Tournament The Official OLT XI Discussion Thread

Round 1 of Swiss has...not concluded, because there's two extensions, but whatever, I've got a busy week so here's some interesting observations.

I Can Hardly Breathe: The ever-controversial man of the hour, I've put together a compendium of Gouging Fire appearances.
OLT Bowing To The Stall God: Five players brought stall or semi-stall to at least one game. The first instance was Alhen and SpookyZ loading up full stall and Dragapult semi-stall respectively in the same game; both players thankfully opted to tie the game and run it back. We saw no such reprieve from SoulWind, though, who loaded Quagsire + Sinistcha stall into chansey and lulu's Darkrai + Weavile balance, and played it all the way out for a 366-turn victory. Twixtry used a Dragapult semi-stall to defeat Empo's sun in a game of their series, while yovan33321's Weezing-Galar + Kyurem semi-stall fell to oldspicemike's Darkrai and mixed Kyurem. The stall general himself SupaGmoney did not actually bring stall, instead bringing a team that still lost to Hoopa.

the crying corner: crying is in this tournament so I feel like I have to dedicate a section to her BS. Game 1 of her set against Tace featured Slowking using Chilly Reception into Weather Ball Ice Cinderace, which Tace's Landorus narrowly avoided; this was soon followed up by Counter Lokix, which survived a CC from Zamazenta and blew it away. Game 2 featured a fat team featuring a Wish-passing Dachsbun, Earth Plate Iron Treads, and a Pecharunt with Tera Blast, the type of which I don't even want to think about.

1-0
SoulWind vs SpookyZ
(Winner of Giannis Antetokommo-o vs clean) vs (Winner of Skarpherim vs hellom)
mimilimi vs oldspicemike
3d
vs Ahsan-219
Empo vs crying
Santu
vs Welli0u
Dasmer vs xavgb
emforbes vs Vert

0-1
Alhen vs Twixtry
(Loser of Giannis Antetokommo-o vs clean) vs Storm Zone
yovan33321
vs xdRudi.exe
Rewer vs TDNT
Mako vs (Loser of Skarpherim vs hellom)
INSULT vs Ewin
bbeeaa vs chansey and lulu
SupaGmoney vs Tace
 
Round 2 of swiss is over, with a few surprising results.

Storm Zone down 0-2 with a loss to Giannis Antetekoumpo: A very interesting set between two players with high expectations, Giannis came to play with an offensive looked-like-but-not-specs Iron Crown that put a ton of pressure on Storm Zone's unique rain with weather ball kyurem and Basculegion. Hitting focus blast turn one to OHKO treads was definitely a key advantage as this game really came down to a matter of a few percent. Game 2 was a change of pace with Giannis loading a Heatran semi stall team which got a great matchup against a pivot heavy offense featuring AV Slowking-g. Heatran easily trapped slowking and gliscor got a toxic off on Tusk and was looking good, but Specs Primarina, Tera Dark Kingambit, and a strong Raging Bolt were able to whittle down the walls. In the end giannis was able to save the game by saving his tera til the very last turn, surviving Flower Trick and KO'ing meowscarada with Dondozo. The format of the swiss stage is to be eliminated after 3 losses, so it's do or die now for a competitor some considered the favourite to win.

xavgb won vs Dasmer in three unusual games, the first featuring a combo rain + sand team which worked out well actually. Bringing in the rain core in the often used Ogerpon-w slot kept useful type resists for Excadrill and both physical sweepers were able to benefit from the others pressure. Game two was basically "i lose to Garganacl - the game" and game three was a balance mirror where good old calm mind Clefable brought it home. Stresh looks clean and in control (even in good timer shape) at 2-0, using a variety of creative teamstyles. We'll see if the gouging fire ban upsets his command of the meta

SupaGMoney won in 3 vs Tace The most stall-oriented player in the pool brought three hyper offenses... idk but it worked

3d won vs Ahsan using custap sticky web Araquanid, a set worthy of the agency, and a keldeo team in game 1. Creativity is keeping this team canada member one step ahead and currently up 2-0 with one win away from advancing.

crying corner (vs empo) our favourite chef cooked again this week with some fun choices. Game 1, Hisuian Zoroark with Hyper beam made an appearance in an attempt to lure and weaken some valiant checks, eliminating Clefable but leaving Glowking alive. Later in the game Custap berry Kyurem made an appearance but was foiled by a switch to a speedy Gliscor. Empo came with his own tricks however, boasting an offensive Darkrai with the surprise will-o-wisp, as well as good usage of a threatening Weavile. Game 2 Empo's team was similarly solid, a strong offense featuring Meteor Beam Glimmora and Blaziken, which handled Crying's low kick fire punch ice spinner Roost dragonite, defensive boots Slither Wing, and Gliscor-Ogerpon pivot core. Empo played this matchup with a good combination of aggressive pressure and defensive reads, never letting Crying get the momentum she needed with her slower bulkier squad. The smogon tour champ advances to 2-0 and crying falls to 1-1.

Skarpherim lost 2-1 to mako but game 1 was a showcase of how to win with a team that at first glance looks like I would find it in the rmt section under "hard stuck at 1300 elo, any ideas?" Tera Flying Raging Bolt is really that guy in some matchups.

emforbes continues to impress with a 2-1 victory vs Vert, bringing three flavours of offense featuring no-nonsense mons from the A rank or higher of the VR (with the exception of one Scizor). While the set had some luck, offense vs bulkier teams often has the chance to break through with a well timed crit so solid play gave them the chance to win.

Soulwind advanced to 2-0 on the back of two actually similar Samurott balances, one with Serperior and Moltres, and the other with Ogerpon and Skeledirge. This seemed to be a good read against an opponent who also favored bulkier teams, letting the goat outlast with smart switches and a good helping of knock off. This is a matchup to check out if you like funky balances, these teams look great and are unlike a lot of what I've seen on ladder.

hellom advanced to 2-0 with a win over clean hellom 2024

Upcoming highlights:
Empo vs 3d - sorry bro gl tho
Soulwind vs Hellom
xavgb vs emforbes - idk i just believe in the doubles
Giannis vs crying - cook
SupaGMoney vs yovan33321 - supag loses unless the quagsire stall takes the stage
bbeeaa vs Vert
Storm Zone vs Skarpherim - unlucky fella
 
Horribly busy this week but here's a couple of my notes from R2 of Swiss to complement the above compilation.

yovan33321 decided that Life Orb Ludicolo rain was the bring for game 3 of his set versus xdRudi.exe, and he was completely right. Watch Tera Water do 90% to Gholdengo! Could this have been achieved with, like, Basculegion? Possibly. But this is absolutely the better universe. That Water/Grass/(Ice Beam?) coverage is brutal sometimes.

Big week for fans of pink blobs, as Clefable showed up in ten teams and won eight of the times it appeared. It commonly formed cores with Gliscor and pivots like Alomomola and U-Turn Gliscor, although a hazard-stack team featuring it alongside Reuniclus appears to have propagated as well. We saw primarily utility-based Knock/Thunder Wave sets, though xavgb took over a game with a Calm Mind set that Dasmer's bulkier team was unable to get past.

