Top Teams from the 2025 Pokémon Latin America International Championships - Marco Silva becomes first ever 3× International Champion

The 2025 Pokémon Latin America Internationals has concluded, and Marco Silva took a decisive victory against Victor Medina, becoming VGC's first ever 3-time International Champion. LAIC is the highest-level tournament taking place in Regulation Set H, a ruleset that bans the use of any Paradox Pokemon or Legendary Pokemon. With the event finished, this article will detail the results of the finals, and how Marco Silva made history.



Final Standings

Master Division Finals
The finals of the 2025 Latin America Internationals took place between 2-time International Champion Marco Silva defending his title and looking for a historic third victory, and Victor Medina, a player with a plethora of incredible achievements, such as two placements in the semi-finals of International Championships, a Top 8 finish at 2023 Worlds, a Top 8 finish at 2018 Worlds in the Senior Division, and much more.

The brightest star on Marco Silva's team was Charizard, brandishing four powerful attacks in Air Slash, Heat Wave, Overheat, and Weather Ball all boosted by the Choice Specs. The main concern many viewers had regarding this Pokemon, however, was the accuracy of its strongest moves. Heat Wave and Overheat only have an accuracy of 90%, which has the potential to weaken Silva's strategy. The other two attacks are more consistent, with Weather Ball becoming a 100 base power Fire-type attack with 100% accuracy in the harsh sunlight, and Air Slash being a weaker but more consistent Flying-type attack. Charizard's strongest partners on the team are Jumpluff and Torkoal. The latter has the ability Drought, allowing it to set up the harsh sunlight whenever it switches in. While powerful offensive sets are commonly used, with Torkoal using the Charcoal held item to boost the power of its Fire-type attacks, Silva instead opts for the Eject Pack, switching Torkoal out whenever any of its stats are lowered. This creates two useful scenarios for this Pokemon. First, if Torkoal switches in against a Pokemon with Intimidate, Torkoal sets up the sun and then is immediately able to switch out, bringing in a Pokemon that's more suited for the situation. Secondly, Torkoal can use the move Overheat, dealing great amounts of damage but also harshly lowering its Special Attack. As a very slow Pokemon, this allows Torkoal to take any hits it needs to, attack in retaliation, and then switch in another Pokemon for free. It also uses the move Helping Hand alongside the heavy-hitters on the team to boost their damage even further if necessary. Jumpluff acts as a much more diverse support Pokemon, with many options to help its team. It has the ability Chlorophyll, doubling its Speed in the harsh sunlight, which can be activated with its move Sunny Day. Then, since it outspeeds most Pokemon in the format, it can use Tailwind to boost its team's Speed alongside its own, or Sleep Powder to shut down an opponent. Once again, a downside of this move is its low accuracy, only landing 75% of the time. With the Covert Cloak, it's not affected by secondary effects on moves, like Fake Out guaranteeing the target flinches, and can redirect these sorts of attacks with Rage Powder. With these two Pokemon activating the harsh sunlight, Charizard then gains another boost to its Special Attack through its hidden ability Solar Power. This ability boosts its damage while in the sun in return for a small amount of its health being taken away every turn.

The second mode of Silva's team revolves around Trick Room. Porygon2 is seen among many players as the best Trick Room user in Regulation Set H, thanks to its incredible bulk. It already has a base Defense stat of 90 and a Special Defense stat of 95, but these are boosted by 50% once it holds the Eviolite, making Porygon2 very tricky to remove. As Trick Room reverses the speed order of the game, allowing slower Pokemon to move first, this greatly benefits both the aforementioned Torkoal, and another powerful Pokemon in Ursaluna. The Flame Orb held item burns Ursaluna, activating its ability Guts, which gives it a boost to its Attack. On top of this, Ursaluna learns the move Facade, an attack which also does more damage if the user has a status condition, such as a burn. Next to other powerful attacks like Headlong Rush and Earthquake, it's incredibly difficult to take a hit from Ursaluna. Porygon2's usefulness doesn't end there, either. Not only does it have a decent Special Attack stat allowing it to do some damage with Ice Beam and Tera Blast, it also has the option of using Recover, healing itself by half of its maximum HP, allowing to stay alive much longer.

