-
Smogon Premier League is here and the team collection is now available. Support your team!
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2025 Smog Awards!
Tournament RUPL XIII - Commencement Thread
- Thread starter Rarelyme
- Start date
I'm also doing prs, from phone so excuse formatting, might clean it up later. I put "confidence" ratings 1-10 next to each player but also just yap hooray
pure power prizefighters - 55.5
Sv: xcx 6.5
Sv: etern 8
Sv: ampha 4
Sv: DKM 3
Ss: meru 6
Sm: master chief 7.5
Oras: sky 5
Bw: baddy 6.5
Adv: jabba 4
Bo3: robjr 5
This team has an excellent group of pilots, with some of the most accomplished players of any team. In a tour with few RU veterans, robjr and master chief both fit the bill: they have the experience to provide teams and input everywhere. I personally think rob's been on a bit of a slump in RU, but he went like 10-1 in a PU tour recently (alongside teammate avarice) and is one of the few holdovers from a very depleted RU BO3 pool. Etern is one of the hottest commodities on Smogon rn after an amazing UU SCL, while xcx and Meru are very experienced and good RU pilots. Baddy is one of the bw "big 3", 14-5 in RU tours (prior to a 2-4 rucl) and he should do pretty well. This team has very few weaknesses: idk if Avarice(sky) wants to play oras, but he does it competently; Jabba is "unproven in adv ru" lol but is generally good for .500 in all these adv oldgens, and I don't view Ampha/DKM as strong SV pilots. All these are super minor points though. They're quite thin on SV teambuilding, though their sv pilots can be self-sufficient if motivated, and they were retained. SV building and motivation will determine how their season goes, and ngl i'm not that optimistic on it, but even an average SV performance would get this team to playoffs. Neomon is a notably good bench guy to have, covering ORAS/ADV. this team clearly has 1 of the highest ceilings in the tour. lots of steals and overall very well assembled.
Solid Rock Wreckers - 54
SV-1: hjk 9
SV-2: Txunt 4
SV-3: MachJacob 4
SV-4: Tsuki 3.5
SS: Oranberryblissey10 5
SM: xXCrossbowXx 6.5
ORAS: Fragments 4
BW: Guille 7.5
ADV: Vroom 5
BO3: Drud 5.5
Lyra and sneakyplanner, the newest managerial faces in RU, took their first swing at the big RUPL stage and got a lot of value. Hjkhj is an awesome retain, he may have hit 30k in auction, and the headliner of this team, though i'm very surprised to not see him in bo3. They round out SV with a trio of what I've been told are below average mainers: i'm not completely up to date on this, but i think they'd benefit from making 1 or 2 of these a pilot. Regardless, i bet theyre all best buds and will boost the vibes, especially tsuki who seems chill af. Obb fills their SS slot thanks to some master manipulation by me letting him go for cheap; he's a solid player but didn't have a great season last year and enters a tough pool. XxCrossbowXx fills SM, and despite me not liking his team compositions very much, he has a pretty strong resume at this point and should do well. Guille, another bw big 3 member, should do really well in BW because nobody has figured out how to ct his devious stalls even 3 years in. Maybe he'll help SV too, idk. FastCarVroom, who i'm told is also a great guy, occupies ADV. i don't think he should've cost more than spoiledberries, but i'm told he's a strong up and coming ru oldgenner. curious to see how he does. drud is in bo3, but doesn't really have much experience at all in ru, making this a curious choice. lots to learn, and i do think hjkhj makes more sense here (apparently hjkhj didnt want to). but he's a good pilot and will likely do pretty good, he has some background in sv-ss and a few other bo3s have little experience.
the vibes and building will be there in spades, but the team does lack experience -- very few ru veterans to help guide the new managers. Everyone is self-sufficient tho at least, and, a notable positive, there are very few holes on the roster, i don't expect anyone to suck. fragments was a good cheap buy late in auction. they do have mraldo on bench, along with the much-discussed canard. i've seen the phrase "canard ho" like 50 times the last 2 weeks yet he's not trusted enough to start? maybe he fills in if a sv struggles. overall, though, a strong draft, gj lyra.
[note: after this i decided to stop tryharding and my blurbs get briefer, NO OFFENSE].