SupaGmoney seems to have been determined to beat the "stall main" allegations as he loaded up a team consisting of Pincurchin and five Quark Drive mons against Tace. Among other things, his Moth and Jugulis were Power Herb Meteor Beam, and Pincurchin's utility may have made it the MVP, as it paralyzed Tace's Moth and Zamazenta and got a Toxic Spike up to poison Darkrai.

2-0
Empo
vs 3d
SoulWind vs hellom
xavgb
vs emforbes
Santu vs mimilimi

1-1
Giannis Antetokommo-o vs crying
Alhen vs Ewin
Ahsan-219 vs clean
Mako
vs Welli0u
SupaGmoney vs yovan33321
Rewer
vs SpookyZ
Dasmer vs oldspicemike
bbeeaa vs Vert

0-2
Twixtry vs chansey and lulu
Storm Zone vs Skarpherim
Tace vs xdRudi.exe
INSULT vs TDNT
 
Round 3 of swiss has concluded and it was a bit of a banger.

In the winners rounds:

Santu advanced to the final stage with a clean 3-0 record in a two game win over mimilimi, using a Keldeo balance that I've seen popping up in a few places, and a more standard bulky offence to cleanup game two, while mimi chose to load alolan muk and hisuian goodra. Not a bad place to take a risk as they still have two more chances to advance.

SoulWind cleaned up in three games vs hellom to advance, losing game 1 in a bulky offence battle vs Sun, winning game 2 with a tinkaton moltres balance vs Kyurem + Veil, and finally pulling out Lead Taunt Great Tusk HO to win in game 3 vs hellom's hydrapple Bulky Offense. Being able to handle different flavours of opposing offense is a good sign in a tour like OLT

xavgb looks in top form with a 3-0 finish in swiss to advance vs emforbes. Game 1 showcased a standard Ogerpon Ting Lu team vs a mimikyu HO that ended with an invincible +6 defence Corviknight. Game 2 flipped the script with stresh bringing the weirder looking team, featuring what turned out to be Chesto-Rest Kommo-O with soundproof, which set up and ended the game vs emforbes' standard Iron Moth HO.

Empo also advanced after winning 2-1 vs 3d. These three games were all extremely standard looking teams with some twists. Game 1 was tinkaton + moltres + great tusk bulky offence on both sides, with some unique-but-becoming-more-common picks in Hydrapple for empo and AV Tusk for 3d. Game 2 was similarly mirrored with both players picking Zamazenta + Gholdengo offenses with some similar roles throughout the teams. The closest game of the three, this one came down to 3d's zama + ghold being in just a slightly better position than empos, and potentially winning a speed tie as well. By Game 3 empo turned up the mindgames, using the threat of Zapdos to stay in with Samurott on a bunch of potential revenge killers and spread a ton of damage. The resulting lead combined with some timely Static paralysis proved to be too strong of a position to overcome and the game was sealed. (boy he seems to like zapdos eh)

in the elimination rounds:

Skarpherim clutched the do or die game 3 vs storm zone by getting four turns of sucker punch vs sub mindgames correct with Kingambit vs Iron Moth. Actually one of the nuttiest games I've seen and despite the seemingly good matchup from Skarpherim, storm almost brought it back only to get clutched on. Storm zone is now eliiminated at 0-3 and skarpherim holds on with the chance to advance if they win two more.

Twixtry eliminated chansey and lulu with a lovely Ogerpon-C team (it only clicked sd and nothing else but hey i love it) in game 1 that was ultimately decided by a tera fire sub Zamazenta (evil) that was able to break through the opposing Skeledirge balance with some lucky crunches. Game 2 took longer to play out as a balance vs balance battle, but Twixtry controlled the hazards game the whole time, had two magic guard users, and brought Dragonite to clean up at the end. A solid showing from newcomer chansey and lulu and I hope they come back for more tournaments :]

Tace took two clean games vs xdRudi.exe, with Game 1 featuring that same Keldeo balance from above vs another Tinkaton moltres team. Game 2 was fun as well, with an extremely fat Ogerpon balance outlasting rudi's unorthodox Lokix + Scizor bulky offence. This set definitely felt like good prep from Tace.

Finally INSULT took the last set vs TDNT, with Game 1 being a battle of specs Kyurem + Glowking vs DD Kyurem + Veil. Things looked dicey for a moment when TDNT's Zamazenta rested back to full at +4 defence except whoops thats actually SCARF kyurem and Draco Meteor claims the kill after some Great Tusk chip damage. Game 2 featured that dang keldeo team again getting cleaned up by a standard double dark offense featuring Shuca Berry Glowking which crit-ohko'd gliscor turn 2.

---
Crying corner: Nasty Plot hyper voice rotom-h carried game 1 (??) but while Curse Heat Crash Snorlax OHKO'd tinkaton, it wasn't able to paralyze Zamazenta with 4 body slams so game 2 went to giannis. Game 3 featured a fat Pecharunt Hydrapple balance I had already seen in an SCL game and it lost in both games. Props to giannis for tanking the unexpected options and being able to adapt on the fly. For example sacking tinkaton to just rocks and die in game 2 seemed bad, but with skarmory on the other side it was going to be a free switch in most of the game anyway, and it served to help scout the snorlax moveset. Anyway both competitors are still alive so hope to see more this week.

Other 1-1 games: they happened I watched them it was fun (except bbeeaa vs vert which actually didnt happen)
 
One game from every matchup in round 4:

Twixtry vs Tace: Game 2 featured an appearance from tera steel latios and it did some work, flinging around psychic noise vs Twixtry's apple tinkaton balance and generally putting on a lot of pressure. Tace needed this win down a game in the loser's bracket and brought it back to win the set.

Ewin vs Welli0u: in Game 2 well brought trick gholdengo and choice band + trick hoopa-u vs the same ursaluna semi-stall team he had just lost to in game 1. Unfortunately bro got extremely goobed by choice scarf Toxapex and he did not get a single kill before forfeiting

Mako vs Alhen: Game 3 of this set mako brought balls to the wall HO but walking wake got flinched and removed by darkrai in the first two turns. Not one to give up, she took advantage of a valiant moonblast drop on gholdengo to calm mind in its face, weakening it for Iron Moth. Then on turn 9 she fearlessly psychics the darkrai who just happened to click tera poison and the rest was history.

Giannis antetekommo-o vs 3d: Game 1 was a rollercoaster, featuring some nice work by tank chomp until 3d revealed tera fire Roaring Moon which swept giannis whole team, except wait Darkrai lived? No worries lando lives dark pulse cause no ice beam. Right?

