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Hello everybody and welcome to day number two here at the Pokemon World Championship
2026.
We are here with your pre show for the action gets started.
Of course, I've got some amazing representatives here from every single game being represented
here at this amazing world in San Francisco.
great wins. So I'm going to go one by one and kind of ask you all. First of all, what is your big
takeaway so far now being partly through this event and seeing what's going to come into the
future? So Sierra, what do you see? I mean, first off for the Pokemon video game, the biggest takeaway
from the get-go is this is a really tough tournament. We have had so many of our previous
world champions get knocked out in phase one of the competition, which, I mean, you come to world,
it is the best of the best. Some people have to drop along the wave, but I think we are a really
really hyping up this repeat champion. And we do have a couple of them still in the field,
but it's looking tricky. The other one too, with our current regulation and slash B, it's
all been about this mega Charizard, right? But we have seen that even though it's really
at the top percentages, it's not necessarily all of the top teams. We've gotten to see
mega Dragonite Ieyuya, which has been incredible, Justin Tang with his mega Delphox and mega
of last toys, NJ and Harry Deer, Kono with Megastore Raptor,
and Drychew, just showing that there
is a lot of innovation in different megas that really
could rise at the top.
Yeah, of course, it's so exciting seeing
of course, the new game and all the new formats.
And there's just so many things being changed.
But Emily, how about TCG?
What's the take away?
Well, you can't talk about the Pokemon Trading Card game
without talking about the big bad track of full DX, which,
of course, is here in a full force.
But honestly, not as much as people
would expect at the World
Championship only sitting at
43.2% a lot of players actually
thought that this deck would
actually be above 50% for
this tournament. But all the
way at the top of our fist
Swiss phase one is going to be
Brent Tonneson from Australia
who is currently undefeated
eight. Oh, we're drag a full
crushing hammers. So there's a
but it seems like Breton has actually really locked down
just the most consistent list
and where you really just don't wanna take risks
here in the world championship.
So, you either wanna take no risks
or take every risk right?
It's the chance here.
But of course, with Pokemon Go, how's it feel?
Definitely.
So, a big takeaway here is our two Grand Finals,
Potomac and Pilsboy, are still in the running
to make another Grand Finals of years.
They were top two for a reason
and Pilsboy, reigning World Champion,
We never speak of repeat world champions.
We've never had a world champion VP ever as well in our fifth year.
So it's still early on, but it really might happen this year.
Meanwhile, Harman, the finalist that finished second last year
has gone on five straight championship Sundays
in international world's combined, which is absolutely insane.
Stap line hands.
He's looking to try to make it back to the Grand Final
to find the win that world championship that he's been going for.
So that could be a super exciting one, especially if you get that rematch.
They had a rematch in NAIC that was super close,
and I'm sure it's on the back of both the lines
that they might, based off of Canada,
and KM2, and maybe the new champions of it.
Well, that actually is a great segment to unite
because we've got a lot of players
that are former champions, world champions,
but a lot of them have been eliminated.
You know, they've moved on to other teams.
We've got our previous reigning world champion as well.
That's having a little bit of a tough time,
but the real takeaway here that nobody expected
is people who have never been the world champion,
which is Europe, right?
We've had Japanese champions,
we have American champions,
We've had a Latin champion most recently,
but Europe has qualified with one extra spot
through a kind of a big qualifier at UIC,
and all four of their teams have made it to day number two,
which I believe is the first time that's ever happened,
and they are looking extremely good.
So they've made it a second place at Worlds
and made it to the grand finals before,
but they've never quite been there.
Just been one of those regions.
This might be their year,
so everybody's really looking towards Europe,
but we still have basically every region present
in day number two.
So anything can really happen with Pokemon Unites.
It's gonna be very exciting.
But of course, there have been some amazing moments
that have happened already.
And I think we want to each kind of highlight
one of them that's happened so far.
So, of course, Pokemon Video Game, any big moment.
Oh, I highlighted Tate.
Oh, okay.
And we had to highlight too.
But starting off talking about the fact
that we can have a repeat world champion,
I wanted to highlight for Shogi Kanura's match
her 2023 Pokemon World Champion.
Looking back at this match too,
He was going up against our okay, we got the we got the cliff switch, but we'll start with this one first
So we're switching the points. We're talking about the unique Pokemon
Well, we'll come back to show you in a second
I wanted to highlight Kerry's team and Kerry as a player because Kerry has been someone who has really stepped up throughout this year
He is we're any regional champion and when we're looking at a couple of these unique Megas
He has to with a little star after in the ride too, but it was really this is doing arcanine that sold the show
So this has been a Pokemon that has necessarily picked up on so many teams, but it really
made so much impact.
But this is what I was talking about, Shohei Kimura going up against a Japan national champion
in Hiroshi Onishi, and this was such a great match.
Shohei now sitting at 7-1 record, we had very similar teams with Mega Charizard being
one of the dominant teams going into this tournament, and how Shohei piloted it was
such a we know that he's so skilled but to see it again in such confidence display was really like
wow if this is just a preview of his matches hey he's gonna go all the way it was incredible
so it's such a big stage to be able to show something like that on and uh yeah now since of
course people on video game had two clips now that means you're not getting zero clips unfortunately
and it's taken away i'm sorry that's just how it goes that's just how it goes no uh no we'll have one
later but for the trading card game of course it's a gigantic tournament any moment that you
wanted to kind of show us. Well there's plenty right and I think for a lot of players that may be
tuning into the Pokemon trading card game for the first time they may not know this but we've
had a whole expansion set that has been released in between NAIC and the world championship but of
course it is going to be Brett Thomason on the right piloting that very straightforward very
Dragon Pulse. He even ran out of ways to get Dragon Pulse in the end, and then Dragon Pulse
best friend Monkey Dory coming in with the Mind Ven with that ability Adrenaline, being
able to move three damage counters over and then taking the win from here. But honestly,
this is my favorite moment of yesterday. Matej, who actually got top eight at Worlds last
year with Dragon Pulse, I believe, is piloting Alakazam. Now the most popular stadium that
we actually have in the trading card game these days is Team Rocket's Watchtower.
It shuts off the DUNS sparse, but he actually paired it with Duff Knorr.
So it's definitely a very tricky way to make the deck, but he knows exactly how to trip up the rest of the field.
I don't know, there's two clips. I think you're actually out of clips now.
Yeah, yeah, they're actually, you know, they're not even going to be finished a second.
They're just going to just take me off stage immediately.
No, I want the fact too that when we talk about all these games together, which is not, you know,
You know, moving on to opportunities too.
It just sounds so ridiculous to hear two Pokemon paired together that it's a class that you're like,
Track'n'Pult, and Track'n'Pult's best friend, Monkey Dory, like,
looking at that from other games' perspective, it's like, what? That's wild.
And then you think, like, maybe I should play a training card game, you know?
Prime Rite was good at it for a while. I don't want to play that.
But, uh, of course, we can't ignore Go.
I think they might have taken away your clip, too, because they're just there.
They're so greedy. They're taking the clip!
We'll see if there's a clip or not.
We don't have Monkey Dory in the game yet from Pokemon Go.
You have Track'n'Pult, which someone actually tried to bring last for World Championships,
and quite work decently well.
But we are in our fifth year,
and I feel like the skill level for this game
has gone to an all-time high.
It's going higher and higher,
as this is Emi Rideau,
one of our former world champions,
against a two-time Thailand champion.
In their first matchup on the winners finals,
winner goes state number two on that winners side.
The user might even get knocked out tournament.
But look how close this is down to the wire,
multiple players having like two or three more points left
with red HE bars,
not only a fraction of percentages of health,
and you can see in the very end,
it comes out to the final second, simultaneous knockout,
just really highlights the skill level game too.
That's a half second that they had to tie
on that very moment, and that's exactly what happened.
But we see that in so many of our matches
through the routes, and these players,
like they're so tuned into game that they kind of
are entertaining each other's anticipation,
and that's kind of how it has been this year.
So I say every world champion every year is just better than the previous.
It's so cool, especially with games like, you know, of course I love video game, love TCG,
but you know, I feel like our games are a little bit newer, right, as far as things go competitively.
So it's really cool to see the players level up more and more as time has gone on.
And that's actually what my clip is, which is, if anybody out there is not familiar with Pokemon Unite,
I think this is such a great clip to kind of show how amazing the game is, how strong the movement is.
movement is. This is Haruto, one of the best players in the world coming out of Japan.
Pulling off one of the best Jukes that we have ever seen. They're gonna be on the
Lucario and they're gonna be chased around. So you should be able to see them
kind of in the top right there, juking an entire team. One before. They managed to
go escape into the Kyobu pit. They're escaping the entire team. They
mentioned Telford Fackers using bone rush right here. A huge juke. And they
waste the entire time of Root Vignitas which was considered one of the best teams in the
world looking to win this entire tournament but they actually got eliminated on day number
one in a big upset and a part of it was because of this but there are just too many good teams
so...
Right in this angle and so many.
Yes, yes, oh that was such an amazing dude, this is, that's going to be an amazing clip
for all time so if you ever check that Pokemon Unite that's kind of the move that you can
expect from it so I mean amazing moments already from all of these games it's been such an
amazing half of the event so far, I guess maybe one-third if we're considering Sunday as well,
and of course there's so many amazing things out here in this actual venue. I cannot believe how
huge it is. There's so many things to do. I feel like I've, I don't know, caught like 10% of it.
I feel like, yeah. I tried to go for a wander and I'm like, all right, I'm off for a cup of
round. Surely I can see everything, right? You start getting out to the convention floor and it
just goes as far as the eye can see, and there's still so much more. I looked at a map and I'm
like this doesn't even scratch the surface.
It is just incredible how much love there is for Pokemon,
how much love has been poured into the event,
and so many things going on.
So hopefully we have the opportunity today,
but as the competition ramps up, I don't know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Honestly, to build on Sierra's point,
I really feel like there's something here
for a Pokemon fan of any level.
If, even if it's your first day,
if you've been with the series for years,
you really can just find something for you.
I know there's musical performances outside.
There's a whole outside stage.
Pokemon XP happening for the first time.
For me, my favorite thing that I've seen so far
is that life-size Venusaur glass toys and charts
are made out of plego.
It's so cool.
Ridiculous, yeah.
I'm trying to get a picture with that.
I've not been able to yet.
Do you have a favorite thing real quick
before we move on to the next thing?
I mean, yeah, I don't think I have a similar to Emily yet.
Probably everyone else here.
Maybe I haven't had the full time to experience all of this.
It's one of all my friends and competitors that wants to spend even after the first stage.
They're like, yeah, I didn't know what to expect.
Pokemon XP side games, fights, all of them.
For everyone, them said it's blue, blown their expectation, right?
And it's just if you're a fan of Pokemon,
you love Pokemon is the perfect place for you.
If you're on the fence about Pokemon, you'll probably fall in love with Pokemon after this weekend.
So, so many great reasons come out to these world championships
and no better way to celebrate it on the end of the day.
absolutely but of course I want to make sure that everybody at home doesn't feel bad as well so of
course there are things that every game is giving out for just for watching which unfortunately I've
been missing because I've been here so I actually haven't had the strings open but we'll talk about
what our games are kind of giving away so let's start with the Pokemon video games there if you
have been anything knowledgeable about what's actually being distributed for Pokemon. We're
giving away so much I don't know which order the graphics are going to fly but we're giving away swag
in game if you want the world championship shirt as well. We got to make sure that your style is
matching your Pokemon. You have the opportunity to pick up the 2026 Worlds in Cinnabar. It's
in the world everywhere now for VGC. It's kind of taken over whether you love or hate in Cinnabar.
It has taken over. It is here. It is one of the strongest Pokemon opportunity to grab that there.
And this is the shirt I was talking about. Enjoy Worlds 26. Again, enjoy Worlds 26.
write it down, take a picture, don't ask a 10 million times in the Twitch chat, enjoy Worlds 26 and you can get that hat and shirt.
Alright, I need a pen, Broch, if you bring a pen so I can write that code down please, or otherwise I'll just ask you a chat later.
And of course, we have so many different things for so many games, I agree, I was like, I don't know what's gonna come up first, but for the trading card game, we'll see what they bring, there we go.
Honestly, you talk about swag in Champions, you can also get your swag in the Pokemon Trading Card Game live as well.
I personally love the jacket. Looks like a half-leather jacket, half-leatherman, which is really sick.
But of course, players love to customize their deck boxes as well.
So you can find all of your World Swag right on your screen.
But the longer you watch the Pokemon Trading Card Game, the more things you actually get unlocked.
So in order to get all of this swag that you see right here, you have to actually watch for 60 minutes.
But if you only have time for 30 minutes today, you can actually get six packs of pitch blacks.
So once again, that is our newest set that we have in the Pokemon Trading Park game.
I personally love watching a regional stream on the sides.
Make sure I'm always opening packs either in person or online.
There's so much stuff here that I genuinely cannot read that text from here.
I'm going to be honest.
So this is a nice giveaway Pokemon go. Let's see what you're giving away. We've got we've got so much stuff
We're gonna do through this. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I'll just quick highlight
Yeah, we charge him super exclusive resource they can get for washing up to 60 minutes also more importantly
You get the world champion from last year feels boys think it's on that he used his stats on the team ton and more importantly
Even gets an exclusive background just on the team tons really cool to have and of course we got the Pokemon
the game. You know, it's
a lot of fun. You know, because
you XP you see and space
outfit as well as the champion
that you're spawning in the
game right now, so you can get
it. You're opening games.
Open the game. Play it's and
you also get a fresh out of
our shirt as well. You can do
ends. No big deal, but I
might have gotten the shiny
because you with the space
you know, costume yesterday,
so you know, but hey, it could
be like me if you just open
up a game and play it.
Everybody up here is breathing
I know, I know. Yeah, you're not of course, it's some really actually amazing things.
I've been how you look on you watch for you can choose a logo sticker for the event or 30 minutes.
You get to an exclusive license over Pikachu, which is very, very cool.
And then you can actually get a license for one of Pokemon from the World Champion team Peru last year.
What they won with if you do watch for 45 minutes.
So some really nice stuff.
And of course, just be sure to watch all of the streams for each of these.
If you want to be able to get some awards at home and I mean just watch all your favorite players play because we are getting so close now to starting day number two.
I know it's been an amazing day one so far and of course it's reminded everybody this is all leading up to a huge championship Sunday in the Chase Center, the arena.
I mean we got a little sneak peek of it. It is incredible. It is going to be a show like I think no Pokemon fans have ever, ever watched.
So, of course, we've got four amazing games.
Be sure to watch all the broadcasts.
We're gonna have a really tough time today,
I think, deciding who we'll be moving on
towards that special championship Sunday.
So, thank you from all of us.
We're gonna be moving on very soon
as we get sending it over to our start
for day number two here at the Pokemon World Championships,
2026.
We'll see you all playing soon.
Watch the stars, everywhere
If you will, I'll overreact
Cause even if we lose our way
You'll always say
Here we go
Here we go again
And even if we're at the next time
Here we go
Here we go again
Let it last in a lifetime
Make me take it all in
With all my heart
Here we go again
We'll crush the leader faces
All of us on the path to the unknown
Still in trouble, yeah, I can't wait to this
See when we're working victory road
And then, we'll kill it all over again
Yeah, cause even if we play the day, we'll always stay
Here we go
Here we go again
Let me blast out of here
Come on, please
Here we go again
Here we go!
Here we go again!
I'll never flash that out of sight
Take a new day to be the way you know my face
Here we go
Here we go
Here we go again
Welcome to day two of the Pokemon World Championships and Pokemon XP.
We are absolutely delighted you decided to spend your days in the bay enjoying oh so
sunny San Francisco, California.
What a day that we have in store.
I'm Gaby Durden, and after a strong start to yesterday,
I'm back to keep us on track towards Championship Sunday
and the culmination of all the fun surrounding Pokemon XP.
Have you seen the skate park?
You get a chance to?
Yeah, it's cool, right?
Okay, I'm gonna have to go check that out.
It's wild.
You know what else is wild?
The fact that we are going to know our finalists
across all of the divisions by the end of the day,
Some of which will be crowned world champions
when we take over even more of the city
by unleashing the power of Pokemon in the Chase Center.
Today is about our trainers.
Across Pokemon champions, the trading card game,
Pokemon Go and Pokemon Unite,
our incredible competitors are ready to battle for glory.
And I'm curious, who are you cheering for?
Let's see, who did I write down in my notes yesterday?
Oh yeah, and Pokemon VGC trainers Yuya Wakasugi,
Justin Tang and Stefano Greppi,
they look like they have the best shot
at championship Sunday,
but we'll see how things shake out
once we get into top cut.
The Pokemon TCG competition has been unmistakably fierce,
but Brent Tonneson, Henry Chow, and Brune Herrmans,
they really hope to hold onto yesterday's momentum,
and I know a lot of people agree that they can.
and Pokemon go, and they're not gonna lie.
I'm keeping my own Beals of Boy,
as well as Potomac and M.E. Weedle
as they tap their way through the bracket.
And finally, for Pokemon Unite,
we've got Peru Unite, Reject, and KOMI
ready to put up a fight.
Am I right?
Who's gonna shine bright in the Championship Sunday Arena?
Well, I'm stoked to find out.
How about you?
As we've mentioned,
The Pokemon World Championships are only half of the fun we have this weekend.
Pokemon XP is in full swing.
And whether you're tuning in from home or you're here with us in person, there is something
for everyone.
Later on, make sure you check out the Pokemon XP panels featuring Pokemon Go, LEGO, and
Jimmy Paul.
Those will be live on the Pokemon XP channel.
You don't want to miss it, so this would be the time to add that to your schedule.
And while I have your attention, can we take a moment to recognize all the fun we have this
weekend?
recognize all of the people that make an event like this possible.
Join me in thanking the phenomenal staff, judges, production crew, and everyone working
behind the scenes to bring the Pokemon World Championships and Pokemon X Geats to life in
San Francisco, California.
and it's because each and every one of you is part of it okay that's enough for me right now we have a day two of the Pokemon World Championships to get started let's get into it casters take it away.
Chasters, take it away.
Thank you so much, we can all wait to get started here with the 2026 Pokemon World
Championship as we eye up. Who is going to be our next VGC champion?
Sarah, Don and Lea for us on the desk. We're kicking off day two of the action. I cannot wait.
I can't wait. I mean, it was such a great day yesterday, day one of the tournament.
It was remarkable. From start to finish, it was exciting, it was explosive, and we had some
familiar faces. We had some new faces that we're not so familiar with performing extremely well,
and it's just going to continue today, and the journey to getting to our two finalists is
well underway, and we're going to get there very, very soon.
I feel like the title of world champion is the greatest prize of all right. That's what everyone's been chasing
You'll hold on to that title for your life
But of course we want to make sure you're sent home with a variety of goodies
So as well as that title you're gonna be walking home with thirty thousand dollars imagine how many Pokemon plushies
How many Pokemon treating cards that is which is just absolutely incredible and for second place showing up on that championship Sunday
and still walking away with $20,000 and half bad.
It's incredible pricing to think where we were, you know,
when DGC have originally started to where we are now
with this incredible prize pool.
But like you say, Sierra, the prize money is just a portion
of the reward because it is the title going away
as world champion after this weekend is, you know,
the coveted title every trainer goes for is hungry for
and wants to take away with them at the end
of this proceedings.
And I know that there's a lot of new eyes on the broadcast
with all the Twitch, all the goodies
and all the excitement with Pokemon VGC and World.
So to get you up to speed on how the competition
is taking place today, check out this format video.
Whether it's your first time watching
or you just need a quick refresher,
here's an overview of the Pokemon VGC format
at the 2026 World Championships.
The best trainers from around the globe
are here to compete for their share of a $2 million prize pool and the coveted title
of Pokemon World Champion.
The first World Championship played in Pokemon Champions will take place over three days.
Phase 1 consists of Swiss rounds where trainers battle head to head in a best of three format
with open team sheets.
That means critical details about each trainer's Pokemon are available to the opponent.
Trainers advance to Swiss Phase 2 if they gain more match points than their division
threshold.
At the conclusion of Phase 2, the top 8 traders and up to 8 additional trainers tied with a place
will advance into an asymmetrical single elimination bracket until only two finalists remain.
On Championship Sunday, these finalists face off in San Francisco's chase arena for our biggest finals yet.
Two will enter the arena, but only one will walk away as the 2026 Pokemon World Champion.
Who will become the first World Champion of the Pokemon Champions Era?
will dominate the meta. We'll
be here all weekend so you
won't miss a second of the
action. With that, it's time to
get today's matches going.
Castors take it away. Thanks
so much cast voice over
Rosemary. We are almost ready
to get started with the
competition, but of course we
have to talk about a couple of
the great things that you can
earn by watching at home,
whether you're here for VVC
or any of our games. So
So whether it's you know, this shirt, whether it's the Pokemon, whether the training tickets,
there's so much great rewards that you can get by watching along.
Yeah, especially I think 60 minutes on Twitch gets you the Incineroar, which is definitely
something you want to pick up, a competitive ready Pokemon.
You'll be able to use in the upcoming season when it all kicks off again.
Yeah, but looking a little bit back while you earn those Twitch rocks, let's talk about
we saw yesterday as well as we had some fantastic Pokemon VGC gameplay. Talking
about this match here, this one was so much fun because we were expecting so
much Charizard, right? And there is so much Charizard out there. But take it a
moment to pause, breathe, and see some mega Metagross and a Cleaver on the field.
Yeah, it was an incredible match and what a decision by Kloy to bring
those Pokemon into what you say is a top-heavy Charizard format. Then we can
follow up with some action from Kari yesterday against Narwetch as well with that Suey and
Arcanine that just stole the show yesterday for Kari, just doing so much work and making
it difficult for Narwetch to get any sort of momentum. That head smash, although its
accuracy is a little bit shaky, when it connects it really counts.
Really does, and this one also crazy. Megalasekin was not on my list of Pokemon that I would
necessarily anticipate to see at a positive level on a five and one record
heading in Swiss rounds. So that was just absolutely incredible to witness and put in so much work.
But of course we still have to see what Pokemon and what trainers are going to be coming out on top today.
As anyone who did have those six match points does advance to phase two of the competition
and are going to be fighting it out for a chance to make their way to top cut and try and find
themselves at the chase center tomorrow. Yeah well all of the players that have advanced this
the tournament. They've put
themselves in prime position
to go forward and being
contentioned for that
championship title on Sunday.
They've got a bit of a distance
ago. They've got a few matches
to win, but they are on the
right track to doing that.
And here we can have a look at
our first two pairs. There are
only some portion of them here.
You can see you are top and only
undefeated trainer so far in the
tournament. Just a time just in
there behind with Carrie Daytona
as well, who's done extremely
well. And we finished the show
was just incredible. I mean water performance in that really tough
mirror match really showed why they are such a highly good trainer in this
season. And what I love about this list of trainers as well is there has been a
lot of trainers that have really gotten to showcase their dominance throughout
this season but weren't necessarily talked about yesterday as you know these
are the trainers watch it. It's hard there's so many top trainers at the
world championships right but being able to see the likes of Kerry and Zachary
I'm definitely rooting for
them going into today.
Dalway as well.
Someone who has always had such
innovative team building is
incredible to see and I'm so
excited.
And it will be really, it's
going to be a tough competition
today, right?
So it would be awesome to see
this list of trainers here at
the end of the day in our top
cut, but it feels like it
whittled down somehow.
Yeah, I mean, it just goes to
show you look across.
These are all superstars, you
know, of our game and that
quality of these players.
of these players. And this just a snapshot of some of the players that will be in phase
two. There are a lot of others that we aren't featuring right now, but you know, they like
some of the mainly Forbes as well. Great stairs in my opinion that we've ever seen, but then
we've got some other players as well that are kind of rising stars, Nikolai Hoitz, Nielsen,
they're a real great player on the European circuit. It's very innovative with their picks
and I believe they brought something quite interesting this weekend. So hopefully get to
some of them as well as the other trainers that we've got here but former world champion across
the board that are going for that second title as well. It would be incredible in this day at
age of Pokemon to see that repeat title but we do have two trainers still in the competition
and in great form for it. First up Shohei Kumura, 2023 Pokemon world champion. We got to see him
face off against the Japan national champion Hiroshi yesterday in a very, I'm not quite a mirror,
but a very close match.
But the way Shohei played that was just absolutely incredible.
This was one of the strongest team architects heading into the tournament
and to be piloted at such a high level by such a top tier trainer.
Seven in one, you still have to win a few more,
but wow, is he looking great for him to take it all.
Yeah, and I mean, it's all about the micro decisions that Shohei makes
in the team building process.
We saw the differences between Hiroshi's team and Shohei's.
All of the six were the same.
But also the micro decisions in game as well, when to set up the tailwind, when to attack, when to be defensive.
Shohei's got that down to such an art and I love the dedication that Shohei has.
We've seen Shohei appear at European regionals throughout the season.
It's a long journey, but not making one, making a number of trips and all the ICs as well.
And performing to a very consistent level and all that experience throughout the season is just, you know,
you know, growing that back catalog of experience that they've got to make them such a high top
kind of about there.
Not the only world champion still fighting out for another title though, looking Mexico's
now still in at seven and one.
And what I love about Pokemon VGC is first off we just have so many world champions here.
But looking back at, you know, at 2019 that was three, seven years ago now, right?
still looking in such great form and you can see the accomplishment since then I am so excited like
when you have a world top four a world top eight a world champion that's just that was incredible
the resume yeah I mean Niota is just one of those again you would put them in the the highest bracket
of top players that we've got in our circuit you know and coming in this weekend it doesn't always
go the way you want it to but it has been a phenomenal start for Niota and and looking really
good looking really strong coming into this phase two of the tournament and having the experience
of being a world champion previously that is just going to benefit you so much on this go. You know
what to do in this part of the tournament. You know how to approach each and every round. Take it
step by step. Don't get too far ahead of yourself and then see how far you can take your skill and
team which I really do like as well that Charizard, the Aerodactyl. We've seen that have a lot of
success but there's a lot of burst damage there with the Venus Soul especially when you get it
that they've got on their
team. It's just the
consistency for me throughout
all of the years when you
look especially at the world
championships to show that he
has always just been in such a
great form. And for now,
though, again, looking in that
form, I'm excited for that run.
But let's take a look at the
medal. I'm excited for that
run. I'm excited for that run.
I'm excited for that run. I'm
excited for that run. I'm
excited for that run. I'm
excited for that run. I'm
look at the meta as well. Not
just the players so watch but
the Pokemon. No surprise when
we talk about Charizard being
on top for the mega evolution
and King Gambit just such a
strong piece. Seeing it at a
casual 65% it makes sense but
Sylveon at 35% for 32. We saw
so much impact from Sylveon
yesterday and I know it rose
out there like I always knew.
I always knew.
Booting it on yeah and it makes
a lot of sense Sylveon such a
you're great. This is our
Pokemon, you know, can perform
until when they can perform in
trick room. It's got that
spread damage. It's got the big
burst damage in that hyper
hyper beam that we saw yesterday,
Sierra. But yeah, I think no
surprise and it takes advantage
of the very aura that we
commonly see set up by the
mega floor. So it really is a
bit of a kind of double edged
sword in those scenarios. If you
are piloting the mega floor in
your team, the Pokemon as well.
I think Venus was dropped down a
you don't see the sinister now like we did yesterday, which is a surprise to me.
I think sinister has a really big role, but it does have a hard time King gambit
and charged out of the top two Pokemon in the usage charts.
Talking particularly about the mega Pokemon. First off, Mega Star Raptor has been the vein
of my existence on the ranked ladder. I can't hate too much because it is incredibly strong.
It makes sense why a fourth of the field in phase two has this Pokemon, but wow,
It's a bit annoying for me, but looking at the Megas, even though again Charizard does have the more dominant share
It's actually quite spread out even a little bit more than I expected
And I love that when we look at phase two and that lower list of book one that there is still some more interesting picks out there
There's a camera. There's a mega dragon night. Like that's awesome
Yeah, I think those down on the bottom shelf are the ones that we kind of want to keep an eye on as the tournament progresses here
just as a note as well that's Megascot villain and Mega Blast was actually
tied in usage with the the frost last the camera of Dragonite and the Gengor so
they're also on there in about so don't be surprised if you see those as their
tournament progresses but yes Staraptor new onto the scene and former MB and
just an incredible Pokemon and our trainers are really getting to grips
with how this Pokemon can be piloted to be the optimum potential that it's got
and pairing it up nicely as well with that mega right you why which we haven't seen too much of but
there are teams present in the field and hopefully you do get a bit more right you to dig because
it is a very very it's very squishy but it's it's very important when it's putting the right positions
in piloted by our top trainers the the meme that's not fake out chip it's fake out chunk
onto it right I like it but hey it deals so much damage we can't hate too much but we're talking
a little bit about the Twitch drops earlier on. If you weren't paying attention, we'll
talk about it again, and we'll even bring some supporting graphics this time. Of course,
you want to make sure that you are tuning in and get your 60 minutes in so you can get
that world in Cinerar. It's such a strong Pokemon. If you haven't seen it before, I
don't think you're a true VGC fan. It is everywhere. You need one. You need this one. Get it now.
Yeah, definitely pick it up as well as all the quick coupons, the teammate tickets that
are going to be very useful in helping you build those teams going into the 2027 season.
Consider what's going to be used throughout.
Whenever it's available, it's a top, top Pokemon, like Sierra says, if you don't have
one already and you're planning to play next season, definitely make sure you get it picked
up.
Even if you already have one, have six.
It's a good Pokemon.
You need one on every single one of your teams, right?
Yeah, change your stat alignments and all those things.
So you don't need to be wasting resources in game.
Just have separate ones, separate teams.
Exactly.
But we got more for you.
We got more in store.
Enjoy World 26.
That's right.
Enjoy World 26, or anyone asking out there.
We got a shirt.
We got a hat.
And you can enjoy World 26.
You get all of that.
And of course, tuning in to the stream as well.
You can not just enjoy World 26,
but you can get yourself a nice exclusive chat bag.
We're talking about this yesterday.
It is so clean.
I've already seen people in the Twitch chat with it.
It looks so nice.
I really need to get my own something.
Please, at me and remind me later on,
because I will be devastated if I mess out on this.
And you should be too, honestly, because this is nice.
I will remind you, Sarah.
I'll make sure you get this stuff.
Thank you, Promise.
Thank you, Promise.
All right.
And the brakes.
We're getting the chat back.
We're getting the chat back.
We're so back.
But there is so much exciting things in store.
We've got to bring it back to the competition, though,
and look at the standings.
Again, now the big question is who can get enough round wins to put themselves into top cut?
Certainly anyone at 7-1 or 8-0 is in prime position to be able to do so.
Only one undefeated player in the field, Julia.
And so this team, oh my gosh, I'm so excited.
He's been in all of it.
I can't wait.
I can't wait.
I mean, when you look at the team, we'll get into them in a moment, but I think, you know,
incredible accomplishment if we're just looking from this perspective now taking a back step
into the start of day two incredible performance from you yeah really coming in and saying okay
well i'm here and performing to the best level i can can we go much further well no one's been
able to stop them so far and they're looking on track to continuing that as we get further into
this tournament of course all those seven ones below have taken one loss but sometimes taking
the loss is actually the galvanizing effect that you need to be able to kind of push on because it
kind of wakes you up maybe realize that okay well my play was not as sharp as it could have been there
here we go let's push on let's get a bit further and sometimes we know that can be unfortunate
things that happen in game that are out of your control and they're just something you have to
deal with pick yourself up brush yourself on and they're some of the the most accomplished trainers
are able to kind of not let that get them and continue on to push forward and see how they can
you get in the tournament.
It was somebody's sack names here.
You know these matchups are going to be good,
but let's look at our notables and our featured one.
There is a reason I'm freaking out
because we get to see Yuya Wakazuki up next.
Going up against Kari who we saw yesterday.
That second matchup though,
Nato versus Shohei is incredible.
There is feature stations.
There is the sidestreams as well.
You've got to make sure you check out all of the action.
Ian just Joji versus Raghav.
That is...
Yeah, I feel like a mis-stage in the tournament.
Orson Zendenez versus Zachary, I just...
Amazing.
Wow.
Matchups, yeah.
I mean, it's really hard to pick which one we're going to feature,
but we have got Yulia on our only undefeated player in the tournament so far.
We get to feature Kari again, who we got on broadcast yesterday,
which was amazing to see such a dominant performance as well in their game
against a pretty hard matchup in all respect on paper, you think,
wow, the rain mode here feels very difficult.
So they were brave in bringing that to see, and Alcanite in against that rain call
and it performed so, so well.
So well.
I just, the amount of damage the head smashers were doing
and it was a crazy three game set.
So a seven one record, so deserved.
But for you guys, sitting at this eight and O,
let's head down to the stage
to get ever so closer to this match.
Being undefeated after day one
of the Pokemon World Championships,
as one as stacked as this is such a crazy feat.
But to do it with Mega Dragonite is even more impressive.
On the list of Mega Pokemon that could pop off,
this one I don't necessarily think was on anyone's radars,
but to be the only undefeated is a statement.
Yeah, I love this iteration of...
A similar kind of iteration to what you would expect to see with Big Six,
but the Dragonite kind of replacing
what would normally be a Charizard there.
I love it, though. I think it's really good, really smart,
and it's performing obviously extremely well in this tournament here.
can see it is a mega dragonite with that inner focus.
So it's got the immunity to fake out flinches
before it does mega evolve.
And then it would obtain that multi-skinned ability,
which is so, so useful as well.
No setup really on the team.
Just a lot of fast offense.
And that fast speed can be benefited
from that whimsicott as well,
taking advantage of the tailwind there.
And then you've got a sneezer as well.
I really love the inclusion of rock slides.
Just give you a bit of a check against the posing chargers
in particular to allow you in.
you can be useful if you can activate that white herb to get the speed jump on things like Aerodactyl as well, to have that fast rock slide and start shipping away, and you've got the two Megas as well, which are just so, so strong if they're positioned right and you can throw opponents very easily.
I love the inclusion of the mega dragon it because you still do have the coverage of the heat wave, which is what Charizard does, right?
But having things like the Thunderbolt and Dragon pulse to really be able to pressure but not necessarily being reliant on that weather to do that big damage
It's really nice. You don't have to worry about the weather wars
You don't have to worry about boost bringing out the Sun to then make sure your basketball region does less damage, right?
And I think such a unique pick that cannot be just stopped in its tracks is
is incredible. But again, when
we're talking about unique teams and variations,
Gary, there is a reason he was on
the winning streak yesterday and why he was highlighted.
This duo of Mega Star Raptor and this Raichu.
Raichu can be a little bit squishy,
but the coverage it has in a couple of these matchups
is incredible, but I think it's just all eyes on that
Huzoomian arcane. Again, the amount of damage
and the fact that it has that focus actually
can't just take it down in one hit.
It was a really big team point for Nara,
which in their match yesterday.
Yeah, I really like the right you that Carrie's got access to here.
I think it causes all sorts of issues for the audience.
I think because it's a passive speed control with that zap pan,
and if you do mayor evolve and that can be a bit of a dead mission,
you can match tailwinds if you do bring that star up there,
which that intimidates going to be very important for weakening
some of those physical threats on either side.
Starting out our day such an aggressive lead coming out from Carrie
carry with that. He's really in Arkani. We talked so much about and star raptor on the opposing end for you. Yeah, looking to stay undefeated. It's a win to God and a basket legion. So potential to just go for a tailwind and set up a lot of damage. Yeah, that immediate tailwind prankster from the the win to cut is going to put that
to a really good position to go for either target.
It's boosted by the life hold as well.
So the damage there,
it's going to be able to take that.
Kaseyo and Okinawan down to it's stash immediately.
There's some really good damage,
just to soften up that star after the intimidate.
We mentioned it coming into the match.
It's really important just to weaken that attack stat
on the vast agent.
It's probably out of range from picking up a knockout
onto either of these Pokemon right now.
We're not going for a tail in or any sort of set up though.
We're all about that damage.
And it's, there's a dual wing that misses.
That would have been a lot of damage,
just a KO into the women's car,
but now nothing done from the star after.
It's already down to half health,
and it's a fast believe you,
and that can follow up.
Wave brass the double up into that bird,
is enough to claim Yuya the first KO in the match.
Yeah, the dual wing did really unfortunate miss there for Kari.
He would have undoubtedly picked up the knockout
onto the women's car,
and like you said, the intimidating quite crucial here.
Still going for the double up, really smart.
Not going for that tail wing straight to in.
Another Tailwind option has been removed from Terry, and Vaskylyzion fairly hanging on with
one HP from that recoil damage, allowing it another turn.
It's immune to the extreme speed priority that the Arcanine's got in Carrie's side,
and he's going to be able to fire off an Apojet to get one last attack.
But, Carrie knowing that, bringing in the Armour Tail Trigger, I'm going to blow up that.
So you don't have any priority on the turn, but that's still a Vaskylyzion.
If you are looking at a swap out come out later, it would definitely be problematic.
is also still Wimspot that can type a tail in. Yeah, and that's the problem. I think you can go
for the tail in, but we do want to do that in front of the furgrap that's threatening maybe a
trick room here. Have you got enough in the tank to take down that furgrap in and to hit? Probably
not because of that citrus barrier, but because of the intubidate salt. Harry in a position now
where they can set that trick room up, and it really discurs you from going for any sort of
speed control of their own because it would counteract what Harry's trying to do. Protect on
on the Arcanine, so Grigraff's going to be the only one to attack, and it's not a women's
squad attacking into the Grigraff to try and take it down and prevent a trick room, but
instead a double up into the Arcanine. Such a well-timed protect, and Grigraff, we don't
want to go for the trick room yet. Instead, women's squad avoided an attack last turn,
it's time to break that focus hatch now.
That's a really small play from Kari, catching that double attack into the tech. Now he's
getting the psychic damage on the women's squad now, that probably puts it in range
of an extreme speed from the Arcanine to remove it, okay? So that's really great. And then
you can set up your trick room with a Ferradraff this turn, and then potentially if the Arcanine
does go down, your inner petition to bring something you would think like that Sylveon
in the back onto the field to start helping Kiera up and maybe getting closer, maybe taking
game one. Yeah, looking at it, the Arcanine, it hasn't even had its focus ash broken yet.
So even if it goes for the Wimspot, and you can fire off one last pack of the basket
into it. If you only do get one attack without life orbits, it days are numbered.
You wouldn't even be enough to take the arcaneye off down. So it will just be a
switch so you can potentially do some good damage into something else like
that Sylveon. If it is a potential to go up into that spot, it could get tricky.
But instead, often to preserve this Pasculeigen through the turn.
Moon Blast from the Whims of thought will be the first amount of damage into the
This giraffe is faulty, and sticking around means trick room can now be set.
Trick room set up, the servant coming in, a really nice healthy space as well, not taking any damage on the incoming studs.
Here, you're going to be able to go for that hyper hose, you're going to be able to keep both the Basque Legion and the Wintercote you would imagine.
The Basque Legion can stay and go for an active jet, but of course that armor still is still active, so you're kind of blocked from really getting any value there.
So if you are you're probably going to see this attack come out, let these two come out
and then bring in two fresh Pokemon the next turn.
But no one to give up the Whimsicott just yet.
Whimsicott protects, helping hand, still beyond.
There's two targets that have already been damaged in front of you.
You can only tape down one.
Basculi Legion stays, they come to an end.
But with the protect on the Whimsicott it will stick around.
But there's still so many more turns of this trick room to gas through.
King Gambit though, we need to start trying to get through that.
The King Gambit coming in, a really nice response here and the one thing that we saw in the team preview
Yulia has access to is for attacking Gambit so the coverage, you kind of go after a lot of different things
and you go after the Perigraph here for super effective damage with the Cactiope,
go after that Sylvia with an iron head and that's probably where you want to start targeting.
You don't really worry about the offensive threat from the Perigraph so much now.
The Sylvia is the target, you want to try and remove that as quick as possible.
Pergraf took that personally. We're not worried about the offensive threat. Well, that's going to be Pergraf picking up a KO
When Scott is gone, but targeting down into the Sylveon does even out how
The momentum each trainer is taking on this third. That's going to be a clean one hit KO
But now it's Pergraf still around in this trick room and two Pokemon gone for you
Yeah, flow at the last during the field. Yeah, now the flow is coming in
And the Arkanaan being preserved very smartly by carriage.
If we can come in now, like you've mentioned before,
it's still got the focus flash,
so we're going to be at least able to take one attack.
The king gamut has got low pick,
so that's going to be super effective damage into the Arkanaan.
Probably take it down to the flash,
but it does give Arkanaan the ability to fire back in return
and kind of pick the target.
Where'd you go?
Probably safer to go after the king gamut
because there's no protect there.
In case that blowout does protect though,
you don't really want to target into that,
that is a big offensive threat right now.
It can't protect, but going with the mega evolution
says it might just want to go on the offensive
and not leave that king gambit out to dry.
Helping Hen, Arcana looking to do the most amount of damage
where it's going to be targeted to is the question.
Low kick does a lot.
Naughty enough to bring it down to that 1% focus
slash activation.
Has head trash in return, targeting down the flow.
If it is protected, it could have been dangerous,
But instead, one will be down with one fell swoop.
Yeah, really good catch there from Kerry going after the flowhead,
saying, OK, well, now I can stall out this trick room
and then put my arcanine in the position.
As long as my photograph's still in the field,
I'm not going to be threatened by this sucker punch.
But you just say, OK, well, I'm just going to attack here.
The problem is the King Arcanine right now
is going to be going before your arcanine,
being able to take it down.
And if it's the photograph is the King Arcanine,
things aren't going to play out very well for you.
So you've got to preserve the arcanine.
and that is the way to get through and win this game.
It'll just be both Pokemon protected
to make sure the weakening dimensions
a little bit more suited to carry side of the board
as only one Pokemon remaining for Yuya.
It's 100% King Gambit, two Pokemon left
on the other side though.
I mean, the Furner app, when you're eyeing up
what it can do is, well, not much.
It can only go for these helping hands.
So it's gonna be the arc nine that has to get the job
all done by itself.
Boosting the attack, Clear Blitz is enough
to take down the King Gambit, and Clint Perry the first game in a set.
Yeah, extremely well managed there from Perry to get out of that really tough situation from those first two turns as the star after went down.
Timing the trick room really well, taking advantage of it.
The King Gambit caused a lot of issues, but managing that end scenario saw well.
Picking the right choices to go after as well at the right time.
If you're saying that the easy choice in a lot of scenarios would have been the King Gambit, there's no protect there.
there. You expect to protect on the
floor, but no, staying tried true and
tested to their convictions going after
the floor at the smarter choice, catching
no protect on that Pokemon and then
stalling at the trick room, the armor
tail pivotal and being able to allow
carry the action not to close that game
off. And that's a big call as well
because if you targeted down into that
flow and it was a protect, you have now
accomplished nothing for the turd. The
king gambit targets down into that
arc nine, breaks the sash and all of a
So what that could do a lot of damage or just the King gambit to really be able to even the score with again a program
Unable to touch that King gambit so
Big turn a big swing at the end of it but carry up one now in this set one step closer to taking the win
But heading into game two can you yet bounce back again or only undefeated trainer in the field
You know you have the potential to win and a little switch up of the leads for Kerry going into game number two
Here Vasco Ligin coming out and that wins the puck from you here and the
Sylvian actually a little bit better because you saw the importance of the
Hissui and Arcanine in that game once. You do want to protect it. The most
important thing here is getting that intimidate down to Vasco Ligin. It does
really slow it down. Wish you weren't boosted by that life up. So you can get
some good damage onto it here. You can even go for a tailwind of your own if you
suspect that coming out. But I think it's better at this stage to just try and
leverage the star wrap deck, get it mega evolved and get some damage onto the
We saw that your wing being significant.
You let that this turn, that would be huge,
but not gonna happen to Tech from Wimzicott.
You got the lucky avoiding game number one,
but it won't be Kerry Reid attempting to take care of Wimzicott here.
Instead, setting up Tailwind with the star after.
Hyper voice to follow up Wimzicott again.
Will take no damage, but a good way to start
shunking away at this basket legion.
Whereas it'll be the only one to attack the wave pass,
does a lot of damage,
but not nearly enough into the Sylvion.
Yeah, it's a really nice play from Kerry here. You do take a lot of damage into your Silvian, but it's kind of done a job, right?
It's put that basket legion into a position where you can use your star after to go for the dual wing,
but you can go into that slot this next turn and pick it up.
Even if the Windsor Goat goes for a tailwing too much to Kerry's, then the star after still has to be that basket legion.
There's always a threat as well of the Silvian maybe switching out for a giraffe coming in.
So there's a hesitation about going for elastic aqua jets here to waste it, you know.
So that's something else to consider.
Start up, they're going to be removed.
Save for later on.
The furgaraf inside.
This will be the armortale.
So make sure any priority is stopped.
And of course, just to swap out, no on-call.
It works double priority.
Aqua Jet won't do anything at all.
And Vasculation goes down.
Wim's got taking so much damage.
Fantastic switch coming up from Kari.
Yeah, amazing play from Kari.
Really identifying the two threats there.
The on-call, big threat to lock you into that tailwind
and then that Aqua Jet as well.
and completely null and void. Now the flyer comes in, now you've got to think that you
have to go for the tailwind with the other wings. To put that flyer into a stronger position.
Thing that Kerry could be smart about, they haven't got too many turns in their own tailwind
left and if the tailwind comes out from you, they will be elevated above the Pokemon and
Harry sides. So Kerry could technically go for a trick room a little bit earlier than
what they're thinking here. Maybe protect the Sylvia on trick room with the burger app
and then although two tailwinds are set up, you're still going to be under speeding them
with the trick room in effect going into the next turn.
Yeah, with these tailwind trick room teams,
sometimes on that last turn of tailwind,
we can see the trick room.
So you can really make the most of any variety of speed
mode your team has.
But going for it early, that is a tailwind from Yuyia.
It'd be evening the score.
And could be a really good heads-up play.
Whether he goes for it, though, we'll
have to see, because you also have
to worry about the amount of damage Yuyia can do on this turn.
Floette, mega evolution, and that very aura.
Quick attack, another way to try and make sure that you are going to be outspeeding and Wim's
thought already at low health will be taken down so you don't actually even have to worry
about the tailwind.
You can just go ahead and play this with your own speed.
Sylveon does get taken down, but for a giraffe, does an opportunity to attack psychic, well
that will be stricken off the hit, but still, that's another Pokemon gone from Yuya.
Yeah, a much bold direct route and I kind of prefer that to be honest as well because
knowing that probably like the King Gambit in the back if you set the brick
room up it's going to benefit that whereas now you're in a much stronger
position where you still got one turn until when left you've denied it and
now you've got that Hissui and Arcanine in. We know how to help in hand.
Flaeblitz will get that King Gambit and you're not so worried about what that
Floette does if you are the Hissui and Arcanine to resist the ferry attacks.
Helping hand Arcanine again set up for success with two juicy targets in front of it
And with a king gambit unable to protect,
the Flurflit is more than enough to claim Gary
his third KO in the match.
It is all down to a mega-Flood,
but too high of a hill to climb off of Dazzling Gleam.
Not enough damage, Arcanine's only having this fast,
broken now, this is all but done.
Yeah, I mean, Gary is in the pieces that tools
so, so elegantly so well in this match,
and there we go.
The commanding game number two, Gary D'Artona.
To take the victory up here on the stage,
we saw a great victory yesterday.
And again, a stronger one here today.
He is so well-posted when it's all this New Zealand
arcane that's put in so much work
and then actually laid out plan.
Incredible.
I mean, it just shows how comfortable
Gary is with the team and the tools they have at the disposal.
getting everything right in that
match as well. The timing of the
PhyroGraf switch in in Game 2 was
perfect. It allowed then the
Sylvian to remove the Basque
Legion before it got any more
value and really threatened that
Whimsicott and carry knowing the
calcs as well there. When that
Ferry or is active just enough to
get that quick attack knockout
onto that Whimsicott to then
now the tailwind coming out.
So just yet really well
the rest of day too. I mean the whimsicott despite the fact it had taken a lot of damage
it was still i mean still be on with the quick attack quick attack isn't known for the craziest
amount of damage out there right so it's not only to get those sashes there's one hang ons and things
like that but that was a considerable amount of damage and it was a whimsicott but still
you've got to take your hat off to Sylvia and it is doing its best out there it really did it really
really did it. I've gone another way, but it's just still so expertly played like played
for Kerry again. He's just looking so strong. But for you, yeah, man, it's how we didn't
get to see the dragon. I I understand why not. But I'm excited to potentially see him
again later. So such a cool team, such a cool innovative piece of the team building and to
reach face you undefeated. Sure. Maybe you weren't the victor in this match, but there
There is only one person undefeated on day one and you will still be able to hold that.
Yeah, there is that. Like you say, you can see why the Dragonite didn't come.
It's not going to fare well into a Sylvan that Kerry's going to lean into quite heavily.
But I'm sure there'll be plenty of other opportunities for you in the rest of the tournament to pilot
that Dragonite, to use more success because it cuts such a phenomenal start as we can.
But I think Kerry kind of just going back to how they're playing it when you look at
games that we've seen with them. They're not really leveraging or using the the mega pokemon as
their main attacking outlet as their offensive threat. Using it as more of a utility and then
there's that reliance on the other pokemon like Tissue and Arcanine, like the Sylveon and then the
support rolls that we've played. Pivotal like that that photograph and how well Kerry knows the
interactions and yeah it's just just very very well done and very interesting. What I think is
really interesting with the team is because we always we haven't gotten to see the star actor do
the craziest amount of impact but that's also because it's the first target to be taken down
because you can't let it snowball right it is the perfect diversion it gets taken down all the
other pokemons sweep away the game so I just really love this team and all the pieces to it
but of course we need to hear from Kerry after that victory let's go catch up with him on the stage
I'm here with Kerry D'Ortona who is moving on in the competition still in contention for top cut. How does it feel I'm feeling really good right now. I feel very focused. Very good. I got a good night's sleep. Got a good conversation with all my friends and I'm just I'm ready to play ready to do good.
And I'm just I'm ready to play ready to do good moms
I mean you were just telling me that backstage prior to this match you're feeling a little nervous
But then you know the gears started turning and a plan started forming so walk me through that
I mean when we were talking about that matchup backstage
I was talking to Evan specifically we were like well this kind of looks like that Charizard flow at team
But the dragonite in the snooze lure really made it feel different. Oh a hundred percent changes how it completely plays dragonite
is in a scariest Charizard on paper. I know I have Husri and Arcanine, but it can get kind of awkward versus Charizard if they
manage to remove it, because then I don't really have the best ways of removing it.
Unless I want to like start eating heat waves and trading damage, which isn't like super nice.
So Dragonite does make it similar. I was a bit scared of the Sneasler,
but I figured he would lean more into Basculage and Whimsicott, so I wanted to lean more into Starraptor.
I was thinking Raichu originally, but I'm like, it's too weak to Basculage and Unlead, and at least with Arcanine and
I'm able to get multiple plans
into multiple leads. Yeah, so
let's go through that game one
because I know the star after
did its best. Unfortunately,
didn't quite work out, but that
trick room really seemed to bail
you out of a tough start. So
yeah, um, the dual wing be so
it was kind of a call that turn
because he can either moon blast
Aqua Jet, the basket lead, the
parka nine or he can double the
star after calling like a
photograph swap or protect. I
was thinking about it and I'm
like, I think he's just going to
double my star after if I remove
So I removed Windsicott.
I should be in contention to just close out the game
because he doesn't have the damage.
But then the miss happened and I was like,
oh, that's really bad.
And so, but I found the one way back in,
which is to pressure Trick Room to force out the King Gambit
and then get the 50-50 right on if the full net swings
are not on that last turn.
And that Trick Room looks so good.
I was very surprised you pivoted to Tailwind in game two.
Was that intentional?
I mean, obviously it was intentional,
but what was the thinking behind it?
So I wanted to adjust to Sylveon in case
you went to a possible Dragonite change up.
I also really like leading Sylveon sometimes,
because you can bait certain things from the opponent,
and also pressured out the Basque Legion
to take a lot of damage,
because the Windicat doesn't really want to set Tailwind
that turn, because it's at risk of getting
like, the Wingbeated, Hyper Voice,
like, or you clicking Tailwind and Hyper Voice,
so it gets into an awkward position.
I think the big turn was when I called the Aqua Jet Encore,
and I just swapped for Rigorak on the Starraptor.
I was fine if he set Tailwind and swung with Basque
into my,
sorry, Sylveon,
because I knew I could win that trade.
For sure, for sure.
So, I mean, all of those decisions, all of those moves
show that you have a lot of comfort with the team
and I think that's the kind of comfort you need
to make it far in this tournament.
How are you feeling overall?
I feel really good.
I really like this team.
It reminds me a lot of my King Gambit Volcarona team
back from Reg H.
It just kind of flows,
but I also feel like it is a lot of fundamentals
that I've been learning across the season.
Like I learned for a graph when I went to Orlando.
I started learning how to do tailroom back in Portland
last season.
So it just kind of combined a lot of the teams
that I used previously and blended into one nice team
with a lot of options.
And do you feel like you're falling back
on those fundamentals and your matches throughout the weekend?
Overall, yes.
But I'm also trying to implement new ones
to get better and grow stronger because nobody's perfect,
right?
You've got to push yourself to be better every day.
So that's the goal.
All right, O'Carry, thank you so much for your time.
I really appreciate it.
Best of luck throughout the rest of this run.
Do you have any shout-outs you want to give
anybody watching at home? So I shouted out a ton of people yesterday of course
Patrick Caden and then all the others I shout out. I did forget to shout out
Marcus Hamon. I really want to thank him because he gave me some like great
advice over the previous weeks in regards to how to approach certain
matchups and his thoughts on the team so I really want to thank him for that.
One more story and of course my parents for a live to go here and my aunt
Jaden and uncle Michael who are in the crowd right now so thank you. Awesome
well shout out to everybody hello to your aunt and uncle out there and hello
to you watching at home. I'm sure you'd love to watch us break down that battle. So let's
go check out Ben's battle breakdown back there in the analyst lounge.
Thank you so much, Gabby. We've got a battle to break down, but it's going to be moving
on from the battle that we've just had. It was crazy. It was such a great way to start
the match. I don't know what it is about the world championships this year and starting
off with a nice clean two on the stream. But we're here again. We're doing it again for
Saturday here, but we've got such an amazing feature match here with Liam
Sierra going through that the other match that we had on our Notables,
Shohei versus Nalto. This is a world champion, previous world champion
showdown that we've got here coming up. I was so excited when I saw this on
Notables. I was I was telling him, you got to go check this out and oh my gosh
absolutely amazing. Of course, he gets to see a lot of the really strong meta
teams, but again, there's a reason that they're just everywhere, right? And Shohei has just been so strong and consistent with this.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's probably one of the best players with this six, to be honest. And I think the little microtrans decisions that they've made in putting items where they are, stats where they are, I really make a huge difference when opponents are approaching this.
from the kind of common trend that they would probably use to be seeing.
I think that's going to make Strowhead stand out from the rest, you know, on this scenario here.
Now this has got a nice lead to activate that Sunget, that core ability active,
and then the Venusaur is going to be threatening to leap out of our attack on Strowhead.
So, I feel, yes, the Garchomp is threatening the Charizard,
but pretty easy to protect here from the Charizard, just to free up that Venusaur for a turn.
Yeah, the trouble is, is if you start protecting the Garchomp,
you take the pressure away from the Charizard,
you King Gambit's not looking like it's going to take an attack all too well. And this is what
we play for sometimes is just that sleep powder avoid there. Charizard though, trained for seeing
that coming, going down to just 1%. Yeah, the problem here is now, yes, you can go for the
heat wave, the King Gambit, nice, smart protect from your head. You're going to get a second chance
at this sleep powder, but the Charizard's days are kind of numbered until that King Gambit is
removed them. The primary way to remove that King Gamut was always going to be the Charizard,
so it becomes a little bit more difficult than I'll tell. Can they weave in their own
Garchomp in this scenario? It's difficult, because if you get caught with their Kautau
Tive on the switch in, things become increasingly difficult. Yeah, and like, do you even go for
the sucker punch in this position? Like, you know, both players can see this coming at this point,
right? That's kind of one of the things, though, is, yes, you can see it coming from a mile out,
But sometimes when the play is just so obvious, well, you got to think ahead, right?
If I can just sucker punch the Tarsard and that is just the most obvious play,
do they actually switch it out? Because if you all of a sudden make the heads up play,
well, I don't think they'll sucker punch because that's too obvious.
You can get so much mileage, but it looks like not sucker punching was the right call here
because Tarsard will protect. It's just so clean, so obvious, but Venus are okay.
Okay, it wasn't a mess, just a well-timed swat from Shohei,
but Venusaur has not actually accomplished anything,
which feels really bad in this match.
I feel like this is, like, Shohei was on round eight yesterday
in this Charizard flow-out mirror playing up against it.
You just, you can see how well-practiced he is.
It's like not just switching the Whimsicott
into catching the Charizard going for a protect
and put that on-call pressure on,
but then also knowing to, like,
Hey, that's not probably going to be playing passive like let's this is the opportunity to try to get some damage down into the Venusaur and really like try to
Further the board position rather than like go into the protector not really make any progress
And now you've got the scenario where it sure has been set up that's ill and got you I'm gonna be ahead of everything
He's not being so on the sudden just brought a rock slide, which is those forces which is our job coming in here
the double okay the double
physics always an interesting
one because it's nothing really
gain except for the pivoting
right but an instant in for that
intimidate drop is a bit
tailed in on the other end
that's going to be a lot of
damage and a lot of fresher
and you see how much that
intimidate pays off but still
like an earthquake next turn
can do so much yeah it's like
and do you want to bring if
you're now so you're bringing
the guard chomp in because you kind of need to, right? You're like expecting the rock slide
because the Charizard is just protected. You're expecting maybe that little bit of
spread pressure. You want to bring the guard chomp in because that's going to take those
attacks. But equally, Nalto is like on the uphill battle because you're bringing that
into a wintercott that could just go for a moon blast on the next turn. And especially
when the tailwind then gets set up, that's two turns in a row that Shohei hasn't let
now to get away with the defensive plays and has managed to aggressively switch their board
position up and try to find a little bit more position.
And you have to take out for the one, but I ended up into the whimsicott instead.
It's a Garchon that can just go for the attack at earthquake again.
The activity has just done so much work, but it's Shohei that consistently getting more
and more momentum if there isn't a big swing from the Garchon from now through here.
You've got to go onto the dragon core here, it's going to be enough, but I think that the earthquake really smart there from Shohei, to know where you're going to put the opposing Garchomp.
This is now in range. After that rough skin damage, after the life orb recall there, is it going to be in range of a sucker punch?
Now you can just bring your king gambit onto the field, sucker punch, get rid of that king gambit, and Sidor has also taken a lot of damage as well.
It's mainly in range of a moon blast, so it's a pretty easy clean up for you, and you don't have really too much reliance even on the tailwind at this point.
I'm going to say that the Citrus Berries come to the incident, or just out of ring,
but still the Garchamp threatened.
And you've got two calls on the back in the red as well, so they're not going to be able
to come in and have the impact like you would want them to.
Can I just call out the earthquake in your self-play?
I think this is something that's like so much across all of phase one yesterday.
It's one of those things that I feel like if you're at home and you're playing on the
ladder you're thinking like oh I can't earthquake because I've got something
next to me that I might be damaging like I think Shohei is doing a really great
job of showcasing why that's so important to actually like hang on a
second damaging myself not too much of a problem if it gets enough damage on my
opponent that's exactly it it's like the risks right and earthquake and next to
the Wim Scott isn't the biggest risk it's gonna take the hit so well but we
also did get to see the why it could be so dangerous in yesterday's matches but
so much damage into this Incineroar over time.
