cant say it was actually me, 11oyd, and Devilican lul
Anyway post-draft here are my thoughts / analysis. I'll go team by team and some general thoughts too.
Draft Results:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...i-administration-thread.3639367/#post-7865550
Overall, this draft was a huge surprise. Lots of people went for way cheaper than they really should have been. Lots of funny surprises. I'm not really the "Power Rankings" type of guy but just to encourage discussion and incite ~ c on t r o v e r s y ~ I'll talk about the teams in order of how I'd rank them. Feel free to disagree with me, the point of this is to create more discussion!
6. Po Thicc Clubbers
It's Ullar's first time managing and I feel he made the cardinal mistake of letting that show. Lots of "uhhhhh" and "oops" coming into the chat, letting everyone know he was flying by the seat of his pants and making things up as he went along. Not very much conviction or confidence. Compare this to managers like Psynergy or Kaori/Sam who said nothing, getting everyone wondering what their game plans were. Even though they ran into serious issues as well, they bluffed them out. "I meant to do that" is the golden rule in any live performance. You don't have to even look further than this draft to see a brilliant example of this.
[19:00:53]
cant say: all guuci
[19:01:01]
cant say: thats how you spell guuci btw
He had a really rough start accidentally paying so much for jmal, the highest bid in the auction. The consolation is that he did get a solid player out of it, but that put him in a really bad position in that he literally was unable to bid more than 10,000, after only getting his second player. Still, by some miracle, a lot of solid mid-tier players were going for very little. Picking up someone like bobochan, jroxas, Cynara, The Squash, ankle, Quote, Misaka Mikoto, or average fella would have been pretty good to round out the team. All of these players are definitely reliable and were bought by other teams for cheap, but he didn't go for them, instead opting to buy a player who is an unknown and just asked to be on the team.
Going forward, I feel like the lack of confidence in this is going to be a big part of the mental game between his team and the other teams. I won't discount the team itself; the players on it are all either good or yet to be proven. But I'm not sure it's a team that will reliably come in and perform each week. So we'll see.
5. Saffron Side-Pups
This was a very strange auction to watch. Having gone head-to-head with Sam in BSPL 1, I saw first hand how he really knew what he was doing in drafts and meant business. Throughout the draft, greilmercenary was telling me how his auction strategy was kinda faulty, and I just thought this really isn't like him, he knows what he's doing. Being the manager of 12 players in BSPL 1 (and I would have had even more if I didn't decide to just stop bidding) I know the mistake when I see it.
By Sam's own admission he's been a little out of the loop of the community and so I place him here because he stated that he did not personally know a lot of the players he drafted. But he is good at the bluff; I'm really not sure when or why his auction plan started to falter.
Pearl is definitely a strong player, and was the highest bid in BSPL 1, so it's good to see his return. But I worry the eclectic nature of the team selection might remind him too much of BSPL 1. I think this is another instance where Sam's experience as a manager will help overall team morale. He's also got (I am told from my sources) a few players that he tries to grab in every league, so that familiarity should also be useful. Sam doesn't have his right-hand (wo)man in the league this year, but chances are Nat will probably pop by the team discord anyway to lend a hand, which could be a significant boost.
bobochan, nintendogeniuses, and Ika Ika Musume (Devilican) really wanted to be together (the "Triple 'k' Core, I believe they're called?), so we're definitely all in for a show. The question is how nintendogeniuses can ever win a game if bobo is on his team and he'll never face him.
At the end, I saw he was the only one with money left, so he could get FRENCHFRYFAN221 uncontested, and I realized the genius of his auction strategy. But alas that signup was deleted and the plan backfired. Wasn't meant to be.
4. Castelia Cavaliers
When the draft was over, I told my co-commentators that cant say's team was literally exactly in the middle. Unfortunately, there are 6 spots, so it'll have to do at fourth. cant say gave off the sense that he came in with a pretty solid plan and pulled up a solid team. He was trying to pull up a full team of Australians which would have been great for ratings, but alas like FRENCHFRYFAN221 was not meant to be.
I Am a Rookie is the only real "superstar" of the team, though Megazard is always a hot property for being one of the few players with a known reputation for GBU. LegoFigure11 I have had on my team in BSPL and he is a solid and flexible player who can adapt to whichever singles metagame he needs to. 11oyd and cant say are similarly consistent. London13, though he has struggled in BS tournaments before, is a good backup pick and will definitely benefit from being in a strong team. innovamania was pushing hard to managers to be bought, including some actions that probably bordered on sexual harassment, so he better show that he really deserves it the shot. Finally, Mikaav is a really cool choice as he was actually tutored by cant say last year, and fought against him in the BS circuit.