The final Pokemon on Marco Silva's team is Incineroar, a Pokemon that is often seen as a "glue" Pokemon, due to its ability to fit on almost any team to stick it all together. With the ability Intimidate, it lowers its opponents' Attack stats whenever it switches in, and can then provide more disruption with moves like Fake Out, Knock Off, and Parting Shot. Fake Out is guaranteed to flinch its target, as long as they're not holding a Covert Cloak, which can cause great disruption when paired with Incineroar's great ability to be constantly switching in and out. This is helped by the move Parting Shot, which switches Incineroar out into another Pokemon after lowering its target's Attack and Special Attack stats, making them even weaker than they would be after Intimidate. Incineroar has decent bulk as well, especially with it healing a small amount of health with its Sitrus Berry, which allows it to switch back into battles fairly often, activating Intimidate, Fake Out, and Parting Shot over and over again. On top of all of that, Incineroar also has the option to use Knock Off, a powerful Dark-type attack that also removes the target's item. This can allow its teammates to deal more damage, for example, if it removes an opponent's Assault Vest to lower its Special Defense, or can protect itself and its team from powerful attackers holding items like the Choice Specs or a Life Orb.

Victor Medina's team features a similar Trick Room core, with an Ursaluna holding the Flame Orb, and threatening powerful attacks in Facade, Headlong Rush, and Earthquake. However, this team's Trick Room user is instead Sinistcha. While not as bulky as Porygon2, Sinistcha has the valuable signature ability Hospitality, restoring its teammate's HP by a quarter of its maximum health. It also has the move Life Dew, which heals a quarter of its teammate's health as well as its own. This healing can be very useful when paired with incredibly bulky Pokemon. While Ursaluna fits this description, Archaludon is also a great candidate. With the ability Stamina, Archaludon gains a Defense boost each time it's hit, quickly being able to take most physical hits without problem. As Archaludon builds its Defense, even the tiniest bit of health it loses can be attributed to multiple turns of damage, making it even more meaningful when Sinistcha switches in and heals it all the way back to full. To reduce the opponent's damage even further, Sinistcha also has access to Rage Powder to redirect attacks, especially Fighting-type attacks that it's immune to that Ursaluna and Archaludon would take super-effective damage from. It also has its signature move Matcha Gotcha, which hits both opponents, heals Sinistcha by half of the damage it deals, and has a 20% chance to burn both targets.

As described in the previous paragraph, Archaludon also features on this team. Gaining Defense boosts from its ability Stamina, it's a great user of the attack Body Press, which deals damage based on the user's Defense stat instead of its Attack stat. It has the Assault Vest held item, boosting its lackluster Special Defense, on top of the attack Snarl, which lowers the targets' Special Attack stats, allowing it to take more hits on the special side as well. Its signature attack Electro Shot typically takes two turns to activate, similar to attacks like Solar Beam or Meteor Beam. On the first turn, it raises Archaludon's Special Attack stat, and then fires on the 2nd turn. However, in the rain, the attacks boosts its Special Attack and fires all in one turn. Medina makes use of this by bringing Pelipper on their team, which has the ability Drizzle, activating the rain. Its strongest attack is Hurricane, which gains perfect accuracy in the rain. While more common builds prefer the attack Weather Ball, becoming a Water-type attack with a base power of 100 in the rain, Medina instead goes for the move Muddy Water, an attack which hits both targets and has a 30% chance to lower their accuracy. This move can be great against Pokemon using moves with lower accuracy, such as Charizard's attacks described above. Pelipper setting up the rain is also greatly appreciated by two Pokemon on this team that are typically weak to Fire-type attacks. As a partial Grass-type, Sinistcha struggles to take these hits, but with the rain effectively removing this weakness, it suddenly becomes a much more consistent supportive Pokemon. Gholdengo also appreciates the lack of a Fire-type weakness, allowing them to stick around longer to deal more damage.

