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PDL Week 12 Recap

PDL Recap Week 12

We have concluded the last week of the regular season of the PDL. Let’s take a look at the final games before we head into playoffs.

DEP vs. TOT: 6-0

NWN vs. HEH: 3-0

VAV vs. BFS: VAV Forfeit

COG vs. NJJ: 6-0

SHS vs. SLC: 4-0

NYY vs. NJJ: 4-0

PIP vs. BLP: 1-0

HFW vs. ITA: 0-1

JAX vs. LOL: 5-0

MID vs. DCC: 5-0

MIL vs. BAL: 2-0

AUK vs. MIN: 0-5

This has been one incredible season with a roller-coaster of up and downs. I’m incredibly proud of how hard every team has played so far and how much teams have improved over the season. For those teams that made playoffs, congrats and good luck. May the hax forever be in your favor and may your focus blasts never miss.

Let’s cover some season statistics before we head into which teams made playoffs.

No surprise to anyone but the Rhyhorn Steakhouse was the hardest division with the most overall wins, yet they have the lowest seed out of the top team of each division. We also had 13 teams out of 24 have better than a 50% record at the end of the season, which only goes to show how powerful all the teams have become over the season.

I have dug deep into the math figured out who had the toughest schedule overall. To calculate that I looked at each team and added up all the wins of their opponents and after a close battle the team with the toughest overall schedule goes to: Miami Lanturns with an average of each team have 6.75 wins.

Pick ’ems

This has been a lot of fun to cover over the season and I want to congratulate Clod9 on picking the most matches correctly this season, but it isn’t over. There will be a playoff bracket challenge where you can make a bracket for the playoffs and earn points based on how well each team does. More details and the link to the challenge are below.

PLAYOFF PICTURE

This has been one crazy ride to playoffs as we had several teams waiting up until the last moment to know if they were going to be in or not. I want to congratulate everyone on what they have accomplished this season. I encourage everyone to take part in the Pickem’s for the Playoffs and root on your favorite teams in the All Star Game. Without further ado this is how we calculated the playoff teams:

Seeding of the playoffs is based off Record first then we go into the tie breakers:

Best Win % in Division Head to Head Best Record Against Common Opponents Strength of Victory Strength of Schedule Coin Flip

Based off this we have determined the Playoffs

I’d like to announce the top seed of each Division in order of ranking:

1 COG 2 HFW 3 BFS 4 MIN

Next we have the Second seeds of each Division in order of ranking:

5 MID 6 ITA 7 NWN 8 SLC

Finally we have the 4 best of the rest teams in order of ranking:

9 BAL 10 PIP 11 SHS 12 MIL

8. SLC vs 9. BAL (Winner plays 1. COG)

5. MID vs. 12. MIL (Winner plays 4. MIN)

7. NWN vs. 10. PIP (Winner plays 2. HFW)

6. ITA vs. 11. SHS (Winner plays 3. BFS)

We will take a week off before playoffs so all first week matches for the first round of the playoffs are due July 8th. Once all the matches for the week are completed we will move on to the next round.

Fill out a Playoff bracket here: https://challonge.com/PDLS2PO

Interview with Zcron

This week I’m joined by the shadow president of PUCL… the legendary ZCRON!

Clod9: Thank you Zcron for joining us this week. It has been a wild ride this season but let’s start at the beginning: how did you prepare for this draft?

Zcron: Preparing for a draft never goes as planned, so I didn’t prepare beyond knowing that my first pick would be Excadrill. The rest of the team just kind of adapted as the draft went.

C9: Has your team performed up to your standards so far?

ZN: My team has been surprisingly effective despite lacking a real defensive core. About halfway through the season I decided to toss a lot of my tank stuff and just go full-on offensive with a focus on hard-hitting priority users like Golisopod and Raikou.

C9: Congrats on making playoffs. You had a great run last year with a couple upsets to set yourself apart from the rest until hax was your ultimate defeat. How far do you think you will go this year, barring hax?

ZN: The plan is to make it to the final match and then finally whip out Mega Tyranitar. Or he/she may come out earlier. WHO KNOWS?! Bahahahaha

But yeah, any Pokemon player should always aim for number one. I HAVE THE POWER OF ARCEUS AND ANIME ON MY SIDE.

