-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
Finals Smogon Premier League X - Finals [Won by the Alpha Ruiners]
- Thread starter Saria
- Start date
- Status
SM OU: Mana vs Hiye
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl
SM RU: aim vs passion
SM NU: ict vs lax
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwing
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120
go tyrants
we had a good run scooters ily all
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl
SM RU: aim vs passion
SM NU: ict vs lax
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwing
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120
go tyrants
we had a good run scooters ily all
At long last, we have come to the final week of the SPL season. The semifinals ended in heartbreaking fashion for the Scooters, as they won a match in their opponents' counterpick tier only for the kingpin to come up short in bw and ben gay to bring a Muk. The victors of the series, the Ruiners, have been relatively dominant for the majority of the season; unfortunately, they are going up against one of the best teams ever constructed.
Speaking of the Tyrants, THEY JUST OBLITERATED THE WOLFPACK like my lord.
As per tradition, it is now time to pay tribute to our fallen comrades, the Wolfpack and the Scooters.
Let's start with last year's champions.
Tony started off the season by retaining Fear for 18k, a price that looks absurdly cheap when considering that other people like Earthworm and Cased went for similar prices in the auction. After 2 long years, however, FEAR FINALLY GOT UNLUCKY in Week 9, and followed this up with a loss to the squatter in the semifinals. He was unable to save the team like he did last year, but the retain was still obviously very solid.
On to the rest of the team. The first thing that jumps off the page here is Charmflash's record. After he hit a career low due to the MonoSnake debacle, Charmflash asserted himself as a dominant force in the tour scene, racking up 7 wins. Getting him for 4.5k obviously helped the team recoup some of the value lost by buying...UD for 20.5k. Yeah...LOOOL I'm not really sure how UD went from being decent in a heat ADV pool to being arguably the shittiest ADVer in SPL, but here we are. This pick looks absolutely horrendous in hindsight, and I know several members of the Wolfpack were ripping their hair out every time UD took the field. At the time, though, considering the sorry state of the ADV pool, this move was justifiable. Kickasser was another high-priced pickup, starting off the season strong before tailing off in a big way. TDK managed to make z0mog lose his bet to passion, but still finished under .500 for the second tour in a row. Eternally also had a terrible season, despite having trusty Wolfpack comrade rozes by his side...speaking of rozes, he somehow managed to be the 5th sub off the bench for a roster featuring HSA...yeah LOL
The Wolfpack season seemed to flip on its head the second bugzinator got himself banned for being a dumbass. This turned a solid slot into what seemed like an autoloss, and the Wolfpack went from a top team to one that was hanging on for dear life by season's end, losing to the shit ass 90k BIGs roster and only narrowly edging them out for 4th. I'd also like to point out that DeepBlueC has to be the most hyped .500 player I've ever seen; people are on this guy's dick every week I swear LOL
Overall, this team's high-priced slots fizzled out as the season progressed, and after bugzinator's ban, their lineup got even weaker. Eternally somehow got worse with rozes, and UD should probably be like 3k next year LOL jesus fuck he was ass. They seemed to be on a downward spiral by the time the playoffs rolled around, so it's no wonder they got absolutely curbstomped when staring into the face of an actual lineup.
Next we move on the Scooters.
I and many other skeptics found the Scooters draft to be a bit baffling at first. Whether it was due to the other teams just being complete dogshit or due to their lineup peaking at the right times, though, they managed to land a playoff spot and nearly made the finals. The Scooters started off the tour by dropping 1/4 of their bankroll on the kingpin, who underperformed a bit for his standards. Can't really hate on the pick, though.
Their other big-money buys, though....First, they decided to spend 16.5k on ben gay. Now, there are many ben gay apologists out there, and he might be one of the only players that can make people hop on his bandwagon one week and then call him the worst player in the world in the next. ben gay's 2 finals games pretty much sum up his career. In his first game, he played a pretty below-average OU player in sorry and won easily off matchup with VincCune, making the Smogtours audience scream his name as he finessed his opponent with absolute nonsense like Trick Scarf Cresselia. He successfully managed to hoodwink the Scooters into picking him for the tiebreak. And then he brought him:
Bravo, ben gay. Bravo. I find it very hard to justify spending 16.5k on someone who is a constant activity risk and has documented issues with pressure, but to each their own. I mean, he did go The Scooters also spent 14k on Century Express, which was absolute nonsense LMAO HOW WAS HE 14K DUDE WTF MRE IS PROB AS GOOD AS HIM AND HE WAS 3K. This pick made no real sense at the time, and I still don't really understand his price. But then again, a lot of higher-priced GSCers did terribly, so this pick didn't even end up being bad considering that he went positive. And of course, the Scooters were also the destination of one of Smogon's new hated players, Cdumas, who was bashed in the BIGs eulogy a few weeks ago. Cdumas somehow managed to get a starting spot in the finals, and got promptly annihilated by Hiye, pushing the Ruiners to 6 wins. I didn't think it was possible for a player to fuck over 2 franchises in the same season, but Cdumas managed to do it LMAO Imagine cancering, getting yourself traded to a playoff team, and then sabotaging them in the Finals while the team you left got significantly better and almost made the playoffs without you. Very impressive indeed.
