The Pittsburgh Regional Championship was the primary Pokémon Scarlet and Violet match of the brand new 2024 season, and it didn’t disappoint.
Just like the 2023 World Championships final month, this occasion was stuffed with Regulation D Pokémon like Flutter Mane, Iron Fingers, and Urshifu, nevertheless it was a sure Legendary core from eight years in the past that received the entire occasion.
In a stacked match with a few of the finest gamers within the sport, together with the likes of Aaron Zheng and James Baek, the semifinals ended up with 4 veterans—Aaron Traylor, Alberto Lara, Riley Factura, and Wolfe Glick. All of those gamers have been competing for years, and the brand new champ, Factura, really received the occasion with an iconic trio that goes again to 2015 when he had earned a few his regional titles.
Factura’s Cresselia, Heatran, and Amoonguss had been all as soon as a part of the well-known CHALK core of Gen VI that won the 2015 World Championships. The opposite two CHALK members had been Landorus, who’s among the many most typical Pokémon within the meta, and Mega Kangaskhan, who isn’t obtainable within the Gen IX video games now.
Identical to the great previous days in 2015, Cresselia, Heatran, and Amoonguss lastly reunited in Scarlet and Violet’s Reg D ruleset and secured one other large win. Of the three, Cresselia was by far the MVP of Factura’s Pittsburgh workforce within the semifinals and finals.
Factura’s Cresselia discovered itself in an extended standoff with Aaron Traylor’s Cresselia within the semifinals. After going forwards and backwards between self-heals, stat drops, and chips of harm, it was Factura’s Cresselia who got here out because the winner.
Within the finals in opposition to Wolfe Glick, there was an enormous second within the deciding sport that modified every little thing; Cresselia landed a crit hit and a 10-percent freeze on Glick’s Landorus, who was doing its finest to show the tide.
Unable to thaw out, Landorus was knocked out by Factura’s Heatran the following flip to place him within the profitable place. Ultimately, the CHALK trio helped Factura earn his fifth regional title. This simply goes to indicate how the older technology Pokémon can nonetheless sustain with new ones like Flutter Mane. In actual fact, Factura’s workforce didn’t even embody Flutter Mane, who remained the most-used Pokémon of the match at 59.3 p.c.
That being stated, the meta is ready to vary once more in October when Regulation E begins. Whereas Regulation D reintroduced Cresselia, Heatran, and different acquainted faces again into the meta, Regulation E will throw in model new Pokémon from the upcoming DLC, The Teal Mask, together with much more returning ‘mons.
Given the deep historical past across the CHALK trio, we may very effectively nonetheless see them dominating this new VGC ruleset over the following few months too.
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