So new year new season of SPL, ill be covering some of the weeks if i get to have enough free time to do it.
BIHI vs Kenix
I remember BIHI had some amazing performances against strong opponents before I got banned, but he was probably ranked too high on the power rankings. To me, it seemed more logical to rank him below Gorgie and Choolio. While BIHI had a deep run in the GSC Cup, my research didn’t show him playing against any of the top-tier competitors. In fact, the strongest opponents he faced were Sapientia, who is like 130 years old, and GLGLD0007—or whatever his name is.
The game itself was quite underwhelming in terms of preparation on BIHI's side and honestly rather boring from a viewer's perspective. He essentially loaded a sample team against Kenix, who seemed to have prepared more thoroughly, possibly with MDragon’s input in the teambuilder. I watched this game during breakfast, sipping my coffee, and couldn’t stop thinking about how BIHI could have had a serious chance of winning with just a few adjustments to his team. For example, Kenix's team wasn’t particularly good at removing Spikes, so a Zapdos moveset like the one below might have made a significant difference:
Paired with offensive Pokémon like Gengar, Nidoking, and Vaporeon, the team was actually capable of putting significant pressure on Kenix’s team. Marowak wasn’t technically a bad choice against Kenix; the problem was that Kenix used Toxic on almost every Pokémon, making it difficult to switch comfortably with anything on this team. This gave Kenix a significant advantage, allowing him to make obvious, low-risk plays while maintaining control with minimal effort. Kenix’s team was quite impressive in terms of synergy. Umbreon could afford to drop Charm from its moveset since Skarmory and Misdreavus effectively handled every Snorlax moveset. Toxic provided additional utility as well. His Raikou was most likely running Roar, as having three Sleep Talk users would have been too passive for Kenix’s playstyle. It was a strong start by Don Eduardo. On a side note, I’d also like to point out that the Tigers' SPL avatar looks more like a Tyrants’ one.
Conflict vs Rubyblood
Ruby starts this SPL with a win against the best player in the pool. He had a strong start with CurseLax, especially after landing a critical hit on the opposing Cloyster. This left Conflict with almost no room to maneuver and created a lot of uncertainty regarding Ruby's team composition—was he stalling or running offense? By Turn 9, Ruby applied even more pressure by Exploding with Golem, which was exactly the kind of play I would have gone for in that situation. When you gain an advantage against a player like Conflict, you should capitalize on it as soon as possible, or you might end up regretting it. However, Snorlax survived the Explosion due to a low damage roll, which ended up being somewhat significant later in the game, as Snorlax eventually removed Forretress. On Turn 26, Ruby nearly jeopardized his advantage. Losing Zapdos could have left him helpless against Quagsire. Additionally, I don't see any reason not to use Sleep Talk with Snorlax on Turn 19, so I theorize that Ruby's Snorlax wasn’t carrying it. This could have made his position far worse against Quagsire. Nevertheless, Ruby had a bit of fortune in that sequence and ultimately closed out the game with Zapdos. This game left me wondering if Conflict could have done anything differently to turn the tide. Perhaps hard-booming with Golem on Turn 6 could have been the better choice, rather than saving it and eventually booming on Forretress at Turn 16. Additionally, going straight to Smeargle on Turn 18 might have been the right call. That move would have created a difficult turn for Ruby, and Conflict likely wouldn’t have had a better chance to pull off the Agility Pass for the entire game. To be fair to Conflict, he probably made the best decisions he could with the information available to him. Unfortunately, his Smeargle fainted on Turn 29 to an extremely high damage roll—Thunder had only an 18% chance to kill. Depending on Ruby's last Pokémon, Conflict might have been in a position to win with a Belly Drum Quagsire boosted to +2 Speed. Quagsire's last move might have been Sludge Bomb to hit Exeggutor, but I suspect most players would opt for Hidden Power Rock to have a fighting chance against stuff like Skarmory.
Choolio vs Gorgie
This was the matchup that hyped me the most this week. Gorgie and Choolio are the type of players known for their ability to exploit their opponents' weaknesses, starting from the teambuilder and backing it up with solid gameplay. This combination means you’re usually in for a tough time when facing them, as they always find ways to put you in uncomfortable positions. The big question here was: what teams would these players bring to the table? Would they surprise the audience?
The game starts with a Cloyster mirror match. Typically, players would trade Toxic as a gentleman’s agreement, but Gorgie opts to directly spike instead. Maybe he’s not much of a gentleman, or perhaps he just knows his opponent’s tendencies too well. Choolio has a pretty underwhelming early game after his Cloyster takes a critical hit and his Golem play goes wrong on Turn 9. This forces him to rely heavily on Raikou and Snorlax defensively, more than he had planned. The Lovely Kiss landing on Exeggutor in Turn 15 leaves him in a rather hopeless position. Choolio’s team is heavily reliant on getting value out of his own Snorlax, but unfortunately, he didn’t. Later in the game, he did a decent job stalling with Heracross and Raikou, but the early-game advantage Gorgie built up was simply too large to overcome.
