PUPL V Coverage

By TJ, gum, tondas, Specs, and KellyKafka.
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Art by LifeisDANK

Art by LifeisDANK.

Introduction

This PUPL, six established PU players each managed a team. As a celebration of the past four generations of PU, eight players per team were sent out each week to duke it out in the SM, ORAS, BW, and DPP PU metagames. The first five weeks had every team face each other once, which determined the standings of each team. However, only three of the six teams would make it to playoffs, with the top team getting seeded in the first finals slot while the #2 and #3 teams had to fight for the other slot in semifinals. It's here where the competitive nature of PU shines the brightest as two teams fight for the coveted title of PUPL champions in the finals.

Teams

Destructive Dedennes Dedenne

Managed by HJAD

Voracious Victreebels Victreebel

Managed by Robert Alfons

Kind-Hearted Kinglers Kingler

Managed by Many

Olivine Octilleries Octillery

Managed by TONE

Hearthome Haunters Haunter

Managed by TJ

Magnanimous Misdreavus Misdreavus

Managed by EviGaro

Meta trends

Mesprit

Calm Mind Mesprit made a huge comeback this PUPL, as it took advantage of common metagame trends and building patterns, such as Alolan Sandslash and Guzzlord being the most common Psychic-type switch-ins and Skuntank becoming rather uncommon. It also took advantage of common Pokémon that failed to do much to it, such as Gurdurr and Mudsdale, and the most common revenge killer, Primeape, could only 3HKO it, meaning that the Primeape user had to pick a sacrifice every time Primeape used U-turn. Mesprit's huge movepool, also allowed it to hit a large number of Pokémon, while items like Colbur Berry made it harder to revenge kill. People started to adapt to it, and Pokémon like Metang became more common, whereas builds that relied on Guzzlord and Alolan Sandslash as their Psychic-type answer became decreasingly common.

Guzzlord

Guzzlord has been a dominating presence ever since it dropped in April, and it solidified its place this PUPL. The specially offensive set has been the best and most common set for a reason. Its interesting typing and humongous bulk allowed it to check threats like Alolan Raichu and Victreebel, gave it plenty of opportunities to wallbreak, and made it nigh impossible to revenge kill, as even super effective STAB attacks such as Primeape's Close Combat and Froslass's Ice Beam fail to OHKO it. Between its STAB moves and incredible coverage, nothing safely switched into it, as would-be switch-ins like Clefairy, Carbink, and Silvally-Fairy all heavily dislike taking a Heavy Slam, or even Sludge Wave in Clefairy and Silvally-Fairy's case. Guzzlord's great bulk and wallbreaking power turned it into an offensive powerhouse that proved to be effective over and over again in this PUPL.

Guzzlord

Guzzlord's already great natural bulk was further bolstered with its Assault Vest set, allowing it to serve as a stop to setup sweepers such as Omastar and Simisear and take on attackers like Froslass and Victreebel much more easily. It made the task of revenge killing Guzzlord with special attackers much more difficult, and it had advantages such as set unpredictability and Mesprit's Healing Wish on its side to constantly make taking it out an arduous task, especially if it was kept healthy. Its solid bulk was demonstrated well when Finchinator used it against Lax in week 2, when Choice Specs Froslass wasn't even able to 2HKO it with Ice Beam after Stealth Rock damage.

Gurdurr

Specially defensive Gurdurr was used to great success this PUPL. While its poor Special Defense stat makes specially defensive sets look unappealing initially, maximum investment coupled with Eviolite served as a jump point and gave it a respectable amount of special bulk. It could still effectively check wallbreakers such as Lycanroc, but it could now directly confront foes such as Guzzlord and Rotom-F. Even defensive Mesprit could only 3HKO it, meaning that Gurdurr could wear it down with Knock Off and an ally Mesprit could use Healing Wish to bring it back up to full health. It was effectively used by Taskr in his game against Ktüttverde in Week 1; it was able to go toe-to-toe with a Mesprit, take a Leaf Storm from Simisage, and secure a sweep late-game once Taskr's Mesprit could restore its health with Healing Wish.

