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Smogon Premier League XVII - Commencement Thread

If requests are being taken, here's what I bring to the table.

I consider myself a solid B rank player at this moment.

I will carefully note every critique a coach gives me because I know they're better, more experienced players, and they want their team to win as much as or more than I do.

There probably isn't a Smogon player out there right now more dedicated to going their craft than me.

I will work hard to punch above my weight class, I will study and grind hard to make sure i cause maximum destruction to any enemy that crosses my path.

I recently reached semifinals as a first time entrant into a gen 1 randoms tournament having managed to beat players as great as Kingslayer Caterpie, Stunner 047, and Amaranth. Amaranth was a Bo5 while the others were Bo3.

If that sounds like someone you have room for on your team, please let me know, if not, no problem, best of luck to you!
 
After spending some time with SV OU, I’ll concede it’s a genuinely fun meta. Tera is one of the most strategic mechanics Game Freak introduced—the lack of true safety makes games more dynamic, clicks more intentional, and wins more satisfying.

That said, Gargancl might be the most trollish Pokemon ever designed. A salt Pokemon that wins via salt and makes people salty. Well played.

Looking forward to some inspiring games.
 
I had fun making this preview for SCL so I'm making a new and improved version for SPL. As a reminder, this is basically my attempt to make a Smogon version of the articles you see in every sports playoff/tournament, where they rank the players most overdue for the trophy by some metric or another. This is not a ranking of the best teams or best players in this tournament. It's a list of players with no SPL trophy (or no trophies at all) according to a not-at-all-arbitrary assortment of accomplishments to offer an indicator of "hey, it'd be neat to see them win one." If you pick which World Cup team to root for based on your favourite 40 year old sitting on the bench or you watch the NBA playoffs just to see if Wembanyama finally gets one, this is the list for you!

Most sheet wins:
1. Finchinator (122)
2. Eternal Spirit (87)
3. Santu (86)
4. Garay oak (67)
5. mind gaming (64)
5. MichaelderBeste2 (60)

Highest sheet differential:
1. mind gaming (+29)
1. bbeeaa (+28)
2. Santu (+26)
3. Finchinator (+23)
4. Fc (+20)
5. MichaelderBeste2 (+19)
5. Gilbert arenas (+19)

Highest sheet winrate (minimum 20 games played):
1. bbeeaa (72.58%)
2. hellom (67.65%)
3. mind gaming (64.65%)
3. Fc (64.29%)
3. Mattz_ (64.29%)
3. Piyu (64.29%)

Most SPL wins:
1. Finchinator (52)
2. Eternal Spirit (40)
3. Santu (39)
3. gorgie (39)
4. Garay oak (39)
5. Gilbert arenas (29)

Highest SPL win differential:
1. Santu (+19)
2. Finchinator (+13)
3. Nat (+13)
4. mind gaming (+11)
4. bbeeaa (+10)
4. Mattz_ (+10)
4. PDC (+10)

Highest SPL winrate (minimum 20 games played):
1. Mattz_ (75%)
2. bbeeaa (72.73%)
3. mind gaming (67.74%)
3. Santu (66.1%)
4. Nat (65.12%)
5. PDC (62.5%)
5. Storm Zone (58.79%)

Most sheet wins:
1. Gilbert arenas (59)
1. Sacri' (59)
3. Nat (57)
4. JabbaTheGriffin (41)
5. gorgie (39)
5. 1 True Lycan (39)

Highest sheet differential:
1. Gilbert arenas (+19)
2. Attribute (+14)
3. Nat (+12)
3. hellom (+12)
3. Mattz_ (+12)

Highest sheet winrate (minimum 20 games played):
1. hellom (67.65%)
2. Mattz_ (64.29%)
3. Ruffles (63.64%)
4. Attribute (62.96%)
5. JustFranco (60%)
5. Persephone (60%)

Most SPL wins:
1. gorgie (39)
1. Gilbert arenas (29)
2. Nat (28)
3. JabbaTheGriffin (26)
4. Sacri' (25)
5. 1 True Lycan (18)

Highest SPL win differential:
1. Nat (+13)
2. Mattz_ (+10)
3. Gilbert arenas (+7)
4. Attribute (+6)
5. Xrn (+5)

Highest SPL winrate (minimum 20 games played):
1. Mattz_ (75%)
2. Nat (65.12%)
3. Gilbert arenas (56.86%)
4. crying (55.56%)
4. Sacri' (54.35%)
5. JabbaTheGriffin (50%)