The Scooters managed to get some of the best value picks of the draft. robjr somehow went from being an ABR lackey to absurdly overvalued in Snake to absurdly undervalued in SPL. bro...THE BIGS SPENT 14K ON SAGE WHEN ROBJR WAS 6.5K???? HOW DUDE WTF Realistic Waters had his best season yet, and FMG established himself as a solid OU player with a bright future. MoP had some impressive games in the tour, and was a solid RU pick for 5.5k, especially considering that the Ruiners drafted Redemption for 6k LOOL And of course, the team featured a token french buy in the form of giara, who was dogshit as usual and should not be bought for SPL in the future. Well, he did manage to somehow get 3 wins I guess.
Also...can we just revisit how absolutely absurd the Ruiners-Scooters tiebreak was LMAO WHY'D THE SCOOTERS PICK BW? WHY'D THE RUINERS PICK DOUBLES? man, who the fuck knows.
Overall, the Scooters ended up with a pretty balanced lineup that was one win away from a finals appearance; they were essentially an upgraded version of the 90k BIGs. They had a solid season, though, and exceeded my expectations.
Now then, on to the predictions!
The Dragonspiral Tyrants (7) vs. The Alpha Ruiners (4)
SM OU: Mana vs Hiye | This game is pretty close. hiye has had some pretty bad games this SPL, and it'll take more than a win over Cdickass to give me a great deal of faith in him. He could easily win this game, but I'll take Mana for his body of work.
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo | empo's been solid enough this tour, but blunder's in another stratosphere right now. When you factor in blunders monetary motivation as well, this game looks very rough for Empo.
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl | I'm always relatively high on Christo, and I think think he could easily win this game. Pearl's still the best UUer, though, and has demonstrated his consistency throughout the tier. Hard not to favor him here, if only slightly.
SM RU: aim vs passion | passion has been decent enough this SPL, but Joey's putting together a solid campaign, and gets a chance to put a bow on it with a nice 7-3 record and a ring. I was pretty high on Joey going into this tour, and he was ranked #3 in the prestigious preseason ShakeItUp RU Power Rankings. He's played solidly enough to deserve a big edge in this one.
SM NU: ict vs lax | I really wanted to pick ict for this, but lax is probably the best NUer right now. Fresh off a tiebreak win, he'll look to keep the magic rolling in what should be a very promising matchup.
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven | Yeah...I don't really know doubles and with Croven's amazing record and emi's very high potential, imma just call this a tossup.
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol | yeah, I still don't really have any faith in sorry. Poek's farmed some irrelevant games, but if he plays decently, he should take this one for sure.
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer | REWER WON LAST WEEK LMAO IDK HOW THOUGH. No need to overthink this, though. Moxie's been solid and rewer's crust and bad. Free wins #crustrule
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwig | Ah, the variance madhouse. Gary's definitely been better than I thought, but Jimmy's had a solid season. I'll favor him based on body of work, but in this dumbass tier, who knows. Jimmy legit lost last week within 5 turns because Empoleon set up Rocks and killed a mon. Like LOL
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex | LOOOL The Ruiners rly tried to cheat last round huh? Respectable tbh. They should have just gone through with the ghosting, though, but I guess they made the finals anyway. The Ruiners ADV has consisted of filler characters the entire season, and marcop's exceeded all expectations. Huge edge.
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos | sulcata's been pretty impressive lately, tbh. Against most other people in this pool, I would actually favor him. But Lavos is on another level right now. This man's a top 5 player on the site at this point, jesus. Dude beat Ojama in his own backyard after demolishing the entire GSC pool LOL jesus
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120 | Troller's been bodying people lately, and FOMG has fallen off a bit. Troller's better.
Speaking of the Tyrants, THEY JUST OBLITERATED THE WOLFPACK like my lord.
As per tradition, it is now time to pay tribute to our fallen comrades, the Wolfpack and the Scooters.
Let's start with last year's champions.
