Big scl yap and one that isn't entirely pool related, going to try to give a different perspective on some things as I feel like most of the obvious has been said already. Also not going to rank the pool, not only do I not really feel confident in anything below top 3 but I also want to try something different and divide people by groups rather, as I feel like there are some patterns in this pool that make it really interesting and quite exciting.
I want to start with talking about where UU is at the moment and why I think the metagame is going to play an even more important role than usual this time around, as even though we're used to cataclysmic shifts, I don't think UU has been hit with something on the level of tornt leaving since maybe 2021 SCL with latias, excadrill and so on all happening in the same week, and it seems really likely to happen atm. With that said, unlike most people that are just waiting for it to happen for a change to finally take place, I don't think we're going to wait for long as I feel like even early SCL meta is going to look mostly different, HO presence aside probably. Primary reason being that I don't think current meta is really representative of where the tier is at, I don't think people have really adapted since UUPL playoffs/wcop round 1 and even though we've had big changes such as meowscarada getting banned or deo-s leaving for OU, most of the trends have remained the same if you've noticed, with things like dirge continuing to struggle as old balance formula is no longer working, latios being back at full power as a staple(even with tinka back) and previously niche mons such as donphan remaining in place even though you could argue the reason for it's resourgence is no longer relevant. I'm not surprised this is the case as times and times again this has happened in UU (just look at how earlier this year in the span of 2 weeks of UUPL meta got flipped upside down from a 3 months slop), people have gone on pause after 2 big tournaments back to back and if anything this is something to be really excited about, as everyone is coming in with a fresh or refreshed mind and i'm curious to see where this leads things from here on out. And as for torn leaving i'm really excited for that happening, not only that's the biggest equalizer possible halfway through the tournament but also seeing how people will be rewriting 2 years old rules from scratch will be awesome. To put it simply, I think adaptation and critical thinking are going to be key this time more than ever and I wouldn't be surprised to see anyone struggling if they weren't to find their comfort zone all of a sudden, and this is something i want to comeback to later. Now onto the pool:
The big 3 - Punny, pdt, Franco
Our 3 big SCL staples as everyone else hates pokémon and has an addiction to skipping every other year whenever fomo doesn't kick in. I groupped them together as they're usually at the top of the pool but they're quite different from each others, with main similarity being each one of them having their very unique style. Punny is the most consistent UU player by a mile at this point, he has not had a single bad performance in the tier and has probably the most unique, complex and intriguing style out of anyone who actively-ish plays the tier, paired with some of the most sharp gameplay on the site. I truly cannot see him struggling, his biggest enemy sometimes is himself but he's also active enough to triple check all his wild creations and make sure that they don't cross the line of genius and end up flopping miserably, which considering how prone successful players are to laziness i think is one of the biggest reasons behind his success. Punny is also the person to attribute for UU's wild shifts in playstyle usage and trends we see every official, if there's anyone capable of reinventing a formula that's him and so much of what is HO theory nowadays comes entirely from him. He knows how to win in SV and what's good this gen but it's also important to not forget where he started, he can play and create his own comfort zone with anything and i'm truly excited to see his progression through the tournament. pdt is another name who has shown time and time again that he can force his stuff to work in the tier. Last year he struggled a bit and that's a one off that can be attributed to stuff like burn out and below average luck like his week 2 game, but still he wasn't as dominant as usual. When it comes to pdt I think his ceiling is absurd, as a player he often has some masterclass level games that only he could pull off in a mix of genius and not being scared of making insane plays, but nowadays i'm not as sure of his building as I used to be. A big point of struggle to me last year was people slowly figuring him out, which led to him going more out of his comfort zone and some more weaknesses have started to show. I still have 0 doubts on his piloting ability and think that was a one off unlikely to repeat itself, he has been thriving lately looking in his prime once again and I'm sure he's going to lock in for redemption time after a disappointing turn around on his SPL season as well. He's born for this stage and is someone capable of making the impossible come through, he just needs to give himself a window to do so. Finally, Franco I'm WAY less familiar with than the other two, other than some on and off things I learned over the course of the years. Similarly to Punny, I really can't see him struggling: his style is way less unique than the other two but it works well for himself and with the gen, as well as I think him not wanting to obliterate building fundamentals every other week is why he's consistent. I think of him as an a lot better version of who p*f was in UU, I don't think his playing ceiling is as high as the other 2's but his floor is so high he never makes mistakes and topped with some nice aggression gets so many players to choke positions that are near unloseable, and I think this is his strength as a player: he just is never bad. I'm curious to see how where his comfort zone is going to be through the tour, I think he's the one of the three that is going to be more affected by a less defined meta but he also could be taking it to his advantage to unleash some of his old staple fat wincons such as enamorus and claim some free games. Overall, I still think these are the guys to beat no matter what and I think the 3 of them are going to have a fantastic tournament, I am super interested in what the 3 of them are going to be looking at in both metagames.
