It's rare for me to share my actual thought process about team choices and in-battle decisions. I'm going to do it as well as I can here while keeping it somewhat succinct. I won't analyse every move of every game because that's more suited to video commentary, instead I'll try and look at some important decisions made during the game and also isolate mistakes I made. Also no pastes because most of the teams belong to other people, well that and I don't want BKC to look upon me unfavourably for posting teams on forums.
Despite my record, I'm not really happy with the season, and know that if I had performed better we would be in playoffs right now. 2 bad losses where if I had won either one of them, that would have been enough to get us in.
Pre-tournament philosophy:
I wrote this in the Scooters disc on Day 1 about how I wanted to approach my prep for the season. In the past few years I realised I had stopped centering the best parts of my game, and had become too passive and methodical. I wanted to push myself to be more aggressive in all aspects. My best two attributes as a player are prediction instincts and plot armor, so I wanted my team choices to reflect that. The screenshot below ended up being very accurate, I used almost all of these things.
Week 1 vs River (W) - M Dragon Quad Band
Prep: River's scout is very balanced, there's not much at all to exploit in it. There was one thing I picked up though, she loves to DD T1 in Tar vs Tar. So leading Brick Break CBtar is a great way to try and target that.
Going back to the point about her scout not being very exploitable overall though, I wanted to choose something proactive with lots of neutral/skill based matchups, and M Drag's Quad Band team is perfect, featuring the Band Tar lead I wanted as well as making games fast paced and aggressive, where I always favour my instincts.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-900296
It was pretty much a mirror and it went fast and hard. I made a key mistake not weaving in the protect on Turn 6 with pert on ttar, as not doing so put it in Dug range - Dug was very much something to be aware of with the Zap lead. There was also no reason to fear a second DD there. I made another very poor play on turn 10 sliding pert. I was overreaching for Zapdos when Double Edge would of absolutely sufficed there and the damage was fine. I of course got bailed out the next turn. River made a mistake letting Dug go to Double Edge when it held value for trapping Meta still. I then had to get a few Meta turns right where I followed the main metagross rule of always just pressing Mash. Had to win a 50 on T24 too, which I didn't know at the time was slightly weighted due to River's Aero not being max speed. The game went as a lot of games with the M Drag band team does, chaotic and dependent on good CB move selections.
Week 2 vs Skarph (W) - My Machamp Blue Offense
Prep: Skarph was a very interesting opponent to prep for, all of his teams are totally homebrewed and he has lots of novel concepts. The way I wanted to approach this was to make sure I was strong into slower teams primarily, as that was what he favoured overall. So I came with this variant of Blue Offense that overloads into passive builds with BU Machamp. If I faced offense, even though I'd be marginally unfavoured in the mirror with Machamp and Mag being poor choices into offense, I still felt comfortable as the offense mirror is always just a matchup I like to play anyway. That ended up being the matchup I got.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-901969?p2
When I see Meta lead, I'm slightly displeased. When I see the raise T1, I'm even more displeased. Ideally I'd have the chance to see if his team was the CB Meta V5 setup before I go for the Mag trap straight away, but the raise means I have to act decisively early, even if it means getting Mag dugged after and then struggling into Skarm - I guess my best mon after that theoretical sequence is Champ, but it's pretty hard from there if he has CM bliss to handle Cune. Anyway, I get my trap and am then pleased to see it's not that team. Starmie gives me a slight scare with the freeze, but I thaw right away. If the freeze never happens, I doubt it changes his pattern of play, I still get to muscle through Tar. Turn 10 is a bit of good fortune for me, although I was very surprised he Hydro'd when I was clearly just sacking. Having Pert dead there obviously makes the game easier for me. My next important decision in the game is to go Champ on T12 to sack it and get Starm into Cune range - Mie is a big threat to my team, while my Champ is pretty poor into offense, especially with a potential DD Mence in back. Therefore it's a good use of it to get the damage where I can. On T15, Skarph's Curse feels greedy because I'm nearly always sacking Mag there. I get my Intim after to make it so Boom doesn't kill Meta. In terms of lasts, I'm thinking it's either Mence, Aero, or Zap at this point. If it's Zap, I lose. Anyway, I go Cune to kill Mie - I minroll there, the kill was never in question. His Mence is insanely Sdef and slower than my modest cune, so he couldn't have even tried to go to it on turn 20. Anyway, I avoid the flinch and win a close one. I'm a bit sad that this is how Skarph's season ended, and I hope he comes back because he's a great player.
