Official Smogon Doubles Tournament II Recap

By emma. Released: 2022/10/01.
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Art by Kolohe

Art by Kolohe.

Introduction

The Official Smogon Doubles Tournament is Smogon's largest and most prestigious Doubles OU tour—with $200, a custom avatar, and the orange trophy on the line, Doubles mainers and tournament players alike all join for a chance at the glory.

OSDT I saw a few flaws—notably the lack of hype for a tournament this huge. This year's edition of OSDT saw two major fundamental changes in order to combat this problem: the reformatting to a Swiss tournament mirroring how VGC events are structured and replays being mandatory throughout the entire event instead of just Top 16 and up.

A Swiss tournament is a clear upgrade over single elimination tournaments qualitywise, since players aren't immediately eliminated after having to face a top-tier opponent early on, getting poor matchups, getting unlucky, or not being able to prepare enough because they were busy. Swiss was also a manageable format to host on Smogon, since the tournament ended up having roughly half the number of signups compared to its singles counterpart, the Official Smogon Tournament. Players were also dropped from the tournament after being eliminated from top cut contention, and there were no extensions until the top cut phase. These additional changes were meant to lessen the hosts' workload and make sure the tournament didn't last forever, since length is a drawback of the Swiss format.

Replays being mandatory is standard over the entirety of the Doubles OU circuit to make sure everyone is on a level playing field regarding access to replays, help with metagame development, and build hype for the tournament, since last year the early rounds flew by without much excitement around them due to hidden battles and replays.

In the end, OSDT II had 454 signups, a 192 player increase from last year. 80 byes were given out in Round 1 to increase the total amount of participants to 512 to give clean and workable numbers for the 10 rounds of Swiss. The 28 players who were able to go 8-2 (or better!) advanced to the top cut stage, with an additional four byes being given to the top players based on Swiss record and resistance to produce a 32-person single elimination top cut format.

Swiss

Despite this being the largest Doubles OU tournament in history, there were still a few key matchups between strong players in the first few rounds. Thanks to the new tournament format, we got to see matchups such as Yoda2798 vs. Toxigen, lax vs. JRL, and Qwello Lee vs. Memoric live without either player being eliminated early.

In Round 4, there were plenty of expected names in the 3-0 bracket including defending depending OSDT champion Nido-Rus, defending DOU circuit champion SMB, and numerous SCL players including Paraplegic, Qwello Lee, and Z Strats. There were also plenty of strong players overall who are not known for their Doubles OU play that saw their general Pokemon skills translate to an undefeated early run in Finchinator, Star, TJ, and z0mOG.

Moving on to Round 8, Chris32156 and Ninja were the first to secure their place in top cut as the two winners in the 7-0 bracket. Plenty of expected names also earned win number 7 in Animus, fespy, Shadowmonstr7, stax, and Tenzai, while plenty of expected names also earned loss number 3 and were eliminated from the tournament in Lunar. and Toxigen.

Round 10 was win or go home for the 36 7-2 players, while the 10 8-1 or better players were still fighting for seeding and a chance at the first round bye in top cut. Ninja secured the top seed with an incredible 10-0 Swiss run with minimal DOU experience beforehand, while more predictable names in Akaru Kokuyo, fespy, and stax followed closely behind at 9-1. Chris32156, primarily a 1v1 and 2v2 player and a not-so-predictable name, rounded out the 9-1 group. Unfortunately for stax, he was the 9-1 with the weakest resistance and would be the lone one in the group without the Round 1 bye in top cut.

Animus vs. TDK, Nido-Rus vs. GenOne, MADARAAAA vs. Star, lax vs. aim, and shaian vs. Paraplegic were the highlights in the 7-2 bracket, which could only see one player move on. Animus, AuraRayquaza, SMB, umbry, and Z Strats were all strong doubles players with prior experience in official team tournaments that made it through, while aim, Lily, and MichaelderBeste2 were all strong singles players that were able to find their footing and perform well in Swiss without too much prior experience overall in the tier. The full list of top cut participants, and their seeding, can be found below:

  1. Ninja (10-0, 62-23 (72.94%) Resistance)
  2. Akaru Kokuyo (9-1, 69-24 (74.19%) Resistance)
  3. Chris32156 (9-1, 60-24 (71.42%) Resistance)
  4. fespy (9-1, 61-26 (70.11%) Resistance)
  5. stax (9-1, 49-28 (63.64%) Resistance)
  6. tob (8-2, 60-23 (72.29%) Resistance)
  7. GenOne (8-2, 64-26 (71.11%) Resistance)
  8. Tenzai (8-2, 58-25 (69.88%) Resistance)
  9. MADARAAAA (8-2, 62-27 (69.66%) Resistance)
  10. SMB (8-2, 60-27 (68.97%) Resistance)
  11. umbry (8-2. 59-27 (68.60%) Resistance)
  12. JRL (8-2, 60-28 (68.18%) Resistance)
  13. Z Strats (8-2, 57-27 (67.86%) Resistance, 435-229 (65.51%) Opponent's Resistance)
  14. Animus (8-2, 57-27 (67.86%) Resistance, 389-233 (62.54%) Opponent's Resistance)
  15. RelicanthPrimal (8-2, 54-26 (67.50%) Resistance, 424-209 (66.98%) Opponenet's Resistance)
  16. Shadowmonstr7 (8-2, 54-26 (67.50%) Resistance, 395-220 (64.23%) Opponent's Resistance)
  17. shaian (8-2, 54-27 (66.67%) Resistance)
  18. AuraRayquaza (8-2, 55-28 (66.27%) Resistance)
  19. Ann nomina (8-2, 55-29 (65.47%) Resistance)
  20. aim (8-2, 52-29 (64.20%) Resistance)
  21. Failbor (8-2, 48-28 (63.16%) Resistance)
  22. EternalSnowman (8-2, 48-29 (62.34%) Resistance)
  23. Crunchman (8-2, 46-28 (62.16%) Resistance)
  24. MichaelderBeste2 (8-2, 49-30 (62.03%) Resistance)
  25. Lily (8-2, 47-29 (61.84%) Resistance)
  26. Lemurro (8-2, 43-28 (60.56%) Resistance)
  27. Givrix (8-2, 39-30 (56.52%) Resistance, 304-187 (61.91%) Opponent's Resistance)
  28. Lucky-Sama (8-2, 39-30 (56.52%) Resistance, 270-191 (58.57%) Opponent's Resistance)