This team is sweet and simple. In the most positive sense, there is really not much to say about it.
3. Rustboro Rocky Helmets
This is a hard team to rank. It actually has the potential to be the best team, if things go right. But on face value, it's almost the mirror image of cant say's team. NOVED's just got an overall solid core. This team gives off the intangible sense that, though there might be very few individual superstars, as a team, this line up just
makes sense together.
Jhon of course is the biggest name and he really doesn't need much explanation. Darkinium is an up-and-coming player and in his rookie year he's going to be hungry to get some wins and prove himself to the team. And as mentioned, he really does seem to have the right support to be able to do that. Puff Killa, AuraRayquaza, and Plas are all solid players that have proven themselves to be competent. Stan Soojung is the mystery here; I'm really not sure why she went for so much when more experienced players were bought basically for free. She was tutored by solerme so maybe that's a compliment more to him than anything. I asked NOVED and he really didn't know why he upbid so much. So how good she is will be very interesting to see. Finally, The Squash rounds off the roster by being yet another good chat presence and good backup man. I also predicted NOVED should get him, so I take credit for this one.
This team, again, isn't loaded up with superstars but the actual team composition indicates it could be really successful. Though it's at third because a lot of this is yet unproven, I wouldn't be surprised if they take the lead.
2. Anistar Farseers
I think after last BSPL, solerme is really becoming a manager to be feared in his own right. Many of the managers complained about his constant spiking upbids; many "screw solerme"s were had. In the end he got himself a pretty solid and well-rounded team.
The "true" highest bid of the auction really, greilmercenary has been killing it in tournaments and is the star player of the team. Kinda fitting too, that the oldest manager gets the oldest player. This will definitely be the old man team. Just needed jroxas to complete the trinity of oldness.
Mr.GX is pretty solid covering up the doubles end, and P3DS is a very strong player from what I know. SirScrubbington and hzhz I am not familiar with, but I have heard good things. average fella and Fischgrat round up the team's backup, both can be pulled out to play if need be, and are both positive and fun presences, which will definitely help team morale even if they are never actually in the weekly lineup.
GroudonEmpire, of course, is the huge wildcard here. The fortunate part is that at THAT price, there's almost no risk involved. GE is highly inconsistent; he's very good on his good days, but he's also very much prone to tilt and built-up frustration. But one thing he's always been consistently solid at is his teambuilding, which should come in handy. Solerme is also known for his creative
fetish teams, so I'm sure the two mad scientists cooped up together will make some interesting stuff. The question will be if the mostly standard "tried and true" greilmercenary will dare to use one of their crazy teams. Since I'm just a spectator this year: I certainly hope for a yes.
1. Fallarbor Flare Blitzers
The Fire Emblem Fetishers are my pick for the top team this year. In a sense, this team is the opposite of teams like NOVED's and cant say's which are minimalist, utilitarian, and effective. The Flare Blitzers are kind of just jam-packed with top players to the point of overflowing. Psynergy just bought way too many people at the top of their game, almost to the point of redundancy.
During the broadcast we were all kinda wary of Psynergy, keeping an eye on him. Like Sam, he was really quiet and gave off the sense he knew exactly what he wanted. And in my opinion he pretty much got the team anyone could ask for. Psynergy himself is a top player, and with chemcoop in his corner they have singles locked down. Though The Coopa Kid is going to be gone for a significant portion of the league, he's still around enough to do some serious damage, and pick things back up at the play-offs where it counts most. And because of that inactivity, he was able to be bought for relatively cheap, leaving tons of cash for other top players.
Psynergy is a man with a good eye for doubles, and funnily enough he wouldn't even have to play it. This team really has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to solid doubles picks, with Psynergy, marilli, Memoric, ankle, Quaze, and Maxx C, most of whom can do singles as well.
The Japanese Yosshi is always an intimidation factor, and having jroxas and Quote (again, for pretty cheap!) helps to round out the team. Though I don't believe either are very active in Battle Spot these days, it wouldn't take much to get them going again, and their experience and wisdom in other competitive communities gives them a professional edge and mindset which will definitely benefit the team even if they don't play. And if they need to get pulled up, it wouldn't take them long to get back to a respectable level of play.
As for ck49,
[19:33:09]
Solerme: that name sounds like a gun
That's really all that needs to be said about this user.
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Overall, the Farseers and Flare Blitzers look like the scariest teams when it comes to individual matchups. However, this is a team league, and at the end of the day the team dynamic is going to be unavoidable. With the right morale and team chemistry, as well as the right outsiders imported into team Discords, I could see any of these teams doing well. So I'm pretty excited to see where the tournament goes this year.
hax btw