Hello everyone, with the retirement of the goat of MnM and eulogies
Redflix I decided that I'll give a shot to this exercise and try, to the best of my ability, to do mine
I am way less competent than flix in this domain, and overall my English writing is not good enough to make cool sentences and such, so I'm aware it'll be of less quality than the previous editions, but idt anyone else will do it and I feel like it's a cool thing to pay respect to the season of some teams and highilights what went good and what went wrong
I asked flix to proofread me a bit but he'll prob do a couple edits only bc he sucks (and also bc he's busy, has a life, a future, and hasn't been active in OMs for a year, a lot of qualities that I lack)
Noxious Nightshades
Nightshades were managed by the returning OMMPL's finalists and OMCL's semifinalists GhastlyPixie and adriancosmoem. Both are relatively new faces in the OM community, even if adriancosmoem (formerly AV cosmoem) used to be a PH mainer (and a old gen PH mainer if I'm not mistaken), but they made their "main" OMs debut quite recently. Alongside the MoCCing Machamps managers, they were the new faces for managers this OMPL, and while some people might think (or have said) that they didn't deserve their spot (over Fc and Icemaster), I'll start by saying that I've found them a very good pair of managers, deserving in view of their recent performances in other OMs team tours, very active in OM cord (which is something I really appreciate during OMPL, shoutouts to the managers that did that and shame on the ones that did not hey
ghostlike Atha) ; I'm not here to start this debate again, but despite the bad performance of their team I don't think it should be used at any point to discredit their signup, and they had a great showing as managers imo even if the team didn't perform. The Nightshades made the very bold decision to double self-buy which was... questioning. None of them were really known in any of the tier (GhastlyPixie played in PiC a bit last year but that's it) and with the increased price of double self buy, it was an interesting decision to say the least. This put a severe cut in their budget as they couldn't draft a lot of top players while not being themselves in theory (unlike Ivar and Sammy). However, they decided to start their draft with the 3rd most expensive pick of the draft, RoFnA, for 16.5k. RoFnA isn't by any means a bad player, but he's known to not necessarily be the most active player or builder in a team, and he would compete in either Bo3 or BH pool most likely, with a lot of players on a similar level to him. Making him your main player was definitely a risk, but he just went 7-0 in OMMPL with the same managers so they were prob confident in his level. They further added another expensive player, DragonPhoenix333. This was surprising as well as DP333 didn't have any OMPL experience other than being a sub in last year's edition. He was coming off a 5-0 dominating performance in OMMPL, but that was in Lc MnM, and he went 0-2 in his main tier, Godly Gift, in OMCL. While RoFnA as ur main pick could be justified given recent performances in slam, DP333 at this price was highly risky and to spend this much amount on 2 players who were prob not even gonna be #1 in their pool was definitely puzzling. Those two picks forced the Nightshades to go on low budget option for most of the other tiers. Their next buy was SeaLife for 6.5k in PiC, which was a decent choice considering they couldn't get the top PiC players in Chromate / yuki / tkhanh / Frixel. Iride in 8.5k was a good all around sub boasting a 3-2 in AAA in last year's OMPL and a 2-1 in OMCL. The Strap was the the last expensive buy they could make, for 7.5k, but the Stab pool was so dire that it was impossible to tell who would be good or not, although drafting tour players in stabmons haven't been super successful in past editions. They completed this with itoshiflwr, a new comer in OM community that recently made top 8 in OM Grand Slam and was a promising player, and Tempo di anguria, a common player in OM tours that gets to play a few games every time, and just did a decent 3-2 in OMCL, although it was in Stabmons. They completed this draft with 3 players that I had never seen play - jasprose (who's name is familiar but I've never seen them play so they must be from pre-historic times), Jojen (who apparently played in both OMMPL and OMCL for neutral records), and GigaBytes7 (no idea who that was).
Overall, Nightshades' draft was seen as one of the weakest, with no clear strengths outside of RoFnA, a lack of quality in the substitutes, and a gamble with the managers in whether or not they'll be able to perform at the highest level. However, the draft relying on new players (at OMPL level at least) also meant DP333, itoshiflw, or even Iride (although they're more known) could pull out some stellar performances and perhaps carry their team. They did finished last of the two PR's that were made (mine and the official one), and they were ranked #6, 7, or 8 in all tiers, except in PiC and Bo3 where they were ranked #5 thanks to RoFnA and the GhastlyPixie + SeaLife core.