Big hype to leave up for - zS, Fogbound Lake
Next we have the two names I'm probably most interested in seeing the overall performance of: zS and Fog. They're projected to be the main duo attacking the top 3 and I think myself they have the full capabilities to do so and succeed but I have some doubts and uncertainties that I'll be keeping until proven otherwise. Starting with zS, I feel uninformed to really talk much about. My previous exposures to him have been OU, that I don't feel comfortable enough in to make a full opinion out of and his little experiences in UU/RU, which left me with a bit of doubt. He's clearly a really strong player given what everyone who is familiar with thinks of him, combined with a fantastic streak of records that anyone would be jealous of, but I want to wait and see for myself before really having an opinion. My main doubt stems from UU's uncharactestic SV identity compared to most tiers and how his playstyle is going to translate in it: to clarify I'm not saying UU doesn't play like an SV tier or that knowing what wins in the gen doesn't work in here or anything like that, but I think the translation is not as 1on1 as it is for some other ones and I'm not totally sure his styles of preference from OU are as simple to make work here, but it's also not something that im sure about as there's only been so many examples that tried to jump from OU to UU halfway through the gen? atp I'm just yapping so let me leave this parenthesis aside ngl. What I was trying to say is I think he's gonna need a little here to fully adapt but once he makes the translation we could be seeing some quite different takes on the metagame given different background and I'm excited for that, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a slow start from him. I think he might be one of the players that most will be taking advantage of the midtour shift and that's around the time he gets to the heavy hitters as well so that's heat. Overall, I just wanna see more and forge my own opinion, I don't doubt he's great and he's been feeling strongly about playing UU for a reason probably. I don't think Colin is going to play a huge role in here unlike others that posted in this thread, not only because he has to focus big times elsewhere but also from what I've seen their styles don't really match and I think the kind of support zS needs is probably someone to play a bunch with, which could be anyone really. Fogbound is someone I had the pleasure to team with back in SCL 2022 and I still remember him talking about audino for weeks before finally bringing it because that felt like something else LMAO. I've been a fan since, I think he's a smart worker with good approach to the game and with a lot of talent to offer, with great results to show off for it. Unlike with previous entries I think support is relevant here since he has his partner in crime mind who has had a presence in UU as mentioned by others, and for how little he played, he made quite the impact. My doubts on Fog are pretty much the same as the ones i mentioned for zS except I know him more really. I don't doubt his skill and think halfway through the season he's gonna be in full form, however I'm afraid of him burning the kitchen a little as that's been the case in other tiers at times i feel like. In particular I'm more excited to see his first half of the season as I think he's someone who would normally "struggle" in what the current meta is projected to be, so I want to see what he ends finding himself using and how well his games go. Also i don't know how their duo work but as previously mentioned I was mostly a fan of what mind was up to and he was doing things right so his input and ideas might play a huge part. Overall, I expect these 2 guys to do well just like everyone above, but I think some of their weaknesses will be highlighted as different points in the season(or possibly not at all!) and want to see how they approach and overcome them.
The old style - Mimilucha, Sacri', Etern
Why this title? Because I think the 3 of them are built like the old style of """mainers""", and I think these are always super interesting to see in the UU pool, as we(!) notoriously struggle a bit to adapt. What I mean by that is these are the "good stuff" guys, who end up using bal/bo slop almost every game to some solid success mostly through strong gameplay and consistency, but as shown time and time again that's a lot harder to do in officials where people know "how to win" a lot harder. This year in particular I think this kind of player should be struggling and have their work cut out for them, as knowledge advantage in mimi and eterns case will probably not play as strong of a part and the continous changes will make using what they love harder. Starting with Mimilucha, I am so happy of his improvements as a player and so excited to see how he will do in his first full season of SCL. I remember telling him during UUSD 2023 that he had all it took for him to finally make the big step and enter the big stage, in the last 2 years he finally found his consistency through some better planning and teambuilding decision which paired with how solid his early games already were have levelled him up enormously. That said, time to go into a different note. If there's something he has yet to truly do is to show he is willing to go out of style much, which in these tours can be lethal as it's so simple for people to figure you out and making out for that with pure gameplay is a big challenge. I don't know which approach he's going to take for his first full season, if he's gonna try and diversify more in an attempt to be unpredictable or if he's gonna default and show he can make it work the old fashion, whatever is the case I think he's going to struggle a little bit but I'm super hoping he can prove me wrong as I'd love to see that happen. Ironically led by Accel, Feli and Ajna who are exactly the ones who forged this idea in my brain.. him going to this team for his first season is iconic and I can see why they made such choice. I think their experience can help him more than traditional UU support would, as they made this style work before and probably have some great input on the matter. Other than that I don't really think he needs a lot, he's super active and motivated and I'm sure he can find people to play games with as everyone likes the guy. Sacri' is not only another one who fits into this conversation to me but also from the same era as the names i previously mentioned.. and also someone i grew up watching play and looked up to/learned a lot from, kind of surreal to not only still seeing him play but also playing my tier. Not super familiar with his recent appearances other than watching a few of his SPL games and he looked like he's still nice with it which