Incineroar is just a bye-bye, Incineroar.
Yeah, there's just even that bad you think,
okay, well, Tengan's gonna take the earthquake,
but it's still all right.
The Goldchamp's gonna take another take of that recall.
If it wasn't, if it wasn't Incineroar taking down,
that would've been Vishpin Garchong TKO
in its own partner, Pokemon.
Right, but this is the thing, like, you know,
Naltown knows that, yeah, we're in,
we're in Tailwind right now,
and the likelihood is the Incineroar goes down, but if, yeah, if
Shohei decided to target into that guard chomp instead, I've played doesn't
matter, right? Because the guard chomp's gone down and then the Incineroar gets to
act instead, and so I'm also sort of like holding their ground in that position
and saying, well, okay, pick one of the KO's, I get some major like damage off
onto your side of the field, and I know like from there I get to plan my end
game with whatever I get to achieve on that turn. Yeah and now there's an almost
pin position. You want to get the Charizard on the field to activate a core
fill ability so it puts the Venusaur ahead with solo health though. One thing
you can take advantage of is that sleep powder potentially. Except the Hunts won't engage but while
there's tailwind there's an effect for at least one more turn, it is going to be
pressuring a knockout, an easy knockout until that Venusaur, Godchomp's waiting
the Moonblast coming from the Windsor Claw and then you've got very low health
the
back. Yeah, it's looking great
so much for now. So I don't
know if there's a way back for
them right now. You don't
always see this situation
where it's like whimsicats kind
of the most dangerous thing on
the field now because all of
all of Nelto's focus what are
in range of a moon blast, right?
But also in range of a sucker
punch that King Gambit is
boosted by the black glasses as
well. So it's certainly going
to take a chunk out of
anything, but there's not many
side to take anything out of right? We had a combined 35% through their three
remaining Pokemon in terms of that health pool but a good protect and
assumingly a good swamp as well. Cow-tow, no sucker punch. Alright we're down to if we
have 35% 4 with 34% we're slowly getting there.
Yeah and you know like any offensive threat from the Venusaur is covered from the
and I think even a moon blast is going to be enough to take down the Venusaur even though it's resistive.
So we're quite easily able here just to suck our punch, the Venusaur cover that, even if a sea powder does come out.
It's only putting your pink amps, even in the following turn after you've put the moon blasts to the barge,
so we're going to be able to clean up the Venusaur.
We still don't know what's in the back for Shohei, right?
Yeah.
We've only seen the three Pokemon so far.
tailwind will, you know, take away the pressure that the Venusaur is putting on.
As will Oncour coming down onto it there, locking it into the protect zone.
It's the double protect though.
Double protect, getting it, you know, fair play, but here's the sucker punch into the
guard jump.
We know that's in range.
That's going down.
King Gambit going down to 7%, but 7% is easily going to be enough for Shohei to lock up this
game.
I feel like Nelto played really well against a different opponent in this particular match, right?
If Shohei hadn't made so many really aggressive reads, really pushing forward in that game,
like it looks like Shohei just made every read turn after turn, right?
But these matches can go differently every single time.
Sticking it out, we get the swap too, so that does give us and Nelto that information
I feel like it's pretty well to be assumed, but you don't have that going into game two.
It's not like you wonder how much of that is like a little bit of conditioning.
Oh, yeah.
In the mind games like how do you play the mind games, right?
Do you want to keep your opponent guessing or do you want to say like, hey, by the way, I bought Charizard too, right?
You've got to be careful of it going into game two.
I mean, it makes sense for all
champion. It checks out, but
game two. Same leads again. So
you know both of these trains.
I love going into these game to
where it's exactly the same
leads coming out for both
trainers because like the
branching parts of the map are
so so wide, right? What
decisions do you make? Also
just asleep out of hit this
time, right? Yeah, like how
does the targeting go? So like
like there's so many there's so many different ways that this can go and
even though the leads look the same like where we're gonna go from here is
probably gonna be totally different. We got to see that in Paris match yesterday
it was three games three identical leads but very very different games and I
really do love being able to see that run back into this one though I mean if we
get a connector could be everything but if it's miss targeted into the whims
of thought we already got that swap and that could also all right so we're just
not sleep out or anything, that's a turn.
Okay, it's protection for our Johnson, nothing.
That seems leaves.
It's a safer player as well for Garcheum
to be in a stronger position the next turn.
You tail end with a point, you get a turn.
Ooh!
That's big.
That's big.
Gonna be sticking around a turn longer now.
This, the problem is,
I don't know if the Garcheum's got enough of an attack
to be able to remove that finish on one hit,
so it probably is gonna be able to execute,
see kind of one more time,
but it's gonna hit, that's the big question,
and saw how much of a waste it turned out was for him worn
when it didn't connect.
And I wanted just the pyrocyte to get damaged on the board.
That's a big decision that the chaos in this made here.
You've got some compounding probabilities as well, right?
Because the Whimsacock can go for a tailwind.
It's still got its sash intact.
And so with a tailwind, and the chance of a rock slide comes out
and the rock slide gets the chance to flinch for Venusaur,
and there's the chance of missing the sleep powder,
like Shohei's sort of compounding those odds
the potential of those blocks in play. But with the Incineroar coming in, really nice
play from now, so just making sure like, yeah, that Venusaur does get a few turns to go for
it. Yeah, but there is still, you know, that Oz of the Flinch does. Incineroar is not stopping
that, but if you want to talk about Oz, we can always just miss, right? That's, that,
we got to count for that one as well. So Venusaur, we don't have to worry about the flinch
at all in the opportunity to go for the sleep powder if you hit it with no another mess.
This is heartbreaking for now so like and and like let's be clear right you put sleep
powder on knowing that it can miss like but you still have to commit to it and we've got
to shout this out right because even though it's not working in this match right it still
make it it doesn't make it the wrong move to have on the Venus tour right having a power
instead wouldn't be, you know, better in this particular matchup. So Melto is using the tools and
using the tools correctly, but just not getting the back up of what's happening in the match.
It's one of those unlucky components of the current regulation that we're in that some of the
most powerful moves just have that inherent chance to miss, and that's always the give or take. You
see trainers sometimes opt into those less powerful moves to not avoid missing, but sleep
outer, you're kind of stuck with it, right? You just kind of go for it, but to have the sleep
three powder mist, my heat wave mist.
That one is just tough.
And now, Shohei can just,
we're waiting for the first one again,
then Sidor again takes the hit,
but we're just doing the damage over time
and now Sidor's not really gonna be able
to accomplish much in this match.
Not so far, better resource management this time around,
but really wants to put that girl chomp to sleep
because that's the first one.
Great protect from Shohei.
There was the impending threat of the takeout there,
so it made sense to just delay things.
You now got a position where you,
is the goalie jump gonna get what the sleepgen is now
till it's gonna start going for some attacks here
because you've got the opportunity
and had the opportunity a number of times
to go after that whimsicott or hold just after the goalie jump
and start damaging it because at some point
you're gonna have to get damage onto it.
You don't want it to sleep, that's great,
but how many turns of sleep are you gonna get
and how are you gonna get any value out of it?
Missing, I think you've gotta change your track
a little bit.
I'll wear a tux, get a centerware, six around.
Do we hit the sleep powder this time?
Well, you didn't know they're mixed.
You're still-
You just saw us not hitting it in attacks,
but it's not really getting hit either.
At what point do you just call it fair, right?
You just saw us just sitting there enjoying the sun.
Like, it's just having a good time down there.
You just saw us wins by doing absolutely nothing.
Hey, finally, we get it.
Oh, round of applause for Venus.
We got it.
We got it.
give it our castors on the other slider too.
Is it too late though?
Well, no.
Oh, that's all.
Yeah, I've had the parting shot now into the Garchon,
while I did.
And now you get the Charizard back in
in a really comfortable position.
Right, and so this is one of the things
about Sleep Turn Order, right?
In coming into Pokemon Champions,
Sleep had a little bit of a nerf,
it's one turn less, at most, overall,
but also there, and there's always been that thing,
like Amungus has been the premier sport Pokemon
because it puts Pokemon to sleep after the user move.
You don't get that guaranteed tick until the next turn.
And this is what's happened with this Godchomp, right?
It's got to take its guaranteed turn.
Now Charizard feels really nice coming in.
Hopefully he's put his glasses on
and maybe can hit a heat wave this time
onto that Windsor clock,
take it down to Sash and start doing some stuff.
But it's Venusaur then now has an opportunity to,
instead of missing a sleep powder,
miss a leaf storm instead,
into this car. Why are we putting this into the universe. You know I don't want to cast
this car as it but you know we it was it was here waiting for me oh let's see I hope it doesn't
come to come to guys. It's hot though you have to be worried about that on for right so it's which
makes so much more sense we don't want to be locked into a move the majority of the time we aren't
hitting anyways so switch around wins got down to Sash Garchomp we're looking at maybe just even
taking it out before it can even wake up because a fake out and just another
seatway will be enough to drop the Pokemon and even just play a double KO
for now so yeah I'm one of the unfortunate things about those
continuous sleep power messes and into protectors the timing they are so getting
the Charizard back on to the food you can see the Sun just faded so if you are
now so yes you've got the opportunity just go for your heat wave again just
get rid of the wind you thought and we can get the Charizard out maybe fake out
I hope that the guard chomps is this week.
The other option is, could potentially try and get a hunting shot.
Another one, I mean tonight guard chomps, yeah.
Expecting a good win to come to be a bit more passive this game.
Yeah, definitely. It's got the option to protect.
I think this is yet another read that these players have to make.
And I feel like we've talked about it quite a lot,
the reads that you have to make to keep ahead of the game.
game, especially in these mirrors, the small advantages that you take in these particular
mirror matches and like when you switch from like this, playing on the offensive to playing
on the defensive to try and catch your opponent off guard is so, so critical.
They'll stay sleek past the protectors, so it's going to take a lot of damage, critical
hit as well, and just another hurting shot, so you're going to walk up like on the next
And when it does, it's just really nice.
The cool thing here, though, is that the incineral, like,
usually it's not a benefit for incineral to be on low health.
But when you want to reset the sun,
and the Garchomp's been sleeping for a couple of turns,
it could be kind of nice.
You know, you bring the incineral back in,
it takes the moonblast, it takes the rocks,
it takes an earthquake, comes back out,
and you can bring the charizard, set up the sun,
set up the genus, or start putting yourself
on the offensive again.
Even if it does manage to survive the turn on the switch in, you don't mind either because you've got to take out the take advantage off.
It can give you the room to reposition really well. Things going a lot better on this game.
With that Venusaur, but like you say Ben, I think the priority here is to try and get that Sunday set up again.
The Wings of God is going to be susceptible to any sort of attack now because the cards don't protect you.
So I think now could be a good time to see that Charizard go out like you say the intro.
Maybe go after that Garjump because that is the offensive threat.
Even with those intimidation points, it's not going to be a threat.
Especially if Joe Hayde decides to switch it out and maybe keep it for the last part of the game.
I wonder what's in the back of the ball, right, because if it's King Gambit and Charizard
in the back, and Malto is able to preserve Charizard and Guard Chomp, that's a really
good matchup to have at full HP in the back, right?
And so, yeah, it's kind of preferred to have your Incineroar come in to take a Rockstar.
That Guard Chomp is going to be at like minus four by now, right?
Yeah, minus four, yeah.
something like that. It's going to be at minus all of it now. It is gone from the field, but
no flint, Garchomp's gone. You can finally bring in something that can actually do a little bit
more damage. Wimspot set up a tailwind. Intenar too, notably didn't go down. So yeah, you have the
active vigor on the turn, but that whole bring it in, let it be KO'd, bring in the charge of the
tree, set the sun, kind of be able to go, isn't really quite the option there anymore. But it
But it will be, Shohei did bring the Charizard in match number two.
Yeah, so maybe that's like, you know, also works for both of these trainers, right?
Shohei's got the tailwind and the Charizard to put a bunch of pressure on.
I mean, that's only going to last a few turns and, you know, with the Incineroar coming in and actually surviving that attack,
the fake-out is in play, it's going to slow down the game a little bit.
a little bit and again we've got that read whether or not the Windsor cock goes down to.
The fake out on this turn or if you go for a fake out into the Charizard and just attack
into the Venusaur truck with the Venusaur and try and get some damage down onto the
board.
It's not a bad idea to start like locking into a sludge bomb in this spot to try and get
some damage down.
If you're like just a little bit ahead on damage, both of these Charizards have ancient
power and so when you when you play up against each other, it's like that little bit of
extra chip really does help yeah it'd be interesting if you just say show hey just
go for that double protect with the what was impending faker from the incineroar
that has just switched out now it's gonna mega evolve and then no protects
coming out just a straight moon blast into the leader so but with a tailwind you
don't mind mega evolving bringing that sun into there because you're gonna be
passing the thing so anyway with the Charizard the he wave of Venus or it goes
down to no sledge bombs, nothing else. And yeah, it could have been the Faco, but trying
to bring the Charizard in instead. That's a long event on that turn and the Pokemon
is gone now.
Yeah, just more, more real reads coming out from Shovei. And like, it's, it's so impressive
to be quite so accurate so consistently, especially at this level of competition, right? And just,
just, you know, taking those turns to be like, well, last time I was here, I played on the defensive, this time
I'm gonna play on the offensive and try and get something done. And hey, like sometimes, sometimes you get punished for those kind of
reads in the turn, but if you get them right, and especially in this matchup, you get so much advantage
to be able to come through.
There's also the plays that you'd make when you're up a game in a set that you would never do when you're down, right?
If you're up the game in the set, you can play that little bit more aggressive and go for those plays that would
advanced board stages so much more and call out your opponent trying to find that small window
of opportunity, right? So being up a game and having that little bit more wiggle room, you can see
the more aggressiveness coming out and being able to get rid of something like that Venusaur,
I think just puts you in such a great spot. I mean, you still have to worry about the Gauchomp
and stuff, but you have that tail when you have a full health Charizard. Yeah, I think here if
you're, it's a tricky scenario because I think if you're sure, hey, you won't get initial damage
So when that king down that comes back onto the field, it's going to be grinding a knockout with a sucker punch.
The Whimsicots are really quite important here. Maybe why Shohei is saying, well, end game is going to be my Whimsicot.
We do see the Garchomp because of that threat protects here, which might open the door for an ancient power.
Did we get the boost? That's the question.
I've never seen the boost.
Are we about to see the boost? We see the KO.
I don't think we get the boost.
for you buddy. I've seen so
many. Have you ever seen the
boost? Have you ever seen the
boost? Not on a stream. I
haven't game. Does the boost
even exist? I'm not sure it
does. I've not seen it in
champion. So it's. I don't
know. They've been playing
show result for a while. They
must get some time. I've
never seen it. There was
watching at home. We have
three analysts all shrugging
right now. Hands up, but
We'll see another one. We'll see another one come through. We're speeding up the end of the match.
We got more to go with, but it seems just at this point, two ancient powers coming on through a second KO on the board.
Kind of just a little too much for this Garchomp to be able to do. I mean, he still ends up, but Wimsecot, Wimsecot hits the field and...
Preservation of the Wimsecot, so important. Now you've got the double up, the Moonblast, the second bench.
Gonna be enough to lock it up. And this is just, you know, Shohei, knowing the team inside out, knowing their Winkons,
just making them such a such a great
that's show. Hey, oh my goodness.
Yeah, it's like just just completely
textbook there at the end and just like
taking advantage of the create
across the game and then just
trading is as successful as you can
like switching where you need to
preserving the right that right
but it's just so you can get to the end
came absolutely textbook.
He's a world champion for a reason.
Could be a two time world champion for a reason.
All right, well, let's see what we've got. We got our next round of Swiss coming right up
So we're gonna kick it over to the casters to get this championship rolling
That's right, they are both world champions for a reason and I have to say my record for ancient power boost in one game
It's who and let me tell you it felt
Disgusting yeah, you know why we just have like two Charizard at once, right?
I think I have done the same thing although many many years ago
So I think in a battle about 20 years ago I hit it.
So I'm due a game whenever you're ready.
Whenever you're ready game,
but our players are just about ready
to hop into our Swiss round 10.
Let's take a look at the matchup out on the field.
Of course, we are heading into our win and in round.
All of these players at eight wins, one loss.
They just need one more win to qualify
for the top cut later today.
And we will be watching two of Europe's strongest trainers
right now Antonio Sanchez and Giovanni Piscitelli.
Yeah, these two trainers are among the last two,
at least have a little bit of slack remaining,
we're not eliminated by losing this game.
I really tighten this field now,
where a majority of the trainers
are going to need to win out in order to make the top cut.
Still have a couple more Swiss rounds after this one,
where you do need to continue to have fewer losses.
So yeah, it's crunch time now.
Yeah, there are some impressive elimination matches
out there in the field.
I don't know if y'all had time to see.
At the bottom of that list,
was Maddie Morgan versus Emilio Forbes,
two of the strongest competitors
at the World Championships in general.
Like multiple top cuts, of course,
Emilio made it to the finals.
Both of them are on tournament life right now.
One of them will be going home.
One of them will continue for the opportunity
to compete for the top cut.
Yeah, just how it is at this point
in the World Championships, right?
I think even way back to round one,
you know, players are kind of commenting,
man, you know, this is a terrible matchup I've got.
I think it's this really good opponent.
But yeah, I mean, it's the best players in every region, right?
Every round is going to be really challenging.
And I think even maybe some of the trainers who don't have that sort of accolade on the resume already
They got here for a reason right and hey, maybe this weekend that trainers even more dangerous than someone who's been historically better
Right, it's all about being half the right time knowing your team at the right time
And these trainers have been the best of the weekend so far
Yeah, this is where your champions legacy begins at the world championships
And we have two incredible trainers from Europe competing to make it into the top cut here on stage
Antonio Sanchez from Spain versus Giovanni Piscitelli from Italy and this is an incredible matchup
I'm excited to see these two teams go up against each other because you have on Giovanni side
You have the classic big six and then for Antonio
You have the other style of balance team with Toxpex that has really picked up heading into this tournament
Yeah
And I think a tuning stuff part of what was picked up is like you kind of like this matchup, right?
I don't think it's like super favorite or anything you have some fun tools this matchup
Sinora is often pretty good.
Toxic Plexus have opportunity to make some plays here.
So it would be fun to see how these teams interact.
Also kind of just a great showcase of this regulation.
Yeah.
Even though all 12 of the Pokemon in this game
were available in regulation MA with the upgrades
they could have gotten, life war potentially being a big benefit.
Although actually, I believe only one of the two trainers
actually has won.
These teams have kind of been the teams
to beat in this regulation a lot of ways
from the perspective of just having the most raw power.
Absolutely.
Let's take a look at Antonio's team of first here.
This is going to be the Toxpex variant of the Charizard team.
And actually kind of a throwback here,
we are actually seeing the Solar Beam still on Charizard
with a lot of players opting to remove Solar Beam
for the mirror matchup, going for Ancient Power instead.
Yeah, it's kind of fun where it would be a really strong
regulation MA throwback, except for this team,
Arkadip hadn't really been discovered then.
We kind of wound up on this group of six Pokemon
because of Wolf's NEAC run,
which did not involve quite the same team.
So even though you could have played this back then,
I wasn't but yeah, I'm so the sword beam on Charizard typically see that removed when Venusaur is present
So a bit of a throwback there also the twist scarf on guard shop
Put number of options you could choose but again the thing that's really interesting to me here
I know life for right kind of one of the big boosts in power that teams got with regulation and be as it opting for
Different ways to influence the battle through this held items
Yeah, no life or appear and some really interesting text for some of these more traditional Pokemon Sylveon has dropped hyper beam
in favor of yawn. So sometimes you see hyper voice and hyper beam with yawn but no quick attack,
Antonio has opted to keep hyper voice and quick attack and drop hyper beam dropping that huge damage
in favor of the more supportive yawn. And also you have to shut this out because you have the solar
beam on Charizard. Venusaur is not carrying a grass type attack instead opting for earth power
and sludge bomb to potentially help out against Pokemon like King Gambit or even as we've been
I've been seeing that the Syrian Arkadine.
Yeah, the Vascular Legion, the other side of the field,
may have tears in its eyes, but the tears of joy.
It's like, what do you mean there's no grass moves?
Interesting way to build this team out.
So I think it'll be sort of fun to watch how this plays out,
where players tend to have like really strong
blowchart to the most common team archetype.
I think things are just enough different here,
where maybe it's going to cause his opponent
to kind of need to think a little bit harder about this one,
where even though it's a bunch of familiar faces,
they aren't executed a little bit differently than normal.
Well, here is Giovanni Piscitelli on your screen here going for the new version of Charizard and Flowette that has the ancient power
And also going for the three attacks version of Flowette not the calm mind version that was seen early on especially in regulation MA
Like you mentioned you got to see that life orb on Garchomp the big change for regulation MA giving Garchomp so much more power
And more offense at the expense of some of itself
Yeah, I mean, it's just so powerful where we've seen throughout the course that we can how effective it is to
I can just becomes maybe the most reliable attacker in the format a lot of ways to
So the racks like cannon will miss but the other moves, you know perfect accuracy lots of damage
Can't even if you miss a prediction still kind of move forward in the battle in a positive way
I think if the grass type moves to me or just such a fun story
But you hear where of course, it's the Charizard that doesn't have the Venus or it has the ancient power attack
So, you know, maybe again allowing the Pokemon who are weak to water type attack or your grass type decks a little bit better
But that's one interesting tweak of the taxa flex version of the team
You don't really want grass type attacks against this team anyway
There's not a whole lot to do with it
So I may help the big six in the matchup a little bit here where I'm kind of like checked out of the moves that he doesn't need here
Anyway, oh here we are getting ready for our first game of this win and end to top cut at the world
Championships and of course Giovanni will be leading with the classic
a Garchomp and Charizard lead,
acing down Incineroar and Charizard from Antonio.
So getting that intimidate down onto that Light Orb Garchomp
is huge, but lots of rock type pressure
against these two Rock Week Pokemon.
That rocks looking really good here.
And I saw those two Pokemon, by the way.
Cut the double, the champion tier there.
He's been practicing that.
He's been practicing the game ladder.
Absolutely, but now you see,
you have the Garchomp and Charizard able to fire off
Rockslides, Earthquakes and Ancient Powers.
This is center or looking pretty pretty spooked out by this and either of the fire type hope
I'm really gonna be able to do a full lot on Tony side of the field so probably not the lead match
It's open for but you're never gonna be too shocked when you play a team like this and you end up against
Charizard a guard shop on turn one one of the most powerful lead combinations you've seen so I'm sure he's a pretty choreographed
Game time for what to do with this appearance and first and foremost
It's get Charizard off the field staring down both the Garchomp and Charizard bringing in his own Garchomp is Antonio
That will allow the choice scarf Garchomp to be faster than both the Charizard and Garchomp from Giovanni
As Giovanni will go ahead and mega evolve his Charizard there gets the Sun on the field while Garchomp will flinch to the bakeout from Incineroar
Here is the ancient power Giovanni knows that Antonio is not going to just give up that damage on Charizard instead connects on to the
Incineroar, down below half which will allow Incineroar to heal up with its citrus berry.
And he's a bit of damage on the Incineroar though, and I could help out here.
You know a lot of Pokemon that seem to potentially don't want to be intimidated, so getting that damage down early.
And also you kind of just know, there's no way I'm going to be allowed to ancient power the opposing power of the card.
So I might as well take that damage on the Incineroar.
But now these choice-starts are dropping into the battlefield and seeing what movement locks into these are interesting.
Certainly the Charizard would love to maybe try to get some sneaky more damage off here if you have maybe,
But hey, my opponent will also not allow me to get that free rock slide, probably going to go into a dark dragon claw into the opposing card trap.
So hey, maybe I can just leave Charizard out here. I don't really care that much about the dragon claw.
Also good to go. Just protect the scout here, which is always kind of the way this would be choice Pokemon.
But it's difficult to see a switch immediately.
Bringing in the King Gambit here, a perfect switch in if you expect to be tanking any rock slides from that choice card top.
Actually going to see all four Pokemon from Antonio now, as it's going to be Toxatex on the field.
field. Garchomp on Giovanni's side will protect here, has had reduced attack and catches the
dragon claw. So Antonio locking into dragon claw, Giovanni getting the King Gambit out
on the field and feeling pretty good about that turn.
Yeah, I think a lot of great things there. I mean, King Gambit's a great switch, kind
of no matter what there. If you get it wrong and it is a rock slide, King Gambit's going
to take that really well too. I guess the only disadvantage is now the best Pokemon
on your team to switch into the dragon. But unless one of the two fairy type Pokemon are
in the back, which are relatively unlikely with the sequencing.
You have to take a dragon with something in that slot,
but we'll get pretty good now.
And we also see an interesting combination
of the TACs effects of the Garchem
entering the field together for the first time.
We saw the weakness of the choice graph in that turn,
where the scouting switch was pretty easy,
and now it's going to be a predictable turn.
But potentially the option eventually for TACs effects
to trap something of infestation,
which makes it much easier to actually connect
with a choice of attack.
Yeah, unfortunately, the King Gambit on the field
is actually quite happy to see TACs effects on the other side.
But like you mentioned, nothing really
wants to tank that Dragon Claw on the switch in.
The Charizard taking over almost 50% there,
while Garchomp takes a critical hit,
KowKow's leave in return.
By switching out, this Charizard is now
trapped on the field with Tox effects.
And if you're the Tox effects player,
you love trapping your opponent's Charizard on the field.
Yeah, probably not as excited about that critical hit,
though, now in danger of potentially knocking
up some sucker punch on to that Garchomp.
And he's probably fairly close.
Another weakness of that choice car, I guess we're kind of talking around it, but if you're not familiar, it's just held at it
You only have a tech you can't use that attacking it right?
No
I'm very difficult to play in sucker punch with that because you're guaranteed to connect if you don't switch that Pokemon out
So I got your potential is pretty checked here
I think it's taking just a little bit too much damage to feel safe
But I talk to practice in the hand looking much better where not to threaten by any of these Pokemon good keep spreading their infestation
Maybe go for a hot kick or something, but also you know
Tetsupas works slowly, right, and it's going to be that other slot that's in some danger.
Absolutely, and the King Gambit showing that it is happy to take swings into any Pokemon on Antonio's side.
There's the sucker punch. It will be enough to pick up the KO onto Jar Chomp.
A little bit more chip damage back from the rough skin onto the King Gambit.
We'll start adding up as there is another Ancient Power.
There you go, Ben. See the boost on the Ancient Power there, but maybe a little bit too little, too late for this Charizard.
Charizard it is already at low health and has been invested by the tox effect
But at the same time if you get to fire off a plus one attack from that Charizard
You're gonna deal big damage to whatever comes out. Yeah, it's going to be
You should watch this one where Charizard just healthy enough where it can survive two more terms of infestation still getting attacked off
So like reasonably likely they could get a single swing and yeah
I mean Charizard one of the most powerful attackers in this format without all of its stats being boosted by one level
So even one weather ball could do a lot of damage here, but if they try to find it
There's those that incinerator in the back who could try to both stall a little bit with these
Make out to force the charge zone to protect it here. You'll get one more turn at that station damage
But also, you know if the charge doesn't protect it would do enough damage to positive to survive one return
However, if you get it coming in here being
Intimidated not looking so intimidated at all after the defiant poos and I'm not doing enough damage
At least maybe attack effects is a little uncomfortable with being hit with the counter.
Yeah, absolutely. And the Charras are getting that speed boost in addition to the special attack
with of course Ancient Power does have the opportunity to boost all of your stats.
It makes it so hard for Entomoneo to position here until that Charras art is off the field.
It can pick up Kaos on basically anything except for the Tox effects at this point.
Yeah, and the Incinerator is actually kind of an aqueous spot. The takeout is going to Lendo.
That's actually fairly huge. Yeah, huge make out there. Just the additional damage getting
additional tip on to the Charizard. The low kick not enough damage to pick up the KO on to Incineroar even after the Defiant boost.
And there is the double up Toxic on to the Charizard. That plus the fake out plus a turn of infestation should be enough to pick up the KO here.
It's really close. It might be just like one hit point away actually. I think it's just shy, you know, what nice stuff.
Just misses. Just misses. I think one thing that's really neat too about the Toxic, but I forget about it, but Toxic is normally not at first with the accurate attack.
It does always hit from the spectra pack. So you know that you this place fairly safe
But yeah, Charizard because of the dust face boost from the power just barely able to survive and
Tension pick up a knockout here. Like very likely you'll see a painful bucking here as talk to press once nothing to do with that
But the center or I suit cannot protect so that's 13% not looking a real sturdy here
Yeah, it's a question of do you give up your incinerator or your Charizard at this point if you are Antonio and it has to be the
Incinerator can protect actually. I'm sorry
So we only see that on teams with Paris on but you have the option to stall that out. Let the charge that go
I know adaptation that's pretty interesting. It's gonna miss that during the TV. Yeah
It does make sense that's the aspect right where if you want to play these four defensive sort of link condition to give you
I'm not sure you would otherwise have so we'll use that for tactic
Hey, look at pretty good there for a move. We don't typically see in this composition
Yeah, absolutely
That is a KO for the protect and center or by protecting here
That means that this Charizard is not able to do anything with that ancient power
The King Gambit also not able to do anything and the King Gambit will take another turn of infestation damage while the Charizard goes down
The Toxpex is just about back up to full health. Yeah, this is that the horrors of Toxpex right where if you catch the right Pokemon in there
You know even with the Charizard, you have completely infected there. I did kind of knock out
I'm not going to knock out, but I guess getting Cynor timed to be not out there
I just try to draw attention along King Gambit to get that free turn, but I kind of know what, right?
Where Garchamp is going to get back in for free, and you know, we've got this very weakened Incineroar.
The Garchamp has already been knocked out.
So, I mean, Killian is very low on resources, but, you know, looking closer in the Pokemon town.
Yeah, low on resources, but Giovanni is in a really awkward position here.
The only way that Giovanni can deal super effective damage to that Tox effect would be via Earthquake.
It does not have stomping cancer, instead, just Earthquake, which would pick up the KO onto King Gambit,
and there are no immunities left on the team.
Also, Tuxpex can always just put wide guard and protect itself.
Yeah, I think it's probably fairly free of this trail.
Again, you know, you're really not called a wide guard.
I think, you know, there's a risk of just getting this turn long,
getting quick play, kid, really paying for it.
But I feel like it's fairly safe trying to go for a toxic here
and start wearing guard jump down.
It could be pretty effective.
Okay, well, as Sinnero tried to go for a double protect there,
Antonio does not want to give up damage on the Charizard in the back.
Instead, just forcing Garchomp to take that life orb recoil or getting a free turn extra turn with the Incineroar.
Kautau Klee feels good damage to the Toxic Plex because it does have that attack boost, but there is the Toxic down onto Garchomp.
That is going to add up so quickly between the life orb recoil and the stacking damage from Toxic.
FactiFox doing a great job in this game, but it's friends are getting worn down in a hurry here
to see the final Pokemon coming out under the field gear to support it after the end of these animations.
There's still a lot of damage left to be done, right?
You get Garchup who's going to have a very difficult time knocking out tax effects specifically,
so maybe if you can isolate that 1v1, that kind of just becomes a win condition now.
Keep in mind as well, the game does still have a boosted level of attack.
It's found the field for what feels like forever, but several years ago,
or did get that Intimidate down which was reversed by the Defiant.
So potentially still pretty threatening,
but it did a lot of damage to that Couchhawk, please.
You know, Taksimak's not quite out of dives yet,
but if this Charizard can help finish off this opposing King Gambit,
then maybe you're starting to look.
Yeah, you may start having an opportunity,
but we also have to notice that Humani has not shown this final Pokemon left.
And if that is what I think it is,
that Basque Legion in the back will be so happy to let this Garchomp and King Gambit go down
and send its last respects off into any Pokemon on the field.
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, even the Charizard, you know,
it's going to, even with wide guards of war,
which is starting to feel mandatory given the token out of the field here,
probably going to take some damage in the way down, right?
I think it's a fairly free Sucker Punch of King Gambit,
unless, you know, Antoinette's getting real weird here,
trying to make some big reads and try to get at his energies,
and maybe starting up right there, he would have protect like,
please, please, another turn, and yeah, it does dodge it.
Yeah, got to at least win one turn here with that protect,
that protects the sucker punch and dragon claw both firing off into the Charizard.
Hux effect now able to infest the guard chomp as well, but Antonio is going to
need to get multiple protects from this Charizard to have a whole pivot that
Vasculigian in the back. However, Antonio has also held the mega evolution on the
Charizard which would allow it to set the sun and be able to deal super effective
damage back to the Vasculigian with solar beam. I give you as many terms as
possible as well as reducing any potential wage crashes. The option though may be irrelevant by the time the Vasco is
defeated to feel very good. If you can pick up a knockout with last respect why bother. Also keep in mind with
you know I didn't see a lot of detox effects so far. Unlike maybe what you would see in a single battle there is no
recover on the detox effect right. So this 53% HP maybe enough but it's kind of like right on the edge of being in danger of a knockout
from the King Abbot. Char's are going to fail to protect so we may not see Drat at all. Although Dragonclaw is not going to pick up a
knockout and you see why there was no attacking moves there. Yeah the Dragonclaw is not enough
to pick up the KO on its own without the sucker punch additional damage. Oxitec resets the
infestation onto King Gambit which I believe was just let up the last turn and now continuing
to heal up with leftovers the damage is stacking onto both of these Pokemon. Getting real close
there Garchomp goes down next turn. Yeah you know I want to pop off for a protective failure.
I think that's actually a great play by Antonio.
We probably should have.
I just saw so many amazing things for Antonio
side of the field.
It's kind of weird, like, oh, why does Charizard just
double protect?
Why didn't it mega evolve?
Well, it didn't need to mega evolve.
It wouldn't really have mattered.
Now, both these Pokemon can protect.
They will both succeed, because there
was no success to protect the previous turn.
And both of these Pokemon are going to go down to damage
over time effects.
Then critically, even if on the next turn,
that just leaves the Charizard being knocked out,
they'll potentially have the match turns of draft
for what little that will likely matter.
But you know, he's charging some chip on Vaskaligeon.
That makes a huge difference.
And then also, the Toxapex, you know,
even if Charizard were to go down and do nothing,
which is this was actually fairly unlikely,
gives you more turns to get those damage over time effects.
You know, it's often comes down to just a ton.
We see these Toxapex versus Vaskaligeon end game,
but I think Antonio has done just enough
to get Charizard enough ahead to help Toxapex.
The Toxapex is probably going to win this one.
If Charizard goes down at all.
That's my guy.
I love this little guy.
Just needs to double protect here to pick up these KO's.
No damage dealt to Antonio's Pokemon.
Instead, Tox effects will recover another 6% of health
with that leftover 4%, 5% rather,
as the Garchomp and King Gambit go down.
What a fun ending here where things look really sketchy
for Antonio for a while there.
But yeah, ironically, one of the few times we've seen
where a pale protectorically very beneficial
for the player who failed it.
Without that, maybe Charles Lippe was down this turn
and things get a little bit sketchier
on the following turn,
then it does become that Vascular Legion Toxatex 1v1.
Instead here, Charles is going to get you Mega Evolve,
probably help out a little bit.
At worst, you know, absolute worst,
maybe you get like crit by Aqua Jet or something,
you're still giving Toxatex a free turn.
Really great job by Antonio here to pick up those margins
and get the help that Toxatex needed
to most likely close out this game one.
And this is Mystic Water Vascular Legion,
so the Aqua Jet will be dealing more damage
than the Citrus Fairy,
but less than a life-orange variant of the Vascular Legion,
but like you mentioned, no matter what,
that water damage is getting reduced
by the drought that you have to assume.
Antonio has shown such great restraint
with this Charizard over the course of the game.
This is what you have to do with some of these mega-evolutions
that have immediate on-the-field effects.
There's the mega-evolution.
Finally, Charizard Y will set the sun
and reduce the power of Vasculigent's water-type attacks.
Without an aqua jet, then this Charizard
definitely be able to fire off a solar beam here absorbs the light and you can
see the power of the grass type attack getting damaged. Crucial damage down on
to the basculigent. That's enough for just one kick of infestation to KO the
basculigent here but it targets down the tox effects instead.
Tox effects goes down and Giovanni has found the out here is potentially just
take out the tox effects here and pray and hope that a crit mystic water
Aqua Jet in the Sun is enough damage.
I believe you have a 1 in 24 chance to crit.
So, not great odds here, but there's more than zero.
So, let's see what happens on this title.
Numps, it is none, zero chance.
There's the Aqua Jet.
8% health remaining for Charizard
with the crit, Giovanni would have gotten it,
but instead, Antonio Sampchez is gonna fire off
this solar beam and take game one.
What a wild endgame.
We've seen a lot of tax-effect end games
over the course of the past few months
I don't think we've seen anything quite like that.
Really a methodical ending, really creative way to end that game.
And I think that's just what you have to do if you're a Toxic Effect player,
where players at this level are too good to fall victim to the most obvious lines.
So I have to be a little bit creative there.
I was like three or four turns in a row of the charge,
and once the protector's understanding, like,
hey, attacking isn't what I need to do here.
I need to waste the turns of my opponent to start getting closer and closer to the end game.
And the choice only ended up swinging one time in the entire game,
game but that one attack was absolutely bold. Twice I guess after the game was already over.
But yeah you know one big attack that effectively ended it where regardless of what Giovanni
chose to do on that penultimate turn he didn't get a critical hit he couldn't win the game.
Absolutely and really well played there from Antonio to see that line and Giovanni felt like
he was in decent position throughout that entire game but even after getting the ancient power
boost on Charizard it really felt like things were becoming very awkward for Antonio to position
around that, but the power of that Toxapex just dealing damage over time, getting that fake out down onto Charizard,
especially to waste that turn, get another tick of damage, you have to find these little moments where you can sneak in one extra turn.
Yeah, now, you know, speaking of protects, by the way, I want to go back to that Incineroar protect as well.
I looked at your kind of strange techs when we first saw it, but it looked really good there.
And, you know, the synergy of this team just kind of makes a lot of sense, especially, again, you have that choice scarf,
scarf gar chop there and maybe gives you an opportunity to earthquake but
otherwise you could not wear this for one turn in center could protect itself
again you know if we look at these teams about we've seen this combination of
stick to Pokemon before Scott why are you excited about this well that's why
right where I think these little optimizations allow you to play the
team differently and we're gonna see the advantages there as we jump into game
2 also I think it's sort of a tough spot for Giovanni was okay well how do I
adjust to this well if Toxa packs is the main reason I lost this game am I
going to then adjust by bringing water by fairy type
Pokemon.
That doesn't seem like what I want.
Yeah, definitely.
Toxapex would love to see the Floette or the Whimsicott
get them trapped on the field with it.
And actually going to be the Incineroar and Toxapex
lead immediately from Antonio.
Getting that Intimidate down onto Garchomp
and the Toxapex.
Sometimes with Toxapex, you just need that one extra turn.
And it really helps if you can start doing that from turn one.
Yeah, and we saw the previous game just fight
Tony you're winning in here the first turn definitely did not go for it how you want me
You had to pivot around a little bit
But she saw the guard chop coming into battle on the second turn
Our between during the first turn. Mm-hmm. It's a quick thing out immediately for you. Yeah
Keep things a little bit confusing early in the morning
But tax effects now being on the field immediately makes your body easier also immediately get that into the down
So I sit up for the second game in real looking pretty good on this first turn
And the guard chop has to be even wearier because they get those spread attacks much more difficult to use in tax effects of the field
even though probably that feeling is so threatened that you have to use it here.
Well, immediately forcing the Basculigian out onto the field here,
both because it has a good matchup in it to the Incineroar, which does not have a dark type attack,
and also it would allow it to switch out if it were invested. However, Antonio catches the
Basculigian on the switch in with a Toxic instead. That's going to deal less damage immediately,
But over time, if Vasco Legion wants to stay on the field, it's going to start stacking up so fast.
Yeah, kind of a cool call there too, or maybe getting exactly what he expected, you know,
and fairly unlikely if it can get him, it's going to come to that situation.
So it's only going to be Charizard or Vasco Legion.
And yeah, I mean, Vasco Legion early in the game, a very different animal than it was lately.
You can see how powerful that last aspect was when it was the final poke on the previous game.
Time to Vex is not nearly so concerned at this time, where,
Last effect that would do anything here doesn't be more wary of the garchomp though. It has been intimidated and
It's probably intimidated and out of game sense by the potential of white guard
But a basket lead you're not gonna want that toxic to add up get down a battle right away
Yeah, the only options for basket lead is being to deal damage to itself with a wave crash and take ticks of poison toxic damage
Get out of the field here garchomp goes for the earthquake as Charizard switches in of course
This is why you pair Garchomp next to Charizard
with the Intimidate Toxifex is able to take that damage quite handily
and the Life Orb Recoil will start adding up onto Garchomp.
This does mean that Toxifex again gets to start spreading toxic.
The Garchomp now toxic, going to take ticks of poison damage
in addition to recoil damage every time it attacks.
Antonio is showing us some other tricks his team has.
They're getting the protectant, it's literally looking pretty impactful there.
You know unlike what we just saw in GFIN, you know, there's only one Pokemon for Antonio who's switching to the first place each hour
That we saw how closely it was about conserving and the previous game to protect and ignore pandimidens and then hey
This toxic effects may not have to recover
But maybe why we're seeing toxic and that it would be a station is that I guess have the regenerator ability which healed it
Which is out of battle and the station drops when toxic effect switches out
So maybe wouldn't be so effective there that toxic is gonna stick if toxic pecs feels like maybe hey
I'm going to come back later and give one condition once again.
Toxics could switch out right now and be back up to just about 100% health after the regenerator.
It's going to be a Wimzacot adjustment from Giovanni Garchomp now switching out for that
Wimzacot as Incineroar will switch out for Garchomp on Antonio's side.
Cars are now finally will go for the mega evolution to get some big boost to its damage
and set the sun here, but Whimzacot catching the guard top on the switch is a pretty good position for it to be in.
Additionally, Whimzacot can threaten Encore into this Toxifex and really limit the amount of options that Antonio is going to have moving forward.
There's the ancient power into guard top, not feeling a little bit of damage, but always an opportunity to fish for those boosts if you have them.
I didn't get the twice it earlier, I was kind of wondering if after we'd have maybe manifested that, like I'm putting it in half it.
Hey, you know, and you've already said the field, I know the Iclo, but I don't think you're ever complaining when you swap wins account on the field with Darchep on the same turn.
Also, kind of a bunch of interesting things are available now.
Of course, both traders are realizing that, hey, you know, Giovanni doesn't have to do that gamut in the back.
That's maybe one of the reasons why we didn't see it swap in on that first turn.
But, you know, you have the tailwind threat.
We're probably not wanting you to do that tailwind wouldn't heat Darchep's rock sliding in yours.
So I'm probably going to need a little bit more than that.
But it was at least somewhat of an offensive threat here though.
not really a Pokemon you want to get trapped by infestation either so a lot
to consider on this turn as the Charizard considers defending itself.
Charizard would like to protect this turn because Garchomp with the choice
scarf is going to lock into Rock Slide and Whimzacot will dodge it. The Moon
Blast though firing back on to the Garchomp no tailwind here just offense.
Garchomp hangs on with 4% health. No encore onto the Toxpex means that
Whimzacot is now locked onto the field here so if you get tailwind up that's
It's great, but also it means that Wimzika won't be able to switch out.
You won't be able to have two offensive threats.
It'll just be the one.
Yeah, notice Tailwind's sweeper Wimzika going to have to do its best here,
which kind of makes it wonder if it was dodging Raksalai's good.
I mean, certainly not getting flinched was good,
as that creates a great situation on the next turn,
where you could just go for a tailwind attack with Raksalai's slide.
It'd be pretty much guaranteed to get something good.
But yeah, the talk effects once again is looking good.
And hey, maybe it doesn't need to switch out and heal up after all.
Like, unlikely to be targeted here, where it keep wave and needlessly risk.
or you could miss the guard jump, you could get wide guarded.
So probably going to see a single target attack on that slot
as Dux Husky can you add in this damage over time to fix that.
Yep, and of course, why go for any other attack
that ain't of power when you only need to deal 4%
and you can keep fishing for those boos.
Two games in a row.
Hey, we said it never happened, and here it is.
Well, Chara's are now at plus one, plus one, plus one,
plus one, plus one, plus one,
but it will take the toxic for its troubles.
So every Pokemon except for Winsicott is now toxic on Giovanni's side and that does put a timer on the Charizard.
There is only so much it can do with those boosts.
Plus one status element as well, which is not great, but what is great is that part of the field otherwise, where Max turns the pale with Ancient Power Boosts.
Maybe the best offensive Pokemon of the period, Charizard.
It's feeling great, other than this little bit of poison though, like it probably doesn't have to worry about it.
Let's just not think about that right now.
Yeah, of course, the other side of the field,
not the other side, I guess, it's Parker.
Less exciting here, where, you know,
again, the offensive Dynamo wins again.
Going to have to contribute as much as they can
offensively here.
He's at least threatening some encores,
which just make it harder to stall out the tailwind.
It's not like it's doing nothing here,
but Moonlight's not going to be super good.
He gets most of what's left of this team.
It's similar to going to be forced to enter the battle here
to intimidate two special attackers
and to keep slowing things down.
It's still a terrible spot, right?
You're probably going to go for a fake out
into this counter.
Why not get rid of a turn of stricterim?
Again, as we've seen before, both these Pokemon can't protect her.
Baneful Bunker, Intaxi Vexus K, so maybe you get another turn of detail in that way.
And hey, you know, it's sort of uniquely great here too, and it's protected.
Can't be on here, because it's still a dark type Pokemon that isn't easy to prankster.
Ooh, going for the fake out onto Whimsicott means that Charizard actually gets to swing with this boosted ancient power into Incinarar.
That feels good damage, brings it below 50%, but again, Incineroar heals back up with that Citrus Berry.
And now the infestation has trapped the boosted Charizard on the field.
The Giovanni will not be able to switch that Pokemon out, which means that it is just going to keep taking infestation damage
and continuing to stack poison damage from the Toxic while being able to pick up a KO on this Incineroar eventually, maybe, depending on how many protects these Pokemon get.
And this Pokemon, they appear going down pretty quickly.
I think people kind of think of Toxic Pectis as a small Pokemon.
And sure, again, maybe in single battles, that's true.
But this tribe doesn't go down in a hurry, right?
The Toxic going down before the Infestation is key.
It does more damage to turn.
And we've seen, after only a couple of turns,
Charizard already losing about a third of his health.
It's going to go down quicker and quicker after that, where
it is very scary, but I'm telling you,
it's getting closer and closer to defending that threat.
Diorvani was able to sneak in that ancient power because Incineroar decided to fake out Wimzacot to prevent any encore shenanigans.
Antonio deciding that he wants to make sure that the Toxpex can trap that Charizard on the field that turn.
Finally gets Encore'd here into infestation, but the Ancient Power will connect onto the protect of the Incineroar.
So this Toxapex is not going to be dealing any real damage anymore,
at least until the Encore ends or it switches out.
But all of the damage has already been done.
This Toxic is adding up so quickly, the Infestation Charizard is already so low.
There's only a couple more turns remaining for Charizard to be one more for Winsicott.
And being locked in Infestation is not ideal here, but I don't know if it really matters.
Yeah, and also worth noting to the doubt expired for now as well
Of course, you'd assume that there's a Charizard lurking in the back though
I don't know that it's too likely that Giovanni Charizard is going to be lucky enough to escape and reset its own drought
Yeah, with the drought ending here Charizard loses access to that super powered weather ball
Which would be basically the only thing capable of breaking through that proxopex at this point
Even with the resisted damage aint your power just doesn't have enough damage on its own if it's not a super effective hit
And yeah, this Tox effects has slowed this entire game down, Antonio just going for the
double protect option on Incineroar does not get it, but is able to survive another ancient
power because of that citrus fairy.
That means that Wimzicop also has to swing at the Incineroar, finally picks up the KO
there, knocks out the Incineroar as it's going to continue to take that damage over time.
A little bit of infestation damage onto Wimzicop pushing it even closer with a huge critical
heads there as Toxatex feels all the way back up. Who needs to switch out and get regenerator
active? It's already at 98%. And don't forget your rulers to note that the, that technically
do more damage is a critical hit. But you see the impact of Encore, however, with Windsor
Cap surviving this turn. The tailwind peter's out and, you know, if that Encore had not
occurred exactly when it did, the Toxatex almost certainly was going for a toxic into
the Windsor Cap that burned it. Would have caused it to faint before it could have set
tailwind. This is still not exactly a great situation on Giovanni side of the
field where you've got a poison vasculogen in the back and both these
Pokemon about to be knocked out and a poison vasculogen well actually but at
least you could get a tailwind to try to close out the game as quickly as
possible here with a whizzicott and charizard on their last leg. If the
whizzicott had been knocked out I think this is a much more dire situation for
Giovanni so great job hitting the anchor exactly when you need to. Yeah this is a
really awkward position here for Antonio also the whizzicott may be close to
being released from the infestation, which makes this protect kind of risky here.
Wimzacot is able to reset the tailwind here, it expiring exactly when Giovanni needed it
too.
There is the ancient power, one last attempt from the Charizard as Poxifex trying to get
a little bit of damage down on to the Wimzacot there with a normal infestation but did not
get a critical hit.
The Charizard will go down to the poison here, but this Wimzacot needs to be able to be released
from the infestation, and it is.
That was the end of the infestation,
turns four, Whimzacot, and now Charizard
can be on board into that protect.
Yeah, that's not what you typically think of
as an explosive play, but that could be huge,
just the two Pokemon remaining.
I think now, Antonio's probably in a position
where you have to go for the double protect on Charizard,
and I hope that Octapax can pick up that big knockout.
You know, we're kind of missing a lot of that.
Whimzacot's on foot, but this time,
it's Octapax who needs to pretend to be a center here
and try to bail out its friend.
I don't think we've seen any successful double protect for Antonio so far.
He's set.
So he's due.
So he's due.
Yeah.
So that's how it works.
He would have hit.
So hey, maybe we'll go in here.
We'll see it here.
Although I was caught chopped by Trig to field on the other side.
I may not matter all that much where Charizard is going to be in trouble either way though.
You know, a wide guard I guess would help out Mary if Charizard is able to avoid getting
out for it.
All right.
But this is going to be very important.
And Charizard needs to hit a double protect to avoid getting locked into protect by Encore
from Winsicott.
Antonio will need that damage.
Charizard does not get the double protect.
No double protect for Antonio.
And actually going to Encore into the Toxapex instead.
Giovanni realizing Antonio has to go for the double protect anyway.
Let me just make sure this Toxapex can't do anything.
Such smart targeting there from Giovanni.
risky, but it pays off. And the Dragonclaw kind of clumped there too, kind of covers for a couple of different options. If there's been a wide guard instead, you avoid riffing after kind of like embarrassing locking your opponent into wide guard. But also, hey, you know, with the Dragonclaw, you know, get some safe damage down. The Tri-Guard's still checked, right? You get the risk of missing, and it's not going to be able to do anything for the remainder of the game. And, you know, the fast-allegent now entering the battlefield. These hook one are both on timers, but they're both going to threaten a lot of damage with fast-respecting Dragonclaw and tax-effects. Things are still in the way, but they're still in the way. And, you know, they're still in the way, but they're still in the way, but they're still in the way, but they're still in the way, but they're still in the way,
not over, but I don't know if it's actually able to pull this one off with that. Perhaps a series of double
triple...
Yeah, there are both basket legion and Garchomp are on timers,
but the timer is still very generous at this stage of the game.
Although basket legion and Garchomp both do tend to deal damage to themselves when they are attacking.
Of course, basket legion most likely choosing to lock into the last respects instead keep its timer as long as possible.
Antonio is going to need to start getting some of those double attacks.
Yeah, but hey, you know, we've seen it happen before, and that's what's so scary about TAC's effects.
It doesn't even when things go really wrong, there's still that chance that it's like, hey, you know,
probably be able to survive one round of attacks.
Well, you can potentially be able to survive one round of attacks against it, and maybe that's enough.
A Charizard going to go down immediately here, but that does give TAC's effect a turn to try to make something happen.
Yep, there goes Charizard and more recoil damage from the Life Orb.
Here's the last respects, more than 50% damage on to Toxapec, it cannot take another last
respects and Baskaligeon is still so healthy.
Of course, having switched out, it reset the Toxa timer on the Baskaligeon, so Toxapec
needs a lot of turns of baneful bunkers here in order to actually survive through this
offense from Baskaligeon and Garchomp.
Yeah, Chet, I'll spare you from the attempt to do the very incorrect math on how many
baneful bunkers are required, but it's definitely more than two.
Yeah, we may find out all together, or we may never know.
It could be impossible to figure out.
Yeah, maybe the greatest finds in mathematicians in the community can figure this out.
I think it's four, but I don't like strongly think.
Yeah, you're not willing to risk it all on four painful bunkers.
Yeah, I feel like we're probably not going to find out at this one.
But hey, you know, we've seen Stranger Things.
We've seen two ancient power boosts in this set.
I think probably the odds of facts about surviving here are probably higher than that, so you can do the math in that too if you want, but maybe don't tag me.
Well, if we assume that we are just going to see multiple baneful bunkers here, and if we assume that Giovanni is going to be able to get the win, actually Antonio decides to do it.
That is something I want to.
Thank you, Antonio. You have saved me some vamping for the end of this match, and we are going into game three. Giovanni picking that game to very strongly.
So, I mean, we're talking about the question of the day.
Encore, right?
Encore, yes.
The Winsicott adjustment is huge for Giovanni there.
So, I think that's interesting, dude.
We're talking between the games that Winsicott was sort of a difficult Pokémon to bring
because of the tight matchup, but getting it just to be right at the time there, able
to be so impactful on this game with Encore, and then really showing also how impactful
was to get into the battlefield at the right time.
It got in right as Garchomp did.
I did dodge that rock slide, which kept me for the time.
I go, maybe you want Wemsikat to get knocked out.
I think if that rock side connects that extra damage,
causes Wemsikat to go down, you don't get the tail in,
you don't get the encore's later.
I think it really changes how the end of that battle
plays out.
But regardless, really well played on Giovanni's side
throughout the course of that game,
doing a nice job of avoiding getting in negative positions,
limiting tox effects, and impact,
although certainly still the MVP of that matchup
for Antonio's side of the field.
Absolutely.
Definitely great call out there on the rock slide
miss of the Whimsicott as well.
It's something we've been sort of seeing over and over again.
We talked about it in game one with the bakeout damage
from the Incineroar.
Every little piece of chip damage
matters on a ToxEffects team against their opponent.
Because you need to keep those turns.
You need to be able to keep the KO
before the infestation releases.
And they can switch out or survive the one extra turn
they need.
And missing that rocks like allowed that Whimsicott
to hang around for probably two or three more turns
than it would have otherwise.
Yeah, and I think that's kind of the margins
that we see for these games here,
where it's just kind of how it plays out with ToxaFactus.
You're not going to win or lose by a lot.
We saw how impactful that critical hit infestation was.
It did like 4% instead of 3.
And because of that, you really need
to get the damage where you can get it,
if that's going to be your win condition,
or to avoid it from the other side.
It's a tiny bit of damage mitigation
can matter if often come down to one or two turns of damage
over time, effect one direction or the other.
Either side could definitely win.
We see him up over the course of the game,
but now he's going with his decisive moves.
Three of those players trying to pick up their ninth game,
off to see what they've chosen to lead.
All right, they're going for their ninth win,
and Antonio has chosen his third lead combination
while Giovanni is sticking with the tried and true,
the guard top and Charizard.
Antonio will continue to lead the incinerator,
this time paired alongside his own Charizard.
Yeah, and I, you know, Incinerator looking pretty good again,
where it's had some interesting paths to these games,
but Garchomp and Charizard kind of both struggling
to deal with the Incinor.
So you like that side of the field.
Again, Charizard into Garchomp, that's great,
but with the Intimidate down,
you would at least survive a rock slide.
So you have some options though.
The threat of the Ancient Power making it difficult
to actually go for one.
However, and all the previous times we've seen that,
there's been no attempt to go after Antonio's Charizard,
the Ancient Power because it's too risky of a player.
Like, I don't think we've perceived it goes for it,
We're on TV, we don't want to do anything silly.
Not going to risk everything there.
Charizard has to retreat.
Too much pressure from the Charizard and Garchomp on Giovanni's side.
It's going to be a mega evolution from Giovanni to immediately set the stun
and get the stat boost onto Charizard.
Bakeout onto Garchomp will prevent it from going for an attack here,
killing a little bit of damage back with the rough skin.
There is the Ancient Power.
This time connects onto Garchomp.
Garchomp Antonio every time a third boost three for three in games here this
Charizard is pretty scary. The Charizard wants to be world champion it's going to do whatever it takes.
That's incredible. A great move too also. It's going to be using the perhaps you
could riskally leave the Charizard in there. We're not have gone well if that
had occurred there. So Garchomp going to take less damage but either way that
Gooseboots opposing Charizard pretty scary. The good news is you do have
Garchop in the center out in the field to help deal with this Charizard, which is probably the combination of two Pokemon that would be ideal.
But very quickly a threat you're going to need to deal with as now this Charizard has somehow managed to get boosted three games in a row.
Absolutely, and it's so scary because in addition to the speed and special attack, it also has a defense boost.
It means it definitely survives this choice scarf Garchomp's rock slide.
Here it comes. You can see all, but it actually breaks through the boost there. Super effective damage on the Charizard and it's a critical.
And Antonio's Garchomp wants to be a world champion just as badly as Giovanni's Charizard.
And now Garchomp is able to fire back a life warp boosted earthquake with the Intimidate Down.
Both Incineroar and Garchomp are able to survive that handily, while Incineroar is able now to heal up with the Citrus Berry,
become healthy once again, and finally start pivoting, getting a parting shot down onto that Garchomp, now at minus two.
Now that's a huge pardon shot and a huge stock out as well.
We often talk about how important probability management is in the post-match video game championships.
You can't always have a 100% chance to secure the pack to take the dip to managerize.
This is the game where this doesn't really what's happened, right?
We have a very low percentage option causing huge swings in the game.
First, the ancient power boost, three games in a row.
I've been completely negated by that critical hit.
Critically, critical hits do ignore boosts to defensive stats,
So that Charizard was acting as if it was at neutral defense and then because of that the critical hit enough to knock it out
I would have actually taken that rock slide pretty well
We're probably done about half without any critical hit
But the choice graph also critical there where that really the game wouldn't have been quicker than the Charizard
To begin with the stuff that speed boost but you get back with both Pokemon having one level of increased speed the naturally faster
Charge up able to move first get that big knockout and keep Antonio in this game after it was starting to otherwise
What kind of bleak? Yeah, it was looking extremely bleak, but the critical hit has allowed Antonio to get right back in here and with the
Toxpex on the field after getting who a tack drop down onto that gar jump feeling pretty good about itself right now
King Gambit is coming out. So back to game one's plan for Giovanni
Probably means that that whimsicott has been left back at home
So Toxpex should feel comfortable to do whatever it wants to here
Yeah, Toxtapex maybe going to be the focus once again though.
I think the enemy is going to get in safely this time.
Not infested, doesn't have to worry about being toxic as a field type Pokemon.
So, you know, perhaps if he gets there looking for some damage onto the Scarchomp from his friends,
they're doing a good spot.
