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DarkLoic is a Belgian tournament player and a member of the Wifi Wolfpack this SPL season. He has been playing competitively on Smogon since 2011, being a Netbattler before this time. Although his favorite style of play is bulky offense, he used a balanced team for the final round of this Smogon Tour. Sporting two Choice Scarf users in Heatran and Jirachi as well as two Expert Belt users in Keldeo and Tyranitar, DarkLoic was ready to cause some major mindgames in his matches. He also packed two dangerous sweepers, Celebi and Landorus. Against Ojama, DarkLoic had some trouble dealing with bulky Swords Dance Scizor, a major stop to his Celebi, as well as the ever-present Keldeo. A Choice Scarf Healing Wish from Jirachi let DarkLoic's Keldeo get back up to full to take out Scizor, freeing up the match for his sweepers to wreak havoc. Landorus was able to survive a crucial Hidden Power Ice from Landorus-T and Rock Polish up to win the game. Against the second opponent Malekith, things were a bit more one-sided. Celebi stood out, taking out much of the opposing team, as well as Choice Scarf Heatran—which had used Stealth Rock earlier in the match to pull off an amazing bluff. Congratulations to DarkLoic and good luck in the finals!
Kelsey is one of the newer players to the tournament scene, only joining Smogon in early 2012. She started off as part of the Smogon tutoring program, in which her tutor Bloo (who just can't keep himself out of these Smogon Tour articles) led her to win a tutee tournament. For last weekend's tournament, Kelsey used two balanced teams, the first a common rain team featuring the uncommon Expert Belt Politoed and rain Volcarona. The second was a more balanced sand team with Keldeo and Terrakion to demolish the opposition and double dance Landorus-T to set up. Using the first team against M Dragon, both teams were equally weak to each other's main sweeper (in Kelsey's case, Landorus), but M Dragon let his Landorus go down early and Kelsey set up entry hazards. It was only a matter of time after some stalling before Volcarona set up to win the game. In the second match, Heist prevented Kelsey from getting any entry hazards up, which made his Gyarados difficult to deal with, even more so as it was the one stop to Landorus-T. Once Heist trapped Terrakion with his Dugtrio, Landorus-T became Kelsey's only win condition. Predicting a double switch to Ferrothorn from Gyarados, Landorus-T pulled off two Swords Dances, allowing it to KO Gyarados and sweep the rest of Heist's team at +2 after two drops from Intimidate. Congratulations to Kelsey on coming so far!
1996ITO is a relatively recent Smogon user, first starting official tournaments in 2011, who prefers to use more offensive styles of play. In last Sunday's match, he wound up in a three-way final (strange that all finals this weekend followed this format?) against -Frexa- and Colchonero. For the match against -Frexa-, 1996ITO brought an old rain balance team from pre-BW2, featuring the classic VoltTurn offense. Facing a standard sand stall team, 1996ITO tricked his Choice items on to the opposing walls early on. With its walls crippled, there was nothing -Frexa-'s team could do to prevent itself from being worn down by constant damage. In the second match, Colchonero used an offensive rain team while 1996ITO used a more current hyper offense team. He started off strong with Custap Berry Skarmory getting up Stealth Rock and later a layer of Spikes quick. 1996ITO avoided a Breloom's Mach Punch by switching into his Gengar, which also took out an opposing Jirachi with Destiny Bond. Colchonero's Gyarados was a potent threat, so 1996ITO sacrificed his Keldeo by spamming Icy Wind to keep Gyarados from getting to quick to handle. Once Colchonero's threats were eliminated, 1996ITO's setup sweepers were able to quickly boost up and muscle their way through the opposing team. Congratulations!
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