Dasmer vs bbeeaa: honestly dont have a standout game here because generally it was a pretty close and somewhat drawn out set with dasmer wielding some pretty fat balances but Game 2 had a pretty fun endgame featuring the classic weavile vs raging bolt will they wont they thunderclap calculation

clean vs mimilimi: both players went do or die game 3 with mimi loading a mini trick room core featuring a whole lotta pink mons and clean loading pecharunt offense featuring Iron Boulder? Pretty sick tbh

Skarpherim vs Oldspicemike: a nice lesson in Never Exhaust Tera took place in Game 3 where skarpherim prevailed in an endgame centered around some rampaging dragonites

hellom vs SupaGMoney: Game 2 was well maneuvered from both sides, with hellom wielding sun hyper offence vs a more balanced squad from the G, good on hellom to play patient and capitalize at the right moments

emforbes vs. Rewer: emforbes used the same team both games this series but Game 1 really impressed with somehow the perfect set of four moves on Gholdengo to dismantle rewer's team.

crying vs yovan33321: props to yovan for having the balls (stubbornness?) to bring the same stall three games in a row, unfortunately as a crying fan I am obligated to post the one where she won (Game 1) in style with Arcanine-Hisui. Game 2 is also worth watching though

ahsan-219 vs insult: in Game 1 there's an articuno! And it kind of does well!
 
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Final round of swiss is in the books with 6 matchups (one still extended)

spookyZ vs tace: Game 1 spookyz brought a nostalgic stall featuring old gen cores skarm-bliss and gliscor-toxapex, looking strong but only narrowly avoiding getting blown up by tera fire Iron Hands thanks to a lucky defense drop from liquidation. Tace was somewhat prepared for the matchup but stall has been a really good pick ever since the gouging fire ban, maybe since a lot of gliscor are going for sd facade and unable to fit both knock and toxic? Game 2 was more balance vs balance, with tace bringing a familiar latios team and spookyz going for darkrai dragonite + defensive core. I particularly like the appearance from defog corviknight who I feel is underrated.

bbeeaa vs ahsan-219: bea brought his own sample kyurem team to Game 1 which I definitely like, just because it's known doesn't mean it's a bad pick especially when you know the team front to back, and it paid off this game with a solid kyurem matchup as well as some help from Tera Fighting Great Tusk. Have to say I'm not sure I like ahsans team as the pivot core + spikes + kyurem seemed a bit basic though dd was at least a little unexpected. In game 2 ahsan seemed to be fairing a little better but had to exhaust tera to stop a dd kyurem sweep early, and that left the door open for bea to pop his own tera which turned out to be tera steel sub cm valiant. With ahsan's only steel valiant check being the Cinderace that died on turn 7 and the ting-lu that died on turn 5 (lucky crits but it died if 5 hits anyway) there was no hope left. Overall I think bea made some really good team reads with solid but not predictable offenses into ahsan's bulkier offence and balance teams, and utilized tera skillfully!! to make some key breaks.

mako vs yovan33321: in Game 1 mako surprised with a screens Zamazenta HO which utilized sub Valiant to wipe the floor with yovan's Glimmora squad, but yovan came more prepared in game 2 with the blimax kyurem fat which led to mako quickly conceding. Not to be deterred, mako brought almost but not quite the same team in game 3, swapping Scizor out for Gholdengo and changing some sets, but the real adjustment was to simply lock in and click make it rain on yovan's Gholdengo correctly predicting the tera fairy for the win. Neat set showing you don't have to change styles to win

mimilimi vs. SupaGMoney: Game 1 was a textbook example of how offence vs offence in sv hinges on having one or two surprises that lets you get up in the trade battle. In this game the Valiant moveset was SD Knock Liquidation CC, and it was able to trade two for one by boosting in samurott's face and calling the scarf Iron Crown bluff (easy to do when the team seemed to be an edit of a standard sample). From there the lead was simply just held and solid play won the game for mimi. In Game 2 mimi loaded a bulkier team probably expecting the same from the G, but got a very good matchup for their Lokix, especially after removing the Zapdos with a quick Knock + Draco combo on turn 13, while avoiding paralysis. SupaGMoney's team also had no stealth rocks or hazards of any kind. With the sturdiest bug resist being Dragapult, the combo of AV Alomomola + Lokix mad quick work.

Skarpherim vs WelliOu: Game 1 was standard offence vs standard offence, mostly came down to a well played Zapdos from WelliOu and a kingambit getting to endgame with high health and tera intact which usually just means you win and in this case it did by taking down valiant and clearing the way for Zamazenta. Game 2 WelliOu went bulkier with a Zamazenta semistall while skarpherim brought largely the same structure as game 1, a medium bulky offence with Kyurem. The matchup was tough with helmet gholdengo with no make it rain and banded dragonite being the only real wallbreakers, both of which didn't have much for Clefable. Once skarpherim randomly sacked Zamazenta on turn 45 it was pretty much doomed. Solid play from WelliOu keeping the door shut with very little openings offered.

3d vs rewer have not played yet but will play today
 
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Top 16 matchups and who they played so far:
Dasmer (4th in cycle 2, W Insult, L xavgb, W oldspicemike, W bbeeaa) vs. xavgb (4th in cycle 4, W rewer, W dasmer, W emforbes) rematch

WelliOu (5th in cycle 1, W storm zone, L santu, W mako, L ewin, W skarpherim) vs. emforbes (6th in cycle 4, W bbeeaa, W vert, L xavgb, W rewer)

Mako (7th cycle 1, L 3d, W skarpherim, L WelliOu, W alhen, W yovan33321) vs. Empo (2nd in cycle 3, W Twixtry, W crying, W 3d) top seed

Giannis (2nd in cycle 4, L clean, W storm zone, W crying, W 3d) vs. mimilimi (2nd in cycle 1, W TDNT, W oldspicemike, L santu, L clean, W SupaGMoney)

SoulWind (1st in cycle 3, W chansey and lulu, W SpookyZ, W hellom vs. Santu (4th in cycle 3, W xdRudi.exe, W WelliOu, W mimilimi) why are 2 3-0 players playing each other round 1 when we have swiss records to seed off of?

bbeeaa (1st in cycle 1, L emforbes, W chansey and lulu, W vert, L dasmer, W ahsan-219) vs. 3d (5th in cycle 3, 2-2) or Rewer (6th in cycle 3, 2-2)

Ewin (2nd in cycle 2, L ahsan-219, W insult, W alhen, W WelliOu) vs. hellom (3rd in cycle 4, W skarpherim, W clean, L soulwind, W SupaGMoney)

clean (7th in cycle 3, W giannis, L hellom, W ahsan-219, W mimilimi) vs. SpookyZ (5th in cycle 2, W alhen, L SoulWind, L rewer, W Tace)
 
wassup. not big on posting but figured id share my vids from the past OLT & what i learned.

w1 vs mako:

going into this week, I was super excited to get my spinback for our wcop game, and I figured I had a decent gauge on how she liked to play. i choked on fat ballz game 1 so my main takeaway from this series especially watching it back is just to chill the fuck out and take it slow.. easier said than done doe.

w2 vs ahsan:

ahsan series was a fucking breeze since he loaded some dogshit game 2 6-0d by dragon move. game 1 was super fun and it was actually my first game w the team that i prob used the most in this gen, super broken team ctc the goat for this.