Week 3 vs zinc (W) - Garay oak P2 Hera
Prep: Zinc was certainly a relative unknown to me compared to other opponents. When scouting her, I watched lots of her replays, and for some reason I can't really remember (well I guess I'd seen it in her replays but like idk) I became absolutely convinced that she would use V5 vs me. The best way to target V5 is with P2 Mag Off, so the Garay build from week 1 immediately appealed to me - it's also just very solid overall with lots of para and strong attackers. As it was, I faced something that absolutely nobody anticipated, and got an OK but not favoured matchup.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-904158
I see Wak lead and know immediately that it is a huge danger. It'll require some careful pivoting. Early on, I see that her mence is slower than my Hera, whcih definitely puts me in the mindset that I might want to look for a SD wincon later after weakening mence. On turns 9 through 11, I make the Cune rest with lax - I'm not immediately going Gyara on it because it could be Ice Beam and Gyara's health is important. When I have Gyara in, Zinc does not want to go Mence on it because I'm threatening T wave after I DD then the intimidator is very compromised into my physoff, so on T13 I EQ to catch Regi. The best use of my Mag in this matchup is definitely to force damage on Regi, so I follow by doing that. On T19 I start trying to work down the Wak which is still an enormous threat. On T20, Zinc knows she's faster than my Meta because of DE damage on it so I have to keep pivoting. I get a good double on Lax on T23. On T26 I see the incredibly obvious boom bait and don't fuck up. Wak's back after that again. Looking back, turn 28 I mess up but get bailed. I can go Hera safely there on whatever move, I don't need to stay and risk a slide, and Hera's health is also not that important as it's basically an Aerodactyl this game as the fastest mon on either side. Anyway, I crit and we don't get to see what Zinc did. I lived a DE there but not a slide obviously. I'm in a great spot after that, I just need to not lose to mence. So I just play to force TW onto Gyara with mence and go from there. Very much a luck impacted game to the extent where I didn't even need to try and execute my main wincon of Hera SD.
Week 4 vs Garay oak (W) - Arctic Singbliss Spikes Offense
Prep: I identified low pert use in Garay's scout, so immediately considered various forms of Rockspam. I also hadn't used Skarm or any kind of spikes yet, so now seemed the week to start putting spikes into my scout. Sing Bliss on this team is useful for covering some potentially sore matchups like Wish Prot Rachis and Milotic. Meta as a rock resist over Pert offers an emergency boom for Cune and Milo as well as a potential offensive boom vs pert.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-906324?p2
The early turns progress quite normally, I quickly identify the 6 I'm facing. I know I'll need to force stuff with my phys attackers and pressurize Cune continually, and also try and avoid letting Bliss get trapped by Dug. After getting Skarm low early with Bliss Bolts - it's nice for me that he has to spend a turn thiefing - I know my phys attackers are right there in the game if I do that. Turn 20, it's awkward for Garay and DD tar is already threatening, so he tries to TW to neutralise the threat. I get a kill on bliss with Focus which is fantastic, not just for my own bliss as an offensive threat but for my remaining attackers since they won't have to take TW. After seeing that Garay Skarm isn't Tox, it looks even better for Aero. His remaining threats are Zap and Cune, Zap more so if he traps Bliss. I start trying to brute force damage onto Dol with Skarm. He gets Sun which makes his Cune much more threatening, I'm thinking at this point I may have to get to a point where I boom it with Meta to break it. Zap's also really awkward with Toxic, the lack of Sand makes it more resilient vs Bliss. A running theme of this season continues, I get a massive Freeze on Zap. That's absolutely huge, his main threat frozen. Compounding issues, I para on T45 denying the Rest, meaning once again that I don't have to resort to the long term plan of Meta booming it. At this point Aero wins unless I somehow let Cune rest. I let him boom Clay on Bliss. The turn after is a clear attempt to try and work his way back in by getting Cune some leftovers, and I don't bite on the bait and IB the Dug. At the time I thought that callout was very smart, but looking back I might not have needed to do it. Anyway, like the previous week, another hax affected game where I didn't have to address issues I could have faced otherwise.
Week 5 vs mayo (W) - Endill Forredol BKCTar
Prep: Mayo is an offense player who doesn't use dug much. Therefore a team with lots of good anti offense that's maybe a bit soft into dug at times is a great choice. Endill used this team in a test vs me that week and I was like oh man, that's a sweet 6. I asked him for it immediately, at which point he told me it was mine and that I had given it to him originally. I told him that I had never seen the team in my life. Anyway when he gave it to me, the EVs and sets low key sucked, so it definitely wasn't mine.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-909353
After seeing the first two mons, Mag's clearly coming. I don't have any way to stop the trap so I just choose to layer up. Mayo highrolls with the HP meaning I don't get to chunk Mag with boom, which is slightly annoying. Anyway, I know that on this Magoff, Lax will be the largest threat. My strong mons will be Tar because she won't have a conventional bulky water, instead relying on the pivot game and Intim, and also Rachi because it will get to Wish up on Bliss often and para anything else. On T9 I'm very pleased that she lets me weaken her Meta, which could otherwise theoretically threaten with Boom and also come into Tar a bit (I don't even know at this point that her last isn't Clay,so the meta really is the only Tar answer). Even better, the next turn, she goes hard Lax and I get the burn. I don't know why she didn't try and go Bliss on my Rachi either of those turns to try and push Twave onto it before going at it with her phys attackers, that seemed more patient and better for her. On 13 I go to Tar to play round Rest - once I see it clearly isn't I go back to Rachi to avoid taking another EQ. On T16 I try and sneak a Para in, I also have in the back of my mind the possibility of a Meta double on Zap so I want to deny that if I can do so without too much risk. Turn 22 I do the same again with Clay EQ as it's a clear double angle on either Zap or Psychic, and I get the Meta there. I know it's really smooth sailing from here. Once I see Mence, Milo is always going to win barring some random Refresh set which would be really weird to run alongside Gyara - Mence has to be Slide to hit zap if it's with Gyara.
