Smogon Premier League XIII - Semifinals

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SS OU: Ox the fraude vs Gtcha: gtcha is the better ingame player of the two in almost every aspect, but the difference Is not enough to straight bold him and ox is a better builder and much more experienced than bleach in these situations. I don't know who to pick here, bleach will predict any kind of ox play, but ox is more experienced and can surprise bleach in any way with some team that he must be cooking while you reading me.

fuck ox the fraude anyways.
 

gorgie

formerly Floppy, now Rock hard
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs robjr - 90/10? marcop and co gonna tryhard the hell out of this one. You can't rly prep for that.

rob's only shot is matching the energy and...I know the dudes on that squad have the potential to do so.

Y'all just don't get swept by [[common threat]] this go around please!

GSC OU: TC vs Jirachee - judging from rachee's GSC play and builds this season, TC wins comfortably.

Unless they go off the beaten path, starting from the builder, and don't let TC get comfortable and settle into his antics.

RBY OU: FriendOfMrGolem120 vs Heroic Troller - can't doubt the GOAT when the stakes this fkin high and man is hungry for the chip


ORAS OU: MANNAT vs xray - MANNAT CANNAT...lose

ADV OU: M Dragon vs Hclat - can't wait to see this one. Tough to call!

GSC OU: Kenix vs Jimmy Turtwig - the Turtman hasn't been showing up as huge as we all know he can, plus Kenix has demonstrated he's not shy to go full crack in the builder and make things work. That's the type of thing that wins games so I'm giving him the belt here.

RBY OU: chuva de perereca vs Aliss - ?
 
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Dragonspiral Tyrants (4) vs (6) Stark Sharks

SS OU: Sage vs mind gaming
SS OU: HSA vs suapah
SS OU: Leo vs bro fist
SM OU: frisoeva vs Welli0u
ORAS OU: Santu vs CrashinBoomBang
BW OU: ABR vs crucify
DPP OU: Christo vs DeepBlueC
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs robjr
GSC OU: TC vs Jirachee
RBY OU: FriendOfMrGolem120 vs Heroic Troller

Alpha Ruiners (4) vs (6) Team Raiders

SS OU: MAX UND MAX vs TJ
SS OU: Ox the Fox vs Gtcha
SS OU: xavgb vs 100percentpureheat
SM OU: Skypenguin vs Punny
ORAS OU: MANNAT vs xray
BW OU: dice vs elodin
DPP OU: Malekith vs BIHI
ADV OU: M Dragon vs Hclat
GSC OU: Kenix vs Jimmy Turtwig
RBY OU: chuva de perereca vs Aliss
 

Finchinator

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Dragonspiral Tyrants (4) vs (6) Stark Sharks

SS OU: Sage vs mind gaming

In the first of a series of SS games that follow the premise of "if you told me this prediction was happening before SPL, I would not believe you", we have the UU mainstay from yesteryear taking on German wonderchild v9.0. Sage has impressed in an abbreviated sample with the late game Tom Brady and the LOL chat moment of the tournament, but she's largely unproven in modern OU. Her game against bro fist was unfortunate for both the Tyrants and whatever collective understanding this tournament community truly possesses of the game of Pokemon itself and she made some great moves, but there were also a few shortsighted plays in there. This happens to anyone over longer games and I am not one to cast premature aspersions, but she will have to put her best foot forward to translate limited regular season success into a postseason success.

mind gaming, on the flip side, has been in his tier all season long. I am saying it is his tier rather than SS OU as it seems like mind has been gaming at a level far beyond that of your average SS OU player. He, much like his German counterparts, has been ahead of the curve, first bringing out Beat Up during W1, which has caught on a great deal since. If you dig a little deeper, you see mind gaming has only lost to very strong opponents this SPL: Luthier (6-3 retain), Ox the Fox (5-4 retain, but also won 3 trophies last year), and talah (5-3 retain). He has taken care of business when expected to while going above-and-beyond. Maybe he was a bit fortunate into Niko or Gama, but you cannot scoff at a 6-3 record and there is no reason to expect anything but another win from mind gaming against a less proven opponent here. I expect Sage to keep it close as she has been good, but decisively favor mind gaming.

SS OU: HSA vs suapah

In this battle, we have a guy who will play 1000 turn games at 4:30am on the OLT ladder for the fun of it against the guy who was too busy to play the decisive regular season weeks. You'd think that HSA would be favored given this time investment dynamic, too, but he is not in my eyes. suapah has been fantastic whenever he actually does play in SS OU with a 11-5 official record. Unfortunately, suapah actually playing is about as often an occurrence as going through a full week of SmogTours discord without seeing ABR go to war with communism.

This tour has been more of a wash than anything else for suapah signed up to play RBY on a team with Troller, meaning he was hard-wired to the bench for the first half, but you have to imagine he is going to be able to put in some effort and be comfortable if he is slotted in for the playoffs. And a comfortable suapah has been elite, so I side with him over HSA. Why? Because HSA NEVER looks comfortable. His response to adversity is simply staying in with any Pokemon, no matter how necessary, and clicking its strongest attack. Sometimes it works wonders and sometimes it fails miserably. You can try to find a greater meaning to it and attest the strategy to some grand philosophy, but the truth is much simpler: HSA clicks almost as much as I whine, which is hard feat accomplish. He has managed to have some good success with it late last year and this deserves recognition, but SPL has not been the same. I don't know what will happen in this game, but if suapah is locked in, he is a more consistent winner than HSA and I have to side with him. If he is out of form, then HSA is a couple of flashy turns away from salvaging his retain and saving the Tyrants chat from devolving into League of Legends talk for the foreseeable future.

SS OU: Leo vs bro fist

In the next "if you told me this prediction was happening before SPL, I would not believe you" we have Leo, the genuine favorite, against bro fist. Of course, I am an NE drone, incapable of individual thought, who sees John in the playoffs and automatically bolds him, so this is rendered moot.

If I was not though...Leo has absolutely had the better season of the two. The flashy-but-calculated plays have worked out this season after the Sac ruined Leo's 2021 in mid-January. This SPL has been a thoroughly impressive redemption tour for Leo, who is now established as a serious threat in a strong playerbase. He has only lost once, to a strong opponent like INSULT, and has a handful of strong wins along the way, all of which featured outplaying rather than straight cheese or match-up wins. Leo has genuinely improved and it is really cool to see this.

John, on the other hand, has taken steps backwards as a player. He went from being very attentive to details to being a step behind at times. Yes, bro fist is still 5-4 and had a great 4 game win streak, but that could easily be flipped and he has not been particularly sharp when you look at a few of his games down the stretch such as the Dragapult career-ender or the Future Sight forgetfulness. John was similarly mid last year in the regular season and he managed to beat Eo, another surging Tyrant, in the playoffs. Couple this with his amazing track record in high leverage situations and you have me sold just based off of reputation, but man I am so much less confident in this than I would have been at any other point in history. Leo has looked better, but my gut and the circumstances favor bro fist imo.

