Tournament SCL V RU Discussion

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Welcome to the Smogon Champions League 5 Discussion Thread -- RU edition! This thread will be used to discuss RU in SCL V related topics, whether it’s about the players, personal player rankings, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. Teams, Replays, and Usage Stats can also be found here [SOON].

Commencement
Schedule
Pricelist
Power Rankings

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RU Player Cores
predicted starters in bold*, managers in italic

Power Plant Dynamos -- Kristyl, FlamPoke, JustFranco
Technical Machines -- Dj Breloominati♬, LpZ, Piyu
Uncharted Terrors -- Hacker, Metallica126, Drud
Orange Islanders -- Colin, feen, sufys
Circuit Breakers -- Santu, LBN, Stories
Studio Gible -- RichardMillePlain, Feliburn, Ajna
Showdown Shoguns -- hjkhj, 3d
Mt. Silver Foxes -- TheFranklin, Punny, umbry
Arena Spartans -- eifo, DugZa
Indigo Platoon -- robjr, Esteb4n, Flabeauf, Kingler
​
Santu26000
TheFranklin20500
Colin10500 (retain)
robjr9000
Hacker8000
RichardMillePlain7000
hjkhj6000
Dj Breloominati♬5000
eifo3000
Kristyl3000
​

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Personal PVRs, honestly even the lower ranked ones aren't even bad, somebody just has to go last. Honestly, apart from the top two, I could see any of these being very free flowing and even while writing this I changed multiple placements. (for example, the dynamos were 7th but I changed it to 4th after a bit of thinking)

1. TheFranklin, Punny, umbry. Yeah, this is by far the best team. You have the TL then two busted supports. Not much to be said, broken core.

2. robjr, Esteb4n, Flabeauf, Kingler. Okay, wtf is this support pool LOL. Like, seriously. Robjr can pilot well, but Flab+kingler can help build teams for him (mainly flab tbh) while estab4n can help too with more wild picks.

3. hjkhj, 3d. Its hjk, so yeah. 3d prob can also help a bit but its primarily going to be hjk cooking firstly.

4. Kristyl, FlamPoke, JustFranco. If this was Fp as the starter, they would have moved up a spot probably. Still, FP is a great support option and JustFranco is also a pretty good RU player. Kristyl I couldn't find them having any games in scouting/forums so yeah.

5. eifo, DugZa. Ending off the top half of the list, eifo is a good piloter and mainer so they are self sufficient, and dugza support is nice.

6. RichardMillePlain, Feliburn, Ajna. Feli+Ajna is going to mean cooking is always good for a start, and while Richard doesn't have too many games I saw in the tier, he can at least pilot different teamstyles well enough.

7. Santu, LBN, Stories. Honestly, LBN should have been the starter here, and from a bit of quick scouting, santu has only played 1 RU game (both in the replay scouter, and in searching on forums). Still though, LBN is great support and Stories can prob contribute a bit.

8. Colin, feen, sufys. Althrough Colin has done decently well in RU during slam, I would say he has less experience with the tier then most people above him. Feen prob should have started, but he could support well+sufys support is good as well.

9. Hacker, Metallica126, Drud. Hacker has done well enough in RU tourneys recently, and Metallica+drud is decent support. Concerned since IDT any of them 'main' the tier, but they all play it a decent amount to not make me put them last.

10. Dj Breloominati♬, LpZ, Piyu. Don't seee any mainers here, so unfortunately going to have to come last. Piyu+lpz is decent support, and Dj breloom is a good piloter, so def still going to have some wins here.
 
Hating on the above list would be dramatic without offering my own thoughts on the pool. My primary focus is on the starters themselves but will be using support for a good amount of the non mainers as I think of them largely not too far apart with their skillsets. Everyone bought this year is still a strong competitor and even people I may rank at the bottom of this list may very well have a good performance. With that being said..

