After four intense Cups, the top ranking Pokémon Go Trainers in the East Midlands of the UK met to face-off in battle when Nottingham hosted the Season 1 Regional Finals of The Silph Arena.
To get to this stage, Trainers had to prove themselves in their locally ranked Tournaments for: The Boulder Cup, The Twilight Cup, The Tempest Cup and The Kingdom Cup. Each Cup had its own unique meta, due to only four typings being allowed. You can read more details about these typings and how they shaped each Cup’s meta in our recent article, Overview of TSR Arena Cups: Boulder, Twilight, Tempest and Kingdom.
PvP in Pokémon Go has yet to capture the attention of the vast majority of Trainers, but for most of the 20 that were invited to this tournament, it was to be the culmination of months of analysis, strategizing, and preparation. The prize for success, however, was an invitation to the World Championships at one of the Pokémon Go Fest events this Summer, so the stakes were high…
Let’s see how it all went down, who came out on top, and how they did it!
Building My Team
In the run up to my Regional Final battles, I used a combination of the Pokebattler rankings and PvPoke rankings to draw up a short list of meta-relevant Pokémon.
After practicing with various trios, within that shortlist, over several days, I finally settled on a provisional top 6. After more practice with the provisional six, and identifying a few vulnerabilities that could be better covered by swapping them for something similar, I settled on my final 6 around five days before the Tournament. They more-or-less covered all of the big hitters between them.
The only one I was unable to adequately cover was Skarmory, due to very few of the top tier, affordable attackers having Fire or Electric-type moves, and the ones that did I felt were too vulnerable. So, possibly to my detriment, I decided to just hope that neutral damage would be enough on this one…
| My Team of 6 | Moveset |
|---|---|
Marshtomp
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Medicham
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Azumarill
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Altaria
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Venusaur
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Skarmory
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The Regional Finalists
The Bracket Results
So here’s how the tournament went down; 20 competitors, 5 rounds and 1 winner.
After two rounds, only five competitors had won both of their matches, which really narrowed down the front-runners: Munay17, Ro2Nava, meatO86, VirtualLink14, and HeyItsPugs.
After the 3rd round, only Munay17 and Ro2Nava were able to hold onto their winning streaks but in round 4, they faced each other and one was about to meet their match… Munay17 took the win but with one round still to go, all was not lost.
In the final round Ro2Nava did secure a fourth win, but unfortunately for him, Munay17 achieved his fifth.
Honorable Mentions
Ro2Nava and meatO86, only lost one match each leaving them with 4 points, as did Blisfully, but this is even more impressive by the fact that Blisfully is only 10 years old and competing to a high level in a tournament full of adults. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to face him, but this young trainer is definitely one to watch out for in future Pokémon Go tournaments! GGs Blisfully!
The Winner
This of course meant that Munay17 was the winner of The Silph Arena, East Midlands Regional Finals and had secured his place in the Finals at Go Fest!
I caught up with Munay17 after the tournament and asked if he could share some tips and insights with us about how he won all 5 of his matches;
Which Pokémon were in your team of six and which movesets did you run?
| Winner’s Team of 6 | Moveset |
|---|---|
Lanturn
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Medicham
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Azumarill
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Sableye
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Venusaur
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Skarmory
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Which of these was your ‘MVP’ in your regional battles?
“Rather than one it was my Medicham and Skarmory core that carried me through as a nice tag team combo. I also have a special mention for my Lanturn which delivered two key victories and only had its roster spot confirmed at the 11th hour.”
Which one did you find was best to lead with?
“I tended the lead with Medicham as I had in found in practice that I came up across a lot of Skarmory mirror matches and I am not a fan of them. Equally worked as a nice surprise for those who assumed I would lead Skarmory and lead with a counter such as Melmetal.”
What strategies worked best for you in this tournament?
“Generally I like to try and apply shield pressure early and give my opponent the chance to make early mistakes.”
Which Pokémon gave you the most trouble in your battles?
“On reflection it was probably Azu with Hydro Pump as they posed a far greater threat to Skarmory than I had been used to. Also, Haunter was tricky considering my reliance on Medicham and the lack of practice I had against it.”
Will you be attending Go Fest in Dortmund for the finals?
“Yes, I had a good time last year at the Safari Zone so was always planning to go along anyway.”
Final Thoughts
In hindsight, Lanturn would probably have been a good replacement for my very under-used Altaria. It would have given me better coverage against Skarmory and might have tipped one or two losses in my favor.
Well done to everyone who participated and thanks to all of the Admins of Pokémon Go Nottingham for their great job hosting the tournament.
Congratulations to Munay17 and best of luck at the Finals in Dortmund!
If you’d like to get involved in the Silph Arena’s future Cups, all of the details can be found at Silph.gg