Week 6 vs Jabba (W) - My Cloyjolt
Prep: Jabba's scout showed that he loved setup sweepers and Electrics, and favoured offense overall. I spent 5 days of this week preparing Beerlover and desperately trying to make it work. That team had all the issues that you'd expect it to have in the modern meta. The night before, I checked out of it to this team which is just a comfort pick for me really, and I thought the natural speed and setup threats would be solid enough into someone who favours aggressive structures over defensive ones. Turns out I was wrong in this selection, as Jabba came very well prepared for offense of all kinds, I suppose I had taken offensive teams 3 and and a half weeks out of 5. Jabba's team for the week felt very Callous influenced.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-911787
My matchup was uphill and I didn't help myself with how I played it either. The cloy lead sequence was a bit of upside, because I was just trying to sack Cloy T3. Hindsight says it was better to get 3 up vs Skarm instead of booming on the spot to deny spikes. That would have let me exert more pressure on Bliss and Pert. Even if there's a spinner I have an entire Gar to block with and even Jolt to punish a theoretical Mie if Mie manages to kill gar. So upping was probably better.
The thought process behind booming was to protect my grounded attackers from switching into lots of Spikes which worked to an extent because Meta got to come into Bliss often, but I ended up keeping Tar in the back to do nothing when he was never going to let Pert get weakened like that. I should of sent Tar in on Bliss generally during the game, it was hard to deny the Wishes to Pert though - that's where I needed more layers.
On turn 6, Protect is a pretty bad mistake, it's a play that gains me little and has the potential to concede a lot for me if Bliss is Wish, which it is.
Turn 26 I make another mistake. The Bliss double is very easy to call, because switching in Jolt is so telegraphed. I needed to be more aggressive and mash there.
He gets a lot of Wishes off and I can't even really try and Boom pert on a switch because he has quite a few sacks such as Tar.
Jabba played very well - my structure is kind of a bit telegraphed so he knew his most important mons would be Pert and Mence from very early on, and he kept them safe. I ended up getting bailed on a slide miss after Jabba got himself in a winning position and won off of that. I absolutely deserved to lose.
Week 7 vs Johnald (L) - Hclat Double Fighters
Prep:
Watermess advised me very sagely that fighters looked incredibly good into the nald's scout. I thought, what if I bring 2 of them then. I remembered HClat's team from CI4 finals vs SW and how impressive it was. Breloom's Spore is an amazing way to open games up immediately vs slower teams and start breaking. The team doesn't have that much staying power obviously, but Johnald hadn't been one to bring heavy offense. The matchup ended up being pretty close to perfect, Johnald's team could not theoretically handle the Hera or Loom at all.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-913570?p2
This game was obviously very hax influenced but I also made some bad mistakes that meant I didn't give myself the best chance to win even after all the unfortunate stuff. I consider myself usually to be a very resilient player mentally, but after missing the T25 Slide on Zap at a point where if I had hit it, Hera literally just killed all 6 mons, I struggled to regain composure. Missing Mash on T26 also compounded that - If I connect there I'm still in an excellent position. It then becomes a bit awkward because his Zap was now threatening me offensively so I had to play reactively into that. That means that on T29 Bliss can come into Tbolt and heal up, taking it out of unboosted Hera range. Turn 32 is a bad mistake from me, I can go Zap there and keep Loom to threaten Bliss - the Mach damage does nothing for me. Nonetheless after I kill Zap I'm still somehow in the driver's seat kinda. Turn 35 is a key turn, his Bliss is still the only thing that stops Hera setup. If I connect Mash, that's enough, I still win provided no FP on the next turn. Bliss is either in unboosted Brick range or dead. It's hard to Boom on T35 though because he can try Armaldo once to sack it to Mash for free and if I boom on Maldo it's bad. Finally this one is just a really bad play from me, I have to Slide for Flinch on 40. Brick kills most of the time with Sand damage but hera obviously needs to be unparad to clean up. I was pretty tilted at that point. This game hurt a lot, after doing everything pre-game perfectly, terrible luck followed by bad mistakes cost me a crucial game.
Week 8 vs Endill (L) - M Dragon Defmie Dug Spikes
Prep:
I'd been very much favouring offensive teams up until this point, and I thought that Endill would be a good opponent to slow it down against a bit and play a more balanced game into. Endill is always very solid into any brute force kind of team, so that's not something I want to bring here. Instead, against his balances, a CM bliss wincon felt like a strong choice. Also just generally I wanted to use a style I hadn't used to date in the tour, and that was strong against things I might have been soft against before, such as DDers or strong special attackers. M Drag's team from the previous week had looked great, I liked how it supported Defstar with Suittar and Dug. I always used to love Defstar, but got a bit reluctant to use it for a while as a lot of teams with it ask it to do too much and rely on you getting a lot of turns right.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-914597?p2
This one was a memorable game for the fans but a painful one for me. My mistake in game was not recognising the team I was facing - it's something I had lost to before in Revival quarter finals vs ABR. I thought it would be DD Mence last, or possibly DDtar or Crocune.
I spent the whole game thinking I was doing good stuff when it was all entirely inconsequential. Weirdly enough, the hax I got in mid game probably made it a bit less likely for me to identify what I was up against. Because Endill is looking to sack stuff while making it look like he isn't doing that, the fact that he could do it very non-obviously changed my thought process. I was thinking 'OK, the game is going like this because my luck has simply made things get out of hand and there's not much he can do' as opposed to 'Ok, why's he switching his mons into my moves like that, what's going on?'
