Hello there! My name is Benji Carney aka Carneyasadaa, and I placed 54th at EUIC 2025 in London. I have been playing competitively since 2022, with a long history of finishing one win short of day 2, including the prior weekend where I fumbled a 3-0 start in San Juan to finish 3-3. Thankfully, I had some time to recollect myself between the end of the San Juan special event and the flight to London, where I was eager to do better than my 3-3 finish last year.

My flight to London was boring as I typically sleep on flights, and I believe it helped me to mitigate the jet lag this weekend, as 5-time zone changes exact a large toll. I had Wednesday to map out the train routes from the airport to my hotel and from the hotel to the Excel Center. On Thursday morning, I was joined by Stefan Mott and we began to finalize our teams, lines, and dinner plans for the weekend.

My weapon of choice in San Juan had been a Groudon + Jumpluff team, as I had been working on it for a few weeks on ladder and felt that if I hit most of my Precipice Blades, I would be alright (spoiler alert: I missed a lot of Precipice Blades late in the day). Considering how poorly San Juan had ended, I was not about to fly across the ocean to click the same inaccurate moves over again, so I pivoted to a team that I had seen a lot of ladder success on, a variation of Patrick Connors’s San Juan team featuring the powerful core of Calyrex Ice Rider + Raging Bolt. I was pleased to learn that Patrick was willing to lend me most of the Pokemon he used in San Juan, which also happened to be the same Pokemon that he had used to win the North American International Championships in the same format a few months earlier. I was also able to procure a special Raging Bolt from my friend Julian, who had a habit of lending this Raging Bolt out to anyone going to regionals, as most of us didn’t have Pokemon Scarlet completed.

The final team ended up being exactly what Patrick played, with the sole exception being that I had a Korean Cherish Ball Amoonguss that had a slight deviation in the Defense and Special Defense stats. https://pokepast.es/e0d5b02fc8b61eba

THE TEAM:

252+ SpA Choice Specs Hadron Engine Miraidon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Calyrex-Ice Rider: 183-216 (88.4 - 104.3%) -- 31.25% chance to OHKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Hadron Engine Tera-Electric Miraidon Helping Hand Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 116 SpD Tera-Poison Calyrex-Ice Rider: 42-50 (20.2 - 24.1%) -- guaranteed 5HKO

Calyrex was the workhorse (har har) of the entire team, and it is still one of the most potent restricted Pokemon out there. Patrick had sold me on Tera Poison to patch the Zamazenta matchup as well as bolstering the Miraidon matchup, at the minor expense of the Calyrex-Shadow matchup, as most CSR now run Ghost + Psychic coverage singularly. Adding 16 Special Defense over Speed would make the above Draco Meteor calc a 12% chance to OHKO, but I opted for the speed to try and get the jump on anything creeping around 70-72. It could honestly be whatever you want it to be from minimum Speed to maybe even 74-75 Speed.

252+ SpA Protosynthesis Raging Bolt Thunderclap vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tera-Fairy Miraidon in Electric Terrain: 102-121 (57.9 - 68.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Protosynthesis Raging Bolt Draco Meteor vs. 28 HP / 4 SpD Calyrex-Shadow Rider: 163-193 (91 - 107.8%) -- 43.75% chance to OHKO

Raging Bolt was my second restricted Pokemon, and wow does this Pokemon just do so much damage. Forming a Bolt-Beam core with Calyrex-Ice is extremely oppressive against so much of the format, and Thunderclap with maximum damage output picked up many KO’s that my opponents did not expect. I debated a bit between retaining my Assault Vest set from San Juan or going with the Booster Energy set, but Booster Energy won out in the end, and I am so glad about that. If I had any changes to make on this set, it would be in the Speed stat. I honestly don’t know how fast or slow it should be, the only thing I do know is that I want the maximum offense to facilitate the above Draco Meteor roll on Calyrex-Shadow, as otherwise, the matchup remains a bit suspect.