C9: If you win you will be playing me in the Quarterfinals. Do you think you can handle that?

ZN: I managed to beat you earlier in the season, though it was close. Should be a fun game!

C9: Let’s look back on the season who were you most excited to battle this season? ZN: h3nz and I had the misfortune of both trying the exact same strategy, so a face-off against him was highly anticipated, especially since he picked up the Gigalith I dropped early on. Unfortunately, we both expected the other to bring our sand setter, and neither did, so our match was a sand match with no sand. Top keks all around.

 C9: I noticed a brand change this season,why did you choose the team name, Pittsburg Piplups? ZN: The sole reason I picked this team name was to troll Thatch. No more questions at this time.

C9: Were there any secret techs that you brought for your matchups that you didn’t get to showcase? ZN: My team is very versatile in the held items they can all bring, so most of the change-ups are about which of my Pokemon has the Z Crystal in any given fight. Golisopod having Assault Vest ended up being crucial in my final match of the season, though Wishiwashi didn’t get a chance to Hydro Vortex its old teammate, Cinccino.

C9: Who would you say is the mon you are/were most excited to use on your team this year? ZN: Excadrill is just too freaking great to not have, but Wishiwashi and Raikou in draft league are honestly insane. Great coverage and bulk. Wishiwashi should not be a D-tier. Not by any stretch.

C9: You’ve had an impressive run to the playoffs so far, what would you say was the key to your success?

ZN: Predicting correctly and mitigating risk. Playing to your outs in every match, and thinking about games in the long term, rather than the short. I keep track of every battle and every move used play-by-play on a piece of paper. Keeping notes has paid off for me.

C9: You have been around PUCL for a while so let’s dive deep into how that all came about, when did you start listening to PUCL?

ZN: I think it was in 2012 or 2013 that I started listening due to the urgings of my irl friend Bocefus.

C9: How did you get promoted up through the ranks to blackthorn council?

ZN: I produced a whole lot of written content for PUCL when there wasn’t much there. Eventually, I was tasked with recruiting other writers to the site, and that’s how we ended up with several members of the core PUCL leadership including Whimsicott, Jushiro, and SublimeManic.

C9:What Pokemon generation did you start with?

ZN: 3rd Generation, Pokemon Sapphire version. I got it for my 7th or 8th birthday and it got me through a cross-country RV trek after my house burnt down in the California mountains.

C9: What is your favorite region?

ZN: Hoenn. Unova comes close, but the lazy, circular shape kicks it out of the running.

C9: Who is your favorite Pokemon?

ZN:. Toxapex, with Golbat as a close second.

C9: If you had to pick: Attack or Special Attack?

ZN: ATTACK. MY DRILL WILL BE THE ONE THAT BREAKS THROUGH THE HEAVENS.

C9: What is your battle style:  Stall/Hyper Offense/Bulky Offense/Balance?

ZN: Out of those options, Bulky Offense is probably the closest. I like to make teams that can easily switch out and have passive effects like Magic Bounce or Rocky Helmet.

C9: Do you prefer Speed or Trick Room?

ZN: Speed. Trick Room is rarely a problem for me since it’s highly visible in a team comp, and is entirely destroyed by a single Pokemon with Taunt.

C9: What is your favorite Weather; Hail/Sand/Rain or Sun?

ZN: Sand, because I am a member of the political faction known as the DESERT COMMUNISTS alongside VIGER

C9: Electric/Misty/Grassy or Psychic Terrain?

ZN: I hate all of them, but Electric is the one I hate the least.

C9: Favorite status to inflict: Sleep/Freeze/Paralysis/Burn or Poison?

ZN: Paralysis. A big part of my strategy last draft league was T-waving everything with Cresselia.

C9: Have you watched the Pokemon anime? If yes, what is your favorite Theme song?

ZN: I like the Pokemon Advanced Battle song Unbeatable. Mainly for nostalgia reasons.

C9: Will you be participating in the Summer League to collect badges this summer or any other pucl event?

ZN: I have attempted to do the summer league several times, but have bad luck making the scheduled times and haven’t transferred too many non draft league Pokemon to USUM. I will make time for some battles soon. I want that 2ds XL!

C9: Thank you once again for joining us this week! Good luck in the playoffs! That’s all the time we have this week. See y’all again next time!

from PDL Week 12 Recap