The GGFan Experience
The names "marcoasd," "Alexander," and "Troller" have become synonymous with competitive RBY over the last half decade. After toiling away in the chromatic mountain for a year, marcoasd dominated in unprecedented fashion in 2014. Two years later, Alexander, under the tutelage of Marco, took his master's mantle in 2016 with a dominant performance of his own. Then, the adage, "History is doomed to repeat itself" echoed loudly as Troller, two years after that, emerged as one of the game's elite players. Of these three Italians, which one had the best year?
The general consensus is that Alex's 2016 was more dominant than Marco's 2014--even I strongly believed this before comparing the numbers. I also felt that Troller won an obscene amount of games in 2019 (not 2018--will explain why shortly) simply due to having competed actively on both Pokemon Perfect and Smogon. How accurate are these notions, however? Which one of these Italtitans had the best year? Let's duke it out and find out!
In this episode, I am comparing marco's 2014, Alex's 2016, and Troller's 2019 against each other. Here are my reasons as to why I have these chosen particular years (besides the fact that these years would likely come to most peoples' minds first when they think of these three):
2014 Marco: won seven out of nine Master Tournaments, won four Master Tournaments in a row
2016 Alex: won a season by winning three Master Tournaments in a row, also won the Indigo Cup to win four tournaments in a row
2019 Troller: was a domineering presence on both Smogon and Pokemon Perfect due to winning a season alongside the Cerulean Cup, and tremendous performances in SPL, ROAPL, and the RBY Global Championship
2014 Marcoasd
Pokemon Perfect
MT7: 15-3
MT8: 15-1
MT9: 3-3
MT10: 12-7
MT11: 12-0
MT12: 12-2
MT13: 12-3
MT14: 3-3
MT15: 12-4
WC: 8-3
Saffron: 11-2
Winter Break Tournament #1: 4-0
Winter Break Tournament #2: 2-1
Winter Break Tournament #4: 4-0
Winter Break Tournament #5: 3-1
Winter Break Tournament #7: 2-1
Winter Break Tournament #8: 1-1
Winter Break Finals: 0-2
Guru Marathon: 8-3 (only added to W/L record as this was not a tournament)
# of tournaments played: 18
# of tournaments won: 10 (MT7, MT8, MT10-13, MT15, Saffron, Winter Break Tournament #1, Winter Break Tournament #4)
# of tournament sets won: 48
# of tournament sets lost: 9
# of sweeps: 18
Final-round appearances: 14 (MT7, MT8, MT10-13, MT15, Saffron, Winter Break Tournament #1, Winter Break Tournament #2, Winter Break Tournament #4, Winter Break Tournament #5, Winter Break Tournament #7, Winter Break Finals)
Top 4 finishes: 15 (MT7, MT8, MT10-13, MT15, WC, Saffron, Winter Break Tournament #1, Winter Break Tournament #2, Winter Break Tournament #4, Winter Break Tournament #5, Winter Break Tournament #7, Winter Break Finals)
Consecutive tournaments won: 4 (MT10-13)
Win/loss record: 139-40
Win percentage: 77.6%
Smogon
ROAPL: 5-2
# of tournaments played: 1
# of tournaments won: 1
# of tournament sets won: 5
# of tournament sets lost: 2
# of sweeps: N/A
Final-round appearances: 1
Top 4 finishes: 1
Consecutive tournaments won: 0
Win/loss record: 5-2
Win percentage: 71.4%
Pokemon Online
POCL: 4-3
POWC: 6-1
# of tournaments played: 2
# of tournaments won: 0
# of tournament sets won: 10
# of tournament sets lost: 4
# of sweeps: N/A
Final-round appearances: 0
Top 4 finishes: 0
Consecutive tournaments won: 0
Win/loss record: 10-4
Win percentage: 71.4%
Overall statistics
Overall # of tournaments played: 21
Overall # of tournaments won: 11
Overall # of tournament sets won: 63
Overall # of tournament sets lost: 15
Overall # of sweeps: 18
Overall # of final-round appearances: 15
Overall # of top 4 finishes: 16
Overall # of consecutive tournaments won: 4
Overall win/loss record: 154-46
Overall win percentage: 77%
2016 Alexander
Pokemon Perfect
Saffron: 0-1
MT22: 15-7
MT23: 15-8
MT24: 15-3
MT25: 5-4
MT28: 2-3
International League: 10-6
Cerulean Cup: 11-9
Indigo Cup: 11-6
WC: 14-7
# of tournaments played: 10
# of tournaments won: 5 (MT22-24, Indigo Cup, International League)
# of tournament sets won: 39
# of tournament sets lost: 8
# of sweeps: 13
Final-round appearances: 5 (MT22-24, Indigo Cup, International League)
Top 4 finishes: 7 (MT22-24, Indigo Cup, Cerulean Cup, WC, International League)
Consecutive tournaments won: 4 (MT22-24, Indigo Cup)
Win/loss record: 98-54
Win percentage: 64.4%
Smogon
SPL: 2-6
RBY Global Championship: 10-4
Mewbers World Championship: 18-7
RBY Cup: 8-5
# of tournaments played: 4
# of tournaments won: 0
# of tournament sets won: 16
# of tournament sets lost: 7
# of sweeps: 10
Final-round appearances: 1 (Mewbers World Championship)
Top 4 finishes: 1 (Mewbers World Championship)
Consecutive tournaments won: 0
Win/loss record: 38-22
Win percentage: 63.3%
Pokemon Online
Supreme RBY OU Tournament: 2-2*
Pokemon World Cup: 0-2
POCL: 12-6
# of tournaments played: 3
# of tournaments won: 0
# of tournament sets won: 6
# of tournament sets lost: 3
# of sweeps: 3
Final-round appearances: 1 (POCL)
Top 4 finishes: 1 (POCL)
Consecutive tournaments won: 0
Win/loss record: 14-10
Win percentage: 58.3%
*Alexander lost to me in the second round of the Supreme RBY OU Tournament, but the tournament was restarted after Alex told the staff who I was after losing. Thus I do not acknowledge the results of the tournament afterwards, as it was not only cowardly not to accept defeat, but it also tainted the legitimacy of the event.
