Live by the Moody, Die by the Moody - A Top 16 Worlds Report
Introduction
Hi everyone, my name is Sam Pandelis (Zelda), and today I'm here to recount to you my experience at Worlds this year. I'm a VGC player from Australia, and this year I competed in my fourth season of competitive VGC. Over the years I've had a few notable successes, winning 3 Regional Championships, and making Top Cut at Nationals twice, but this was the first year that I was fortunate enough to attend Worlds. I had an amazing time at Worlds, meeting people I had talked to online for years, and hanging out with so many amazing friends that I usually never get a chance to see. Overall it was a fun experience. Regarding the tournament itself, I was not expecting to do as well as I did, but I just played to my strengths and did what I felt I was good at, and finished in the Top 16. I’ll start off with a simple team report, which will be followed by a war story of sorts on how I progressed through Day 2 of Worlds.
The Team
The team that I used was created by Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) and myself. Most of the team was constructed based on ideas that he had, after which we collaborated together on how to improve the team.
Crobat @ Lum Berry
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 68 HP / 188 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Super Fang
- Tailwind
- Quick Guard
- Haze
Crobat was absolutely fundamental to my team as it was the only Pokemon on the team that significantly improved my matchup against Xerneas. Super Fang and Tailwind are self-explanatory, and I chose to use Quick Guard over other common options such as Taunt. At times it proved to be quite useful when paired with my Groudon. Setting up Tailwind and being able to stop priority moves such as Sucker Punch or Fake Out allowed me to fire off 150BP Eruptions more consistently. Haze was there purely for Xerneas, but I actually found it quite useful in Hazing away intimidates off of Kangaskhan, so all around it proved to be a solid move.
Kangaskhan @ Kangaskhanite
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- Double-Edge
- Power-Up Punch
- Sucker Punch
Kangaskhan is a Pokemon that has been featured in all of my teams since the introduction of Mega Pokemon in VGC ’14, and since then it has been a core member of all my teams. The moveset I decided to use was fairly standard, as is the EV spread. Just the cookie cutter set that is quick and powerful. Interestingly, I had been running Inner Focus for most of the year, but I changed it's ability to Scrappy the night before Day 2 Worlds because I wanted to have a better matchup against Gengar on teams like those of Wolfe/Markus/Billa. A key factor to my success this entire season is the infamous Side-Pup, where you Power-Up-Punch your ally Pokemon when you’re predicting your opponent to protect their Pokemon. I was able to get away with a Side-Pup way too many times at Worlds.
Yveltal @ Life Orb
Ability: Dark Aura
EVs: 20 HP / 204 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Foul Play
- Sucker Punch
- Protect
My first restricted Pokemon, and considered by many to be a strange one. Many people are drawn away from Yveltal due to the fact that it has a huge disadvantage against Xerneas. The way I saw things, people were always trying to come up with ways to beat Xerneas, and in my eyes, with Yveltal I felt super confident that I could beat anything that wasn’t Xerneas quite easily. When it came to the Xerneas matchup, I’d rely on other pokemon such as Crobat to play out the game to my advantage.
I don’t really remember what the EV spread is designed to do, but I feel like we just made it strong enough to deal with the things it needed to, and dumped the leftover EVs into Defense. The moveset is quite simple. Knock Off OHKOs Bronzong, which was such a common threat in this format, but in reality what made Yveltal so good for me was that it’d make Bronzong disappear. As in on team preview, your opponent would be a lot less inclined to bring it (even when I was afraid of it!). Foul Play does consistent damage against Groudon, Kangaskhan and Salamence, while Sucker Punch gave me a hard hitting priority move (which also was the most effective move against Kyogre).
Groudon @ Red Orb
Ability: Drought
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Eruption
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power
- Protect
My second restricted Pokemon, and also the most popular Pokemon in the format. A lot of people chose to run physical sets this season, with special being the least popular, but I felt like this fit in more with what I wanted to achieve. Eruption dealt massive damage when the sun was out, but is slightly unreliable when compared to other fire moves, as I needed to keep Groudon healthy. I chose to run Earth Power because it was important for me to be able to ensure KO’s on most other non-bulky Groudon, as Precipice Blades wouldn’t be able to OHKO me. I chose to go with HP Ice because my team has a pretty big Salamence weakness, so I wanted to be able to ensure huge damage on it with my Groudon. It was a little bit of a surprise factor too.
