Results & Teams from the VGC ’15 Florida Regional Championships

58 Responses to Results & Teams from the VGC ’15 Florida Regional Championships

1. Sharqi says:

   March 2, 2015 at 7:23 am

   Cool teams, grats to everyone!
    
   But I have to say I’m surprised Wolfe could win with that team. I used almost the exact same thing in January(just with Terrakion instead of Scrafty), but stopped using it because it felt so weak against very offensive teams. Rain with Mega-Metagross/-Salamence screwed me up entirely, and things like Hydreigon+Kanga in tailwind were very problematic as well.
   But then again I have not seen the stream, maybe he plays his team differently than I did. Are there any records of the topcut matches online?
2. Zenithian says:

   March 2, 2015 at 7:30 am

   This was my first regional so my team was heavily influenced by a team Wolfe used last year, it was ironic to be knocked out of the tourney by him, but he’s a great guy and player. The team was: Mega Mawile, Hariyama, Gothitelle, Ludicolo, Politoed, and Zapdos. There was no perish song on the team though.

   I also want to thank Zach (Braverius) for taking time to share the standings and results with everyone, that really does make watching events more fun for people who don’t go to them.
3. DirtyMike says:

   March 2, 2015 at 7:37 am

   I love how if you look at Top8 there is the same number of suicunes as there is swamperts.
4. RevRush says:

   March 2, 2015 at 8:17 am

   I’m loving the variety of teams in use this year! Mega Banette, Evolite Clefairy,most likely Flash Fire Typhlosion, Coffagrigus, Gourgeist, and it’s just interesting to see them do so well with the right team. Of course there’s plenty of legendaries but that’s to be expected with the stats they have! ^^
5. archimom says:

   March 2, 2015 at 8:18 am

    
    archimom says:
   March 2, 2015 at 6:05 am
   Juniors results would be great, if anyone knows…

   Here they are:
   1- Parker Hurley
   2- Jordan Schroeder
   3- Emma Cox
   4- Lucas DeOliviera
   5- Max Overdevest
   6- Beatrix Monroe
   7- Kyle Gaff
   8- Enzo Reci
   9- Tanner Hurley
   10- Joel Alanis
   11- Ian Terriberry
   12- Becca Schroeder
   13- Jesse Mirman
   14- Josslyn Coles
   15- Beckett Coles
   16- Tristan Smith

   That’s as far as my picture from yesterday goes (the top 8 have been reordered based on their top cut results).
    

   Thank you so much!  (Heck, I only reported top 4 for St. Louis, because I wasn’t sure what happened for the rest of the results!)  I am amused to see Jackson didn’t go (or place top 16), since I thought he was going to try and attend every single Regional!
6. izzymwanderer says:

   March 2, 2015 at 8:22 am

   This was my first regional so my team was heavily influenced by a team Wolfe used last year, it was ironic to be knocked out of the tourney by him, but he’s a great guy and player. The team was: Mega Mawile, Hariyama, Gothitelle, Ludicolo, Politoed, and Zapdos. There was no perish song on the team though.

   I also want to thank Zach (Braverius) for taking time to share the standings and results with everyone, that really does make watching events more fun for people who don’t go to them.

    
   Hey man, congrats on the top cut! Sorry for messing up on the perish song thing… I played a perish trap team right before yours that shared like four of your mons, so I think that’s where I mixed that up.
7. CT MikotoMisaka says:

   March 2, 2015 at 8:43 am

   CLEF INVASION.
8. Nocturne Circus says:

   March 2, 2015 at 8:47 am

   Is there any way I can find the stream so I can watch this? 
9. Jake U says:

   March 2, 2015 at 8:59 am

   Hello.
    
   I was the guy in 8th place at the end, and I did have a mega stone on both Metagross and Salamence.
    
   I’ve never done VGC before and I have to say it was so awesome! I almost entered last year’s Florida VGC but was too nervous, so I watched my friend play instead. After seeing how it all worked, I felt better prepared for this one. I NEVER thought I’d get that far, though. Got some free card packs and a nice hat as prizes to remember my time there. I’m looking forward to next year!
10. iMagikarp says:

    March 2, 2015 at 10:14 am

    man my current team is very similar to one of these teams…I thought I was so cool. well maybe it just means I’m doing something right.
11. Wiretap says:

    March 2, 2015 at 10:41 am

    It was really cool seeing starter pokemon basically running the show in t4. Both Ashton and myself were running three starters (though Ashton’s team was a bit more… unique than mine), and of course Wolfe’s Venusaur + defensive play style basically stealing the show in both his t4 match against me and his finals match against David. 
12. Witchard says:

    March 2, 2015 at 11:32 am

    For those that missed it : http://www.twitch.tv/nuggetbridge/b/631528302
13. Gelatin says:

    March 2, 2015 at 11:44 am

    My Venusaur bias makes me absolutely adore these results <3 Glad to see a lot of Pokemon I wanted to use (Camerupt, Scizor, etc) make the Top 16.

