RU 2020 RarelyUsed Circuit Playoffs [Won by odr]

Expulso

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Welcome to the 2020 RarelyUsed Circuit Playoffs! This is what the entire year's RarelyUsed tournament circuit has led up to. After competing in countless different RU metagames due to tier shifts and DLC releases, we now finally have our 16 playoff contestants. The winner of this tournament will receive the 2020 RarelyUsed ribbon as a reward for their hard work and accomplishments this year!

Having competed in many of the 2020 RarelyUsed Circuit tours, I can personally say that arriving here is not an easy task. Congratulations to you all for doing so, and good luck in the playoffs!

SPECIFIC RULES
  • This is a standard Gen 8 RarelyUsed tournament.
  • This tournament will be SINGLE Elimination.
  • All rounds will be Best Of Five; you may switch teams in between battles of the same set.
  • Matches are to be played on Pokemon Showdown; you must play on either Smogtours or the main server.
  • Replays are mandatory for each game you play! I recommend playing on Smogtours so that they are automatically saved. DO NOT HIDE YOUR REPLAYS.

RECENT TIER CHANGES

Rounds 1 and 2:
  • Gengar banned from UU
  • Lycanroc-Dusk, Nidoqueen, Ninetales-Alola, Terrakion, and Tangrowth moved from RU to UU
  • Glastrier and Regidrago moved from UU to RU
  • Conkeldurr, Haxorus, Kyurem, Scolipede and Venusaur banned from RU

Semifinals:
  • Slowking and Grimmsnarl moved from RU to UU
  • Cobalion, Marowak-Alola, Stakataka, and Volcanion moved from UU to RU

Finals:
  • Diggersby banned from RU
  • Quagsire moved from PU to UU
  • Incineroar and Magnezone moved from UU to RU

  • Baton Pass Clause: Baton Pass is banned
  • Sleep Clause Mod: Limit one foe put to sleep
  • Species Clause: Limit one of each Pokémon
  • OHKO Clause: OHKO moves are banned
  • Moody Clause: Moody is banned
  • Evasion Moves Clause: Evasion moves are banned
  • Endless Battle Clause: Forcing endless battles is banned
  • HP Percentage Mod: HP is shown in percentages

  1. Identity: I expect many battles to be completed under alts. This can be bad for tournament security, and thus I will make this clear: If I hear any whispers of identity theft (battling as someone you are not) or proxy battling (helping someone else battle through pm) I will not be pleased and I will take severe actions.
  2. Scouting: Don't leak teams. Keep in mind when laddering and testing teams that you may encounter another player on an alt account; thus, I recommend not playing under your Smogon username. (I also recommend you use a different avatar then usual). I give permission to all battlers to ask any person spectating their battle to leave if they do not want them watching, and recommend you follow the aforementioned procedure and /modjoin or /ionext for all test games. Keep in mind that everyone will have access to your replays from earlier rounds of this Circuit Tournament.
  3. Timer Clause: Keep Battle Timer on for these games. I recommend playing on Smogtours. Battle Timeout is a rule for a reason; timer management is a necessary skill, and if you run out of time, you lose, simple as that. It does not matter what your opponent says. If you ask your opponent to turn off timer due to internet issues, etc., they can do so, but it is their right to refuse. I recommend that all such requests be made only if necessary; if it is necessary, notify your opponent before the series begins. Do not battle if you think you will have to leave mid battle, and instead reschedule for a better time.
  4. Disconnections: Finally, in the case of a disconnect, the decision is in the hands of the player who did not disconnect. The options are: redo the battle move for move, redo the battle with the same teams but different moves, or redo the battle with completely different teams. If the battle was without a doubt over, they may also take the win. Any suspicion that a disconnect was committed on purpose to redo a match may be appealed to me, and if I feel this happened there will be severe consequences. Don't do it.

