Moonblast Legend: 2024 Worlds Report
Hi, my name is Adit Selvaraj, and today I am going to talk about the team I used to go 5-3 at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships. The team was 1 game win away from getting me into Day 2 of the 2024 Pokémon World Championships
It’s been a while since I got to compete at a high level, and enjoyed the team enough to write about it. As always, thank you to the team at DevonCorpPress for letting me write about my experience.
Background
I qualified for Worlds once before in 2016. A disappointing 1-3 performance and bitterness that my practice didn’t translate into results, was enough to make me swear off Pokémon for 7 years.
I knew my practice and team-building had to be much more focused in order to do decent at Worlds. In 2016, despite topping the showdown ladder multiple times, the lack of understanding of fundamentals and lack of mental acuity was my downfall.
This time, I wanted to do it right. As such, I decided to lock into a team-archetype immediately after NAIC instead of shopping around for different teams near Worlds. I decided this time to be self-sufficient and stick to my ideals.
After going a paltry 5-4 at both Indianapolis and NAIC with Calyrex-Shadow, I decided that I would not be using it for Worlds. Using other restricted Pokémon such as Kyogre and Koraidon were ideas I briefly flirted with, but in the end, I was drawn to Zamazenta.
At NAIC, I became aware of the amazing runs of both Blake Silver (@blakesilver5) and (@kmilly132) and their team of Thunder Wave / Icy Wind Flutter Mane / Galarian-Moltres / Scarf Ditto / Rillaboom / Chien-Pao / Zamazenta.
Around that time, I saw other concepts such as Michael Zhang’s version of Zamazenta using Tyranitar, and then, the team composition that most influenced me, @TrnrRodVGC ‘s Zamazenta + Hisuian Arcanine team.
https://pokepast.es/7d006e72063b1bce
You see, Arcanine-Hisui is one of my favorite Pokemon ever. I’ve been enamored with it ever since I started using it in Reg D. As Kantonian Arcanine was a Pokemon I had an affinity using (getting Top 8 at the 2015 Orlando regionals with it), this continued affinity with its ancestor was only natural.
After the changes to the Worlds structure were announced and that going forward, only the top 75 players in each region would qualify for Worlds in 2025 onwards, I surmised that this very well could be my last Worlds competing.
As such, I decided to treat this Worlds as my swan-song for my time striving toward Worlds. I would reward myself by using Pokémon I enjoyed and just try to have fun. Because of this rationale, Arcanine-Hisui was guaranteed to be on the team I took to Worlds.
Over the summer leading up to Worlds, I won a Cup (Midseason Showdown) and a Challenge. I also played in various limitless tours to flesh out what six Pokémon would be my Worlds team. I knew that no matter what, I was comfortable with using Zamazenta / Hisuian-Arcanine / Flutter Mane / Chien-Pao / Rillaboom.
I tried a lot of different Pokemon in the last slot, Safety Goggles Urshifu-Rapid Strike / Galarian Moltres / Ditto. I even had a crisis of faith and decided to use Entei over Arcanine on the ladder to see if that would skew certain matchups in my favor (it didn’t and I’ll explain later)
Out of the Pokémon of that bunch, the Pokemon I ended up testing most was Moltres-Galar, as its Dark spread damage meant it could function well against Calyrex-Shadow, and Foul Play would do sizable damage into Calyrex-Ice.
Throughout practice and trial and error, I found that the team struggled incredibly with Amoonguss and Miraidon being the best restricted Pokémon going into Worlds made me anxious about adding an Electric-type weakness onto the team.
Feeling absolutely stymied about what my last slot should be, I decided to join a dedicated prep group with Brady Smith. Through Brady’s extensive experience playing in tournaments such as the Victory Road tournaments, he told me about a tech mon that Japanese players were using that may skew more matchups positively on my team. That Pokémon ended up being Max Defense Impish Ogerpon-Hearthflame.
Ogerpon-Hearthflame checked multiple boxes on my team:
- Redirection
- Grass Type (Spore Immunity and resistance to Electric)
-Dedicated Fire Type (Arcanine would be pressing its Rock-type attacks most of the time and could not use Flare Blitz due to Choice Band lock)
After trying this Pokemon out, I was instantly impressed by its bulk and utility. It fit everything I wanted on this team and more.
With that, the team of six Pokemon I was going to bring to Worlds was complete.
The Team
One thing I will say about this team is that due to Zamazenta’s status as an “honest” Pokemon, the rest of the slots on this team need to do the bulk of the heavy lifting to make it shine.
