Tournament RUPL XII - Finals [won by the Noble Guardians!]

Rarelyme

Rarelyme

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This edition of RUPL is soon coming to an end, thank you to all spectators but also the managers and players who made it possible. Kableye and I had a blast hosting this tournament for you, we have seen some great performances this year and hope to see you all in 2026! Now let's get into these finals!
TO MY LEFT, what could be the oldest franchise in the history of this tournament... the Noble Guardians! They stand strong in the RUPL landscape since the tenth edition but find their roots all the way back since the eighth with the Noble Noiverns and although they have always been successful (we don't talk about RUPL IX) they have yet to go all the way and win this tournament! Will this year be the one?
TO MY RIGHT, the fairly new franchise led by one of the most if not the most successful SV RU player and Leader of the tier... the Tenacious Technicians! While in fourth seed coming into this top cut, they managed to beat the team that dominated the regular season to climb to this finals spot! Unlike their opponents, Denial and TheFranklin already won this tournament three times so they can definitely deal with pressure. Could Denial become the most decorated RUPL player of all time? Let's find out and may the best team win!

:golurk:Noble Guardians (6) vs (3) Tenacious Technicians:maushold:
SV: DripLegend vs Plague
SV: gum vs Metallica126
SV: Bouff vs fish anemometer
SV: umbry vs sufys
SS: Meru vs OranBerryBlissey10
SM: kumiko vs lza
ORAS: MZ vs DugZa
BW: seraphz vs Accel
ADV: Heysup vs SpoiledBerries
BO3: Punny vs TheFranklin

:golurk:Noble Guardians (0) vs (0) Tenacious Technicians:maushold:
SV: DripLegend vs Plague
SV: gum vs Metallica126
SV: Bouff vs fish anemometer
SV: umbry vs sufys
SS: Meru vs OranBerryBlissey10
SM: kumiko vs lza
ORAS: MZ vs DugZa
BW: Seraphz vs Accel
ADV: Heysup vs SpoiledBerries
BO3: Punny vs TheFranklin

The games must be played before Sunday May 18th at 11:59 pm GMT-4​
 
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Host final predicts let's goooo

:golurk:Noble Guardians (4) vs (6) Tenacious Technicians:maushold:
SV: DripLegend vs Plague - So I played Plague last week for Open and their in-game is definitely good which makes me want to bold them here. I don't know if they actually build but I remember some nasty things from this guy, notably a Custap Destiny Bond Galarian Weezing in week 5 against DripLegend sooo pretty hard to prep against. Plague also won that game so I'll definitely give them the edge. 40-60

SV: gum vs Metallica126 - Probably one of the closest matchup this week even if the records don't really show it, Meta played against overall better opponents which balances it out in my opinion. They both have good in-game, I would maybe slightly favor gum in that department and then Metallica is better at building, prepping and tryharding in general I think. In the end, I think I'll give the antagonist boost to gum and bold Meta because I'm just more familiar with his level. 45-55

SV: Bouff vs fish anemometer - Pretty close game here again, both have insane momentum with their 3 wins over the past 3 weeks so let's see who breaks. Assuming they both play to their full current potential, I think Bouff is better in-game but I also think fish and the Technicians perfectly understood the Pokemon and combinations to use to make the games significantly easier for them to play (hi Oricorio) so I trust them more to bring a six that just wins you know. So I'm guessing Bouff will decide to lean towards the same ideas which could make the game quite flippy or try to counter it. Anyway I value the prep the Guardians will put into this game and the in-game level of Bouff in high stakes games. 55-45

SV: umbry vs sufys - Lowkey super cool series, sufys has been having a pretty difficult tournament so far but honestly nothing to be ashamed of either, I still have to bold umbry here because she has a significantly better in-game and can deal with pressure more easily I think. 60-40

SS: Meru vs OranBerryBlissey10 - I haven't followed SS much tbh that tier just doesn't speak to me but I do know that Meru won their last confrontation in a pretty expeditious fashion so I'll bold them. 60-40

SM: kumiko vs lza - kumiko is just dominating the pool so I'm not bolding against them. 70-30

ORAS: MZ vs DugZa - DugZa is one of the players I enjoyed spectating the most during this tournament and I'm finding him quite impressive honestly. I bolded him against Chaitanya so I'll bold him again here. 30-70

BW: Seraphz vs Accel - Here again, pretty disproportionate matchup, the Guardians have been struggling with that BW slot since the beginning of the tournament so I can't realistically bold Seraphz although I know he is far from bad at this game, Accel is simply better. 30-70

ADV: Heysup vs SpoiledBerries - One of the highlight game of the week, two great players in a very fun tier. I wasn't familiar with Heysup as an ADV RU player at the start of the tournament but that guy is definitely quite good and managed to get an even record which isn't too representative of his level I'd say but this pool is just extremely top heavy and well SpoiledBerries is sitting at the very top right now. I expect her to win here but I'm also not counting Heysup out. 40-60

