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Published on June 1st, 2015 | by Braverius

61

Teams from the VGC ’15 Spring Regional Championships

Thanks much to LightCore, Talon, and anyone else who helped gather teams and to HeliosanNA for helping touch up the article!

Week 1

Washington Regionals

1) Riley Factura (gengarboi)

kangaskhan-megathundurussylveonlandorus-therianamoongussheatran

2) Mark Hanson (Crawdaunt)

salamence-megapolitoedludicoloterrakionaegislashthundurus

3) Harrison Saylor (Crow)

salamence-megathunduruscresseliarhyperiorheatransylveon

4) Wesley Warthe-Anderson

metagross-megaheatranmamoswine rotom-washtogekissbreloom

5) Nikolai Zielinski (Nikolai)

gardevoir-megajellicentamoongussheatranthundurusscrafty

6) Yuanhao Li

charizard-mega-ylopunny-megainfernape venusaurlandorus-theriansylveon

7) Max Douglas (Starmetroid)

salamence-megapolitoedludicolothundurusterrakionaegislash

8) Gabby Snyder (JTK)

metagross-megascraftypolitoedamoongusskingdrathundurus

9) Luis Canseco (Chaivon)

gardevoir-megalandorus-therianthundurustyranitaramoongussheatran

10) Gary Qian

salamence-megavenusaur-megaterrakionsmearglescizorrotom-wash

11) Tiffany Stanley (Shiloh)

metagross-megavirizion sableyeheatranmiloticzapdos

12) Travis Knickerbocker

gardevoir-megalandorus-therianzapdos breloompolitoedtornadus

13) Carter Powers Beggs (FlacidPanda)

metagross-megavenusaur-megalandorus-therianhydreigonterrakionzapdos

14) Michael Groshans (Mikewando)

charizard-mega-yscraftyrhyperiorlandorus-therianvenusaurcresselia

15) Jake Hwang-Twigg (Jhoqk)

absol-megavenusaur-megaexcadrillswampertsableyearcanine

16) Kimo Nishimura (TFC)

mawile-megavenusaur-megaheatranthundurusterrakionsuicune

Massachusetts Regionals

1) Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)

gengar-megascraftygothitellepolitoedamoongussarcanine

2) Ashton Cox (linkyoshimario)

venusaur-megalandorus-therianrotom-washheatranmiloticterrakion

3) Amelia Zoldy (VioletPumpkin)

gardevoir-mega sableye-megazapdos hitmontopheatranjellicent

4) Danny Hemchand (Jabberwocky)

kangaskhan-megaaegislashlandorus-therianvolcarona rotom-wash togekiss

5) Mike Suleski (OmegaDonut)

metagross-megascraftythunduruspolitoedvolcaronaamoonguss

6) Michael Lanzano (Jivetime)

kangaskhan-megacresseliaaegislashenteilandorus-therianhydreigon

7) James Ball (pball0010)

charizard-mega-ylandorus-theriansylveoncresseliahydreigonaegislash

8) Eric Bartlett

charizard-mega-y zapdosaegislashswampertterrakionhydreigon

Week 2

Utah Regionals

1) Alberto Lara (Sweeper)

salamence-megacharizard-mega-ysylveonferrothornlandorus-therianconkeldurr

2) Max Douglas (starmetroid)

salamence-megapolitoedludicoloaegislashterrakionthundurus

3) Bjorn Johnson

banette-megavenusaur-megalandorus-therianscraftyrotom-washheatran

4) Matthew Greaves (picklesword)

tyranitar-megacresseliaamoongussaegislashgyaradosexcadrill

5) Conan Thompson (conan)

kangaskhan-megagardevoir-megaheatranlandorus-therianamoongusscresselia

6) Victor Camacho

metagross-megasuicune zapdoslandorus-therianhydreigonterrakion

7) Joshua Sperry

salamence-megasylveondrapionscizor conkeldurrvivillon

8) Kimo Nishimura (TFC)

gardevoir-megaconkeldurrheatranthundurusvolcaronalandorus-therian

Kansas Regionals

1) Michael Garrett

kangaskhan-megamiloticthunduruslandorus-therianaegislashsylveon

2) Paul Chua (pwny person)

mawile-megapolitoedthundurusludicoloterrakionaegislash

3) Gabby Snyder (JTK)

metagross-megapolitoedthunduruskingdra scraftyamoonguss

4) Whitney Johnson (brokestupidlonely)

kangaskhan-megahydreigontogekiss ferrothornnidokingterrakion

5) Chance Alexander (Paragon)

kangaskhan-megasuicunethundurusterrakionarcanine aegislash

6) Eric Graham (ChaosElementX)

