Teams from the VGC ’15 Fall Regional Championships
We’ve finished the final Regional Championships of the format! Thanks to the help of the community, we’ve been able to compile a list of the teams that were used this past month:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Week 1)
1. Aaron Zheng (Cybertron)
2. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)
3. Enosh Shachar (Human)
4. David Mancuso (Mancuso)
5. Jonathan Hiller (MrFox)
6. Pat Ball (pball0100)
7. Paul Chua (pwny person)
8. Nicholas Borghi (LightCore)
9. Jeudy Azzarelli (SoulSurvivor)
10. Anthony Kisson (Chilebowl)
11. Patrick Donegan (Pd0nZ)
12. Alex Valente (avdc90)
13. Trista Medine (ryuzaki)
14. Andrew Burley (Andykins)
15. Justis Hayes (TwoSmoove)
16. Jeremy Rodrigrues (Serapis)
Phoenix, Arizona (Week 1)
1. Chase Lybbert (I Am a Rookie)
2. Nathan Stangler (dingling)
3. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars)
4. Javier Madrid
5. Colten Lybbert (Rookie Slayer MLG)
6. Jose Chacon (Jace)
7. Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai)
8. Kamran Jahadi (Kamz)
Houston, Texas (Week 2)
1. Cedric Bernier (Talon)
2. Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)
3. Lee Camacho (raindanceking)
4. Aaron Zheng (Cybertron)
5. Gabby Snyder (JTK)
6. Justin Burns (Spurrific)
7. Ramiro Juarez
8. Omari Travis (BadIntent)
Ft. Wayne, Indiana (Week 3)
1. David Mancuso (Mancuso)
2. Andy Himes (Amarillo)
3. Pat Ball (pball0100)
4. Thomas McCready (Tmac)
5. Andrew Burley (Andykins)
6. Toler Webb (Dim)
7. Maurice Easterly (Reeseesee)
8. Kyle Timbrook
San Jose, California (Week 3)
1. Shreyas Radhakrishna (Shreyas)
2. Kamran Jahadi (Kamz)
3. Demitrios Kagufas (kingdjk)
4. Daniel Cardenas (KermitTheFrog14)
5. Joseph Friesen
6. Kimo Nishimura (TFC)
7. Colten Lybbert (Rookie Slayer MLG)
8. Alexandria Claus (AlexaTheRaichu)
Autumn Regional Top Cut Usage Stats
| Rank | Pokemon | Total Fall Use | Week 3 Use | Week 2 Use | Week 1 Use | % of Teams |
| 1 | Mawile | 25 (25 Mega) | 8 | 5 | 12 | 52.08% |
| 2 | Garchomp | 19 (2 Mega) | 5 | 3 | 11 | 39.58% |
| 3 | Ludicolo | 17 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 35.42% |
| 4 | Talonflame | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 31.25% |
| 4 | Tyranitar | 15 (3 Mega) | 7 | 2 | 6 | 31.25% |
| 6 | Heat Rotom | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 29.17% |
| 6 | Hydreigon | 14 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 29.17% |
| 8 | Aegislash | 13 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 27.08% |
| 8 | Salamence | 13 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 27.08% |
| 10 | Zapdos | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 25.00% |
| 11 | Charizard | 10 (10 Mega) | 3 | 2 | 5 | 20.83% |
| 11 | Gardevoir | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 20.83% |
| 13 | Politoed | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 18.75% |
| 14 | Kangaskhan | 8 (8 Mega) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 16.67% |
| 15 | Gothitelle | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 14.58% |
| 15 | Wash Rotom | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 14.58% |
| 17 | Lucario | 6 (3 Mega) | 2 | 1 | 3 | 12.50% |
| 18 | Aerodactyl | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10.42% |
| 18 | Amoonguss | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10.42% |
| 18 | Azumarill | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10.42% |
| 21 | Ferrothorn | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 21 | Gengar | 3 (1 Mega) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 21 | Greninja | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 21 | Lapras | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 21 | Scrafty | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 21 | Staraptor | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 21 | Venusaur | 3 (2 Mega) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6.25% |
| 28 | Bisharp | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Chandelure | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Conkeldurr | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Gyarados | 2 (2 Mega) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Hariyama | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Machamp | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Mamoswine | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Manectric | 2 (1 Mega) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Mow Rotom | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Nidoking | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4.17% |
| 28 | Raichu | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 39 | Sableye | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.17% |
| 39 | Blastoise | 1 (1 Mega) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Chesnaught | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Dragonite | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Haxorus | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Jumpluff | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Kingdra | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Liepard | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Marowak | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Mienshao | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Noivern | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Pachirisu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Reuniclus | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Scizor | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.08% |
| 39 | Smeargle | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.08% |
Photo Credit: Stephen M.
