Jester vs Tsunami
This game felt like a rollercoaster, where we had the classical spikewar interaction between generic offense and spikeless stall. For those who don't know what happens in these matchups, I will explain: Starmie gets intoxicated, and then the offensive team is able to eventually spike. This sequence may be long depending on whether the stall team has heal bell or not. The other possible outcome of this matchup is that the opposing Cloyster gets neutralized somehow, and then the offensive team should generally be at a disadvantage (unless it has a way to make progress without spike pressure). Tsunami played pasively the entire early game; however, I think this pasivity helped him to setup his Explosion play with Cloyster at Turn 33, and after removing Snorlax, his Jolteon was almost automatically winning the game, so we can say that Tsunami played his wincon in the way he was supposed to play it. Jester understands his position and tries to remove Jolteon with Cloyster at Turn 39, but it fails, making the position worse. Here is where we have to remember that this is still a Pokemon game and that sometimes the only thing you need to win is to refuse to lose. The game is not completely over, and Jester has some good things in his favor. One of them is Gengar, which happens to be, in my opinion, the most threatening Pokemon when you are using stall. Another good thing for Jester is that he was able to use Rapid Spin with Golem, which means he can now freely double switch with the remaining Pokemon he has. The bad thing is that any mistake from here could be losing the game, and this is where Tsunami suddenly ends in a weird defensive loop facing an opponent whos refusing to lose and that is able to win with a combination of good plays and luck.
BlazingDark vs ggggggggggggggggggg
When you have a cursed season like the one ggggd is having, it's not advisable to bring a cursed team that may lose against a simple monocurselax from Turn 1. BD's brought a phazing light screen Zapdos combined with Machamp's sheer force. Ice Beam Cloyster not only makes the team look cooler, but it also may be the optimal move when paired with Machamp. The possibility of hitting Zapdos once and forcing it to eventually rest makes stuff just easier. ggggd has a good start because leftovers were removed from Snorlax. Removing leftovers from Snorlax means he can neutralize Snorlax with sleep combined with spike pressure and also means that his own Snorlax is favored to win in the case of a mirror. Despite technically killing Snorlax at Turn 23, ggggd is still in a not-so-great position, with Snorlax being permawalled by Tyranitar and Gengar. Zapdos may be threatening for BlazingDark, but it can't really switch on anything without losing around 40% or more of HP. After getting the para on Gengar, it seemed like ggggd may be actually able to win, but he was relying too much on Zapdos hitting or getting everything in the end to win, and the fact that BlazingDark made the best possible moves at Turns 60 and 62 didn't help him either. A good job from BD clutching the week for the Tyrants.
Zokuru vs vani
Unlike the rest of his pasive SPL run, Zokuru had a strong showcase this week. After tying a 500-turn game, he proved hes able to play offensively when he wants. Vani probably committed a mistake in the moment he decided to re-use the same team. I think this helped Zokuru make the Turn 10 Explosion play since he knew what to expect from his opponent, and then his Gengar just finished the game with spike damage combined with Dynamic Punch hitting stuff and a freeze on Quagsire. Gengar is not the best Pokemon in GSC, but it shares a unique characteristic with Snorlax. Like Snorlax, depending on its moveset, Gengar is able to defeat all the Pokemon that are supposed to check it. With Gengar permawalling Miltank, I'm not sure if I agree with the Turn 30 Explosion, there's no rush to boom since Quagsire and Snorlax are weakened and unable to exert immediate pressure. It would have been fine if he had LK Jynx, but it happened to be RestTalk, so I think the endgame happened to be more complicated against Miltank than what it needed to be.
Fear vs Siatam
Fear usually stalls around one or two times per SPL, and Siatam happened to bring Alakazam against him, a pokemon that goes from not very good to useless defensive teams. The game kind of went in autopilot mode from the beginning, with Fear making for some moments aggressive plays like the interaction between Snorlax and Cloyster at Turn 27. The good thing for Siatam is that hes able to remove Snorlax at Turn 42 the bad thing is that Fear doesn't really need it to win. Alakazam was actually able to showcase the ppstall potential it has against Tyranitar, but the game was still over since Siatam needed to remove too many members from the Fears team in order to make it threatening.
Vileman vs Chiles
Vileman brought a team that seems to rely on Gengar trapping everything to defeat Stall; he ends up trapping Misdreavus, and in exchange for that, his Gengar was paralyzed, making Vileman kinda helpless against this defensive structure. Even without the para, it would have been difficult because Chiles would eventually spike and Gengar would lose HP whenever it attempted to do anything. I am not sure what the Leech Seed Exeggutor is supposed to accomplish. Vileman has a good call at Turn 40, but hes still unable to make considerable progress and Starmie is still alive with access to Recover. In this game, we see one of the bad things about Screech Tyranitar, with Rock Slide having only 16 points and not 100% accuracy. Chiles seems to be ppstalling it quite well. In the moment Chiles was about to get a winning position, his Skarmory got critten, thing that make us wonder if Vileman could possibly win without the crit. The answer is probably not, but to be fair, with Skarmory paralyzed and him being the only one who was actually attacking, his chances weren't precisely low either.
