Top 16 Teams at the 2013 European National Championships
Back in May, the first European national championships using the Swiss system followed by a top 16 cut were held. Following the examples of North America as well as Australia, we have collected most successful (success defined as making the cut) teams in our three tournaments in the Master Division. If you are looking for Seniors instead, another article has them covered. At the end, you will find usage stats, as usual, and additionally a few remarks on interesting aspects.
First Event: Milan, Italy
Champion [IT] Matteo G. (Matty)
Runner-up [DE] Eloy H. (Dragoran5)
Semifinalist [DE] Matthias H. (Tyvyr)
Semifinalist [ES] Jordi P.
Top 8 [DE] Michael R. (Michilele)
Top 8 [UK] Barry A. (Baz Anderson)
Top 8 [ES] Miguel T. (Sekiam)
Top 8 [ES] Jose G. (Donstev)
Top 16 [IT] Alberto G. (BraindeadPrimeape)
(same as Matty)
Top 16 [UK] Ben K. (Kyriakou)
Top 16 [ES] Javier B. (bellanko)
Top 16 [IT] Carlo A. (shinycarletto)
Top 16 [UK] Christopher A. (Koryo)
Top 16 [DE] Matthias S. (Lega)
Top 16 [IT] Arash O. (Mean)
Top 16 [IT] Manuel D.
Second Event: Bochum, Germany
Champion [IT] Alberto G. (BraindeadPrimeape)
(same as before)
Runner-up [DE] Jamal M. (Toazdt)
Semifinalist [IT] Luigi L. (LProx)
Semifinalist [DE] Michael R. (Michilele)
(same as before)
Top 8 [IT] Lorenzo G. (Greyfox)
Top 8 [DE] Steven V. (Akatsubaki)
Top 8 [DE] Lajos K. (Lajo)
Top 8 [IT] Matteo G. (Matty)
(same as before)
Top 16 [IT] Arash O. (Mean)
(same as before)
Top 16 [DE] Christoph K. (drug duck)
Top 16 [UK] Lee P. (Osirus)
Top 16 [DE] Stefan K. (Maunzi)
Top 16 [UK] Barry A. (Baz Anderson)
Top 16 [FR] Nabil L. (Showmeasign)
Top 16 [DE] Jens D.
Top 16 [UK] Rina P.
Third Event: Birmingham, United Kingdom
Champion [UK] Ben K. (Kyriakou)
(same as before)
Runner-up [ES] Abel S. (Flash)
Semifinalist [UK] Lee P. (Osirus)
(same as before)
Semifinalist [ES] Albert B. (Arbol Deku)
Top 8 [UK] Rachel A. (SPEevee)
Top 8 [UK] Daniel N. (Zog)
Top 8 [DE] Matthias S. (Lega)
(same as before)
Top 8 [UK] Benjamin G. (Ben91293)
Top 16 [ES] Juan S. (Kotx)
Top 16 [UK] Solomon R. (Sol64)
Top 16 [US] Mike S. (OmegaDonut)
Top 16 [UK] Christopher A. (Koryo)
(same as before)
Top 16 [UK] Barry A. (Baz Anderson)
(same as previous tournament)
Top 16 [NL] Huib B. (Lolnub)
Top 16 [UK] Jason F. (Die2Distroy)
Top 16 [UK] Thomas R.
Derived Usage Statistics
Since there were no participation restrictions to the events, some people made top 16 multiple times using the same team and there have also been shared teams with multiple top 16 appearances. These are counted for the statistics as is. If you are looking for the raw numbers, just scroll down — in any other case a quick personal analysis:
- Cresselia didn’t win a single tournament in Europe. Taking other parts of the world into account, Cresselia did only win in Japan and South Korea. On the other side, Hydreigon won all three European events (and appeared 5 out of possible 6 times in finals) but none elsewhere.
