★ DWCoP VII - Commencement

The strongest teams the tournament has. I would bet my life they make it to playoffs. Every team on the tournament should watch out for them. I won't even go into detail with their players achievements because they're that known.

:genesect: US South :genesect:
Alright people how are we actually letting this team form each year what the FUCK. We should nuke them and split them once again. Every single player on the starter lineup is a SV1 DPL player; has 3 current SCL player, 3? 4? ex SCL player, and tier who has slain my ass in the past. They even had the luxury of benching Code LOL. Last year I said I was scared of facing them and indeed we lost to them on finals , someone PLEASE beat them man. They can't keep getting away with it.

:sandshrew: US Midwest :sandshrew:
Yo when I started writing this I only had South in this tier but then I took a close look at this team lineup and it's also cracked as hell man. This team has 3 current SCL players, 1 ex SCL player and a SCL support snub. Their bench doesn't look that strong but players like Fragments and carneyasadaa are perfectly capable of facing top players on SV & Champions respectively. Another team that might make my timbers shiver.

These two teams are just not fair and it wouldn't be weird for them to win the tournament. Nuke US for the 095830th time please.

Very strong teams in the tournament, just not God tier. Perfectly capable of winning the tournament.

:honchkrow: Italy :honchkrow:
We start this tier with la mafia Italiana. We got another wave of really good Italian players 1-2 years ago, but they are now established and experimented on the tiers this tournament has. We start with one of the best SV DOU players of the entire site, MADARAAAA, leading the rest who are not much behind. We have Dubious who made a Top 4 OSDT Run, xmarsh who won Summer Seasonal (and supported me & Dubious in SCL!), and Ferrari who has a goated car name (jk he's helped the top italians with building & testing and used? not sure if he still does but grinded ladder a LOT). For Champions we have a full VGC lineup (Idk if LucaIaria is a VGCer too but anyway they're rly good at clicking whenever I've spectated their SV DOU games!), so yeah this team is just strong af, big buff from last year. If necessary they also have kyogrus & waffle on the bench to cover some games too!

:landorus: :roaring_moon: :kingdra: US West :landorus: :roaring_moon: :kingdra:
Honestly I was tempted to get these guys in the God tier, but every year they get an irl debuff and something goes wrong smh. ESM-mike leading the SV having just worked together for SCL is really good, altough the other 2 I think haven't been very active in SV (5ft5 & Lemurro). For Champions though, they have a STACKED lineup. First we have Keanu & SlushiW, two very good VGCers, the first made top 16? top 8? on a recent Regional but I can't remember which one HEH and the second went 5-3 at 2026 Worlds & just won this weekend GC. The other two are Eragon & Schister who are known for being some crackheads on the builder, and Champions 6v6 I think will reward this type of shit. I think I would've put them above if Emilio was starting, but alas, they need to jail him for pools in order to win...
PD: Free ipbf wtf.
PD2: As long as they all eat their greens and don't get sick on playoffs weeks, I think they have a real solid shot of winning!

:cinderace: US Northeast :cinderace:
Another stacked lineup. Can we just nuke all US teams and divide them into like 9?
Anyway we have Chris'23042'039580239582'0394', breakfast enjoyer & Pengu for SV, who all have had a quite nice SV season. Last is helga who I know from the kitchen and they absolutely destroyed the ND people in DPL, their clicking is GOOD. For Champions we have sir jello who must be really sad of not playing SV :rofl: , and the other 3 I honestly don't know cuz I think they're VGCers and my VGC knowledge is ass. If they're I doubt they'll have a hard time playing at a good level here so yeah, up they go.

Teams that have a good lineup! Not all the slots here are strong, but most are.

:great_tusk: Latin America :great_tusk:
I'd like to rank us in the Brokens tier but honestly we have a lot of inconsistent slots that prevents us from doing so...
First, for SV we have the proven papiloco-luisin-LugiaJP trio. The first two know how this works and tend to perform really well, and altough Lugia hasn't had the team tournament performance he would've liked, I still think he's quite capable. Our last SV is Teka who is a known VGCer from Guatemala; as long as there's no schedule issues I know he can perform really good...
For Champions we have Ann, who comes from a 7-2 SCL season; edgar, who comes from a really good Day 2 at Puebla Regional; Zerotti, who has had good results in Champions so far and I think went positive in BSSPL; and me, who went 3-3 drop in Puebla :fino: . I think our Champions lineup is quite capable but we have to practice and get used to Champions bs in order to do well...
Oh! We also have quite a good chunk of new people on the bench! And they're all hungry for games and for proving themselves, let's see if we can give them the chance...

