Curitiba 2024

 

Hello readers - Inadequance here! We’ve just had the first North American and European regionals of the 2024 season, and we are now approaching the first LATAM regional on September 23. Last year, the first tournament took place in the south of Brazil, Porto Alegre. This season, the first tournament takes place in Curitiba, also in the south of Brazil. Up to 128 players can register for the tournament, and it’s looking like the tournament has almost reached its cap!

I’m very excited to see what the LATAM battlers will bring in this new Open Great League meta. Let’s take a look at what we can expect.

 

Championship Points (CP)

 

This is the first season for GO that includes championship points, called CP. To qualify for the World Championships from within the LATAM region, players will need to achieve at least 300 CP. While this is much lower than what North American and European players need to qualify, LATAM has fewer regional tournaments to gather them.

Last season, LATAM had 4 regional tournaments, and the LAIC. If we include the Mexico Qualifiers as well, the region had 6 tournaments in total. For now, only Curitiba and the LAIC are listed, but it’s possible that more will be announced later in the season.

At a regional tournament, players need to get to top 8 to at least get 100 CP. At an International Championship, such as the LAIC, the top 4 achieve 320 CP. Most of the International Championships are quite costly to get to, but just one good performance at such a tournament could already lead to a qualification.

With Curitiba coming up now in September and the LAIC following up in November, I think we can expect mostly local battlers participating here, along with a small group of seasoned and motivated veterans to get a head start on CP.

Players to Look Out For

 

For Curitiba, we expect many of the top battlers from Brazil to make a return. Some of them even competed at previous World Championships! Let’s take a look at a list of a few battlers that I know will be there.

Looking at the last two seasons, I think it’s safe to say that there are currently 3 Brazilian players that stand out:

 

-        Zarddy is the Joinville Regional Champion in 2022, and he also reached the top 4 at the World Championships in London that season. He was without a doubt the best LATAM player of that year. In 2023, he won Natal Regional Championship, and again qualified for the World Championships. The World Championships in Yokohama really wasn’t his tournament however, as he lost 2 battles in a row.

 

-        LNDsRargef might not be as well known as Zarddy, but he is easily amongst the strongest battlers. He won the first LATAM tournament in 2023 – the Porto Alegre Regional Championships, with a Jumpluff! He battled past many of his skilled teammates from the LNDs group here. At the LAIC, he placed in the top 4. In the most stacked Brazilian tournament of the 2023 season, Sao Paulo, he got 6th place. The World Championships didn’t go as well however, as he only won one matchup there.

 

-        JWNaldo is the third name that I’ve listed as best Brazilian battler from the 2023 season. He won the LAIC, placed top 3 in the Natal Regional Championship after losing the first round, and in Sao Paulo he also got to top 12. Unfortunately, just like Zarddy and Rargef, JWNaldo also didn’t do great at the World Championships. He lost 2 battles in a row and was knocked out quickly.

 

 

I’m sure all these former Worlds competitors are very eager to recover from their performances there, as LATAM battlers are some of the most competitive in the world.

More notable names that are participating include:

-        PaulinhoTad, a young skilled battler who swept the Sao Paulo Regional Championship last season. This tournament had 238 participants and was by far the biggest in Brazil! The runner-up of that tournament, LNDsSteinar, will also be participating.

-        Juhsmuniz, one of the best Brazilian women battlers, will be in Curitiba! We’ve seen her battle on the Copag streams before, where she showcased some very high level gameplay. Another talented woman battler who will be there is Gabzis.

-        I’m not sure if GabrielYehovah will be there, but he was an absolute menace at the LAIC in 2023. He lost the winners final of his group against Rnetol999, but still managed to make it to Day 2. From there, he swept all the way to the grand finals, including the rematch against Rnetol999 in the losers finals, where he then lost 1-3 to JWNaldo.

 

-        I’ve personally asked the best LATAM player of the World Championships, ElCheasdasd, if he’d be there, but he won’t be at Curitiba and he didn’t know other Chilean players that would go. We do have MartoGalde from Argentina however! Marto is known for putting up a funny show on his Twitch streams, but the former Silph Legend showed at the Mexico City Qualifiers in 2022 and the World Championships in that same year that he still has it. The 2023 season didn’t go as well for him however, but I think that many fans will be excited to cheer for him on again in the 2024 season.

-        The final name that I wanted to write about is the hometown hero. I think almost every regional has their local top tier battler, and for Curitiba, that is Patricky Albani. He was the runner up at the Joinville Regional Championship in 2022 and competed in the World Championships in London too. In 2023, he partly owed his invitation to LNDsRargef. Rargef already had his invitation from his Porto Alegre win, and because of that, the invite at the LAIC cascaded down to the 5th place. He had to battle rafaclxr for the tiebreaker, and came out victorious to qualify for the World Championships back to back. This is one of my favorite battlers to look out for this tournament.

 

The Meta

 

To close, I wanted to quickly recap on what we’ve seen in Pittsburgh and Barcelona so far. While Pokemon like Medicham, Registeel, Lickitung and Lanturn have been extremely dominant for a few seasons now, the downfall of Noctowl and Galarian Stunfisk lead to a lot of shake ups in the meta.

In Pittsburgh, we had wdage sweep the tournament with a Shadow Dragonite. And there were definitely counters to it: Azumarill was in the top 6 of most used Pokemon! However, not one of them made it to Day 2.

