Tournament SCL V - LC Discussion Thread

[BlackKnight_Gawain]

Another year, another iteration of Smogon Champions League! This thread is the hub for Little Cup's involvement in the tour — we'll be posting matches, predictions, discussions, metagame trends, Norwood status of all your favorite players and whatever else relevant to the Little Cup side of things in this tournament. Much like the last two years, I'll be your host for the thread bringing you all the updates and commentary!
(Faster this time I promise)

Relevant Links:

SCL V Commencement Thread
Schedule Sheet
Replays Thread
Usage Stats
Overall Spreadsheet

Teams in full:

LC Player Cores + Prices (starters in bold):

Studio Gible:
Laroxyl (12,000), fade* (10500), Taka (9000)
Orange Islanders:
Envy (10,000), Colin (10500, retain)
Indigo Platoon:
Kaboom (5000), Fille (3000) [Kingler and Quinn manager support]
Uncharted Terrors:
Lokifan (10,000, retain), BlackKnight_Gawain (5500), Hacker* (8000)
Technical Machines:
tazz (10,000, retain) [Expulso, Piyu manager support]
Mt. Silver Foxes:
Always Edgy (3000), Onraider (3000)
Power Plant Dynamos:
jake (3000), Greedy_eb (4500)
Showdown Shoguns:
Eniigma (10000)
Circuit Breakers:
Wail Wailord (4000), AJ (5500)
Arena Spartans:
Starsama (16000) [tko manager support}​

(* indicates that a player may be listed as signed up for LC and/or tierlocked but not necessarily playing)​

 

[daunt vs]

I have been told gawain is starting

 

[reggg]

I have been told gawain is starting

why aren't you starting?

 

[Éric]

as you know, i made scl v draft predictions woo! here are the overall results:

dumb questions

the people have voted: dvs is most definitely a bum. there's only one person who voted against it, most likely dvs himself while coping.

72% of people think (wrongfully) that colin will not be playing lc this tour. this is probably due to the fact he locked out of it and has a very competent svlc partner in envy, but do not let this fool you: svlc will be his new swsh jail

actual predicts

laro, eniigma, envy and starsama are the four players who the people were absolutely sure were gonna get picked. we still dont know officially if laro is gonna play lc or not, and i guess technically we dont know if envy is playing lc (even tho its totally clear), but they all did get picked. democracy wins this time.

this is the bunch of players who got around evened out spreads of votes, meaning no one had a fucking clue whether theyd get picked or not. out of these, only edgy, onraider, greedy and fille got picked. only edgy is expected to start here, as onraider, greedy and fille all have an lc teammate that went for more money in auction. they are absolutely no slouch (except greedy who is bad and bald), so dont count them out!

these are the three people who had overall positive responses, meaning theyre likely to get picked, but not guaranteed. jake and wail got picked, while elfuseon got snubbed for some reason (unless gawain missed him in his post). these kinds of players are the most interesting to watch always, so keep an eye on them! wail def 9-0ing

lastly, these are the people you guys had absolutely no faith in getting picked, but did. you bastards. actually, i dont really know if santu got picked. gawain didnt put him in the op, but come one he is one of the best players on the site, i will just assume he missed him.

thanks for reading! and remember: if you want this post deleted, want me to post something else, or want your specific result, you can give me money for free in paypal.me/eridbst

 

[daunt vs]

why aren't you starting?

Never, that would be elderly abuse

 

[Envy]

brazil is gonna be top 3 in the sheet

 

[LeJames Chonk]

brazil is gonna be top 3 in the sheet

still will lose lcwc

 

[BlackKnight_Gawain]

daunt vs can you drop norwood prs

 

[daunt vs]

daunt vs can you drop norwood prs

Im reformed sadly they are delayed until a drifting post makes me mad again

 

[etern]

Where is Hacker

 

[BlackKnight_Gawain]

Where is Hacker

he told me he was going to istanbul. unrelated but he also has a hat on at all times

 

[jake]

hey. i heard that a bunch of you have been Talking Shit about me being in this tournament. ill have you know that if you keep being Jerks, i am going to have to sic my friend Greedy_eb on you. and you wont like what happens next

 

[Dave]

Go back to the nursing home grandpa

 

