Hi! My name is Markus Stadter and I recently won the 2023 Bochum Regional Championships, one of the biggest VGC tournaments in Europe ever. It’s been a while since I won a big offline tournament and this win means a lot to me, which is why I would like to share the team and my tournament run in this report.
My achievements in VGC previous to this tournament include 2 National Championship wins (2014 Germany and 2015 United Kingdom), Worlds Top 4 (2016) and 2 Regionals wins (2016 Stockholm and 2017 Leipzig). I was very happy with what I have already achieved at this game, but as you can see my big accomplishments are all a few years in the past, when I was still studying and had much more time to focus on Pokémon. When I started working full-time in 2020 I wasn’t sure if I could continue to perform at the highest level, but qualifying for Day 2 of Worlds in 2022 and finishing in the Top 32 motivated me a lot and I decided that I would keep playing with the goal to win tournaments.
To be honest sometimes it can be very hard to know that I cannot reach my best because I can’t put in the time and effort anymore while still having very high expectations and goals. I am still learning how to deal with this in the best way and how to be smart about how I use the time I can put into Pokémon and I am really glad that I could still win a tournament as prestigious and big as Bochum Regionals all these years later.
Table of Contents
Teambuilding process
First of all, I need to stress again that this team was mostly built by Wolfe Glick. I am very glad to have a friend like him and that he shared this team with me!
After using Dondozo in Liverpool, I knew I didn’t want to use it again for Regulation Set B and instead started to look at other options first. One idea I had pretty soon after Liverpool was to combine the Indeedee + Armarouge Trick Room core with a Tailwind mode. I thought Speed-boosting Booster Energy Roaring Moon would be a good fit because it also has a good match up in the mirror. I didn’t actually test this idea much, but my friends Wolfe and Aaron Traylor looked into similar ideas so we chatted about them for a bit. Wolfe liked the concept of Trick Room + Tailwind, but didn’t like Indeedee + Armarouge too much. Also Roaring Moon left the team quickly, since it required Terastalization in many games to get rid of its weaknesses. Iron Jugulis was something that Wolfe had talked about earlier, but I didn’t believe it could be strong at first.
This changed when I saw him use the first version of the team in early February. The team was:
This already consisted of 5 out of the 6 final members!
Brute Bonnet was strong, but the Trick Room mode was a bit awkward and soon Wolfe looked into alternatives to it. Around one and a half weeks before Bochum, I started to talk to Wolfe more about the team. Iron Hands had joined over Brute Bonnet and we started to spend quite some time to finalize the game plans, EV spreads, moves and Tera Types of the Pokémon. We made some decisions that were crucial in both our runs at Regionals and I’m very happy that we put in the time to push the team further rather than being happy with what we had.
Since Knoxville Regionals and Bochum Regionals happened on the same weekend, we had the rare chance to use the same team while not attending the same tournament.
The Team
Find a paste of the team here!
ANOKATA (Iron Jugulis) @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 4 SpA / 132 SpD / 116 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Protect
– Air Slash
– Snarl
– Tailwind
Iron Jugulis was a core piece of the team and definitely carried its weight in the tournament. The EV split allows it to outrun unboosted Flutter Mane and Iron Bundle, which was crucial to get a Snarl off before they could attack. The Speed lets us outrun max Speed Choice Scarf Annihilape. It is important to outspeed Great Tusk when at -1 Speed, since it is commonly paired with Booster Energy Iron Bundle. The bulk came in handy many times.
When using Iron Jugulis, you need to be aware that it will not do a ton of damage and you need to be smart where to attack to soften up opponents for Gholdengo and Great Tusk. One advantage that Iron Jugulis has over more frail Tailwind setters like Talonflame is that, with Snarl and the bulk, oftentimes you can set up Tailwind a second time after the first one peters out.
The moves all seem necessary and I don’t think it’s wise to run another moveset on Iron Jugulis if you want it to set up Tailwind like we did. Steel Tera Type was something we adapted pretty late and was supposed to help against Flutter Mane and Dragonite. It didn’t come up very often in the tournament, but I used it in Game 3 of Round 10 to set up Tailwind for a second time against Javier Señorena.