 

In Barcelona, one specific player copied wdage’s entire team: CristixnZz. He swept his group on Day 1 and it almost seemed as if Dragonite might be the go-to flier/dragon now. Especially when the players in Barcelona completely neglected Azumarill; it wasn’t even in the top 10 on Day 1! The revelation of Barcelona however, was the Powder Snow Alolan Sandslash. Zzweilous showed that instead of targeting the infamous Lickitung – Medicham core, you might want to target the flier – Lickitung core.

And this is why I’m excited to see what LATAM has to bring in Curitiba. I feel like many players are still puzzling to find that balanced team that performs to their satisfaction and perhaps we will see different Pokemon, or different movesets, thrive again. We’ve seen Pokemon like Obstagoon, Dragonair, Chesnaught, and Shadow Sableye take the victory before in LATAM so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some cool off-meta picks!

Curitiba will be streamed by @CopagPokemon, and one of the casters is former Worlds competitor LNDsAureo! Good luck to all the battlers out there!

 

Curitiba 2024 En Español

¡Hola lectores, Inadequance aquí! Recientemente precenciamos el comienzo de la temporada 2024 de Play! Pokémon con el Campeonato Regional de Pittsburgh y el Evento Especial de Barcelona, mientras que ahora nos estamos rápidamente acercando al primer Campeonato Regional de Latinoamérica de esta temporada, el cual ha de iniciar el próximo 23 de septiembre. Durante el año pasado, el primer torneo tomó lugar en el sur de Brasil, en la ciudad de Porto Alegre. Asimismo, para esta temporada la primera competencia de la región se realizará en Curitiba, también en esta zona del país, donde hasta 128 jugadores se han de poder registrar y que, al momento de escribir este artículo, pareciese ser que está capacidad no estaría muy lejana de ser alcanzada.

Es increíblemente emocionante ver qué es lo que los entrenadores de Latinoamérica traerán a la mesa en este nuevo meta en Liga Super Ball Abierta. ¡Veamos qué es lo que podemos esperar!

Championship Points (CP)

            Ésta es la primera temporada de Pokémon GO en implementar Championship Points o CP. Para poder calificar al Campeonato Mundial Pokémon, jugadores de la región de Latinoamérica tendrán que amasar un total de 300 CP. Si bien este valor es mucho más bajo que el requerido en Norteamérica y Europa, la disponibilidad de Campeonatos Regionales es menor.

            En la temporada anterior, Latinoamérica tuvo 4 Campeonatos Regionales, al que se le suma también el Campeonato Internacional de Latinoamérica (LAIC). Si a éste se le suma también el Torneo Clasificatorio de México, la región en total tuvo acceso a 6 torneos. Sin embargo, al momento de publicar este artículo sólo el Campeonato Regional de Curitiba y el LAIC han sido confirmados, aunque no se puede descontar la posibilidad de que más eventos sean confirmados en el futuro.

            En un Campeonato Regional, jugadores necesitan alcanzar llegar al menos al top 8 para conseguir 100 CP. En contraste, a través de un Campeonato Internacional el top 4 recibe 320 CP. Acceder a la mayoría de los Campeonatos Internacionales es bastante costoso, pero un buen resultado en uno puede ser suficiente para clasificar.

            Con Curitiba en septiembre y LAIC en noviembre, se puede esperar principalmente jugadores locales, aunque veteranos con experiencia y motivación podrían hacerse presentes para obtener una ventaja en CP.

 

Jugadores a Considerar

            Se espera que muchos de los mejores jugadores de Brasil regresen a competir en Curitiba. Algunos de ellos incluso han competido en versiones pasadas del Campeonato Mundial. Echemos un vistazo a los jugadores que han confirmado su participación.

            Al observar las dos temporadas anteriores, se puede decir con confianza que hay al menos tres jugadores que destacan:

 

-        Zarddy es el Campeón Regional de Joinville en 2022, temporada en la cual llego al top 4 del Campeonato Mundial en Londres, teniendo claramente el mejor desempeño de la región durante dicho año. En la temporada 2023, conquistó el Campeonato Regional de Natal clasificando nuevamente al Campeonato Mundial. Sin embargo, Yokohama no fue su competencia al perder dos rondas consecutivas.

-        LNDSRargef, a pesar de no ser tan reconocido como Zarddy, está fácilmente dentro de los mejores competidores, ganado el primer torneo de Latinoamérica en 2023 – el Campeonato Regional de Porto Alegre donde se enfrentó a muchos de otros miembros del grupo LNDs… ¡con Jumpluff! En Sao Paulo llegó al cuarto lugar del LAIC, mientras que en el Campeonato Regional que tomó lugar en la misma ciudad, el cual se podría considerar fácilmente como el torneo de más alto nivel en Brasil de la temporada pasada, consiguió la quinta posición. No obstante, para este entrenador el Campeonato Mundial tampoco fue próspero, ya que sólo consiguió una victoria.

-        JWNaldo es el tercer participante en esta lista de jugadores destacados de la temporada 2023. Entre sus logros resalta el título de Campeón del LAIC, tercer lugar en Natal, incluso después de haber perdido la primera ronda, y un top 12 en Sao Paulo. A pesar de eso, y al igual que Zarddy y Rargef, su participación en el Campeonato Mundial tuvo una corta vida, al perder dos rondas de forma inmediata.