I can get the weakness of the Scarchomp.
He's locked in that rock slide, so almost certainly going to lift and leave battle here.
So, there's an opportunity for Giovanni.
You know, later on, he's going to need to look for some damage to the Scarchomp.
It is not yet in Sucker Punch range.
Well, Garchomp is able to fire off a rock slide,
getting some chip damage down onto both the Basque Legion
that has switched in for Giovanni as Garchomp.
Another crit onto the King Gambit.
A crit click.
And a flinch, like I said.
And Antonio Garchomp wants to be world champion.
Yeah, it's got like the little Nile-Labe angry thing
at its forehand where it's like,
that's enough ancient power boost.
So take good care of this.
There's the toxic that lands onto the Basque Legion as well.
So that is important chip damage onto Vasco legion is an important miss turn from King gambit and now Vasco legion is stacking that toxic damage
Yeah, that's big too living without the
Charging of Vasco legion kind of like the next scariest threat on the team, but already taking a bunch of damage and critically
Not enough of its friends have been knocked out yet only one boost to that last respect and because of it having to flee battle here
GARCHOP point should come back out.
Yet another turn where Giovanni is just allowing this choice scarf GARCHOP to fire off ROXLITE
after ROXLITE.
Not very effective to both of these Pokemon here but King Gambit is finally able to fire
back with a Kowtow cleave.
Not enough to pick up the KO onto GARCHOP on its own that will mean another turn of rough
skin damage onto that GARCHOP or another turn of ROXLITE chip onto the King Gambit either
way that is good news for Antonio, but Giovanni has now successfully been able to get that
Garchomp back in without the Intimidate drops, but now has been infested, still has a clock
on it.
It does have the timer, though critically, Fesculigian, avoiding the damage there, of
course it's like kind of a better Pokemon to invest as it goes, tapping into trapping
effects, but maybe a great read there as well.
Garchomp's really done a job here, right?
I think the duck kind of charges out of loans, like you did it, buddy, great job, but it's
really continued to whittle down that King Gamma, of course the most difficult Pokemon
for TAC to deal with because it can't TAC to kick.
So you would love even more rust and damage
than effectively removing two turns of infestation
that would otherwise be required.
And hey, you know, the rock slide chip
could batter a little bit too.
We've seen how big a difference that one percent can make
when these damage over time effects
are dealing set amounts of damage.
So it's also chip and also the potential for king damage
to flinch every time a rock slide connects.
Yeah, could be sucker punch here now
after the couch out please to put it in range,
but it doesn't have to be right.
And maybe if you get cheeky, like, hey,
I don't care that much about rock slide.
I'm gonna go after Taksa back instead.
My Garchup, he did a little more damage, yeah.
Yep, no Sucker Punch here.
That just means both Garchup and King Gambit
have to tank these Rock Slides.
Will there be a Flex?
There's one on Garchup, two on King Gambit.
No, but it did target it into the baneful bunker.
So this Garchup, it can't keep getting away with this.
Yeah, I mean, this is what happens
when you ignore choice Garchup, right?
You know, sometimes it's gonna miss all the Rock Slides
and do nothing, but often it's just going to stop
all of your Pokemon from moving forever.
And that seems to be what's happening here.
I'm curious what that Garchomp was using to attack where it's like somewhat likely it was a double of the Tox effect
where the Flix Faye actually had been better to avoid the poison unless he wanted the Garchomp to go down maybe
which I think is fairly unlikely here, but starting to really run out of HP on Giovanni's side of the field
only two more turns of infestation tick on that Garchomp, if Tox effect is able to stand in the field though
again I would expect to double up here now
however if you double up to try to pick up Tox effect I think you're probably going to post short of anyway
There's the threat of that rock slide once again.
Yep, there is always the threat of the rock slide.
You know, it has 30% chance to flinch if it connects, 90% chance to connect.
Wide guard coming out from Toxapexo, trying to prevent an earthquake coming out from Giovanni's side.
Another rock slide, another connect onto both Garchomp and King Gambit.
Does Giovanni get to move this time? Well, he does, but the wide guard calling it out.
Rock slide whips into the wide guard and now King Gambit finally launches an attack
which into the Tox effects with no defiant boost. Tox effect shrugs off that cow tower, please.
That's just not enough, right? And now Tox effect is going to be able to protect out this
next turn. Probably can't even more HP back. And we see that both of them are dead already.
That's a forward as Antonio Sanchez has punched his ticket into the top cut of our world championships
with some incredible talks of X-Play.
I think that was just amazing.
I can't imagine anybody looking to be in the top cut
is going to want to have to deal with Antonio
and his big elimination bracket.
Really brilliant solutions, really to all those games,
including the one for you, Fosk,
but especially game one and game three there.
The tactics just looked so powerful,
but his positioning was so good
throughout the entirety of the game.
And it navigates some really unfamiliar game states,
I'm sure, with Charleser getting those ancient power boosts
in all the games.
Yeah, look at this roller coaster right here.
We're so back. We're so back. We're so back. And then immediately afterwards, it's so over. It's so over.
The rocks like crit hurt my heart.
Charles are two and probably many of its bones as well. But I think that's just how you have to play in this format, right?
Where we kind of notice the same thing in regulation MA at the North America International Championships.
But there is a lot of variance in this format, right? Weird stuff is going to happen.
And if you're going to win this tournament,
you're just going to have to be able to navigate
the sea of strangeness that you're in.
You know, we have a lot of unfamiliar board states.
And I think you did a great job of kind of not letting things
get carried away, right?
I think it's very easy to tilt when not only one of the most
impactful 10% chances in the game occurs,
what happens, three games in a row.
But none of the times that it happened
it really seemed like it was like that big of a deal.
I don't think even the game that you lost,
each and every part wasn't really the reason.
So I mean, just a great job of controlling it, right?
Certainly we could have seen that third game go a very
different way without that critical hit,
but also would have gone a very different way with the ancient powers you begin with right.
So you know the game gives and it takes some time.
I think it was a very exciting set.
I think both players played really well right.
I think that must have been a very difficult and stressful game where both players probably like okay in turn one.
I'm kind of vision for this game.
You know turn two is going to go this way.
Turn three is going to go this way.
And I just got immediately thrown awry all three games.
So I think props to both of them for kind of staying locked in playing good sets and playing out all the games away where they could have won any.
Absolutely. When you have a
meta game like this that has so much variance in it,
you know, adding ancient power to Charizard adds variance to the game.
It adds that chance to get those temperate boosts for the ancient power to all of your stats.
Having Choice Carve Garchomp locked into Rockslide, it adds all that variance.
You have to be able to improvise. You have to be able to adapt.
I think you're so right. A lot of players see that ancient power boost on Charizard and think,
okay, well, this is, it's over. I have now the strongest Pokemon in the game.
I basically have a mini Zernius on the field, but it's Charizard Y now.
How do I adapt to it? And Antonio stayed really calm and collected and was able to find an outpour each one of that time for that to happen.
Yeah, I think another thing I'm kind of lost for thinking about what that said too.
It is really interesting that the one game that Giovanni was able to win is the one that Whimsicott came, right?
Yeah. I think the game three adjustment to go back to the game one game plan is really interesting.
I don't think the game plan is really what caused the outcome, right? It's kind of a twisty and turny match.
Yeah, you know when they got looking very good in that matchup
I think you'll be interesting if you see women's effect versus packs effects again later in this tournament to see
Yeah, whether whims effect comes at all and then coming back cool
It is because now on course just so devastating that matchup absolutely well
That was such a fun match for us to watch and I can tell I can see across the way that my friends
Gabby and Ben are excited to talk about that matchup as well. So let me go ahead and toss it
Right over to y'all
I think we got it, Evan, I think we got it first time nailed it. Gabby and Ben here talking about that match and that was, I mean, that was the story of Toxpex, wasn't it? I mean, that was such a well played set by Antonio and I certainly think watching Antonio play in our European circuit.
I'm not surprised to see him have not just a little bit of a different way to play Toxa
Pets, but just such a controlled and such a composed way to play it as well.
Yeah, it felt like he wasn't trying to force Toxa Pets, you know, a lot of times, at least
when I'm trying to pilot those kind of teams, I feel like you want to flowchart it very aggressively.
You want to get your Toxa Pets in, you want to get your infestations in, and you want
to get those in early so you have the turn so that they start to add up.
You get that set up early on, but he felt like he was very okay with just letting it happen naturally
And he was okay with getting on toward into that infestation
He didn't really let it rattle him and I think that really paid off
Especially going into that game three when it felt like even though the game to game plan didn't quite work out
He still had it in control. He still knew his win conditions. Definitely
I think it's like that's the the real key there
I really like the call out game is like not trying to force it like right from right from the bat
I mean we saw it in some of the early games
It did, of course, like Toxic Peck stars, stick around on the field quite a long time.
Yeah.
But it was in a good spot for most of those times.
And I've got a sneaking suspicion that, you know, if it was ever really under that much
threat that Antonio would have repositioned it.
Of course.
And I used his Pokemon really, really effectively.
So rather than diving into a specific turn in that match, because spoilers, there was
quite a few of them across the match, we're just going to kick it over to just a little
just a little bit of a look at the matchup and a little bit of a reminder of some of the open lists we go of these trainers.
And so, yeah, looking at these, this matchup here, we talked about it already, Toxapex being the real star of the show.
And I thought we'd take some time to like break down why Toxapex works in a little bit more detail.
Yeah, I like that. I mean, you know, at face value, I think the concept is pretty simple, you know, damage over time.
It's this idea that you can get toxic toxic pecs toxic set up onto the opposing Pokemon the damage that it deals onto the opposing Pokemon will increase every single turn it remains on the field.
It will reset whenever that Pokemon is switch off of the field and set back onto the field.
Then you pair it with infestation, which as long as the toxic pecs remains on the field and infestation is active, that Pokemon can't switch out.
So it's very synergistic.
So completely just making sure those top six rack up their turn after turn sometimes you go for the baneful bunker
And if a Pokemon uses a contact move on you then you become poisoned and you can be locked in
I think that one of the cool things about toxic pecs and it's like mega Gengar, but like mini mega Gengar like mega Gengar at home
Right? Yeah, because if your toxic pecs is sitting in a matchup against King Gambit that hasn't had a defiant boost
maybe sitting there in front of a flowette, specifically in these sort of matchups.
Even in this case, a guard chomp has only got earthquake and therefore can be blocked from doing any damage because of wide guard.
You can sort of trap in those Pokemon. It also traps the Toxopex in as well.
And like, sometimes a player will switch in a Pokemon, you get the infestation on there and it's like, well, are you locked in here with me or am I locked in here with you, right?
right? But it's a great way for a control player like Antonio to be able to shut off the options
that their opponent has to be able to switch because you look at this whole team, it loves
to be able to switch around, it loves to be able to reposition, it wants to be able to get the
whimsicott in and out, it wants to be able to get the basquit legion in at the right time,
wants to be able to reset that sun with the Charizard. There's so many things that this
team likes to do to switch around and then Toxapex comes up as they're like, nah, we're
not letting it happen.
Yeah, and to carry the comparison all the way through, you know, unlike Mega Gengar,
this isn't your Mega Pokemon, it's a lot more bulkier and it can carry that Leftovers
recovery item with it.
So overall, it's there to stay on the field, it's there to enable its partner to deal that
big damage, and it allows you to play a slower, more control-oriented game, whereas with Mega
the Gengar and those pair song teams,
you're really looking for those key three turns.
And I think that gives players like Antonio
the ability to run these teams
that look more like the big six,
which the number is a little bit bigger than six, if you will.
I feel like it's getting a little more wishy-washy,
if you will, as we get through the tournament
and pair that wish with Toxapex
and play it in a different, a very different way,
but still sort of accomplish that same goal
if you have this Pokemon to deal the big damage
and Toxapex is there, it's just too dangerous.
Definitely, and so there's something else
that Toxapex can enable, and we're just gonna go
over to Antonio's open team list here.
I wanna call out the item choice here
on the Garchomp is going for a choice scarf
and being able to lock a Pokemon in with Infestation
and then to be able to then pick your moves
the choice scarf Pokemon. In this case, Garchomp. Like you can lock a Garchomp in one of the famous
things like Garchomp versus Garchomp. Dragonclaw is not strong enough to knock out an opposing
Garchomp. It always lives with just that few percent remaining. And the combination of being
able to train your Garchomp to be Adamant as a stat alignment instead of Jolly, doing that
little bit more damage. After 12% at least from infestation going into it, suddenly,
guard chomp on the opposite side of the field is in KO range and your choice staff guard chomp,
you don't have to risk the speed tie between these two. Pokemon, you can just go straight on the
offensive, knock it out and then like looking at the rest of if we go over to, we go over to Giovanni's
team, it's only the guard chomp that has that earthquake there to be able to do super effective
damage. Nothing else on the rest of the team is doing super effective damage into Toxpex and that's
one of, if not one of the multiple reasons that it does so well. Yeah and I think we saw that
interaction a couple of times in that last set and I'm sure it came up multiple times throughout
the tournament as Garchomp has been one of the most popular Pokemon here on the field.
Definitely. And then you know in this going back to this matchup set we saw in game two certainly
the Whimzacock putting some on-clip pressure to like stop the Toxpex doing what it did. But
But also big shout outs Giovanni, like I said it during during the previous round
I've never seen the ancient power acceleration in our stream matches even on the online ladder
And then the Giovanni's like just hold my drink
It's just going to get it getting it every single time this charizard charizard getting ancient power boost is it?
Scott Scott was calling it out on the broadcasts, right?
it's so so powerful it creates so much of a positive threat but again going back
to this Toxifex we're gonna we're gonna keep rooting everything back to Toxifex
right because you know you've got the wide guard but also like with with the
the fact that this Charizard here it's going for and it's going for
heatwave and ancient power and weather ball right and so you don't have the
Super you don't have the solar beam to do like neutral damage. You only have that fire type damage into the tox effects
and so
Even if you get the on the boost is not doing as much as you want it to because
Everything's focused down into that toxic extra trying to keep the game alive and Antonio was so smart that he didn't even mega evolve
His own Charizard so that he didn't reset the Sun so weather ball
Yeah, didn't even get that fire typing back in some of those endgame scenarios like the way that he was
positioning this Toxapex, what even beyond the Toxapex itself, itself, it was so well played.
Very, very much so. I mean, the game that Giovanni was able to come out victorious,
the on-call was able to come in really clutch in that situation, but like, it still took the
combination of Basque and King Gambit, two of the strongest physical attackers in the game,
going for last respects, which is one of the most powerful moves in the game.
That wasn't enough to finish it off and then the King Gambit comes in with the Caltau cleave to close the game
But it's so hard to get into that position because you're not able to switch through the match
You're not able to get yourself into a good spot
So I'm really impressed with how both of these players really approach the match up and how
Both like Antonio was going for the same strategy like pretty consistently overall
Yeah, but Giovanni was mixing things up and trying to find those little like little holes to prod into to find a way around this talk to face
He did it really really well. He did yeah
And I think that just goes to show the caliber of the players we have competing at this point
that was a win-and-in matchup for our asymmetrical top cut and
It's only gonna get more difficult from here as we have what one more round of Swiss to go
So this is going to be the last opportunity these trainers have to prove themselves in the 2026 season as if they don't win this round
Game over game over. Well, it could be game over for some of these trains
Probably not for some others. We'll have to see who's gonna be making it into our asymmetrical top cup
But we're gonna go to a quick break right now and we'll be back with our next round of Swiss here at the Pokemon World Championships
people come to Pokemon from all walks of life so I'm gonna have a wonder around here at the Pokemon World Championships in San Francisco
and I'm gonna get some people's stories.
My both my boys are into Pokemon and it became a family event some time for us to share and bond together
and so you know I picked it up over time and started getting a little bit better at it and sometimes I have to lean on them for support to help me catch some of them
but, you know, I'm still learning and enjoying it.
I originally grew up on Pokemon, you know, so born in 89,
so big, big Charizard, the original 151.
What brought me here was about six years ago,
I got back into playing and collecting.
Eventually, I went to Pokemon Store and then started to
sponsor players and play with them,
and then now I have players that play in Worlds every year.
Well, it started from when I was really little,
back when Pokemon cards first started coming out.
I played with my brother and grew up loving the video games
as well, so on the original Game Boy too.
But as far as getting here to hear and everything,
I first saw worlds on stream about two years ago.
So back when it was in Hawaii, it looked amazing
and I made it a mission every year to go
to every world after that.
So it's been a dream.
So now I'm playing the TCG competitively.
I'm going to make it as a qualifier next year,
but it's been a dream just to be here as a spectator.
Well, my grandson plays.
He's been playing for years.
Was ranked pretty high in the US,
but he's been worlds for like this is fifth or sixth worlds.
This is our third one that we played
at his grandparents coming for sporting.
So we're just supporting him.
And when he's playing and you got a bit of time to yourself,
what do you find yourself doing?
Walking around trying to stay busy.
Because watching the game does me no good.
Now that we've heard everybody else's stories,
it's time for you to ask yourself,
how are you going to get to Worlds next year?
They say every Pokemon is somebody's favorite.
We're testing that at the World Championships here
in San Francisco.
I'm going to find some players, and I'm
going to ask them who their favorite is.
favorite Pokemon is Mewtwo. I think I just liked the way he moved, you know, his style,
his kind of sleep, and you know, I enjoy playing with him. And actually when I catch one, I'm
happy and excited.
I think everyone is happy when they catch a Mewtwo. That is a powerful Pokemon.
My favorite Pokemon is Milotic. I just think it looks really nice. And I'm a little bit
sad because when it's printed in cards, it's usually some kind of like walling defensive
Pokemon and that's not my playstyle but I hope the one day I can play with my
Lodex. So right now my favorite is actually Greninja I've just loved it's
in the anime, loved it since I was maybe like ten years old it's just a cool
ninja Pokemon that's it basically. Have you ever got to play a Greninja deck in
the TCG? The mega Greninja deck yeah but I chose to play
festival eat this weekend.
Drutini, Dragonair and Dragonite grew up on the original 151 and I liked the fact that
they swim and then eventually could fly and then ice cream too.
How long did it take you to get your Dragonite fully evolved when you first played the game?
Before the Elite Four for sure.
So we're talking about level 60.
My favorite Pokemon is Drutini.
I really like the two forms that he has.
And I like it because I played Lostbox, and it was a very fun deck.
And the Dua Kina was really good on that time.
My favorite Pokemon is Mega Manetric, because he has a big hair,
and he has a matte face when he gets Mega.
I'm going to be the best answer I've heard all day.
My favorite Pokemon has got to be Rayquaza.
I just think the Delta episode is really cool, and I like its dynamic with Geosas.
My favorite Pokemon is Metagross, and I'm wearing it here today at my first ever world.
Why Metagross? It's just really cool, isn't it? It's like powerful, it's got a mega, the shiny's really cool.
I'm actually using it in Champions, which is amazing because in the Trading Card game, you don't always get to use your favorite Pokemon, but now I get to do that.
So yeah, it's always been my favorite.
My favorite Pokemon is Speel because I think it's really cute and yeah, I have a whole collection at home. She's all of the cards
How big a collection we talking?
She's like all I have one of these and then I'm trying to get people to sign them, but yeah still working on that collection
My favorite Pokemon is Oranguru and it comes back from a control deck with Pidgeotto
That was premiered at one of the world championships and I continued to play that after and after and that was until
until Sort and Shields, where the new turn one rules came out,
and then that deck sort of went off.
My favorite Pokemon is Kallili.
It's because I play Unlimited 20 years ago.
It's very good.
I choose this.
I tried to say Samura instead of Oshawa,
because I realized not enough people appreciate Samura,
because he's on all fours.
I guess that's the whole reason people are like,
He's the worst of the line. I don't know you haven't played the same rock. You haven't played. You haven't gotten into level 100 at least
30 different times
I think you might be the biggest time around I've ever met and I say that with nothing but love. It's actually Zorua
It is Zorua. So I am cosplaying as Evie because Evie merch is really easy to get a hold of
Zorua because I really like black and white. It was the era that I grew up playing
But I really did like the gimmick of like
Transforming into a different Pokemon and switching out and being able to basically trick your opponent
My favorite Pokemon is ditto because he is the biggest reminder that you really can be and do anything that you put your mind to
So there we go. We've met some players. We found their favorite Pokemon and now it's time for you to think who's your favorite?
Pokemon World Championships in San Francisco, California.
We are one round away from being at our top cut,
which is where the best of the best around the world
will battle it out in that single elimination bracket.
So let's find out who those camp players are going to be.
Hi, Aaron, how you doing today?
I'm doing well.
Hey guys, Aaron Cybertron-Zeng.
We're here with another episode of World to Top Cut.
It's gonna be a banger because we've got Emilio and Rogov,
two of the greats from North America, actually two Bay Area locals as well with the World
Championships being in San Francisco. Imagine just how much it would mean to them to be
able to top good worlds here. Imagine though that you have battled all the way through
the bracket in the Swiss rounds just to face off against one of your locals. It happens
sometimes that's the nature of these competitions and just the caliber of the player that we
have here. But let's take a look at our standings one final time so that you can see who is
in the running to be a part of that top cut.
If you were at nine and one,
you've already locked your spot there.
You can take a loss and you're going to be there
no matter what.
So congratulations to Zachary Weed and Tonio Sanchez,
Kerry D'Ortona and Shohei Kimura for all making it there.
But if you're at eight two, this is the final hurdle.
You've got to win this one and you are in
to the World Championships top cut.
Yeah, and it's an unbelievably stacked list of players.
Even just looking of course at our nine and one
He's got Joe Haykrimmer, the only remaining world champion, previous world champion looking
to potentially get a second title.
He's like absolutely dominant in this tournament, right?
I feel like there is no one in the world that can pilot the kind of standard compositions
better than him.
And I think all eyes are definitely on him, but you know, Kerry Zachary has definitely
been to a really strong place for North America.
Zach said an amazing season, right?
He got second at Regionals, second at UIC, now top in the world championships to have
that kind of dominance throughout an entire year is really difficult.
And for Antonio and Kari, these are players that have won regional championships before.
And now here are at the world's stage.
And yeah, already punching their ticket, let's feel relieving, you know,
to have secured a top cut slot before the last round.
And it's just such a major accomplishment, too,
that you get to say that you top cut the world championships.
But the job's not done yet.
So let's turn our attention to the competitors
that are going to be facing off against each other in this round to win and in.
Emilio Forbes versus Raghav Malaviya is going to be the match that we focus on our stream
here but we are going to be broadcasting some of the other matches on this list on the feature
streams so make sure that you go check those out as well.
There are some heavy hitting matches in these winning ends.
Yeah I mean every single one of them I wish we could watch.
We had the pleasure of watching both Chloe and Philippe yesterday win on streams with
some unique picks, whether it be Cleaver, Mega Metagross on Chloe's team or the Mega
Blaziken and Pre-Marina on Philippe's team.
So both of them have a chance to take their unique picks into Worlds top cut.
You also have Hiroshi who of course won the Japanese national championships, came into
this tournament with a lot of pressure.
All eyes are always on the Japanese national champion.
He is one game away from potentially making it to his first Worlds top cut as well.
of other incredible players there as well. And you know, a lot of North American representation
actually would just for his world's top cut. Now, Joshi, who got top eight at the World
Championships in 2024, looking to get his second top cut, just so much representation.
And I can't wait to see how the results shake up. But it's going to be a really, really
grueling match for all of these players. Let's get started and take that one step closer
seeing our final competitors that will make it into the top cup bracket. Emilio Forbes versus
Raghav Malaviya, we got the mega aerodactyl and Rycheu for Emilio and it's going to be this dual
weather team from this team building group, the mega Swampert and the mega Charizard. Raghav's
going to be the strongest soldier left amongst this group. Yeah I think Raghav's team is the team
that a lot of players expect to see at this tournament but Emilio's team is honestly quite
different, right? We have, of course, the Serena. That is a Pokemon that has not appeared on the
World Championships stream yet this year. The really valuable pick, of course, the Blocked
Makeout from the opposing side and potentially Grimstone's parting shot. In addition, you've
got the Dual Mega pairing of Aerodactyl and Raichu. And I think Amelia has quietly been one of the
coolest team builders in North America. Of course, you got second at the World Championships
many, many years ago using a semi-perish mode with Mega Gengar. And I was expecting him to
to actually just bring Wimpscott Flow at Charizard
to this tournament.
And so when I saw that this was the team he locked in,
I popped off.
Well, if you squint a little,
then maybe like this arena looks like a Wimpscott
and the Aerodactyl's just a different color Charizard.
You know, the pieces are kind of all there.
But if you take a closer look on this team,
you can kind of see where you still have a similar utility
to a lot of those Pokemon.
Got tailwind on this Aerodactyl,
despite the fact that it can make it evolve,
you're going to actually take away one of those
offensive slots like I spanked in favor of having that speed control option.
Yeah, and Raichu and Aerodactyl as a dual mega pairing is cool because you can bring bold into a battle and just choose not to mega evolve a lot, right?
Regular Raichu, we've seen a lot of high level players at this tournament bring solely for fake out, a turn of lightning rod potentially, which is really relevant in this matchup.
Given that there's Archalodon on the opposing side, of course, you also have Focus Blast.
and Serena here is used as an offensive pick over Phyrigraaff, which is normally used on
compositions like this to block that fake out. And of course, Serena has a lot of damage
output here. I mean, we're staring down Omega Swampert on the opposing side. Well, Serena
says, look, I can just power whip you and get a one hit knockout onto it.
I think that's why Serena has been that sneaky pocket pick. That grass type offense is something
that cannot be ignored in a meta like this. You see a lot of Pokemon teams, including
the game. And it's just been
so popular this weekend. It
has. Yeah, and Raghavs team
seen multiple times on the
stream. Of course, what makes
it so powerful is the
flexibility to use sun as well
as rain. One of the adaptations
on this team from when it
initially debuted is cars are
now running hurricane and
megastorm, which is one of the
most popular teams in the
now running Hurricane and mega Swampert taking over Vasculation, which was initially on this
composition. And so you can do a lot of cool things, of course, using Peloper to switch
in, turn that weather ball into a water type attack, also make Hurricane accurate as well,
and you can flex between the dual mega picks. Now I think on paper, Swampert actually looks
insanely powerful here, right? But you do have to beat the Serena. If you're able to
clear Serena, then Swampert suddenly feels like you can actually potentially get a one
hit knockout onto any of Emilio's Pokemon, but the Serena having focus Ash
means that that's a big hurdle to clear. I feel like though we could maybe
anticipate that Raghav could have that mega charge card but not mega evolve it.
Just try to go for a hurricane while the Peloponnes on the field and then have
that Swamper in the back to clean up once you have removed that threat. Yeah
definitely I think that's one of the interesting things that you can do with
this team is that both Charizard and Swamper can be brought into the same
battle. This is one of my favorite things about dual mega teams because I was just saying
that Emilio could do that with Aerodactyl on Raichu. My big question for Emilio is
yeah how comfortable do you feel with Aerodactyl because it's very good at the Charizard and
obviously good at the Venusaur, very bad at the Swamper and our Chalodon. But here we
go win and in for these two legendary players and the Swamper is going to start off the
battle immediately as there's no backup on Emilio's new PR.
But the pullover to set the rain so that swamper once if mega evolves can activate its
Swift swim get that additional speed boost but the Ciesler and the King Gambit on the other side
Both have ways to stop that with the priority option from the King Gambit and the fake out from the Ciesler
Yeah, exactly. I think Ciesler here likely wants to go for a fake out of a swamper.
Earthquake is just so threatening right now from it. King Gambit may be looking to then get a sword stand spot
I think for Emilio a lot about this game will likely be and I either just burst down the Swampert
Especially after we rocked out in the sword stance off
You know, I wouldn't expect actually a plus two life of sucker punch to get a one big nail
But maybe after a little bit of fake out chip damage you get there
Serena is gonna be really important
But you don't want to switch it in because then the focus session gets broken
Swampert's going to a mega-bomb on this first turn as it has to eat the fake out
So that could leave a vulnerable to an additional attack coming through from this King Gambit as
As Telepter nests the fire off a weather ball.
Going into the king damage, the rain is going to help boost up the power of that move,
so Bracelet can give it to a well-haven.
But a three sword and three sucker punches are about to hurt.
Yeah, this third is interesting, right?
The Sneezer also can do a little bit of additional chip damage because it has faith,
so you can theoretically get the extra trick like you need.
No for feints of sucker punches, it's a swapper.
Swapper though, so easily you can just switch out,
or you can even protect and say,
okay, you can break my protective cape,
but your sucker punch still won't be able to go through.
King Gambit actually crucially taking under 50% from that weather ball.
Garmel actually expect Pelopters' weather ball to do a little bit more.
So that's a big deal because it means even if you get the turn ball and you have Swapher,
Pelopter likely will not get the knockout on King Gambit.
So Swordsman, Slyphor, King Gambit, one of the biggest threats in the format.
And immediately we're actually off B4 for tech here.
So this guard shot, or sorry, does the Swapher just go for an earthquake?
It does, and Sleezer's just going to fall.
Yeah, no focus to be able to keep it around since that's going to be held on the Zarina.
a super effective attack, these are those down
without another fight in this first game.
Gonna give an option for Emilio to bring in
another Pokemon, but I'd like to protect here
from the King Yama as well, because you have to wonder
whether or not that our Chaladon is in the back.
If you add faith into that, then you do have to give
over a powerful stamina boost to that our Chaladon.
Yeah, I think that's a really great point.
And I think Emilio did us the opportunity
to just go for the fake sucker punch there, right?
And pretend to try to knock out Slumper.
Thing is, on these teams, I honestly expect Swamper to be incredibly bulky, so I'm not sure you can get the knockout with that combo,
but it's then sacrifice that is easier, and now you can see just how much of an offense it's read the mega Swamper poses, right?
It just can hit everything that Abeliel has brought for super effective damage right now.
So Ry2 comes in, you do have the ability of course to go for a fake out here, Swamper right now not wanting to fall to a fake out sacrifice combination.
Group Star is going to switch in, which then of course can set up the buff in the fall with her.
The Raiju though is going to use this opportunity to make it evolve.
Going to get that no guard ability so that these attacks can be 100% accurate from Zafcannon and Focus Blast as options here, but the Sucker Punch won't fail as that swap is good.
Raiju decides not to fake out on this turn, but for the Zafcannon to guarantee one hit knockout onto this Pelipper, this is going to be a final turn of reign for Raga to not reset that in this game one.
Yeah, so Raga up there gets around the sucker punch, but maybe hoping to see a double up onto that slot does not get an extra attack off with Pelopter.
Swamper is still posing a really big threat though, Grimstar now has the ability to go for something like that Reflect.
With Reflect up Swamper, should be able to survive the sucker punch from Kigandit.
However, you can double up onto Swamper with Focus Blast and the sucker punch, so if you're Raga you might want to protect Swamper instead of Light Green first and Reflect afterwards.
Sormiel is going to be the last one, actually no Serena in this game.
Hey, so that's going to reveal all the cards in Emilio's hand
in terms of the 4 Pokemon that he has brought to this game.
That King Gamut goes for the Sucker Punch F plus 2
with a bat sword stance.
It is not going to be enough to get the knockout
or the Swapper on this turn.
Swapper free to go for the Earthquake,
finish the damage off on the King Gamut,
and feel the on takes a good chunk too.
Yeah, over 50%, like this Swapper is just happy
to click Earthquake after Earthquake,
and with no air without the orb suing
being bought into the battle, really, really difficult to have good resistances, but like
you said, Rosemary, the rain is about to expire because Pelopter had fainted earlier, no ability
to reset it anymore, so that will give the speed advantage over to Raichu after this
turn.
Grimstar will now be pretty easily set up on Light Screen if you want, and Raichu, of
course, does the ability to go for Fake Ups.
You can Fake Up Swamper Hyper Voice, but if you think that the Swamper is going to go
for the Obvious Protect, well, you can then double up onto the Grimstar and actually deny
a Light Screen.
So really curious what Rockup's last Pokemon is because I think that Venusaur actually might be a little bit more useful over Archalodon.
Either way though, this turn, the key decision is who do you fake out with right here.
Archalodon would have to eat a Focus Blaster. I don't think that that's something that it will be able to do very well.
Sombra though is going to protect itself in danger of something like a fake out in the wild.
But Aelia does call it. The fake out into the Grimm style is going to deny a turn of setup from that Pokemon.
And we've got Goldner who will do this follow-up of the hyper voice coming out from the Sylveon.
That is a knockout, a great call there and Raghav now down to just two Pokemon left as well.
And you can see Raghav knew if I just clicked earthquake there that's probably a double knockout
and that's me going up 1-0 in this set, but that's a really difficult call to go for.
It is going to be our challenge on in the back as well, so like I said,
this might not be the perfect Pokemon for you to have in the back of that swamper.
now committed protect no more rain means that right you can just launch a focus last into it
my question is will right you do 30% to swamp or if you're not confident that you can quick attack
with the sovian to ensure that and the actually sovian here does not a quick attack and so you'd
have to go for a hyper voice instead but either way i think the swampert is the big offensive
there it goes for the double protect but does not get it so that is what you mean that sovian
actually can go for the protect here we're not going to see a selected attack on this turn but
The Ry2 tends to go for the Focus Blast, the KO of the Swampert, and it is enough to get the 30% over the line.
Archalon still has a chance to move in this final turn, but the Flash Cannon, Fliles, at the protect of the Stilvion, should be a locked game for Emilio in this game one.
Yeah, it was interesting because it felt like Swampert was just doing so much damage, but Raghav's teammates weren't able to accomplish very much, right?
And so Focus Blast comes out.
That alone is just gonna absolutely crush our Chaladon doing 85%.
A nice protect by Emilio as well.
I felt like this game was decided by the fake outfall,
that specific turn.
Hold on, he's faster than Sylvion,
so gets a dragon, pulls off,
and you can see right, she's so bulky actually.
I mean, you're taking 50% from that,
and a yawn from Sylvion here,
just to ensure our Chaladon's gonna fall asleep.
Yeah, this is just the safest way for you
to be able to get through this game.
I think you don't wanna open yourself up
to a critical hit from the Chaladon.
So this could be a very easy double protect from the Raiju and the Sylvia and let the Archialodon fall asleep.
And then you'll be able to finish it off from there.
Exactly. So this game was really close, right?
Like that one turn, if Raghav makes the hard call out and clicks Earthquake, I think, you know, that's the game.
For Raghav, I think there's also a couple of turns, maybe, you know, when the Hellaford just got one shot by the Zapcan and that potential could have been a pivot.
But Focus Blast is going to come out here, knock out the Archialodon,
and Emilio forks is going to go up 1-0
for a 4-0 point that all of the future
is to reflect the damage from Earthquake
and still manages to pull off the game.
That is just so impressive.
Because you're right, there was just so much pressure
that that Swalford was exerting turn after turn after turn.
And the fact that Emilio could sit there
and really think critically about,
can I get through this turn while throwing out attacks?
Do I really need to go for a protect?
And he always made the protect at the right moment,
especially with that Filmy on at the end.
And I think what I really liked about how Emilio
can maneuver that game is he sacrificed Sneasler
just kind of to get that initial fake out off,
but that was enough for the king game to get boosted
to scare away the Swamper.
So much about this matchup is
hitting that your Pokemon out at the right time, right?
If Swamper is not on the field,
Raichu is actually incredible.
It can one shot the Pelopyrus, we saw.
There's so much damage to our child on.
The fake out pressure from it is also great,
but Raichu is really, really bad into Swamper.
So if you're wrong on you,
ideally want your Swamper out on the field
while Raichu is out.
but the bait out to force swamper out allows Ryche to come in
and just really dominate for a couple of turns.
I do wonder if there was an opportunity
to still bring something like the Mega Charizard to this game.
Hindsight's always 20-20,
so after we get a chance to watch the game one-fold,
it's easy for us to look back
and notice those small things that could have made a difference.
But it's tough, because one of Emilio now decides,
okay, well, you think you're gonna bring Charizard,
it can just bring Iridactyl.
Yeah, yeah, there's this awkward tension.
I think the main thing is Charizard feels very awkward to bring
because it's like, who do you drop for it?
I think Raghav probably felt like, well,
my Pokemon choice is okay in that last one.
Let's see if there are any mix-up.
It is just gonna be Pelopter, Swamper once again.
So I think, yes, Swamper's switching out previously.
You know, it was a big deal.
This time it's a complete mix-up though,
Aerodactyl and Serena.
Oh, I really like this though,
because Aerodactyl does have that offensive pressure
onto something like the Pelopter.
You can just drop a Rock slide
or even try to force the Pelopter to go for wide guard so it's not going to go for an attack on this turn,
which really does keep this Zarina safe to go for a power whip into the Swamper.
Exactly, yeah, and I think what's so tricky here is if you're wrong, I'm going to use your Swamper,
well then the Raichu just takes over, right? So one of the questions I also have is did Amelia
potentially drop Raichu because he's committing to Aerodactyl and was expecting a Charizard mix-up?
I guess this is going to be regular Aerodactyl's note here with Mega Raichu in the back, but we'll have to see.
It's going to be a swap out of the Palipa. Preserve the rain for later and it's a double swap.
Did our Chowdhaw? It is our Chowdhaw.
That's a great thing to switch into into these physical attacks.
Absolutely. Erdastl, though, doesn't play into those hands. So that's the tailwind. Just to make
sure that you could actually get the speed control and the power whip. Those into the
Grimstone, but misses its target. I was laughing there because I was expecting to go into our Chowdhaw.
I was like no way but actually Emilio's calling out like the swapper was gonna protect her switch and poor child on
Unfortunately, she does miss onto a grim snarl so cost some free damage onto that slot a great reposition in my wrong
I think Emilio probably won the trade in terms of beats here
And as you saw iron actually did not make up awesome so expecting that right you to be in the basket here
Hey, right you it's a little risky. I feel like to bring it in
But as I say that we have to remember that right choose ability for a mega balls is lightning rod
So while the rain is active, our Chaladon does get a chance to have these one-turn Electro shots,
but that's not going to be something that's going to be able to land into either of these Pokemon as we see a
Double Switch come through from Emilio.
Raghav, though, great call. Joss goes for it, the Dragon Pulse into that slot.
Yeah, does not get baited into clicking Electro shot there or Flash Cannon even, so really nice call.
And this time around, actually does over 50% to Raichu with the Dragon Pulse, so looks like it is a roll.
right you now of course is out on the field has the ability to go for a fake
out and then the King Gambit can get a sword stance off but I rock up now you
know already able to get that reflect up it's probably gonna be pretty difficult
to deny the light screen because even if you take up rims normal King Kambick
can't follow up with a knockout but rock off recognizing hey fake out pressure is
online right now this is what I was saying I want to swap it out on the field
when right you's out on the field why not just switch out right now and it's
going to be a protective of right you so that it doesn't fall to a double up
from Disarchalodon the following turn.
The King Gambit is going to risk it all.
It goes for the sword stance to make sure it's going to get that sharp attack boost.
A Electro Shot now comes out.
I wonder if that Electro Shot was a prediction on Raichu to potentially switch out,
or saying I don't mind giving you a special attack boost
because I know I'm going to have the Swamper out on the field the next turn anyway.
And so, for Charalodon, every special attack boost that it gets is quite scary, right?
And the King Gambit you're taking advantage of the fact that I can just get a relatively free sword stance off,
reflect his up on the opposing side though right so the sucker punch is not as
threatening I don't think focused last plus sucker punch he even gets the knockout on to the
swamper right now if it does that would be really threatening but I think swamper is quite happy
about the position that is in because of its full HP it's not reflect up and it of course is in the
rain up against Ryche shoe. Yeah so even if you wanted to go for that double up that swamper is
going to be faster than the Ryche shoe here so you actually can't get that guaranteed damage off
So now what can Emilio do?
Both competitors have shown all four Pokemon that they have brought to the second game.
There's an Aerodactyl and a Zarina in the back for Emilio that you could use as defensive switches,
but either of them feel particularly good to switch into an attack from the Swampert on the other side.
So we see the commitment of the mega evolution from this Ryze U and Swampert for our competitors respectively.
So let's see how the rest of this turn plays out.
And my guess is a double protect here just because there's still one more turn to tail in here on Emilio then.
but it's not, it's actually just gonna be an attack on both.
So Focus Blast comes out.
Wow.
There's a lot to our Chaladon,
but it doesn't get the knockout.
No, it's gonna make it very, very close though,
but if there's a physical attack coming up
from this King Gambit,
then you will see that Samut Abuse activate,
but the earthquake just attacks the partner as well.
So, Raga does get the KO onto the ride too,
very close to the King Gambit,
thanks to that critical hit,
but you also knocked out your own partner, our Chaladon.
Yeah, it's like the first time we've seen
Ground type Pokemon knocked out its own partner on the screen this weekend.
Another skill in the game.
Wow!
King Gambit trying to call out the double protect there.
So Raga makes an aggressive play.
That's a lot of damage off.
I mean the Swamper obviously, yeah, now is really threatened by this plus four sucker punch,
but a critical hit there.
King Gambit showing his bulk, right?
Even with the critical hit, still able to survive, but it was a really action-paced turn.
There's still a Pelipper in the back, so we saw the tailwind expire.
Emilio had the guaranteed speed advantage on that last turn, but that is now gone and that Pelipper is waiting to come back out
Hopefully once the rain expires you can guarantee the speed control for the Swamper for the rest of the game
Yeah, and what is so delicate here is the plus four sucker punch from King Gammon into Swamper would reflect up
I still don't expect it to knock it out to be honest
So you know obviously still pressure is power with into Swamper Swamper it can protect this turn as Grimmsnare
just goes for an attack into either of these Pokemon. Both are posing a pretty big threat, right?
The King Gambit is obviously incredibly boosted. The Serena here also has that Focus Sash,
and so I want to get the damage into it ideally, but yeah, the main awkward thing for Grimstar here
is it doesn't really have anything to do, basically, other than make its offensive attack,
which is going to be that Spirit Break. Yeah, but is Spirit Break actually going to be enough?
I mean, we're not going to actually see the answer to that. I was wondering if that would be able to
to get the KO onto the King Gambit,
but it is just an ice punch into the Zarina,
ignoring the King Gambit entirely,
but Zarina is still up,
so the power whip connects this time around
into the Grim Snarl,
but that reflect is going to keep it nice and healthy
to make that a three hit knockout.
A double up there from the Grim Snarls,
it fires up a spear break,
one who is dead for this Zarina to go into the next turn.
Really nice call there,
doubling up onto the Zarina expecting King Gambit
to either not attack or say,
Look, I know I'm gonna survive the sucker punch anyway.
So let me just try to knock you out.
Emilio, I think, predicts a protect from the Swamper's end.
So it goes for Power Whip onto Rimsnarl instead.
Recognizing that there's actually not that much great damage
in the Grimsnarl, right?
In the previous game,
still we almost answered with it.
It wasn't brought into this game.
And so Reflect is still up.
Pelopter now can be brought back in to reset the weather, right?
So you could switch Grimsnarl out into Pelopter,
just go for an Earthquake.
Once again, the big question is,
is this plus four life warp soccer punch
able to knock out Swamper?
but I think the answer to it is no.
Might have to risk it all though.
You are one game up,
so Emilio has a little wiggle room to play around with
because Pelopter comes back in
to reset the reign for its partner, Swapard.
He can even go for the soccer punch.
Plus four isn't enough to knock it out.
Even with the life orb to help boost up some of that damage
and to 20% is all this Swapard needs
and we're gonna fire back and take another KO.
1% left here for this Darina
and that is going to be for sure a knockout.
One Pokemon left here as Emilio
has to bring back in the Aerodactyl.
Yeah, I think Raghav just did an amazing job positioning
Swampert in this game.
Emilio recognized, I can't win with Aerodactyl.
But folks, we're going to a game three.
I think those Sylveon in that last one,
plus these are a Met-Led,
there was a little bit of lack of damage output,
especially because Aerodactyl just basically couldn't do
anything in terms of offense in that one.
It was rotted essentially to set up a tailwind.
And I think Emilio likely pivoted to Aeridactyl, potentially covering for Charizard, Dinosaur, right?
Because I think that's a very common adaptation with these teams.
But this turn is so crucial as you see, the Swamper's just going for Earthquake, King Gambit there.
Have the opportunity to maybe just go for Sucker Punch.
Two Sucker Punches likely, you know, would have done a lot into that Swamper's slot.
But instead, yeah, tries to go for that extra sword stance.
And you can see how valuable that reflect is with Grimmsnarl.
By having reflect up the King Gambit, even at plus 4 attack, not able to get that one hit knockout.
And then if Raghav's making some really aggressive calls in that scene, I think you're going to protect Gambit,
doubles up on Serena.
And I think that if you're Emilio, you're probably thinking,
I don't know if I'd really want that Aerodactyl once again.
But then if you're Raghav, you could be thinking,
well, if I just now scared you away from bringing Aerodactyl,
maybe it opens up the door for something like Charizard Venusaur.
But realistically, I do think the core of Arch, Grimpelli, and Swampert feel really consistent on Raghav then,
even in Emilio's win against that core in the first game.
I felt like Raga's Pokemon weren't necessarily the issue.
It was more just about how the Swamper was positioned
throughout the course of the battle.
And in game two, that was something that Raga fixed.
So I think that was a really great indication
that we're going to see a great game three.
I think the pressure is on, especially for Emilio here.
Do you just go back to what you had shown in the first game,
right?
And for Raga, do you try to mix it up and say,
I'm going to hard call you out and bring that Charizard Venus
bar?
I wouldn't expect it.
Yeah, it's just going to be a powerful Swamper once again.
Let's see if Emilio is the one that made the adjustment and it's going to be another one for this third game
Raichu and Serena as the lead. I like this a lot because you pressure would fake out and power away immediately and
Here is normally the response into this would be switching in our Chaladon potentially
In order to get that free stamina boost
But if you switch in our Chaladon will then focus last from Raichu is just incredibly threatening
So one play that Rockup might want to consider going for is like protect Swampert switching Grimmsnarr on turn one then turn two Grimmsnarr
set up a screen as then you can get out the swamper or even stay in with it. But I think for Raga
so much of this dynamic is conserving the swamper and I think Amelia's lead here is really good
because now there's so much offensive pressure with both of these both lines.
And reminder that in game two Zaryn actually missed the first power with it at click. That was
damage that really could have started to add up on that Grimstall and you have to imagine
if that had connected does that Grimstall go down to the power in the reflect on the second one.
But it's not going to be any swaps to start this game, just the mega evolution immediately, as this Ride 2 takes on its new form, and let's see if this Whomper is going to follow as well.
Yup.
Yes, and so of course the Pelopter here does not have to protect, right? And so, you expect Swamper to maybe both Pokemon just attack here?
Swamper, like Ride 2 kind of- Oh my goodness, yeah, Ride 2 doesn't let him go! Doesn't pick up either!
I think calling out that Swamper was gonna protect her switch
and that Raichu just goes down.
I mean, Raghav might just get a double knockout
to start this game.
Yeah, I mean, that Kyrgyzl hit
is not mattering against this Raichu.
That is just going to be a one-bid knockout.
Earthquake letting it rip.
Oh, Kyrgyzl's gonna do this.
Kyrgyzl's gonna do this.
Was expecting something like the Archowed
on a come and switch into that slide.
And there's the tail end.
I think this game honestly might just be over
from that turn one.
Amelia was saying, big up plus power went into Swamper.
you're not gonna let me do that, right?
You're gonna switch in our talent and potential
either of these slots.
I used to make a really aggressive prediction,
but I honestly don't see a great path for him out of this.
Rockup says, you know what, I am just gonna earthquake.
I am just gonna tailwind.
Even if you go for a double up onto the Swamp Red,
at least get my tail wind up, right?
But Rockup just says, you kinda have to respect it,
and Emilio tries to call it out, doesn't get it.
And she's gonna be such an uphill battle for him.
Rockup can probably taste Top Cup,
but he's still gotta get over the finish line.
Emilio is still going to give it everything that he's got because you have this one final game to see if you can turn it around and achieve that world championship top cut, but another earthquake, a low niche from this swamper is going to bring this can give it down to less than half of its HP.
Tellerford was hoping to finish off this arena here, but can you have it still that the way where the sword stands? On this up the good turn there's not going to be a reflective play, but we saw that even at plus two this swamper took between like 30 to 50%.
Yeah, I think the play that you probably want to go for is sucker punch into lapeloper, right, try to one-shot that, and then
Swampert's ice punch should have knocked out Serena from that range, then you like get a double knockout with Power Whip, but
if you're Raghav, you can say, look, I'm ahead in the game, I'm willing to trade, or you can say protect Swampert, switch the Rimsthorow in potentially, right?
And I think the main thing is, yeah, Raghav definitely has so much offensive pressure right now. Question is, is he willing to trade?
It is going to be the wide guard, so the wide guard gets around Sucker Punch, which then means that Swampert can follow up with an Earthquake.
And then it's Sucker Punch getting to the Power Purse slot.
It's going to fail on this one as the Swampert goes for its Earthquake, should be a knockout onto the King Gambit.
If it's not on this arena, maybe this arena could actually try to get some revenge for its teammate.
King Gambit, sorry, that swords the edge, just not enough for this third and final game.
and power with dog connect into this Wofford so a great one hit knockout. It's going to help to start to even up the Pokemon count
but there's still a lot of work cut out for Emilio to Pokemon remaining.
Let's see what's in the back here as Rod of still has three to go. Yeah, and with that tailwind pressure as well.
Expecting Grimstone our child on like that previous one and it is gonna be our child hitting the fields here immediately.
now with no right shoe. Okay, today's Sneasler, so you do have two things, you know, that offer a lot
of offense to pressure. However, the thing is that the Sneasler here has faint, and so it normally
often likes to carry protect, but this set does not have protect. Right now you have fake out open,
but still one more part of tailing over on Rock Ops end as well. Sneasler actually, I would say,
is probably the best Pokemon I have here, just because of the Sneed advantage, but
if you don't fake out the Pelopter, Pelopter just gets a hurricane off into either of these Pokemon,
right so it feels like you kind of need to fake up the pellet for Serena the
question is can it survive a dragon pulse potentially at 47% I actually think
it is quite close our child on a lecture shot should not get a one-handed
knockout on either of these but still really really tricky here because the
question is how do you ever deal enough damage to a citrus buried pellet for
at this point hurricanes just knocked out both of these big protect makes sense
here try to stall out the tail and maybe it's gonna be a close combat into our
child on it's gonna just be that faked out make sure you can't hurricane make
sense, dragon pulse into protect.
So, he went now at least is stalled out.
Yeah, that's going to help on this subsequent turn
for this Sneasler to guarantee some damage
onto either of your tower on the pelliper
if there is no protect.
But I don't know if Sarina's power whip
can actually deal enough to the pelliper here.
Yeah, I feel like you probably go for a dire claw power whip.
I don't even think that's gonna get the knockout,
but if you get a dire claw status condition
or a critical hit with either,
if that's good enough,
maybe the Pelopter actually just falls to that combination.
So it still feels so, so, so difficult for Emilia.
I think that turn one just set him behind so much.
He's been making the right place to keep himself through this one.
So this is going to be a really crucial turn.
I think if Rockoff gains too big of an advantage here,
it will just be over.
So let's see.
You also could have attempted double protect here.
Pelopter is actually going to switch here
and it's going to be Venusaur as the last one.
I think that is a really smart adjustment as well.
Hey, I mean, you're still going to be able to do a lot though
with this dire cloth that's gonna take his Venusaur down to less than half but
the power whip misses its mark. A dire claw will be enough to finish this Venusaur up on the next turn and he does take that Dragon Pulse.
As you can see Ragov wanting to swap out there, one obviously conserved the Palompa
Batuu, now you can also reset the rain. I think if Dragon Pulse chaosed the
Serena there probably this is over but that's what I was saying maybe it's
bulky enough to survive so Venusaur's a mix-up here actually I think is quite
powerful because it can switch in a little bit more effectively does pose a
threat but the thing is now there is the office of threat of close combat
into the Archalodon slot right and so Karina actually going for a protect here
right Emilio playing his heart out right now this rock-up go for it is gonna be
close combat into Archalodon that's gonna do a lot of damage but it does
crucially survive. It's going to leave this Sniasler pretty vulnerable. This
Venusaur does not have power which is one of the tech offensive moves we
sometimes see on this Venusaur and the white Earth is going to cleanse the
sat changes that come through close combat. This is a turn that Emilio is
going to get right dragon pulse though into the Sceesler is going to help to
soften it up a little bit but this arena is gonna stick around for the next turn.
Yeah I mean Emilio's doing a great job of flying back into it and Rose like you
called out the Venusaur not having something like that Earth power means
that it can't do too much in the Sceesler other than going for sleep powder
there, but Emilio has gotten a good chain of turns here.
Archaldon protects, like you still have to deal with Pelipper in this end game,
but Emilio is getting closer and closer right now.
Yeah, protects though, keeping us Archaldon around in the face and
throwing out that close pocket, but the triple axel, can it get the three?
Hits and knock up this beat-a-sort, it only needs two!
And all of a sudden, Emilio is way back in this 2v2 in this game number three.
Oh, this is so tense right now.
Our child on heels back a little bit more with those leftovers there is still this offensive threat of heliport in the back
I felt like this was always the biggest win condition for rock-off right because hurricane does get a one-hit knockout onto both of these
But it is feeling so so scary. I think if you're a rocket you probably felt like that game was just over after turn one
Emilio has made a lot of really great calls to stay in it and now it's gonna be close combat
Talking on our child on here. We go. Hey, that's one Pokemon down heliport by itself
still have the ability to get KOs into either.
These close combat defense drops are going to stick,
so this Pelper can do some damage here.
Power with no problems,
Zarina's gonna have to take it down low enough
that either the Sneasler or the Zarina
can finish it off on the next turn.
Citrus Berry recovering looks like it might actually
make sure that this Pelper can fall
to a follow-up on the next one.
But Hurricane for now takes out the Sneasler
and it's a very tense 1v1 for the spot
in the top cut at the World Championships.
Emilio needs to hit this power whip,
needs it to do 48% to move on.
He has fought so hard after that turn.
Here we go, power whip to next.
How much does it do?
It's gonna do enough.
There it is, Emilio does it.
A top cut guaranteed for Emilio fourth
after taking down the final dash of hope for Rogoff.
Another successful event for Emilio.
What a show, an epic showdown for a three game set.
I cannot believe Emilio won that after third one, right?
Like, that was such a huge deficit that he hits a claw back from,
but he found the perfect sequencing of events.
And for Raghav there, opportunity to potentially power whip
or hurricane into the Serena slot instead of the Sneasler.
Didn't know if Direclaw would necessarily do enough there.
Either power whip, of course, just such a powerful attack,
but it's accuracy, not the highest.
all smiles to both players there though.
And I think Emilio must be feeling so relieved
to have found a way to clutch that one out.
Absolutely incredible playing from behind,
showing why you don't give up,
even in turn one, an aggressive prediction
doesn't go your way.
100% because right out the gates,
that right shoe fell to a one hit knockout
from that swath pair going through the earthquake,
connecting onto both.
Powerwick though, getting some revenge here from the Zarina,
got Emilio back into this.
even though this arena ended up missing a power up in this third game as well onto the venus or just some chip damage
and had that critical survival of the dragon pulse just to give Emilio enough of a fighting chance
Triple Axel getting those two hits as well
Does he got this venus or and then all of a sudden it really was just such a
tense
Razor's Edge
Final showdown for these Pokemon. Yeah, the main thing like I think was the switch out from Pelopur
like maybe there was the opportunity to just stay in. The question I, you know,
still have is whether or not DireQualt plus Power Width doubling up and the
Pelican would have gotten a knockout. But either way, I think, like, there were a
lot of opportunities where Rogoff probably knows how if I just made my
target into the other slot, I'd probably just win the game. Because, like, he had
the advantage for so much of that game, right? And, like, there was the
opportunity when it was Hurricane into Serena on turn two of the game, could have
been a weather ball potentially, the key gambit, for example. And just, like, yeah,
for Amelia to have found a path back into that game was absolutely, like, perfect
defensive play with fake out and protect stall out tailwing right protects
arena at all the right opportunities knowing like our channel when you don't
have that special attack boost is not the strongest offensive threat dragon
pulls not able to do over 50% to so many Pokemon right and so just
threats the needle and what Sneezer being that final perfect Pokemon getting
that close combat off into our channels that burst damage that you need and so
that was that's what the world championships are about like and that
is why Emilio is such an incredible player of course Raghav honestly played
incredibly as well. It's just that hard call on turn one. I think that will probably be a game
that he's going to sit back on and reflect on a good day. It's really it hurts when you get so
close to the top cut at the World Championships and it felt like it was his but Emilio claws back
and found honestly I think maybe one of the most incredible comebacks I've seen this season.
Commiserations though. I mean that just the fact that you are that one run away from the top cut
is still an incredible accomplishment and so I hope that even though maybe you are going to think
back on the game that rock off. You're still proud of yourself. This is still a great performance
and for all of our competitors that were just playing their winning ends. This is going to be
a world championship that you can hopefully remember and keep as one of this top accomplishments.
This world has been so hard. You think about the number of competitors that fell at 0 3 1 3 just
kind of, you know, falling out as we get through that first day to make it this far. I do hope
that they can see that as a as a great win. Yeah and the margins are so razor
thin right in the end. Serena did have to land triple axel twice into the
carbon crates. It's two hits right there and then double power whip into the
pelliper as well. This Pokemon is really great if it hits all of its moves. It is
not one of the more consistent Pokemon because power whip and triple axel are both
such high variance moves and any of those moves miss at any point. Rock
off to moving on the top cut right and so that is how close things can feel but
when you're playing for behind you do need things to go right and Serena
clutched up and showed why it can be a really unique pocket pick in this format
like you mentioned that power whip damage aren't that many strong physical
brass type attackers in this format normally we see it for you know its
ability but the combination of the utility of the ability as well as its
damage output it's just a lot and to see it clutch up here on stream to advance
the top cut I mean yeah can that's for anything more what a cool stat we are
going to take a short break and when we come back we're going to be breaking
down some of the competitors that have moved on to that top cut. So please don't go anywhere.
Hello everyone, I'm Kyle Pukasukovic. I'm on the product development team for the TCG at TPCI,
joined here by Chip and Azul. And today we're going to take a look at some of the cards from the
classic collection from the 30th celebration expansion.
One of the first ones we can take a look at is this Magikarp.
It has a very cool card. I remember when this card initially got revealed during the
Scarlet and Violet era of the game, just the general excitement around it.
It's beautiful and seeing it now in this new 30th anniversary style with this
golden border makes it pop so nicely.
And I mean, an iconic Pokemon as well in Magic Carp,
one of the original Pokemon.
So always love to see that getting some love.
And very emblematic of one of the innovations
of the Scarlet and Violet era,
the introduction of those illustration rare cards.
This is very much an embodiment of what that new art style
kind of represents and that new kind of card rarity.
As well, we also have maybe a throwback of it
more to the past, maybe two thousands or so
with this Dark Tarantar.
Yeah, yeah, the Dark Tarantars are looking
super good in its new gold border, of course.
And I think for competitive players, a big throwback
had a lot of success back in the day.
Most commonly comes to mind is Ross Cawthon's second place
at the World Championships in 2005, right?
So a lot of history in the competitive scene with this one.
Yeah, Ross Cawthon, only player to qualify
for every World Championships to date,
and that's kind of where his legacy began,
was with this card right here.
And we'll also bring it to this Lugia
that's from the Aquopolis expansion,
and even further into the past.
You can really see the gold border on this one,
and it's affectionately referred to as crystal Lugia
due to its crystal type Hokey body.
