Hi! My name is Jaret Sypert, I go by Blizz online. I began playing VGC in early 2020 when I stumbled upon Wolfe Glick’s Pokemon Academy videos and was immediately hooked. I have always been fascinated by the sheer complexity of the game, it feels like a never ending puzzle. This is the story on how I finished 16th at the 2023 Fort Wayne Regional Championships.
Going into this event I was not confident in myself at all. I had not performed well in any tournament in a long time, I was not really keeping up with the game leading up to the event and thus I was really contemplating on canceling my trip and refunding my entry. However, before I could finalize my decision the refund date had already passed, so reluctantly I decided to just go. I’d like to preface this next segment by stating I did NOT have any part in putting together the six I brought to the tournament, all credit goes to Joseph Ugarte.
Table of Contents
Teambuilding process
I’ve never been one to build my own teams so when it came time to figure out what I wanted to use for this event I began to speak with my friend Juan Manuel Santizo (TekaVGC) about what to use and he suggested that I use Joseph Ugarte’s Charlotte team from the weekend prior.
I was surprised to see that his team still was doing well because in my little spurts of playing VGC in the time leading up to the event I was using an earlier version of his team built by Navjit Joshi (IsAStarter). I enjoyed using it, however I wasn’t sure how it was going to hold up against the developed metagame. So I quickly decided that this team would be the one because I was most comfortable with it and had the most experience with it.
When I was figuring out what changes (if any) and how I wanted to train my Pokémon for the event I discussed with my friend Ezequiel Cordero (ZekromZeke) on what I wanted to do. He suggested that I change Snarl for Extreme Speed on Arcanine because Snarl is mainly only for the Psychic spam matchup and, with four new Dark types being added to the format, people may be a little hesitant to bring Psychic spam, and with me already having Kingambit and Amoonguss on the team, the matchup was manageable still.
Zeke also suggested that I change the Tera Type on Kingambit to Fire to improve the Lilligant + Torkoal matchup and vs Flutter Mane + Chi-Yu. I thought it was a good change since I never found good use for Flying Tera Type out of all my time using the team.
These are the only changes that I made to the original team.
The Team
Get the team’s paste here!
Kingambit @ Assault Vest
Ability: Defiant
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 244 HP / 196 Atk / 12 Def / 20 SpD / 36 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Assurance
– Tera Blast
Kingambit is used on this team to deter the opponent from bringing Arcanine, used as an answer to Flutter Mane, key in the Psychic spam matchup as well as the Lilligant + Torkoal matchup, and used as general offense. Fire Tera Type was used to gain immunity to Will-O-Wisp, gain access to a super effective way to hit Amoonguss, and gain resistances against Fairy and Fire.
196+ Atk Kingambit Assurance (Doubled BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Indeedee-F: 210-248 (118.6 – 140.1%) — guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Iron Bundle Hydro Pump vs. 244 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Tera Fire Kingambit: 134-162 (65 – 78.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Glimmora Earth Power vs. 244 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Kingambit: 84-100 (40.7 – 48.5%) — guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Armarouge Armor Cannon vs. 244 HP / 20 SpD Assault Vest Kingambit: 164-194 (79.6 – 94.1%) — guaranteed 2HK
Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 236 HP / 156 Def / 116 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Pollen Puff
– Rage Powder
– Spore
– Protect
The true MVP of the team. Amoonguss is used as general support with Spore to disrupt opponents. Amoonguss is a key part of the Psychic spam matchup and came in clutch in many of my games. The EV spread is just a standard one I have been using since gen 8. It is optimized for regenerator HP recovery.
