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Tournaments ORASPL IV - Commencement Thread
- Thread starter adorluigi
- Start date
If you are interested in playing for the Ruffling Rufflets under me and NoName6293, join this discord link for tryouts!
If you are interested in playing for the Faded Fadelets under me and lax, join this discord link for tryouts!
Considering the Rufflets have either extremely slim chances or are already out, I wanted to go over my first time experience as a manager.
This is my first time joining ORASPL and my first time managing it. I would like to thank the hosts for selecting me and Noname as managers and for the efforts they put in hosting and will continue to do. I want to say that this has been probably the most fun I had after WCOP. I love the oras meta and everyone here is so chill its incredible. Although we are out early, this does not mean I did not have fun. And at the end of the day, that's what we play mons for. I'm looking forward to possibly managing & participating in this tour once again.
Elephant in the Room
Ending at 1-5 (with one more game left) is not great and not something I'd ever expect from myself. It would be an underestimated to say that I'm disappointed in myself, however I'm not too bothered by it at the end of the day. This is just a game and I have to remind myself of that, and this has been probably the busiest I've ever been. From studying and taking STEP 1 into starting rotations working 12 hours a day, into managing oraspl, captaining west in rcop, and then playing a bunch of other tours. Not to mention I was prepping 90% of our squad every single week and I would keep my prep till the very end, often loading teams completely untested. Do I regret any of it? Nah, it was fun and as a manager I'd rather my players shine than me. At least I'm doing very well in other tours.
Drafting
Never drafted before and even though Noname had, I was still worried. We did a ton of research but in the end our gameplan was botched and we didn't get exactly what we wanted. We ended up with some great buys but also with some overly pricey, accidental pickups, or too many pickups. I also scouted some helpers and that also went its own way. I think the biggest thing I learned is probably reach out to the person before buying them to make sure you're on the same page, and potentially even reach out to previous managers of that person to see how they prefer to be managed.
Looking Back
GOAT tier:
eragon Smudge ya'll are incredibly insane LOL. Going 6-0 is amazing. I was really worried about how I want to pick in DOU because there was an air of an attitude of "it's a solved meta just load thundurs kang lando volcanion" etc. but I hate that attitude. I wanted to make my own twist on the meta and try things like scrafty, bulky DD Mega Salamence, Mega venusaur, etc. etc. and I'm so glad these two shared this attitude. They only helped / prepped DOU but 6-0 is incredible and they barely needed any help from me aside from last minute touches or polishes.
BloodAce This guy is the GOAT of helpers like brother did 90% of our scouts and 70% of our testing like bro wtf. Super active and helpful. Legit goat.
Paprikaflow same thing but for OU only, and considering OU has 3 slots i mean goddamnt that is a lot of work, not to mention other help like making sure scheduling is proper and timely.
Amazing Tier:
c0mp kingofking Suzuya ya'll prepped, put in a lot of effort, and did a very good job on game day of winning. Even the losses were hard fought. Suzuya is also my bestie and he's legit funny af and makes the chat so much fun to read. I know you're semiretired but I hope to see you for next ORASPL. C0mp I want to say despite being an SPL player was very humble, put in a shitton of work, and listened to my advice. Very goated. King made no complaints about being a sub despite being a very good player, and when the world needed him, he was there.
Good Shit Tier:
Laroxyl you are indeed the goat and your score does not change my opinion of you. Having busy weeks / bad luck is exactly the problem I ran into and at the end of the day, you're a threat to be contended with.
Wesleyy Wesley is an active helper, doing scouts, helping with tests, and having high chat presence. Glad we picked you up last minute
lolebruh So glad you stepped up to UU despite us having basically no experience or structure in the tier, and although you went 1-3, you actually gave us our only UU win and all of your losses were close. How fast you learned this tier was very impressive, excited to see more of you
CrossHeart Nor - our monotype situation was complicated but crossheart had a very strong start. I'm not sure what you're gonna do if you're taking a break from mons or not, but gl. Nor I really appreciate how much effort you put into this tier including prep and tests even though you play OU.
Estragos - although you still have a way to go in terms of play, I think the effort you put in is noteworthy, and you listen to my advice. It's only a matter of time but keep at it.