I saw people say after my game 'Oh the Registeel was unavoidable' - it really wasn't, but it just came down to whether I identified the team, which I didn't. If I pick out the team after seeing 5 mons, I could change my gameplan to try and maintain spikes and start phazing stuff,or potentially line up a turn where dug is facing unboosted regi near the end to give me better odds at least, especially if I get Regi to take some Spikes chip.
As it was with me not knowwing the team, I don't think it was good to try and do something like go Pert on zap at the end then Roar to scout the last, that kind of thing can let a game slip vs DDers potentially. Maybe I could have though.
Losing this felt pretty terrible as it was a game I really needed to win for the team. If I'd won this we'd be in playoffs right now.
Week 9 vs Fruhdazi (W) - My Regirock CMPass
Prep: Fruh is low on Zapdos, high on phys attackers, high on Celebi, low on Milo, most often has multiple steel types on a team, loves Regis, and loves Endpert. I wanted to bring a Fire type because of the high Cele low Milo high Steels, and also wanted a mon faster than 360 speed for +1 Endpert. It's hard to use a Fire type and a fast mon together, this is like one of the only configurations that does it. This team is obviously a bit Zap weak (my plan t1 vs it is just to Ice Beam). It's much better at defending itself from physical threats than from special ones, luckily that's what Fruh favours. I also wanted to use CM Pass cele because I basically never use it and it would be a surprise.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-916928?p2
When I see Bliss come into Zard on T6, I'm pleased. Even more pleased when I crit it and put it in Beat Up range. I know he'll switch after so I get a Blast off again onto a mence I now see is CB. He catches Rachi with a very heads up EQ which neutralizes it for the game, although that means I can go right back to Zard. At 71, I know I've got a very good chance to kill it from there, and if I don't succeed in doing so and it Twaves me, I've taken it very low. Beat Up won't be good for the whole game in most matchups (although it probably would of been in this one), so it's better to rip it early. I get a crit and bliss is down. Zard and my other special attackers are a huge threat provided I don't miss any important Fblasts. On T13 I don't hesitate to fish for paraflinch, and get rewarded for my self-belief.
Annoyingly, the dmg on my Rachi was not enough to conclude Mence's nature, and it's also just slightly out of min roll Timid Dclaw range anyway. On T36 I go to Cele which is also winning now that Mence is extremely low. After killing Pert with cele, I clean up with Regi and Star. This game was much more influenced by the prep than the play itself, and early luck expedited the process for me.
Closing Notes:
I often played a bit fast and loose this season and didn't deal in absolutes, preferring to remain proactive with my play as opposed to getting bogged down in calculation and optimal lines. A lot of the time that worked well, especially as my willingness to just stay in and click repeatedly led to fortunate outcomes. I made mistakes in most weeks, but aggression led to better results than precision would have. My team selections were also often risky, not necessarily because they had considerable weaknesses to stuff (although some did), but because they forced me to approach my games in a risk-taking manner. I think that's the most effective way to do it in the volatile BO1 environment though, bring something slower and you have a lot more turns where stuff can go wrong. I was very pleased with my prep, more so than my play.
Although I've been playing for 500 years, I still made mistakes and there's a lot I feel I could and can improve on. The results were good but it's more important to look at the process. I've probably missed something or said something dumb too my my analysis here, let me know if you think I'm wrong, as I had to go back and watch these games to remember them.
Finally, the thrill of competing isn't the same as when I was younger, and neither is the SPL and tournament culture overall. I don't know how long I'll still be playing for, but I'm here for now, especially as I think I have more to give as a player. I also really want to succeed in another gen, something I have never been able to do.
Shoutouts:
Endill my main testing partner and the only guy whose bad luck equals my good luck. Thank you for always being around for loads of games as well as team selection and lead line advice, and sorry for haxing you literally every single test. I have a huge amount of admiration for you as a player and think you are better than me. You been unlucky af this season but you got the chance to go all the way and win it. Go Raiders
ArcticBreeze you are as sharp of a Pokemon mind as there is. Also, especially as you barely even play mons at all any more, you were incredibly generous in still looking over stuff, providing team, set, and EV advice, and getting on to test just for me. You're such a talented player and I'd tell you to come back to competing but really you're better off just enjoying life and chess instead of this game.
watermess you weren't around for the whole tour as you are busy dedicating your time to the important things in life - I massively admire your tenacity and also your ability to stay away from the time consuming wormhole that is this game. However when you were around you were incredibly valuable with insight into scouts, player tendencies, and team selection suggestions. You might call yourself washed but you still know how to prep lol.
BluBirD I did not expect you to be a source of ADV wisdom at all, but it turns out that you really know what you're doing. I've already said this exact thing to you on Discord but I'll say it on forums too because you deserve the good press. Your teambuilding and prep philosophy is really good, and you're also just a great guy to talk to and share ideas with.
@everyone on scooters - absolute pleasure to team with you all, you're all great people, I really wanted us to make playoffs and I believe we deserved it given our determination and how we performed at the end. We found our strongest lineup too late but we were really building something. Also elodin is an absolute demon, holy shit.
mielke Shitrock enjoyer It was cool to run scrims occasionally with you guys, at the start of the season I wanted to branch out and find some new high quality test partners. Mielke beat me pretty much every test game we played, that dude in tests is a force of nature. I however owned Fruh in tests.