w3 vs empo:

this was the most fucked up series by far. i went into it w a good headspace looking to play like how i been playing vs mako and ahsan but this guy immediately got in my head by legit turn 3 of game 1. i tried to adjust my play by mid game by doing headass shit like going hard dragapult on gliscor but that shit went south really fast. game 2 was well executed by me aside from that dumb ass superpower turn 1 but i like how i executed my gameplan to win, especially at the end. i have no words about game 3 and that's the game that made me realize that i have much to improve as a player. ive never gotten my ass handed to me this hard in a game before, legit got every single turn wrong but it was a lot closer than it seemed because it was sort of a 50/50 at the end w gambit, i thought he'd be tera fairy so i espeeded but it may have been doable if i outraged on tghost. either way, im happy w how i played the first 2 games and my main takeaway here is to not let my opponents get in my head and take me off playing my game, cuz all of the mistakes i made in this series were from me tryna play the predict game and i got fuckin waxed.

unfortunately i don't have my series vs giannis recorded cuz i played that shit at a hotel in new york w 2 people sleeping in the same room as me so i couldn't yap. the rewer series is recorded too but idk what the fuck happened to the audio which just cut out mid game in game 1 so if u wanna see that pm me and i can pass the link. but yea, i think the main thing that i learned from this tournament is that its important to play the game ur best at playing. a lot of the turns that i fucked up this tour were from me not thinking and tryna predict (u can prob tell from the turns that i talk the least for i got wrong). u can apply this to ur own game by figuring out what u do when ur at ur best, and as simple as it sounds, make sure ur doing it. perhaps im just a dumbass but i feel like a lot of times its hard to stick to the shit u "should" be doing and instead go for what "feels right," which does have its time and place but for majority of the game, identifying and sticking to a gameplan will get u very far. i also thought it was interesting how many turns that i got "wrong," throughout this tour but because i had a solid gameplan and didn't risk shit that i needed to win, for the most part, almost every single one of my lost games were close (besides the asswhooping that was g3 empo and me getting 6-0d by sweepers vs giannis and rewer). this means for u guys, having a fundamentally strong gameplan is way more important than getting some of these turns right / wrong.

im not the best yet but this tour taught me what i gotta do to tap into improving so im excited to see how good i get. big fucking shoutout to my brother CTC for teams this tour, would not have gotten this far without u. appreciate it so much fam, MY B for choking on dicks vs rewer but itll be up next tour. also thank u to blunder lax hellom Mako Twixtry for motivation, teams for qualifying and advice, u guys were also very important for this shit and hope to make u guys proud next time.


remember, failure builds character... stay locked in.
 
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I forgot to post here, saw my favorite to win, 3d post, so i figured id talk about my run, how i feel about it etc, but i wanted to leave a strong message for who needs to hear it, its not the end if you have a setback its actually the opposite and ill explain in this post.

Ill start by saying im working on documenting my journey on smogon and will be releasing it after olt next year. (Obviously ill still be playing after i drop it i wanted to drop it for educational purposes and for Jamvad).

Ill start with experience, the way i see it is theres four paths/directions you can go on here, and in life in general:

1. You can be successful, ur ego inflates which leads to you getting humbled, and you just fall off completely.
2. You can be successful, ur ego inflates which leads to you getting humbled, then take it as an opportunity to go harder.
3. You can fail, and keep failing because you refused to put in the work to improve.
4. You can fail, and work on getting better putting in lots of time.


The reason im saying this is, ive had to sit and watch so many people make excuses for me as to why their favorite didnt win this tour, some friends saying it was just luck, some friends treating it like it was a really serious thing and encouraging me, and to all those that feel this way still, let me tell you something about me:

Every loss i take in any tour game, no matter how hard it is, im hard asf on myself for it, now be it, after the OST win earlier this year, i thought i was almost invincible, thought i could reuse and pick out teams and still win with no prep/practice, and paid for that in the most brutal way during OLT, although every series was close, close ain't gonna cut it for me.

Now it seems like every time i take the first or third path, i end up falling flat on my ass, getting absolutely nothing, and every time i take the second and fourth path i end up getting rewarded/succeeding.

Im not gonna talk about any OLT sets ive done because theyre an example of why you should never feel comfortable after you reach a certain point, and why you should take your prep and play more seriously, in other words it was not good. I played like dogshit and was too cocky to realise. Obviously it was crushing on me mentally, but for me thats a good thing because i tend to turn that feeling around and put that strong energy into getting better, -ve to +ve.

When i failed to win OLT last year, and had a mediocre 5-3 run in scl, i made a note to myself that i would focus on improving not only my play but my teambuilding aswell, and that got me my first trophy win.

So this year, i made another note to myself that id touch on every attribute, and try to work my way up to even more than what i achieved this year, ever since my olt run ended ive been practicing to improve my ingame play, and my teambuilding in every gen, not just sv, i got back into my best tier sw/sh OU, got back into SM OU and ORAS OU, and signed up for smogon masters where im currently 1-0, and with these improvements im working on making every day, i was able to turn my SV OU SCL record around from 0-1 to 2-1.

How you take your own losses is a reflection of yourself. I remembered the best advice i ever got was from my grandfather he said if you put 1% extra work than usual to improve by 1% every day, thats 365% a year, just remember how much you could improve in just 1 year. Using this advice from the end of my olt run last year i vowed to put in 5% extra work a day to improve myself in every area, gameplay, mindset, teambuilding, and work ethic. And after a year, 5x365, thats an 1825% improvement right there, i had gotten everything i ever wanted.

Goes to show that humbling yourself takes you a long way, never get too cocky, you might not pay for it right away but you will eventually, im putting in double the amount of work i put in over the last year, 10% extra per day, one step at a time, its like 3d said failure builds character, the amount of work you put in, the reward is equal to it, and this is why you'll never see me fall off, every time i lose i reflect hard and focus on getting better. And i encourage others to do the same.

On another note, im praying for Vert every day, his inactivity is concerning, its unlike him, we always kept in touch even when he was on break, i hope hes doing alright.
 
wassup. not big on posting but figured id share my vids from the past OLT & what i learned.

w1 vs mako:

going into this week, I was super excited to get my spinback for our wcop game, and I figured I had a decent gauge on how she liked to play. i choked on fat ballz game 1 so my main takeaway from this series especially watching it back is just to chill the fuck out and take it slow.. easier said than done doe.

w2 vs ahsan:

ahsan series was a fucking breeze since he loaded some dogshit game 2 6-0d by dragon move. game 1 was super fun and it was actually my first game w the team that i prob used the most in this gen, super broken team ctc the goat for this.

w3 vs empo:

this was the most fucked up series by far. i went into it w a good headspace looking to play like how i been playing vs mako and ahsan but this guy immediately got in my head by legit turn 3 of game 1. i tried to adjust my play by mid game by doing headass shit like going hard dragapult on gliscor but that shit went south really fast. game 2 was well executed by me aside from that dumb ass superpower turn 1 but i like how i executed my gameplan to win, especially at the end. i have no words about game 3 and that's the game that made me realize that i have much to improve as a player. ive never gotten my ass handed to me this hard in a game before, legit got every single turn wrong but it was a lot closer than it seemed because it was sort of a 50/50 at the end w gambit, i thought he'd be tera fairy so i espeeded but it may have been doable if i outraged on tghost. either way, im happy w how i played the first 2 games and my main takeaway here is to not let my opponents get in my head and take me off playing my game, cuz all of the mistakes i made in this series were from me tryna play the predict game and i got fuckin waxed.