One of the first Pokemon that,
if you attach different types of energy to it,
can change types,
and its attack costs represent the different types
it can turn into as well.
And I think just a very iconic card as well,
very striking artwork.
And that brings us to one more,
and we haven't revealed yet.
So for the first time, we will officially reveal drum roll please.
They set Pikachu brought back here for the 30th anniversary classic collection.
I mean, what a callback, right?
To the very first expansion for the Pokemon TCG artwork done by Arita-san.
Of course, just totally iconic.
Love to see it included.
As well, do you get any memories seeing like the original Pikachu
artwork for the TCG.
Yeah, I mean, I remember having the actual original card
back way back in the day.
I don't remember how long ago it was now,
but it is really cool to see it represented once again here
in the 30th anniversary set.
Yeah, and once again, these are just a few of the 30 cards
you'll see in the classic collection
in the 30th celebration Pokemon TCG expansion.
But we also have some more cards to look at as well.
We'll get a glimpse into what the future of the Pokemon TCG
might be like with some of these futuristic rare cards.
illustrated by Yoshiro Optin.
And we have a couple of different ones here.
Some you'll find in the 30th Celebration Expansion,
such as this Mu EX and Mu II EX.
And some you'll find in an ultra premium collection product,
such as these Pikachu EX.
Yeah, I mean, I think there might be
infinite possibilities for the Mu,
because of course, it's ability allows it
to utilize the attacks of any of your benched Pokemon,
as long as you have the necessary energy required.
So this is gonna be a card I'm very excited to see
what the community can come up with
when they get their hands on it.
and also a card that like as new cards come out in years to come,
yeah, it'll be a card that you'll always come back to as a potential option.
It is so versatile in the ways you could potentially use it.
Yeah, very fitting for Mew, of course. Over the years, you've seen lots of
different Mew cards in the TCG being able to use all sorts of different attacks and
always feels like there's some way to use this kind of card.
It is on the low end of HP for a Pokemon EX with just 160,
but being able to use pretty much any of the attacks of any of your Pokemon
Hey, there's probably a use for that somewhere, right?
Yep, and then we can also shift our attention to the Mewtwo EX. You know, we have a shift here
We kind of a split of day and night
Mew representing the day theme and Mewtwo representing the night theme
Mewtwo EX has this photon bullets attack chip. What do you see in here?
Yeah, I mean Mewtwo of course another iconic Pokemon
spread potential always very good you know targeting down multiple Pokemon
with just one single attack has a lot of potential softening things up to be
easier KO'd by a different Pokemon perhaps or using photon bullets turn
after turn after turn can really build up a lot of damage in play potential
board wipe scenarios multi prize turns I love cards like this yeah and you can
see much higher HP than the Mew EX as well. 230 HP. Can you see any potential here for
Mew 2 EX? Yeah, yeah, I think I might be missing a little bit of energy acceleration for the
Psychic type right now, but with the spread attack, you never know what you're going to
be able to combo that with to be able to make things awkward for your opponent for sure.
Absolutely. You can shift your attention over to these Pikachu EX cards as well. Pikachu,
of those Pokemon that is frequently featured as a Pokemon EX even though it's not a fully
evolved Pokemon. We'll start off with the Day Pikachu EX with the Pika Pika Parade
attack. Chip, what do you see in here?
Yeah, so a very powerful effect being able to throw a ton of Pokemon into play. Normally
these call for family style attacks bring out one, two, very rarely three Pokemon. This
This one allowing you to just fill your board with basic Pokemon.
We see players utilizing that A-Spec precious trolley currently in the metagame from time
to time when they want to do that.
Now if players want to use a different A-Spec in their deck, they have an option to still
pull a bunch of powerful Pokemon out.
And there are so many powerful basic Pokemon in the game right now, throwing a mega kengiskan,
perhaps a Latias EX into play right away doesn't seem too bad.
Yeah, and as well, we'll take a look at the night Pikachu EX with the Zip Zap frenzy attack.
You see any fun combos you can pull off with this one?
Yeah, I mean, this is once again, I feel like similar to the Mew EX, almost limitless potential,
allowing you to accelerate any number of basic energy into play from your hand.
We do have the Energy Search Pro A-Spec in the format still, so that'll be a very cool
combination.
Similar to the Mew, lots of potential, lots of future potential I think is like the big
ones for these two.
It's got an amazing look at these futuristic rare cards.
And we have 30 years of Pokemon.
We're celebrating how far we've come, especially
with the Pokemon TCG, and taking a look towards what
the future might hold as well, getting
a little glimpse with these futuristic rare cards.
And it's exciting to see what we have here.
And we'll continue to see what the future holds
for the Pokemon TCG.
Welcome back trainers here we're at the end of the Swiss of the Pokemon World Championships
just after round 11. My name's Ben joined by, of course, Rose and Aaron here at the Analyst Desk
to have a little bit of a, a bit of a reflect on what we've seen so far in the world championships
coming into our top cut before we start looking forward, of course, to our top cut and whittling
down those two trainers that are going to be making it all the way into Championship Sunday.
now that match between between Emilio and Raga was absolutely crazy that game
three turn one I think we were all we're all in the backstage in the green
room while you guys were casting and we're like okay we see turn one we're
thinking okay cool Raga's in top car like that's that's the match over and
then somehow Emilio found a way to come back from that match what was that like
to to cost free. Exhilarating. I don't really know if there are better words to describe
it because I think it really did feel like Raghav was already one turn in but in the
door of the top cut. But I think it's just the fact that it speaks volumes to Emilio's
expertise as a player. That's why he's a four time regional champion is because Emilio has
a way of looking at the game where you can kind of see those small avenues to thread
the needle enough in order to bring himself back into those spots.
Yeah, and I want to give Raghav credits to his performance as well, because, you know, I was like, well, it feels like the game is over after turns one and two,
but I don't think Raghav necessarily made any mistakes after turn two, right?
He went for plays that were all logical, and I think Raghav was probably thinking, well, I can take these neutral trades because I'm so far ahead in the game, right?
But the critical survival with the Serena, for example, the Sceasler being able to do so much damage with close combat, like,
I think Emilio just found the perfect sequence of moves to counter what Raghav was doing,
But I think every play that Rogoff made after turn two still made plenty of sense
I think that's a game
Let's really it's probably gonna be really tough for Rogoff in that he's probably thinking if I just made one aggressive prediction throughout the any course of
Those turns right when I already had the lead like that that would have just been it whether it be targeting
Sneasler on the turn Serena protected with Venus or or the turn lat Serena protected when it was pellet per Swamper
Right, like there's ultimately like protected on a hurricane right and so I think like Emilio's use of defensive playing saying you have to respect the
offense and my Serena has, Raghav respecting that offense, consistently meant that he was
able to basically weave in enough attacks, especially with that sneeze or getting those
close combats off. In the end, our Chowdhawn also had the potential to go for a protect.
It didn't, but Emilio calls it, targets right into it. I think Raghav was also probably thinking
about the odds a little bit. We're like, oh, even if I get all of this wrong, well,
you still have to hit your triple axels and your power waves, but it was the perfect combination
of things where Emilio finds the right counterplay to the right, once again, Raghav's plays make
right? But Emilio finds the perfect counter play every turn. But I think like I want to build on your point there are because there's also the conditioning about what like the amount of times that Raghav chose to go into the
the arena when it went for a protect. There's that conditioning. And even though like, if
you look at those final turns where this needs of a die club probably doesn't get there on
the Pelopon from about half health, like if it's just a hurricane into that Serena on
that turn, but again, you've got to play the odds and Raghav's like, well, this, this Serena
is played so defensively, Emilio is like respecting the damage that Raghav has and the, the lead
that he created. And then like, there's the switch and there's like the weave into the game. I
should say like, you're still going to hit your power reps, right? But you're still in a position
where Emilio's taken that one little line, but one little sort of sliver of hope to try to make
it through that match. I want to just also say that it's so easy again in hindsight to take a look
the game and recognize these small points where a different decision or a different play
could have swung the favor of the game. And as a competitor, you both have experienced this
as well in very high pressure intense situations. It's hard to make that decision in 45 seconds.
That's all you get to think about all of the different possibilities that could happen in this
one tiny micro universe of this one match. And so I just want to give again credit to both of
of our competitors, everyone that has competed at the World
Championship this weekend, and maybe have had those moments
on stream that are easy to nitpick and call out,
because it's hard.
It is so hard, and you're playing
as the best of the best outworlds.
But this is the World Championships.
I mean, this is where those small adaptations,
this is where all the prep that you put into coming
into the World Championships, this is where it all matters,
right?
You do the rounds, you do the playing
against these different compositions,
you're training against friends that you're
working with towards the world championships.
And, you know, like those little micro decisions
are the things that's where the magic is
in the execution here at this level of competition.
And we had, you know, a few upsets.
We've had trainers come in that we were expecting,
hey, you're likely, you're coming in on an absolute tear.
This could be your event that have gone home in phase one.
And that's just what happens when you get to this sort of
pressure cooker of an event.
I think the first turn and that game three in particular something that I would really emphasize anyone watching the stream newer viewers to take a look at because I think most people would probably just click the forfeit button right there and say that's it.
I made a hard read. It didn't work. I'm so far behind. I'm not even going to try. But Emilio just showed if you can find a path to victory, you have to play perfectly. Right. There's just no room for everyone.
like Emilio string together the perfect sequence of turns turn after turn after turn after turn and also had to you know
Not get unlucky with the misses with Serena
But in the end it was enough and so I didn't come back some Pokemon are always some of the most exciting things to watch
Right and to be able to find a path back into the game and you can slowly feel the tension building
I think you could see it in Rocko's face that he's probably
You know I'm saying it was like you're so close but you still have to close it out, right?
and in the end, I think Raghav slowly realized,
oh my goodness, wait, like, Emilio's getting turned after turned right.
Like, this game feels like it's slowly slipping away from me,
but I still have a chance.
I still, each turn, it's like, okay, he's like climbing back up the rope a little bit,
but I still have plenty of room to work with,
but then it gets to that final turn,
and I'm sure he's also probably thinking
I should have maybe just hurricaneed the Serena slot instead
and taken the Direclaw, but if you're not sure about the damage,
Calcs, in that situation, you think,
oh, they're gonna get the knockout,
then you go for the Sneasler to hope that you can dodge one of the two Power Whips.
And that doesn't always go right as well.
Like if you leave the Diaclore open, there's a possibility.
Well, we know how Diaclore works.
You know, it's not a guarantee there either.
So let's move forward.
Let's look at our top-cut bracket here.
See who is going to be up against who.
So we have our three players there in yellow
that have made it well enough through our tournament
to have a buy in this top 16 round.
a reminder this is an asymmetrical top cut. We have 13 competitors overall in this bracket.
So three of them getting a buy into our top eight. The rest of them are fighting for their place.
Zachary Weed, second place at the Las Vegas regional championship, second place at EUIC,
top eight at Worlds. He's had one of the most phenomenal seasons I can remember in North America.
And I, yeah, I'm not surprised to see him here in top eight. I think he has quickly risen to
to become one of the stars in North American VGC.
But yeah, just absolutely dominant as a top three seed here.
And Antonio Sanchez has gotten top eight
of the world championships before.
And so another top cut performance here.
Of course, one original championship as well.
We got to see him play on stream.
And Takuma representing Japan being the third player
to get it by.
And Takuma actually got 40th at the Japan Nationals.
I mean, that tournament is very, very hard.
And so I think even just saying you get top 64,
you qualify to the World Championships is very impressive.
But Takuma comes into this tournament,
ends up doing very well off the back of that recent success at
Japan Nats where you get to play Pokemon champions.
Then you also come in with a really cool team that has
Dragonite focuses a lot on that mega flow it.
So I'm really excited to see just how far to take it.
Then looking at our top 16 bracket,
I mean, talking about Japan National Championships,
we have Hiroshi who was able to win this year's
Japan national championships, showing their caliber of play getting into top 16.
Versi Namjoo Joshi, a previous top eight at Worlds in 2024, doing really, really well
in that tournament.
Carson versus Zhao is looking like a really cool match as well, because Carson's running
a more Charizard focused team, right?
And Zhao is running the Lycanroc Frostlass Megasco Villain combination there, one of
to Zachary Reed, Reed that's been able to make it through to our top cut.
Yeah, Carson, you know, played in the seniors division over a decade ago
and took a long break from BGC, came back and actually has been on a tear this season,
winning a regional championship as well.
And so really, really great to see them back here.
Joel, player that I honestly like had not been able to see very much
on the international stage before.
And so they think this is a big, big performance for him.
And this is a player that recently aged up from the seniors division is actually the Sao Paulo original champion from
2025 in seniors and so the fact that you've recently aged up in the Masters division
You're getting a top six seed at the world championships
I think that's a really great player to keep our eyes on and also one that I think a lot of competitors are looking at like these young
Ups starts this there's always one from every generation that comes up to the Masters division that just comes in
and stars humbling us old heads, you know, coming in and showing like, you know, they've got, they've got the...
I see this in like a lot of the circuit where these young players age up and they've just got no fear.
I think that's like one of the things I really find exciting about watching them.
Like they used to playing with the Masters both in their like local communities,
but also like in terms of what we have in our grassroots and online circuits.
So it's not like a big step up from seniors to masters and even seniors is very very competitive
They're certainly at the top level
So if you're able to like take that transition into masters and keep it going like you know the skies the limit
Absolutely. Yeah, and
There are some players in that top club where no familiar or very familiar
I should say with the world championship final stage. Of course, we have a world champion show
So, uh, Joey Kamera, uh, when we also have Emilio, who just won on the stream, who of course came so close to winning worlds, getting second many, many years ago, uh, he's had multiple top cuts at the world championship stage as well.
And yeah, just continues to add to his list of impressive accomplishments.
And I'm sure his heart rate after both that last set and the set before where I think he had misclicked, self targeted his own Pokemon to knock it out by accident and then one by one percent in the end, like to clutch up a game three.
game three. He's probably at
multiple points throughout the
last hour thought, OK, well,
that's it. Well, it's over, but
it keeps his dream alive.
And I feel like, you know, on the
other side of that coin, like
Shohei has shown us so
often over this stream, we've
got to feature him quite a few
times on the broadcast and every
single time, like, I've never
seen really someone play
these sort of Charizard flow at
compositions as impressively,
like, on the front foot as
show has been showing us this
weekend, right? It's like even
in the mirror, like he played
the mirror around eight
yesterday. He played
effectively a mirror in one of
the rounds that we had on
today. And every single time
he's just positive switch here,
calling the protect there, like
not letting any like little bit
of the position that he's got
go to waste and really I'm just
so excited to see how far he
And we've been talking about this coming in, like there's only one chance for us to get another repeat world champion and Shohei has been showing us that maybe he's got it or got what it takes.
We'll have to see if that is what's going to be coming to pass or whatever else we could see who could become our next world championship. We'll find out after this break.
and we'll see you next time.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Pokemon Center here at Worlds 2026 in San Francisco.
As you can see, we've got the World Championship side. We've got the Pokemon XP side.
I hear it's absolutely insane in there. Let's go take a look.
We've got to get me popping out behind everything that we can. Let's take a shot at it.
Okay, how's it going?
Beautiful pieces.
Bring it in close here.
I want you to take a look at this for everyone at home.
This is a fantastic piece.
This is the beautiful sea alive we have right here.
Without question, one of the finest we have.
Beautiful.
We have the Eevee right next to it and finally the Jigglypuff. Very nice collection.
The official matte, limit one per customer, but I count as two customers so I will take two. No?
King Piggy Chim.
We have now transitioned from the world championships to the XP area.
Space themed, extremely cool, in my opinion, cooler than the world championship area.
I'm probably not supposed to say that.
Let's do some pop outs.
Boom, pop out.
Okay, okay.
Get a picture of me with the Umbreon.
There you go.
Okay, okay, get a picture of me with the Umbreon.
There you go.
The World Championship play mat and bag also limit one.
These are different though, so I can take them.
Yes? Yes, I got a yes.
Place is poppin'.
Beautiful, special, elegant.
One of them's going on a trip, one of them's blasting off,
another one would be in a spaceship.
I think I like Curely the best.
I have been excited to see this the entire time.
This is the item I have had my eye on more than anything else.
This jacket right here.
It's beautiful. It's special.
I'm not exactly sure where I can wear it, except everywhere,
and I want it very bad.
I will be back for it.
Because secondly, I'm not allowed to shop for this right now.
Hey, Pokemon Trainers.
Welcome to Pokemon Championships History,
a series where we showcase important moments throughout the history of competitive Pokémon.
I'm Jake Muller and I'd love to take you back to the world championships in 2015,
the year MegaKangaskhan claimed her biggest victory. But first, we need to go back one more
year to 2014. Pokémon X and Pokémon Y introduced Mega Evolutions to competitive Pokémon,
and MegaKangaskhan dominated the metagame throughout the entire season. However, when the
the 2014 World Championships ruled around, MegaKangaskhan fell to the wayside, failing
to make a single appearance in Top 8. Although MegaKangaskhan surged back into the metagame
as we moved into the 2015 season, its place at the top became crowded, thanks to the introduction
of even more Mega Evolutions from Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire.
As the World Championships loomed, the community wondered whether MegaKangaskhan would once
again be pushed out of the minigame by a high presence of Pokemon that could counter it.
Anticipating this, many players from Europe and North America opted not to include Mega
Kinggiscon on their teams, fearing history would repeat itself.
Japan, however, had something else in mind.
Just two months prior at the Japan National Championships, Shoma Honani claimed first place
with an early version of a team structure that would come to be known as Chalk, which
featured Criselya, Hitran, Amungus, Landrasterian, and Mega-Kangaskhan.
This team composition boasted an unmatched combination of power and flexibility, leading
Shoma and many other Japanese players to ride the Mega-Kangaskhan wave all the way to Boston.
As the 2015 World Championships progressed, it became clear that Chalk was the team to
beat.
know the competition was full of teams with outside mega evolution picks like
mega mawile mega charizard x go for the flare blitz here on the thunderous
mega salamence the hyper voice and mega charizard y go for the flame glory
here six of the top eight players used teams that followed the chalk guidelines
including shoma honami himself while the extraordinary success of this team
composition at the biggest event of the season was astounding. Even more interesting was the
variation seen within Chalk just inside this top eight. While all six teams had both Mega
Kankaskhan and Landerous Therian, many players opted for some alternate options for the remaining
Pokemon. Heatran was substituted for a different fire type Pokemon on two occasions, with one
player using Entei and one choosing Volcarona. The sixth Pokemon on the team ranged from Thundaris
to Age of Slash, to Taranitar, to Scrafty.
Silvion made an appearance in place of Criselia in one instance, and one player even gave
up Amungus to run both Age of Slash and Thunderous.
The two teams in top eight at the World Championships that did not make use of MegaKangaskhan were
both defeated in the quarterfinals, meaning that MegaKangaskhan was guaranteed to have
her day in the sun.
Players shake hands knowing that the game is over,
growth time wash falls and the crowd reacts.
Ladies and gentlemen, Yusuke Advancing, we've seen him.
This is the second time on stream playing incredibly,
incredibly well.
After taking down Naoto Mizobushi in top four,
Shoma Honami would be met in the finals
by fellow Japanese player Hidiyuki Taita,
whose Volcarona set him apart from the rest of the field.
Oh, my God.
He's done.
We're gonna met him in the field.
The championship match was a back-and-forth affair.
Shoma 1 game 1, thanks to consistent damage output from his lander's theory and clever use of disruptive attacks, like Thunder Wave and Swagger.
And here we go, will it be able to hit through confusion? Is the question, no, it hits itself! Huge! Shoma very excited!
But Hideyuki turns the tides, and even the score at 1 game all, after his Pokemon broke through confusion on crucial turns.
A lot on the line for these two trainers, almost $20,000 in prizing here as it hits through with a big shadow sneak.
I think that will pick up the faint here on the Thunderous.
It is definitely at this point looking like a huge taking it to a game three in the deciding game.
Shoma made expert use of he trans defensive utility and offensive power proving that the original chalk fire type Pokemon was still number one.
should do a ton here. Oh my gosh, picking up the fate on Hideyuki's Pokemon as well
as catching the burn, activating the weakness policy there, but the burn is absolutely huge
and it's only a matter of protect before this one is over.
Fittingly, MegaKangaskhan re-entered the field right before Hideyuki conceded defeat,
shown this decision to stay true to his run to the Japan Nationals title with the original
components of the Chak team composition paid off as he became the 2015 Pokemon World Champion.
Thank you for watching and let us know some of your favorite moments in VGC history by using the
Hashtag Play Pokemon.
Welcome back everyone to the Pokemon World Championship.
here in beautiful San Francisco.
In addition, we've got Pokemon XP happening right outside these doors as well.
And I love that we just got to see how Shoma Honami became a world champion back in 2015
because it's time to get ready to crown a new world champion here in San Francisco.
Format gets real simple from here. If you don't win, you're done.
Exactly. Every player in the bracket, this is a single elimination bracket.
bracket win, you get to keep playing, lose, and you go home.
Go home as a top cut competitor at the world championship,
so pretty good, but at this point,
each and every one of our players knows
that they have a shot at being the world champion.
Exactly, Evan, I think we're kind of at that point
in the tournament where, hey, a few weeks for now,
I think everyone who's gotten to this point
in the tournament is gonna think,
I had a great run, I had a great world championship,
I'm proud of myself.
Right now, it's a little bit different, right?
Where you don't know when you're gonna get a chance
to do this again, making the top cut of world championship
is so difficult and you can't waste this opportunity, right? Everyone kind of
realize, okay, I've gotten this point. I could do it. Like this is no longer just
a dream. It's achievable and it's really important to pass it in. One of these
trainers is going to. Absolutely. And we are going to be playing our first round
of the play in rounds of top cut to make it to our top eight, which means that the
players who are competing in this round only need to win what? Four more rounds
to be the world champion of the Pokemon first champions world champion that's wild they've
already played 11 sets of Pokemon so far what's four more yeah and you think about it you link
guys these players have probably literally played thousands of games to practice over the course of
the season they think it's all now going to come down to you know just four rounds would be a dozen
games to be the world champion it's so close from where they started at the beginning of the year
incredible achievement by all these trainers to get to this point but you know it'd be a shame to
lose now. Absolutely and I am so excited for all of our competitors who have made it to this top cut
stage of the tournament both because I know that it feels great for them to have that opportunity
but also because I am excited to see what these competitors can do when you know the pressure is
on it's make or break moments this is the time where you stamp your name in the history books and
we've got some incredible competitors to watch out for. Absolutely I'm very excited for all of
of these trainers where they, maybe particularly our next match should be really fun. But everyone
who gets this point in the tournament, right? I mean, they've proven themselves to be a
player to watch for seasons to come.
Absolutely. And we're going to be watching our first match up here. What I'm so excited
about this tournament is that it is a truly international tournament. This is the world
championships for a reason. We have people from so many different regions here competing
at the World Championships, regions that, you know,
when we first started doing this 13 years ago,
people had written off as saying,
well, well, there's really just North America and Japan.
And honestly, there's really just Japan
and Ray Rizzo at that point.
So it's so exciting to see the growth of the game
and see how many opportunities
some of these regions have been able to get.
And I'm personally extremely excited
to see our Latin American competitors,
especially because we are going to be able to see them
follow their journey next season
as part of the official stream broadcast.
Exactly. Yeah. I think I'm really excited to get more tape on some of these players, right?
We're really excited to get to see the American players we do have in top cut.
You're trying to join. You know, Paul Ruiz is a world champion from that region.
But yeah, I mean, it's like we always read about their accomplishments, right?
We don't get to see it as much.
So I think tuning in next season will be really fun.
You kind of get to see more from what those players are doing.
And yeah, I mean, I'd argue going into this tournament, too,
it wasn't Japan, North America, but I think it seemed like a lot of first
felt like it was like Japan and Europe were the only regions even this year.
Porto, Canada and Italy.
Yeah, right. And yeah, top cut bracket look a little bit different, right?
Kind of proving that, hey, we shouldn't have written off some of the trainers that we did.
And I think it's going to make this really fun, right?
A lot of just like them.
Really nice mix of teams in top cut as well.
You know, mostly expected poke.
One of those some really cool surprises as well.
But it's the way these teams are piloted.
I think it's really going to make the difference.
And everyone who's gotten this point is just absolute master of their own team.
Yeah. And that's what's been so exciting about watching this tournament is,
You know, the meta game has some very much top tier threats,
you know, top teams that everyone should have practiced against going into it.
But it's not the same meta where it's like,
okay, I know exactly what my lines are in every single team.
We're like, if I'm going to play against Big Six,
I know exactly the flow chart that I'm going to go in for.
There is a lot of variance in this,
but it's also just such razor thin margins.
I don't know if there are that many teams that feel like they have
of overwhelmingly winning matchup against the other teams in the meta right now.
And a lot of trainers have been kind of a little frustrated, right?
Because they're kind of used to, oh, my prep, maybe I can just like team dip people a little bit.
But just out of this year of playing out, right?
Where you kind of just have to be really locked in every game, navigate some really difficult conditions of each matchup.
And especially, I mean, like there's little training differences, right?
You know, oh, I'm a little stature a little bit different.
Oh, I've changed the move. I've changed the item.
But it's hard for that to be the difference between winning and losing a match.
So these trainers are doing very stressed so far
and we're entering the most stressful part of a tournament now.
Absolutely, and let's take a look at those competitors
who have qualified for our top cup bracket.
Of course, you can see there are three players
who by virtue of their record and strength of schedule
have qualified for the top eight already.
And they are two players that we have seen on stream
a few times already, Antonio Sanchez and Zachary Weed.
But also Takuma Yamazaki from Japan
has also advanced to the top eight.
They're close three players are guaranteed a spot in the top eight
and the remaining competitors are fighting for the opportunity to join them.
All these players finished with two losses or fewer,
but the very top trainers with the fewest losses
that were the best opponent records are the ones
who are able to get those buys to move on as everyone else works to join them here.
A lot of big names that we have on this side of the field
where any of these players could very feasibly become the world champion.
We've got to see a number of them on stream before.
And there's some pretty exciting achievements to the side.
We have a former world champion, and Joe Hayekimura,
a former world's runner up in Emilio, right?
Where I think both these trainers probably,
really adding to a legacy story,
and getting into like greatest of all time conversation
if they're able to win this one.
Yet no one has ever been able to replicate
what Ray Rizzo did in 2011,
which is winning a second world championship,
let alone back to back like Ray Rizzo did back then.
However, the competition is just so much more fierce now
here in 2026 that, you know,
if Shohei Komar is able to make it all the way,
he is our last remaining world champion chasing
that second crown here,
but you would have to consider him
as one of the greatest of all time
if he is able to accomplish a second world championship.
But like we mentioned,
so many great competitors from across the world here.
I'm really excited that we have Brazilian representation,
we have Canadian representation.
We have so many incredible competitors here.
It is a world championship.
Well, it's not leaving you waiting too much longer.
Got a match ready, and I couldn't be more excited for this one.
Yeah, this is a matchup that Scott has been bragging about calling
from before the World Championships,
not necessarily that they would be facing each other,
but two of your players that you are most excited to see here
at the World Championship.
Absolutely, yeah, they cast her by a school for me,
where, you know, like, it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch.
I always tell you I'm excited.
That's my job, but this time I'm telling you the truth.
I think two really exciting players here.
I just really love watching Carson in our domestic circuit here in North America.
I just think he's so scary to play against.
I think if you hook him on VGC, when you get to a point where you're good enough,
it kind of just feels different watching you play.
Kind of just exert pressure by virtue of being so good at capitalizing on your advantage,
just so good at creating advantageous forward positions.
And I think of the more offensively oriented players in North America.
This year to me, there was nobody better than Carson.
And with the way this format's playing out, where players couldn't quite figure out defense,
where every game at smaller margins, you kind of have to make reads.
To me it seems like of all the North American players,
Carson could be the best suited to that sort of tournament.
Absolutely, and you can see Carson's accomplishments there on your screen.
Very accomplished back in the senior division.
The age up into the master division competed through 2018, took a break,
and came back with a vengeance starting at the end of Starlet and Violet.
It's our current Seattle regional champion, just proving that the skills don't go away.
They're just always there waiting for you to come back to them.
back to him. I think he's been incredible for the long break as well, where he just immediately
is like, Oh, well, why don't you just immediately be the scariest player in the world? Very
awesome. I'm really excited to watch. I haven't got to see as much footage of him, but I'm
thinking with someone that players should have been a little bit more afraid of coming
into this tournament. Look, he was eighth in championship points in Latin America, but
he'd really been grinding the online tournaments coming up to this event. I think we've kind
of mentioned repeatedly throughout the course of this weekend where since you've seen
two people really in this format, it's very important to know your team and its lines well.
He's been playing this team a lot, I believe, two weeks ago in the last Western Online Gratchers
tournament.
He gets second place using the same team.
So he's played high stakes matches with this team already, and I don't think anyone's
maybe too excited to play against either of these traders.
So not surprised to see both of them in the top cut, I think we should get a really exciting
match here.
Yeah, let's take a look at Carson St. Dennis' team here, a very familiar grouping of six
Pokemon, but you always have to look at these small differences here.
I see a team like this. I always look at the king gambit to see which one it is. It's triple and four attacks
I look at the Charizard. There's the solar beam over the ancient power
But also you have to look for the things you weren't expecting to see different and I see that rock tomb on Sneasler
Yeah, I love it and there's not a whole lot of changes here, right?
I'm like, you know, don't change the things that aren't broken
But I love rock to the hands of a player like this one right where you just have to think about board states a little bit differently
I notice that you're pretty impactful rock tech damage where it makes it much more effective
they can say like Charizard or Pelopter or whatever,
you get a super effective attack.
But also the speed drop on it is really impactful.
Always drop speed by one level.
So, you know, if players are kind of just playing around
checking certain end game situations,
like, oh, I know this Pokemon is faster than that one,
so I can just preserve that to have them finished off.
Even if Sneasler can't knock out the opponent,
being able to lower its speed potentially allows
one of its friends to flip an end game situation.
I think it's really cool, especially for a player
if it's proven to be as good at navigating matches
and kind of creating bad situations
for his opponents as Carson has.
Absolutely. And having that as a secondary speed control option alongside the tailwind on Winsiccott gives him so much flexibility.
He is going to need it. Going up against Joel Felipe Leitcher here from Brazil. Running the Scovillian and Frostlast dual mega team that also has that lichenrock which is a big part of this team and is designed to be matched up so well into Charizard teams.
Yeah, I mean, we'll get to see that like and rock almost for sure this matchup.
I think players are always a little surprised when they see like and rock.
If you haven't really been following this year's video game championships,
not traditionally a Pokemon that we see in this level of competition,
but it's so uniquely good, right?
The only Pokemon capable of using that increased priority rock type move.
But no matter what speed control is happening, I'm going to dunk that Charizard.
If you leave it unprotected against like and rock.
So what are you going to do about it?
Like the rest of the team is pretty fun too.
We start seeing it the week before the North America International Championships in Turin.
It really hasn't changed at all in regulation and be just a team that a lumber players have found a lot of comfort on like
Hey, you know, maybe I don't have anything new for this format, but I'm gonna play it really well
I think I have the tools to beat every matchup
The one big change being that life warp held item wasn't available before I was previously usually citrus berry on that vasculage
And instead life warp here for Joao, so they're gonna be a little bit more offensive
Maybe not as bulky as it used to be that was kind of a fun synergy with you Aurora veil from cross laugh
But it just had a lot of damage compared to what we saw in regulation and well here we go game
Game 1 of our first top cut match here at the World Championships.
Dwel will be leading Frostlast next to that Lycanroc and immediately catching the Charizard and King Gambit.
And immediately you see why Lycanroc has a place in this meta against these teams,
threatening super effective, flawed super effective damage against both Pokemon on Carson's side.
Yeah, Lycanroc immediately terrifying here.
That only does have the Accelerac or the Rackfly to try to take out the Charizard and look at it for team damage as well.
And it also covers a lot of the switches pretty well, right?
Where there are any Pokemon, other than Sneezler, who's going to be too excited about taking out those attacks.
That will focus you to backbutchers.
Sneezler is immediately switching out of battle here, bringing the Sneezler in.
Sneezler coming in, Frostlass is a little bit concerned about staring down Charizard and losing the weather war from the jump.
But that Sneezler coming in will threaten Facebook to pick out pressure
as the Xcelerock connects on to Whimzacot on the switch in.
Ironhead from the King Gambit will be able to connect on to Lycanroc
and bring it down to its focus set.
And now you have, again, a Pokemon for Joelle
that threatens Wad's super effective damage
on both Pokemon on Carson's side.
Yeah, the type chart not working super well for Carson here,
but I don't think he's going to be too upset about the trade.
Funding out to both sides, switching out their Mega Evolve,
being Pokemon there, not Mega Evolve yet,
because the weather war is a little bit difficult
He's not just right where typically you kind of want to be the one who is megaable second in order to get that advantage there
Frostlast typically naturally quicker, but both sides go lang for now
Like it rock having to escape to preserve itself as a win tradition later
Don't want to let that go down while Charizard is still at full health
Free sucker punch there would mean that Charizard could start running over this team
Especially after whimsicott is able to get the tailwind up
There's the chouful fairy activating to reduce the power of that close combat just enough to allow King Gambit
to hang on with 9% health.
That is going to drop the defenses of Sneasler,
but immediately regain them with the White Herb
and activate the Unburden, allowing that Sneasler
to be able to match the speed boost from the tailwind
on the Whimsicott.
Of course, King Gambit is happy to tank an Iron Head
on the switch.
Yeah, nice switch there from Julio.
Not taking too much damage from the Iron Head
and his King Gambit, and also creating a situation
for the opposing King Gambit.
We're now just have to worry about the Sneasler now,
but if it locks into anything other than sucker punch,
it's a danger of being a sucker punch itself
and knocked up before it can do anything.
I'm not gonna do a whole lot of damage
in the battle between the King Gamma,
but when you only have 9% HP,
you're kind of checked there,
which really reduces the impact of his tail, right?
Sneasler's still the fastest poke on the field
after Inverton, King Gamma checked by his opposite numbers,
so nice job by Chihuahua there.
Does it have the speed advantage
from a speed control perspective,
but with the reality of how these poke on can act, he does,
so Carson's still on the back foot,
getting a little bit more maneuvering
to really get an advantage onto the battle field here.
King Gambit will retreat, again not trying to give up any Pokemon for free here as Garchomp will switch in.
No priority coming out from Jawao and Wimzikon is still faster than the Unburdened Sneasler in Tailwind.
That close combat now connects on to the Garchomp on the switch and does a lot of damage.
A double up into that slot, likely to pick up the Garchomp on the switch in here.
There's the Kautau Kleed coming out from King Gambit, connects on to Garchomp and it is enough.
Person loses garch up immediately on the switch.
That's a big knockout too.
You know, Pokemon that could otherwise have really helped out
with Elune with that like-and-rock in the back later.
So, so I know it's pretty good for J'wow there.
Charizard going to come in now.
Doesn't have to worry about the like-and-rock immediately.
And then you're kind of looking at this in person side.
It feels like, hey, like I almost have to send out Charizard.
Otherwise, it's going to be checked and useless later in the matchup.
So some important progress here from J'wow.
And then also important to keep in mind,
just to help us now to introduce him.
It's like it is the fastest Pokemon to fill in with Tailwind.
it is in range of being knocked up by that moon blast now so potentially you know there is a better situation for cards now
He had to lose a Pokemon to do it but when the catch at the sneaker and Charizard checking King Gambit
So now what will Joao do in response to being threatened with a double knockout exactly right here
Usually expecting to get more damage out of a life warp guard top
But getting this Charizard in position may just be enough
Still holding on to the mega evolution on a Charizard does not want to give up the weather war right away
Wimsacott will be able to pick up the KO onto Caesar with a second moon blast. King Gambit just trying to protect itself so it can still threaten some damage on priority sucker punch.
Here comes Lichenrock, immediately needs to check that Charizard.
Zero hesitation there, just says the Lichenrock out immediately, but this is a very interesting situation, right, where you'd love just to slam that Xcelerock into Charizard, deal with it right away, but Lichenrock's only at a single hit point, right?
Right and Wimzacot fastest Pokemon in the field and certainly not in range of a sucker punch from here as a fairy type
You over this that jock's attack. So what will happen?
We'll charge our protect will like in rock protect the trainers are gonna have to make a read here
potentially a lot of ground to be gained but I think if either of those Pokemon go down here without doing anything it could be a
huge advantage for the opposing trainer and that Wimzacot is threatened maybe by a
Double priority target there the Acceleron had dealt a lot of damage previously
And that is Black Glass' king gambit giving it maybe just enough to get over the hurdle
of the type resistance, but Charizard is ready to just go on the offensive, protecting Whimsicott
from any attacks coming out from Jawao.
That is the Accelerot into Whimsicott, not targeting down the Charizard that they double
target into Whimsicott.
Carson calls it correctly, perfectly launches a heat wave back and picks up a double KO.
Huge double from Carson there and that's what we saw for them all season in North America
For a very precarious position there, but reads just like you did. Hey, that could be a double on the Windsor cut
It's too obvious for me to not protect my Charizard. So he just lets it attack
And that's gonna make a double knockout and immediately picks up that first game
He's now a game away from moving on to the top eight. That is the power of a perfect play
Person st. Dennis making the exact read he needed
getting both of those KOs the only two Pokemon remaining that could check that
Charizard and Joao knew immediately this game is over I have to go to game
two. That really great job by Karsten throughout the course of that match.
Sacrificing the guard chop when he needed to in order to get back into
the adventation position, getting that hill went up and getting enough damage in
the lichenrock. It's so important with those Charizard teams to sash the lichenrock.
It's a very frail Pokemon but you still always keep the hit twice because of
that Focus Sash item. Didn't really have to give anything up on that first turn to Sash the Lichenrock.
I mean to me, as much as the Reef, that was also the other decisive turn in that game.
Just too much to give up for too little and a really great job by Carson there.
I think, you know, the early positioning kind of seemed like it wasn't to his advantage,
but he did a great job of picking exactly the spots he needed and got himself a great win in that first game.
And I had to point out every time Joao had the extremely effective damage on both of Carson's Pokemon.
At any moment, if Carson had gotten a read incorrect, his Pokemon were taking massive damage and he had to play that so perfectly from the jump to avoid all of that.
It's like he can read his opponent's mind. He's been so good at this. Why was so excited to watch him? Carson always just seems to play these sort of teams that are kind of very small margin for error.
And again, that's just kind of this whole format now where I think he was a little ahead of the curve playing that way back in Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet.
And now that everyone has to play his game,
he's got a little advantage.
I think it would have been so easy for him
to make a big mistake there.
Kind of just looks silly.
Maybe he could have blown out in the first game,
but he gets every read right.
And this is a terrible position to be in,
I feel like, if you're Joao.
You know, where the snatch up, you know,
it's a fresh game in game two,
but I think with Carson being a player
who's still good at making those reads,
now he gets two chances to do it again to move on.
Absolutely.
And that is such a scary place to be if you are Joao.
However, like you mentioned,
This is a team that Joao has been grinding.
He understands the lines,
and just because he got them wrong in game one,
doesn't mean that he cannot come back here in game two.
This is a team that has a good matchup
into the style of Charizard teams,
and Carson had to play out of his mind to get there.
Can he do it again?
Here is the King Gambit,
and Charizard led for Carson and Joao.
Again, the Frostlass and the Lycan Rock.
You have the conditioning of game one.
Okay, well, I know what my opponent did last time.
Will they do the same thing?
Or will they mix it up?
Now, again, like it rocks threatening a ton of damage
on either of these Pokemon.
A close combat on the King Gambit could be huge
if he gets the same play as last time.
But maybe he won't.
So far, Frostlast switching out just like it did in the first game.
These are coming back in for the Frostlast,
just like in the first game.
But this time, Carson is switching it up.
Instead of switching out the Charizard,
instead going to the other team.
Instead of switching out the Charizard instead going to mega evolve the Charizard opting for an offensive move here
That is going to set the drought and it will go for a protect one of the rare
Opportunities where it does make sense to mega evolve and protect and this time he gets it right
Another turn where Carson gets it right the acceleros into the protect and the iron head breaks like in Rocks focus at once again
And once again in that very scary spot, but I think this is an interesting situation
again in this subsequent split.
Charger won't be able to protect his vulnerable to that Xcelerox with a lot of
attention to switch it out of battle.
However, King Gambit is a pretty important both among this matchup, especially if he
isn't able to get that kill wind up and needs it's increased priority to help out a little
bit.
And you know, this variant of King Gambit, it's a little bit weaker on the defense
side than what we see from some others, unlike his opponent's King Gambit, not able to protect
critically while facing the threat of two different close
combat in this turn, or a fake out in a close combat if you
want to dodge a potential sucker punch into the like and rock
slot.
And of course, with Charizard staying on the field and
protecting, it is not protected from the ability to dodge the
fake out or an Acceleron as a result, Carson is forced to
switch that Pokemon out, bringing in the Garchomp once
again. There is the Acceleron now connecting on to the Garchomp
and the rock skin finishing off the light and rock.
There's perfect switch in there to get the damage
that you needed and a sucker punch connects onto Sneasler.
That's gonna deal just a little bit of damage
and open up the close combat here into the King Gambit.
All right, so we'll go ahead and hunt on that total berry
to reduce the damage in King Gambit again,
barely hanging on thanks to that resist berry.
And really nicely done there.
King Gambit also kind of safely getting some damage.
wanted to make sure to get some damage on Sneasler.
Even with a double target there, it would have been guaranteed to at least weaken it a little bit.
And I want a huge play switching to Garchep in there, right?
Rough skin looking real good over the course of this event so far.
But I think you have a knockout.
And once again, that Pokemon that's supposed to counter Charizard going down for nothing.
You know, and I think at this point,
Garchep could be very careful to make sure he manages enough resources to still have a chance against Charizard.
Frostlet's not going to be able to do it on its own.
So Sneasler now switching out.
And we see Fasci Legion as the final Pokemon as well.
Okay, Basque Legion out on the field, no switch coming out from Carson.
That means that Frostlass is able to mega evolve, is able to set the snow.
Frostlass now has temporarily taken control of the weather.
And it's going to force Garchomp to protect so it doesn't take an extremely effective
wizard for its troubles.
And the sucker punch into the Schiesler slot instead whips into or potentially into the
Frostlass.
There comes the Aurora Veil to make Joao's team even bulkier and more difficult to break through.
Huge read from Joao, right? I think almost certainly a Sucker Punch into the Frost Slash slot that's big.
But it's attacking with a ton of damage running the edge of the 1-8 knockout.
Instead, there's a free Aurora Veil up. It's good to pump both of these Pokemon, take a Sucker Punch better from this King Gamma.
They critically help through the remainder of the game.
It's going to be difficult to deal with this Charizard skill, so I think every bit of defensive stat helps to be allowing some of these Pokemon to survive one more attack
and also have that Blizzard now threatening the guard chop relatively safely where
But not so safely as Charizard comes in we see the value of mega loving Charizard earlier in the game
Since it's that regular Charizard just changed the weather and Frostless barely survives barely survives. Thanks to the Aurora veil
There's the blizzard connects with both Pokemon outside of the snow King Gambit goes down
Charizard takes a third of its health on the switch in but of course that would have been all of the guard chomps health
Here comes Vasco Elysian. No Pokemon have been knocked out, or just one Pokemon was knocked out,
and that is enough to pick up the KO on the Charizard.
That means that Joao is now in such a huge position here.
Very strong to have that weather setter off the field.
Yeah, that is really big, about critically hitting the Blizzard on both Pokemon in the sun,
much less accurate that way than this really improves the position.
Able to just pick up that knockout and Charizard, if the Blizzard had missed that flight, would have survived.
I've been able to at least have a much better chance at the game probably Whimzacot would have come in be able to set
Kale went up and we have a good a very different game stage and set Garchomp facing down this boss less now and
I may be able to pick it up with the help of Whimzacot here
But it's going to get out of battle for now and Garchomp's got a lot of work to do
Yeah, Garchomp has a lot of work to do and not a lot of time
Going to spend this one turn protecting itself so it does not risk getting hit by another Blizzard
Here's the moves last this time going to connect onto the basket lead and just dealing a little bit of damage to that Pokemon
Texas exit protects the guard top from that last respects
But that just means that Sneasler and Sneasler's big doubt pressure gets in for free. Yeah, it's an incredibly important site
Alaska it was car sitting there is this something to wow and now
Gush of probably he's hit a double protect this day in this game
Double up in that slot would be very devastating if it did not get out directly be very close
with that life on the territory.
It fails to double protect went for it, but doesn't get it.
We are not seeing a lot of double protects here at the world
championships, but while even those for the fake out onto
Whimsicott recognizing that Garchomp had to go for that,
instead it goes down.
Vasco Legion picks up another KO.
It is just Whimsicott remaining and yes,
we get a game three in top cut.
So easily can go either way while showing why he's one
of the best players in the Latin America region doing a great job of locking that one in and
I wouldn't impress a victory as well. You know, it kind of seemed like he gave up that
like attractive ability to do easily, but no, he had a plan for this one able to come away
with the win despite losing the Charizard counter. Maybe in Carson's side, the other
way, you know, just couldn't stay in a position where he could really take advantage of the
Charizard at all, right? Like, it seemed like it was so big and maybe it would have been
if the Sun was able to cause that lizard to miss, but Frost last clutching up able to
to get that extra damage in and out of his Charizard.
And because of that, with King Gaman and Charizard
going down to that turn,
creating the advantage for Joao to finish out the game.
Yeah, without any of those additional resources,
Carson just could not lawn his way back into that game.
And Joao, like you mentioned,
just proving how easily it can go the other way.
When you have these close matches,
these bead heavy matches,
it can really turn on a dime.
And that makes this game three so exhilarating.
Even if it looks exactly the same from the Pokemon choices,
the different choices that the different lines
that are going through these players' heads are immense.
I'll be really excited to see if we see once again
kind of the same league combination.
They should have mind game each other at this level.
I do think with these two key matchups in particular,
I mean, I'm sure it's transferred so much time
before this tournament thinking about
what they want to do in this matchup.
If you played a little bit differently
because of the tweaks your opponent's have made
or like who your opponent is,
but you know, they probably played this match
in their heads for weeks before this tournament.
Scovillain spicy on the field next to the like and rock and the
Sceasler up against the Charizard so Scovillain changed up from Joao
bringing that Pokemon as the Mega and most likely leaving Frostlast behind.
Now Frostlast looked really good in that last game but had to get pretty lucky to do it right.
Or were they all potentially being impactful enough?
Wouldn't it really not matter because that double hit Blizzard wanted to be so big.
But maybe we're not talking all right now.
Maybe we're talking about the interview with the Blizzard issue.
So, often for the Scovillean in 7,
for this very physical Pokemon heavy lineup
that Carson has been bringing,
so don't get pretty impactful here, you know.
Any Pokemon that hits a Mega Scovillain will be burned,
and everything but Charizard can be pretty upset by that.
And hey, there's a Pokemon in the team
whose job it is to knock out Charizard,
so like in Rock the Handle Charizard,
Scovillean can handle everyone else.
It's a pretty positive team, see, right?
That's why this team is supposed to be
favorite of the Charizard.
Absolutely, and Vasculi just coming out,
Joao is going to protect the Lichenrock,
not going to let that focus act be broken
immediately. There is a double protect. So while it's fishing for a good moody boost
onto the Scovillain, first moody will increase the special defense and drop its speed. That
special defense you probably rather have defense, but that's one of those too that you consider
a jackpot.
Yeah, I think that's going pretty good about it, right? It's going to make it much easier
to deal with the Chargent, Ladder, Strix, Scovillain survived that long. Again, defensively
better. You want to make sure you burn both of these pokemons you can, but like, are you
I'm really willing to get both of these Pokemon burned to take out Scoville, I'd argue that's probably a losing gameplay preference, so he's got to figure out how to deal with this one.
He'd really prefer your special attacking Pokemon to deal with Scoville in order to get rid of those burns, but not really going to be an option here.
And Lycan Rock's going to switch out like, hey, you know, I think that's looking so good for you, I'll be able to save this character later.
I don't see King Gambit or Charizard, so Lycan Rock has no business being on the field right now.
What does have business is the Mega Scovillain.
Like you mentioned, any physical attackers that, or any attackers that hit into Scovillain
at all will be burnt by its spicy spray.
You can see that's why Vasco Legion is protecting.
The Direfly is not enough damage to pick up the KO onto Scovillain.
Asking a paralysis, Sneasler will be burnt for its troubles.
The Parsons plan here is to just stall out and only have one Pokemon over two turns that
and take out the Skow villain.
Skow would definitely be the best Pokemon to get burned if you stick somebody.
Still useful if it's burned, right?
Not going to deal as much damage, burn half of the Pokemon physical damage,
but it does allow it.
You still use fake out.
You can still get a status effect from Dire Claw.
You know, it's doing more than nothing.
One of these other Pokemon with their job is just damage.
That's so exciting here.
However, the best region you pose is potentially a decent spot here.
I'm feeling the awkwardness of having to figure out which cast to Legion is faster now.
But at least Skow villain almost dealt with.
Scovillain almost dealt with but also kind of scary to have Scovillain dealt with on this team because now the close combat picking up the
Scovillain that is just powering up Joao's last respects which would be able to pick up a KO into the opposing Basque Legion.
There is the White Herb activating to fix off all of the drops from the close combat as one Basque Legion's last respects without any
painted partners is not enough to pick up the KO, but that Y4 Fasca Legion with one
painted partner have so equally dense.
I'm going to take some recoil damage here as well so that Fasca Legion at best
won't be able to attack twice more, but twice could be enough in this situation.
Even though it's the Pokemon talent, the Carson still has mega evolve Pokemon, which is helpful here,
but we're kind of running out of resources in Carson's out of cover.
You get the porn, Steelers can have some problems here, Charizard starts to wear,
And Lycanroc, who does call the Charizard switch coming into battle, and now this is looking like a pretty advantageous situation, which is, wow, once again, you know, acceleration.
And the Charizard's a lot of taxkeesler with Fetalus Collegian, so don't worry about Lycanroc potentially getting smashed here, which I do really love to avoid, but pretty advantageous position.
So, Jaroslav, can you get this read right? I think both sides are trying to feel like, hey, you know, if I get one big one right, I'm really close to moving on to the tapping.
This is definitely a moment where there could be a big lead one way or the other.
Tarzard retreats.
Person is not ready to put all of it on Tarzard right now instead bringing in the Wimzika.
Joao also not willing to put it all on like it was on Protects, but that is protecting
in front of a Wimzika on the Switch.
Will dodge the close combat this time around, but that Sneezer now goes down to the last
respect because of it.
This basket legion, like you said, it only gets to swing twice, but that might just be enough.
Yeah, that's a big knockout.
Charizard number one be forced back onto the battlefield and things are getting really dicey for Carson.
You know, Windsor Kai, maybe if it had, or if maybe he's, excuse us, able to knock out the basket legion,
he could try to catch Lycanroc a little bit more easily with an Angu or something,
but there's still a Pokemon remaining on the left side of the field, so it makes it much more difficult to deal with.
Charizard probably only has to protect here.
Interesting terrain. Lycanroc is going to flee for an hour, try to have more flexibility,
He's not going to leave himself vulnerable this turn.
Okay, well, King Gambit is switching in for the like and rock.
That means that Karzard is able to now mega-evolve his Karzard line.
Karzard now out on the field sets the sun,
going to make sure that its fire-type attacks are even more powerful.
Askelidion goes for a protect, does not want to paint this turn.
Winsicott not going for an encore instead, a moon blast into the protect.
And the weather ball catches King Gambit on the switch,
and that does mean that Lincoln Rock gets to come in for free
and without the risk of being on for the degree match.
Yeah, so now, where is it probably going
for you to go on offense?
Appropriately, this game could all come down to a read.
If there isn't a missile that came into the charge on the spot,
maybe it can do some big damage here
and start flipping this game around.
But, you know, otherwise, charge is still
being threatened by this Lycanot.
A double in the Winsor's attack map, so great either.
Fast Collision somewhat being checked by,
Wimzacot will be quicker of it either Lycanroc or Vascular Legion so really
precarious position, who's the traitor? It's so close. This is so tense and that
Vascular Legion just protected so it may not have an opportunity to go for it
to protect this time around it would have to go for a double also risking
being on board or just being picked up by a KO from the Wimzacot and a Moonblast
here but can Lycanroc beat both of these Pokemon? Now Lycanroc is going to have to
We know basketball league you can't run at this level of house.
That's a tailwind.
You'll get that tailwind out.
I was so happy about that tailwind and no protect.
That's because the Xcelo Rock connects onto Chorazard.
One, two, three, oh!
And with that, Joao has defeated the major offense of pressure
that person has remaining.
And with the last respects connecting onto Whimsacott,
brings it down to focus as but that is it.
Joao, belief Linky is moving on to our top eight.
What an incredible performance.
Florence, your Carson have been so many great reads
over the course of the season,
but when it came down to a draw able to represent Brazil
on the top eight by making the read when he needed to,
eliminating Carson and moving on here,
what an incredible match by both of these trainers.
Wow, that is just what this meta is like right now.
Everything is, the margins are so thin.
It all comes down to these individual moments
where you can get the read correct.
None of those were wrong plays.
They were just one competitor,
making an understanding the board say
and understanding their opponent a little bit better.
What great poise by Joao throughout the course of this set.
You know, again, you're like in Rock.
It's supposed to have some advantage against Charizard,
but it's not so easy, right?
You kind of see that in the first game
where you really get some theoretical advantages.
You still have to get the positioning.
And Carson is so good at making it difficult
to push those advantages.
It would have been very easy to fall behind for the first game
and kind of just make a mistake in getting knocked out
of this one, but Joao really locked in.
Did a great job of avoiding making any game losing mistakes
in the subsequent games.
Exactly enough resources, right that basket legion just barely surviving as long as it needed to that final attack
Pinching the win looking really great there and then hey
You know like in rock finally was able to survive the game right went down so early in game one and game two
But in that third game finally that end game win position that you dream of it being gets charged out
Hey, you know this team might be looking a little long in the tooth after being you've created so early at regulation MA
But here we are at the world championships the end of regulation and be and it's moving on to the top eight
absolutely and I am so thrilled for Joao to have advanced to the top eight this
is his first season in the Masters division having aged up from the seniors
division and let me tell you my first season I was nowhere close to the top
eight at the World Championships in the Masters division so congratulations
Joao incredible play extremely well-deserved. Yeah incredible play he's
an incredible season to you I think he's really put the work in again you've been
I think a lot of trainers found this format to be very challenging and it sounded to me like maybe a number of trainers
Maybe I didn't put the prep and they would have liked to because it was hard
And you know to push through he did what he had to do to make sure he'd be ready for this tournament
He's getting his just rewards. Congratulations to Cross as well. I think it's an incredible season
You know, sometimes you play another really great opponent now that everybody can win but really excited for Joao
I think it's always fun to kind of receive a youth in the competitive circuit started moving up and kind of
establishing their name in this top age division and excited for Brazil to write
you know it's not too often we get a player from Brazil this deep in the
tournament so hey you know maybe we'll get our Brazilian world champion this
year absolutely that would be our first Brazilian world champion the second from
the Latin American region and incredible play there from Joao to make it into the
top eight you know we have a new generation of Pokemon this is the first
world championships on Pokemon champions and it's these moments where
sort of the next generation of legends and competitors that people start seeing their
names on the match slip and say, oh, no, I'm intimidated by the idea that I have to play
against Joao who just got to top eight in the world championships, incredible, and I'm
so excited for it.
The kids are all right, right?
You know, we've seen a few times every year now since these graduating seniors are just
so powerful and Joao may be the most powerful yet.
Absolutely.
The powerful is down on stage and ready for an interview to tell us about how it feels to be in the top eight of the world championships
Thank you so much. I'm here with your first top eight finalists of the 2026 world championships throughout the league
Congratulations
Thank you
So we have not seen you yet this weekend. You have an incredible run in Swiss
Please tell us about it. What has been your experience been like here at the world championships? I
Love being the world championships. It's an awesome experience. My Swiss rounds were very tough
I started out with a loss and I had to like come back after that, but I managed to do it
I'm really happy
Evan just called you Joe out of the powerful and if you started with a loss and came all the way into top eight
I can't help but agree
You ran your team with Megascovillain and Megafrost last so powerfully throughout that matchup
What made you decide to bring these Pokemon?
It was a team that like I've been using for quite a while
So I had a lot of comfort with it even though I'm not sure it was the best team in the tournament
I'm very happy to play with it because it's a team I've been playing for a long time
So I feel like I'm good with it. It felt very comfortable to you, right? Yeah for sure
And do you think that comfort allowed you to make some of those plays?
I mean you brought Megasco Villain in that final battle. What was your thinking behind that?
Yeah, I was thinking like he was leading a Charizard and King Gambit and if I managed to like
Get a burn onto the King Gambit and like a Scylerock the Charizard that would put me in a great position
and I was kind of expecting a change of leads but
But Scovilleon is generally good into his Pokemon because he has a lot of physical attackers and the only one that really can KO it easily is Charizard.
So I think it was a good Pokemon to bring in Game 3.
It was a great Pokemon. I mean it got you here to top 8 as well as some amazing friends and family I'm sure.
Do you have any shoutouts you want to give to anybody at home?
I have a lot of shoutouts. I have shoutouts for the people from Brazil watching.
shout out people from my school, people from my prep group, Dorian, Andrew, Austin, a lot of people and yeah, I just don't know, I couldn't make, I couldn't have made it here without the help of a lot of people, so it feels really good.
Congratulations once again, Joao, on making top eight here at the World Championships.
Best of luck in your next match.
And we're going to go ahead and head over to Ben's Battle Breakdown
to see what we have coming up next in our tournament.
Thank you so much, Gabby. Congratulations to Joao, right?
I mean, that was an absolutely crazy game.
And using a team that, as you said, Scott, before,
like we saw it like at the end of MA really come into its own and you're in. And then since then it's just it's just never really stopped. Right. It's always been there. Even the grass roots tournaments. You see it like getting this consistent like top 16 top 8 top fours at various events in the run up to the world championships.
And here it is again, it's twice in the top eight.
I really like it, where I think it's like the sort of thing you normally, in most years
I feel like that kind of like wouldn't be the right way to approach the world championship.
Because this format's been so much about comfort, right?
Like, I don't know if this team was ever like the strongest team in the format, but it always
seemed like the people who liked it really liked it.
And like, kind of from the moment that they tried it after Turin, like, oh man, like, I'm
the strongest soldier of this team.
I don't want to play anything else ever again.
And we could be in, you know, regulation MZ and they may still be playing this.
It's like the right format for that sort of thing right where you know come for you so important and hey
You like I know you know what this does, but like that's great beat me on it. It's not so easy
Yes, that's what's really surprising to me about it is because I expected people to have figured out how to beat it by now
There is no beating it. I'm really I'm calling that out now
Like I think like it's the perfect combination of everything right like the like and rock covers the Charizard the Sneezer that covers the
the two most powerful Pokemon in the format. I like the way that I look at it is, uh, Frostlass and Scovillain as the two
makers, kind of like everything else. Uh, maybe when you were the exception of King Gambit, like a little bit, but Scovillain
does a little bit of column A and Frostlass does a little bit of column B.
Yeah, I think what to me is really cool about is like the team is chemistry that I feel like other teams don't, right? I mean, like,
yeah, I think like, uh, it has some really great abilities to kind of counter the strongest Pokemon in the game. And then with
Let's let they get it all just plays really nicely together. I think one thing that trainers were kind of finding difficult about preparing for this year's world championships
It's like you just seem like every team had something wrong with it, right?
