Bhushan Thumsi, also known as Freezai, a popular Smogon Singles pro player and PokéTuber, demonstrated amazing promise in Pokémon VGC by cruising through day one of the Orlando Regional with a 9-1 Swiss record and finishing in the Top 32 on day two.
Freezai is known for his expertise and veteran status in Pokémon Singles, so to see him dominate a tournament in a manner that a lot of experienced players were competing in as well couldn’t pull off makes his run all the more impressive.
On top of this, Freezai has only been practicing the VGC format for only two months prior to the Orlando Regional, which happened to be the largest Pokémon tournament in history, that took place over the weekend, which should make the Pokémon player and YouTuber quite proud of his performance.
Bhushan used a team that featured the following Pokémon:
Maushold @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Friend Guard
Tera Type: Ghost
– Beat Up
– Follow Me
– Super Fang
– Protect
Flutter Mane @ Life Orb
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera Type: Fairy
– Moonblast
– Shadow Ball
– Dazzling Gleam
– Protect
Annihilape @ Lum Berry
Ability: Defiant
Tera Type: Fire
– Rage Fist
– Drain Punch
– Bulk Up
– Protect
Dondozo @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Steel
– Wave Crash
– Order Up
– Substitute
– Protect
Volcarona @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Water
– Overheat
– Struggle Bug
– Rage Powder
– Tailwind
Thumsi’s team revolved around the Dondozo-Tatsugiri archetype that needs no explanation, with Maushold and Annihilape making up another strong core in which Maushold uses Beat Up on its partner Annihilape to power up the latter’s Rage Fist for quick one-hit knockouts.
The rest of the team is rounded out with Flutter Mane for spreading quick and easy damage, with Volcarona for essential redirection and Speed control.
Day one for the tournament was 10 rounds of Swiss, in which Thumsi went undefeated for nine consecutive rounds, dropping to a loss on the 10th round, but the player was already almost guaranteed a spot for day two when he hit the 8-0 mark, since most of the participants with 8-2 records made it to the top 32.
Thumsi unfortunately dropped in his first match on day two against Chuppa Cross IV in what was a DondoGiri mirror match where Cross managed to pilot his team just a little bit more effectively than the prodigal VGC newcomer, leading to a 2-0 loss but an impressive Top 32 finish.