Crazy draft and we got quite the chaotic pool going on here, honestly really hard for me to rank these cores but i got a hunch on how most of them will be playing out so let's give it a try. Something I think will be especially important this edition is going to be support as the meta is gonna be constantly changing with what we expect to get/the schedule it's going to be running to (biggest reason why i don't regret not signing up tbh), and we've seen already how far grinding gets you this gen, especially in the recent wc. Last thing to mention is that I obviously won't be including Aly in the rankings.
1 - Technical Machines -- Punny, vivalospride.
Feels a bit weird to be ranking Punny first in what is a completely new field for him, but if there is anyone in the pool that i'm 100% sure has no flop potential that's him, or maybe I just jinxed it hard time /shrug. I'm always been really high on his playing capabilities, I think SV is a gen to particularly reward someone with a playstyle like his, I feel like this meta has a lot of options he could like/utilize well and if there is something Punny is known for was until a couple years ago was for his limited team choices, and he has been on the grind for a bit now. He's also paired with viv which I think is good support, provides really fun ideas, open to discussion and has a great hunch on things usually. The only thing I was a bit worried about when it came to viv's support is that I don't fully trust his teambuilding this gen yet since he has been picking it back up for not too long, but him being paired with someone who can build and utilize what he can provide makes for a nice and synergized duo on paper and I'm sure they're gonna do really well.
2 - Indigo Platoon -- McMeghan, Xrn, Star.
I ended up settling for Roro 2nd. A bit contradictory with what I've been mentioning up to this point considering he has no support that has been ever active in the tier up to this point but also we're about to hit a new playing field which evens things out a lot, and not only if there was anyone in this pool that I think could've done it that would've him, but also I fully expect Star and other people within the chat to provide what he needs to succeed. He has been on an insane streak teamtours wise and this UU pool has a great selection of players that I think are going to push his motivation to keep on doing well. Overall, I fully expect him to be on top or near the top, but I'm a bit afraid he might run into troubles with a busy schedule and a tier that constantly changes, afterall they're most likely going to be playing 2 different tiers first 2 weeks so I hope he can find the time to make it work.
3 - Orange Islanders -- pdt, Amukamara, robjr, Dugza, Danny.
First resident tryhard on this list and who could've been if not pdt. Another solid year leading up to this, he has done really well last time around and overall there very little things that hint against a runback. but I'm just.. not sure how much SV he has been playing? And in pdt's case to me, that's really important. He has been campaigning in other tiers for the few UU tours he joined this year, and I think pdt in particular needs to find his comfort place in order to succeed in the tier he's playing, with how niche and unique some of his brings tend to be. Now this can just be solved by him playing 300 ladder games in 4 hours so it's not biggie, but my next worry is having 5 people in his channel talking about how his helmet Hoopa or something abomination sucks when all he wants is for them to play games and is gonna get frustrated at that. Oh well, if those are my worries that at least means he's due for another year of success in the tour I guess.
4 - Uncharted Terrors -- Accel, avarice, Meru.
After I robbed him of his throne last year, Accel is back as the Terrors's UUer of choice in what is pretty much just a runback draft or something, or well at least it would've been if they landed icemaster and gama. To get the obvious out of the way: Accel is a strong and solid player and I expect him to go even at worst postbreak or not. The little worries I have for him are pretty much what I mentioned for the 2 people above as well: time on his hands and support. He had a fine UUWC but I felt like there was room for improvement when it came to teamchoices and just overall didn't seem to be super comfy with what was going on his screen, which I wasn't surprised about with how short the tour was for him and he's to me someone that only benefits from time spent on the playing field. I think the first couple of weeks are going to be especially rough for him going in blind back to back, especially when his support to me does not match his style. Don't get me wrong: avarice to me was a great pickup from the Terrors as he does offer exactly what Accel is going to be needing later on in the tournament with the million different options he brings up that hit perfectly on team preview, especially with how stagnant Accel's teamchoices have been in some of his previous tours, but they first need to develop chemistry for that to work and I think their early meta reads could be completely off. I think this is a pair that is going to be stronger as time goes by, and I hope they're able to make it work in their early tournament gauntlet as well. Honorable mention to MERUSTIE's useless ass that is going to be asking for codenames in general every evening, but sometimes could come up with some genius or something.
5 - Showdown Shoguns -- Gilbert Arenas, bb skarm, Booty, LpZ.
And here is the dark horse of the pool in Marcop. Big fan of him, he's obviously really good and his ceiling is up there, I just don't think it's going to go as smoothly as his previous lower tiers campaigns with the amount of threats in this UU pool but i'm open to be proved wrong. I don't have much else to say, I don't recall having seen much of him in SV and I know basically 0 of the people he's paired with, I expect him to be a threat, but is unknown quantity to me atm hence an isolated 5th place on the rankings.
6 - Mt. Silver Foxes -- Hariyana Grande, Askov, mncmt.
This one I'm REALLY looking forward to, and by far the most exciting pair of the pool. FrankJosh is a great player, recently won UU Masters and never failed to put up a good record in UU tournaments, he just suffers from zoomer things such as NOT WANTING TO PLAY and being incapable of putting 6 mons in his builder. I think his ceiling is really high and he has a lot of potential if he's off to a great start, which he will thanks to his support baskov. ASKOV in officials is famous for one thing: Losing. This, however, is the redemption year: ASKOV has been on top of the metagame ever since his strong UUPL campaign and SV in general seems to make his headassery work. I fully expect them to come up with really fun stuff and have a great meta read as mence is busy elsewhere and incapable of vetoing all the teams they post in their channel, I want this pair to succeed so bad and hope they'll be off to a great start because I think this is their year.
7 - Arena Spartans -- Sage, Lily.
Sage returns to UU after a few good runs in OU, and finds herself in a more dangerous field than the one she experienced in the depths of OU2-3. This pair is weird to me: on paper they're long long long time friends that speak everyday and should have great chemistry, in practice I'm afraid they might just get lost. My biggest concern is consistency: I'm not sure their styles actually match that well, I'm not sure how much Sage builds or likes to build, I didn't like neither's UUWC metaread and while Lily has found great success in UU with her own teams this gen, other people haven't been capable of using them to that extent as opposed to what happened during SS, although she found a middle ground in OU throughout WC. I'm not sure, I think they could either do well or find themselves having a really hard time, and I don't think Sage's gap is big enough to make up for that.
8 - Power Plant Dynamos -- tko.
After a strong UUWC, memshow finds himself in UU.. without support? I was super hyped for the memshow UU campaign, he has shown great signs in WC and think with time he could only get better but I think he might have a hard time now unless he's able to get someone on his case. I would've loved a QoB pickup from this team and I would've put them 2 places higher than this, I still like his value as wildcard but ehh. We shall see how things work out for him.
9 - Studio Gible -- Eternal Spirit?, Cam?, justdrew, Ninjadog, z0mOG.
Whatever the heck is going on here, I don't have good expectations but I'm happy Cam and justdrew got picked up as they fully deserve it, and I hope whoever ends up being the pilot gets some fire from the drew. Good luck Gibles on Head, I hope you're able to find success but I have a hard time imagining it as of now.
Really exciting pool and looking forward to some great games, gl! to all the people involved and hope you can all have fun in this SCL.