BO3: Punny vs TheFranklin - And finally THE most hype match of the week as usual is the Bo3 slot where the two best records face off. Punny won their last Bo3 beating Franklin in SV and SS. Fun stat, Franklin hasn't dropped one SM game in the whole tournament which is preeetty impressive. I would favor Punny in SS and Franklin in SM but honestly SV is a flip here buuut 50-50 is boring so I will give the edge to Franklin for the same reason I gave it to Meta earlier: I'm more familiar with his build and play styles so I'm more inclined to have faith in it. 45-55

Very close week of course it's a RUPL finals, lots of flippy matchups so this could realistically go either way and both teams showed they have all the resources needed to win this tournament. On that I'd like to make a quick s/o to Denial and Lyssa who manage both teams and their work can too easily be overshadowed by the performances of their co-managers but I'm sure these teams got to where they are today also thanks to them absolutely carrying both groups so kudos to you guys too. Soooo anyway I don't know who's winning this but what I do know is that RarelyUsed is the real winner this week thanks to these games. Thank you if you read all of this LMAO have a good one!
 
Time for the return of the schizo predicts:

Preface: Punny if you don't win this a third time and rng isn't a factor, never use the humpty dumpty gif again
:golurk:Noble Guardians (0) vs (0) Tenacious Technicians:maushold:
SV: DripLegend vs Plague - Plague is an example of a prime brazilian who plays like gen 7 gama but doesn't make any of the flashy plays and normally expects the rng to go in their favour instead evidenced by the scarf gapdos clicking moves without fear vs fish body talon (not a real pokemon). Actually looking back at the games, there's no semblance to gama, not even a semblance to beraldo, so in other words they're a brazilian clicker. Who'd have though thunk it eh? I went through some of driplegend's replays and one of the first comments I saw was
+Frito ❤: go griplegend. Crazy nickname and I'd like to know what bedroom habits drip and frito discuss in their free time. As I'm writing this I'm going through more replays and see that plague has beaten driplegend before actually but the mu looked incredibly ass. Why the fuck did plague click destiny bond on a custap weezing vs a krookodile LOL what the fuck did they smoke. Would have been an amazing lure if they got it vs the reuniclus as well. Given what the guardians normally cook, if they don't get cteamed using wo-chien and gastrodon in a neutral mu I'd expect drip to win based off that turn alone, forget the rest of the paragraph.
SV: gum vs Metallica126 - Metallica has incensed me for the year he has played RU. I mean ok he's a tryhard yada yada yada but he goes for secondary effects all the time like he's prime chungler, gets them and writes mb and then gg after. At least chungler has the decency to go for the secondary effects, be cognizant of it and move on with his day. You can't go for the secondary effect, most commonly the iron head flinch with bisharp, and then say 'mb'. I honestly think even if metallica has received a lot of hype over the past year, there are two fundamental flaws that hold him back from going further. The first is that he lacks long term game planning. It's very clear in his games that he plays turn by turn and really relies on aggro clicking to win his games. But the aggression isn't really timed, more of a vibes thing and he risks things for no real reason. The second is that he really relies on techs and lures to win his games. If the opponent has overlapping defensive synergy that he can't lure, or runs an offensive team, his gameplan gets shot based on how turn by turn his games are. In that sense, gum is probably the worst opponent on the guardian's sv that he can face because gum never really takes unnecessary risks and when they're in the zone, draw games out to their advantadge. Gum's achilles heel this tour will be using something too familiar yet again, but from what I've observed with ajna, it doesn't matter a huge deal sometimes because if you know how to win, you know how to win. So you need to basically decide whether switching it up is worth it vs an opponent who looks at a scout too closely, or whether staying in your lane will pay dividends yet again.
SV: Bouff vs fish anemometer - This is the closest game I think prediction wise but I'm nauseating at the sight of having to spectate this game. I thought fish was a cool guy from some messages said in the EU server, but when he talked brain rot and showed an iq level lower than speed's after mindnight's choke, it made me lose a lot of respect for him. Though I'm predicting him to win, unimpressed is the word I'd use here as based on the strength of schedule compared to the rest of the technician's sv, he's had a free ride to get here pretty much. I also don't think the HO he has used some weeks has been terribly impressive and seemed more like a noob catch to win games than an actual synergistic HO that's well thought out. He also won't be able to get away with it this week I think? But actually having said that, I remember bouff knew the exact HO team that was coming, all the sets, and still managed to throw the game away. That game can be summed up the following beautiful imagery: bouff was a pigeon 100m high in the sky feeling good and dropped a fat shit onto umbry who helped them fly so high to begin with. Bouff had a bit of a comeback towards the last few weeks of RUPL, but brought fairly standard balances. Part of the problem I think with this is that those kinds of teams umbry knows the sequences and when to time the crucial aggressive turn/tera to flip the game. Bouff does not so if umbry needs to cook something, it's this week. Otherwise the only smell that will be smelt by bouff is rotten fanny.
