Indigo League Week Two – Who’s Leading the League?

Named after the competitive league that kicked off the anime series, Indigo League is TeamRocketPvP’s bid to provide the Pokémon GO PvP community with team-based esports quality content. 

Indigo League features battles between 6 teams for 6 weeks, beginning April 17, 2021. Each team will battle 1 other team per week until all teams have battled each other throughout the season. League standings are based on accumulated wins throughout the season. Win early, win often. The final week will feature a play-off between the top 2 teams to determine the season winner. 

The league features 6 amazing teams:

Battle: One Battler brings 3 Pokémon to clash against one other Battler and their 3 Pokémon. The basic unit of PvP. Each Battle won earns 1 point for the team.

Match: 3 battles played between Battlers. 3 points are up for grabs in each Match.

Game: 5 matches, 15 possible points, 5 Battlers from each team. 

After 2 weeks, 2 battlers have a 100% battle win rate. Due to substitutions, 1 of them has played 3 battles while the other has played 6. Since winning 6 out of 6 battles amongst this pool of competition is such an impressive feat, we are going to talk to the Battler who achieved it. We’re talking about the man who finished Season 4 GBL at the top of the leaderboard, Auburnnnn from Cool Cats.

Q: First, tell us a little bit about yourself and your interest in/history with Pokémon. When did you start “catching ‘em all?”

 Auburnnnn: My little brother got my girlfriend and I into Pokémon GO in September of 2016, a few months after its release. I collected the cards as a kid but was never really into playing the game; but when i started playing GO I was instantly hooked.

Q: How did your interest in PvP develop? Did you play any other version of competitive Pokémon before GO introduced PvP?

Auburnnnn: I used to be really into battling/defending gyms back in the old gym system and was pretty competitive about it. When Niantic implemented the new gym system of only 6 Pokémon with different species etc. I started to lose interest and turned to grinding stats and doing raid challenges. At that time it felt like GO was missing a major competitive aspect to the game so I was very excited when I heard about PvP since I knew it was something that I would be very interested in. 

Q: As someone who has played both the show-6-pick-3 Silph style and blind-3 format of GBL, what are your thoughts on how those differ in terms of team building, strategy, etc.?

Auburnnnn: I enjoy both formats but have always liked the blind format of GBL a little bit more, I think. But I think that is mainly because I’ve had more success historically with GBL than Silph style tournaments (although I do think I’m improving in the show-6-pick-3 format). They both take their own type of team building skills but are slightly different. 

Q: What dynamic does playing as part of a team add to PvP? What are the benefits and the challenges to team play?

Auburnnnn: I love these new team formats. You get to build comradery together and win and lose as a team. In individual formats the pressure is on you and you alone every single round. It’s nice to have some teammates to bear some of the weight/pressure. I also really enjoy scrimming together and helping each other prepare for one anothers’ matches. It’s always nice to get other opinions on lines to bring/matchups etc.

Q: What are your thoughts on the explosion of places we have to battle these days? 

Auburnnnn: I love seeing PvP grow and I hope it keeps growing!

Q: How do you prepare for battle – GBL, Silph individual cups, team battles?

Auburnnnn: For team battles I like looking at matrix sims on pvpoke.com to see what matchups are strong for me and which ones are strong for my opponent. Then I’ll typically talk over some strategies and do a scrim or two with my teammates if they’re available. For GBL I typically already have my designated teams that I like to use so there’s not much preparation there. I just turn on some music and queue up to battle. 

Q: What was your journey to be the best like no one ever was in PvP? Who did you look to and learn from?  

Auburnnnn: I’m mostly self taught I would say but I have always looked up to local guys like Caleb and Polymers for their team building skills and overall knowledge in show-6-pick-3 formats. I’ve learned a lot through my own battles and a lot from watching Twitch. These days there are so many high level battlers streaming their GBL sets on Twitch, which is great for entertainment and learning. 

Q: Without revealing too much to your competitors, what do you think are your strengths and weaknesses in PvP?  

Auburnnnn: I think my strengths are reading lines, energy management, and playing aggressively when I need to to help gain any advantage I can. One weakness might be team building in the pick-6 type of formats, although I do think I’m improving and thankfully have my teammates to help bounce ideas off of. 

Q: How did you join Cool Cats?

Auburnnnn: I’ve known Caleb and the guys from Cool Cats for a while. Caleb, Poly, and ChaoticAce and I all live around the same area. When Silph announced their factions format with teams of 7 and 8, I guess Caleb saw how well I had been doing in GBL and decided to reach out to me to see if I wanted to join the team. 

Q: What’s the best thing about being part of Cool Cats?

Auburnnnn: The comradery and overall skill that everyone has on the team. My teammates are some of the best battlers in the world; so having a chance to compete with them and learn from them is always a great experience. 

Q: What, if anything, do you think is holding GO PvP back from being an esport?

Auburnnnn: Niantic mainly. Niantic doesn’t make much money from PvP/GBL, so fixing bugs, implementing new competitive features, etc. isn’t really on the top of their priority list

Q: Any words of advice for people struggling to git gud?

Auburnnnn: Watch and learn from any of the great streamers on Twitch (there are too many to name), learn how to utilize pvpoke.com, learn the counts for moves so you can maximize your energy, improve your overall gameplan, and, of course, practice!

Q: Why is Cool Cats going to win the Indigo League?

Auburnnnn: Because CoolCats are too OP!