2015 Pokémon World Championships - Day1 Team Analysis and Tournament Report

This is it, the report that I always wanted to write! Obviously a report on day2 of the competition would have been better, but I didn't make it. Immediately after the event I say to all "it was Swagger! Swagger!!" but, other than Swagger, I make a lot of wrong decisions. I'll explain this better after showing the Pokemon that I brought.

A brief note on Worlds Preparation

I tested something like 10 teams from June, but when I was in Ancona with Carlo Arbelli (shinycarletto), I finally decided to upgrade my Italy Nationals team since I had a lot of experience with it, I also knew all the possible leads and ways to play it. Before actually going to Ancona, I tought about replacing Heatran with Entei, since, in my opnion, it was better against Sylveon, Kangaskhan and Landorus, while not letting Mawile be the only physical attacker in the team, and I finished this idea with Carlo. I also edited some spreads and tested some different moves and techs with shinycarletto (like Magic Coat on Gothitelle) but we ended up using the same moves of my Nats team. I can't actually reveal my spreads - I want to see VGC'16 rules first. If rainroom will not die with the new rules, I'll probably reveal this spreads in 2017, because they are probably the best spreads I've ever made. In Ancona I also played a lot, and I ended up using two different accounts on PS!, one first and one second in the PS! Ladder. This made me much more comfortable with the team and my ability to play it and, in addiction, basically all of my friends said that it was one of the best vgc15 teams. Before deciding to actually use rainroom I tested some cool things like TR Mesprit, my Charizard/Cresselia/Mawile core, MegaTyranitar and MegaSalamence in the same team and so on. Worlds preparation was really cool, waiting for the biggest event of the year, training with all your friends.. even the months before going to Boston were amazing. I can't describe how much cool Worlds were, the event, the people, the atmosmphere.. An experience that everyone should live. Do your best to get the trip or the invite to Worlds, because they were worth the pain. 

 A thing that I must say before speaking of the team is that it lost from Thundurus most of the times. While on PS! I always (or in the 90% of cases) defeated it, at Worlds it sadly caused a lot of problems. Swagger and Taunt/Thunder Wave spam are really the best counters of this team, and it's my fault if I didn't noticed that before.

The Team

NANO :3 (Politoed) (M) @ Leftovers

Ability: Drizzle

Sassy Nature

- Scald 

- Perish Song

- Encore

- Protect

It's the same Politoed I used in Milan, but with a different spread: it sets up the rain against Charizard, support the team with Encore and kill the opposing Pokémon with Perish Song. All I can say about the spread is that I made it a little more offensive, because I was in need of some important OHKOs or 2HKOs. This may seem a stupid thought, but it paid off at Worlds and at the Boston Open. While his role wasn't changed from Milan, my way to play him was. At Worlds I used him more like a lategame sweeper, using Scald to OHKO or to do a lot of damage to Landorus and Charizard, instead of Perish Song them. 

Politoed is definitely a fantastic Pokémon and I can't imagine this team working without him. I was expecting a lot of Charizards at the event and Politoed + Gothitelle surely were the best counters, while Mawile defeats Kangaskhan, Salamence and Gardevoir. It was a perfect core, until I discovered that Thundurus was the most played Pokémon at Worlds. Inexperience defeated me this time, but I'll have a rematch in San Francisco.

Politoed's name is the nickname of my brother online; I promised him that he would have decided one of the nicknames of my Pokémons and here it is.

Jack (Ludicolo) (M) @ Assault Vest

Ability: Swift Swim

Modest Nature

- Scald 

- Giga Drain

- Ice Beam

- Fake Out

Same Ludicolo I used in Milan, but with a different spread. Ludicolo is the Pokémon that surprised me more at Worlds and at the Boston Open, because he worked better in rain than out of rain. At nats I basically played it to get a Fake Out while setting up the Trick Room, outside the Rain Mode. Scald, Ice Beam and Giga Drain provides an amazing coverage and Fake Out is the best move on this type of Ludicolo, as it provides support for Trick Room and Perish Song. Rain Mode was really great, but the lack of offensive presence because of Politoed made it really difficult to use it correctly. One of the moves that I enjoyed the most was leading Politoed and Ludicolo, switch out Ludicolo for Gothitelle and use Perish Song - while the opponent made a defensive turn, expecting a Fake Out + attack or just a double target on one of his Pokémon.

