OLT III Recap
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Art by h_n_g_m_n.
I - Introduction
The Official Ladder Tournament, also known as OLT, is one of the official tournaments of Smogon, and its winner gets the coveted black trophy 
. During seven cycles, players will fight on the ladder to hit the highest spots possible and to qualify for the double elimination playoffs. The intent of the tournament has been to increase the activity and the quality of the ladder, and we saw newcomers fighting Smogon's veterans and ladder heroes trying to reach the playoffs during seven weeks of intense combat at the top (and at the bottom) of the OverUsed ladder, giving us a final showdown of the ORAS OU metagame before the release of Sun and Moon. First, this article will feature the laddering step, showing the most-used teams and archetypes on the ladder, as well as a rising star of the metagame, and then it will highlight the greatest series of the playoffs, in order to give you a summary of the whole tournament. Enjoy!
A - Most used teams and archetypes
Offense:
Birdspam saw some tremendous usage across all cycles due to its go-to nature and how mindless it was. This was also partly why Zapdos usage shot up during OLT, since this team had a lot of underprepared-for threats like Dragon Dance Dragonite, Choice Scarf Excadrill, and Choice Band Talonflame. The Mega Scizor bulky offense team was another really prevalent team because it had some very consistent threats in the form of Specs Keldeo, Mega Scizor, and Clefable. The team's defensive backbone is incredibly solid with the likes of Latios, Landorus-T, and Clefable taking on the majority of the tier.
Stall:
Sableye stall was still pretty dominant on the ladder. The first team used by Get This Money and Zamrock was used in OLT II as well. The second team made by Tele was slightly more used this year because it effectively got rid of Mega Sableye's checks through Dugtrio, Skarmory, and Zapdos. The team also utilizes Pressure stall tactics, and there weren't a lot of Pokémon the team struggled against. These teams were pretty much the reason why Calm Mind + Stored Power Clefable picked up in usage towards the later cycles.
B - "OLT Spotlight": Zapdos
As user Ciele said, the best thing about Cycle 1 is that it finally showed people how good Zapdos is. Zapdos has been a niche Pokémon during the whole generation, but it appeared during OLT on many successful teams since the first cycle. It was able to check four of the six members of xtra$hine's commonly used Flying spam team, which was the most dominant offensive team of the tournament, and was part of Ciele's Mega Pinsir stall (which he used during Smogon Tour 21's finale against cosine180), Tele's double Defog stall (and ABR's version of the team), as well as in beatiful's bulky offense, proving itself to be able to succeed on many playstyles. But let's have a look at the monster:
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 172 Def / 68 SpA / 16 Spe
Bold Nature
- Discharge / Thunderbolt / Volt Switch
- Roost
- Defog
- Heat Wave / Hidden Power Ice
With a better-than-decent base 100 Speed and a good base 125 Special Attack, Zapdos does not really look like a defensive Pokémon. But its nice 90 / 85 / 90 bulk and solid defensive typing, as well as an expansive movepool, allow it to perform well as a pivot and provide support for a team. Zapdos will mostly run a physically defensive set; with its defensive abilities, it is a great check to Talonflame, Mega Scizor, and Tornadus-T, three of the most popular Pokémon in OverUsed. It will almost always run Roost for reliable recovery as well as Defog to support the rest of the team, even if a Rock-weak Defogger can look weird. Then, Zapdos has access to good STAB moves, especially Discharge, which allows it to paralyze opposing Pokémon and punish the likes of Latios and Clefable, which thought they had nothing to fear from it. However, Volt Switch is a good option for an offensive team, since gaining momentum is always appreciated. In the last slot, you have the choice between two coverage moves, Heat Wave and Hidden Power Ice. The first one is a cool way to punish Bisharp that wanted to come in on the Defog and also to cripple Ferrothorn, Scizor, and Excadrill, the latter of which will be mostly used to KO the most common Rockers on offensive teams, namely Landorus-T and Garchomp, which would have nothing to fear from Zapdos otherwise.
Zapdos has been a great Pokémon during this OLT, and its rise in popularity made it a force to be reckoned with. Let's see how it will deal with Sun and Moon's new Pokémon!