metagross-megahydreigonthunduruspolitoedludicoloterrakion

7) Ben Hickey (Darkpenguin67)

kangaskhan-megasylveongarchompaegislashgengarrotom-wash

8) Sam Schweitzer (Sam)

kangaskhan-megavolcarona togekiss rotom-washaegislashlandorus-therian

Week 3

Wisconsin Regionals

1) Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)

salamence-megacresseliathundurusheatranrhyperiorsylveon

2) James Baek (Jamesspeed1)

kangaskhan-megacresseliathundurusheatranlandorus-therianclefairy

3) Manoj Sunny (MangoSol)

kangaskhan-megamiloticthundurustalonflamelandorus-therianterrakion

4) Wesley Morioka (Wesley)

salamence-megagardevoirthundurusexcadrillrotom-washterrakion

5) Jonathan Neville (TM Gold)

kangaskhan-megadragonitebisharpyanmegaterrakionsylveon

6) Nick Sefranek

salamence-megaclefairythundurusheatranaegislashconkeldurr

7) Matthew Swanson (Swanner)

charizard-mega-ycresseliavenusaurheatranrhyperiorscrafty

8) Mario Serrano (Mario C)

charizard-mega-ycresseliavenusaursylveonrhyperiorscrafty

Georgia Regionals

1) Jerry Woods III (Sabaku)

mawile-megavenusaur-megazapdoschandelurelandorus-theriangastrodon

2) Cameron Swan (Drizzleboy)

kangaskhan-megagengarrotom-washbisharplandorus-therianconkeldurr

3) Angel Miranda (CT MikotoMisaka)

salamence-megaamoongusstyranitarlandorusazumarillaegislash

4) Toler Webb (Dim)

kangaskhan-megaaegislashpolitoedthundurusarcanineconkeldurr

5) Ben Thomas

lopunny-megarotom-heatbreloomgranbullcresseliamamoswine

6) Joseph Brummet (lucariojr)

charizard-mega-yvenusaur-megascraftycresseliaheatranrhyperior

7) Aaron Riker (rapture)

salamence-megaamoongussrotom-washtyranitarexcadrillaegislash

8) Karl Conception

mawile-megavenusaur-megachandeluregothitellehariyamasuicune

9) Geoffrey Sauk

metagross-megazapdoslandorus-therianhydreigonheatranterrakion

10) Michael Lanzano (Jivetime)

kangaskhan-megaenteirotom-washaegislashlandorus-theriancresselia

11) Edward Glover (Min)

salamence-megarotom-washamoongussexcadrilltyranitaraegislash

12) Mathew Blackburn

camerupt-megamawile-megagastrodonscraftymalamararomatisse

13) Sohaib Mufti (sohaib)

kangaskhan-megaclefairylandorus-therianbisharpblazikenazumarill

14) Joshua Edwards (General Josh)

salamence-megabisharpsylveonlandorus-therianludicolorotom-heat

15) Eric Hogan (JackOfClubs97)

charizard-mega-yvenusaurterrakionaegislashsylveoncresselia

16) Dan Richard

metagross-megathundurusterrakionhydreigonludicolopolitoed


About the Author

started playing competitive Pokemon in April 2011. Since then he has been fortunate enough to compete in numerous official live events, qualifying for Worlds in 2013 and winning four Regionals along the way.



61 Responses to Teams from the VGC ’15 Spring Regional Championships

  1. Wilson says:

    Why the sudden upswing in Rhyperior usage? I was under the impression that Eviolite Rhydon was generally better in pretty much every regard.

    What makes Rhyperior suddenly useful?

    I wouldn’t say it’s suddenly useful, just currently more popular. The things Rhyperior has over Rhydon aren’t new (slightly higher attack, Solid Rock, and lower speed iirc).

  2. Sabaku says:

    Like Drizzleboy and Min said, I used Thundurus-I at the Athens event, not Zapdos.

  3. Swanner says:

    Why the sudden upswing in Rhyperior usage? I was under the impression that Eviolite Rhydon was generally better in pretty much every regard.

    What makes Rhyperior suddenly useful?

    While the use of Rhyperior in Top Cut was slightly inflated–considering Mario was running a slightly different version of my team–it served its purpose well. Access to Weakness Policy, better attack, and arguably more survivability with solid rock (on the physical side) make it a better option. Out of all of those, access to Weakness Policy is what sets Rhyperior apart the most. With Helping Hand support, +2 Rock Slides are scary to deal with.
     
    I definitely would not recommend Rhyperior as a team option to start with. But I think its a good option if you want a TR Rock Slide user.

