BSPL IV Recap

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Introduction

BSPL is an annual team tournament for the Battle Spot community, including singles and doubles formats over three generations. In BSPL IV, we were joined by returning managers cant say, NOVED, Solerme, and Charlotte, as well as the new managers Ika Ika Musume and greilmercenary. The formats included Battle Spot Singles and Doubles formats across 3 generations, with the finalized slots being 2x USUM BSS, 1x USUM BSD, 1x ORAS BSS, 1x ORAS BSD, and 1x BW2 GBU.

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The Auction

chemcoop had the honor of being the most expensive player in the draft, going for 28k to the Castelia Cavaliers. Pearl was the second most expensive player, going for 24k to the Rustboro Rocky Helmet. The post-draft power rankings were very close, with 4 teams coming in 1 points from each other. However, according to them, greilmercenary's Lumiose Luxrays came in as the clear favorites, as all but 1 person voted them in as the strongest team on paper.

However, the rest of the field was considered highly competitive. Blackthorn Drummers were able to field Charlotte and Darkinium, a favorite in most matchups. Castelia Cavaliers were able to draft a close-knit group of friends in cant say, chemcoop, and GroudonEmpire, in addition to grabbing some value bargains such as paying 3k for TheLoanRanger. Rustboro Rocky Helmets drafted Pearl, one of the most decorated players competing in the tournament, as well as drafting the inseparable duo Demantoid and Mishiimono. Inkays, while they did not have a clear star player, were able to draft a competitive roster with a friendly environment despite their natural disadvantage in being able to get a manager discount. Finally, the Anistar Farseers had the strongest USUM BSS core on paper, in addition to the Italian goons Solerme is so partial to.

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Meta Trends

• Celesteela @ Leftovers
• Ability: Beast Boost
• EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
• Relaxed Nature
• - Leech Seed
• - Heavy Slam
• - Flamethrower
• - Protect

The on-cartridge ladder metagame and the Smogon BSS Circuit tends to have slightly different metagame nuances; Celesteela is a Pokemon that is seen significantly more often on-cart than in the BSS Circuit. In this BSPL, it was ranked 4th in usage, above threats such as Greninja, Mega Gengar, and Mega Salamence. While its placing as the 4th most used Pokemon was surprising, it's no surprise Celesteela is a great Pokemon. It has a great defensive typing and happens to check some of the most prominent metagame threats such as Mimikyu and Landorus-T, in addition to synergizing very well with others like Tapu Fini and Snorlax. The set above is a standard Leech Seed + Protect set with 2 attacks, but Celesteela has a lot of variety when it comes to its coverage moves, held item, and defensive investment. Celesteela is capable of being a bulky attacker using a wide range of coverage attacks, and it can also run a defensive Rocky Helmet set, a fast SubSeed Set, and even all-out offensive sets with Flyinium Z. In Week 1, it saw 50% usage, which influenced the usage of other Pokemon even in later weeks, when its usage slightly fell.

Tapu Fini has always established itself as a versatile threat in the USUM BSS metagame. It is fully capable of using a defensive Calm Mind set, but it can also use Nature's Madness as its main damage option, and options such as Guardian of Alola and Hydro Vortex allow it to do surprising amounts of damage to bulky Pokemon. Its usage is only rivaled by Landorus-T and Mimikyu, which is an impressive company of Pokemon, and it synergizes with them quite nicely. Just as notable as Tapu Fini was the metagame's response to it. We have seen a huge drop in Pokemon such as physically defensive Porygon2, and we saw increases in Tapu Fini lures to take advantage of this metagame trend. Pokemon such as physical Gunk Shot Protean Greninja and Bloom Doom Heatran do a great job luring out Tapu Fini and disposing of it, in addition to matching up well against the usual Tapu Fini teammates. Such metagame developments make the game fresh and interesting, always showing us there's room to innovate and one-up the metagame.