Tony started off the season by retaining Fear for 18k, a price that looks absurdly cheap when considering that other people like Earthworm and Cased went for similar prices in the auction. After 2 long years, however, FEAR FINALLY GOT UNLUCKY in Week 9, and followed this up with a loss to the squatter in the semifinals. He was unable to save the team like he did last year, but the retain was still obviously very solid.
On to the rest of the team. The first thing that jumps off the page here is Charmflash's record. After he hit a career low due to the MonoSnake debacle, Charmflash asserted himself as a dominant force in the tour scene, racking up 7 wins. Getting him for 4.5k obviously helped the team recoup some of the value lost by buying...UD for 20.5k. Yeah...LOOOL I'm not really sure how UD went from being decent in a heat ADV pool to being arguably the shittiest ADVer in SPL, but here we are. This pick looks absolutely horrendous in hindsight, and I know several members of the Wolfpack were ripping their hair out every time UD took the field. At the time, though, considering the sorry state of the ADV pool, this move was justifiable. Kickasser was another high-priced pickup, starting off the season strong before tailing off in a big way. TDK managed to make z0mog lose his bet to passion, but still finished under .500 for the second tour in a row. Eternally also had a terrible season, despite having trusty Wolfpack comrade rozes by his side...speaking of rozes, he somehow managed to be the 5th sub off the bench for a roster featuring HSA...yeah LOL
The Wolfpack season seemed to flip on its head the second bugzinator got himself banned for being a dumbass. This turned a solid slot into what seemed like an autoloss, and the Wolfpack went from a top team to one that was hanging on for dear life by season's end, losing to the shit ass 90k BIGs roster and only narrowly edging them out for 4th. I'd also like to point out that DeepBlueC has to be the most hyped .500 player I've ever seen; people are on this guy's dick every week I swear LOL
Overall, this team's high-priced slots fizzled out as the season progressed, and after bugzinator's ban, their lineup got even weaker. Eternally somehow got worse with rozes, and UD should probably be like 3k next year LOL jesus fuck he was ass. They seemed to be on a downward spiral by the time the playoffs rolled around, so it's no wonder they got absolutely curbstomped when staring into the face of an actual lineup.
Next we move on the Scooters.
I and many other skeptics found the Scooters draft to be a bit baffling at first. Whether it was due to the other teams just being complete dogshit or due to their lineup peaking at the right times, though, they managed to land a playoff spot and nearly made the finals. The Scooters started off the tour by dropping 1/4 of their bankroll on the kingpin, who underperformed a bit for his standards. Can't really hate on the pick, though.
Their other big-money buys, though....First, they decided to spend 16.5k on ben gay. Now, there are many ben gay apologists out there, and he might be one of the only players that can make people hop on his bandwagon one week and then call him the worst player in the world in the next. ben gay's 2 finals games pretty much sum up his career. In his first game, he played a pretty below-average OU player in sorry and won easily off matchup with VincCune, making the Smogtours audience scream his name as he finessed his opponent with absolute nonsense like Trick Scarf Cresselia. He successfully managed to hoodwink the Scooters into picking him for the tiebreak. And then he brought him:
Bravo, ben gay. Bravo. I find it very hard to justify spending 16.5k on someone who is a constant activity risk and has documented issues with pressure, but to each their own. I mean, he did go The Scooters also spent 14k on Century Express, which was absolute nonsense LMAO HOW WAS HE 14K DUDE WTF MRE IS PROB AS GOOD AS HIM AND HE WAS 3K. This pick made no real sense at the time, and I still don't really understand his price. But then again, a lot of higher-priced GSCers did terribly, so this pick didn't even end up being bad considering that he went positive. And of course, the Scooters were also the destination of one of Smogon's new hated players, Cdumas, who was bashed in the BIGs eulogy a few weeks ago. Cdumas somehow managed to get a starting spot in the finals, and got promptly annihilated by Hiye, pushing the Ruiners to 6 wins. I didn't think it was possible for a player to fuck over 2 franchises in the same season, but Cdumas managed to do it LMAO Imagine cancering, getting yourself traded to a playoff team, and then sabotaging them in the Finals while the team you left got significantly better and almost made the playoffs without you. Very impressive indeed.
The Scooters managed to get some of the best value picks of the draft. robjr somehow went from being an ABR lackey to absurdly overvalued in Snake to absurdly undervalued in SPL. bro...THE BIGS SPENT 14K ON SAGE WHEN ROBJR WAS 6.5K???? HOW DUDE WTF Realistic Waters had his best season yet, and FMG established himself as a solid OU player with a bright future. MoP had some impressive games in the tour, and was a solid RU pick for 5.5k, especially considering that the Ruiners drafted Redemption for 6k LOOL And of course, the team featured a token french buy in the form of giara, who was dogshit as usual and should not be bought for SPL in the future. Well, he did manage to somehow get 3 wins I guess.