  4. Nucleose says:

    I think if I wasn’t completely sure what the meta was before, I have no idea now.

  5. Not sure how that is the best landorus counter when it straight up loses to jolly scarf landorus or Assault Vest.

     
    I had no idea how much bulk Assault Vest Lando was running but it has a pretty good chance to OHKO if they’re using the 12 HP / 92 Defense variant, and I ran 3 points faster than Adamant Landorus because I figured jolly would be going for 2 points over adamant to outspeed the normal adamant counters.
     
    252 SpA Sheer Force Nidoking Ice Beam vs. 12 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Landorus-T: 160-192 (96.3 – 115.6%) — 81.3% chance to OHKO

  6. Picklesword says:

    Guess i’m the only one still using gyarados

  7. Smith says:

    Hardly. The fact that so many non-standard ‘mons made the cut is a testament to the creativity and skill of the people who use them.

    It’s more of a testament to the lack of skill of everybody they played. Obviously some less standard choices were pretty cool but I’m just saying that some bad teams always sneak through into a swiss top cut (i.e. mega absol, aromatisse / malamar, etc.)

  8. LightCore says:

     
    Since it hasn’t been done yet I tallied up how many times each Pokemon made top cut 
     

    Landorus-T 25
    Thundurus 23
    Aegislash 20
    Terrakion 19
    Heatran 18
    Kangaskhan 16
    Venusaur 14 
    Cresselia 14
    Salamence 14
    Sylveon 13
    Amoonguss 12
    Politoed 12
    Rotom-W 12
    Metagross 10
    Scrafty 10
    Charizard 9
    Hydreigon 9
    Zapdos 8
    Gardevoir 7
    Ludicolo 7
    Conkeldurr 6
    Rhyperior 6
    Excadrill 5
    Mawile 5
    Tyranitar 5
     
    Arcanine 4
    Bisharp 4
    Milotic 4
    Suicune 4
    Togekiss 4
    Volcarona 4
     
    Breloom 3
    Clefairy 3
    Gengar 3
    Sableye 3
     
    Azumarill 2
    Chandelure 2
    Entei 2
    Ferrothorn 2
    Gastrodon 2
    Gothitelle 2
    Jellicent 2
    Kingdra 2
    Lopunny 2
    Mamoswine 2
    Rotom-H 2
    Scizor 2
    Swampert 2
     
    Absol 1
    Aromatisse 1
    Banette 1
    Blaziken 1
    Camerupt 1
    Dragonite 1
    Drapion 1
    Garchomp 1
    Granbull 1
    Gyarados 1
    Hariyama 1
    Hitmontop 1
    Infernape 1
    Landorus-I 1
    Malamar 1
    Nidoking 1
    Smeargle 1
    Talonflame 1
    Tornadus 1
    Vivillon 1
    Virizion 1
    Yanmega 1
     
    71 Different Pokemon were used over 64 teams

     

    This just made my job a whole lot easier. and usage stats should be posted by Monday due to the Peru regionals not being concluded

  9. lucariojr says:

     
    just wanna say that i built my team from seeing your six on team preview on a stream (i pretty much built my spreads and movesets on my own… maybe we should compare notes?) and hearing some good things about cressperior in general. sorry for being trash and netdecking but that lineup was really solid and i had nothing better to run!!!
     
    rhyperior is definitely one of those mons that either carries the team or is complete dead weight, failing against some of the meta (rotom-w, suicune, amoonguss, rain) and checking other things like heatran, thundurus, talonflame, mega salamence, among others while in trick room and sometimes without, as seen with TheBattleRoom’s team which i assume incorporates thunder wave as a way for rhyperior to outspeed things.

  10. TM Gold says:

    Personally,  I want to thank everyone for the support that I got.  I was extremely nervous showing Yanmega Dragonite to the stream and I wasn’t playing my best.  However, I hope I gave you guys a great show!

  11. Firestorm says:

    Kind of embarrassing that some of this stuff cut rofl. Thanks for the usage stats, we all appreciate it

    Kind of embarrassing that players with big heads keep making these snide comments about players performing better than them.

  12. pball0010 says:

    Kind of embarrassing that players with big heads keep making these snide comments about players performing better than them.

    Firestorm with the burn!

    Snt0Xu7.gif

  13. Darkblaze65 says:

    It’s more of a testament to the lack of skill of everybody they played. Obviously some less standard choices were pretty cool but I’m just saying that some bad teams always sneak through into a swiss top cut (i.e. mega absol, aromatisse / malamar, etc.)