[Kingler]

since no one did a list yet and some other managers did a pretty fantastic job with the lower tiers, I guess I'll take the baton here. I'm not shake so my lc players aren't in here obviously. I've talked to a ton of lc players over the last 4-5 months and played the tier way more so this does factor in other minutae but by and large these are my opinions. someone decided to play their adv revival series now so blame the lack of LC PR writeups on that and my unwillingness to be alone for that ordeal

my list

1. lokifan
2. laroxyl
3. starsama
4. tazz
5. envy
6. eniigma
7. jake
8. always edgy
9. wail wailord

writeups

1. lokifan - this kind of needs no introduction. i believe fille told me he has like 3 losses to date in the LCPL all-time sheet and he is unfortunately set to surpass me after my disastrous LCBC/current LCPL campaigns in The Sheet. great player, intuitive and has played in playoffs. had a dominating 7-2 record last SCL and did well in this LCPL after he got to play past his week lock (i'm not looking this up so i'm gonna say like 3-0). i was going to say he didn't play indivs as a negative but that's moreso me being completely afk in those till may LOOL he made the finals of the winter seasonal and made it to a respectable like r7-r8 in the fall seasonal with i'm assuming not that much effort honestly. he didn't make it out of majors pools tb I think but pools is unviable anyway. the one actual concrete negative you can say is that he got outplayed vs larry in playoffs, so you can argue that he has a clutch problem that I will discuss for a few others, but this is not a handwave as I think his main test begins if his team makes the playoffs but I have him at #1 because he could be up to the challenge vs whoever. he said if he wins scl he's winning every lc indiv? in which case I might have to stop bro in his tracks like eniigma. he also has taka as support who is wonderful, but I must say guys spending 9k on support is wild stuff. he also has goatwain LOLOL i just know they have some insane ideas they are not gonna bring bc shiloh is gonna veto it or something.

loki was a retain, which makes him 10k. he was their only retain aside from the obvious oldspicemike retain, and while i was a little perplexed during the time it's certainly understandable to retain someone who is almost definitely doing well in the pool. this and another retain had some... let's just say interesting effects on future prices.

2. laroxyl - he would not have been at #2 if you asked me a few weeks into lcpl. an atrocious 0-3 start and overall probably middling record in that tournament wasn't anything to write home about, but he played two excellent games in the semifinals unfortunately against my team. he proved his ability to win in tiebreak against a very good player that basically does not make mistakes. a massive redemption after the year where my team beat him and he lost to pig in the lead-up game as well as fille in the finals tiebreak (he was their star player). he was like 15k last year to play ou and he has a world cup trophy, coming to be a top tier player in just a few years since he was playing lpl scrubs and it was a question whether he was good in a certain lc server (they concluded in the affirmative). but yeah, I don't think laro's had consistently excellent records or anything in lc at this stage to back this up but his ability to play in the clutch is very important.

laro was 10.5k, an absurd overpay given last year's draft situation but I guess with the lc prices this inflated it's definitely acceptable. at least retaining him for 18 would sound silly given this context so his team from last year has no regrets

3. starsama - i wasn't sure where to place star or tazz because (and this is especially set in my mind after talking to a good friend) I see them in the space of LCers that you would bet money on go positive. he went 5-2 last SCL until my boy quinn needed playing time bc the foxes were out already LOL (i think he lost to bbb but after his lcpl test shenanigans I'm in the club too), he also went like 6-1 in LCPL with like one speed tie against dunoks that he won and one timer win vs laro in a probably worse position. the loss to laro in semifinals was definitely in part a result of some pressure, with a massive early lead partly due to luck being evened out by some outplays. i think the pressure factor is the only reason he is not in one of the spots above, because while he can go positive it's almost impossible to teach or learn playing under pressure the same way as playing regularly--it's a trial by fire and we will see if he succeeds provided he makes it there.

he was an absolutely absurd 16k for an lcer, thanks in part to yours truly aggressively upbidding all the way up to 10k and two managers deciding an lc slot was worth this price. i'm not sure if gondra feels regret for not retaining him but given the direction they went in i don't think 10k starsama would work in their plans anyway since the possible support would add on to the lc price even more. he has tko for support and can handle himself in builder.