Ludicolo's name is Jack because it's a tribute to Jacopo Gardin, a friend that taught me a lot about Nationals and teambuilding back in 2013 and 2014. 

Braseg257 (Mawile) (F) @ Mawilite

Ability: Intimidate --> Huge Power

Adamant Nature

- Play Rough

- Rock Slide

- Sucker Punch

- Protect

Same Mawile I used in Milan, but with a different spread. Absolutely the best mega in this game. Amazing Steel-Fairy type, Intimidate before megaevolving and then Huge Power with a 105 base attack. I'm really proud of making Mawile work all the season, because she needs the right support to work well. The only bad thing is that Mawile can't be switched in to take any attack because, for example, Specs Sylveon Hyper Voice does about 60/70% at normal Mawile. I played all my game thinking how to gain the right momentum with both Mawile and Gothitelle on the field, and most of the times I had my gameplan since the first turn - or just in team preview. Play Rough is the only STAB attack, and is an insane powerful move - it does at least 80% to whatever doesn't resist it. Psychic + Play Rough kill everything apart from Steels. Rock Slide to hit Charizard, Talonflame and other Fire and Flying mons, and to get a power double target move with a 30% flinch chance. Sucker Punch to have a priority against Kangaskhan in Trick Room (fearing her own Sucker Punch) and to always hit Aegislash after Taunt. 

Braseg257 is Gilberto Goracci, my italian friend in Milan, and probably my best friend in general. I'd like to write all he did for me, but I'm already out of time.

MrMinion (Gothitelle) (F) @ Sitrus Berry

Ability: Shadow Tag

Sassy Nature

- Trick Room

- Psychic

- Taunt

- Protect

Same Gothitelle I used in Milan, but with a different spread. This Pokémon is the heart of the team. Trick Room and Shadow Tag are respectively one of the best moves and the best ability in the game, in my opinion. Combine this with a pretty good bulk and an amazing support movepool, and then you have Gothitelle. She made my gameplans much easier than with Cresselia, and paired with Mawile is the best combo ever (yes, more than Topogre in 2010). They can OHKO every Pokémon (or 90% of them) in this game, so you can imagine how much strong are they. Magic Coat would have been cool on Taunt's slot as I said at the beginning of the article, but Taunt was cool to defeat Amoonguss and other things, while making Mawile's Sucker Punch always hit. I'm sure that if I had used Magic Coat I'd have made day2 (as Gothitelle took an insane amount of status moves), but who knows: maybe without Taunt I'd have lost with Sven in the second round. 

MrMinion (Domenico) is an italian friend that I knew online back in 2013, and from then we always confront each other some teambuilding ideas, teams and funny things. He discovered Gothitelle back in June 2014 and he told me every day "AAH GOTHITELLE IS AMAZIIING AAAH JOIN THE #GOTHICULT" and things like that, so in August I started to use Gothitelle and I never looked back. Nicknaming Gothitelle with his online name was a must.