    Congrats to all the players.
14. Crazyblissey says:

    March 2, 2015 at 12:08 pm

    Im glad none of the super gimmicky teams could make it past top 16. Goes to show that it might work against people in swiss, but good players in a best of three format can usually figure a way to play around those sorts of strategies. Also, I’m glad that ashton and Wiretap used triple starter teams, I’ve always felt starter pokemon needed to be more competitive and this format has been seeing more varied uses of starter pokemon.
15. NintenZero says:

    March 2, 2015 at 12:19 pm

    Congrats to Wolfe and Carson for getting 1st palce.
16. kunx990 says:

    March 2, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    I had a great time playing for the first time playing the VGC side of regionals after a long hiatus in any type of competitive Pokémon play. Running into 4 people in T16 in swiss and getting 12th seed going into Top Cut feels amazing.

    Zenithian how our match went feels like a war story I’ll end up telling my grandchildren one day.
17. Dorian06 says:

    March 2, 2015 at 1:21 pm

    Top 2 seniors was posted so i”ll do t4
    3rd albert o (Albertlolz) kangaskahn cresselia thundurus landorus heatran sylveon
    4th Ian M (raikoo) politoed ludicolo landorus aegislash kangaskahn Hydregion.

    I honestly think kangaskahn will drop in usage in the east coast, as all of the kangaskahn users in t4 had a hard mega salamence counter with cress, ludicolo, or scarf kingdra the 3/4 thundurus users got eliminated in the first round of cut, and providing how much it relies on luck, i’m not suprised. So I learned that east coast meta is very different from west coast, and I had to step up my game for all the great players in the east
18. Scott says:

    March 2, 2015 at 1:21 pm

    I’m sure a lot of experienced players in particular are probably looking at these results and kind of thinking “lol Florida”, but I think there’s a lot of good stuff here.

    • I think FWG cores are really good this year, especially in cases where they can fit two Fairy-resists on the team. Wolfe and Wiretap had purer versions of this and Adit and Mancuso having only the FW part seems to be the standard play when Mega Venusaur isn’t selected as the Mega. Weird that we’re in a world where Fire is an almost necessary defensive type.
    • Blaziken is pretty good if you want to play offensively, I think. As a player I would have valued bulk too much myself to use something like it, but it’s definitely gotten to the point where it’s good and whether or not it’s worth considering for players is a stylistic choice instead of it just not being very good, as it was in 2013. I think it’s woefully underplayed right now relative to its strength, people should have been stealing it when Yoshi used it.
    • I think Wide Guard + Fire Pokemon is sort of interesting, especially with that WG coming from Swampert, who can hang a lot better with Landorus than something like Aegislash. The Fire Pokemon can often handle Charizard, and Swampert can handle Landorus and generally prevent most EQ/RS users from doing meaningful damage to the Fire-types. Swampert, like Blaziken, is pretty legit. Shame Sceptile doesn’t synergize with them well. RIP themes…
    • I don’t think Typhlosion is something that should be starting a fad, but that Top 16 series from Ashton is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on a stream of a Premier Event and I am smirking just thinking about it. Thanks for the show and for purging Minimize Psych Up by fire.
    • I think one thing players really need to consider this year, especially for Nats and Worlds, is the ability to play against multiple tempos well. I think a lot of people who lost to Wolfe looked like they really didn’t know how to handle playing the pace Wolfe forced, and he was better at controlling games than his opponents were. I think that’s going to be the major team building challenge of 2015 — you have to be able to play against both slower, bulkier teams ranging from Wolfe’s level of slow to more offensive, but still bulky teams that you might expect from someone like Ray, all the way to having to deal with really aggressive teams like Ashton’s or Follow Me + Mega teams like Mancuso used. All of those things are pretty reasonably matched in this format for the first time ever in VGC.
    • I don’t know if Mega Banette is really ever going to work at a big event for anyone level than Wolfe, but god I loved watching his team. Definitely something I’d like to see him adjust and keep using if it keeps fitting in upcoming expected metagames. I feel like a lot of more defensive players like Wolfe got a raw deal with the 2014 format compared to more aggressive players, so it was nice to get to see him at his best again. Really clever team with a bunch of tricks he’s great at using. Scrafty standing in for Hitmontop and Heatran coming back added to the feel being just right.
    • I love Clefairy. I had theoryed with it long, long ago and couldn’t qutie get it to work right, but I’m glad to see people succeeding where I failed this year. Don’t underestimate Friend Guard and Follow Me’s apparent anti-synergy: getting Friend Guard on a switch, and especially on spread moves with how popular they are this year, is a huge deal.
    • Angel has to have the strangest metagame influence:success ratio of any player of all-time. Swampert and Clefairy are both super legit.
19. ColdPayne says:

    March 2, 2015 at 1:34 pm

    I really like Wolfeys team, I was also suprised to see a Clefairy this year.
20. Stephen says:

    March 2, 2015 at 2:16 pm

     
     
    you have to be able to play against both slower, bulkier teams ranging from Wolfe’s level of slow to more offensive, but still bulky teams that you might expect from someone like Ray, all the way to having to deal with really aggressive teams like Ashton’s or Follow Me + Mega teams like Mancuso used. All of those things are pretty reasonably matched in this format for the first time ever in VGC.
     

     
    Offense wins games, defense wins championships.
21. Braverius says:

    March 2, 2015 at 3:56 pm

    A little bit of a personal anecdote, but one big takeaway from this event that I think impacted my performance more than anything was the lack of practice I had with the team and how that affected my play because of the type of team. A lot of the more offensive teams require you to be able to lead and play to the tendencies of the opponent (since they’re much less keen on switching around and much more reliant on having immediate good position and applying pressure in a wide variety of situations). I ended up running something similar to Mancuso with LO Timid Thundurus > Rotom-H and found that while it felt like it had the potential to be a solid team if I played well early in the game, I often times was finding myself in weird, unfamiliar positions, especially earlier in games versus other offensive teams. I typically am not a fan of grinding the PS or Battle Spot ladder for practice, but I think for a team that requires you to make some judgment calls early in games, you need to be well-educated on what people typically do when they see those exact six in team preview and how they proceed to sequence the first few turns. Running through matchups over and over can give you a much better clue on how to approach a game from team preview if you’re playing offensively. 
22. DodrioRacer says:

    March 2, 2015 at 4:44 pm

    Looks like I may be giving Mega Banette a try. Its something I’ve always wanted to use (was a big fan of Banette back in RSE casual play) and Wolfey and I have pretty similar teams, except I run Amoongus and Mega Mawile rather than Mega Venusaur and Scrafty.
23. DodrioRacer says:

    March 2, 2015 at 4:49 pm

    Something interesting to note:

    In the Top 8 there were 2 Rotom-W, 2 Suicune, 2 Swampert, and 2 Milotic. Bulky waters clearly a necessity and seems to be a pretty decent variety (a few Jellicent in the last batch of regionals also). Also, people love Terrakion and Heatran.
24. CardBoardBox says:

    March 2, 2015 at 6:33 pm

    Every time I see these top cuts I’m always impressed by the level of creativity in this format.
25. bgt says:

    March 2, 2015 at 7:27 pm

    I’ve wanted to use Typhlosion for the longest time, so seeing my boy up there makes me smile! I thought it was weird when I didn’t see an entire Bisharp or Thundurus-I for the entire day… but the Top Cut pretty much reflects that. It just died off compared to the 1st week.
26. Cash Kostka says:

    March 3, 2015 at 2:39 am

    It was difficult to come back from that game.
    I feel like I could have done so much more, but Wolfe had amazing reads and played very slow compared to when I went through pools. I went 8-1 through swiss pools with my one loss going to someone who had another defensive team and he ended up going 11th, but I did beat most people in the top 8 when I went through pools.
    The team I had never really got to show too much of what it looks like when its executed properly.

    I hope Athens will be different.
27. SublimeInterface says:

    March 3, 2015 at 4:19 am

    Ashtons reasoning behind Roar on Terrakion was pure genius. -6 priority allows him to Roar out Trick Room setters before any shenanigans goes down. It also allows him to reset any stat gains such as evasiveness or speed. It seems completely awesome! Congrats to all competitors
28. dodgson says:

    March 5, 2015 at 12:21 pm

    Got Emma and Beatrix confused in the juniors results …
     
    1. Parker H (1 seed, beat Enzo, Beatrix, Jordan)
    2. Jordan S (6 seed, beat Emma, Lucas)
    3. Beatrix M (4 seed, beat Kyle)
    4. Lucas D (7 seed, beat Max)
    5. Max O (2 seed)
    6. Emma C (3 seed)
    7. Kyle G (5 seed)
    8. Enzo R (8 seed)
     
    Parental request … could we take a run through this and the other FL forum and wipe the searchable junior last names please?