Zamazenta isn’t an over-tuned Pokemon kitted out with strong spread attacks nor the ability to snowball and raise its offenses by virtue of simply pressing an attack. Its strengths are clearly defined and delineated by the stat-spread and move pool GameFreak gave it.
Unlike Calyrex-Ice and Calyrex-Shadow that benefit from the standard balance core, Zamazenta favors partners that can deal massive damage or disrupt the opponent. Zamazenta can and will protect the rest of your team, but those team members need to be proactive in removing pieces from the board or put Zamazenta in a position to deal heavy damage with Body Press / Heavy Slam.
I’ll now take the opportunity to explain each Pokémon and their role on the team.
Move over Cresselia, VGC has a new queen in Flutter Mane. Serendipitously, this Flutter Mane is using a similar moveset to the ubiquitous support Cresselia used in VGC 2012-2013.
I decided on using Booster Speed Flutter Mane as I lack my own Tailwind, and needed to always outspeed Calyrex-Shadow and Scarf Urshifu.
Flutter Mane is arguably the Pokemon this team is built around. Every Pokemon on this team can take advantage of Flutter Mane’s Icy Wind or Thunder Wave.
I strongly believe that a Pokemon with speed control (i.e Tailwind / Thunder Wave / Icy Wind) needs teammates who have strong follow-up attacks. Such Pokémon on this team that serve as strong follow-up attackers are Choice Band Arcanine, Chien-Pao, Tera Grass Rillaboom, and even Zamazenta itself.
I decided to use Tera Grass to circumvent Amoonguss’s Rage Powder, as well as serving as defensive tera against Miraidon’s Electric moves
I originally was using Tera Normal Flutter Mane to deal with Calyrex-Shadow a bit better, but I decided on Grass for the aforementioned reasons. .
The EV spread has a good chance to survive Adamant 252 Atk Urshifu-Rapid Strike’s Surging Strikes. I actually thought this was a guaranteed survival, but you need quite a bit of investment to always survive.
In testing and in the actual tournament itself, I found Flutter Mane to be amazing in dealing with mid-speed tier teams. With multiple moves on my team that could cause flinches and critical hits, having the potential to skew RNG in my favor with Thunder Wave.
Defensive Calcs
Optimized for Grassy Terrain Recovery
252+ Atk Sword of Ruin Chien-Pao Icicle Crash vs. 244 HP / 132 Def Flutter Mane: 132-156 (81.9 - 96.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Surging Strikes (3 hits) vs. 244 HP / 132 Def Flutter Mane on a critical hit: 138-165 (85.7 - 102.4%) -- approx. 18.8% chance to OHKO
Chien-Pao is Zamazenta’s best partner, period.
Due to how Sword of Ruin negatively affects the defense stat of every Pokemon on the field, but doesn’t lower the power of Zamazenta’s Body Press, this combination of Pokémon is a no-brainer.
Most Chien-Pao on Zamazenta teams often drop Sacred Sword for another move such as Throat Chop or Lash Out, but I decided that opposing Zamazenta teams were difficult, and thus Sacred Sword would serve me well there.
In my practice games, I found Ditto that could transform into my Zamazenta were difficult, as for some reason Ditto transformed into Zamazenta gets a flat +2 to Defense as opposed to the +1 that Rusted Shield grants.
I decided to use Sacred Sword in an attempt to ameliorate this issue. I can’t say if it worked out, because I barely clicked the move in the tournament.
I decided to run Jolly Chien-Pao over Adamant so I could speed-tie with Timid Miraidon.
While I have typically used more defensive Rillaboom in the past, this Rillaboom was more of a tactical nuke.
With max EVs Attack + Miracle Seed and its Grassy Terrain, it becomes a threat that can deal heavy damage into anything it can hit for neutral damage. This damage ceiling can go higher when factoring its ability to Terastalize into the Grass type.
Rillaboom’s ability, Grassy Terrain, is also a major reason to consider using it, as Miraidon teams enjoy having Electric Terrain up to boost Miraidon’s Special Attack with Hadron Engine and Pokemon like Iron Valiant or Iron Hands’ Quark Drive.
Rillaboom doesn’t really have any rhyme or reason for this spread, max Attack as mentioned before, and then 180 Speed EVs to outspeed max speed Modest Raging Bolt.
To touch on Grassy Terrain again, one thing I did at the last minute was re-EV all my Pokemon to have optimal HP numbers for recovery in Grassy Terrain (Thanks, Rich). I’m unsure if the extra recovery was noticeable in such a fast-paced metagame, but it’s generally good practice to ev for recovery.