Well, the season didn't go well for the Nightshades to say the least. They had one of the (if not the) worst start of the tournament ever, with 4 loss and 1 tie in 5 weeks, meaning they were out by the end of week 5. They did not bounce back after that, but consisdering they were already out, it's less important to focus on those last 2 weeks. After losing the first two weeks, they changed 4 of their slots, with GhastlyPixie and RoFnA, both winless, swapping out their slots, itoshiflwr, who was previously playing Camo going in MnM, DP333, playing GG, going in Camo, and Iride getting off the bench to play in GG. They managed to get a tie with this new comp, but they got rolled the following week by the Annihilapes and it probably killed their motivation and they didn't seem to care much at this point, with The Strap, who was doing decently until that, cancering the team. With 3 of the 4 most expensive players in the team going 1-3 or 1-4 in the first 5 weeks, it pretty much tells everything you need to know. RoFnA never managed to reproduce the great performance he did in OMMPL and, more concerning, he didn't even build his BH teams, and prob did not help much in other slots. DP333 struggled the whole tour despite switching slots, just like GhastlyPixie who got her first win by subbing The Strap and loading a sample in Stabmons. In a very polarized PiC pool, SeaLife proved to not be the good horse, although they managed to beat Frixel and yuki (with some luck). Most of the subs didn't have any impact ; Tempo di Anguria played the first two weeks and never went off the bench afterwards, GigaBytes7 played a (pretty good) bo3 vs Sammy and lost, and then got smoked by TGK on Week 7. Jojen did the same the following week but did not have more success, and they ended up with the only 0-7 cumulative record in a tier in Bo3. On the positive notes, we can notice itoshiflwr and adriancosmoem performances. Even though they did not have the greatest records, I've liked their performances (esp adriancosmoem ones, and it's not reflected by his record), they were pretty aggressive in their playstyle and in a better team environment they probably could and would've performe better, and I'm eager to see them play more. Iride ended up with the only positive record, and it's a bit surprising that managers waited w3 to put them as a starter. They got some good wins vs Pannu and Kinetic, and proved once again that they're a very competent OM player.
I do think the draft was not good, and while it was made harder by the double self buy, I won't criticize that point - as I said many times, I respect it and I wouldn't have seen adriancosmoem played without that. Overall double buys force u to draft in a certain way where u have to get value out of ur picks and unfortunately for the nightshades that did not end up happening, which led to this unfortunate season.
Rage Fist and Furious
Returning OMCL champs and OMPL finalists Ivar and SammyCe were back with a brand new name, although they first signed up with no name, and then changed their name a couple of days before auctions which means they never should've been eligible (imo). I must say though that I like this name a lot ; fuck those team names with one word starting like the team's mascot, they aren't funny ; have some personality (like my beloved Wiggly Family) or have a fun pun in it like this one. Motivation from both managers was a bit of a question mark though, with a late signup without caring much ; but even then, they were still seen as the best manager duo of the tour, and being the main reason for the increase of managers price, so it was without surprise that they both self-bought. Just like the Nightshades, they started their draft with some big names in pannu and Frixel, spending more than half of their budget on just 4 players. pannu was seen as the best GG in the pool, although lack of motivation was a main concern (due to which they almost got banned from OMPL ). The GG pool didn't really have some eye-shattering names tho so pannu was always gonna be the top player and with sammy's support, this was a lock for #1 in GG's PR. Frixel was one of the few accomplished PiC players in the pool left, with decent records of 3-3 and 2-0 in past editions, and was seen as one of the best after Chromate and tkhanh. They managed to get two old heads of OMs in Glory and sky (formerly avarice) for 9k each, which was fine. Glory was one of most hyped AAA player last year, and although they've been less dominant this year, they're a pretty versatile player and atleast a postive record was expected, esp for a steal of a price. Sky was a bit more of a "?", bc they were the stabmons starter and stab pool was unpredictable. They were ranked #6 in rankings though which felt unfair considering they did fine in every OMPL and just did 4-2 in OMCL in both Stab and Camo. They completed this draft with cheap players, some of were underground OM players, like Swas and lag=bad, who've played in OMFL before, some of were people I didn't know at all (blittius, anankaios, fakenagol (who's apparently a very good OU player)). None of them were recognized players, outside of cat, but they've been way less active lately afaik.