Medina's Gholdengo actually features an interesting set, holding the Choice Scarf item to boost its Speed instead of a more common pick in a damage boosting item like Choice Specs, Life Orb, or Metal Coat. This Pokemon also has the move Trick, allowing it to swap its item with whatever target it chooses. Not only does this allow Gholdengo to switch which attacks it uses, it also forces the target to have to lock into one move each time it switches in. Another interesting build on this team is Medina's Dragonite. While it appreciates having the priority attack Extreme Speed, one of the strongest priority attacks in the game, this team swaps this move out for the status move Tailwind, doubling its team's Speed while active. Alongside Haze, this allows Dragonite to take on a slightly more supportive role than it typically prefers. Its only attack is Scale Shot, a move that hits between four and five times thanks to its Loaded Dice, and lowers Dragonite's Defense and boosts its Speed afterwards. Dragonite already has slightly boosted bulk in the form of its ability Multiscale, so having the opportunity to move even faster is often worth the Defense drop.

After Marco Silva brings their opponent to their final Pokemon in Pelipper, it quickly retaliates by knocking out both Charizard and Torkoal with the Water-type attack Muddy Water, boosted by the rain. Silva is now down to their final Pokemon, Porygon2. With a Special Attack boost from its ability Download, Porygon2 is able to almost knock Pelipper out with Tera Blast. It takes a lot of damage from Hurricane, but since it has the speed advantage in Trick Room, Porygon2 is able to knock out its opponent, winning Marco Silva the first game. The second game immediately starts in Silva's favour, predicting a Body Press from the opposing Archaludon and moving around the super-effective damage by terastallizing Incineroar into the Ghost type. They follow this up by landing a 75% accurate Sleep Powder on the opposing Dragonite. With Jumpluff using Sunny Day, Charizard can then fire off powerful attacks with Heat Wave, knocking Archaludon out in two hits, with Dragonite being brought to low health while it stays asleep for three turns. Dragonite is knocked out on the next turn, followed by Pelipper, and then Victor Medina's final Pokemon, Ursaluna, being defeated by a single Heat Wave from Charizard. With an incredibly decisive victory in the second game, not losing a single Pokemon, Marco Silva wins LAIC 2025 and becomes the first player in VGC to become a 3-time International Champion.

Senior Division Finals
In the Senior Division, the finals are between 2023 Junior EUIC Champion Pietro Silva, and Carlos Verastegui, a player with multiple great performances in previous Internationals, including a Top 16 finish in 2024 EUIC, and a Top 8 finish in 2024 LAIC.

Silva's team features an interesting core of a male Indeedee and Sneasler. The latter's ability Psychic Surge sets up the Psychic Terrain, not only providing great utility for the rest of its team by blocking priority moves from being used, but also activating Sneasler's Psychic Seed to give it a Special Defense boost, and to activate its ability Unburden to double its Speed, allowing it to easily outspeed most Pokemon in the format. Indeedee also has the option to deal large amounts of damage with Expanding Force, as well as reverse the speed order of the game with Trick Room. This would benefit the slower members of this team, most notably Bloodmoon Ursaluna, an incredibly strong Pokemon with devastating attacks in Blood Moon, Earth Power, and Hyper Voice boosted to a new level thanks to its Life Orb and option for a Normal-type Terastallization. Opposed to the strong option of Trick Room, this team also features another form of speed control with Talonflame's move Tailwind. With its signature ability Gale Wings granting it priority on Flying-type moves when it's at full health, Talonflame can either use Tailwind to double its team's Speed, or Dual Wingbeat to land an attack on its enemy, both of these moves going before most of the opponents' moves. On top of great damage potential with Flare Blitz, Talonflame also brandishes great utility with the move Will-O-Wisp, threatening burns on its opponents, halving their Attack stats. The final two Pokemon on the team are Amoonguss, a slow supportive Pokemon that also appreciates the Trick Room, and Dragonite. While most Dragonite prefer to use the priority attack Extreme Speed, this team instead prefers having options for coverage with Stomping Tantrum. This allows it to deal super-effective damage to otherwise difficult to hit Pokemon, such as Gholdengo or Archaludon.