About the Author
Firestorm is one of the co-founders of Nugget Bridge and the Community Manager for eSports Tournament Platform Battlefy. He has been playing Pokémon since 1999, competitively since 2007, and attending tournaments since 2010. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with a degree in Interactive Art & Technology + Communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @rushanshekar.
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20 Responses to Teams from the VGC ’15 Fall Regional Championships
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It’s a cool thing to finally see Mega-Garchomp getting numbers on the board
There is an error on the stats table. Raichu was used twice, but only said to have been used once.
Wow, these are certainly different than regional teams from other seasons.
Three Mega Garchomps, Jumpluff, Haxorus, two Nidoking’s and two Lapras’ top cutting the same regional?
I’m curious about Jose Chacon’s supposedly non-mega Manectric. Was it actually not holding Manectite, or was it just not used enough that we can’t confirm it was a mega?
Mawile > Garchomp is kind of interesting considering how much more flexible Garchomp is when it comes to teambuilding. I suppose though, Mawile has become relatively easy to use with all the rain and TR.
I used mega tyranitar in Arizona but its all good. Really cool to see such variety in the teams! I certainly come across some unexpected things at both regionals so props to everyone that used something unique
WoW, Mega Mawile and Ludicolo are the new best buddies now.
Cool to finally see players using Mega Garchomp which make sense to me because rain right now is really famous and a great way to counter it, is either Sun or Sandstorm which Mega Garchomp can come in handy abusing sandstorm with it’s ability and destroying Mega Charizard-Y and Tyranitar as well. Also, good to see that Jumpluff which some players are actually using earlier in this season.
Wow…Omari’s team is really similar to mine, with only one different pokemon.I never thought I’d see the day Mega Garchomp would appear on one of these, and now there’s three. And one of them’s mine! I love seeing it gain some more popularity, as I’ve been using it for a long time now.
Nope. I ran it sashed.
If Mega-Mawile taking the scene, time for Mega-Houndoom to rise.
I’m really impressed by the diversity of mons that ended up being on the teams that topped; that just goes to show VGC 14 was a lot more than mega Kang and Win button Talonflame spam.
Btw my last name is Kissoon not Kisson lol
And not a single Pachirisu. Though I don’t find that surprising.
What is surprising is the rapid downfall of Kangaskhan.
I’m glad to see that there was such diversity. Even though mine was extremely standard, I enjoy seeing what people will bring for the metagame.
More interestingly though, what about your Charizard?
So is no one going to talk about the based duck pineapple god that is ludicolo? Or is eveyone too busy looking at Mawile and Garchomps numbers to acknowledge the best non mega in the format? Did more garchomp make cut? Yes, but thats because more people were using garchomp in the first place. Ludicolo not only had an insane amount of top cuts for a pokemon outside of the BIG SIX, it tied for the most amount of wins for a non mega with salamence and was only beaten out by Mawile. Why was Ludicolo so good in this meta? The megas that do the best against it (Venu and Kanga) dropped by a crazy high amount after nationals and the only popular nonmegas that actually beat ludicolo are talonflame and staraptor, with the former having problems switching into it. And in return Ludicolo beats all of the other popular nonmegas. Garchomp, salamence, hydreigon, rotoms-h and rotom-w, amoonguss, Azumarill, Politoed and Zapdos all get bodied by the dancing pineapple. It also provides fake out support which is vital especially as gothmaw becomes more popular and has pretty great bulk to boot. It even compliments well with the two best megas right now (Mawile and Charizard)
Seriously why doesnt every team have a ludicolo???
I tried it while I was preparing for Regionals and it didn’t work well for me for some reason; I used Venusaur instead. I’ll definitely take another look at it, though.