252 SpA Iron Bundle Freeze-Dry vs. 236 HP / 116 SpD Amoonguss: 122-146 (55.7 – 66.6%) — guaranteed 2HKO (3HKO with Sitrus Berry recovery)
252+ Atk Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 236 HP / 156+ Def Amoonguss: 164-194 (74.8 – 88.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO (Becomes a favorable roll with Sharp Beak, 37% chance to OHKO)
Arcanine @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 244 HP / 196 Atk / 4 Def / 60 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Flare Blitz
– Will-O-Wisp
– Extreme Speed
– Protect
Arcanine is used as offense and damage control here. Extreme Speed was very useful for picking up KOs on low HP Pokémon and breaking Focus Sashes. Did not see value in giving Arcanine speed since I didn’t think I needed it and I wanted to fully commit to bulk and offense because I did not want to miss any KOs with Extreme Speed. Water Tera Type was used to help against Dondozo and help gain resistances to become even harder to KO.
Mimikyu @ Life Orb
Ability: Disguise
Level: 50
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 20 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Shadow Sneak
– Curse
– Protect
While I did not bring Mimikyu much, it is my main Dondozo answer by using Curse and that is pretty much all it is used for, I could have brought it against the few stall teams that I played against but I felt more comfortable leaving it on the bench. The spread is just to make it as offensive as possible, outspeeds base 135 Pokémon at -1 as a benchmark, and the rest of the EVs went into Life Orb HP optimization and general bulk.
Iron Bundle @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Level: 50
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 60 HP / 4 Def / 188 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
– Freeze-Dry
– Hydro Pump
– Icy Wind
– Protect
Iron Bundle is used as a fast offensive water with speed control. The EV spread was given to me by Diego de la Vega (machin1404) and it was very effective. It is built to survive +2 196+ Atk Sucker Punch from Kingambit as well as have good odds to be 3HKOd by Arcanine’s Extreme Speed.
252+ Atk Arcanine Extreme Speed vs. 60 HP / 4 Def Iron Bundle: 40-48 (28.7 – 34.5%) — 5.6% chance to 3HKO
+2 196+ Atk Kingambit Sucker Punch vs. 60 HP / 4 Def Iron Bundle: 117-138 (84.1 – 99.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
Great Tusk @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protosynthesis
Level: 50
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Headlong Rush
– Close Combat
– Ice Spinner
– Protect
Great Tusk is used as a general offensive piece. Pretty standard moveset and spread. Ice Spinner was incredibly useful in removing Psychic Terrain.
Tournament run
On the morning of the tournament I woke up before there was even light outside at 5:00 am. Not feeling particularly excited nor nervous for the day, I binged YouTube until about 6:30 then got ready for the day and went to eat breakfast. I didn’t eat too much since I typically never eat breakfast, which looking back was a bad idea because lunch break wasn’t until round 5 and the rounds were very long due to so many people using stall teams. Anyways, I headed to the venue to be bored for 30 minutes while I waited for round 1 to start and my friends to arrive.
This was my run at Fort Wayne Regionals!
Swiss rounds
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | W |  Colby Amweg (Colby) |   |  |
| R2 | W | Brandon Wright (Brandon) |     | |
| R3 | L | Collin Beer (Collin) |    | |
| R4 | W | Tyler Burdine (Tyler) |  | |
| R5 | W | Alex Sawczyn (Alex) |   | |
| R6 | L | Kody Phelps (ProfKoji) |   | |
| R7 | W | Gwenn Cox (Gwenn) |    | |
| R8 | W | Kyle Timbrook (Kyle) |  | |
| R9 | W | Marcos Perez (MoxieBoosted) |  | |
Click on the tabs to see some notes about my matches!
