Welcome everyone ! With everyone doing Unoffical Power Rankings for their shady tiers, I thought that I might as well do the best-ever PR for the best-ever tier (I was absolutely not harassed by Redflix)
Take everything I say with a grain of salt, and remember than I'm just far better than you so if you disagree well get good (that's what I would've said if I was
hayedenn)
Funny thing is that many people see the AAA pool as really stacked, which is true, but there aren't a lot of "safe bets" that would guarantee you at least 4 wins or something, and almost everyone can crash, so be careful
S Rank
Atha : Pretty much the only one I'm ranking here because it's the only one who I can't see fail, if he will always manager to safely bring 3 or 4 wins (and probably more) ; Atha is in my opinion the best recent AAA player who kept playing well throughout the time, he has a pretty solid in game and a building style that makes it way more interesting than others, being able to build from Stall to HO with diversity, cool techs, and always solid teams. He doesn't speak much and can't help at all other tiers, so don't expect him to take part of the team chemistry, but if you need a man to play a clutch AAA game, he'll be there.
A Rank
I won't do A+ A A- ranks cuz it's kinda sketchy and arbitrary so I will more emphazise the benefits and the disadvantages of each player, no particular ranking inside the category it kinda depends of your needs/what do you want to risk
The Number Man : The man of numbers made his great comeback for OMPL and recently climbed the ladder (currently #2 10 points behind me) and he's regaining his skills. He is still a bit rusty and his building is probably not optimal yet, but he has solid fundamentals and was one of the best AAA players in gen8, so why not in gen9 ? He's less solid as of now, but there is a high probability that he quickly reaches his top form and bring at least a solid 5-2 to your team ; it might be good to associate him with a builder to share ideas and make sure he brings something bad out of nowhere :p
Ivar57 : His recent solid win against Atha in the finals of the money tour (if he had some 'luck' with the MUs, 4-0'ing one of the best AAA players is still solid) proved that he was a quite good AAA player, and he frequently tops the ladder too. I don't know if he still plays/follows MnM and BH a bit but his passive of MnM and BH player (everyone makes mistakes dw) may be useful if you ever need a last min sub in MnM or
some advices in the tier I guess ? but you should see that with him. My main concern would be that his building tends to be a bit repeteting (esp in finals vs atha, but on the other hand it worked so) although he's totally capable of bringing cools/less used techs, but maybe in a tour environment where people are really trying to prep his building redundancy might be an issue, and he's still fairly new to AAA top level, so who knows !
Shiloh : shiloh is probably the riskiest pick of all in this ranking because they might as well 6-1 the pool with no difficulty like last year or crash like 2 years ago ; they specified that they didn't play the tier, so they will probably need a builder (at least for the early weeks to learn the meta), and good builders are hard to find for cheap in AAA. It's kinda a risky chemistry and it might cost too much for what you gain, but it's probably the player in the pool with the highest potential so.. at your own risks!
Jrdn (if he signs up) : Hopefully he does because he's truly an astonishing player and he always bring a fresh air on the tier with his builds ; however he seems afk atm so even if he signs up I'm unsure on how much time/motivation he will have, and he kinda failed in the past years, but in terms of raw levels he's definitely super good and one of the scariest players to face (after
motherlove though, pls come back)
Siamato (he won't sign up) : He probably won't in, and if he does I know he'll lack motivation to play such a long tour, but Siamato when he's serious is such an impressive player and he would probably bring at least 4 wins without difficulty, solid building and cool techs when needed, insane ingame, super nice, good in other tiers too (although he prob won't have time for that anyway), my man could be the goat of AAA (or of anything) but just have a life, that's so sad :c
Osake : Ranking me cuz Redflix asked me to do so although I find it kinda cringe, well I'm not going to sell myself, I think I have the capacity to perform well and I'm in general quite active and like to help in other tiers even when I don't know much cuz I'm curious, but I tend to play less well under pressure (which caused among other things my 2-6 at my last OMPL which should not be forgotten LOL) and I can also totally fail, idk (hopefully not !)