Tenacious Technicians - 55
Sv1 Hacker 6.5
Sv2 Lana 4
Sv3 Acid 5
Sv4 heatranator 4
Ss sol 6
Sm rylon 3
Oras dugza 7.5
Bw seraphz 3
Adv berries 7.5
Bo3 franklin 8.5
well-rounded team, starting w excellent dugza franklin retains. they got some insane oldgen gems too, with spoiledberries and sol. berries did amazing last year and really should have cost more based on that, while sol adds some Veteran Leadership and is surely due to turn around his 3-10 streak in ru tours sometime. hacker is a good sv buy, i think acid is p good, not as optimistic about their last 2 but heatranator seems like a fun guy and lana is a competent enough pilot. they weirdly kinda sack 2 oldgens, putting pretty unproven people in the sm and bw pools, which are two of the bigger holes of any top-half team. otherwise this team is very good, and if any of sm / bw / sv3-4 work out they should make playoffs comfortably.
Leaf Guard Dancers - 48
sv: sabella 4, soulking0 5.5, hi.naming is hard 5, 8truc 3?
ss: the strap 5.5
sm: lza 7.5
oras: nagol 2.5
bw: raceding 4?
adv: indulge in dreams 5
bo3: metallica 6
truly dont have much to say here bc i know very few players. strap, lza, soul king0, metallica, and gewwge is a solid foundation to build off of that makes them not entirely dependent on the guys we dont know. then sabella / indulge in dreams arent bad either. will be curious to see how their season plays out
masters of disguise - 46
sv: feen 6
sv: ming549 5
sv: jojen 4
sv: joelxleaf 4
ss: stareal 4.5
sm: xiri 5.5
oras: miyami 2.5
bw: tycarter 4.5
adv: heysup 5.5
bo3: leni 4.5
i really don't like this team honestly. i feel like it relies on wayyy too many question marks - miyami full time starter (which im super pessimistic in), debut bw, heysup showing up to games, leni making it work in bo3 (he had a good rucl, i'd still probably swap him and xiri though). i've been high on xiri, mostly because he went 7-1 for me one year, but his Ru Sheet TM is actually pretty poor at -8; he doesn't really have another sm knower to pass teams either. leni has played it but idk if he builds. this oldgen support issue is kinda a theme, this is a poor landing spot for stareal because he has to learn SS and doesn't have much support for it. the positives aren't very strong to me either; heysup, a good buy by results, has really cut his availability in every tour this year, and i don't think ming / feen / tlenit in bo3? will farm. lot more cons than pros.
mr. speed boosters - 50
sv 1 - the chungler 6.5
sv 2 - daharan 6.5
sv 3 - slikkles 3.5
sv 4 - kimer 2.5
ss - confident oyster 6.5
sm - db 3.5
oras - guldkat 6
bw - kaboom 5
adv - mielke 5.5
bo3 - lighthouses 4.5
This team is pretty much okay, low ceiling IMO bc i don't love their stars but not too many holes either. their big buys are chungler and confident oyster. chungler objectively probably isn't "worth" this, esp. outside ADV, after going 0-4 last year. however he's been on a crazy tear of tournament success lately, and we all had too much $ left anyways. i def believe in him. similarly, daharan seems like one of the more proven mainers; on the flip side, my pre draft consultation of ru's greatest minds has led me to believe that slikkles would be more suited for a bench role. i have no idea why kimer is starting in a PL. oyster, their other big buys, is good but entering the toughest pool. he will be tested every week but probably end up positive after a great 7-1 last rucl, albeit vs weaker competition.
there oldgens are fine, mostly self sufficient guys, except for sm which is v unproven. kaboom also "unproven" in bwru but i believe in him to pick it up & wanted him as bw for a bit after his nucl 7-2 picking up bw nu. goldcat has great ru results and the oras pool is p bad. mielke is an adequate retain who also gets to test w chungler. I think lighthouses' best tier is oras, but now he's playing bo3, which doesnt have oras, after going 2-4 there last year; i think he will end negative again.
Akotelette is 9k to sit on the bench - maybe unavailable week 1? pretty solid bench, w nashrock as a possible pilot and clem as a tryhard scouter + backup for a potentially weak sm. Ngl if this team loses a week the vibes are extremely cooked between goldcat oyster and evi... however i have them as pefectly average, reflecting their general across the board competence.
