Tournament OLT VI Discussion Thread

[MegaStarUniverse]

cycle 4 was really crazy and wishing good luck to everyone in playoffs

im gonna do a team dump if anyone cares. this is the last olt of gen 7 so might as well.

all finished teams - https://pokepast.es/9c3c4f52d6895f00

all unfinished teams - https://pokepast.es/bea044135f9cc6e3

https://imgur.com/a/ke8GJC1

thanks to everyone who supported me during my run each cycle but sadly could not make it. regardless everyone here gained more experience which means the community grows even more

 

[Leo]

Cycle 4 Qualifiers

Rank #1: Rexus | ELO: 2151 | GXE: 85.7 | Record: [reset]

Rank #2: beatiful | ELO: 2149 | GXE: 86.8 | Record: [reset]

Rank #3: Ojama | ELO: 2143 | GXE: 87.4 | Record: [reset]

Rank #4: Twixtry | ELO: 2140 | GXE: 86.9 | Record: [reset]

Rank #5: Liones | ELO: 2135 | GXE: 86.5 | Record: [reset]

Rank #6: Mimolette | ELO: 2132 | GXE: 87.6 | Record: 111-41

Rank #7: michy47 | ELO: 2131 | GXE: 83.4 | Record: [reset]

Rank #8: Samqian | ELO: 2128 | GXE: 83.3 | Record: [reset]

shoutouts TPP for graphics again​

- Mega Latias continues to be one of the premier Mega Evolutions this cycle, being featured on some of the most used teams at the top like the Krookodile semi stall Insult qualified with cycle 1 and the Electrium Z Rotom-W balance Tricking used in his run last cycle. Its massive bulk and great typing allows it to check a wide variety of threats while acting as a great win condition with Calm Mind, which can end games rather quickly should the opponent not have appropiate counterplay.

- Kyurem-B picked up a lot in usage this cycle, mostly because of xtra$hine's Mega Medicham offense that Updated Kanto used to qualify last cycle. Its Icium Z set guarantees it a kill in about every matchup and it can prove to be very annoying for Rain teams, which struggle to even knock it out due to its fantastic bulk and resistance to Water, as well as for some of the bulkier teams that were seen around the top of the ladder, which can lose several key defensive members to it and end up being dismantled by its teammates.

- Mega Mawile was probably the second most popular Mega Evolution after Mega Latias, with appearances on several teams at the top such as the Tapu Lele bulky offense beatiful and Ojama were seen using as well as the Groundium Z Greninja BuluTran team that was fairly popular these last 2 cycles. Its ability to dismantle the bulkier teams that were used at the top as well as act as a check for the likes of Gyarados and Hawlucha on hyper offense thanks to Intimidate makes for a very valuable pick on a variety of teams.

Notable Teams

- This team was initially used by beatiful and later by Ojama and top-contender SoulWind, it's an interesting take at the Mawile VoltTurn bulky offense archetype that features some uncommon sets such as Darkinium Z Ash Greninja and Metronome Tapu Lele, which wasn't used at all until ilyakomaster qualified with it in cycle 2. It forgoes some key team components such as a reliable dark resist in favor of solid metagame picks that allow the team to thrive in a top-heavy ladder environment.

/

- This is the team that Tricking used in his crazy ladder run last cycle, where he clutched the first spot on the ladder in a matter of hours. It is to be expected that a team with such results would get a lot of usage the cycle after and that's exactly what happened. Notably, Rexus was seen using it on his run through the higher portion of the ladder while several other early top-contenders used it to climb in the first few days. It is also worth nothing that later during the cycle a similar version with Life Orb Clefable and Poisinium Z Greninja instead of Rotom-W also saw a decent amount of usage and is what ultimately allowed Rexus to secure the first spot on the ladder.

- As I previously mentioned, this team by xtra$hine was used a lot throughout this cycle, following Updated Kanto's success with it the previous cycle. Between Mega Medicham and Icium Z Kyurem-B this team had no trouble breaking through bulkier teams and the combination of Hawlucha, Shift Gear Magearna and dual priority Mega Medicham was quite troublesome for offense. xtra himself as well as several other top-contenders used different variants of this team in particular, which would make scouting for certain sets a nightmare, as Mega Medicham could sometimes run Ice Punch or Magearna could be an Assault Vest variant.

- After Insult qualified with this team back in cycle 1 it's been used a fair amount by top-contenders like michy47, sayuze and loti/cielbakasan. Reuniclus remains as strong as ever and while the ladder has certainly adapted to its presence its still a strong pick and has the potential to win some common matchups such as when facing the xtra$hine offense outlined above. There's not much to say about this team, semi stall has always been a strong archetype for the higher portion of the ladder despite the recent ban on ionext and the implementation of the OLT Bot.

- Finally there's this team again which was highlighted last cycle after Chaitanya used it to clutch the 8th spot on the ladder. It was again fairly popular during the mid-period of the cycle although it wasn't seen much in the last few days. You can read more on the team in Finch's post on last cycle's trends above

That is all for this year's OLT Discussion Thread, hope everyone enjoyed and could learn from their experience here and although we didn't see as many posts from qualifiers as previous years it was still cool reading everyone's posts and takes on the ladder metagame. Good luck to everyone in playoffs and may the best player win

 

[Samqian]

i almost never post on smogon anymore but im still in shock of how I qualified, I was 1990 with about 16 mins left and got 5 games at once and somehow made it to the last spot.

https://pokepast.es/f499709a7e414176
those were the main teams i used to qualify, shoutout jet hiye and the rest of wg

 

