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Tournament NUCL II - Commencement

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Mock 1
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Finchinator20500
NotVeryCake18500
Estarossa15000
RufflesPro14500
uppa14500
Ninja14000
Dangerous8500
Meru8000
Hacker6000
skierdude1015000
Rewer4500
Mada4000
Plague4000
violet river3000
Ren-chon18500
Xiri18000
DugZa17000
ima17000
eifo13500
damien the genius10000
Soucou9500
Leni8000
Santu8000
frankjosh8000
Abejas3500
Toxin Boost3000
Rasche3000
Hiko3000
vivalospride18000
Feliburn15500
Bouff15500
SEROO15000
Don Eduardo13500
Sabelette10500
Cao Jie9500
LessThanThreeMan9500
Phantomistix8000
AM7000
velvet4500
tko4000
dunoks3500
Fathiryxi3000
Rowlet694203000
Elias PSY23000
Thiago Nunes21000
Teh20000
MZ16500
ishtar15000
Suzuya8000
Tenebricite8000
sufys7000
BeatsBlack5500
SBPC3500
hex3500
BigFatMantis3000
Zcarlett3000
Feaniix3000
OranBerryBlissey1026000
Real FV1324000
watashi23500
Django17000
Fc10000
emforbes9500
leoperi996500
big tony 20145500
BaitWiz3000
Wesleyy3000
StreetBoom3000
Colteor3000
stunner0473000
Soda_Eesti3000
Kushalos21000
Tuthur20000
Alice Kazumi17000
Tree6942016500
plznostep8000
gastlies7000
Kaboom6000
waterfals6000
PrinceOfAllTacos5500
Ineros5000
roxie5000
Ryu5000
Ampha5000
Ac1D_135000
Eternal Sunset4500
boomp3000
eternal ocean18000
Heysup17000
Luck O' the Irish15000
HSOWA14000
Drud14000
Wadley13000
feen12000
Medeia9000
Wanted in 49 States8000
Forest Guardian6000
hammer7985000
Zerotwo.3000
kimer3000
Rilo3000
quziel20000
Bughouse18500
Piyu16500
Metallica12613500
BeeOrSomething10000
HANTSUKI8000
poh7500
Lucario7000
Seraphz7000
Skyiew5000
THE_CHUNGLER4500
Career Ended4500
LBN4000
FFK3000
Vaporeonds3000
Tsuki3000
FlamPoke3000
OranBerryBlissey1026000
Real FV1324000
watashi23500
Elias PSY23000
Kushalos21000
Thiago Nunes21000
Finchinator20500
Teh20000
quziel20000
Tuthur20000
NotVeryCake18500
Ren-chon18500
Bughouse18500
vivalospride18000
Xiri18000
eternal ocean18000
Heysup17000
Django17000
Alice Kazumi17000
DugZa17000
ima17000
Tree6942016500
MZ16500
Piyu16500
Feliburn15500
Bouff15500
ishtar15000
Estarossa15000
SEROO15000
Luck O' the Irish15000
RufflesPro14500
uppa14500
HSOWA14000
Ninja14000
Drud14000
Metallica12613500
Don Eduardo13500
eifo13500
Wadley13000
feen12000
Sabelette10500
BeeOrSomething10000
Fc10000
damien the genius10000
Cao Jie9500
LessThanThreeMan9500
Soucou9500
emforbes9500
Medeia9000
Dangerous8500
Meru8000
Phantomistix8000
Suzuya8000
Leni8000
HANTSUKI8000
plznostep8000
Santu8000
Tenebricite8000
frankjosh8000
Wanted in 49 States8000
poh7500
Lucario7000
Seraphz7000
AM7000
sufys7000
gastlies7000
leoperi996500
Kaboom6000
waterfals6000
Hacker6000
Forest Guardian6000
big tony 20145500
PrinceOfAllTacos5500
BeatsBlack5500
Ineros5000
roxie5000
Ryu5000
Skyiew5000
hammer7985000
Ampha5000
skierdude1015000
Ac1D_135000
THE_CHUNGLER4500
Career Ended4500
Eternal Sunset4500
velvet4500
Rewer4500
LBN4000
Mada4000
Plague4000
tko4000
SBPC3500
dunoks3500
hex3500
Abejas3500
Zerotwo.3000
FFK3000
BigFatMantis3000
Zcarlett3000
Vaporeonds3000
BaitWiz3000
kimer3000
Wesleyy3000
Tsuki3000
boomp3000
Feaniix3000
Fathiryxi3000
StreetBoom3000
Colteor3000
Toxin Boost3000
Rowlet694203000
FlamPoke3000
stunner0473000
Rilo3000
Rasche3000
violet river3000
Hiko3000
Soda_Eesti3000
 