In like January during the first Scramble thing I was trying to use Gavin’s 2013 Ludicolo and Zach told me Ludicolo was a bad Pokemon in this format. I said it was only bad if you couldn’t get it away from Kangaskhan and Talonflame. Now that Kangaskhan is mostly gone I feel vindicated and grimer, though I guess he was right at the time, too. I wish I’d stuck with it a little more early in the year — I don’t think I’d ever have gotten to the modern archetypes without some external inspiration, but it’s such a good Pokemon if you can keep it away from those two things and I think it would have worked early in the format if you stacked the rest of the team against Kangaskhan… which is what everyone should have been doing back then anyway. Related to Ludicolo, how good did Assault Vest end up being as an item in general? I think it’s right after Life Orb and Sitrus Berry in best-item-in-game talk now.
To me the interesting story of how this format developed and how this Regional’s usage stats look in general — and hopefully I’ll get an article out relating to this in the next week or so — is that I feel like people near the top are mostly finally using teams that take advantage of XY’s mechanics changes leading to Megas well and the changes that forces you to make with the rest of your team.
Mawile is the most common Mega, as it should always have been. Neutral matchup at worst with most Megas, brings Intimidate in a format where most of the best Megas are physical, and when they aren’t they mostly all have big issues with Sucker Punch, so it gets that too. Charizard is the second most common Mega (though a little less popular than I think it should have been); it mostly counters Mawile, is generally good at stomping bad players as a goodstuffs Pokemon just like Kangaskhan is, and is fast and applies a lot of pressure in a format often decided by who has better pressure on turn 1. Kangaskhan ends up where it should always have been in third, as one of the best Pokemon for single-Mega teams but something that has matchup problems when focused on, which is where VGC 14 ended up with all the Intimidate, Garchomp, Aegislash, and Will-o-Wisp.
Beyond that, we saw more dual Megas teams than any time in the past in this format other than Worlds and sort of the European Nationals (but strangely, not any other National-level events). Three dual Mega teams won over five Regionals, a big increase over “zero”, which is the amount of official events above the level of Premier Challenge won by dual Mega teams in the Masters division outside of Europe the rest of last year.
Beyond the Megas, I think there was even more adjustment toward Pokemon who can safely be picked in most games so players could pick their matchups with Megas (or not bring them when appropriate) better. Megas are outrageously strong when they actually work, but they all need space to work like any other Pokemon, so you either need to protect them extremely well or be able not to pick them when the situation calls for it. Garchomp, Ludicolo, Rotom, Tyranitar, Hydreigon, Aegislash, Salamence, and Zapdos would probably literally be my list of “most generally powerful and safe non-Megas in VGC 2014”, and oh look, they’re literally the top non-Mega Pokemon other than Talonflame, who is also easy to pick in most teams not carrying a bunch of counters to it but not a Pokemon anyone can describe as safe. You could literally go into a tournament deciding you arbitrarily had to pick any of the Pokemon in that first thought every single match and be totally fine. Many of the top teams were literally composed exclusively of the Pokemon I mentioned so far in this post, which goes a lot toward helping keep Megas only in mostly favorable situations, especially for the dual Mega teams. Obviously, there was an increase in Politoed to support the Ludicolo surge (which was awfully daring considering how many opponents were likely to have Ludicolo as well) and Gothitelle to make things a lot less safe for the top Pokemon and give a potential Trick Room option, but the first group of Pokemon and the top Megas are really the game as seen by October, I think.
There’s a few Pokemon I think still have weird usages — Mega Lucario is a god as a second Mega with the set Jeudy used at Worlds and that probably should have picked up a little more, for instance, and a few off-meta Pokemon like Mowtom and Smeargle probably deserve more use relative to their power — but the usage here is really close to what I think the answer key to the VGC 2014 format would be. It is very representative of general strength, finally.
Yeah, other than that single Pachirisu MrFox used.
Sorry kom, but I don’t believe in your god
RIP Umbreon, never to be on the same level of recognition as based Jumpluff because I only 6-2ed.
People need to stop using Fire Fang (and apparently Rock Slide?) on Mawile and resign themselves to the fact that Ferrothorn just beats it.
no mega medicham!?!? ;(