hey all, since my teams season is over as of today, I just wanted to make a post about my experience with blt.
A couple summers ago, I had just finished school and I was getting bored of vgc and I joined the tournaments room for fun. I wasn't very good at most of the tournaments and I didn't really know anyone, but I saw that the 4th BLT qualification cycle had just started and I decided it looked fun. I managed to scrape my way through the qualifiers, mostly by winning doubles officials with my manectric sample team and getting points here and there from late-night odd format tours. I garnered interest from a couple managers before the draft, but The Welsh Wall later told me he was going to draft me "no matter what" and I ended up being the 5th highest paid player and going to TWW and Roseybear's Santalune Swamperts. There were lots of good players on this team, including a lot who went on to become managers (me, ominousdrago, micoy, kythr), and we ended up winning the whole tournament! It was so much fun and I made some great connections through that tournament. Since I had the best record on my team, I also got a room voice and an invite to the staff discord which inspired me to stick around more in the tours room.
The next year (last year), Rosey decided not to manage anymore, and TWW asked me if I'd like to manage with him. Of course I said yes! Although, because I didn't know many of the players from the smogon/tournaments scene, TWW was primarily the manager and I was primarily still just a player. Nonetheless, putting together a draft plan was still a lot of fun, and we managed to dominate the regular season before getting our season cut short in the semifinals.
This year, TWW decided not to manage anymore either, and I didn't really expect to be invited back as a manager either since I am not an auth and I didn't really communicate too much with the other managers last year either, but to my surprise, I was offered one of the last spots as a manager because no one else really wanted to. I didn't really know Lant when we were paired together and I don't think she was expecting to manage either, but it was still exciting and fun to work with her, and it was cool to be able to take charge of the team. The draft process was tough because once again, I'm not familiar with most of the players in the pool, but thanks to her help we were able to put together what I thought was a really solid draft (although apparently not based on the power rankings lol) with a few hiccups here and there. Even though this was my worst season performance-wise in blt, I think this was the most fun I've had. Everyone on my team was incredible, whether through their play, their support, or their personality. I wanted to build a team that was fun in order to keep everyone motivated to play, and even though it would've been nice to make the playoffs, I think I succeeded in that regard and I'm very proud of how our season turned out.
I want to give a few shoutouts:
Gray has been on my team all 3 years of blt and is a great friend and teammate. A lot of people criticized how much I paid for him (although it was dumb of me to bid so fast, it was so obvious that I was going to get him no matter what and everyone drove the price up lol), but honestly he was completely worth, providing teams in almost every tier and helping Lant and I with a lot of the draft.
get_lucki Even though Lant and I didn't really know each other before this tournament and she was pretty busy for a lot of it, we would not have made it this far without her help and support, and she is all around a really cool person.
All of my team members: I could go on and on about everyone on our team, but honestly thank you for making our server such a fun place to be, and thank you for giving this tournament your best effort. I could not have asked for a better team.
RaJ.Shoot thank you for hosting this wonderful tournament, I know there were a few tough decisions along the way but you did a great job at keeping it fun for everyone.
EternalSnowman for your weekly podcasts, they have been an entertaining/necessary part of BLT since I started playing and give life to a tournament that wouldn't be so interesting without them.
I hope I'll be able to manage again next year, but thank you everyone for this incredible tournament :D
A couple summers ago, I had just finished school and I was getting bored of vgc and I joined the tournaments room for fun. I wasn't very good at most of the tournaments and I didn't really know anyone, but I saw that the 4th BLT qualification cycle had just started and I decided it looked fun. I managed to scrape my way through the qualifiers, mostly by winning doubles officials with my manectric sample team and getting points here and there from late-night odd format tours. I garnered interest from a couple managers before the draft, but The Welsh Wall later told me he was going to draft me "no matter what" and I ended up being the 5th highest paid player and going to TWW and Roseybear's Santalune Swamperts. There were lots of good players on this team, including a lot who went on to become managers (me, ominousdrago, micoy, kythr), and we ended up winning the whole tournament! It was so much fun and I made some great connections through that tournament. Since I had the best record on my team, I also got a room voice and an invite to the staff discord which inspired me to stick around more in the tours room.
The next year (last year), Rosey decided not to manage anymore, and TWW asked me if I'd like to manage with him. Of course I said yes! Although, because I didn't know many of the players from the smogon/tournaments scene, TWW was primarily the manager and I was primarily still just a player. Nonetheless, putting together a draft plan was still a lot of fun, and we managed to dominate the regular season before getting our season cut short in the semifinals.
This year, TWW decided not to manage anymore either, and I didn't really expect to be invited back as a manager either since I am not an auth and I didn't really communicate too much with the other managers last year either, but to my surprise, I was offered one of the last spots as a manager because no one else really wanted to. I didn't really know Lant when we were paired together and I don't think she was expecting to manage either, but it was still exciting and fun to work with her, and it was cool to be able to take charge of the team. The draft process was tough because once again, I'm not familiar with most of the players in the pool, but thanks to her help we were able to put together what I thought was a really solid draft (although apparently not based on the power rankings lol) with a few hiccups here and there. Even though this was my worst season performance-wise in blt, I think this was the most fun I've had. Everyone on my team was incredible, whether through their play, their support, or their personality. I wanted to build a team that was fun in order to keep everyone motivated to play, and even though it would've been nice to make the playoffs, I think I succeeded in that regard and I'm very proud of how our season turned out.
I want to give a few shoutouts:
Gray has been on my team all 3 years of blt and is a great friend and teammate. A lot of people criticized how much I paid for him (although it was dumb of me to bid so fast, it was so obvious that I was going to get him no matter what and everyone drove the price up lol), but honestly he was completely worth, providing teams in almost every tier and helping Lant and I with a lot of the draft.
get_lucki Even though Lant and I didn't really know each other before this tournament and she was pretty busy for a lot of it, we would not have made it this far without her help and support, and she is all around a really cool person.
All of my team members: I could go on and on about everyone on our team, but honestly thank you for making our server such a fun place to be, and thank you for giving this tournament your best effort. I could not have asked for a better team.
RaJ.Shoot thank you for hosting this wonderful tournament, I know there were a few tough decisions along the way but you did a great job at keeping it fun for everyone.
EternalSnowman for your weekly podcasts, they have been an entertaining/necessary part of BLT since I started playing and give life to a tournament that wouldn't be so interesting without them.
I hope I'll be able to manage again next year, but thank you everyone for this incredible tournament :D