:charizard: :mr-mime:The Lazy Manager's Guide to Drafting RBY :venomoth: :seadra:
NUCL II Edition​
Hey y'all. Sign-ups are almost closed which means it's the perfect time to highlight some players that I feel deserve to be drafted! I know most managers are pretty unfamiliar with the wider RBY community so hopefully this will prevent some people from getting snubbed like last year.

I'll be placing each person that I deem to be worth talking about into one of two tiers; Proven, and Promising. Everyone I'm including can win games but some picks are certainly safer than others. Names will be ordered alphabetically within each tier.

Proven Players​

:gastly: gastlies: (1-1 RBYPL V, RBY NU Open III Champion)
The winner of the last RBY Grand Slam and the most recent RBY NU open. One of the most winning-est RBY low tier players of all time, and she's played RBY in basically every team tour that features an RBY tier. Recently she's been focusing more on OU, but her low tiers is still very strong. While I've never teamed with her personally, we do talk somewhat often and she's really funny and a fun person to hang around with. Definitely a good addition to your team if you're looking for an active team chat.


:slurpuff: NotVeryCake: (RBY NU Open III finalist, 4-2 RBY NU Invitational Play-Ins)
NotVeryCake (Gake) is one of the greatest to ever do it. She's THE most winning-est RBY low tier player with 5 wins in five different individuals (no team tournaments yet!) Unfortunately she got majorly snubbed for the last NUCL, where she was more than qualified, so I'm really excited to see how she does now that she's even better! She almost made it out of the playins for the RBY NU invitational with a 4-0 record, but was unfortunately taken out by stunner047 in the final qualifying round. She's an experienced pilot and has some of the most recent experience out of everyone on this list. Sometimes she's a little too blunt during metagame discussions but she's overall a very knowledgeable player and very likely to go positive this year.


:sandshrew: Sabelette: (2-2 RBYPL V, 2-4 NUCL I, 2-2 RBY NU Invitational)
Even if you only know a teeny-tiny bit about RBY, there's a very high chance that you know who Sabelette is. She really doesn't need an introduction. One of the most prolific RBY players out there and the only person in recorded history to single-handedly take on the entire TD team in a PR battle and win. She has an incredibly strong work ethic and has a commanding grasp of the teambuilder in every single low tier (especially NU). Unfortunately, she's also incredibly unlucky. She's been frozen turn 1 by Blizzard more times than I can count. But, if you're willing to put up with the bad luck and all the stress that comes with that then you're going to have an excellent player with excellent vibes.


:dewgong: stunner047: (RBY NU Invitational Finalist)
Stunner stunned (get it?) everyone during the RBY NU invitational by making it to the finals all the way from the open play-ins, beating strong players like Ice Yazu, Sceptross, and Enigami before being defeated by Volk twice in Winners Finals and Grand Finals for a very respectable 2nd place. That's not to say that stunner was never known for his NU. He actually did win NUSD III with an unimpressive 2-7 record, but this was his best NU performance by far. He then went on to team up with Volk for RBYPL V and (presumably) helped him on Volk's way to a pool-leading 5-3 record. His recent performances more than make up for his previous poor performance, which makes him a very good pick this year.


