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Art by Bummer.
Introduction
Smogon is home to a variety of different Pokemon tournaments across all tiers, formats, and generations. As they progress, so do the metagames that they represent. Let’s take a look at some of these tournaments!
Smogon Premier League
After three months of tough battles and drama, Smogon's largest and arguably most prestigious team tournament, Smogon Premier League, has concluded. The season started out very strong, with great performances from the Circus Maximus Tigers and the Ever Grande Bigs especially; however, as playoffs drew closer, the two teams barely missed the playoffs cut. Instead, The Wi-fi Wolfpack, Dragonspiral Tyrants, Team Raiders, and Alpha Ruiners made the semi-finals. Two extremely close series followed, with both ending at a tie at 6-6! The resulting tiebreaks had the Wolfpack taking the first finals slot 2-0 and the Raiders taking the second slot 2-0 as well. The finals between the Wi-fi Wolfpack and Team Raiders was fiercely fought, with the Wolfpack starting with a large advantage. However, the Raiders were able to pull it back to another tiebreak with a 6-6 tie. With SoulWind winning the first tiebreak game and BKC winning the second, the teams were 1-1, leading to a lot of nerves and anticipation. The last game, a rematch between ABR and TDK, sealed the victory for the Wi-fi Wolfpack. While the tournament may have finished, the battles that were played, most critically in the final rounds, still are important to the growth and development of players and metagames. Three of the tournament games from the finals have been broken down and analyzed, showing the impact of SPL 9.
soulgazer vs Gingy
Highlighting a lower tier match, we have Gingy and soulgazer, two experienced tournament players who both were totally ready for this game. Going straight into the match, Gingy had a very threatening Dragon spam team featuring a deadly combination of Noivern, Tyrantrum, and Zygarde-10%, all of which had the potential to hit soulgazer's only Steel-type, Bronzong, with super effective coverage or STAB moves. On the other hand, soulgazer had a more interesting bulky offense build featuring Jellicent, Toxicroak, and most importantly, Drapion, which was a Pokemon that could potentially tear through Gingy's team due to its lack of a Dark-resistant Pokemon.
Right out of the gate, Gingy came out with an aggressive play, doubling out of his Blastoise to get Stealth Rock up with Bronzong, correctly predicting soulgazer to send in his Toxicroak. However, this allowed soulgazer to get his Drapion in, which looked like a problem for Gingy, as it had potential to Pursuit trap the Bronzong or deliver a powerful Knock Off that no member of Gingy's team could take comfortably. Attempting to scout a normally Choice-locked Drapion, Gingy Protected with Bronzong, but soulgazer revealed Swords Dance and was able to set up for free. This forced Gingy to sack his Bronzong, and then Drapion was able to take another KO by surviving a Choice Band Thousand Arrows from Zygarde-10% due to its freshly revealed Shuca Berry. This set the pace for the rest of the game, and while Gingy performed extremely aggressive plays attempting to come back from his deficit, it was not enough, and soulgazer was able to clutch it out and reel in a much-needed win for the Wi-fi Wolfpack.
ABR vs TDK (1)
ABR and TDK, two top SM OU players and the OU leader and former OU leader, respectively, faced each other in a much-awaited match for the finals of SPL. If ABR won this game, his team, the Wi-fi Wolfpack would guarantee a tiebreak and get 2 chances to win SPL outright, while TDK could close the gap further with a win. Both played brought solid teams, with TDK bringing bulky offense with Mega Medicham and ABR bringing a Mega Diancie team, and interestingly, both players brought a Gastrodon.
Initially, TDK managed to gain an advantage through a series of midground plays. On Turn 19, TDK predicted ABR to switch Tornadus into his Clefable and got the damage roll necessary to knock it out, which meant that any hazards he got up would stay up unless he chose to Defog them away himself. Additionally, TDK was able to bring in his Mega Medicham, a menace to ABR's team, when he predicted ABR's Heatran to go for Stealth Rock, but unfortunately for him, ABR's Tangrowth avoided the High Jump Kick, and the recoil damage in combination to Rocky Helmet chip damage would mean he could be Pursuit trapped by Weavile. ABR clawed his way back through a series of well-timed predicts and was able to severely weaken TDK's Landorus-T, which was a major threat to his team, with Weavile's Pursuit. Eventually, the game ended up in a very interesting scenario where ABR had Heatran and badly poisoned Tangrowth as well as Weavile, which could not switch into Stealth Rock, while TDK had a paralyzed Clefable, Gastrodon, and Celesteela. While this scenario gave TDK an advantage, as Gastrodon took on Heatran and Clefable took on Tangrowth, ABR played and predicted TDK perfectly, weakening Gastrodon with the combination of Magma Storm and Taunt to prevent it from recovering on Turns 56, 76 and 81, and killing off the Celesteela on turn 75 when TDK expected ABR to not click Magma Storm due to a potential Protect, which would reduce its PP. Turn 85 was a critical turn of the match, and ABR needed to hit one more Magma Storm with his Heatran against a Gastrodon to secure a win by bringing TDK down to just Clefable; however, he missed this, and TDK was able to predict Heatran's Taunt and clicked Earthquake with Gastrodon soon after.