Also...can we just revisit how absolutely absurd the Ruiners-Scooters tiebreak was LMAO WHY'D THE SCOOTERS PICK BW? WHY'D THE RUINERS PICK DOUBLES? man, who the fuck knows.
Overall, the Scooters ended up with a pretty balanced lineup that was one win away from a finals appearance; they were essentially an upgraded version of the 90k BIGs. They had a solid season, though, and exceeded my expectations.
Now then, on to the predictions!
The Dragonspiral Tyrants (7) vs. The Alpha Ruiners (4)
SM OU: Mana vs Hiye | This game is pretty close. hiye has had some pretty bad games this SPL, and it'll take more than a win over Cdickass to give me a great deal of faith in him. He could easily win this game, but I'll take Mana for his body of work.
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo | empo's been solid enough this tour, but blunder's in another stratosphere right now. When you factor in blunders monetary motivation as well, this game looks very rough for Empo.
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl | I'm always relatively high on Christo, and I think think he could easily win this game. Pearl's still the best UUer, though, and has demonstrated his consistency throughout the tier. Hard not to favor him here, if only slightly.
SM RU: aim vs passion | passion has been decent enough this SPL, but Joey's putting together a solid campaign, and gets a chance to put a bow on it with a nice 7-3 record and a ring. I was pretty high on Joey going into this tour, and he was ranked #3 in the prestigious preseason ShakeItUp RU Power Rankings. He's played solidly enough to deserve a big edge in this one.
SM NU: ict vs lax | I really wanted to pick ict for this, but lax is probably the best NUer right now. Fresh off a tiebreak win, he'll look to keep the magic rolling in what should be a very promising matchup.
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven | Yeah...I don't really know doubles and with Croven's amazing record and emi's very high potential, imma just call this a tossup.
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol | yeah, I still don't really have any faith in sorry. Poek's farmed some irrelevant games, but if he plays decently, he should take this one for sure.
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer | REWER WON LAST WEEK LMAO IDK HOW THOUGH. No need to overthink this, though. Moxie's been solid and rewer's crust and bad. Free wins #crustrule
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwig | Ah, the variance madhouse. Gary's definitely been better than I thought, but Jimmy's had a solid season. I'll favor him based on body of work, but in this dumbass tier, who knows. Jimmy legit lost last week within 5 turns because Empoleon set up Rocks and killed a mon. Like LOL
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex | LOOOL The Ruiners rly tried to cheat last round huh? Respectable tbh. They should have just gone through with the ghosting, though, but I guess they made the finals anyway. The Ruiners ADV has consisted of filler characters the entire season, and marcop's exceeded all expectations. Huge edge.
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos | sulcata's been pretty impressive lately, tbh. Against most other people in this pool, I would actually favor him. But Lavos is on another level right now. This man's a top 5 player on the site at this point, jesus. Dude beat Ojama in his own backyard after demolishing the entire GSC pool LOL jesus
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120 | Troller's been bodying people lately, and FOMG has fallen off a bit. Troller's better.
GO TYRANTS
Im so sorry lol, but if you're not a friend of mr. golem then you have no reason to be lax about playing the Ruiners in the finals. You might call me a troller, but I assure you that trolling was never my aim.
I had to make the names bold because some of you are not very bright individuals and would not have figured it out without hints.
I had to make the names bold because some of you are not very bright individuals and would not have figured it out without hints.
SM OU: Mana vs Hiye | mana's play has impressed me a lot more than hiye's this spl. i'd definitely favour him in an even matchup.
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo | both can make the big dick plays when needed, but empo is a lot more mistake prone than blunder. i don't see blunder's undefeated sm run ending here.
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl | pearl's been on a bit of a losing streak, but i'll trust him to pipe up when it really matters. perhaps a bit of a biased predict, because i don't necessarily think christo is any worse than pearl in uu or mons in general, but i just have a feeling that my man will have the sauce here.
SM RU: aim vs passion | my head says joey has far more big game experience and a better record, and thus should take this game. however, my heart is full of passion.
SM NU: ict vs lax | both are fire, but i think the momentum is with lax after his tiebreak win.
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven | i think emi is the better player overall, but croven is a better builder in dou. i'm going to favour the loli lover here, spl finals really ain't shit compared to the pressure of playing in worlds finals.
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol | sorry's been on a bad run as of late and i think poek is a better player either way.