:flutter_mane: Spain :flutter_mane:
Another team I wanted to rank higher! I'm only placing them lower because I think I would've slotted people in other tiers?
Like, for SV we have Kasty?? And for Champions SMB?? I mean don't get me wrong they're both probably going to do well no matter where you slot them but I think a swap there was better. Anyway the rest of SV is Shiritu + aseqq who I think are quite nice at the tier and they've both diversified their brings, and the last is Tenzai, who as far as I remember didn't have the best SV record, but I mean he was one of the best players in the site at one point so surely he can get in a good shape fast.
For Champions we have SMB + JRL who are known for being amazing at pretty much any DOU tier you put them in. JRL at least has had VGC experience, but SMB hasn't, we'll see if he has tested enough Champions. Last two for this format are Susej & Leunam who are quite good at VGC, so they shouldn't have much trouble adapting to this. Very unfortunate SEROO didn't slot himself this time I actually think he has gotten WAY better at DOU and could've done a lot in SV.

:zapdos: Europe :zapdos:
Europe is slowly but surely getting back their level each year even with all the nerfs. They have SV veteran Hugo, along with one of the recent new stars MPRB2. Rounding the SV slots we have Snaps who is really damn good at these mickey whack vintage tiers and Astro Nation Shoe who honestly I've not seen that much this year.
Champions I think is the strong point of Europe though, having two really good players in Yoda & Char (the former won vs me TWICE this OSDT and the latter has carried my builder for 2 years in a row :fino:). ronavgc I'm not sure if she's a VGC player or what but she is good at clicking and has also been around Champions tournaments a lot recently, I trust she can transform this experience to wins in this tournament, and my friend Kharma who finally decided to pay slight attention to Smogon and has been absolutely farming tournaments. I think the bench isn't very strong though, so I hope they don't have to sub anyone in! (incog wrath if u read this u both suck HEH)

:primeape: Brasil :primeape:
Damn, from being Tier Brasil last year to being in the solids tier, Brasil really had an amazing glowup :crine: .
Starting with SV, we have recent rising stars inabakunana and mipc. I'm lazy to check the results they've had on circuit tournaments but I had ina in my DPL cheap picks and mipc just recently slayed solid players at Last Chance, both are def capable of beating strong players. LpZ likes the format and plays from time to time, but whenever he gets serious he can actually play at a high level even if he's not that versed in Doubles, and Isaac_mor has recently farmed Champions tournaments I think, so actually quite surprised he's in SV over Champions.
Speaking of Champions, Brasil decided to contact the entire country looking for the best VGCers, and they damn got it. My only question is WHY IS THACROW BENCHED???. Anyway Staraptor is probably the most versed in DOU from Brasil and iirc they played VGC, so they're definetely going to be one of the (if not the most!) important people of this team. businesspiggy I met through farmers league and has been popping off since then, they're very capable of beating anyone. lighthouses I thought was an LC? RU? main but I mean they have a ribbon and went positive on this last SCL so the skill is there.
PD: Actually worried about piggy health since they'll probably make him cook 60 teams for SV... (i see no other builder!)

:urshifu-rapid-strike: APAC :urshifu-rapid-strike:
I don't even remember what APAC means but I think they look quite nice despite lacking their best players! (KCric & Feyy :c)
We have veterans tyo & raf leading the SV formats. I'm actually quite surprised tyo is playing SV over Champions (like, Terek could've 100% played this slot), but whatever they're still rly good. The other two are Raz who I think is complete ass (jk he can click...) and sheepie who had like a good season and then I didn't see their name anymore?? Idk but i've seen them both slay good players and I trust they can do the same here.
For champions, we have Terekusai who is an absolute beast and will do well anywhere you slot him, AKhant who I've seen do well too, Steam Buns who randomly dissapears for 3 months, and... Idyll???? Wtf did he think this was a Valorant tournament or what .
Jk, memo is historically one of the best DOU players of all time, and altough he def doesn't play most recent formats, I think Champions is "similar" to what he used to play, so I have faith in him.

Teams that have some good slots and some not so good ones...