252 SpA Flutter Mane Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 132 SpD Iron Jugulis: 170-204 (84.5 – 101.4%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
76+ Atk Iron Hands Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Iron Jugulis: 180-212 (89.5 – 105.4%) — 31.3% chance to OHKO
KAITO KID (Gholdengo) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Good as Gold
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 244 HP / 36 Def / 132 SpA / 4 SpD / 92 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Make It Rain
– Shadow Ball
– Power Gem
– Trick
Gholdengo is a Pokémon I enjoyed using a lot in Regulation Set A and I was happy to see that it could still be strong in Regulation Set B. At first we were running a faster version to make use of Icy Wind support Iron Bundle can provide. However, we realized that Gholdengo is strongest when it is led next to Iron Jugulis and that bulk is needed to survive some combination of hits. Snarl from Iron Jugulis helps Gholdengo a lot as it lowers the damage output from Flutter Mane and other fast Pokémon that threaten Gholdengo.
The Speed outruns Choice Scarf Tatsugiri and speed-creeps other bulky Gholdengo and bulky Annihilape. We chose to run Power Gem to help against Arcanine. I didn’t use Power Gem very often, but most of the time you are using Make It Rain anyway. Trick was there against bulky teams and against Trick Room. How it can completely win games on the spot was showcased well in Game 2 of finals. Steel Tera Type is great to get rid of Ghost- and Dark-type weaknesses and to boost Make It Rain even further.
132+ SpA Choice Specs Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Great Tusk: 195-229 (102 – 119.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 244 HP / 4 SpD Gholdengo: 168-198 (87 – 102.5%) — 12.5% chance to OHKO
JUZO MEGURE (Great Tusk) @ Life Orb
Ability: Protosynthesis
Level: 50
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 28 HP
– Protect
– Headlong Rush
– Close Combat
– Earthquake
Life Orb Great Tusk is such a strong Pokémon that it can easily tear through teams especially after they were hit by Make It Rain.
A regular battle with the team would often be to lead Iron Jugulis and Gholdengo, set Tailwind and attack with Make It Rain. Now the opponent has to make a choice: if they attack Iron Jugulis, they will probably fail to knock it out easily because it is so bulky and will have to take more Make It Rain. If they knock out Gholdengo, Great Tusk will come in and can pressure with Earthquake thanks to Iron Jugulis’ Flying type and its 120 STAB moves. They only have a few turns to knock out Iron Jugulis or Tailwind will be set up for a second time. And even if they knock out Iron Jugulis, Iron Bundle can come in and provide more speed control for Great Tusk with Icy Wind.
Ground Tera Type is used to boost Earthquake and Headlong Rush even further. We used Jolly to outspeed all Gholdengo and bulky Arcanine and to get at least the speed tie against opposing Great Tusk. Unfortunately max Speed Booster Energy Iron Bundle always outspeeds Great Tusk in Tailwind, but that is something you have to play around. We chose to run 28 HP IVs because we wanted to run max Attack and max Speed and couldn’t find any defensive calcs that changed with a 189 HP stat value and it seemed likely to get off multiple attacks with Great Tusk. If you can find arguments to run 31 HP IV, please let me know, I’m genuinely curious!
AI HAIBARA (Iron Bundle) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Quark Drive
Level: 50
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Protect
– Icy Wind
– Encore
– Freeze-Dry
We opted to run Focus Sash since Booster Energy was already taken and Covert Cloak didn’t come up very often in testing. Instead Focus Sash provided us with a lifeline that Iron Bundle appreciates.
Tera Type is Flying to help against Great Tusk and more notably to avoid being hit by our own Great Tusk’s Earthquakes. We agreed that we didn’t want to run Hydro Pump and I think we succeeded in finding a moveset that actually gets away with not running it. Encore combos really nicely with Gothitelle’s Shadow Tag and helps a lot in the Dondozo match-up because it prevents them from going for Protect or Substitute, which means that Fake Out from Iron Hands is pretty effective against it. Encore also came in handy to punish opponents for setting up Tailwind, going for Fake Out or Protect and for securing end games.
MIWAKO SATO (Gothitelle) @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Tag
Level: 50
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 124 Def / 132 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 3 Spe
– Protect
– Charm
– Psychic
– Trick Room
Gothitelle was amazing on this type of team. It provided the team with a Trick Room mode that can be transitioned into quite nicely after the 4 turns of Tailwind are over. With Charm and Leftovers, it can lock in physical attackers like Dragonite and turn the game essentially in a 2v1. Charm is also really helpful versus Dondozo.
We decided not to run Fake Out, because Gothitelle functions a bit differently on our team than on other Tailwind teams where it was seen before. Instead of supporting for example Flutter Mane as a lead, Gothitelle usually comes in the back together with Iron Hands to seal up end games. And if we decide to lead Gothitelle, it is usually next to Iron Hands to set up Trick Room early, which doesn’t require Gothitelle to use Fake Out.