Players who can complete the Smogon Triple Crown (one of each Smogon teamtour trophy) (patent pending):
  • BIGs: Dave
  • Classiest: Garay oak, London Beats
  • Cryonicles: Corazan
  • Ruiners: ima
  • Scooters: Ox the Fox
  • Sharks: obii
Players with individual trophies and no SPL trophies:
  • Classiest: Garay oak
  • Cryonicles: c0mp, PDC
  • Scooters: Storm Zone, Ox the Fox
  • Sharks: MichaelderBeste2, Santu, Marshall.Law
  • Tyrants: Vert, Fusien
In conclusion, our "due for their first SPL trophy" list looks like this:
  1. Sharks (8): Attribute, Nat, hellom, MichaelderBeste2, Santu, Marshall.Law, mind gaming, obii
  2. Cryonicles (5): Corazan, c0mp, Gilbert arenas, PDC, gorgie
  3. Classiest (4): Xrn, Piyu, Garay oak, London Beats
  4. Wolfpack (4): bbeeaa, Persephone, Sacri', crying
  5. Raiders (3): Fc, Eternal Spirit, Ruffles
  6. Scooters (3): Storm Zone, 1 True Lycan, Ox the Fox
  7. BIGs (3): Mattz_, JustFranco, Dave
  8. Ruiners (2): JabbaTheGriffin, ima
  9. Tyrants (2): Fusien, Vert
  10. Tigers (1): Finchinator
Time to change my Smogtours profile to Sharks fan... (also I did this a bit earlier than the SCL post so I sure hope no one gets tourbanned in the next week!)
 
I saw a lot of posts in commencement thread asking to get drafted, but I feel like this is an outdated way to reach managers in this media environment.

image.png


This is how you get drafted in tournaments in 2026. Let’s go Ruiners.
 
Asked by Myself im doing a PRs of this year prestigious SPL tour . keep in mind: i dont know much shit about fairy gens or dpp for that matter bc i dont like those metas alot with that out of the way i will talk about each team on this order so its easier to follow .

Classiest: Mdragon was quite a great buy hes great at gsc , adv and overall may be useful to help on support too. LpZ also quite great went solid last year iirc and Dark Eeveeon is quite good at bw even if i find his teambuilds a bit odd sometimes they do work , is a good pilot . I do feel unsure how other slots may go since i dont know most of those tiers , i feel a bit unsure on RBY . while Ctown is certainly a good player idk what kind of support the team has here , if he or Mdragon needs a sub for whatever reason the team also may be in trouble tbh as im not sure if most of the know of the fundamentals , play as good as them.

Circus Tigers: Starting off Genesis is a great RBY support , he even helped during rbypl though im unsure who their rbyer will be i think the options that are avaliable seem decent given genesis can help. Ruby , Skarp are pretty good players afaik and they can help each other in gsc , Obviously Finch , Cow and NoName are the goats so pretty good draft overall id say though im unsure on who their adver/dpper will be i think the team is in good hands . well im just more familiar with those names so id say they will do well , they dont seem to get in trouble if someone needs a sub i think?

Wolfs Wifipack: Feels wild how monai got drafted for only 9k lol given how well they did last spl in bw , overall i think the team is quite solid got some great gsc support too with fear , coco and choolio is quite good at gsc . mielke and violet river both good players to help each other , river can give some support for rby and gsc too . Isza also pretty good on rby . Idk much of the other managers , players but the team is quite good .

Tyrants Spiral: ABR is great at supporting basically anything really. SW and Jester are great buys and may do well in their tiers id say tbh and Lady bug and BlazingDark also great im not sure who their rbyer , Shitrock is also an awesome player good retain.

Indie Studio: im not sure how good those managers are really at supporting outside of fairy gens , Storm Zone , Elodin , Triangles , nicole , Brine , Blubird , Emma are quite great so good buys overall. though i do think this team seriously lacks a gscer maybe they just dont know much of gsc playerbase but i feel like melancholy0 mightve been a better buy . Zilo is still okay at gsc but i dont expect doing well without some huge support because gsc pool is still quite good this year , id belive most other gscers here are just better.

IronMan Sharks: mind gaming , Conflict are quite great at their tiers so them supporting their slots will be very good , their drafted players are solid overall harshest , mayo are pretty good on their mains , aminitta i can see doing well with conflict support its like a new boxing player learning boxing with one of the greatest coaches , Kollin and GSG also quite good in their tiers . id think Rby slot could be in trouble maybe by possible lack of support. but GSG still good on its own right so idt is a huge issue overall a solid team id say.

Team Fortress 2 Raiders: Tbh idk anything of those managers so ill move on to the drafted players . Honestly im not sure how well Star will do considering he locked from BW and idk much of him besides that tier lol im blind and misread the signups sorry i got confused so great that he will still play bw , ik Ruffles went quite good on oras last spl iirc? so ik hes a good player , Bee is a good rbyer , Underlying and Vileman are pretty good aswell . im unsure who their bwer , adver or any other tier that i dindt talked about will be tbh like bw options seem kinda lacking but atleast they will have Star to support whoever will play bw so ig thats okay even if i feel like was a mistake to Star lock himself out of bw Okay team still. sry about this.

Beta Ruiners: Ima can be a nice manager to support some slots , i think the draft choices are solid overall. Fakes , lax , Prinz are all great in their mains , Fakes is great in multiple tiers so its flexible which is nice , Dababy is a goat in bw so i expect them doing well specially with the support they may get from players , Metallica also quite good in Oras , Jabba is a solid Adver and Tizio is a goat too overall i think this team will do quite great in the tour.

