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Bad Ass has been playing competitive Pokemon for five years, and has always stayed a prominent figure in the tournament scene and Smogon Tour 15. For the first ADV OU tournament, Bad Ass used a large variety of teams due to the nature of how the final matches played out. For a majority of the preliminary rounds, he used a fairly defensive team, common to ADV standard play. Many of his teams focused around Gengar, ADV's premier Pokemon for filling all kinds of offensive and defensive roles within a team. However, when it came to the final round, things got a little interesting. Having a round-robin final match with three players is one thing (it's happened a few times in some other rounds so far), but having three rounds of ties is another. After so many matches, gimmick teams began to show for all players involved. Bad Ass is not unknown for switching up team styles and trying out new gimmick strategies. Using one Swords Dance Baton Pass team, Bad Ass was able to beat ("hax" to use his own words) Heist to give himself a chance at winning the round. Against Rewer, a SubSalac Herracross was able to clinch Bad Ass the victory. Congratulations on overcoming such an unusual round! I'm sure Ellen DeGeneres, your "purely platonic" love interest, would be proud.
Bloo returned to my coverage this past weekend, this time for his seventh Smogon Tour victory! This round had special significance for Bloo, as he defeated two past rivals: BKC and Malekith. BKC defeated Bloo in round 1 of Smogon Tour 14, while Malekith beat Bloo in the semifinals of Smogon Tour 13. Against Malekith in particular, Bloo made some strong plays. One of these involved baiting a Gengar switch-in to block Bloo's Claydol's Rapid Spin, then hitting the Gengar with a strong Psychic. Once Gengar switched out, Bloo was able to spin away the opposing team's entry hazards to put himself back in the match, as his own entry hazards had just been spun away. Bloo used a variety of defensive and stall teams throughout the round, able to beat some offensive teams easily but other times resulting in 100+ turn stall wars. The final was such a close match, with both sides utilizing very defensive teams. Bloo's Blissey, however, was able to completely wall the opposing team once Dugtrio was eliminated and carried Bloo to a victory. Congratulations!
As a World Cup defending champion and one of the rare community contributors, undisputed is a well-respected member of the competitive side of Smogon. However, until this past weekend, he had not been doing entirely well in Smogon Tour 15, making just one point a week in ADV OU! Luckily, this round things turned around for him. A fan of balance play due to its consistency, undisputed couldn't take any risks with gimmicky teams if he wanted to make the Smogon Tour playoffs. Shoutouts from undisputed to BKC for the team, consisting mainly of ADV defensive mainstays but with Swampert carrying the team in many matches. The round's three-way final put undisputed against DarkLoic and CrashBoomBang, both difficult opponents if undisputed hoped to maintain a high position. According to undisputed, the match against DarkLoic went very well, with minimal hax. However, when facing CrashBoomBang, things got a bit more interesting. CBB crit undisputed's Gengar with his Tyranitar, leaving undisputed's entry hazards to be spun away the next turn. Strangely, undisputed later crit CBB's Gengar with his own Tyranitar, which put him in a very strong position. Thanks to an early Toxic on CBB's Swampert, undisputed's own Swampert was able to stallsweep the rest of the team. Congratulations!
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