Mega Gengar is one of those Pokemon that transcend the metagame. Its ability, Shadow Tag, denies the primary option available to the player, and it is so restricting that despite its relatively low damage output, Mega Gengar always manages to dominate games and make every game about itself, whether it be in USUM, ORAS, Singles, or Doubles. One of its prominent sets in USUM BSS was its Hypnosis set. Commonly used with Gravity support from Landorus-T, Mega Gengar is still capable of functioning alone and going for the RNG. After all, a 60% chance to win the game in a pinch is still in the player's favor, and it has decided more games than we would like to admit. In Doubles, it commonly uses moves such as Substitute and Perish Song instead of the unreliable Hypnosis, but the ability to trap both opposing Pokemon on the field is even stronger. No matter how you slice it, there is no doubt that Mega Gengar is one of the best Pokemon in the game, and it was reflected in its usage.

• Lopunny-Mega @ Lopunnite
• Ability: Limber
• Level: 50
• EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
• Jolly Nature
• - Fake Out
• - Return
• - High Jump Kick
• - Ice Punch

Mega Lopunny has been seeing consistent use in the USUM Battle Spot Singles metagame as an anti-metagame pick with its high speed and great neutral coverage. Hyper offense teams have a lot of difficulty dealing with its high Speed tier and Fake Out chip damage, and bulkier teams can have some difficulty breaking the defensive utility Pokemon such as Celesteela, Tapu Fini, Hippowdon, Porygon2, and Mimikyu that are paired with Mega Lopunny. This BSPL, Mega Lopunny got a lot of hype as more people became attuned to its anti-metagame prowess, and it saw a significant rise in usage and winrate.

Charizard made a huge splash in the later rounds of BSPL, scoring 40% usage in the last 2 weeks. Charizard is a ridiculously versatile Pokemon with its 2 different Mega Evolutions. Mega Charizard Y in particular destroys opposing Tapu Fini + Steel-type balance cores, while Mega Charizard X can be a setup sweeper with Swords Dance or a bulky attacker that supports the team with Will-O-Wisp. The latter set is particularly common with Celesteela and Tapu Fini, two Pokemon that are highly relevant in the current metagame. With the decrease in Porygon2 usage and rise of Tapu Fini and Celesteela, both Mega Charizard formes saw a surge of usage in order to complement these cores or to combat them.

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Highlight Matches

This was the deciding game of the series between the Cavaliers and the Drummers. On Team Preview, cant say seems to have a rough match ahead of him. Both Volcarona and Mega Lopunny are heavily threatening to the team. Mega Lopunny 2HKOes everything if it has Ice Punch, with no switch-ins in sight. With its standard Fire-type move + Giga Drain + Hidden Power Ice coverage, Volcarona poses a sweeping threat after a single Quiver Dance.

In game 1, Landorus-T wears down the Ferrothorn and sets Stealth Rock for chip damage, and despite Landorus-T missing an important Rock Tomb on Rotom-H, Aegislash chips the Rotom-H in range of Mega Lopunny's High Jump Kick. After the chip damage, Porygon2 and Ferrothorn fall to High Jump Kick, revealing Porygon2 as a specially defensive Download variant.

In game 2, Cynara preemptively adjusts by bringing Volcarona instead, especially as her Lopunny has Quick Attack instead of Ice Punch—which is unrevealed. Volcarona is revealed early as she switches it directly into Ferrothorn turn 1, and she sees the Ferrothorn also switch out to Mega Salamence. Mega Salamence is now free to set up Dragon Dance, which is met by Rock Tomb Landorus-T slowing it down to creeping halt, as Salamence is forced to alternate between Dragon Dance and Roost, while Landorus-T is forced to keep using Rock Tomb. A PP war ensues, but Cynara predicts cant say to use Dragon Dance to preserve PP and manages to get a free U-turn to Hidden Power Ice Volcarona—which fails to get the roll against the Careful Mega Salamence and goes down to Earthquake. The 1% Salamence switches out to reset its Speed drop and manages to switch in on the Stealth Rock safely. Mega Salamence goes down to a combination of Toxic Aegislash and Rocky Helmet Landorus-T, but not before doing a substantial amount of damage to both. By the time Mega Salamence is taken out, Landorus-T's Rock Tomb PP has been extinguished. Rotom-H takes advantage of the free turn, sets up a free Substitute, and takes a struggle of a game 2.