1. GW - 577.5
2. Feliburn - 530.83
3. GoldCat - 530
4. toinha - 513.33
5. Punny - 500
6. Xiri - 492.5
7. odr - 470
8. Meru - 455
9. Yggdrasil60 - 437.5
10. EviGaro - 431.67
11. Natan - 408.33
12. Ramolost - 387.5
13. Bouff - 375, 1st choice in seeding tiebreak
14. rylon - 375, 2nd choice in seeding tiebreak
15. kythr - 375, 3rd choice in seeding tiebreak
16. eifo - 346.66

The spreadsheet containing the full 2020 RU Circuit results is available here.

===================================
​
Round 1:
A8GxyXH.png

[1] GW vs eifo [16]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5



t4lobIW.png

[2] Feliburn vs kythr [15]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5
​


3YsVOJm.png

[3] GoldCat vs rylon [14]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5



gI3LSb7.png

[4] toinha vs Bouff [13]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5
​


7mBL7tD.png

[5] Punny vs Ramolost [12]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5



vO3Aoov.png

[6] Xiri vs Natan [11]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5​


YM0u936.png

[7] odr vs EviGaro [10]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5



BlQFzqK.png

[8] Meru vs Yggdrasil60 [9]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5
​
[1] GW vs eifo [16]
[2] Feliburn vs kythr [15]
[3] GoldCat vs rylon [14]
[4] toinha vs Bouff [13]
[5] Punny vs Ramolost [12]
[6] Xiri vs Natan [11]
[7] odr vs EviGaro [10]
[8] Meru vs Yggdrasil60 [9]

Round 2:
​
Eifo_vs_Meru.png

[16] eifo vs Meru [8]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5


kythr_vs_odr.png

[15] kythr vs odr [7]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5​

​
Rylon_vs_Natan.png

[14] rylon vs Natan [11]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5



Bouff_vs_Punny.png

[13] Bouff vs Punny [5]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5

​
[16] eifo vs Meru [8]
[15] kythr vs odr [7]
[14] rylon vs Natan [11]
[13] Bouff vs Punny [5]

​

Semifinals:

eifo_vs_punny.gif
​
[16] eifo vs Punny [5]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5



rylon_vs_odr.gif

[14] rylon vs odr [7]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5


​
[16] eifo vs Punny [5]
[14] rylon vs odr [7]

​


final.gif

[7] odr vs Punny [5]
G1 / G2 / G3 / G4 / G5

all credit goes to Eyan for the AMAZING art you see above!



The final deadline is Sunday, January 17th at 11:59 pm GMT-5.

Congratulations and good luck to all participants!​
 
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gw vs eifo - seems to do fine in these indiv tours recently. this is probably closer than more ppl expect and i wouldn't be shocked to see it go the other way. eifo doesn't really have big performances but he always seems competitive.
feliburn vs kythr - just more in tune with stuff. kythr is a fine player but alrdy is 0-2 in seed-determinants alone this tour, which left him with feli which should tell you how he's viewed compared to others in the field.
goldcat vs rylon - have a sneaking suspicion rylon takes here. goldcat hasn't seemed very epic in recent memory but rylon has improved and seems to care.
toinha vs bouff - admittedly more of a 'what i want' prediction vs 'what i think' as in the others but bouff is a really weird oppo to play/prep for. toinha has been on the rise but while never really climbing to meteoric heights himself, bouff is perfectly capable of beating anyone with plays that make me mald in tests.
punny vs ramolost - punny will win the tour if he puts in the effort i reckon. ramolost had a cool team that got spammed everywhere in ruwc but punny's simply a better player.
xiri vs natan - better player, think this is a pretty uphill battle for natan. he had a good performance in ssnl but this seems pretty open and shut on who's more likely to take off of skill alone.
odr vs evigaro - odor might care more than anyone else in this tour, rivaled only by feliburn. i'd bold evi vs a lot of the other names here i think but not in this HL of the round.
meru vs yggdrasil60 - meru is such a headache to prep for and he's lucky. yggdrasil didnt do hot in cpl/ruwc, but maybe metashifts are more to his liking.
 
Feliburn oml...