SM OU: frisoeva vs Welli0u

Welli0u was seen as one of the most dominant players in his tier heading into the tournament, seemingly a lock to do well. His retain was regarded as one of the best in the tournament and indicated that the Sharks were well on their way to flipping the script from recent years and making the playoffs. Surely now that they're here, they have him to think, right? Wrong. The well flopped in historic fashion, starting 0-5 and getting benched despite all of this -- Pokemon works in cruel ways sometimes. Then, welli0u made a pact with the devil, got himself back in the line-up to close the regular season, loaded big broken Manaphy twice, and flipped the script with two wins. frisoeva, on the flip side, has remained fairly average after being drafted as a cheap starting option -- he has fulfilled his role, but he still is not positive and is not expected to do much better than 3-4 for his 7k price tag.

friso has lost his last three as he shifted from maining SM to BW ZU -- where he is thriving, to his credit, well has won his last two to return to form, and well was rated much, much higher than friso going into the season. It feels like expectations are approaching reality again after they seemingly flipped to start the season. Nothing can be said with any certainty after all of the craziness thar has ensued for both this season, but I feel confident bolding Welli0u, who been a proven winner over multiple seasons, including playoff success.

ORAS OU: Santu vs CrashinBoomBang

Hard for me to offer as much input in ORAS as other tiers given my lackluster understanding. CBB seems to be spot-on with some team choices, but overly ambitious with others. I am sure they are all calculated and his views have good backing, especially when he is vetted by guys like TDK, but the season started awkwardly for such an expensive player. Since then, he strung together some good wins and managed to finish the regular season positively with momentum, which is a great look here. Santu finished with the same record for less than a third of the price while working with a similarly strong supporting cast with guys like ABR though. I think CBB has a stronger grasp on the tier, but a fair amount of this match-up could come down to prep. I will side with the stronger individual player in the tier of the two in my opinion, but should be close.

BW OU: ABR vs crucify

This is about as good as it can get in terms of games between ADV players and 1v1 mains in BW I'd say. crucify has solidified himself as a real threat in BW with some building assistance. He has come a long way from using spinless Sand with Thundurus-T in Smogon Tour finals, but no matter how much he progresses, it seems ABR will find him. crucify had a really great run midseason where he beat elodin, dice, and SoulWind in a row before he lost to yours truly. This streak convinced me crucify was fire and made me prepare really hard for him though; I really love what the Sharks are doing with this slot and feel they have a clear advantage in terms of team selection because of this. crucify seems to have an open-mind and they are willing to test the limits of the metagame to assure a playable or advantageous status. crucify did finish less strong after a couple of losses and a win against Groudon. Overall, I trust the Sharks to clean things up a little more and bring an effective, but unexpected, team in order to take advantage of an opponent who is out of BW practice.

And all of this sounds great and like a good reason to bold crucify. Then you look at his opponent. And you want to look away so bad because god damnit he's annoying, but you can't because you promised him predictions. The fact of the matter is that ABR's body of work in BW is not nearly as impressive as that of fairygens, ADV, or even GSC, but it is still quite good. He is likely to bring a solid team he is confident with and pilot it well. I think that will be enough here unless crucify really goes above and beyond with his team pick, too, as I trust ABR to prepare for the spectrum of hyper offense that he may encounter.

The match-up dynamic here is actually pretty interesting as ABR is known most for balanced Sand teams with safety measures like Scarf Latios and Sash Alakazam to give him a fighting chance against most offensive strategies, but he recently brought multiple Rains in Smogon Classic, which could indicate him trending that way like the playerbase as a whole did earlier in SPL. Then you have to wonder if he will maintain that trend of his own or keep up with the playerbase itself and perhaps bring a weatherless offense to try and catch Crucify off-guard or even default to a classic Sand team -- then you realize that despite ABR being linked clearly to one style, you really cannot pinpoint much of anything and the lack of regular season data on him probably plays quite well into his hand. Crucify has fired his nine strongest bullets already though and while there are surely more to come that are similarly good, you have to wonder how similar or dissimilar they may be to what has already been put out there. I think I trust ABR with this information advantage and his experiential advantage to parlay these circumstances into a win here. This will be close and I am very excited to see what both come up with.

DPP OU: Christo vs DeepBlueC

DBC is so wholesome, but he's also so repeatedly mid no matter how you look at it. He is 4-5 now despite being one of the most expensive DPP players and you really could not have expected much more or less from him given his track record either. You know what you are getting: good tier knowledge with fairly average piloting. The real variable here is Christo: will he listen to ABR and bring some heat (Machamp) or will he listen to PDC and bring something from the stone age (Infernape)? I'll go with the former and trust the Tyrants DPP slot in all seriousness. If Shake can stumble into a win while playing like a 1400 ladder player that forgot what his win condition was every third turn, then an actually competent Pokemon player may be unstoppable, leading me to decisively bold Christo.

ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs robjr

The "cheese hits or we fodder this one" slot.

GSC OU: TC vs Jirachee

robjr and Jirachee combine for -28 on the sheet. Even a full troller cannot make up that deficit. This one is also dire. Jirachee beat Zokuru, which helped end my season, so I have to have some semblance of respect for him in this generation. Hell, maybe this is where he belonged when he was accumulating losses over the years. I think this one is at least a tier above the ADV one, which is the most lopsided game of the week, because of that. But TC has been close to lights-out when taking things seriously and has massive support, so I will still go with the better of the two GSC players in a clear-cut decision.

RBY OU: FriendOfMrGolem120 vs Heroic Troller

Big Troller will always take it home when he must in RBY.

---

Alpha Ruiners (6) vs (4) Team Raiders

SS OU: MAX UND MAX vs TJ

TJ is best known for dominating PU and even taking up Ubers at a high level, but his OU success is absolutely monumental if you compare it to 100percentpureheat's DPP success, which somehow landed him the week 1 gig. TJ has managed to hold his own this SPL with an average record, but last week, while a bit unlucky, he made some questionable maneuvers that left me wanting to see more to deem if TJ was for real or just another mainer trying to get by. Max has come back down to Earth himself after crushing it later last year, but he is still doing well enough to remain a highly touted player. Overall, I see two players with pretty average seasons despite coming in with vastly different expectations. Each can really prove their worth with a win here, shedding any negative narratives as winning in playoffs is essentially a get-out-of-jail free card. I think both are very invested, too, so I am really curious to see teams and even what risks they take in-game.