With game 3, Cynara leads with Landorus-T again and lets Mega Salamence go down to Toxic and Rocky Helmet instead of risking Volcarona like in game 2. After Mega Salamence goes down, Cynara reveals her Volcarona, which seem perfectly poised to sweep—but cant say reveals +1 Return on his specially defensive Porygon2, which takes out the Volcarona for the game.

This match got a lot of hype, as these two are the most prominent Battle Spot Singles players in the community and the only ones that have managed to reach the coveted 2000 points on the cartridge ladder. chemcoop has brought an interesting, non-standard Kangaskhan team with Greninja and Zapdos, while greilmercenary has brought some Pokemon that he is very much well known for using, such as Tapu Fini, Celesteela, and Mimikyu.

chemcoop starts off the series with a classic Greninja game. He gets a positive matchup with Greninja against Hippowdon, and greilmercenary feels safe switching in Tapu Fini to it. However, Greninja reveals to be physically oriented Gunk Shot, which take out the bulky Tapu Fini after the Ice Beam chip damage. The full set is revealed, but the damage has been done, as chemcoop comfortably takes game 1.

With the Charizard set revealed to be the bulky Will-O-Wisp set, chemcoop leads game 2 with Toxic Zapdos, which is not immediately pressured by anything on greil's team aside from the Xurkitree. However, greil leads with his Hippowdon again—and while it goes down to Toxic damage, it is not before it sets Stealth Rock and puts Kangaskhan to sleep with Yawn, which opens up a free turn for Substitute Xurkitree to sweep.

In the final game, greilmercenary brings the Xurkitree again, as it is the best way to directly deal with the Zapdos, but chemcoop makes the adjustment by bringing Volcarona, which has stayed on the bench the entire series because of its supposed poor matchup against defensive Mega Charizard X and Stealth Rock Hippowdon. Predicting the Volcarona to stay on the bench, greilmercenary brings Celesteela over Hippowdon, but it turns out to be a grave error—once Volcarona has set up a free Quiver Dance against Celesteela, it takes out Charizard with +1 Breakneck Blitz and takes the set.

This set featured two decorated GBU (Generation 5 Battle Spot Singles) veterans, longtime friends, and now opponents, NOVED and Darkinium. NOVED, fresh off of his victory in the most recent GBU tour, was the slight favorite to take this set, while Darkinium, whose legacy in BSPL is matched by very few, would look to best his former mentor.

Game 1 was defined by Scald burning two of NOVED's Pokemon first turn. Darkinium led with Suicune against NOVED's Conkeldurr. Conkeldurr gave way to Thundurus-T for NOVED, which immediately got burned by the incoming Scald. Expecting and receiving a switch from Darkinium (to his Abomasnow), NOVED scouts with a U-turn and brings back his Conkeldurr. NOVED sets up Bulk Up on the switch to Suicune, which would allow NOVED’s Conkeldurr to beat Suicune 1 vs 1. However, Suicune immediately burns Conkeldurr, minimizing its damage output. The game becomes trivial from that point, with the two trading Pokemon and Darkinium’s Garchomp cleaning up vs NOVED’s Tyranitar.

Game 2 should rightfully be entitled "Get out of my head, Charles!" NOVED makes all the right reads this game. With a Thundurus-T lead from NOVED against Darkinium's Suicune, NOVED calls the switch, hitting the incoming Garchomp with Hidden Power Ice. Later in that game, with NOVED's Conkeldurr against Darkinium's Choice Scarf Abomasnow locked into Grass Knot, NOVED doubles on the play, getting out his Thundurus-T again vs Suicune. The game ends after Darkinium switches back to Abomasnow, which falls to Electric Gem Thunderbolt after chip damage.