Eelektross

Assault Vest Eelektross was a staple this PUPL, as its expansive coverage options, good firepower, slow Volt Switch, and ability to blanket check special attackers like Mesprit and Swanna made it a very easy Pokémon to put on teams and let it pull its weight against a multitude of playstyles. It helps that Eelektross lacks any type weaknesses and is only explicitly vulnerable to strong physical attackers, which meant that teams rarely had to worry about amplifying flaws when including it. The ubiquity of Guzzlord and Drampa also made Drain Punch a viable option, giving Eelektross a tool to combat specially oriented Guzzlord sets while functioning as a form of recovery. This along with its ability to fit on just about any build made it a great pick this PUPL.

Mudsdale

Mudsdale was the premier Stealth Rock setter outside of Mesprit for this PUPL. Its ability Stamina turned it into a reliable Stealth Rock setter and a great blanket check to many physical attackers in the tier such as Primeape and Dodrio. Mudsdale also avoided being painfully passive thanks to its great Attack stat and its ability to repeatedly switch into these threats. Its Iapapa Berry only made it even more annoying to take down, and its Special Defense also allowed it to take hits from weaker special attackers such as defensive Lanturn. This could be taken even further with little investment: 40 Special Defense EVs allowed Mudsdale to avoid a 2HKO from Eelektross and better take on Guzzlord, effectively allowing the player to cripple it with Toxic early in the match, only proving how much of a wall this Pokémon could be. All of the factors above gave Mudsdale enough utility to deserve a spot as one of the most used Pokémon in this year’s PUPL and as a valuable asset to many teams.

Oricorio-Pom-Pom

Oricorio-E's stallbreaker set made a decent comeback this PUPL and was the most used set. This was due to the decline in usage of answers that don't care about Toxic such as Alolan Sandslash and the presence of Pokémon like Eelektross, Lanturn, Cryogonal, and Regirock, which all greatly dislike being badly poisoned. This also made it a capable answer to opposing Oricorio formes and allowed it to use Taunt to prevent slower setup sweepers and Toxic users, like Carracosta and Audino, from using it as setup fodder or crippling it.

Tangela

Tangela's immense physical bulk and sustainability via multiple recovery options made it a top Pokémon in PUPL as a pivot that could constantly keep Pokémon such as Lycanroc, Kangaskhan, and Primeape in check. Tangela also used great move options such as Knock Off and Hidden Power Fire, which reduced its passivity by crippling Pokémon that could otherwise take advantage of it like Drampa and Abomasnow, and it could also choose to run moves like Sleep Powder and Toxic to constantly keep the opponent guessing and punish switch-ins. The previously mentioned recovery options also made it super sustainable, meaning that it rarely ever worried about getting worn down outside of Toxic, and with Regenerator, it could pivot in and out of the field to regain health and constantly perform its role optimally.

Drampa

Drampa managed to make some relevant appearances in PUPL thanks to its monstrous Special Attack stat and ability to tear down teams. It was mainly used as a stronger wallbreaker than Guzzlord with fewer switch-ins, as its STAB attacks were even more spammable than Guzzlord's. A more niche set that saw usage was its Calm Mind one, which traded its offensive power to become a threatening late-game sweeper with enough bulk to set up on slower or weaker threats.

Carracosta

Carracosta rose as one of the tier's best setup sweepers thanks to its typing, solid bulk and offenses, and access to Shell Smash, Solid Rock, and priority in the form of Aqua Jet. This gave it a ton of setup opportunities against Pokémon like Stoutland and Skuntank and made revenge killing it extremely hard, as common Choice Scarf users like Primeape and Aurorus all fall to a boosted Aqua Jet after some chip damage and fail to OHKO it from full. Carracosta's ability to go mixed made it extremely hard to switch into, as physical walls, like Gurdurr and Tangela, despise taking a boosted Hydro Pump, and the latter also doesn't appreciate taking a boosted Continental Crush. Carracosta can even run Stealth Rock for role compression, making it a rather versatile choice. Due to this, Carracosta established itself as a solid threat in the PU metagame.

