansey vs. unparalyzed but I think with my Mie + Rhydon in the back I should be able to play around the Chansey still. I got really scared T21 when my Starmie failed to hurt the Lax at all, but I get quite lucky in the Lax ditto.

T24 I was debating between Reflect, Hyper Beam, and Slam. Reflect could potentially catch a boom (if it were PhysLax) that would otherwise force the game into a Tauros war, Hyper Beam had a 59-74.4% chance to KO depending on opposing Lax's HP, and Slam on incoming Slam/Reflect/Beam wouldn't be so bad for me. I don't know if this is the proper decision making process, but I elected to Slam mostly because it covered Reflect, a move that I feared for the fact that it could potentially take even the Tauros war away from me and instead be a Lax PP Stall or something else that involves our Lax cycling Rest. Assuming I got Hyper Beamed as I Slammed, I would just Reflect so Tauros couldn't Hyper Beam me for free. If Serpi did in fact have Self-Destruct and I avoided it through para then that is very unfortunate, but I made the play I felt covered the most options here, rather than taking the risk of predicting an unrevealed move and losing cause of it. T27 might be a choke from me, as Slam would put Tauros into my own's Beam range, but I thought 90% chance to just have to Slam was pretty good. At worst I have to Slam + Beam and that runs the risk of getting crit as I Slam and then the speed tie...you get the idea. Regardless, I took G1 of Set 3.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-641319

G2

Back to the Zam + Mie for me, since I want to use Jynx as little as possible. This time though I changed my sets around. Chansey went from BoltBeam to SToss + Counter, Surf for TBolt on Mie, and I swapped moves on Egg for Hyper Beam. From what I could tell, Serpi was not really scouting for Counter in recent games, so I knew I wanted to bring it at least once this set, and what better time than a potentially deciding game. I once again get lucky vs his Egg and it is forced into exploding on my Zam. I try my hand at STossing Mie for a little while but this proves futile. With my Zam out of the picture I figure that I just have to go at it with my Lax vs. Starmie. Seems like Ice Lax vs. Non-Ice Lax so I'm having a pretty good time but then Big Bird crits my Lax T36 which sucks, because now everytime I want to check something with Lax it's basically free switch to Zap. On top of that, I have Egg + Mie which is not what you typically want when facing Zapdos . I make a little play T38 just to get my Lax back in and do something stupid by hard slamming rather than Reflecting first which probably would have been the superior play. Serpi Drill Pecks into flect, then TBolts, and my Chansey paras on the Drill Peck putting me in a crappy spot considering in the back I have Tauros, Egg, and Starmie. I do the only thing I really can and pivot from Starmie into Egg T46/47. I Psychic once just in case he's feeling aggressive and wants to go Lax on Chansey. Here on T51 is where the move change comes into play and I get the massive Counter off vs. the Lax. My Starmie very fortunately avoids para from Tauros Body Slam and I T Wave just in case Zapdos wanted to come in on Recover, but also paralyzing Chansey means that it will be easier to get my Lax back into the action. Recover T54 is pretty risky, but Serpi had mono ice before, and he also might really want to punish my switch to Lax or Chansey. I'm always always always T Waving T55 because I can eat a single TBolt and it's huge in aiding my Lax/Egg in case I need to get off damage with them or a situation arises where they are chipped enough for Serpi to trade some damage on his Zapdos for a kill threat. Now I feel pretty safe with this whole sequence of me switching around while his Starmie sits in. T77 I get pretty lucky to crit with Lax then get the para I need to break the game wide open. Without this, it probably would have been a lot more of switching around while Starmie attacks and trying to maintain my Lax HP while avoiding the other threats such as Zapdos. That is to say, not very favorable for me I'd guess. I'm fine to trade my Lax now, because while it is good for Chansey and can maybe do something vs. Zap, getting a lead in the Tauros ditto is too good for me here. I Slam on Tauros, Slam again on Zapdos and get a crit (massive), and then I just Slam again, because even if Serpi gets T Wave off on my Tauros or something, I think I can beat Tauros + Chansey with Starmie + Egg + Chansey. So now everything was in Tauros Hyper Beam range. Easy. GG. Or so I thought...and the game said NAH, but it could have been worse. I still get the kill on Zap and I'm fine sacking Chansey because then I can go Egg and very likely win with the combination of Explosion on Chansey -> Starmie + Tauros vs. Tauros. Counter gets a 2nd one vs the Tauros and at this point the game is over since I sit in until my Chansey runs out of PP, dies, and Egg booms.

Although I haven't won many tours in my time playing RBY, I wouldn't say I'm ecstatic. Just feels good

Music