    Really? Lack of skill? Because 4 of my 8 opponents top cut. And aromatisee is an amazing TR setter. Great HP stat, decent defenses, and an amazing ability in aroma veil. Great supportive moveset and a base 99 SpAtk to deal enough damage so it and a heat wave from my M-Camerupt will KO anything it needs to. Granted I’ll give you Malamar does kinda suck. But I needed a secondary TR setter as well as a better matchup against mega Venusaur as well as a Kang/Breloom lead so it fit the bill perfectly. Not everyone needs to rely on using Lando-T/Thundurus, heatrans, and mega Kangs/Mences to win. Some of us are just better team builders ;)

  14. Crow says:

    Really? Lack of skill? Because 4 of my 8 opponents top cut. And aromatisee is an amazing TR setter. Great HP stat, decent defenses, and an amazing ability in aroma veil. Great supportive moveset and a base 99 SpAtk to deal enough damage so it and a heat wave from my M-Camerupt will KO anything it needs to. Granted I’ll give you Malamar does kinda suck. But I needed a secondary TR setter as well as a better matchup against mega Venusaur as well as a Kang/Breloom lead so it fit the bill perfectly. Not everyone needs to rely on using Lando-T/Thundurus, heatrans, and mega Kangs/Mences to win. Some of us are just better team builders ;)

    Man, Rushan came to your defense and then you just go and be an arceushole anway

  15. I had no idea how much bulk Assault Vest Lando was running but it has a pretty good chance to OHKO if they’re using the 12 HP / 92 Defense variant, and I ran 3 points faster than Adamant Landorus because I figured jolly would be going for 2 points over adamant to outspeed the normal adamant counters.
     
    252 SpA Sheer Force Nidoking Ice Beam vs. 12 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Landorus-T: 160-192 (96.3 – 115.6%) — 81.3% chance to OHKO

     
    Running no bulk at all on Assault vest landorus is not really a thing, and somewhat defeats the point of having assault vest in the first place, if you aren’t turning more attacks into 2hko’s or 3hko’s.  Against Unreality’s spread that he used to win Winter Regionals, which he benchmarked to take 2 hyper voices from choice specs sylveon, and an overheat from charizard, nidoking’s ice beam still won’t KO
     
    252 SpA Sheer Force Nidoking Ice Beam vs. 140 HP / 108 SpD Assault Vest Landorus-T: 144-172 (79.1 – 94.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
     
    Frankly, Scarf Nidoking is great for taking down scarf dog, but as Mikoto said, it still looses to AV Variants.  
    Long Live Landorus  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:

  16. Smith says:

    Really? Lack of skill? Because 4 of my 8 opponents top cut. And aromatisee is an amazing TR setter. Great HP stat, decent defenses, and an amazing ability in aroma veil. Great supportive moveset and a base 99 SpAtk to deal enough damage so it and a heat wave from my M-Camerupt will KO anything it needs to. Granted I’ll give you Malamar does kinda suck. But I needed a secondary TR setter as well as a better matchup against mega Venusaur as well as a Kang/Breloom lead so it fit the bill perfectly. Not everyone needs to rely on using Lando-T/Thundurus, heatrans, and mega Kangs/Mences to win. Some of us are just better team builders ;)

     
    uh
    “you’re not wrong”

  17. Darkblaze65 says:

    Man, Rushan came to your defense and then you just go and be an arceushole anyway

    You misinterpret my words. I was not meaning to sound like an arse, I was just fired up when I saw his comment. Defending the honor of my little Aromatisse that I’ve come to love so much lol. Seriously tho, it’s a pretty awesome TR setter. I encourage people to try it. Not so much Malamar.

  18. Running no bulk at all on Assault vest landorus is not really a thing, and somewhat defeats the point of having assault vest in the first place, if you aren’t turning more attacks into 2hko’s or 3hko’s.  Against Unreality’s spread that he used to win Winter Regionals, which he benchmarked to take 2 hyper voices from choice specs sylveon, and an overheat from charizard, nidoking’s ice beam still won’t KO
     
    252 SpA Sheer Force Nidoking Ice Beam vs. 140 HP / 108 SpD Assault Vest Landorus-T: 144-172 (79.1 – 94.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
     
    Frankly, Scarf Nidoking is great for taking down scarf dog, but as Mikoto said, it still looses to AV Variants.  
    Long Live Landorus  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:  :angry:

     
    I’ll give you that it’s silly to use an Assault Vest without more bulk, but I had no idea what to plan for anyways so I figured a strong counter to Scarf variants would be enough. I really just used Nidoking because I was sick of losing to flinches off a fast Landorus so I figured out what would take care of that specific Landorus. Also, there’s always the option to Fake Out for just a little extra damage if I needed to, but I wouldn’t do that except in Bo3 once I knew (or suspected) I was dealing with something besides standard Lando.