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer | love rewer and hate lasse, but based on their respective performances this spl there's really no other choice here.
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwig | really close one between 2 good friends here, with both sporting the same record. i think gary is better than jimmy when it comes to playing aggressively, and that's a style of play that lends itself to dpp better. gary's early losses this spl were mostly down to subpar teams i would say, but he's stepped it up in that department recently, i really liked his team last week especially. gonna give the edge to him here.
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex | big T is the man in adv rn, and i haven't seen anything from hyoga to suggest that he could win this match.
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos | sulcata had an impressive game in semis and has been otherwise quite solid as well, but there's no way i can predict against lavos who has followed up an already impressive spl 9 with nabbing the current best record in spl 10. definitely the best gscer rn.
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120 | a lot of fomg's wins seem to be a combination of good plays and good luck, which is of course ideal when it comes to mons, but somehow or another i don't see him winning all that often with neutral or slightly worse luck. rby is rby and anything can happen, but i'd definitely favour troller to overtake nails for the best rby record with neutral luck.
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo | both can make the big dick plays when needed, but empo is a lot more mistake prone than blunder. i don't see blunder's undefeated sm run ending here.
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl | pearl's been on a bit of a losing streak, but i'll trust him to pipe up when it really matters. perhaps a bit of a biased predict, because i don't necessarily think christo is any worse than pearl in uu or mons in general, but i just have a feeling that my man will have the sauce here.
SM RU: aim vs passion | my head says joey has far more big game experience and a better record, and thus should take this game. however, my heart is full of passion.
SM NU: ict vs lax | both are fire, but i think the momentum is with lax after his tiebreak win.
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven | i think emi is the better player overall, but croven is a better builder in dou. i'm going to favour the loli lover here, spl finals really ain't shit compared to the pressure of playing in worlds finals.
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol | sorry's been on a bad run as of late and i think poek is a better player either way.
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer | love rewer and hate lasse, but based on their respective performances this spl there's really no other choice here.
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwig | really close one between 2 good friends here, with both sporting the same record. i think gary is better than jimmy when it comes to playing aggressively, and that's a style of play that lends itself to dpp better. gary's early losses this spl were mostly down to subpar teams i would say, but he's stepped it up in that department recently, i really liked his team last week especially. gonna give the edge to him here.
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex | big T is the man in adv rn, and i haven't seen anything from hyoga to suggest that he could win this match.
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos | sulcata had an impressive game in semis and has been otherwise quite solid as well, but there's no way i can predict against lavos who has followed up an already impressive spl 9 with nabbing the current best record in spl 10. definitely the best gscer rn.
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120 | a lot of fomg's wins seem to be a combination of good plays and good luck, which is of course ideal when it comes to mons, but somehow or another i don't see him winning all that often with neutral or slightly worse luck. rby is rby and anything can happen, but i'd definitely favour troller to overtake nails for the best rby record with neutral luck.
I've had a lot of fun participating in the prediction tour so far this season as a way to cope with the disappointment of not being drafted and would like to wish martha good luck in her predicts these finals. In spirit of both SPL and its prediction tour winding down for the season with this great final, I'm posting my own predictions for this week.
Alpha Ruiners (6) vs Dragonspiral Tyrants (6)
SM OU: Mana vs Hiye - After a rocky start to SPL, playing a tier he didn't seem quite comfortable in, Hiye has returned to form and put up a solid 5-4 record, culminating in him having arguably his best win of the season in semifinals against Cdumas. Obviously Mana has also had a great tour and is coming off of a dominating win himself, but I feel like Hiye will bring a solid team that's difficult to take advantage of and will pilot his way to a clutch victory for his team, thus activating the SPL finals plot armor that always seems to result in a tie.
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo - At this point, I genuinely don't think there's a single player left in the tournament on either team that I'd take over blunder in SM OU, he's just been on another level so far this SPL and dominated basically everyone he's gone up against since that game against ABR. Empo's obviously a top player, but he didn't look like himself last week, being taken down by the unstoppable bullet train that is FMG, and that makes it very hard to pick him over blunder here.
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl - Both of these players are absurdly close in skill level, being 2 of the best UU players in this year's stacked pool and having the experience to come up big in playoffs. Pearl is coming off of 3 consecutive losses, and him losing 4 in a row is unfathomable, especially on the big stage like this. Christo's obviously another top level player, and is coming in hot off of a win in semifinals, but it's really difficult to pick against Peral against anyone in this tour, even after he's had a couple tough losses.