Game 3 begins with NOVED's Tyranitar having the lead advantage against Darkinium’s Abomasnow. Abomasnow, which fears being OHKOed by Tyranitar, gives way to a Suicune switch-in, which safely tanks Tyranitar’s Stone Edge. NOVED switches in his Latios, and Darkinium chooses to sacrifice his Suicune to the Choice Specs Draco Meteor in order to bring in Volcarona. Tyranitar comes right back in on the Quiver Dance and survives the ensuing +1 Bug Buzz. Volcarona crumbles to the Stone Edge, with Tyranitar left in the red. Now up three mons to one, NOVED reveals his Custap Berry, allowing him to move first against the Abomasnow. We all watch in anticipation but witness NOVED’s flying stones appear to the left of the abominable snowman. Game over: Darkinium’s Scarf Abomasnow makes quick work of Tyranitar, the unrevealed Thundurus-T, and Latios with perfectly accurate Blizzards.

Charlotte's games have come with a lot of attention throughout the tournament, as she was continuing a winstreak spanning 3 BSPL—as of week 3, she has managed to win 13 weeks in a row, so Charlotte was playing for both her win streak and the week on the line. What was also interesting was that these teams were a rematch from the VGC 2018 Worlds Finals stage, with marilli using an edited version of emiforbes's Mega Gengar Perish Trap team with Tapu Fini over Politoed and Charlotte bringing Paul Ruiz's Mega Salamence team with Groundium Z Gastrodon.

In game 1, Calm Mind Tapu Fini manages to set up a dominating position, which catches Charlotte off guard, and disposes of the Mega Salamence while taking minimal damage. In a prime position to just win, Tapu Fini puts the remainder of Charlotte's team in KO range. While Choice Specs Tapu Koko takes out the Tapu Fini after some chip, the damage has been done, and Latias and Gengar picks up the remainder of Charlotte's team despite some imprecise endgame play from marilli.

In game 2, marilli preemptively adjusts his gameplan by going for the Perish Trap win condition, but he lets up the Shadow Tag due to combination of misplays and offensive pressure from Tectonic Rage Gastrodon, which reveals itself to be faster than the Incineroar. As a result, Charlotte is miles ahead in the damage trade, and Tapu Koko and Kartana clean up the weakened Tapu Fini and Incineroar.

In game 3, marilli gets multiple reads. On turn 1, he uses Fake Out and attacks Mega Salamence on turn 1 as the other slot switches out to Gastrodon, and he dodges the Tectonic Rage with a switch to Latias on the following turn. He lets up the pressure and allows Mega Salamence to Roost up and recover its HP, but then he predicts the Mega Salamence to switch out with a double switch to Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu, gaining the upper hand with a double target KO. With Mega Salamence barely missing out on the Latias KO with -1 Double-Edge and going down to the Ice Beam, marilli manages to win the final game, breaking Charlotte's win streak and clinching the Luxrays their playoff spot.

With the series 3-2 in the Farseers' favor in week 4, this was a must-win game for both zaaya and Demantoid, because losing it meant that their team would be mathematically eliminated from playoffs. With everything on the line, zaaya brought his signature offense with Tapu Bulu and Naganadel, while Demantoid brought a standard-looking rain offense team.

Turn 1 damage trade goes in favor of Demantoid, as he is able to do a lot of damage to Naganadel and take out Tapu Bulu on turn 1. While zaaya takes out Ludicolo and brings Pelipper down to its Focus Sash, he is ill prepared to face Swampert and Tapu Koko. Tapu Koko gets the OHKO on Tapu Lele with Electric Terrain Thunder, and Swampert clean up zaaya's team.

In game 2, zaaya corrects his mistake by double targeting Pelipper and stopping it from firing off a retaliatory Hurricane on Tapu Bulu. Despite this early KO, zaaya struggles against the speed control provided by Drizzle, especially as this line of play denied a Speed boost on Naganadel that could let it move before the Swift Swim Pokemon and threaten a KO. Ludicolo and Swampert apply heavy pressure, as Swampert scores a free KO on Naganadel with Ice Punch as Tapu Bulu uses Protect. Demantoid then gets to freely double target the Tapu Bulu slot with two Ice-type moves for yet another KO as Tapu Lele fails to KO Ludicolo. The two Swift Swim users overwhelm zaaya with their all-out offense and higher Speed tier and keep the Helmets in contention for another week.