Ogerpon, what an incredible Pokemon in not only lore but competitive capability. As mentioned before, this Pokemon was suggested to me by my coach, Brady Smith, and was something Japanese players were using on their Calyrex-Shadow balance teams.
Ogerpon was incredibly bulky and could synergize with Flutter Mane’s speed control by having the ability to fish for Ivy Cudgel critical hits.
Follow Me on a Grass type felt incredible, the ability to redirect Spore without care from Amoonguss, as well as moves like Decorate from Smeargle was amazing. Additionally, the ability to resist Electric- attacks such as Electro Drift was enough reason to consider Hearthflame over other Ogerpon forms such as Wellspring Mask.
I decided to run Horn Leech over Grassy Glide on Ogerpon, as I felt with the low investment in Attack, I’d be doing pitiful damage despite the priority.
Damage Calculations
252+ Atk Calyrex-Ice Glacial Lance vs. 236 HP / 236+ Def Ogerpon-Hearthflame: 82-97 (44.3 - 52.4%) -- 19.1% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Surging Strikes (3 hits) vs. 236 HP / 236+ Def Ogerpon-Hearthflame on a critical hit: 90-108 (48.6 - 58.3%) -- approx. 87.1% chance to 2HKO
252+ Atk Tera Water Urshifu-Rapid-Strike Surging Strikes (3 hits) vs. 236 HP / 236+ Def Ogerpon-Hearthflame on a critical hit: 120-144 (64.8 - 77.8%) -- approx. 2HKO
Zamazenta was the restricted Pokémon of choice for me this tournament. I felt like it had the most even matchup spread going into the tournament, and with Wide Guard, matches up beautifully against Calyrex-Shadow and Calyrex-Ice.
After testing Tera Grass extensively, I decided on using Tera Dragon to deal with Pokémon like Chi-Yu and Hearthflame.
There isn’t really much thought put into this spread, max Defense for Body Press damage, and enough Speed to outspeed max speed Ogerpon.
Arcanine, my reliable partner throughout this VGC season. Truthfully, I did look into other options such as Entei, but I found that Arcanine synergized better with Icy Wind + Thunder Wave.
I also decided to use Arcanine, as Rock attacks could hit problematic Pokemon to Zamazenta such as Chi-Yu, Volcarona, and Ogerpon-Hearthflame.
There are additional calcs that Entei could not perform on this team:
One of the plays I found I could make with Arcanine is going for Icy Wind with Flutter Mane and then following it up with Arcanine’s Head Smash. As you can see with the calcs below, Arcanine can consistently OHKO Miraidon regardless of whether it Teras into Fairy-type or not, unlike Entei.
I’ve been using Tera Ghost Arcanine since Knoxville Regionals, and honestly found all other options to be quite lacking. It’s quite handy to avoid Fake Out from Incineroar.
Another consideration over Entei is that Intimidate is also useful against Pokemon such as Zacian, and Ogerpon-Hearthflame who could get to +1 Attack by virtue of their ability.
The EV spread has enough speed to outspeed Timid Miraidon after it’s been hit by Icy Wind, and max Attack.
As always, the EVs are also optimized for Grassy Terrain recovery
Entei and Arcanine comparisons:
236+ Atk Choice Band Arcanine-Hisui Head Smash vs. 44 HP / 4 Def Miraidon: 189-223 (104.4 - 123.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Sacred Fire vs. 44 HP / 4 Def Miraidon: 63-75 (34.8 - 41.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Sacred Fire vs. 44 HP / 4 Def Tera Fairy Miraidon: 127-151 (70.1 - 83.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
236+ Atk Choice Band Arcanine-Hisui Head Smash vs. 44 HP / 4 Def Tera Fairy Miraidon: 189-223 (104.4 - 123.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Damage Calculations
-1 236+ Atk Choice Band Arcanine-Hisui Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 68 Def Incineroar: 254-302 (125.7 - 149.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
236+ Atk Choice Band Arcanine-Hisui Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Indeedee-F: 178-211 (100.5 - 119.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Warstory
Tuesday
I unfortunately missed a whole day of fun because my flight was delayed at Fort Worth Airport for 8 hours. I’m still kind of annoyed about that.
I landed in Hawaii late Tuesday night, and waited a good 30 minutes for my baggage.