I doubt any of you actually read this far, but thanks. GG
Despite my record, I'm not really happy with the season, and know that if I had performed better we would be in playoffs right now. 2 bad losses where if I had won either one of them, that would have been enough to get us in.
Pre-tournament philosophy:
I wrote this in the Scooters disc on Day 1 about how I wanted to approach my prep for the season. In the past few years I realised I had stopped centering the best parts of my game, and had become too passive and methodical. I wanted to push myself to be more aggressive in all aspects. My best two attributes as a player are prediction instincts and plot armor, so I wanted my team choices to reflect that. The screenshot below ended up being very accurate, I used almost all of these things.
Week 1 vs River (W) - M Dragon Quad Band
Prep: River's scout is very balanced, there's not much at all to exploit in it. There was one thing I picked up though, she loves to DD T1 in Tar vs Tar. So leading Brick Break CBtar is a great way to try and target that.
Going back to the point about her scout not being very exploitable overall though, I wanted to choose something proactive with lots of neutral/skill based matchups, and M Drag's Quad Band team is perfect, featuring the Band Tar lead I wanted as well as making games fast paced and aggressive, where I always favour my instincts.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-900296
It was pretty much a mirror and it went fast and hard. I made a key mistake not weaving in the protect on Turn 6 with pert on ttar, as not doing so put it in Dug range - Dug was very much something to be aware of with the Zap lead. There was also no reason to fear a second DD there. I made another very poor play on turn 10 sliding pert. I was overreaching for Zapdos when Double Edge would of absolutely sufficed there and the damage was fine. I of course got bailed out the next turn. River made a mistake letting Dug go to Double Edge when it held value for trapping Meta still. I then had to get a few Meta turns right where I followed the main metagross rule of always just pressing Mash. Had to win a 50 on T24 too, which I didn't know at the time was slightly weighted due to River's Aero not being max speed. The game went as a lot of games with the M Drag band team does, chaotic and dependent on good CB move selections.
Week 2 vs Skarph (W) - My Machamp Blue Offense
Prep: Skarph was a very interesting opponent to prep for, all of his teams are totally homebrewed and he has lots of novel concepts. The way I wanted to approach this was to make sure I was strong into slower teams primarily, as that was what he favoured overall. So I came with this variant of Blue Offense that overloads into passive builds with BU Machamp. If I faced offense, even though I'd be marginally unfavoured in the mirror with Machamp and Mag being poor choices into offense, I still felt comfortable as the offense mirror is always just a matchup I like to play anyway. That ended up being the matchup I got.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-901969?p2
When I see Meta lead, I'm slightly displeased. When I see the raise T1, I'm even more displeased. Ideally I'd have the chance to see if his team was the CB Meta V5 setup before I go for the Mag trap straight away, but the raise means I have to act decisively early, even if it means getting Mag dugged after and then struggling into Skarm - I guess my best mon after that theoretical sequence is Champ, but it's pretty hard from there if he has CM bliss to handle Cune. Anyway, I get my trap and am then pleased to see it's not that team. Starmie gives me a slight scare with the freeze, but I thaw right away. If the freeze never happens, I doubt it changes his pattern of play, I still get to muscle through Tar. Turn 10 is a bit of good fortune for me, although I was very surprised he Hydro'd when I was clearly just sacking. Having Pert dead there obviously makes the game easier for me. My next important decision in the game is to go Champ on T12 to sack it and get Starm into Cune range - Mie is a big threat to my team, while my Champ is pretty poor into offense, especially with a potential DD Mence in back. Therefore it's a good use of it to get the damage where I can. On T15, Skarph's Curse feels greedy because I'm nearly always sacking Mag there. I get my Intim after to make it so Boom doesn't kill Meta. In terms of lasts, I'm thinking it's either Mence, Aero, or Zap at this point. If it's Zap, I lose. Anyway, I go Cune to kill Mie - I minroll there, the kill was never in question. His Mence is insanely Sdef and slower than my modest cune, so he couldn't have even tried to go to it on turn 20. Anyway, I avoid the flinch and win a close one. I'm a bit sad that this is how Skarph's season ended, and I hope he comes back because he's a great player.
Week 3 vs zinc (W) - Garay oak P2 Hera
Prep: Zinc was certainly a relative unknown to me compared to other opponents. When scouting her, I watched lots of her replays, and for some reason I can't really remember (well I guess I'd seen it in her replays but like idk) I became absolutely convinced that she would use V5 vs me. The best way to target V5 is with P2 Mag Off, so the Garay build from week 1 immediately appealed to me - it's also just very solid overall with lots of para and strong attackers. As it was, I faced something that absolutely nobody anticipated, and got an OK but not favoured matchup.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-904158
I see Wak lead and know immediately that it is a huge danger. It'll require some careful pivoting. Early on, I see that her mence is slower than my Hera, whcih definitely puts me in the mindset that I might want to look for a SD wincon later after weakening mence. On turns 9 through 11, I make the Cune rest with lax - I'm not immediately going Gyara on it because it could be Ice Beam and Gyara's health is important. When I have Gyara in, Zinc does not want to go Mence on it because I'm threatening T wave after I DD then the intimidator is very compromised into my physoff, so on T13 I EQ to catch Regi. The best use of my Mag in this matchup is definitely to force damage on Regi, so I follow by doing that. On T19 I start trying to work down the Wak which is still an enormous threat. On T20, Zinc knows she's faster than my Meta because of DE damage on it so I have to keep pivoting. I get a good double on Lax on T23. On T26 I see the incredibly obvious boom bait and don't fuck up. Wak's back after that again. Looking back, turn 28 I mess up but get bailed. I can go Hera safely there on whatever move, I don't need to stay and risk a slide, and Hera's health is also not that important as it's basically an Aerodactyl this game as the fastest mon on either side. Anyway, I crit and we don't get to see what Zinc did. I lived a DE there but not a slide obviously. I'm in a great spot after that, I just need to not lose to mence. So I just play to force TW onto Gyara with mence and go from there. Very much a luck impacted game to the extent where I didn't even need to try and execute my main wincon of Hera SD.