Max distinguishes himself here to me because he is a better builder individually in the tier and he has more experience in tournaments in the tier. TJ has been around more overall as he becomes one of the first "veterans" I'd ever associate with PU, so I give him some credit there, but Max was so strong entering the tour for a reason: he sees SS OU very well and plays it similarly well. I think he hit some struggles to start the tournament and with some very good opponents, but I really trust him to build outside of the box and to take care of less dominant opposition. TJ has a chance against anyone if he plays his best of course, but I am less sure of what he will do as I have never seen him play in this position before and I do not know how he will react to yet another fire German mind for the metagame.

SS OU: Ox the Fox vs Gtcha

Much like bea said, I trust Gtcha a lot in the battle itself and I was very close to bolding for this, but I think Ox's advantages in virtually every other aspect of the game makes me favor him. Ox has built well, even creating teams many people use after he does, for a while and this shows no sign of changing. In addition, Ox has been a success magnet for a year now, handling pressure and now some expectations for him to win very well. It feels as if he is destined to find a way to win, be it through team, luck, play, or anything else possible -- the guy just wins games. Sometimes it feels like Ox has a mini-ABR aura attached to him in a sense that I have seen things go his way in timely fashions a lot to assure he was successful -- perhaps OU room ladder standouts really do all grow up to be world-beaters after all. His 5-4 was not really what the Ruiners wanted, but at the same time he has mostly lost to top players and he just made it to the finals of Charity Bowl, so I am confident in Ox.

Gtcha has won a lot this SPL, too, as his 6-1 record is among the best and warrants respect above that of Ox's 5-4. I view him similarly to Leo as a fantastic pilot who has a good sense for what is coming, enabling him to gameplan properly and take some pretty surprising risks that often pay off. My main gripe is that he has yet to be in such a high pressure situation and I am less sure about his team decisions overall. I will go with the more reliable of the two historically in Ox after his huge 2021, but it is true that this is happening in 2022 and Gtcha has been fire so far. Major highlight game for me.

SS OU: xavgb vs 100percentpureheat

Less to say on this one as I do not know either right now as well. xavgb has been unstoppable, winning with ease in pretty much each game. If I did not know better, I would say this dude is some Ciele reincarnation, but apparently he's some unmeta mainer that has come to make us all look like skilless children, which is an even more noble pursuit in my eyes.

I do not really know if this is just people not knowing what to expect or him being an actual god at the game, but xavgb's schedule has been on the weaker end and 100p is easily his best opponent yet. 100p will take this as seriously as he can and I rate him as a very crafty builder, which I feel can negate any advantage xavgb may have as he's still yet to prove himself over a larger sample in this tier like 100p did over a full season last year and plenty of time peaking the ladder prior. This is all pretty minimal evidence in the grand scheme and I may be a fool predicting against the guy who is undefeated so far, but hey let's see if he can keep it going -- I do not trust that as much as I do 100p here, so that's my pick.

SM OU: Skypenguin vs Punny

Skype has been kinda godly at times this tour, but I thought his team last time into Punny was more aimed at taking advantage of Punny's style than being coherent in its own right. And it absolutely worked. Hell, it worked with extreme ease. But Punny is still someone I regard as close to a top player and I think that beating he took will not be something he forgets as he prepares here.

I always find beating the same person in the same tour as an underdog to be tough to begin with, but in this circumstance maybe it is more possible as Skype could not be a true underdog as he has a 6-2 record and has really proven himself. I still trust Punny to branch out a bit more in the builder and find a good midground between comfort and pragmatic strategies in order to give himself a fighting chance. Punny has used a lot of similar pace of fat teams and broke this up with HO, but there is a non-extreme portion of the meta which is surely very viable. If he has that fighting chance to win and respects building options, I favor Punny here. Skype genuinely has been great and I view his future as way brighter than ever before after that display this regular season -- way to bust your ass and get a good record dude, but Punny has won trophies and played in playoffs many times before while Skype has not been here even close to as much. I think that experience is huge and it will be hard to make all of these factors go away on Skype's end. I favor Punny overall and especially in this position.

ORAS OU: MANNAT vs xray

Luigi's Smogon Tour trophy is out here collecting dust while MANNAT is out here starting over him in the playoffs -- yes, this is a real sentence. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I can say for sure that I trust xray more than anyone the Ruiners can throw at him here.

And before we swap into tiers I can discuss at greater lengths, what a great story this is -- I am not even rooting for the Raiders this series personally, but xray finally made the playoffs in SPL after like seven years of going positive individually and falling short team wise. Congratulations to him are very long overdue, good job!

BW OU: dice vs elodin

dice's ability to push the limitations of the BW OU metagame to the point that he gets exactly what he wants out of them while still covering the expected threats he will encounter is really impressive. His structures deviate from that of the status quo on a frequent basis, giving us some of the more awkward, but attention-grabbing, looks of the tournament such as his Hippowdon team and his Hail HO. And maybe there are times they do not pan out like this past week against SoulWind with the Sun, but the guy busts his ass off trying to make his vision work and creates all sorts of new pathways for others who do not have the same creative vision of the metagame to go through. The fact that he won with that Hail and the Scarf Salamence were both particularly cool this season, in my opinion. dice is, without a doubt, one of the hardest people to prepare for while also one of the most sneakily good people at preparing for opponents in the BW field. His flaws largely fall into the arena of trying to be overly ambitious while compromising match-up coverage, which can bite him if he has the wrong corners cut / faces a diversified opponent.

elodin, on the other hand, still has the best BW record despite spamming Sands for a good portion of the season, which feels like it goes directly against the direction of dice's success. It has absolutely been working for elodin though as this is one of his best campaigns of all time, but I think that he needs more than this in order to get a leg-up on dice. He, raiza, and shoka (and/or luckoverskill) are going to have to dig deep to find something harder to pinpoint or they will need to take the offensive in a way that will not allow SR to go up t1 when you have a Dragonite and Volcarona. I gotta side with dice out of sheer consistency over the years in terms of results in BW and sheer inconsistency in the teambuilder, which keeps elodin guessing and likely overthinking procedurally. I feel like this could really put dice well ahead before the game even starts if he gets some things right.

DPP OU: Malekith vs BIHI

Great game between veterans atop the tier. BIHI has seemed to be really dominant at times, but less so at others. I expect him to hit peak form and be ready for more gimmicky/tech stuff from Malekith on offenses. Malekith can surprise anyone with just about anything, but I worry it could be too ambitious or even backfire depending on what he elects to use. Hopefully no more Solarbeam Flygon ever again and we see a tightly contested game.

ADV OU: M Dragon vs Hclat

Major highlight for me. Hclat's amazing to see as a spectator and really has found some good success, but M Dragon is an all-time great who has returned to a strong form. I back M Dragon here to handle a more pressure packed situation that he is surely ready for.