SV: umbry vs sufys - Speaking of umbry, this is so far her worst tour I think. But she's still 5-3 or something like that which shows a different level she's achieved overall in pokemon. She also opts for the hardest schedule but no shade to sufys, probably got the easiest out of the 4 on the technicians. Umbry doesn't mess about and will just bring something that's good. Even in games she lost, she really gives everyone a firm run for their money including the game vs evie which I thought was a really cool replay to look back at because both had their moments during the game. But I noticed this when ajna was prepping as well and that she needs to just be cognizant and give little room to those obnoxious slow breakers like golurk, daunt, gallade etc. She'll have a game plan regardless and because she's good at pokemon, is favoured to win. The biggest problem I've had with sufys more than anything is that this dude does not want to play the game whether he's scared to ruin some supposed reputation or whatever. Like why the fuck did we need to cajole him to play in RUWC vs olivia or whoever. I also wasn't terribly impressed by the team sufys brought vs ajna, recycled stresh team that wasn't up to date with the current meta and just ran into a bad mu vs bike of all things lmao. The technicians sacrifice stability on some teams for having a good mu vs the opponent. It's like lime-esque teams except tanish didn't actively always try to cteam his opponent. Unless umbry walks into a completely unwinnable mu, based on the technicians style of teams, she should take it but I still hope sufys tries to show up for this game otherwise our RUWC hopes look even more dire. xavgb we need u buddy
SS: Meru vs OranBerryBlissey10 - I wrote a fuckton for SV god. I hate this tier so much. Meru has shown layers to his game in a stark contrast to bestie's one dimensional sarcastic pancake personality he has had for 20 years on this site. OBB didn't play very well vs dunoks, a bit of karma for talking some smack during the feli and franklin bo3 last week. Punny has cracked the code on this tier even if his teams date to 2020 and he has a person who's been on this site for 20 years. I wish I could say Meru has 20/20 vision to complete a nice description but I was told by my mom not to lie to strangers.
SM: kumiko vs lza - Kumi has been fire this tournament, and it's very refreshing to see quite a different take on the meta. By different, they're just copying what roro does every tournament with lower tiers. However, I don't think kumi can reach the roro heights because they don't have the x factor aka luck or the ability to have your opponents have the wrong abilities on their pokemon. I get the vision behind some of the teams but like the HO and hard stall but they were... a little weird. Having the aroma on plume I could see from a mile away but the team lacked a lot of toxic users. Also having a stall and not being able to keep them off with regi is definitely a bad look. The HO game came down to a speed tie between the croakers. I think kumi can build something really nice but not too off their rocker like what they brought to the semis but the predilection for the more balanced style builds and long drawn out games is pretty clear. Maybe in 2025, we won't see another sceptile/mandibuzz/regi team loaded by denial's team but odds of that happening are quite small. If horizons are expanded a bit, this has the potential to be a killer game but otherwise I think kumi will bring something balanced, not have to make plays and walk away with a win.
ORAS: MZ vs DugZa - DugZa is definitely in another breed of bringing crap in every lower tier tournament and making it work somehow if it's either through his opponents playing bad or just straight up getting lucky. I don't know honestly what goes on mentally in their team when he selects some of the things he does. Like clearly from spl, and scl he can bring normal teams but does he just think that 'this crap barrelled out from a indian gutter looks good, let me use this' for RUPL consistently. It's hard to make heads and tails of it. MZ is a very underrated pilot for the records he puts up and I want him to win but I think like the rest of the people here, he will just be dumbfounded on preview. As a pro-tip, bring a roar venusaur and you'll increase your odds of winning.
BW: Seraphz vs Accel - Accel is my guy but he got really murked in regular season by finch. I think his takes on the meta are pretty funny and he doesn't recycle 2015 kushalos teams so that's definitely good. I think seraphz has been thrown to the wolves here yet again so I'll put money on Accel to win this because solid play + solid teams normally means solid results.
ADV: Heysup vs SpoiledBerries - Berries is them in this made up tier. Lyra will find some way to take credit for drafting her in RUGL and nobody except for the two playing here will even care about this game. Even amity has given up trying to save this tier. I will be singing let it go in the background hoping this tier gets nuked for next year
BO3: Punny vs TheFranklin - I was thinking of predicting franklin to make it a tie but I honestly think with the sv advantadge, the guardians should try to take this series in the regular week. This is the best game of the series hands down because both of these guys have clear advantadges and deficits in different tiers in the bo3. I went through punny's SV games and they're similar bulkier balances with some flex picks and creative picks here and there. Franklin though has the ability to pilot anything. I think franklin is most in his element when he's using a lime-esque team but some of the teams have used those slow/fat breakers sacrificing defensive stability in favour of type overlap. I think the building acumen possessed by the guardians will allow punny to load a team that punny feels comfortable using but also circumvents or allows him to outplay the aforementioned weaknesses. In SS, there's a clearer advantadge to punny and in SM there's a similar advantadge for franklin. I would hope punny doesn't needlessly recycle again in SS and tries to at least vary some of his old teams or try something different. In SM, franklin has used the same team like 10 times but won every game so you'd back him in this tier. The SV game will dictate the bo3 in my gut and so if these two guys are F1 cars, it'll come down to who has a better pit crew to support the marquee flashy cars.
 