Thundurus @ Focus Sash
Ability: Prankster
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
There’s really no need to go in depth here. I chose to use Focus Sash as I wanted Thundurus to still be able to hit hard with Thunderbolt, and I didn’t see much benefit in going the defensive version with sitrus berry for the kind of team I was running.
Smeargle @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moody
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt
- Feint
- Dark Void
- Transform
Note: I intended for the ability to be Own Tempo, but my breeder bred the wrong ability and unfortunately I did not notice. I have a long history of not noticing things. In 2013 I won Melbourne Regionals with a 3 move Thundurus; In 2015 I brought a Weavile to Nationals with no Ice move, and in 2016 Worlds I had the wrong ability on my Smeargle.
Probably the most interesting Pokemon on my team, It is also the one Pokemon I put on the team myself without any outside help. I was in a call with one of my friends BaseIN2, laddering on Pokemon Showdown with variants of this team, and we noticed that we kept asking ourselves the same question: “What does my opponents team do against Scarf Smeargle???”
The answer? We found that way more teams than we expected didn’t have consistent answers to it. For example, the World Champion's team featured Raichu, Rayquaza, Gengar, Kyogre, Hitmontop and Bronzong. It’s unlikely that Bronzong is coming because of Yveltal’s presence, the rest of those Pokemon must eat Dark Void, provided it hits. Regardless of the variability in terms of missing and sleep rolls, this was a position we would rather be in than not, and I found that way too many teams had this weakness to Scarf Smeargle.
I chose to run Taunt for one reason. When they lead Crobat/X, Protect the other Pokemon and Tailwind, I can fire off a Taunt on the Crobat before it can Tailwind and get an easy +2 from Power-Up-Punch. This happened very often, most notably in my Top 24 match against Andrew Nowak. It’s a play that is high in risk, but I felt confident in being able to read my opponent and win the gamble.
Feint was not a move I used very often, but the scenario in which I found it the most appealing was when I led Khan Artist against Crobat/Kyogre, and I’d Feint + Double-Edge into the Kyogre. They would protect Kyogre almost every time, and if I was predicting something else I could get a Dark Void off, but otherwise this move wasn’t super important to me. I loved Transform because I could control the weather by Transforming into my own Groudon. It helped me a lot in practice, and won me a game at Worlds too.
Okay, so that’s out of the way! I really loved this team. I felt super comfortable with it and I was positive in playing any matchup with it after intense practice. With that done, let’s now move on to my experiences in Day 2 of the 2016 World Championships.
Day 2 Worlds
Round 1: Baris Akcos (Billa) - WW
As soon as I looked at pairings and I saw I was against Billa, I kind of got really afraid. Billa was a good friend of mine, but also I saw him as an incredibly strong player, and in a way, this woke me up into realizing how hard of a tournament Worlds would be, seeing as I’ve pulled a player like this in the very first round. I was completely unaware what kind of team he would be using until we got into team preview.
I got into team preview and I saw the RayOgre team everyone had been talking about and I got really excited. I had been theorizing in my head the entire night before on how to beat this team, and I was pretty confident going into this matchup.
Game 1
He brought
+
while I brought 
+ 
When I saw the Pokemon on the field turn 1, I saw a simple play in the sense that we trade our Fake Out, and then he wouldn’t have a way to prevent his Pokemon from taking a nap. We exchanged Fake Out, and then both of his Pokemon went to sleep. I proceeded to setup my Kangaskhan with Power-Up-Punch while switching in Yveltal. I then fired off a Sucker Punch onto the Raichu for the OHKO, and Double-Edged Rayquaza for the knockout after it didn’t wake up. It was a pretty simple game, and then we moved on to the second game.
