It's hard to believe we actually did this year, but here we are!
Pre-Tournament Vibes
When I first started assembling a roster for this tournament, I was very concerned. Fear and BluBirD were unable to play, which forced us to improvise a lot in order to cover ADV and BW. I decided to move away from RBY, where I've been consistently successful for Greece in the past few years, in order to play ADV and let Mysterious M try his luck in RBY. This was an admittedly risky decision because I consider ADV to only be my third best tier and, while Mysterious M is experienced in both RBY and ADV, he had only recently returned from hiatus. Then, in order to cover BW, we had to make even more changes: we moved Nikitas from SS to BW, Naniwa Tiger from SM to SS, the pharoah from ORAS to SM and had Rigas & ZZZDamon1896 to cover ORAS. With so many changes, my expectations were limited: I wanted us to be as competitive as possible and avoid relegation, so that we won't have to play qualifiers again. At some point I was honestly wondering if there was any point at what I was doing, but, as they say, you lose every shot you don't take...
Round 1
After an 0-2 start, to everyone's surprise, we won 7 in a row to make it 7-2. That winstreak was really crucial for the team's morale and made us ride the wave to a very solid 13-6 record after my 2nd ADV win of the season, with playoffs now within sight. Our very next match was my loss vs. gostop after 355 turns and ~2 hours, which was the first of 4 consecutive losses that left us at 13-10 and worried that we would have to play a tiebreaker to qualify. However, Mysterious M won vs. Cake to secure playoffs for our team and make his personal record 3-0 in what was probably the most difficult RBY pool of the tournament; honestly very impressive stuff.
Quarterfinals & Semifinals
Round 1 was successful for us beyond anyone's expectations, but it wasn't time to celebrate yet. We wanted to win the series ahead of us and, well, we did! The 6-0 scoreline vs. Austria certainly flattered us a little bit, as some of the matches we played were quite close and there was a lot of RNG involved, but I believe it was an overall deserved win vs. a very good team. Then came the series vs. Argentina for a place in the finals of the tournament. Again, when such an opportunity is presented to you, you have to keep your emotions in check: you should neither celebrate too early, nor let your self sink in disappointment & stress after a couple of losses. That emotional balance was key in this series: we started really well and found ourselves 3-0 up, but then lost two matches in a row and found ourselves somewhat in trouble. What happened next? Nikitas and the pharoah rose to the occasion, finished the job and sent us to the finals for the first time ever!
Finals vs. France
France were an excellent team, certainly the best one we faced in our run, but we really believed we could beat anyone at this point. However, unlike our previous series, we found ourselves 0-3 down and our resilience was really tested. I was scheduled to play last and there was a chance that, after all the effort that I had put in this tournament, we would lose before I even had the chance to play. I felt terribly for a few hours, but what followed was incredible: Glfgno7 initiates the comeback with a win vs. Zokuru and everyone else follows his example. All of a sudden, I was playing to win the tournament, lmao! However, I wasn't meant to be the one to finish the job, as BlazingDark's Suicune won the 1v1 vs. my paralyzed CurseLax, phazed out my own CM Suicune, saved France from the reverse sweep and prompted him to drop this in our battle chat...
Then came the tiebreaker and, even though I didn't get to play my match, I suppose I was right after all...
France are a great team and will probably do it as well, sooner or later, but this was our time to win.
Conclusion & Shout-outs
The end of the tournament finds me incredibly happy, but, honestly, quite exhausted as well. On top of my ADV prep, I prepared our DPP teams mostly on my own and also a detailed scout for every single one of our opponents in this tournament. The desire to succeed with Greece on this website has always fueled the fire in me to go above and beyond for my teammates & friends, who really make this win count:
Naniwa Tiger, impressively consistent in tiers I don't understand at all and a massive part of our success in recent years. I was never in doubt that you would win in the tiebreaker and you proved me right. Great stuff as always man, you really deserve this trophy.
the pharoah, who would have thought that stepping out of the ORAS prison would make such a diffence in your performance. I honestly think that you're a very underrated player and you can do wonders when you don't handicap yourself in the builder. Keep it up my friend, well done.
ZZZDamon1896 and
Rigas, I am very thankful that we had you on board. ORAS is a tier we have traditionally struggled with and you did the best that you could, given the limited support we offered you. Also, Rigas, as the OG captain of Team Greece, I am really happy that you got to win a tournament with us, you really deserve it.
nikitas, my fellow dinosaur co-captain. You stepped in to play a tier you hadn't played for years and, while you didn't do very well in Round 1, you rose to the occasion and won all of your matches in playoffs. The personification of the resilience I was talking about earlier, you're incredible.
Lialiabeast, you're a very underrated player, a very nice person to have around and you deserve this trophy as much as anyone on our team. However, please make sure you don't get hacked next time...
GLFGno7, not many teams have the luxury to miss a player of the calibre of Fear and replace him a GSC Cup winner. You're one of the main reasons we are now champions and, despite the fact that you are sometimes too stubborn for your own good and a Liverpool fan, you can be a very nice person as well and I appreciate having you around.
Mysterious M, to come back from hiatus, pull of a 3-0 record in the most difficult RBY pool of the tournament and then also win in the semifinals and in the finals' tiebreaker is nothing sort of impressive. As an RBYer myself, watching you play sometimes makes me stressful, but I am pretty sure your opponents feel way more stressed than I do, playing vs. someone who isn't afraid to make the wildest clicks possible. You were undoubtedly the MVP of this run in my eyes, consistently facing players of the highest calibre and delivering under pressure.
Laz,
Nunnbetter and
babouras, I am sorry you couldn't play, but I am thankful you were all part of the team and contributed to a nice atmosphere without any complaints whatsoever. Keep grinding and your time will come!
Fear, my ADV has improved a lot thanks to the discussions we've had in the past year or so, helping me improve my understanding of this beautiful metagame and always offering constructive feedback when it comes to my team selection. Unfortunately, you couldn't play this year, but this win is also dedicated to you, as well as to
BluBirD,
Astamatitos,
Stathakis,
amber lamps and to those who shall not be named...
Last but not least, thanks to
Fakes and
Kristyl for their help in the last few weeks of the tournament. While we didn't get to use one of your teams in DPP & BW, I really appreciate your support and I consider you really good friends of mine.
This was a special moment for me because I got to share it with people who have been on my side for more than 10 years now, which is something that only world cup tournaments can really offer on smogon. We aren't getting any younger either, so it was nice to get this done before we have to step away from this hobby. The once unviable Greeks are now champions, ggs everyone!