SM RU: aim vs passion - Joey has honestly looked like the best RU player in the pool this season, doing a great job preparing and executing this year. Conversely, passion is a newcomer who has been solid, albeit unlucky, this year without the veteran experience and ability to execute that joey brings to the table. I think that passion is really solid and better than his record indicates, but joey has just been better this season and I'll have to take him to win this game.
SM NU: ict vs lax - Lax is coming in hot, having just won both his semifinal NU game as well as the tiebreak game that propelled the ruiners into finals. He just looks like the best player in the NU pool right now and I expect him to combine his high play ceiling as well as his great preparation to pull out a win against ict here. Ict is obviously no slouch and has put up a strong record, I just don't think he's going to be able to take down lax with how incredible he's looked as of late.
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven - Both of these players have been really strong, especially as of late, but I'm pretty sure that Croven is gonna be motivated as fuck to bounce back from his loss in semifinals tiebreak and deliver a crucial win to his team much in the same way that he's been doing all season long. For what it's worth, Croven also has a higher RPI and PER than emforbes does, so he's got the advanced stats edge to push him over the top as well.
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol - I think that sorry's a very good player that can beat anyone at the top of his game, but he's got huge nerves and isn't even playing in his best tier here whereas Poek has looked like the Poek of old in the second half of this SPL and is going to dispose of most everyone in this tier. Like I said earlier, sorry is a very high ceiling player and he can easily win this game if he plays like he did against TDK earlier in the season, or if his savvy prep instincts can allow him to gain a favorable advantage.
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer - Rewer did pick up a stall win against Lopunny Kicks last week, but Lasse's managed to put up a strong record and farm BW all tour long, so I expect him to do much of the same here. If Rewer does want to win this game, he better remember to bring his Reuniclus counters and play the game of his life. Rewer's not a piece of shit scrub contrary to what one would think if the only thing they read was shakeitup posts, but he's just not performed as well as Lasse this tour and is facing an uphill battle here.
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwig - Now GaryTheGengar has certainly exceeded my expectations this tournament, putting up a good record and playing well in most of his games, but besides last week Jimmy has just looked like the best DPPer in the pool for most of the season barring last week's performance. Both players are bringing really solid teams and this is sure to shape up to be a good one, I'm just more confident in the DPP Cup winner and veteran player.
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex - Eden appears to not want to play after the stunt that ruiners management pulled last week with qsns, or he's just busy. Either way, they're resorting to their backup plan in Hyoga, who is a decent player that can take games off of most people, but he's obviously not the best nor the most experienced ADVer out there. On the other hand, marcop has been absolutely wreaking havoc this SPL, taking down some of the best ADVers in the tour, so I gotta go with him here.
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos - Lavos has been absolutely dominant all SPL and is coming off of a historic game against Ojama in which he won one of the best games I've ever seen live in tiebreak no less. No one seems to be anywhere near his level right now, but if there is someone that can knock him off, it is sulcata, who is coming off of a lopsided win against Fear. Nevertheless, Lavos is still the heavy favorite here and just on another level compared to the opponents that sulcata has faced up to this point.
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120 - FOMG had a red heart start to the season, starting off 3-0, but he's cooled off considerably since then while Troller has only heated up down the stretch of this SPL, solidifying himself as the best RBYer in SPL and demonstrated smart, meticulous play throughout long and monotonous games while simultaneously demonstrating the ability to turn up the aggression at just the right time and claim a victory. FOMG still is a solid player and can get absurdly lucky at times, but he just seems to be outmatched here.
Good luck and congratulations to both teams participating in finals this week. Here's to hoping for a great, closely contested series that will be sure to entertain and have some classic games!
Alpha Ruiners (6) vs Dragonspiral Tyrants (6)
SM OU: Mana vs Hiye - After a rocky start to SPL, playing a tier he didn't seem quite comfortable in, Hiye has returned to form and put up a solid 5-4 record, culminating in him having arguably his best win of the season in semifinals against Cdumas. Obviously Mana has also had a great tour and is coming off of a dominating win himself, but I feel like Hiye will bring a solid team that's difficult to take advantage of and will pilot his way to a clutch victory for his team, thus activating the SPL finals plot armor that always seems to result in a tie.
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo - At this point, I genuinely don't think there's a single player left in the tournament on either team that I'd take over blunder in SM OU, he's just been on another level so far this SPL and dominated basically everyone he's gone up against since that game against ABR. Empo's obviously a top player, but he didn't look like himself last week, being taken down by the unstoppable bullet train that is FMG, and that makes it very hard to pick him over blunder here.