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Master Chief said:
Time for the return of the schizo predicts:

Preface: Punny if you don't win this a third time and rng isn't a factor, never use the humpty dumpty gif again
:golurk:Noble Guardians (0) vs (0) Tenacious Technicians:maushold:
SV: DripLegend vs Plague - Plague is an example of a prime brazilian who plays like gen 7 gama but doesn't make any of the flashy plays and normally expects the rng to go in their favour instead evidenced by the scarf gapdos clicking moves without fear vs fish body talon (not a real pokemon). Actually looking back at the games, there's no semblance to gama, not even a semblance to beraldo, so in other words they're a brazilian clicker. Who'd have though thunk it eh? I went through some of driplegend's replays and one of the first comments I saw was
+Frito ❤: go griplegend. Crazy nickname and I'd like to know what bedroom habits drip and frito discuss in their free time. As I'm writing this I'm going through more replays and see that plague has beaten driplegend before actually but the mu looked incredibly ass. Why the fuck did plague click destiny bond on a custap weezing vs a krookodile LOL what the fuck did they smoke. Would have been an amazing lure if they got it vs the reuniclus as well. Given what the guardians normally cook, if they don't get cteamed using wo-chien and gastrodon in a neutral mu I'd expect drip to win based off that turn alone, forget the rest of the paragraph.
SV: gum vs Metallica126 - Metallica has incensed me for the year he has played RU. I mean ok he's a tryhard yada yada yada but he goes for secondary effects all the time like he's prime chungler, gets them and writes mb and then gg after. At least chungler has the decency to go for the secondary effects, be cognizant of it and move on with his day. You can't go for the secondary effect, most commonly the iron head flinch with bisharp, and then say 'mb'. I honestly think even if metallica has received a lot of hype over the past year, there are two fundamental flaws that hold him back from going further. The first is that he lacks long term game planning. It's very clear in his games that he plays turn by turn and really relies on aggro clicking to win his games. But the aggression isn't really timed, more of a vibes thing and he risks things for no real reason. The second is that he really relies on techs and lures to win his games. If the opponent has overlapping defensive synergy that he can't lure, or runs an offensive team, his gameplan gets shot based on how turn by turn his games are. In that sense, gum is probably the worst opponent on the guardian's sv that he can face because gum never really takes unnecessary risks and when they're in the zone, draw games out to their advantadge. Gum's achilles heel this tour will be using something too familiar yet again, but from what I've observed with ajna, it doesn't matter a huge deal sometimes because if you know how to win, you know how to win. So you need to basically decide whether switching it up is worth it vs an opponent who looks at a scout too closely, or whether staying in your lane will pay dividends yet again.
SV: Bouff vs fish anemometer - This is the closest game I think prediction wise but I'm nauseating at the sight of having to spectate this game. I thought fish was a cool guy from some messages said in the EU server, but when he talked brain rot and showed an iq level lower than speed's after mindnight's choke, it made me lose a lot of respect for him. Though I'm predicting him to win, unimpressed is the word I'd use here as based on the strength of schedule compared to the rest of the technician's sv, he's had a free ride to get here pretty much. I also don't think the HO he has used some weeks has been terribly impressive and seemed more like a noob catch to win games than an actual synergistic HO that's well thought out. He also won't be able to get away with it this week I think? But actually having said that, I remember bouff knew the exact HO team that was coming, all the sets, and still managed to throw the game away. That game can be summed up the following beautiful imagery: bouff was a pigeon 100m high in the sky feeling good and dropped a fat shit onto umbry who helped them fly so high to begin with. Bouff had a bit of a comeback towards the last few weeks of RUPL, but brought fairly standard balances. Part of the problem I think with this is that those kinds of teams umbry knows the sequences and when to time the crucial aggressive turn/tera to flip the game. Bouff does not so if umbry needs to cook something, it's this week. Otherwise the only smell that will be smelt by bouff is rotten fanny.
SV: umbry vs sufys - Speaking of umbry, this is so far her worst tour I think. But she's still 5-3 or something like that which shows a different level she's achieved overall in pokemon. She also opts for the hardest schedule but no shade to sufys, probably got the easiest out of the 4 on the technicians. Umbry doesn't mess about and will just bring something that's good. Even in games she lost, she really gives everyone a firm run for their money including the game vs evie which I thought was a really cool replay to look back at because both had their moments during the game. But I noticed this when ajna was prepping as well and that she needs to just be cognizant and give little room to those obnoxious slow breakers like golurk, daunt, gallade etc. She'll have a game plan regardless and because she's good at pokemon, is favoured to win. The biggest problem I've had with sufys more than anything is that this dude does not want to play the game whether he's scared to ruin some supposed reputation or whatever. Like why the fuck did we need to cajole him to play in RUWC vs olivia or whoever. I also wasn't terribly impressed by the team sufys brought vs ajna, recycled stresh team that wasn't up to date with the current meta and just ran into a bad mu vs bike of all things lmao. The technicians sacrifice stability on some teams for having a good mu vs the opponent. It's like lime-esque teams except tanish didn't actively always try to cteam his opponent. Unless umbry walks into a completely unwinnable mu, based on the technicians style of teams, she should take it but I still hope sufys tries to show up for this game otherwise our RUWC hopes look even more dire. xavgb we need u buddy