[1] GW vs eifo [16] - i honestly don't know how GW is #1 he's really bad but I think he'll win this with his superior haxing capabilities '-'
[2] Feliburn vs kythr [15] - this series will be closer than what people may think. kythr is a very good player and while I think Feli definitely has the edge here, it would not shock me if kythr won
[3] GoldCat vs rylon [14] - gc is very talented in both the builder and on the playing field so I think he'll take this one fairly easily
[4] toinha vs Bouff [13] - very close series but I think Bouff will pull it off
[5] Punny vs Ramolost [12] - Punny will win if he uses my teams and lose if he uses Averardo 's teams so pick your poison
[6] Xiri vs Natan [11] - another tight series. i think natan will win in the builder and bring better teams but I think Xiri will be able to navigate his teams a little bit better
[7] odr vs EviGaro [10] - very minuscule edge to odr because Evi told him she was going to bring the iorse
[8] Meru vs Yggdrasil60 [9] - i saw meru use stall in the crown tundra tour and i can't bold someone who uses stall in a tier with 5000 offensive threats. all jokes aside though, ygg is a very unique builder and player and I think he has the capabilities to take this one
 
[1] GW vs eifo [16] - Eifo is both a good player and a builder, fortunately I had the chance to see him work in a team, however, I don't think he is as addicted as GW that due to doing nothing in his life, stays all day playing pokemon, even if eifo is talented, this win seems to be from GW.

[2] Feliburn vs kythr [15] - Honestly, I didn't get to see much of kythr outside that he played ruwc (my fault, I didn't follow most of the RU tours), anyway, feliburn is pure fire in the gameplay and undoubtedly one of the most difficult opponents of this tournament, the bet must go on it.

[3] GoldCat vs rylon [14] - GC made powerful results throughout the circuit tournaments and unofficial, more consistent than Rylon, which HL was the final at the RU Open (spectacular result), but after the shifts I don't see GC at his best, and Rylon for what I have seen is doing games with very solid plays, so I say he takes this.

[4] toinha vs Bouff [13] - toinha velho pqp tem nem oq falar, vai fazer igual o picapau, botar o peixe pra dentro e só vai voltar o esqueleto do oponente.

[5] Punny vs Ramolost [12] - Both have a good gameplay, although I see LK's a little above, and I think this series depends a lot on how much each one will care about the tournament, and since ramolost used the same team in both games in the finals...

[6] Xiri vs Natan [11] - Natan tomou tapao pro mlk no seasonal mas tenho fé que mundao mudou e agr só progresso, vai girar um socao dessa vez no cara, só manter o foco ali no build, testar o bglh, jogar confiante e n fazer drama '-'.

[7] odr vs EviGaro [10] - Best game in this r1, two solid players, but in SS I see a slight advantage of ODR in the build and gameplay.

[8] Meru vs Yggdrasil60 [9] - As I remember, both use teams with good ideas and have interesting gameplays, a game that will be p interesting to watch if they both prepare for the series.
 
gw vs eifo
feliburn vs kythr
goldcat vs rylon
toinha vs bouff
punny vs ramolost
xiri vs natan
odr vs evigaro - the only interesting match in this, i cannot clearly say whos better than the other right now, but evis playstyle tends to favor reads based on what she thinks the most optimal move is for the opponent whereas odr just sorta click clicks sometimes
meru vs yggdrasil60
 
host predictions! figured i'd write up a little analysis of each mu. just my opinions on / inference about who is more likely to win; i think anyone here would be a deserving winner and hope to see some high-quality games more than anything.

thanks to Nat, Sensei Axew, and Thiago Nunes for their predictions! i enjoyed reading them.

here we go:

[1] GW vs eifo [16]
this is a more close matchup than the seed discrepancy would indicate.

after winning a RU seasonal, gw struggled in the spotlight during smogon snake draft, going 1-6 or 1-7 in NU [with a game or 2 of significant bad luck]. the flipside of that, though, is that he'll surely be motivated to put up an impressive performance here. he won both his RUWC games and made it to the finals of the RU Crown Tundra Cup, showing that he is in good building and playing form right now.

