Premier League Spotlight: RoAPL VIII

Art by skrimps.

Introduction

The Ruins of Alph Premier League, or RoAPL, is one of Ruins of Alph's biggest team tours, consisting of eight teams with ten slots each. This tour showcases some of the oldest metagames that Smogon has to offer, including two slots for every generation's OU meta from RBY to BW. RoAPL attracts fresh and veteran players alike, so this large tour serves as a way for players new and old to show off their skills in a battle for victory.

This edition of RoAPL brought back many old faces to the manager pairs, including back-to-back RoAPL champion CALLOUS alongside new comanager Iguana looking to secure a hat trick for the Lilycove Ludicolos. Also returning were blank and kjdaas, leading the Pyrite Pichus, and Vulpix03 and the Sunyshore Shaymins, this time managing alongside Excal, with both teams looking to find a victory after their runs ended in semifinals in the last RoAPL. Several players from RoAPL VII also joined the ranks of the managers in this edition, such as RoAPL VII champion Kristyl alongside veteran RoAPL manager crayon pop. Former Pyrite Pichu Groudon teamed up with MANNAT, a longtime face in the tournaments scene, and Amaranth took up the mantle of the former Cinnabar Chandelures alongside his Italian brother -Howkings, rebranding as the Mauville Magnetons. PDC also took on the role of manager alongside Gilbert arenas after a disappointing RoAPL VII, aiming to win a team tour by never sending a lineup after week one or speaking in their own team server. Rounding out the manager pairs were RoAPL V, VI, and VII host HSOWA and Links, both new to managing in RoAPL this year.

Draft

Goldenrod Gengars

• Managers: MANNAT, Groudon
• Final Team: ziloXX, watermess, Spl4sh, fatty, Siatam, Ctown6, 16bit, Splash, ArcticBreeze, Kerts, Mikon, airfare, avarice, jacob, Mendeez, Fantos13, mad dawg, Sahki

Lilycove Ludicolos

• Managers: CALLOUS, Iguana
• Final Team: Bushtush, frisoeva, mikmer, Jirachee, shiloh, eden, Genesis7, Mr.378, Marshall.Law, Jhonx~, Voyager, gorex

Maroon Magcargos

• Managers: Kristyl, crayon pop
• Final Team: elodin, Triangles, -Tsunami-, Zokuru, mncmt, Lacus Clyne, Koalacance, Nalorium, SaDiSTiCNarwhal, JabbaTheGriffin, oiponabys, Thepatatedouce, QWILY, Colteor, Sam

Mauville Magnetons

• Managers: Amaranth, -Howkings
• Final Team: McMeghan, CyberOdin, Fakee, hellpowna, RealJester, Pideous, byronthewellwell, BlazingDark, Ophion, Quarante8, STABLE, Mister Tim, BlessyZ

Mt. Moon Men

• Managers: PDC, Gilbert arenas
• Final Team: umbry, TonyFlygon, Thor, Aliss, robjr, Welli0u, Frrf, pkThunderbolt, Torchic, Monai, Uncle Jack, Mimikyu Stardust

Pyrite Pichus

• Managers: starry blanket, kjdaas
• Final Team: TDK, gorgie, Prinz, The Quasar, talah, Expulso, Stone_Cold, Abyssal Ruins, Jisoo, vani, Dark Eeveon, March Fires, egalvanc, Heysup, Boxwood, Hervalt, zee

Sunyshore Shaymins

• Managers: Excal, Vulpix03
• Final Team: Finchinator, Hclat, johnnyg2, Leru, Mana, Leo, DeepBlueC, Justamente, Chaitanya, jonfilch, Revenge Killer, Samqian

Violet Vaporeons

• Managers: HSOWA, Links
• Final Team: z0mOG, SuperEpicAmpharos, Hyogafodex, Maya Chansey, Siglut, Oiseau Bleu, A Hero's Destiny, Tomahawk, Ravenna, Chiles Habaneros, Lily, Beraldinho, ForgottenOnes, Heika, holly

While the most expensive player in the tournament was former BW Circuit Champion Finchinator with a 33k retain to the Sunyshore Shaymins, more than one fourth of the team's initial 120k budget, long-time ADV player McMeghan was the priciest player in the auction, costing the Mauville Magnetons 30.5k credits. elodin, fresh off of earning another red trophy in SPL XIII, and GSC player TonyFlygon followed close behind at 28k and 27k, respectively.

The Early Weeks

In the first four weeks of the tournament, the Goldenrod Gengars and Pyrite Pichus quickly established themselves as the teams to beat, and they even tied when they faced each other in week four, while the Maroon Magcargos and Mauville Magnetons found themselves at the bottom of the standings, with the latter team going winless in the first four.