Week 4 vs Garay oak (W) - Arctic Singbliss Spikes Offense
Prep: I identified low pert use in Garay's scout, so immediately considered various forms of Rockspam. I also hadn't used Skarm or any kind of spikes yet, so now seemed the week to start putting spikes into my scout. Sing Bliss on this team is useful for covering some potentially sore matchups like Wish Prot Rachis and Milotic. Meta as a rock resist over Pert offers an emergency boom for Cune and Milo as well as a potential offensive boom vs pert.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-906324?p2
The early turns progress quite normally, I quickly identify the 6 I'm facing. I know I'll need to force stuff with my phys attackers and pressurize Cune continually, and also try and avoid letting Bliss get trapped by Dug. After getting Skarm low early with Bliss Bolts - it's nice for me that he has to spend a turn thiefing - I know my phys attackers are right there in the game if I do that. Turn 20, it's awkward for Garay and DD tar is already threatening, so he tries to TW to neutralise the threat. I get a kill on bliss with Focus which is fantastic, not just for my own bliss as an offensive threat but for my remaining attackers since they won't have to take TW. After seeing that Garay Skarm isn't Tox, it looks even better for Aero. His remaining threats are Zap and Cune, Zap more so if he traps Bliss. I start trying to brute force damage onto Dol with Skarm. He gets Sun which makes his Cune much more threatening, I'm thinking at this point I may have to get to a point where I boom it with Meta to break it. Zap's also really awkward with Toxic, the lack of Sand makes it more resilient vs Bliss. A running theme of this season continues, I get a massive Freeze on Zap. That's absolutely huge, his main threat frozen. Compounding issues, I para on T45 denying the Rest, meaning once again that I don't have to resort to the long term plan of Meta booming it. At this point Aero wins unless I somehow let Cune rest. I let him boom Clay on Bliss. The turn after is a clear attempt to try and work his way back in by getting Cune some leftovers, and I don't bite on the bait and IB the Dug. At the time I thought that callout was very smart, but looking back I might not have needed to do it. Anyway, like the previous week, another hax affected game where I didn't have to address issues I could have faced otherwise.
Week 5 vs mayo (W) - Endill Forredol BKCTar
Prep: Mayo is an offense player who doesn't use dug much. Therefore a team with lots of good anti offense that's maybe a bit soft into dug at times is a great choice. Endill used this team in a test vs me that week and I was like oh man, that's a sweet 6. I asked him for it immediately, at which point he told me it was mine and that I had given it to him originally. I told him that I had never seen the team in my life. Anyway when he gave it to me, the EVs and sets low key sucked, so it definitely wasn't mine.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-909353
After seeing the first two mons, Mag's clearly coming. I don't have any way to stop the trap so I just choose to layer up. Mayo highrolls with the HP meaning I don't get to chunk Mag with boom, which is slightly annoying. Anyway, I know that on this Magoff, Lax will be the largest threat. My strong mons will be Tar because she won't have a conventional bulky water, instead relying on the pivot game and Intim, and also Rachi because it will get to Wish up on Bliss often and para anything else. On T9 I'm very pleased that she lets me weaken her Meta, which could otherwise theoretically threaten with Boom and also come into Tar a bit (I don't even know at this point that her last isn't Clay,so the meta really is the only Tar answer). Even better, the next turn, she goes hard Lax and I get the burn. I don't know why she didn't try and go Bliss on my Rachi either of those turns to try and push Twave onto it before going at it with her phys attackers, that seemed more patient and better for her. On 13 I go to Tar to play round Rest - once I see it clearly isn't I go back to Rachi to avoid taking another EQ. On T16 I try and sneak a Para in, I also have in the back of my mind the possibility of a Meta double on Zap so I want to deny that if I can do so without too much risk. Turn 22 I do the same again with Clay EQ as it's a clear double angle on either Zap or Psychic, and I get the Meta there. I know it's really smooth sailing from here. Once I see Mence, Milo is always going to win barring some random Refresh set which would be really weird to run alongside Gyara - Mence has to be Slide to hit zap if it's with Gyara.