Highlight matches

Octillery Taskr
vs
Haunter Ktütverde
(Replay)

In this game, Taskr was able to utilize Abomasnow and entry hazards to wear down Ktüttverde's team early-game, which could then open the doors for Swords Dance Alolan Sandslash and Choice Scarf Mesprit later in the match. Qwilfish and Regirock were able to successfully position themselves against Throh and Froslass and set entry hazards to further aid Taskr's team. However, this game ultimately ended up becoming a seesaw between two unusual sets: Ktüttverde's Toxic + Protect Skuntank forced Taskr to shuffle between teammates to find the best position to deal with it, which was was made worse by Ktüttverde's own entry hazards being active. Skuntank nearly took out Gurdurr and forced Mesprit to use Healing Wish, where the match became a 1v4. This is where Taskr's specially defensive Gurdurr was able to use Bulk Up, take defensive Mesprit's Psychic with ease, and successfully clean up late-game. Earlier in the match, it was also able to stomach Simisage's Leaf Storm and keep up pressure against the opposing team with its great bulk and entry hazards punishing switch-ins.

Dedenne Tricking
vs
Victreebel robjr
(Replay)

In this Finals tiebreaker game between Tricking and robjr, Tricking's stall team was immediately threatened by robjr's Substitute + Toxic Crabominable, so this battle would come down to Tricking's ability to play around that. Positioning well with the combination of Quagsire, Carbink, Articuno, and Heal Bell Altaria, Tricking was able to PP stall the Crabominable out of all of its attacks, negating a major way for robjr to break past Tricking's team. Just before PP stalling the Crabomnible, Tricking was able to get his Floatzel in on an Ice Beam from Froslass and Pursuit trapped it, making sure no Spikes went up on his side. This was huge because Froslass otherwise puts immense pressure on Stall teams by shutting down Pokémon like Audino, Articuno, and Altaria. From then on Tricking used his Altaria, Carbink, Quagsire, and Audino to slowly whittle down the rest of robjr's remaining Pokémon and was victorious.

Dedenne Teddeh
vs
Victreebel false
(Replay)

In this battle, Teddeh and false brought very similar teams, both having Vibrava, Chinchou, Stoutland, and a physical Fire-type. Teddeh positioned himself well against false's Rapidash by weakening it with Chinchou and forcing it out, allowing Teddeh to get Stealth Rock up with Mawile. Using Vibrava and Chinchou, Teddeh's team pivoted around false's Rapidash and Vibrava to get Stoutland in. From here, Stoutland chipped down a majority of false's team, and KOed Rapidash. Mid-game, Mawile got Stealth Rock up once again and Knocked Off false's Vibrava's Eviolite. Stoutland then revenge killed Teddeh's Mawile with Superpower, which paved the way for Teddeh's Monferno to freely set up with Swords Dance and win the game.

Haunter Specs
vs
Kingler Pearl
(Replay)

In this battle, Specs Jigglypuff was able to get his Bouffalant in early and weaken Pearl's Camerupt and Pelipper while getting a crucial Toxic on his Regigigas. Later, Specs Jigglypuff sacrificed the Bouffalant to allow in the offensive Mawile, which forced a KO almost every time it came in. By making some nice plays to let his Golem get up Stealth Rock and getting Monferno in on Pearl's Leafeon, Specs Jigglypuff weakened the very threatening Camerupt. With everything fairly weak, the combination of Mawile and Choice Scarf Mr. Mime ended up winning Specs Jigglypuff the battle.

Victreebel Heysup
vs
Dedenne DurzaOffTopic
(Replay)

In this Finals match, Heysup was able to get up Stealth Rock very early and trap Durza's Probopass with a very unexpected Substitute + Magnet Rise Magnemite, forcing it to use Explosion just to get rid of Magnemite's Substitute. Heysup used Cacturne to switch in and revenge kill Electabuzz but got trapped by Durza's own unexpected threat of Block + Curse Muk. After getting up all three layers of Spikes, the Cacturne eventually went down to a now +6 Muk. However, Heysup's Magnemite once again came in and eventually forced out the Muk with two Special Defense drops from Flash Cannon. With Stealth Rock and three layers of Spikes up, Heysup utilized Glaceon and Fake Out Purugly to clean the rest of Durza's team.