GSC OU: Kenix vs Jimmy Turtwig

No real comment beyond I trust Kenix a bit more to manage the nuances of a game with Jimmy struggling at times and Kenix taking a major liking to GSC in recent months.

RBY OU: chuva de perereca vs Aliss

chuva has been really fire all season and I think this continues.
 

Gilbert arenas

Rex rhydon
is a Tiering Contributor
Dragonspiral Tyrants (4) vs (6) Stark Sharks

SS OU: Sage vs mind gaming

In the first of a series of SS games that follow the premise of "if you told me this prediction was happening before SPL, I would not believe you", we have the UU mainstay from yesteryear taking on German wonderchild v9.0. Sage has impressed in an abbreviated sample with the late game Tom Brady and the LOL chat moment of the tournament, but she's largely unproven in modern OU. Her game against bro fist was unfortunate for both the Tyrants and whatever collective understanding this tournament community truly possesses of the game of Pokemon itself and she made some great moves, but there were also a few shortsighted plays in there. This happens to anyone over longer games and I am not one to cast premature aspersions, but she will have to put her best foot forward to translate limited regular season success into a postseason success.

mind gaming, on the flip side, has been in his tier all season long. I am saying it is his tier rather than SS OU as it seems like mind has been gaming at a level far beyond that of your average SS OU player. He, much like his German counterparts, has been ahead of the curve, first bringing out Beat Up during W1, which has caught on a great deal since. If you dig a little deeper, you see mind gaming has only lost to very strong opponents this SPL: Luthier (6-3 retain), Ox the Fox (5-4 retain, but also won 3 trophies last year), and talah (5-3 retain). He has taken care of business when expected to while going above-and-beyond. Maybe he was a bit fortunate into Niko or Gama, but you cannot scoff at a 6-3 record and there is no reason to expect anything but another win from mind gaming against a less proven opponent here. I expect Sage to keep it close as she has been good, but decisively favor mind gaming.

SS OU: HSA vs suapah

In this battle, we have a guy who will play 1000 turn games at 4:30am on the OLT ladder for the fun of it against the guy who was too busy to play the decisive regular season weeks. You'd think that HSA would be favored given this time investment dynamic, too, but he is not in my eyes. suapah has been fantastic whenever he actually does play in SS OU with a 11-5 official record. Unfortunately, suapah actually playing is about as often an occurrence as going through a full week of SmogTours discord without seeing ABR go to war with communism.

This tour has been more of a wash than anything else for suapah signed up to play RBY on a team with Troller, meaning he was hard-wired to the bench for the first half, but you have to imagine he is going to be able to put in some effort and be comfortable if he is slotted in for the playoffs. And a comfortable suapah has been elite, so I side with him over HSA. Why? Because HSA NEVER looks comfortable. His response to adversity is simply staying in with any Pokemon, no matter how necessary, and clicking its strongest attack. Sometimes it works wonders and sometimes it fails miserably. You can try to find a greater meaning to it and attest the strategy to some grand philosophy, but the truth is much simpler: HSA clicks almost as much as I whine, which is hard feat accomplish. He has managed to have some good success with it late last year and this deserves recognition, but SPL has not been the same. I don't know what will happen in this game, but if suapah is locked in, he is a more consistent winner than HSA and I have to side with him. If he is out of form, then HSA is a couple of flashy turns away from salvaging his retain and saving the Tyrants chat from devolving into League of Legends talk for the foreseeable future.

SS OU: Leo vs bro fist

In the next "if you told me this prediction was happening before SPL, I would not believe you" we have Leo, the genuine favorite, against bro fist. Of course, I am an NE drone, incapable of individual thought, who sees John in the playoffs and automatically bolds him, so this is rendered moot.

If I was not though...Leo has absolutely had the better season of the two. The flashy-but-calculated plays have worked out this season after the Sac ruined Leo's 2021 in mid-January. This SPL has been a thoroughly impressive redemption tour for Leo, who is now established as a serious threat in a strong playerbase. He has only lost once, to a strong opponent like INSULT, and has a handful of strong wins along the way, all of which featured outplaying rather than straight cheese or match-up wins. Leo has genuinely improved and it is really cool to see this.

John, on the other hand, has taken steps backwards as a player. He went from being very attentive to details to being a step behind at times. Yes, bro fist is still 5-4 and had a great 4 game win streak, but that could easily be flipped and he has not been particularly sharp when you look at a few of his games down the stretch such as the Dragapult career-ender or the Future Sight forgetfulness. John was similarly mid last year in the regular season and he managed to beat Eo, another surging Tyrant, in the playoffs. Couple this with his amazing track record in high leverage situations and you have me sold just based off of reputation, but man I am so much less confident in this than I would have been at any other point in history. Leo has looked better, but my gut and the circumstances favor bro fist imo.

SM OU: frisoeva vs Welli0u

Welli0u was seen as one of the most dominant players in his tier heading into the tournament, seemingly a lock to do well. His retain was regarded as one of the best in the tournament and indicated that the Sharks were well on their way to flipping the script from recent years and making the playoffs. Surely now that they're here, they have him to think, right? Wrong. The well flopped in historic fashion, starting 0-5 and getting benched despite all of this -- Pokemon works in cruel ways sometimes. Then, welli0u made a pact with the devil, got himself back in the line-up to close the regular season, loaded big broken Manaphy twice, and flipped the script with two wins. frisoeva, on the flip side, has remained fairly average after being drafted as a cheap starting option -- he has fulfilled his role, but he still is not positive and is not expected to do much better than 3-4 for his 7k price tag.

friso has lost his last three as he shifted from maining SM to BW ZU -- where he is thriving, to his credit, well has won his last two to return to form, and well was rated much, much higher than friso going into the season. It feels like expectations are approaching reality again after they seemingly flipped to start the season. Nothing can be said with any certainty after all of the craziness thar has ensued for both this season, but I feel confident bolding Welli0u, who been a proven winner over multiple seasons, including playoff success.

ORAS OU: Santu vs CrashinBoomBang

Hard for me to offer as much input in ORAS as other tiers given my lackluster understanding. CBB seems to be spot-on with some team choices, but overly ambitious with others. I am sure they are all calculated and his views have good backing, especially when he is vetted by guys like TDK, but the season started awkwardly for such an expensive player. Since then, he strung together some good wins and managed to finish the regular season positively with momentum, which is a great look here. Santu finished with the same record for less than a third of the price while working with a similarly strong supporting cast with guys like ABR though. I think CBB has a stronger grasp on the tier, but a fair amount of this match-up could come down to prep. I will side with the stronger individual player in the tier of the two in my opinion, but should be close.

