Main Pokémon of top 100 players in Pokémon UNITE — Feb 6 Update

Season 3 has begun and patch 1.4.1.2 continues to reverberate through the meta. Last week Lucario hit one of the lowest play rates it had ever seen from the top 100 Pokémon UNITE players. Charizard, despite its incredible buffs, failed to maintain its new player base. Cinderace began to see a rise in play but did not establish a dominant position in the jungle.

Where does another week of players getting accustomed to these changes leave the high-level meta?

Other Pokémon placements include:

C Tier:

• Machamp – 3.5% (+2)
• Venusaur – 3% (-5)

D Tier:

• Gardevoir – 1.5% (-1.5)
• Mime – 1% (-1)
• Blissey – 1% (-3)
• Snorlax – 1% (-1)
• Charizard – 1% (+1)
• Blastoise – 1% (-1)
• Mamoswine – 1% (+/-)
• Cramorant – 1% (+1)
• Garchomp – 1% (+1)

Decidueye (-1), Ninetails (-1), Tsareena (-1), Absol, Crustle, Gengar, Sylveon, Trevenant, and Zeraora sit at 0 with no players in the top 100.

Slowbro’s Slow Rise

Slowbro spent much of Season 2 bottomed out. Despite its impressive sustain due to its Oblivious ability, decent crowd control in Surf, and the ability to lock down opposing players through Telekinesis and its Unite move, it hasn’t been seeing play. In late December that started to change, and slowly but surely Slowbro began seeing use at the top level of play. This week, Slowbro saw its largest player base since the first week of the game while Wigglytuff saw its lowest player base since October. This has led Slowbro to be the most played bottom lane defender at the high level for the first time since the game has come out.

Machamp Muscling In

For all its muscles, Machamp hasn’t been a very powerful option in Pokémon UNITE. While the latest patch didn’t rocket this muscle man to the top tier of the game, people are beginning to slowly pick it up. At a 3.5% player base, that is more people than have played Machamp cumulatively since early August. While Lucario’s numbers have rebounded from a low point last week, the fact that Machamp is also seeing more numbers means that Lucario cannot take its top lane dominance for granted.

The Unsettled Jungle

Cinderace has clocked a dominant performance for junglers this week, beating out Greninja and Dragonite 11-7-7. Dragonite’s player base seems stable at this point after dropping off dramatically from the most recent patch. Cinderace, who received a buff when Dragonite was introduced, has finally been able to shine now that Dragonite is no longer a mandatory pick for every team. Greninja has also benefited from the Dragonite nerf, but without a buff to go with it hasn’t been able to return to the dominant position it held at the beginning of Season 2. Talonflame is continuing a slow decline following the nerf to Fly, leaving it mostly unable to compete in the more dominant team-fight based meta.