Alola Random Battles Tournament – Round 1 Coverage
The Alola Random Battle Tournament started in the last week of 2016, and we’re here to give you detailed coverage of the battles that took place!
Hello, PokéCommunity! Welcome to the Round 1 coverage of the Alola Random Battles Tournament, hosted by Zeffy.
First of all, let’s cover a little bit of background about the tournament:
- The format of the tournament is Alola Random, where each player is given a team of 6 random Pokémon that would be currently viable to use in Pokémon Sun or Pokémon Moon. The Pokémon vary in level (which is based off the Pokémon’s Base Stat Total) and have a moveset which is just a permutation of 4 of its viable moves.
- The tournament is best of 3 for each match.
Now let’s take a look at the bracket detailing the matches that were to be played in Round 1:
Michonne vs. (Bye)
Bewear vs. FireSnow
Omicron vs. wolf
Lycanroc vs. punkysaur
Noa vs. Archy
Aurora vs. Kostas
Nick Wilde vs. Sam1994
Nah vs. pizzabagel14
With all this in mind, it’s time to jump into the matches that took place.
Michonne (Bye)
Michonne, one of the battle server admins, gets a bye.
This is purely due to random seeding and the fact that only fifteen people signed up.
Bewear vs. FireSnow
In the first battle, FireSnow decides to lead with Probopass to set up rocks while Bewear leads off with Zygarde as an all-around safe lead. After a fairly routine start to the battle, the tables are turned on Bewear on Turn 3. After FireSnow’s Probopass faints, he sends out his own Zygarde, which is when things get interesting. Bewear’s Zygarde unleashes an Outrage on FireSnow’s, dealing 2/3 of its health and activating its Power Construct, while FireSnow opts to go for a Dragon Dance. The rest of the match goes by pretty quickly, as it is just a boosted Zygarde 100% destroying most of Bewear’s team.
History repeats itself in the second battle. The two battlers both start off with hazard setters; Bewear with his Ariados and FireSnow with his Clefairy. Akin to the first battle, FireSnow gets up Stealth Rock while Bewear’s Ariados goes for the kill, though he gets up a layer of Toxic Spikes in the process. Again, Bewear’s lead is flipped on its head as FireSnow sends out his Braviary on Turn 4. After a Bulk Up and a Brave Bird crit, Bewear’s team stood no chance against the boosted Braviary.
Omicron vs. wolf
In the first battle, Omicron leads off with his Delibird to set up Spikes while wolf leads off with his Shiinotic, switching immediately out to his Carracosta in fear of an Ice-Type attack. Things get tough for wolf when Omicron brings out his Scizor and gets up a Swords Dance, with wolf having to sacrifice half of his team to bring it down. After a duel between wolf’s Delibird and Omicron’s Araquanid, wolf’s Shiinotic ended up putting in some work, taking down Omicron’s Araquanid and almost his Dragonite. Then wolf’s Rampardos almost brings it back for him, but ended up falling to Omicron’s last Pokémon, Whiscash.
Moving on to the second battle, wolf leads with his Mega Kangaskhan as Omicron leads with Ariados to get up Toxic Spikes. As his Ariados faints, Omicron sends out Clefable to set up Stealth Rock, which is countered by wolf’s switch into his own Clefable. Omicron then swaps out to his Mega Metagross, which takes down two of wolf’s Pokémon but eventually falls to wolf’s Seaking after two Meteor Mash misses. Omicron then sends out an even bigger threat, his Swords Dance Alolan Raticate. It gets up a Swords Dance and takes out two more of wolf’s Pokémon before missing a Sucker Punch and falling to wolf’s Seaking. Omicron then goes into his Haunter and cleans up the rest of wolf’s team.
Lycanroc vs. Punkysaur
Lycanroc 1-0 Punkysaur. Punkysaur was not able to participate due to internet issues, so Lycanroc takes the win.
Noa vs. Archy
The first replay was lost, but we know that Noa has won this battle.
In the second battle, Noa leads with Salamence and Archy leads with Scizor. They both switch out on the first turn – Noa to her Krookodile and Archy to his Ditto. Archy’s presumably Choice Scarfed Ditto was essential in helping him win this battle, as can be seen in the later turns. Noa switches into her Garchomp (Mega) on the next turn, tanking the Knock Off of Ditto (now Krookodile), and sets up a Swords Dance on the next turn as Archy sends out his Mankey just to die the turn after. Archy’s Ditto comes in to revenge kill the Mega Garchomp, and takes out Noa’s Ditto as well, both with Earthquake.
After this, Noa’s Salamence comes in, gets up a Dragon Dance on Archy’s Scizor switch, and manages to defeat it soon after, only to be countered by Archy’s Ditto once again. Noa’s Wigglytuff comes out to stop Archy’s Ditto (disguised as Salamence and locked into Dragon Claw) in its tracks, but has to let her Parasect go when Archy sends in Golduck. With only Krookodile and Wigglytuff left, Noa could have still possibly beat the combination of Archy’s Ditto, Lunala, and Turtonator. Unfortunately for her, Krookodile was taken down by an unseen Explosion from Turtonator, prompting Noa to forfeit.
The third battle was very one sided. It started well off for Archy, who lead off with his Ariados and set up Sticky Web while Noa’s Froslass lead only managed to paralyze the Ariados. In Turn 2, Ariados goes for more hazards in the form of Toxic Spikes while Noa switches to her deadly sweeper – Butterfree. Archy switched out his Ariados on the first turn into his Haunter, not wanting to get fully paralyzed, while Noa set up a Quiver Dance. With a combination of Sleep Powder, Air Slash, Bug Buzz, and some poor switches on Archy’s part, Noa’s Butterfree defeated all but one of Archy’s Pokémon, which was cleaned up soon after by her Starmie.