Game 2 pretty much happened exactly the same way. I think his Rayquaza woke up, but it wasn’t able to do anything significant, and the huge threat Yveltal posed, paired with always being able to fire off Dark Void for free was able to easily manoeuvre around his team.
Current Record : 1-0
With this win, I became hugely ecstatic. I was incredibly happy to have won my first game at the World Championships. This win gave me a lot of confidence, and I was in the mindset that I could make a deep run.
Round 2: Rajan Bal (Blarajan) - WLL
I don’t remember who, but someone tipped me off that the Smeargle was holding a Chesto Berry. So knowing that information came in handy. Overall, this set was pretty disgusting.
Game 1: He led Smeargle + Groudon against my Kangaskhan + Smeargle. He double protected and I got a side pup off, and then proceeded to win the game 4-0 from there.
Game 2: Same leads, This time I successfully switched in Yveltal, side pup’d again but his Smeargle got an evasiveness boost. I used Double-Edge to one shot Groudon, and Knock Off missed Smeargle, then I took double sleep and lost.
Game 3: Same leads again, I once again won the Turn 1 gamble and got off another successful side pup, but this time the Smeargle got a Speed boost from Moody, I couldn’t wake up at all, and I lost.
Rajan was incredibly apologetic to me that he won in this fashion, and at the time I obviously got a little bit agitated and was incredibly upset with how much RNG caused my loss, but I had to accept it and move on to the next battle.
Current Record : 1-1
Round 3: Zhang Zhe (Politozhe) - WW
A Standard Double Primals team. I can’t actually remember a whole lot about this battle, I do remember that I won both battles due to changing the weather from rain to sun thanks to the Transform on my Smeargle. I don’t think anything particularly interesting happened in this battle, and nothing he did posed a threat to my team at all. I remember the games being relatively straightforward.
Current Record : 2-1
At this point I felt relieved to not be negative, and was just hoping to continue good form. I felt like I was playing really well.
Round 4: Koutake Hideo (Liar) - LL
I had no idea who this guy was until I asked resident weeb Hibiki who he was. So he was the guy that won the Japanese National Championships I heard. Well, that was scary to hear. When we got into team preview, I once again felt that Kangaskhan and Smeargle would be the play. Honestly, both Game 1 and 2 went pretty much exactly the same and ended in the same fashion. I can’t remember it too vividly, but I made some poor choices. Both games ended in a Groudon vs Groudon speed tie, we both had Earth Power and he won both speed ties and I lost.
Current Record : 2-2
After that set, I felt a little demotivated in the sense that I was completely out of the tournament if I lost another set, but I had to carry on and do my best. I hoped to just go positive.
Round 5: Chase Lybbert (RookieVGC) - WW
Two rounds, two National Champions. I thought I’d go out for sure here because he was using a Xerneas/Groudon team. Once again, I don’t really remember too much about how these games went. I led with Crobat/Groudon both games, and I managed to close out the sets pretty convincingly thanks to Tailwind and Haze. I remember one of the games ending in my Yveltal finishing off his Xerneas with Sucker Punch.
Current Record : 3-2
I knocked out the US National Champ and I was still in the tournament! Was very happy!
Round 6: Alvin Hidayat (Jibaku) - LWW
I was kind of worried to face Jibaku since he bodied me in the NPA, but regardless, that’s what it was. I noticed he was running the same team as Blarajan because they are close friends, so I had to think about this one a little more. Obviously they would have discussed how to beat me before the game, so I wondered if I could play this a bit differently.
Game 1: He led Smeargle + Groudon against my Kangaskhan + Smeargle. Flashbacks! I decided to play the 50/50, switched in Yveltal and went for side pup. I failed miserably as he used Eruption and deleted both of my Pokemon.
Game 2: I decided to play a bit more conservatively this game, I didn’t bring Smeargle and I opted to bring Thundurus instead. He led Smeargle + Groudon. I was able to threaten the Smeargle well with Taunt, and I had Fake Out at my disposal with my Kangaskhan and I was able to pretty convincingly win this game, as even when he switched in the Kyogre and Zapdos, he was still under a pretty big disadvantage to my Kangaskhan and Thundurus.