BW OU: ABR vs crucify

This is about as good as it can get in terms of games between ADV players and 1v1 mains in BW I'd say. crucify has solidified himself as a real threat in BW with some building assistance. He has come a long way from using spinless Sand with Thundurus-T in Smogon Tour finals, but no matter how much he progresses, it seems ABR will find him. crucify had a really great run midseason where he beat elodin, dice, and SoulWind in a row before he lost to yours truly. This streak convinced me crucify was fire and made me prepare really hard for him though; I really love what the Sharks are doing with this slot and feel they have a clear advantage in terms of team selection because of this. crucify seems to have an open-mind and they are willing to test the limits of the metagame to assure a playable or advantageous status. crucify did finish less strong after a couple of losses and a win against Groudon, who donated half of his team to the collective egos of the 1v1 Smogon Tour chat fanboys. Overall, I trust the Sharks to clean things up a little more and bring an effective, but unexpected, team in order to take advantage of an opponent who is out of BW practice.

And all of this sounds great and like a good reason to bold crucify. Then you look at his opponent. And you want to look away so bad because god damnit he's annoying, but you can't because you promised him predictions. The fact of the matter is that ABR's body of work in BW is not nearly as impressive as that of fairygens, ADV, or even GSC, but it is still quite good. He is likely to bring a solid team he is confident with and pilot it well. I think that will be enough here unless crucify really goes above and beyond with his team pick, too, as I trust ABR to prepare for the spectrum of hyper offense that he may encounter.

The match-up dynamic here is actually pretty interesting as ABR is known most for balanced Sand teams with safety measures like Scarf Latios and Sash Alakazam to give him a fighting chance against most offensive strategies, but he recently brought multiple Rains in Smogon Classic, which could indicate him trending that way like the playerbase as a whole did earlier in SPL. Then you have to wonder if he will maintain that trend of his own or keep up with the playerbase itself and perhaps bring a weatherless offense to try and catch Crucify off-guard or even default to a classic Sand team -- then you realize that despite ABR being linked clearly to one style, you really cannot pinpoint much of anything and the lack of regular season data on him probably plays quite well into his hand. Crucify has fired his nine strongest bullets already though and while there are surely more to come that are similarly good, you have to wonder how similar or dissimilar they may be to what has already been put out there. I think I trust ABR with this information advantage and his experiential advantage to parlay these circumstances into a win here. This will be close and I am very excited to see what both come up with.

DPP OU: Christo vs DeepBlueC

DBC is so wholesome, but he's also so repeatedly mid no matter how you look at it. He is 4-5 now despite being one of the most expensive DPP players and you really could not have expected much more or less from him given his track record either. You know what you are getting: good tier knowledge with fairly average piloting. The real variable here is Christo: will he listen to ABR and bring some heat (Machamp) or will he listen to PDC and bring something from the stone age (Infernape)? I'll go with the former and trust the Tyrants DPP slot in all seriousness. If Shake can stumble into a win while playing like a 1400 ladder player that forgot what his win condition was every third turn, then an actually competent Pokemon player may be unstoppable, leading me to decisively bold Christo.

ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs robjr

The "cheese hits or we fodder this one" slot.

GSC OU: TC vs Jirachee

robjr and Jirachee combine for -28 on the sheet. Even a full troller cannot make up that deficit. This one is also dire. Jirachee beat Zokuru, which helped end my season, so I have to have some semblance of respect for him in this generation. Hell, maybe this is where he belonged when he was accumulating losses over the years. I think this one is at least a tier above the ADV one, which is the most lopsided game of the week, because of that. But TC has been close to lights-out when taking things seriously and has massive support, so I will still go with the better of the two GSC players in a clear-cut decision.

RBY OU: FriendOfMrGolem120 vs Heroic Troller

Big Troller will always take it home when he must in RBY.

---

Alpha Ruiners (6) vs (4) Team Raiders

SS OU: MAX UND MAX vs TJ

TJ is best known for dominating PU and even taking up Ubers at a high level, but his OU success is absolutely monumental if you compare it to 100percentpureheat's DPP success, which somehow landed him the week 1 gig. TJ has managed to hold his own this SPL with an average record, but last week, while a bit unlucky, he made some questionable maneuvers that left me wanting to see more to deem if TJ was for real or just another mainer trying to get by. Max has come back down to Earth himself after crushing it later last year, but he is still doing well enough to remain a highly touted player. Overall, I see two players with pretty average seasons despite coming in with vastly different expectations. Each can really prove their worth with a win here, shedding any negative narratives as winning in playoffs is essentially a get-out-of-jail free card. I think both are very invested, too, so I am really curious to see teams and even what risks they take in-game.

Max distinguishes himself here to me because he is a better builder individually in the tier and he has more experience in tournaments in the tier. TJ has been around more overall as he becomes one of the first "veterans" I'd ever associate with PU, so I give him some credit there, but Max was so strong entering the tour for a reason: he sees SS OU very well and plays it similarly well. I think he hit some struggles to start the tournament and with some very good opponents, but I really trust him to build outside of the box and to take care of less dominant opposition. TJ has a chance against anyone if he plays his best of course, but I am less sure of what he will do as I have never seen him play in this position before and I do not know how he will react to yet another fire German mind for the metagame.

SS OU: Ox the Fox vs Gtcha

Much like bea said, I trust Gtcha a lot in the battle itself and I was very close to bolding for this, but I think Ox's advantages in virtually every other aspect of the game makes me favor him. Ox has built well, even creating teams many people use after he does, for a while and this shows no sign of changing. In addition, Ox has been a success magnet for a year now, handling pressure and now some expectations for him to win very well. It feels as if he is destined to find a way to win, be it through team, luck, play, or anything else possible -- the guy just wins games. Sometimes it feels like Ox has a mini-ABR aura attached to him in a sense that I have seen things go his way in timely fashions a lot to assure he was successful -- perhaps OU room ladder standouts really do all grow up to be world-beaters after all. His 5-4 was not really what the Ruiners wanted, but at the same time he has mostly lost to top players and he just made it to the finals of Charity Bowl, so I am confident in Ox.

Gtcha has won a lot this SPL, too, as his 6-1 record is among the best and warrants respect above that of Ox's 5-4. I view him similarly to Leo as a fantastic pilot who has a good sense for what is coming, enabling him to gameplan properly and take some pretty surprising risks that often pay off. My main gripe is that he has yet to be in such a high pressure situation and I am less sure about his team decisions overall. I will go with the more reliable of the two historically in Ox after his huge 2021, but it is true that this is happening in 2022 and Gtcha has been fire so far. Major highlight game for me.

SS OU: xavgb vs 100percentpureheat

Less to say on this one as I do not know either right now as well. xavgb has been unstoppable, winning with ease in pretty much each game. If I did not know better, I would say this dude is some Ciele reincarnation, but apparently he's some unmeta mainer that has come to make us all look like skilless children, which is an even more noble pursuit in my eyes.

