Toronto Regionals Reflection

Team Thoughts

• This was a very interesting tournament run because the first half of my matchups were HEAVILY unfavored, and then the second half were almost entirely in my favor.

  • More specifically, my swiss round matchups were terrible with one or two exceptions, and my top cut matchups were significantly easier. This is likely just a coincidence but it is interesting and worth noting

• Every little decision I made on this team ended up paying off - the specific speed stats, the EV spreads, the items - they all did exactly what I wanted them to.

  • The item choices on this team were REALLY unintuitive, but I think I nailed them completely.

    • Amoonguss, Gothitelle, and Politoed all wanted the Sitrus Berry - and while I knew Gothitelle needed it from experience with Perish Trap, the next best items on Politoed and Amoonguss were really murky.

      • Leftovers is an item I don’t generally like, but it was SO good on Politoed. I actually think there might be something to learn about Leftovers on a bulky Pokemon in a metagame where Rillaboom is very common, since Leftovers is really enabled by Grassy Terrain.

      • Eject Button is an item that almost never sees any play. Truthfully, I doubt I’d have even considered it if I hadn’t used it on my first Perish Trap team back in 2015. Eject Button is a VERY difficult item to use, but it really worked on Perish Trap

    • Power Herb Sturdy Archaludon is a very strange choice on a team with Rain, but it was, in my opinion, the ONLY set that would have worked on this team.

      • It’s a good reminder to not just default into the standard sets - I initially had Assault Vest on this team before realizing it didn’t fit at all. Just because a set generally makes sense, doesn’t mean it’s always the right set on your specific team.

• I practiced for this tournament exclusively on the best of 1, closed team sheet ladder because I initially only intended to use this team in a GC and ran out of time before Toronto to play best of 3s, choosing to work on the Worlds video instead.

  • I think it’s interesting that many of the “Best of 1 techs” ended up working completely fine in best of 3 - like Sturdy Power Herb Archaludon and Eject Button Amoonguss and even Protect Incineroar. The lesson I’m taking away from this is that if a best of 1 surprise tech is really good, it should work in best of 3 as well. I think this is more of a lesson about best of 1 than best of 3 personally - like “If your gimmick doesn’t work when your opponent knows about it, it probably isn’t that good”.

  • I did have months of practice on the best of 1 ladder - I’m not sure I’d recommend using it as the sole source of practice for a best of 3 tournament in general, at least not on its own

• I almost dropped Kingdra because it was so bad in the GC, but I stuck with it in the end because I didn’t think anything else could do its job better, and in the end it was one of the most crucial Pokemon on the team - in the top cut, Kingdra came to more games than Archaludon. I think the lesson here is that sometimes best of 1 doesn’t give you as good an understanding of your matchup spread as Best of 3, or maybe more subtly some Pokemon are better in Open Team Sheet compared to Closed Team Sheet.

  • Kingdra is so frail that you really want it to be taking a KO when you bring it - not knowing if something is Sash, or has Protect, or if their Tera Type resists water made Kingdra a lot worse in best of 1 Closed Team Sheet - but once I had all the information, it felt much stronger. This also had to do with the specific matchups I was running into as well - Kingdra was here in part because I hate Jumpluff.

Play Thoughts

• I stole a LOT of games over the course of this weekend. In part because my matchups were so bad, I constantly found myself backed into corners requiring me to make a play to get out.

  • I think part of the reason I was able to win many of these situations was because I was so much more familiar with the goals of the match than my opponents, due to them likely having no experience against Perish Trap with their teams.

• There was very, very little room for error in this tournament. Of the two sets I lost, the first one was due to me being forced into gambling on a speed tie in both games, and losing both (with the winner of the speed tie winning the game), and the second I made a great adjustment bringing Kingdra when I’d previously brought Archaludon, but clicking the wrong move on one turn (I used Muddy Water instead of Draco Meteor) and having it cost me the game. I think the margins were so tight because my matchups were so bad, playing almost nonstop Gholdengo until Top Cut and having such limited tools to hit it.

• I have become extremely good at using Perish Trap. There were so many times throughout the tournament where I used it to trap only one Pokemon, or used it without bringing Gothitelle in right away, or set up desynchronized Perish Counters, or even used it and never brought Gothitelle in at all (in the finals). The more I use the move, the more I understand just how game warping it is - I think I could even get better at using it, maybe setting it up just to force a switch a few turns down the line on Pokemon that can’t be trapped.

• I pretty much just ripped Tera Electric Electro Shot every time I was in front of a Gholdengo, and in well over 50% of cases they just Protected. I wonder if there was a better way of playing these interactions - I knew my opponent was likely to protect most of the time but the cost if I was wrong (and reward if I was right and hit the Gholdengo) was so high that I always just launched it. This is likely a reflection of fundamental flaws in my team, that I couldn’t find a safer move.

• One of my opponents used out of game tactics in a way I felt was pretty underhanded - I didn’t fall for them, but it’s a good reminder to ignore anything your opponent is doing outside of the game in case they are trying to intentionally mislead you.

Mentality Thoughts

• This is the best I’ve felt about my mentality at a tournament in a long time. In previous tournaments I’ve felt like I’ve been able to put myself in a really good headspace on the first day, but things kind of fall apart on the second day. This time, I found a way around that.

• There were a few times during the tournament, on day 2 specifically, where I felt myself start to get overwhelmed by the stress. I felt my hands going numb, I felt myself rushing, I noticed my hands in my hair. In the past, my stress level is like water rising - once it reaches a certain point, it doesn’t go back down again. This time, I was able to acknowledge that it was happening - and actually regain control, at least partially, in the middle of sets. I’m not entirely sure what I did specifically that allowed me to do this, but it feels like a real step forward.

  • In the past, I feel like in the sets I would lose there would be a general flow - games 1 and 2 would take a really long time, and in one of them I’d make some real boneheaded play which would ultimately lead to a loss. Then by the time game 3 rolled around, I’d be super stressed and I’d have trouble thinking.

    • This time around, I won so many game 3s vs strong opponents despite throwing away earlier games in the set - and a lot of them I won in really smart, convincing ways with play that feels like MY strongest kind.

• Not thinking about the stakes of the tournament, especially as I got closer to the end, was difficult - but I think it made it easier for me to keep my head on straight. I knew that winning would mean a lot to me, but I forced myself to not think about it and instead focus on the game in front of me.