Rage Fist and Furious were ranked #2 on the main power ranking, and #6 on my own (well I ranked them #5 bc I put my team last, but I would've put us above if I made a serious ranking for us). I don't understand the global ranking ; they were ranked pretty high in all tiers, and sure Ivar + Sammy is always a super strong support to have in all tiers, alongside good players like Glory and pannu, but they only had 4 experienced players (we can count 5 with sky and Frixel both 0,5 each as they're good but never been dominant) and none of their subs were expected to perform super well. I ranked them this high only bc of Ivar + Sammy aura, but outside of that, the draft felt really flawed. Still, if all the slots performed well and 1-2 subs proved to be better than what people expected, they were still a fair contender for playoffs.
Well, I did say I did not like the draft, but I didn't think it would go
that bad. Starting your season in 0-8 is certainly not the best way to start, but even after that, things never clicked for the Annihilapes. They did manage to beat the Nightshades 7-1 on Week 4, but they couldn't capitalize on that momentum to win the following week and were basically out by week 5, although we had to wait a bit for it be official and they did win Week 6 to have a chance, but the Charizzards beating the Nightshades was the final nail in their coffin. The slots they spent a lot on, pannu and Frixel, underperformed badly. Both of them clutched in Week 6 but it was a way too lake awakening, and while pannu saved his record by winning on W7 too, he didn't seem to enjoy the tour and to play Godly Gift, playing early every week and forgetting his game Week 1. But the main problem was that none of the subs were able to patch the holes - it was expected that, of that theorical strong core of Ivar / Sammy / pannu / Glory / Frixel at least one of them would underperform. And of all the subs, only blittius managed to get a positive record, and by the end of week 3, all of their played had lost at least once. They never subbed out pannu and Frixel (except when they missed their games, lol), idk if it was bc of the cost of benching expensive players or just bc they just didn't have any options, and subbing someone else wouldn't have fix the issue anyway. Ivar performed on his expected level, and showed once again that he was always a top contender in OMs even when low in motivation. Sammy kept being unable to reproduce the level of performances he shows in individuals, and Glory did fine. But that's it. Of their strong 5, 1 did really well, 1 did well, 1 did decent, 2 flopped. And none of the subs managed to perform well enough. I firmly think this was a managers issue. I don't want to blame Ivar or Sammy on that, I wasn't on the cord and I can't be certain for sure. But the lack of motivation prior to the tour seemed to have continue throughout, with builds that didn't seem good in AAA / Camo / Stab most of the time (bringing HO / cheese as the only way to get wins), Ivar apparently mainly building for BH but not caring much of the other slots. I feel like this had to be an inactive cord, with no one being able to tip the scales in the right direction, pannu losing motivation, etc... An unfortunate season for their managers, and honestly unless they're able to bounce back and find motivation again, I don't see them managing again in a near future.
Speiraskia Specters
Now we move on the cursed #1 of Rankings, Speiraskia Specters. QT and Chessking were seen as #2 or #3 managers pairs (debatable with zastra and TTTech, although I would rank them under QT and Chess in theory), both being very experienced in BH which was a really good thing in such a dire BH pool outside of the 2-3 top players around. They quickly completed this strong BH core by drafting Treeko for 16.5k, who was seen as one of the most promising players and another BH player, and the other teams only had their eyes to cry when looking at the remaining BH players (pls cityscapes come back). They decided to put 13k on tkhanh, who just went 5-1 in OMCL and was seen at the 2nd best (and even maybe the best considering Chromate's recent performances) player in the PiC pool. 12.5k on Greybaum seemed a lot considering it was his first time in four years not managing and playing, and he wasn't exactly known for having impressive performances, although he always stayed in touch in the meta. Starshine for 11.5K was a pretty good pick too, as they were out a 4-2 good season in OMCL after a correct 2-2 last year, and were seen as one of the bests GG player in the pool. They bought the eternal underpaid Clas for 9.5k who's always been able to get at least neutral records, although they just went 2-3 in OMCL despite being seen as a favorite. They completed this by a Mix and Mega core of TKYSZL and Mincera31, both decent players, with Mincera coming off a strong 5-2 in MnM PL, although they mainly played SM MnM. Terracotta and MZ were decent 3k picks to sub in for someone, having played OMs for a long time, although not very active (to say the least) lately. Finally, they got Mok3s and TGK, who I've never seen played so I don't really know what to say, and volcanionisgood, who's been saying for years he'll stomp OMPL if given the chance, both for 3K, with vig being their stabmons starter - once again, there was no clear visibility on who would be good or not in this pool so it was a fair gamble.