There are many other people here and I'm just going to put all of them here. I do not think there was any bad pick ups, it's only a matter of me being a bad manager and simply not being able to manage you in a way to maximize your potential.
NoName6293 my mentee, my partner, and my friend. No words needed between us you the goat
@ all my players - I want to apologize for not being the best manager. I was inexperienced and tried my best, and we had fun. If you trust me again next year, we'll have another good time.
EDIT: I don't want to forget. All of our helpers were cool and chill, but i want to give a very special s/o to Killintime. You are such a good UU player / builder and without you we would have been omega giga fucked lmao. It was fun discussing the meta with you and I hope to talk to you more and see more of you.
Teams
Here comes my favorite part. Part of my prep for this tour is me getting back into all of the lower tiers except LC and Ubers. I prepped all the other tiers every week. Giving advice, polishing up EVs, or even building entirely new stuff. Over here I want to specifically go over cool teams I built or had a major influence on.
(Click on the pic for the replay)
C0mp vs. Avarice (W)
From his WCOP scout we expected offensive stuff like Azumarill or MZam. Either way, this has been team of mine that I've been updating over and over since current gen. The core of MScizor + Serperior + Talonlame is a classic one for me, where the team is extremely offensive and demands similar answers (Heatran, Zapdos, Thundurus, Rotom-W, etc.) that end up being overwhelmed. In the most recent version I made MScizor Defog to allow the addition of Weavile and make it even more offensive. C0mp did a very good job of showcasing the team.
C0mp vs. Stareal (W)
Stareal is a good player and he was sent to C0mp's spot, which we immediately knew was probably going to be the week's most intense battle. From scout we knew Stareal liked to load fat with spikes and fat waters. It was as good of an opportunity as ever to bust out Kyurem. This is a known 6 that was built by Santu (?) I think. Either way, this is my edit of the team where instead of going for Pressure Zapdos + Rapid Spin Drill and Draco Meteor Kyurem, I opted for static zapdos and spin drill. This does make the team weaker to hazards, but Toxic Zapdos is a tech me and xray came up with / popularized in SPL that we have found to be extremely effective at dismantling fat without Gliscor. And if Gliscor is there, then Kyurem takes advantage of it. C0mp did an excellent job at using the team exactly the way its intended to be: systematically wear down the opponent's team with Kyurem. Keep Cresselia healthy for a back up lunar dance to restore the PP. Which wasn't even needed thanks to an expertly timed Toxic on Mola.
Noname vs. Fogbound Lake (W)
Ruffles vs. Clean (L)
Bonus: Ruffles vs. PJ (W)
I've been wanting to experiment with Umbreon for quite a while now. These teams I have been testing and perfecting for almost 3 months now. The idea of umbreon was not just a simple troll meme that came to my mind that week and forced it down my players. I fully believed in it. The idea is simple, when paired with strong threats that have natural bulk, wish umbreon becomes incredibly powerful. The difference between it and mola is simply the fact that it also provides a dark resist, a cleric, and foul play insurance. This combination made umbreon put a ton of pressure on the battlefield. Do you really want to go to your CM+Knock Off Clefable on Umbreon? That would instantly result in Metagross being wished back. Noname did a good job of showcasing it. I choked on dicks and didnt flare blitz the Serperior, otherwise I should be in a good position. I did make it up by beating PJ with it in CCL. This should show that I do not believe the mon is a joke; I would not have brought it otherwise in a moneytour vs. one of the best (PJ). I'm a full believer
Kingofking vs. Extinct (W)
Noname vs. Metallica (W)
Mega Aggron is another mon that I have been tossing in my head for 3 months easily now. It all came from an old SM sample Finchinator made with max attack MAggron that literally changed my entire perspective on the mon. The idea is similar here, with max attack and proper support from its teammate, there is very little that can wall it and we saw that perfectly. I like to use Toxic as 4th because it made more sense on those builds, but something like Ice punch was perfectly reasonable as well. In Noname's Game we see MAggron getting rid of Excadrill instantly making the game faster, toxic'ing the hippo, then putting a ton of pressure on Amoonguss and finishing off Volcanion w/ Thunder Punch. In King's game, we find Mega Aggron being an absolute wall to Mega Gyarados despite no investment in defense. It will always stop the sweep especially thansk to Dragon Tail. It went ahead and successfully weakened Excadrill and toxic'd Gyarados and Garchomp, the two biggest threats.