1. Breakers (Santu). Santu is the pretty clear best player in this pool to me without any contest really. I think something people may forget about Santu because of his strong reputation in basically any tier he touches is that he has qualified for slam before and still has transitioned to SV quite nicely. He is quite capable of playing lower tiers quite well and having LBN on the team should be able to keep him up to speed on the meta quite well, but even without any support I think he pretty decidedly is the favorite in the RU pool

2. Shoguns (hjkhj). This is probably a hot take but hjkhj (or Theo as I will be calling him in the rest of this post) I do think this is the second best in the pool. I've always viewed Theo as an incredibly strong player and I think his recent form especially in this tier does support it when literally every RU game of his he plays I see him as the winner. This is Theo's first official ever so there definently may be room for him to struggle, which is why I think you can't justify putting him above Santu, but I just don't think nerves or anything will get to him with how rare it is to see the dude misplay.

3. Foxes (TheFranklin). Arce pretty clearly rounds out the top three for me. The primary reason for me to be ranking him below Theo is despite being a much more seasoned SCL player I don't think hes reached quite the consistency he used to have, but even now it would be pretty ridiculous to discount him while he still puts up strong performances in every RU team tour and is probably more in tune with the meta than anybody else. He should still be expected to hit 6 wins this SCL.

4. Platoon (robjr). Rob is another one of those players in SCL where you buy them and expect a strong campaign from in the RU slot. His team choices, while they can sometimes be stagnant, are all strong and he knows how to pilot them well. Flabeuf is a nice guy to have around to give input on teams too while Master Chief presumably is in the server while he ducks playing SCL to help Rob. Should be a strong performance here.

5. Gible (RichardMillePlain). This is where I do consider support to be a real factor for placements. Richard has a positive SCL under his belt and had a nice slam run this year so his capability as a pilot is already proven. With help from Feli and Ajna I do think Richard is set up pretty perfectly to have success. This rounds it up for me with people who I do think should be clear favorites to top the pool.

6. Islanders (Colin). Obviously someone who is pretty great form as of recent with his recent strong run in Slam with a pretty noteworthy performance in RU as well. The only real slight to have against Colin here is his lack of experience in RU team tournaments but feen is literally the perfect guy to help patch that up. I expect Colin to be building most of his own stuff here and pilot it pretty well which I do think should work pretty well on this team.

7. Machines (DJ Breloominati). Spitfire, as I will be calling him for the rest of this post, is someone I do hold up in pretty high regards in terms of being one of the most flexible players on this website. I think you can put him in just about any tier and with proper guidance he has the potential to be a strong competitor. I expect Piyu to put a lot of his focus here as he has a lot of natural synergy with Spitfire which should lead to a few neat builds seeing play with fun piloting. Spitfire could certainly end up being a dark horse in this pool

8. Spartans (Eifo). I think you can kind of argue these bottom placements any kind of way but when writing this post I do think Eifo is 8th. He has had success in SCL before so he does understand how to get wins in this environment. The low rank is primarily caused by his last performance being a little shaky but he does skill gap the majority of the pool with general RU knowledge so with some good and creative teamchoices I think he could very easily outperform this rank.

9. Dynamos (Kristyl). I do know Kristyl as a strong DPP player and an awesome builder in the tier, but she does have 0 SV posts lifetime. I expect a lot of work from FlamPoke to help start off this season on the right foot with Kristyl to start building the majority of her own stuff as she starts getting a better feel for the tier. This strategy paid off quite well for the Dynamos last year with Pkel in OU so it certainly can (and would not be surprised even) if it ends up working well here too especially with a full on support slot to help out here.

---

I would once again like to reiterate I think everyone in this pool has the potential to have success this SCL. Good luck everybody :heart:
 
wanted to give my thoughts on the rankings since this is a pretty diverse pool this year with imo a pretty big gap between some placements

1. thefranklin - everyone on this list has some question mark next to their name, specifically either a. being unfamiliar with this tier and needing some time to get up to speed or b. being unproven on the scl stage and needing to show a couple games to prove they belong... except this guy. Frank has both shown he's in touch with the tier and has a wealth of prior scl experience and in general is one of the more formidable ru names around. Beyond that his support is cracked, umbry+punny is a deadly duo who recently broke the guardians rupl curse and won the tour this year so yeah... this guy's 1

2. santu - After a highly successful LC pricefixing campaign (he is the most expensive ru starter in the pool) i have Santu coming in ranked two, this guy is just a superb clicker and has pretty good support in LBN who himself has been on a big tear this year. I personally am a lil unsure if LBN's cracked out teambuilds will mesh well with how santu will want to approach the tier but until we actually start to see results I don't think that'll be TOO big of an issue, stories is also always in the wings fresh off of a ltwc win to quality check and veto any TRULY outlandish brings