Specters logically finished #1 of official PRs and mine. All of their players were ranked at worse #5 in global rankings, and it seemed logical. The only question relied on the quality of their substitutes as, with 2 of them being old OM player that haven't been active lately (Terracotta and MZ), and the others being new faces or unexperienced in OMs players (Mok3s and TGK). Only the MnM core of Mincera + TKYSZL had previous activity in OMs. However, a strong side of Treeko / QT / Clas, alongside the promising tkhanh and Starshine, and Greybaum and volcanionisgood, who were both seen at decent players, was definitely hype and put them in the favorite slot.
When you look at those records, you don't see the records of a team who had 2 points by the end of week 6 (and were out). Treeko and got the 2nd best record of the tour, and while vig greybaum and tkhanh ended with neutral / slightly positive records, they lost 1 or 2 times on the final 3 weeks when they were almost out, and really made a strong early tour. The issue lies elsewhere, as two of their starters got banned or cancered the team throughout the tour, in Starshine and Clas. Clas only played 1 game before leaving the game, which is quite unexpected for a player of this level, and it was a loss ; while Terracotta did their best to save the Camomons slot, it was hard without a support, and considering the games they made, I'm pretty sure they would've done better if Clas was at least active even if not playing. Starshine's ban, for a stupid reason too, really put them in the back too considering the GG's pool ; not a lot of players were available, and you usually either want a mainer or a tour player to fullfill that slot, and none of them were really available in the pool. I can't say much about both substitutes ; it's super weird to join a team mid tour and to have an impact, especially when they were already in a tough spot, so their records didn't really matter at this point. Despite their insane start in 8-0 on the first week (which explains a bit their records, as well as the 7-1 last week), they lost the 3 following weeks 3-5 with some unlucky outcomes. An act call on week 4 that could've been easily avoided if the managers didn't try to fish, Greybaum losing this very same week after using potential mon Deoxys-S instead of LO as he wanted to, me mindcontrolling QT on W3 to click Sucker Punch against my Zapdos despite their team completing a 0-4 to 3-4 comeback, or Terracotta and Starshine throwing on W2 and QT getting upset by Quinn.
Sure, we can say the team underperformed, or got unlucky that two of their players got banned. But outside of Terracotta (who was really not in the best conditions, and who wasn't even expected to start this much, and still did 2-4 which is pretty fine), no one had a really terrible record. It's just one of those cases where things don't click when they need to, and while they were certainly less dominant than expected (and there might have been some motivation issue as I remember MZ asking 30mn before their only game for test games on OM cord bc no one in his team was answering), I still feel like it's really unfortunate to end the season with so little points. Treeko and Greybaum were in my opinion in the top 2 of their pools throughout the tour, volcanionisgood finally proved that they were able to perform well in OMPL after saying so for years, tkhanh managed to keep a good record although it was less impressive than his OMCL run (and his games were among the best to spectate in the PiC pool, alongside with Chris' ones), maybe QT underperform a bit but they also got unlucky and the Bo3 pool is always the most competitive. I think it's just that no one was able to clutch at the same time, but I think this draft was still way better than the 2 above ; and once again, the curse of being ranked #1 in PRs proved to be deadly LOL.
MoCCing Machamps
I'll finish those eulogies with only team that managed to really had a chance to qualify (Specters and Annihilapes could in theory but let's be honest it was never happening), the MoCCing Machamps (good team name btw). Another new pair of managers in OMPL but experienced in other OMs teamtours just like the Nightshades, so it was exciting to see prunyy and Lightniong debuts. Unlike the Nightshades they (logically) decided to not self buy, which gave them a lot of credits (the 2 other teams that did this finished in the top 4, and they finished top 5, maybe self buy isnt the call lads...). They started the auction by drafting the best PiC of the tour in Chromate, coming off a 4-2 and 7-0 in last 2 editions, although his recent 3-4 in OMCL did put some questions on his motivation / level. They completed this with two of the best AAA players in Kinetic + Betticus and although it could feel a bit redundant, it was expected for one of them to go in Bo3, most likely Kinetic. They then got Baddy, a tour player who went 2-1 in last OMPL and 4-2 in AAAPL and who would prob be able to get a decent record in Stabmons, although 10k felt a lot. Mindnight + seraphz completing this core, both of them being relatively new faces in OMs. Mindnight has been very active lately but went 1-4 last OMPL and was eager to prove that he was the best player of all time, coming off a strong 4-1 in OMCL (although in Inheritance) and an afk tour in OMMPL, despite getting drafted for 10k ; he was still seen as a good clicker who could play wherever depending of the team needs, although GG was expected. Seraphz made their OMPL debut after a strong season in OMCL and despite expressing wanting to play in Bo3, they were expected to play in MnM, where they were seen as one of the top players since the other MnM player in the pool was zastra lol. This made a very solid core for the Machamps with good players all around. They completed it with Quinn, who went 4-2 in BH for 3k last edition but was still not seen as a serious contender, the Hisui duo in hiusi guy for BH support and The Hisui Region for Camomons (despite being a Camove main), ExguardiaN and pengu that I must say I don't know well (they played in OMCL and OMMPL respectively for 1-1 and 2-5 records), and the Godly Gift Tier Leader Les2BG for Godly Gift.