Leftovers vs Sitrus Berry was a debate we had, but looking back at some of our games, we realized that Gothitelle can stay on the field for a pretty long time, making Leftovers more effective. Steel Tera Type helps Gothitelle to wall Dragonite, which was otherwise a problem for the team. Gothitelle hits a Speed stat value of 71, which is 1 below min Speed Armarouge, while still outspeeding e.g. Adamant Great Tusk in Tailwind.
252+ SpA Life Orb Flutter Mane Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 132+ SpD Gothitelle: 151-179 (85.3 – 101.1%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
GENTA KOJIMA (Iron Hands) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Quark Drive
Level: 50
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 100 HP / 156 Atk / 252 SpD
Adamant Nature
– Fake Out
– Close Combat
– Wild Charge
– Drain Punch
Iron Hands was the last Pokémon to join the team and felt like the correct Pokémon to complete the Trick Room mode we wanted to include. With Assault Vest and max Special Defense, it becomes really bulky also on the Special side and can even take on Flutter Mane and Iron Bundle. We decided to use Grass Tera Type mostly against Amoonguss and Great Tusk.
Initially, the Iron Hands we used was pretty fast to abuse Tailwind more, but we realized that we needed to be slower than Armarouge to outspeed it in Trick Room. Since we wanted Iron Hands to hit before Gothitelle in Trick Room, we put it at a Speed stat value of 70 to still outspeed Adamant Great Tusk in Tailwind. This is relevant against Dondozo, to be able to break the Substitute first with Wild Charge, before lowering its Attack with Gothitelle’s Charm. While I used 70 Speed stat on Iron Hands, Wolfe didn’t want to speed-tie Kingambit with no Speed investment and ran 69 Speed stat. I had already shiny-hunted for one and didn’t want to get one with 29 Speed IVs, so I stuck with 31.
Close Combat was the first fighting move we used and we liked the damage output it provided, but Drain Punch felt strong when Trick Room was set up to knock out Kingambit or Tyranitar, when dropping its Defenses wasn’t necessary. Running both felt like the right choice to me and I ended up using Drain Punch more often than Close Combat in the tournament.
How to use the team
| Opponent’s team | Comments |
|---|---|
| General |
|
| Fast teams that cannot stop Trick Room |
|
Gavin Michaels‘s OCIC team     |
|
Dondozo teams  |
|
| Trick Room teams |
|
| Other options |
|
Major threats
| Threat | Comments |
|---|---|
| Dragonite completely walls Great Tusk and only Iron Bundle can hit it for super effective damage.
|
 | Kingambit completely walls Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo and makes Snarl very risky.
|
  | This was not something we considered in team building. Lilligant in Sun outspeeds the entire team and Fire types are already not so easy to handle.
|
 | Fire types can be problematic as we don’t have a quick way to get rid of them (no Hydro Pump on Iron Bundle).
|
 | Volcarona can be problematic if it gets out of hand with Quiver Dance boosts.
|
Tournament run
Next, I want to describe my tournament run. On Day 1, all my opponents went at least 5-4 so all my games were competitive. I finished 7-2 on Day 1 and 8-0 in sets on Day 2 for a total record of 15-2. This was my run at Bochum Regionals!
Day 1 Swiss rounds
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | WLW |  Dennis Komen (D) |   |  |
| R2 | WW | Kusha K. (Busha) | | |
| R3 | WW |  Omar Ziyani (Omar) |   | |
| R4 | LL |  Nikola Zirdum (Nix) | | |
| R5 | WW |  Francesco Raga (Lil Darkrai) |  | |
| R6 | LWL |  Simon Bernard (Ryo) |   | |
| R7 | WW | Christian Bicker (Chrisbe) |   | |
| R8 | WLW |  Enosh Shachar (Enosh) |  | |
| R9 | WLW |  Matt Maynard (bwenty) |   | |
Click on the tabs to see some notes about my matches!
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | WLW | Dennis Komen (D) | | |
When looking at the team sheet, I saw a few things that I didn’t want to see in a Round 1, like Steel-Tera Type Trick Room Flutter Mane, Flying-Tera Type Gholdengo + Murkrow. In Games 2 and 3 he led Flutter Mane against my Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo lead and we had to play an awkward mindgame if he would set up Trick Room to counter my Tailwind or attack into Iron Jugulis or into Gholdengo. The set was pretty close, but in the end I barely won.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R2 | WW | Kusha K. (Busha) | | |
Just before the games I went through some game plans vs Gavin Michaels’s OCIC winning team just to face that exact team a few minutes later. I went with an Iron Hands + Gothitelle lead both games with Gholdengo and Iron Bundle in the back. The games played out just like in practice and I was pretty happy to be 2-0.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R3 | WW | Omar Ziyani (Omar) | | |
When I saw the 6 Pokémon, I almost went autopilot into an anti-Trick Room mode, but a closer look on the open teamsheet revealed that they didn’t run Trick Room on Female Indeedee or Armarouge. I went with an Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo lead twice and, with Snarl, Iron Jugulis did a lot of work.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R4 | LL | Nikola Zirdum (Nix) | | |
Going into this, I knew it would be difficult: Assault Vest Kingambit and Volcarona are two Pokémon this team doesn’t like facing.