Wednesday
The next day was much better as my friend Alexa Perez (@stuffuloflove), a Hawaii native took Rich Cuddy (@Slow_Sunflower), and David Rosemon (@roseyradio), and I on the most magical experience.
We had breakfast at a lovely seaside cafe and I enjoyed a latte with fresh Hawaiian honey and an amazing French Toast
We then went on a hike at Makapu’u Lighthouse Point. Apparently David is a yoga instructor, so our group ended up doing yoga near the top of the trail, which was a new and surprisingly fun experience.
We then went to a restaurant, where I got to try a local Hawaiian delicacy I read about, Garlic Shrimp. It was just as delicious as I dreamed of. Unfortunately, some of the famous Shrimp trucks selling it were on the other side of the island, but this was good enough. I still yearn to try it from the trucks one day.
After that we decided to go to the beach, which was beautiful.
Later that afternoon, Alexa was gracious enough to let us in on her Pokémon Center reservation, and while the line was awful, I was able to get myself the much coveted Worlds Riolu plush, and an Ogerpon-Hearthflame plush.
That night I went to karaoke with some friends. I got myself a tropical drink and ended up singing a song by Chappel Roan.
Thursday
Thursday’s lines for competitors proved to be even more tedious than the first. To prepare, I tried my first Malasada from the world famous Liliha Bakery.
Filled with coconut cream, the Malasada was delicious. I see why Hau from Pokémon Sun and Moon were obsessed with them.
I also met Milan Patel, one of the OG VGC players who got Top 8 at the 2010 US Nationals and Top 16 at Worlds 2010. I sold him my spectator pass earlier.
You can read his experiences at both 2010 Nationals and Worlds here
I have to say, it warms my heart how Pokémon still draws veterans back to it, even if they’re not actively competing.
I also saw other players in the competitor line, including NAIC Champion Patrick Connors (@patcon_5) who was there with his girlfriend, father, and friend and fellow Florida player Logan Martinez (@poke_Warrior) who I sold my second spectator pass to.
After braving the heat of the competitor line, me and my friend Will Inaibet (@wiltank) decided to go to the pool to cool off. We had a good time, and got a picture by the worlds display outside the Hilton Village.
The night ended early, as Worlds was tomorrow.
Before I went to bed and submitted my teams, I took the suggestion of Rich Cuddy, to re-EV my Pokémon for optimized Grassy Terrain recovery.
After triple checking my Pokemon’s stats, I submitted my team to rk9.
Friday
The Worlds opening ceremony was pretty nice to watch, I was a bit nervous so perhaps I didn’t appreciate it as much as I could have. I wonder what they’ll do for Anaheim.
I appreciated that they put the pairings on rk9 immediately, so I didn’t have to contemplate who I would play first.
As expected for the World Championships, it would seem my first opponent had quite the pedigree.
Matches
Round 1- Kota Kawabe (JPN) - WLL
I remember looking up my opponent before this round started. I believe he got Top 8 at the Japanese Pokémon Nationals in 2021, and the winner of the prestigious unofficial tournament Battle Road Gloria in 2017.
I won the first game, but ended up losing the next 2 games.
I think the opponent having bulky Tornadus over Whimsicott made this match much harder, as Zamazenta couldn’t OHKO it with Heavy Slam.
I can’t really remember the details of this match, except that my opponent played well, and that I was perhaps a bit too starstruck of playing an opponent with such pedigree.
Round 2- Zachary Weed (WW)
Zachary is a very talented Pokémon player, his notable accomplishments in the 2023-2024 season include Top 16 at Toronto Regionals and Top 8 at Orlando Regionals.
I was able to win this match because of Flutter Mane’s speed control and Arcanine’s ability to deal super effective damage to his Pokémon. I believe Ogerpon-Hearthflame landed a critical hit on his Zacian.
Round 3 - Montana Mott (WW)
When I saw this pairing, I immediately felt nervous. Montana is one of the players I’ve really looked up to this season, as he was able to Day 2 almost every regional he attended, culminating with his incredible win at the Los Angeles Regional.
When I saw his team, I was a bit confused.
I was positive he would be using the Clefairy + Ogerpon-Hearthflame + Calyrex-Shadow team that his boyfriend Zach Carlson won multiple stacked New England challenges and cups with.
Luckily for me, due to only having spread moves, his Calyrex had no way to hit my Pokémon because of Zamazenta’s Wide Guard. The only single target move was Expanding Force, and even that would require some positioning on Montana’s part to execute.