unfortunately i don't have my series vs giannis recorded cuz i played that shit at a hotel in new york w 2 people sleeping in the same room as me so i couldn't yap. the rewer series is recorded too but idk what the fuck happened to the audio which just cut out mid game in game 1 so if u wanna see that pm me and i can pass the link. but yea, i think the main thing that i learned from this tournament is that its important to play the game ur best at playing. a lot of the turns that i fucked up this tour were from me not thinking and tryna predict (u can prob tell from the turns that i talk the least for i got wrong). u can apply this to ur own game by figuring out what u do when ur at ur best, and as simple as it sounds, make sure ur doing it. perhaps im just a dumbass but i feel like a lot of times its hard to stick to the shit u "should" be doing and instead go for what "feels right," which does have its time and place but for majority of the game, identifying and sticking to a gameplan will get u very far. i also thought it was interesting how many turns that i got "wrong," throughout this tour but because i had a solid gameplan and didn't risk shit that i needed to win, for the most part, almost every single one of my lost games were close (besides the asswhooping that was g3 empo and me getting 6-0d by sweepers vs giannis and rewer). this means for u guys, having a fundamentally strong gameplan is way more important than getting some of these turns right / wrong.

im not the best yet but this tour taught me what i gotta do to tap into improving so im excited to see how good i get. big fucking shoutout to my brother CTC for teams this tour, would not have gotten this far without u. appreciate it so much fam, MY B for choking on dicks vs rewer but itll be up next tour. also thank u to blunder lax hellom Mako for motivation, teams for qualifying and advice, u guys were also very important for this shit and hope to make u guys proud next time.


remember, failure builds character... stay locked in.
Proud of U
 
Hey, for anyone that qualified for stage 2 of OLT, I'm working on a video essay aiming to compare ladder tournaments between a few different online games. I have a couple questions that I would love to get answers for if anyone is able.
  1. How many hours of Pokemon did you play that week for OLT across all accounts you used? An estimate is fine.
  2. What was your final placing? Would love to see a link to the results.
  3. Did you ever have to forgo anything important in your personal life in order to play Pokemon when playing OLT, ie work, school, eating, sleeping, chores, errands, exercise, time with friends/family etc.?
  4. Did you ever suffer from fatigue when playing OLT, either mental or physical? If so, did you do anything specific to combat it?
  5. What is your opinion on the OLT format? Do you think OLT is a good way to determine who is the best?
  6. Do you have anything else you want to say about OLT that wasn't covered in these questions?
Thanks!
 
Sick so I didn't cover top 16 but quarterfinals have wrapped with 3 series played so I'll go game by game
Rewer vs Ewin
:Great Tusk::Kingambit::Enamorus::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Chansey::Pecharunt: vs :Ninetales::Great Tusk::Walking Wake::Raging Bolt::Roaring Moon::Hatterene: - Replay
Sun seems a pretty common pick if you want to load bot basic HO and just click (I did it myself last week) and this sun is the most basic around. Rewer loaded what kind of looks like an offensive version of mimis chansey hydrapple structure. Tight battle but HO overwhelmed offense here.
:Gliscor::Corviknight::Clefable::Hoopa-Unbound::Dragapult::Garganacl: vs :Blissey::Ursaluna::Toxapex::Gliscor::Dondozo::Corviknight: - Replay
Ewin loads his one team once again seeking to continue the win streak, but rewer wasn't scared off by the previous games choice and loaded another sensible team with some breaking capabilities. Garganacl in particular gets a great matchup here and the gliscor vs gliscor matchup ended up going to Rewer this round. Ewin loading a comfortable team choice up a game isn't the worst move but it is quite known and rewer took advantage of this
:Great Tusk::Kingambit::Enamorus::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Chansey::Pecharunt: vs :Ribombee::Zamazenta::Iron Moth::Roaring Moon::Gholdengo::Kingambit: - Replay
Game 3 was a wild one as rewer went back to the chansey BO from game 1 and Ewin once again loads HO to match. Through some twists and turns Ewin manages to keep up webs and break a bit with gholdengo and Life Orb Zama, while rewer makes some progress with Enamorus. The turn of the game comes when enamorus reveals Superpower to Ohko gambit, and then Roaring Moon comes in to revenge... Except it's slower for some greedy reason and the game is over. Would love to know the explanation for that one.

Overall solid play from both sides with relatively even matchup calls, with ewins team selection giving up a slight edge

SoulWind vs Mako
:Ogerpon-Wellspring::Kingambit::Corviknight::Ting-Lu::Dragapult::Great Tusk: vs :Great Tusk::Tornadus-Therian::Gholdengo::Hydrapple::Kingambit::Garganacl: - Replay
Another case of a good garganacl game, I like makos team using an unconventional Regen core which gets a solid matchup against soulwinds ogerpon balance. Mako does a good job here to wear down Kingambit and Ting Lu before pressuring with scarf Gholdengo.
:Amoonguss::Blissey::Dondozo::Gliscor::Clodsire::Clefable: vs :Roaring Moon::Pecharunt::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Iron Valiant::Kingambit::Landorus-Therian: - Replay
Mako surely felt some fear loading this offense with not a lot of breaking into full stall from Soulwind. Ogerpon ends up being spikes U-turn and Roaring Moon goes down quickly to sticky barb clefable, so Valiant becomes the only knock off user and leftovers Iron Head gambit doesn't look like it can do much. Makos first break comes around turn 60 where they are able to take out Clodsire with the help of tera fairy from Valiant, potentially opening the door for Pecharunt. Unfortunately malignant chain only has 8 pp and soulwind closes that door quickly with the help of blissey and tera steel on clef.
:Ting-Lu::Corviknight::Weezing-Galar::Slowking-Galar::Zamazenta::Raging Bolt: vs :Ninetales::Great Tusk::Walking Wake::Raging Bolt::Roaring Moon::Hatterene: - Replay
Mako loads the bot sun into soulwinds Weezing balance which has a great matchup for everything except walking wake, which very quickly ohkos Slowking with a specs protosynthesis tera water Hydro Steam. Soulwind doesn't play around with this and quickly brings out Raging Bolt to revenge. The rest of the game revolves around those two mons switching around each other and claiming kills in a pretty entertaining back and forth.

Overall soulwind brought more standard teams with mostly good matchups, but the set really rested on a few key turns and could have gone either way

Clean vs emforbes
:Iron Moth::Dragonite::Iron Treads::Rillaboom::Raging Bolt::Iron Valiant: vs :Lokix::Zamazenta::Alomomola::Great Tusk::Iron Crown::Zapdos: - Replay
Emforbes loaded a familiar lokix structure into Clean's kind of funky looking grassy offense, but this battle quickly turned into who has more sacks after clean revealed the Tera BUG raging bolt that took out both crown and tusk easily.
:Dragapult::Slowking-Galar::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Great Tusk::Kingambit::Raging Bolt: vs :Meowscarada::Gliscor::Slowking-Galar::Moltres::Tinkaton::Zamazenta: - Replay
As a meow hater I can't say I like emforbes team here even with the lovely Tinkaton Moltres core, and meow doesn't do anything this game after catching a flamethrower + burn on its first switch in. Despite this the game is still a little close, with Clean piloting their standard offense well to avoid the threat of SD Gliscor and weaken emforbes' defensive core until Tera Fire Kingambit is revealed.