:absol: Teh: (7-0 NUCL I, 2-2 RBY NU Invitational)
(Written by Sabelette ily goat)
The artist formerly known as TehTayTeh famously 7-0'd last NUCL, notably beating players like Sabelette and nicole7735 on his way to the title. Since cutting his name down by two thirds, he hasn't quite replicated that success, but he made a solid run in RBY NU Cup to quarterfinals and went out after a couple rounds of RBY NU Open to an eventual finalist, but he managed RBYPL and assisted prep for the NU slot as well. Teh's also a positive chat presence and one of the funniest people on Smogon, so your other slots will probably pick up an extra win or two just from the emotional benefit of having a fun teamchat.


:magmar: Toxin Boost: (4-1 RBYPL V, 5-2 RBY NU Invitational, RBY NU Spotlight III Champion)
The RBYPL V champion, carrying his team to a victory! Toxin Boost has arguably had the best NU performance out of anyone this year. He played in basically every RBY NU tournament this year and did well in all of them. While he's still relatively new, he's proven himself to be one of the best players of the tier. I have no doubt that he's eager to continue his hot streak and make a name for himself with the wider NU community. Sometimes his inexperience comes back to bite him and he makes an overzealous predict that doesn't work out, but if he's able to keep winning consistently then that clearly isn't too much of a problem. Draft him and I can guarantee you'll be happy with the result.

Promising Players
Gonna be less descriptive for these ones, but I'll still try to convey everything I think is relavent.
​
:kyurem: A Welcome Guest: (RBY NU Cup III Finalist)
This guy seems to play literally every tier ever, which is definitely cool if you're looking for a versatile player. He also had a pretty decent run in the last RBY NU Cup, but as far as I know he didn't build any of his teams. I ended up supplying him with some of the stuff I cooked up during his later rounds, which seemed to do the trick. If you're gonna draft him for RBY I'd recommend pairing him with someone who can cook up solid teams, unless you want to risk unreliable teams or a predictable scout.

:dragonite: Cao Jie: (1-0 RBYPL V, 0-2 ALT PL II, 0-2 RBY NU Invitational Play-Ins)
Cao Jie is a certified boomer, he's been winning in RBY since the very first RBYPL back in 2020. He's been playing NU for nearly just as long too, and he's probably the most experienced player here, having played in basically every meta we've gone through. His recent results don't really tell the full picture, he's been a consistently good player for a very long time and should definitely be considered if you're looking for a cheaper RBY.

:chansey:GirlsSeeGhosts: (No Recent Results)
Just for transparency, this guy has NEVER played any NU tier, including RBY. However, they're one of the most enthusiastic players on the site at the moment and just came off a great OU performance in RBYPL V. He's also very good at picking up new tiers, with him having deep runs in Smogon Masters and ADV Revival despite not really knowing the tiers well beforehand. He's said that he'll do horrible things for a chance to win a custom avatar, so if you're looking to force someone to play your favourite NU tier he'd be more than willing to put in the effort. YOU SHOULD ALSO CONSIDER SIGNING UP FOR HIS METAFY #AD #SPONSORED

:breloom: hammer798: (RBY NU Cup III Semi-Finalist)
Hammer had a pretty decent run during the last RBY NU Cup, and they seems to be pretty motivated to do well in RBY too. Admittedly I don't know too much about hammer, but they seem pretty decent at the tier. They don't really have a good teambuilder so it might be best to pair them with someone who knows more about building. They seem to also play other NU tiers but I'm not qualified enough to say if they're good enough to get drafted for those tiers.

:tangela: Maris Bonibell: (5-1 RBY NU Invitational Play-Ins)
In my very subjective opinion, Maris is the best RBY NU player in this tier. However, she's also fairly unproven. She did well in Invitational play-ins but wasn't able to make it to the main event, and didn't make it particularly far in any individual tournaments. Maris is mostly a UU player, and has very good results in UU team tours, but she's never really ventured into NU until now. She should go for pretty cheap this tournament if someone nominates her, so if you're willing to take a bit of a gamble (with good odds I'd say,) then this would be a very good choice.