B+ Rank
I'm actually doing difference here cuz whereas I think every A player can get a 5-2 or 6-1 record, there is a higher gap between B players that is worth mentioning
Career ended : Career ended is a solid player than can play multiple tiers, I don't think they've build much/at all this gen but they have a good in game and are probably able to take wins if they're motivated ; AAA shouldn't be their first tier though
LordBox : LordBox is still a new face but they're one of the most active player this gen and also a very good builder, they probably lack experience/in game to be a good starter but they would be an excellent support and could probably do a decent job if they're well managed, I totally believe in their potential but it's maybe a bit too early to put all your hopes on him
MZ : Well MZ is MZ idk if I really have to present him, strong in game but 0 games in the tier and therefore totally unable to build, it's shiloh but in less strong, but still solid and if the manager is able to build/you're able to pick a support, MZ will probably do a good work for relatively cheap like they did last year
B Rank
All of those are people I consider decent but probably not on the level of a starter, most of them are good/excellent subs and supports though
abriel : Well abriel is probably better in NFE but can provide an emergency sub if needed, they have a fairly decent in game and were able to pilot well in the past, idt they've played AAA much this gen though
Gwanian : It's a bit of a (?) as I've never faced them directly but they're quite invested in the discord and did a solid run in the money tour (they choked against Atha but with a little more experience they would've win this), probably still a bit young but worth a shot imo
cumps : Siamato's favorite
cumps hasn't signed up yet BUT with my ping they now will :p honestly one of the most impressive "new" player I discovered in gen9 esp. considering they don't talk a lot on smogon and not at all on discord, but they have many alts in the top 50 (every name like oshawott pilgrim, gideon graveler, belong to them) with good to excellent GXE, almost always above 80% and often above 85 and they played quite well when I faced them. I don't think they're worth a starter slot yet because still unexperimented and it would be their first big tournament, but I'm sure they would learn a lot and are more than deserving to be support/sub
PociekMociek : I won't like I didn't have them in my original list because I never really know where to rank them honestly, I kinda agree with Redflix being that they still make mistakes but are the kind of player where you feel that they just need one step to really become solid ; and it's Atha who reminded me to put them in the list, so they have the approval of the goat !
SpaceSpeakers : They went quite far in the Money Tour and the Open (although with a lot of AWs so they didn't play that much) but also qualified for OMGS playoffs (or whatever is the name of the top 8 currently happening) ; I'm unsure of if they build their teams alone, but they proved to be able to play multiple tiers at a decent level and would be a good versatile sub
Were/are good, but idk now/in AAA
I won't comment on them cuz precisely, I don't know, they haven't played AAA much/at all (afaik) but are either good 8g players or good overall players that could probably be decent with good teams, the issue being the same than with MZ and Shiloh : you will need builders, and people that build at high level in AAA aren't that common, and if you want to make builder + player MZ and shiloh should be your prior picks (many of those players though are able to play many tiers)
avyrie
bacon
dj breloominati
luisin
pichus
potatochan
Aren't the best picks but are better than nothing if you need someone that knows the tier for cheap
That's basically the "Oh I forgot to pick an AAA player and I have 3k left" (hopefully that won't happen and managers aren't that bad) OR "Oh I picked someone who doesn't know the tier, I need someone to build" which is a bit more realistic and you can prob pick one of those as a cheap support if you believe in them and your player, kinda risky tho (same I won't comment but all of them are at least able to provide builds in theory)
apographa
bug go brrr
codename cat
don vascus
frozoid
grim blazer
heracross2.0
natcrozma
tanny89k
I don't know everyone else enough to talk about them, maybe they're super good but they're out of my realm of knowledge, sorry :c
at the end of the day the only truth is pick stresh and force him to play AAA :p
btw if this post get like 20 likes i will do AAA reviews (maybe) (yes I'm a likewhore) (unless someone wants to do them obviously)