This set emphasizes how much offense vs offense matchups can hinge on one or two surprise techs which can give players an advantage that they then hold until the end of the game or flip a losing scenario to winning at a late moment.

This week: semifinals
 
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im out of olt so just gonna ramble a bit. dont really feel like proofreading or anything so bear w/me im gonna write v casually lol. this was my first olt and real attempt at an individual, in full cg nonetheless. despite constantly grinding ladder before olt even started, i had a super a bad tilt the week b4 that made me lose faith altogether. essentially i went from feeling like i had a decent chance of qualing to truly believing there was no shot, so i decided to pass on even trying cycle 1. fast forward i debated cycle 2 late in the week, made an alt, then quickly realized i was gonna have to play way too much when starting on friday. then cycle 3 came and i started much earlier, paced myself, and had a pretty good run the entire time. on the friday of cycle 3 there was a literal random fly infestation at my house which absolutely fucked my mental, BUT i still wanted to fucking qualify. details r kinda hazy now but in the last few hours i was way too pussy to get a game, so i decided to try and sleep since the deadline was some heinous time pst. i literally overslept and woke up within like 20 mins of the cycle ending mad as fuck, and proceeded to get instantly robbed as soon as i loaded lmaooo. i wasnt as mad as i thought id be, but still felt like a huge waste of time. cycle four was about the same story, but i decided to actually search on the cusp of top 8 instead of being a bitch on the last day. i won both the games i needed and idt ive ever been more relieved or tense playing mons jfc. the 2nd game especially was against mmq, who id played a billion times in the exact mu LOL. ended up winning a ridiculous sucker mind game which never happened in any of our games prior https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ou-2187466113-75uj1tpts6okli8rmopv2p72cvtcxxdpw. even after i was still nervous id randomly get passed at 6th but here i am.

my goal was literally just qualifying (which i rly didnt think would happen) but somehow i made it to swiss too. it was so sick to even have the chance to win the trophy, and i got to play 5 great tournament players + the sv goat, praying 4 u bro. pretty disappointed with how i went out but i played like ass in game 2 so its ultimately my fault. no clue if im gonna try again next year but this was a pretty amazing experience after exclusively spectating the tournament since sm was cg. ty so much lax for all the help no way i wouldve made it to top 8 if he didnt support me. also Mako 3d for the tests, rly appreciate it. finally L block for being a toxic wasteland, had to try to keep winning so i wouldnt get flamed too bad. pce ggs
 
Wanted to let some thoughts out as well as this was my first time trying a ladder tour in a serious way. I never thought I would even qual as I have a really hard time not tilting or crashing out off ladder and I just casually signed up and see what's up. After a relatively rough start losing about 3 games in the 1400s I thought I wasn't gonna continue anymore, but then I went on and picked up the gxe scarf lando team and it apparently was so overpowered that multiple other people qual'd with it. Had a huge winstreak and said hey why not actually try to qual. . . had my final game against mysterious ladder hero certifiedlovergirl and made it playing as few games as possible since I knew I would just tilt if I spammed games. Now I thought that was just gonna be it as swiss tours tend to drag on a ton and didn't really stress about it so I just went on and played with kind of any team I thought looked cool or whatever I was getting passed. As swiss started I just took the opportunity to test some teams for scl and practice, after a relatively rough start I made it through and got to top 16, this is where I actually stopped sillying and took it serious.

I rarely build stuff myself but I felt super motivated this time around, so I figured I would share what I made for my g1 of top 16 which featured kyurem's ban; https://pokepast.es/2a0fa221f7e67191 (sry I took a couple spreads off because they're not mine and didn't know if I could share)
I was talking to GXE and ranting in my scl channel about new possible changes for the meta and Pecharunt + Hamurott core already had been seen a couple times at the time to take advantage of kyurem's ban so I thought I'd make my own version. It's rather simple but I think the mons mix together very well offensively. This also features one of my favorite's creation from emforbes which is the Destiny Bond + Encore Iron valiant, I think it's honestly super smart not only to support but also to secure against offensive mons like Roaring Moon, Iron moth and most importantly Kingambit. Being able to just dbond first safely and no matter what they click you can encore which they wouldn't expect. Laddering with the team made me feel confident enough to bring it and it paid off.

I don't think I've experienced a worse feeling after losing a tour set like this one for all the time I've been playing; losing sucks, and being a sentimental person when it comes to competitiveness definitely doesn't help, but what helps me come through it is the fact that I wasn't alone during this and definitely wouldn't have made it this far without the help of the people I could count on during my run, be it through teams or moral support/cheering, either publicly or privately, I insanely appreciate it, you all know who you are. I'd like to especially shoutout GXE who has been carrying me since wcop with teams and stuff, you are one of the most improved players I've seen and I hope to keep seeing more of you in tours :heart:
 
Semifinals Wrap-Up

Xavgb vs SoulWind
:Dragonite::Zamazenta::Glimmora::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Hatterene::Ting-Lu: vs :Darkrai::Pecharunt::Roaring Moon::Landorus-Therian::Kingambit::Iron Valiant: - Replay
Bulky offence mirror kicks off the set as xavgb (stresh) loads a team with a lot of counterplay and a couple specific trendy but classic threats that are revealed later. SoulWind loads a more unique modern team featuring a classic triple dark core with some bulk in Landorus and Pecharunt combined with revenge killing capacity in Valiant. From preview stresh looks to have a slight advantage in one aspect, as Soulwind has no hazard removal. Soulwind's most dangerous threats look to be Roaring Moon + Kingambit as Zamazenta is really the main physical check, and could get worn down by one or the other over the course of the game.

The game plays out along these lines as stresh reveals Ting-Lu is double hazard Ruination EQ, an older set than the more modern options of whirlwind or rest. SoulWind pressures early with Roaring Moon but Ting-Lu is able to take some hits and get up multiple layers alongside some good chip. Banded Dragonite revenges moon and Valiant comes out looking extremely threatening with Ting-Lu removed. Glimmora tries to check but goes down to Psyshock and stresh is forced to tera Hatterene and nuzzle, though the tera does not end up mattering. From there the game comes down to a chipped Zamazenta (which reveals rest) vs Kingambit. Soulwind ends up clutching it out with a precise order of tera, swords dance, and sucker punch to clear the game. If Glimmora wasn't sacked or Hatterene didn't tera I wonder what would have happened here, but props to soulwind for clutching a tricky endgame and for keeping his options open in the midgame.

