Tournament SCL III DOU Discussion Thread

[Xrn]

omg scl finals
Semi-Finals Replays:
[PLA] Xrn vs zee [GIB]
[ISL] JRL vs Nails [TER]
[ISL] JRL vs Nails [TER] (tiebreak)

Semis saw some interesting team choices, including Nails reusing his Week 9 team and zee reusing their Week 4 team. JRL and I brought new builds, but mine was fairly similar to other stuff I had used in later weeks of the regular season while JRL's seemed quite unique. Both reuses happened to lose but somehow we got the first and second tie breaks in SCL history during the same round. DOU was a very possible option in both series with my strong season compared to zee's weaker one and the general dominance of Nails in DOU, though Platoon had a 10-0 slot and Nails had just lost his game making it unclear if we'd see any DOU gaming in tiebreak. Terrors showed their confidence in Nails and picked DOU anyway, which ended up paying off as he beat JRL with a very qsns looking team. Pretty entertaining games IMO but onto potentially the final DOU game of the season:

Finals:
[ISL] JRL vs z0mOG [GIB]

As a top DOU prospect going into the auction JRL was retained by the Islanders and has put up a solid 5-6 record thus far, maybe worse than projected but respectable nonetheless with a crucial win over Nails in semi finals to keep his team alive. Zom on the other hand has not played a game of DOU this tournament, instead filling the Gible OU3 slot for most of the tour and going even at 4-4. With zee struggling it's a sensible move though, as zom is a strong VGC player and did fine for US West in DWCOP. JRL is pretty clearly the favorite on paper as a more experienced and accomplished DOUer but it'd be unwise to count out z0mOG who is no stranger to high pressure games or the format. (game happens Thursday 1:30pm GMT -5 so predict rfn)

 

[Lunar.]

Thank you to the goat Xrn for filling in for me finals post. Being out in semi finals again stings but it was a fun season and I am proud to support back to back 9-1 DOU slots. Of course Xrn and Nails are amazing players, but its feels great to be able to contribute to that success at least a little. I have been saying this is probably my last SCL, and that is most likely true with how busy I've been getting while also wanting to focus on other hobbies like making videos, but I wont 100% say I'm out since there is always a chance. Maybe I'll do SPL for one last ride if anyone wants to put money on me.. Definitely would be less stressful than going super hard core support in DOU


ANYWAY finals match up is interesting. I think this is the first time I've ever seen a player who hasn't touched the tier all season sub into a slot for finals. It probably has happened but I cant remember.. But yea z0m is definitely not a bad player to slot here. He has played on this high pressure stage before and won, has been grinding doubles all year with VGC and DWCOP, and in general is just a very talented player. With that said, I do still favor JRL in this game as long as his team is solid enough. I really liked his Semis team and how he piloted it, but bringing Nails' week 1 team in tie breaks was NOT it. If JRL and Fran can get it together in the builder and come up with something that gives them a decent enough match up then I think JRL is favored, but if they mess around a bit too much again then z0m is the kind of player that will take advantage of that and put the game in his control.


So I guess long story short:
60 [ISL] JRL vs z0mOG [GIB] 40


Good luck both players, definitely both deserving winners! Hoping for a very exciting game tomorrow!

 

[Xrn]

Finals Game:
[ISL] JRL vs z0mOG [GIB]

In what could have been the final DOU game of the entire tournament and DLC1 metagame, JRL and Zom played the first game of the series which I think is interesting to note. Playing on a Thursday they had less time than usual to build and test, so it's unsurprising that they fell back on fairly standard teams. Both players brought LandoT + Flutter and different flavors of FWG/Dark/Fake Out/Support with JRL opting for Rilla + Volcanion + Kingambit + Torn and Zom opting for Hands + Waterpon + ChiYu + Glimm. Neither leaned too hard into any sort of HO or setup, just solid builds. On matchup I'd give a slight edge to JRL as Wisp Volcanion can be extremely difficult for Zom to manage and the right Gambit set could steam roll with proper positioning. Zom certainly has threats of his own though with Glimm being annoying to play around and the ChiFlutter combo can't be ignored, although I do think he's fighting an uphill battle here. On lead we see SpAtk booster Flutter from JRL which is pretty uncommon nowadays, gives him some extra power without locking into one move but he'll have to make up for the lack of speed with Tailwind. Both LandoTs pivot out and Zom gets in Glimm to try to set up rocks and/or pressure Volc but with the likely Scarf ChiYu being a sitting duck at -2 SpA JRL is able to Icy Wind + Steam Eruption for a KO on Glimm as Zom doesn't respect the Icy Wind at all, also allowing his likely Specs Flutter to take a speed drop. Zom can try to KO Gold and get something started with Waterpon but before going down its able to Wisp Pon making it much less of a threat for the remainder of the game. JRL looks really strong at this point, able to bring in Rilla for free and take a KO as Zom sacks LandoT to get a free ChiYu. Now Turn 5 is really strange to me, switching Flutter is a fair play but JRL swapping in AV Gambit here was really strange to me since it looks super strong from this position but at least he can still threaten double priority here. Zom burns Tera Fairy on Flutter trying to take a double KO while bringing in Hands for Fake Out, but JRL correctly calls the ChiYu swap and double attacks Flutter to get back into an extremely strong position. Zom still gets the double knockout with ChiYu on the following turn but is now a mon down and wasted his tera. Torn and LandoT come in freely for JRL has a solid shot to win from here, free Tailwind as -1 Hands can't kill LandoT and Torn will live to threaten with Bleakwind or potentially even get off another Tailwind. And this is the part where JRL reveals special LandoT! On one hand Sandsear Storm can't be redirected, but on the other it has a miss chance and does far less to Hands than Stomping Tantrum. Regardless JRL still looks very favored though as Zom can really only hope for luck plus chokes at this point. Tera Poison Sludge Bomb does big damage into Pon and ensures Cudgel bounces off despite an unlucky Bleakwind miss as Zom opts to ignore Torn in a pretty futile attempt to KO LandoT. Another Bleakwind miss on the following turn lets Hands get off a much stronger Wild Charge into LandoT but JRL has an easy win from here, Protect Tornadus and Sludge Bomb Hands as Pon dies to burn. This almost happens I guess as he Protects and Sandsears, missing Pon but connecting with Hands for a KO. Now JRL has a comoletely guaranteed win with Tailwind + Sludge Bomb to make sure even max HP ChiYu dies to Flutter, but he clicks Sandsear again and misses as Zom takes a double KO. JRL still wins with a Flutter Moonblast being enough to KO ChiYu, but if that failed to kill this game would've for sure been controversial LOL. A number of weird moments from both sides but JRL won as predicted to put his team up 1-0 in an entertaining last game.

Or at least it would've been the last game but finals tied and Islanders picked DOU! Gibles had a few options with zee coming off of a Top 8 at San Antonio Regionals, z0mOG being the player they trusted in finals who also performed admirably at the same event, and mind gaming putting up a very strong record while apparently having more than no experience in doubles. Ultimately Gibles did choose to stick with Zom so we're getting the runback.

Finals Tiebreak:
[ISL] JRL vs z0mOG [GIB]

The finals game pretty much reinforced how I already felt honestly. JRL is the favorite but Zom winning is very possible, probably like a 55/45 or 60/40 matchup to me. Both should end up with fine teams so it'll come down to who messes up less.

 

[Nephtyrix]

[ISL] JRL vs z0mOG [GIB]
GO EUROPE ! <3