March Final 2022 Analysis (Japan) - UNITE World Championship Series

Want to know a quick summary and analysis of the things that happened in the March Final 2022 (Japan)? Read on to see the most used Pokemon, the Pokemon with the best win rate, the most used battle and held items, lanes for each Pokemon, where to watch the stream, as well as highlights that defined this tournament!

March Finals 2022
March Finals Analysis (North America)	March Finals Analysis (Japan)

March Finals 2022 Summary (Japan)

たきしまグロウパンチ ver2.0(Takishima Glow Punch ver2.0) Sweeps the Tournament!

Team たきしまグロウパンチ ver2.0 (Takishima Glow Punch ver2.0) showed a masterful performance, winning the tournament without losing a single match. They stuck with the same strategy throughout the tournament, picking Hoopa and Duraludon as their core Pokemon in every match.

March Finals Tally (as of March 2022)

Japanese team names are directly translated using Google Translate. It might be inaccurate, so we apologize for any errors in advance.

Meta Highlights (Japan)

Jungle Camp Splitting

In certain matches, Japanese teams split the jungle camps into an upper half and lower half. Pokemon in the upper half will go to the top lane after clearing the camps while Pokemon in the lower half goes to the bottom lane after clearing camps in that half, transitioning into a duo top lane and tri-lane bottom lane. As a result, teams forgo the jungler role entirely.

Hoopa and Duraludon Duo

Another interesting strategy Japanese teams do is pairing Hoopa and Duraludon together, typically in the top lane. This startegy works well against the solo-top Lucario strategy since both Pokemon have a range advantage and can punish Lucario out of the lane.

Duraludon Jungle

In the event that a team decides not to pick Hoopa, Duraludon takes on the jungler role by default. This ensures that Duraludon reaches its power spike as fast as possible in the hopes of carrying the game.

Early Top Lane Rotation

It's generally accepted that the bottom lane takes the highest priority and is the most contested lane compared to the top lane because of the Drednaw objective. Taking out the enemy's bottom goal zone before Drednaw spawns is the best case scenario for most teams. However, in the first game of the first series, the Orange Team rotated to the top lane at 8:50 to take the Vespiquen and Combees camp, then scored huge amounts of points in the top goal zone, almost destroying it as a result.

Counter Jungle Greedent Returns

The Greedent counter jungle strategy made a return in the competitive scene ever since the Pokemon received a nerf due to the 1.4.1.7 Update. There were no glaring differences in the strategy's effectiveness before and after the nerf.

Scoring Comp Adds Duraludon

The team らんたろぶい海賊団 (Rantarobui Pirates) is the only team to bring back the Scoring Strategy that was very popular in the last tournament. It consisted of the dependable Score Shield and Buddy Barrier along with Wigglytuff's unite move, Starlight Recital, to generate shields high amounts of shields. Goal-Getter also made a return to supplement the strategy.

Duraludon was added to the composition to add extra firepower to the strategy. It allows the team to effectively stave off low HP opponents like Attackers and Supporters and opens more opportunities for the team to score.

Mixed Results

Although the addition of Duraludon made the scoring strategy more formidable in the offense department, it ultimately made the team composition a bit awkward as it leaves the team having little to no recourse when one strategy fails. Opposing teams with Lucario or Greedent where able to freely contest Duraludon without much support.

Blissey as anAlternativve Support

Blissey was used as an alternative to Hoopa as a way to counter Duraludon's burst damage with Dragon Pulse. We saw instances where the constant use of Safeguard was enough to push a lane with a Duraludon in it. Additionally, the combination of Blissey and Alolan Ninetales allowed the team to push lanes more effectively as Aurora Veil and Helping Hand makes Alolan Ninetales into a living turret!

Full Heal Remains a Staple

Because of the high usage of Dragon Pulse, teams have opted to run a Full Heal to remove the marks inflicted by Duraludon. Although it did not reach the highest pick rate, the shift in the meta that Duraludon produced is a consequence of the rise in Full Heal usage.

Speedster Tech for Countering Duraludon

As Duraludon remained the top pick for the whole tournament, it is only fitting for a competitive team to come up with a strategy to counter. One of these is bringing back the Speedsters and utilizing their high mobility and damage to cut through the enemy team and shut down their carry.

Absol's Massive Crits

The team Secret Ship took advantage of Absol's highly mobile Dash moves and ability to deal massive damage to pick off Duraludon at the back lines. It also trickled down to Hoopa, where-in the shields produced by Trick were not enough to mitigate most of the damage. Additionally, Absol is mobile enough to dodge Shadow Ball attacks.