I do not really know if this is just people not knowing what to expect or him being an actual god at the game, but xavgb's schedule has been on the weaker end and 100p is easily his best opponent yet. 100p will take this as seriously as he can and I rate him as a very crafty builder, which I feel can negate any advantage xavgb may have as he's still yet to prove himself over a larger sample in this tier like 100p did over a full season last year and plenty of time peaking the ladder prior. This is all pretty minimal evidence in the grand scheme and I may be a fool predicting against the guy who is undefeated so far, but hey let's see if he can keep it going -- I do not trust that as much as I do 100p here, so that's my pick.

SM OU: Skypenguin vs Punny

Skype has been kinda godly at times this tour, but I thought his team last time into Punny was more aimed at taking advantage of Punny's style than being coherent in its own right. And it absolutely worked. Hell, it worked with extreme ease. But Punny is still someone I regard as close to a top player and I think that beating he took will not be something he forgets as he prepares here.

I always find beating the same person in the same tour as an underdog to be tough to begin with, but in this circumstance maybe it is more possible as Skype could not be a true underdog as he has a 6-2 record and has really proven himself. I still trust Punny to branch out a bit more in the builder and find a good midground between comfort and pragmatic strategies in order to give himself a fighting chance. Punny has used a lot of similar pace of fat teams and broke this up with HO, but there is a non-extreme portion of the meta which is surely very viable. If he has that fighting chance to win and respects building options, I favor Punny here. Skype genuinely has been great and I view his future as way brighter than ever before after that display this regular season -- way to bust your ass and get a good record dude, but Punny has won trophies and played in playoffs many times before while Skype has not been here even close to as much. I think that experience is huge and it will be hard to make all of these factors go away on Skype's end. I favor Punny overall and especially in this position.

ORAS OU: MANNAT vs xray

Luigi's Smogon Tour trophy is out here collecting dust while MANNAT is out here starting over him in the playoffs -- yes, this is a real sentence. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I can say for sure that I trust xray more than anyone the Ruiners can throw at him here.

And before we swap into tiers I can discuss at greater lengths, what a great story this is -- I am not even rooting for the Raiders this series personally, but xray finally made the playoffs in SPL after like seven years of going positive individually and falling short team wise. Congratulations to him are very long overdue, good job!

BW OU: dice vs elodin

dice's ability to push the limitations of the BW OU metagame to the point that he gets exactly what he wants out of them while still covering the expected threats he will encounter is really impressive. His structures deviate from that of the status quo on a frequent basis, giving us some of the more awkward, but attention-grabbing, looks of the tournament such as his Hippowdon team and his Hail HO. And maybe there are times they do not pan out like this past week against SoulWind with the Sun, but the guy busts his ass off trying to make his vision work and creates all sorts of new pathways for others who do not have the same creative vision of the metagame to go through. The fact that he won with that Hail and the Scarf Salamence were both particularly cool this season, in my opinion. dice is, without a doubt, one of the hardest people to prepare for while also one of the most sneakily good people at preparing for opponents in the BW field. His flaws largely fall into the arena of trying to be overly ambitious while compromising match-up coverage, which can bite him if he has the wrong corners cut / faces a diversified opponent.

elodin, on the other hand, still has the best BW record despite spamming Sands for a good portion of the season, which feels like it goes directly against the direction of dice's success. It has absolutely been working for elodin though as this is one of his best campaigns of all time, but I think that he needs more than this in order to get a leg-up on dice. He, raiza, and shoka (and/or luckoverskill) are going to have to dig deep to find something harder to pinpoint or they will need to take the offensive in a way that will not allow SR to go up t1 when you have a Dragonite and Volcarona. I gotta side with dice out of sheer consistency over the years in terms of results in BW and sheer inconsistency in the teambuilder, which keeps elodin guessing and likely overthinking procedurally. I feel like this could really put dice well ahead before the game even starts if he gets some things right.

DPP OU: Malekith vs BIHI

Great game between veterans atop the tier. BIHI has seemed to be really dominant at times, but less so at others. I expect him to hit peak form and be ready for more gimmicky/tech stuff from Malekith on offenses. Malekith can surprise anyone with just about anything, but I worry it could be too ambitious or even backfire depending on what he elects to use. Hopefully no more Solarbeam Flygon ever again and we see a tightly contested game.

ADV OU: M Dragon vs Hclat

Major highlight for me. Hclat's amazing to see as a spectator and really has found some good success, but M Dragon is an all-time great who has returned to a strong form. I back M Dragon here to handle a more pressure packed situation that he is surely ready for.

GSC OU: Kenix vs Jimmy Turtwig

No real comment beyond I trust Kenix a bit more to manage the nuances of a game with Jimmy struggling at times and Kenix taking a major liking to GSC in recent months.

RBY OU: chuva de perereca vs Aliss

chuva has been really fire all season and I think this continues.
If tyrants ss goes 0-3 I will literally eat a hat.
 

Conflict

is the 9th Smogon Classic Winneris a Three-Time Past SPL Championis the defending GSC Circuit Champion
World Defender
Well guess its time to finally "contribute" to SPL by writing some predicts. Gonna split em in 2 parts because this shit takes time to write and the 2nd half of it would probably be rushed as fuck.

Conflict predicts part 1:

Dragonspiral Tyrants (5) vs (5) Stark Sharks

SS OU: Sage vs mind gaming - I have not paid enough attention to comment on Sage's games, but i can vividly remember mind embarrassing multiple people this season with his signature aggressive playstyle. I think mind is gonna keep it up, come well prepared with a good team that lets him go wild and smash Sage's shit in.

SS OU: HSA vs suapah - I heard that "Hot Sexy Available" suddenly turned into "Hot Sexy Viable" this season. I do not yet prescribe to this new notion because HSA has been awfully mediocre in most of his past pursuits. Suapah WHEN he plays has been playing mostly well (beat MDB2, lost to Bea) so rn i have a little bit more faith in the latter. And well the former still hasnt changed his name to account for his newfound ability to play so there is little trust that he will actually follow through with it.

SS OU: Leo vs bro fist - The "punisher of plays" hasnt exactly been punishing lately. Leo on the other hand has and I have not caught him misplaying. His only loss was to INSULT in a close affair.
Leo has been constantly improving in SS to a point where he is now considered one of the best. Bro fist has been on a steady decline instead, far from his best days in ORAS and SM and also seems to have taken a step back from immersing himself in the current meta.
Considering the recent results and trends (downward for bf, upward for Leo) I'm gonna have to bold the former here.