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Regular Season

Chart

Rank	Team	Manager	Wins	Loses	Ties	Pts	Dif	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5
1	Iki Inkays	Ika Ika Musume	3	1	1	7	6	4 - 2 vs RRH (W)	3 - 3 vs AFS (T)	1 - 5 LUM (L)	5 - 1 vs CAV (W)	5 - 1 vs BTD (W)
2	Castelia Cavaliers	cant say	3	1	1	7	4	3 - 3 vs BTD (T)	4 - 2 vs LUM (W)	4 - 2 vs RRH (W)	1 - 5 vs Iki (L)	5 - 1 vs AFS (W)
3	Lumiose Luxrays	greilmercenary	3	2	0	6	4	4 - 2 vs AFS (W)	2 - 4 vs CAV (L)	5 - 1 vs IKI (W)	4 - 2 vs BTD (W)	2 - 4 vs RRH (L)
4	Rustboro Rocky Helmets	NOVED	2	2	1	5	0	2 - 4 vs IKI (L)	4 - 2 vs BTD (W)	2 - 4 vs CAV (L)	3 - 3 vs AFS (T)	4 - 2 vs LUM (W)
5	Blackthorn Drummers	Charlotte	1	3	1	3	-6	3 - 3 vs CAV (T)	2 - 4 vs RRH (L)	4 - 2 vs AFS (W)	2 - 4 vs Lum (L)	1 - 5 vs IKI (L)
6	Anistar Farseers	Solerme	0	3	2	2	-8	2 - 4 vs LUM (L)	3 - 3 vs IKI (T)	2 - 4 vs BTD (L)	3 - 3 vs RRH (T)	1 - 5 vs CAV (L)

After the regular season was over, the Iki Inkays emerged as the first seed. They were merely in contention for a playoff spot as of week 3, behind the Cavaliers and Luxrays in differential. However, their 5-1 wins over the Cavaliers and the Drummers in the later weeks put them in sole possession of first place seed. Cavaliers seemed to be in a bit of danger after the 1-5 loss to the Inkays in Week 4, but they were also able to control their own playoff chances with a win over the eliminated Farseers. Both the Inkays and Cavaliers needed to win week 5 in order to guarantee their own playoff spot—both teams won, which eliminated the Helmets. With the Helmets being 2 points behind as of Week 4, they needed to beat the Luxrays and get help from the Drummers or the Farseers. While the Helmets managed to upset the Luxrays and would have at least guaranteed a tiebreaker if either of the other series went in their favor, they received no such help. Luxrays were the first team to make the playoffs in Week 4, but they only finished 3rd in the regular season, as they lost the final week.

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Playoffs

Semifinals

The semifinals between the Cavaliers and Luxrays kicked off with a highlight rematch between chemcoop and greilmercenary, commentated below. EmbCPT won his match against TheLoanRanger with a standard Mega Kangaskhan team, with his tech options Lum Berry Azumarill and Swagger Cresselia proving key to his victory. With marilli also winning his set cleanly with Belly Drum Snorlax against floristthebudew, the Cavaliers are put in a quick 0-3 deficit, being forced to win 3 games in a row for a tiebreaker. GroudonEmpire took the first of the three wins for the Cavaliers, heavily outreading Meese and Geese for the first game and using Minimize Unaware Clefable in the second. However, Megazard used an innovative Hidden Power Fire + Chople Berry Ferrothorn to beat cant say and clinch the series.

Highlight Matches

chemcoop and greilmercenary were facing each other for a rematch for first blood. Since they were the star players from each team, taking this matchup was bound to be a huge morale boost for the rest of the team, while losing this meant heavy pressure on the remaining players. chemcoop brought an interesting team with the old Cresselia + Heatran core, while greilmercenary brought a bulky balanced team featuring the Mega Salamence / Heatran / Ferrothorn core popularized by Terry, one of the best ladder players outside of Japan, where people play Battle Spot Singles as their main singles meta and thus dominate the cartridge ladder.

chemcoop opens the first game with a bang, just like their first meeting. He catches greilmercenary's Azumarill with a Bloom Doom Heatran tech. After that, Ferrothorn and Mega Gengar have much difficulty making any headway against the Heatran and Aegislash, but greil manages to force out the information that chemcoop is running a Swords Dance + King's Shield Aegislash with Shadow Sneak, meaning that it has holes in its coverage.