Dark Eeveon and Torchic both showed themselves as pillars of their teams, each with a 4-0 record early on and victories against established players like umbry, Chaitanya, and TDK between them. Expulso boasted an equally strong start, despite an auction price of only 3k. On the other hand, 15k robjr and 10.5k mncmt both failed to produce a single win, each going 0-3 in the first four weeks.

Midseason Standings

The Later Weeks

Entering the later half of the tour, the Goldenrod Gengars dropped from their spot on top of the standings as they put up two more ties against the Violet Vaporeons and Mt. Moon Men in succession, while the Violet Vaporeons's week six victory against the Lilycove Ludicolos put them in second place, behind the Pyrite Pichus, who won both weeks five and six. The struggles continued for the bottom three teams, however, as they were only able to put up two wins between them in the last three weeks. CALLOUS's hopes of achieving a third victory in a row were quickly dashed as the Lilycove Ludicolos lost three weeks in a row, and the Mauville Magnetons earned their only victory of the tour in week five against the Sunyshore Shaymins.

Going into week seven, the Pyrite Pichus, Violet Vaporeons, and Goldenrod Gengars were guaranteed to advance to the playoffs, while the Maroon Magcargos, Mauville Magnetons, and Lilycove Ludicolos were completely out of contention. The Sunyshore Shaymins and Mt. Moon Men both had a shot at the fourth place slot, with the Sunyshore Shaymins needing to beat the Goldenrod Gengars to avoid any possibility of a tiebreaker. As the week drew to a close, the score between the Sunyshore Shaymins and Goldenrod Gengars sat at 5-4 in favor of the Sunyshore Shaymins, but the Mt. Moon Men had also already won the week, so if the Sunyshore Shaymins tied, there was a chance to force a tiebreaker between the two. The week came down to a BW match between Chaitanya and Sahki played just two hours before the deadline in which Chaitanya secured a narrow 1-0 victory and advanced the Sunyshore Shaymins into semifinals.

As the regular season wrapped up, the strongest records belonged once again to the duo of Dark Eeveon and Torchic, each going 6-1 over the qualifying weeks. Ctown6 turned their 3k price into a 5-2 RBY record, with Kerts and TDK having equally strong showings for the advancing teams. Despite the lackluster performance of their teams overall, Welli0u, Marshall.Law, and SaDiSTiCNarwhal also put up 5-2 performances, the best showings on the Lilycove Ludicolos and Maroon Magcargos. On the other hand, STABLE and Fakee brought the Mauville Magnetons a combined 2-10 record with one win each, and longtime players Genesis7 and Zokuru fell short with 1-6 and 0-5 records, respectively.

Final Standings

Highlight Match

Chaitanya vs Sahki - BW

The Team Preview of this game is interesting. Sahki loads up a hyper offense team featuring lead Aerodactyl, and teams like this tend to have a neutral-to-negative matchup into the type of team his opponent Chaitanya loaded, which is a sand-based bulky offense. While the matchup is certainly far from impossible for Sahki, Latios is an enormous threat against his team if it's running a Choice Scarf, and he not may have enough tools to handle the rest of Chaitanya's team if Volcarona doesn't have Hidden Power Ground for Heatran. Landorus-T will likely cause some issues for Breloom and Dragonite as well.

The game starts off normally; Aerodactyl trades its life for Stealth Rock and Tailwind, but Sahki makes a critical error in not using Taunt against Landorus-T, presumably expecting one of Ferrothorn or Heatran to have Stealth Rock. This will result in Dragonite and Volcarona being severely crippled whenever they come in and puts Chaitanya in the driver's seat. After some pivoting turns, Breloom goes down to Landorus-T, followed by Landorus-T getting blasted by Keldeo; this lets Chaitanya bring in his Rotom to freely give Ferrothorn a turn via Volt Switch. At this point, the game is looking extremely difficult for Sahki unless Dragonite can pull a miracle; Volcarona is extremely low on HP, Keldeo can never break through Latios and Rotom-W on its own, and Jirachi has to contend with both Ferrothorn and Heatran. Tyranitar goes down to Keldeo, which is promptly revenge killed through a combination of Rotom-W's Volt Switch and Latios's Dragon Pulse; Sahki is then forced to go Jirachi. He makes an attempt to double switch into Latios on a predicted Heatran switch, which sadly doesn't work out, as Chaitanya can simply sack his Rotom-W to Stealth Rock and bring Latios back in, which takes some sand chip and does actually go down to Extreme Speed after KOing Jirachi. Ferrothorn goes down to a follow-up Fire Punch, but this reveals something unfortunate; Sahki's Dragonite is not running Earthquake, so it cannot touch Heatran, which proceeds to KO it with Dragon Pulse after tanking an Outrage.