Eragon vs. Idyll (W)
I understand why people gravitate towards Seismic Toss MKangaskan more, but as someone who extensively played VGC 2014-2016 there is just noway in my mind that Pup MKang is not just the most broken shit ever. Eragon & I were discussing AV Defiant Thundurus for a while now and he suggested this is the perfect partner for MKang to take advantage of intimidate and have sky drop to let kang do kang. Additional support of Wide Guard Aegislash, Rage Powder Amoonguss, and Quick Guard Talonflame made sure that MKang would be safe in just about every situation. At first Eragon went with the classic CB Talonflame until I insisted on 2 attacks + Tailwind + Quick Gaurd. Again, back in VGC Tailwind Talonflame was THE shit so I wasn't sure why it's not just OP here. I understand the differences between VGC and DOU but it just felt like a no brainer here and the tests showed its value very quickly. Eragon finally had the vision of making LandoT CB to not have the team just be mega kang + 5 support, and I made Amoonguss Occa berry to improve our volcanion mu. In the game we did get a bit lucky but Eragon piloted this beautiful team poetically.
Lolebruh vs. Pak (L)
After 2 weeks of our UU I come to the important realization that we will not be able to win in this omega stacked tier without playing dirty. We had to fish. I didn't enforce in week 3 unfortunately, but every week after was an attempt at a fish. In week 6, it was time I fish the insanely OP Mr. Pak and his support. I was always a full denier of trick room, thinking it too niche or gimmicky to work in any tier or any gen. However, watching the UU games for 5 weeks straight (and watching all the UU games) my analysis was the TR could have a solid chance. Enter: Domain Expansion: Trick Room. This team was so much fun to build and use. Dragalge had no switchins in this tier bar Empoleon and Tbolt / Focus Blast 2HKOs. I opted for Tbolt for less damage but more consistent and it hits midgrounds. Adaptability is just too strong and if you guess the turns right you were truly fucked. Porygon2 in a tier with no strong steel types like Ferrothorn or Heatran just feel insanely good in its damage output. Tri Attack (or Ice Beam) + Tbolt pretty much covered everything, you just needed the dexterity to get a +1 SpA with download. Cresselia being cresselia and bronzong being bronzong, but it is important to note just how much power max attack Bronzong dishes out. MCamel was Eruption but unfortunately it never came to that. Crawdaunt was perhaps the star of the team as it kept sweeping in almost every single practice game we had. Shit is busted. Unfortunately, mimir made some mistakes in situations where we should never really lose. Though I don't blame him, between nerves and inexperience on the team, it was bound to happen. I was finished with this team less than 24 hours from the match. Nonetheless, very fun.
Bloodace vs. Raichy (L)
I been wanting to build / use buffalo all season. It's a niche mon that can destroy registeel/mola/venusaur builds pretty easily. The rest is pretty much is standard cookie cutter RU. Wisp + Roar MCamel also was quite a nice idea that gave an out vs. the usual problems with this build like SubSD Drapion or Scrafty. Unfortunately stall was brought and it wasn't the greatest mu. In hindsight MCamel should have been faster and maybe then BloodAce would have had a better chance.
RufflesPro vs. Watashi (W)
The entire season I been BEGGING my boy Estragos to load up stall as it looked free af in this tier. Bro refused all season. Something about having morals or something like that, not sure. The main problem being there isn't a go-to stall in the tier, and the other is that there's too many random OP shit like Zangoose or specs Pyroar that makes stall fishy. So I went on the journey of creating a stall that attempted to cover the majority of mu's and not fish and here we are. Now Xatu + rocker that gets rocks on sandslash + lanturn probably would be quite hard to play against, but I felt like there was enough counterplay. Also with removal in NU being either Hitmonchan or xatu + copium, I knew hazard stacking would be op as fuck, exactly as shown in the replay. I think the biggest star would probably be Dusknoir, that mon was actually incredibly useful in tests checking important threats like Taurous and Hitmonchan. Pawniard was there to not lose to greedy CMers like Musharna or Mesprit and also punish defoggers like the occasional pelipper or defog shiftry. Overall, very happy with the team and its performance.