SS: Meru vs OranBerryBlissey10 - I wrote a fuckton for SV god. I hate this tier so much. Meru has shown layers to his game in a stark contrast to bestie's one dimensional sarcastic pancake personality he has had for 20 years on this site. OBB didn't play very well vs dunoks, a bit of karma for talking some smack during the feli and franklin bo3 last week. Punny has cracked the code on this tier even if his teams date to 2020 and he has a person who's been on this site for 20 years. I wish I could say Meru has 20/20 vision to complete a nice description but I was told by my mom not to lie to strangers.
SM: kumiko vs lza - Kumi has been fire this tournament, and it's very refreshing to see quite a different take on the meta. By different, they're just copying what roro does every tournament with lower tiers. However, I don't think kumi can reach the roro heights because they don't have the x factor aka luck or the ability to have your opponents have the wrong abilities on their pokemon. I get the vision behind some of the teams but like the HO and hard stall but they were... a little weird. Having the aroma on plume I could see from a mile away but the team lacked a lot of toxic users. Also having a stall and not being able to keep them off with regi is definitely a bad look. The HO game came down to a speed tie between the croakers. I think kumi can build something really nice but not too off their rocker like what they brought to the semis but the predilection for the more balanced style builds and long drawn out games is pretty clear. Maybe in 2025, we won't see another sceptile/mandibuzz/regi team loaded by denial's team but odds of that happening are quite small. If horizons are expanded a bit, this has the potential to be a killer game but otherwise I think kumi will bring something balanced, not have to make a plays and walk away with a win.
ORAS: MZ vs DugZa - DugZa is definitely in another breed of bringing crap in every lower tier tournament and making it work somehow if it's either through his opponents playing bad or just straight up getting lucky. I don't know honestly what goes on mentally in their team when he selects some of the things he does. Like clearly from spl, and scl he can bring normal teams but does he just think that 'this crap barrelled out from a indian gutter looks good, let me use this' for RUPL consistently. It's hard to make heads and tails of it. MZ is a very underrated pilot for the records he puts up and I want him to win but I think like the rest of the people here, he will just be dumbfounded on preview. As a pro-tip, bring a roar venusaur and you'll increase your odds of winning.
BW: Seraphz vs Accel - Accel is my guy but he got really murked in regular season by finch. I think his takes on the meta are pretty funny and he doesn't recycle 2015 kushalos teams so that's definitely good. I think seraphz has been thrown to the wolves here yet again so I'll put money on Accel to win this because solid play + solid teams normally means solid results.
ADV: Heysup vs SpoiledBerries - Berries is them in this made up tier. Lyra will find some way to take credit for drafting her in RUGL and nobody except for the two playing here will even care about this game. Even amity has given up trying to save this tier. I will be singing let it go in the background hoping this tier gets nuked for next year
BO3: Punny vs TheFranklin - I was thinking of predicting franklin to make it a tie but I honestly think with the sv advantadge, the guardians should try to take this series in the regular week. This is the best game of the series hands down because both of these guys have clear advantadges and deficits in different tiers in the bo3. I went through punny's SV games and they're similar bulkier balances with some flex picks and creative picks here and there. Franklin though has the ability to pilot anything. I think franklin is most in his element when he's using a lime-esque team but some of the teams have used those slow/fat breakers sacrificing defensive stability in favour of type overlap. I think the building acumen possessed by the guardians will allow punny to load a team that punny feels comfortable using but also circumvents or allows him to outplay the aforementioned weaknesses. In SS, there's a clearer advantadge to punny and in SM there's a similar advantadge for franklin. I would hope punny doesn't needlessly recycle again in SS and tries to at least vary some of his old teams or try something different. In SM, franklin has used the same team like 10 times but won every game so you'd back him in this tier. The SV game will dictate the bo3 in my gut and so if these two guys are F1 cars, it'll come down to who has a better pit crew to support the marquee flashy cars.
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i'm very happy to finally win this. after somehow making finals in 2023 despite a certain person (sensei axew) cancering just for us to lose, i was pretty bummed cuz it took a ton of effort to come back from our early season. sadly, we never really figured out certain slots and that ended up costing us the tour. i didn't play last year, or even officially manage as i was "retired" (LMFAOO), but we had an amazing team and managed to make finals yet again. after losing that i kinda officially stopped caring about the game; everyone put a ton of work to win last year, and our team environment was so fun, it felt even more disappointing the second time around