Semifinals

Thanks to their victory in week seven, the Sunyshore Shaymins found themselves facing the first seed Pyrite Pichus. The Pichus's ADV players, Abyssal Ruins and kael, quickly put them in a 2-0 lead, and despite Finchinator's victory over the Pichus's favorite BW player and encouraging "go team stop sucking" win post, Stone_Cold and Prinz sealed the week; so the Shaymins found themselves with a 3-6 loss versus the Pichus and another tournament ended in semifinals.

The Violet Vaporeons and Goldenrod Gengars also competed in semifinals, after a week five matchup that ended in a tie. Despite the Gengars taking a strong 5-2 lead, a late series of victories from Tomahawk, Maya Chansey, and Ravenna would once again make for a tie between the two teams. The chosen tiers for the tiebreaker were BW from the Vaporeons and GSC from the Gengars, with RBY and DPP being struck out and leaving ADV for the third. Kerts took the first win for the Gengars over SuperEpicAmpharos, and a last-minute substitution of Spl4sh over avarice in BW proved fruitful, as the Gengars won the tiebreaker in two games and advanced into finals.

Highlight Matches

Stone_Cold vs DeepBlueC - DPP

Here we see an immediate lead battle of metallic Psychics, with Metagross forcing Jirachi to switch out. Some basic exchanges happen for a few turns, and then Stone_Cold's Breloom gets an opportunity to freely Substitute; a surprise Jolly nature enables Breloom to put the Jirachi to sleep while also keeping its Substitute, so it can get some good chip damage on Zapdos, but then an unfortunate misprediction from Stone_Cold results in the mushroom's untimely demise. Tyranitar then comes in, though, and Swampert is already paralyzed; it does fortunately get to nail the boosted kaiju with an Earthquake before DeepBlueC's Breloom's Mach Punch finishes the job. From here, it might be looking tough for Stone Cold, but then Nasty Plot Infernape comes in; it fries Jirachi, and it turns out that DeepBlueC's Starmie isn't running maximum Speed investment, meaning it's toppled by a Grass Knot! A critical hit Vacuum Wave drops Breloom, and Clefable falls to a Blaze-boosted Fire Blast; Swampert meets the same fate afterwards, and suddenly the score has gone from 6-4 in favor of DeepBlueC to 3-1 in favor of Stone_Cold. Jirachi lands a paralysis on Zapdos, and from there it tries to chip it down before eventually falling; surprisingly, Stone_Cold's Metagross doesn't pack Explosion, so it's all down to Flygon to finish the job after Zapdos lands a Heat Wave burn on Metagross. Fortunately for Stone_Cold, a critical hit Outrage slams Zapdos and lets his Flygon take it out, winning him the match.

SuperEpicAmpharos vs Kerts - ADV

In this matchup, we have Kerts vs SuperEpicAmpharos, also known as SEA. SEA leads with an off-the-wall pick in Vaporeon, which has a solid matchup against Kerts's lead Salamence. Some basic early sequencing results in Magneton getting a free opportunity to switch into Skarmory, removing the steel bird and presumably giving SEA a huge advantage. Magneton is sacked the next turn, which is fine—it did its job— but then out comes... Lunatone? It unsurprisingly accomplishes nothing before being popped by Metagross, and suddenly things aren't looking too hot for SEA. Jirachi is able to handle Tyranitar, but SEA's team seems completely unable to break past Blissey at this point; Kerts's squad is just unbreakable for SEA's Pokémon, with seemingly nothing actually directly benefitting from the removal of Skarmory. Kerts eventually manages to sweep through SEA's team with his Tyranitar, putting his team ahead in the tiebreaker.

Finals

The two top teams from the early season, the Goldenrod Gengars and the Pyrite Pichus, once again found themselves facing off in the final week of RoAPL VIII. Similarly to the Gengars' semifinals matchup, this pair's last battle had ended in a tie.

Once again, the Pichus started out with a quick 2-0 lead thanks to their ADV core of Abyssal Ruins and kael, who played minutes apart to gain the advantage in a pair of victories against big ADV names Kerts and watermess. Despite the Gengars fighting back and bringing the week to 5-3 thanks to Spl4sh, ArcticBreeze, and Mikon, it would be Prinz once again claiming the winning point for his team with a RBY set and securing the Pyrite Pichus the RoAPL VIII victory.

After finals, Dark Eeveon in their team tour debut ended up being the one with the best record overall, going 7-2 in BW. TDK put up an also strong 6-3 RBY record, and Abyssal Ruins rounded out the Pichus' top three with a solid 6-1 showing. For the Gengars, their top performers were Kerts and Ctown6, each with a 6-3 record, followed closely by Spl4sh and watermess with a pair of 5-3 records.