BlazingDark vs vani
Since Chiles Habaneros was featured on the official power rankings, I thought he was going to be the starter for the Raiders, but it seems like BD is the one playing. This is quite frustrating because I had to rewrite everything. Vani’s runs in SPL had been without much shame or glory, so I thought he wanted to step up and leave his competition behind, but he decided to bring a Meganium?! As showcased in the game, Meganium lacked the firepower needed to win, but it wasn’t a bad attempt overall. On the other hand, we had a GrowthPass with Zapdos as the late-game cleaner. Since Zapdos is often a target for explosions, I like having it on the team, but only as an option. In my opinion, the best fillers for this role are Starmie and Jynx. Not much to say about the gameplay itself, as both players made fairly obvious plays. BD secured the win when his Exeggutor exploded on Snorlax, leaving Vani very weak against Jolteon.
Siatam vs MrSoup
MrSoup’s debut in this SPL reminds me a lot of myself. It feels like it was just yesterday when I wanted to get bought for SPL. I worked my way through the GSC circuit, woke up one morning, and defeated FOMG in two games in round 1. At that moment, I thought, “This tournament is mine.” But then I lost to Earthworm in the finals. He ended the series in two games and outplayed me in 2–3 consecutive turns during game 2. That’s when I realized I just wasn’t good enough yet. MrSoup had a solid run in the GSC Invitational, defeating strong opponents along the way. The question isn’t whether he’s good or not—the real question is whether he’ll be able to withstand the pressure of a tournament like SPL. When things get tough, will he give up, or will he be relentless? This SPL will show him both the fear of losing and the thrill of success. Unfortunately for our hero, he starts with a loss against Siatam. Soup had a promising start when, at Turn 4, his Gengar stole Leftovers from the opposing Raikou, but things quickly went downhill when he lost his Cloyster on Turn 9 to Snorlax. From that point, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Marowak dismantled Soup’s team. It’s almost surprising the game lasted 210 turns—Siatam probably just played it safe after his strong early-game advantage, and there was also the fact that his Snorlax couldn’t effectively hit Golem. Soup did a good job standing his ground and had serious chances to win the game with a bit of luck. For instance, if the Sleep Talk from his Zapdos on Turn 19 had rolled Thunder, Siatam’s maneuverability against Espeon would have been extremely limited.
P.S: I copypasted from chatgpt to correct the grammar so sorry if something its not understandable or seems to be weird. Unrelated to the previous statement but if this glgl020007 guy signed up for SPL and wasnt bought it feels like a crime the dude literally won the hardest gsc tournament in the forum not counting the invitational
BIHI vs Kenix
I remember BIHI had some amazing performances against strong opponents before I got banned, but he was probably ranked too high on the power rankings. To me, it seemed more logical to rank him below Gorgie and Choolio. While BIHI had a deep run in the GSC Cup, my research didn’t show him playing against any of the top-tier competitors. In fact, the strongest opponents he faced were Sapientia, who is like 130 years old, and GLGLD0007—or whatever his name is.
The game itself was quite underwhelming in terms of preparation on BIHI's side and honestly rather boring from a viewer's perspective. He essentially loaded a sample team against Kenix, who seemed to have prepared more thoroughly, possibly with MDragon’s input in the teambuilder. I watched this game during breakfast, sipping my coffee, and couldn’t stop thinking about how BIHI could have had a serious chance of winning with just a few adjustments to his team. For example, Kenix's team wasn’t particularly good at removing Spikes, so a Zapdos moveset like the one below might have made a significant difference:
Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: No Ability
IVs: 26 Def
- Roar
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest
Ability: No Ability
IVs: 26 Def
- Roar
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Rest
Conflict vs Rubyblood
Ruby starts this SPL with a win against the best player in the pool. He had a strong start with CurseLax, especially after landing a critical hit on the opposing Cloyster. This left Conflict with almost no room to maneuver and created a lot of uncertainty regarding Ruby's team composition—was he stalling or running offense? By Turn 9, Ruby applied even more pressure by Exploding with Golem, which was exactly the kind of play I would have gone for in that situation. When you gain an advantage against a player like Conflict, you should capitalize on it as soon as possible, or you might end up regretting it. However, Snorlax survived the Explosion due to a low damage roll, which ended up being somewhat significant later in the game, as Snorlax eventually removed Forretress. On Turn 26, Ruby nearly jeopardized his advantage. Losing Zapdos could have left him helpless against Quagsire. Additionally, I don't see any reason not to use Sleep Talk with Snorlax on Turn 19, so I theorize that Ruby's Snorlax wasn’t carrying it. This could have made his position far worse against Quagsire. Nevertheless, Ruby had a bit of fortune in that sequence and ultimately closed out the game with Zapdos. This game left me wondering if Conflict could have done anything differently to turn the tide. Perhaps hard-booming with Golem on Turn 6 could have been the better choice, rather than saving it and eventually booming on Forretress at Turn 16. Additionally, going straight to Smeargle on Turn 18 might have been the right call. That move would have created a difficult turn for Ruby, and Conflict likely wouldn’t have had a better chance to pull off the Agility Pass for the entire game. To be fair to Conflict, he probably made the best decisions he could with the information available to him. Unfortunately, his Smeargle fainted on Turn 29 to an extremely high damage roll—Thunder had only an 18% chance to kill. Depending on Ruby's last Pokémon, Conflict might have been in a position to win with a Belly Drum Quagsire boosted to +2 Speed. Quagsire's last move might have been Sludge Bomb to hit Exeggutor, but I suspect most players would opt for Hidden Power Rock to have a fighting chance against stuff like Skarmory.
