Smogon Champions League V - Commencement Thread

[fade]

Hey, just posting to advertise I’m looking to fulfill a similar role as my involvement in last years SCL - just helping out from the bench, as well as being social if needed. I am signing up with only LC as a playable tier, and am stressing for legality reasons that if a manger slots me into LC, i will learn to play LC. However, you’d find me much happier just helping out as I’m busier & happier relatively outside of pkmn rn (and i guess slotting into tb if the situation arises.)


If need to be sold on my validity, I picked up the OU for the first time in 3 months and was cycle 1/top seed qual in OLT. I can offer great tests as well as useful review of games/teams. Additionally, people like bagel/emforbes can hopefully vouch for me from last scl that I am helpful, although that was a period I was truly removed af from smogon. No need to reach out to me if interested, but you certainly can if you’d like. Thanks!


edit: to be clear i have no interest in being a building/scouting worker bee. i truly do want to help out, though

 

[MZ]

I don't have enough to say about the PU pool overall to make one of those beautiful draft posts but I do want to shout out gulch who was incredible undrafted support last SCL and really deserves to get on the board. Very active, good in tiers other than just PU, instrumental in getting me a half decent record. Also he has a better username than most of your other options. Someone buy him!

 

[ishtar]

After reading the newest post in the Admin thread, and with added context from multiple parties, I find the TD's decision about Nat at best misguided and at worst disingenuous. I'll break it down point by point, while also responding to the actual Admin Thread post when necessary:

Nat saying that she is willing to play LC and that she has no interest in being a building/scouting bee is totally in line with other commencement posts that can be seen in multiple tournaments and I fail to see the problem with such outline, simply mentioning the commitment willing to be put in, while also showing openness in playing the signed tier when needed.

It does not seem deceptive to me to say that Nat wanted to support OU slots, and that she would play LC if asked, considering that that was the only tier she signed up for. It does not seem deceptive, as it is not only expected, but also written down in her own post by herself.

• There is no reason to post in the Commencement thread clarifying your sign-up unless there are noteworthy activity concerns (i.e: missing weeks).

It has never been the case that commencement thread posts are reserved for people who want to showcase their possible activity issues, and saying so officially after Nat's punishment definitely feels dishonest. If there's rules about what should and shouldn't be expressed in commencement threads from players when outlining their involvement, this is the first time I've read of such. It does not take too much digging to find posts that resembles Nat's sentiment in terms of wanting to participate in a tournament to this degree.

• Signing up implies you are willing to play for any team, excluding tiers implies you are not willing to play them, and so on. The current format of sign-ups is purposefully black-and-white.

She specifically said she would play the tier she signed up for. Post couldn't have been more honest and ultimately black-and-white. The only reason why she decided to post in the commencement thread was to avoid the issue she had last year. She didn't do what she got in trouble for then but still wanted to make sure managers knew what they were getting. She wanted to be transparent. She ultimately got punished for that exact attempt at transparency.

• We have, unfortunately, seen this movie before both from Nat and others. It is an instance of skirting the line as much as possible through modifiers and exceptional language. This makes it acceptable for someone to not contribute or appear as if they will not contribute when drafted, potentially scaring away managers who lack prior favor. This violates the spirit of our sign-up rules.

Again, the signup post and the commencement thread post show the full extend of her interests. There's no indication of not wanting to contribute or not be picked up by any team. If Nat got picked up by a certain team and didn't do anything at all that would be a completely different problem. It's common to tell managers that you do not want to build for 3 slots or to do scouts every week. This happens every tournament through dms between players and managers (or commencement thread posts).

• Given her past infraction for price fixing and general behavior, the team initially moved forward with infracting her for Repeated Offense, which is a two point infraction lasting multiple months. Nat has exhausted a lot of good faith and community standing due to prior incidents, but we recognize that this situation does not perfectly align with the incident last year, where Nat changed her CT to indicate she did not play the tier she signed up for. Moreover, we changed the infraction after her appeal to Forum Specific Rule, which is only one point for three weeks and we feel properly reflects this situation the best.