There really isn’t a lot to say about Urshifu’s spread or moves other than I opted for Coaching over Aqua Jet, as I felt the scaling would be nice for Calyrex-Ice and most of my opponents weren’t going to be clicking Tailwind against me, thus my Urshifu would just naturally outspeed everything other than Regieleki or faster Choice Scarf users. I had debated on Tera Ghost, as Hunter Braum had just won San Juan with basically the same set, but overall, I felt Water just provided the best outcomes.

Amoonguss is Amoonguss, it’s hard to get it wrong with Amoonguss and Tera Fairy on Amoonguss meant that enemy Miraidon had to lock into Volt Switch instead of locking Specs Draco Meteor in the face of this Amoonguss. Your results may vary, and it could really be whatever you want it to be (in my case, I wanted to use the Cherish Ball Amoonguss) and I’m sure it would be fine.

Landorus is in a great spot in the metagame right now, as Ground and Poison cover almost all of the metagame neutrally, and it just tends to be a very powerful complement to the other Pokemon on this team. I opted to take Patrick’s spread and go fast, as otherwise, the team lacks speed outside of Urshifu. The 44 HP investment randomly came up during one set where Landorus lived a Mystic Water Aqua Jet from Urshifu-RS in Rain to clutch up the game. Tera alternatives could be Water (good vs CIR, worse vs Miraidon) or Ghost (pounds balance teams that aren’t LO CSR if you can’t get Pelipper in on time). Overall, fast Landorus was very strong, and that part I would not change. Sandsear is also very OP if you believe you will connect consistently.

This is THE Pelipper, the one everyone cheered for when it came out to stifle Aurelien’s onslaught in Game 3 of NAIC, and Pelipper delivered for me this weekend. Covert Cloak is great for dodging faster Rillabooms trying to Fake Out + combo with another move, guaranteeing that Wide Guard support is always online. The bulk is just vaguely good, if enemy Urshifu-RS is not Mystic Water then you can survive 2 raw Surging Strikes, but typically against Mystic Water Urshifu you’re better off pinning with Raging Bolt.

I locked my team in with enough time to lay awake all night as the mosque next door was very lively throughout the night but come morning time, I felt rested enough to get moving with a coffee and some good conversation with Stefan, and we made it to the convention center with plenty of time to spare.

Round 1: vs CSR – Registeel – Electabuzz – Urshifu RS – Incineroar – Rillaboom

I started off staring down a local player using Tera Fairy Registeel on his CSR team, the logic provided was that its Iron Defense + Body Press set was a clean answer to Calyrex-Ice. I begged to differ in my head, but clearly my opponent knew something I didn’t as they didn’t click Protect a single time, banking on me overreading and just generating as much offense per turn as they could. I lost game 1 to the Registeel getting one too many Body Presses off, before vowing to just treat my opponent as though they were going to do the basic move every turn from there on out, which they did and I cruised to a 2-1 victory.

Round 2: vs Miraidon – Iron Hands – Farigiraf – Whimsicott – Urshifu RS – Ogerpon Hearthflame

This is basically the exact team I wanted to see, despite only really having one line that I was comfortable deploying. Amoonguss soaks up a Draco Meteor, Calyrex either goes into TR or gets some Glacial Lance damage down, and Raging Bolt and Landorus clean up their chunked-down Pokemon in the endgame. The issue with that plan is when I decided to protect Amoonguss in game 2, and my Calyrex eats a HH Draco Meteor from Farigiraf + Miraidon. Lesson learned, next game I just play very safe and convert another 2-1 victory.

Round 3: vs Miraidon – Tornadus – Sneasler – Iron Hands – Farigiraf – Ursaluna BloodMoon

This Miraidon team was very menacing, as it offered a lot of damage and disruption along with the typical speed sandwich of Miraidon + minimum speed Iron Hands. I lose game 1 to getting run over by a Miraidon + Ursaluna lead with Landorus whiffing a Sandsear Storm on a half-health Ursaluna BloodMoon, but throughout the matchup, I am constantly double protecting to either scout or deny Fake Out plays. This comes to a head in game 3, as my opponent switches their Iron Hands out on a Fake Out turn into Miraidon, only to be met by a Sandsear Storm knocking out the full-health Miraidon and granting me speed control over the rest of the game with Landorus picking off their turbo Ursaluna and Iron Hands. 3 wins and 0 losses, the same start as last weekend in San Juan.