[Battle 1] [Battle 2] [Battle 3]
Aurora vs. Kostas
In battle number one, Lumineon is Aurora’s choice of a lead, while Kostas’ lead is Bruxish. Not wanting a fish-on-fish matchup, Aurora pivots out with U-turn into Lunala while Kostas chooses to set up Swords Dance. Lunala makes quick work of Bruxish, so Kostas sends out Alolan Raticate to force out Lunala. A game of switches is then played; Aurora sends Pangoro out to deal with Alolan Raticate, forcing Kostas to retreat to Torkoal, which walls Pangoro. Predicting a Drought-boosted Fire Blast, Aurora sends out Drampa, whose neutralisation of sun through Cloud Nine and natural Fire-type resistance means Fire Blast does very little. The battle then becomes a matter of predictions and switches, as Aurora’s Drampa and Pangoro break through most of Kostas’s team. Kostas momentarily threatens with Alolan Raticate, but Lumineon removes the rat before bringing Drifblim in on Kosta’s Lurantis safely so Aurora can seal the win.
Battle number two sees Aurora’s Corsola immediately crippled by Kostas’s Switcheroo Dhelmise, but Aurora still manages to get Stealth Rock up before switching Klefki in with the intent of sacrificing it. Toxic poison is inflicted on Dhelmise and a layer of Spikes is set up before Smogon’s favourite keychain falls. Dhelmise then puts Choice Band Corsola out of its misery before it itself is eliminated by Aurora’s Fire Blast Clefable. Sensing trouble, Kostas sends in Silvally and nets some damage on Clefable and a Swords Dance boost while Aurora hastens to bring in Tentacruel. Tentacruel is brutalised by a +2 Double Edge, but Silvally falls alongside it due to recoil damage. Kostas chooses to bring in Mega Sableye, while Aurora sends in Torracat. After powering through Mega Sableye with a luck-filled Flamethrower, Torracat is forced out by Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu. Aurora eventually prevails through sacrificing Torrcat and Masquerain so hazard damage can wear down the other team, allowing Clefable to win.`
Nick Wilde vs. Sam1994
Nick Wilde 2-0 Sam1994.
The first battle kicks off with Nick Wilde’s Alolan Persian versus Sam1994’s Togedemaru. After a lucky Hypnosis dodge by Togedemaru, it U-Turns into Shiinotic. Nick Wilde switches into Magneton to take advantage of the Shiinotic, but Sam1994 swaps back into Togedemaru to get the SpAtk boost from Lightning Rod. As Togedemaru goes for U-Turn again, Nick Wilde sacks his Persian. After a few turns of Magneton vs. Shiinotic and Togedemaru, Nick Wilde goes into his Bewear on Togedemaru’s U-Turn, and sets up a Swords Dance to knock out Shiinotic in the following turn with Return. However, Effect Spore activates and puts Bewear to sleep, giving Sam1994 the oppurtunity to set up a layer of both Spikes and Toxic Spikes with his Cloyster.
Again, a few turns go by where it’s Magneton vs. Togedemaru, with some U-Turns in between. Finally, Magneton goes down and Nick Wilde’s Vikavolt comes out, defeating Togedemaru. Sam1994’s Vanilluxe revenge kills the Vikavolt, but Nick Wilde’s two remaining members were very hard to deal with for Sam1994. One was a Swords Dance Decidueye (with Roost, Spirit Shackle, and Sucker Punch), and the other was a Wish/Protect Alomomola with Toxic. Many turns had gone by where nothing had happened, until Sam1994 let his Wigglytuff get Toxic’d by Alomomola. After that, Nick Wilde only had to set up with his Decidueye and win the game from there. It’s nice to see battles where one small thing, such as Wigglytuff not being Toxic’d or perhaps Cloyster setting up two layers of Toxic Spikes, could have changed the outcome of the battle.
The second battle starts with Nick Wilde’s Mega Metagross against Sam1994’s Lapras. After Sam1994 switches to Vaporeon and Metagross gets up an Agility, the two Pokémon duke it out until a Scald burn cripples Metagross. With its last Thunder Punch, Metagross paralyzes Vaporeon as it goes down to another Scald. Nick Wilde goes into his Substitute Espeon, which takes out Sam1994’s Vaporeon and Butterfree, before falling to a Nasty Plot Alolan Persian. The Persian, after accruing two Nasty Plot boosts, destroys half of Nick Wilde’s team before fainting due to its own Life Orb. Sam1994 tries to continue the onslaught with his Quiver Dance Lilligant, but is walled by Nick Wilde’s Mega Salamence, which gets up a Dragon Dance of its own. Sam1994 sacks all of his Pokémon and goes into Lapras, lives a +1 Aerilate boosted Return and KOs back with Ice Beam, but ends up losing to Nick Wilde’s last Pokémon, Dhelmise. Again, one small thing such as Sam1994 not going into his Lapras last could have swung the tides of battle.
Nah vs. pizzabagel14
Nah 1-0 pizzabagel14. Nah’s challenge to pizzabagel14 was not answered, so Nah gets the activity win.
Conclusion
After the matches that took place in Round 1, here is the updated bracket for Round 2:
Michonne vs. FireSnow
Omicron vs. Lycanroc
Noa vs. Aurora
Nick Wilde vs. Nah
To anyone who is interested, you can view the live progress of the bracket here. Or check out the replays and progress in this thread. Keep in mind that these are spoilers if you want the news fresh from Daily! Leave your comments and suggestions below – we’ll be covering Round 2 next week, so stay tuned!
Written by 5qwerty and Aurora.
Edited by Aurora, colours, and tokyodrift.