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl - Both of these players are absurdly close in skill level, being 2 of the best UU players in this year's stacked pool and having the experience to come up big in playoffs. Pearl is coming off of 3 consecutive losses, and him losing 4 in a row is unfathomable, especially on the big stage like this. Christo's obviously another top level player, and is coming in hot off of a win in semifinals, but it's really difficult to pick against Peral against anyone in this tour, even after he's had a couple tough losses.
SM RU: aim vs passion - Joey has honestly looked like the best RU player in the pool this season, doing a great job preparing and executing this year. Conversely, passion is a newcomer who has been solid, albeit unlucky, this year without the veteran experience and ability to execute that joey brings to the table. I think that passion is really solid and better than his record indicates, but joey has just been better this season and I'll have to take him to win this game.
SM NU: ict vs lax - Lax is coming in hot, having just won both his semifinal NU game as well as the tiebreak game that propelled the ruiners into finals. He just looks like the best player in the NU pool right now and I expect him to combine his high play ceiling as well as his great preparation to pull out a win against ict here. Ict is obviously no slouch and has put up a strong record, I just don't think he's going to be able to take down lax with how incredible he's looked as of late.
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven - Both of these players have been really strong, especially as of late, but I'm pretty sure that Croven is gonna be motivated as fuck to bounce back from his loss in semifinals tiebreak and deliver a crucial win to his team much in the same way that he's been doing all season long. For what it's worth, Croven also has a higher RPI and PER than emforbes does, so he's got the advanced stats edge to push him over the top as well.
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol - I think that sorry's a very good player that can beat anyone at the top of his game, but he's got huge nerves and isn't even playing in his best tier here whereas Poek has looked like the Poek of old in the second half of this SPL and is going to dispose of most everyone in this tier. Like I said earlier, sorry is a very high ceiling player and he can easily win this game if he plays like he did against TDK earlier in the season, or if his savvy prep instincts can allow him to gain a favorable advantage.
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer - Rewer did pick up a stall win against Lopunny Kicks last week, but Lasse's managed to put up a strong record and farm BW all tour long, so I expect him to do much of the same here. If Rewer does want to win this game, he better remember to bring his Reuniclus counters and play the game of his life. Rewer's not a piece of shit scrub contrary to what one would think if the only thing they read was shakeitup posts, but he's just not performed as well as Lasse this tour and is facing an uphill battle here.
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwig - Now GaryTheGengar has certainly exceeded my expectations this tournament, putting up a good record and playing well in most of his games, but besides last week Jimmy has just looked like the best DPPer in the pool for most of the season barring last week's performance. Both players are bringing really solid teams and this is sure to shape up to be a good one, I'm just more confident in the DPP Cup winner and veteran player.
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex - Eden appears to not want to play after the stunt that ruiners management pulled last week with qsns, or he's just busy. Either way, they're resorting to their backup plan in Hyoga, who is a decent player that can take games off of most people, but he's obviously not the best nor the most experienced ADVer out there. On the other hand, marcop has been absolutely wreaking havoc this SPL, taking down some of the best ADVers in the tour, so I gotta go with him here.
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos - Lavos has been absolutely dominant all SPL and is coming off of a historic game against Ojama in which he won one of the best games I've ever seen live in tiebreak no less. No one seems to be anywhere near his level right now, but if there is someone that can knock him off, it is sulcata, who is coming off of a lopsided win against Fear. Nevertheless, Lavos is still the heavy favorite here and just on another level compared to the opponents that sulcata has faced up to this point.
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120 - FOMG had a red heart start to the season, starting off 3-0, but he's cooled off considerably since then while Troller has only heated up down the stretch of this SPL, solidifying himself as the best RBYer in SPL and demonstrated smart, meticulous play throughout long and monotonous games while simultaneously demonstrating the ability to turn up the aggression at just the right time and claim a victory. FOMG still is a solid player and can get absurdly lucky at times, but he just seems to be outmatched here.
Good luck and congratulations to both teams participating in finals this week. Here's to hoping for a great, closely contested series that will be sure to entertain and have some classic games!
Let's go Tyrants! This victory would be well deserved. Looking forward to the RU and GSC games d:]
want to see lax and croven with trophies, gl lads
SM OU: Mana vs Hiye
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl
SM RU: aim vs passion
SM NU: ict vs lax
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwig
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA vs Empo
SM UU: Christo vs Pearl
SM RU: aim vs passion
SM NU: ict vs lax
SM DOU: emforbes vs Croven
ORAS OU: Poek vs imsosorrylol
BW OU: We Three Kings vs Rewer
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar vs Jimmy Turtwig
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs Hyogafodex
GSC OU: sulcata vs Lavos
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs FriendOfMrGolem120
Tyrants [7] Vs. [5] Ruiners
SM OU: Mana [55] vs [45] Hiye - Hiye is a bit inconsistent, while he pulls great performances some times (including the last week's one) he just fucks around in others, while Mana doesnt missplay easily and played his semis game like a beast LOOOL. Nice strat of "If that won against me It might work vs other people too" by the way. Could go either way if prime hiye shows up but its hard to know.