SM OU: frisoeva vs Welli0u - friso is good and is one of the guys that i always expect to beat worse players than himself, but imo he struggles against better competition and has not managed to up his gameplay. He brings solid teams, plays good but not flashy but lacks the surprise factor both in team selection and play to allow him to overcome bold opponents. The showman on the other hand is exactly that - bold and unafraid. He thrives on skirting risk in-game and awing the competition with his audacious plays. The well seems to have picked up is game and returned to his winning ways in his recent games and given his history of success in the tier I'm gonna trust him once more and believe he has overcome his slump.

ORAS OU: Santu vs CrashinBoomBang - CBB in regular season is no world beater and usually just manages to put up a mediocre record (4-5 or 5-4) but he is a different beast when put under pressure and relied upon to win. CBB rises to the occasion and absolutely crushes it when he is put in these situations. Santu has been utterly unimpressive to my eyes and incomparable to his previous pursuits in the tier. He just looks washed compared to his former self and even ABR-support has not been able to rekindle the flame. He had several games that were way to close to comfort, hinging on getting a key turn correct to even have a shot. His builds have also been way more standard and boring, which while good, can be exploited and better prepared for unlike CBB's erratic style. The only danger for CBB is the Tyrants knowing him inside-out and being able to craft a team that thoroughly counters his tendencies. As long as CBB is aware of this fact and doesnt stop re-innovating himself he can overcome even less good matchups with his wild play. With all that being said i'll once more favour the more gutsy player.

BW OU: ABR vs crucify - I think most of ABR's build in this tier are either metagame-defining or just fucking solid whereas crucify is able to bring anything but mostly seems to rely on cheesier builds that only work once. I rate ABR's ability to plan long-term better than crufify's so longer games favour him. Therefore crucify has to keep the game length lower which usually leads to more offensive builds. ABR seems to be one of the best at not getting tilted by weird shit and usually is able to find ways around threats he didnt actively account for in the builder. Add to that the fact that "most expensive" SPL-buy ever has to a) perform (which he usually does) and also b) seems to be able to conjure up good RNG whenever he is in a bad spot (theres a reason we have the saying: got abr'd).

DPP OU: Christo vs DeepBlueC - DeepBlueC is consistent, overly nice, preps well and a joy to have on a team. He is not however a clutch player or someone that can be relied upon to get a good record. He is the definition of a 10k buy (solid, preps by himself actively, good chat presence) but not more. Christo on the other hand is the perpetual Tyrants-buy that somehow thrives regardless of whatever tier/meta he is thrown into. He might not be as experienced in DPP's nuances or build all his teams by himself like DBC is, but he makes up for it with his extraordinary playing ability. Considering he has multiple good DPP builders at his beck and call in ABR, PDC and marcop (sorry Rey but ur teams suck nowadays) he should walk away the winner here.

ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs robjr - Flareon-Enjoyer vs. Fodder. Marcop's understanding of ADV is deep, maybe sometimes even too much which leads him to over-innovate. This over-innovation and his tendency to get bored by a tier during SPL are his main weaknesses. Both are not gonna hinder him this year due to him cleverly evading ADV for most of the season. And i assume he is still in shape considering he probably had to help ABR test. Robjr is solid but nothing more. Beats bad players easily (hi mence!) but rarely if ever beats someone better or more experienced. Sadly marcop is neither bad nor less experienced. Easy bold.

GSC OU: TC vs Jirachee - TC's builds have been all over the place in GSC but he has managed to win with most of them just by making good reads. One could question his long-term planning after his game vs Vileman but he showed that he has mastered that aspect of GSC too in his game vs. choolio.
I have almost never seen the guy misplay and he has even managed to win with teams that I personally would not touch with a ten-foot pole. That is a sign of quality and why I was personally excitedly hoping to play him once again in Play-Offs. Jirachee meanwhile uses a lot of very solid builds that awe even me at times because they are so well-built and thought-through. Here Rachee has to bring his absolute A-game in the building department to garner any advantage he can get. Playing-ability-wise he seems to be outmatched to me due to him lacking the "killer-gene" aka the ability to produce wins out of thin air. So he better hope for TC to mess up his prep or for ABR passing a team down that didnt account for Curse-Lax being a thing in GSC. If those things dont happen I expect TC to cruise by with his stellar play.

RBY OU: FriendOfMrGolem120 vs Heroic Troller - FOMG is amazing. Troller is amazing. But Troller has defined RBY OU and its upper echelon for years now, putting up amazing records year after year. Last time they met FOMG managed to overcome Troller but it was close with a fair bit of luck. This time the pendulum might fall the other way and Troller may walk away the winner. Troller's understanding of the tier and his ability to "manage or facilitate luck" (super important in RBY) has netted him countless wins over the years. Golem's friend has been playing really well however he sometimes made some strange risky moves that set him back in this SPL and then was forced to predict correctly just to stay afloat. With all that being said I slightly favour the Heroic one here.
 
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Conflict

is the 9th Smogon Classic Winneris a Three-Time Past SPL Championis the defending GSC Circuit Champion
World Defender
Part 2 before the first game happens:

Alpha Ruiners (5) vs (5) Team Raiders

SS OU: MAX UND MAX vs TJ - One has awed the entire smogon community with his sudden rise to fame due to his stellar play whereas the other has been known for his prowess in un-tiers?!? The former also seems to have attained the brain capabilities of 2 people (M+M) and how much better ghosting makes bad players could be seen in prior SPL's therefore he should outperform the latter by a country mile. Also he is german and apparently germans have solved SS OU *shrug*.

SS OU: Ox the Fox vs Gtcha - Ox has been dominating 2021 but in 2022 he has not been as infallible. Even though he attained still a positive record he has done so using every little bit of Ox-magic he could muster. Gtcha on the other hand has been spectacular to many peoples's surprise, following up his lack-luser showing from last SPL with a more than solid one. Now i would predict Ox to win here if he was up against Gtcha's fellow country man Bea due to him getting a teeny bit lucky in a somewhat critical moment and Bea tilting off the face of earth. Unfortunately for Ox he isnt up vs Bea so there will be no hardcore tilt. Gtcha has been playing almost flawless games and seems to have good mental fortitude therefore i expect him to walk away the winner. Also Tricking support is almost as OP as TricKING!

SS OU: xavgb vs 100percentpureheat - Ubers mainer up against a proven clutch-performer in high pressure situations with prior playoff (and even tiebreak) experience. stresh has strugn together a couple solid wins but can he handle the heat? I doubt it. He may have put up a respectable 5-0 record so far but his competition has been lackluster (Subs!) or washed (1TL and Tace after 2021 SPL). 100p is a strong player with nerves of steel that is able to goad his opponents into throwing after they pretty much won (talah in finals last SPL) through sheer force of will. I expect 100p to once again put on the pressure and not let stresh gain any meaningful momentum, cementing his own win.