Highlight Matches

vani vs Siatam - GSC

GSC is normally considered to be the slow, stally generation; in reality, offensive pressure is the name of the game in Generation 2, and this replay shows that off excellently. vani's lead Zapdos comes out into a Snorlax, which isn't ideal, but it allows him to get an early opportunity to bring in Cloyster and thus set up Spikes. This proves to be dangerous for Siatam, as even though he's running Toxic Snorlax (a giveaway that Siatam is using a stall team) and manages to cripple Cloyster, vani's Zapdos immediately starts putting huge pressure on Siatam's team. Raikou comes in and gives Snorlax a free opportunity for vani, as Siatam is forced to Rest and shed paralysis, and upon bringing Skarmory in on Snorlax, Siatam gets his bird burnt up by a Fire Blast! Suicune then takes a critical hit Double-Edge, and it's clear that Siatam is on the back foot. vani manages to KO Snorlax and heavily weaken Skarmory with Exeggutor in addition to chipping Cloyster, and from there it's looking pretty over for Siatam. Not only are his Snorlax checks low on health, vani's Gengar also immediately catches Raikou with an Explosion, which means Zapdos is looking terrifying too. Exeggutor finishes the job on Cloyster and Explodes on Snorlax, taking that out too; at this point it's quite clear that Zapdos is going to win on its own, especially after it successfully knocks out Golem. Some early turns made this tough for Siatam, and vani's Exeggutor just got too much mileage for Siatam to overcome. vani's Explosion usage in this game shows how good play with offense can really give the user an advantage over stall in GSC!

Prinz vs Ctown6 - RBY Bo3

Game One

Prinz gets off to a strong start, doubling in Exeggutor for Alakazam turn one against Gengar and catching the incoming Chansey. This lets him get sleep off before Ctown and start making progress with Psychic, but Ctown later sleeps Prinz's Alakazam to get it back to a roughly five against five match. After trading Snorlaxes, Prinz makes a very aggressive play by hard switching his Tauros in very early against Chansey and gets a lucky 1/256 Thunder Wave miss to avoid paralysis while scouting for Counter. Ctown similarly gets some Tauros luck, landing a critical hit against Prinz's Reflect Chansey and taking it down. Prinz reveals Zapdos as his last, which looks fairly strong if Ctown's last is Alakazam, but instead he reveals Jolteon, which stops the Zapdos from ever making significant progress and secures Game 1 for Ctown.

Game Two

After the same lead matchup with a few adjustments, the first major play of the game was Alakazam waking up early on Turn 10 and forcing out Ctown's Chansey at 52% and paralyzed. It is also nearly able to take down Exeggutor, but both faint after Explosion. Prinz's Alakazam waking up does have its drawbacks—Ctown is now able to wake up his Gengar and land Hypnosis on Slowbro, preventing it from continuing to set up Amnesia and potentially winning the game. Despite this, Prinz's Exeggutor and Tauros put in a ton of work, KOing Chansey, Snorlax, and Tauros, the last in part to a lucky critical hit on Tauros and full paralysis on Chansey. From there, Prinz's Chansey is able to outlast the onslaught from Alakazam and Gengar and eventually force a Gengar Explosion to win the game.

Game Three

Ctown6's lead Gengar is unable to find a positive matchup for the third straight game and eventually gets hit with a critical hit and eliminated after trading sleep while trying to predict Explosion. Prinz reveals Zapdos fairly early on and is able to effectively take out both Ctown's Chansey and Zapdos, showing it has use not only as a cleaner but a wallbreaker as well. Once again, Prinz plays very aggressively with his Tauros, but Ctown makes a strong play and clicks Self-Destruct instead of Rest on Turn 35 to effectively take down the Tauros. However, this is not enough, as Prinz's Exeggutor, Chansey, and Snorlax are able to beat Ctown's Cloyster and Tauros and secure the RoAPL VIII championship for the Pyrite Pichus.

Final Thoughts

blank, one of the managers of the winning Pyrite Pichus, offered their thoughts on the tournament:

Conclusion

After a hard-fought tournament, the Pyrite Pichus finally came out on top with a well-earned victory and an undefeated overall record of 6-0-3. One of the most dominant teams in the tournament since the first weeks, their unquenchable team spirit and the strong performances of most of their team carried the Pichus not just to the win, but to redemption for last RoAPL as well.

Giving spotlights to both new and old players, RoAPL VIII succeeded in showcasing some amazing games from the oldest generations of Pokémon. To watch all of the games from this tournament, check out the RoAPL VIII replay thread, and keep an eye out for next year's edition of RoAPL!