Eden (Hydreigon) (M) @ Choice Specs

Ability: Levitate

Timid Nature

- Draco Meteor

- Dark Pulse

- Flamethrower

- Earth Power

Same Hydreigon I used in Milan, but with a different spread. The Pokémon that I put in April in this team to cover Bisharp, but never did something against it. He just spams damage, while Gothitelle used Trick Room and let Mawile sweep a team on her own. Immediately after Nationals I had been testing Flash Cannon for a month, but I used it less than two times in like 50 match so it was pretty useless. Flamethrower also won me the Top4 at the Open so it definitely was cool, even if at Worlds I only used Draco Meteor. I was going to use Dark Pulse against Nikolay in the third game, but Hydreigon hurted itself in its confusion two times in a row, so I never had the chance. Hydreigon really surprised me at the Boston Open, while at Worlds I brought him only against Chase and Nikolay. He killed like two or three of Chase's Pokèmon in every game and it hit himself in the third game with Nikolay, as I said before. Apart from that, Hydreigon gives the team more consistency and it was essental for it, in my opinion.

Hydreigon is called Eden in honor of shinycarletto, who helped me a lot in my preparation to Worlds and he supported me from Italy. He loves things that do an insane amount of damage, so Hydreigon was the perfect Pokémon to give it his nickname.

Yaya (Entei) @ Rocky Helmet

Ability: Pressure

Jolly Nature

- Sacred Fire

- Will-O-Wisp

- Snarl

- Protect

Same Heatran as I used in Mil.. Nope, Heatran was the only Pokémon I changed from Milan, after losing in top8 to Specs Sylveon and Kangaskhan. As you read at the start of the article, I added Entei because I felt that I needed to be more ready to Kangaskhan and Sylveon. It also can use Snarl, while Gothitelle trapped the opponents and Will-O-Wisped to burn physical attackers. It made Perish Song set up so much easier to use against Pokémon with not much offensive pressure. I'm really happy about Entei, but now I'm testing another cool Fire type in this slot that would be probably better for Worlds. It's a shame I didn't noticed it before, but I'm still okay about this pick. Entei saved some of my matches at the Boston Open and it was a must against all the Bisharps I faced. Sacred Fire was used just for a STAB and strong attack - not for burn, I never used Sacred Fire only to burn a Pokémon. I don't believe that games decided on 50/50 are decent (and that's ironic because I lost a lot of matches to 50/50 moves). Will-O-Wisp was mainly for Kangaskhan, Bisharp and Landorus; Snarl just had a nice sinergy with Gothitelle. Protect because Protect. Rocky Helmet is in my opinion the best item for Entei and it worked a lot more than what I was expecting. 

Entei is called Yaya (which is the online name of Andrea Sala) because It's a tribute to all the help that he gave me about Pokémon in 2013 and 2014, and for all the general help that he's giving me now. He took, with his dad, my brother to Bochum to play the Regional where he got the 2nd place, in order to secure his paid trip to Boston. Shiny Entei looks like a wise dog, and since Yaya in Italy is know to be wise, Entei took his name.

About nicknames

I choose to nickname my Pokémon with the names of other players because all of them has helped me from my first minute in this community. Even if it's strange writing the "thanks" before the report itself, I'll do it anyway. In order of my Pokémon:

• Emanuele (Nano), my brother, won the paid trip that let me go to Boston and he always discouraged me when I told him my bad ideas: without him, now I'd be testing Aerodactyl+Machamp for sure.

• Jacopo (Jack) because, as I said in the Nationals report, he helped me getting in the competitive scene, while teaching me most of the things about Nationals when I wasn't even knowing their existance.

• Gilberto (Braseg_257) just because he is the best friend I could have ever asked for.

• Domenico (MrMinon) for introducing me to Gothitelle and for the "morning messages".

• Carlo (shinycarletto or Eden) to telling me the majority of the stories of this community and about older metagames, and also for being the person that helped me the most in my road to Boston.

• Andrea (Yaya) for everything he does, from Pokémon to real life he is a staple. I hope that he will finally get a good season after all those years of bad luck etc.

Another brief note

I'd really like to talk about the days I spent around Boston with my brother and my mum, watching some beautiful cities (like Salem, Cape Cod and so on) and wales, which was a really awesome experience, but I can't (too much work to write it); I'll also don't talk about the days that we spent at the Boston Sheraton Hotel with the other italian people, just because I don't want to write an infinite report. Just imagine that it was one of the best experiences in my entire life - and I absolutely want to repeat it in San Francisco.