III - Playoffs
After the intense laddering stage, players entered the prestigious playoffs. After the preliminary qualification round, a best-of-three bracket started between the most tenacious players. We will showcase here some of the coolest (in our opinion) fights of the tournament.
ABR vs Tele
During round 2 of the losers bracket, former OLT finalist ABR fought self-proclaimed OLT legend and best ORAS OU player Tele in a highly anticipated series.
After they scheduled for a reasonable time for both players, the first game started. It appeared that Tele used the infamous Shedinja stall, which had huge success on the ladder but did not prove itself to be successful in Tournaments, while ABR decided to bring a team visibly designed to break the fat squads that Tele appreciates, with Mega Gardevoir and Choice Band Tyranitar as notable members. ABR was soon able to catch the Shedinja with his Hidden Power Fire Mega Gardevoir, but then he got it trapped and KOed by Dugtrio, at least bringing both Shedinja and Dugtrio to a point where they would be KOed in one hit for the rest of the game. A few turns later, ABR revealed his Latios to be Scarf, Tricking Tele's Seismitoed and preventing it from recovering any health with its Leftovers during the battle. At this point, the game became extremely difficult for Tele, since ABR had an excellent pivot with Slowbro and was able to set up Rocks with Heatran while keeping Tyranitar as a wallbreaker and preventing Togekiss from Defogging with Heatran's Taunt, which did not give Dugtrio any chance to remove both Heatran and Tyranitar. The game ended after 58 turns, when ABR was finally able to KO Togekiss, opening the way for a clean Tyranitar sweep.
For the second game, Tele decided to risk it all and to bring the semi-stall he used against Omfuga, using a Registeel as his Stealth Rock setter. ABR also brought a bulky team, with almost no wallbreakers or stallbreakers but a solid defensive backbone with Zapdos, Skarmory, Clefable, and Slowbro. It quickly became apparent that none of the players had a quick way to break each other's team, and the match quickly became a succession of switches and double switches, repeating the same situations. It finally reached the impressive length of more than 1287 turns, which could have made both sides turn insane, but Tele ended up by forfeiting, having to leave for IRL reasons, while ABR was still comfortable at that point. What was probably the longest game in the history of Smogon Tournaments finished as a 6-0 win for ABR, and after some drama (which you can find here, if interested) where Tournament Directors confirmed that a tie was not really imaginable, since Tele started to use PP instead of switching and this would have cost him the game if it had been continued, ABR was able to advance to the next round (just for reference, he lost two rounds later against AdvanceShip).
Omfuga vs Mounts
The first game started, and Mounts went for a bulky offense squad based on a solid core featuring Mega Charizard Y, Serperior, Tyranitar, and Starmie, as well as a Landorus-T as his Stealth Rock setter and a surprising regular Scizor. He faced another bulky offense team, which had a very strong core of wallbreakers including Mega Gardevoir and Choice Band Diggersby, as well as a defensive backbone with Ferrothorn and Landorus-T to set up entry hazards, both of which also were cool Pokémon to have against offense in general. Omfuga won the lead matchup, sending his Latios against Landorus-T, but Mounts made a good play, sending in Starmie to take a potential Surf from Latios (which happened) as well as to anticipate an opposing switch to Landorus-T, if Omfuga decided to double switch, predicting Tyranitar to come in to remove Latios. The same situation happened a few turns later, but while Starmie healed up, Omfuga directly sent Gardevoir in and burned the opposing Scizor, revealing it to be the Protect + Will-O-Wisp set that has been featured during the World Cup. Both started pivoting around the wallbreakers, but the weakened Specs Latios, though Omfuga prevented it from being trapped and KOed by Tyranitar, could not carry the task of checking all of Starmie, Serperior, and Mega Charizard Y, and the second one was able to KO Latios and Keldeo, making it way easier for Charizard to clean up Omfuga's team.
