There are six teams remaining in the Pokémon UNITE Asia Champions League 2023. Have you decided who you’ll be rooting for at the offline finals?

After an eight-week long regular season, the top six teams hailing from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and India have emerged. They will battle it out at the offline final in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in front of a live crowd to decide who wins the title of champion.

To help you decide on your personal fan favorite, let’s dive into each team’s performance so far and what they have to say going into the finals.

East Asia

Hi5

The undefeated kings of East Asia, Hi5 is THE team everybody is looking out for at the offline finals.

Earning their fearsome reputation after conquering the East Asia league with relative ease, no team within their region could match their signature playstyle. Even Shingdi himself was surprised at how much success the team had.

“Actually, it’s quite surprising that we didn’t drop a single game in this tournament, because we only formed our team not long ago. I would dedicate this result to every team member’s effort.”

Nobody knew what to expect when Hi5 initially qualified for the Pokémon UNITE Asia Champions League. They were a rather unknown team as only ZzzRay and ikura played in the WCS competitive circuit last year with RJ Gaming. Regardless, they made it very clear in the East Asia league that they were in it to win it.

They love to play fast by initiating back-to-back fights to secure objectives and gain map control. Even at a level disadvantage, don’t be surprised to see Hi5 charge into battle and miraculously levelling the playing field. They are remarkabe at making split second decisions that can turn a losing battle into a victory.

The entire team can play a wide variety of Pokémon at a high level, including a few off-meta options such as Absol and Garchomp which have thrown a few teams for a loop. The new patch may shake things up a bit, but Shingdi’s confident enough that they can play anything.

We haven’t seen them be placed in a really disadvantageous position yet, which begs the question, can anyone challenge them head on?

T2

One of East Asia’s best kept secrets, T2 could very likely steal the spotlight as one of the best teams in Asia.

Many fans will be familiar with the name. They were one of two teams to represent Japan last year at the Pokémon UNITE World Championship 2022 in London. The roster has since changed with the departure of Mame whilst Takishima took a step back from the team to make room for Ajun and Hobachi.

The new roster quickly found their team synergy during the regular season and comfortably positioned themselves as the second-strongest team in the region after beating Secret Ship in the East Asia playoffs. Though they weren’t able to best Hi5, they just keep looking better and better with each series played.

Ruin attributes the team’s success to their strong bond to one another, allowing them to overcome major obstacles together as a unit. He even said the new patch has the team excited as well, the addition of Zacian to the roster of playable Pokémon and buffs to underutilized Pokémon has brought up T2’s motivation.

Of all the teams competing at the finals, T2 appears to be the most meticulous when it comes to the drafting stage. They’re a reactionary team that draft based on the opponent’s playstyle and will pick Pokémon that can thrive against them. We’ve even seen them deny their opponent’s key Pokémon by picking it up for themselves, showing that they too can play a wide variety of Pokémon.

Keep an eye out for T2 at the finals because who knows how many trump cards they have up their sleeve.

Southeast Asia

Team MYS

After being dethroned from the Southeast Asia league, Team MYS are going into the finals with a fire burning so hot that they may be one of the biggest threats at the competition.

Team MYS formed back in 2022 and earned their spot in the Pokémon UNITE Asia Champions League by blazing their way to first place undefeated in the Malaysia Open 2022. The team itself comprises old and new blood, with Yang and Rebongs being former members of Renaissance whereas Yemu, Froggy, and Nightmew Foxy are relatively unknown names in the Pokémon UNITE competitive scene.

Expectations were high when the regular season began, and Team MYS met them with relative ease. So much in fact that they even managed to swipe away the first seed and the first slot to finals from none other than Renaissance. Unfortunately, the team took a big blow after Rise took first place in the Southeast Asia playoffs.

Rebongs said the team scrutinized and reflected on each game and gained a lot of experience from it.

“For us, not winning the finals is a tough pill to swallow, but it is a necessary reminder for us to work even harder than before. Right now, we are very motivated and have a strong desire to win Pokémon UNITE Asia Champions League, which makes us one of the strongest teams.”

During the Southeast Asia playoffs, Team MYS were relentless in all their games. Often applying pressure to the side lanes from the get-go and happy to pick from many off-meta offensive options including Greedent, Zoroark, and on occasion Tyranitar for some extra late game power.

The team is excited to play on the new patch at the finals, since they love exploring new metas and trying out new strategies. It’ll be exciting to see what new creative ideas they have once finals kick off next week.

They’ve promised us that they’ll be playing their hearts out at the finals, so if you love to see wacky drafts, then you’ll love Team MYS.