Especially if you're working with a really high power Pokemon
There just isn't like a perfect mix of them that doesn't have any weaknesses in this team
I think maybe you're dropping a little bit in raw power or I don't think anyone's coming his terms
Yes, I believe the two strongest mega of all Pokemon are frost lessons go villain, right? That's a crazy take
But it doesn't matter necessarily because they play their role on the team
They enable these other Pokemon where maybe you do have three of the strongest non mega evolving Pokemon the team and also like and rock is there to do its job
He's like and King Gambit's that to fulfill the the role of the mega Pokemon
Yeah, right. Yeah, the mega Pokemon is they're all along. He just got his shark. Yeah. Yeah, yeah
Yeah, he's like those just in glasses instead. I think that's just so brilliant, right?
Where I mean we get too caught up in like the idea of like power outside of a vacuum and these are all Pokemon that make each other better
the team. It's like, you know,
it's definitely better.
Definitely like the sum of the
parts make the team rather than
just the individual components
being the Pokemon with like the
most stats overall. One thing I
wanted to touch it. I'll take a
couple clips from the match is
like how important this like and
rock is across the set. How
many reads that both of our
players were making in those
moments because like. The next
round that Joe is going to have
So this is a position from game one where we've already seen a the like and rock go for an Xcelerock into the Charizard and the question is like do you Xcelerock again right?
And you get these positions pretty often but the key thing here I think was that the King Gambit on King Gambit's on Carson side has the iron head can take this like and rock down to one HP and put it into a position where like
like it doesn't matter what attack hits it any attack going into this like and rock is going to be able to finish it off and
Once it's done like this team really does struggle with Jara's art, right?
This is the the like and rock is the key linchpin of being able to actually deal with it
You've invested an entire Pokemon and dealing with the Charizard and saying like I don't have a matchup into Charizard
But I have this one Pokemon and that is exactly what it's for is to have a priority rock type attack to knock out Charizard
Regardless of the speed control. Yeah, I think it's like you kind of look at this team, right?
You know we see garsh up on almost every team you can spiculously absent here, right?
You know there's like kind of those secondary checks for Charizard and I well we found I think impressive
Maybe the most thing the thing was most impressive
But the size of Joe managed to win a game well like and rock did not help really at all dealing with Charizard
It just yeah, I think again
It's so critical because the rest of his team beats up Charizard's friends really well, right?
And that's sort of the point but keeping like and rock in front of Charizard the right turns is really difficult
That's why we don't see more of this team and it kind of requires those players like okay
I've decided to one-trick this team until the end of time because there's a lot of finesse needed even though
If you actually get the 1v1, it's so easy. I'm talking about finesse
I mean, let's let let's let this clip roll out right because this was the turn where the whimsicott goes for the protect
And then there's the double up of the sucker punch in the excel rock thinking that maybe Carson was gonna go on the defensive
And you got to call out this play from Carson, right?
This is game winning turn on the spot there as soon as as soon as the protect gets locked in on the Whimsicott
This Charizard just gets to go absolutely crazy here and just go straight on the offensive go for his mega evolution
And go for the heat wave there if my buttons are doing the do the business here is
Yeah, why this game went in Carson's favor
This is this is the turn that basically confirmed to me
I could never play either of these teams in this matchup because the moment like I just realized oh wait
Which one do I protect do I protect when the cut do I protect Charizard?
I have no idea which one do I protect and I know I lose if I get the wrong one right?
It's important to call out here that
Never have our players really have any idea exactly how this turn is gonna go right because
Yeah, Wim Jocot can go for maybe an encore into the lichenrock
But maybe a little bit later right that still blocks the sucker punch
You need to suck a bunch and the Excel rock to be able to knock out the the whims are caught in that turn right?
And so it gets really dicey here
The game the game is a forfeit
Straight away on the top because the big parts of
Shows team are really taking care of and I think that's really important to call out like in this matchup
Like even if you have a Pokemon like like a rock and so good against the Charizard like you still got a you still got to get
The turns right when they matter
Because maybe one of those difficult teams to do it with right where like in rock, you know about as bad as you can get on the
Defensive side, you know the absolute poster child for the focus sash held item and you can see here that first
How easy it is for things to go wrong and like even though you have like the hardest counter for Charizard theoretically in the game
You know
You have one of the best players of like and rock still it goes wrong sometimes
Definitely moving on to game two right where we have this this situation again
We're coming into it after the first Excel rock, right?
I mean, it's like one of the key key through lines through this match
It's like can you get Excel rock off or not in the first two games?
It was a distinct not as it turns out and like after this Charizard
It's already burn its protect so it cannot protect itself
Reliably at least on this turn you've got the the sneeze of the friendly or close combat into here
There's a post combat coming into the King gambit as well
There's the Excel rock pressure on the Charizard that's just gone for the protect
But also you've got the like almost safe play of just going for a fake out into the
King gambit we stop that from moving then the Excel rock goes into the Charizard it looks like a
lovely
Objective play in this situation, and I love how Carson was able to deal with this and just being able to like hey
Hang on a second. I'm just gonna switch the Charizard out
And like the Excel rock, yeah, it's an upside that it's got its tough claws as an ability, right?
A few more damage to be able to knock out these Charizards, a little bit of a downside when there's a rock, a rough skin on the other side.
Yeah, yeah, it's got tough claws, but the skin was even tougher.
And, you know, I can think about the play again, too.
I kind of missed it in a moment.
I wonder a little bit if perhaps that draw was conditioned by what happened in that turn you called out from game one, right?
I was like, oh, like, Charizard kind of got me by attacking in a turn where I thought he wouldn't.
So I want to make sure I Excel rock and I don't lose in the same way again.
that just caused him to lose like and rock in a different way. Yeah. Yeah. And there's here is the switch into gargoyle
Here the rough skin gonna be activating knocking out that like and rock from 1%
But I think the really key thing here and where this was a little bit of a
Great switch up for
Joe is you know when we go a little bit further
We haven't got a time stamp on it
But when we got a little bit further and there's the basque legion in the back and that adaptation
I think was the the best thing that job did in this whole game was like identifying it with the life orb even after
Just one Pokemon gets knocked out. I have the Basque legions. Yeah, that's good. He just come in for you
Vasco legion was so important in that game just having that immense offensive pressure
outside or in the Sun
Have with the ghost type last respects there after one KO
You're fine letting your like and rock go down because you had a second option to start blowing up the Pokemon on Parsons
Yeah, I think it's really big too because we are kind of talking before okay
You know, maybe one of the weaknesses team is have as much raw power as some others
But I think you can make a pretty good argument. Okay
I want the most offense I can possibly get from two non mega evolving Pokemon what two Pokemon
Should I pick and what item should I give them?
I think giving a life orb to Basquiel Legion rather than to something like guard sharp or King Gambit
giving King Gambit those black glasses which is nearly as good but it's like uniquely good for King Gambit because it can get by without coverage.
Yeah. I think that's probably actually the best you can do with two Pokemon. And we kind of really saw that throughout the course of the the two games that drew out one where
basketball legend was horrifying even with like one knockout and the team last reflex is kind of just mowing down everything. Yeah, exactly.
that leads us into our Game 3 here and this is after the Scovillain goes down, right?
The Sneasel goes for the Diaclore into the Scovillain, gets the poison, but takes a burn
for its troubles. And this is a really cool turn here, where Zhao brings the Lycanroc in
after the Scovillain goes down. The Basquilligians trading last respects, but even if it was
the speed ties while still was able to make it through the last respects at base power is not
enough. It's kind of the cool Pokemon like just from a little side note like from a design choice
it's like it's the most powerful thing but just just wait for it like eventually it's eventually
like there's a nice little balance there um but now of course you've got the excel rock again
threatening down this charizard whether it protects or not but I think the key thing here is getting
that. I mean, you know,
you know, you know, you know,
you know, you know, you know,
you're getting the burn on the
Sneasler. Now the diet floor,
which is resist resisted into the
Basque legion. 14% isn't much.
But like it's on the edge. It's
not that point where you're like,
Hey, hang on a second. Does
this KO and then you you're
like it looks to me. I was
thinking watching the match like.
Does this last respects just go
into here and the like and rock
Yeah, it's unclear to me, and it was such a really interesting sequence of events that led us here.
Both I think Carson making the right calls on only targeting the Scovillain with the Sneasler.
But the way that Joel was able to then capitalize on the Scovillain going down by making sure that Sneasler had to double target it.
Yeah, boosted the last respects allowed it to pick up the KO on the basket lead and proper on Carson side
Which then allowed the like and rock to come in on the switch for free
Really clever sequencing of events there. Yeah, I thought both players just so smart the way they played this one
They both seem to prepared in this line. I feel like we say this sort of thing a lot like oh both players are so great
But this time I really mean it right where I think it was like exactly the right way to play that were Carson
especially given the moody boost it's govillain got, but I was ready for it, right?
I think they're both just so practice, so experience, then you had to play that line so well and
It's easy to see how both the trainers got to this point in the tournament. Yeah, 100%. It was like and that game free was just
the main difference, right?
That made it like so far in Drow's favor is
Lichenrock still got its sash, you know, and that's such a difficult thing to get through making that last call on the
Excel Rock into the Charizard like it's like well, I've tried it five times before
this time. Yeah, just like a
really great example of how
this team functions into
Charizard, and especially a
great example for what's
coming up where Giovanni is
playing a Charizard the all of
these things that we've been
talking about will matter for
that top eight match and just a
little reminder to everyone at
home that we will be able to
feature all of our top eight
matches. But not only that, of
here at the World Championships going into Championship Sunday. So, yeah, it's a really
exciting point of the tournament. We've got down to eight players. Without further ado,
let's head it over to our casters and get our top eight going.
We have the eight best Pokemon trainers in the entire world kicked out and with each
match we get closer and closer to determining who is going to be our next Pokemon World
Champion.
Welcome back everyone.
Sierra Dawn, we provost on the desk to get started with top eight of our competition.
Oh my gosh, we're here already.
Only eight trainers left.
I know, I can't believe we're at this stage.
Yeah, yeah. 16, look at that.
16. Top 8.
But yes, getting into the top 8 itself, you know,
it's just such an incredible accomplishment.
And it's very exciting to be at this really crucial point
of the tournament to see who will be progressing on.
Obviously, Scott mentioned it earlier.
If you lose at this stage, that is it.
Your tournament runners are over,
but if you win, you are on a road to hopefully get
a little bit closer to Championship Sunday.
And it is the top eight trainers, quick math once again,
but for the trainers to make their way to this point
has just been absolutely incredible.
And with only a few match wins away
from finding yourself in that championship Sunday
or potentially with that World Championship title,
they've all won a few matches of Pokemon before.
It's why they're here at this point.
And any of them can be our next world champion.
This is an incredible list as well.
There's so many different storylines coming to light.
Yeah, and lots of different team comps as well, which I think really shows the innovation skill level of these trainers to kind of go with different options as well.
And those talked about it time and time again, those micro decisions that make all the difference on the battlefield.
And that's what it will come down to a lot of the time, how comfortable are these trainers with these teams that they put all of their confidence into.
And it's been, like you say, amazing to see and witness a lot of the journeys we've had so far.
But for a number of these trainers, the journey's still got to continue.
We've got another chapter to complete until we get to that final one tomorrow.
And these matches are just getting closer and closer.
Of course, when you have the caliber of player that we have, well,
to be expected, but it's been so exciting.
But let's get started with our first top eight match.
This is going to be a fun one, everyone.
We have Antonio Sanchez going up against Hiroshi Onishi.
And looking at two teams that just were so well positioned going into the event and two trainers with very fantastic accomplishments.
Yeah, well, we know Horishi is the current Japan national champion from earlier this year, incredible accomplishment.
And then continuing that form into the world championships, into the top of the tournament.
But Antonio, no stranger, we had them on stream earlier.
Antonio obviously winning that regional in Liverpool in the 2024 season.
Since then, it's been very consistent with the results.
getting into day two consistently, getting into top eight and just an incredible player.
He's never had that huge win outside of a region or one of the major events.
Could this be the one? Antonio definitely capable of it.
Incredibly skilled trainer, but got a tough task ahead of them.
And not the first world's top cut when you look back at 24 with that top 16 at Honolulu,
but now having already won up that being here in top eight, you know that he's got to be hungry.
to take that even one step further now that you've been afforded that opportunity once again.
But of course for Hiroshi to win the Japan national championships, go into the world of
championships with that title and be able to accomplish this type of run with that national
champion above. It would just be incredible to be able to see him go all the way. It would be
yeah either trainer would be a joy to see lifting that trophy on Sunday. But of course one has to
other before we get close to
that and both have very similar
teams on the face of it, but there
are some big differences that are going to play a huge
part in this match in Google.
Be able to come out on top of course
and start with Antonio's team here.
Toxapex was star of the short earlier
is the big difference really between
the two teams and can be the difference maker
for Antonio in general.
It's a Pokemon that we saw really pop off
at NAIC and
the amount of mileage you can get from it
it and just how careful your opponent has to be. Of course, it is just so bulky. It can be a real pest to deal with. But if you're also over
compensating for the toxic facts and trying to throw too much into that, there's so much offensive powerhouse pieces on this team that can really make the
difference. Sylveon, I feel like, has been the star of the tournament. And of course, you can't discount the others as well. And even
Venusaur, this set having that sleep outer variety, if you lend one of those to the powders, that has the opportunity to completely turn to the
of the match? Yeah, especially if the Charizard from where she comes out, it sets the sun that
chlorophyll is activated, that Venusaur is then enabled. That Sleep Powder, if it does hit like
you see it, can be the difference maker. This Choice Golf on the Godchump as well does create a few
issues for Horosha where they're going to have to really lean into their Wintercourt,
their speed control option to get ahead of that. So they do go down a Charizard route,
then it needs to be able to supersede that.
Do you bring the flowette here?
You mentioned the Venusole that Antonio got access to.
What's another great Pokemon that can sit in front of it,
way more comfortable than other options
and can threaten back with that sludge bomb damage?
Looking over at Hero, she's team,
we had called up some of the similarities
when we are looking at a megacharizard, right?
But this one just has a lot more offense across the board,
paired up with this Gwimsacott,
and being able to pressure something like an encourt
or even just out speeding for a lot of these for your pieces can just completely push the
momentum in your favor. But it's what mega you want to go with as well as you do have
the Charizard or the flow. I feel like the Charizard could be a really strong one in
this match, but still you have options. You do have options. I think the pivotal piece
is going to be that wins the cup because it can help disrupt what is a big thorn in Hiroshi
side in the toxic pecs. If you can hopefully lock it into something like a white guard,
then it really becomes a bit of dead weight for Antonio and then gives you the
rune to maybe leverage some of these big pieces. Like you say the Charizard there
it has got ancient power that's an advantage it or she has over Antonio so
even in front of an opposing Mega Charizard you can threaten with that
attack for some perfected damage. Then you look at the Float as well it's got that
burst damage in light of rune and it can support the Windsor Cut as well but
there are some big threats and a couple of poison types they don't want to see.
to two very capable trainers but only one to move on to top four between Antonio Sanchez and Neroji Onishi.
Let's get into it and find out who's very aggressive lead from Neroji, but Antonio has well.
Garchomp and King Ambit on the one side, the Innocent and Charizard for the other.
You've got to be careful if you are Antonio with that Garchomp.
Obviously there is the rock slide right there if you use it down the field and mega evolve,
but you can go up to protect, just get the Sun in place and then take advantage like you mentioned
in the overview of that sleep powder you can cut the bar chump to sleep and then the freeze of the
Charizard to help deal with the King Gambit. The King Gambit on Hiroshi's side has not
gotten perfect so right now sitting in front of this Charizard is his friend so if you see the
play of Charizard Megavolve being able to put that bar chump to sleep then the Charizard can go
straight after that King Gambit. The one thing you would say the King Gambit has in its back
pocket is an Hockaberry it will give it at least one extra turn in front of this Charizard to get
Make a solution with the Charizard to go ahead and get her on this turn and of course bring the Sun about.
The Leaf Powder, Garchomp for Hiroshi won't do anything on this turn as it has to take a meditory turn of sleep.
75% of the time it is a great move, but King Gambit, Aucaberry will definitely help it take this hit just down to below half.
And look how Garchomp is able to shrug it off.
Now to just be up to King Gamut to be dealing the damage,
trying to equalize just a little bit and it'll be a pow-tow
cleave into the Charizard. A lot of damage into it.
Yeah, it's nice damage into the Charizard.
Used to be Ocoberry and she's off of that Charizard up.
Is it in range of the Succulent?
She's probably saying not after that pow-tow,
key damage.
The Venusaur as well is straining into King Gamut with it.
Powering this Godchomp is going to be really...
Is it going to wake up this thing?
If it can wake up, it can threaten this Charizard.
But do you leave that King Gamma in a vulnerable spot now where it's potentially threatened by ball-packed Charizard pounded before?
And if you go for the switch, potentially Venus will put Paterson's thing if you take that King Gamma out on Blink.
Not wanting to potentially get Sucker Punch Charizard to swap out as no Sucker Punch said King Gamma could just eat up this Earth Power
as Venus or two claim the first kill in the match.
King Gamma goes down, poor Garchomp, time to see if it will wake up.
No, another turn of sleep, no damage coming out from Hiroshi's end of the board.
Yeah, it's a nice play from Antonio, taking advantage of the board position there, same way.
If you don't switch that king down, I'm going to take it down.
Thankfully for Antonio, the Garchomp save is sleeping out.
Haspending turn has got a chance to wake up this next turn,
but you've got your Garchomp on the field for free.
It'll be interesting to see which Pokemon comes in for Hiroshi,
which Mega if they went for, they need more swords at the right.
That's going to have issues against that Venus soul.
And if it is the Charizard, that is going to have to deal with the Charizard on Fish, hopefully enemy number one.
Yeah, especially with that Shui Surf over on the Garjonshire, you're giving up a little bit of damage for that, but you're just oh so speedy.
Coming into the map to the Pasca region instead of trying to pressure.
Of course, with these Pudder Tape attacks, they won't be doing quite as much damage, so feeling like a lack of specs isn't fully good to be yet high either.
And both Pokemon Ontario's end up bored at full health.
Yeah, the one thing he would say in normal situations is the Venus will withdraw in that Basque Legion, but it doesn't have a blast-type attack, it's just got the Earthrider and the Sludge Bomb.
So, Basque Legion is in a bit more of a preferable state right now, it's not really gonna be just right in the fight and knockout from that Venus, though, because of its speed boost from the stun, so if you can get an attack off onto one of these Garchomp ulti Venus, though, it will help suffer a little bit, but you just gotta hold the your own Garchomp and there you go.
Will it be for tax for the basket legion to not get put to sleep as Venusaur attempts to fire off another one for the Garchomp though
It will be Antonio is moving first and all Eddie himself intimate guard chomp for her oh she goes down
Turn for Antonio and you can see that maybe the bus station trying to get the payday drawing those attacks
Into the double protects maybe but no Antonio no phones were going straight after the target in the Garchomp
There was a bit of a scene up there.
Now the Charizard is forced out into the field.
Golloch-Humper is locked into the Dragon core though,
so there is no threat of that rock slide,
but still these Dragon cores are gonna be hitting pretty hard.
And you've still got that threat to the Sleep Powder.
Is it gonna go into the basket,
even if it's just protected,
it needs to start to go after?
And you've got the focus,
that she's a little bit of security for that being so,
it would go after the Charizard,
with just that Dragon core.
Try to double up it into it,
but again, with how fast this dinosaur is,
thanks to the sun,
A sleep powder connecting can just completely stop her O.T. side of the board.
It's trapped.
A little bit of a swaparoo though, instead of her to join the fray in place of that garchomp.
So an opportunity to count that move, reset, become, attack, it's mega-evolution.
So lay into all of it.
Make sure you get the most momentum out of this Charizard, because it definitely has to make some of.
No sleep powder though, instead just full offensive.
It's a perfect Pokemon in the back for Antonio again that all important intimidate on to
the basket.
What?
And the burn coming out onto the Venusaur it's not going to stick around one in this
turn it will go down the last respect's coming out and not going to be that effective
into the Incinero Grades switch there losing the Venusaur though.
I don't know if Antonio minds this too much because it gets that goal jump back out onto
the field right and now it's going to be able to lock in with the Rocks like it
will potentially be able to get rid of the Turzard, do good damage to that
Basque Legion as well but have you got an attack to be able to take down the
Basque Legion? The Incineroar on Antonio's side does not have a
non-attack to take advantage of. Thanks for nothing Focus Ash, is all I'll say. Venus
we're going down which you wouldn't maybe wanted to do that push ball damage that
second hit into the Turzard to try and take it down or even just a sweet powder
At least Garchomp coming back out, we hit that same dilemma as last time.
You have the Twix, but if you walk into a move, what is it going to be?
Because something like the Throck Slide trying to pick off this Charizard,
but it's basically just still sitting out a lot of health.
Yeah, it's going to be really conflicted about what it goes for next.
I mean, the last respect to me doing a lot of damage,
there's only one turn of the Sunlight as well.
The Incinerator's have a breakout, so cancel that Charizard damage to turn.
After that though, it probably will be a case of get through this protector and see what this guard chump locks into and then approach that next turn respectfully.
Maybe without the sun, the Vascular Legion becomes a little bit more threatening, especially with that little crash, the actual just really can't have access to trying to get rid of that and see what happens.
This is Swaperoo for the guard chump, no luck yet!
Charizard instead for Enchodio coming back out.
And this is a great way too to maybe just burn some protectors.
So you now get your Charizard in.
Oh, not for free!
Vakulitian goes on the offensive, so the swap and Charizard goes down.
Yeah, you might not see an important shot here from this.
Incineroar and Vaskalitian to lie that attack parry even further.
And then you can drop another Intimidate,
and then you've got that active fake out.
It's probably a smart play from Antonio.
Hiroshi pulling themselves really back into the game so well.
But now you're going to have that fake out onto what was just a protective Charizard.
You can stop that and extract,
Concentrate all of your efforts down onto this vasculature, but you can declare that you've been to now, even if you don't want to sense the field.
Now Garchomp re-hits the field and center comes out, and as you said, that attack for the vasculator is even lower.
And now since the Charizard has burned for tech, do you go for the double, or potentially fail it? Or do you just go for the attack?
Because both options are tough. At least if Garchomp does lock into something like that rock side, there is always that opportunity for the miss, right?
But the odds weren't necessarily in your favor for that, so do you risk a snatch on that moment?
Yeah, I think it's a really tough call here. I think it's a good call to make more sense to if you get it, then it works out really well for you.
Now, the basket leaves into the biggest problem for Antonio to deal with right now, because Rockside's just not having the impact he wanted.
Does land on the Charizard, no fake out as well.
Because Antonio's going to maybe cycle another party shot into the basket leaves into China, we can even fair that.
First off, we get to see the last respects into the Garjob!
And you can wait until all you want when the critical hit comes through!
The Garjob won't be able to survive!
Vasculage and brought down to 45% health.
Being Cynor, Slaver Blade's not necessarily too effective.
It's not quite doing enough.
We have to run this one back, but it's only going to be these two Pokemon.
Yeah, and I think that Cynor will probably just be able to close it up.
about that. Fleeblit spam, if you do steam, is going to be enough to get the knockout here.
You've got to consider as well the life of recall. Although the last respect has been
powered up to the maximum. Nothing to be able to do, but is this wave crash?
A couple of rounds of Intimidate, but wave crash coming on through into the incinerator.
Is enough damage. Vasilijin wins the 1v1 and Hiroshi to take the first game in this set.
Yeah, another parting shot. The plays that there's an intricate getting in and out was just
not enough to weaken that Vaskalige to the point where he's able to be overcome by the incinerator
there and you know I think really well played from Hiroshi, Antonio managed the field very well
in a lot of scenarios especially that early game of the sleep powders getting rid of the King Gambit
but didn't really have the answers to that Vaskalige when it hit the field unfortunately I think
a little bit of a real awkward Pokemon to deal with when you've got enough grass type attack on
your Venus or you've got no way to change moves on your Garchomp as well. It really made it difficult
to land anything into that
basculage and I think the
Charizard as well was probably
the best method to deal with
the basculage and it has got
solar beam, but we saw it
coming in, getting caught on
the switch with that last
respects really just left
Antonio with very few resources
to kind of come back and clean
up the game.
And the amount of damage at the
end, the last respects critical
hit into Garchon's gotta feel
good and then still having
enough momentum to take down
the incinerator.
Now for Antonio, where do we
switch it up for game number two. The Venusaur, it was nice when you landed the sleep power,
it was nice with the earth power, but a couple of options may be likely to try and take care
of that Vasculita that ran away with the end game. Maybe something to prioritize a little
bit sooner, but let's find out as we head into game number two here. Garchon banking gamut,
once again, for Hiroshi and on the opposing end, we'll run back to Charizard, but now with Incineroar.
No better a switch up that early intubative, going to be good in one respect to the vehicles
in dollchamp but not only to that King Gamma that's the finality activating so it's going
to be a little bit more threatening.
You've got to get through this next turn, just leave the King Gamma doesn't have to
protect so it is a nice easy target for that Faker to slow down here but you probably want
to go after the dollchamp that is threatening bigger damage onto Charizard with potential
Rock Slide as well so choices are do you keep that Charizard on the field and maybe just
leverage your fake out here to get something in a little bit more
desirable. Not seeing that much, right, Horace?
And no switch. Well, Charizard's here. We're going to make the most of it.
First off with the Mega Evolution. And again, bringing around the throat
and the sunshine off the sea, though, because Garchomp on the opposing end
can be a very scary threat. But one that will be
making stuff for now. But thanks of that fake out, Garchomp can't
act in heatwave. There is going to be a... Okay, it's going to be...
There is going to be an Akabari, but it will be a double connect. King Gambit is going to survive this hit.
Now with an opportunity to respond to Kautau's lead into something like this Charizard,
could be a great way to do some damage, but low kick into Incineroar does even more,
bringing it down to just a bit.
It's a nice low kick, and the Akabari is a good use there.
Just something that Incineroar now is going to be susceptible to going down to a potential.
Earthquake, if that's what you're choosing, from that GollChomp, you would have to in that scenario switch out the King Gamma if you're Horoshee, and kind of Coco, the booster you've got.
Charizard's still sitting in not a terrible position though.
I'm wondering has Antonio brought the Toxotex this game though, because that is something that you could maybe give it into here.
You're not expecting an Earthquake, your GollChomp is minus one as well, so you've got to try and get it on the field, it's not as possible if it is there, but we'll have to wait and see.
Chargers are not in the greatest spot right now in front of you.
It certainly is not, which applied for tech from Antonio to keep it safe past this turn.
It's already taken a lot of damage as well, so you just don't want it to be taken asucker.
It hasn't taken any damage. You don't want to take any with that sucker pun.
Now, with follow-up, Rockslide Incineroar is going to be quite good through this turn,
but are we going to see it act? Yes, Blair Blitz.
Try and take care of the threat of the king gambit while you can.
Yeah, it's good trades here too. You know, if you use it to stop that party,
you should have this as a guard jump right away,
you can do that a little bit further.
But removing threats, picking down there, is very valuable here.
And the incident was still sticking around as well,
so there is potential to swap that out.
In fact, it's going to be later on if you want to.
You've got to be careful as well if you are in 20 or not,
because there's two rock threats in the field.
You've got Karachi, Charizard, a bit Megavoz,
it's got that Intune Power, and then you do have the Rock Slide as well.
The Rockslide is pretty straightforward here, we'll pick up the knockout on him soon,
or because of the damage he's taken in that Charizard will be in range,
depends on the speed, interactions as well, which Charizard is going to go first,
or she just does surpass, Antonio's can get that, and you power up with the Rockslide.
So, Antonio's Charizard not in again, the best of positions right now.
There's always just that little bit of variation with the walk, with the speeds of the Pokemon,
so it's time to see if potentially there's a ski tie, or who is going to move first,
But the switch out is another way to preserve instead of playing any sort of those VTai games
Go ahead and threaten with not just one, but two Pokemon switching out.
Talk to Bex. It's gonna be a switch up here in game number two.
Yeah, and then we're gonna get to the negative relationship of the chosen one.
We'll see if it is the Ancient Power. There's also a chance that comes out of the boost, which would be a huge help to her.
She's a defensive prize. We're gonna see the Dragonclaw is caught on the switch in. Great call there.
and there's it going to be followed up by the angel car.
A decent amount of damage with the dragon claw,
but it'll be a heatwave instead hit into both of these targets
and bring Garchon and Florentownio down to just a bit.
Burn onto the Toxic Packs as well.
That's not what you'd want to see when you're relying on this Pokémon
to be sticking around for so long.
This is going to negate the amount, like, the leftover recovery that you're trying to get.
Yeah, that makes it very difficult to utilize the Toxic Packs
effects in the way that you want to set in the field, kind of just tip away and disrupt.
Now it is going to be pretty much staying where it is and every bit of damage will count now,
so really fortunate for Horoji.
They do have access to why I got this turn, or do you start getting things on the time
as you go full the trap?
Do you go for the Toxic?
On the field, a certain field.
You can go Toxic pretty comfortably here, you know that King Gamma, the only immunity
on Horoji's side, has fallen, so when you go after and it lands it will take effect.
The garchomp now on Antonio's side as well is Skull, has the access to go for the Dragon
clone to the opposing garchomp, for we will be enough to pick up the knockout there.
Or do you choose to go after this to charge it if you have, you're going into a protect.
Protect on the turn, stay good past this rock slide and just pick up a little bit more into
the garchomp on the opposing end.
A flinch would always be nice to try and make sure this archspec isn't taking any more damage,
but instead just this earthquake.
hit into both of the Pokemon onto Antonyo's end. Something that Toxicpex does not appreciate at all
and Garchomp does not have a way to get through. Wow, that's quick there. Really bold decision by
Hiroshi, knowing that why God is an option, but saying if you don't go for it, I'm going to really
reap some rewards. You see the Toxic come out onto Garchomp, but I think a turn too late and so much
damage as well with that critical hit and the Toxicpex is here in real heat because now any
will probably be enough to pick it up, and it's not utilizing any sort of role that we've used to seeing, and how much you're dealing with it so, so well.
There is always the potential to try and swap it out against recovery, out of the way, but when the pieces on your team are kind of dwindling away and you've taken so much damage into something like that in the center already,
already that's also a difficult one because you know that the Pokemon you send in for the talks effect might just be taken down and then you're left with only
two options left and I'm telling you definitely in a very tricky situation yeah and now you can bring in the
Incinerate here and it's given so much damage so far but you will be able to at least drop the weathering today onto the Garchomp
you can utilize that make out onto either the Charizard or the Garchomp you probably want to go for the Charizard though and more than anything
If you go after the Garchomp, the rough skin residue will probably take you down, but you
are in a real pinch here where a Heatwave is going to be enough to clear the top specks
and incinerate it.
That isn't a chosen target, and even a Rockslide, which is an easy choice for Garchomp, um...
I mean, even at this point, you're talking about Rockslide, Heatwave, you do have to
be careful on the top specks with the Wideguard, right?
But then, Proji, you go and see that the health bars on the other Pokemon are so low, you
You can even just pick them off with a single target.
It's at your worry.
Double in for the one slot.
Talkspecs will take the opportunity to switch out
and get some recovery.
But with Charizard coming back in,
could potentially just get hit.
Incineroar with Protect is only the fun
little team building thing.
An Earthquake coming up from Hiroshi
will do nothing to Incineroar.
And Charizard Swap looks like it's going to be good.
It'll be the follow-up, though,
from the opposing end.
Oh, it's folding.
And Ancient Power into Antonio's Charizard.
is going to bring it oh so low yeah what a great call from Horosian that move
along pretty much locks up the game and makes it very difficult for Antonio to
get back into this in any sort of way she performed now you've got the situation
where that fake up's burnt there's no why God supports protect against the
income and want at their rock slide and that is going to be enough to take both
these Pokemon down if they leave themselves vulnerable in this position
the last one. We're going to
see the last one. The rock
side. All the ball. Come on,
Bransonio are so low again. If
you're worried about the accuracy
and just go for a single
target and center is going to
swap out. Postex comes back in
with a little bit of a new lease
on life with a little bit of
recovery, but you got to play so
carefully here in Hiroshi has
such a deep earthquake talks
It's not going to be enough things to how much work this Incineroar has put in, but it's still in a tough spot.
Yeah, it's really helping out there against, well, it's close to pecs here, but you can see.
In one respect, it is taking a little bit of recovery, but that is undone by that burn that was so impactful.
And the guard jump is on the timer as well, so it's not got many turns left before that poison tick does take it down.
take it down, but this combination of earthquake to kind of cover anything that is in Charizard,
like Incineroar is so good and then you combine that with that ancient power from the Charizard
as well, which is covering the opposing Charizard and any potential switch.
The Incineroar, if it decides to come back onto the field, did further weaken that, that
charge from.
It's a real difficult situation for Antonio to find themselves in, but they're doing
everything in their power to try and get back into it.
And it'll start with that protect Charizard, yet again the double protect and top specs
with the baneful bunker so no damage will come out onto Antonio's side of the board.
The Garchomp doesn't accomplish anything, neither will Hiroshi's Charizard and the Toxis.
We've seen them stack up onto the Garchomp turn after turn.
Its health is dwindling, but it's not enough to take it down.
If you want these two Pokemon to stick around, you're gonna have to rely on the triple on
the Charizard and the double for Toxpex.
Yeah, now do you go for the wide guard here expecting potentially an earthquake, an engine power combination that we've seen so much?
The thing is that Hiroshi could go for it, just go Dragon Claw, engine power into that Toxic Effect slot, you know how to protect it.
No triple, the attempt charged won't anything, and neither will the Toxic Effects, both fail!
These Pokemon are going to get hit and taken down, first off Dragon Claw for going for the single target attacks.
to cover for the potential of that wide guard and that's not good. That's gonna be one KO
on the turn. Toxic effects thankfully does get the leftovers recovery before any sort
of that damage kicks in. But of course Garchomp or Hiboroshi has overstayed its welcome. Toxic
will take it down. Yeah the Garchomp getting some real value out of it for Oshii. She's using it
right down to the last minute there. The Toxic's kicking it over but the Basculage in the perfect
Pokemon to bring in against what is going to be Incineroa and Toxic Pecs.
You feel that last respect pretty powered up, right?
You've got Ancient Power as well, you can hit that Incineroa with.
And Pokemon Antonio's side, so, so, so long.
Anything that hits them is going to knock them out.
That's exactly it.
Sure, the last Excuses, sure, you can do a lot of damage.
You don't need to do a lot of damage in this state.
Pokemon on Antonio's side have been whittled down turn after turn.
And we're gonna go out in our own way.
They go to the side, Hicks,
Vasulitin with the Aqua Jet to take the final KO.
And it's gonna be Hiroshi Onishi to take the set 2-0,
making his way to Top 4 here at the 2026 Pokemon World
Championships.
Coming into this event as the national champion,
it'll all prove that he has proved a lot so far.
Yeah, what a convincing victory and such a strong performance
from Horoshi where you go into this match thinking how are you going to deal with this
Toxapex with that wide guard that blocks all of these spread attacks that you're going
to need for the Toxapex but you didn't need it.
Didn't need it, had a plan and laid it out perfectly and really was just elegant in the
way that they set up from start to finish.
Taking advantage in game two in particular of that King Gama, the Incinerole lead there
and utilizing the Okcaberry.
Maybe it didn't get a knockout itself but it's softened things up and put things in
place to be close to getting knocked out later on in the game which made it a lot more difficult
for Antonio. The big turning point here was that burn onto the Toxalpex. If that hadn't
happened it might have made it a little bit easier for Antonio to kind of utilize that
Pokemon and leverage it a little bit more like we've seen him do time and time again,
but unfortunately that burn, just undoing the left overs recovered each and every turn.
The use of Ancient Power catching that Charizard on the switch, brilliantly done, but it just
the game. It was also because
of constantly just having just
being on the back foot within
this match. Roshi just had so
much pressure on the board when
it's an arch on that's
Earthquaking turn after turn
and being allowed to put that
much pressure out on Antonio
constantly having to pivot out.
You call one of these walks get
good damage in. You're just so
far ahead and the amount of
time to found ourselves in the
position. Hiroshi just had such
a strong start to the match was
able to constantly get in those
good calls. So we're going to
match was able to constantly get in those good calls, get that momentum over time.
And when all of his Pokemon are faster and they put out so much pressure, there was nothing else that Antonio could do.
You had to make the switches and hope that Horoshis isn't going to call you or miss up along the way.
Yeah, exactly that. And I think as well, some of the kind of advantage items that you've got on your side,
if you're Antonio, like a choice golf, Garchamp kind of came back to be a little bit of a hindrance more than
an advantage in that set in particular and that that's testament to Hiroshi and how they identified
that as a threat and then took advantage and flipped the tables and said you know well yeah
you might be in a good position right now but what I'm going to do next is going to make it a real
detriment to your game plan and yeah just so so well done. It was just an incredible match and big
congratulations to Antonio to making it to this point for Hiroshi. Wanna step closer now to be in
not finals or being our champion. Yeah, one step closer and yeah familiar with this
old environment. She did it very recently in a different champions format in MA at the Japan
Nationals but yeah gonna take that experience and hopefully push them on to getting one step
closer to championship Sunday. I mean top four is an incredible achievement. We have to go here
from him as Hiroshi is on the stage now for our interview.
Thank you so much, Sarah.
I'm here with your first top four player of the 2026 World
Championships, Hiroshi Anishi.
Hiroshi, congratulations on making top four.
You are also the reigning champion of the PJCS,
the Japan Championship Series, what does it feel now to be here in top four at Worlds?
Did you choose this team of six Pokemon to compete with this weekend?
I brought a strong team, not only good luck, but also the team's choice, so please tell us a little bit about it.
The team's choice has a lot of strong teams now, and there was a place where I was very lost, but I was especially aware of where I was.
I brought six teams this time.
the best fit me to bring to the tournament.
Very nice. Going into this battle, I think Toxapex was one of the biggest threats on the opposing side of the field.
What was your strategy to defeat Toxapex, especially in that game too?
In the end, the most powerful strategy was to defeat it with the power of life.
So I made a plan to do that.
In the end, I got hit by the explosion, but it didn't really matter.
But in the end, I got a critical hit,
and it really didn't make that much of a difference.
Those critical hits can help out indeed.
Thank you so much, Hiroshi.
Do you have any shout outs to any family or friends
who might be watching at home?
I have a message for my family and friends.
Thank you, everyone here,
for supporting SNS.
Thank you, everyone.
So for everybody here and everybody out on social media
has been cheering me on.
That really gives me a lot of power.
So thank you so much.
Congratulations Hiroshi once again
on making it into top floor here at the World Championships.
Let's go ahead and take it over to Ben's battle breakdown
to, well, break it down.
Certainly a lot of power in that last match.
Hiroshi doing so, so well there.
But wow, we're in top eight here at the World Championships.
That was our first one.
We know our first player that has made it into our top four.
And let's go over to the standings
and just keep this moving along
and see who's next that we are gonna be able to feature here.
As a reminder to players,
we are gonna be featuring all of our top eight.
And our next match is Xiao versus Giovanni.
And I'm really looking forward to seeing what they've got.
Especially to, yeah, like looking at Drow and what he's been able to accomplish, not just world championships,
but in this last year as a player and even previously, I think the globe has just been so impressive.
And to be able to see him make a run like this through the bracket is incredible.
And Lee, for Giovanni.
Yeah, I mean, Giovanni is just an incredible player in general.
line down. Coming out really, probably not one of the favorite Italians coming into this event,
but it's really done. They're region-trialled, getting to top in. I'm sure they are not done yet.
Now we saw them on stream earlier and they were very close in taking a victory. They took a
right down to the wire, just not enough to take another line in the end, but they've got themselves
into top eight and they're going to be going again and that's the main thing. Picking up going again,
we saw how they had all the advantage with those ancient power boosts.
Yeah, I can harness that energy and take it into the top it and beyond and of course to Fano as well also from Italy Italy
Definitely one of the strongest
Set of players that we have in the game right now Stefano really came
By no means out of nowhere, but really came to the floor after he won his first regional championships and still
Continuing that consistency
Especially like seeing when he won it with an icy wind Chen pal
Which at the time was like it was a meta team that he was using for that one little change that one little adaptation
That really took him to his team and his play to the next level
I want to call it Japan on this graph because we just got to see Hiroshi win on broadcast
And he still have two more Japanese players fighting through top eight
Takuma going up against the bottom who are calling out and then you get as well
this was our mega dragonite player that dragonite we didn't get to see what's such a cool team.
I'm really excited to see how that's going to fare up against Zachary who is I mean one of his best
as evident by his season and his run here at Worlds. Yeah 100% I mean it's calling out as well that
two out of three of the Japanese players are running mega dragonite instead of mega Charizard.
that we have left from Japan
that's still sticking with the Charizard
bandwagon that we've kind of all been on as well.
But seeing that sort of consistency coming out,
those two other teams that both have Mega Dragonite
have two different Pokemon,
Whimzacot compared to Garchomp,
on the same overall five Pokemon otherwise composition.
And so, like, you know,
it's still some slightly different approaches,
but that commonality there with what they've been using.
Yeah, it's always really interesting
been using. Yeah, it's always really interesting in that lead up to worlds,
especially when we have a break as long as we have between our last official
event and as he into now is all the meta development per region, right?
Especially the per region because you'll get team building groups.
We also do have scenes that have those different grassroots scenes.
And Japan is definitely known for having a really strong grassroots scene.
It put a lot of preparation in.
And when you have those different sub regions, you can really get more
pushed out of a meta, right?
that's why after a bit of time,
we will see these really cool picks come out.
And to see that that is what is coming out
is this mega dragonite out of all things.
I think it's just so exciting.
It's not just all mega Charizard out here.
We get some really cool team building.
Definitely, mega dragonite was definitely something
that we're gonna be seeing a great deal of in our top cup.
And let's have a little look at the two players
that we're gonna be seeing in our next round.
We've got a breakdown of trials.
run through our Swiss. This is phase one. He said in his interview that he lost round one and sort
of had to come back from there, but also taking a loss in round seven against former world champion
Schoenke Kimura, but still being able to, since then, win out every single one of his rounds to
make it here to the top eight. It's an incredible performance. Even when you go back to that lost
round one, it is a similar mirror. We don't know the intricate details of each team, but you're
you're assuming that they're very, very similar options
of both sides of the field.
And they can always be difficult, right?
You can get one wrong move,
but then you need to kind of let that go
and then pick themselves up again
and continue on such a strong run after that.
I want to take them down by show here.
And you can see the variety of teams as well
that they've had to come up against.
So just the same archetypes over and over again,
this team is built so well, it can kind of match up
even to some of the newer, more popular MV teams
that we've seen come to the floor.
the right to there. We've got
the star actor, the gold angle
as well. So it handles itself
very well and now you see very,
very well accomplished with it
to have to bounce back from that
round one loss and then going up
against Oh, and then taking the
win. You just had the craziest
180 of all time to put yourself
on a winning way. And I feel like
that just works so much confidence
for yourself going on forward
the game. You know, you know,
you're not going to be able to
go into phase two out of six and
two record. You made it, which
is it's going to be difficult,
but to be able to win out since
then is just incredible and
looking at the date. It comes
up and I'm immediately like
wow. Just in time. Carson's and
dead is what fabulous
opponents as well. Not to
mention Alexander to like all
of these names are so so crazy
you carry on winning, right?
It gets harder and harder and
harder. That is just an incredible
list, especially to again at the
X and two going into phase two,
so you just knocked it. That's not
like, oh, we're going up against
these people and it's fun match.
No, you just knocked out this list
of individuals from the World
Championship. That is incredible.
It's been completely auditory this
weekend and to see that from such
a young, brave player is truly
It's one of those stories that we tune in, we watch, we're here, we're present for the
World Championships and why we love it, as these younger players coming in and just making
and putting their stamp on these events and saying, I'm a serious contender, I've got
to take, set up, take note and we'll see where the journey continues after this, I'm sure
it's going to be great, but it's not finished yet, so until the story's still a lot of action
to come.
Well let's look at our other competitor here in the top age, Giovanni Piscitelli, hailing
from Italy playing a little bit more of a standard composition that we were expecting coming
in to make a big, big splash here that Mega Charizard Y, Mega Flowette. But again, another
player taking a loss in round one, bouncing back and making it all the way through here
to the top eight.
Let's feel confident in his Mega Swampert matchup considering he's taken around. Um, well, you
you lose one so then you take
down every, uh, Swampert past
that. Okay. Maybe that's just
the way to do it. You lose
around one and it gives you the
energy to all around. You know
what, Lee? I'll let you test
that one out next time. But one
of the things that's actually I
think quite quite interesting
to see coming into this
particular matches that I give
on it playing against Claudio
using the same composition that
this matchup and he was able to be victorious in this matchup. It's a match where, yeah,
usually the, uh, Megasco Villain, uh, Mega Frostlass kind of composition usually gives
this more, uh, I'm going to call it standard team, but, uh, you know, tried and tested
team of the Charizard flow. It usually gives it a hard time, right? And, uh, Giovanni's
already shown in this tournament that he's able to overcome it.
That's one of the things, and it's something we'd like to see at NAAC as well, is that
But this variation of team that he's going up against with this Lycan Rock, it is very
strong in these Charizard teams.
That cannot be doubted.
But when you have such a strong pick into it, you've got to figure out your answers,
you've got to figure out your game plan into it.
And if you can take down a piece like the Lycan Rock early on, or your opponent doesn't
preserve it quite correctly, you can exploit that team and be able to take the win.
That's why Charizard is still so successful.
Why it still has such a high usage.
So Lycan Rocks haven't eliminated the Charizard, it's not even close yet.
Yeah, there's still there's still a few left of them kicking but we're gonna be kicking it over to a short break now
Well, we get our next top eight round set up. So stay tuned. We'll be right back very soon
back to the 2026 Pokemon World Championships in San Francisco, California.
The day has been an exciting one as we have already started our journey through
the top cut single elimination bracket.
My name is Rosemary Kelly and I'm joined by Aaron Zing and we're so stoked to be
here to bring you through our next top eight match.
First of all, congratulations to King Gambit.
You are now officially a world champion as it is on all the remaining teams here
at the world championships.
The only team that it wasn't on top. It was Antonio who just got eliminated. And so if you played this format at all, you probably know how good King Gambit is.
It really kind of feels like a Swiss Army knife in that it can flex onto so many different teams. It has incredible overall stats.
But what's interesting is we've seen a lot of variations of King Gambit, right? We've seen focusash popping up as an item.
The type resist barriers like Aukabary as well as Stropelberry, Black glasses and Life form in particular was a really big set coming into the World Championships.
You can run four attacks on it, you can run for tech, sword stance, and no coverage moves
other than Cal-Town Sucker Punch, and so this Pokemon has just been really, really dominant,
so I'm not surprised to see it win the World Championships, but I didn't think we'd be
crowning it this early on.
Yeah, I mean, just adding on to that, I can't believe we also saw some Supreme Overlord
stuff for a little while there when Incineroar was sleeping behind the wheel, but we are
ready to go for our next top eight bad congratulations to our King King gambit and let's now see who will also move on to the top four.
We've got Joao Felipe Lecce versus Giovanni DiCicchia.
An exciting one, Joao.
Phenomenon graduating from the seniors division.
If the youngest player in our remaining top eight here and saw him pull really great comeback after being down the game in that previous top 16 match.
course he is running what a lot of players actually call it Italian ice. This was a team that was developed by
Italian players before the North American international championships
Because South Korea is being about to have that life or bombast religion for Joao. This is a dream run
You can see his accomplishments on the screen
Concealers had some pretty good success won a regional championship top eight at laic
But here he is in the masters division matches his best finish as a top eight finish in masters, but it's at world
It's not reasonable
that. Yeah, it's just so
impressive. Sometimes you
always have that question mark
of was the seniors run
something where maybe the
power level of seniors was
not the same as what you might
experience in the master's
division and Joao proving
that no, this is not a fluke.
This is his moment within this
top cut on the flip side of
things. You do have Giovanni
because you tell me you're
talking about how this Italian
ice archetype of Joao is one
that you would imagine Giovanni
that he is an Italian player and has performed against a lot of the top
competitors that also had that Italian ice archetype. Our analysts did such a
great job as well of breaking down some of the runs that both of our
competitors have had and Giovanni's actually beaten this six already earlier
on in the tournament whereas Duas has lost to this quote-unquote big six
archetype that we have seen competitors use. Yeah what's interesting is both of
these players surely have grinded the respective matchup so much coming into
this tournament because these were two of the top teams but doesn't matter how
much practice you put in sometimes the execution can play out very differently
and when you're playing at the absolute highest level your opponents might take
lines that you just did not see in practice when you were grinding in
because they kind of hyper optimize the matchup right so take a look at Joao's
team here of course the unique cool mega feature of mega Frostlast as well as
mega Scoville and Frostlast being able to provide a lot of offense with that
Blizzard, which really checks Star Chop, a Pokemon that otherwise can hit Sneaseler,
King Gambit, Lycan Rock for a lot of damage. Skovill on the other hand gives you a little
bit more defensive capabilities with Redirection, being able to burn a lot of those key physical
attackers. When Joao played against the T-Modes, very similar to Giovanni's in top 16, I actually
saw him flex between both of them, and so I think both are very viable here, but of course,
the key Pokemon to pay attention to, in my opinion, is going to be that Lycan Rock,
if you're expecting Charizard from the opposing end. Lycan Rock exists on this team to be a huge
checkmate into Charizard, but for how Joao into the top 8 be able to excel a rock in opposing
Charizard and the threat of it is so so big and as the Charizard player, if you're going to bring
Charizard into the matchup, it is this constant dance of when do I actually have my Charizard on
the field and attack. And it can be really hard to take out this like in rock because you look at
Pokemon on Giovanni's team like the Garchomp, maybe even the Bastille Legion to be able to pick
off this Pokemon, but the focus dash makes it tough to invest just one attack you require
So let's take a deeper look at Giovanni's team. This is, again, kind of looking at that Charizard with a more updated move set.
You've got ancient power for opposing Mega Charizards instead of something like the Solar Beam that we saw be popular at the beginning of the format.
Yeah, and this is a really good call-out because the lack of Solar Beam means that Lycanroc actually becomes even more difficult to deal with, right?
Sometimes when you're using a team like this, if you have Solar Beam, you predict the Lycanroc to switch in. You can nail it with a Solar Beam,
solar beam but here you're not gonna do that much damage with any of your attacks. King
Gambit's one of the key Pokemon I'm actually looking at on Giovanni's end because it is
the Chopal Berry 4 Attack King Gambit which means that this Pokemon has incredible coverage
into Joao's team right. You're able to hit Frostlast King Gambit like in Rock, Paskin
Legion for super effective damage but the King Gambit also has to be a little bit scared
because of course there's the sneeze around the opposing end, two close combat as well
as the Skow Villain so here we go we're jumping into game one there's so many different variations
a Pokemon that both players can bring and it's going to be a flow egg here.
Charizard dropped out of respect for the Lakinrock.
Well that's coming to the battle means that we are likely going to see the mega evolution
invested into this Pokemon.
Could be that there's a Charizard in the back there but it would not have the ability to
mega evolve if you select it for the flowette on this turn.
Looking across the way we've got the Lakinrock Stovillian for Juaul.
Yeah I think what's interesting in this batch of us a lot of times players still end up
bringing Charizard despite the fact there's a Lakinrock on the opposing team because the
the idea of what I knock out like in Rockwood, then
the party version is clear, right?
But often really difficult to accomplish that.
So the skull villain, defensively,
is actually quite great in the flow.
It won't do that much damage, but can burn it, right?
And so it's going to be a mega evolution
to immediately start off the game here.
The burn is just going to help to get that residual damage
at the end of the turn.
But since the flow is that special attacker,
it doesn't actually stop that negative effect
of having its damage halved.
And you see the whips that go for the protect, though,
as both the skull villain and the flowet
end up investing the mega evolution.
Lightning Rock, still one of the fastest Pokémon
on the field, gets to fire off a rock slide.
Maybe it can flinch this Floette in its tracks.
And that is what happens on the first turn of the game.
Overheat now, connecting from the Skull Villain.
You're going to drop your special attack,
but you basically just drop this Floette, too.
A great trade of your stats.
Yeah, I mean, that would have been a huge dancing
lean to get off, right?
Like we bring Lightning Rock down to the focus sash there.
The fast rock slides feel like they've really defined this format, whether it be Lycanroc, Garchomp, or Aerodacto, so showcasing why this move is so unbelievably powerful.
Would have done a fair amount of damage from the Floette, and if you are going for that Dazzling Gleeve, it just really gets the Lycanroc quite low.
So not the trend that Giovanni wanted to see. Now you risk Lycanroc just going for something like that as Xceleroc, right?
like when stuck in tailwind but then pull up with no pain so Giovanni maybe you want to consider
protecting the flow out or just switching out in a King Gambit or Garchomp. You have to switch out
here. That flow let's so important to have that damage for later and it's gonna be the Garchomp
that ends up taking its place. Moose the kite with the move blast. Set us setting up something like
the tailwind because you know that that like and rock damage is important. Like and rock those still
around to deliver another set of rock slides as the skill building has yet to move. Another
Overheat. Duck Whimsykott has already taken a lot of damage and at minus two it's still good for the knockout.
Yeah, what a lights out start here, especially given that it wasn't even Charizard on the opposing end.
Lichenrock showcasing how they can't put in a lot of work.
Even if it's not staring down that Charizard and no tailwind crucially set up from the opposing end as well.
So, feel like Joao has built up a really big early lead here.
Floette comes back. Once again, though, still dreaded by that Lichenrock.
Of course, well, like you're quick protect and then guard jump an angle for an earthquake, for example
but if you earthquake you're going to be
Attacking the skill villain, which is going to bring you for the remainder of the game. Yeah, so it's a really difficult position here
I think especially given that you're all still as two Pokemon in the back
The fast legion and Caesar feel like the most likely the black class and sword stance King Gambit set generally doesn't feel very powerful in this matchup
Especially when you stare down and opposing King Gambit and Charizard and so
So, you know, blinking back to Legion also such an immense threat, but for Joao right now,
definitely has to leave.
What is Giovanni going to do with this flow?
I think it's going to be the protect.
Hoping that that's going to negate a priority Excel rock.
But the Garchomp is able to strike first, not to pale onto the Lycan rock,
but low enough that you maybe get a chance to flinch it and stop it from moving
after some of this luck has already gone against you.
You'll have to get burned for your troubles.
So, kinda helps to even the scale a little bit.
Yeah, and with this GoVillain being at minus 4 special attack, there's very minimal damage
at this point.
But I think getting the fur on Garchup is still a really big deal, right?
Because now, the Floette is still threatened by an Exal Rock.
It was a rock slide coming out here instead of the Earthquake trying to get some super
effective damage on this GoVillain.
But as a result, the Light Crock does not end up fainting.
So now, Floette in a precarious position is going to switch out, expecting Gambit to
come here and ban it into the case.
in a vulnerable position with the Skull Villain now leaving the field is going to help this
King Gambit out so it's not going to end up getting burned if it attacks into this slot
right now.
It does take the Excel Rock so Poet getting out of dodge with that one retreating back
into its hook of all.
But the guard chop connects the second Rock slide to finally knock this Lycan Rock out
once and for all.
Yeah and Joao actually reveals there is King Gambit in the back.
The main reason you potentially want to bring in this matchup is to kind of checkmate Vasco Legion,
but there's no Vasco Legion from Giovanni's end this time around.
And so I think the Gambit ends up feeling a little bit worse, although of course the Sneasler is the final pick here.
So now you actually thread in with close combat onto Sneasler, sucker punch into Garchomp,
and that little bit of damage on a King Gambit actually can go a long way, right?
It is going to be the Chouple Berry, but when you get the little bit of chip,
that often is enough for you to just get the knockout with close combat.
And so I think Joao in a really strong offensive position right now.
Sneasler just such a great final poke month to have.
And yeah, I think now it is on Giovanni to either respond, but it's so difficult when the flow is so low.
The King Gambit has that priority damage and with a burn on bar chop,
you won't even be able to get a knockout, even if you get an attack off.
Yeah, you would love to be able to get that spread first place damage into both of these targets,
but you also have to be able to protect your own King Gambit, which does not have protect.
So you can't even go for that.
I think King Gambit from Giovanni also hoped to land a low kick into the opposing King Gambit.
He had me a pretty neutral turn.
A little bit better though for Joao, is Garchomp continues to take burn damage.
Yeah, exactly.
Like, I think that's always a safe play in that you get a little bit more burn damage
and then the Garchomp now is an even higher probability of getting knocked out by a Stugger Punch by the King Gambit, right?
So I think Stugger Punch plus combat still a play.
My question is, sometimes with these teams, the Sneezers won't actually have that much
offense for the best man, so if that is the case, can the King Gambit, with the Trouple
Berry on the opposing side, actually survive that close combat even after a little bit
of chip damage?
So, once again, I think Joel's play here is, I can, Sucker Punch, Dark Jump, I can close
combat in a King Gambit, how does Giovanni respond?
And the answer is going to be switching out that King Gambit.
So, if you could flow back, to come back and take its place, you could end up taking something
like that Sucker Punch, it will fail, so that is one attack that has been mitigated.
and the close combat heads in that direction as well.
And so while that goes down first troubles,
but did this actually give an opening for Giovanni
to actually land critical super effective damage
into either of these Pokemon?
See the waiter consumer from the Sneezer
so he can't actually re-
Oh, what a play by Giovanni!
There's the earthquake.
The burn though is going to keep the Sneezer around
for the next turn.
It will, yeah.
I think that was like the one play Giovanni could do
to keep himself in the game.
And so I wanna explain that
because sure, many of you were just expecting Sucker Punch to go to Garchomp,
but like I said, sometimes with these Sneezers, you don't have that much attack investment,
so Joel was worried, but saying,
you have Choblberry, I might not KO you in close combat because of that,
even with the chip damage, so I'm gonna double up into your King Gambit.
Giovanni recognizing that says,
well, I'm gonna switch Outflow, you have to double up into it,
and I'm gonna get a huge earthquake off.
To your point, though, there's the burn.
Is it enough right now is the big question,
because Sneezer still is pressuring with close combat.
My question is, can King Gambit on the opposing side knock out Sneezer with a Sucker Punch?
I would not expect it to. The Spieslers on these teams normally have a lot of physical ball.
And so these are actually just going for a protect here. We've talked about going for these
protect to just get more burn damage out. Also baits out a protect from the opposing Bar Chomp
potentially, but it's not going to be a protective Chomper. It's a double protect here
for Zhuo, just to get us out. What do you want to want to lock into for these attacks? I want to
see Yvonne want to actually try to get through this endgame after giving him a second chance
and a second flight, Garchomp continues to get low
as that burn damage is stacked up over time.
So if we were wondering whether or not
the Sucker Punch from Joao's King Gambit
would get the knockout, it definitely will now.
Yeah, I think Joao probably wants to just go
for the double up honestly opposing King Gambit.
Although the opposing Gambit is faster
than Sucker Punch first, right?
And so as a result, Joao doesn't want to take any risks.
Actually switches out, which makes a lot of sense.
Aids out to protect from Garchomp.
This Garchomp is on a timer from that burn.
And it is the soccer punch here, some nice call by Joao.
Yeah, but it's a sucker punch from the other side too,
and some of them are going to fail.
But now that you have this scovillain on the board,
you actually can help to keep your own King Gambit safe
for something like an opposing low-key spot.