This riveting finish to one of the most awaited SPL matchups involved winning chances for both players, meaning that the game lived up to its billing. It also set up an exciting conclusion to the SPL, with the next three games leading the series to a tiebreak and another three games of exciting action, including a rematch of this matchup, where ABR was able to gain revenge.
marilli vs Kaori
This game was very hyped up from the get-go; the Wi-fi Wolfpack was winning 6-5 against Team Raiders, so marilli had the chance to end SPL 9 once and for all if he could defeat Kaori. From Team Preview, it was already clear that it'd be an interesting game. marilli brought two very unique Pokémon in Azumarill and Togekiss to the mix, as well as Intimidate Incineroar—its newly released hidden ability that led to its increased DOU viability. marilli justified the Azumarill pick with the fact that Kaori had usually lacked Water-resistant Pokémon on most of his builds throughout SPL. Kaori, on the other hand, brought quite an interesting rain team, featuring the feared core of Tapu Koko and Kyurem-B, utilizing its surging set—Life Orb; this set was especially good against some of marilli's previous builds. Ferrothorn was also a healthy presence, taking advantage of the fact that marilli had brought few to no Fire-types throughout the tour.
Kaori kicked off the match with an excellent lead of Kyurem-B and Tapu Koko, putting marilli, who decided to lead with Azumarill and Togekiss, at a clear disadvantage. Turn 1 really set the pace for the whole game, as marilli pivoted Incineroar in only to be hit by a Volt Switch from Melemele's Guardian Deity, taking a bunch of damage in the process. This lead to holes opening up in marilli's team for Kyurem-B to exploit it in the long run. On Turn 4, we also saw a match-defining move: predicting Kaori to Protect with Mega Gengar, marilli decided to attack Kyurem-B with his own Mega Gengar and set up a Belly Drum with his Azumarill. However, Kaori attacked Azumarill with Kyurem-B instead of targeting Mega Gengar as marilli was expecting, and as a result, Azumarill survived with only a tiny amount of HP and failed to use Belly Drum. The next turn, Kaori won a Speed tie with his Mega Gengar to take marilli's Mega Gengar down, which was a very crucial coinflip that ended up leading to marilli's team being overwhelmed by Mega Gengar, since marilli couldn't take Kaori's Mega Gengar down another way. Kaori's play of double-targeting marilli's Mega Gengar was also very smart, accounting for the chance of marilli winning the Speed tie. After that, however, it nearly impossible for Wolfpack's DOU representative to bounce back, leading to a forfeit a couple of turns later.
While this result wasn't really all that nice for the Wolfpack, it gave us, the spectators, 3 more amazing games to watch! Ranging from the frequency of Pokémon surviving hits with nearly zero HP to the uniqueness brought to the table by both players, this was all in all one of the best games this SPL!
Smogon Tour
Smogon Tour consists of a series of live tournaments hosted on the Smogtours PS server where anyone is able to join. Joining gives you the experience of playing in a live setting against some of Smogon's finest tournament players! These live turnaments cover SM, ORAS, and BW OU, the three most recent generations of Pokemon and as a result, they are often very large. Some live tournaments even reach 256 players! There are nine weeks of live tours every season, and four have already happened so far in Season 25; after that, the sixteen players who have acquired the most points from doing well in the live tournaments enter playoffs, a best-of-three series in SM, ORAS, and BW OU. The current frontrunner in the race for points is ABR, following his great performances in all three tiers; Ojama is not far behind, though, with exceptional performances in SM tours. However, it's a very tight competition and almost anyone could make it!
Official Smogon Tournament
The Official Smogon Tournament, or OST, is a yearly tournament that showcases the strongest players of the current generation's OU. It is the simplest of Smogon's official tournaments, featuring a single-elimination format with each round being best-of-three USM OU. The player at the end of the tournament, which typically lasts over a dozen rounds, will be crowned the winner and receive the coveted golden trophy, which is permanent, as well as $200USD. OST was open for anyone to join, be it aspiring OU players or hardened veterans. This year's OST had over 2,000 signups, making it the biggest tournament in Smogon's history and the largest online Pokemon tournament; currently, the tournament is up to Round 7, with only 32 players remaining, some of them new faces and some of them old ones. A highlight match for this round would be Lycans vs Gondra, so be sure to check for when it is happening. It's still anyone's game, though, and any one of the 32 players left can leave the tournament with the golden trophy!
Smogon Classic
The Smogon Classic is a past generations best-of-three tournament that includes BW, DPP, ADV, GSC, and RBY. Anybody can sign up for the "cups," which are individual OST-style tournaments for each generation. To determine the players who make it to playoffs, the tournament uses a points system that collects a player's performance from each cup and adds up the points to see who has the most points at the end of the 5 cups. The sixteen players with the most points go to the playoffs. Whoever wins the finals gets the white Smogon Classic permanent trophy on their badgeset, as well as some considerable bragging rights. The BW, DPP, and ADV cups have already started, but you can still sign up for the GSC and RBY cups right now if you did not sign up for the previous three.
Final Thoughts
World Cup of Pokemon will be arriving soon, and most tiers have already started their subforum Premier Leagues, so the action isn't stopping! Smogon Tournaments are always eventful; be sure to keep participating and following their progress!
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