Round 4: vs Miraidon – Iron Hands – Farigiraf – ChienPao – Urshifu RS – Ogerpon Hearthflame

As I’m looking over the team sheet, I notice my opponent has Electro Ball Miraidon with Tera Electric and a choice item. After getting a pair of early game reads right, I mostly cruise to a game 1 victory after Trick Room goes up with my Calyrex and Amoonguss still alive. Curiously, my opponent chose to bench their Miraidon. Bold strategy, but I wasn’t complaining. It was only once I saw all 4 of my opponents Pokemon in game 2 with Miraidon on the bench again that I chose to closely inspect my opponent’s Miraidon set out of confusion. It turns out it is a choice SCARF Miraidon, not Choice SPECS. Great reading comprehension, me. I still manage to take a relatively clean 2-0 set and am now 4-0 on the day.

Round 5: vs CSR – Amoonguss – Ogerpon Cornerstone – Urshifu RS – Tornadus – Chien Pao

This set started off insanely well. I led Urshifu + Pelipper into his CSR + Urshifu, and I correctly read that the CSR would switch out to Amoonguss, throwing a Hurricane into the CSR slot and a Surging Strikes into the Urshifu slot. His Urshifu Detects and the Amoonguss takes 75% on the switch in and gets confused, prompting some understandable annoyance from my opponent. Turn 2, his Amoonguss goes for Rage Powder and hits itself in confusion, and I score a double knockout and more visible frustration from my opponent. He sends out his last 2 Pokemon which are Ogerpon and CSR, and it should be simple to clean up from here, considering I have taken 0 damage at this point. Somehow, I lost this game as I just don’t click Wide Guard, and my Pelipper + Urshifu both faint to neutral LO Astral Barrage (75% chance on Urshifu and 50% chance to KO on both assuming 252 Spatk Timid LO), and my Pokemon in the back get stranded and knocked out. I have zero excuses for not clicking Wide Guard other than I think I just zoned out to autopilot. It was a really embarrassing game and I’m glad it wasn’t on stream (considering the caliber of player and our records, you never know). Game 2, my opponent recognizes that the Speed sandwich of CSR + Amoonguss causes a lot of problems for me, and I get a prediction wrong on T1 which allows the CSR to snowball behind double redirectors and I go to 4-1. This one was a tough pill to swallow because if I just click 2 different moves, I theoretically could have 2-0’d an elite player in a relatively moderate matchup.

Round 6: vs Kyogre – Archaludon – Tornadus – Chien Pao – Dragonite – Amoonguss

This matchup is versus a new friend/friend of a friend, and my first foray into an enemy weather restricted. Mystic Water Kyogre puts a lot of pressure on my team, but I take game 1 on the back of Raging Bolt + Landorus clutching up late. Game 2 shows the power of Mystic Water Kyogre, as it scores a knockout on my Tera Poison Landorus, turning a relatively even game into a loss. In game 3, my opponent switches their Chien-Pao out for banded Dragonite, and the endgame comes down to a 50-50 Outrage target as well as a confusion proc, both of which go my opponent’s way, and I drop to 4-2. At this point, I am in despair as my stellar opening to the day has faded away to mediocrity, like so many tournaments before. I manage to find some caffeine before the next round starts and ponder on how I can salvage my day, as I must win both of my remaining matches to advance to day 2.

Round 7: vs Miraidon – Gholdengo – Volcarona – Whimsicott – Iron Hands – Pelipper

As I open my opponent’s team sheet, I am both amused and dismayed to see the specific CIR countermeasures of Pelipper + Volcarona, although the Volcarona not having Will-o-Wisp is a relief as I don’t think my opponent can afford to bring in both tech pieces. Game 1 was a pretty standard win, but I lost game 2 to Protecting my Amoonguss again and taking an Electro Drift + Make it Rain from Gholdengo which knocks out my CIR. One would think I would have learned my lesson about deviating from the game plan earlier. One would be wrong. In game 3, I got a fortunate Draco Meteor miss from my opponent (albeit in a relatively strong position already), and I defeat my 4th Miraidon + Iron Hands team of the day to go to 5-2. Strangely, I am only feeling more stressed at this point, owing to the fact that I have had almost 10 finishes in my career that ended with me losing the last round of the day to miss day 2. Thankfully, the set was over relatively quickly, so I go slam down some food, wash my hands and my face, and mill about for a moment before my final round pairing goes up.