And now..

World Championships day1

I woke up at 6:30 AM because I really wanted to go to the swimming pool (as I read in Matty's and Alexis's Worlds 2011 report - swimming pool before Worlds gives some luck). I went alone, as all the italians were sleeping, and I swim/relaxed myself for like 30 or 45 minutes. I went back to my room and I got a hot shower, which was really useful. Then, I went with my mom and my brother to the Starbucks were we met the italian friends - I left my mum here to walk with other mums and I went with the other italian players to the ceremony. Unluckily, we only watched the final part, but it was anyway really cool and it woke me up, I didn't realized at first that I was going to play Worlds in twenty minutes. After beng paired up with Max Douglas (starmetroid) for the player meeting and talked with him for like ten minutes - he was a very nice guy - pairings of the real event were up!

Round1 - Conan Thompson (conan) (0/0/0)

I heard a lot about Conan on Nugget Bridge. I knew he was a good player and that this was his first Masters year, like mine. He was playing viera's Japan Nationals winning team with Tyranitar on Charizard. I was pretty confident with the matchup. I don't remember the matches well - they were more than one month ago. The first game I forfeited on 1-3, but for the last three turns I tought only how to win game2 while he was destroying my team. In the second game I caught him off guard with a heavy rain lead, and he wasn't able to switch his landorus in the first turn, so I get a turn one kill without taking damage, which was awesome; I won the second match 3-1. I expected him to be prepared for rain this time by leading Kangaskhan - and I was right: I lead Gothitelle and Mawile against Kangaskhan and Tyranitar: I won the third game 4-1. They were some really intense and good games, but they were too long... So that just after I finished, Round2 pairings were up. Win 2-1

Round 2 vs. Sven Kracht (NWE~Python) (1/0/0)

I knew he had defeated PokeAlex 2-0 the round before, so I was expecting a good player. Italian people told me that he was using Sand and Special MegaSalamence. When the system paired us up, I discovered that he was NWE~Python, a german guy with a youtube channel to which I was subscribed of. I played well the first match and I was going to win, but a flinch by +1 Tyranitar made me lose the game. The second game I played a lot better than the first one, in spite of the fact that he get a perfect turn1 - Sky Drop Thundurus-T really caught me off guard, but Taunt on Gothitelle really saved the match. The third game was really intense, I remember that he used Spore on the right Pokémon in one of the last turns - and all the germans were happy of his play, but I was just smiling because he didn't see the timer, so I won that game because I had two Pokémon against only one of my opponent. We were the last players to finish this round and, again, I basically hadn't a break after this set. Win 2-1

Round 3 vs. Chase Lybbert (I am A Rookie) (2/0/0)

I don't remember much of these sets: just that Chase was a really nice guy and that they were two fast games. Hydreigon was an excellent choice against his team, so I always lead with it - my objective was to do as much damage as possible before dying and then sweep the rest of the team with Mawile. I won the first game just with Hydreigon, which get an OHKO in the first turn on Conkeldurr (along with Gothitelle's Psychic) and on his new entry Hydreigon in the second turn. The second game was basically a repetition of the first, but I remember Milotic spamming Icy Winds everywhere, I don't know why. I won also the second game. After this games I relaxed a lot (what a stupid thing to do) waiting for the round 4 pairings. I was absolutely sure that I was just a bo3 away from the goal of the season - playing Day2 of worlds. What a shame I actually failed to do it... Win 2-0

Round 4 vs. Tirso Buttafuoco (Fuoco24) (3/0/0)