  19. Captain Catastrophe says:

    I’m surprised i’m the only one who got into top cut with Mamoswine and to a lesser extent Granbull,
    Also i’m Ben Thomas,

  20. starmetroid says:

    I’m surprised i’m the only one who got into top cut with Mamoswine and to a lesser extent Granbull,
    Also i’m Ben Thomas,
    :EDIT: also turns out my Rotom-heat never had a item what a blunder on my part

     
    You weren’t the only one to top cut with Mamoswine. Wesley made top 4 with it in Washington

  21. projectmars says:

    It’s more of a testament to the lack of skill of everybody they played. Obviously some less standard choices were pretty cool but I’m just saying that some bad teams always sneak through into a swiss top cut (i.e. mega absol, aromatisse / malamar, etc.)

    Saying that some of the more unusual teams got through because of a generally lesser skilled playfield seems like a pretty bad way to look at it. Keep in mind that getting top cut usually relies on X-1 finishes (possibly X-2 in some cases) so the players were definitely skilled enough to win at least 90% of their matches.

  22. Zekira Drake says:

    Well Zekira Drake is going to be excited.

     
    You bet I am and now I will kidnap him until he tells me the secret.
     
    Although looking at the team he probably had more use for Mega Venusaur or something. But bidoof that team doesn’t have high nor high defense, just a decent mix of both, yet it got top 16. Wow.
     
     SvSaAzV.png
     
    The heck

  23. I’ll give you that it’s silly to use an Assault Vest without more bulk, but I had no idea what to plan for anyways so I figured a strong counter to Scarf variants would be enough. I really just used Nidoking because I was sick of losing to flinches off a fast Landorus so I figured out what would take care of that specific Landorus. Also, there’s always the option to Fake Out for just a little extra damage if I needed to, but I wouldn’t do that except in Bo3 once I knew (or suspected) I was dealing with something besides standard Lando.

    :D good point.  totally get what your saying, and even if it does need help beating AV Lando, it absolutely destroys plenty of other things too.  nonetheless, fantastic meta-call, maybe other people will catch on to how good nidoking is.  

  24. Really? Lack of skill? Because 4 of my 8 opponents top cut. And aromatisee is an amazing TR setter. Great HP stat, decent defenses, and an amazing ability in aroma veil. Great supportive moveset and a base 99 SpAtk to deal enough damage so it and a heat wave from my M-Camerupt will KO anything it needs to. Granted I’ll give you Malamar does kinda suck. But I needed a secondary TR setter as well as a better matchup against mega Venusaur as well as a Kang/Breloom lead so it fit the bill perfectly. Not everyone needs to rely on using Lando-T/Thundurus, heatrans, and mega Kangs/Mences to win. Some of us are just better team builders ;)

    Would like to see a Smith verses Darkblaze65 money match on stream.

    No way Smith can win. Darkblaze65 is such a good team builder. He is better than everyone who uses kang or mence and he obviously has a great grasp on sentence structure. Let’s all be honest here, aromatisse is so good you need 3 poorly written sentences to describe it adequately.

  25. Makenzie says:

    Would like to see a Smith verses Darkblaze65 money match on stream.

    No way Smith can win. Darkblaze65 is such a good team builder. He is better than everyone who uses kang or mence and he obviously has a great grasp on sentence structure. Let’s all be honest here, aromatisse is so good you need 3 poorly written sentences to describe it adequately.

    This dispute makes me want to see an old blood vs new blood team tournament,with Smith captaining the Old Bloods and Conan or Darkblaze captaining the New Bloods,with every battle being best of three.Lol

  26. 13ulbasaur says:

    He is better than everyone who uses kang or mence…

    D-Did you just imply that people who uses Kang or Mence on a team aren’t good or that they are cheap?

  27. Hibiki says:

    Can we stop bashing unique snowflakes just because they were able to cut events when you couldn’t?
    Those stingy comments thrown at each other are pretty unnecessary. Especially considering that the whole thing had blown over already, no need to fire it up again.

  28. Braverius says:

    I’m surprised i’m the only one who got into top cut with Mamoswine and to a lesser extent Granbull,
    Also i’m Ben Thomas,
    :EDIT: also turns out my Rotom-heat never had a item what a blunder on my part
    :Edit 2:whoops miss read the statistic’s on Mamo

    Are you sure we haven’t met somewhere before and aren’t best friends or something?

  29. Peppermint says:

    Just like last year, rain has hit a large spike in popularity around now. It’ll probably be prevalent at nats too, but who knows about Worlds.

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