Round 8: vs Terapagos – Incineroar – Flutter Mane – Rillaboom – Urshifu RS – Ogerpon Hearthflame

I have to be honest; I don’t really remember a lot of this matchup other than I got a Thunderbolt paralysis onto my opponent’s Incineroar in game 1 that trivialized the late game, and that my Pelipper knocked out my opponent’s Incineroar on turn 1 of game 2 with Weather Ball, correctly calling that my opponent would be conservative with his Terapagos Tera. Raging Bolt and CIR get into Trick Room to close out game 2, and I won the set 2-0 to advance to 6-2 + day 2 of the tournament.

Wait, I won?

That never happens.

There has to be some sort of mistake.

Surely there’s a round 9 with Wolfe Glick waiting at the end to beat me back into depression (it’s happened twice already, but thankfully, he was 7-1 at this point so only a pair down could traumatize me any further).

I double and triple-check the results slip in my hand, struggling to understand what I feel. After a minute or two of wandering around the hall aimlessly, I see Stefan at his seat, talking to a friend about his unfortunate end to the day. I listen to him vent the rest of his steam off, and when he asks me how my last round went, everything finally clicked for me, and I can celebrate before I submit it. It took everything I had and some to not burst into tears at this point, but after scrolling on my phone a bit, I am able to find a corner and really let out my emotions in (mostly) private. I have been so cursed up to this point, that finally crossing the threshold myself and making day 2 of any tournament overwhelms me, but I manage to get it all out of my system. Eventually, my social battery wears down, and I settle for some Perfect Fried Chicken in my hotel room + a long night’s sleep.

Day 2 begins at 9 am on Saturday, and neither Stefan nor I are particularly well rested at this point, but we will have to survive with some BEX coffee and the excitement of accidentally getting on the wrong train to the Excel Center (with plenty of time to spare) before we get our pairings and go our separate ways for the day.

Round 9: vs CSR + Incineroar + Raging Bolt + Urshifu RS + Ogerpon Hearthflame + Rillaboom

I recognize my opponent as a very strong European player, and I know my work will be cut out for me in a medium matchup. I don’t really have a lot to say about the match other than he played very well and I just didn’t respect the disruption cycle of CSR’s partners, especially since I don’t have very effective spread damage once CIR is under threat. Honestly, the lead should just be CIR + Bolt to threaten either Trick Room or maximum damage Draco Meteor for a potential KO or Thunderclap cleanup. I move to 6-3, resigned to the fact that this will be a tough day, but also still euphoric that I am even in this position.

Round 10: vs Rayquaza – Chien Pao – Flutter Mane – Ogerpon Wellspring – Urshifu RS – Incineroar

My opponent for this round is running a somewhat eccentric team, with the personality to match. I’m able to relatively easily take game 1 off the back of the Tera Normal Rayquaza still being a squishy target for Glacial Lance. In game 2, I also take a commanding lead but throw the game on a turn where my opponent’s Chien Pao switches into Incineroar, massively changing a damage calc from my Urshifu-Rapid Strike and allowing me to get ground out of the game and forced into game 3. If I just U-Turn out and don’t allow my Urshifu to get Intimidated + Horn Leeched, I win the set 2-0 and move on with my day. Instead, I must sweat out game 3 a little bit because I don’t have any damage mitigation or resistance to Normal type damage. Calyrex-Ice is broken as heck though, so I power through my opponent’s strategy and move to 7-3.