Rage powder can be like that.
Exactly.
Rage powder plus soccer punch here
should just be game over.
Mega scovillain was honestly quite incredible in this game.
You can see how that burn on Garchoff
just completely neutralized it.
It's actually gonna be the protect coming out from scovillain.
I think it also makes sense at this point
with the burn ticking down on Garchomp.
It has done a significant amount of damage, right?
Just saying, okay, now you're just one turn away
from fainting, but to me, this game feels over.
Mega-Snowbillen was absolutely incredible
in neutralizing the number one threading Garchomp.
Really unfortunate for him to start the game,
but I didn't get to do any damage in this game.
And, yeah, Wimms ago, I didn't really get to accomplish
very much either.
Equivalent at one, Moonblast,
and then got knocked out by an attack
on a subsequent turn.
And you have to wonder whether or not
this game would have looked a little bit differently,
had that full Wicked on the dmg, or had one stop and be able to set up something like a tailwind.
I really like how patiently Joann has played this game. I was talking about just going for
Sucker Punch close combat, but in that situation you might not know how fast your King Gambit is
relative to the opposing King Gambit. You can get crit, Sucker Punch now cleans up the Garchomp,
and Scovillain loves seeing opposing King Gambit. Like these are the two absolute best
Pokemon I think for Scovillain to go up against. It's just going to be over if you're coming out
there. No need for rage powder, and it obliterates King Gambit, because Scovillain puts on a
the most powerful mega evolutions
in the format being Tarsar flow
way. We've seen a lot of really
cool ones, but let's not forget
that skill filling has been at the
top of a lot of people's radars
that they can slide under a
heading into this tournament.
Absolutely. Yeah. And I think
you know, what's interesting is
normally we think about the skill
blown as a defensive towards
once again, you know, replaying
here. Some flinches. I think at
this point there was the
opportunity for guard jump to
potentially her plague, right?
But I think it's a great
opportunity for the players to
There was the opportunity for Garchomp to potentially Earthquake, right?
By Broxiding, and actually doesn't kill the Liking Rock,
and the Liking Rock then has pressure into the Floette,
so I'm kind of forcing a switch.
And, Sucker Punch here, failing.
I think this was a really nice play by Giovanni
to try to keep himself in the game.
The reality is he was already immensely far behind,
and in terms of the Pokemon choice, right,
with Floette going down so quickly,
Garchomp and King Gambit often just don't have enough firepower,
and the way Joao conserved this Skowvillain was brilliant.
So, one of the things about Skowvillain
is it doesn't like going against Charizard,
and actually does no damage into it.
the game. It's just like, you
know, it's just like, you know,
you're not going to get a lot
of good HRs or can kind of
obliterate it. But with
Flauette being the commit here,
the scobal and actually had a
really great time and the point
I wanted to make to you,
Rosemary was talking about
scobal and as like a defensive
tool for rage powder and burns,
but we saw over key click what
three different times in that
game. It mainly just Yeah, it
didn't even really go for
redirection. It was like, All
right, let me get chip off the
flow. Let me knock up the
whimsicott. Let me knock out
King. Yeah, man. You have to
respect it, especially if
to go off the rails very quickly.
The as we enter into game two is Zwoow out one game.
We're all going to see a bit of an adjustment
coming out from Zwoow, Siesler and King Gambit
in front of Lipsy got Floette as a run back for Geoani.
Yeah, so Geoani, kind of just saying,
I'm going to stick to the Floette.
I think Charizard is a big here,
because once again, you have the lagging rock
and I don't want to play this guessing game
of having my charge out against it.
So King Gambit here is the last to score stand set.
And so you're not going to do a lot of damage right now, right?
You could go for something like a sword stance,
but I think right now I favor Giovanni's position
just because the Flood is exerting
a lot of offensive pressure.
The Sneasler right now,
but of course those have access to that fake out.
And what you look at is, it's not a mega,
that makes me think Charizard's in the back.
Very possible.
The line is actually just going to use a light of ruin.
The journey is going to go one shot onto the Sneasler.
Oh, it is so obvious,
but it's just not quite enough
that the Sneasler is able to fire back a dire clock
And that's going to eliminate the flow-in after it took so much recourse from the Light of Ruin.
What a cool adjustment in not mega-volving, but this is the bolt that the Spazer sometimes have survived for Light of Ruin outside of Mega Evolution.
Gambit gets that sword stance off, that's really scary.
Now Jorah, of course, has the ability to go for fake out there.
For faking out in front of a Wimskall with Oncour is always really scary.
However, it is going to be the King Gambit coming in from the opposing side.
So it's going to be a pretty strong Pokemon, right?
At this point, Giovanni has brought three Pokemon that resist the dark type attacks from King Gambit.
So I think that's smart. I also think the lack of a mega evolution there makes surely it's got to be Charizard in the back, right?
You don't want to bring Charizard into a boosted King Gambit.
So I think Giovanni's goal right now, I really is to knock out the King Gambit and get it out of the way so that Charizard can hit the field.
And for Joao, maybe you consider reserving it.
I mean, if there's a Scoville in the back, you can protect King Gambit.
Sacrifice Sneasler gets Scoville in him, and that combination was really scary.
It's going to be a swamp here and it's going to be a Scovillian, okay?
These are so low, it's not going to be able to contribute a lot to this turd.
So you're going to get it out in favor of that Scovillian.
And Charizard does make it appear as Giovanni's forest Pokemon in this game too.
A Protect on the King Gambit is going to keep its face,
but the women's decod is actually targeting its move blast into the partner.
So nice little bit of chip damage there onto the Scovillian that even from this Charizard
should be able to clutch up on the next one.
A defense boost at special defense.
Balls from the moody boost.
Gonna make it even more vulnerable
to these two special attackers on the other side.
My big question for you, Rosemary,
is does this suffer punch knock down Charizard?
Charizard runs all kinds of different spreads in the format.
We've seen players train their Charizard
to even survive life form plus two suffer punch.
That's like a ton of HP defensive medicine,
basically max, max, or close to it.
So, if the Charizard can hang on even with the sliver of HP, that heat wave will get a double knockout like we, especially with that special defense drop on the Skullbillet.
If it faints, that's game over. Here we go. Isn't just gonna be suffer punch, and it's so. Does Charizard survive?
With this feed advantage and Giovanni's favor, you have to imagine the one way around this would be for going for that priority suffer punch.
Before we get there, we do see the mega evolution as Skullvillet protects itself.
So, Ken and King Gambit get away with a huge knockout.
What's Jessica gonna do?
Take this!
And with just enough to be able to get an attack off on this turn,
Moon Blossom will fail.
Heatwave comes out.
Protect is going to help this go villain first,
and it connects into the King Gambit.
King Gambit won't go down, but I think it's your chill out.
You're pretty happy about that, right?
If you look at the 4-4-4-4 Geobon and Prott,
you don't really need to sucker punch or watch the sucker punch
any of the other Pokemon.
Getting that one big one into Charizard often is the big, big attack, so big lead I think still over to Joao, what is going to come in right now, right, because the Charizard is really, really low, it'll faint at really any priority attack, a big attack, a solid rocket off with that, right.
I think if you draw, you also have to consider, while I know that there's still that King Gambit in the back,
and I probably want to conserve my skill-villain, but the skill-villain and Vasco Legion is what looks really tough right now.
Of course, the Whimsical has Encore Pressure into skill-villains. You can Encore skill-villain,
and then Vasco Legion is attacking Awkwaja into Charizard, so then you can potentially switch Charizard into King Gambit,
and go for Encore onto it in the subsequent turn, so...
If your body's not out of it yet, I think Encore is such a big tool,
it's one of the main reasons why Whimsical just brought out this matchup,
But Charizard keeping up that much damage
to always getting closer and closer to the semifinals.
One more turn of tailwind left.
So does Giovanni actually want to try to leverage that with the Charizard
while you have a chance?
Maybe you do want to flirt with Fire
if that backs the lead and is not going to go for a priority attack.
But things better of it.
In Gambit it comes out, so Villain tries to shed some of the
unlucky moody roles that it has gotten in this match.
That's also going to help redirect away
Last respect comes out
You're bringing one to cut down to that focus dash and that's a great move selection to lock into knowing that that's right of
Encore is on the other side exactly
Yeah, Joao gets another great play there and I think for Giovanni that play like even it also makes a lot of sense if Joao makes the
Mistake there and stays in with the skull villain and it gets locked in well suddenly you actually completely turn the tides
That could have been an attack just to knock out the Sneezler, but the Bastion Legion gets so much damage in a whimse spot.
Once again, the King Gambit on the opposing side also can't protect right now, right?
You can always launch the fake out into that slot if you wanted.
You also could just go for close combat that anyone has expired, although you risked some suffering from the King Gambit.
And to either Pokemon right now.
But a big turn for Joao.
What's really, really important though is making sure that you can serve the Bastion Legion ideally to get that Awkwaja to finish off Charizard.
But that's the Legion 8's going to retreat for now.
Exactly how you called it, you go villain,
it's to make a reappearance.
Is it really under threat right now
getting knocked out to the Lipsap or the King Gambit here
so you can bring that Pokemon in safely
before considering a mega evolution?
And Sneasler, does it fall for the protect?
Sidesome fake out this King Gambit
so I cannot get an attack off.
And we're gonna see a special attack drop here
on the Skow Villain, and that's a moody boost
you like to see.
I was gonna say, okay, overheat is just,
I mean, I think it was going to one shot everything from the range that they were now, but even more so.
Now for sure.
So, I mean, another great play, I think, by Joe out here, as Skilville manages to come in so free.
Right now, there is, once again, all more pressure into the Ski'sler, but King Gambit is going to be the one swapping out.
Great play by Giovanni, I think Giovanni recognizes that he can serve this ideally to beat the basket-eachers,
but how do you deal with Skilville? And at this point, the Overheater's looking so threatening.
Going to mega evolve now after biting its sweet time with this special attack boost.
Going to see the skill building to go all out on the offense.
He's going to protect himself.
He's going to keep it safe from the move blast.
Maybe a missed opportunity for damage there.
Into the skill deal and as the gigatrain is going to help,
finish off this Wimps abroad, give a little bit of HP recovery back,
and set the skill building up for success in the endgame.
Yeah, and this game feels wrapped up at this point.
point once it goes down, King Gambit is going to come in in the back, but once again you have to
steer down this Go-Villain. I think he's probably the scope to something like the Rage-Potter with
Go-Villain and then go for a dire bond to Charizard, right? The King Gambit is kind of
checkmated by this Go-Villain. Can't protect. If you go for Rage-Potter, we'll go into it. So
firing some really weird speed interactions for Charizard is faster than the Sneasler. I think
that Joao should be able to advance to the top four. So honestly, I've been playing, I would say,
and has made Megascope look like an absolute beast of a Pokemon.
Juaul lost to this team from Shulkai Kimura earlier on in the tournament,
but has clearly learned a couple of things to apply to this match versus Juaul Bani.
There's still a basket legion in the back for Juaul to depend upon
to finish off this game in style, but there's this game gambit and Charizard that Juaul Bani has
He has that maybe will help him keep the dream alive.
Scovillain, rage powders, draws away the attention
as Spielberg is going for close combat into the King Gambit.
Doppelberry is going to activate to help us
make this close combat survivable.
And so King Gambit hands the arm of the sliver.
The wire is gone already,
so there isn't going to be a pleasantly stash drop.
Okay, I was thinking about game two.
That's gonna help actually to get this unburden activated.
He with connects double onto these Pokemon, but Scoville and actually survives that
So this battle to survive doesn't have been dire upon a Charizard
But I think because of the burn that will now come out you can see a Jermany shaking his head
Scoville won't finish will be a double knockout
But that King Yamban now will paint from burn not after this term of the following one
As the Asian comes in you protect and as you called that rosemary in the beginning of this
There's no solar beam on that Charizard
So you cannot even hit that Vasco Legion for very much damage.
So all Joannis to do now is bring out Vasco Legion, protect King Gambit,
thanks Aqua Jet KO Charizard, and he is moving on to the top four, the 16-year-old Prodigy.
Great timing if the sun expired on that last turn.
Vasco Legion does get to close this one out for Joao.
An impressive run for Joao in this 2026 season.
The freshly aging up from the senior division goes on to the top four of the Pokémon World
champions protect now so King Gambit will fall to the burn damage and then
charge up will fall in the next turn.
Sucker Punch will paint ancient power coming out of it.
One last ancient power for the road here for GeoVadi. No boost coming out. He got a lot of those in one of the previous top cut matches.
He knows this one is all but over. I'd love the adjustment to Winston on Floette and not Mega Bulbink.
I think that's one of the big things with this team, but Joao is going to be moving on to the top four.
He looked really good in that set.
Wow, absolutely, lights out there for this young Brazilian player.
What a commanding performance and just a dominant one throughout these stages of the World Championships.
Now on to the top four. Just how far can you truly take this miraculous run?
That was so fun to watch and I think it made such a good argument for Megascobellum, right?
This team came together initially when the team that Giovanni was using was really rising in the meta game
And you could see all the tools that Joao had to deal with it, right?
I think the King Gambit actually coming in I thought he made really effective use of it
It is not an easy Pokemon to use in this matchup
Which is why on paper you often consider dropping it, right?
But managed to get that plus two sucker punch off into Charizard and while it does not get the knockout
Brings it so low that basically one other move will finish it off, right?
So finding the perfect angle for King Gambit just flawlessly done here
And even though the Charizard managed to survive at this point
I feel like the main downside is that Whimsycop was just never providing any real value other than going for Encore
But Joao really never let himself get Encore as a result
Whimsycop actually often feels like dead weight and in this end game Joao saying look even if you attack with Charizard
Doesn't matter because I know I'm gonna get close combat guaranteed into King Gambit
And if you target me, I'll get the burn as well, right?
And so really smart targeting there.
Like I think, yeah, could have targeted Charizard as well,
but the Gambit with the inability to protect these,
you guarantee that damage.
He knew basically just gonna close out the game
against these Pokemon.
And so the fact that Lacky Rock didn't come out,
Charizard did come out and Joel still won
is a testament to the amount of flexibility
that his team has.
Right.
I mean, just having anything that has that priority damage
at the end, the Aqua Jet or the Sucker Punch
would have been enough.
That's really what these teams are designed for.
You have these cleanup crews that can come in
after your other Pokemon have done so much damage
that get a chance to actually finish
and secure those knockouts.
And Joao really putting on a master class
and why this team and this archetype
has been super dominant in these last couple of months.
Yeah, and Rose, you know,
you and I were talking before we got on the broadcast,
but we were saying like in this matchup,
there's just so much that both players can do, right?
You can lean into either mega evolution
And for Giovanni, as we saw, you could actually bring both mech evolutions as well.
And so part of what makes his team so powerful in the metagame is it's the amount of different modes that you can go with.
But let's hear a little bit more from Joao, who is now advancing to the top four and throw it down through an interview.
Big congratulations.
Can we give it up for everyone for quarter finalists here in VGC?
Joao!
You're now talk for of the Pokemon World Championships there is a crowd out there cheering for you your friends and family here. How are you feeling?
It feels amazing. I don't know what to say, but I'm just glad to be here and I'm very happy to have made it this far.
this far. Yeah. This has been
an incredible run for yourself.
And I want to talk about earlier
today when we saw you and going
into the weekend. Did you feel
that confidence that you could
be here in this spot at top four?
Yeah, my goal when I started
playing was like always to be
the best. Sometimes I think I
can't do it, but at the end it
always works out. So yeah.
Regardless of what happens from
here on out, the conversation amongst the players, the fans, the analysts and everything
has been of how good you are, this prodigy, how amazing you are at Pokemon.
Like, do you feel like this is your year just upcoming?
Because you're so young, you just say something to Masters, but you're so good, like how does
it make you feel?
Well, I don't know if this is my year, but I hope it is.
I'm going to try my best to make it to finals in the next match and win it all.
You've certainly made a statement so far, and I want to make sure you can get rested
up for that.
But I want to give you the opportunity while you're here on this stage yet again, if you
had any words before your top four match or anyone else that you still want to give shout-outs
to.
I want to shout out to my dad, which I forgot to shout out on the last interview when he
was like the most important person like for me to be here.
And I also want to shout out my brother, Cisco, who's doing well at juniors, very well at
juniors as well.
And I'm rooting for him.
And yeah.
the family congratulations it's been an honor to be able to see you play here
and best of luck going on into your next match as for us we have two of four
of our quarter finalists let's head back over to our casters in front of her
next two are gonna be.
Very much here right yes you are really showing us how aging up into the Masters
division isn't necessarily as daunting as it could be on the biggest stage we
We have in competition making it all the way to the top four.
Thank you, Raku, here with the wonderful lead provost.
Have a little bit of a deeper dive into a couple of those moments that we had with Joao,
stamping their ticket into the top four before we look at our next top eight match here at the World Championship.
Yeah, you know, for how young Joao is, they're so composed when they're in game in the battlefield,
they're really locked in and you know it really shows through in the matches and
how commanding and dominant they are and then the lines and understanding they've
got of the team as well just to overcome multiple opponents now that
we've seen and yeah just incredible to see what an achievement it's up for but
not done yet not done yet one more to get a step closer to championship Sunday
but doing all the right things and just so so impressed yeah rooting that they
can carry that on into the rest of the tournament.
Definitely. Oh, I got a little clip here for Game 1.
I think one of the most difficult moments that we had in that Game 1 of, like, how do
you secure this endgame, right?
So we had the early game where the Lycanroc was able to get a little bit of positive pressure
going down onto Giovanni's team, but then wasn't able to stick around very long.
It's a like and rock. That's not a surprise to anyone at all.
And Giovanni was able to deal with that, not bringing the Chara's articles to this matchup.
We know in this position that the Floette was sitting in the back on a pretty low HD percentage.
And the question mark here is whether or not you can just go for the close combat
into the king gambit, the sucker punch from the king gambit into the guard jump. The guard
jump is burned, of course. It's not like putting on loads of offensive pressure, but it's still
present in the game. You still have to respect it. But the big thing, and Aaron called this out
during the round, is these Sneaslers here, they're pretty bulky and they're pretty low
in terms of their offensive output. So even though the king gambit is on just 89%,
percent and usually if you've got a pretty invested Sneasler that will be a clean KO
That's not necessarily guaranteed in the board state that we've got here
No, and I think that's one of the understandings of Jowl probably gets with that Sneasler
Is it going to be enough although the King Amit has taken that small margin of chip damage there?
Is it good the question is at this stage of the tournament as well?
It's a big call to make yeah, that's going to be enough because of missing to it like you say the garchomb
It's not gonna be hitting as hard as what we normally regularly used to seeing it's still got the life or but still gonna have that boot
Yeah, and the cross combat will are those defenses?
Yes, and so you might activate the white herbule and do those and get the speed boost
But you can put yourself at a detrimental position if that king gamut does switch out to come back in and then suck a punch later
You know definitely because this is the other thing right is that hey
maybe the eighty nine percent is just like a little bit too much
you're not comfortable and we
don't know at this point in the
game like overall is it this way
round in terms of the speed order
like does this this king gambit
go for a sucker punch first or is
it in this order right and you
go you try to fail a try to go
for a sucker punch and fail it
and so there's this big
temptation then to go like hey I
need to suck a punch into this
king gambit then close combat
into the king gambit just to
that's going to be the K. O here and just playing the this, uh, this clip
along, right? This is the call that Giovanni made so so well, right? Where
he decides to try to keep himself in the match and try to be able to, um, you
know, uh, make sure that King gambits, uh, therefore a potential end game,
switching it out into the flow at calling the sucker punch. But then also the
The flow it goes down the way her back to base and we saw that kind of back to square one where this guy jump is getting like
closer and closer to being
100% in sucker punch range. Yeah, and it's a good sacrifice
I think if you are Giovanni to bring in that fight at the right time because you don't really want to mess around at this stage of the game as well with
Those guessing games especially when you don't know the speed interaction with the sucker punch
So flow it comes in takes that and then you've got like you say you're in a
But you're back in the same situation, but you're in a worse situation as well at the same point because the goal-chomp now taking that tick of a chip and you're not really any further along in the battle yet there.
It's great here, but yeah, it doesn't really progress you any further, but maybe that's just down to how well Jow manages these situations rather than falling traps and going for the sucker punch in that scenario.
I think there's a big example of the way that I was been playing in this tournament
of like showing so much patience in the way that he's going about his games.
Wrapping up the second game was like,
well, just going for a protect every other turn and letting the burn kind of do its thing
and just using that residual damage to put himself in a really good position.
And that's so important when you're playing at this level of competition.
We're not saying like, hey, don't make a read, don't make a call,
you know, it's not like you
don't make a call, but also
be the right time. Exactly
that. You couldn't say it
better myself. Like this is
this is the time where you've
got to keep your composure.
It's still only six Pokemon
that you're having to go up
against and yeah, okay, the
handle by some of the best in
the world are playing
absolutely on form, right? So
not necessarily as easy as
that, but giving us such a
great, great show. Let's have a
two players that are going to be making it to the top four, Hiroshi and Drow,
punching their tickets there.
They're going to be playing up against each other in our semi-finals,
but the next match that we're going to be seeing is Takuma versus Stefano.
Yeah, and this one in particular going to be another absolutely fantastic
top eight game to decide who our next top four opponent will be.
No, and we've already got one top four match lined up,
and that one is going to be incredible,
but before then we've got two more sets to determine
those remaining top four players and what a way to do it.
You know, we've got Giovanni and Giao
that have just set the stage, set the standard,
so I'm sure our next players will be meeting those
and probably exceeding expectations.
And of course, after that match,
we're gonna have Yuya as well versus Zachary Weed,
and that I'm really excited about.
Zachary's been on an absolute tear during the season, but...
Representing that Frost Lassen Lycan Rock team, another player.
I'm not going to say it was on my cast of predictions for a reason, but you've got to turn up when you're playing that team.
It's not the easiest, maybe not the most intuitive team. It's not the biggest collection of stats.
It's a team that really works with its synergies as well.
We've got a little bit of a player run though, Lee, to set us up for our next top eight match here in the World Championship.
So let's have a look at Takuma's run through the tournament.
Yeah, we can see that they started the day one proceedings against a former regional champion here winning one of the first regional events in the European season against Emanuele and
Yeah, coming out of that convincingly well, especially against a hybrid rain
What looks like a parish trap sort of scene that we've seen throughout this weekend overcoming that with no problem at all
I love a tacky as dragonite choice as well
We talked about this briefly when we last on the analyst desk about that integration
for going to Charizard and saying Mega Dragonite's the way to go, but then yeah
We can take a look at D2 as well and not getting off to the best start
opponent first in the day Stefano and taking a lost ever since then has been able to
Win out against the double mega star actors that they faced
I'd love to have seen what happened in that match against Stefano because yeah, we see it time and time again like
like, players playing in the
Swiss and then coming up into
top car and the records get
reversed, right? And so, you
know, even though Takumi is
going up against Takumi, sorry,
is going up against
Stefano again, will the result
be the same? Like, after every
time that you play a particular
matchup and certainly a
particular play-up, you go when
you're not on the winning side,
you walk away from that
that match in the game, you know, what could I have done differently against
Stefano and maybe that will come to pass in our top eight.
You can see the incredibly tough run that Stefano's had in day one, in
particular, it's a progress to day two. You've got some big, big things there.
Wolf Glick named me around four. They were able to overcome and then, you know,
continue that time. The early as well, last round of the day, just incredible.
All of these players are very accomplished, but what a run Stefano had, kind of
losing round one and then going on the bounce undefeated to finish off the day
then coming in to day two here. Takuma was their first opponent we've already
seen will be their top eight opponent and I think like getting back to your point
then Stefano's gonna feel very confident whereas Takuma probably not that
confident that's not a bad thing because you can learn a lot from a defeat
sometimes more from a defeat than you can from a victory so you know these
players will be familiar with each other's teams but as we've seen time
and some again over this weekend. It's micro decisions, the micro changes throughout a game
that can make all the difference. And it goes both ways as well, right? The thing that was put
coming out to me on the second part of, and Stefano's run is that they took a loss to Zachary
Weed, who is also on their side of the bracket. So if Zachary is able to win their top, top eight
match as well as Stefano, then there's going to be a rematch after a rematch there going into
the top four and whether or not either of our players are able to flip the script on exactly
what went down in the previous times that they went up against each other and went especially
in the same tournament like it's it's different to when you've played a player like tournament
after tournament right and maybe you're using different teams maybe you're coming at it from
a different place but this is this is the same team this is the same tournament all these players
are on some of the runs of their lives right now and to see like how they adjust to those sort of
matchups, the repeat matchups is so so exciting. Exactly that and I think it's great to be able
to kind of point out that these players have faced each other before because it changes
the dynamic of the game. Normally we'd see that game one where players are over cautious sometimes
where they're trying to fish out information, trying to judge those speed interactions a lot
well. A lot of those might have already been worked out so that's something that we can
take into this game and know a little bit more about why some decisions have been made over others
as things play out. This is getting so excitingly so we're going to get to a quick break while we
get our third top eight match sorted so stay tuned we'll be back very soon.
Welcome back everyone to the
2026 Pokemon World Championships.
Here in beautiful San Francisco,
California.
My name is Evan Lat and I am here
for the bottom half of our top
eight with my good friend Scott
Glauza.
Scott, we have already identified
who our first two semi-finalists
are going to be.
Now it's time to find out who
the next ones are.
very excited for yet another fantastic match and excited to see which teams make it to I think that this being the
first Pokemon champion world championships
I think both the humans and the Pokemon kind of
Try to make it in for themselves, right?
I think it'll be pretty interesting kind of maybe impact things as they move forward
And I think both these teams are kind of interesting in different ways as it kind of like pertains to being represented
So this meta game absolutely you can see our top eight competitors here are Takuma Yamazaki and Stefano Greppy
Both of these players are running some very interesting teams.
Takuma, of course, is running basically the Big Six team,
but has replaced the Charizard with Dragonite instead.
While Stefano is running a variant of the same team
that we saw at the North American International Championship,
the same six Pokemon that Eric Rios brought
to become a finalist at that tournament.
That team was very popular for a while afterwards,
still really strong.
Tens of struggle with a couple variants of the Charizard team,
But doesn't have to worry about it here. We get that dragonite instead and I'm pretty excited to see
We've had a ton of the mega dragonite variants of this team on stream
And I think it probably comes to a surprise of some players
I think a lot of trainers kind of want to take him to seriously
I know when I was asking around trying to prep this room
It's a K you know like mega dragonite is this the thing that we're gonna see is the thing that we're not gonna see
I mostly get a lot of not
Worry about that
But a joke said not here is a game away from the semi-finals
Yeah top eight actually two mega dragonite here in the top eight at this bottom half of the top eight bracket here
It's it is a really interesting adaptation because you see a lot of players who are dealing with the Charizard mode of the big
16 by just putting rock slide on something
You know put it using guard chop as a way to check it using like in rock as we've already seen at the top half of the bracket
That works really well against Charizard that is extremely weak to rock typing
Let's go against dragonite, especially with multi-scale active. Yeah, like it does a lot of the same stuff
You still get like the heat wave if you need it, kind of similar defensive profile, though again, you know
Enough not weak to the same thing, but it messes up a lot of people's counter play
And I think there's a lot of other fun stuff on this variant of the team as well
To me the most interesting thing is that faint on snazler, which opens up a lot of stuff on other Pokemon
Typically, Steve, they're not going to make room for this, of course, you're giving a protect forward or like put guard like you'd see on the setup teams
But I think for this team, I'm particularly interested because of all the priority
priority, also the choice scarf on Garchop and even kind of with both last
respect and light of ruin on flight. You get a lot of situations where one slot
needs to protect because they can't survive and fate takes that away or you
almost guarantee you're going to get a knockout unless you miss an attack or
something because you're threatening so much unavoidable power into a slot. I
think it's really cool that the team like this one let you play kind of like
with more safe aggression other teams where in this read heavy format you can
kind of get some guarantees that other teams can't get. Yeah it's a fascinating
attack that hits through, protect, and breaks protect for a Pokemon trying to avoid damage
from another attack on the field.
And it is a very strong attack that most Pokemon that get access to it just don't have room
for.
They need every other attack that's available for them.
Sneasler is one of the Pokemon that does sometimes have that 4 slot as rotating.
See coaching, rock slide, protect, quick guard, and now faint as well.
So it makes a lot of sense that we'll be seeing that,
but it could run into some problems here
because of that for Rigorath over here on Stefanos, do you?
Yeah, and that quite as fun in this match as you normally be.
I think it's going to create some really great mind games
between the two players,
that Armortale going to block faint,
which not only stops the damage,
but of course also the protect to penetration.
And I think because of that,
both sides kind of going to have to guess a little bit more
where they'll lose that safety.
Like, hey, you know, an open team share,
I think it's fun that they both know
that each other has this thing
where they attempt Sneezers in the field,
You have to be afraid, well, is it safe to protect here
if I don't want to switch my frig wrap in?
But then on the other side, it feels like, well,
is it safe to fin here when frig wrap potentially could come in?
I think it makes it a lot of fun.
I've seen a lot of very difficult, complicated turns
with these trainers over the course of the weekend.
I think the interaction between these two Pokemon
are going to keep them both guessing
throughout the course of this match.
And you also have to shout out on this version of Stefano's team,
the Rock Tomb on Garchomp, giving Stefano access
to single target rock type damage
also lowers the speed of the Pokemon impacted.
So you usually tend to use Rock Tomb when you need that extra oomph
because you don't want the reduction in damage from the spread type of rock slide.
Rock Tomb, of course, may be a little bit more useful here with the Dragonite,
not trying to get those Kaos like that.
Yeah, I think professionally fashion is not your thing.
You know, kind of like pairs well with the Frigaraff,
or you can lower something speed,
but you can't use priority to get over it,
which is the solution that you'd really want to use for as a point there.
So a pretty fun combination of tricks.
I forgot, would you see that Sneasler in turn one?
Though, probably not going to need to faint for gear
and then the Aerodactyl and Sylveon facing down.
Yeah, so Tailwind mode is what's being threatened by Stefano
right now, leading with Aerodactyl and Sylveon.
Does have access to the Mega Stone on Aerodactyl,
so can go ahead and boost the power.
Also has access to Ice Thing to threaten that Gartomp
immediately.
However, Gartomp does have the Choice Scarf here,
so it will be able to outsteep.
Yeah, then it wins the card, so we'll go quickly.
Pretty fun the other direction as well where hey, you know if you focus too much on the aridactyl
You do have to worry about Sylveon, but they got going to stop a potential devastating hyper voice here
No hyper voice coming out from the Sylveon, but a rock slide will connect onto both aridactyl and Sylveon
No mega evolution, but a flinch on aridactyl
The rock slides are a common for you Stefano
If you don't have access to priority you are at risk of flinching every turn. That is devastating turn one
Eric Dactyl is a pretty decisive Pokemon of the North America international
championships. Kind of being the flincher, but here it has become the flinchy now in
range of being knocked out from another rock slide. And Sylvia is in danger now from the
Spleasler. So, and Stefano immediately, way on the back, boy, could have to make some
difficult pivots here. And it's a tough spot. Yeah, talking about absolutely in the driver's
seat here, Stefano has to figure out a way to claw his way back into this game. Now,
Because the guard chop is choice scarf, Stefano knows that he can switch in his own guard
chop here safely to tank this rock slide.
The protect comes out from the Sylveon making sure it does not take any damage this time
and guard chop only takes a little bit of chip damage from that rock slide while the
direclaw will whip into the protect.
A great defensive switch there, able to stabilize that turn but probably not quite out of the
water yet.
Still Sylveon kind of being pinned by the Sneasler so maybe having to make one more
switch and I mean the complicated situation okay well what can I switch
in they can potentially still take a rock slide and a dire claw into that slot
of course the guard shot may be threatening a dragon claw to his
opposite number there with the choice scarfed guard shot on a little switch
so on the side or I just wish I miss which attacks somewhat likely to switch
Pokemon if it doesn't want to risk taking that dragon ball in return so
interesting options available for both trainers one thing to keep in mind too is
that air deck will doesn't have the ability to protect or wide guard it's a
I dropped a step there with three attacks and it didn't feel right.
Well, there is Sylveon switching out for that Aerodactyl back out on the field.
So, Stefano, hoping that the pressure from Garchomp is enough, but no.
Just continuing to fire off Rock Slide after Rock Slide, and Aerodactyl will go down.
Connects onto both Pokemon, the Aerodactyl, and the Garchomp here, and talk them up.
There's always a shot that you can get a flinch with this Choice Scarf Garchomp,
Plus the Direclaw connects and gets the paralysis even worse.
Now there's even less chance that Garchomp is going to be able to break through the splint and the paralysis, but it does.
Spiesler goes down because the rough skin broke the focus at, and now Garchomp is finally taking some damage here, just above 50%.
That's a big knockout for Stefano there, and I think the game was in danger of getting away from him, but still a pretty impactful situation there.
Not gonna spew so straight, you want to see that and you can be opposing Garchek.
But I think one thing to keep in mind there, the Nerdactyl's holding Aerodactylite, but you chose not to Mega Evolve, right?
Not really any reason to do that unless there is a Pokemon in the back that...
Ah, Pratt wants to use that Mega Student's Ted, which is some critical information from Takama, right?
Where you can basically be assured that Charizard is in the back, so preserving that Garchek and that Rockslight is big,
but also really limits the f***ing actions, right? Like, well, either I can switch in a Charizard,
where I already know my opponent has Choice Rockslight on the field,
Well, I can bring in Sylvion, which is a little bit predictable here,
and probably something my opponent's going to try to check with his replacement Pokemon,
and here he is, it's Fluet.
And this is kind of a not great replacement Pokemon here, though.
Fluet does not want to mega evolve here, because that fairy aura could just continue to boost
Sylvion's quick attack into that Garchomp.
Yeah, as long as it doesn't knock you out, you're probably good.
You can't assume it's okay.
We've got to deal with a paralyzed Garchomp, Sylvion itself, and Charizard.
And so as long as you can survive a single quick attack and then finish it off with like maybe a rock slide and dazzling beam or something
You're probably good
However, yeah, that's a way to throw the games ago
You get you boost quick attack and you go like print or something and things certainly
Look very bad from a very good position
But this is a huge leap we're talking about looking very close to kind of closing out this first one
Well, here comes the mega evolution from the flow at so we'll be able to boost its own stats
It also boosts the power of all fairy type attacks on the field
Now mega flowette, the fairy aura is radiating and Sylveon is just going to choose to protect for this turn.
Not trying to risk anything as Garchomp goes for another rock slide.
Of course, it cannot choose any other attacks until it switches out.
It's just going to deal a little bit of damage to the Garchomp.
But of course, there's the clinch chance, there's the paralysis chance,
but even more, there is the faint chance to this deathline.
100% faint chance there as Garchomp goes down.
And not too much, that's what the finals could do there.
I wouldn't have to bring that final post.
And to give it his charge,
I'd definitely just bank in either a critical quick attack
or a rock slide missed to stay in this game.
It's been a very strong early game to talk about here.
And it is the Charizard for Stefano,
the final Pokemon that he has available in game one here.
Of course, immediately threatened by the choice scarf Garchomp.
Most Charizard can end up surviving a single rock slide from a choice scarf garchomp, especially,
but needs a lot more, would love to have full health after the rock slide.
Yeah, because the policy is to survive both a rock slide and a dazzling thing,
because you still have to knock these Pokemon out.
Like, you know, Floette's especially bulky enough, you wouldn't think a single attack would knock it out,
especially because you still have to deal with Star Chop as well, you know.
I mean, it's like the world's biggest heatwave, maybe, to get through that one.
So, perhaps a rock slide miss most of all what you need here.
here.
Charles are going to protect plus you at least avoid that rock slide for now.
Yeah, at least hope that it gets to avoid a rock slide will not have to even try to
hope for it to avoid there as it will connect on to Sylveon.
There was no quick attack that came out, so Sylveon is trying to survive this dazzling
gleam and fire off a hyper voice to pick up the KO, dazzling gleam connects and that
is plenty of damage to knock out the Sylveon and now all Stefano can hope for is to miss
on the Rockslight to at least stay in the game a little bit.
So a lot to deal with too, so an unrevealed Pokemon
on Takumi-Sata's feel as well.
Like it's relatively good chance that's
Vasculation, which you can get real problem here as well.
But hey, Chazza's not giving up.
It's going to do everything he's getting here.
It's going to try to dodge a Rockslight,
pick up some big damage on these Pokemon,
and hope that that final Pokemon is something
we can handle.
Yeah, this is the top eight of the world championships.
If your odds are not zero, you're going to keep trying.
Of course, with the Rockslight connecting with no spread,
the targets available, Tarzard will go down
and Takuma Yamazaki will take game one.
Now, that looks very strong for Takuma
because of that first turn Flint
really preventing Stefano from getting anything going.
Yeah, I mean, it really couldn't have gone better
for Takuma there,
because there's two critical instances in the block, right?
You both get that Flintcha turn one,
which I bet a lot of me have made that game unplayable.
The Direclaw for Alice is kind of big too,
not just because it kind of finished the game off,
but also avoid losing some information
You might have wanted to know where Garchoppe with hat with its speed reduced
Definitely going to be slower than for instance the opposing mega flow out where you don't learn anything about either of your training
Which you know you can probably make an assumption there
Which now you're expecting this book and one to be trained especially at this point the tournament
You know, maybe get some vodka review from previous matches from your opponent
But never really in that one because of the RNG and that makes the second game very interesting to prepare for right?
It's like hey, you know, I think I played the right line
I just need to get luckier or do you really mix things up?
like hey you know I don't want to risk getting eliminated in a situation like
that one where I didn't have too much control over my own fate. Yeah no easy
ways to deal with this and you know it's kind of the sword that both sides are
choosing to live and die by right you know it's an aridactyl versus the
choice scarf guard job. You're not locking these Pokemon in because you're
afraid to click rocks on. Yeah absolutely that is actually the primary reason you
would choose to use those Pokemon especially the aridactyl over a
whimsical that gives you much more regular access to the tailwind and you
There is an argument to be made for that there. It's only 27% of the time that the game goes the way that it went in game
One absolutely
You know, I think there's also other deviations you could make too certainly
You know you can mix it makes up your Pokemon a little bit more
You know the double mega approach is like super great there where maybe you consider leaving one of the two of them home
And I think also unfortunate for the final there. I think I think you can guess
Relatively accurately basket legion with the Pokemon we never saw like
I love you have gotten that information confirmed just to get some more information about how Takuma is approaching this match out there
Still a bit different playing the Dragonite version of this team than the Charizard
I think just for comfort in game planning with these games or your Stefano can no longer afford to drop a single game
Just to kind of figure out how your opponent viewing things not to get surprised by it
Okay, well slight adjustment here from Stefano bringing the King Gambit alongside of the Aerodactyl
All is the Sneasler and the Garchomp once again for Takuma
So still the option for Garchomp to just lock into Choice Scarf Rock slide and see if you get that 27% again.
Yeah, I mean, why not, right? I mean, so, uh, decisive it could be last time.
Uh, series are kind of making this even more complicated too, where, uh, now that he's Pokemon,
really want to be hit with a close combat and you're threatening takeout as well.
Um, I think, you know, attempting not to takeout here, since you both have to worry with the photograph,
but also in close combat, potentially like really good at either of these Pokemon.
So, uh, not like a huge incentive to try to make that read.
Yeah, absolutely. And have to wonder if there is going to be a mega evolution from aridactyl this time around.
Last time, Stefano wanted to bring both of his Megazin. Here is another major adjustment.
The trick room mode and the priority blocking mode of Rigorab. Here is the mega evolution immediately.
This will allow this mega aridactyl, potentially to be able to pick up a KO onto the Sneasler.
It has to survive. This rock slide has to not flinch here. However, that is a connection and another
2 for 2 on turn one followed up with the close combat and
disaster strikes for Stefano.
Aerodactyl goes down immediately.
It's been absolutely brutal for Stefano, so once again, just doesn't get to execute his game plan.
And yeah, that flicker-lap switch is completely whipping. There doesn't go for the fake.
Okay, the close combat just looks so juicy there with those two Pokemon out. I just don't think the bait was strong enough
Also worth seeing that you know that mega evolution
You think it was Charizard that's probably the one that was replaced with Prygrap here
And it's going to be really difficult for Stefan to get back in this one
You know the mega evolution could have created some variants there or protected him from some variants like all at least
You would need more than two rocks slides to pick up the back out
But you know sneeze are taking care of that and we see Sylvia entering the battle
Yes, it does confirm the Pokemon that Defano is selected at this time and boy, this Sylvian's got a lot of work to do.
I guess at this point you're probably hoping that maybe Sylvian goes for attack, you successfully get a trick from him up.
At least don't flinch this time and then maybe Sylvian and Trick Room could sweep through the mostly quicker Pokemon.
Yeah, at this point you are really hoping that Virigoraph can get the trick room down.
You need to be able to survive close combat and rock slide, which Virigoraph should be able to do quite easily with that citrus fairy.
But knowing that you then also have to survive a rock slide and a dire claw which couldn't put you to sleep or paralyze again
However, it looks like talk about is not opting into that instead switching garchomp out for the king gambit to prepare himself for this trick room
Sylveon will go for the protect sneeze are keeping Stefano honest there with the dire claw making sure that Stefano is not able to
Sneak something in here as trick room will go up. I mean Stefano gets the trick room up
I think that's the right thing to do here.
However, one of the reasons why we don't tend to see a lot of trick room in these early formats of Pokemon champions is exactly what you just saw.
Oh, it's the very obvious, very telegraphed trick room.
I'm going to pin the other Pokemon down.
I'm going to bring in King Gambit.
A Pokemon that, while he isn't like a trick room sweeper in a traditional sense,
because he's like probably the single best Pokemon in this regulation,
he is very slow and very good against most Pokemon trick room teams.
He is super effective because either of his Pokemon, he's going after Phyrogram first.
but does not get it.
Phyrograp is able to hang on with that citrus berry healing
right back up to 38%.
Phyrograp is able to fire off the psychic into Sneasler,
which activates the focus sash.
So Sneasler now is able to stick around.
Stefano will need to use Hyper Voice
to pick up the KO onto that Sneasler,
but instead opting for the Hyper Beam.
This is headed straight for King Gambit.
It connects, and that is not enough.
King Gambit has been trained to survive a Hyper Beam
from that Sylvion, which means a Sneasler gets to pick up the KO and return with Direclaw.
There is nothing Stefano could do there.
Oh, that's a huge trade.
Hyper beams kind of counter to that counter, right?
Like, oh, you know, there's the top Pokemon, so I'll just pay what it takes to get rid of it,
but not quite enough damage there.
And you need a full extra from Thunderbolt or something.
With that playing out, you'll always be king Gamma to still really scary.
Also, a lot of priority talks in this team, right?
And even if perhaps you're able to get little advantage on Stefano's side for what it means in his threat room losing the Armortale could be fake.
But if his own King Gambit is that final Pokemon and hey, you know, at least you're still in a fairly good position here.
Maybe four-graph could target King Gambit. King Gambit could target Sneasler. At least you can even up the Pokemon score.
Now a very interesting and tense moment here, especially not having gotten information from game one.
We do not know how these King Gambit are going to match up under Trick Room.
For us, their alignment is both adamant, so they're both showing the same information on their team sheet for each other.
But as for Rigorap, wasn't able to survive that kowtow cleave, there is the shot that could hang on for a little bit longer if King Gambits decide to go after each other instead.
Or someone can sneak in a sucker punch, or a Stepano jab.
Instead, the King Gambit will be switching out for the Garchomp to avoid that sucker punch from Stefano.
While Muriger will now finally clean up this measler with a second sidekick.
So it's a big knockout as you get one, and the nice thing about Garchomp is that at least it's a little bit more predictable here where it can't protect,
but it's still very healthy, and neither of these Pokemon have a super effective attack against it, so even a double up is going to be pretty close.
You can't double up both Pokemon, right?
I certainly guess that you need to double up King Gambit, I guess,
but I don't think two attacks is good enough.
You really need at least three to pick up both of these Pokemon,
so at least one more attack going to go the other way.
And there is still another Pokemon
that is in the back for Takuma.
We have only seen the Ciesler, the King Gambit, and the Garchomp.
If there's going to be the Floette,
there's only two turns left of Trick Room
that Takuma has to stall out
before this Grigoraph and King Gambit are sitting ducks.
Yeah, it's like giving really close. I mean, I think it's a great show about this really get wet
We see these sucker punch go down pick up King Gambit. So two to two Pokemon count now
But now what? Yeah King Gambit goes down to that sucker punch the bono able to pick up that KO
Perigrap now firing off a psychic into guard chomper that is
Well with this special defense drop that comes close to a two hit KO if it can survive this earthquake
Both King Gambit and perigrap will survive the earthquake here
The choice card not having the full power of something like a life or been here
It is the dragonite is the final choice for Takuma
Oh, this is really interesting. So things are getting a little bit spare here
You is psychic enough to pick up the star shop now
But it's special defense is the Lord can be fairly close at that point
Well, he's got a two against one but dragonites not going to be one shot from this position for sure
That's going to pick up a Pokemon immediately here and then get the damage from the trick or mix firing
Also, a heatwave maybe puts up both Pokemon if you're Dragonite and hit both, but do your
wrist keep wave missing?
You do have to hit both of them if you are going to go for that option.
There is the mega evolution coming out from Dragonite.
Mega Dragonite now on the field.
One turn potentially away from making it into the semi-finals.
The psychic is not enough.
Garchomp hangs on with 10% of its health.
Well, King Gambit targets down the Dragonite hoping for the psychic to be enough.
It's a flinch on the Dragonite, but Earthquake from Garchomp is enough to clean up both of
Stefano's final remaining Pokemon, and Takuma Yamazaki is headed to our semi-finals.
Yeah, it's just that clean right there where there's not much that more Stefano could do.
I think he played a really nice set.
You get the right things to try to battle back there, but Erdactyl just never got to play the game, right?
When you get flinched at the beginning of each game, you're trying to use a tailwind based strategy,
or even a rock slide based strategy, the second game where maybe Erdactyl is just going for it.
trying to pick the guard jump up or something and then go to the trick
remote anyway regardless and we never really get to find out because the
bottom really never get to show us what he's doing tough way to lose the top
eight set but congratulations to his opponent who played that exactly the
way he should have. Yeah absolutely when you are faced with that turn one if you
are talking about that is exactly what you do you go for the rock slide you
try to get the flinches if you can because if you do you might just win
the game immediately and credit where it's due. Stefano really clawed back in
that game too. The trick room mode gave him so much more of an opportunity than the, you know,
faster mode with the life form Garchomp and with the Charizard of game one.
Yeah, I mean, you almost see it work. You see why this team is so powerful or having the option
to go faster, the air dactyl on the tailwind or slow would be a progress Sylvia and modus are
powerful. But you know, King Yambit is there to counter this. You know, the first Pokemon we
know is going to be a Masters Division World Champion was on all of the remaining teams. And
I think critically had to use Sylvia and all the early to finish things off. You know, the last
two Pokemon on document side or both dragon type Pokemon you'd love to have had Sylvia
and available for that but King Gambit forcing his opponent to give up that Sylvia on and
that just kind of puts him in a situation where there just wasn't a way for the pieces
to work.
Yeah and you have to really credit the training on that King Gambit as well to survive the
hyper beam that came out from the Sylvia on that is absolutely something that Sylvia
on players have been using to defeat King Gambit in trick room like that it's supposed
the counter the king gambit. It's an all-in strategy because you need to get the KO, otherwise
you're literally a sitting down. Yeah, and of course you had KOed, right? I mean, there's
some problems there. You can't attack the turn after using Hyper Beam, so somewhat likely
you still have an extra in any way, and your trick room gets stalled out a little bit more,
but because we certainly would have been better than what happened where even though I think
Staphon did a nice job of getting us close to the hood. I mean, I just had a huge deficit to try
to make up after the mega-evolve. Pokemon went down so easily. It's a tough break. You know,
It's been a very rock slide centric format and hey, you know, I think that's kind of the job of these trainers, right?
Hey, what's the best way to attack these regulations of these tournaments around you?
A lot of moves get some sort of balance adjustment with Pokemon champions rock slide did not right
It's the same move that we've known since the early days of video game championships
It's been feared for years and years and we see why here, right?
Where this is exactly rock slide rolls your way it can win you games
All right. Well speaking of winning games
It was Takuma who won our last game and is now a semi-finalist here at the world championships
Let's hear what he has to say about that match.
Thank you so much. Let's give it up one more time now into Top 4. It's Sakuma!
Thank you. Congratulations. How do you feel going into that match? How do you feel now that you've won that match when you're in Top 4?
I couldn't believe it, even with the current situation,
but I'm really happy to be able to win the title for the second time this year.
I already can't believe that I'm here,
and even that game a lot of lucky things happened,
so I'm really happy to be able to win that match.
I want to talk about this team in the Mega Dragonite,
because that was a really cool pick into the weekend.
Why Mega Dragonite that you thought it would win the world champion, Japs?
Why did you choose Mega Kaiju?
Mega Kaiju is a team that is strong in many ways.
I used it as a team member and as a team member.
That's why I chose it.
So I think so mega dragonite is very strong against mega charizard, which is very popular in the meta
And I came up with the idea of working with my friend. So I copied his
Idea and it managed to get me here in great choice coming into the event
Now you've made it to top four. How do you feel going into this top four match?
Do you feel confident about potentially being in the finals?
I'm happy to be able to fight in a game like this.
I want to fight in order to be able to fight in the next game.
It's already in order to be able to play these matches at this level.
So I want to keep on winning this, the next one, and one more possible, and keep on doing my best.
Good luck, certainly, because it's been a treat.
Before I let you go and prepare, do you have any final words or shout-outs to those supporting out in the crowd?
What message do you have for the people who are cheering for you?
Well, I've never been able to overcome this alone, so I'd like to thank the people who have been with me.
I definitely would have made it without everyone's help, so I really appreciate the people who came up with ideas with me, helped me out, and big thank you to everyone.
Congratulations once again, best of luck in your next match.
Wonderful time, finding three of our four trainers
making their way to top four.
Time to send it back over to our analysts as we gear up
for our final top eight match.
It's certainly a community that brings us all together
and allows us to have these deep, deep runs.
It's very rare that we see players
that don't have a shout out for players
that have helped them along the way.
you've been able to show us
here in top eight.
Congratulations again on
making it to top four.
And we're going to keep
things moving.
We've got our last top eight
that we're going to be moving
into very, very soon.
And it's so exciting to see
how this bracket is shaping up.
We've got three out of four of
our top four players already.
Yeah, and one more last top eight
match to go on.
This one's going to be just as
as exciting as the rest of them because we've got Yuya who came into day two. The undefeated
player managed to overcome some bumps along the road and got themselves into the top eight
here going up against a formidable opponent who's been in hot streak this whole weekend.
Exactly, we've been playing that for us last like an hot team extremely well going very difficult
for Yuya but the other player that has got that mega dragonite as well so very exciting interaction
between these two teams and how they dynamically go against each other?
Yeah, Yu-Gi and Takuma, if they weren't working together,
had a sort of similar inspiration for the teams that they're running.
Only one Pokemon different in their six Pokemon teams,
but one Pokemon can make all the difference in the way that that plays.
And Yu-Gi are definitely showing us why they're here in the top eight.
Zachary as well. I do want to call out Zachary as being a player
I really enjoyed both watching in this season, but certainly in this tournament as well and listening to his interview I was earlier today or yesterday.
My mind's blanking on which one it was, but when he just looked so calm and collected and the way that he was talking about the game, the mentality is just, you know, it's okay.
If things get a little bit hard, right, just keep on going, keep on, keep on trucking away, so to speak.
You know, you can overcome those things and it's about the enjoyment of the game as well as just the competitive elements that go along with it.
Yeah, and I think you saw that composure from Zachary at EUIC, you know, early this season came so close to getting that title.
Unfortunately, not getting over the line there, but I mean, replicating the run here would be a dream for Zachary,
hopefully to get themselves into that position on Sunday, where they've got a chance of taking the title more than capable of it.
I think in that calm and composed nature that they bring in the approach to the game that they go about,
I think it can just really help them in their stead to try and achieve the championship title.
And it wouldn't surprise me to see Zachary win it.
and I think they've had such a great season,
the accomplishments that they've been able to get
throughout this year, which is so tough.
Season in VG is so, so long.
So to have that consistency over and over
and time and time again, different formats,
different games now, I think it's just,
it's a huge accomplishment, it's really something too.
Just, yeah, I'm wax lyrical about Zachary.
I am.
We know Lee, we're 100% because that's what it's all about.
Let's take a look at you as run across this because you is coming in here with the Mega Dragonite.
We've been talking about it so, so much across the season.
There is the undefeated Sea of Green there across all eight rounds.
And I've been loving looking at all of these records that our players coming into the top eight
have been able to go up against because, contrary to what we might have thought going in,
There's been such a variation out there in the field.
We've seen a lot of that on stream.
And none of these players that have made it into top eight
have done it by just playing up against Charizard Floette
round after round after round.
You see so much variation.
And look at some of the names there.
I mean, Marco Silva, Stefan Mark, Darwy C, Justin Ta...
Oh, well, I could say all of them.
But, you know, it's such a fantastic set of accomplishments
to be able to overcome all of these trainers.
Yeah, exactly that. And I think the diversity of teams as well that they've come up against, like you say, it isn't just the same
two, three, four teams that they've come up against. There's so much diversity, so much
differentiation in the tactical approach from each and every player that they've had to adapt on the fly
and really know the ins and outs of their teams to overcome their opponents.
This is the run going into day two, which has led to them getting into the top eight.
the best start today, but against really tough opponents, but able to bounce back in rounds
11 and then that top 16 match against the New York Forks as well to make their way into
top 8.
It's such a nice comfort blanket going into phase 2 at 8 I know, knowing that like one
for three, if you take any of the players that have played here at the World Championships
and you said hey, you've got to win one out of three of the next three matches that you're
you can play and you can say
odds on to be able to make it
there and get that top car pretty
unlikely. It can happen, of course,
like you've still got to be on your
guard. You've got to be playing a
game, right? But as long as you're
on form, you know, you're showing
this that they can come back and
of course been undefeated since
then. We're in the knockout stages
of the event having to play in
our asymmetrical top 16 and then
and go straight into our top eight.
So has also had an opportunity to have a little bit of a breather, 11-1 instead of 10-2.
It's an incredible record really on the face of it and this is the one schedule.
Again, you know, we'll go through the names, the top players right the way through.
We actually had the feature match to be able to get Zachary on stream round three against Portia.
and that was a very warm side of the event as we had the repeat from the EUIC finals there.
So it's actually showing on stream how strong they could be given a bit of a showcase of what
they had in store for the rest of the floor this weekend. But continuing that on, did have a little
hiccup along the way in round five, but didn't let that get to them. And that's their last loss.
From here they've been on an absolute storm. And again, it's facing off against a variety of
different teams as well. But you know, I think the one thing I would say about Zachary bringing
this team and there's a quality team that are more established in the format. It is
something that your opponent is going to be prepared for. They've had time to practice
against this team. So I think it just gives even more credit to Zachary's performance as we can
using something that is very widely known by the player base. But also like one of those teams
where you can make some different decisions as well. And I think there's been going into
this tournament I would have expected Sneasler with Dunkshot to be the Sneasler of choice and I
believe Zachary and various others have taken the taking Diplore as like hey I just just want to hit
those moves and that consistency then shines through with that big win streak there overcoming
Carson overcoming Stefano overcoming Shohei they're going into our top eight now about to face off
So this is a really great example of like why comfort is so so good because even if you have a little blip along the road as Zachary did in round five of the event, let's call it what it is.
It was a blip.
Just a tiny blip.
It seems like it and hopefully that's all it was because Zachary now going to be going into top eight.
We'll be looking closely at an iron top four to progress on from there.
But of course, got a little bit of a new challenge with that Dragonite.
Not expecting that team.
That's probably an unexpected team that you would think to face
coming into the World Championships,
but it's one that's presented in front of you.
Can they overcome it? That's a question.
It's going to be really exciting to find out,
so I guess, Lee, should we find out?
Find out.
the next round.
Hello, everybody, and welcome
back to the 2026 Pokemon World
Championships in San Francisco,
California. My name is Rosemary
Kelly, and I'm joined once again
by Aaron Zang, and we're here to
bring you through our final top
eight match, which four trainers
will stand above the rest to
because I want a little bit more.
I want more Rock Slot.
You do?
Yeah.
OK, I'm going to have you keep that opinion.
OK.
I'm not going to share that one.
But yeah, you're right.
We're definitely going to be in for just a little bit more.
But I do feel like it's kind of the nature
of this particular meta game.
You have to kind of think about what
is that small edge that I might be
able to take within these matches.
And unfortunately, sometimes that actually
is in the RNG realm.
You know, I was trying to think, like, Rock Slide,
I feel like I've seen it flinched so many times
and just used so many times throughout the course
of both this event and the NAIC Top Cut.
We've got yet another Rock Slide Pokemon in this next one.
Trying to think, do we have one or two?
I mean, it's actually only one.
No Garchomp here.
Only one.
Just Lichenrock, but today is going
to be another one of the Frost Slash Scoville
and teams with Lichenrock.
We just saw it have a very, very dominant performance.
Now there's one in the top four.
We'll see if two of these teams are going to be able to advance.
Once again, this team came out at the end of the regulation MA format.
Zachary Weed here is piloting it, trying to bring it to a top four finish
at the World Championships.
He is up against Yuyya, who does not have Charizard.
You look at Yuyya's team and normally you'd expect to see a Charizard over
Dragonite, but it's going to be Mega Dragonite on that composition.
It's really exciting to see that because I think Dragonite is one of those.
We've seen it sometimes jammed onto these rain teams because you do get those
100% accurate hurricanes when the rain is active.
But this one is going to be a move set of Dragon Fouls, Heat Wave, and Thunderbolt.
Dragonite just has such amazing coverage options that it really does feel like it has a nice place on this team.
Exactly. Used for its immense bulk and ability to just have really good coverage across the board.
Set has inner focus as well before mega-volvings. Used to get around potential fake-dots.
And it is just a very bulky mega-evolution, although it is staring down a ice-type Pokemon.
That's generally going to be the number one threat to the Mega Dragon, of course, in the Mega Frost last year.
Saw the players' accomplishments there. Zachary has been one of the most outstanding players in North America this season.
Hated to the finals of a regionals and an international championships. Here he is at Top 8 at Worlds.
And for Yuya, it's a big opportunity for him. Best Finish was Top 32 after Japanese national championships.
Here he is, trying to go all the way at Worlds.
And with a team that is
otherwise relatively very
familiar outside of that mega
dragonite, you do have the mega
flowette that's going to have
three different fairy tech
options to take advantage of
that fairy aura ability it gets
when a mega evolves, but then of
course you have the usual
suspect of this regulation with
the basculage and kingia, but
Sneasler and whimsicott.
Rosemary, I lied. You know how I
We're going to be using the
Sniasler, Sniasler running the
Umberd instead, but with fake
Out close combat direclaw and
of course, rock slide. Now rock
slide often used on Sniasler,
mainly to help out against
opposing Charizard. But also
it's just a move like to get you
out of a pickle and give you
some additional coverage right
actually into frost class close
combat and direclaw both
quite poor, but rock side
allows you to hit it for super
effective damage. But he think
once again for us team is the
feels okay into these cross last govillain teams but there's a good bit of defense and you also
have to worry about skill villain right because skill villain just resists all the fairy type
damage we saw it being led in the quarter finals against a mega flowette and just sustain and also
burn the opposing flowette so taking a look at Zach's team here no major surprises this is generally
a little what you expect we've seen some adaptations on Sneasler sometimes with direclaw but this one
is running that gunk shot. It could be a really good attack, but of course not the most reliable at 80% accuracy.
