Adrian Sigler is your 2018 Portland Regional Champion, defeating finalist Yunhao Li in a near mirror match in the finals. As the title of this article implies, a certain Pokemon known for its powerful voice was big this past weekend. Portland might have been a small regional, but it was nothing short of action-packed. Let’s take a look at some of the cool strategies that made it to the Top Cut.
Results and teams (Top 8)
1. Adrian Sigler
2. Yunhao Li
3. Gary Qian
4. Jeremy Shacket
5. Quinn Johnston
6. Samuel Haarsma
7. Alberto Lara
8. River Davis
Where was everybody?
I mentioned before how Portland Regionals was a small tournament, and it was for North America standards. The final number entered for the Masters division ended up less than 100 players which meant seven rounds and Championship Points only awarded to the Top 16.
What could’ve caused this? Honestly, the answer isn’t clear. The northwest has never been known to be a powerhouse region, but the influx of players from California should’ve alleviated that some. Some notable names from the west coast have felt absent this season with players like Gavin Michaels not having a ton of Championship Points to Aaron Zheng’s absence from yet another regional. Plus, this regional happened sort of on the tail-end of the “dropping of player attendance” debate with some controversy being sprinkled on that topic shortly before this event. In the interest of the community, I’ll leave it at that.
Still, maybe this absence of big names could mean an opportunity for up and coming players to claim a place in the spotlight. Of course Alberto Lara has top cut another event this season, but he already has cemented himself at the top of the North American Championship Point standings. I’m talking about players like Gary Qian, 2017 Vancouver regional champion River Davis and 2017 Ultra Beast fanboy Samuel Haarsma. They may not be names that everyone recognizes right now, but 2018 could change that.
The new screaming queen of VGC
Mega Gardevoir was all the rage at Portland, and after this tournament players should definitely have it on their radar. Before the release of Intimidate Incineroar, I would’ve considered Mega Gardevoir not too strong of a pick simply because of the stiff competition when it comes to Fairy-type team members and the nerf to Pixilate. Now with two amazing Intimidate Pokemon that each support Gardevoir well, this Mega Evolution has skyrocketed itself into the mainstream once again.
The common core for most Gardevoir teams boils down to Gardevoir, Incineroar, Tapu Fini/Koko and Landorus (some players are even referring to this team archetype by the name Garde-roar). The remaining two members are surprisingly flexible as this is where we mainly saw difference in the teams of both of our finalists. Amoonguss was a popular partner for Gardevoir in the 2015 season due to its ability to redirect attacks away from Gardevoir while Gardevoir either set up Trick Room or spammed Hyper Voice. The Trick Room mode continues to be standard on Mega Gardevoir teams nowadays, but you might now see some other Trick Room Pokemon like the ever-popular Snorlax.
Mega Gardevoir is here to stay, and with this new team composition, it has definitely made its case for why it’s a great choice for a 2018 Mega Evolution.
Metagame highlights
(I would say something about Haarsma’s Chandelure, but we never really got to see him bring it to games unfortunately)
That’s all from Portland, and it looks like the season has a bit of a break at the regional level for the month of April. However, players will need to remain on their A-game as the Latin America International Championships are now just a month away.
Thanks for reading!
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Images from Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Pokemon Shuffle, Ken Sugimori and The Pokemon Company International
Teams data collected/provided by Nicholas Borghi and Trainer Tower
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