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SCL VI - Commencement
- Thread starter Zac
- Start date
Hiya everyone. I'm Busterbunner or Bunner. While I may seem new due to my joining, I'm certainly am not and I am well experienced. While I've never participated in any leagues and don't have any noteworthy accomplishments, I do have a great amount of experience in DOU, OU and Ubers.
I don't mind if I'm given an opportunity to be a support or anything else.
Contact me on smogon or on discord (@ultrasunandmoonfighter)
That's all, thank you
I don't mind if I'm given an opportunity to be a support or anything else.
Contact me on smogon or on discord (@ultrasunandmoonfighter)
That's all, thank you
the draft is over bro
The fantasy app is up!
The deadline for Week 1 is <t:1788166800:F>. For all following weeks, deadlines will follow the regular prediction contest schedule.
(First you need to make a account > enter a team name in my team tab > transfers tab to draft your team)
The deadline for Week 1 is <t:1788166800:F>. For all following weeks, deadlines will follow the regular prediction contest schedule.
(First you need to make a account > enter a team name in my team tab > transfers tab to draft your team)
hi, for the next 24 hours my dms will be open for people to ask why I (sheepie) personally didnt get drafted. if you did or did not get drafted and wanted to know why i wasnt drafted, get tips for improving my chances in the future, etc this is a pretty cheap(ish) way to do so. My explanation is a reflection of myself like a mirror haha get it
I had a feeling. So it's not a worry.
Okay sorry Spartans I missed the part where THE_CHUNGLER got drafted, where he goes I will follow. Go Technical Machines!
What's up gamers, I'm not going to make a full Shake-style PR because frankly I don't have enough to say about all 150ish players that got drafted, so I'm going to do this in the form of superlatives:
Funniest auction outcome: clean costing more than last year
I'll be totally real, it's not even that I think 32k for clean is the most egregious overpay in the auction. I challenge anyone who thinks it is to look at the state of the OU pool. Between players who didn't sign up (oldspicemike, myjava, 3d, ABR, Storm Zone), players that got retained (Attribute, Ewin, kDCA, zS), players that locked out of OU (Nat, lax, xavgb), and players who decided to manage instead (hellom, bbeeaa, Star), you don't exactly have a ton of options if you think you need an OU carry. Your choices are, like, Vert, and after that you're probably choosing either like Fusien or Separation, and guess what, they basically have the same officials tour record in SV OU, and they cost around 30k anyway. Totally fine if you think they're all overpays, sure.
However, none of Vert, Fusien, and Separation made forum posts begging not to cost as much as last year. Even if there is context that makes it justifiable, it's objectively very funny that the Machines spent 31.5k on clean last year, both team and player did terribly, Smogtours Discord spends the past month making fun of Expulso for spending 31.5k on clean and making fun of clean for announcing "hello everyone I am not going to carry your team please do not spend 30k on me", only for the Platoon to then spend 32.5k anyway.
(honourable mention to the Islanders for getting cancered on before the auction even ended)
Best value buy: Kebab mlml
Here's a list of players in this draft who were available to be drafted for OU, sorted by SV OU sheet wins:
DAHLI: 29-24 (10k)
Kebab mlml: 24-15 (6k)
Niko: 23-25 (5.5k)
Fusien: 21-19 (33k)
clean: 20-19 (32.5k)
Ash KetchumGamer: 20-18 (undrafted)
Hiko: 19-17 (undrafted)
Mako: 18-16 (10.5k)
Separation: 17-14 (29.5k)
zioziotrip: 16-12 (13.5k)
If you want a player with a track record in SV OU teamtours that's better than "basically even", your options are Kebab mlml, and then you have to scroll down to Garay oak and vk, who have around half as many games in the tier and who cost 24.5k and 19k respectively, and Garay isn't even playing OU anyway. Indiv tours matter, of course, this isn't me saying that Kebab should have cost more than Fusien or clean, but like, a bunch of teams paid more than 6k to start mystery boxes that they're hoping can level up to around an even-ish winrate. Good work, Dynamos.
Most recent joindate to get drafted: Regiboob!
Shoutout Regiboob, who joined this site a year and a half ago and who is now the newest player on the site! Also shoutout Regiboob for point out this neat trivia to me. Leroipolux is the only other draftee with a 2025 joindate, for the record.
Funniest underdiscussed auction narrative: Shoguns support team
If someone told a 2023 OU forum noob that in 2026, OU forum noob Heatranator would get drafted to the Shoguns to team up with banned-then-unbanned-then-banned-then-unbanned-again OU forum menace CTC, they would not believe you. They would also not believe you when you explained a lot of things, to be fair, but this one's extra funny. Anyway, shoutout Heatranator, if I was managing they would have been my top target as all-purpose lowtier support.