3. hjkhj - This is definitely the most ambitious of my personal rankings. I've played hjk a lot in the past both on ladder and just testing for various tours/teams throughout the year and the guy is MAD consistent. He is a tad bit straightforward in the types of teams he likes to bring (has a reputation for spamming fat/stall) but we've seen methodical styles of prep like this yield good results in the past. I will say, the shoguns basically left hjk on an island, their support in this slot looks scarce, 3d is there and had a great rupl but that was in the context of feli/ajna backing him so idk how much he'll be able to do standalone

4. robjr - robjrs a weird one to rank, I think I said this in last year's prs but he can be really see-sawy with his performances, his rupls the past couple years for example have been inexcusably inexplicably atrocious, but his SCL's which should ostensibly be higher competition are great! He's off the heels of a middling ltwc where he went 2-3 (although he got lucked in his quarters game damn u team india) so he has at least been in touch with the tier personally since last shifts. Therefore I will just go with history, I think rob has all the right indications for putting together a strong tour and has pretty good support with the ru open finalist flabeauf in his corner. Kinda like santu+lbn, i am unsure if flab can adapt his building style to rob's preferences but not so much that I would move him lower i think

5. richardmilleplain - as far as the quality of ru clicker, i probably would actually rank a few ppl below richard higher than him, however scl is always more than just the clicker and rmp has the best support in the pool. After being cruelly told they could not both manage and selfbuy in rupl, the feli/ajna combo is back in action this time on the scl stage. As far as ru pedigree/official team tour ru experience, this combo is far and away the number 1 in this year's pool. After proving that they still have their chops putting together a crazy team SV RU record in rupl too, I have no question that these guys will be able to quickly acclimate rmp and set him up for a good tour

6. hacker - although he did not play in the pools phase, hacker did go 3-0 for South in ltwc playoffs as his team won the entire tour. And, being reunited with metallica, who was the builder for us south in the latter end of their playoff run, I think hacker is setup in a decent position to do very well. However hacker's overall ru results this year besides ltwc have been a lil sparse/inconsistent which is why I don't have him a bit higher

7. colin - kinda wild to see slam finalist colin clock in at 7 but as far as his RU games specifically went, he did do pretty well but they also weren't like exceptionally standout performances to me and I am a bit skeptical if he can find long term success week in and week out for RU. At this point most of slam meta is also outdated due to tier shifts and we've had a whole ltwc to cook up the general shape of the next RU meta. I think a lot of Colin's success will ride on his support, namely feen and whether or not he'll be able to both create teams that Colin enjoys and how fast he can get Colin up to speed with the meta and maybe even ahead of the curve

8. eifo - firstly shoutouts eifo my mans finished his thesis and is back on the mons grind. unfortunately i do have him at 8th... as far as pure clicking goes, I probably rank eifo better than a few of the spots ahead of him but extenuating circumstances have him down here for me i think. I mentioned his thesis which is very hype but also means that for a large majority of this year he has been detached from ru and smogon as a whole from what i can tell so he will have a lil bit of catching up to do with meta. More than that though, I think the most alarming thing is the lack of support for the spartans, dug isnt BAD support but he also isn't really known to be on the RU frontlines nor are a lot of the other names on the spartans roster. eifo is someone who is capable of single handedly working himself into a strong season though so you never know

9. kristyl - this is the most bizarre starter in the pool. Some of the other people on this list don't have a ton of experience with ru which is whatever but idt kristyl even has experience with SV period. A DPP mainer, they've been out of the official tours loop for a lil bit, last appearing in SPL back in 2023 playing dpp ou and since then have mainly stuck to old gens cups. I will say, the dynamo's kinda did this last year when they drafted BIHI and they have the same RU support, this time officially on the roster, in flampoke but I'm like still SO uncertain of the methodology. Flam has had a pretty good year going 5-2 in RUPL, but in this most recent meta he seems to still be finding his footing after a 1-3 showing in ltwc so theres just a lot of question marks leading to me having them here at 9