but obviously we had to try again, it was fun and we had proved we could do well consistently. going into this year i didn't know what to expect really, i wanted to try playing but i hadn't touched the game for over half a year, and adv meant there was another tier we were all useless in. in many ways, this also felt like our last chance; aly's retain price was getting very high, and we kinda lucked out in a way by punny not doing so well last year, meaning his selfbuy wasn't all that expensive. the draft went well, and i'd say it's the strongest we've really been, so i was confident we could hopefully win this year. and that's what happened! but it wouldn't have been possible without everyone else on the team, as well as previous guardians who helped foster our team spirit in 23-24 and made us want to try again, this feels like a win for all 3 years

Lyssa one of the best managers i've ever had, even if i know you think you're useless in this tournament. you were the only person willing to do scouts, and your help in sm was extremely important. you helped kumiko and punny a ton, and made sure to be useful wherever you could beyond what was asked of you. i think a lot of managers have the issue of trying to force their vision on their players, which almost never works out, but you gave just enough breathing room. you have a very great mind for this game and out of everyone who loves to nerd about this game, you have a way with words that always convinces me you're correct. you're also hilarious, like one of the funniest people i know, and it definitely helped the vibes a lot; that mein kampf log is still a top 5 log ever. beyond just that though, every conversation with you is a good time whether it's pokémon related or not and i'm very thankful we've gotten closer over the years (can't believe it's already been 5 though wtf..)

Punny if i'm ever in a situation where i'm held a gunpoint and had to pick someone to win a game or else i'm OUT, i'd pick you anyday. your vision for the game is crazy, to the point where sometimes i just don't understand your builds but you manage to make them work, which is what counts. we've teamed many, many times, but this is maybe the season i had the most trust in you yet. when we were up 4-3 and i saw you hadn't played yet i wasn't worried in the slightest, despite you playing one of the thoughest (and oftentimes luckiest) player in the pool. i think this is the first time we win something together zLmfaooo, and it feels good to finally get a win after being so close to it so many times before. i'll always appreciate our chats, whether they're just us bantering or discussing more serious things, so thanks for being a great friend. the tortured poets department is still a shit album though zLmfaoooo

umbry the last of the core. which btw i did in alphabetical order so like i promise there's no deeper meaning. i've learned to take your words as being some holy truth that must never be challenged. this happened when you said bike and fez were bad, and noivern's best set was sfang pnoise. i still wanted to try out my own ideas early on in the season but sure enough you were right so! i think by listening to you i saved us some losses between sv2 and 3-4, so that only reinforces my opinion that you are Always correct. your ingame is also spectacular and i wish you'd stay away from draco meteor BUT sometimes it can't be helped i guess..! much like i told the other two, and now i feel like i'm just repeating myself, i'm very grateful to be friends with you and for the ways in which this tournament has brought us closer. you are incredibly kind and hilarious, and i'll always love the different gifs you find to spam

the rest will be done in sheet order, but to all 3 above: i wouldn't bother with this tournament if it weren't for you, you've made it my favourite tour on this website and are all some of the best teammates i've ever had in your own ways. love u lots :heart:

kumiko you and punny carried us during regular season and i'm very thankful for that. i was very surprised to see you actually build, like i thought you'd just reuse what was already in your builder and hope for the best, so i was very happy to see you put in time towards this tournament. your energy in the teamchat was very nice to have, and it made me much more confident we could win. we ended up being too good for a tiebreaker, but i'd have always trusted you in one assuming you cared enough. i don't think we've ever teamed before, but this was a great experience and i hope you enjoyed it too! also this means we have a 100% winrate together woohoo

Meru i know she's happy she won us semis and finals boots... we've teamed a ton of times now, and i pushed very hard to get you pre-season. i think you're a very good player and will always value you. sadly for the 2nd time in history, other people valued you too and you ended up being more than we expected but i'll still never regret getting you; you're a tryhard and contribute wherever and whenever you can, despite you admittedly doubting yourself more than usual and it's ns to drip. you were still worth much more than your price and won for us when it mattered most, so thank you for avoiding us the stress of a potential tiebreaker not once but twice. you're also a very good friend outside of all this, and i enjoy our talks about life and all that money has to offer. keep me updated on that job sis...

Heysup out of everyone on the team i think i've teamed with you the most, like too many times for me to count, but we've actually won something else before..! i know you weren't always happy with the tier you had to play and doubted yourself at times, but thank you for still putting in effort every week and also getting us a crucial win in finals. we were very happy to get you for so cheap like somewhat early in the draft, and you ended up with a top 3 record so i'd say you were more than worth it, as i think you're good enough to win against about anyone. also good luck with the life updates!!