But if it does hit the pull-off, that is a one-hit knockout. So that's a really great eject button that this
Kneesler can use to get one of the biggest threats in this matchup out of the way. Zachary Weed,
the last hope of the United States to make it further into the top cut of the world championships
and potentially even take home the whole thing. That is going to be a Pokemon that I think we
We have to keep our eyes on there's that
Troubleberry King Gambit on the other side
that does have a lot of different attacks
that will be able to hit Zach's team
for super effective damage.
Really great points.
And I think one of the big questions I have is,
if you're Yuya, do you think about that Dragonite?
Because let's say Frostlass doesn't come out
and it's gonna be a Skowill in command.
Dragonite suddenly becomes a lot more powerful
but Dragonite's just so weak into that Frostlass.
So it's gonna be a big, interesting dynamic here
between the both players
and it's gonna be Skowill in here
so maybe Frostlass has just been dropped.
So villain might be a Pokemon that can survive on its own merit.
We saw some moody boost come through that did make that skill done a bit more of a threat.
But you do have to imagine that this is a Pokemon that doesn't want to be on the field
without utilizing mega evolution.
Absolutely, yeah.
And a mega evolution really threatening because then you can thread in the basket region with
a bird, right?
And so I am already really curious if Uia has that dragon I think about right now.
Sakri has a lot of offense coming out from the Lycan Rock with Rock's light skill.
Rona obviously can pressure with an over-heated as well.
Baskin-Legion Wave Trash is also really quite threatening, but he won't necessarily get a once-in-a-nock out of him either
because of focus after the Lycan Rock.
Winsicca here could choose to go for Moonblast. He wanted to double up onto the Lycan Rock, right?
He could also go for a potential attack.
Rona's not going to mega-ball, so going to start off with that attack.
Let's just scout out for a moody boost here at the end of the turn as Winsicca is going to fail to get Danix down
down into that skill ability because of the protect.
And if the Rockside comes out,
that's one of the downsides of running this move
is you can miss.
So it misses the back deletion with some critical damage,
but it does connect onto the Winston Cod.
That was a double up of damage into the skill build,
goes to a great protect,
as for the Hootie-Boost, Hootie has special attack drop.
Ouch.
Yeah, so Skodo actually opting to protect
and ends up being a good turn for Zag,
the Rockside dodge, obviously not ideal,
but Skodo in there should be able to last
and wave crash combination.
You guys saying, look, I'm willing to get my bullpaw
burned if it means knocking out your mega evolution
immediately.
So now, when it's got, obviously,
an on-court pressure on, so still going,
still going, sitter switching out.
Or you can maybe just go for mega evolution, rage powder,
redirect the wave across the way, right?
So we didn't see the mega, so now I'm curious,
is there any chance it's actually
a mega frost loss in the back?
Still going to switch out here, so does not
want to get on-court, fast eletion,
ready to stay switching away.
It is waiting to be cracked a little bit better as it's going to be with the copper
testing itself this time around.
Like a rock, throw down another rock slide.
You wanted to see it, Aaron.
So I hope that you are excited about the wish that you're having come true.
And that's the Legion question.
Aaron, I blame you for that one.
It's regulation and me, baby.
Rock slide disconnects on the basket legion and a flinch comes out.
Does what rock slide does best.
The basket legion gets to coming for three.
Now, of course, Lycan Rock and Vascular Legion both are flying a good amount of offensive pressure.
This focus has a huge pain for you to deal with.
If you're a Vascular Legion, if you consider a double, if I'm to Lycan Rock with something like a Mule Blast and an Off-Waget,
Lycan Rock, though, could just go for the tech, and then the opposing Vascular Legion could ride it with last respects.
Often, I think players protect in front of the Winston Rock and then switch out afterwards to get around all four, right?
And so, I think Zac finds a good position to bring that Vascular Legion in, and here's the Off-Waget that I was talking about.
Wow, we're gonna bring that Lycan Rock all the way down to a focus act.
As Aqua Deck can still be very powerful, trying to get through some of this speed.
Michael Breesquare will of course come through and then we get to see the rest of this turn play out.
As Moon Scott goes for the Moon Blast, that's where he can burn the KO onto the Lycan Rock,
so now that's no longer going to be a direct hit, that Dragonite is creeping in the back for Yuya.
But the back legion for Zachery has now gotten a power stack to that last defense.
This is like a rock ally just take it out and that's going to even up the Pokemon town
Yeah, really good call out there about the like and rock painting because I think that is one of the primary best of Dragonite
Unless the Zach actually has cross-bosses before what I'm still curious about that also curious that you did commit to the dragon
I ran anything to do my property dragon. Oh, yeah
Go editing the field here. And so
I feel like being one step ahead of the folks on choices in this first game. Absolutely. I mean, that's the right Pokemon that you want to see on the other side, but you got to worry a little bit now. Just as easily try to take out your foot, you want to try to actually play around that potential threat and you worry at all that this
and all that this boost up might switch in and on course use learn to take out
Yeah, I feel like you're a little bit faster than this interaction here because it's fast, it's just faster.
You can just go for jump shot loud next year, right?
So maybe that also works just to make sure that you, you know, cover for a jump shot this.
And off-roger comes out, so Yuya may be saying,
Look, I don't think I'm going to be faster, I'm just going to give up my basket legion here.
Yeah, this is going to be another off-roget.
And then as basket legion fires off the last of his fast, that's two KO's for exact basket legion
as we have to break in that score
with the final Pokemon for first game.
What is it going to be though?
Because I think if it's King Gambit,
it's going to feel really tricky.
You can't get around Sneasler just going for a dump shot, right?
So, okay, this is going to be the Sneasler
and you've got to do your best bet here.
Fakeout now active on it.
You can't go from fakeout into Zach Sneasler.
Zach Sneasler is your go set for Kev,
so if you're Zach, you can consider just going
for the double protect potentially.
One thing that Zach might also be thinking about
is how can I potentially get Skogun
on the field and have three directions for it later on in this game. But yours 30
down a bullet with 1000 Queen of course that's gonna be a mental positive for us.
So, Skipler in the back for Yuya gives him a lifeline. Now of course, right in the
obvious takeout. You don't have to worry about the takeout affecting the
battling at the very least. It goes side but you don't still fire off and
attack with that pokemons and you can actually get through something like a defensive protect
from Yuiya, but it is just the double protect anyway. That way you can see this mega evolution
come out and you know that that fake out is for sure off the board now.
Fake out and light a brood here aiming to this ideally not double acutely attack, but
Zac goes double protect. So now this next turn, you know, Sneasler is bringing gunk
shot onto the flowette, right, which is obviously really scary. So you protect the flowette,
But the opposing Sneasler doesn't even do enough damage, I think.
And so I feel like I really favor his accuracy position right now.
And that's the Rock Slide! That's the only way out of this!
UDF Sneasler does go first! Do we see a flinch?
30% chance to do it!
It's going to be a sneasler to have you here in the play!
Or the zone shot! It connects!
A one-hit dog out onto the blow edge and take out this mega evolution!
You guys put them on last year for UDF's first game in the Sneasler!
But that's a legion, Flinches!
You can take out one out of the Rock Slide.
got one, but I don't think that is the right one. It's a 3v1, Uia recognizes this game is over,
and Zac is going to take this very first game. Honestly, really, really clinical.
Crucially, that was a really big turn, right? Being able to land that gum shot. Gum shot
already is a high variance move. You factory and rocks like the winch chance as well,
and it just becomes so, so scary, right? It's like just slightly in your favor. And so that,
however, is why you use gum shots easily. Be able to just thread in basically all flowettes
to the floor might even physically defensive ones with a knockout. And to me, what was a big deal
was Dragonite was dropped in this one. Once again, it's not the most intuitive Pokemon to bring
into a matchup with Frostlast, but Zac, I feel like was one step ahead in Team Preview saying,
I'm going to bring Scoville in and I'm going to make a call, right? And so if you're probably
thinking, wow, okay, well it really didn't feel very good there. It got absolutely trapped against
Sneasler in this end game. So in terms of adjustments, maybe you start looking towards that
Dragonite, but if you're Zac, then you say, well, okay, I think you're going to give it to Dragonite
right now. I'm going frostlass.
Now frostlass would be a really
great counter call if you do
decide to bring that dragonate,
but I feel like even still I
like this go villain in that game.
Just even being able to have a rage
powder for later on you have to
worry about the trust that there
are three very powerful physical
attackers on you decide that it
still feels good to bring this
go villain. I think that's a great
point. Yeah, and we've seen school
and like rock being led consistently
into these teams with wins.
Right? Even with no Charizard that
I think Yuya has two things to consider.
One, how do I just beat Lycan Rock's GoVillain?
And two, okay, could Zac actually mix things up
and go with Frostlass because he's one game ahead.
And so I think there's a lot of scary things to consider.
And to your point, yeah, I don't see the easiest response
to Lycan Rock and GoVillain.
It seems like a pretty safe consistent lead
because of how physically oriented Yuya's team is.
Yeah, and you could even consider maybe trying to set up
a tailwind with the Wimsacott this time around
that it did feel like the Wimsacott was stuck
in a really good position.
this time around but if you'll like the Whipsacott was stuck in a really difficult position and maybe
even more so because you see King Gambit and Scovillain on the other side with that Whipsacott
Vascovillian. Yeah so King Gambit comes out now, Reddins Vascovillian immediately and this is what
makes Whipsacott so awkward in the matchup. It doesn't really do damage. You're going to move last
for a little bit on Scovillain and a little bit on King Gambit but right now King Gambit's like
hey I've got soccer punch on your Vascovillian. I'm black glasses right and so I think Yuya
already starting behind in this match,
committing to the same lead as the previous one.
Does Vascolegean switch out? He does.
Does not want to take a sucker punch.
Zack, you get a pretty big lead here
by just going straight for sword stance.
Yeah, that would really threaten a ton of damage
on anything that's in this backhand.
And if you were curious whether or not
last and sucker punch with one hit, knockout,
Vascolegean out plus two, it definitely will.
Skovillain does not wait any time
to go for the mega evolution this time around.
He's going to do that right away.
It does land a move blast into the game and it actually does a lot.
That was a critical hit.
So that would help the special attack drop.
Minns back in game and it's going to get a plus two to five boost.
Oh, really great play by Yuya there though.
Manages to bait the slot into Vasculage and Zach tries to play aggressively.
He says, you know, I think you're going to expect the sucker punch to be so obvious.
You're going to expect me to sword stance.
I'm just going to go for it.
But Yuya ends up getting the better end of it.
And, you know, Wimps got into this, it doesn't do that much damage, but when you get a critical hit, that's pretty darn good.
And every time I see Moonblast being clicked into King Yama, I always get a little bit nervous because of the fact that the Defiant can't activate.
So, you're probably not really stoked about that, right?
The good thing is, at least for Pokemon viewers, this is super fun right now.
But, Skobilan is actually putting on a lot of offensive pressure into this duo right now.
Sneasler, of course, can go for a direclaw though, due to significant damage into it.
still have to worry about the spicy spray that will not help with this measler's
damage output but this govillain is going to say good bye for now as Vasty
Leading comes out to take its place. A lot of information now about what Zach
has actually brought to this match and we're going to see this can Yammer
protect itself knowing that there is a fake out on the other side and even a
close combat if this measler wanted it. Really safe play there by Zach. Wanted to
cover for a dire claw into the Scoville inside and also says okay well if you
attack at worst it's going to be something like direclaw and boom blasts right so king
amber right now still exerting a lot of offensive pressure with sucker punch one thing to note
about yuya's team is that on the sneezer there is no protect or any non-attack moves you can
always sucker punch that slot if you wanted to right now for example you pressure with
sucker punch an awkward deck it's either slot and with that boost on king yandere to perform
it's not okay maybe you can knock it out that would be a wild house to take the true action
Oh man would that be crazy to see it really would and that would completely turn the tides into Zach's favor
We're gonna see the flow at mega evolve first as fast the legion protects next so what's the follow here from this game
But is it going to be the sucker punch there?
And it is if the flow at actually does take a significant amount
But that is going to still be a pretty healthy survival so it can go for the jazzling dream on this following turn now that the theory or is
It's activated and it can give it, it also take it on.
Oh, man.
I thought Daisy that could dock out,
but that is a survival.
It survives.
It's interesting because obviously you can just
Aqua Jet slot that slot now, right?
But Masculation, like I said, yeah,
maybe Slytherin Bunch Aqua Jet gets there 38%.
Not crazy to think that a life form
Aqua Jet can finish it off and Zag might be like,
well, I don't know what your defense is spread is,
so let me just get a good sense of it.
There is a lot of offensive pressure right now
from Yuya's side, right?
The Flood, of course, also personally
has that light of room, which we talked previously,
you can use to kind of nuke the basket region.
So right now, your basket region is
bringing off which end of the king gambit.
If you're Zach, maybe you consider
protecting your king gambit.
But if you do, you also risk the basket
reach on your side just aggressively getting
targeted down and faking, right?
But yeah, that boom blast activating that divide
is so strong.
Going to be offered.
It doesn't finish off Lowett.
Wow.
Just a knockout there onto the mega evolution.
Lowett is down.
It cannot contribute any more damage into the second game.
And so that is a big knockout, a trade.
Blow for blow with these Aqua Jets, but for Moonsikian Gambit, that's a five boost now, no longer a threat in this second game.
I feel like Sakurai has good control of this game though, right? Able to eliminate a huge mega threat in that collect.
Still got Skobo and Wimpska is going to come back in once again, but plus not doing that much, other than maybe going for Moon Blast and Encore.
You're right in tailing right now, which is nice.
And Skobo actually has a pretty nice offensive matchup in both of these, with Overgy as well as Gigadrain.
And so, when it's a guy here, can render the Basque Legion somewhat useless by going for an all-for-on slash loss?
GoVillain can't redirect it. Basque Legion can protect or even switch out potentially.
You, if you're a Zachary, though, also have to respect something like Moon Blast plus Wavecrash.
Double up into a GoVillain, right? And just try to eliminate that immediately.
Because I think right now, you're just probably thinking,
Oh man, like I gotta knock out GoVillain at some point.
You know there's a Sneasler with Direclaw on the back, which is awful.
But it's just so scary because the GoVillain protects Basque Legion so nicely here.
Oh, it's going to be a rage powder to redirect away the attack so that Vasculation is free and clear to go for something else.
Is Lipsicott?
Yeah, there's the Oncour.
He had Doug land the Oncour.
Because it's a brass sight, that Oncour is not going to get redirected away by the rage powder.
So Vasculation has no choice except to continue to go for Aqua Jet while it is on the field.
I think in that position, Zac's saying, well, the Oncour's so obvious, I switch out so often on Oncour.
You're going to double up onto my Vasculation or onto my Skowdill, and I should say.
Wavecrash comes out and you could see Skowdill in trains
to be able to survive that, but I do think the tides turn a little bit more in Yuya's
favors now, right? Because you have locked the Basque Legion into Onquijet. That's not
going to be a very powerful attack. Your Wimspot breadends a potential knockout
onto Skogul and with the Moonblast, you can last respects the Basque Legion slot as well.
So big turn for Yuya there, is that? Saying, you know what, I'm up a game and if I get this
turn right, I can see the win right in front of me, but Yuya goes for the safe Onquir play
and it rewards him really, really heavily. I think the thing about Onquir is if you get it right,
It actually gives you a huge advantage because it negates the turn and then the following turn you have to play around it as well, right?
And like deal with the consequences of it.
And so for Zack right now, the question is, do you actually switch out?
Like maybe you're actually content just staying in with your Baskin-Legion and Octogening because you know the switch is so obvious.
And what is that fourth and final in the back?
It hasn't been revealed yet, so it's possible it could be the Slazer or the Lycan Brock.
Those are the two that make the most sense since that mega evolution was invested into the Skow Villain, but there's no switch.
It's just another Aqua Jet into the opposing Vasco Legion.
Asco Villain protects itself so it doesn't get knocked out on this turn.
That's going to get one attack.
The Moon Blast from the Linskroc cannot land on its target.
But the last respects comes out.
It is a knockout despite the burn.
And so there's a free switch here for Zast.
But is it too little too late?
Yeah, let's see.
Like I mentioned, staying in with Aqua Jet saying,
look, I don't want to switch something in and eat up too much damage.
Also a testament just how powerful Vasco Legion is that your burn still gets knocked out is going to be at the
Sleezler coming out right now though. So
This is looking quite scary. I think for Zach in that, you know, the Vasco Legion here to get another attack off
I mean you can thread in a moon blast into the school building for example if Vasco Legion is somehow able to get a last
Exist or wave crush in the Sleezler
That would be huge
Sleezler right now of course does have fake out pressure online though
the basket will faint after one more tick of life or also burns obviously I think yeah getting the awkward turn right makes me you know
Fever you you up more big still is really close right now. Okay, what's that going for the protect?
Does that mean that maybe we see some damage come out from the seasoner into the basket legion?
So your rage part of the scovilla into guarantee that this easler is safe from an attack from the basket legion as the aqua jet comes through to pick it off
That's burn damage though and the life orb recoil at the end of the turn so is that going to add up to be enough?
And it looks like it will once the burn comes through at the end
But Sneasler tried to use for the dump shot and whips it off that has protected itself can Sneasler clutch out a 1v2
Think the answer is just gonna be no right you get to bring out the Sneasler now on Yuyazen
And you can go for fake out into a tailwind then start launching close combat at moon glass
It's just because of the 2v1, like Winscott being able to get a single Moon Blast off into Sneasler and be able to set up
Tailwind should allow Yuya to take us to a game 3. So here we go. Fakeout comes out.
You can't really protect because then you get on board, right?
So then you also get up to chip damage from that.
So Fakeout going to stop the Sneasler and extract, and Winscott just confirms some damage, and on the next turn,
and looks like this is going to be wrapped up.
Yuya, evening up the game count, and we get to go to a game 3 to see who will move on to the top 4.
Yeah, and it was a mix-up right here in terms of the lead adjustments from Zach,
the team gambit, Brett is Vasculation out, but I think a couple calls went in Uya's favorite here.
What's got actually off him just to go for a three-patch right now as Sneasler will move first,
get that close combat off, and feel us enough to bring us to game three.
Important information there as well, to actually be able to see that Uya Sneasler did get the
close combat off first yeah instant yeah and so a lot to consider heading into a
very critical game three only one of them could move on to the top four of the world championships
I think if you're exact you're probably thinking I had a couple of opportunities in that one things
just didn't go my way on specific turns this was nice obviously and getting the boost uh with the
deviant but I think one thing that you did really effectively was bring multiple Pokemon I didn't
really care that much about the sucker punch damage this turn was huge by the way because I was
I was talking about Sucker Punch, Aqua Jet, maybe just K-Wing Flood.
As we saw later, Aqua Jet did knock it out, right?
So had the double up went up there, then the King Gambit would have been healthier
instead of being at just 2%, which allowed it to faint from Aqua Jet.
But to me, I think the on-core was kind of the key deciding factor in this end game
where that got on-core blocked, and then it put Basque Allegiant in a really compromising position.
Yeah, you saw the theory though, right?
Because you do have the Skull Villain.
At least the Rage Powder can help to redirect away the attacks from the Basque Allegiant.
But it can't help you against this grass type on core.
And so that is unfortunate, but a call you have to make
when you're in a position like that.
So heading into this game three, do we see a mix-up?
Is there actually going to be an appearance
of the Mega Dragonite for Yuya and the Mega Frog Slash
for Zack?
I don't know.
I was hoping to see it in the last game.
I think Yuya might say, I think this is just the best line
that I have to take.
Like when Scott Baskileysh exerts a lot of offensive pressure.
If you're a Zack, right, you could be King Gambit,
It kind of feels like a gamble, right, because you got multiple turns wrong against the Basque Legion, and with all the resistances, it didn't do very much.
So let's see if he brings it back. It's not going to be the Lightning Rock, which I feel like is more consistent, because Brock's like those 30 to 40% consistently against everything.
And it's going to be the run back of the Basque Legion and the Wimps the Cod. And so there's a lot of off-and-ten both sides.
So what is interesting here is, what do you just go for Moonblast Wavecrasher to Skowvillian again, right? Skowvillian, protect the last time.
the last time let's say you predict that well you can moon glass awkward at the
opposing life in rock and so even though we've seen the exact same leaves I
think turn one and really give whoever gains the you know advantage against the
turn right really just allows it to snowball and so let's see okay so
villain is going to stay in it is just gonna mega ball
my evolution is going to help the skill villain to have that spicy extract for
the physical attacker of this fast religion we'll see what actually happens
on this turn, it's going to go for the protect first.
Make sure I can keep that focus dash intact as fast
deletion is also going to go for a protect.
Now, you have the information that this Scoville and Jid
end up committing that mega evolution,
and like in Rock, cannot hit those rock slides to connect.
Yeah, so going for the double protect, just to say, look,
I want to just scout for what you do this time around.
And whatever you click, while now I have
on-court pressure to either slot next turn.
So it ends up being a little bit safe, right?
And now you do pressure on for it until a Lycan Rock in the rock slide or into Skull Villain for gigatree, right?
And so same play exists where I talked about earlier, which is Moon Blast plus Aqua Jet into Lycan Rock.
That seems kind of unlikely, right? Because Skull Villain could go for a Rage Powder potentially.
What it is? And yeah, no Rage Powder!
No Rage Powder to just draw the attention away so Lycan Rock gets brought down to its focus by that Aqua Jet.
So there's another follow-up here from the Wings of Claw. It's like a Rock, it's just going to go down.
The conducts govillain make up enough of the deficit as Whipsicott's Moonblast lands.
Lichenrock is now out of this third game.
Govillain has the pressure here. Overseas super effective into the Whipsicott.
Has the giga drain forced the Vascular Legion as well.
The Vascular Legion does not get felled by that one giga drain.
Not the worst trade I think at the end of the day.
Lichenrock going down without getting any damage on does not feel great if you're Zack.
But I think Zack was saying you're not going to go for Moonblast off with that.
I can ragefire with that Aqua Jet away and so Yuya, like I said, that is a potential play to make
and the question is whether or not Zack's gonna want to cover for him. Skogilin still gets a lot though.
Basket Legion and safely from his end, so now you've threaded Aqua Jet into the Basket Legion on Yuya's end
and it's just an overkeep potentially into a win to come, right? So I think Zack's position is actually
still fine even though Leica Rock can get any damage off it. Once again, on-court, this is why
Winner's Cut is such a valuable tool in this matchup that Skogilin now is going to be locked into Giga 3.
But this Aqua Jet's going to pick off the Baskin-Legion.
And so too, the Pokemon down for Yuya as that Baskin-Legion
was a pretty terrible piece of the puzzle.
At least it was able to take up the Light Rock before it was self.
But now the Wintekon has its focus as broken by this fulfilling.
And that was 30%.
30%?
Yeah, that's not bad.
Skovillian's offense actually really putting in a lot of work.
Now we know Skovillian, however, is lost in the Giga Drain.
And then of course, if you argue, you
can thread an Encore into the Baskin-Legion as well, right?
and force that into Aqua Jet.
So, what do you do now if you're Zachary?
Because the Flood isn't a really strong position, right?
I would expect Sneasler to be Zachary's more Pokemon.
You really don't want to switch Sneasler in
and you'd have way too much Mary-type damage, especially if you do make an aggressive prediction
and you go to something like the Dazzling Wing,
you can last double up and smash locks.
These are a face. It's a disaster.
And so, you can see the power of Encore here.
And I think Riga has a safe Encore into the Vasco Legion.
Zachary maybe protect Vasco Legions, which is still going out.
or even protect Vaskylician and get a gigatron off of Skovill and saying,
look, you have two fairies out right now, you're not going to do much damage into me.
I'm fine being lost in the gigatron. I'm just going to keep gigatroning your filet.
All of that damage ends up adding up eventually, so I think you have to worry a little bit about
that Skovill and getting too much damage. And gigatron is going to heal you at the end of the
turn if you actually have had some damage taken. So Skovill is going to have to be dealt with
at some point or another. Vaskylician first to protect itself and then Skovill gets to attack.
As a fast healer, he keeps himself safe from the move blast from this one, Sakha.
And now, Flobby, with the dash, we need to do some chip through the Skowill, but again,
is this going to be just a light tickle that the Skowill can heal off with a gigatrain?
Yeah, I think the answer is yes, and this is why I kept saying maybe Dragonite, maybe Dragonite,
right? I think Dragonite's offense would have been a little bit better in this position.
That is not a bad trade if you're Skowill, right? Skowill, it's like, hey, thanks for the damage.
I'm going to heal back up and enjoy your burn on the way out as well, right? And so,
It's a really good trade here once again though. There is the threat of on-core now into the basket
Legion slot. So you would think maybe basket Legion wants to switch out. If you switch out into that
Sneasler and you eat up a Moonblast and Dazzling Lee and hey that might just be a knockout. So
Sneasler comes in, feel like Yuya built for on-core here.
On-core is selected and so Sneasler will make sure that that fails. A Foulette ends up following
up with a Moonblast that's still a lot of damage that Sneasler's going to eat but it's a round for
for the next turn as Govillain gets off another impressive giga drain.
One more and this Floette is going to get knocked out.
Can we just point out that two turns ago we had Max HP Floette, Max HP Scovillain
and now we have Max HP Scovillain, 27% Floette.
Like that Floette has really gotten shipped away.
The Scovillain's office has actually been really impressive.
And yes, these are touching up to survive that Moonblast.
Like I said, Yuya could have doubled up in that position going for Moonblast with his Whimsicott.
tries to on-court the basket region does not get it out of fear of awkward jet
Coming out and finishing blolet so big momentum swing over to Zach now
Sneasler of course out on the field does have the ability to just go for a takeout
As always if you take out then you have to worry about getting on court potentially afterwards
But it is something like a mutualized either side by the way, I still don't see an answer to snow villain right now
I don't either gotta be the sneasler in the back, right?
but you gotta get it out eventually.
And so, for now, it's gonna be a Wimpscot protect.
Govillain can start to knock out under this blowout
with just a single giga-drain.
And then you also have overheat
to try to knock out this Wimpscot.
Either way, I see this Govillain being the big winner here.
Even though Sneasler doesn't get a chance
to fake out the Wimpscot,
and gets knocked out with that Dazzling Glee,
if Govillain attacks this blowout, which it does,
that's another Pokemon down.
And it's the only Wimpscot that stands in Zack's way
of moving on to the top four of the World Championship.
You've got one more in the back, right?
One.
There's a Sneasler coming in, I think.
Maybe it's a Sneasler, but I'm just saying,
like at this fast collision, you have to worry about it.
It's sitting back there.
Maybe it's the King Gamma, and it keeps you in this.
It's a Sneasler.
OK.
So Sneasler here, probably the best Pokemon.
If it's King Gamma, they're a regular Dragonite,
I would have thought the game was over.
I mean, this still looks really dire, to be honest.
I'm trying to think, like, you can't double protect,
right because if you double protect then of course you lose to an all four you
have to really be mindful of all four right now but Sneasler can just go for
an immediate direct on the Stovillian like I think Zack's in a really commanding
position given the offensive match of Stovillian at Vascular Legion just needs to find the right
sequencing here and make sure you do not lose to all four. Here we go it's just
going to be offense coming up move last into Vascular Legion 90 down to 51 that did 39%
And these are the best lines!
All the faculty and leaders on this track have done it!
It wasn't the whimsical you had to worry about.
It's going to be that frog slide.
Blasters, backs, whips, and connings down.
These lords left on an island.
And now we are one Pokemon away from Zack moving on to the top four.
Overheat connects.
Skullvillain's going to lose some special attack stats,
but at this point, the damage is gone.
Sneezles at 33%.
And the fork, it comes through.
that we move on to the top four of the small championships.
Well, Chris Berry, when we started this, I told you,
I wanted to see Rock Slide, and boy, did we see Rock Slide.
We saw Rock Slide in every one of its forms.
Forgive it, and it take it away.
That move can be powerful, or it can let you down.
And that double miss, heavily unfortunate for that
to seal up the game for you, yeah.
Yeah, to be honest, I think even if you get the double flinch
like Zach still gets another turn to play with right and so it was very very
heavily favored in Zach's yeah it's in that final turn but the rocks like you
know you always go for it as like a last-ditch effort get some damage also
go for a flinch but to me the main defining factor in game three was once
again mega scovillain came out mega flow that came out on the opposing side and
at the flow it just traded terribly into the scovillain right so that's all we
kept saying dragonite dragonite dragonite maybe dragonite baby dragonite and if it
were a dragon I did that end game and actually is pretty bulky right you've
got decent damage with the dragon pulse you've got keep waving thunderbolt as
well pretty good coverage across the board but you are just sticking to flow
out in the end and I think Zach making the adjustment back into like the rock
dropping that King Gambit and does not get flinched here in the end and Zachary
is gonna get a trophy here moving on to the semi-finals. Still an impressive
performance there by Yuya coming out of the Japan national tournament right
to be a top three to result.
Gus. Hey, top eight of the
world championships is an
impressive achievement. It's
pretty good. Yeah. And I just
wish we could have seen mega
dragonite because I think you
know, he was one of the
premier mega dragonite
players just coming out of
day one. It's not a Pokemon
that's made a ton of
appearances on stream. We had
a couple of mega dragonites in
day two here. Yeah, basically
one of the best pilots of it
throughout the tournament, but
definitely an amazing run
throughout the course. And man,
I got to say, like seeing Rockslight on a Sneasler just
instills so much fear in my heart,
knowing how fast it is and the ability to get points just
across the board.
But in the end, it is not the most reliable there in that end
game.
And once again, I think like Zach was
in a really favorable position given the bulk of basketball
region and Scobolin.
And he spoke in one of our training ways
to guarantee that you can survive one big attack normally,
right?
And so I thought Scobolin has looked so impressive
in this top eight.
That's why I was seeing in the future here.
And I was like, Sneasler is not going
I'm just kidding.
But yeah, I think it's just been an amazing performance.
Let's hear from Zach.
He must be elated that he's moving on to the top four.
Thank you so much.
I'm here with Zachary.
Weed your final top four player here at the 2026 World
Championships.
Let's hear it up.
Zachary, I know it's been a crazy season for you.
What does it mean to be here on the top four?
Zachary I know it's been a crazy season for you. What does it mean to be here on the stage knowing that you've walked in a
Trophy here at the world championships
I am kind of in disbelief to say the least I was messaging all my friends the week before this event
I was saying oh my god. I can't wait to go 4-4 at this tournament and
Well, this is a lot better than 4-4 I'd say I mean there's still a 4 in the number. So you got that part, right?
Yeah
All right, let's talk about that last match because it was looking pretty dicey there for a while, especially with you as whips a cot
I mean, what was your strategy playing around those on course, especially when it looked like that whips a cock could have locked you into
Protect or aqua jet a lot of those turns
Yeah, the whips a cot was very scary for sure, especially because it could set tailwind allow the basket legion to pretty much sweep my team
If I didn't play well, but I realized that
that even though it can click on core
or in a clean click tailwind,
it's not really offering much of a damage threat
most of the time.
So with my skill villain on the field,
I can just say I'm fine getting on court into gigadream
because you're getting trapped,
basically trapped on the field with a Pokemon
that's doing maybe 10 to 20% onto my skill villain at max.
So I was fine with taking the on core
as if it meant I was just able to keep doing damage
some sort. I mean not only just doing damage but healing damage. We saw your
Scovillain heal up half the damage it took every single turn it felt like. It
seemed like it that's your MVP of that battle. For sure I when I used to play
this matchup I tend to lean towards Frost last more but the more I've played
with the team the more I've realized how good Scovillain is because most of that
team just cannot deal with the fire typing and the burn at all and combined
with some gigadrain or overheat chip.
It means that a lot of their Pokemon
get shipped down very quickly
in range of all your priority tax.
So out of curiosity, in that game number three,
when Lycanroc went down early with that double KO,
did you really have to pivot your game plan
to be focused more around the Scobellon,
or was that your plan from the start?
Going into that turn, I knew that he was gonna double up
in KO something.
I was fine with it being the Lichenrock because it meant that Skowillian could just stay around and be an absolute wall for him and
Honestly, once the Basque Legion is gone, there's not much stopping Skowillian from completely taking over the game
Maybe could have
played a little bit more aggressive and tried to call out a
Aqua Jet Moonblast, but ultimately I was fine giving up the Lichenrock for basically nothing knowing that
that my position was still completely fine.
Well, Zachary, congratulations again on making top four.
Are there any shout outs you want to give
to anybody watching at home?
Shout out to my family, my mom here in the audience with us.
My, all my friends watching, my local scene,
and just everyone who helped me this weekend.
I love everyone.
Congratulations again on making top four.
for Zachary and all of our top four finalists here in San Francisco one more time.
And now let's go ahead and talk to Ben about our finalists.
We have some incredible top four matches coming up and I can't wait to hear him break it down.
Yeah, you're still cheering but keep on cheering because Zachary's done so, so well to make it into our top four.
top four Ben Scott here to have a little bit of a rundown of that last top eight
matching them. Well we've been talking about that's go villain a little while
but we haven't really seen it pop off in the way that Zachary made it pop off in
that match have we. Yeah I mean I think it looks like a very different Pokemon
that match and pretty much every other time we've seen it right where they're
typically used basically just for an ability right when it's broken. Hey you
know all rage powder I'll get you know some burns out there I'll support the
team and I'll kind of go on my merry way where he was as go sweeping in that one because
yeah, I just wasn't gonna have a good way to deal with it. And you know, the special
tax down that Pokemon isn't bad, right? I switch to that giga drain where you're not
just like immediately nuking your own stats. And yeah, I mean, it's not what I was expecting
to see in top eight, but maybe we're seeing more and more of why this team keeps surviving.
Right? So a little more flexible than maybe it appears. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's
not just also you get those moody boosts that we saw. And like, sometimes they work for
you sometimes they don't work
for you. We saw a sco villain
get a two plus personal attack
boost at some point today. I
like. Oh, that's a that's a
sco villain. We gotta look out
for. But in that match, and
especially in game three where
playing up against a mega flow.
I mean, that's like one of the
reasons that sco villain is
really part of this team is to
just sort of like be sco chilling
against a mega flow. It's an
any other fairy type damage like
from the whims a cop in front
of it and just like, Hey, uh,
I'll just keep recovering all of my health.
Yeah, I think it's a lot of fun, too.
You get, like, to forget that element of the matchup
sometimes with you.
Obviously, the like-and-rocks there for Charizard.
There's Covillain's a big jerk to most of the physical attackers
in the team, but it does have the type-matchup advantage
you can flow out to, right?
As we saw in that match, it's not going to knock it out
in a hurry or anything, but you look at there eventually,
and more critically, you know, Flovers are really doing
anything to it back, where, yeah, it's definitely, you know,
you're trapped in here with me sort of situation.
And looking at this matchup as well, I mean,
This is not something that I feel like Zachary would have prepared for specifically, like a lot of players don't come to this sort of archetype the way that Yuya and Takuma, most importantly, now being the match that we're going to see after this with Zachary versus Takuma and Tom 4.
And say, hey, this Charizard just ain't pulling its way. Let's put a dragonite there instead, which, to be fair, is a strong Pokemon. It's got lots of stats.
it's got multi-scale, which is probably one of, if not the most strong abilities in the game.
But I think that what's really interesting about this matchup here is like, if you focus on the
Scovillain, if you're Zachary, where it's like, hey, Dragonite looks really cool, you've got like,
a little bit of cover with the Basculidian as well. We saw how much those life or wave crashes
do, but also you've got a little bit of pressure from that Windsor cop with the Encore that really
changes the way that this Pokemon goes, but if you bring those three Pokemon and then instead
Zachary decides hey, you know what? I'm going for the frostlass right this changes the matchup and flips it on his head
Yeah, I thought it was pretty interesting too because I think if you look at this matchups
It's a dragonite there. I think for a lot of players
It's like a glowing beacon on frostlass and your own team people like oh, I have to yeah, this is my chance
There's a four times weakness
I'm going to get them and that you really wouldn't have been the right way to approach this matchup and yeah
I think it's neat because again
Yeah, I think probably both of these mega Pokemon are a little bit underappreciated right where they kind of a lose the
Spotlight to the supporting cast here
But there's just so much that they can do in this matchup
And I think also kind of just showing a willingness to bring out their mega Pokemon also makes it so much more difficult to play against
Where it's like a really deceptively difficult team preview. Yeah, there's like there's so many different branching past here
And he's most notably important.
He's here for the Zachary's got to face basically like this matchup again.
But instead of the women's cup on
You year's team that he's decided to go for Takumo's got a guard job.
And so none of the encore pressure is going to be present in Zachary's top four,
which was like overall a little bit problematic.
Maybe we're going to see a little bit more rock slide going on with the guard job.
that's really like swing the
match up in a different way and
have a Zachary like even though
five of the Pokemon and the same
like what you do against it
changes so dramatically. Yeah,
absolutely. And I think for us,
maybe even more tempting in that
situation where you get the
dream of all I got. This is
out there. This too. Yeah,
brother. You flying Blizzard. I
am. I'm not sure what you're
You know brother you flying blizzard. I am pretty much in the comic in the old days
But yeah, I think it's interesting to begin you have the option of bringing you have the option not bringing
They guys go villains so pretty good against both of those Pokemon also where you know that rock sides gonna hurt a lot the first time
But after that, which the choice craft our job become much more of a flinch bot than a real offensive threat
So, you know, maybe you just kind of like play the odds in that one a little bit
I think it's just it's fun in that regard right where it's so
Complicated to play against kind of in both directions
And I think it'll be really fun to watch that as a three game set where either of them could very feasibly bring any of their Pokemon
I think is always the most fun match to watch
Definitely, especially when you get to the stage of the tournament like all of our players are playing so so well
And I know it brings me on to a point in game free that we saw where this is this is pretty early in the game, right?
And so we have the
The in game one we had
I think it was one where the
Lycan Rock goes for the rock
slide and not the Excel rock
most notably and the Basque
Legion goes for an Acquijet here
and a moon, uh, Windsor Coat
goes for a moon glass here.
K over Lycan Rock and leave the
Scoville and kind of ready to
have to fend for itself in the
rest of the game, right? And so
in this turn, you've got this
situation where both players
are like, well, okay, I've seen
I know I know what can happen in this particular scenario, but I wanted to call out specifically like the mental resolve that both of these players had to actually sit in this turn and just like say, Hang on a second, right?
We're in this position yet again. Do we do the same thing again while my opponent makes a read or do I try to make a read on top of a read?
I think it's particularly interesting at this point in a tournament where it's a little bit different than playing a Swiss round where they've known their opponent for probably a couple of hours at this point.
They've done some prep knowing the matchup and they know what they think the best line is matchup is right. I mean, well, how much you improvise versus how much you kind of trust it before the game.
I believe this is the right thing to do. Both players kind of just choosing to stick to their guns here and make the same moves that they made the first time.
Yeah, it's like and here you see like the lichenrock was
Zachary and he said it this interview is willing to risk that lichenrock going down
Because that scovillain was in such a good position and here it is going down to that double up yet again
But I think unlike in game one
We saw that we see the giga drain coming out here into the Basque legion and I want to pause it here as well
Just to like highlight how much HP this Basque legion has left just
and when you're playing
against Basque Legion, especially
when they're both carrying the
life orb, like, you're happy if
you're Zachary to make that trade
and holding that line is like,
well, you say, I'm going to rock
slide. If it goes well, great.
Thumbs up. We're making some progress
in the match. If it doesn't, what I'm
getting is a lot of damage on a life
orb, Basque Legion, and actually I can
use Aquajet to just start picking out
the pieces.
Yeah, I think we're playing as a
It's so exciting to get to make that trade where the best legion probably the format's greatest late game sweeper
But getting it this low this early kind of insurers of well
It's probably not going to switch out at this point where it's kind of committed itself
But even if it does, you know, there's no like series of late game last respects. I have to worry about right
I think it's just such a nice way to get this set up where you know a potential threat where it actually could just you know
Wax scovillain from full health and a perfect scenario. It's just never gonna occur in a game like this one exactly
And then when you've got the in this situation, you know that we don't know this yet, but you, you know this that they've got the flow in the back and that like you're wondering how in this at this point, he was really thinking like how am I actually going to deal so much damage to this mega slow villain to get it down and like, yeah, okay, if you if you go for the on core and you try to lock the slow villain into very far to say or not offensive move.
is gone for giga drain already, right? So like that's the the worst case scenario. It's not going to be locked into to overheat as well. And but in that situation, you're only like slowing down the progress of the match. You're not actually like making any progress of your own. I think that's something that Zachary did set up so so well in like holding firm, making that trade keeping calm under the pressure.
Yeah, I think it's a real mastery of the team show there too, right?
We're getting, I think a lot of players just kind of view it as a spicy spray bot.
And understanding, no, like in this situation, I can use Go-Dill in a different way than most people think of when they think of this team.
Allow it to pick up multiple KO's in that game that, you know, set a couple of Pokemon's health bars worth of damage.
You know, it's supportive until it needs to do something else, right?
And I think it's just really smart.
Hey, you know, like every Pokemon has a bunch of attributes and like it has a theoretical role on the team, but situation can change.
You see what he says at the strong season, right?
Again, not a player that was on, you know,
the players to watch graphics, but they just pulled it.
He did two really impressive second place finishes this year
at both level event, and he's only a single round away
from getting to a finals yet again.
Yeah, you called this out beforehand.
Yeah, as we come back to the standings of the match,
see all four of our top competitors here
ready to go into our semifinals.
Zachary has made it to the finals multiple times,
But hasn't quite gotten over that line. We've been talking about it already in Sula Victor Medina
Two trainers in particular that we usually call out on the broadcast there Zachary potentially in in the
threatening to
Yeah, get to that sort of same level of credentials, but maybe he can take it all the way. Yeah
Yeah, no, I think we always feel a little bad for those trainers
You always seem to just be so consistent, but you can't quite get over that hump
We'll have to see if that happens for him
but four very deserving trainers in these semi-finals.
And I can't wait to see which of them make it
to the exciting finals in the big arena tomorrow.
Well, let's get ourselves set up for our top four.
We're going to go to a short break right now.
But stay tuned. You won't want to miss this
here at the World Championship.
I
It is time to get started with the top four here at Pokemon World Championships for VGC.
But only two will make their way out and play at the Chase Center for the chance to earn
that World Championship title.
I'm Sarah Dawn, joined here by Lee Rovos.
We only have four trainers left, the best of the best.
Yeah, it's really coming down to the few remaining trainers.
of these trainers will be moving into championship Sunday to tend themselves
for that title. The other will have done an incredible job. Which one will it be?
Well they're gonna give it everything in this next match. Both of these players have been incredible.
All of our top four players have been incredible to get to where they are in this tournament.
We know the level of competition and they've had to come up against time and time again
each and every round to get to this stage. It's just a phenomenal achievement.
It has been incredible to watch the bullets head over to the stage and introduce our first top four match
What an incredible one two very different stories. We got Hiroshi Onishi going up against you while the VP
Lady and this is just incredible for Hiroshi
We saw him just a few months ago
Paid down the Japan national
national championships.
Such an accomplishment and going on a run here that a couple have managed to do before
him going from that national champion to that world champion and he is so close to making
that a reality.
But for Jarl, this season has been amazing for him and it's his first season here in
the Masters Division to already put that much of a statement on the game is incredible.
We've gotten to see the achievements he's had within seniors looking at the regional
championships looking at the runs he's made at internationals but now on the
biggest stage incredible this could be the opportunity the first year to become
world champion for such a young trainer a potential prodigy in the game yeah
it's an incredible thought isn't it both stories are remarkable let's see which
one plays out we'll start with a quick overview of Horoshi's team same six
Pokemon that they used to success to take that Japanese national championship
So it's some alterations coming into this tournament,
but it is that strong Charizard and Mega Flower combination.
They're going to be supported with that Whimsicott
that provides the speed control, the disruption with that on-call,
and then you've got the balance guard jump there to come in
and just get that physical damage out
and it's the fields when needed.
But the two cleaner Pokemon and disruptors as well,
that King Gambit, four attacks there,
the Ocarberry to give room against the opposing Charizots,
and then that's Vast Allegiant.
Mega Charizard sometimes or sometimes not paired with the mega flow at have been the dominant megas here for Pokemon champions
But well his team is a team male to bring that down and a team that he's very familiar
Facing up against some variation of mega Charizard throughout the tournament
He has taken down seven of them looking for that eight and if you can preserve
Pieces like that like and rock well then can be a very easy task
But of course you have to be so careful with every single piece of the puzzle here
Yeah, this is a big test for Horshee because this team in particular like you say Sierra is made to go up against these
Charizard mega pull-out team
Enable us is gonna be that like and rock
But like you say gonna be very careful with it
You do have a bit of security because of the focus such this two hits are gonna have to go into that to remove it from play
But if you can take advantage of it and utilize it to get rid of the opposing Charizard
and then freeze up the mega choice on Jou's side of the field.
That cross-lites all of the Scovillain.
They can do so much damage to a lot of them.
And with these two teams and very capable trainers
with very different paths, it's time to get started.
Here, Wim talk for it.
Sherman, who is gonna be our first finalist
on Championship Sunday?
Fast Collision and Wim's got in the lead for Hiroshi
on the opposing end.
That like and rock right away, making it here.
It's next to Scovillain.
Yeah, the Scovillain coming out now is really nice for Jou.
They're gonna have to keep the pressure on to that vasculation and also the fact that they can mega evolve in it.
That vasculation attacks into them, it's impacted, it's pulled into them by the rage part of them,
it's gonna burn and that's so valuable going deeper into the game.
The Lycra Rope does have to be a bit careful, you don't want to give up that sash too early on in this game
and you're not really gonna get the damage onto the vasculation or it'll limit the cost.
So this is gonna be very impactful. The one thing you could say if you wanna break the sash in the game,
You can probably do that now if you want to get some damage there, but like I've seen, switching out,
want to be positive for later when my Char is up, probably be an issue with Spirit.
You've got to keep that like and rock so safe, but keeping the focus dash safe on it as well provides so much threat later on.
So let's walk out and make so much sense, as well as mega evolution for this Provillain.
Make sure you get your ability on play.
Moon Blast though, right away we're going on the Ascension for Hiroshi.
First attack, not necessarily the most amount of damage in that spicy spray will be damaged over time with that burn.
Following up though with the Vascular Legion wave crash, all our offensive, the double up will be enough to take Skorvillain down.
It's a huge big knockout there and makes the difference with that life form to take that Pokemon down.
But at the cost you are burning that Vascular Legion, so it's not going to have that much impact going forward in this match.
It's that what the score villain was used for.
Maybe we'll see how things play out and shout failure.
But that was a sneeze on to the field.
Now I'm going to have active bakeout.
Can go after that whimsy cut.
So prevent the tailwind.
This next turn as the King Gamma comes into a prime position
and is going to be going after that basculature now.
And it is in range of a sucker punch.
Easy sucker punch while a sneeze
that can deal with that whimsy cut.
And if you're scared about something like that takeout,
you can go ahead and just click that protect button
on the whim spot and be so good through the turn.
and Vasculation as well, but the King Gambit over for the outside of the board does have
that source in.
If you all of a sudden catch here, as we make it a passive play, you can go ahead and set
up, which could help this King Gambit not just get through the Vasculation, it doesn't
need help for the Vasculation, but it could set it up for a prime position for all down
the rest of the match.
No protects though, but also no fake out.
It's just going to be a tailwind in a follow up wave crash.
Burn definitely showing up here in the amount of damage, but King Gambit down to almost about
half is decently respectable.
You can see the follow up from the Seasler though.
Close combat into the Winds of God is not necessarily the damage you would have wanted.
But when you do get that stat drop, the special defense, it'll activate the White Herb.
All those disappear and you'll be extra speedy from here on out.
If you can get it, you wait the end of the year and have to wait for a passenger.
Sword stance right now makes it to King Amit extra scary.
Yeah, and it's a really smart play from Jao here going for the close combat to activate that wide hurt.
Keep pace with the opposing team as we see Hiroshi set that tail end up and now take the opportunity when it's there.
The Basque Legion is not as much of a threat when it's burned, so you get that soul stance.
You can come a huge threat going forward in this match.
Now you can dispatch, you can go for the Sucker Punch into the Basque Legion,
but you just go for the Catapult Leap to find, guarantee getting it,
not waste the Sucker Punch maybe as an acquisition to come out as some last-ditch damage from the Basque Legion.
and go for the Whimsicott again.
The Whimsicott's hands right now on call into this move,
but it could kind of put the stoppers on,
maybe going for preferred attacks into the back,
when something else which is in for it,
but knowing the damage it seems from that close-comer already,
that's the worst scenario.
King Gallant, it got its boost,
and it wants to make sure it can keep them and stick around,
but on-court, a Whimsicott in to the Sneasler.
You're locking it into an attacking move,
but it's a close call, but that doesn't do much into the Whimsicott,
Not for you to enter Vasco Legion, target of choice Vasco Legion did try and target down but with the encore it does mean that the targeting switches up a little bit and Vasco Legion is not affected at all.
Yeah it's there, wouldn't be the worst scenario but if it's into the Vasco Legion and I chose from what was selected on cold then it is the worst because that Vasco Legion gets another chance to stick around and get some more really important damage onto the outside of the field.
of the field now. They're not taking real use of these tailwinds. I don't think Chow minds
that too much. You want to try and stall out these tailwinds then all the remaining
stones in this game. As soon as that's gone, you can deal with the winter caught in the
meantime as well. Then that is fine because we're not going to see any more of it, depending
on what is in the basket coming in. We know the liking of all of those Pokemon, so it can
come in and really take advantage of the half of speed stat that it's got.
With these two Pokemon though, oh, it will be a sucker punch landing into the basket
Legion that's one way to try and play around call out the King Gambit but
comfortable to try and go for the attack will go down follow up though maybe
oh this trade but King Gambit will hold on not enough even with that critical
hit follow up close combat from Ciazo you're locked into it we've got it
already taken so much damage though even only so with the burn turn after turn
So who, Pokemon go down?
Now, it's going to be interesting to see which Pokemon are in the back for her or she's got so much value out of that backspinning even despite it being burned.
Has she been able to get damage on the ball, pick up a knockout along the way?
No one's got Has, that's her where they've been very disruptive.
For instance, locking the sneeze around on course.
That's the cross-combat. Is that going to play in the end?
Now, we're going to see Pokemon have to make their learn to heal.
That's going to be the big question, losing two Pokemon on the same turn, you're having
to rely with the last few is going to be a tough one, but when you have a Pokemon like
Fulwet making an appearance, and next to the Garchomp, it definitely feels a lot better.
You have one turn of the tailwind to play around with as well, of course that doesn't
necessarily help you up against something like that, Sacrifice, but it means you have
to call your turn very, very carefully to try and eliminate this plus two King Gambit.
also not falling back into a scissor that still can hit some easy really powerful combat.
It can hit the close combat's flow, it's not going to mind taking a lot too much,
but like you say, that sucker punch it is plus two, the black glasses are boosting the attack power of that as well.
So you can't just ignore that, you have to respect that threat there with the flow.
You can make a revolt if you have access to dust, and you will do respectable damage into the smasler,
and it will get rid of that kind of damage in the way for that liking of the committee.
to me. Do you want to prioritize the flowette? All the guard chomp. You probably see the guard
chomp one second down before guard chomping, you can deal with us and we'll find a light
and look in the back. And with the last turn of tailwind as well, of course, you can have
to see a goal on the offensive. Try and take advantage of it, but we could also see as well
just go on a little bit more of a defensive play, but it'll be guard chopper testing and
only flowette trying to attack on the turn. Try to call out that potential sucker punch,
But it goes into Follett instead and there's still a lot of damage.
Close combat trying to split that difference.
Now we just get close with this dazzling gleam.
So much damage though, King Abbot goes down,
but Sneezer hangs on by just the threat.
It's a huge survival for the Sneezer,
just showing how well it's been trained defensively
compared to the normal kind of just attack hand, speed,
or engage one.
It's really useful for the survival there
because now you're going to get another chance at that close combat.
If you can go into the guard jump,
There is the possibility, post-combat, post-combat,
might be enough to pick up the knockout there.
You've got to worry about that,
sit for a period of the guard jump has access to you.
You don't want to activate that and then miss the knockout
and allow the guard jump just to earthquake.
But of course you can't earthquake
when the flowhead isn't protecting.
Flowhead can't take the earthquake.
So you've got to make some big decisions here.
The guard jump has to go from attack to turn off.
And Sneasler feeling confident,
not having to go for one will protect us.
Just the double protect comes out from Zorao's end.
The both Pokemon seem safe, and now just a gargoyle with the Earthquake.
One Pokemon protects, two Pokemon protects.
Guess what didn't go on the field?
Your own Floette brought down to just East Liver as the closing moments of this match.
You are just in such a commanding position.
Yeah, that's not terrible.
I mean, the Floette, you don't really want to take in that damage,
but now you're in the scenario where you can protect the Floette,
and both Pokemon on the opposing side,
Well, they kind of have to attack. They can go for double protect, but it's risky, you could say, to take an Earthquake damage.
The problem is, again, can the Garchomp take a double up from this close combat. That's the big question, y'know.
We're gonna see that here. Did Direclaw fish you for status, maybe?
Direclaw first, into the Garchomp, isn't quite too much, and Rocklaw's made enough way to throw him in the locker,
which he would have thought, as he will go down Earthquake. The question is going to be, though.
Oh, that's just so, feel so bad for wet.
Goes down to the guard jump.
Now we need the Lagerhawk to show up big.
Taking so much damage,
brought down into its focus act.
Can it do enough into the guard jump to win it out?
What? That's gonna be the hit,
but in rough skin, Lagerhawk gets K-Yod
in her rushy to take the first game in the set.
Yeah, incredibly well done there from Hiroshi.
Really composed throughout,
and just coming through with the guard jump at the perfect time, despite getting that early burn
onto the Basque legion, which you feel would have put them further behind than they looked like
they were really making the most out of the blimsy cot and the Basque legion and that's not
just the softening of the team on Jowside and really take advantage of them, but there's pieces,
there's final pieces, the Floette and the guard jump in a great position when they finally get the
feel. I will never disrespect Garchomp in the amount of hits it can take ever again getting into
the end game the amount of pressure that I was able to put on with things like this Sneasler
I thought it looked a little bit stronger but Garchomp even feeling so confident in not just
doing a lot of damage but hey yoing that flowette in favor of getting all the damage on the opposing
end of the board paid off huge. Always trust in Garchomp in a game number two, Black to see if
to make the balance back here as Legend Rock and Charizard in the lead.
Going up against it, quick jump Charizard and Garchomp.
Yeah, the Legend Rock like seeing that Charizard.
So how are you going to have to be very careful with that Pokemon in particular?
Garchomp also not really a big fan of the Skullvillain because if you go for that earthquake,
yes, you're not hitting the Charizard, but you will activate that spicy spray
if you beat the Skullvillain at a negative hold and that's likely to happen.
Although Charizard can also kind of check that Skullvillain, but this is the beauty of
how the Lycanocs, you've got that sash, you've got the enable of the Mint, go after that
Charizard, check it within the cellar rock, please, take your Skullvillain this turn and
hopefully get that burn onto the dodge, I'll pick up the sides to go down the route of
attacking.
Be also careful with this Charizard, Mega Evolution though, if you are taking a hit from
this, Lichenrock, it can spell this faster for this mega Pokemon.
But looks like we're gonna make the call and we're gonna go for it.
It's not one, but both trainers are gonna mega evolve.
When we talk about the necessity of the Skogeliz and getting that spacey spray,
you need to mega evolve for that.
Now to see where the damage is coming out.
Lichenrock will protect the Call of Charizard.
Does not have to worry about taking a Rock-type attack, and instead can go on the offensive.
First one to attack though is gonna be that Garchomp.
and we'll hit into the skill villain.
Enough to start squishing it up, get some damage,
but you do take a burn for that.
Pop, you see how the technical doc is later on.
But now the follow up stars are,
we're going for the accuracy.
We're going for the KO to eliminate the skill villain.
From Zwei.
Yeah, such a great play from Horashi,
knowing that there's so much pressure on that,
turns out from the lighting,
all you're gonna protect is,
well, I'm gonna stand down,
I'm gonna pull your bluff,
and it's gonna get to the whole world for that now.
The mega has fallen, the Garchomp has taken turn, but it's still in a decent place where it can't destroy constant airquakes.
All you gotta think about is breaking the sash on that life, and I feel free free to go for the protection of Charizard here.
The one thing that I would say, protecting against King Gambit, playing passive against it, that's where players can fall off prey.
If you allow this King Gambit on the opposite side, etc., and soul stuns, then we know how that can go, that can go down health pretty quickly.
The fact that the Garchomp is burned definitely feels just a little bit better in this boarder state, with the Sasha still being attacked on the Lichenrock with the Protect last turn.
So, to double up here, if the Lichenrock does attack, it could be scary, but Lichenrock, again, calling that we're not seeing something oh so offensive as Scezler comes out.
If this is just a double up, this could be disastrous.
Earthquake, Earth, Burden is Burden, which is going to limit the amount of damage, but
Schiezler is still taking a significant chunk.
He waves, following up in the sun into both targets.
Isn't that Hiroshi to get the double KO?
Conditioning here has just been placed in perfected by Hiroshi.
Not wanting to commit with that like and rock as the opponent for Jiao,
and now that Chara's are taking full advantage of the freedom.
Two turns and with that, Hiroshi, oh, it's a good one.
Hiroshi Onishi moves on to Championship Sunday.
Your Japan National Champion one step closer to maybe becoming a world champion,
joining those four in history with such a commanding game too.
Yeah, and a risky play as well, but I mean it paid off for Hiroshi and you've got to give them huge credit
because it takes bravery to make those decisions. It's such a high stakes game to keep that Charizard
in front of the Lycan Rock and say I think you're going to think I'm going to protect.
So I'm not going to protect and I'm going to take advantage, get rid of the Skull Villain
while it's on the field, take advantage of my Gorge. I might not mind it being burned because
all I'm doing is getting the softening these Pokemon up, the damage that I need for the Charizard
to clean up after that and that's exactly what we saw and Jau just couldn't get that handle of
getting the Lycan Rock attacking into the Charizard. It's such a hard decision to make because if
you get it wrong. Sasha's broken and you were in a real detrimental place.
That's the thing, again, when it's a play that seems so telegraphed, you have to think
about K's. Like, surely, surely my opponent is not going to let me just take the Charizard
here, right? So we talk about the zoning game, but it's Hiroshi just making these really,
really bold plays. And Joao, find out, since those 50-50s in Pokemon VGC that make the
game oh so exciting, and when somebody can get them right too, it turns in a row, it
can be the difference maker in a match.
And it's also those two turns that,
if that Lichenrock did attack and Joao was just,
like, it's not Joao, if Hiroshi was just
careless with the Charizard,
well, we could just be talking about a game free right now.
Those are such tough decisions to make,
but I mean, really big kudos to both of our trainers.
Oh yeah, huge congratulations to Joao,
who managed to get to top four, you know, we've mentioned.
They've just aged up into Masters,
coming into the World Championships
and having such an incredible performance this weekend.
With with a very very familiar team to a lot of players
I think that's just incredible to see and I'm sure they've got a very very price to your head in but to Horoshi
They have made it possible to repeat what some of the other region
Players have done in the past going and winning Japan Nationals and in the same year winning the world championships
They are cementing their place in championships on day giving themselves a shot of lifting that tile at the end of the event
We saw in 2015 we saw it in 2017 and we have a chance to repeat history here, which is so exciting and the matches that we've gotten to see coming out from grocery.