Bibliotheca Blazes - 45
SV: Hoops 7
SV: Cow 3.5
SV: Eifo 5
SV: Kjay500% 4
SS: Runo 2 (this becomes a 4.5 if Qwily gets put here)
SM: Tenebrecite 4
ORAS: Ruffles 5
BW: Mister McLovin 4.5
ADV: Amity 5
Bo3: FlamPoke 5
This draft is so bizarre and puzzling to me LOL. The two most expensive players are both orasers! theyre putting this random natdex guy (who did go 3-3 in rucl i believe) in ss pool of death. most importantly, this team has zero aura, with everyone coding in my head as a noob. how did it actually turn out?
sv they have hoops, one of the hottest commodities in mainerland rn, who will probably do well. congrats on your feli christmas championship i hope you had a merry holiday season. i believe in eifo current gen because he beat me in current gen the 1 time i went 7-2 there... while a flight/mald risk, he has a pretty high ceiling and tryhards. assuming he wants to SV, of course. i doubt cow will be very motivated here, and natures conqueror is only known as a ladder hero, which has a kinda low conversion rate to real tours. they have a pretty deep bench, with stories, axzel, and QWILY as options too. ngl, i'd give this team like 3-4 extra points rn if they put qwily in ss + axzel in sv. instead, in ss they have natdex guy, who i dont want to go too hard on but yeah hes extremely unproven relative to rest of pool.
in sm they have tenebricite; people (managers, coping, sorry) tout his sm prowess, but this pool has plenty of ppl who have played for half a decade + and tenebricite isnt one. hes played every tour on the site and can bounce ideas off eifo though. in oras they have ruffles, who i would've been much higher on before a really lackluster spl and lots of indications that his motivation is low. i don't really expect him to do well despite his ceiling + weakness of this pool. in bw, cheap mclovin is like fine, idk if he's every played this in PL at more than a bench level but hes tryharded for a while and is due for a shot. in adv they retained amity + have msousa to support, solid. bo3 FLAMPOOKIE! i'm a believer, but this team is totally lacking in ss help besides eifo and sm help besides eifo so bringing good teams + learning the new tiers may be hard.
---
Have fun everyone!! here's a generic "prove the rankings wrong, hoorah". Been very excited for this tour, hoping for good games and excited to see lots of the new ru faces prove themselves on the big stage
pure power prizefighters - 55.5
Sv: xcx 6.5
Sv: etern 8
Sv: ampha 4
Sv: DKM 3
Ss: meru 6
Sm: master chief 7.5
Oras: sky 5
Bw: baddy 6.5
Adv: jabba 4
Bo3: robjr 5
This team has an excellent group of pilots, with some of the most accomplished players of any team. In a tour with few RU veterans, robjr and master chief both fit the bill: they have the experience to provide teams and input everywhere. I personally think rob's been on a bit of a slump in RU, but he went like 10-1 in a PU tour recently (alongside teammate avarice) and is one of the few holdovers from a very depleted RU BO3 pool. Etern is one of the hottest commodities on Smogon rn after an amazing UU SCL, while xcx and Meru are very experienced and good RU pilots. Baddy is one of the bw "big 3", 14-5 in RU tours (prior to a 2-4 rucl) and he should do pretty well. This team has very few weaknesses: idk if Avarice(sky) wants to play oras, but he does it competently; Jabba is "unproven in adv ru" lol but is generally good for .500 in all these adv oldgens, and I don't view Ampha/DKM as strong SV pilots. All these are super minor points though. They're quite thin on SV teambuilding, though their sv pilots can be self-sufficient if motivated, and they were retained. SV building and motivation will determine how their season goes, and ngl i'm not that optimistic on it, but even an average SV performance would get this team to playoffs. Neomon is a notably good bench guy to have, covering ORAS/ADV. this team clearly has 1 of the highest ceilings in the tour. lots of steals and overall very well assembled.
