It was the kind of play that dreams are made of. With a minute left on the clock and his entire team knocked out, Kyriaos had only one chance to fight back. If he couldn’t secure the kill on Zapdos, his team would have no way to stop their opponents from scoring an irrevocable amount of points. With the entire enemy team between him and his target, Kyriaos stood in a nearby bush, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. As Zapdos’ health plummeted, Kyriaos charged in, unleashed a flurry of punches with Machamp’s Close Combat, and miraculously, secured the kill. When his team rejoined the fight, they were able to score enough to lock in Game 1 of the winners bracket. BLVKHVND kept that momentum throughout the entire tournament and in the end became the first Pokemon Unite World Champions.
The play was one of the biggest hype moments of Pokémon Worlds 2022, made even sweeter by BLVKHVND going on to win the entire championship. I got to sit down with the team in the arena following their historic victory, and Kyriaos walked me through how he pulled off the play of the day.
“Renaissance were extremely team-fight oriented,” Kyriaos explains. “They had three Pokemon that scale extremely well. So we had lost the teamfight very quickly and it was just me alive against four of them. But realistically their secure on Zapdos is a little weak with the Pokemon they were playing, so I had to just sit in that left bush just focusing on when to get in and not die and figure out the best chance to steal it.”
Related: Pokemon Unite World Champions BLVKHVND On Going Undefeated At The WCS
The five Pokemon on Renaissance’s team were strong, but without something like a Dragonite or Talonflame, they were only able to chip away at Zapdos,
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