Sam /
FLCL | thank you both for drafting this godsquad, both of you are incredible managers and ppl. sam i hope your old spooning, titty-grabbing ways are past you. fooly, let's do what we couldn't last year this upcoming wcop.
BKC | my fucking guy. going into my first spl with someone i've been looking up to for a long time was pretty fucking crazy to say the least. kev, i told you this before but you have to read it again: ok, i basically started learning about competitive pokemon by reading so fucking many of your rates on the forums and despite being in a different tier, i applied it to oras / sm so the influence you've had on me and the site as a whole is fukn bigger than you'd imagine. the amount of work you've put into this team cannot have a number on it, that 34k represents variable x (we know you're a math genius after all). anyways, since week 1, you've been working with me in tiers you don't even main and helped me gain that next level of experience that i was lacking with such a poor wcop. i know how badly you wanted that red trophy, but, to me, spl is far greater than the pixels and although its cliche, this was truly a memorable experience and when we look back on this, we're gonna remember how gay anti is, your incredible fan fiction, and brayam being the sole contributor to reyscarface. the trophy to me, is more of a "physical" symbol of what we accomplished, but, thanks to your passion and dedication week in and week out, spl 8 raiders made fucking history + times that cannot be forgotten. the advice you gave me upgraded me from a little bitch boy to a man even though this required long-term mental scarring. pokemon wise, you're fucking insane at any tier you touch and those two losses came with some uncontrollable factors. thanks for everything my guy.
TDK | plain and simple, would not have been in my first spl this year if it wasn't for you. i'm not sure how you had the trust in someone to be a part of such an insanely good team with a horrific 0-3 wcop, but i'm just glad you did. having a phenomenal teambuilder and player such as yourself approach me about prestigious tours is something i was super proud of and i could not have asked for everything to follow through better than it did (aside from the trophy ofc). throughout the entire regular season and semi-finals, i learned a lot about this game directly and indirectly from you by observing. your work ethic in multiple tiers every single week is a factor which allowed us to go as far as we did this season, especially the one week where i felt overwhelmed and stressed about my match, where you took time in call with me to build / help support, i truly appreciated that. again, there's no price tag you can be labelled with seeing how crucial of a player and presence you were this season. i hope to keep learning from you down the line and thank you for the massive amount of trust you put into me to perform in such a fantastic team environment. although, be ready to be dismantled this wcop alongside the rest of your hooligans.
reyscarface | not gonna lie, brayam ghosted you to perfection this season. i think i heard him whispering "mega sableye" in your ear on a weekly basis and having 100% trust in brayam was the true key to victory, in my opinion. real shit, you had a fucking incredible 10-0 season allowing you to stay in the prestigious channel:
jokes and donations aside, you really are fucking insane at this game. i'm pretty sure i only beat you in about two test games this entire season; the way you execute gameplans so consistently is truly something to learn from and just watching you play helped me understand things i was shaky / unsure about. just observing you prepare for matches (at least for the majority of weeks) definitely gave me insight on some of the mistakes i was making, predominantly getting overwhelmed by team choices instead of perfecting one or two for consistent results. speaking of that, the teams you produce when you have time to are extremely solid and you certainly know how to use them to their fullest. the only information i knew about you before going into this was your an old gens player, so seeing this level of success was dope as fuck. congratulations on this season, definitely one of the most influential sm players currently!
KratosMana | you're another player on this roster i look up to a ton. i remember watching your tour games in oras and always considering you one of the top players on this site. your matches, teams, ideas, overall gayness and battles this season were nothing short of impressive and i wanna commemorate you on an overall fantastic run :D consistently creative and innovative which helped me (and i'm sure the other ou guys) branch out with ideas, having the nuts to bring mismagius to sm ou and dominating is fucking amazing and hilarious at the same time. you're a super cool guy and team presence, can't wait until you come back to the raiders discord to continue discussing just how gay you are. did i mention you're super gay? (cya around n_n)
Hack /
mad0ka | i didn't get a chance to talk to either of you a whole lot, but the times i did interact with you guys, it was very nice. both of you guys certainly excel at your respective tiers and watching you play at the highest level of competition was fantastic. mad0ka, as a team we all respected your decision to leave during one of the later weeks of the season, pokemon can be really frustrating sometimes and there are irl responsibilities to take care of. much thanks for being an incredible lc slot alongside kingler and lover to the dragonknight, it was truly mesmerizing to see your relationship blossom. hack, i understand why you were annoyed and i can completely sympathize with the stuff you said after your games, but it is fact that the entire ubers community looks up to you as a role model. even though everyone knows your record could have been much better than it is, it does not change from the fact that you are a fucking incredible player and levelheaded user. thank you both for all of your work with the raiders this season :)
roscoe | i'd like to preface this shoutout with a very important
image - i fail to see what else is capable of taming (or tamahoming, if you will) this dpp god by day and pussy slayer by night. the way you boosted team morale week in and week out by posting 0-1 in every single channel can only be the action of an incredible team presence. only a true veteran such as yourself knows that this 0-1 reverse psychology solely brings motivation to our team, so all our wins should in theory be credited to you. the hours on hours of teambuilding and testing you put in this spl is very impressive, even though jirachi was brought 10 weeks in a row, you truly inspired the raiders to work hard every single week. on the real, watching you play dpp at its highest level every week definitely made me want to get into the tier and although your record is better than most, you got bullshitted out of 3 matches, unfortunately 1 of those occurred in the semi-finals where things just weren't going our way. i learned a ton from you and it was a blast teaming with you this spl.
men lie,
women lie,
but the numbers don't.