:articuno: Canada :articuno:
We start this list with the almost dying Canada. They had to search everywhere to manage to fill the lineup, and they even managed to make gma play...
Anyway, GMA - Sapphire is a good SV leading core, altough both haven't played the tier this year I think LOL. Then we have TwistedGengar & yeohgi who honestly I don't know who they are :(
For Champions we have all 3-word-names in NecasInTrouble, SeaWolfMike, Marss Barss (can we kick this guy they don't have 3 words) and TheHorrorHare. Surely this isn't a good sign.

Honestly, I think I would've gathered the few Canadians that have played SV DOU at some point and slot them in there, and get VGCers to play Champions. I know Necas plays a little Champions and have seen Marss play more DOU than vgc (on Smogon at least), so I'm a bit skeptical on this team bc of that.

:chi-yu: :chien-pao: China :ting-lu: :wo-chien:
I love the chinese ppl who constantly play on Smogon like xq sealife & nakano, but unfortunately since I don't know half of the roster I always rank them super low :(((
I think their SV is actually quite strong! SeaLife - xqiht are two really good & solid players who can build both solid & gimmicky teams. Hybone plays apparently every damn tier in the site and I've seen him do well in them, same goes for DOU. I feel like I've seen k25 somewhere but can't remember where, unfortunate Nakano didn't sign up otherwise their SV was definetely on par with top teams.
For Champions like I know most of them (all?) have signed up for previous douwcop editions and they've gone either neutral or negative, and this is the main reason I'm ranking them this low. I hope you guys get to create some insane teams and slay everyone else!

:weezing-galar: France :weezing-galar:
I'm ranking this team bc ratpacker is here and I hate ratpacker >:(
Jk. I do think however that most of these slots are either SV3 DPL or lower unfortunately :( . Starting with SV, we have Top 8 OSDT yone, who I got for DPL and I'm ashamed I didn't get him more SV games :c . He's really good and it showed on his OSDT performance. Next we have RL who I usually see playing a lot of DOU circuit & side-tiers tournaments, and the other two I do not really know.
For Champions we have ratpacker who is one of the best DOU players right now, even managing to carry Ann to an impressive 7-2 SCL record. Followed by Despotia who tends to play DOU tours. John is a veteran but I haven't really seen him play recently and Hera who makes it regularly to douwcop.

Having the OSDT runner up Givrix on the bench really hurts an already frail France. I think France needs the actual tryhard of both ratpacker & Givrix to have a shot at playoffs, but if one of them is not playing I see a dire future...

:medicham-mega: India :medicham-mega:
From being douwcop 2023 runner up to barely getting players to sign up...
Honestly all the talent that is not playing with them anymore really hurted this team a lot. I'll be brief because I don't know more than half of this team :(.
For SV we have AIRedzone who absolutely has to carry all slots in support if they want to have a shot. Opelucid & Novax have played DOU for a while and I think they can do well with a good prep. USN i feel like I've seen on circuit tournaments but nothing else.
For Champions they have the goat Nido-Rus to (hopefully) cook for the rest of the team if needed. I do not know the other three, not sure if they are VGCers or what, so yeah :crine:

I think for this team to have a shot, both Redzone & Nido-Rus have to get the kitchen out and cook like their lifes depend on it, and get their players to practice. Keep in mind they still have one of 2024 Ducks DPL mvps in Sundays, who is currently benched and went 0-2 -> Sub in Hindi PL, but if they really need it I think he can step up...

:altaria-mega: Argentina :altaria-mega:
MOMAZOOOOOOOOOOOS
Very glad this team formed actually! Viperino had this dream since last year and started working hard ever since then. Lesgo to players!
For SV we have the recent big-names-slayer HATE=sylveon, having won vs people like Val & luisin on Last Chance; Enzonana who has not played SV since 2022, Maxisc who I actually think has improved a lot at DOU, and EB who just jumped to the DOUcord and changed his name to "next 0-3 in douwcop". Yeah.
For Champions we have Viperino who has practiced a lot since last year douwcop and even getting a shot at playing in EPL, and the other 3 who I know play Singles but have not seen yet in DOU heh.

Altough I'm glad this team formed, I think the project is still quite recent and because of this they lack experienced players, which will most likely translate in a not so good first performance. I still wish them the best and hope they continue to play!

:marshadow: Naweboná vladimil. :marshadow:
I'm going to be brief. They have 0 DOU players on the lineup. They didn't even slot 4 subs because they didn't have enough people. They have no support, no nothing. As fellow latinamericans of course I wish them the best of luck, but we also have to be real...