Solid Rock Wreckers - 54
SV-1: hjk 9
SV-2: Txunt 4
SV-3: MachJacob 4
SV-4: Tsuki 3.5
SS: Oranberryblissey10 5
SM: xXCrossbowXx 6.5
ORAS: Fragments 4
BW: Guille 7.5
ADV: Vroom 5
BO3: Drud 5.5
Lyra and sneakyplanner, the newest managerial faces in RU, took their first swing at the big RUPL stage and got a lot of value. Hjkhj is an awesome retain, he may have hit 30k in auction, and the headliner of this team, though i'm very surprised to not see him in bo3. They round out SV with a trio of what I've been told are below average mainers: i'm not completely up to date on this, but i think they'd benefit from making 1 or 2 of these a pilot. Regardless, i bet theyre all best buds and will boost the vibes, especially tsuki who seems chill af. Obb fills their SS slot thanks to some master manipulation by me letting him go for cheap; he's a solid player but didn't have a great season last year and enters a tough pool. XxCrossbowXx fills SM, and despite me not liking his team compositions very much, he has a pretty strong resume at this point and should do well. Guille, another bw big 3 member, should do really well in BW because nobody has figured out how to ct his devious stalls even 3 years in. Maybe he'll help SV too, idk. FastCarVroom, who i'm told is also a great guy, occupies ADV. i don't think he should've cost more than spoiledberries, but i'm told he's a strong up and coming ru oldgenner. curious to see how he does. drud is in bo3, but doesn't really have much experience at all in ru, making this a curious choice. lots to learn, and i do think hjkhj makes more sense here (apparently hjkhj didnt want to). but he's a good pilot and will likely do pretty good, he has some background in sv-ss and a few other bo3s have little experience.
the vibes and building will be there in spades, but the team does lack experience -- very few ru veterans to help guide the new managers. Everyone is self-sufficient tho at least, and, a notable positive, there are very few holes on the roster, i don't expect anyone to suck. fragments was a good cheap buy late in auction. they do have mraldo on bench, along with the much-discussed canard. i've seen the phrase "canard ho" like 50 times the last 2 weeks yet he's not trusted enough to start? maybe he fills in if a sv struggles. overall, though, a strong draft, gj lyra.
[note: after this i decided to stop tryharding and my blurbs get briefer, NO OFFENSE].
Tenacious Technicians - 55
Sv1 Hacker 6.5
Sv2 Lana 4
Sv3 Acid 5
Sv4 heatranator 4
Ss sol 6
Sm rylon 3
Oras dugza 7.5
Bw seraphz 3
Adv berries 7.5
Bo3 franklin 8.5
well-rounded team, starting w excellent dugza franklin retains. they got some insane oldgen gems too, with spoiledberries and sol. berries did amazing last year and really should have cost more based on that, while sol adds some Veteran Leadership and is surely due to turn around his 3-10 streak in ru tours sometime. hacker is a good sv buy, i think acid is p good, not as optimistic about their last 2 but heatranator seems like a fun guy and lana is a competent enough pilot. they weirdly kinda sack 2 oldgens, putting pretty unproven people in the sm and bw pools, which are two of the bigger holes of any top-half team. otherwise this team is very good, and if any of sm / bw / sv3-4 work out they should make playoffs comfortably.
Leaf Guard Dancers - 48
sv: sabella 4, soulking0 5.5, hi.naming is hard 5, 8truc 3?
ss: the strap 5.5
sm: lza 7.5
oras: nagol 2.5
bw: raceding 4?
adv: indulge in dreams 5
bo3: metallica 6
truly dont have much to say here bc i know very few players. strap, lza, soul king0, metallica, and gewwge is a solid foundation to build off of that makes them not entirely dependent on the guys we dont know. then sabella / indulge in dreams arent bad either. will be curious to see how their season plays out
masters of disguise - 46
sv: feen 6
sv: ming549 5
sv: jojen 4
sv: joelxleaf 4
ss: stareal 4.5
sm: xiri 5.5
oras: miyami 2.5
bw: tycarter 4.5
adv: heysup 5.5
bo3: leni 4.5
i really don't like this team honestly. i feel like it relies on wayyy too many question marks - miyami full time starter (which im super pessimistic in), debut bw, heysup showing up to games, leni making it work in bo3 (he had a good rucl, i'd still probably swap him and xiri though). i've been high on xiri, mostly because he went 7-1 for me one year, but his Ru Sheet TM is actually pretty poor at -8; he doesn't really have another sm knower to pass teams either. leni has played it but idk if he builds. this oldgen support issue is kinda a theme, this is a poor landing spot for stareal because he has to learn SS and doesn't have much support for it. the positives aren't very strong to me either; heysup, a good buy by results, has really cut his availability in every tour this year, and i don't think ming / feen / tlenit in bo3? will farm. lot more cons than pros.