In Game 1 I went with the Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo lead and faced a Volcarona + Kingambit lead right away. I was able to get out of that position and forced Baxcalibur to go for Electric-Tera Type Terastallization (!) later on against my Gholdengo. I thought I was winning Game 1, but in the end I barely lost. For Game 2 I decided to go with Gothitelle + Iron Hands lead with Iron Jugulis and Great Tusk in the back. However, my opponent led with Volcarona + Flutter Mane and it was almost over right away. I got Trick Room up, but then my Iron Hands got burned by Heat Wave (ironically after avoiding being burnt by Flame Body twice before) and there wasn’t much I could do after that.
I told myself that 3-1 after 4 rounds isn’t too bad and focused on the next round.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R5 | WW | Francesco Raga (Lil Darkrai) | | |
Game 1 I put on a lot of pressure with Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo lead against their Tauros + Flutter Mane lead and I won pretty convincingly. For Game 2 I expected a Kingambit lead and went with Iron Hands + Gothitelle. My opponent led with Kingambit + Iron Bundle so I was in a really good position right away. I set up Trick Room and predicted their Protects correctly for a satisfying victory.
It made me pretty happy that I won against a strong player after the loss the round before, and I felt good about my chances of top cutting at this point.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R6 | LWL | Simon Bernard (Ryo) | | |
A pretty standard Talonflame + Great Tusk team. Game 1 I brought Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo lead with Iron Hands and Gothitelle in the back. The plan was to use Snarl early on to limit the Flutter Mane’s damage output and to then transition into Trick Room to clean the game with Iron Hands. I think I got in a pretty decent position midway, but I didn’t play super well once Trick Room got up and lost against their Tyranitar and Great Tusk in the back with my Iron Hands and Gothitelle when we were both out of Terastallization. Game 2 I decided to try and get a cheese win and led with Iron Jugulis + Iron Bundle against their Talonflame + Tyranitar. I switched Iron Jugulis into Gothitelle right away and Encored their Talonflame. Talonflame went for Tailwind and was now trapped and locked in. I proceeded to set up Trick Room and got into a nice position with Iron Hands. Game 3 I decided to abandon my Trick Room mode and went with Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo with Iron Bundle and Great Tusk in the back instead. I don’t remember exactly how, but I think I lost Iron Jugulis too quickly and couldn’t keep speed control going. Steel-Tera Type Flutter Mane was a problem this game as well.
This meant I was 4-2 and had to win the remaining 3 in order to advance to Day 2. I didn’t feel too good after this loss, but at the same time I thought that my opponents would be in the same boat from now on – facing elimination – and that I could deal with this situation better than them.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R7 | WW | Christian Bicker (Chrisbe) | | |
I tried to play safe in Game 1, but in hindsight I felt like maybe I played a bit too safe. Iron Hands put in good work here.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R8 | WLW | Enosh Shachar (Enosh) | | |
Remember when I said all my opponents would also be X-2 and face elimination? Well, screw that, I got an up-pair and it was against Enosh! I wasn’t too happy to face him at this point, but I knew I needed to beat anyone to deserve Day 2. At least I had the rare chance to play against a friend at X-2 and not to knock them out in case I win.
I had heard he played on stream before and that he had a bulky Glimmora. I didn’t actually get to see too much of that as I KO’d it with Make It Rain and Great Tusk’s Ground-type attacks pretty quickly in all 3 games. Game 1 I led Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo vs his Torkoal + Dragonite and went for the double up on the Torkoal, which went for Grass-Tera Type Terastallization. Air Slash + Shadow Ball picked up the KO and I was in a pretty good position from there. In Game 2 he attacked himself to set Toxic Spikes which would then make my Iron Bundle’s Focus Sash useless and allowed Palafin and Dragonite to beat Iron Bundle. To prevent that from happening, I led Iron Bundle + Gholdengo in Game 3 and got into a strong offensive position. Eventually it came down to whether his Dragonite and Palafin could take me out with their priority moves, but Great Tusk survived the Jet Punch and allowed me to win.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R9 | WLW | Matt Maynard (bwenty) | | |
Going into this match, I knew that it would be very important to pick the correct Pokémon for each game. I knew I wanted Iron Jugulis versus the Great Tusk. And if I can get the speed advantage, Great Tusk and Gholdengo can do pretty well against Gholdengo / Annihilape + Maushold.
