DOU Doubles Classic IV - Playoffs (Finals) (WON BY Z STRATS)

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zoe

zoe

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Welcome to playoffs of Doubles Classic IV! This tournament is functionally identical to The Smogon Classic; the preliminary stage consisted of four single elimination cups, one for each of the four past generations of Doubles OU. Players earned points from these cups using the Smogon Grand Slam point structure, which can be found here. The top 16 players after the conclusion of all 3 cups qualified for playoffs, which is a single-elimination bracket consisting of best-of-three multi-gen sets. When all is said and done, the top 32 players overall will earn Circuit Points according to the payout listed here.

Since this year there are four tiers, but sets are best-of-three, we will be using a method based on the one in Grand Slam to determine tiers for playoffs sets (including tiebreaks):
To determine the tiers played, players will have 24 hours after the round goes up to send the host a ranking of all 4 tier preferences from most preferred to least preferred. The higher seed's most preferred tier, the lower seed's most preferred tier out of the three remaining, and the higher seed's most preferred tier out of the two left after that will determine the tier lineup for the set, which will be announced as soon as possible in this thread so players can prepare. If a player does not submit their tier preferences before the deadline then their list from the previous round will be used, or their opponent's top 3 tiers will be used if there is no previous list.
Click to expand...
Player A and B both send their list of tier preferences to the host after the round goes up:
Player A (higher seed): 1. XY 2. SM 3. SS 4. BW
Player B (lower seed): 1. XY 2. BW 3. SM 4. SS

Player A (higher seed) chooses their most preferred tier first (XY);
Player A (higher seed): 1. XY 2. SM 3. SS 4. BW
Player B (lower seed): 1. XY 2. BW 3. SM 4. SS

then Player B (lower seed) chooses their most preferred tier out of the three remaining (BW);
Player A (higher seed): 1. XY 2. SM 3. SS 4. BW
Player B (lower seed): 1. XY 2. BW 3. SM 4. SS

and finally, Player A (higher seed) chooses their most preferred tier out of the two remaining (SM).
Player A (higher seed): 1. XY 2. SM 3. SS 4. BW
Player B (lower seed): 1. XY 2. BW 3. SM 4. SS

The host will then post in the thread the tiers selected for the set (XY, BW, SM) which will be played in that order.


No tiebreaker matches were required this year (thankfully...) so the seeds are as follows:
1. Z Strats
2. JRL
3. Actuarily
4. papiloco
5. Toxigen
6. zoe
7. Yoda2798
8. Frania
9. Mishimono
10. Farfromani
11. Akaru Kokuyo
12. Spurrific
13. zee
14. SingleThunder
15. Gatubraz
16. Éric


Top 16
(1) Z Strats vs. Éric (16)
(2) JRL vs. Gatubraz (15)
(3) Actuarily vs. SingleThunder (14)
(4) papiloco vs. zee (13)
(5) Toxigen vs. Spurrific (12)
(6) zoe vs. Akaru Kokuyo (11)
(7) Yoda2798 vs. Farfromani (10)
(8) Frania vs. Mishimono (9)
​
 
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ryo yamada2001

ryo yamada2001

ryo yamada2001
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zee

zee

is a Site Content Manageris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Forum Moderatoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a defending SCL Champion
Now that we have the tiers list I'm gonna write some predictions, but first just an insane appreciation for how stacked this top 8 is: BW Cup winner, XY Cup winner, last year's classic winner, both tier leaders, former SCL winner, winning DPL manager... and some random VGC player. These games are sure to be bangers and I have all the respect in the world for everyone remaining, GLHF.


Z Strats (BW, SS) vs Mishimono (SM)

I'm predicting Mishi to take SM against 1 seed Z Strats in game one on a very thin margin. Neither player went super far in this year's cup but Mishi has a way more impressive win over Frania last round. I also expect Mishi to roll up to the game with something a bit more interesting than MetaFini or Rain which I'd imagine Ray is heavily considering (or maybe I'm jinxing it, oopsie). I understand the BW counterpick, I assume Mishi would've preferred XY but hard to pick that against the person that did just win XY Cup (though Ray not opting to pick it either definitely shows respect for Mishi's proficiency), or maybe no tiers were submitted and Ray just picked all three, shrug. Anyway it's quite obvious that BW is a tier where a lot of things can happen, but I think Z Strats will bring a very principled offense and make minimal mistakes, so barring some Yellow Magic shenanigans I take him over Mishi in a match where I expect some goodstuffsy mirrors. I had to think about the SS game but I do think I concede it to Z Strats, obviously Mishi has a very impressive history in SS and made semis of Cup, but Z Strats has a wide array of impressive teams for the modern meta and is probably the scariest SS player to have never won an individual during the tiers lifespan. gmuf.