In Game 2, I believe he used Nasty Plot multiple times next to Indeedee, which I countered by clicking Wide Guard multiple times . The crucial turn was when I predicted him to switch out Indeedee into Rillaboom so his Calyrex could use +6 Expanding Force onto a singular Pokémon.
Since I paralyzed his Calyrex earlier, I was able to knock it out with a combination of Flutter Mane’s Moonblast and Zamazenta Heavy Slam.
After this match, I was shaking because of adrenaline. “Did that game really just happen? “Did I really just win that?”
After that I decided to call my parents in Florida. Partly to ground myself after the intense march, and also because I wanted to see how my cat was doing.
Round 4 - Chichun Chen (WW)
I didn’t recognize my opponent until I saw his Trainer Name. He got top 4 at the Taichung Regionals in 2022 with this neat Alolan-Persian team.
http://a13131355.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-32.html
Terapagos is an incredibly favorable matchup for this team, so I was able to win fairly easily by using Tera Dragon on Zamazenta and paralyzing his Pokémon as necessary.
Round 5- Matthieu Barbe (WW)
In round 5 I was drawn against a friend Matthieu, from France.
Matthieu is a strong player from France, with impressive results such as a top 16 at the 2024 Dortmund Regional (https://www.nimbasacitypost.com/2024/02/dortmund-regional-2024.html?m=1)
I was luckily prepared for team composition, and the fact that the Urshifu was Single-Strike over Rapid-Strike made this easier for me.
I’ll admit I got lucky, got a couple of Icicle Crash flinches, but again, I was prepared for this team, and the practice paid off.
Round 6- Melvin Keh (LWW)
My opponent, Melvin Keh, was the top-earner of Championship Points in the APAC region for the 2023-2024 Season. Due to the new tournament structure, Melvin earned a round 1 bye. Due to Melvin’s proficiency and his incredible finishes in past VGC seasons, I had a feeling this match would be extremely difficult.
I was luckily prepared to face this team and had multiple ways of dealing with his Pokémon. I unfortunately lost Game 1 to immediately missing Head Smash on his Indeedee.
In the next two games, I went for about the same leads, knocking out Indeedee with Arcanine’s Head Smash and redirecting Smeargle’s Spore with Ogerpon-Hearthflame.
In game 3, I believe he lead Annihilape, which immediately knocked out my Ogerpon-Hearthflame with Final Gambit. Nevertheless, I was able to make some predictions that won me the game.
Round 7 - Adam Cherafoui (LL)
My opponent beat the previous year’s World Champion, Shohei Kimura on stream round 1.
Covert Cloak Calyrex-Shadow is a massive headache for my team, as my only way for speed control is Thunder Wave. Clefairy being next to it only compounded the problem.
I don’t really have much to say about this match except Adam played better. I believe I missed a Head Smash game 1, but this team composition is fairly difficult for my team to beat, and I knew that going in.
Round 8 - Alex Underhill (LWL)
When I saw the pairing I felt like a lamb being lead to the slaughter. Not only was the skill level between me and my opponent apparent, I had also booked a coaching session with him 2 weeks earlier.
Alex Underhill is one of the best Pokémon players of all time, and thus when I saw he was offering coaching, I decided to book an appointment with him. I wanted to see if I could get any knowledge on how I could optimize my own Zamazenta team, knowing he was friends with Michael Zhang (EternalSnowman) who was a fan of Zamazenta.
The session was helpful, and perhaps influenced some of the team building choices I made, but in that moment I cursed myself for my hubris.
Game 1 was difficult. I missed a Head Smash, and was just generally outplayed.
Game 2, It mainly felt like I was trying to stall out his Trick Room, trying to knock out his mons whenever I had the opportunity to.
The endgame came down to my Arcanine and Flutter Mane vs his half HP Iron Hands and half HP Calyrex-Ice. I did not have Tera Ghost available, so I would be forced to take a Fake Out from Iron Hands onto Arcanine. I decided to go for Thunder Wave onto his Calyrex (who was going to press Trick Room). Luckily I got the full paralyze on his Calyrex, and was able to win the game.
Game 3:
In Game 3, Alex makes the most galaxy-brained play ever.
He leads Urshifu-Rapid Strike and Calyrex-Ice into my Flutter Mane and Ogerpon. He immediately Tera-Fires Calyrex and goes for Coaching on it with Urshifu.
Meanwhile, I decide to lock in Tera-Fire Ivy Cudgel and Moonblast.
Due to the Tera-Fire and boost to his Calyrex’s stats, I did negligible damage.