:Darkrai::Iron Treads::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Slowking-Galar::Landorus-Therian::Hydreigon: vs:Blaziken::Glimmora::Gholdengo::Landorus-Therian::Samurott-Hisui::Iron Valiant: - Replay
After loading standard game 1 stresh branches out a little in game 2 with a funkier looking pivot based offence featuring what turns out to be Stealth Rock Hydreigon. Soulwind loads in with a hazard stack offence featuring Blaziken which I really like as a niche threat. On preview Blaziken indeed looks threatening, with Landorus chip being the most likely check but hitting the rest of the team quite hard. On stresh's side Ogerpon can do some damage as SoulWind's water resists of Gholdengo and Samurott will not enjoy repeated switchins. Additionally Iron Treads and Landorus can make some noise if soulwind's Landorus is weakened as there are three ground weaks on Soulwind's side.

Stresh lets hydreigon go down early in exchange for rocks and some chip on Focus Blast gholdengo, which I think was a good trade as it wasn't going to do much here anyway. This also gave a free switch in to Ogerpon and the damage begins. On Turn 7 SoulWind terastalizes his Landorus to water to counter the Ogerpon threat, and gets a crit uturn for his efforts while stresh reveals spikes. Darkrai and treads clean up Valiant and Gholdengo before going down to Blaziken. However without an SD blaziken goes down in exchange for only 65% on Landorus, which then outspeeds Glimmora and SoulWind forfeits knowing he's not getting past what is likely Scarf Landorus + Darkrai + Ogerpon. This game I think stresh just had a good matchup with Ogerpon + double ground being a really threatening anti-offence structure and he identified his advantage well.

:Great Tusk::Gholdengo::Garchomp::Tornadus-Therian::Dragapult::Kingambit: vs :Darkrai::Pecharunt::Roaring Moon::Landorus-Therian::Kingambit::Iron Valiant: - Replay
Game 3 and stresh puts it all on the line with a different double ground anti-offence team, this time featuring Tank Chomp and Tornadus-T. Soulwind sticks to his guns and loads the triple dark offence from game 1. I really like stresh's team as Tusk is actually a little underrated in my eyes at top level, and Tank chomp gets a great matchup here against another team with no removal. Soulwind's team has some revealed information at this point, Darkrai is known to be Psychic Dark Pulse Chople, Moon has roost DD eq knock, Valiant has psyshock and Kingambit is tera fairy. With this in mind stresh knows that Tusk has a decent matchup against Moon, Darkrai might not have Ice Beam, and Valiant might not have anything for Gholdengo. On the flip side, soulwind doesn't see anything that can outspeed a +1 Moon or Valiant.

Of course, soulwind could have changed sets since game 1.
Stresh starts off by getting some solid chip on Landorus as soulwind gets up rocks, and predicts the Pecharunt switch for another good chunk. After a couple pivots, stresh switches Gholdengo into the Valiant but as opposed to game 1 where it clicked moonblast and psyshock, this time the Valiant starts dancing with swords. Luckily Gholdengo is carrying tera fairy to live knock, and even chips darkrai down to 16% while it sets up some nasty plots. This is a great move from stresh to stay in as Soulwind's greedy setup brings Darkrai into range of Dragapult's revenge kill and he is forced to switch out. Tusk counters the Kingambit with a nice mid ground Close Combat to take out Landorus, and the darkrai comes back to clean up and the cycle repeats. This time Kingambit doesn't have a tusk to worry about, but Garchomp and Tornadus can chip it down to 14% all the same. Stresh wins the kingambit vs kingambit minigame with two sucker punches, but that lets roaring moon to dragon dance... except Kingambit actually does have Low kick but chose not to reveal it!! Stresh had a strong matchup this game but he kept his foot on the gas through smart midground options, information control, and a sense for when Soulwind would get greedy. Excellent preparation and control of the game.

Clean vs Rewer
:Landorus-Therian::Zamazenta::Dragonite::Raging Bolt::Darkrai::Gholdengo: vs :Ting-Lu::Gliscor::Corviknight::Zamazenta::Cinderace::Ogerpon-Wellspring: - Replay
Game 1 we see bulky offence vs even bulkier more balanced offence. Ting-Lu looks to stop Clean's special attacking core of Bolt Darkrai and Gholdengo, with Corviknight and Zamazenta walling the rest. Rewer's Ogerpon and Cinderace can maybe do some damage by at least chipping the Dragonite and Landorus switch ins, but they shouldn't have to worry too much given their strong defensive backbone. As long as rewer can stay healthy, Clean runs the danger of getting worn down especially with no hazard control and facing multiple potential knock off users.

The game starts with an early tera Water from Clean's Landorus, which just like in the other series earns a crit uturn on Ogerpon. An agressive play from Clean considering Dragonite was a fine switch, but the chip should matter as both sides are able to get up rocks and ting-lu catches a burn from darkrai. Despite the hazards, rewer continues to bring in ogerpon, getting some mild chip on dragonite in exchange for chip on Corviknight. Corv having to roost lets Raging Bolt in, which calm minds and dragon pulses Ting-Lu for half before a whirlwind. At this point its clear Clean is going for damage and playing aggressive, while Rewer is playing safe and relying on their defensive core. This trend continues as gliscor predictably protects in the face of Dragonite and Clean gets a free +1. While Ice Spinner could have killed at that %, Rewer had a Corviknight in the back so if they wanted to be safe surely a switch would do more than a simple protect. Maybe he thought it was banded? Anwyays rewer goes into corviknight but Clean predicts that again!! by going to Raging Bolt. Ting-Lu goes down and Gliscor comes back but Rewer over predicts and facade's instead of earthquaking, allowing even more chip from Bolt. This trend continues throughout the rest of the game, with Clean getting damaging hit after damaging hit and Rewer failing to get any leverage whatsoever. Really methodical takedown from Clean here who came out swinging with aggressive surgical plays to punish Rewer's relaxed approach. When you don't have the amtchup advantage you need to play aggressive and that's exactly what we saw here.

:Samurott-Hisui::Iron Valiant::Ogerpon-Wellspring::Gholdengo::Iron Treads::Dragapult: vs :Dondozo::Kyurem::Ting-Lu::Zamazenta::Corviknight::Weezing-Galar: - Replay
In a similar style matchup to game 1, Clean loads another pure offence in game 2, with a hazards + Ghold core combined with good speed and the ever threatening Ogerpon for breaking. Rewer loads what looks like an edit of the Blimax kyurem team (welcome back to the goat mon) with the same Ting-Lu Corviknight Zamazenta backbone as last game. From preview Ogerpon will have to do as much as possible as the rest of the team will likely struggle to break through the wall. Weezing could be defog for removal, and will likely be a safe switch against Valiant. Kyurem can get a kill against anything, although it probably won't find many good opportunities to attack safely. Clean's double ghost core looks a little threatening though as Ting-Lu can get worn down and Zamazenta's crunch might not be enough to live the onslaught. Iron treads can also spin pretty freely, switching in easily to weezing.