In game 2, greilmercenary knows his Assault Vest Azumarill will survive Heatran's Bloom Doom without taking the previous Lava Plume chip, so he leads with the Azumarill instead, keeping the potential Mamoswine lead in mind. The midground pays off, as Mamoswine goes down to the Azumarill. Swords Dance Aegislash proceeds to set up in front of the Azumarill. When the game seems all but over, Aegislash uses King's Shield in front of Ferrothorn, and reveals to be Steelium Z with Iron Head, with no Sacred Sword or Shadow Claw. Curse Ferrothorn solos the game against the Mega Gyarados and physical Aegislash.

With knowledge that Heatran is necessary to handle Ferrothorn effectively, greilmercenary adjusts by bringing his specially defensive Heatran and Mega Salamence. Heatran manages to Toxic chemcoop's Gyarados, and greil gets to set up his Dragon Dance Salamence in front of Heatran, which is now faster than a +1 Gyarados and can easily Roost stall it. However, the Mega Salamence is hit by an untimely Ice Fang freeze. When it all seems lost, Mega Salamence thaws on the last possible turn against Heatran and KOes it with Earthquake. With no Ferrothorn check remaining, chemcoop loses the set in a nailbiter.

With the series on the line, cant say brings a standard-looking VoltTurn team with a twist: Chansey. With Choice Scarf Landorus-T breaking the potential Focus Sash from Gengar and bringing in Scizor into Ferrothorn with a double switch, cant say seems poised to take game 1 in a convincing fashion. However, his gameplan is rudely interrupted when Megazard's Ferrothorn turns out to be Hidden Power Fire with Chople Berry. cant say takes the game only with some help, as Leech Seed and High Jump Kick both miss on the Chansey.

However, with the team's main Ferrothorn check being Swords Dance + Superpower Scizor, cant say has two uphill games ahead of him. Game 2 is a messy affair with a Will-O-Wisp miss from Rotom-W and a Draco Meteor miss from Latios causing it to take a Thunder Wave—but with Ferrothorn being such a crucial piece of the win condition for Megazard, cant say definitely got the short end of the stick that trade, as Ferrothorn solos Latios and Scizor despite Latios revealing to be Hidden Power Fighting (and by extension slower than Gengar).

In the final game of the set, Megazard leads with the Gengar knowing this information. He manages to chip down Rotom-W into range of Blaziken High Jump Kick, and Ferrothorn gets to face Latios and Scizor without risking a Will-O-Wisp burn from Rotom-W, beating the Latios and Scizor in a similar fashion as in game 2 and putting the Luxrays into the finals.

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Finals

Finals kick off in the Inkays' favor as Mr.GX beats marilli with a Snorlax sweep. greilmercenary ties up the series by taking another win with the standard Metagross / Tapu Fini / Rotom-H core against 1_TrickPhony's double Quiver Dance offense. However, PinkSylvie taking out EmbCPT in a set commentated below puts the Inkays in a very comfortable lead. With their 5-1 league-leading Doubles players out of the equation, Luxrays seemed to be in a pinch. Many people thought the Luxrays' main title hopes now lied on a potential tiebreaker, where they could gain an advantage by fielding their stars greilmercenary and EmbCPT against the Inkays who lacked star power in comparison. However, Moose And Goose takes a clutch win against Misaka Mikoto in a series full of Confuse Ray and even more confusing plays. This messy result was a pivotal set for the Luxrays, who had a combined 1-5 result in ORAS BSS in the previous 6 weeks. Megazard secured the Luxrays a tiebreaker against Kaori in a set featuring Focus Sash Conkeldurr, which played a pivotal part in the set by taking a Flying Gem Hidden Power Flying from Thundurus in game 1 and whittling down Suicune in game 2. Plas beat Puff Killa in the final game of the series, completing the 4-2 comeback and winning the series in a true team effort

Highlight Matches

The Lumiose Luxrays had many strong players, but their Doubles slots with marilli and EmbCPT with their league-leading 5-1 records was a main factor in their dominance. However, with Mr. GX taking the set from marilli, taking this game too would put the Inkays in a great position to win.