Game 3: My thought process going into the third game was that based on how convincingly I won Game 2, that he’d think I was going to bring Thundurus again. I felt confident that if he didn’t lead Smeargle Groudon, I could beat any of his leads with Kangaskhan Smeargle. I thought he’d try to account for Thundurus more, but he once again led Smeargle Groudon, much to my dismay. I tried to play a bit safer this time, I didn’t go a side pup. Eventually, the game came down to his full HP Kyogre vs my Yveltal and Groudon. I was in a horrible position because Yveltal was paralyzed, this is where things got a bit weird and interesting. Alvin double protected here for some reason, and then that let me get a free Earth Power off on his Kyogre, I then protected Groudon, fired off a Sucker Punch which put it in range for Earth Power as Yveltal fainted, and then I won the battle.
Current Record : 4-2
Somehow, I was still alive! I just needed to win one more set to make it to Top Cut. I can do it. I knew I could do it. I was just hoping not to pull a Japanese player for Round 7.
Round 7: Yuichi Sasaki (Yuuichi) - WW
Oh great. I pulled a Japanese Big B user. This was the kind of team I really didn't want to see. However, I felt confident in my Crobat to be able to play the Xerneas matchup properly. I felt like he wouldn’t bring Bronzong due to the threat of my Yveltal, and it turns out that he didn’t.
I don’t have any notes on this set unfortunately! And I don’t recall much of what happened. I led Crobat/Groudon both games, I deleted his Salamence with HP Ice once, and won the game after not dropping too much momentum.
One of the main factors coming into this game was that his Groudon was a Trick Room Groudon, meaning that I could fire Earth Power on it comfortably to do a lot of damage. Doing this both games swayed the game in my favour, and I was able to close out the set quite easily.
Final Record : 5-2!!
I did it! I came back from 2-2 to 5-2 and ensured myself a spot in the Top 24 of the 2016 World Championships. This is where things got really intense, I started to feel like I could win this, and that the World Championships was well within reach.
Top 24: Andrew Nowak (Nowakgolf) - WLW
Ah, this was the money bubble match. Was a bit scary going into haha. I didn’t know much about this player besides the fact that he won a Regional. He made it this far though, so I gave him the respect he deserved for it. These games are on YouTube! I’ll link the video and give a short analysis on my thoughts during the game.
After I saw the leads for Game 1, I knew what was going to happen and I really wanted to hear the crowd's reaction to it (lol). This was such an obvious play for me, as I was 100% sure he would Protect + Tailwind. I got too excited over the whole side-pupping thing that I attacked my own Smeargle when it made more sense to attack Crobat, that was my first mistake in this game. Oh well, it happened. My second mistake was not using Sucker Punch on his Crobat when I knew what he was doing. My third mistake was not transforming into my own Groudon when I sent out Smeargle. I risked Moody, and risked missing Dark Void. Oh well, I still managed to win.
Game 2
Turn 1 came with the same leads, I thought about making the same play, but I went against it. If I had sidepupped again, I would have most likely won this game. However, Andrew played well and managed to win this game against me.
Game 3
I was pretty nervous going into this because it could potentially be my final game at Worlds, so I decided to not gamble on Smeargle and I brought Thundurus instead. The game played out pretty normally until it came down to my Yveltal + Groudon against his Rayquaza + Groudon. It came to the point where I had realised although I knew it was Life Orb, he had not yet revealed Draco Meteor on his set yet. I knew he had it, and I felt like it was most logical for him to use it here thinking that I don’t know he can one shot my Groudon who is on full hp. So, it came down to this crucial read. I protected my Groudon and called his Draco correctly, I then OHKO’d Rayquaza and proceeded into the Top 16 of the World Championships!
I made it into the Top 16 of the World Championships! I was overly happy to have won the goodie bag and $1,500 USD! But I had also made it onto the live stream for my next set which would be against Justin Carris.
Top 16 : Justin Carris (Azazel) - LWL
Going into this, I wasn’t worried at all about who I was facing, but rather I was really afraid of his team. The only two restricted Pokemon I feel my team has a horrible matchup against is Xerneas/Kyogre, and unfortunately that's exactly what he was using.