Early Weeks

Prior to the first week of PUPL, everyone was excited to see which teams would be able to come out on top. Olivine Octilleries faced the Hearthome Haunters and won 5-3, the Kind-Hearted Kinglers won 6-2 against the Magnanimous Misdreavus, and the Destructive Dedennes won 5-3 against the Voracious Victreebels. This gave the Kind-Hearted Kinglers an early first place lead and meant that the Olivine Octilleries and Destructive Dedennes were tied at second place. As for the Hearthome Haunters and Voracious Victreebels, they were tied at fourth place, and the Magnanimous Misdreavus found themselves at the last seed. Despite the records of each team, everything could change in any later week, and even the teams at the bottom would surprise everyone later on, starting the trend of unexpected and nerve-wracking games!

Week 2 started the trend of showcasing which teams could keep a solid record during most of the series. The Voracious Victreebels were able to win 6-2 against the Kind-Hearted Kinglers, and Hearthome Haunters went up against the Destructive Dedennes, losing in a close 3-5 series, giving the Dedennes their second victory. Finally, the Olivine Octilleries lost to the Magnanimous Misdreavus in a 3-5. Thus, the Destructive Dedennes were able to take the number one spot, while the Voracious Victreebels closely followed in second. The Kind-Hearted Kinglers and the Olivine Octilleries ended up in a tie for third place, while the Magnanimous Misdreavus managed to ascend to fifth place and the Hearthome Haunters were now in last place. While everything was still quite up in the air, a few patterns would remain for the rest of the weeks, mostly relating to the victories of the Dedennes and the Victreebels. During Week 3, everyone would be able to see some of the teams at their full potential. The Magnanimous Misdreavus lost 3-5 to the Voracious Victreebels, while the Olivine Octilleries lost 0-8 to the Destructive Dedennes. In a much closer score, the Kind-Hearted Kinglers lost 3-5 to the Hearthome Haunters. At this point in time, The Dedennes and the Victreebels were able to formidably showcase the quality of their teams, landing the first and second spot, respectively! This doesn’t mean that they automatically had a huge upper hand over the other teams, since the Kind-Hearted Kinglers and the Hearthome Haunters were now tying for third. The Magnanimous Misdreavus kept their fifth place, and the Octilleries now were in last.

After three weeks, some of the most productive teams had been discovered but everyone still had a great chance at playoffs, only proving the quality and the competitiveness of each team. At this point it could be said that most teams were aware of the qualities of each other and could utilize this knowledge to do the best they could to win during the next few weeks. They all knew their chances, but they most importantly knew how uncertain their chances at playoffs could be. It was still anyone's game!

Late Weeks

Week 4 brought forth even more suspense to PUPL! While the Destructive Dedennes came up on top once again, this time against the King-Hearted Kinglers in a 7-1, the Olivine Octilleries were able to beat the Voracious Victreebels with a great record of 6-2, further proving how fluctuating the chances of each team were, as well as the ability of each time to come out on top or put up a formidable fight against all odds. Meanwhile the Hearthome Haunters and the Magnanimous Misdreavus tied in a 4-4, showcasing how both teams weren’t willing to stay behind in their shot at playoffs. The Destuctive Dedennes kept their top spot for one more week, while the Victreebels still managed to keep their second spot after a difficult week. The Octilleries had an incredibly successful week after their crushing lost in the previous week, proving how perseverance and hard work can lead anyone to turn around a situation, while the Haunters kept their fourth place. The Misdreavus, despite being near-last for most of the PUPL weren’t willing to give any team an easy time and persevered in showcasing their great talents, maintaining themselves in fifth place. The Kinglers were now last, but the next week would prove how close this PUPL was in an exciting week of high-quality matches!

Week 5 was probably one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking weeks of this PUPL for showcasing teams that were so close to each other in terms of points that everyone had to give it their absolute best, and each win mattered and each loss had a high price. In a close 3-5, the Magnanimous Misdreavus lost to the Destructive Dedennes, while the Hearthome Haunters lost with the same score against the Voracious Victreebels. After a successful week, the Olivine Octilleries now fell to the Kind-Hearted Kinglers, securing the Kinglers a spot in playoffs after being last in the previous week. Everything was on the line, but at the end, the Kinglers were able to come out on top, only to potentially face the top two teams in the remainder the tournament, both of which had marvelous scores and weren’t willing to give the third team an easy time in playoffs! The thrill of wondering which team would be able to qualify made the atmosphere of the matches tense and made for tons of great competitive games. While the week progressed everyone was eager with excitement and fear to see who would take the next win. One loss would literally cost them everything, and one win could lead them closer to victory. Even by the end of the week, no one knew what to expect, but everyone was hoping their favorite team would be able to make it. Now in semifinals, three teams would now face each other, one of them would be out in the next week. Would the underdogs be able to come out on top in front of the Dedennes and Victreebels? One thing was for sure, everything was on the line and, the next week would be just as exciting!

