The Play! Pokemon season has officially kicked off in Oceania! The Brisbane Regionals took place last weekend, with 31 players making their way to Australia's Sunshine State. This was set to be the first Regional following the December GO Battle League move update, so everyone was ready and waiting to see what might come out of the inevitable meta shift. Among the competitors facing the challenge were some heavy hitters including RicFlareon, ValiantVish and g0nE1001 who placed 1st through 3rd at last season's Melbourne Regionals - looking to place once more! 

 

A number of newer faces took early leads in the tournament, with BTingU007 sending Melbourne Champion RicFlareon into the losers' bracket in Round 1, and Basherballgod taking down g0nE1001 in Round 2. These two battlers would go on to face each other in Round 3, with BTingU007 reigning supreme. BeatzBoyFTW, flying in from Malaysia, went on a 4-0 tear through the winners' bracket taking out Aussie locals DankBrode and 678Ghost, landing himself in the Winner's Final against ValiantVish. These two battlers brought very different teams, with only Medicham and Registeel shared between them, but it was ValiantVish who was able to take the victory and guarantee his second invitation to the World Championships.

 

Fishylegs2, after being defeated by ValiantVish on his path to the finals, had to knock out fellow Tassie Timburrs teammate RicFlareon and DankBrode to put himself into the final four. After taking on #1 and #2 from Melbourne, who would be more fitting to face in the losers' semi finals than #3, g0nE1001, who had fought his way through five opponents in the losers' bracket to secure his second top-four placement in a row. Fishylegs2 was able to beat the almost-mirror team and reach the losers' finals to take on BeatzBoyFTW.

 

With the second worlds invite and a chance at the championship on the line, Fishylegs2 was able to defeat BeatzBoyFTW and set up an all-Australian grand final against ValiantVish. The two traded games back and forth, with Noctowl helping to push both battlers to a 2-2 result in the Best-of-Five. In the end, thanks to his incredible team-reading ability, ValiantVish was able to dominate the fifth game against Fishylegs2 with hard-counter after hard-counter, making ValiantVish the Brisbane Regional Champion!!!

 

A huge congratulations to ValiantVish and Fishylegs2 for their incredible display of skill and determination, and we wish them all the best in the World Championships in Yokohama next year!

 

This year has been a big year for the Pokemon Go PVP scene, with the first ever Pokemon Championship Series Regional taking place in Liverpool, UK back in March. Many events later and we are now in December and the last European regional of 2022. This also happened to be one of the first 3 Regionals of the new ranked season and the first opportunity for players to compete in a newly formed meta following the recent move updates.

 

78 players turned up to compete in Stuttgart, Germany and looking at the list of competitors there was no shortage of talent in each bracket. Many former Worlds competitors alongside many other recognisable names from the PVP scene sought to take home the final trophy of the year. What made this event special however was the presence of the World Champion DancingRob on the sidelines, while the Senior World Champion MEweedle tackled their first tournament since Worlds; dropping their trusty Bubble Beam user Arachquanid for a newly buffed Bubble Beam user, Mantine.

 

Group A looked daunting on the offset having 3 former Worlds competitors in MEweedle, Statastan and JBGWinsenHSV alongside some other big names. MEweedle managed to take down big name after big name however to make it to Day 2 in the Winner’s Bracket, dropping just two games overall. The final of the Group A Winner’s Bracket saw TontonBatteuse get knocked down into the Loser’s where they faced TalonFlo who themselves had gone undefeated in the Loser’s since Round 3. TontonBatteuse however managed to take the final match 2-1 and secure their place in Day 2.

 

Group B also housed two previous Worlds competitors in LurganRocket and Fr43ka, but it was the EUEmporers Inadequance and Scafo who were looking to make their mark. Inadequace managed to sweep the group to make it to Day 2, taking out Fr43ka and Khedo0 in the process while dropping only one game. Following their defeat in the winner’s finals, Khedo0 faced off against Scafo99 in the loser’s final, managing to proceed through to Day 2 with a 2-0 win.

 

Group C was no less stacked than the groups before, with names such as 23EJB and Pokesquark amongst the previous Worlds competitors. It was Pokesquark however who managed to go unbeaten into Day 2 with none other than Mew on their team! And in what looked to be a pattern so far, Elepfandflasche, despite losing in the Winner’s Finals, managed to secure victory in the Loser’s Finals and advance to Top Cut.

 

For the final two spots in Top Cut, Group D had players such as former Worlds competitor Stonecollection and current World Qualifier Bassiix battle it out alongside other big names. The Winner’s Final saw manningIII and Andriss96 compete for the Day 2 spot. Andriss96, who had not dropped a single game up until that point, lost 2-0 to drop into the Loser’s Final and face HansiGlumAMD. Andriss96 was not able to replicate the pattern of the other three Loser’s Finals and HansiGlumAMD who had been climbing through the Loser’s Bracket since Round 3 managed to take the win and secure the last spot for Sunday.

