Hey there trainers!!
My name is Martijn – you may know me as Inadequance. I am the 2024 Worlds finalist, and I’ll be writing most of these articles! The goal is to write the many tournaments that will be held globally as one big storyline.
From here on, all points gained from tournaments held after the EUIC up until and including the NAIC will count for the 2025 LAIC travel award. The total, of course, will count for the Worlds qualification and Travel Award.
And this weekend, there’s a lot on the line for everyone competing in the Championship Series! For many trainers, this is their final chance to qualify for the World Championships or to make an attempt to secure or threaten the Travel Award spots for 2025 Worlds and 2026 LAIC.
The meta development
But first, an interesting development in the meta. My server has been flourishing in practice tournaments, being hosted in pretty much every timezone at the moment. That means there’s a lot of data available on what people like to use!
Tinkaton really hurt the Azumarill – Drapion core, and players like OutOfPoket and NiteTimeClasher have revived Malamar. Tinkaton and Jumpluff deal quite well with it, but the energy from Malamar is just so flexible everywhere. Rumour has it though, there’s a new core lurking around the corner…
It’s the Typhlosion – Azumarill core! Specifically Shadow Typhlosion, because it already is so fragile you may as well put some extra firepower in it. The only corebreakers to it are Blastoise and Water- and Poison-types, but Typhlosion with Thunder Punch isn’t that bad against them. The real answer would be Lanturn – but it is wildly inflexible regardless of which fast attack you use.
Fire-type Pokémon Typhlosion and Talonflame both had an 18% usage and assuming (almost) no types had double Fire on their line, that would mean 36% of the teams had a Fire-type. Perhaps it is time for Azumarill – and maybe Drapion – to step up if we’re all threatening the many Jumpluff and Tinkaton so much.
Melbourne
The Oceania region is always in a bit of a weird spot when it comes to the qualification and travel awards for Worlds. If I remember correctly, the EUIC travel award was entirely based off Championship Points from locals in the first few months of the season. Ever since, there is 1 regional per few months – 3 in total – which weigh a LOT on the prizing.
It’s comforting for Europe, North- and South America that if you do bad at one tourmanent you can perhaps make up for it in the next 3 or more. In Oceania, it really is survival of the fittest. All or nothing.
This is the current standing on the Oceania leaderboards for the 2025 season.
The top 1-2 will earn the Travel Award for Worlds (which is a $3500 prize package), placements 3-4 will earn the Travel stipend for Worlds (which is a $1000 prize package, but only paid after playing at Worlds). And the top 10 qualify for the World Championships. Number 3 – Godzilama – won a Regional Championship, so is already directly qualified, meaning that the qualification spot cascades down to spot 11.
And the way it looks now, players ranging from 770 to 670 CP will all be eyeing that travel award as they’re very close to that second spot.
With the help of PvPSteve, I picked some players to look out for!
Our whole top 4 will be attempting to defend their travel award and stipends! RicFlareon is sitting comfortably at the throne, but would probably prefer to get some more CP to secure it as TheyLuvJy may still be able to steal it at the NAIC.
Godzilama and Jumothy as rising talents are also contenders for the 2026 LAIC travel award, and another big performance should solidify their spot as one of the Oceania elite players.
A little bit lower on the leaderboard, ValiantVish will be competing to defend his Worlds qualification and perhaps even attempt to get his hands on a Travel stipend. I’m not sure if Mikeymorgs is competing (he was on holiday in Japan) but he’d be very close to qualifying as well! And if not, well I’m sure Japan was worth the visit – I personally loved it there!
But above all, the Oceania competitors are likely unified in one goal: to stop the North Americans from taking their precious Championship Points!
NiteTimeClasher and his brother Sustenance Eater will be competing here too! NiteTimeClasher has only won a Championship out of region after all, so maybe that’s where his luck lies. Not that he’s been doing bad in region, with 5 top 5s in a row. NiteTimeClasher is currently sitting at a #2 spot on the NA leaderboard and likely has the travel award secured, while his brother is sitting at #53 and is looking to secure his Worlds qualification spot.
I’ve heard ElCalvisimo may be peeking here too, so that could make for another North American to watch.
Santiago
Santiago in Chile has hosted a Championship every season, and will do so this season too! It’s the final Regional Championship of the season for LATAM, so there’s a lot at stake here for the competitors!
For LATAM, the top 8 earn a travel award for Worlds and spot 9-12 earn a travel stipend, after they competed at Worlds. The top 50 players on the leaderboard would qualify directly.
MartoGalde no doubt has secured his travel award already, but Richie1409 and LNDsRargef have only so much of a headstart. LNDsRargef will be competing at both Santiago and the NAIC, so he’ll have a good chance to defend it. LNDsKanan is sitting real close though, and may also be at NAIC.
The Chilean highlights here would be JavierV20 and desinked. JavierV20 needs to get just a few points to secure the travel award, while desinked is at the very last spot of having the travel award, and is only slightly ahead of some other top players we may see competing soon such as iomero0 at the NAIC and LNDsPawlinhoTad at Santiago.
Not exactly an underdog and not exactly in position for a travel stipend anymore too (unless also competing at NAIC), but I could see memiGRR pull off a win in Santiago too considering he’s been a top contender here over and over.
Whereas some North Americans are trying to find their success in Melbourne, it’s looking like many Brazilian top talents will be attempting to take the crown in Chile. Exciting!
Utrecht
And then finally, the third tournament this weekend – the Special Championship in Utrecht, Netherlands! 176 competitors have signed up, but as we know registration is free and it’s likely we’ll have some byes on the bracket. I expect to see +/- 130 competitors actually here.
As with LATAM, the top 8 earns a travel award for Worlds and placements 9 to 12 earn a travel stipend after competing at Worlds. The top 50 of the EU leaderboard qualify for Worlds.
Amongst them are some hard hitters though! Colin6ix, Zzweilous and TomahawkUK are competing here, and they will be competing at the NAIC too (along with P4T0M4N). I expect some Typhlosion again here, too.
ArceusAurelius could still fight for the top 8 at the travel award – but will be keeping a close eye on players like Paulasha97, Nickname29585 (in spot 10) and myself for that travel award/stipend position as he is commentating this event.
I guess it’s okay for me to put myself on that list of players to watch for since I’m the reigning Utrecht Champion after all, but I’m not gonna lie… I got absolutely bodied in a local cup and challenge last Wednesday so despite a 15 win streak in best of 3 matchups before that, I’m not feeling confident. I guess if I can reach day 2 with Rayquaza, I can be more than satisfied!
This won’t be the last European tournament of the season however – there’s still Bologna 2 weeks later for competitors to try and qualify or earn their travel prize.
Closing words
It’s unlikely Santiago will be streamed – but you can find Utrecht on the usual official broadcast streams and you can view Melbourne on a community stream hosted by PvPSteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve!
That’ll be it for this week! And… it’s probably going to be my last article for a while. After Utrecht, I’m flying off to Copenhagen and the week after to Bologna, New Jersey, New Orleans all in a row. So not really a lot of time!
As always, you can find the link to the bracket and broadcasts here.
https://www.dracoviz.com/2025-utrecht
https://www.dracoviz.com/2025-santiago
https://www.dracoviz.com/2025-melbourne
It was a pleasure writing these articles – and I hope you enjoyed them!
See you later!
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