Game 1 I went for my standard fast mode with Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo lead with Great Tusk + Iron Bundle in the back. My opponent led Annihilape + Roaring Moon with Talonflame and Gholdengo in the back. My Gholdengo was in a good position to go for Make It Rain and, when it went down, I could bring in Great Tusk for great effect. Talonflame in the back surprised me a bit, but I managed to win Game 1.
For Game 2 I expected a Maushold + Annihilape lead as, with Fire-Tera Type Annihilape, he would be in a solid position against my Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo lead from Game 1. Therefore I decided to go with Iron Jugulis + Great Tusk. However, Matt went for a different switch-up, leading Talonflame + Great Tusk. Soon I knew we would be going to a Game 3.
Since Talonflame + Great Tusk was doing good work for my opponent in Game 1, I wanted to make sure that I could beat that with my Game 3 lead and decided to go with Iron Jugulis + Iron Bundle. However my opponent switched it up again and went with Maushold + Gholdengo! I brought in Great Tusk early on and went for a big Ground Tera Type-boosted Earthquake, which got rid of the Maushold, however it failed to knock out Gholdengo, which activated its Weakness Policy and set up a Nasty Plot as well! This meant that I was facing a +4 Gholdengo which then got supported by Speed-boosting Booster Energy Roaring Moon the next turn. I felt like it was already over here, but forced myself to come up with a way to still win this game. I wasn’t sure if my opponent would be aware that +1 Speed Iron Jugulis outspeeds their Roaring Moon and would get to move first and KO Gholdengo, should it not protect. Going for their misplay seemed to be my best option so I went for Snarl instead of Air Slash – hoping for a misplay rather than trying to go for the flinch. My opponent decided to Protect and Tailwind, but used their Terastallization and my Snarl + Close Combat got the KO on Roaring Moon. Now Gholdengo started to get some KOs with its increased Special Attack; however, with some Protects, I could stall out their Tailwind, which allowed my full-HP Iron Bundle to stall out the last turn of Tailwind with Protect to be up against the low-HP Gholdengo + full-HP Great Tusk. I needed Icy Wind to connect with both and to knock out the Gholdengo. Fortunately, I hit and it was enough for the Gholdengo, which meant that Iron Bundle could get the final knock out on Great Tusk and I would move on to Day 2!
It was a lot closer than I would have liked it, and I felt just very happy to make it there at all. 7-2 meant that I would need to go at least 4-1 on Day 2, but at this point I told myself that Top 16 would already be a good result and that I would just take it from game to game. This allowed myself to relax during the evening, which was nice.
Day 2 Swiss rounds
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R10 | LWW |  Javier Señorena (Javi) | | |
This match was played on stream. Javier used a pretty standard bulky team and I was happy to see that he wasn’t running Arcanine, which can be problematic for me. You can watch the match below and hear my thoughts in the interview afterwards.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R11 | WLW | Simon Schlütter (Simon) |  | |
My first Dondozo of the tournament! In all 3 games I went with an Iron Bundle + Gholdengo lead with Gothitelle and Iron Hands in the back.
In Game 1 my opponent didn’t bring Dondozo and led with Talonflame + Great Tusk. This wasn’t amazing for me, but I managed to set up Trick Room and barely won. I think this approach by my opponent was correct for the match-up and I hoped to see an adaptation to Dondozo in Game 2.
He actually did go with a Dondozo lead in Game 2 and fused right away to knock out my Gholdengo. However, this was totally fine as his Dondozo’s Tera Type was Dragon, which meant that Iron Bundle could spam Freeze-Dry to knock it out. Since we had Encore on it, Dondozo cannot protect against Fake Out and this should be a good position for me… theoretically. For some reason I switched in Gothitelle instead of Iron Hands. I immediately realized what I just did and tried to bring the game back somehow. I think I got close, but in the end this mistake cost me. I wasn’t sure if my opponent also realized my mistake and just hoped to see the same plan from him in Game 3.
