Fans got to see the first appearances of the four Treasures of Ruin—Chien-Pao, Chi-Yu, Wo-Chien, and Ting-Lu—at the Fort Wayne Regionals, which marked the formal transition to Regulation C as the new format for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet VGC. These legendary Pokémon have Ruination as their trademark move and stat-decreasing Ability. At the competition, all four were among the top 12 most prevalent Pokémon (although poor Wo-Chien fell off by day two).
However, there was one Treasure of Ruin in particular that stood out this weekend: Ting-Lu with Fissure. On its own, Ting-Lu is very bulky and not quite as offensive as Chien-Pao or Chi-Yu. But because of its bulk and Ground-typing, it can take advantage of the highly inaccurate OHKO move Fissure.
When the 30 percent accurate move lands a hit, it automatically knocks out the target. On the 70 percent chance it misses, the turn is not necessarily wasted. The miss actually combos perfectly with Ting-Lu’s other Ground-type move, Stomping Tantrum, which doubles its 75 base power to 150 after the user’s previous move fails.
So, in some cases, players might as well take their chances with the OHKO because they have a powerful Stomping Tantrum to fall back on if they miss. As with all RNG in Pokémon, Fissure can either be a source of a clutch win or a painful loss. And that doesn’t sit well with some players, including world champion and popular content creator Wolfe Glick.
In a post-game interview at Fort Wayne, Wolfe expressed his distaste for the OHKO move and how he’s not a player who wants to rely on luck to win his battles. Brutally honest, the Pokémon star admitted, “I don’t like it. I don’t respect it.”
To be fair, he also mentioned there’s a way to play Ting-Lu and Fissure smartly without it being entirely up to luck. He explained, “The players who are best at utilizing Fissure are the ones who are putting themselves in a position where Ting-Lu is not threatened and has multiple chances to get [Fissure] off.”
Still, there are cases where players happen to get incredibly lucky with the OHKO move. Fort Wayne semi-finalist Fiona Szymkiewicz hit four out of five Fissures during her match against Luka Trejgut. It was 80 percent accurate between those two games.
Following the match, Fiona revealed she had lost to Luka in an earlier round and tried to defeat him without Ting-Lu but couldn’t get the job done against his Kingambit. The only way she saw herself winning their rematch was to try her luck with Fissure. And it paid off.