:rhydon: Medeia: (No recent results)
Medeia is more of a jack-of-all-trades player than an RBY player, having decent results for RBY and GSC in the past (I can't say how well she's done in the other tiers she listed.) The last time she played RBY that I'm aware of was during RBYPL IV, where she had a somewhat poor 1-3 record. However, one bad performance hardly defines someone, especially since she's done well in a variety of tiers across a ton of different generations. She may have to de-rust for a little bit before playing at max efficiency, but I think she's absolutely worth waiting for.

:articuno: TG2513: (0-3 RBYPL V, 0-2 RBY NU Invitational Play-Ins)
I hate to say this, because I love the guy, but TG has not proven himself to be a top player yet. He's a motivated player which is awesome to see, but he's just missing something from his gameplan. If you're willing to purchase him I could see him turning it around but I can understand if any managers are apprehensive to take that risk. I know TG is destined for better things, though, it's just a matter of time.

:sudowoodo: Tree69420: (1-4 RBYPL V, 4-2 NUCL I)
MY GOAT LMAOOOO. He'd absolutely rather play SV but like, you could force him to RBY. He didn't exclude it. If you're his manager he'll be at your mercy. Consider it if you must. He's not a perfect RBY player by any means but has the experience to do well, especially if you force him to lock in.

:fearow: Wanted in 49 States: (2-1 RBY NU Invitational Play-Ins)
Wanted is definitely more well known for his PU results, being on the RBY PU council and winning the most recent ROA spotlight for the tier. He did play in a few individual tournaments for NU but he hasn't really made a name for himself in NU quite yet. I know he's a capable player and can do well, but he lacks the experience in NU currently. Maybe this can be his big break if a manager doesn't mind spending 3k on him.
 
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Lazy manager guide to drafting gsc etc etc (just going down the list)

SENTURIES afaik very little experience in the tier but he's incredibly active and an outstanding guy and he likely knows enough from gscpl

Forest Guardian also very new to the tier but seems to like gsc which is good

Medeia plenty of gsc experience

plznostep you know em. did quite well in gscpl

Real FV13 you know him

Estarossa you know him. dunno if he actually wants to play gsc though

Alice Kazumi good gsc experience though little in NU

jking55 new to the tier but he's motivated and played some in gscpl

BigFatMantis you know him as a cheeser (which he is) but he'll win games and he's funny

cheru idt has played in a while but she's played before

susciety :haha:

oh and of course u should pick me to help someone out.
 
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Biased PRs:

1: :flamigo: Flamigo Amigos
2: :ditto: Limber Ditto Lovers
3: :staravia: Starabias
4: :milotic: Melodic Milotics
5: :slowking: Wising Tides
6: :gyarados: Goo Lagoon Garydos
7: :flygon: Let Flygons be Flygons
8: :munkidori: Hunky Dory Munkidoris

Good luck to the other teams on competing for second place.

On a more serious note this tour will be amazing to manage, play and to spectate.

I genuinely believe that order but the gap between the slots is minimal and any team can beat any team.

This tour will test the managers ability to select the ideal LU considering your own talent but the opp talent as well.

It will be awesome to see the old gens getting a highlight and a bit more of SV high-level gameplay.

To all the new faces, welcome to the NU community.

To all the returning ones good to have you all back.

Good luck to all teams and that we have a amazing tour.