Kingler12345 | to be honest, i guess you're
tied with croven my favourite indian on the raiders considering jayde is far below you guys. as a sub (for most of the season), we really could not ask for more out of you this season. you were extremely helpful to mad0ka in lc every single week and you were always down to help test in various other tiers. furthermore, your extreme indian-ness allowed not only myself to ace my mathematics test, but you even managed to help the helpless kevin cronin (god pray for that guy lol). pulling yourself a couple of wins along with a close match that was dictated by rng, you proved yourself this spl as a good player and great team presence. it was a pleasure to getting to know you further than an ex-smogtours mod this spl. thanks for all the help both mons and math wise, glad you hung around in the discord chat.
Stax /
Tobes | i didn't get a chance to talk to either of you as much as i wanted cuz both of you seemed like really cool people. pokemon wise, seeing both of you dominate in some of your games in tiers i have absolutely 0 clue about was fun. the intricacies of doubles ou and the disaster (in terms of hax with its relation to spl) which is rby; i respect dubs players a ton for the difficult and generally not widely played (at least on smogon) metagame, and how calm rby players are forced to stay when hyper beam crits and blizzard freezes, ya'll are the real mvps. thanks for being great teammates this spl guys n_n
J Dragon | who in the world allowed this name change, good lord. i suppose it is expected as the least favoured south asian on the team. anyways, jayde / j dragon / zero dark thirty - 100 hoes bbd, i know i don't have to even say it, but what a fucking spl you've had bro. 9-0 in the regular season (obviously) shows your consistency and knowledge of bw ou; you were really a force to be reckoned with as well as (i'm sure) an intimidating opponent to go up against in a tier with extremely skilled and veteran players. unfortunately your only loss was where it mattered most, but this still doesn't take away from the hours on hours of teambuilding you put in with roscoe as well as an extremely reliable player to pull out a W every single week. when you noticed i was really struggling throughout a few times in the season, you took time to help in any way you could which i genuinely appreciated. through the insults even when i was not a part of the conversation, teaming with you was definitely a pleasure and i wish the best for you this upcoming wcop (except vs. canada, i hope we crit your tyranitar when it matters most).
UD | this guy right here is most likely old enough to be my great grandpa, i think i saw pictures of you in the first world war but i ain't entirely sure. i picture you driving those pick-up trucks around texas while yelling "it's lit" and this is not an unrealistic expectation. you're the most hip 80 year old this site has ever seen even though you drink brewskis with your fellow elderly adv players. pokemon wise it was really cool to watch you play adv despite a record that we both know could've been better, but clinching it in semi-finals vs jabba was certainly a big moment for you and the raiders going forward in the series momentum wise. i think you're like one of three people on the raiders who didn't take any cheap shots at me, but instead defended me like a true great grandfather does; much appreciated! never change bro, cya around the discord chat, its fucking lit.
Jimmy Turtwig | watching your first oras match was pretty hilarious, i'd say the matchup was quite even (haha). nah but for real, pulling yourself a victory was nice even though your other 2 matches did not end up in your favour. you helped test across multiple tiers which is more than we coulda asked for as a sub. unfortunately we could not bring the pixels home but teaming with you was a pleasure, cya around dude!
Croven | man, how far we've come since approximately 2 years. i remember pming you when you were an (xy / oras) ou main and talking about our hopes and dreams to participate in spl one day, funny how we ended up together on a team who made history. seeing your name on the mid-season auction was dope as fuck especially with (raiders) beside it considering how long we've both wanted to be tour players. earning yourself your first spl victory definitely put your name out there which made me proud, good work kiddo. although neither of us are allowed in the 18+ chat in the raiders discord, we can still be happy about our accomplishments in the last 10 or so weeks n_n good luck down the line with whatever you do, stay in the cord channel you emotional support.
Blightbringer | i don't recall ever saying hi to you throughout spl so, hello! stay out of jail i suppose.
other ppl i would like to shout out:
paper dreams (you the fucking boss, put yourself in the tour community already. thank you for all the help throughout this 2 years, would not have been here without you; 0% chance) |
starry blanket (oh :3 ty for everything, stay on this site you are a pleasure to talk to) | team canada, this summer is ours | @ anyone who i've ever received help from or have helped in any way, ya'll fucking rock. thanks for making pokemon fun.
special fuck you / middle finger goes to casedvictory, you truly are a fucking asshole and i hope you understand this. i proved you wrong in playoffs once and i was upset i couldn't do it a second time in finals.