Luckily, they decided to do the exact same thing again and knocked out Gholdengo on Turn 1. This meant I could bring in Iron Hands and, with the recoil from Wave Crash, Freeze-Dry and Fake Out, I planned to get the Dondozo at low health so I could knock it out and KO the Tatsugiri on the same turn with Close Combat. However, my Freeze-Dry crit, which meant this wasn’t an option anymore. Simon then tried to gain momentum by Terastallizing Tatsugiri into Steel, but I eventually could set up Trick Room and sweep.
I can’t tell why I switched in the wrong Pokémon, but it bothered me quite a bit after the set. Luckily, I got away with such a mistake and started off Day 2 with 2-0.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R12 | WLW | Guillermo Castilla (KastyTP) | | |
In Round 12 I was paired against Kasty. I was looking forward to this game, because even though both Kasty and I have played for over a decade, we have very rarely played against each other and I think this was the first time ever in an official offline tournament. Team preview reminded me a bit of the other Spanish player I played already that day, but, unlike Javier, Kasty was running Arcanine. Regardless, I decided to go with Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo as my lead with Iron Bundle and Great Tusk in the back, just like I did against Javier.
In the first game, Kasty brought Gholdengo, which he Terastallized into Water; Iron Bundle; Iron Hands, and Roaring Moon. The game was very long and positional, but eventually I got into a good position and won.
In Game 2, he adapted by leading Iron Hands to stop my Gholdengo from doing so much damage immediately and by bringing Arcanine in the back. I doubled the Iron Hands on turn 1 as it Terastalized into Grass, but that meant Air Slash dealt a lot of damage. I knocked out Iron Hands very early and seemed to be in a fantastic position, however Kasty capitalized on my passive play in the following turns. In the end, it was my Ground-Tera Type Great Tusk at 50% vs his -1 Speed Iron Bundle that was hit by Icy Wind and his Arcanine at 50%. If Earthquake KOd the Iron Bundle, I had a guaranteed win, but I wasn’t sure if the roll would be in my favor. Instead I decided to Close Combat the Iron Bundle predicting it not to protect. I thought that if I got that right, worst case he would go for Will-O-Wisp and I could still KO the Arcanine despite the burn. Iron Bundle didn’t protect and I felt good about my chances of winning as Close Combat got the KO. His Arcanine, which I knew was quite bulky, went for Flare Blitz and it was enough to knock out my Great Tusk after the Life Orb chip and with the -1 Defense from using Close Combat. I think we both weren’t quite sure if it would KO, but that meant that the series would go into a Game 3.
This time I decided to lead Iron Jugulis + Great Tusk to pressure the Iron Hands and Arcanine early on, so that I could sweep with Gholdengo later. He Terastallized his Roaring Moon into Flying early and I don’t remember exactly how it went, but at some point I was able to get the speed advantage, which allowed me to spam Icy Wind with my Iron Bundle. Eventually my Gholdengo could then knock out the slowed-down Pokémon of my opponent.
After this round, I felt like I had a real chance of making Top 8. However, when running the math and looking at the results so far, it looked like it would be tough for me to make it in with 11-3, which meant I would likely have to win both my next games. Between the games I had been talking to Faaiz Ashfaq, who was also at a 10-2 record after this round, and I knew there was a chance we had to face soon.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R13 | LWW | Faaiz Ashfaq (F/\$|$) | | |
It’s never easy to play a friend, but similarly to my Round 8 against Enosh, it seemed that I had to win to stay in contention for Top Cut, while Faaiz’s tie-breaker was good enough that he would probably make it in at 11-3. Regardless of that, we both told each other that we would give our best and would be happy regardless of the result. We both knew about each other’s teams but we hadn’t played the match-up before, so I was curious to see how it would play out.
In Game 1 I expected a Maushold + Flutter Mane lead and decided to go for Iron Jugulis + Great Tusk. I was pretty happy when he sent out Maushold + Flutter Mane, but it wasn’t over yet. I decided to go for Tailwind and Ground Tera Type-boosted Earthquake, but both of his Pokémon survived and he got a crit with Dazzling Gleam, which knocked out both of my Pokémon right away! I sent out Iron Hands and Iron Bundle, but I couldn’t break through the Torkoal he had in the back. Faaiz was pretty sorry for the crit, but I felt like I could still bring it back.
In Game 2, he opted for a Torkoal + Flutter Mane lead, but decided to switch out Torkoal for Maushold on Turn 1. I ran with the same lead and this time turn 1 was more favorable for me as I got a big Earthquake off. This time, I brought Gholdengo over Iron Hands and it paid off as I won the game.