mr. speed boosters - 50
sv 1 - the chungler 6.5
sv 2 - daharan 6.5
sv 3 - slikkles 3.5
sv 4 - kimer 2.5
ss - confident oyster 6.5
sm - db 3.5
oras - guldkat 6
bw - kaboom 5
adv - mielke 5.5
bo3 - lighthouses 4.5
This team is pretty much okay, low ceiling IMO bc i don't love their stars but not too many holes either. their big buys are chungler and confident oyster. chungler objectively probably isn't "worth" this, esp. outside ADV, after going 0-4 last year. however he's been on a crazy tear of tournament success lately, and we all had too much $ left anyways. i def believe in him. similarly, daharan seems like one of the more proven mainers; on the flip side, my pre draft consultation of ru's greatest minds has led me to believe that slikkles would be more suited for a bench role. i have no idea why kimer is starting in a PL. oyster, their other big buys, is good but entering the toughest pool. he will be tested every week but probably end up positive after a great 7-1 last rucl, albeit vs weaker competition.
there oldgens are fine, mostly self sufficient guys, except for sm which is v unproven. kaboom also "unproven" in bwru but i believe in him to pick it up & wanted him as bw for a bit after his nucl 7-2 picking up bw nu. goldcat has great ru results and the oras pool is p bad. mielke is an adequate retain who also gets to test w chungler. I think lighthouses' best tier is oras, but now he's playing bo3, which doesnt have oras, after going 2-4 there last year; i think he will end negative again.
Akotelette is 9k to sit on the bench - maybe unavailable week 1? pretty solid bench, w nashrock as a possible pilot and clem as a tryhard scouter + backup for a potentially weak sm. Ngl if this team loses a week the vibes are extremely cooked between goldcat oyster and evi... however i have them as pefectly average, reflecting their general across the board competence.
Bibliotheca Blazes - 45
SV: Hoops 7
SV: Cow 3.5
SV: Eifo 5
SV: Kjay500% 4
SS: Runo 2 (this becomes a 4.5 if Qwily gets put here)
SM: Tenebrecite 4
ORAS: Ruffles 5
BW: Mister McLovin 4.5
ADV: Amity 5
Bo3: FlamPoke 5
This draft is so bizarre and puzzling to me LOL. The two most expensive players are both orasers! theyre putting this random natdex guy (who did go 3-3 in rucl i believe) in ss pool of death. most importantly, this team has zero aura, with everyone coding in my head as a noob. how did it actually turn out?
sv they have hoops, one of the hottest commodities in mainerland rn, who will probably do well. congrats on your feli christmas championship i hope you had a merry holiday season. i believe in eifo current gen because he beat me in current gen the 1 time i went 7-2 there... while a flight/mald risk, he has a pretty high ceiling and tryhards. assuming he wants to SV, of course. i doubt cow will be very motivated here, and natures conqueror is only known as a ladder hero, which has a kinda low conversion rate to real tours. they have a pretty deep bench, with stories, axzel, and QWILY as options too. ngl, i'd give this team like 3-4 extra points rn if they put qwily in ss + axzel in sv. instead, in ss they have natdex guy, who i dont want to go too hard on but yeah hes extremely unproven relative to rest of pool.
in sm they have tenebricite; people (managers, coping, sorry) tout his sm prowess, but this pool has plenty of ppl who have played for half a decade + and tenebricite isnt one. hes played every tour on the site and can bounce ideas off eifo though. in oras they have ruffles, who i would've been much higher on before a really lackluster spl and lots of indications that his motivation is low. i don't really expect him to do well despite his ceiling + weakness of this pool. in bw, cheap mclovin is like fine, idk if he's every played this in PL at more than a bench level but hes tryharded for a while and is due for a shot. in adv they retained amity + have msousa to support, solid. bo3 FLAMPOOKIE! i'm a believer, but this team is totally lacking in ss help besides eifo and sm help besides eifo so bringing good teams + learning the new tiers may be hard.
---
1. Prizefighters 55.5
2. Technicians 55
3. Rock Wreckers 54
--- big gap ---
4. MrSpeed Boosters 50
5. Leaf Guard Dancers 48
6. Masters of Disguise 46
7. Bibliotheca Blazes 45
2. Technicians 55
3. Rock Wreckers 54
--- big gap ---
4. MrSpeed Boosters 50
5. Leaf Guard Dancers 48
6. Masters of Disguise 46
7. Bibliotheca Blazes 45
Have fun everyone!! here's a generic "prove the rankings wrong, hoorah". Been very excited for this tour, hoping for good games and excited to see lots of the new ru faces prove themselves on the big stage