I already defeated Tirso online back in summer 2014, and all I recall about that game were his standard plays. So I committed one of the biggest mistakes in my Pokémon: I relaxed myself. Really, I was thinking about me playing day2 - and I didn't focused on the match. The first game he played really standard but I played worst, add to that a Will-O-Wisp miss on Bisharp, Swagger and some paralysis and you have the result. This game was the start of my bad luck and my bad plays. Back in that moment my mind was "holy shit he won just thanks to swagger", so I was really frustrated and I played an horrible game2 (ironically started with a turn one Swagger). Nowadays, I know that I didn't lost to RNG, but it was my fault if I tilted immediately after the first game, and it was my fault if I didn't even tried to redeem myself in the second. I'll write an article about "hax" on Pokémon, because I learned a lot from day1 and I hope that my experience will help who reads my post. Losing your focus just because you see misses, Swagger and Thunder Wave is really fool, expecially when you're just a bo3 from day2 of Worlds. Anyway, Tirso was a really nice guy as he said "sorry" like 100 times after game1, even if what happened wasn't is fault. He also plays basketball and that's cool. Lost 0-2

Round 5 vs. Shun Fujimoto (Shinon64) (3/1/0)

I had burned one of my three match point. With only two left, I went to the table where Shun was waiting me. His team was really weak to rain (his only answers were Swagger and Thunder Wave), so the first game I lead Politoed Ludicolo against Landorus and Thundurus. I knew he basically hasn't switch to take a Scald, so my move on Landorus was obvious. Thus, he didn't switch his Landorus. The first turn didn't started with a kill on Landorus as I was ready to see, but with Swagger on Ludicolo, which hit itself in his confusion. Landorus get the easy U-Turn on Ludicolo and from this point I don't remember much of that game. Again, I tilted. I didn't play as I usually do and I lost also the second game. I was really frustrated, like against Tirso. For the second time in a row, Swagger tilted me in the first game and I poorly lost the second. Even writing this makes me feel bad; I was an idiot by thinking "you lost just for swagger, swagger is shit, all is shit" and so on. I'm sorry for the ridicolous second match by my side, even if I lost 0-1. Also Shun was a nice guy, he was japanese but he did his best to say "sorry" and "good luck for the next round". Lost 0-2

Round 6 vs. Nikolay Kucherenko (Zellel) (3/2/0)

This is too heartbreaking to write. First of all, huge thanks to Andrea Sala (Yaya), Carlo Arbelli (shinycarletto) and Francesco Pardini (Alexis) for motivating me to do my best and to don't stop against bad luck. I'm sorry I didn't won the last round as all of you was sure of. I'll redeem myself in 2016, it's a promise.

I was still charged of positive energy after Alexis words, so I did my best in this first game. I won 4-0. The second game was different - he chose to touch only Swagger and Thunder Wave with his Thundurus and, again, I tilted. Totally. Game 3 was the same, he just used Swagger and Thunder Wave. And he was laughing at every auto-hit or paralysis. I have no words to describe this games, really. But I anyway would like to say thanks to Nikolay. Our games taught me a lot. Sorry if I closed my 3DS immediately after out battle but I wasn't able to stay in the play room anymore. Lost 1-2

Post-Tournament things

Immediately after this game I took all my things and I went to my room. I was really destroyed as I failed my mission. I closed my telephone, my tablet and I put my head in the pillows. I stayed in that position for like an hour, until when Yaya went to my room to help me. We talked a lot about me stop playing Pokémon (another childish and stupid thing), but at the end he managed to convince me to not stop playing - while shinycarletto told me on Facebook that I had to absolutely play the Boston Open. Yaya signed me in, and then I went out with our italian group to dinner. 

After that, I spent the night to breed and edit pokemon for my brother and our friend Kevin - both of them had to play day2 of Worlds in seniors. I made spreads and teams for both of them, and they get 9th and 10th the following day, respectively. But I'll talk a little about their run in the Boston Open post, if I'll found enough time to write it.

End

I hope you will enjoy this report, even if it is shorter than Italy Nationals' one. I also hope that my experience at Worlds can be useful for you, maybe to don't tilt against certain moves.