Semifinals

Victreebel vs Kingler

(5) Voracious Victreebels vs Kind-Hearted Kinglers (3)

Even by Week 5, every team had a shot of making playoffs because of how close the standings were; however, it would be the Victreebels and Kinglers who would be seeded for semifinals, while the Dedennes convincingly secured the slot for finals. The Kinglers were just able to make it into playoffs after a successful week by beating the Octilleries 6-2. The Victreebels were able to recover in Week 5 after a crushing defeat the previous week, able to push above the other teams and secure a place in semifinals. The first three games had false and Heysup win against TSR and Pearl, respectively, securing the oldgens games for the Victreebels. In a super close game, Jmash was able to obtain the first win in the week for the Kinglers. The next four games would become a seesaw between one team winning followed by the other, with the last game deciding if there was going to be a tiebreak. cb aaron judge would be the one to guarantee the Victreebels spot in finals, where with a bit of luck, his Stoutland was able to power through Serene Grace's team, quickly eliminating three Pokémon and constantly living attacks to finish off most of the opponent's team and allowing the rest of his team win late-game. This week was a nailbiter overall, as both teams inched closer to making it into finals, with the last game of the week securing the Victreebels the spot.

Finals

The teams that reached the finals of PUPL V were the Destructive Dedennes and the Voracious Victreebels, the number 1 and number 2 ranked teams. The Dedennes were the number one seed during the group stages, which meant they automatically qualified for the finals. The Dedennes were favored to win over the Victreebels because they went 5-3 against them in the group stages. Here were the matchups:

Dedenne vs Victreebel

(4) Destructive Dedennes vs Voracious Victreebels (4)

The Voracious Victreebels took an early 1-0 lead as they won their DPP game, where Heysup won against DurzaOffTopic. However, Rexus, Tricking, Jarii, and Finchinator won their battle against lighthouses, Tricking, Robert Alfons, and FLCL. At this point, the Voracious Victreebels couldn't afford to lose another game to tie this and enter the tiebreaker, and they didn't,robjr, ShuckleDeath, and cb aaron judge winning the last three battles vs poh, Teddeh, and HJAD. This meant that, against all odds and predictions, the Voracious Victreebels tied with the Destructive Dedennes, and the underdog forced a nail-biting tiebreak series.

Dedenne vs Victreebel

(2) Destructive Dedennes vs Voracious Victreebels (1)

After finals ended in a tie, both the Dedennes and the Victreebels needed to pick two gens and three players for the Tiebreaker. The three players chosen from the Dedennes were Tricking, who was 5-1, Finchinator, who was undefeated with 5-0, and DurzaOffTopic, who was 4-2 in DPP. The Victreebels chose robjr, who was 6-1, FLCL, who was 5-2, and Heysup, who was 4-3 in DPP. The first game played was in DPP, with DurzaOffTopic vs Heysup who had already played in the last week; Heysup won, so he was predicted to win again. We saw a very cool Pokémon brought by DurzaOffTopic in Zangoose, and a cool pick from Heysup in Choice Scarf Kadabra, which had been a fairly dead set previously. Heysup took the game by utilizing his Poliwrath well late-game to tank a hit from Zangoose and Misdreavus. Next up was Finchinator vs FLCL, who had also played in the main series; Finchinator had won that meeting, but this game was pretty much 50/50 going in. Both players brought stall, but Finchinator used his Skuntank to break past FLCL's Articuno with Z-Crunch, as well as as keeping up the pressure and Pursuit trapping the Audino. After Audino went down, the game was pretty much over for FLCL, with him not being able to reliably stop Finchinator's team anymore. For the Final Game of PUPL, it was Tricking vs robjr; in their last battle way back in Week 1, robjr won, but between these two great players it could go either way. robjr had a very great way of breaking past Tricking's stall in Substitute + Toxic Crabominable; however,it eventually got PP stalled by Tricking, who pivoted well with his Quagsire, Articuno, and Carbink. Once Crabominable had no more moves, Tricking was fairly easily able to stall out the rest of robjr's Pokémon, giving the Dedennes the win!

