The last European tournament of the Championship Series will be taking place in Italy this weekend. One noticeable pattern over the course of the season however has been the lack of Italian players competing in regionals compared to those of other nationalities, especially with the wealth of talent that originates from the country.
I sat down with ASprescelto to discuss why this was and also why, from a foreign perspective, the Italian PVP community seems to have come into its prime over the past year. ASprescelto himself is number 1 on the Silph leaderboards as of writing and captains the successful Italian Gymbreakers team. I knew he would be the best person to enlighten me on these questions.
Uniting The Nation
PVP has been widely popular in Italy ever since its conception in Pokemon GO. The large Silph tournaments held by San Benedetto del Tronto have long been notorious even before their migration to Discord, while the talent has also been ever present, an example of which being the first ever Silph European Continental Champion RagingTaz. Despite this there had always been a divide between the SBT community and the other Italian communities. This was a subject which ASprescelto himself felt the need to address last year upon being given leadership over many Italian community groups.
“The first thing I had to do was bring the two communities together”
As well as facilitating discussions between community leaders, ASprescelto also encouraged players from all communities to take part in what he describes as the largest Italian tournament – The Road to Gymbreakers. This tournament was designed to bring together the best Italian players for the Gymbreakers national teams but also give aspiring players an opportunity to earn their spot on the roster. Not only would this foster a good competitive environment, but it would also bring the communities together with a common goal of improvement and eventually representing their country.
A symbol of the newly formed complete Italian community is seen in the EU Platinum Factions team Royal Pasta of SBT, a joint venture team between SBT and the wider Italian community.
Italian teams have since seen a lot of success, with #EatPastasciutta reaching Emerald Tier and the Italian Gymbreakers team coming third in the 2022 Invitational while also winning the Ember/Naiad wave.
Italians in Play! Pokemon
The last year has also shown a lot of individual Silph success for Italians, with over 10 players reaching Legend rank in the previous season. The same, however, can’t quite be said for the Play!Pokemon circuit.
Initially I want to point out the Italian successes so far at sanctioned events. Scafo99 came 5th at the largest European tournament to date, securing his invite to Worlds while AMindJoke has been making top cuts all season but just falling short of the qualification spot. Asprescelto also reached Top Cut at the Warsaw Regional Championships. No one can doubt their impressive performances over the course of the season, however outside of them there haven’t been any other players coming close and the root of the disparity between Silph and Regional records may lie in representation. Excluding AMindJoke, there has only been 1 other Italian participant in the last 4 European regionals and only 7 Italians total at EUIC.
ASprescelto attributes this phenomena to the price of flying outside of Italy. While for some Europeans a flight to a regional could cost as little as €25, Italians would generally have to shell out ten times as much thus making cost an understandable inhibiting factor. Another potential element ASprescelto believes could also hold some weight is the pressure of failing in front of the community. While not something that is discussed very much, the pressure of having to perform well when playing in a different country, let alone being on stream, may be something off-putting to most Italians. The debut of a local tournament however may encourage future participation by giving players a low risk taste of the Regional atmosphere.
Regional Radar
So with all that said, who are the players to be watching this weekend? AMindJoke is the obvious first target with his signature pokemon Alolan Sandslash being newly buffed. He has reached Top Cut 3 times this season and come incredibly close to qualification so there is no doubt he will be looking to finally secure it on home turf.
A local and former teammate of AMindJoke, IlCoppe, is also someone to keep your eye on. Despite having stepped back from competitive play since the disbanding of the Pratoxicroaks, he is still a force that ASprescelto considers very strong.
Another household name is GBL leaderboarder Filbeg. While Filbeg doesn’t have as much show 6 experience as those who have been partaking in Silph for years, he has shown his prowess in the blind 3 format with multiple GBLA wins under his belt. ASprescelto is confident that these skills will translate on the big stage.
While ASprecelto acknowledges that Silph Continental Champion RagingTaz is certainly another name for the radar, it is in fact teammate HELSENBERG24 who he reckons has a good shot at going far in Torino. As a player who has been involved the game consistently since the very beginning and received many achievements along the way, ASprescelto highlights HELSENBERG24’s ability to adapt to new metas – something that will be very key this weekend.
Lastly we have 13gioppy37. This trainer is no stranger to being a Pokemon Champion, winning the Sheffield Regional Championships back in 2018 for VGC! Not quite getting far enough at EUIC, he will be looking to replicate his VGC achievements in GO this weekend.
With a new meta, new players and a new city, the Special Event in Torino is set to be an incredible finish to the European journey to Worlds this season. Follow along with the entire event all weekend here.