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R3 | L | Collin Beer (Collin) | | |
This team was wild, Sandy Shocks was incredibly difficult to deal with because of the grass tera. I got smashed G3 because I led Arcanine into Indeedee Palafin, gave them the free switch into Hawlucha and from there they clicked Swords Dance followed up by Acrobatics and got the clean W.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R6 | L | Kody Phelps (ProfKoji) | | |
Too afraid of them bringing Annihilape and I played too passively in G2.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R7 | W | Gwenn Cox (Gwenn) | | |
Gwenn was the most entertaining person I met all day, she unfortunately had a teamsheet error that made her Flutter Mane have no item.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R8 | W | Kyle Timbrook (Kyle) | | |
Was very perplexed when I saw them bring out Tinkaton since it was incredibly weak to intimidate as well Great Tusk’s Headlong Rush and it didn’t hit my team for a lot of damage. Was about to lose G3 but I made a good read involving a switch out.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R9 | W | Marcos Perez (MoxieBoosted) | | |
This was by far the most back and forth set of VGC I have ever played, wish I could remember all the details but it was a great match. Marcos misplayed in game 3 by clicking Jet Punch with Wo-Chien on the field and due to its ability, it prevented Palafin from getting the KO on my Kingambit and it won me the game. Wish it didn’t have to go down like that but that’s VGC sometimes.
After I turned in the slip for round 9 I found a corner in the venue and cried. Going into this year I was in a really low period in my life. I was very upset with a lot of things outside of the game and I really didn’t expect to accomplish anything within the game, I was really contemplating quitting because it all just felt like a massive waste of time to me, so this one really means a lot. I had not even thought about day 2 until Zeke messaged me wishing me luck in day 2. I was so happy to make it into day 2, at that point I couldn’t have cared less if I went 0-5 in day 2.
Woke up at 7:00AM, quickly got ready for the day, packed up my luggage, ate a big breakfast this time, and went to the venue. Hung out with my bro Kylan Van Severen (PsychedVGC) until round 10 started.
Day 2 Swiss Rounds
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R10 | W | Tyler Coleman (ShinyUmbreon) |  | |
| R11 | W | Nicholas Borghi (Borghi) | | |
| R12 | W | Bobby Rochelle (Bobby) |    | |
| R13 | L | Joseph Ugarte (JoeUX9) |  | |
| R14 | L | Thaison Hughes (charisma) | | |
Click on the tabs to see some notes about my matches!
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R10 | W | Tyler Coleman (ShinyUmbreon) | | |
Felt good to start the day off with a win. This, alongside the set against Marcos were the closest all tournament by far. In G3 my Iron Bundle double missed Icy Wind against low HP Flutter Mane and Baxcalibur, I thought it was over but apparently Iron Bundle can live an Ice Shard + tera water Jet Punch down from 70HP to 2HP.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R11 | W | Nicholas Borghi (Borghi) | | |
Got a good read off of him T1 of G3, ended up getting extremely lucky with freezing his Amoonguss and critting it as well. Funnily enough he was the first person all tournament to actually know who I was.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R13 | L | Joseph Ugarte (JoeUX9) | | |
When I was walking to my match I overheard Joe say “Bro I’m playing against my own team” just thought that was funny. Anyways I knew this was going to be a very hard match. I got too aggressive in game 1 and game 2 Joe put on his hoodie and outplayed me very badly. It was nice getting to meet Joe.
| Round | Result | Opponent | Opponent’s team | List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R14 | L | Thaison Hughes (charisma) | | |
Honestly was not sure how to feel going into this match knowing that if I won I would likely make the Top 8. Looking back it still is so crazy to me that I came that close though. We were right about to get started when the judge came and told us that we would be playing on stream so I had to quickly pack up all my things and in my haste I forgot my notebook so that kind of upset me. Was not sure how I felt playing on stream. In the end I lost but it was still a good set, and I am content with the result. Fun Fact: I did not know Ting-Lu was a Ground type and only found out during this match.
You can watch my Round 14 set vs Thaison Hughes here!
Closing thoughts
I could never have accomplished this had it not been for the overwhelming amount of support I had over the weekend, there are just too many of you to thank but I appreciate every single one of you more than you ever could imagine whether it be in person or online. I am extremely satisfied with my result at my first ever regional and first event as a master.
As for the team I do not think it will hold up very well in the constantly evolving metagame for too long so use with caution! Thank you for reading!