JRL (BW, XY) vs. Yoda2798 (SM)

First of all it's a huge disappointment to not see an SS game between these two wtf??? JRL in BW is probably the most heavily I would favor any of the 9 games I'm predicting. I think he's constantly been one step ahead of the meta with his team choices throughout BW Cup and dominated that tournament. Yoda's best chance is probably to stop asking Wob for some meat and instead ask for some teams, or click Thunder Wave a bunch... In contrast I think Yoda has solid odds to take the SM game despite going out in round 1 of Cup. Ignore that 95% of the reason I'm giving Yoda this game is because of the Emilio slayer reputation. I assume JRL is going to load something very aggressive while Yoda will prefer something more balanced and Yoda will be able to avoid JRL's attempts to pin them. XY is close but I'm going to give this to JRL. Praying to god neither player loads rain this game. I think we're probably gonna see some Genies Mega Volc from both sides unless JRL feels like unleashing the HO squad, but I probably favor JRL no matter his bring here.


Actuarily (BW) vs. Akaru Kokuyo (SS, SM)

Just when you thought I'd be predicting the top seeds to sweep, I'm taking Akaru over the bandit. Akaru was Animus's support for last SCL and the three of us talked about the tier a lot which is where I gained a great appreciation for Akaru's grasp of SS. I think Bandit is an insanely strong SS player but his building can definitely be exploitable, though even if he gets called out in the matchup I would not be surprised to see him play his way out of it. Neither player's SM game last round looked super impressive if I'm being honest, but I thought both were cooking until some mistakes in the endgame. Gonna again go with Akaru here because I trust his larger library of teams and he's on the scoreboard already so far this playoff. I think if the set does come down to the BW game it will be Bandit though. I am predicting a match between Scrafty Rain and Skill Swap Goth + Ferro. I think if that's the matchup we get Akaru is a little favored but Bandit's play in BW has been strong enough to convince me he's got it.
 
zoe

zoe

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Z Strats vs. Toxigen: BW -> SM - XY
JRL vs. Actuarily: BW -> SM -> XY

bop
 
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zee

zee

is a Site Content Manageris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Forum Moderatoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a defending SCL Champion
another round of zee predictions. lets goooooo

Z Strats (BW, XY) vs. Toxigen (SM)

big fan of Ray's picks here, especially this BW game. Toxigen lost BW in top 16 whereas I think Ray is probably the most underrated BW player in the community. What I said about Ray vs Mishi in BW is very true for Ray vs Toxigen: I think he will pilot a fundamentally solid team to a win. Toxigen could attempt to roll up with something more aggressive like Spurrific, but that backfired last time and he's had better success playing patient archetypes in other tiers. Conversely, I think Passa is probably one of the best SM players right now coming off their Cup finals and 2-0 streak in playoffs, and what I said about Ray's potential team choices seem to hold true. Still Ray had a really good showing with Rain last week, so I think this game is more dicey than BW. Giving Ray the XY win because I think unlike Spurrific and myself he has l2p'd this tier and won't lose to sand. I'm not sure any of the Thieves XY teams are really that scary for Toxigen to load, maybe one of the deoxys teams. Will be a great end to a hopeful 3 game set if there's no manaphy.

JRL (BW, XY) vs. Actuarily (SM)

Yeah I'm being boring and calling a 1 seed v 2 seed finals in the exact same game order for both sets. I hope bandit isn't too offended at me predicting against him twice that's still my goat. The BW game is a rematch of Cup finals, which were some close and exciting games, but looked like JRL always had the upper hand throughout, while Bandit's BW game from quarters looked pretty messy from both and was a little harder to interpret. Again gonna shoutout JRL's superior building in this tier. Going to SM I think Actuarily is looking to pull Venusaur into Salamence as those seem to be each other's flagship teams, but I think JRL could pull up with a lot of stuff. As a whole though I'm in favor of what Bandit's been doing in SM, speaking from personal experience the tier is hard af to learn retroactively but he's seemed to have pulled ahead of most people still around from when SM was current. XY between these two is probably the biggest question mark I have out of all six of these games but I'm just pulling for JRL because I think he's in better shape and neither really have too much identity around the metagame as of late.
 
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