Choolio vs Gorgie
This was the matchup that hyped me the most this week. Gorgie and Choolio are the type of players known for their ability to exploit their opponents' weaknesses, starting from the teambuilder and backing it up with solid gameplay. This combination means you’re usually in for a tough time when facing them, as they always find ways to put you in uncomfortable positions. The big question here was: what teams would these players bring to the table? Would they surprise the audience?
The game starts with a Cloyster mirror match. Typically, players would trade Toxic as a gentleman’s agreement, but Gorgie opts to directly spike instead. Maybe he’s not much of a gentleman, or perhaps he just knows his opponent’s tendencies too well. Choolio has a pretty underwhelming early game after his Cloyster takes a critical hit and his Golem play goes wrong on Turn 9. This forces him to rely heavily on Raikou and Snorlax defensively, more than he had planned. The Lovely Kiss landing on Exeggutor in Turn 15 leaves him in a rather hopeless position. Choolio’s team is heavily reliant on getting value out of his own Snorlax, but unfortunately, he didn’t. Later in the game, he did a decent job stalling with Heracross and Raikou, but the early-game advantage Gorgie built up was simply too large to overcome.
BlazingDark vs vani
Since Chiles Habaneros was featured on the official power rankings, I thought he was going to be the starter for the Raiders, but it seems like BD is the one playing. This is quite frustrating because I had to rewrite everything. Vani’s runs in SPL had been without much shame or glory, so I thought he wanted to step up and leave his competition behind, but he decided to bring a Meganium?! As showcased in the game, Meganium lacked the firepower needed to win, but it wasn’t a bad attempt overall. On the other hand, we had a GrowthPass with Zapdos as the late-game cleaner. Since Zapdos is often a target for explosions, I like having it on the team, but only as an option. In my opinion, the best fillers for this role are Starmie and Jynx. Not much to say about the gameplay itself, as both players made fairly obvious plays. BD secured the win when his Exeggutor exploded on Snorlax, leaving Vani very weak against Jolteon.
Siatam vs MrSoup
MrSoup’s debut in this SPL reminds me a lot of myself. It feels like it was just yesterday when I wanted to get bought for SPL. I worked my way through the GSC circuit, woke up one morning, and defeated FOMG in two games in round 1. At that moment, I thought, “This tournament is mine.” But then I lost to Earthworm in the finals. He ended the series in two games and outplayed me in 2–3 consecutive turns during game 2. That’s when I realized I just wasn’t good enough yet. MrSoup had a solid run in the GSC Invitational, defeating strong opponents along the way. The question isn’t whether he’s good or not—the real question is whether he’ll be able to withstand the pressure of a tournament like SPL. When things get tough, will he give up, or will he be relentless? This SPL will show him both the fear of losing and the thrill of success. Unfortunately for our hero, he starts with a loss against Siatam. Soup had a promising start when, at Turn 4, his Gengar stole Leftovers from the opposing Raikou, but things quickly went downhill when he lost his Cloyster on Turn 9 to Snorlax. From that point, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Marowak dismantled Soup’s team. It’s almost surprising the game lasted 210 turns—Siatam probably just played it safe after his strong early-game advantage, and there was also the fact that his Snorlax couldn’t effectively hit Golem. Soup did a good job standing his ground and had serious chances to win the game with a bit of luck. For instance, if the Sleep Talk from his Zapdos on Turn 19 had rolled Thunder, Siatam’s maneuverability against Espeon would have been extremely limited.
P.S: I copypasted from chatgpt to correct the grammar so sorry if something its not understandable or seems to be weird. Unrelated to the previous statement but if this glgl020007 guy signed up for SPL and wasnt bought it feels like a crime the dude literally won the hardest gsc tournament in the forum not counting the invitational