Final Standings (Wins - Losses - Draws)

Manager Interviews

Dedenne Victreebel Kingler octillery haunter misdreavus

Going into PUPL, fresh in my mind was Exhibition, which even though was calamitous for us since we finished 2nd from bottom, I liked some of our drafting procedures, especially in PU, where despite the negativity, our core was thriving. As a result, I tried to mimic that drafting strategy in PUPL, where instead of making a draft plan full of an ideal list of players, it was more like getting every single player from the auction lab and seeing how much you'd want to pay for them if they came up to draft. So, if in my eyes a perceivedgood player would come up in the auction, I'd almost certainly have a number I'd want to pay for them. What that does is either driving prices up so managers can't afford good players in the later auction or getting me said good player for a discounted price. So, despite the hugely inflated costs in the beginning of the auction and me keeping out of it apart from the upbids, I managed to keep my composure and stick to my pricing strategy. As a result, I ended up drafting the most flexible and highest-threshold team in the tour (in my opinion) due to this more liberal pricing and buying strategy. It can definitely be said I tried to refrain from too many promises prior to the auction, which also helped when you know the only people you want 100% aren't gonna be the most in-demand people in the tour.

Basically for my draft plan i just sorted a bunch of players that seemed worth getting into ones i would shell out big bucks for, ones i would wanna upbid a bit but not too far, and cheaps. i figured getting a few great players plus some underrated/overlooked people for support and for filling out the sm slots would be better than getting a bunch of decent-but-not-outstanding players. i was hoping to get robjr and rodri in particular, they worked well on my team last year and i knew robjr was generally getting more into pu leading up to slam, while rodri would make for a very reliable oras slot. Unfortunately the latter fell through because people didn't make the classic mistake of not going high for him and i had already spent a lot on rob and flcl. speaking of whom, flcl was an "accidental" buy in the sense that i wanted to name p much the highest price id pay for him and then see if people would be baited into upbidding into the 20s; but they didnt, so instead i got him on the team, not a big problem for me. having gotten two expensive players so early plus heysup for 15k (thank god nobody upbid me on him, no disrespect to the other dppers but heysup is the best dpp slot no contest). In general for the oldgens i wanted ppl who could provide for themselves unless i got an active builder so i was p happy with who i had. Getting false was the cherry on top, since while i love diogo idk how well he'd perform in the oras slot given how good some of the oras ppl are. anyway other than that my draft plan like i said was pretty loose, i didn't want to pin myself down too much on a certain plan because i knew i couldn't trust half these managers to make rational decisions, so i kinda went with the flow and i think it worked out p well considering we almost won it all.

My draft plans were pretty simple. I wanted to start out with some big-name, experienced tour players to get consistent wins (in this case lax, Pearl, and RW). Then I needed some "mains", people who were very involved the PU metagames, to be building teams, who ended up being 2xTheTap, Gum, Jmash, and GeneralAnnoyance (who later got traded for Aaronboyer). I also knew I could build teams in all tiers, so I wasn't overly concerned with building support at that point. Lastly, I tried to get some players who I thought would go for cheaper prices but I knew were underrated because I had scouted around and knew how much effort they put into tours, such as TSR and Watchog. I tried only to buy people who I knew would be passionate about playing and at least reasonably active. Several of these players I had teamed up with in team tours before, so I knew what I was getting, and others I just knew that they would put in the effort to make it a great team environment. There were some mistakes I made during drafting, such as being overly stacked in ORAS support and weaker in the other oldgens, but sometimes the draft just doesn't work out perfectly and that's fine.