Forever BIGS: Stone Cold , Mada are quite good at support iirc so this is nice . i dont know most of these players but Serpi , Ombranch are quite good in their mains , Johnald and zpanter also solid in adv . idk who their bwer will be but i guess the team is okay still in most tiers sorry i just dont have much or know much to say about this team. JustFranco also nice retain.

Cryogonal: I know Gorgie is quite great at RBY , GSC so he can support the drafted players quite well on those tiers. Sceptross is a great retain , Zokuru , GaryTheGengar and watashi also great players im not sure on what the slots look like but im sure the team will do well . the players on this team look all solid.

I think Semifinals will prob be like Classiest , Circus Tigers , Beta Ruiners and Cryogonals . though its a close competition for sure i can see Wolfs and sharks , Raiders getting on Semis aswell.

Ive done few edits on raiders because i got confused with star signup but i think the team is solid Star starting in bw is great
 
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It's that time of the year again, SPL avatars are ready and will be uploaded and available on main & tours in the upcoming days
This edition was by far our most difficult season, as most of our team was unavailable, and we still had 20 avatars to get done.
We still managed to get everything ready despite some deadline issues & poor communication from us, but I would still like to use this post that will have more visibility than most others to remind everyone that artists who contribute to team tournament avatars do it for the love of the game and for fun, that it takes a lot of their free time during tournament season, so PLEASE be respectful of their time (and respectful in general).

On a more cheerful note, big big shoutouts to sharpclaw, deetah, RADU, Irpachuza, Turtleye_ and kyledove who allows us to work with their incredible trainer sprites, as well as managers we worked with to get all of these done.

And without any further yapping:

Stark Sharks
splxviisharks.png
splxviisharks2.png

I made both Sharks avatars this year, making a Garchomp sprite from its Pokemon Conquest sprite
The ORAS Battle Girl sprite was made by kyledove, and recolored & edited by myself.

Indie Scooters
splxviiscooters.png
splxviiscooters2.png

I also made both Scooters avys, editing kyledove's Tate sprite for the Male one.

Dragonspiral Tyrants
splxviityrants.png
splxviityrants2.png

Tyrants reused a recolored version of the female avatar Turtleye made for them last year, and I made the male version with a rly cool casino theme going on.

Circus Maximus Tigers
splxviitigers.png
splxviitigers2.png

Aaaaand I made both Tigers sprites, with the female one using Brumirage's Akari sprite, as well as lightning effects Brumi was nice enough to let us use, while the male one is a combination of two gen3 sprites with a custom made Raikou by yours truly.

Ever Grande BIGs
splxviibigs.png

BIGs avatars really were a joint effort this year, with the Snorlax sprite made originally by Brumirage, edited by deetah and then by sharp_claw, the Jessie sprite by yours truly and then edited by deetah and sharp_claw, all with great advices from the rest of the sprite team to make em work.
I really enjoy this pair of avatars and I'm honestly glad no team is going trainerless lol


I hope everyone is happy with their team's avatars, if not direct your complaint to my secretary (SFG)
see y'all in like 48 hours for RBTT avatars & in a few months in WCoP

ill drop the tier list link in stours cord later today
 
Team CAs team CAs team CAs!

As Clem mentioned above, this year was a herculean effort, and although Clem and I did the lion's share of the work this time around, I still wanna shout out the whole spriting team for always being a great support system for bouncing ideas off of, looking over drafts, etc: Irpachuza, deetah, Turtleye_, RADU, kyledove, and Kalalokki!

Without further ado, here are the SPL avis I made this year:

Alpha Ruiners
SPLXVII_RuinersF.png
SPLXVII_RuinersM.png

F (VeteranF) recolor & edits by me
M (Ethan-Masters) by kyledove, recolor by me

Congregation of the Classiest
SPLXVII_ClassiestF.png
SPLXVII_ClassiestF2.png

F1 (Anthea) by kyledove, recolor by me
F2 (May-Masters4) by kyledove, recolor by me

Cryonicles
SPLXVII_CryoniclesF.png
SPLXVII_CryoniclesM.png

F (Winona-Gen3) recolor by me
M (Morty) recolor by me
Suicune edits by me

Ever Grande BIGS
SPLXVII_BigsM.png

M (James) edits by Clem & me
Snorlax originally by Brumirage, edits by me and deetah (the BIGs were a wonderful team effort this year!)

Team Raiders
SPLXVII_RaidersF.png
SPLXVII_RaidersM.png

F (Roxie-Masters) by kyledove, recolor & edits by me
M (Guitarist-Gen4) recolor by me
Marowak-A edits & drumkit by me

Wi-Fi Wolfpack
SPLXVII_WolfpackF.png
SPLXVII_WolfpackM.png

F (Emma) by ZacWeavile, recolor & edits by me
M (Shadow Triad) recolor by me
Lycanroc by RADU

Here's to a great SPL XVII!
 
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