For the last game, both players used very solid teams, Omfuga an extremely standard Mega Alakazam bulky offense, and Mounts a Mega Medicham + Weavile + Suicune core, which is also very annoying to deal with if you're not prepared. The game really started at turn 3, when Mounts sent his Suicune on the field, forcing Omfuga to find quickly an answer: he went for his Specs Keldeo and was rewarded with a Scald Burn, without being able to inflict real damages to Suicune, and he let it faint to Latios's Psychic a few turns later, making Weavile a bit more threatening. Omfuga started pressuring the opposing team with Mega Alakazam, but Mounts gained momentum again, and Weavile started getting KOs, removing Jirachi and Landorus-T from the game, while Latios KOed Omfuga's Latios. After Mounts saw his Heatran revenge killed by Alakazam, he began to use his Medicham to force Alakazam to switch out, and to cripple Clefable, allowing Suicune to set up itself. With Suicune having Roar, Clefable could not win a Calm Mind war while Alakzam was still alive, and Omfuga let it faint, Taunting Suicune in the process to have a chance of winning. But Lady Luck decided Mounts had to win (which he would probably have, thanks to Pressure, assuming his opponent wouldn't luck out before), and Suicune got a crit with Scald on the boosted Clefable, sending Omfuga to the losers bracket.
Lysergic vs Omfuga
Arguably the two favorites to win OLT, this series coming so early on in the tournament disappointed many because it would mean one of them would be relegated to the losers bracket. Omfuga had the advantage in Game 1 with regards to matchup, as Choice Specs Latios threatened Lysergic's team to a great extent. Omfuga also brought the Slowbro + Clefable core, which dealt with a majority of his opponent's team. Lysergic, however, revealed CM Latios midway through the game. This meant that Clefable could no longer switch into it, but Omfuga managed to curb its threat for the time being with some well-timed pivot switches. Later on in the game, Omfuga revealed he was running Calm Mind + 2 attacks Clefable, which caught the Klefki off guard. With the Heatran weakened due to a timely Draco Meteor crit earlier on in the game, Omfuga was able to pull through with Clefable and Mega Slowbro eventually. Game 2 was pretty interesting to watch. Lysergic made the bold move of bringing a Chesnaught. He looked to have the slight upper hand in terms of matchup because Mega Gardevoir was able to dismantle Omfuga's team pretty well and he could rely on Heatran and Rotom-W to take on the Jirachi. However, Omfuga's Mega Alakazam certainly looked like a threat to Lysergic, so this match was up in the air at the time. It was revealed that Lysergic was running Scarf Latias early on, and he made a very aggressive play by getting Weavile in on the Alakazam and Pursuit, even though it was slower. This play would work out extremely well in the long run for Lysergic due to Rotom-W + Heatran looking like an annoyance in the absence of Alakazam. Mega Gardevoir was revealed to be running Will-O-Wisp, burning Omfuga's Jirachi and paving the way for Lysergic to pull through later on. Just when the Gardevoir looked to be KOed by Omfuga's Clefable, Lysergic revealed Pain Split, which gave it more longevity to wallbreak. Jirachi was defeated thanks to Spikes; however, just when Clefable looked like it would net Omfuga the win at +2 from Calm Mind, Lysergic got a timely crit that enabled him to still be in contention. One of the reasons why Lysergic won this game is due to him making some plays that really benefited him in the long run. All was on the line in Game 3; Omfuga brought his Game 1 team and had a slight advantage in matchup yet again with the Clefable + Mega Slowbro core proving to be a godsend for him in this series. Lysergic was going to have a tough time breaking down Omfuga's team, as his offensive core of Keldeo + Mega Medicham + Garchomp was well dealt with by Omfuga's defensive core. The game started out pretty straightforward. Both players played directly, so the person with the better matchup eventually won, since Lysergic realized very early on in the game that even if he pulled the most aggressive of doubles, Omfuga would always be able to curb the threat of any pokemon that would be brought in. With that, Omfuga pulled through with Excadrill + Clefable and took the series in the bag.
Leftiez vs Mounts
A fratricide happened during round 7 of the winners bracket, as Mounts and Leftiez, the two remaining French players in the tournament, got paired together. While Leftiez is not a newcomer to the tournament scene, having been close to getting a trophy several times, Mounts only revealed himself during the last Smogon Tour season, in which one he won an ORAS ST and finally reached the playoffs (though he was eliminated quite soon); however, he had an impressive run during the OLT, defeating players such as Omfuga. This series was very hyped up, especially by the French community.