:flamigo: VAMOS AMIGOS :flamigo:
 
Hope you all enjoy this week 1

Top 5.png

This NUCL we will have a lot of team tour debuts and returning star. The clash of Elias PSY and LessThanThreeMan was just that and in the end even with a big difference in tour experience was a fun game to watch. Great to see both in action! But what makes this game enters top 5 is the Elias fat team. He is the best builder on that slow paced grind game and the core with Vapo, A-Muk and Houndstone worked to perfection.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nu-811042
On our forth spot we have the ADV game of the week a duel of huge names between Heysup and shiloh . Nice to watch, no bs . Just 2 great players clicking. Raticate of all mons is 1-0 in NUCL.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3nu-811011
Personally the most entertaining game of the week. Was it masterfully played? No. But hell Oathkeeper and HANTSUKI gave us a show. And to jump on the opportunity a big shout out to the GSC community that highlighted their tier very well this week one showing how nice it can be with a lot of good/fun/high stakes games to watch.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen2nu-2266305132-knjgmlwvp3dtxkyapsk8wmitu0sznd1pw
Teh vs NotVeryCake was a very Hype MU, both o of the best RBYs that we have clashing on the start of week 1 was fudamental to set the Flamigos success and specially game 2. Teh brought a core with Baby Egg+ Graveler. Amazing series they gave us + nice creativity displayed.


g1 https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1nu-811064
g2 https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1nu-811065
The game between vivalospride and Leni was the most entertaining from both a point of emotional roller-coaster but for a clicking standpoint too. Leni was playing very very well but Viv was on another lvl. Dodged the Custap Explosion, got the Focus Punch KO , got the Drifblim KO even with a para and cleaned with Tauros that survived with 10% hp the Sharpedo aqua jet. Amzing game!

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4nu-811409
 
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WEEK 2 TOP 5

So in week that actually had quite a bit of drama, I was divided to include it or not because liking or not its part of the fun of the tour but I will keep here a place to highlight the players. We will cover the drama later.

And although I'm bias, its not my fault Flamigos' games were fire.

1736164332270.png

Game 3 of a RBY Bo3 in series that is 3-1 so its a huge game in terms of momentum. That game 3 was 165 turns long... With a lot of Rest and Paras involved. It might not be that much appreciate by the viewer neither by the players. But neither side backed down in their fight for the win, turning this into an epic/tragic game that capture a fundamental part of our competitive community. Wanting to win and giving our best for that. Congrats to both Toxin Boost and Wanted in 49 States .

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1nu-812484?p2

Great game between feen and Feliburn the game was open until Ferroseed was KOed than it became some Specs Pyroar playground. The game had bragging rights on the line and the game was when the series was 3-2 so a lot of stakes too. Curious to see how people will deal with Pyroar on the upcoming weeks

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen6nu-812593

As expected this MU of good players that aren't super well known in our community was super nice to spectate. Cow played the early game super well getting a lot of progress we was up 2 full mons but he lacked the craftiness to play safe around the Sawk switch that came a bit late and it was scarf, once Zard was down Feaniix 's Serperior swiped. Very cool game.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5nu-812052

In DPP we have a very staked pool and this is one of the bests MU we can have in the Drud vs HSOWA , they faced off a lot of times and this was another banger of a game. The 2 opt for fairly normal builds but the last slot on Hsowa team being a Scarf Zangoose that was 6% of cleaning house. Very nice game for real.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4nu-812481

Let's be clear here. We are part of this tour to play and have fun. Except the Amigos, we are here to win.

BUT as a community we are here to celebrate the game we all love, have fun with our friends and have a good time together.
This week top 1 moment is easily 2 games. 2- Oathkeeper and Pokeslice vs Kiyo GSC showmatch.

I was in the losing side of the Oath MU but in the end is always great to see a positive and liked guy in our community having success. The Discord and the Forum was on fire because of that. Will we have Oathk33p3r next week?

And finally the last game of the week John Slice vs John Kiyo (this should have open the week)
2 guys that breathe NU and make our community better.

The best part of all was that both games were really fun to watch and of good lvl as well.
Thanks to MZ as well that made that ADV game with Oath really close and was a couple of rolls away to take the win home.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen2nu-813340
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen3nu-2272859355-hehqkcna8b59o09xppq29952r9ks89ypw

Congrats to all in another great week of NUCL!
 