Nat has been guilty in the past of breaking rules (I've called her out on it plenty, in fact!!!), and it is obvious that there is a shorter leash being used here in this instance, but this shouldn't influence the reality of this particular incident and we should judge it according to the rules. If we are gonna talk about all of the bad things Nat has done we can also talk about Nat's post history of metagame posts as well as her own contributions to the game. We can indeed talk about how this situation doesn't align with last year's cause that's exactly true, as it was outlined a bit later in the thread. While the change to acknowledge the difference is noted, it does not constitute any sort of rectification from the team while coming to this decision. It's a wrong call that was diminished to a lesser wrong call. I've been on this side of the fence already recently in a very serious issue, and I will say one thing: when people are able to see through the reality of issues and malpractice, they will not settle for half measures. We can rectify things and do a lot better.

Lastly, people have circulated this image of Nat in a very emotional state after being denied SCL manager and used it as proof of her bad intentions in this instance. By that same logic, this interaction between her and I minutes before her signup show her true intentions regarding her actual intentions with the tournament. It does not take a lot to see that this was no attempt at pricefixing or someone trying to skirt the line, just someone who wanted to enjoy the game in a measured way and enjoy their time helping any team and playing if necessary. Let's fix this.

 

[Envy]

hello smogon champions league id like to shoutout some players i think could be drafted this year

wont post the obvious starters tazz did because everyone knows those right

Elfuseon
had a decent lcpl rec but with rly different teams, i think his building ideas could be a really nice reason to have him at least as support

Greedy_eb
despite not having much recent sv results, greedy is a nice lc clicker and should be considered.
with support, he could have a good rec even tho the pool is strong this year

Always Edgy
didnt have an awesome record in the last 3 lc teamtours but is probably one of the best builders in the tier right now (top 10 at least), should be a strong support pick but could go even if starts

bleahey
had a fine record last lcpl and made open top 8. he could be a really strong support pick, since he is really hard working and should be giving good advice on teambuilding
if im not wrong hes good at supporting PU as well but I'll leave that to the PUers

Onraider
please draft this guy, he's the most dedicated lc player. could be a solid starter but would do really well as support, one of the strongest picks in the pool for sure

rarre
prob the most underrated lc player rn, just had an awesome 6-1 lcpl record, winning against 2 strong players in kaboom and fog. could have a nice record with support and should be the cheapest pick out of all lc mainers

Kaboom
prob doesnt even need the vouch, we had our differences in the past but i think he should be a starter this year
had a nice lcpl record in sv + is a good builder overall so might not even need support, could easily go positive

PigWarrior19
very hard working, and had some very good builds recently
probably has the highest ceiling out of this list but the lowest floor if drafted without support, but should be considered at least as a support pick

Wail Wailord
he's positive (even?) in the official sheet, despite not playing SV in a teamtour since last year, he has been one of the best lc clickers and just needs good teams to perform well

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i dont have the same knowledge for any other tiers but draft Skyiew, he's been depressed since last year's scl where he went undrafted
fr tho, this guy is probably the 5th or 6th best ubers player rn (6-1 upl) and saved my upl record as a helper (good matchups in w7, semis and finals)

also Dugtrio Is Broken should be an awesome support pick, specially but not only, for sv ou. built a bunch of teams for wcop and is one of the hardest working players I know
he will also be helping pretty much every other slot he's asked for, probably not with building but he'll have a lot of teams and will play tests

 

[ASKOV]

Hi, I saw all of those nice posts on LC players and figured we were missing out on a UU one. While it should be obvious that my opinions aren't absolute or something, I think I could provide some insight on players and perhaps even some hidden gems for managers to look out for. Also for simplicity sake I'll be listing players that did put UU as their preferred tier(s) in their signup, so it's obvious that some tour players with SV experience like McMeghan or Finchinator can always be solid choices as well if the team somehow needs them in UU.

Tier 1

JustFranco
PDT
Punny

I think i can give pretty much the same writeup for those three, they're very accomplished players in the tier at this point and very likely will be retained by their teams or break the 20k pricetag, i don't see they going negative bar some very unlucky run.

Tier 2

Gonna be splitting this one into ''tour players'' and ''mainers'', which honestly is kinda vague considering there is some overlapping, but still should be what define those players better:

Tour Players:

Pearl - SM UU Titan and pretty much a strong and innovative player whenever he's around to play a tier, i don't know if he has played SV UU at all but he has been playing BSS/VGC in SV iirc so SV mechanics and general knowledge shouldn't be something in his way. For the boomers out there i don't think much need to be said about his capabilities to adapt to a new meta.