In game 1, PinkSylvie puts her Aegislash in a great position as it sets up a free Substitute. In addition, its Substitute manages to dodge a Zen Headbutt in Blade forme, which allows it to fire off Shadow Balls freely without playing King's Shield mind games. Then, it also proceeds to get the Special Defense drop—while the matchup against Aegislash was not looking great to begin with, this sequence of RNG turned the matchup so sour that it turned unplayable.

In game 2, PinkSylvie adjusts by bringing Toxic Porygon2, which was a smart adjustment, as it catches the Rotom-H—a key piece in EmbCPT's win condition—and puts it on a timer. However, Rotom-H misses a Will-O-Wisp that would have put the Mega Salamence in 2HKO range for Mega Metagross— instead, it can fire off yet another Hyper Voice. PinkSylvie takes advantage of this RNG with a prediction, nailing the Landorus-T on the switch with Ice Beam. With the Aegislash check removed, PinkSylvie is in a winning position—Rotom-H is taken out with Toxic residual damage after taking the Draco Meteor from Mega Salamence, which means the final threat to Aegislash is removed. PinkSylvie takes the set 2-0, which understandably frustrates EmbCPT, as there would have been a lot of Doubles to be played, and EmbCPT and PinkSylvie would have each had their chances to win. However, such opportunities were taken away entirely. The win puts the Iki Inkays in a great position, up 1-2 with the biggest names on the Luxray having already played their matches.

Plas vs Puffkilla represented the final series of BSPL. A large majority of the spectators believed the Inkays would force a tiebreaker, with their best singles player going up against Plas, who had been under the radar for the last few BSPL. However, immediately on Team Preview, it became apparent that Plas had as good of a chance as anyone, with a solid matchup advantage.

Going into game 1, Puffkilla finds his Tapu Fini leading off against Plas's Mamoswine. Great, right? Not exactly: the Fini lacks Water-type coverage, sporting Nature's Madness, Moonblast, Reflect, and Taunt, and gets its Wiki Berry Knocked Off in the process. Plas's Mamoswine switches out for Porygon2, which takes heavy damage from Nature's Madness and Taunt; however, it keeps up the pressure with Ice Beam, forcing Tapu Fini to stay in, and allows Plas to stall out the Reflect turns. The last turn of Reflect and Taunt ending for Porygon2 is the pivotal turn in the game, as Plas makes a switch to Mega Salamence on the Taunt. The game ends after Mega Salamence is able to finish off the Tapu Fini, OHKO the Sand Rush Excadrill with Earthquake, and defeat the non-Ice Fang Hippowdon.

Game 2 is defined by Puffkilla choosing to bring out his Choice Scarf Kartana, which notably has a terrible matchup against Mega Salamence. While his Kartana is able to start against Plas's Mamoswine with a positive matchup, Plas is able to safely bring in Salamence. The game is decided after Puffkilla makes an aggressive double switch to Excadrill, hoping for a switch out to Mega Salamence. If everything went according to plan, it would have put Mega Salamence in Corkscrew Crash KO range after Stealth Rock and in KO range of regular Iron Head if it switches out to avoid the Z-Move and takes another round of Stealth Rock. However, he forgets to account for the potential Focus Sash on Mamoswine, which remained intact through the early exchange—Plas has no reason to switch out. Excadrill falls to Mamoswine's Earthquake, sealing the victory for Plas and the Luxrays.

The Lumiose Luxrays are your 2019 BSPL IV Champions, defeating the runner-up Iki Inkays 4 sets to 2.

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Interviews

Click on the team's minisprite to read their interview!

Back to menu

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Final Remarks

This concludes the recap of BSPL IV. See you next year!

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