I did not bring Arcanine to this game so I couldn’t punish his Tera Fire.
I was kicking myself for not using Follow Me that turn, because I thought I could redirect Coaching. It turns out that it cannot be redirected, and looking back, I realized Alex was trying to cover for that play.
In the end, I soundly defeated and my much more skilled opponent rightfully earned his ticket to Day 2 of the World Championships.
Saturday
I was happy to see my friend Grant Weldon make it into the top 32 of the World Championships. I know he works really hard, and he is one of the more innovating team builders this game has. The core of Zacian + Regidrago is incredible, and I’m glad he did amazing.
I was also happy to see some other familiar faces in the top 32, particularly Yuta Ishigaki, who I became friends with on Twitter after he won the Japan national qualifiers.
The rest of the trip was fun, I focused on getting signatures for my Worlds mat, which I got professionally framed (P.S Eugenio from Michael’s, I’d die for you).
Obviously, one of the most fun things to do when at a Pokémon event is socializing, and the gathering of VGC players at the beach Saturday night was amazing.
Sunday
I was excited to cheer Yuta on.
All of the games were exciting to watch, I only regret that I was not sitting up close near the main stage.
While I’m sad Yuta lost, Luca played amazingly well and it was a very compelling 3-game finals set that made this format look exciting for the first time in a while.
After the Worlds closing ceremonies, I took part in an impromptu VGC 2010 friendly organized by some Japanese players and some VGC veterans such as Trista Medine (@ryuzaki_vgc)
Playing VGC 2010 was interesting, and I definitely got caught off guard by some mechanics such as the lack of non-dynamic speed.
I also got to meet 2015 World Champion, Shoma Honami (Viera) which was a moment I’ll never forget.
I took quite a bit of photos throughout the tournament, I’m a bit too lazy to tag everybody, but do know I’m very happy for all of the photos!
Ending
There are only so many words you can say to anesthetize yourself. You can tell yourself that you’re “happy to have made it this far”, “happy to go positive”, “happy to beat players who you respect”, but in the end it doesn’t really wash away the sting of making it so close but so far.
I feel like I got what I wanted out of Worlds. I played my best with the team I knew how to play, and had a great experience with my friends.
I still yearn and strive for excellence in Pokemon, and this Worlds was just a reminder of how far I must go before I can reach the apex of my skill.
While I may not be actively trying to make Worlds in the coming years, I still endeavor to chase after results I can be proud of.
This experience also showed me that I love the Pokemon community so much. I have decided to attend Worlds next year as a spectator, because of how much fun I had this year. I can’t wait to see everyone again.
Shoutouts:
Thanks to…
The High Rollers: Chance Alexander (@MagicManChance), Grant Weldon (@VelocityVGC) Andrew Whitman (@Andrew_Whit_), Edward Glover (@justMinchi), Jason Tang (@PlasmaVG), Joshua Lorcy (@lorcylovesyou) Andy Anderson (@TwiddleDeeVGC) and Alex (@ab0ve)
Thank you for all the practice sets and for having a safe place to talk about mons.
A huge congrats to @VelocityVGC for the top 32 at Worlds!
The Boiler Room: Again, you already know who you are. Being surrounded by such incredible people is something I’m so thankful for. I’ve known most of you since I was a starry eyed new player in 2014, and getting to bear witness to all your successes and share in this general community has been so valuable to me.
Alexa Perez (@stuffuloflove) - Thank you so much for showing us around your beautiful homeland, what a magical experience and I’m so happy you could make the trip!
Rich Cuddy (@Slow_Sunflower), Will Inaibet (@wiltank), Ofomezie Emelle (@Zoan1P), David Rosemon (@roseyradio) - thank you for being amazing room mates!
Blake Hopper (@BopperVGC), Collin Heier (@TheBattleRoom), Kazuki Kanehira (@KazukiKanehira) -thank you for being amazing room mates part 2. Also congrats on top 16 worlds in GO Blake!
Peanut Gallery: Dani (@allj4ckedup), Summer (@zilchcloud), Kenny (@kwisdumb), Christina, Sam (@fruitstandowner), Holly (@raisedwright), Jon Hu, Santino (@supahsanti), Ed (@justMinchi), Nic (@playonbirds) - love you all ❤️❤️
Brady Smith (@vgccorner) - Thank you so much for all the practice and the suggestion for using Ogerpon-Hearthflame on my team, you quite literally saved my worlds run and I’m so beyond thankful to you.
Aloha and until we meet again, my treasured memory
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