10. dj breloominati - if this were ss pu spitfire would be 1 but in SV RU? I'm skeptical. right before the draft dj posted this message:
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and then 24 hours later he was drafted to start in a tier that as far as I can tell, he has not played before at least this calender year. Beyond that I think his support pool is also a bit suspect. LpZ won slam last year but idk how much he's been building/testing RU with some of HIS recent irl developments. I was on Piyu's rupl team and I remember he wanted to play/build sv ru but things ended up where he was just using stuff from beraldo so I'm unsure of how effective he'll be in the support role esp considering the context. I do respect dj's clicking a lot, I think from pure in game he would, like eifo, be higher than some others on this list, but theres a lot of extenuating circumstances around this slot in particular so i feel like I have to have them here
 
I'm not inspired to write a long thing but I thought doing mine would be fun. I'm also not smart enough to predict scores, but the rankings can tell.

This is kind of a strange pool. Like, half mainers, half... newcomers I guess? Least I can say is it has been hard for me to do these rankings. Everyone here is good and pretty much on the same page to the metagame, despite some of them not being long-known names to RU.
God knows how everyone regained so much interest in the tier recently but this just comes back at the perfect time. Hopefully the shifts won't be ass (we are in RU so they will) so the games post-midseason can be more entertaining than broswine gaming.

Please dont be mad if I talk shit rofl it's not that serious


:pmd/sceptile-mega: VERY BIASED AND SUBJECTIVE SCL RANKINGS 2025 :pmd/sceptile-mega:​
:ninetales: 1 - TheFranklin :ninetales:
I guess that was obvious, even more coming from me, but this is for a reason. While I feel like Franklin isn't having his best year, it's still Franklin and his support core is demon. I dont know what else to say besides 6-X

:melmetal: 2 - Santu :melmetal:
Santu is the best overall player of the pool, as well as a current top 5 on Smogon as a whole. Now the reason why he's 2nd is simply cuz I dont know if he's touched SV RU prior to this. Still, he's historically one of the strongest RU players ever, a former Slam winner, you just don't forget that overnight. If we're talking support, this remains really solid as LBN is having a pretty good year and Stories is Stories.

:toxapex: 3 - hjkhj :toxapex:
Well, if we're talking about support, I doubt 3d has played much RU since this year's sheist RUPL season of his, so hjk may just be a lone rider, but that may as well be enough for the long time #1 on ladder. I don't have much else to say.

:gyarados: 3 ex-aequo - Hacker :gyarados:
Probably the player I'm the most interested in atm. Pretty cool to see how invested he is in RU currently, had literally a perfect LTWC and has a strong support in Metallica, the Terrors definitely knew how to get me into it. Now I know nobody says ex-aequo but shut up okay

:gible: 5 - RichardMillePlain :gible:
I'm a fan of Richard, he has the best RU support known to man, I just don't know if he's that much into RU but he's a fast learner, hence why I'm putting him very slightly above Rob. Yes this is biased THEN what

:falinks: 6 - robjr :falinks:
Rob is good, has more experience in SCL RU than most of the pool and has a pretty good support, nothing different from the past editions. The thing is he's gonna be very dependant from the support he has, so if either Flab or Kingler arent feeling it, this may be tough for him.

:exeggutor: 7 - Colin :exeggutor-alola:
Okay listen, I know he's the Slam runner-up. I know he's an LTWC winner. And what if I have no argument for that? Jokes aside, I just think his support might not be as strong as the other ones and has less SCL experience.
Yeah Richard = flirting ; Colin = harassment

:aegislash: 8 - eifo :aegislash-blade:
I never thought I'd rank eifo THAT low, but I got arguments!!! (I think)
While he's still one of my favorite players and has an unmatched dedication for the game, he's been on quite a long hiatus until this SCL. Furthermore, I don't know how motivated he's gonna be and if his lack of support is gonna be a problem, even though he's a long-time accomplished builder and a big theorycrafter, that can change the dynamics in some way.

:zapdos-galar: 9 - Kristyl :zapdos-galar:
Dear Kristyl,
I used to joke about RU looking just like DPP OU, but I didnt think it would be THAT serious. I admire your courage and the balls it takes to enter SV coming from a totally different generation.
But don't worry, it's not that hard: Jirachi is still cancer, Hippo is strong, so is Flygon, Gyarados is broken, Empoleon is cool, Infernape thinks he's cool but do NOT fall for him, Rotom-Heat is good, Suicune is the goat. You're gonna make it. The pool is strong but you actually had the keys before Flam or Franco ever thought of it.