SM OU: Skypenguin vs Punny - Both seem pretty evenly matched ability- and building-wise so this is going to be a close one. The one difference lies in the intangibles: Punny's clutch factor (proven by multiple deep tour runs). Skypenguin is quite new to the upper echelon of competitive mons whereas Punny has been around for a couple years now and attained the High-Level-Player-Zen needed to perform under pressure. This being a high pressure situation falls directly into his wheel-house, less so in Skype's. This is compounded by the fact that the last time these 2 faced off Skype won with a somewhat wonky build. I dont expect Punny to get caught offguard twice like that and think he will be victorious this time around.

ORAS OU: MANNAT vs xray - ORAS-Enjoyer and connoisseur extraordinaire xray that has birthed countless german ORAS-talents vs. benchwarmer and SPL-midseason-mainstay Mannat.
Just given that premise the result seems clear. And not even Mannat's successfull run in SPL so far will alter the result. He has garnered 2 wins but he did so using very similar styles and with his opponent having a stroke in 1 of em (Vileman) and still only barely winning that one. I cant in good faith predict anyone but xray here and if the scanner doesnt mess up collossally this should not even be close.

BW OU: dice vs elodin - HEAT MU betwen the 2 best performing BW players of this season. This is shaping up to be one of THE BW games to watch in 2022, with dice being back to his constant winning ways using his own unique spin on things and elodin having the SPL of his life. Record-wise elodin has been crushing it while staying mostly in his comfort zone of proven builds and just letting his play do the talking. dice on the other hand has once again successfully reinvented the BW landscape (Hail HO!!!). Given all the info we have at hand most would expect this to be a close game decided by the little things (rng, mu-advantages or slightly better prep/play) but I dont think this will be the case.
There is more to this matchup. elodin respects dice. Respects hm a lot. Maybe too much.
elodin has been avoiding this matchup for years now (last SPL: Lagoon; this SPL: Shoka-Sub) and doesnt seem comfortable facing dice at all. Maybe it isnt just respect anymore. Maybe respect has turned into Fear. And now elodin is dreading this match, running from it. Hiding from dice, hoping to espace this nightmare. dice already won the psychological battle, anything else is just a formality.

DPP OU: Malekith vs BIHI - HEATkith. BIHI is solid but has not been exactly wowing everyone unlike the Kith. BIHI brings solid, proven squads and knows the meta inside-out. His knowledge of current DPP is second to none. Malekith on the other hand has his own take on the meta and is a strong pilot that is able to navigate out of almost any position with his positioning. Nontheless Malekith won't be facing BIHI first and foremost but his true nemesis - himself and his addiction to using unviable shit every blue moon. If Malekith does not blunder in the teambuilding department (SolarBeam-Flygon, Alakazam, Torterra) and manages to use fire innovations (like FlameOrb-Meta!) then he will surely walk away the winner due to his amazing playing ability.

ADV OU: M Dragon vs Hclat - Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The joker pick did beat the Dragon once before making it seem almost too easy for himself. I do not expect history to repeat itself. Th Dagon is burning with vengeance and eager to take the jokeclater down. David beating Goliath was so special because it was a 1:100-chance, something so unlikely that noone expected it. Goliath has fallen. But Goliath is back for round 2 and is now aware of all the tricks up hclat sleeves. Playtime is over and the Dragon has woken.
If M Dragon doesn't fall into the same pitfall as before of using solid but known and standardish teams that are prone to get picked apart by hclats erratic builds I expect him to win. He has the calculus, the mettle, the experience and the foresight to win these important games. He has stepped up multiple times in the past. Hclat however mostly gets by using his gimmicky builds and preying on standard builds with them. As an underdog beating a better player is hard. Doing it twice is almost impossible.

GSC OU: Kenix vs Jimmy Turtwig - This one comes as a surprise to most but I believe Jimmy to be one of the best pilots in the game if he is on his game. He has not been for most of the season but I believe that to be mostly down to him not being warmed up to GSC. He's had his run now and warmed up and i fully believe him to pilot a solid GSC team to victory. So long as he can manage to build/find a good squad he is favoured in my eyes. Kenix also plays very well and had a good 2021 but while his builds are all solid (+ Dice/Mdragon support!) he seems to be a bit trigger-happy trying to read his opponent perfectly which if it works makes him look amazing. Sadly I think Jimmy has the necessary patience to hold off on clicking buttons (like BOOM that Kenix can catch with a Ghost) and therefore wont be punished by Kenix offensive predicts and will most likely call out one of those risky moves and catch Kenix slipping. From there Jimmy is going to solidify his position slowly and push for a win. Kenix has been stellar but he has been somewhat reliant on keeping up momentum and being the one to dictate the game's pace. I think he won't be able to attain that so easily here and Jimmy will ultimately triumph.

RBY OU: chuva de perereca vs Aliss - Mini-Spies vs. Aliss. Chuva has been trainign with spies all year, taking names in the circuit and having overall solid runs culminating in an amazing SPL run. He will not be stopped here by Aliss. Aliss had an average run but thats all there is to it. I dont see the spark that chuva exhibits in her so I am gonna give the win to the Galician.
 
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Dragonspiral Tyrants (5) vs (5) Stark Sharks

SS OU: Sage vs mind gaming
SS OU: HSA vs suapah
SS OU: Leo vs bro fist
SM OU: frisoeva vs Welli0u
ORAS OU: Santu vs CrashinBoomBang
BW OU: ABR vs crucify
DPP OU: Christo vs DeepBlueC
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs robjr
GSC OU: TC vs Jirachee
RBY OU: FriendOfMrGolem120 vs Heroic Troller

Alpha Ruiners (5) vs (5) Team Raiders

SS OU: MAX UND MAX vs TJ
SS OU: Ox the Fox vs Gtcha
SS OU: xavgb vs 100percentpureheat
SM OU: Skypenguin vs Punny
ORAS OU: mannat vs xray
BW OU: dice vs elodin
DPP OU: Malekith vs BIHI
ADV OU: M Dragon vs Hclat
GSC OU: Kenix vs Jimmy Turtwig
RBY OU: chuva de perereca vs Aliss

Go! Gtcha TC
Nos mataron a la cebra bro :psycry:
 

Conflict

is the 9th Smogon Classic Winneris a Three-Time Past SPL Championis the defending GSC Circuit Champion
World Defender
ngl: the forum banning of both ojama and tc is retarded and the people that did so should rethink their life priorities.

stop getting fake boners for banning competitive people and step down. no1 thinks ur cool.
stop getting offended about every minor shit that people say (especially so if in private chat groups).

lame ass smogon used to be about playing mons in a competitive environment. lets go back to that please.

dad has spoken.
 
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