Verastegui opts for a team composition known as "Dragapult Balance". The titular psuedo-legendary Dragapult, being able to naturally outspeed most Pokemon in the format, can land dreadfully powerful attacks boosted by its Choice Band. These attacks include its signature move Dragon Darts, a powerful Ghost-type attack in Phantom Force, a pivoting move in U-Turn, and another strong Dragon-type attack in Outrage. This team also opts for the combination of a terrain setter in Rillaboom activating Sneasler's item to give it a boost to its Defense and Speed. With priority attacks featuring prominently on this team, with Rillaboom's Grassy Glide and Kingambit's Sucker Punch, both players will need to carefully position their terrain setter to make sure they have the advantage in terms of priority. The final Pokemon on the team is Primarina. With the Life Orb boosting its damage, Primarina has great options for attacks with Hyper Voice, transformed into a Water-type attack thanks to its signature ability Liquid Voice, and the Fairy-type attack Moonblast. Despite its powerful offensive potential, Primarina also has great utility with the move Haze, resetting all stat changes on the field. While it could mess with stat boosts on its own Pokemon, such as Sneasler or Kingambit, it can also be incredibly detrimental to the opposing team if timed and positioned well.

Pietro Silva wins both games, making them the 2025 Latin America International Champion in the Senior Division alongside their brother Marco Silva taking the same title in the Masters Division.

Junior Division Finals
In the Junior Division, the finals are between 2-time International Finalist Takumi Matsuo and 2024 EUIC Finalist Ismael Hoggui.

Matsuo's team features the popular combination of Sneasler and Dragonite. With the latter's option of using Coaching, it can boost the Attack and Defense of the Pokemon beside it, which is most appreciated by physical attackers on the team such as Dragonite and Rillaboom. Dragonite also has the attack Scale Shot, which boosts its Speed but drops its Defense. With the stat boosts from Coaching, it can not only deal even more damage, but effectively doesn't have to worry about its Defense being dropped. As mentioned previously, Rillaboom also appears on this team. Setting up the Grassy Terrain with its ability Grassy Surge, Rillaboom passively heals its team while also boosting the damage of its Grass-type attacks Grassy Glide and Wood Hammer. The healing is appreciated by many Pokemon on the team. While frailer Pokemon like Sneasler aren't affected as much, Volcarona greatly appreciates the extra healing on top of its Leftovers, as well as Gholdengo and Dragonite gaining more support as two Pokemon that are already difficult to remove from the battle. The final two Pokemon on the team are Incineroar, which prefers to switch in and out of battle to cycle its ability Intimidate and to use its move Parting Shot to lower the target's Attack and Special Attack stats, and Volcarona, which can threaten powerful attacks if it's left to set-up with Quiver Dance.

Hoggui's team features a popular Trick Room core known in online communities as "P2 Ursaluna", namely featuring Porygon2 and Ursaluna. The former gets many opportunities to set up Trick Room thanks to its incredible bulk boosted by the Eviolite item, and can deal consistent great damage with Ice Beam and Tera Blast. In Trick Room, thanks to the speed order being reversed, slow Pokemon such as Ursaluna thrive in being able to outspeed Pokemon and knock many out in one hit, thanks to attacks like Facade and Headlong Rush boosted by its ability Guts. Additional support is seen on this team with Amoonguss redirecting attacks with Rage Powder and shutting down opponents with Spore, and Incineroar cycling Intimidate and Parting Shot as similarly seen on Matsuo's team described above. The final two Pokemon are powerful attackers, Flamigo and Gholdengo. The former has a great ability in Scrappy, allowing it to hit Ghost-type Pokemon with Fighting-type moves that it would otherwise be immune to. This gives it a great advantage over popular Pokemon like Gholdengo and Annihilape which would typically hold this over Flamigo's head. On the other hand, Gholdengo gets access to a great set-up move in Nasty Plot sharply boosting its Special Attack, and the Life Orb giving it even more damage output with its signature attack Make It Rain.

The finals are ultimately won by Ismael Hoggui, adding their first International Championship title to their roster.

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