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA [60] vs [40] Empo - If empo doesnt try to win on team preview already I think hes gonna find some serious trouble. While i think hes good enough to fight and win vs anyone in SM OU, blunder is maybe the best player this SPL along Lavos (not even talking of records, its just about solid decision making and team choices all over the tour). An upset is possible but im actually curious to know If empo will be able to make It.
SM UU: Christo [49] vs [51] Pearl - Its a hot matchup between the best UU players at the moment, Ive been enjoying UU a lot lately and I always try to watch both playing, see what they bring etc. Picking pearl solely on expectations and recent overall results but actually, could go either way.
SM RU: aim [70] vs [30] passion - Better player.
SM NU: ict [45] vs [55] lax - ict is really competent but lax is coming off of a semis + tie break win, just hard to see him losing rn.
SM DOU: emforbes [51] vs [49] Croven
ORAS OU: Poek [75] vs [25] imsosorrylol - Poek is outstanding, cute etc I dont think I need to say much tbh.
BW OU: We Three Kings [55] vs [45] Rewer - I feel like moxie is better overall but I like rewer's odds here too. This matchup is probby a lot closer than what people think.
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar [30] vs [70] Jimmy Turtwing - Waaaay better player... You will need to flame me on discord and/or win a lot more to convince anyone that you are better than at least half this pool, you smelly, cringe and stup asshole. Big Edge.
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas [49] vs [51] Hyogafodex - Hyoga played pretty well against dekzeh and those who play old gens know that hyoga is competent enough to show good results in any gen between GSC and DPP. Marcop has been playing well and could easily take It too but im high on his opp rn.
GSC OU: sulcata [40] vs [60] Lavos - Ye sulcata is a good player sure, but lavos is still the best in this pool and that BW win was wonderful as well. Considerable edge id say.
RBY OU: Heroic Troller [60] vs [40] FriendOfMrGolem120
SM OU: Mana [55] vs [45] Hiye - Hiye is a bit inconsistent, while he pulls great performances some times (including the last week's one) he just fucks around in others, while Mana doesnt missplay easily and played his semis game like a beast LOOOL. Nice strat of "If that won against me It might work vs other people too" by the way. Could go either way if prime hiye shows up but its hard to know.
SM OU: BLUNDER SANTANA [60] vs [40] Empo - If empo doesnt try to win on team preview already I think hes gonna find some serious trouble. While i think hes good enough to fight and win vs anyone in SM OU, blunder is maybe the best player this SPL along Lavos (not even talking of records, its just about solid decision making and team choices all over the tour). An upset is possible but im actually curious to know If empo will be able to make It.
SM UU: Christo [49] vs [51] Pearl - Its a hot matchup between the best UU players at the moment, Ive been enjoying UU a lot lately and I always try to watch both playing, see what they bring etc. Picking pearl solely on expectations and recent overall results but actually, could go either way.
SM RU: aim [70] vs [30] passion - Better player.
SM NU: ict [45] vs [55] lax - ict is really competent but lax is coming off of a semis + tie break win, just hard to see him losing rn.
SM DOU: emforbes [51] vs [49] Croven
ORAS OU: Poek [75] vs [25] imsosorrylol - Poek is outstanding, cute etc I dont think I need to say much tbh.
BW OU: We Three Kings [55] vs [45] Rewer - I feel like moxie is better overall but I like rewer's odds here too. This matchup is probby a lot closer than what people think.
DPP OU: GaryTheGengar [30] vs [70] Jimmy Turtwing - Waaaay better player... You will need to flame me on discord and/or win a lot more to convince anyone that you are better than at least half this pool, you smelly, cringe and stup asshole. Big Edge.
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas [49] vs [51] Hyogafodex - Hyoga played pretty well against dekzeh and those who play old gens know that hyoga is competent enough to show good results in any gen between GSC and DPP. Marcop has been playing well and could easily take It too but im high on his opp rn.
GSC OU: sulcata [40] vs [60] Lavos - Ye sulcata is a good player sure, but lavos is still the best in this pool and that BW win was wonderful as well. Considerable edge id say.
RBY OU: Heroic Troller [60] vs [40] FriendOfMrGolem120
Last edited:
- Status