Magic Mayhem Maiden said:
I am wondering how the Flex Slot format turned out, both for competitiveness and logistics. It seems to be received well.
Click to expand...

It was loved by all involved.

Gave us the managers a lot more participation in the outcome of the weeks.

A lot more people where able to play and be involved in the tour even if only for a couple of games where their tier had 2 games those weeks.

And in a competitive side it was fair. The best teams drafted fought for Playoffs and the winner was well deserved.

One thing that its fair to say is that the pools of the super old tiers (gen 1 and 2) were very good so there was balance there + it motivated those tiers to be played a lot. So no tier was underrepresented in the tour. Probably if we had a less qualified pool those tiers would be considerably less played but that just shows off how if a community is engaged they will get the recognition , will actively participate in tours and will be embraced by NU.

In the end a huge success and a extremely good format for those legacy tours.
 
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I really enjoyed the flex tier format. In this format managers had a lot of things to consider and it put emphasis on good managing. How do you approach a flex formatting? Do you try and cover the bases, focus in and overload certain gens? If so which generations? Do you get pilots who may need help building but can play well in multiple generations? Which picks do you make vs each team? I think we saw a variety of strategy here both in drafting and tier selection week to week. As far as inclusivity goes, some were initially concerned that the older tiers wouldn’t get much play with a smaller pool of players, but that is actually a strength here. We saw a lot of gen 1&2 games as strong counterpicks. I don’t have the breakdown of the number of games per gen handy, but if I’m remembering correctly SM was the most popular and SS was the least, but all got a good amount of play. Some may argue the level of play wasn’t always as high as with standard formats but we saw plenty of great games too.

All in all I really think the flex format made for a great tour and with plenty of variety and room for creativity as well! I think it’d be cool to see other tours take on a similar formatting in the future

Edit: I think the biggest letdown was probably just not being able to schedule more NUT videos towards the end lol but getting coverage for the first half anyways was still great
 
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Flex Format is fire despite me ending up being locked at tiers I didn't like for 8 out of 9 weeks :risitas:, but that's kind of my fault for trying out tiers I never played before and ending up hating them alas

I hope the format keeps being used in the next iterations of the tournament and if I'm still around I'll make sure that I sign in and hopefully to flex in more tiers instead of being stuck, I'll have more fun building for different tiers more often
 
Most of my thoughts on this format have been stated as both a manager and a player, and I had an absolute blast this tournament.

I think the best part of this tournament was that the gimmick lasted throughout the entire thing. Too many times in recent smogon memory, people have tried to revolutionize tournaments by trying draft gimmicks *cough* BD *cough*, but those just end up giving us PL equivalent tours with a quick little change at the beginning. By far the best part of this flex idea was that it lasted the entire length of the tournament and made it feel super unique when played right after NUPL. 10/10, and I hope that other tiers adopt this style of tournament to try out. If not, I hope other people come up with competitive formats like this that create a gimmick across the entire tournament. Super excited for next year when the Dittos run it back :)
 
Honestly this was a great idea to do overall. It was really cool seeing how you could stack oldgens especially considering how well diverse our community is with our oldgen experts. Old generations NU are fs interesting and this tour highlighted that even more this year, overall: 10/10 I agree with sliceee
 
I think the format turned out to be very good. However, I would heavily caution people who try to replicate it in a half-ways sort of method. The format was poised to actually be quite bad before shiloh intervened and proposed the actual good method. I think a format like this that has 2 guaranteed slots at the top (CG for example, or possibly an OU equivalent of something in other tours) is the only way to make it as good as it was here. When you start getting into various different random guaranteed slots and only a few flex slots etc, it loses the touch that made it a success here. So, I hope to see this format again, even in other tiers, but I hope they do not try to mess with it or try to introduce it in a weird combination way that damages what made it fun.
 
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