In Game 3 we were back to our leads of Game 1. His Flutter Mane survived the combination of Snarl + Ground Tera Type-boosted Earthquake with exactly 1 HP, which got me worried, but eventually I converted what felt like a pretty good match-up and I would move on to 11-2.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R14 | WW | Álex Soto (LenVGC) | |  |
Check out Álex’s team report here!
I had heard that Álex Soto was running the same 6 as he used in Liverpool and that he was cruising through the competition. With how the tie-breakers were before the round, it was pretty clear that he was guaranteed Top 8 even if he lost, while I had to win to make it through. I hadn’t practiced the hard Trick Room match-up much, but I knew that Iron Jugulis + Gothitelle gave me the team advantage. Wolfe had made some plans against this team and I was looking forward to trying them out against arguably the best hard Trick Room user in Scarlet & Violet so far.
The plan for Game 1 was pretty simple: lead Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo, threaten Snarl to bait in Kingambit but to Trick the Indeedee on turn 1 and switch in Gothitelle to trap it in. This might sound familiar to those who have watched the finals. He led with Armarouge + Indeedee and I decided to stick with the plan. It worked perfectly as he switched Armarouge into Kingambit and went for Trick Room. Now Indeedee was pretty much useless as it was forced to set and reverse Trick Room for eternity (well, at least until the PP ran out) while I could safely protect and switch to Iron Hands as Álex set up a Swords Dance. Now I expected my Iron Hands to be faster and went for Close Combat to guarantee the knock out on Kingambit. From there, I could continue to play it safe to win Game 1.
For Game 2, the plan was to use Snarl from Iron Jugulis + Gothitelle to play around potential counterplay against the Trick + Shadow Tag lock I used in Game 1. Again Álex led Indeedee + Armarouge. This time he used Wide Guard to block the Snarl and Dazzling Gleam to play around a potential counter Trick Room, but he was still stuck with Armarouge and Indeedee against my Iron Jugulis + Gothitelle. I knew that Helping Hand + Life Orb-boosted Armor Cannon wouldn’t knock out my Iron Jugulis, so I kept going for Snarl and some chip damage with Psychic. Eventually he got Trick Room up, but Psychic Terrain ran out soon and I made sure that I got into a position where I could bring in Great Tusk outside of Trick Room. Knowing neither of his Pokémon had Protect, this meant that I had a lot of pressure and I decided to play risky by going for Earthquake. He Terastallized Armarouge and tried to attack instead of going for Wide Guard, but my Life Orb- & Ground Tera Type-boosted Earthquake got the KO on Armarouge, and from there the game was over.
Álex was very friendly after our games and it felt good knowing that both of us reached the Top 8. I had done it! Going 8-0 after 4-2 with a 5-0 on Day 2 to make it into Top 8. To my delight, Faaiz won his last round and was also in! We celebrated a bit and had some overpriced slices of pizza while the Top 8 standings went up.
Top Cut
Click on the tabs to see some notes about my matches!
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 8 | WLW | Michael Kelsch (Michi) | | |
My opponent in Top 8 was none other than Michael, also known as MichaelderBeste. He rose to fame in the German community before this event by coming out of seemingly nowhere and dominating the Limitless tour scene. I mean, just look at this!
It seemed very fitting that, in order to win the event, I would have to beat the best players from Germany first. After beating Faaiz in Round 13, I felt good going up against Michael now. We had talked a bit during Day 2 as soon as I learned who he was and many others came up to him to congratulate him on a great run in his very first offline tournament (!). It was already a great accomplishment to make it that far, and knowing about his online success, it was clearly not a fluke. It also meant that he played a lot of games with his team against high-level competition.
For all three games, I went with Iron Jugulis + Gholdengo with Gothitelle and Iron Hands in the back. The nature of this match-up is that I need to get into a position to set up Trick Room. His Covert Cloak Talonflame with Taunt made it impossible to just lead Gothitelle right away. He alternated leads throughout the set and I think he didn’t find the right pick against Iron Jugilis + Gholdengo. Here it came in very clutch that I was using something he probably didn’t face too often, while I was playing a match-up that I had a lot of experience with.
In Game 1 Gholdengo did a lot of work against his Dragonite + Flutter Mane lead and I could set up Trick Room to clear with Iron Hands and Gothitelle.
In Game 2 he led with Great Tusk + Dragonite, which meant that he could get rid of Gholdengo on turn 1 but not before I did a lot of damage with Make It Rain, bringing Great Tusk down to its Focus Sash. I went down to my last two Pokémon quickly but then managed to set up Trick Room and got into the position I wanted. It was Iron Hands and Gothitelle against Flutter Mane and Iron Bundle and he hadn’t Terastillized yet. I was debating whether to Drain Punch the Flutter Mane, but decided that was too risky as I couldn’t confirm his spread in Game 1. He did go for the Steel-Tera Type Terastallization and my combination of Wild Charge + Psychic barely missed the knockout, resulting in a big attack from his side which sealed the game.