That is all. Hope I was a good manager
Till next time~
This is my first time joining ORASPL and my first time managing it. I would like to thank the hosts for selecting me and Noname as managers and for the efforts they put in hosting and will continue to do. I want to say that this has been probably the most fun I had after WCOP. I love the oras meta and everyone here is so chill its incredible. Although we are out early, this does not mean I did not have fun. And at the end of the day, that's what we play mons for. I'm looking forward to possibly managing & participating in this tour once again.
Elephant in the Room
Ending at 1-5 (with one more game left) is not great and not something I'd ever expect from myself. It would be an underestimated to say that I'm disappointed in myself, however I'm not too bothered by it at the end of the day. This is just a game and I have to remind myself of that, and this has been probably the busiest I've ever been. From studying and taking STEP 1 into starting rotations working 12 hours a day, into managing oraspl, captaining west in rcop, and then playing a bunch of other tours. Not to mention I was prepping 90% of our squad every single week and I would keep my prep till the very end, often loading teams completely untested. Do I regret any of it? Nah, it was fun and as a manager I'd rather my players shine than me. At least I'm doing very well in other tours.
Drafting
Never drafted before and even though Noname had, I was still worried. We did a ton of research but in the end our gameplan was botched and we didn't get exactly what we wanted. We ended up with some great buys but also with some overly pricey, accidental pickups, or too many pickups. I also scouted some helpers and that also went its own way. I think the biggest thing I learned is probably reach out to the person before buying them to make sure you're on the same page, and potentially even reach out to previous managers of that person to see how they prefer to be managed.
Looking Back
GOAT tier:
eragon Smudge ya'll are incredibly insane LOL. Going 6-0 is amazing. I was really worried about how I want to pick in DOU because there was an air of an attitude of "it's a solved meta just load thundurs kang lando volcanion" etc. but I hate that attitude. I wanted to make my own twist on the meta and try things like scrafty, bulky DD Mega Salamence, Mega venusaur, etc. etc. and I'm so glad these two shared this attitude. They only helped / prepped DOU but 6-0 is incredible and they barely needed any help from me aside from last minute touches or polishes.
BloodAce This guy is the GOAT of helpers like brother did 90% of our scouts and 70% of our testing like bro wtf. Super active and helpful. Legit goat.
Paprikaflow same thing but for OU only, and considering OU has 3 slots i mean goddamnt that is a lot of work, not to mention other help like making sure scheduling is proper and timely.
Amazing Tier:
c0mp kingofking Suzuya ya'll prepped, put in a lot of effort, and did a very good job on game day of winning. Even the losses were hard fought. Suzuya is also my bestie and he's legit funny af and makes the chat so much fun to read. I know you're semiretired but I hope to see you for next ORASPL. C0mp I want to say despite being an SPL player was very humble, put in a shitton of work, and listened to my advice. Very goated. King made no complaints about being a sub despite being a very good player, and when the world needed him, he was there.
Good Shit Tier:
Laroxyl you are indeed the goat and your score does not change my opinion of you. Having busy weeks / bad luck is exactly the problem I ran into and at the end of the day, you're a threat to be contended with.
Wesleyy Wesley is an active helper, doing scouts, helping with tests, and having high chat presence. Glad we picked you up last minute
lolebruh So glad you stepped up to UU despite us having basically no experience or structure in the tier, and although you went 1-3, you actually gave us our only UU win and all of your losses were close. How fast you learned this tier was very impressive, excited to see more of you
CrossHeart Nor - our monotype situation was complicated but crossheart had a very strong start. I'm not sure what you're gonna do if you're taking a break from mons or not, but gl. Nor I really appreciate how much effort you put into this tier including prep and tests even though you play OU.
Estragos - although you still have a way to go in terms of play, I think the effort you put in is noteworthy, and you listen to my advice. It's only a matter of time but keep at it.
There are many other people here and I'm just going to put all of them here. I do not think there was any bad pick ups, it's only a matter of me being a bad manager and simply not being able to manage you in a way to maximize your potential.
NoName6293 my mentee, my partner, and my friend. No words needed between us you the goat
@ all my players - I want to apologize for not being the best manager. I was inexperienced and tried my best, and we had fun. If you trust me again next year, we'll have another good time.