eifo put up a 3-2 record as a sub in both RU and PU with some very commanding RU wins. although nearly all of his RU circuit points came from old gens, where he earned the #1 seed in RU Generations tour, he has proven to be an active builder through his SSD games + some teams he shared in RU Discord. I know he has been actively playing on ladder, and he's a creative player that could bring some heat [i remember him using, say, marowak-alola and cb arcanine in sm for rupl; that might not be super unheard of, but as a teammate they were both rly cool to watch].

both are fairly tilt-prone, roller-coaster type players, with highs and lows when it comes to both skill and playing ability. gw is feeling good rn with a strong ru crown tundra cup performance, but losing a game early in the series could really be a backbreaker for him. on the flip side, eifo is quite prone to nerves; although he is certainly able to succeed in spite of that, it is possible that this will hold him back. really interesting mental aspect of the game here between these two.

i think that the veteran eifo is more likely to come out on top in that mindgame just because gw has shown in snake to be very tiltprone. a bo5 is bound to have ups and downs, and if gw cant handle the inevitable misplays/bad luck that inevitably will arise in a bo5 he wont play at the level necessary to win. i'll pick eifo here but would be happy to be proven wrong.


[2] Feliburn vs kythr [15]
After being slandered by the tournaments community for years, Feliburn has put on one of the most dominant RU years in recent memory by a player not named Ajna, going 7-2 in SSD, putting up amazing records in RU subforum tours, and being a top contender in basically every circuit tour. he's followed ru all year and been at the top all year. he is one of the strongest players in the field, somewhere between #1 and #3 depending on your opinion of him (and after a 7-2 snake I'd put him at #1). He is extremely comfortable with the game and tier, virtually never pulls up with a bad matchup, and uses out of the box pokemon/sets/etc often enough to put opponents on their heels and avoid ever being counterteamed. he is, in my opinion, the strongest player in this pool, and i think he has a very good chance to win it all; his motivation to do so will surely be sky-high as well.

kythr is a very solid all-around player (and fellow midwesterner :D) whom i have seen playing at a high level in very recent tours such as pu world cup (4-1). he has been active in ru recently, but generally bounces around tiers, and i don't know if he knows RU quite well enough to build 5 teams that handle feli's well. with even matchup i would def expect kythr to win 1 or 2 games in the series, but i think feli's greater comfort with the tier make him extremely likely to win.


[3] GoldCat vs rylon [14]
This is a difficult match to call, both are coming off of 1-2 performances in RUWC and didnt get many pts from the most recent seasonal. I think GoldCat made it off of his performance in the first seasonal, and rylon (formerly Forsendi) made it off of RU Open semifinals, so it's been a while since the metas in which they excelled. I think they have both been active with helping their Europe and Latin America teammates, respectively, with teams/building during RUWC.

However, I will give the edge to GoldCat because I think he will be more active in building and exploring the meta. Close one, since both are pretty equal as players, so I think that activity factor gives GoldCat a minor edge. rylon's motivated too so, again, could go either way.


[4] toinha vs Bouff [13]
i find it difficult for me to say much in detail about bouff, honestly, i havent seen too many of his games but he has managed to qualify for a ton of circuits (ru, nu, mono, maybe more). he's a very solid player with tons of experience, only real question mark would be possible burnout/busy-ness due to having this much going on but i trust that he really wants to win this. he finished first in the seeding tiebreak vs rylon and kythr, winning both series pretty convincingly, so he has plenty of momentum going into this. on top of that, he's friends with a lot of the top ru players (the mythical "rurk") so he'll surely have a lot of skilled players to bounce ideas off of in the new metagame.

toinha qualified late in the year due to winning the most recent seasonal, undoubtedly a great accomplishment. however, he was selected as opponent by bouff, who got the first choice, for a reason; as far as i'm aware, this is his first real moment on the big stage. due to that i'm inclined to believe bouff will win, though it is possible that toinha (/ his building friend)'s off-meta teams give him room to make some plays. with less brokens in the meta now play is the primary thing that will be rewarded. can toinha outplay bouff to move on? it's possible, certainly, but not the outcome that i expect here.