So heading into the auction, my main idea was trying to get solid PU players and some other lesser-known people to get a feel for team tournaments. I didn't really have a plan in terms of getting specific people, but I knew I wanted to get the maximum number of players for potential substitutes. I also knew that I would try to get some older know players like Akir and 2xTheTap mainly because i respect them knowledgewise and would help out everyone else on the team regarding building, but I passed on Tap only because I felt he went for too much, and I valued Akir's knowledge of the older gens and i felt comfortable with the SM PU players I did manage to get. I also felt like getting some other established people cheap, which did work out for me (see 3k RawMelon). Overall I felt comfortable with the people I managed to get in the auction, and while we missed playoffs, I'd still draft them all over again. And still keep 9.5k in the back for no reason lol.

This was actually my first time managing in a team tournament, so I didn't have as much experience as some of the other managers going into the draft. But I knew that I wanted to spend a lot of credits on players like Rexus, Xiri, Tricking, and Ktüttverde because they had good synergy with some of the people I planned on drafting and had impressive results from recent tournaments. Unfortunately, like all managers, I had to adjust my plans throughout the draft, as many of these players went for too many credits. Luckily, I was able to steal Ktüttverde early on in the draft, who I knew that I could rely on for building. I also ended up getting most people for SM that I wanted anyway, like Sam I Yam, lockjaw, and Kushalos. I was especially happy to get tour players like Kushalos because I knew that he could basically pilot anything with decent team support. For ORAS, my initial draft plans were both RawMelon and 2xTheTap because I knew that they were excellent ORAS players and builders and would be valuable assets to the team in other ways, but ultimately, I ended up drafting Rodriblutar because I was impressed with his undefeated record from last PUPL. For BW, I had initially gotten KW, who messaged me before the tour showing interest. I also decided to draft Aaronboyer and Raseri for extra BW PU support in case KW needed it, but he ended up building his own teams anyways. For DPP, I got Specs because he was one of the most active builders and players for DPP PU and knew the tier better than most. However, a trade for GeneralAnnoyance over Aaronboyer had occured shortly after the draft, and I was able to put in GeneralAnnoyance over Specs, who is considered by many as one of the best DPP PU players. Even though this PUPL didn't go as planned, I'm still happy with most of my draft plans, and I would draft many of the same people again if I had the opportunity.

So going in I really only knew I would play BW PU, which was both a relief cause very small playerbase as is and a problem because I had to do 13k in this tier, which is a really bad strategy lol. Last year I picked up Taskr for stupid money and it worked well, so I wasn't afraid to go back to stupid overpaying for players like that if needed be. LST was probably first on my list cause good pal and all, and it's someone I know I can build with. Shaneghoul wasn't as high on the list, but knowing him and people we talked to it was fairly easy to see him fit. After that I was basically ready to just pick up people I knew again ;Feliburn, diogo, tko, basically my besties that also are good; but during the auction I effed up on Diogo and ended up in a situation where I had to pick either Feli or tko, which was awful. But hey Feli did really well so bop. I was also keen on tour players that wouldn't go super high. My thought process was that with builds from people like LST and shane—and Urusius, which I found through hanging up with the French jerk and he's awesome so steal; we would have enough builds to go around and help them perform, and who knows maybe enjoy the tier.

It's hard to say it went super well cause we finished last; although like two games away from semis...? Wild; but in theory the approach was sound lol. We had DPP builds in the back, once I got my head in it in BW after two HORRIBLE weeks I thought I could deliver easily and both outplay and outbuild in a tier I think I know super well... But well, life happened to a few players, and I'm nowhere near as confident in SM PU lmao. I tried relearning it to the point of actually building, and I think I had some good ideas but nowhere near the quantity expected in PUPL, or even the quality. Still thankful to the people who helped when they could and definitely had great ideas that, with a little more luck on our side, could have pulled us into contention.

Final thoughts

Congratulations to the Destructive Dedennes on their first PUPL victory, after coming so close to the title last year! PUPL V was incredibly close, nail biting, and competitive; each team had a chance to make it to playoffs during the fifth week. New promising players rose, old players returned, and there were lots of upsets, highlight games, and interesting moments that made PUPL V special for both players and spectators. Week in and week out, though, the Destructive Dedennes proved how dominating they were, going undefeated and pulling 8-0 and 7-1 victories in the group stages. Will they be able to defend their title in PUPL VI? I guess you'll have to catch us back next year.

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