EDIT: I don't want to forget. All of our helpers were cool and chill, but i want to give a very special s/o to Killintime. You are such a good UU player / builder and without you we would have been omega giga fucked lmao. It was fun discussing the meta with you and I hope to talk to you more and see more of you.
Teams
Here comes my favorite part. Part of my prep for this tour is me getting back into all of the lower tiers except LC and Ubers. I prepped all the other tiers every week. Giving advice, polishing up EVs, or even building entirely new stuff. Over here I want to specifically go over cool teams I built or had a major influence on.
(Click on the pic for the replay)
C0mp vs. Avarice (W)
From his WCOP scout we expected offensive stuff like Azumarill or MZam. Either way, this has been team of mine that I've been updating over and over since current gen. The core of MScizor + Serperior + Talonlame is a classic one for me, where the team is extremely offensive and demands similar answers (Heatran, Zapdos, Thundurus, Rotom-W, etc.) that end up being overwhelmed. In the most recent version I made MScizor Defog to allow the addition of Weavile and make it even more offensive. C0mp did a very good job of showcasing the team.
C0mp vs. Stareal (W)
Stareal is a good player and he was sent to C0mp's spot, which we immediately knew was probably going to be the week's most intense battle. From scout we knew Stareal liked to load fat with spikes and fat waters. It was as good of an opportunity as ever to bust out Kyurem. This is a known 6 that was built by Santu (?) I think. Either way, this is my edit of the team where instead of going for Pressure Zapdos + Rapid Spin Drill and Draco Meteor Kyurem, I opted for static zapdos and spin drill. This does make the team weaker to hazards, but Toxic Zapdos is a tech me and xray came up with / popularized in SPL that we have found to be extremely effective at dismantling fat without Gliscor. And if Gliscor is there, then Kyurem takes advantage of it. C0mp did an excellent job at using the team exactly the way its intended to be: systematically wear down the opponent's team with Kyurem. Keep Cresselia healthy for a back up lunar dance to restore the PP. Which wasn't even needed thanks to an expertly timed Toxic on Mola.
Noname vs. Fogbound Lake (W)
Ruffles vs. Clean (L)
Bonus: Ruffles vs. PJ (W)
I've been wanting to experiment with Umbreon for quite a while now. These teams I have been testing and perfecting for almost 3 months now. The idea of umbreon was not just a simple troll meme that came to my mind that week and forced it down my players. I fully believed in it. The idea is simple, when paired with strong threats that have natural bulk, wish umbreon becomes incredibly powerful. The difference between it and mola is simply the fact that it also provides a dark resist, a cleric, and foul play insurance. This combination made umbreon put a ton of pressure on the battlefield. Do you really want to go to your CM+Knock Off Clefable on Umbreon? That would instantly result in Metagross being wished back. Noname did a good job of showcasing it. I choked on dicks and didnt flare blitz the Serperior, otherwise I should be in a good position. I did make it up by beating PJ with it in CCL. This should show that I do not believe the mon is a joke; I would not have brought it otherwise in a moneytour vs. one of the best (PJ). I'm a full believer
Kingofking vs. Extinct (W)
Noname vs. Metallica (W)
Mega Aggron is another mon that I have been tossing in my head for 3 months easily now. It all came from an old SM sample Finchinator made with max attack MAggron that literally changed my entire perspective on the mon. The idea is similar here, with max attack and proper support from its teammate, there is very little that can wall it and we saw that perfectly. I like to use Toxic as 4th because it made more sense on those builds, but something like Ice punch was perfectly reasonable as well. In Noname's Game we see MAggron getting rid of Excadrill instantly making the game faster, toxic'ing the hippo, then putting a ton of pressure on Amoonguss and finishing off Volcanion w/ Thunder Punch. In King's game, we find Mega Aggron being an absolute wall to Mega Gyarados despite no investment in defense. It will always stop the sweep especially thansk to Dragon Tail. It went ahead and successfully weakened Excadrill and toxic'd Gyarados and Garchomp, the two biggest threats.