[Ojama]

what a ride, but definitely not a pleasant one. without a doubt my worst experience as a player on smogon. i played the last 2 seasons so i know i can compare with those. i didnt play the orass editions so maybe these were even worse, but i can certainly confirm that this was the worst gen 7 edition. i know the qualification phase brings the worst out of this game and from players, but god damn it. if this was a representation of our game and community and we showed it to newcomers or as a promotion of our game to people who don't know the competitive part of this game, this was for sure the worst advertising one could ever think of.

im part of those who think disabling /ionext was a terrible idea and unfair for playoffs contenders as it resulted in 4-5 teams being spammed the entire cycle in high ladder with everyone snipping eachother. as fun as it may be for spectators, this is way too unhealthy for those who are trying to make it and it doesn't even reward the better players, even worse, it purely rewards passivity and the lack of courage with games decided purely on matchups, as if we needed to enhance this factor of this game. i strongly believe that we are driving right to the wall by taking this route, by encouraging the lack of creativity and by devaluing one's actual building and playing skills. if you're happy with the way you guys made it and your argument is "the end justifies the means, ill qualify at all cost", i can just sadly stare at the emptiness of your lives. i'd even go as far and say, by experience, most of the people who qualified with stall, clef fat and to a lesser extent rain will just fail miserably in playoffs as soon as they are paired with an actual good player, as few as they are in playoffs.

anyway enough of my bitching i guess. personally i can claim i made it to playoffs with my own stuff, even tho i got inspired by some players, especially bea whose mawile + lele + hwish team was the safest bet against all these stall/fat builds and it gave me some cool ideas for the final lap. unlike the 3 other cycles, i had decided not to use rain/ho even in low ladder to climb as fast as possible because this just doesn't suit my playstyle and i suck horribly with it. so i just used some very safe balance to hit like 1800-1900 that consisted of my trusted double priority mega-lopunny + uturn wish jirachi + defog rotomw + taunt uturn knock off tornadust + z garchomp + sd bulu. that team was very effective until i hit around the 1900s because it can't break through most of the fat shit that were spammed in high ladder. so i switched teams and decided my only shot was to have a core of 3-4 teams that were capable of beating rain-stall-clef fat whenever i wanted to load and one playstyle was being more spammed than the others during that frame of time. some were obviously more effective against certain playstyles, given there were several variants of the clef fat and that krook reu stall was way different than the classic ones. these are what i ended up with and used on the last 2 days:

the zardy team was my cycle 3 squad and i kept it under my hat if needed cuz it has a very good matchup against stall shit. the tyra team was for rain + clef stuff, featuring 4 atks pursuit mtar + taunt knock off uturn tornat + spin defog + z sr chomp + spikes ferro. the mawile koko team is the team i used the most and was inspired by bea's team. it features hwish + sd mawile specs koko z ashgren. it struggles a bit vs ferrothorn which annoyed me towards the end of the cycle because ferrothorn was on almost every team and i wasnt sure whether i wanted hp fire or ice on koko. lop-lele was for ho + rain but is less effective vs fat stuff even tho it has hwish mlopunny + metronome lele. the medicham is a variant with z rotomw specs koko but it can't really beat stall, unless you're trash #teamnoplay, but it's very effective against the mawile bulu tran rotomw gren landot team. i wont post the lele mawile given it's bea's creation, even tho i made my own variant.

hopefully playoffs will show a brighter face of our game.

 

[bbeeaa]

Hi everyone, i know i don't usually show much activity in Smogon, but after a rest of 2 years I’m back to play my favorite tour.

Having qualified in all the editions that I have participated (the last two of ORAS and the first one in SM), this year has undoubtedly been the worst I have participated. After being in the top in cycle 2 and 3 and only one day away from qualifying, I did not qualify and I was very discouraged. I thought not to play in this cycle, but in the end the fun of the ladder convinced me.

This is the team that I made and used to qualify, with so many fat balance and stall I was forced to use some sets that are not common. The team basically is about breaking everything with the offensive core of Mawile/greninja/lele, and if it’s not enough, healing wish from jirachi to some of these guys. Also it’s pretty good with those HO that were spammed in this last cycle, mawile works as a check for things like gyra and hawlucha. Greninja with his z move can work as an amazing revenge killer, and rachi that can get you out of some trouble. Landorus and Rotom are the team supports, making an volturn core with rachi and giving good momentum so my offensive core goes in freely. Also rotom helps me out with some rain teams, but in this cycle there were not to much rain.

Honestly I feel very happy to be back in playoffs, since the other year I was not allowed to play because of my ban and this year I have some undefined businesses. I do not usually do this kind of thing but I hope you guys like it and have a good time and luck for all players.

 

[Ahy Wddicted]

not good at english, so write simply. was painful and fun tour. i matched so many great players, was fun and I could realized some of my limitations.
btw in cycle 2, scarf lele HO pissed me off. cycle 3~4, lati clef Balance pissed me off. especially, clefable was most broken mon in this tour imo. t-wave clefshit and life orb clefshit has no perfect switch in.
so in cycle 4, i decided to hax you and everyone. sub-glare serp was best luck-based mon and nice anti meta.

https://pokepast.es/5e5afa960e549e74

i used this in 1700 ~ 2100, was unloseable.
toxic torn worked very well.
anti-setup, anti-zapdos, anti-koko,
and with great serperior luck.
sorry if i haxed you or mad to you lol, thanks to you all the sexy players I've met.

 

[xtra$hine]

https://pokepast.es/b0320ce6c5cb03a3

Lucha EVs are crafted to always take a scald from pex while at the same time ended up being 1 speed higher than scarf gren. Medi underspeeds gliscor by 1 point, outspeeds tran by 1 point. With 80 HP and 4 Def you conveniently now live 2 eqs from gliscor. The point of this was so that you hjk twice and gliscor can't roost on you. You also take a hit from pert in rain. HP fire lando for scizor. It was supposed to be av mag but this set is too broken, just dont lose to specs lele + gren