Sacri - Another player that had his ''UU peak'' in SM if i'm not mistaken, turning into a OU staple in SM and SS since then until his break from the game, returning some months ago and seemingly not dropping much the ability to win games. I don't know if he's gonna prefer to play OU and he hasn't really had that much to show in SV UU yet aside from Open, but he should have the overall ability to click and do well in UU if he decides to go for it.

zS - While not being someone historically tied with UU, he has been on a fire streak in SV OU recently while still being familiar with SV low tiers as a whole so it shouldn't be too much of a difficulty for him to pick up UU particularities.

Mainers:

Mimilucha - With the ''bigger names'' either being retained, managing or yet to signup (looking at you Bouff Lyssa passion ), Mimilucha rises up as a mostly consistent player throughout SS/SV UU with some strong performances in-between as well, winning the most recent UULT for example. He's someone who is always keeping up with the metagame and can be very smart in the builder using that knowledge he has, also got some experience in officials lately by playing in last SCL and WCOP.

Sabella - Perhaps could also be considered a tour player, but he has been involved a lot with UU since SS so i thought it'd be fine to fit him here as well. Despite some unfortunate games recently, he is still a very capable player that can do his own stuff and do well with them.

Tier 3

Those players could play UU at a solid level, but they're also able to dab into other(s) tier(s) as well if needed:

Avarice - hasn't actively played SV UU that much, but should be fairly in touch with it by managing/being involved with UU tours in general. A versatile player that could play pretty much any tier if your team ends up needing it, having some solid OU and NU performances in SV.

Colin - Although as far as I remember he doesn't really have a strong record track in UU, he has been decently involved with SV UU whenever there's a tour like UUPL/UU and is currently in Slam Finals as I write this post. While his run did come a fair amount from his RU performance (which is a tier he could play if needed) and originally being a LC player, he should be no slouch in UU if he can transfer that playability and find his groove in the tier.

Etern - Had some good showings in latest UUPL and WCOP and definitely seem motivated to play it again in this tour. While he is a long time NU player, he dabbled enough in SV UU to the point where i think his NU skills could definitely transfer into a solid performance in UU as well.

Robjr - While being heavily associated with SM when it comes to UU, he's the kind of player that could reasonably play almost any tier at a solid level, having prior experience playing UU in officials when SM/SS were current gens and even played SV RU in an official.

Tier 4

Mostly ''wildcards'' or ''higher risk'' options if i had to define them, that still could have good payoffs with appropriate support and/or environment:

AJ - While i don't rate him as high as most of the other players in this list at playing, he's coming from a solid Grand Slam run and has been involved with UU for years by now. While he's busier nowadays, he's still very passionate about this game and the tours he is in, so he'll definitely give his best for your team, be it with supporting or prepping for his own slot. Definitely should be a solid support option for most low tiers as a whole.

frankjosh - bro i thought you were retired wtf. Jokes aside, if he's motivated he could easily rise up a tier, being solid at playing and easy to work with for whoever you get as a support for him

Kate - Had a strong UU Open performance two years ago and occasionally plays UU tours being solid at them, so she definitely has what it takes to play UU if needed. However, she most likely will be playing Ubers/OU, but could definitely be a fine alternative if your team ends up needing someone to play UU throughout the season.

Shiba - 2025 Shiba. While being someone strongly associated with UU for years, his CG involvement is mostly sporadic. Still, he has managed to have a solid Grand Slam run, so he definitely shouldn't be too unfamiliar with SV low tiers in general. Might need some teambuilding support and/or filling in with tier particularities in general, but should be a solid pilot in them.

ThatOneApple - Perhaps not as consistent as some of the other options there, but he had some good highs in tours like UU Masters and UUPL and is overall knowledgeable of the metagame, being involved with it through most of SV. Although his lack of official tours appearances and being a fairly new player yet, he still should definitely be considered as an option for your draft as a cheap support.

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Might update this post once other interesting signups appear if i don't end up being too lazy.

PS: While not related to UU at all, and as you all might have seen the same thing being said in this thread at this point, I strongly recommend teams to consider drafting Dugtrio Is Broken , he's easily one of the best teammates i have teamed up with in tours (counting officials and unofficials), he's a literal testing machine, very capable OU builder and is getting better and better at this game very quickly and will 100% do his best to help out his teammates.