This full set can be viewed here:
Not much to say about this set honestly. In Game 1 I made a bad play and got punished due to the Mental Herb on his Bronzong amongst some other subpar plays.
In Game 2, he led Bronzong + Amoonguss I stuck with the same lead but I decided to side-pup and Dark Void because I now knew the Bronzong was Mental Herb, the game played out nicely for me, and due to setting up Kangaskhan I won the game convincingly.
Game 3 -He changed it up and he led Salamence + Amoonguss, I led the same and I side-pupped myself successfully again and got myself into a fantastic position. I knew I could OHKO Amoonguss, but unfortunately my Smeargle got an Accuracy drop from Moody. After this, I had a choice to either switch out and lose a bit of momentum to try and win the game later, or I could risk the game on DV hitting the Salamence and win the game and set right here. I chose to Dark Void, and I missed and I lost. My Worlds run was over. I have no regrets though, as it was my decision to play to Dark Void hitting/missing, and I must be ready to accept when things don’t go my way.
Overall, I was super pleased with how I did at Worlds. I would have loved to continue on and play Wolfe just to see how it would have played out, but I suppose that’s waiting in 2017 (hopefully).
Looking Back
Thanks to everyone for reading this! – and just a couple (okay, more than a couple) of shoutouts.
I’m really grateful for all the friends I made in Pokemon, and I couldn’t have gone this far without all of them. Pokemon is a huge part of my life, and I’ve made so many of my best friends through the game.
Martin Larumbe (BaseIN2) – Thanks for always teambuilding with me, and testing stuff with me and letting me know when my ideas are bad.
Luke Curtale (Dawg) – Easily the person I’ve asked the most for advice this year, and easily been the most helpful. Without Luke I wouldn’t have won a Regional this year, and most likely not have performed well at Nationals & Worlds. The countless times you’ve helped me is much appreciated mate, thanks.
Nihal Noor (UchihaX96) – Good mate, and you’ve helped me at times in learning how to improve board position. Always willing to help me improve my play and my team. Your help has also been invaluable to me.
Gavin Michaels (kingofmars) – Without you, I definitely wouldn’t have made it this far, as I would have continued to run Big 6 and got stomped at Nationals and not even made it to Worlds. My favourite person to discuss ideas and test with, and also a great friend. I look forward to working with you in the future for VGC ’17.
Chuppa Cross (Chuppa) – He helped me a lot with life problems as well as VGC. You've been a huge inspiration to me as well as one of my best VGC mates. I’m beyond excited to see him in London.
Angel Miranda & The Imoutos – Man, you guys are legit my best friends in VGC. Without all of you to keep me sane, I don’t know where I’d be lol. Always there to help me with issues in VGC or life, and always there to tell me when I’m being an idiot. Invaluable friends, and I can’t wait to see all of you next year again.
Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37) and Wolfe Glick (Wolfey) – I’ll tag you as one because the experiences I have with you both are similar. I always appreciate the time you take out of your busy schedules to reply to me with any questions I may have, with some various suggestions about strategies or whatnot. Both of you are huge inspirations to me of players who I strive to be like one day.
The Australian Cancer Chat – Thanks to all of you guys for the support and memes for the entire year.
Josh Callister (Jcal) / Nicholas Bingham (ludicolopatrol) - Thanks for all the good talks during the year, I was really happy to have made friends with both of you this season.
Sam Schweitzer (SamVGC) – Shout out to Side Pups.
Damon Murdoch (SirScrubbington) – Thanks for being a quality memer, and for that one time at Nationals.
Trista Medine (ryuzaki) – Honestly we talk a lot but never about VGC, but I’ll give you the shoutout anyway! Thanks Trista!
Matthew Bockman (Zyihk) – Last but not least, thanks.
Final Words
I’d like to close this out by saying one thing. I have no regrets on how I play this game. I think all players should always strive to improve their own style of playing. Some play risky, some play safe. Some like to make reads, and some like to focus on the endgame. I think everyone should strive to improve at work they feel works best for them. Respect to each player for their individual accomplishments.