4. tazz - tazz is one of the oldest faces on the scene, even in terms of his div 1 experience (compared to the pool). he helped me out during slam playoffs and was on levi and my LCPL team for our maiden voyage all the way to the finals. he got his start in 2019 in snake iii, already being highly esteemed within the power rankings iirc and having a strong showing. fast forwarding to now, he's had a few bad tours and mostly great tours and you can expect him to go positive, he even won an SCL supporting bouli whose career i missed during my smogon sleep. tazz is a solid builder, good pilot, and expected to go positive. as far as LCPL goes, he managed the rufflets who were one of the strongest teams this year and had great teambuilding contributions i'm sure, getting inexplicably blown out vs the remoraiders in the semifinals. he mostly plays sm in those but his records are great. tazz went 6-4 in SCL last year (if expulso is to be believed and i'm sure tazz in the machines' lc chat, main season losses were to Hax). the important part here is the finals loss to larry, which kind of in the starsama vein does leave something to be desired in terms of proof that he can win in the important situations.

tazz was one of the later retains, which while surprising for his record i guess is sort of unsurprising because his managers trust him and he is good. this retain combined with the lokifan retain drove lc prices to a truly ABSURD amount (again, starsama was 16k). i heard dvs was like close to 10k in a previous scl LOL so this isn't an isolated incident maybe but just want to make sure people understand the absurdity we went through 3 days ago.

5. envy - envy came onto the scene last year. i beat him in lc classic semis, where he played decently. he definitely elevated his play in LCPL, being a key part of the #4 seeded rufflets team that upset the #1 team and brought our truly dominant LCPL team to finals tiebreak, where he slotted in BW, losing to kaboom. he played scl that year and went negative, but not by a huge margin. fast forward to this year where he was pretty much unanimously ranked #1 bw lc and did way worse fsr LOL. but he's been doing well in basically everything, top 8 or something of majors right now, very good player whose rise has been far more recent compared to all the names above (he namechanged maybe a year and some change ago and all his accomplishments have been since then, that alone is a very impressive resume). i guess i'll add that he's a circuit winner and scheduled for me one week, which led me to playing eniigma on saturday instead of sunday like i wanted. how do you wire 10$ to a brazil account?

envy was 10k, which is still on the pricey end even given that managers spent money on this tier like they had borrowed credits on a covid PPP loan. you can expect him to go even or above, but he could go below. for support he has colin, who likely would have been a LC pick until his miraculous slam run, which secured him a retain for 10.5k and the ability to escape LC Hell.

i got tired, i'll type the rest later if i get enough likes

 

[bleahey]

since no one did a good list yet and some other managers did a pretty fantastic job with the lower tiers, I guess I'll take the baton here. I've talked to a ton of lc players over the last 4-5 months and played the tier way more so this does factor in other minutae but by and large these are my opinions. someone decided to play their oraspl series now so blame the lack of LC PR writeups on that and my unwillingness to be not ghosted by coconut for that ordeal

my list

1. Starsama
2. BlackKnight_Gawain
3. Envy
4. Greedy_eb
5. Fade
6. Expulso
7. Sire clod
8. Wail Wailord
9. Eniigma
10. Edgy/Onraider

writeups

1. Self-explanatory
2. Only other mainer on the list. Gawain has been supporting the Foxes for some time so I expect him to come back with Finizen tech. Unsure why Hacker is listed here, Gawain clearly said he's not needed in this slot.
3. Second best Br
4. I don't know how Greedy convinced Jake he wasn't the one talking shit about him, but if anyone in this pool is capable of putting a hit on their starter, it's him. Expect tragic news and Greedy starting in 3-4 weeks.
5. Why Fade isn't starting is baffling. Only player on here with a trophy that isn't bubble Lakers levels of Mickey,
6. Tazz has told me he prefers to support this year. Streets are saying he cased prosecuting
7. Apparently so good, even Vert is impressed by his skills.
8. Not even an lc mon. Sell him back for Daunt Vs.
9. Shoguns picked the wrong gold medal ladder player
10. No jokes about this pair, they're actually last but hoping to see them do well so I can boost my stocks with my 8 replays of haxxing Edgy.