Week 6 vs Jabba (W) - My Cloyjolt
Prep: Jabba's scout showed that he loved setup sweepers and Electrics, and favoured offense overall. I spent 5 days of this week preparing Beerlover and desperately trying to make it work. That team had all the issues that you'd expect it to have in the modern meta. The night before, I checked out of it to this team which is just a comfort pick for me really, and I thought the natural speed and setup threats would be solid enough into someone who favours aggressive structures over defensive ones. Turns out I was wrong in this selection, as Jabba came very well prepared for offense of all kinds, I suppose I had taken offensive teams 3 and and a half weeks out of 5. Jabba's team for the week felt very Callous influenced.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-911787
My matchup was uphill and I didn't help myself with how I played it either. The cloy lead sequence was a bit of upside, because I was just trying to sack Cloy T3. Hindsight says it was better to get 3 up vs Skarm instead of booming on the spot to deny spikes. That would have let me exert more pressure on Bliss and Pert. Even if there's a spinner I have an entire Gar to block with and even Jolt to punish a theoretical Mie if Mie manages to kill gar. So upping was probably better.
The thought process behind booming was to protect my grounded attackers from switching into lots of Spikes which worked to an extent because Meta got to come into Bliss often, but I ended up keeping Tar in the back to do nothing when he was never going to let Pert get weakened like that. I should of sent Tar in on Bliss generally during the game, it was hard to deny the Wishes to Pert though - that's where I needed more layers.
On turn 6, Protect is a pretty bad mistake, it's a play that gains me little and has the potential to concede a lot for me if Bliss is Wish, which it is.
Turn 26 I make another mistake. The Bliss double is very easy to call, because switching in Jolt is so telegraphed. I needed to be more aggressive and mash there.
He gets a lot of Wishes off and I can't even really try and Boom pert on a switch because he has quite a few sacks such as Tar.
Jabba played very well - my structure is kind of a bit telegraphed so he knew his most important mons would be Pert and Mence from very early on, and he kept them safe. I ended up getting bailed on a slide miss after Jabba got himself in a winning position and won off of that. I absolutely deserved to lose.
Week 7 vs Johnald (L) - Hclat Double Fighters
Prep:
Watermess advised me very sagely that fighters looked incredibly good into the nald's scout. I thought, what if I bring 2 of them then. I remembered HClat's team from CI4 finals vs SW and how impressive it was. Breloom's Spore is an amazing way to open games up immediately vs slower teams and start breaking. The team doesn't have that much staying power obviously, but Johnald hadn't been one to bring heavy offense. The matchup ended up being pretty close to perfect, Johnald's team could not theoretically handle the Hera or Loom at all.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-913570?p2
This game was obviously very hax influenced but I also made some bad mistakes that meant I didn't give myself the best chance to win even after all the unfortunate stuff. I consider myself usually to be a very resilient player mentally, but after missing the T25 Slide on Zap at a point where if I had hit it, Hera literally just killed all 6 mons, I struggled to regain composure. Missing Mash on T26 also compounded that - If I connect there I'm still in an excellent position. It then becomes a bit awkward because his Zap was now threatening me offensively so I had to play reactively into that. That means that on T29 Bliss can come into Tbolt and heal up, taking it out of unboosted Hera range. Turn 32 is a bad mistake from me, I can go Zap there and keep Loom to threaten Bliss - the Mach damage does nothing for me. Nonetheless after I kill Zap I'm still somehow in the driver's seat kinda. Turn 35 is a key turn, his Bliss is still the only thing that stops Hera setup. If I connect Mash, that's enough, I still win provided no FP on the next turn. Bliss is either in unboosted Brick range or dead. It's hard to Boom on T35 though because he can try Armaldo once to sack it to Mash for free and if I boom on Maldo it's bad. Finally this one is just a really bad play from me, I have to Slide for Flinch on 40. Brick kills most of the time with Sand damage but hera obviously needs to be unparad to clean up. I was pretty tilted at that point. This game hurt a lot, after doing everything pre-game perfectly, terrible luck followed by bad mistakes cost me a crucial game.
Week 8 vs Endill (L) - M Dragon Defmie Dug Spikes
Prep:
I'd been very much favouring offensive teams up until this point, and I thought that Endill would be a good opponent to slow it down against a bit and play a more balanced game into. Endill is always very solid into any brute force kind of team, so that's not something I want to bring here. Instead, against his balances, a CM bliss wincon felt like a strong choice. Also just generally I wanted to use a style I hadn't used to date in the tour, and that was strong against things I might have been soft against before, such as DDers or strong special attackers. M Drag's team from the previous week had looked great, I liked how it supported Defstar with Suittar and Dug. I always used to love Defstar, but got a bit reluctant to use it for a while as a lot of teams with it ask it to do too much and rely on you getting a lot of turns right.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-914597?p2
This one was a memorable game for the fans but a painful one for me. My mistake in game was not recognising the team I was facing - it's something I had lost to before in Revival quarter finals vs ABR. I thought it would be DD Mence last, or possibly DDtar or Crocune.
I spent the whole game thinking I was doing good stuff when it was all entirely inconsequential. Weirdly enough, the hax I got in mid game probably made it a bit less likely for me to identify what I was up against. Because Endill is looking to sack stuff while making it look like he isn't doing that, the fact that he could do it very non-obviously changed my thought process. I was thinking 'OK, the game is going like this because my luck has simply made things get out of hand and there's not much he can do' as opposed to 'Ok, why's he switching his mons into my moves like that, what's going on?'