is great to see. But once again, I don't think this tier and pool plays to his traditional strengths, although I don't think that really spells disaster? This is one of UU's greats still and have no seen anything from him in SV so for all I know he could forge a newfound comfort zone and surprise everyone, I wouldn't be shocked if that's the case given not only at his peak he was way up there and one of the first people to break out from lower tiers into the OU scene by strength, but also if he wants to win I'm sure he'd put in the time and as much as he's only ever been a standard stuff guy, i also remember him having his own style in sm uu way diverse from other similar guys at the time even in metas that felt really restrictive. As much as I understand where people come from with previous paragraphs on him in the thread I think his abilities are undersold and it really depends on how much he cares. Same thing about frank as his support really, if he was to care he has the resources to pick up the tier and help in it and he's the only guy who like owns dpp uu that hasn't started playing in the paleolithic and also randomly plays like 3 tours a year and owns in all of them but he seems to have wiped again in the dumbass nuzlocke gauntlet so yeah no that's not happening i guess. Finally, we have Etern who has been a refreshing sight in UU in the last 2 years and someone I respect the opinion of. Ironic this tour comes at this moment in time given this is the most Etern has been struggling in his time in SV UU but after the amounts of performances he put out that really doesn't matter. My doubts about him remain the same here, other than like 1 screens sighting I remember from him I really think he hasn't diversified his teambuilding and even more than Mimilucha he has been repeating structures a lot. He's a strong player who starts at an advantage in this first portion of the tour but I think with how the meta has shifted recently he himself needs to redefine his playstyle. I think his dynamic with viv will be interesting to see as I don't really think Etern works a lot with his support other than just gathering some input on his teams here and there, I think viv can offer him some strong leads/tips here and there to elevate his builds more but most important more practice which I think would probably really help him find his own again. He's also traditionally unlucky in these so I hope he has a cleaner campaign as I deeply feel that and know how impactful that can be on someone's motivation. I don't really have a lot to say about him, I think highly of him but think he might run into troubles with how the UU pool usually plays out, the only time i've seen him looking a bit "lost" before was UUPL tiebreak where his teamchoice seemed a bit all over the place but other than that he has shown nothing but stellar performances in UU and think he has the potential to do well. So to recap, I think these 3 are put in a position where their upsides as players are constantly challenged and it's up to them to adapt or bruteforce their way which has tradtionally not worked well in this pool. I expect at least one of them to try and diversify but I'm curious as to who it'll be and how it'll pay out for him, I'm also rooting for all 3 of these guys hard as we have someone I've seen growing through my time here, someone who has had a huge influence on me/I learned a lot from and someone who I relate to and feel the pain in officials of.
Dark horses - Eternal Spirit, crying
Last group and by far the wildest one. These 2 are so wildly inconsistent because of how they approach the game and is impossible to know what they're up to and how they are going to do, nonetheless they're respectable players with great achievements to their names. Gama is a mainstay for idk how many years and through his long career he has seen both sides of the coin. he recently played UU in 2023 and did fairly well mostly by beating other giants slotted in the tier such as Roro twice, probably due to knowing a lot more about him than he did about other players in the tier.. in fact he did go 1-5 vs ""mainers"" and 5-0 vs tour players that tour which was incredibly funny and also kinda speaks about the kind of player he is: he has the skill to beat anyone at any given time, but he often takes extreme decisions in the builder that can payoff just as much as they can sabotage and against the more consistent heads of a tier that's a risky approach even if you're the magician capable of making the impossible come through. And honestly I love it, this is the type of guy I want to see in the pool i'm excited about and I'm open to whichever side of him we're going to see. Small parenthesis about Sab but the guy's great and knows what he's doing and I'm surprised to not see him starting somewhere but with how strong his pool is I'm also not really surprised I guess, UU is super competitive every year. I don't think the two of them pair that well together but I still feel like it's worth mentioning him as unlike in his 2023 campaign, this time Gama's going to have someone deeply connected to the tier who can stop some extreme stuff from making it to game, for better or worse, and if listened to. crying is the same as Gama although arguably even more extreme, but I think their officials showing have been mostly positive for a reason and they're still a great player at their core. I'm surprised to see them playing UU over other tiers but also interested to see what their take on the tier is going to be, and how their own style can overcome some of the written rules of the tier. I think crying is aj a disadvantage compared to Gama due to have someone yapping in their channel as well. I really wouldn't be surprised to see these two have a solid tournament, I think for how centralized current UU is taking risk can give such a massive advantage and these two know how to take one and make it work. I don't really know anything other than surface for them so nothing else to really add, Looking forward to see how they're gonna play this out.
I wrote too much and I'm tired but I hope this was an enjoyable read for everyone and I apologise if I offended someone in any way or if you think I said some absurdity, the world is your oyster so just prove me wrong. I'm happy with the pool we got and think we have a bit of everything and some really exciting games coming our way. I think most people involved have their own storyline and things to prove as well, which is always great to look back to at the end of the tour. I said this infinite times in this post but I think this year is about adapting and overcoming, and I think anyone of these fantastic players could succeed if they were to do things the right way and put in the right amount of effort, as activity will definitely play a part.