Eragon vs. Idyll (W)
I understand why people gravitate towards Seismic Toss MKangaskan more, but as someone who extensively played VGC 2014-2016 there is just noway in my mind that Pup MKang is not just the most broken shit ever. Eragon & I were discussing AV Defiant Thundurus for a while now and he suggested this is the perfect partner for MKang to take advantage of intimidate and have sky drop to let kang do kang. Additional support of Wide Guard Aegislash, Rage Powder Amoonguss, and Quick Guard Talonflame made sure that MKang would be safe in just about every situation. At first Eragon went with the classic CB Talonflame until I insisted on 2 attacks + Tailwind + Quick Gaurd. Again, back in VGC Tailwind Talonflame was THE shit so I wasn't sure why it's not just OP here. I understand the differences between VGC and DOU but it just felt like a no brainer here and the tests showed its value very quickly. Eragon finally had the vision of making LandoT CB to not have the team just be mega kang + 5 support, and I made Amoonguss Occa berry to improve our volcanion mu. In the game we did get a bit lucky but Eragon piloted this beautiful team poetically.
Lolebruh vs. Pak (L)
After 2 weeks of our UU I come to the important realization that we will not be able to win in this omega stacked tier without playing dirty. We had to fish. I didn't enforce in week 3 unfortunately, but every week after was an attempt at a fish. In week 6, it was time I fish the insanely OP Mr. Pak and his support. I was always a full denier of trick room, thinking it too niche or gimmicky to work in any tier or any gen. However, watching the UU games for 5 weeks straight (and watching all the UU games) my analysis was the TR could have a solid chance. Enter: Domain Expansion: Trick Room. This team was so much fun to build and use. Dragalge had no switchins in this tier bar Empoleon and Tbolt / Focus Blast 2HKOs. I opted for Tbolt for less damage but more consistent and it hits midgrounds. Adaptability is just too strong and if you guess the turns right you were truly fucked. Porygon2 in a tier with no strong steel types like Ferrothorn or Heatran just feel insanely good in its damage output. Tri Attack (or Ice Beam) + Tbolt pretty much covered everything, you just needed the dexterity to get a +1 SpA with download. Cresselia being cresselia and bronzong being bronzong, but it is important to note just how much power max attack Bronzong dishes out. MCamel was Eruption but unfortunately it never came to that. Crawdaunt was perhaps the star of the team as it kept sweeping in almost every single practice game we had. Shit is busted. Unfortunately, mimir made some mistakes in situations where we should never really lose. Though I don't blame him, between nerves and inexperience on the team, it was bound to happen. I was finished with this team less than 24 hours from the match. Nonetheless, very fun.
Bloodace vs. Raichy (L)
I been wanting to build / use buffalo all season. It's a niche mon that can destroy registeel/mola/venusaur builds pretty easily. The rest is pretty much is standard cookie cutter RU. Wisp + Roar MCamel also was quite a nice idea that gave an out vs. the usual problems with this build like SubSD Drapion or Scrafty. Unfortunately stall was brought and it wasn't the greatest mu. In hindsight MCamel should have been faster and maybe then BloodAce would have had a better chance.
RufflesPro vs. Watashi (W)
The entire season I been BEGGING my boy Estragos to load up stall as it looked free af in this tier. Bro refused all season. Something about having morals or something like that, not sure. The main problem being there isn't a go-to stall in the tier, and the other is that there's too many random OP shit like Zangoose or specs Pyroar that makes stall fishy. So I went on the journey of creating a stall that attempted to cover the majority of mu's and not fish and here we are. Now Xatu + rocker that gets rocks on sandslash + lanturn probably would be quite hard to play against, but I felt like there was enough counterplay. Also with removal in NU being either Hitmonchan or xatu + copium, I knew hazard stacking would be op as fuck, exactly as shown in the replay. I think the biggest star would probably be Dusknoir, that mon was actually incredibly useful in tests checking important threats like Taurous and Hitmonchan. Pawniard was there to not lose to greedy CMers like Musharna or Mesprit and also punish defoggers like the occasional pelipper or defog shiftry. Overall, very happy with the team and its performance.
That is all. Hope I was a good manager
Till next time~
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No need to beat yourself up over your score, loved being on the team and sadly i couldnt help more than i did but im sure youll do good in the tours ur in
I played in many team tours this year and just want to say that you were among the best managers I had the entire year. The dedication you put into helping every slot possible, being active throughout, and being willing to call out suboptimal play or team choices is not something I have seen from many managers and def something to be proud of. As you mentioned, you often prioritized the prep of everyone else over yourself and your personal record doesnt reflect the overall effort that was put in