I saw people say after my game 'Oh the Registeel was unavoidable' - it really wasn't, but it just came down to whether I identified the team, which I didn't. If I pick out the team after seeing 5 mons, I could change my gameplan to try and maintain spikes and start phazing stuff,or potentially line up a turn where dug is facing unboosted regi near the end to give me better odds at least, especially if I get Regi to take some Spikes chip.
As it was with me not knowwing the team, I don't think it was good to try and do something like go Pert on zap at the end then Roar to scout the last, that kind of thing can let a game slip vs DDers potentially. Maybe I could have though.
Losing this felt pretty terrible as it was a game I really needed to win for the team. If I'd won this we'd be in playoffs right now.
Week 9 vs Fruhdazi (W) - My Regirock CMPass
Prep: Fruh is low on Zapdos, high on phys attackers, high on Celebi, low on Milo, most often has multiple steel types on a team, loves Regis, and loves Endpert. I wanted to bring a Fire type because of the high Cele low Milo high Steels, and also wanted a mon faster than 360 speed for +1 Endpert. It's hard to use a Fire type and a fast mon together, this is like one of the only configurations that does it. This team is obviously a bit Zap weak (my plan t1 vs it is just to Ice Beam). It's much better at defending itself from physical threats than from special ones, luckily that's what Fruh favours. I also wanted to use CM Pass cele because I basically never use it and it would be a surprise.
Play: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-916928?p2
When I see Bliss come into Zard on T6, I'm pleased. Even more pleased when I crit it and put it in Beat Up range. I know he'll switch after so I get a Blast off again onto a mence I now see is CB. He catches Rachi with a very heads up EQ which neutralizes it for the game, although that means I can go right back to Zard. At 71, I know I've got a very good chance to kill it from there, and if I don't succeed in doing so and it Twaves me, I've taken it very low. Beat Up won't be good for the whole game in most matchups (although it probably would of been in this one), so it's better to rip it early. I get a crit and bliss is down. Zard and my other special attackers are a huge threat provided I don't miss any important Fblasts. On T13 I don't hesitate to fish for paraflinch, and get rewarded for my self-belief.
Annoyingly, the dmg on my Rachi was not enough to conclude Mence's nature, and it's also just slightly out of min roll Timid Dclaw range anyway. On T36 I go to Cele which is also winning now that Mence is extremely low. After killing Pert with cele, I clean up with Regi and Star. This game was much more influenced by the prep than the play itself, and early luck expedited the process for me.
Closing Notes:
I often played a bit fast and loose this season and didn't deal in absolutes, preferring to remain proactive with my play as opposed to getting bogged down in calculation and optimal lines. A lot of the time that worked well, especially as my willingness to just stay in and click repeatedly led to fortunate outcomes. I made mistakes in most weeks, but aggression led to better results than precision would have. My team selections were also often risky, not necessarily because they had considerable weaknesses to stuff (although some did), but because they forced me to approach my games in a risk-taking manner. I think that's the most effective way to do it in the volatile BO1 environment though, bring something slower and you have a lot more turns where stuff can go wrong. I was very pleased with my prep, more so than my play.
Although I've been playing for 500 years, I still made mistakes and there's a lot I feel I could and can improve on. The results were good but it's more important to look at the process. I've probably missed something or said something dumb too my my analysis here, let me know if you think I'm wrong, as I had to go back and watch these games to remember them.
Finally, the thrill of competing isn't the same as when I was younger, and neither is the SPL and tournament culture overall. I don't know how long I'll still be playing for, but I'm here for now, especially as I think I have more to give as a player. I also really want to succeed in another gen, something I have never been able to do.
Shoutouts:
Endill my main testing partner and the only guy whose bad luck equals my good luck. Thank you for always being around for loads of games as well as team selection and lead line advice, and sorry for haxing you literally every single test. I have a huge amount of admiration for you as a player and think you are better than me. You been unlucky af this season but you got the chance to go all the way and win it. Go Raiders
ArcticBreeze you are as sharp of a Pokemon mind as there is. Also, especially as you barely even play mons at all any more, you were incredibly generous in still looking over stuff, providing team, set, and EV advice, and getting on to test just for me. You're such a talented player and I'd tell you to come back to competing but really you're better off just enjoying life and chess instead of this game.
watermess you weren't around for the whole tour as you are busy dedicating your time to the important things in life - I massively admire your tenacity and also your ability to stay away from the time consuming wormhole that is this game. However when you were around you were incredibly valuable with insight into scouts, player tendencies, and team selection suggestions. You might call yourself washed but you still know how to prep lol.
BluBirD I did not expect you to be a source of ADV wisdom at all, but it turns out that you really know what you're doing. I've already said this exact thing to you on Discord but I'll say it on forums too because you deserve the good press. Your teambuilding and prep philosophy is really good, and you're also just a great guy to talk to and share ideas with.
@everyone on scooters - absolute pleasure to team with you all, you're all great people, I really wanted us to make playoffs and I believe we deserved it given our determination and how we performed at the end. We found our strongest lineup too late but we were really building something. Also elodin is an absolute demon, holy shit.
mielke Shitrock enjoyer It was cool to run scrims occasionally with you guys, at the start of the season I wanted to branch out and find some new high quality test partners. Mielke beat me pretty much every test game we played, that dude in tests is a force of nature. I however owned Fruh in tests.
I doubt any of you actually read this far, but thanks. GG