During the first game, both players brought their most-used playstyle, bulky offense. Leftiez used a variant of the super standard Mega Gardevoir team, which was extremely succesful in the last Smogon Premier League, while Mounts went for a standard archetype, with Scizor as its Mega and Terrakion and Serperior as its potential wallbreakers. The matchup was neutral, which made the lead choice extremely important, since both teams had a way to keep the momentum and wallbreakers to pressure the other squad. Leftiez sent Latios as his lead, which allowed Mounts's Mega Scizor to start by gaining the switch advantage. At the second turn, Mounts's Latios revealed Surf and took away 40% of Jirachi health, crippling Leftiez's one switch-in, which was killed by the Sword Dance Terrakion after. But Leftiez was able to start pressuring Mounts with his Mega Gardevoir, which burned Mega Scizor with Will-O-Wisp, making it very hard to deal with. Then, after a couple of turns, Mounts was able to set up a Substitute with his Serperior and heavily weaken Gardevoir and Landorus-T, allowing Thundurus to become very threatening for Leftiez's team. At this point, Mounts made a very high-risk play (Turn 29), staying in with his Thundurus against Landorus-T, and was able to boost to +2 while Leftiez double switched on Keldeo, predicting Scizor to come out. He quickly set up a second Nasty Plot on Heatran's Magma Storm and was able to outspeed and clean up Leftiez's squad.
The second game saw Leftiez using a Mega Latias semi-stall, which is quite rare, while Mounts again used bulky offense, this time with a Mega Metagross, a Suicune, and a Magnezone, a core extremly threatening for offensive teams but a bit more uncertain against the team Leftiez went for. The lead matchup looked favorable for Mounts, who sent his Metagross against Leftiez's Latias. Predicting the switch to Skarmory, he directly clicked Thunder Punch, but Leftiez's Latias outsped it and used Reflect Type, becoming impossible to effectively damage for Metagross. Leftiez went for Calm Mind on the Clefable switch-in and Calm Minded again as Clefable, predicting a switch again, went for Stealth Rock. At this point, Mounts did not really know what to do and switched to his Suicune, which had a chance to Roar the Latias. But Leftiez did not give him this chance and went for Stored Power, OHKOing Suicune and beating Metagross 1v1, causing Mounts's forfeit after only 10 turns.
Probably encouraged by its success at the previous match, Leftiez brought his semi stall again, facing another bulky offense, this time led by a Mega Medicham, which was potentially a huge threat. Mounts directly sent it as its lead, facing Leftiez's Skarmory, but, after the predictable Fake Out, Skarmory revealed an Eject Button, which directly sent Dugtrio on the battlefield. And, unfortunately for Mounts, Leftiez got a critical hit Earthquake while he was not able to connect with Zen Headbutt, causing Mega Medicham's death and putting Mounts into an extremely annoying position. Leftiez started pressuring him with Suicune, taking a bit of the Jirachi's health and crippling Garchomp before being forced to switch out, and, a couple of turns later, he was able to send his Heatran safely on Mounts's Jirachi, which, assuming it was a Specially Defensive set, did not stay in and switched out to Latios. But Leftiez anticipated this and clicked Flash Cannon, got a critcial hit and a Special Defense drop, and KOed the Latios next turn, revealing Heatran to be Scarfed. At this point, Mounts did not have many counterplay options, so he tried to beat Leftiez's Heatran one-on-one with his Jirachi and lost. Mounts then dropped his Garchomp and let his Clefable get weakened before Leftiez switched out to Latias. Clefable could not prevent it from Calm Minding, and when Gyarados got KOed by a Stored Power, the game basically ended, and Mounts forfeited, giving Leftiez access to the Winner Bracket Finals, where he lost to Eternal Spirit.
IV - Conclusion
After a tense finals series, Poek97 became the first winner of OLT coming from the losers bracket, defeating Eternal Spirit in two best-of-threes. If you want to see more playoffs games or to have more information on the ladder step, you can click on the sections that interest you. Perhaps are you going to compete in the next OLT? See you next year for a new edition!
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