The game starts off with Clean going for damage and Rewer playing safe, just like in game 1. Some burns are spread until weezing gets up a toxic spike, which gets spun away in exchange for 78% from a dondozo wave crash. On turn 10 Clean catches Ting-Lu with a nice trick scarf from Ghold, which I did not expect considering the presence of Dragonite and Valiant on the team. Clean's Treads is able to keep rocks off while keeping up its own hazards, which is key for the Kyurem which as expected is leftovers instead of boots. Playing safe again, Kyurem protects in the face of Dragapult which DDs up despite being burned and forces a switch. After a second round of hazards Kyurem is basically dead anyway so it goes down to Ogerpon. Dragapult burns the Zamazenta, Corviknight gets chipped by Valiant + Gholdengo, and Ogerpon comes in to clean up with an unusual Trailblaze / Play Rough set. Yet again Clean played aggressive and went for straight damage while Rewer played passive, allowing his walls to be whittled down and consumed by the opposing offence. A tough showing for a player who made an extremely good run all the way to semifinals, it seems maybe they just ran out of gas vs an opponent who seemed to predict their every move.

Finals Matchup
Stresh is a player who has been looked at as a potential favourite for a number of individual tournaments now, and he seems on the top of his game. By utilizing under-explored pokemon in tried and true structures, he has been elite at countering opposing offence without opening up massive holes to fatter team styles. By preparing well, smart thoughtful play has allowed him to hold onto advantages that last until the end of the game.

Clean has showed that with just one or two surprises they can carry their teams to victory off the back of standard sets piloted with elite precision. They have been playing like lisan-al-gaib by seeing paths to victory that include exactly this much chip on this turn, plus one uturn here, plus a Dragon Dance to make them switch, all in a row.

It's likely that stresh's creativity cannot exactly be counter-teamed, but Clean has shown a resilience to bad matchups as well. Will stresh be able to cook up some magic counter and punish Clean's aggressive plays? Or will Clean read stresh like they have read so many other players this tournament?

Find out next time on...... POKEMON Z
 
Finals!!

Clean vs stresh
:Gliscor::Blissey::Clefable::Toxapex::Slither Wing::Dondozo: vs :Clodsire::Skarmory::Kingambit::Clefable::Kyurem::Zamazenta::
Really fun and unique looking matchup here, from preview Clean's team looks like stall but the presence of slither wing suggests that maybe its a bit more of a semi-stall. Clef could be unaware but if it's setup and Gliscor is too then there is some offensive presence there. Stresh brings a unique balance with a solid structure of 2 deadly attackers, 2 walls, and 2 blanket checks. Clodsire is an unusual sight on something like this, I feel like it has really been trending down outside of stall and even on stall, but looks good here as a special wall and toxic spike absorber. No removal on either side is kind of surprising, and each team has the potential for knock so hazards can be a big factor.

The game opens with a surprisingly aggressive start from Clean's Clefable which sets up calm minds while stresh gets up hazards. Stresh sacks clodsire to get a safe whirlwind but clef just comes right back in and manages to take out both Kyurem and Kingambit with the help of tera fire. So by turn 24 stresh is down to Zamazenta Clefable and 50% Skarmory vs clean's whole team, all of which have their items. Despite it looking extremely dire, stresh's Zamazenta has rest, Skarmory's roost and whirlwind are still very useful, and his own clefable later shows Calm Mind + Knock Off which becomes very effective with the Rocks + Spikes already up. The game turns a bit once the players decide to commit to a Calm Mind Clefable face off, which ends in a lucky crit for stresh. It really did seem like Clean would have theoretically had the advantage there as Fire resists moonblast, but mons is mons I guess. After that, some careful knock offs whirlwinds and pressure from Zamazenta allow stresh to pull it out. Crazy game that emphasizes never giving up and the power of Calm Mind Clefable.

:Deoxys-Speed::Roaring Moon::Iron Moth::Great Tusk::Kyurem::Iron Valiant: vs :Dragapult::Dragonite::Ting-Lu::Kingambit::Moltres::Iron Valiant:
Much more classic teams in game 2, with Clean loading a generic-looking Booster Spam structure with Kyurem and what could be lead Deoxys. Stresh's team is more bulky offence, with Ting-Lu and Moltres holding up the defensive end, Kingambit and Valiant for attackers, and two dragons looking like the wild cards depending on set choice. Clean's team doesnt have a ton of Dragonite checks outside of Tusk, and a lot of his attackers are vulnerable to Extreme Speed revenges, so perhaps a tera ghost or steel is available somewhere. Stresh does not have removal, and clean has a bunch of knock off users, so Moltres will be a limited time option. Overall both teams have some strong threats and it looks like it will be a race to see if Clean can clean up before exhausting all their options.

The game starts with Taunt Deoxys getting up rocks vs Ting-Lu and knocking off its red card, while also exhausting Valiant's booster energy with its own red card. Roaring Moon comes in to break a bit, bringing Ting-Lu and Dragonite down in exchange for stresh getting up rocks. Potentially no espeed from dragonite? Booster tusk comes in to spin, showing that clean really wants these rocks off! This suggests a non-boots Kyurem like the DD variant I guessed earlier. It turns out to be taunt spin Ice spinner, weakening moltres before it goes down. Iron Moth then comes in and chunks Kingambit but it goes down thanks to tera dark. At this point clean's team is dying faster than stresh's and things don't look good. Valiant comes in for Clean but doesn't have booster? After sacking Dragonite to moonblast stresh goes into Moltres except the opposing Valiant used Thunderbolt and goodbye Moltres. Maybe this valiant was Expert Belt? Or it could have been boots, and clean wanted the rocks off to be able to bluff a choice item. Either way it works and even dragapult is only able to get off about half with Hex, suggesting no Thunder Wave. Stresh says in for a penny in for a pound and pulls out his own Valiant (which if you remember lost its booster early) and clicks Close Combat predicting Clean's tera steel and winning the speed tie for the game. Clean won this if he didn't tera, and also won this if he won the speed tie. But mons is mons and stresh got rewarded for predicting the 50/50 correctly.

A great finals overall with a big difference in the teams used and gameplay styles between games. Really enjoyed the tour as a showcase of individual creativity and stamina in a tough tier, and happy to see a legend of SV get their first official trophy after a few years of being close. Congrats also to clean for a sick run and hope to see you lead a powerful squad in SPL next year.
 
Hey, for anyone that qualified for stage 2 of OLT, I'm working on a video essay aiming to compare ladder tournaments between a few different online games. I have a couple questions that I would love to get answers for if anyone is able.
  1. How many hours of Pokemon did you play that week for OLT across all accounts you used? An estimate is fine.
  2. What was your final placing? Would love to see a link to the results.
  3. Did you ever have to forgo anything important in your personal life in order to play Pokemon when playing OLT, ie work, school, eating, sleeping, chores, errands, exercise, time with friends/family etc.?
  4. Did you ever suffer from fatigue when playing OLT, either mental or physical? If so, did you do anything specific to combat it?
  5. What is your opinion on the OLT format? Do you think OLT is a good way to determine who is the best?
  6. Do you have anything else you want to say about OLT that wasn't covered in these questions?
Thanks!
Thought I would post an update to this, the video ended up coming out really well! Thanks again 3d for answering my questions and jetou for passing them along to him. I think other games could learn a lot from how Showdown's ladder is set up.
 
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