[5] Punny vs Ramolost [12]
Crazy game. Neither one is super involved in RU to be honest so it will be interesting to see how this tour goes for them. Punny has been one of the more successful players on Smogon this year, and his ceiling is probably higher than Ramolost. Ramo, however, burst onto the scene with a very strong Snake; his confidence is through the roof, as was evident there, and I'm sure he'll be motivated to do well and make his friend pif proud after his recent departure from Smogon. i dont have much to say because they arent around ru much; ramo repeated a team in ru seasonal finals (with the caveat that he had already qualified by then), so perhaps he won't have the motivation to build 5 (!!!) teams for the matchup vs punny.

Sensei Axew said:
[5] Punny vs Ramolost [12] - Punny will win if he uses my teams and lose if he uses Averardo 's teams so pick your poison
Click to expand...
I honestly have no reliable way to predict this due to both of their ~mysteriousness~ to the ru community, but it will probably be the opposite of what sensei just said '-' i'd ignore that pm if i were you, punny


[6] Xiri vs Natan [11]
I'm going to predict what seems like an upset and choose Natan here. Natan hasn't looked that good in RUWC, going 1-2 in his pool with 2 rough losses. brazil also struggled , and ik askov / hs had pmd me for teams during the tour, so maybe natan wasn't building much then? however, when i played him in a previous ru seasonal a few months ago he brought a really cool team with some effective off-meta picks like np ninetales. i bitched abt luck in one of the games but he played very well overall, and i think he's good enough to stand up to all but the most accomplished few players in the pool.

Xiri went 0-3 in oras this RUWC, but what i didn't realize is that he got to semifinals of the most recent ru ssnl; good for him! natan got there too, though, making me kind of confused abt what to predict here. idk the natan call is more of a gut feeling based on his involvement in the RU community (and, thus, high motivation), but i know xiri has a very high reputation in these ribbon tours as well. could go either way, im saying natan.


[7] odr vs EviGaro [10]
highlight matchup for sure.

odr is an excellent player with fantastic performances in the last two RU opens, winning it last year and then reaching semifinals this year before being tragically HAXXED by meru. it's an extremely impressive 2 year run that he should be very proud of, and he's in the 'top 3 in some order depending on how you regard them as players' group with Feliburn and EviGaro. the fact that a 4-4 debut performance in smogon snake this year is viewed as underwhelming for him tells you all you need to know about his sky-high ceiling and reputation within the community.

Evi, who most would likely put at 3rd out of that group, has not achieved the same individual success in recent years. however, i think she will win this game. she is a difficult player to prep for, using a wide range of teams, and while she hasn't had the deep open runs that odr has, i think that she can the ability to turn it up to a very high level for a series or two (before being brought down by some tilting play, set, etc.). point is, she might not be quite as consistent, but she can play at a high enough level to win or at least be considered even.

I think that she will win based off of involvement with the current ss meta. yes, she got most of her circuit points from old gens, but right now (like, legit in the last week or 2) i think she's been more engaged with ss ru, and she'll be likely to have an edge in the builder because of that. it's unfortunate for odr (on paper) that the playoffs is in the format that it is, and occurring so rapidly after shifts. it may only be unfortunate on paper; odr could easily defy this by solving post-bans december 7 2020 ss ru and dominating the field en route to victory. i expect evi to win in an extremely close series, but anything can happen, and the winner of this match will go far.


[8] Meru vs Yggdrasil60 [9]
Meru, the only player here whose forum account is old enough to have its own forum account, has been very good at ss ru; he reached finals of ru open and right now is in finals of the ru subforum's crown tundra cup. it isnt bw ru, but he's picked up the new meta super well, brought cool teams, etc.

I don't have a ton to say abt Ygg, unfortunately. I remember him being impressive during RUPL at the very beginning of the year; he remains active in ru community right now, but his team france didnt do well in ruwc, sadly, so im not sure how much he likes the tier rn / how effective his builds are. additionally, he can be pretty hit or miss as a player, and im not sure he has the consistency to play well in all 5 games of a bo5, which he would need to do to beat meru.


if you read all this, thanks for reading. :heart:
good luck and congratulations to all participants!
 
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