Edit: Rotom-Heat is NOT a ghost type btw and Bronzong lost Explosion do NOT try OTR

:mew: 10 - Dj Breloominati♬ :mew:
Okay, I like Breloominati, his piloting is great, but from what I've seen, he said he couldn't start, so... I guess he goes last? I'm confused.

:pmd/gastrodon: END OF THE VERY BIASED AND SUBJECTIVE SCL RANKINGS 2025 :pmd/gastrodon-east:

Wishing the best of luck to anyone who's gonna put a foot in RU, hopefully you will all enjoy it as much as you want.​
 
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Lyra's completely UNBIASED PRs


1. Hacker -> I love Hacker, I'm not being biased he's the goat.

2. Eifo -> I love Eifo too, he writes very well.

3. TheFranklin -> He's RUTL, he has a purple discord pfp.

4. Hjkhj -> Hjk is a demon but he can get rather predictable rather quickly.

5. RMP -> I dont know who this and even though Feli sucks I trust Ajna will carry.

6. DJ -> I know one of DJ or Piyu played RU in ltwc, i also got wind they groove well so okay ig.

7. Colin -> Good guy but feen support will only go so far :joy:

8. Santu -> I like Santu a lot but I dont like LBN more.

9. Robjr -> I also like Rob but I hate flab more.

10. Krystil -> Flam support LOOOOOOOOOL.


Lyra's very biased PRs


1. Franklin -> Franklin's not having the best time this year but I do believe he's the best in the pool cuz he's definitely had the best grasp of the meta and he plays well. His support is also good which is nice!

2. Richard -> I know Richard is good at the game and Feli and Ajna will do their best to catch him up to speed with the meta. Feli doesn't love the meta and I'm not sure how much Ajna has been playing since RUPL but I still prefer to trust them.

3. Santu -> Okay hear me outtttttt, I KNOW Santu is good and you could probably switch 2 and 3 out and it'd still be pretty accurate. BUT he ranks below Franklin because of his lack of meta knowledge (id think so atleast) and cuz his support is LBN. Now LBN isnt bad but he does have the tendency of getting lost in the sauce sooo. As far as I know Stories doesnt enjoy SV RU much but she can support the slot nonetheless.

4. Hacker -> Okay I'm probably being biased here but Hacker has had a pretty good LTWC AND he has Metallica and Drud support. I also just think he's a good player and umm hes the goat that's all you need to know (go Hacker).

5. Hjk -> I think Hjk is good, but I also think he can get a bit predictable with the way he builds, this is also his first SCL I believe so that can get on the nerves. Still he'll put up a strong performance.

6. Colin -> He made Slam play-offs, he's a good player, he has good support with Feen and apparently Sufys, lord knows how exactly Sufys counts as RU support but oki.

7. Robjr -> I like Rob, but I'm quite skeptical as to how well he and flab can work together, still Rob is Rob and Flab is good support regardless.

8. Eifo -> It pains me to place Eifo so low but I know he hasn't been particularly motivated and had a long break prior to this and his support is....DugZa? Lol. Either way in Eifo I trust.

9. Dj -> DJ is good at SV as far as I know and LpZ and Piyu support is decent. Interested to see how this works out.

10. Krystil -> I'll be honest I dont know who they are, Flam support is fine but I honestly doubt its enough. It could work out well though who knows. I just hope Flam doesn't get dramatic...
 
WEEK 1
:ninetales:TheFranklin vs Hacker:gyarados:
:aegislash:eifo vs RichardMillePlain:gible:
:exeggutor-alola:Colin vs robjr:falinks:
:kingambit:hjkhj vs Kristyl:zapdos-galar:
:mew:ishtar vs Santu:melmetal:
​
TheFranklin vs Hacker
eifo vs RichardMillePlain
Colin vs robjr
hjkhj vs Kristyl
ishtar vs Santu

GoldCat ong if u pinged me for this only to NOT make predicts i will send a very angrily worded message to ur supervisor...
 
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