DripLegend we knew we wanted to get you as a sub cuz friend + good at the game, and i was very confident in our sv with a good pilot we could flex in if needed. unsurprinsingly we needed to sub you in pretty quickly (:speak_no_devil:), and you immediately got us a huge win vs lime week 3. you didn't struggle much for the rest of the season, and you were a very good teammate to have around whether it was for tests or just to vibe with, even if your games sometimes gave me, as well as the rest of the team, heart attacks. it's okay though your name's still bolded. speaking of vibing, we've become very close in the year we've known each other and i'm very happy for that. you're an incredible person despite your faults :blush:. like i can't stop validating your bisexual tea rn

MZ you've known me since i was a pu room shitter, and back then to me you were probably the scariest person ever, you being a tier leader and all that. a few years and council changes later we teamed for the first time ever in pubd, and i thought it was a fun experience even if we ended up losing in finals, but it also made me want to team with you again if i ever got the occasion. you signed up for this tour and we considered you as a sub, as we thought having an overall solid player could offer us more flexibility if that was ever needed. surely enough, it was needed, and i'm happy you (maybe begrudgingly) accepted getting thrown into oras as we were figuring out our lineup, and you even got us a win week 3 in swsh when meru was too tired (old) to play. i hope this makes up for the pubd loss

Bouff i know you always beat yourself up over your mistakes but you're one of the best teammates someone could have. you help whatever slots you can, even offering to help test in bw and swsh..! gruelling experiences truly. you were very active, especially in your own channel, which i appreciated a lot as seeing people care is always motivating. plus you didn't do badly anyway despite your dooming and acting like your life was over if you lost a game. like heysup, this is the second time we win something together (thank you whoever allowed ne+canada in 2020), except this time we get something out of it x. especially happy to win this one with you as 2023 pupl was awful, and i felt like 2024 pubd didn't quite make up for it as i threw you in adv jail. love talking to you in duckies, you're hilarious and also very kind, never change. straw that broke the camel's back.jpeg

Lana you were on our very first draft plan, so obviously we were very happy to get you. sorry about how things ended up going in the latter half of the season, but i hope you know it doesn't reflect on your skill at all. you seem to have a solid ingame, but sadly we ended up struggling to get enough practice in with you when it probably would've helped a lot. this isn't to say you did badly either, you put up a fine record and put up with us as we were still figuring out what worked best in sv. i think by the time we made semis, we could've had you in and it wouldn't have made a difference, so it was really just a Time and Place thing. i appreciate your activity after getting benched, still participating in our daily wordle and helping in sv whenever you got the chance. you're a very fun person and i hope to keep seeing you around!! good luck in scl i hope i get to see you start

Tenebricite much like lana, i want you to know that you getting benched was not a result of you being ungood. a big part of it is our fault; we didn't really give you good teams which meant you ended up struggling in a few matchups where you could've had easier games. your effort early on in the tournament helped us a lot, and i don't regret getting you in the slightest. you're a solid player, and i'm very happy you enjoyed the team vibes as that's always my goal. hopefully our LMFAOOO spam didn't throw you off too much, and best of luck with the youtube channel and future tournaments!!

Cow you were sadly a victim of the guardians bw curse. we never know what we're doing there so we just throw someone in there and pray for the best. i know you could've done better with more time and help, as i've witnessed it firsthand during pupl. you also arguably did the most out of anyone out on the team by introducing the wordle bot and singlehandedly saving our season. you were also a great team chat presence and i'm happy we got you, and i'm sorry you couldn't get more game time. hope to see you get drafted next spl, you deserve it!!

seraphz just like driplegend... sorry, cow! you were a human sacrifice we had thrown into a furnace (bw ru). i'm sorry we couldn't be more useful, but still thank you a lot for trying week after week. i don't doubt that, with some more practice, many of your games could've been won, but a big part of that is on me. i think you have the potential to do well in whatever tier you want really, as evidenced by your impressive bwpl, and i don't think getting you was a mistake in the slightest. good luck in future tournaments!!

Charmriah first of i want to say i'm really sorry you couldn't get any play time this season!! you've shown a lot of promise and you were an extremely important member of our team. like truly i've never seen anyone play so many test games before. your help in adv meant the rest of us could stay away from it (thank god), but from what i could see it was good help. you also helped me in sv when no one else was willing to play test games vs my new wo-chien balance of the week so i'm very grateful for that too. hopefully we end up with a better custom than your bald man one no shade...