Sucker Punch allowed Absol to get a sure-hit attack on slippery Pokemon like Greedent and Lucario and highly durable Pokemon like Wigglytuff. Although not obvious, we suspect that the Aeos Cookie equipped helped in giving Absol more survivability as it pounces towards its targets.

Talonflame's Brave Bird Burst

Talonflame's ability to swoop down and deal quick and easy damage made Duraludon players act defensively in fear of getting knocked down. We saw many instances where Flame Sweep was used to cover long distances and get close to enemy Attackers at the back.

Additionally, with the prevalence of Alolan Ninetales and Aurora Veil, the usage of Brave Bird soared as Talonflame's burst potential with Aerial Ace became the best way to deal with targets with little to no mobility.

Picks and Win Rates (Japan)

Pokemon	Most Picked %	Win Rate %
Duraludon	84%	100%
Lucario	74%	68.4%
Alolan Ninetales	63%	73.7%
Talonflame	42%	36.8%
Hoopa	39%	57.9%
Greedent	39%	42.1%
Blissey	34%	31.6%
Wigglytuff	34%	26.3%
Absol	21%	26.3%
Slowbro	21%	26.3%
Crustle	18%	5.3%
Blastoise	11%	0%
Dragonite	5%	0%
Pikachu	5%	0%
Charizard	3%	0%
Decidueye	3%	0%
Venusaur	3%	0%

Game8 Notes

Duraludon emerged to be the most picked Pokemon in for the Japan March Final! It's sheer damage and range makes it a force to be reckoned with! Lucario lurks in close second but with the recent damage nerfs imposed on it in the past few patches, it's expected that players would gravitate towards Duraludon more.

Pokemon not shown here were not picked during the March Finals.

Most Picked Battle Item (Japan)

Battle Item	Most Picked %
Eject Button	32.1%
Full Heal	26.8%
Fluffy Tail	14.2%
X Speed	9.5%
Goal-Getter	7.4%
Slow Smoke	4.7%
X Attack	3.7%
Potion	1.6%

Game8 Notes

Eject Button is back to being picked as the best battle item! Full Heal is in close second mostly to counteract against Duraludon's marks. This is really shaping up to be a Duraludon meta.

Battle Items not shown here were not picked during the March Finals.

Most Picked Held Item (Japan)

Held Item	Most Picked %
Buddy Barrier	87.4%
Muscle Band	52.6%
Focus Band	50%
Score Shield	44.7%
Attack Weight	25.8%
Exp. Share	17.4%
Choice Specs	5.3%
Weakness Policy	4.7%
Aeos Cookie	4.2%
Scope Lens	2.6%
Razor Claw	2.6%
Energy Amplifier	2.1%

Game8 Notes

Buddy Barrier continues to dominate as the most flexible held item to use in Builds. Muscle Band coming in second means that Atk Pokemon continues to dominate the current meta over Sp. Atk Pokemon. The fourth and fifth most picked Held Items are Score Shield and Attack Weight which means attack-stack meta is still here!

Held Item not shown here were not used during the March Finals.

Pokemon Lane Picks (Japan)

Pokemon	Top Pick %	Jungle Pick %	Bot Pick %
Absol	--	25%	75%
Alolan Ninetales	8.3%	--	91.7%
Blastoise	--	--	100%
Blissey	15.4%	--	84.6%
Charizard	--	100%	--
Crustle	100%	--	--
Decidueye	--	100%	--
Dragonite	--	100%	--
Duraludon	50%	43.8%	6.3%
Greedent	--	33.3%	66.7%
Hoopa	100%	--	--
Lucario	53.6%	10.7%	35.7%
Pikachu	100%	--	--
Slowbro	--	--	100%
Talonflame	56.3%	25%	18.8%
Venusaur	--	--	100%
Wigglytuff	15.4%	--	84.6%

Pokemon not shown here were not picked during the March Finals.

Where to Watch March Finals 2022 (Japan)

The full livestream for the March Finals is available in the official YouTube channel of Pokemon UNITE. They usually stream the Monthly Finals so try catching it on scheduled times!

For the full schedule of the Championship Series, check out this article:

UNITE World Championship Series 2022 Schedule

Pokemon UNITE Related Guides

UNITE World Championship Series 2022

2022 Championship Series Analysis

2022 World Championship Series Analysis
2022 World Championships
Regional Finals (North America)	Regional Finals (Japan)
May Finals (North America)	May Finals (Japan)
Aeos Cup (North America)	Aeos Cup (Japan)
March Finals Summary (North America)	March Finals Summary (Japan)
February Finals Summary (North America)

All Pokemon UNITE Tournament and Analysis