Good day, Pokémon Trainers! The Pokémon GO World Championships are in full swing. This means trainers around the world are bringing their A-game in order to secure the title of “World Champion”. Though trainers will have to go through a gauntlet of other trainers for three whole days for this prestigious title. What this means is 3 days of intense competition, 3 days of hype matches, and 3 days of trainers putting everything on the line making every prediction and every catch to get an inch closer to victory!
And that’s where I come in. Whether you’ve missed some of the key matches or want to relive some of the best moments, I’ll be bringing you some of the highlights of each day and providing a brief description and analysis for each. With that explanation out of the way, let’s begin with the highlights of Day 1!
Fantastic First Match
What a better matchup can you expect to start off worlds? You know the stakes are high when the very first match is between the EUIC 2023 Champion Vs. the LAIC 2024 Champion! And they were some neck and neck first three battles too with LNDsRargef coming up on top. This battle where all chips were down and it became a battle of fast attacks were a particular highlight.
ValiantVish Puts It All On Lickitung
Lickitung is ranked #1 in usage for day 1 of worlds. And watching this match with ValiantVish it’s not hard to guess why. With almost everything against him, ValiantVish still pulled off a win relying on Lickitung’s immense bulk and spammy Body Slams!
Kip Brings The Damage
In my speculation article, I mentioned I was hyped to see the trainers you don’t see in the English streams and see what interesting team compositions they bring. Well, kip20139 certainly fulfilled my wishes. Running a heavy, and I mean HEAVY damage dealing team of Bastiodon, Annihilape, and Dragonite kip20139 brought some big damage to the stage!
Inadequance and the Lord of The Distortion World
Inadequance is no stranger to spice picks. In fact he made a rather impressive run at Utrecht, and by doing so, he made Giratina a Pokémon that came under many peoples’ radar. Well, he brought the Lord of the Distortion World to the stage once again and is doing really good with it too!
Massive PvP Changes coming on September 3, 2024
Niantic announced a surprising number of changes coming to PvP on September 3, 2024. Here is a textual overview of the changes, you can find the source video here:
Mechanics change
- Switch timer reduced from 60 seconds to 50 seconds. (will be re-evaluated after the next season)
Move changes
- Rock Slide damage decreased from 75 to 65
- Wing attack energy generation decreased
- Counter energy generation decreased
- Dig damage decreased from 80 to 70
- Parabolic Charge damage increased from 65 to 70, energy cost decreased, and now has chance to increase user’s defense
- Body Slam damage decreased from 60 to 50
- Swift energy cost decreased
- Mud Shot damage increased from 3 to 4 but energy generation decreased
- Future Sight damage decreased from 120 to 110
- Fire Spin damage increased from 10 to 11
- Steel Wing energy generation decreased
- Metal Claw energy generation increased
- Trailblaze energy cost decreased
- Zap Cannon debuff chance decreased
- Smack Down damage decreased from 12 to 11
- Razor Leaf damage decreased from 10 to 9
- Astonish damage increased from 9 to 12
- Fairy Wind damage increased from 3 to 4
- Karate Chop energy generation increased
- Mud Slap damage increased from 11 to 12 and energy generation increased
- Poison Sting damage increased from 3 to 4
- Psywave energy generation increased
- Rollout damage increased from 5 to 8
- Sucker Punch damage increased from 5 to 8
- Sky Attack damage increased from 75 to 85 but energy cost increased
- Surf damage increased from 65 to 75 but energy cost increased
- Bone Club damage increased from 40 to 55
- Brutal Swing damage decreased from 65 to 55 but energy cost decreased
- Night Shade damage increased from 60 to 80 and energy cost decreased
- Power Gem damage increased from 80 to 85 and energy cost decreased
- Shadow Punch damage increased from 40 to 55
New attack availability:
- Ledian: Counter
- Forretress: Volt Switch
- Breloom: Force Palm
- Hariyama: Force Palm
- Mienshao: Force Palm
- Clefable: Draining Kiss
- Togetic: Draining Kiss
- Ribombee: Draining Kiss
- Tapu Lele: Draining Kiss
- Pangoro: Karate Chop
- Lickilicky: Rollout
- Spiritomb: Rock Tomb
- Dusknoir: Shadow Punch
- Galarian Slowbro: Brutal Swing
- Tropius: Brutal Swing
- Mienshao: Brutal Swing
- Oranguru: Brutal Swing
- Passimian: Brutal Swing
- Runerigus: Brutal Swing
- Hisuian Typhlosion: Night Shade
- Zorua: Night Shade
- Zoroark: Night Shade
- Hisuian Decidueye: Night Shade
Closing Remarks
The World Championship is here, it is happening! And it has brought some amazing battles on day 1. What I’ve covered here is merely a snippet of all the amazing trainers pouring their all both on and off stream. If I were to put my personal remark for day 1, I would say the keyword is Flavor.
There isn’t a pure meta where everyone is exclusively the most meta Pokémon. But rather, everyone is bringing a bit of their own flavor to their teams and playstyles. Which has resulted in some interesting matches on day 1. I can’t wait to see some more on days 2 and 3!
Goodbye for now, Pokémon trainers. Priom-out!