BeeOrSomething ok so like. out of everyone on the team you've probably played the least amount of ru games (any gen) all season but that's okay cuz we got you for the vibes and you delivered on that front. aly suggested getting you and i wanted to team with you again after that pubd (sidenote this is like the 4th time i mention that tour in this post wow) as you were super fun to have around then. you didn't get to sub in at any point but honestly i feel like you don't care about that. or if you do i'm sorry. you and lana contributed to some of the ubers culture thing so thanks a bunch for caring enough to talk sometimes :D
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also we had some helpers for playoffs yippieee

Attribute very sad we couldn't win this last year with you, but thank you for joining and helping meru in whatever way you could before he told you to go fuck yourself (not really but like still). i mentioned it earlier but winning this year also feels like winning for last year, so i hope you consider this your win as well. you're a very fun person to talk to and i hope we get to team again at some point, but let's not lose

Beraldo you're a big reason why i care so much about this tour. i don't think i would've had as much fun in 2023 if it weren't for our little competition, and i was bummed when we didn't face you in finals last year. i was even more bummed when you didn't make playoffs this year, and i told you this already but i've grown to think of hustlers as my second team. i was very happy when you asked if we needed any help for playoffs, and i was a lot more confident in our oldgens with your expertise. i know you're pretty much done with this game and honestly i don't know if you'll even see this but thanks for being one of my best friends on here. i'll always enjoy our talks, whether we're discussing life or just giving each other music recommendations, and i'm very thankful for that

pdt you were an amazing teammate for the week you joined, testing in whatever slot you could and offering top tier advice (use Venusaur). it honestly made me a little mad we couldn't get you, as i value you a lot as a player too. thanks for also being a good friend beyond that, you're one of the funniest people i know and you always have some great advice to give

also shoutouts to the ru community, a tournament is only fun if its community is also fun to interact with. very happy to see how this community has developped since its Dark Age, and i hope things keep getting better. big thanks to kableye and rarelyme for hosting also. go guardians :heart:
 
Congrats guardians, its hard to not feel sad about losing this finals but i cant help but feel happy too for all my friends on there that won after years of close attempts. You were amazing this tournament and an inspiration for me, the meta looked completely in your hands. It's honestly sad to think about an RUPL without the guardians, all those RUPLs we played togheter was almost the whole reason to even partecipate. Also thanks to kab, who has been an amazing host for years now, and Rare, one of the best hardworking people this tier ever saw (and that a few years back i'd dream to ever come to this tier), for hosting the tournament, y'all did an excellent job.

With the glaze out, this wont be a shoutout post, moreso wanted to look back at this RUPL, cause this tournament is special to me, and so is everyone involved in it. It's been now 6 years since the first RUPL i ever played, and 6 years of this tournament taking a huge space in my heart. Gum mentioned it in his post but its honestly incredible how much this community has grown, i mean just a few years ago 10 slots would have been a dream and now we have that + a whole new tier we made! Its incredible to even think about that. My hope is that this tournament wasnt just a tournament for top players to play in, but inspiration for all the new people to make it in an incredible experience. This tournament after all is named RUPL, and its made for us. Keep playing, keep talking, keep being active, you will be noticed.

This RUPL was strange, in a lot of ways. I'll start by saying i had no intentions of taking part in the tournament. Yeah yeah i know i know but its true. I honestly didnt really have any intention to play or a co to manage the tournament with, so i thought it'd just be my first year of taking the sideline. But when i saw TheFranklin signup with an empty co-manager space, something clicked. After 6 years, it only feels natural that, at some point, you run out of steam. I felt like RUPL, as much as an amazing tournament it is, had given me its all. But managing with Franklin felt like the perfect occasion to experience something new. This was said in the PRs too, but it wouldn't be crazy to think of me and Franklin as almost total opposites in personality. But, as far as im concerned, it worked perfectly. It made me meet with people i dont think i would have thought about otherwise, simply cause of unfamiliarity with the name. Infact, most of the people i would normally draft and even had considered during it ended up on the guardians instead. Adapting to working with new people obviously was not easy, and there was some trouble there and there, but i do hope i was able to provide the same feeling i feel for RUPL to you. I'm sorry i couldn't give it to you this year, but y'all have the talent, like for the guardians it will just be a matter of time. Thank you for enduring me, and i hope to see you around :heart:

I'm not good with words so this is where i'll stop, but i hope i conveyed my emotions to my team, my opponents, and everyone in the community. This tournament is special, and i hope it'll become special for more and more people every year.
 
guardians!!!! we did it!!! you all worked really hard this season and i'm very glad our efforts paid off. not going to do a full fledged shoutout thing because i didnt do a whole lot imo but i wanted to give a big thanks to Lyssa Punny umbry gum for drafting me and letting me be a part of this. i really appreciate your trust in me and being so patient with me. you guys have been chasing this for so so long and there's zero doubt in my mind you deserve it more than anyone else. aly, you have basically carried me every step of the way, not just in this tour but for like pretty much every sv ru tour i have played and i can never give enough gratitude for that. its kind of surreal that we finally won something together after so long jesus christ LOL... would like to thank gum for the constant testing and advice as well, despite my self esteem going into the sewer after you would maul me in tests i think your support was paramount for me and the rest of the team. i hope this victory comes as a massive relief because you've put in so much energy into this over the past few years! go team omg
 
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