Overall statistics
Overall # of tournaments played: 17
Overall # of tournaments won: 5
Overall # of tournament sets won: 61
Overall # of tournament sets lost: 18
Overall # of sweeps: 26
Overall # of final-round appearances: 7
Overall # of top 4 finishes: 9
Overall # of consecutive tournaments won: 4
Overall win/loss record: 150-86
Overall win percentage: 63.5%
2019 Troller
Pokemon Perfect
MT49: 7-4
MT50: 15-5
MT51: 10-5
MT52: 9-5
MT53: 0-3
MT54: 12-5
Cerulean Cup: 15-4
Viridian Cup: 1-2
Indigo Cup: 3-6
# of tournaments played: 9
# of tournaments won: 2 (MT50, Cerulean Cup)
# of tournament sets won: 25
# of tournament sets lost: 9
# of sweeps: 12
Final-round appearances: 4 (MT50, MT52, MT54, Cerulean Cup)
Top 4 finishes: 5 (MT50, MT51, MT52, MT54, Cerulean Cup)
Consecutive tournaments won: 0
Win/loss record: 72-39
Win percentage: 64.8%
Smogon
SPL: 17-9
ROAPL: 15-8
RBY Cup: 2-2
RBY Global Championship: 27-12
# of tournaments played: 4
# of tournaments won: 1 (ROAPL)
# of tournament sets won: 29
# of tournament sets lost: 10
# of sweeps: 18
Final-round appearances: 3 (SPL, RBY Global Championship, ROAPL)
Top 4 finishes: 3 (SPL, RBY Global Championship, ROAPL)
Consecutive tournaments won: 0
Win/loss record: 60-31
Win percentage: 65.9%
Pokemon Online
POWC: 2-4
# of tournaments played: 1
# of tournaments won: 0
# of tournament sets won: 1
# of tournament sets lost: 2
# of sweeps: 1
Final-round appearances: 0
Top 4 finishes: 0
Consecutive tournaments won: 0
Win/loss record: 2-4
Win percentage: 33.3%
Overall statistics
Overall # of tournaments played: 14
Overall # of tournaments won: 3
Overall # of tournament sets won: 55
Overall # of tournament sets lost: 21
Overall # of sweeps: 31
Overall # of final-round appearances: 7
Overall # of top 4 finishes: 8
Overall # of consecutive tournaments won: 0
Overall win/loss record: 134-74
Overall win percentage: 64.4%
Conclusion
Let's start with Marco. As I said earlier, I always felt that Alexander's 2016 trumped Marco's 2014--oh, how wrong I was. The year that Marco had in 2014 is not only one of the greatest ever in the history of the tier, but in the game, period. To play 200 tournament games and lose less than 1/4th of them in a tier that has earned dubious nickname "RNGBY" (one of my names stuck even on Smogon, but FriendlyMie did not) is almost unfathomable (I say "almost" because I have pulled off this feat in the 2000s). Not only that, but he won more tournaments in one year than most will in ten. One final note that needs to be included is that, among the nine sets that Marco lost, six of them were best-of-ones. Indeed, Marco left an indelible mark of dominance in 2014 that rightfully earned him the reputation as the game's undisputed best player.
Since I knew nothing about Alex's numbers in 2016 outside Pokemon Perfect, I was a little surprised to discover that he wasn't as dominant as he was on the aforementioned organization. Perhaps an argument can be made that he was still maturing, but as someone who played him in both 2016 and 2017, I don't feel this is the case. Sure, he had solid performances in the RBY Cup and Global Championships, but nothing compared on the scope of what Marco accomplished two years prior. He did reach the finals the Mewbers tournament, but this achievement will be scrutinized for the simple fact that it wasn't RBY OU (I personally wouldn't discount it, as RBY is RBY is RBY and Pokemon is Pokemon is Pokemon, plus he had to play well to go that deep, obviously). Going back to Pokemon Perfect, yes, he did go on a tremendous run that put him on the map; however, we've seen players surpass his reign, even if they didn't win tournaments consecutively. Overall, 2016 Alex was certainly great, if not elite, but when you look at imperative factors such as win percentage, it proves that, sometimes, tournament victories obfuscate the obvious reality.
What about Troller? First, I would argue that his 2018 was more impressive than his run in 2019, but I had to use the latter for two reasons: it enhanced his reputation, and he didn't have a rival who was also in the discussion for #1 (roudolf is considered by many the best player of 2018) until the end of the year. After a tremendous six months in which he had the best record in SPL, won a season on Pokemon Perfect, came within a hair of winning the Global Championship, tore it down in ROAPL, and won one of the most arduous tours out there, the Cerulean Cup, Troller seemingly became burned out and was dormant for the rest of the year after receiving some tough losses. Marco, on the other hand, was consistently dominant all year and maintained a win percentage of at least 70% on every organization he played in. Troller, like Alex, never won more than 66% of the time, which I've always considered the benchmark for dominance in the tier. On that note, while Troller and Alex are justifiably recognized as two of the game's titans, the obvious winner of this war is........
marcoasd!