 

 

Day 2 was looking to be stiff competition, with 7 out of 8 players using a Pokemon not seen anywhere else in the Top Cut. Inadequace won their first match of the day against manningIII while MEweedle faced Pokesquark. Both players found their first success earlier in the year at EUIC and MEweedle managed to secure a decisive 2-1 win to advance.

 

In the Loser’s Bracket HansiGlumAMD and TontonBatteuse won their matches to go up against Pokesquark and manningIII respectively. Pokesquark managed to maintain their position in the race and so did TontonBatteuse, meaning manningIII was the first player from the Winner’s Bracket to be eliminated from the tournament.

 

With 4 players left in the bracket, MEweedle pulled off a clean 3-0 sweep vs Inadequance in a Best of 5 match to secure their place in the 2023 World Championships in Yokohama. While it was expected that MEweedle would have gotten a place already being Senior World Champion, no confirmation has been given from TPCI as of yet so it is assumed there would be only one Worlds invite remaining.

 

Pokesquark beat TontonBatteuse in the next round to go up against Inadequance in the Loser’s Finals for the last Worlds invite. Inadequace had already come close to Worlds earlier in the season, and also was no stranger to Top Cut this year, but he wasn’t able to seal the deal this time in a very close 2-3 loss that saw the Mew player proceed into the finals.

 

Pokesquark had suffered their only loss of the tournament to MEweedle and was looking for retribution in this next Best of 5. After losing the first game, Pokesquark pulled it back with a 3-1 win to rest the bracket and level the playing field. The final Best of 5 of the tournament saw it go down to the very last game, however ultimately MEweedle managed to come out victorious in a 3-2 to be crowned the Stuttgart Regional Champion!

 

Congratulations to both MEweedle and Pokesquark for their performance and Worlds invites. This year has been an eventful one and while we are only half way through the current Championship season, 2023 looks to be even more exciting for the Championship Series.

 

 

With three regionals going on simultaneously two days after a significant meta shift, there were questions about what the teams were going to look like in the top cut and what different strategies would be brought to the table.

 

For the two finalists in Toronto, it turned out they were the same strategy.

 

After winding their way through one of the most stacked fields we’ve seen at a Regional yet, American battlers and carpool partners MagicMayson and Brownballer10 found themselves on opposite sides in the Grand Final, running almost the exact same team: Staple meta pokemon Medicham, Galarian Stunfisk and Trevenant, the newly buffed Noctowl, the hard counter to Flying types in Lanturn, and the resurgent Umbreon as the tank.

 

Stadium Elite’s MagicMayson was reportedly nervous coming into the tournament. Drawing teammate and Peoria runner-up NHoff likely didn’t help. Nor did facing the Peoria champion HotPoket777 immediately after. But Mayson was able to ride his steady Pokemon through a gauntlet of battlers that included top-16 regular and Basti/Vic enthusiast Meteorfallian, and the extreme spice of Seenearly, complete with the original Stunfisk, Shadow Gliscor and Ferrothorn to face none other than Brownballer10 in the Final Four of the winner’s bracket.

 

Brownballer10, one of the stars of Canadian Shieldon despite his residency south of the border, came to Toronto and rampaged through his section of the bracket, knocking out beeeeach7 and hometown hero Jemini31 to set up the match with his traveling buddy, but it looked like Mayson had his driving partner scouted. A masterful juggling act in Game 1 kept Mayson’s Umbreon alive long enough for a finishing Foul Play blow, and his Noctowl rode two shields in the end game of the second match to deliver a 2-0 win over Brownballer10.

 

The Shieldon was not done though. After Mayson dispatched wdage in the winner’s finals, Brownballer10 rolled through grassroots legend Jaysfan55 and then wdage in the loser’s bracket to set up a rematch with MagicMayson with the title and travel package on the line. Mayson needed just one set of three wins to claim it, but Brownballer10 came out with a fire carried by the bulky Dark-type Umbreon, which scoffed at shields while dispatching Medicham and Trevenant time and time again to carry him to a 3-1 victory and a bracket reset. It would all come down to a third and final set.

 

However, after dropping the first game of the Grand Finals, Mayson was not going to let the momentum go all Brownballer’s way. The one difference between the teams: Mayson’s Medicham didn’t have Psychic, it had Power-Up Punch, and the PuP was huge in a Game 2 win to tie the series. Umbreon proved instrumental in setting up Mayson’s team the rest of the way, and the Pennsylvania resident took down the first Canadian regional of the season.

 

Now the two battlers will be carpooling to Yokohama.