The team felt overall strong but unbalanced. They had a really strong core of Chomate / seraphz / Kinetic / Betticus, and some good players that could do well in Mindnight and Baddy, but the substitutes weren't the most known players and Camo and BH felt like weak slots with little to no support for both Quinn and THR, and they were ranked last in those two slots. They also got the #7 spot in GG which imo is not fair ; even if Les2BG has never bee, able to perform well (yet) in teamtours, he's still a good GG builder & support and Mindnight has proved that with good builders he's often able to perform well, even in tiers he doesn't know well - and he knew GG. So they were a middle pack team, who was not expected to be the best but could perform well if some slots proved to be better than expected.
Just like the 3 other teams mentioned, Machamps had a rough start, only getting 2 points in 4 weeks. However, unlike the others, they managed to bounce back on w5 and had a chance to override the Charizzards (we suck) in the last run, which ended up not happening bc they lost W6. They were carried by the good performances of Chromate, despite him not being the best PiC of the tour this time (s/o Chris for taking the crown) and Quinn, who managed to actually smurf the BH pool despite little support (they gave s/o to their support many times, idk if it's Hiusi guy, someone else on the team, or a friend of them), which was pretty impressive (despite thinking Clear Smog is blocked by Shield Dust LOL). Mindnight also managed to carry the GG slot thanks to Les2BG's help, despite allegedly only winning through matchups or luck (not my words). However, Quinn and Mindnight weren't supposed to be those carries, and that was the weak point of Machamps season : their main players failing to deliver. Kinetic had a rough season in 3-4 with only a win against ghostlike as a noticeable performance despite being awaited as the best AAA in the pool, esp with Betticus support. Seraphz, who was out of a 6-2 season in OCML and was seen as a promising new player, still did alright for their first OMPL with a 4-3 record including an impressive win vs TTTech but wasn't able to dominate the pool just like in OMCL. Last but not least, #1 mocc player Betticus had a rough season in Bo3 with 1 win vs JoJen and 1 lucked vs pdt, and I'm still confused on why it wasn't Kinetic on that slot. Baddy and The Hisui Region also weren't able to perform well in their slots ; Baddy seemed to be a bit alone in Stabmons and never got in touch with the meta while THR made some chokes in their games despite not playing that bad in most of them. THR got benched and Baddy went in AAA for the do-or-die week of the Machamps on Week 6 where they needed to win to still have a chance, but despite Baddy winning in AAA the loss of their 3 strong slots, BH GG and PiC, killed their final hopes.
While Nightshades & Annihilapes eliminations are (imo) mainly due to draft issues, and Specters to unlucky circumstances and players underperforming / not winning when they had to, Machamps are somwhere in the middle. I think their draft was never the best one esp bc as I mentionned in my PR they could have building issues and, even if it's not possible to tell since I was not on their cord, I think it's one of the main reasons for STAB and Camo flopping. They somehow managed to clutch in BH but I'm unsure if that BH support was in their roster or not. But on the other hand, Chromate "only" going 4-2 in reg season (and 1 win in BH cuz this guy's a madman), Kinetic going 3-4, and Betticus not being able to win games in bo3 despite going in 3 games every single time was definitely unlucky / unexpected and had the top 4 of the tour not be so stacked, they def could've qualified. I must say that on week 6 I was never worried by the 2 other teams that could overtake us, but at some points the Machamps were up 2-0 and we were down 0-2 and I really thought we were gonna choke this lol. Anyway, cool team, tight season, and if Mindnight was a better player, maybe they would've qualified :p
This ends this way too long post, good luck to the remaining teams, and may the Charizzards win.
Have a good day everyone !
. Great post tho i liked your weekly predicts aswell keep it up.