I don't feel like there's any reason why it couldn't be him, but even just the opportunity again to be playing in the arena tomorrow is going to be unlike anything else.
The biggest congratulations to him.
trainers that chased that stage that opportunity for a lifetime and to be so
close to getting that world championship title so well deserved yeah so so well
deserved and using the same six Pokemon that that's that them so well at the
Japan national championships mentioned throughout the stream that there have
been alterations changes and updates made between the AB and a MA format and
but I think it just goes testament to show how comfortable they are with their
and they know their lines and know the ins and outs of how to go up against even teams that are built to counteract what they're bringing into the tournament.
I'm just still thinking back to that game number two in those first two turns and if those are the type of plays that Hiroshi is making tomorrow or even if it's not his opponent is going to have a rough time trying to prectinate
because then how do you prep against someone who's just so so confident because again you get that wrong the other way you lose on the spot.
Yeah, I think if we saw the Accelerator into the Jorazart in one
It's a completely different story because then the guard shown gets burnt and then yeah
Where's your big offense coming because then the flow it's not in the back like you know
We saw her or she leaning to in game one
So yeah, it is this very fine margins 50 50s
And it's just making the right one at the right time. Unfortunately for Jao it was just yeah
And you can understand why if you get that wrong then like when one falls and then the Charles
I was kind of freed up to just do what it kind of did there anyway
Those 50-50s are so tough to make but for Hiroshi our first finalist here at the world championships
It's time to go here from head as we head over to the stage
Thank you so much may I introduce you to your first finalist of the
2026 world championships in the video game
Congratulations Hiroshi you had a very tough matchup in that round especially in game 2.
Your mega Charizard especially in those first couple of turns what were you thinking in that
First of all, congratulations on the final scene use of the new shoot.
I think that the matchup was very difficult, especially in the second round.
Especially the one with the mega-lizard was a little difficult.
When I saw that kind of matchup, what kind of feeling did you have?
Thank you very much.
Regarding the second round, it was a bad thing that Lugalgan and Deserton had to face each other,
but by taking the first round, I think there's still a chance for the next round.
If the opponent were to come up with a jiu-waki or yong-ga style,
this would have been a good pattern even in the practice,
so I think we could have moved this to a stronger position and got a good atman position.
Yeah, thank you so much.
So I knew especially going into that second matchup and facing down that like and rock,
that was a really bad situation for me.
But I knew that the opponent would want to take advantage of that or like try and,
You know, recombine his configuration into something a bit more advantageous for him.
So I took advantage of, you know, I took that read, made that the big play,
managed to turn around in the end.
You made a big play in game number one as well when you didn't protect your flow at.
Were those big plays what got you all the way here to the finals of the World Championships?
Yes, I was able to make a lot of good plays, make a lot of good reads, and I was able to get this far on that.
What gives you the confidence to make those big plays?
Do you have confidence that you can read those good plays?
Well, how about it?
I'm aware that it's not as hard as the big stage,
but I think it's more about trying to remember my skills.
Yeah, it's kind of hard to say, but I try not to play too rigidly
and just go with the moves and the playing style that I really like.
and I think that's worked out really well for me.
Congratulations on making it into the finals
and good luck competing tomorrow on Championship Sunday.
It takes a village to get this far
at the World Championships.
Are there any family and friends you'd like to thank
who helped you get here and helped you along your journey?
Thank you for the last question. Do you have any thoughts or messages for your family or friends?
It was the same as in the Top 8 interview, but I got a lot of support and I'm really grateful.
I'm also grateful for the support of my friends who came to join me.
Thank you very much.
to Ben in the Analyst Lounge to break down what's coming up next.
Thanks so much, Gabby.
Yeah, wow.
One finalist that we know who is gonna be playing tomorrow
on Championship Sunday.
Hiroshi, congratulations.
Not only winning Japan national championships,
but also then going the distance here
at the World Championship.
Just one match away from becoming the world champion.
And after that performance, holy moly,
if I'm on the other side of the bracket,
I'm quaking in my boots over here.
100%.
We were talking before we went on here,
like the biggest predictor is what you said,
like the biggest predictor of success
for the World Championships has been historically
the Japan National Championships.
And we would have to go back and just double check
all of our Japanese winners of the World Championships
to make sure, but like, if not all,
most of them have also won the Japan National Championships that year.
And so if it's going to happen, if there was any sort of predictions,
if there's any sort of smart money on this going into championship Sunday,
Hiroshi has proved that he is capable of taking it all the way.
Yeah, I would always feel comfortable saying that I think the winner of the
Japanese National Championships is a favorite to win the entire tournament at
the World Championships. And Hiroshi proving exactly why that is just
I mean, it's like, you know,
it's like. Unmitigated
aggression and confidence
coming out from that player
in incredible set. I really
enjoyed watching. I can't
wait to see what he brings to
the chase center tomorrow.
Can you imagine those plays
at the chase center? Like I
mean, it's one thing doing it
on the world stage. It's one
thing doing it in top four, but
in front of that live audience
But that's the beauty of these, seeing these players come as far as they have.
You know that they've got the nerve, you know that they've got the bottle to take it all the way.
And it just makes me more and more excited.
Yeah, I'm so excited. I'm so thrilled for Hiroshi too as a competitor.
This is a player who has been grinding it out once Pokemon Champions came out.
was one of the people who set the meta in regulation MA through his performances on the online ladder and through other tournaments
and obviously winning the Japanese national championships absolutely deserve for him to make it to the final stage tomorrow.
And using a similar composition to what he's using in the world championships right now, I mean this has been such a story of this format as a whole
I think the best team for
you to be able to play. And I
think Hiroshi's hit on this
like maybe both because, you
know, this is the strongest
he's got the most stats of
Eddie team pretty much in the
format. It's got it's just one
of the most powerful but also
one of the most bulky teams.
It's got the speed on its side
as well in many situations.
Got the ability to set itself
up and set some positions.
So I think that's one of the
to set itself up and set some positions,
not relying on things like sleep powder
to try to get an advantage.
So it's got a little bit of a consistency advantage
in the way that he's playing.
That's allowing the skill of Hiroshi to shine through
and shine through this whole event.
Yeah, absolutely.
And the thing that we've been talking about
in the run up to the World Championships is,
do you want to be like the 15th or 20th best big six player
in the field?
Or do you want to be the best pilot of the team
you were the best that you were bringing to this tournament and you know what turns out is being
really good is to be the best pilot of the best team in the format right now and Hiroshi made
it to the finals for exactly that reason. It sounds so easy like just just just do that like
but it's it's a completely different story and the way that Hiroshi played that match
definitely worth talking about not necessarily some of the turns that we had but we have got a
a couple of little parts of that match that I want to go back to and just think about like the macro, the game at large.
Yeah, 100%.
Because the way that Hiroshi played this game one, this is a few turns into game one, right?
So we saw in the early stage that the Megasco Villain got taken down to a combination of Moonblast, just doing that little bit of a chip,
to be able to take a wave
crash from a life or basquely
gin and not after moon glass,
right? And so, uh, you know,
this this go villain going down
is a really big deal. Now in a
lot of these matchups. You get
to this position. You're like,
Oh, basquely, Jen's like the
most powerful. What are the
most powerful? That's the
ace in the hole. The end game
like the final part of the
puzzle that you want to be
trying to win the game with,
game with, right? But the way that Hiroshi, like, played this game, it seemed like the
Basque Legion was like a means to an end, right? And so in this situation, and we're
not going to go through the turn, but I'm just going to circle this guard chomp here,
right? Because this guard chomp is the key to the matchup. When you look on Jou's side,
you've got the King Gambit, you've got the Sneasler, right? You've got the Lycan Rock.
of those Pokemon like taking up. Yeah, they quite dislike it very much. Dislike it very much. And so
what we've seen time and again with this matchup is like, hey, the Scovillean comes in, the Garchomp
gets burned, and then the Garchomp can't do the fun ground shaky thing that it really likes to do
in these situations and put loads of pressure on the field. But as it happens, you know, if we do
a little bit of fast forwarding through the match.
Oh, wait, there we go, nailed it.
Right there.
The god jump is coming in, and it's coming in on 100%.
And not burnt at all.
Not burnt at all.
And there's just not enough damage here or here
with the King Gambit, like on low HP.
There's still the flowet that you've
got to be able to consider.
And so one of the ways that you beat a King Gambit,
I give it too many things to target at the same time and this sort of set up this this
Playing something that looks like a downside at the front end of the game
But actually turns out to be an upside at the end of the game was so so clever from Hiroshi
Yeah, absolutely and managing that Scoville and is such an important part of this matchup because outside of the flow at and to a point
The wins a cot
You know with the four Pokemon that Hiroshi brought for this matchup. Skow villain is
Enemy number one if your physical attackers are getting burnt by the skow villain then you're on the back foot
But you have to make choose which poison you want, right?
Yeah, and by picking the basculation and sacrificing that piece to knock out the skow villain
You're totally right
It completely opens up the only Pokemon remaining are all weak to earthquake and it doesn't even matter what's next to the gar chop
It's just gonna keep quaking the earth
I mean, it's like, you know,
even if it starts to get attacked,
it's going to have a snack.
Like it's going to be able to just hang on.
And again, this choice of item,
we talked about the consistency a minute ago
of the team at large.
You see the choices.
A lot of the time it's a life orb,
as it got introduced, like guard jump,
one of the best Pokemon in the format.
What happens if it's 30% stronger, right?
We love that.
Pretty good as it turns out,
but actually, like, this has been a trend
a trend in the meta game like Garchomp wanting to go a little bit bulkier so you can go toe-to-toe with
those life or Garchomp's but actually try to come out on top. Yeah what if Garchomp actually had 25%
more health? Yeah, yeah. It's a good thing it doesn't have both of the same size. Yeah, I would like that.
I mean that's kind of like mega Garchomp but that's a whole other conversation buddy. We're not getting
into so then Hiroshi a game up right and going into a game a game to where in fact let me
just get to it because this game to was absolutely crazy right and so we had
hmm not sure where we are you know what oh yeah right so turn one here and we've
got Charizard on the field in front of his enemy Lycan Rock, right?
You're smiling, and I don't know why you're smiling, because this is exactly what we're
all coming here to see like this matchup.
This is what the Lycan Rock is for, and the Scovillain is foot-burning the Garchomp, right?
So this looks like an unbelievable position for Jow, right?
Yeah.
I feel so happy about this lead matchup. I have all of the pressure right now
I could pick up a KO onto that Charizard whenever I choose to and I can burn that Garchomp and make it so weak for the rest of
The game. I feel great. This is exactly what I hoped for unless
Unless unless I'm playing the Japanese national champion who decides to make the most ridiculous
Call-out the kind of call out you can only make when you're already up one game in a set
I mean, this is, I think this
is the most important part of
this turn, right? And the next
turn, which is the only two
turns of the match up winners. If
you've just joined us. Just
having the game advantage and
being in a situation that you
like, well, okay, if this goes
wrong, regardless of which way
it goes wrong, I'm on the back
foot. I'm probably not getting
out of this game feeling good
about myself. Like I don't want
trying to figure out these reads again and again and again.
And so do you know what?
I'm either going to take the loss later,
or I could take a risk now.
If I lose on the spot, fine.
No problem.
Hold your hands up.
And so I made a call.
It didn't work out.
We'll try again.
We'll try again, right?
But now, the schooling goes down.
It's not even a heat wave.
It goes by the weather.
It's not calling it as well.
is this is committing to the
to the prediction. Yeah 100%
accurate weather ball you are
you are losing to the
Accelerot would you are 100%
knocking out that Scoville and
if like and rock does what it
does there and protects because
Charles like there's no way I
get this Charizard for free
and Hiroshi's like you're
right there isn't because I'm
going to knock out your
Pokemon right now exactly and
then and like our players have
reset right the only
it's less likely that it's going to protect again. What does that mean? It's more likely
to go on the offensive. And Hiroshi's like, I'm not sure what's going through his head
at this point. And I'm wondering if it's like, I got away with it once. Am I going to get
away with it again? But it's still a difficult position, depending on what Pokemon are in
the back. And so, like, Shao's, like, rightly saying, like, hey, surely, surely he's not
I'm going to let me go for this again.
Switching out into the Sneasler,
Godchomp even burned doing what it does best.
Here's the heat wave.
Two KO's, only one Pokemon left for Giles,
and there's nothing left for him to come back to.
Yeah, the most fitting use of that double KO graphic
I think we've ever seen here.
Incredible call out there again.
Because Giles on the back foot at that point,
he needs to make something happen.
He needs to find some way to get momentum back,
And you don't do that by, you know,
just going, like going for an Accelerak into a protect
and losing your momentum again.
So he's trying to reposition.
He's trying to say that, oh, great.
I know that I'm in the lead right now.
I need to get even further in the lead.
I need to make sure I have the advantage
on the Pokemon sense in this current moment.
I need to get further ahead to the next turn.
And Hiroshi says, okay, but what if I just click
keep waving earthquake instead?
I said, like, it seems obvious, right?
like, I mean, just going for any sort of defensive play, but yeah, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but it's coming back to like the game one, game one up. And on this stage, like it's, it's such a, I think a mark of respect on both players, the way that that
the other one has at their
disposal right and and so this
repositioning could have ended
up pretty bad for Hiroshi and
Hiroshi is respecting that by
actually like calling the bluff
and saying like I'm just going to
go for it. I'm going to go
straight on the offensive and
not saying like. Do you know
what like this is a tough
situation. I'm going to play
negative like no I still have a
way to have an explosive game
I still have a way to have an explosive game.
Yeah, that's absolutely correct.
And it's a great point to make that both of these players
were absolutely respecting each other's options here.
You make that play game one or turn one of game two,
because you understand that you have no moment
if you're a hero, because you have no shot here.
Like, oh, my Pokemon match up so poorly
against the Pokemon out on your field
that I have to switch.
And because I have to switch, and I know that you know
that I have to switch, I won't switch,
and instead I'm gonna start picking up the KO's.
And the same the next turn around,
it's like, okay, I recognize that you're feeling behind
and you're all still threatening again,
and you want to try to pick something up,
but if you whiff into the protect,
you're already so far behind
that you're not gonna be able to come back into the game.
So I know you have to make a play,
because I'm going to respect the play
that I know you have to make,
because you understand what's going on here,
and I'm gonna punish you for it.
I love it. I love it. I love
it. I love it. It was beautiful
play and for two for two games
set her to game match game to
turn game incredibly beautiful.
I love watching that so so
brilliant. I can't wait to see
what her she has in store for
us in the finals tomorrow. But
Evan, are you ready to find out
who are final finalists? He's
going to be here at the World
Championships. I can't wait. I
I can't wait to see who's going to join Hiroshi and Chase.
Well, without further ado, let's take it away.
I will see you, Custards.
Thank you so much for the final time today.
Aaron and I are here to walk you through this finals top four.
Aaron, Hiroshi, Onishi, waiting there in the finals.
Who's it going to be that's going to join him?
It's going to be an intense battle.
Of course, on one side, you have Zachary Wee.
Zack has made it to the finals of a regional championship, an international championship.
Now he's one game away from potentially making it to his first world championship finals.
Do you imagine your first world finals being in Chase Center?
I could not even fathom what that feeling would be like.
And for Takuma, Yamazaki, that is also an accomplishment that he is greatly looking forward to.
But they both stand in each other's paths.
Fakuma coming off of the top 64 at Japan Nationals this year to make it to the world championships.
But Zack, as you said, has had an impressive 20-26 season.
And the fact that he gets to end it off with at least a top four here, Worlds is so cool.
And he's staring down a team that looks very familiar to the team,
that he actually just defeated in order to make it to the semifinals.
The only difference is a ToyScarf garchomp over Wim Sakat.
So Zack has some experience playing against this archetype.
This is kind of this new duel of Mega Dragonite, Mega Floette.
The rest of the Pokemon are what we generally
see throughout the course of the event.
But I do think the inclusion of ToyScarf Garchomp
as well as Mega Dragonite as the duo here
can be threatening to Zack's team.
Previously when Zack fought against the composition,
it was Mega Floette that was really prioritized, right?
And so trying to get as much damage off with Mega Floette,
you've got this dual Mega Flex.
Dragonite strong enough to be brought actually,
even as a non-Mega evolution, but Floette often being the heavy damage jeweler West Dragonite is a little bit bulkier.
And you also have no protect on the Sneasler, the King Gambit, or the Garchop.
Sneasler here are actually opting for these fates.
I'm actually wondering if the moveset adjustment on this particular Mega Dragonite versus the one that Zack faced in Top 8 is actually enough to bring in, as you said.
You've got Dragonfall, Skeletor, and Extreme Speed.
Extreme Speed, very powerful as a priority option
to help get around something
where Zack does have a couple of faster pieces.
Absolutely, yeah, so once again,
I think I would love to see Becky Dragonite here
on the world stage, right?
I think that actually in the top eight match,
Zack had constantly dropped the Mega Frostlass.
Of course, Mega Frostlass is probably the number one
best Pokemon you can have in the format
against the Dragonite and the Guard Shop
on the opposing side here,
But once again, taking a look at Zach's team,
it is that dual mega pairing of Frostlass and Skow Villain.
Skow Villain being so frequently led with this team.
And I think the number one takeaway I've seen
from the top players using Skow Villain
is how effective they are in being able
to deal actual damage with it.
We saw it basically kind of solo through a mega flow
at in the quarterfinals.
We've seen it dish out massive amounts of damage
with Overheal as well.
Do not discount this Pokemon as a damage dealer.
Also be able to of course,
burn so many key Pokemon,
Vasculation, King Epic,
Garchomp, Sneasler.
Those are basically the best physical attackers
that exist in the game.
And part of the reason why Scoville
and Exist is to be able to neutralize their damage.
I also wonder whether or not the addition of gunk shot
on the Sneasler is something else
that might push the cards towards that mega dragonite there
for Takuma.
We saw that gunk shot be a one hit knockout
on that Floette in the quarter finals.
And so you have to wonder if that's going to be something
going through Takuma's head.
Yeah, I think if you're a ham, you're probably really trying to cover for leads around the
Megasco villain, right?
Megasco villain, like it.
Megasco villain, King Gambit.
So for Zac, you know we see a mix up here.
I'd love to see Dragonite making a period.
And there's Frostlass with no Skow villain saying, look, you're going to respect your
Dragonite.
No, Dragonite.
I got a Vasculation for Takuma and for Zac it is good for Frostlass and the Sneasler.
Frostlass is not one of those Pokemon that we generally end up seeing brought to a battle
unless you are ready and willing to mega evolve it.
Yeah, and so Frostlass here, in a pretty decent position.
I mean, hey, it threatens super effective damage
both onto Dragonite as well as the Vascular Legion.
Zack, of course, also has the fake out on the Sneezer.
Sneezer won't do very much damage to Gumshot or close combat,
but you can read in, for example,
fake out into Dragonite or Gumshot into Blizzard immediately.
Vascular Legion, I would expect a potential
to survive a Shadow Ball from the Frostlass,
but if you're a Zack, you can play really aggressively,
double up onto either slot,
or just say, hey, I'm gonna set up a three of Roarville
right now. That's going to be the seasoners out for the like and rock.
So that's going to make it a period to help threaten the dragon like that.
And that's maybe evolving on this first turn.
They're going to have that multi-scale intact as you are still at full HP.
And there's no fake out on the other side that can help to get around that.
Crosslash protects itself.
Winter into the next steps of this turn.
And Blastilligen does the same.
So can dragonite get away with some free damage onto the like and rock
that's just switched in.
Heatwave comes out, it can't connect from this Lichenrock and break its focusash.
Yeah, so Dragonite attacking in front of the threat of the Frostlast and says,
look I've got the multi-stale even if you Glizard being not the end of the world.
I think Lacanrock is probably pretty happy about that turn, right?
You don't really take any damage.
Lichenrock comes in, but now it is vulnerable to eating up an Aquajet.
Of course, Dragonite now is vulnerable to eating up something like an Accelerock plus a Glizard combination
or just Glizard Rockside for example.
But if you click Rockside and you get Aquajet in, well then Lacanrock doesn't really accomplish anything, right?
So I think the basketball region right now
still looking really powerful offensively.
And while Frostlass is really good into this duel,
the fact that they both can potentially survive
one big attack is quite a big deal.
So I think the main interesting dynamic this turn is,
is there gonna be an awkward jet into the
like and rock spot.
Gambit's switching here, perfect to deal with this duel,
unless it's a close combat into Dragonite.
Could also be a protect that comes out from this
like and rock.
You've got to get around something like the awkward jet.
But Frostlass is going to take the opportunity
the mega ball, set the snow, and maybe even set something like a roar avail.
First up, we see the X-all Rock, which is going to connect into the King Jambon that
would have grown from the multi-skill on the Dragonite, as Vascular Legion does, and
get the Aqua Jet.
So that's all there like to rock, is going to contribute to this first game.
The Froslass still gets a chance to attack as we see the life orb recoil come through
for the Vascular Legion.
If it's a Shadow Ball, that would be pretty big.
But it's got the Blizzard to connect Jambon to us as both, but it's going to be very
effective.
There are frees here though. Okay every time the blizzard animation comes out. My heart skips would be exactly but
Takuma going for the perfect bait there with the dragonite sink. I think you kind of need to respect this right because dragonite is actually quite good
It's everything that's not the frost last and now just secure knock it up to lack of ruffle not taking very much damage
After life or a shadow boss from frost last I think very they have been a knockout onto that fast Legion right so a really
favorable turn for Tacoma there. Sleezer now however does come out and once again the King
Gambit on Tacoma's team here just not happy with the fact and so it is extremely vulnerable right
now. You can just go for something like a close combat into that slot. Shadow ball. The question here
is yeah are you fearing the sucker punch and so you could go for an Aurora but imagine just
Blizzard in here. Yeah I mean Garchomp is going to switch in which takes up things like the close
combat a little bit more effectively but it's just a fake out and so fake out as a Garchomp
does some chips, Neasler though with a rough skin recoil is going to have to take something
referred as Frostlabs cannot land that shadow ball. An opportunity to have gone for another
blizzard there but really ineffective in front of that King Gambit basket legion.
Exactly. I would have to be a hard read that there was going to be a switch out there and so
it's not every day you see a guard chop willingly switch in against a mega Frostlabs but as a
reminder this is going to be the choice star of the guard chop and so right now it is posing a huge
offensive threat. For example, you could go for a tech with Basque Legion, go for an earthquake with
Garchomp, still have the OTC Wacom on Dragon as well. So, Sneezer does not want to take that earthquake,
going to pick it in Basque Legion here. Zack's got to start dealing some damage with the Stross
last. It's going to be stopping Tantrum, no protects, no switches. So, if Garchomp goes first,
Koi's going to lock it into the stopping Tantrum as long as it stays on the field,
as Basque Legion gets taken down by that Shadow Ball that we would have liked to connect in the
a turn prior so that's going to be another knockout 3v3 here as Takuma and
Zachary have to think about what's coming next. I think Zach's probably pretty
happy about that turn at the end of the day right managed to get a key knockout
and also conserve Frostlass's HP because we take any damage there and so I think
what is really scary about this Frostlass is his offensive spread into the
Garchomp the Dragonite and the Masqueradion right Blizzard just destroys the
dual dragon. So King Gambit now really the perfect poke want to switch in go
spreading with Sucker Punch, but that can play around that Sucker Punch
potentially by going for it in Aqua Jet. King Gambit's Sucker Punch extremely
threatening into both of them here. Zack would always potentially go for
something like a protect and then pick it out in a steeper as well.
Frostless does have a roarville, has not clicked it so far in the game, but that's
another way to get around Sucker Punch. So right now the Sucker Punch mind game is
real, right? Does Takuma go for a Sucker Punch and feel it? Does Zachary hard call
out and say, look I think you're actually going to couse out who you need.
And if this King Gambit is a toppleberry,
it's the likelihood that a sucker punch is actually going to knock out the Frostlass here.
Not gonna get that question answered, but it is going to be a protect.
I can't even go for the pressure punch in the back lane and instead, no Aqua Jet, no damage!
Just a KO, and that is now two Pokemon here for Sapp.
A Sneasler has to come back out.
The hard call out there, this is what I was saying.
Basketleague could flick Aqua Jet again around that, could have switched into Sneasler,
but the perfect burn for Uncle Mai here, and the Sceasler will come in.
Dammit, once again, still doesn't have Protect available, right?
So right now, you're threading with something like Fakeout plus a Blizzard,
but it's looking quite scary.
Conserving the Garchomp will be nice, right?
So the question here is, you can actually switch it out.
Do you think you're going to eat Fakeout plus Blizzard into the Garchomp slot?
If so, you still got that Dragonite in the back.
The snow is slowly about to expire as well,
so you can land just a little bit of damage in the Frost Slash with the Sucker Punch.
It switches out and comes back in maybe conclude things out with an earthquake right, but maybe if you are
How come while you make that read maybe protect frost last post combat in the King Dan bit right this turn
I'm question. I had this. What does that do? It is gonna switch. Just after we call this
Hey, well if the dragon it comes in a fake out into that slot plus the blizzard would take out
Just going to fail so that means that this process ended up using a roar on this turn
So 15 damage does not get any damage down can Sneasler do something astronomical here
Very activates to soften the flow, but 15 game
An absolutely amazing play to instantly get back into this one had that just been stuck in cancer in a ski
Soar counts out please I think that's game over
But that's a really hard play to make when you're staring down to make up plus blizzard and so an amazing turn there
Snezler's wider back to make so now it is fast as well with that on burden. No snow though.
So that means these blizzards Rosemary can miss only 70% accurate.
Barchoff will be able to come back in though. Of course reset its move but it's perfectly time to roar reveal.
And an amazing turn by Zafry there. Just phenomenal play. This really feels like both players are just trading blow-for-blow.
Very, very high level.
This is the world championships. You've got to be confident to make these reasons.
sometimes that's going to be the little bit of a difference that makes a big
difference in your game. This guard talk has to come back out so now if you're
talking about what do you lock into with this choice that is the question yet
do you go for earthquake which of course will deal a lot of damage with the
speed order will be Sceesler first right you got a big attack off. The other
question here is the Sceesler considered protecting right and Frost less than
it could just go for a blizzard wiki of Roarville. You also could say well if I
don't feel like earthquake is the right move to lock in I'm just gonna hedge my
bet on Rockside and look for a flinch. If I get the flinch on Frostlust actually
that might be enough for me to still win the battle so it still feels so tense
here. Give the advantage to Zachary. Skisler is going to go for the protect so
is it a Rockside right now or is it just Earthquake?
Lots of 30%!
Come down for the guard chop that's what's gonna be the move that it lost into by the choice guard.
The Frostlust owner is taking end of this but can this 30% come true?
We're gonna cross last really close up for Zack here.
Now a miss on the guard top, but it connects onto the Dragonite.
And the Hokey Scale does not keep it that healthy.
So much damage here.
Dragonite probably gonna follow up with a Heat Wave.
Expect that to knock down Frost Slash.
I think it's still in Zack's favor here though, right?
Because you can just knock out the Dragonite.
And okay, no Frost Slash.
Kings on very healthily with that Auroraville.
And so, I mean, Sceesler now will once again be able to move first.
being able to land blizzard through rocks like so so scary right now it is a big miss on garchomp ready connector
I think would have just immediately ends the game and so
Zach now gets another chance you go for a close combat into the garchomp flat or you can just try to die or fall finish off
Dragonite and then blizzard to finish off bar shop garchomp here
Ask the rocks like right with dragonite
You can either decide to protect or maybe go for another key way, but it is so tense right now
So many attacks here at moves and secondary probabilities that can activate with this final 2v2 for the first game.
And it really does come down to this.
Can the Robb's Light connect onto the broadslash?
Oh, there's a 1st quick double shot, and that's going to be a connection.
Dragonite goes down, and now it's a 2v1.
This is Garchomp.
Dude, would be impossible to take the both out.
both out, Rockslide connects,
Rockslash now, down for the count,
and so 1v1 between this Sneasler and this Garchomp.
Yeah, but commercially,
Sneasler having had that a burden activate,
he'll just be able to outspeed Garchomp.
This is a choice guard Garchomp locked into Rockslide,
and I think we're gonna see Zachary take this first game.
Close combat comes out,
didn't get the knockout, but it does a hefty amount.
And if I were to say, if Garchomp were faster here,
the Rockslide, you know,
you get the flinch chance, the defense drop,
We can actually add up with Auroraville up here,
Rockside doesn't do enough,
and another close combat will bring us the game to you here.
Whoo!
A lot of variables in the final moments of this game, one,
and we still have a second game to play out here.
Zack is one close combat away from being able to lock this up
and bring us into the beginning of the next one.
There you go, Garchomp's down.
Let's think about game two.
I can't express how much of a momentum
between it was from that one turn of Auroraville,
dodging the sucker punch, close combat,
knocking out the gambit.
It felt like it was a really dire situation at that point,
but that one play instantly swings the momentum back
into Zachary's favor.
Really incredible play.
And this is what we were previewing about this year,
right?
We said, okay, well, Zach played against something
that was similar in top eight,
but there is a choice for our Garchomp.
And I think one of the key learnings
that Huckumma may have had watching Zach's top eight
was like, wait, hold on, I feel like Dragonite
is really good in the skill bill,
and let me bring Dragonite.
But instead, the Frostlass ends up getting picked,
and it is so good into this
dual dragon combination.
And so you can see how valuable
that Auroraville is, allowing
Frostlass to survive Rockside
and Heatwave.
Wow, just such an intense
first game there.
And then the gunk shot connects.
That is really important.
Heatwave too, under the Frostlass.
My guess was Zach was going to go
for a gunk shot and Shadow Ball
there in a Dragonite, because at
that point the Garchomp is not
a factor in the Sleezer.
You just need to knock out the
Dragonite.
Once Dragonite gains the Sleezer,
that one you won against guard shop but still yeah exactly I mean anytime you see late game
scarf rock slide just so so scary but frost last does manage to attack through it outside
of snow into dragonite so going into game two you know one of the questions is okay are
we going to see dragonite again because it honestly did not accomplish very much in that
last game partially because of the threat of frost last so you could consider adjusting
to the mega flow at instead what if that goes to mega sco villain instead right say okay
I think you're going to drop
Dragonite now.
So it is this kind of rock,
paper, scissors between the
mega evolution, but Zach is up
one game.
He just looked so good into this
kind of team composition.
Let's see if there's a mix up
from either players.
Takuma spent a lot of time in
that first game repositioning
to play around the front.
So it's going to play.
We've come to the second game.
It's the Bachelorette's goal.
It's 10.
The Bachelorette should blow it
for Takuma.
Yeah, these are the adjustments
I was talking about, and I
would say it generally favors
more right because the skill villain is just such a nuisance and being able to
burn these we saw how effective it was and handling even just flowette in the
top eight however if you are in top them on you do have a lot of offensive
pressure right something like a mega evolution dazzling plus way fresh there's
a lot that great to go for something like mega ball with the skill villain just
actually protect it and then just made trashed into how come was flowette you
have to be very careful I think right now it's the life we're basically just
exerts so much offensive pressure into each other.
You also have to respect Floette potentially saying,
you know what, I'm going to call out a Protector's Skogulon
and I'm just going to click my light of ruin.
Big difference, though, in between the last time
we saw these Pokemon face off against each other
is that there's no winch across that can threaten an Encore
in either slot.
She's going to have to worry about whether or not
Rage Powder is going to function.
If you're worrying to get locked into something
like an Aqua Jet that may be a little bit unreliable.
But we will see the Floette and Mega evolve
as well as the Skull Villain to match.
So both mega evolutions extended in this second game.
But now what do these bastards think you can do?
Let's see.
First of all, is it going to be a rage powder here?
Protect on the Vascular Legion, OK?
That's a good start for this Vascular Legion,
but the Skull Villain is still vulnerable.
A Daglingling comes out.
It's just going to connect into Skull Villain
that's going to result in a burn to the Floette, which
will start to stack up that damage over time.
But back to Legion for Takuma still gets a chance to attack here.
And it is the last for a special drive to call out this back to Legion on Zachary's side attacking.
How Skulldyn will get to fire off an Overheat.
That's going to be a nice stack of damage now between the burn as well as that Overheat damage.
Yeah, I think great turn for Zachary there, right?
That's already a lot of damage on a Floette.
If you go for a Protect with the, you know, Skullvillain, I mean,
right now I think Floette maybe can survive awkwardly.
Vasculage is such a strong buff on here, like, if LVL doesn't have any bulk, I could see it potentially fading to it.
Either way, though, talk about having the potential to double up on Skogul in there, immediately go for the knockout onto it, right?
Go for Dazzling Glean and Wavecrash, but it doesn't end up coming out there, and now, Zachary gets a lot of key damage and media line to LVL.
However, now Skogul and his damage output is obviously greatly reduced, you can't just go for a Rage Power once again to kind of protect your Vasculage in,
but if it's Dazzling Gling coming out, well, then the Vast Fusion still keeps up a ton of damage.
So, let's see if Zachary can advance his position after that strong third one.
The Vast Fusion is going to protect, because another thing I saw on the pre-eval was something like an Aqua-Jet into Tacoma's Vast Fusion followed up by a Gigafreak.
But this Govillain isn't minus two, and it's going to be a more blast into the Vast Fusion on the other side.
Not if one hit knockout, so we could see.
Oh my god, but that's not going to land.
The Master Specs tried to hit the opposing Baskilligen and will fail.
I really feel like we are just watching a boxing match between these two and
they are truly trading blow for blow.
As in this case, Zachary gets the advantage on turn one, but
then Takamaw makes an amazing play on the second turn.
I mean, moon blasting there in front of Baskilligen when Skobillian could just go
for a rage powder seems pretty wild, right?
But the expectation is for Skobillian to protect there and so
Lots of damage onto that Vasculation given now.
Of course, there still is no burn on the opposing Vasculation either,
so it is very threatening.
Something like Dazzling Gleam and Wave Crash right now is quite scary.
Awkwitek comes up, goes to get the knockout!
It survived by a base!
No way for when a 1% can still fire off another attack here,
and the Dazzling Gleam is good to connect it to both.
Vasculation took so much trip from the life warp
that that final tickle is going to send it back into its pokeball.
But now Vasculation can go with the Wave Crash.
That is going to be two knockouts for Takamaw in the second game.
A vacillation finally gets burned, but both Skullvillians and Vascularians are out here for exactly about two Pokémon left to even bring in.
Yeah, my big question is what is in the back, right? If it's something like Sneezler and King Gambit, you do pressure with something like Bakeout and Swords Dance, right?
Takamaw may want to switch in that choice from Garchomp, but if you bring in Garchomp and there is Sneezler, Gambit on the opposing side, you risk Bakeout into Garchomp, King Gambit, Swords Dance, right?
And so the big question is what do both players have in the back to get vantage.
Definitely over to Pokemon right now.
But Zachary with that King Gambit that sword dance that black glasses that is
always a Pokemon you cannot count out in these end games like Rock also obviously
has Rock slide.
It is going to be Gargjum coming in.
So is it's these are gambit on the opposing side.
There's the King Gambit.
What's next to it?
You're too.
I mean, you just have to worry about that.
You have to give you some good damage into what's in the basket.
Yeah, exactly as you call it, Aaron.
So I think this is really interesting because you look at guard shop, and you think well, okay
Earthquake is now just incredibly powerful and everything right, but it's we're gonna be a dragonite in the back
Probably not and so you don't really want to click that earthquake because you don't want to be damaging yourself
Garchup, of course, does have the stomping cantron here as well
An interesting thing if you fake out into that garch on within the stopping cantron thread into one head knocked out onto either slot
The following turn basket legion right now can still go through a wave crash deal decent damage and plus these are but that burn
it's a really big deal. So the question for Zachary right now is, yeah, do you go for the sword stance?
I think they got into Garchomp sword stance with King Gambit kind of feels like the safe obvious play.
And then my other question is, what is the Ford Pokemon in the backboard pocket?
It's so tough because right at this moment this Garchomp does at the speed advantage against you.
So unless the Snezler is able to
consume its wider, activate the unburden, and then you do get that sword stance sucker punch to have that priority action against the Garchomp,
then this is going to be an advantage over to Tachymon.
But you do see the wave crash come through.
These are taking a lot of damage,
but can Gambit does get the sword stance off?
So can it be enough to actually get the knockout
onto the guard chop on the subsequent turn?
Yeah, yeah, I think right now, I'm Zachary.
I'm thinking I'm gonna protect Sneasler.
I'm gonna sucker punch your guard chop.
Your basketball game is learned. It's not gonna do much.
And if I'm in Tachymon's shoes,
I would consider Aqua-getting the Sneasler
and just going through the stomping hand
from in a king gambit.
You could also make the read
that it's going to be Sucker Punch coming out and just saying, you know what, I'm going to swap
Darchomp out into my final Pokemon. That final Pokemon likely is going to be King Gambit or
Sneasler. Both of those have a fighting type attack which can just get a one hit knockout
until you're posing King Gambit. So, I still very much favor talking about this position right now.
Zachary gets the sword, stands off, I think that is the one cool that kind of keeps himself
in it but that wave crush still did so much damage, right? And so, my other question is,
Sneasler potentially survived a life or boss which is, okay, no switches, no protection.
Oh, it doesn't, Sneasler goes no. And that should just be it. I think even with the Sucker Punch
coming out here. Yeah, if it's a sucker punch into the Garchomp, it's not going to pick up the knockout, but it is not going to be enough.
That is unfortunate, and will send us into a game three. That is the stopping catcher to finish off the King Gambit, and we've got a tie series.
Wow, and when the leads came out, it was like, oh, mega-flow on one end, it's the mega-scoville on the other. I feel like this should favor Zachary, but the offense that comes out from this blow-up
the left, Vasculation duo is just so strong, and with no frost last, Garchomp is able to
come in and threaten with so much damage in this endgame.
At endgame, by the way, also highlights why some players have moved on to Light Orb on
King Gambit.
It doesn't work on this team because you need it on Vasculation, but this clutch survival
as well, 1%.
Like I was saying, I'm like, Floette's around that range where it might be.
The initial overkeep was nice, but just has enough to hang on, retaliate back with the
damage output as well.
And so, Floette, Vasculation looked quite solid there, and the thing is, I think that
is actually still pretty good into a frost last adjustment as well right and so if you're Zachary you want to cover for the
Float and Basculation King Gambit can threaten Basculation as a lead immediately
The hard thing about using King Gambit in this matchup is that there are just so many resistances to it right like you've got the
Float you've got the King Gambit you've got the sneezing on the other end right and I feel like we saw that in top 8
What Zachary is while we brought Gambit didn't really work out super well right so the question is
See it once again
It's not the easiest one to use, but checkmates the basket
legion on the opposing side so effectively.
It is a lot tougher when this King Gambit only had access to
this dark type attack.
I think that's really where you look at Takuma's having a bit
of the advantage there, and a lot more coverage with the fact
you still have Iron Head and Low Kick.
So I don't, I don't know, it's a really, really tough call.
You know that it's a tense situation.
You're in the top four.
Grand finals is right in front of you.
you can taste it.
And both of these competitors have one game.
You can feel the tension and the stress.
And once again, just this dynamic of which mega evolution
do you go with, right, Floette?
Overall, do you just feel better in that one?
You stare down a school building,
which normally is not the mega that you would like to see,
I think, but it still just did a lot of damage, right?
So I think talk about, might say, you know what?
Even if you go back to Frostlass,
I'm still okay going with Floette.
I would love to see Dragonite make an appearance again,
but that's just my guess.
for Zack could see a run back of maybe King Gambit gets dropped but here we go. It's going to be
another lease. He's learned basket legion. Thinking that these are might not be too bad. Yeah. You
have fake out in this situation. It's also perfect because you see a flowette on the other side and
hit it with a gunshot. Exactly. Yeah. I think this is a lead that covers for what Tuckamon went
for in the previous game and he does run it back here. And so right now you have pressure like he
said with that fake out or that gunshot. There's a lot of offense from Zack's side as well. If
You are Zach, you could make an aggressive prediction here and say, you know what, there's no way you're going to ever let me target Floette.
I'm going to double up on your basket legion with something like a gumshot and a last respects immediately.
My question then is whether or not that even gets the knockout, but I think it'll definitely come really close.
Yeah, I mean, I would love to see that come to fruition, but I also feel like there's a way to play around that and that's just with protecting the basket legion here.
You can even just go for a double protect, just for the safety, so I can help to at least stall out for the safe.
But that's actually gonna take a fight for now, as Garchon now comes out to take its place.
That is a Pokemon that will have a lot better resistances to a gunshot that could come out from the season.
But it protects itself on this turn.
Holy hell, see the last respect come out?
Oh my goodness!
Sarely misses the knockout of the Takamaw's Valkylician.
Life form, very powerful, but not enough to get it over the line for this one.
Wow!
That's going to fire!
That's all I respect!
You're going to both knock each other out!
That's not a bad trade at the end of the day
because now you get your Garchomp in
and the Sneasel are just protected
so it is incredibly vulnerable
to an earthquake we're stopping answering right now.
Oh my goodness, is this just such a fast pace set?
The big question I have for you, Rosemary,
is is there that frost last in the back, right?
Because if so, well, that's really good
into the Garchomp.
So, what do both trainers bring in right now?
really, really intense first turn though. Last respects, even with those stacks,
adaptability and life force is pretty good. And there's Frostlass coming out, so that is the
adaptation we talked about, as well as makes a return here. I think that's a great call though,
I mean you still have to worry a little bit about the fact that Scar Tromp is faster than you with
that choice, Scar. But Frostlass can help to make sure that the Sneezer doesn't get taken out by a
stopping character, and got the Aurora reveal as a potential here. A lot of different paths
You could walk down on this turn.
Yeah, I mean, guard chop is exerting pressure
with stopping hands for more earthquake right now, right?
And so you would think, well, I want to knock out the Sneasler.
You just protect it.
I don't want you to get a bump shot off into me.
Sneasler could just say, hey, you know what?
I'm going to switch out.
Process is going to mega vault.
I'm going to one shot your guard chop.
And once guard chop makes, Sneasler
is in a phenomenal position in the end game.
So I actually think this is a really key turn.
And the main dynamic to pay attention to
is guard chop versus Sneasler, who
will make it out of the turn.
And if your guard chop, you say, you know what?
I don't feel comfortable with any option.
could just click rock slide that is always kind of a get out of jail part but
it's gonna be the pivot here instead expecting a switch. Let's Akari switch out
the Sceesler here. He does! Okay. Oh this is so intense. You want to be able to see that
epic showdown but it's gonna be the King Gambit switch in for Chocomot and the
Lycan Rock for Zack at Mega Evolution. Finds out again on this cross slide. Could be a big turn.
Okay, so I think trying to fade out the guard shot, I would think, and just, you know, go
through the Blizzard.
In fact, it's the case, this is a very favorable turn for Pokemon, right?
Like, here he was risking the game, gunk shot, into that slot.
Zack said, okay, I'm gonna switch out because surely you're gonna respect that, right?
Here we go, it's gonna be Blizzard.
So the main scary thing here is it can freeze right now, does okay damage on a flow-in, 33%.
Is there a freeze onto either?
There is not!
And it's gonna be a huge move last in return, into the cross-slash slot.
Wow, it's going to take it down to 23% and so that is a lot of damage traded.
I don't know if the Blizzard is actually going to have added up to enough.
Now this Lycanroc did get in spot 3 with a Doku Sassan Tact.
It did, exactly.
And right now King Gambit would love to sucker punch either of these.
The Lycanroc can just excel rock to get around it, move before the sucker punch, and Frost
Lash can Aurora Veil.
However, let's say you hover for those, well then what if Frost Lash just goes for Blizzard
and Lichenrock goes for close combat, right?
There also could just be rocks like Lizard potentially
trying to knock out Floette,
or Accel Rock plus Lizard into Floette.
So, lots of options right now.
King Gambit does exert a lot of pressure here.
Lichenrock's going starting off with a protect.
Focus Ash is a very valuable resource in this game.
He doesn't know how to win the zucker punch line games,
but the zucker punch works!
From the Tuckabooz King Gambit,
crosslice is down,
and now it's just the Sneasler and the Lichenrock left.
As Foe-Ed goes for another attack with the Dazzling Gleek to protect good to keep this like a rocket Foe-ed deep.
But can Sneasler, why can Rock close this out?
Oh my gosh, this is so tense because we know there's a guard chop in the back.
We know that guard chop of course can't just play earthquake.
If Sneasler is able to get that unburdened to activate though with closed combat before guard chop hits the field,
you'll get the speed advantage which will be a big deal.
I think actually if that does not happen, you're gonna be in a really difficult position here.
And so Zach is down to his final two Pokemon does have a lot of offensive pressure,
but also still has to respect the flow at here.
Spiegel would love to close combat King Gambit.
Lichenrock would probably love to get a rock side here, maybe fish for a flinch as well.
So tense, especially with that choice of bar chop leading as a final boss here.
And don't forget, there is still that focus action Lichenrock as well.
If you sucker punch the Lichenrock, right?
It's got ready misses!
The misses!
So that's one way that this game can be taken from you
at the gunk shot cannot knock out the bullet on the third.
Toppa Berry actually can't take this king gambler either,
so you do get away with one Pokemon Gale,
but you're gonna drop your defense this year
on the Lycan Rock,
and if you still close this out,
with that Toyscarp Gartron winging in the wings,
definitely now breaks that focus dash
as you get brought all the way down to one,
and Sneezer takes a lot of damage too.
And that should just be it, right, gunk shot.
That is the gamble that you take.
Toyskarve Garchomp now hits the field,
and Sneezer's unburden has not been activated,
so Earthquake now will just be able to finish things off.
Oh, and this is what makes Gungshot such a high variance
move on the Sneezer.
I mean, had that connected, that would have been
a double knockout.
It would have been Sneezer,
plus like rocking a Toyskarve Garchomp.
I think in that position,
Toyskarve Garchomp actually still looks okay as well.
I also wasn't sure if the close combat
was gonna knock out King Gambit, to be honest.
I'm curious on what the damage roll is there,
but for Takuma, I think you can see J-Center in his future.
So going to be a protector from the Stanciler of those
so you can figure out what is Garchomp is going to walk into
as the flow-wet is going to protect himself as well.
Like a rock does go for the Accelerant,
hoping maybe that that wouldn't have been enough damage
to actually get the flow-out out from here,
but Garchomp has not got the help into Earthquake
and I think that is game set, match.
Takuma going to move on to the finals
of the World Championships.
Zachary, the last hope of the U.S., the Sneaselers just cannot finish this 1v2.
Cannot, and to bring Garchomp into a matchup with Frostyre,
Revire's excellent positioning defines the perfect ball.
The key turn in this one was when it was Garchomp out against Sneaselers,
and Sneaselers switches.
Blood up for a double, but not really going to matter here as Garchomp's earthquake
is going to deliver the finishing blow,
And Takamon will be moving on to the finals here at the Pokemon World Championships.
Amazing effort there by Zack in the top four, but it's going to see Japan versus Japan.
And we look forward to the grand final tomorrow.
And you can see the emotion of what it means to him to be able to play in J-Center tomorrow.
An amazing performance by Zackery once again who has had one of the most dominant seasons I've ever seen in North America.
second at Las Vegas Regionals, second at EUIC, top four at the World Championships.
He has gotten a medal and trophy at all of those events, has easily become one of the
best players in North America, and is super-starred to watch out for in the upcoming seasons, but
his season will end here.
And what a game-three this was.
This whole set truly just felt like two masters going back and forth.
Every time it felt like one player would get an advantage, then the next turn the other
player would kind of pull things back and reel things back in, and it was just a tug
of war slowly and surely throughout this entire set and just so fun to be able to wash rows
right out the gates in that third game you see the fast religion trade their eighties
against each other you know life or recoil make that last respect to KO and then the
fast religion knocking itself out of his own life or three coil and then these next couple
of turns there was a lot of damage I think that was left on the board but you have to
to make those tough calls. Are you going into protecting here? Do you expect a
switch? Do you really want to try to play and do that trap card? Yeah, I, you know,
would have loved to see how this game would have played out had the gunshot
hit because I think it would still be this situation where it's full HP
Garchomp against Sneasler plus Lycan Rock, right? And the Garchomp should just
be able to clean up things pretty easily with earthquake in that position. So
that's what I was saying. Like maybe the other play to go for is go for close
combat on Slaking Gambit, rock side into the Flo-Wed slot instead. But Garchomp
It's so strong that endgame where I think even if the burden boost is active on Sneasler,
it's probably still not enough.
Maybe it opens the door for like a critical hit close combat.
That's true.
Yeah, but the perfect conservation of that scarf garbchomp, and once again, it was that
one turn where you have garbchomp and you have the Sneasler, and garbchomp switches
out, baits out the Blizzard, baits it out perfectly, and Floette's Dacin' Gleam just
does so much damage.
There's a reason why when this Pokemon got introduced, everyone was saying it is so good.
It turns out, yeah, when you have really good base special attack and you are one of the
really strong special attackers and you have an ability to boost your special
attack or fairy damage pretty good adds up quite quickly and even against a team
that has a lot of bulk I mean dazzling gleam able to do over 50% so
frequently to all of these people yeah and what a difference just one Pokemon
even made in this matchup you saw Zach play this out in the top eight that
whimsicott really big deal but something that Zach was able to effort
it slay navigate. And then now you get to this top four and that choice for Garchomp actually taking
that whimsicott spot completely shifted the dynamic of the matchup. The tale is all this time Garchomp
has been dominant in competitive BGC ever since it was introduced in Pokemon Diamond and Furl.
Back in the day you had choice Garchomp paired with Zapdos with Discharge and as
metagames moved on as generations moved on it was Garchomp that always
Stuck around Landry's theory and stole its thunder for actually quite a while saying, hey, I'm stronger
I also have a really great ability to intimidate but no landry is in the game
Garchomp comes back in full force and reminds us of why it's been one of the all-time historic Pokemon in a PC
Well, this may be the conclusion of the match the day is not done yet
Let's hear from our second finalist on the stage
Let's give a big congratulation to our second world finalist, Takuma Yamazaki!
Takuma, congratulations on making it to the finals of the 2026 World Championships.
How does it feel?
Congratulations on making it to the finals.
I feel like I'm a newbie.
I feel like I'm a newbie.
I feel like I'm a newbie.
It's completely unbelievable. I'm so happy.
Your last performance at the Japan National Championships was not quite as high of a finish.
So I imagine, does this come as a surprise?
I couldn't go to the final at the P.J.C.S. last time, so I was surprised to be able to get to the final this time.
Yes, in Japan's preliminary match, we were aiming to win the WCS.
We weren't aiming to win the WCS at all.
We were aiming to win the WCS.
So we had to do that.
We were aiming to win the WCS.
So, yeah, you know, at the Japan National Championships, I didn't make it quite as far.
To be honest, my goal was just to make it here to Worlds and be able to stand here on
stage.
And so I wasn't thinking about, like, aiming for the championship or anything like that.
So it's completely unbelievable that now I do have this chance to compete for the championship.
Well, the stage only gets bigger and more amazing from here.
So we'll see you tomorrow on Championship Sunday in the Chase Arena.
But for now, I want to talk to you about your top four match, as you brought that choice
scarf guard chomp into a matchup against Omega Frostlast, which on paper doesn't look that
great.
So what was your strategy?
What were you thinking?
I think the enemy team is a bit weak against the enemy team, but what is the strategy against the enemy team?
My team has a good team of Kai and Gamirius, so I think the first one is very hard.
I thought that the first one would be Skobiran, so I decided to use Kai, but the opponent team did a good job.
It was in the second round, so we had to take the first round.
And then, we were able to take the second round with Asukovira,
so we were doing well in the first round.
But we were able to pass the first round well,
and we won the third round.
That's right.
We won the game with the game of Yuki Meropo and the game of High Play.
Yeah, Omega for us is a really tough matchup
when you're bringing Mega Dragonite and Garchomp.
So, you know, the first match was a little rough.
And then the second match, honestly, like I read that my opponent would bring
school villain instead, and that match went well for me.
And then in the third match, you know, they brought a kick across last
when I had full left, and I reached for the final two games, and that worked out,
and I was a little win.
Well, congratulations on your win, Tecumbe.
Do you have any shout-outs you want to give to anybody who may be washing at home
or anybody who supported you on your journey to the finals?
I think. Yeah, so I practiced with so many different people and you know it's
it's really because of all the help that I've gotten all the support from people
around me and advice that I've received that I was able to get here so very
thankful. Well thank you Takuma so much for your time and let's hear it one more
time for our second finalist Takuma Yamazaki.
So make sure to tune in tomorrow on Championship Sunday where you'll see
Hiroshi Onishi and Takamori Yamazaki face off in our grand finals in the chase arena.
But of course, that's not everything that's been going on here at the World Championships.
And of course, at Pokemon XP, there's been some incredible experiences at this event that you
probably would not want to miss. But fortunately, we have a lovely recap for you to see. So let's check it out.
sense the excitement to compete.
More than 2000 trainers have descended upon San Francisco to test their skills.
and fight with all their might to become the next Pokemon World Champion.
Every time I think it's going to be different and every time it's exactly the same.
We look back at the replay of all of the things that have been going on in this World Championships
world championships. And you
think at the start of the event.
Wow, all of that to look forward
to at the end of it was like how
did we get here so quickly? It
seems like only a moment ago,
but what a world championships
it has been. We've now got our
finalist here, both players from
Japan, making it all the way to
championship Sunday. Um in what
their sets. Of course Hiroshi had a quick 2-0 victory and made some incredible callouts
while I think Aaron explained it best in this last matchup where Takuma and Zachary were
going blow for blow like two champion prize fighters in the ring, back and forth and back
and forth. I can't wait to see what both those competitors have for us tomorrow.
You know, and in some ways this feels appropriate to me too that we're ending with two Japanese
players in the finals. I feel like the players from Japan have done so much to innovate this
better game of Pokemon champion so far. It makes sense, hey, you're a tournament where it's mostly
teams that we're a little familiar with from the past, that the players from the region,
that most of those teams that originated from were able to come out on top.
Yeah, 100%. And then, you know, it's how you execute those things in the moment,
like, especially Takuma was saying, like, in that matchup, maybe not something that he was
necessarily prepared for, but not necessarily expecting to make it to this stage of the tournament,
but still holding his head high and showing like even in those situations you can still make a read you can do something different you can
Find a way through your opponent once you've gone blow for blow and yeah figure out exactly how you're gonna make it to an end game
Yeah, and I think that's what's so beautiful about our game and watching this tournament
Especially is to seeing the level of play that everyone brings to every single round. I mean we started round one
yesterday with two incredible matches and we didn't stop like it was all gas no
breaks from the jump at this tournament and it's no surprise that we have two
incredible players to duke it out for the title of champion the first champion
of champions here in San Francisco. I think maybe one of the most stressful
tournaments to compete in ever two where there's no easy matches in this whole
tournament. I wouldn't want to do it. Yeah every match is so close every match is so
many situations you have to get calls right you know you can't display passively
and kind of kind of grind out matches the way you can in some other formats.
You have real movies in here to help players just pivot into different situations all game.
You got to make those reads. You kind of saw that with nearly every top cut match.
So I'm really impressed by all the players able to make it to this point.
And I think the players who what keeps you really be proud of themselves
where what a crazy tournament this has been.
you
you
you
you
you
you
I really want to shout out this team that Takuma is using here with the Dragonite over
Charizard on the more traditional big six core.
It dominated day one.
This is a similar team that Yuya used to go undefeated in day one and of course, Takuma
only dropped the one match in day one and has now made it all the way to the finals.
is an adaptation of one of those small changes, one Pokemon change that has obviously completely
changed how opponents play into that lineup. And it definitely paid off on day one for both
Yuya and Takamo. And now Takamo is at the finals using this variation. And I think it's going to be
really exciting to see how this new version of Big Six that drops the Charizard for Dragonite
matches up against Big Six Classic. Yeah, I don't think we can ask for something
really like, um, it's not quite new school against old school, right? But it's like the, the, the adaptations to the formats and the changes and how that swings the match up. And certainly Dragonite puts, I think, quite a few spanners in the works for a lot of teams that we've seen in the format. We've seen two of them make it all the way to pretty much this, this stage of the competition for a reason.
Yeah, you made it to the top cut as well with the same team, so something's working here.
Just a very appropriate final boss, right? Hey, was this the right adaptation? Well,
here you are, our last round of the tournament. Let's meet the team that everyone thought was the
strongest coming in to prove that your team is actually the strongest.
Yeah, 100%. I kind of wait to get to Championship Sunday in the chase arena as well. In the meantime,
if you've been following us or if you're going to be following us tomorrow as well,
We've got the twitch drops that we've been going on needing a little bit of watch time only 30 minutes
If you haven't already done that and that was a great opportunity on the
Restream or of course put it in your diary for tomorrow to be able to
Make sure that you get those quick coupons the teammate tickets and the training tickets
Yeah saving the the best for last year with those training tickets for watching tomorrow
I definitely have made use of I go through my training tickets pretty quickly
I don't have too many left either and a great thing if you see a team maybe the you thought was a lot of fun watching this
You want to try it out yourself. I could pretty much just wipe out the VP costs if you pick this up
So I definitely make sure to tune in and don't forget to get the incinerator as well
His conversion rate could have been a little bit better from day one to day two, but still a very powerful Pokemon
I'm sure you'll find so used for it
Yeah, like you know and if you want to just have a little bit of extra spree cred going into your online matches in both one championships
enjoy worlds
26 getting that really great swag t-shirt and the cap as well
So when you go up on ladder, it's like hey, you are watching the world championships
You're watching what hang on a second?
Watching the world champion this week championships this weekend because they're wearing the white hat where they were competing in the world
Also, don't forget those those are actually zero so in zero y was zero worlds
26. It rolls off the time, right? I mean, I have to travel to any game course. Evan and I have some history with Red Worlds t-shirts
So I'm struggling here, but I hope they play a little better in it than I did. They'll put a blazer in and then we'll be set
But if you're not set up to all of that then we also have our drops for the Pokemon trading card game
Pokemon Go and Pokemon Unite so much there that you can get a hold of
So do make sure you tune in to all of the broadcast tomorrow because championship Sunday we get to crown our finalists and our winners in each of our games.
Pokemon Unite followed by Pokemon Go followed by Pokemon Trading Card Game and of course champions at the end.
I think you don't know how to make sure you've got your account linked.
Here's a little bit of an instruction to make sure that you get that going.
going. It's also in the Twitch chat as well. While you're watching, you can get some extra
as well. Make sure you actually get all of our goodies.
Yeah, you did the work. You watched the stream. Make sure you get your goodies.
Definitely. So we're going to be kicking things off tomorrow at 9 o'clock Pacific. And I said
this last yesterday at the end of yesterday, I'm not to be trusted with any time conversions.
You know what time you're in, but 9 o'clock Pacific, the same start time that we've had
both yesterday and today will be kicking things off with Pokemon Unite on Championship Sunday.
So make sure you tune in, you set your alarms, and make sure in the meantime that you are following all the channels
Pokemon.com forward slash broadcast.
And of course, follow us on all the channels as well, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter,
you name it, hashtag play Pokemon or play Pokemon in most places as well.
Thank you to everybody that's been watching along the stream today. We've
had an absolute blast. We've got our championship Sunday ready to go. So we're
going to sign things off here and get ready for that. We cannot wait to see
who will be our 2026 World Championship. So from us, thank you very much and we
will see you tomorrow.