I was most afraid of a Flutter Mane + Talonflame lead, but instead he went with Great Tusk + Flutter Mane. Once again this meant that Gholdengo could get off some big damage before going down. Again I managed to set up Trick Room, and this time he had to commit Terastallization early and couldn’t stop my Gothitelle and Iron Hands from sweeping the game. I congratulated him on an amazing run into Top 8 at his first event and I really think that his performance was very impressive considering this is his first year of VGC.
I realized that I would finally get my first medal from a Regional and was really happy about that. Faaiz had lost, so it meant that I would be the last remaining German in Top 4.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 4 | WLW | Aurélien Soula (Sakura) | | |
Top 4 would be against Aurélien, also known as Axior, who is part of the NPA team I’m co-managing for the second year, so I was following their journey as a Senior last year closely and I’m very happy that they could translate their success into Masters in his first season. I knew they were using the team from Kyle Livinghouse (Animus) and Rob McNeilly (Deishu) that they already used at OCIC. I ran some practice games agaist this a few days before the tournament and thought that this would be a tough match-up. Volcarona + Maushold is not so easy to break for me, Dragonite and Gholdengo are also pretty annoying.
You can watch the games below. I changed my pick for each game to be prepared for a potential adaptation from Axior, and since I felt like I couldn’t handle all different modes their team had with one pick. When I got the prediction on Great Tusk attacking under Trick Room right in Game 3, I knew that I was going to advance to the finals! You can hear some more thoughts I had about these games in my interview afterwards.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals | WW | Álex Soto (LenVGC) | | |
Check out Álex’s team report here!
Finals would be a rematch of my Round 14 of Swiss—my only set of the day so far that I won in 2 games—all other sets went into Game 3. Naturally, I was pretty glad to hear that I would be rematching Álex. This would be his 3rd Regionals finals and my 4th. Thinking about the outcomes of these finals, I knew that Álex didn’t have that big offline tournament win yet and would give everything to win. But now wasn’t the time for sympathy, and likewise I wanted to give my best to convert what I thought was a pretty good match-up and win my 3rd Regionals. You can watch the finals below. Since we already played in Swiss, he knew about my Trick + Shadow Tag plan and that Iron Jugulis + Gothitelle would provide serious trouble for his team.
In Game 1 I decided to Snarl and switch into Gothitelle since I punished his Kingambit switch-in in Swiss and didn’t want to take a KO to potentially let Torkoal in under Trick Room. This plan worked pretty well and I was able to slow down the game with Iron Jugulis and Gothitelle and clean with Gholdengo and Iron Hands. I went for Terastallization on Grass-Tera Type Iron Hands to make sure I wouldn’t go down to a crit from Hatterene—not sure if that was really necessary.
Being up 1-0 I decided to go for the Trick play in Game 2 and it worked perfectly. It meant that I would be under control the entire game and I made sure not to let go of my lead. Álex tried what he could (including the triple Trick Room turn), but in the end it was too difficult to come back from the turn 1 play. Álex took it very well in the moment and I am sure he will win a Regional soon.
And with this I had done it! I became a Regional Champion again in the venue where I won my first big offline tournament, German Nationals in 2014. We had a short ceremony and interview on stage and I got really emotional with my friends cheering for me and me claiming the title in a venue that meant a lot to me.
Closing words
I mentioned it before and I have to say it again: I could not have won this tournament if it wasn’t for Wolfe Glick’s incredible teambuilding. He saw something in Iron Jugulis that no one else saw, just like he did with Scream Tail earlier in the format. Thank you for letting me join the teambuilding process and helping me prepare for the event!
Another big shoutout goes to Yuki Zaninovich who supported me from home during the tournament and helped me to stay calm when I knew I had to win every game to advance.
Thank you to Faaiz Ashfaq, Baris Akcos and Fevzi Özkan who supported me in Bochum in person, it was amazing to share this experience with you!
And last but not least to all my other friends, my girlfriend and my family who supported me on this weekend and always. I’m so happy that I have so many great people in my life that support me playing this game and I am also proud of myself that I can still compete at the highest level while working a time-intensive job and pursuing other things in life.
With this, I’m only 10 points short of qualifying for Worlds and I don’t want to jinx it by saying “See you in Yokohama”, so instead, I will see you in London for EUIC! 🙂
