Congratulations to the Walk 'Em Down Sin City Scrafties, and ggs to the rest of the teams and your respective wonderful players.
Sometimes brawn does triumph over beauty. Alas, I am heartbroken for things to end this way.
The stars aligned as far as our roster for a real shot at a Cinderella story this season, and ultimately, all that's left is a bitter, humbling, and reassuring reminder that I still had so much fun playing the game I love with people that made me happy, and that there's still a long way to go. My happiness/North Star has inextricably been winning a subsection of an already (somewhat) officially shunned metagame this entire season, and despite all of the work we put in as a team, failed. Will, intensity, and love for the game are only a fraction of what it takes even to succeed in this silly metas. I had so much fun and love that I was able to manage this team with my boys. I grew immensely as a player and as an individual.
LB will hopefully return, just not in this same, seemingly-perfect form. I'll continue to work on the official "art by me" for this team and reflect on how I can use this experience to grow as a player and seek even greater heights.
To acknowledge, highlight, and memorialize the first loser's, since nobody else will remember 2nd like us:
Mada - We could not have made it as far as we did without a player of your caliber. Despite your workload with other high-profile tournaments throughout the season, you consistently developed incredible teams with great efficiency. You competed, through prep and play, with tenacity and intelligence that I want to emulate. I wanted our rag tag group of OM players to come through and deliver a ring, but regardless, I learned from you and developed a greater enjoyment of the CAP tier just by understanding how you could use some of those mons to put together absolutely diabolical semi-stalls. I particularly enjoyed watching the quintuple Substitute Jolteon & Electric Co. beatdown. Very satisfying.
Giyu - You're an excellent builder, a wonderful team presence, and a better Ubers builder than me. You carry me and uplifted the team through your activity and through your excellent wins. Vlarch got you good, but you were still the best Ubers player in this pool and someone who I'll cherish interacting with in the future on the Pokemon website.
Mightybofa - You have immense potential and it's not small sign of respect that I want you to keep playing. You're 8 years younger than me and improving just as fast and I'd love to work with you again and continue to help you grow as quick as possible as my protege before you (maybe ;) ) eventually surpass 'ole Unctropy here.
MattandMello2 - You crack me up. You're diligent, hungry to improve, and overall a really cool guy. I like teaming with you and you really pulled through for us in Ubers and in testing. I love teaming with you and everything you brought to the team made it an even more positive atmosphere.
Pengu - We are so lucky to have gotten you on the team. You're a treasure for the team with your calm and helpful presence and extensive knowledge across all tiers. You're really another one of the ballers that was needed to elevate this group. I consider you a friend and really valued the experience and teams you helped LB cook.
eeriespell - You're also a beast that we needed to cinch together strong practice games and also to ensure we could actually compete at every slot every week. Thank you for being a part of this squad and for your contributions, it's unfortunate that we were not able to deploy your talents more and it is definitely mostly my fault for hogging the ADV slot.
Vapo - You're a wonderful team presence and a really valuable player that complements me well. I am sorry for the unlosable into unwinnable MU feed with double Normal in ADV, but I hope you were still able to have fun. We were very fortunate to get to team with you, and I know if we played you more, and again, I wasn't hogging the ADV slot, you would have popped off.
ltranc - Bro. You are the most humble and brilliant guy I know. Idgaf I'm exalting ltranc since there's genuinely nothing bad I could ever say about you, and because I owe you a lot. You came through and delivered our amazing team lineup by leading the helm of draft when both Leaf and I couldn't. I trust you so much man, and love watching you play, and am very impressed with your solid CAP record, again - albeit not surprised. You trusted me and Leaf so much with big decisions that ended up deciding games and are so coachable. You prepped intelligently and were the anchor point of management, always acting as a swing vote while always making sure to catch anything we missed.
Leafeonlol - Oh man. I'm devastated that after all you did for us it ended on a sour note. Leaf, I love how you don't bullshit and how you don't care about the wrong parts of this game. I think you're becoming a fearsome talent and competitor. I respect you immensely, like seriously. Outside of the game and within. You were there for me when no one else was, and at a time when I thought I might only reaallllly be competing with ltranc in room tours. You are now a proper nemesis, a true threat, a joy to team with, and my friend.
Molemitts - You're intelligent, thoughtful, clever and charismatic for a fatstupid piece of Mitts. I loved teaming with you, you're a better player than you give yourself credit for. My perfect foil, I kinda have a crush on y.. MOMPL. I love that you love LC, and that Leaf can support the slot so well. I hope we both to fight side by side and directly against one another in big team tours in the future. You basically know how sad I am about this, but you always lift me up. My feelings of self-worth are conflated with this game and you always help me feel sane and calm. I'm so excited to see what you accomplish next, both as a player and a manger. You were the de facto unofficial fourth manager and I thought you displayed good communication and leadership. I had a lot of fun, man.
And to all of our helpers, you guys really pushed us over the edge competitively. I am immensely grateful for the time you spent with us that you didn't have to. I cherish our conversations and the advancements of these metagames we were able to achieve together.
Thank you to
aaaaahowdogamework Scally_Wagon Pengairxan Swas . We're really indebted to you all for your assistance in reviewing our builds and providing test games.
Thank you to
boomp for hosting, you did a great job as per usual, and thank you to everyone here who supported the development of ADV Monotype and made that slot competitive and interesting this rendition of MOM Premier League.
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