Top Cut

Top 32 was full of upsets, with Lucky-Sama taking out stax, Lily taking out Tenzai, Crunchman taking out SMB, and aim taking out Z Strats, eliminating four of probably the most popular picks to win the whole thing. Moving on to Top 16, fespy eliminated his DOU protégé in aim, while tob defeated DOU council member umbry once again after already defeating her in Swiss. The quarterfinals saw Ninja's 11-set winning streak in Doubles OU come to an end as he fell to MADARAAAA. Two more DOU mainers joined MADARAAAA in semifinals in JRL and Crunchman, while tob defeated Ann nonima to secure the final top 4 spot. tob, similarly to Chris32156, mostly played other tiers before OSDT but got more involved in both the Doubles Circuit and community as the tour progressed. MADARAAAA and tob achieved two close wins to move into finals and send DOU tier leader Actuarily to a combined 0-6 in quarterfinals and semifinals predictions.

Finals Game Analysis: MADARAAAA vs. tob

G1: vs.
G2: vs.

Game 1 opens up with two very similar-looking Tailwind-focused offensive structures. MADARAAAA has the more standard of the two, as tob condenses the Water- and Fire-type into one slot through Volcanion and has Zeraora to aid in preventing opposing speed control with Taunt. Both players will have to be careful with the speed control subgame, since being on the opposing end of Tailwind going up could spell doom. On turn 1, MADARAAAA reveals his Genesect to be Choice Scarf but allows tob to set up the first Tailwind. An excellent Taunt stops Incineroar's Parting Shot on turn 2, which forces MADARAAAA to switch out both Pokemon on turn 3, which tob is unable to punish as much as he would have liked. MADARAAAA survives the first round of Tailwind quite well and is now in a better position on turn 5. While he is able to remove the Zeraora, he is also forced to sack his Zygarde in order to prevent Tailwind in the following turns. He then goes out to KO the Naganadel to remove both of tob's utility Pokemon, but in doing so he has to lock his Genesect into Ice Beam, which gives the opposing Genesect a free Shift Gear; however, a strong double switch to Incineroar and Urshifu-R shuts it down due to Fake Out and Unseen Fist pressure. tob makes a strong play on turn 11, calling Urshifu-R's Protect, which allows him to take out the opposing Rillaboom out and bring in Choice Band Zygarde to snipe Naganadel, preventing Tailwind, and clean up the game with Volcanion.

Game 2 sees MADARAAA reusing a Lurantis Trick Room team from earlier on in top cut that he built with SMB, while tob has brand new team, seemingly built around taking advantage of Whimsicott's Prankster Tailwind and firing off fast, strong attackers with likely Meteor Beam Celesteela, Choice Specs Tapu Fini, and Dragon Dance Kyurem-B. Incineroar provides Intimidate, Fake Out, and Parting Shot support for the heavy hitters, while Mew is a bit of a wildcard—it could similarly provide utility with options such as Fake Out, Tailwind, Coaching, Snarl, and Will-O-Wisp, it could be a more offensive set with Expert Belt and coverage moves, or it could even be the "Demon Mew" set with Cosmic Power, recovery, and Stored Power as we've seen earlier in top cut. tob will have to try to apply enough pressure outside of Trick Room and avoid letting it get set up more than once, while MADARAAAA will need to utilize his Trick Room turns and will likely win if he can get it up a second time. Immediately tob's Incineroar takes a Trick and sees its usefulness heavily weakened by the Choice Scarf, but it's better than MADARAAAA's Incineroar, which gets OHKOed by Choice Specs Tapu Fini, which is a huge blow to his team, since it provides a lot of useful utility and is the best answer to Mew. tob lands a very lucky OHKO on Zygarde with a critical hit Hydro Pump on turn 2, and after he loses Lurantis to Helping Hand Flare Blitz on turn 4, the game is very likely over. While MADARAAAA is able to set up Trick Room a second time, half of his team is KOed, and he cannot deal any significant damage to the "Demon Mew" set after it sets up Cosmic Power and has its Weakness Policy activated. Stored Power picks up two of the three remaining KOs, and tob is your Official Smogon Doubles Tournament II Champion!

Conclusion

The changes of reformatting to a Swiss tournament and mandatory replays were huge successes across both the Doubles and tournaments community and have even led to talk of replays being mandatory across all official Smogon tournaments. The Official Smogon Doubles Tournament did an excellent job of giving the Doubles community their own official trophy after being removed from Smogon Premier League and of bringing the usually secluded Doubles players into more of a spotlight within the tournaments community. Congratulations to tob and see you next year for Official Smogon Doubles Tournament III!

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