- Whether this is coincidental or actually reasonable tendencies, we don’t know for sure, but the top 16 metagames of the event differ heavily from each other, ignoring duplicate trainers. Thus, Italy was the rainiest place for sure, Germany had an outstanding lot of weather-independent high-BST teams and the United Kingdom might still be recovering from a notable pack of sandstorms.
- Breaking the previous point down to individual Pokémon, we see that Bochum had almost half of all Cresselias and the main part of all Metagrosses and Landoruses seen (the latter one not even appearing at all in Birmingham), while Hitmontop or Volcarona (both in only 1 team) were hardly encountered in those later rounds, contrary to the other two tournaments. Bochum also featured half of all Scrafties but they were around enough not to make a unique appearance anywhere. Birmingham had, aside from the sand part, spikes in Zapdos, Latios and especially Hitmontop usage for some late 2012 resemblance. Birmingham also had only a single Hydreigon despite Hydreigon’s unmatched success in the other two (and it still won, obviously). And Milan had, well, nothing too striking except for Politoed and Kingdra.
- In North America, the metagame is heavily slanted towards Cresselia and Tyranitar. Cresselia is also the most used Pokémon in Europe but there’s a lesser gap between her and her closest “chasers”.
- Heatran (4 times per tournament) and Terrakion (3 times) were the masters of consistency in appearance. In the lower parts, we also see Gyarados and Liepard brought past the cut exactly 1 time per event.
- Garchomp and Landorus tie in total usage. People seem to be arguing a lot for Garchomp’s outdatedness because of the existence of Therian Landorus but Garchomp just ignores that and will possibly never go away.
- Therian Landorus and Wash Rotom are the only forms of said species that made it into any top 16. It is widely accepted that some other forms are competitively usable as well, so it’s probably just a coincidence that they are missing even in our host of unique Pokémon.
- Speaking of unique Pokémon, there are 17 perfectly unique ones out of 49 individual Pokémon appeared in total (and we’re pretty much tied in both numbers with North America!). There are 2 more if we take duplicate trainers into account.
- Whatever is on this list, unique or not and just as pretty much anywhere else, is obviously to be considered competitively viable, as making the cut in itself is a feat with the new system that may have decreased the outright randomness of single elimination to some degree, yet still retains a similar unforgiveness to errors.
| Pokémon | Milan | Bochum | Birmingham | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cresselia | 6 | 11 | 6 | 23 |
| Tyranitar | 5 | 5 | 8 | 18 |
| Thundurus (all) | 6 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| Amoonguss | 5 | 3 | 6 | 14 |
| Heatran | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| Hitmontop | 4 | 1 | 7 | 12 |
| Thundurus (Incarnate) | 5 | 5 | 2 | 12 |
| Hydreigon | 5 | 5 | 1 | 11 |
| Politoed | 6 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| Scrafty | 2 | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| Scizor | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
| Breloom | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| Kingdra | 6 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Metagross | 2 | 6 | 1 | 9 |
| Terrakion | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| Volcarona | 5 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Excadrill | 2 | 1 | 5 | 8 |
| Latios | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 |
| Rotom (Wash) | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| Abomasnow | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| Garchomp | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| Landorus (Therian) | 2 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
| Zapdos | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Bronzong | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Bisharp | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Thundurus (Therian) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Tornadus (Incarnate) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Chandelure | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Gyarados | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Liepard | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Salamence | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Suicune | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Heracross | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Togekiss | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Blastoise | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ferrothorn | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gastrodon | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Gothorita | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Infernape | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Latias | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Ludicolo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Nidoqueen | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ninetales | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Raikou | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Sableye | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Smeargle | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Starmie | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Swampert | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Vaporeon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Virizion | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Weavile | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Un(kn)own | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
About the Author
Dreykopff has been playing Pokémon competitively for longer than a decade. He has participated in the 2009 Pokémon World Championships, also qualified in 2015 and still hopes to eventually make it back into the most important tournament of the year. His all-time favorite Pokémon is Moltres.
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Solomon’s remaining pokemon were Cresselia, Latios and Thundurus.