Round 11: vs CIR – Iron Valiant – Indeedee Female – Urshifu RS – Pelipper – Ogerpon Hearthflame

You know how I just said CIR is broken? Turns out it does have some rough matchups after all. At first glance, this matchup really sucks. My opponent is a very strong old head with Water Tera CIR + double Wide Guard and what I presume will be the faster CIR because the CIRs are always faster than mine. I also typically attribute good teambuilders and players to typically make those stat decisions, so I make a bold call in game 1 and just bench my CIR. We trade resources aggressively, and the endgame comes down to if my Urshifu can 2HKO my opponent’s Pelipper with Tera Water Surging Strikes in the rain. As it turns out, it could, and I go up 1-0. The decision to bench the CIR feels appropriate, so I decide to go with a similar game plan, except that I intend to try and have my Pelipper lock his CIR out of the game early with Wide Guard support. My opponent’s Moonblast + High Horsepower double up into Tera Water Urshifu fails to score a knockout, and my Raging Bolt switch in denies my opponent’s Urshifu a counter KO, while my Pelipper launches a Hurricane to fell the enemy Urshifu. From there, Raging Bolt locks out my opponent’s other slot, while Pelipper threatens Wide Guard support as well as very solid damage, and I can take a 2-0 victory over an elite opponent. 8 wins and 3 losses mean that I have surpassed my previous record of 7 wins in San Diego and Orlando of the 2023 season (how did I manage 2 7-win tours but not a day 2? Riddle me this, chat!), but I am mentally rolling at this point, and I want to finish this off with a positive day 2.

Round 12: vs CSR – Indeedee Female – Dondozo – Tatsugiri Droopy – Urshifu RS – Weezing Galar

I vaguely recognize my opponent this round, but I am very familiar with these styles of teams. My opponent’s CSR has a weak point vs my CIR in that it has Astral Barrage, Expanding Force, and Pollen Puff as it’s 3 attacks, so if they lead Indeedee, Pelipper + Tera Poison CIR completely mitigates their damage. The exact scenario plays out, as they lead Indeedee + CSR, and a Helping Hand LO Pollen Puff deals 39 damage to my Tera Poison CIR, while I return 65% damage to both of his Pokemon with Glacial Lance. I can get Amoonguss in and slowly beat down his Dondozo before knocking it out inside of Trick Room and Sporing the Tatsugiri, prompting a grudging concession. At this point, I default to lead my same lead without really considering my opponent’s counterplay, and as the screens are loading up, it occurs to me that Urshifu + CSR is good into what I led, and that I’m going to get run over if that’s what the lead is. Take a wild gander at what came out for my opponent’s lead, and the subsequent result of game 2. I made the game relatively close, and if my Tera Electric SpAtk Booster Thunderclap had knocked out my opponent’s CSR instead of leaving it alive with 1HP, I probably would have won the game. In game 3, I make the correct switch up to Pelipper + Urshifu, stranding my opponent’s CSR + Urshifu lead and forcing the Urshifu to Tera Water early. I am also fortunate to get another Hurricane Confusion, and my opponent’s Urshifu hits itself, leading to a rout if my opponent doesn’t crit my Urshifu. I am fortunate enough to not get crit, and I close out the set 2-1, leading to a final record of 9-3 and 54th place, good for 150 CP.

I am extremely happy with my weekend in London. The team was amazing despite having 0 Ghost or Normal resists, the company was awesome, London is a stellar city to visit, and finals were unbelievably hype. 150 CP means that I am now at 442 CP with 4 BFLs remaining + other extracurricular opportunities such as the GC’s, so in theory I could make a run at Worlds if I can keep the momentum going. Huge thanks to Patrick Connors and Julian for the Pokemon and the moral support over the weekend, thanks to Stefan Mott for hanging out with me all weekend, and thanks to everyone for reading this story.

If you want to keep up with my life, I am on Twitter/X @ Carneyasadaa and I also am the commissioner of the NPAA, an NPA offshoot now in its second season! I currently live in North Florida, and I have 2 adorable chihuahuas named Scout Jr. and Toast. I also am a player/manager for team FL in the USPL, and I will likely be managing again during the next iteration of the OPL, hosted by Ryan Hebert!

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