Disclaimer: I used an AI grammar corrector that idk if it actually makes this looks better
This game felt like a rollercoaster, where we had the classical spikewar interaction between generic offense and spikeless stall. For those who don't know what happens in these matchups, I will explain: Starmie gets intoxicated, and then the offensive team is able to eventually spike. This sequence may be long depending on whether the stall team has heal bell or not. The other possible outcome of this matchup is that the opposing Cloyster gets neutralized somehow, and then the offensive team should generally be at a disadvantage (unless it has a way to make progress without spike pressure). Tsunami played pasively the entire early game; however, I think this pasivity helped him to setup his Explosion play with Cloyster at Turn 33, and after removing Snorlax, his Jolteon was almost automatically winning the game, so we can say that Tsunami played his wincon in the way he was supposed to play it. Jester understands his position and tries to remove Jolteon with Cloyster at Turn 39, but it fails, making the position worse. Here is where we have to remember that this is still a Pokemon game and that sometimes the only thing you need to win is to refuse to lose. The game is not completely over, and Jester has some good things in his favor. One of them is Gengar, which happens to be, in my opinion, the most threatening Pokemon when you are using stall. Another good thing for Jester is that he was able to use Rapid Spin with Golem, which means he can now freely double switch with the remaining Pokemon he has. The bad thing is that any mistake from here could be losing the game, and this is where Tsunami suddenly ends in a weird defensive loop facing an opponent whos refusing to lose and that is able to win with a combination of good plays and luck.
BlazingDark vs ggggggggggggggggggg
When you have a cursed season like the one ggggd is having, it's not advisable to bring a cursed team that may lose against a simple monocurselax from Turn 1. BD's brought a phazing light screen Zapdos combined with Machamp's sheer force. Ice Beam Cloyster not only makes the team look cooler, but it also may be the optimal move when paired with Machamp. The possibility of hitting Zapdos once and forcing it to eventually rest makes stuff just easier. ggggd has a good start because leftovers were removed from Snorlax. Removing leftovers from Snorlax means he can neutralize Snorlax with sleep combined with spike pressure and also means that his own Snorlax is favored to win in the case of a mirror. Despite technically killing Snorlax at Turn 23, ggggd is still in a not-so-great position, with Snorlax being permawalled by Tyranitar and Gengar. Zapdos may be threatening for BlazingDark, but it can't really switch on anything without losing around 40% or more of HP. After getting the para on Gengar, it seemed like ggggd may be actually able to win, but he was relying too much on Zapdos hitting or getting everything in the end to win, and the fact that BlazingDark made the best possible moves at Turns 60 and 62 didn't help him either. A good job from BD clutching the week for the Tyrants.
Zokuru vs vani
Unlike the rest of his pasive SPL run, Zokuru had a strong showcase this week. After tying a 500-turn game, he proved hes able to play offensively when he wants. Vani probably committed a mistake in the moment he decided to re-use the same team. I think this helped Zokuru make the Turn 10 Explosion play since he knew what to expect from his opponent, and then his Gengar just finished the game with spike damage combined with Dynamic Punch hitting stuff and a freeze on Quagsire. Gengar is not the best Pokemon in GSC, but it shares a unique characteristic with Snorlax. Like Snorlax, depending on its moveset, Gengar is able to defeat all the Pokemon that are supposed to check it. With Gengar permawalling Miltank, I'm not sure if I agree with the Turn 30 Explosion, there's no rush to boom since Quagsire and Snorlax are weakened and unable to exert immediate pressure. It would have been fine if he had LK Jynx, but it happened to be RestTalk, so I think the endgame happened to be more complicated against Miltank than what it needed to be.
Fear vs Siatam
Fear usually stalls around one or two times per SPL, and Siatam happened to bring Alakazam against him, a pokemon that goes from not very good to useless defensive teams. The game kind of went in autopilot mode from the beginning, with Fear making for some moments aggressive plays like the interaction between Snorlax and Cloyster at Turn 27. The good thing for Siatam is that hes able to remove Snorlax at Turn 42 the bad thing is that Fear doesn't really need it to win. Alakazam was actually able to showcase the ppstall potential it has against Tyranitar, but the game was still over since Siatam needed to remove too many members from the Fears team in order to make it threatening.
Vileman vs Chiles
Vileman brought a team that seems to rely on Gengar trapping everything to defeat Stall; he ends up trapping Misdreavus, and in exchange for that, his Gengar was paralyzed, making Vileman kinda helpless against this defensive structure. Even without the para, it would have been difficult because Chiles would eventually spike and Gengar would lose HP whenever it attempted to do anything. I am not sure what the Leech Seed Exeggutor is supposed to accomplish. Vileman has a good call at Turn 40, but hes still unable to make considerable progress and Starmie is still alive with access to Recover. In this game, we see one of the bad things about Screech Tyranitar, with Rock Slide having only 16 points and not 100% accuracy. Chiles seems to be ppstalling it quite well. In the moment Chiles was about to get a winning position, his Skarmory got critten, thing that make us wonder if Vileman could possibly win without the crit. The answer is probably not, but to be fair, with Skarmory paralyzed and him being the only one who was actually attacking, his chances weren't precisely low either.
Disclaimer: I used an AI grammar corrector that idk if it actually makes this looks better
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