Rise

The newest sensation from Southeast Asia to qualify for the offline finals, Rise have surprised fans thus far and are looking to throw everyone’s tournament predictions out into the wind.

Much like Team MYS, Rise earned their spot in the Pokémon UNITE Asia Champions League after winning the Pokémon UNITE Indonesian Open 2022 last year. The name Rise has been in the Indonesian Pokémon UNITE scene for a while, but this particular iteration is very new. None of the current players on the team played under the Rise banner during the WCS competitive circuit last year.

They found themselves in the middle of the pack in Southeast Asia league, unable to topple the titans of the region yet staying ahead of the rest of the competition. It wasn’t until playoffs when Rise simply decided to go completely off the rails and snatched away the last spot for the offline finals from Renaissance, even beating Team MYS in the regional finals for first place.

These victories weren’t a series of flukes, either.

Compared to the rest of the teams competing in the Southeast Asia league, Rise has displayed the most growth as a team overall. They went from Eeyorr carrying the team on his back to a fully fleshed out roster of equally skilled players, the speed of this development is what makes this team so exciting to watch. Eeyorr even sings his praises for his fellow teammate AXQ, who he thinks is the best player in Asia.

Rise enjoys running double Attacker compositions with Pokémon such as Glaceon and Delphox, with a few front liners such as Snorlax and Wigglytuff, to act as bodyguards while they rain down fire and ice. Teams have struggled to break through Rise’s signature playstyle, so it’s very likely we’ll see it again at the offline finals.

After their victory in Southeast Asia, there will certainly be more eyes watching them going into the offline finals. As for Rise themselves, they’re just happy they get to play with and learn from the best teams in Asia.

India

Marcos Gaming

Done taking over the Indian scene, Marcos Gaming are now ready to conquer the Asia region.

Catching everybody off guard with their strong performance in the Indian regular season, Marcos quickly made a name for themselves as they finished phase one of the Indian league undefeated. Though losing out on first place in the Indian playoffs to Revenant Esports, the team hasn’t lost sight of the bigger picture.

Surprisingly, this particular roster hasn’t been together for long. This iteration of Marcos Gaming formed during the second half of 2022 as some of the current roster’s players were competing with different teams in the WCS competitive circuit. Though none were able to successfully qualify for the Pokémon UNITE World Championship 2022 in London, they’ve clearly been enjoying their success at the Pokémon UNITE Asia Champions League 2023.

According to Volc, the reason the team has seen so much success is due to their ability to quickly adapt to any situation and their refined mechanical skill.

The new patch may have unintentionally buffed this team as well with the addition of the new item, Slick Spoon along with some changes to the existing lineup of playable Pokémon. Marcos love to play around mage-like Attacker type Pokémon such as Delphox and Sylveon. We may even see them running Espeon at the finals as it recently saw some big buffs in the latest update.

This will be the first international Pokémon UNITE offline event for the roster so it’ll be a big learning experience that’ll help the team grow and potentially elevate them to the next level.

“We’re looking forward to playing against international teams and see how our strategy fairs against theirs!”

Don’t think of this lapse in experience as a bad thing, it’s always the newer guys who have the biggest drives and this team is certainly hungry to win.

Revenant Esports

Having pulled off an incredible Cinderella story in the India regional finals, can Revenant Esports rewrite their fairytale and find an even happier ending at the offline final?

Of all the Pokémon UNITE teams in India, Revenant Esports is the most well-known name in the region. Last year they qualified and represented India at the Pokémon UNITE World Championship 2022 in London, making them the first team in the region to have competed internationally.

Their run at the Pokémon UNITE Asia Champions League hasn’t been as smooth as they’d like. They had a rough start during the regular season “due to a series of mishaps” but were able to pull through during the regional playoffs with an undefeated run.

Towards the end of the playoffs, they had settled in quite comfortably with team fight heavy compositions featuring Pokémon such as Snorlax, Gardevoir, and Hoopa. They love to control the flow of battle with high impact stuns, have access to game changing unite moves, and still be able to sustain the squad through long team standoffs.

Now locked in for the offline finals, Crowley is confident that the team is ready to once again step onto the international stage.

“As a team it feels good to get back into International LAN environment, teams are looking pretty stacked and we’re keen to prove our worth!”

The latest patch update has added another hurdle for the team’s preparation for finals as Crowley highlighted some of their favorite picks were unfortunately nerfed. Not to worry however as he said they’re already back to the drawing board and cooking up new strategies for the upcoming finals.

Catch the finals live on March 18 and 19 on ONE Esports’ YouTube, Facebook, or Twitch streams.

These are your top 6 teams competing in the Pokémon UNITE Asia Champions League 2023 offline final