Biggest case of mainer lunacy syndrome: Ubers
In SPL and SCL, there is always a case of the mainers ordering the PRs making at least one unhinged placement that can be attributed weighting some of their subforum tours EXTREMELY highly and generally being skeptical of accomplished tour players with limited experience in their tiers. The most glaring instance in SPL XVII was elodin, who was ranked at the bottom in a decision I found extra baffling when M Dragon, who had also not played the tier in forever, was ranked at the top, and Fakes, who had basically the same profile in GSC as elodin, was ranked middle of the pack. I saw them all as basically the same in that tier, at the very least much more similar in profile than the PRs had them, and sure enough, elodin popped off. As much as I think it's a mistake to have Punny, who hasn't looked good in UU in two years, ranked above zS, I don't think that's in the spirit of this category. I also think it's a pretty glaring mistake to have Mako all the way down at 8th in PU (in large part because OBB would also likely be 8th and a well-supported Mako is a substantial upgrade there), and Nails feels weirdly low in DOU, but I have one very obvious one on my mind.
Look. I get that baconeatinassassin just went 11-0 in UPL. I get that that included a bunch of tiebreak wins. I get that not every Ubers star was actually available in the auction. But consider:
- 11-0 is a big shiny number. It's a number, however, that only includes 4 wins over SCL starter-caliber opponents: one over entrocefalo, and three over RichardMillePlain, who, mind you, isn't playing in this tournament). For comparison, milliongatejumpguy's 5-2 NUPL run included 3 wins over opponents of that caliber (zS, Shadow079, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d), same with big tony 2014's 5-3 run at the same tournament (Shadow079, DugZa, tier). Fundamentally, these tournaments aren't fully stocked with SCL-caliber competition, so you can't run up 7 such wins the way, like, Underlying could at GSCPL, but that's why you don't fully rely on performance here as an indicator! Like, obviously 11-0 is a record much more conducive to winning that tournament than 5-3, but that's not the point of scouting. If you argue that you are purely informed by the eyetest and not the big shiny 11-win number, I do not believe you
- We are not just talking about moving them ahead of a crowded middle of the pool (Icemaster, entrocefalo, Taka, Skyiew). That is reasonable. After all, it's both UPL and ULT (which they won). Obviously they are an elite Ubers player. But ranking them over Fc is, to me, ridiculous. And that will continue to be true even if baconeatinassassin performs better than Fc this year in SCL. Nobody would have argued this if Fc had actually hit auction, because then Fc would have cost more and it would look silly
- Fc is 31-13 in Ubers in official teamtours. Let that sink in for a moment. That's a 70% winrate. Santu in ORAS is at 69%. Empo in SM is at 71%. Heroic Troller in RBY is at 72%. baconeatinassassin is at 3-3; they weren't an Ubers starter last year!
- Maybe you don't care about that. Sure. Fc was finalist at the ULT baconeatinassassin won. He was also finalist at Ubers WS this year, and was finalist at ULT LAST year too. If you only care about Ubers subforum tours, Fc has better results there. Oh yeah, and he also has three Slam playoff appearances, including a semis.
- Oh yeah, and here's the part that I find craziest. baconeatinassassin's 11-0 run wasn't even in SV OU!!! it was in multigen!! I didn't even include that in my data, because I'm generally skeptical of how relevant cross-gen success is for SV specifically, but like, if we're going to accept that, then Fc literally went 8-1 at the same tournament!
- Is this a crazy overreaction for a single PR placement, a difference of a single spot (which, mind you, is the difference between 6 people putting baconeatinassassin 1st and 4 people doing the same for Fc, since they were both top 2 in every ballot)? I mean, yeah, absolutely. However, I think it is fun to expend a lot of words on meaningless topics, and frankly, I think it's ludicrous that this is even close, when we are talking about ranking someone who is functionally a rookie in this tier in SCL to the literal winningest player in the history of the Ubers tier. (bacon you're sick tho dw)
My preseason favourite: Foxes
Never thought I would ever say these words. I can only assume that Finch has unlocked a new level of sagacity post-retirement. I think they have the most balanced OU core 1-3, and I rate almost every one of their non-OU starters in the top half of their pools. Let's get more specific:
- I love the OU strategy. They got four players that I would put in the top half of the OU pool, and they did it for 49.5k, which is a lot, but basically in line with the Shoguns, Machines, Platoon, and Gible, i.e. the teams that drafted an OU star. The Foxes' strat builds in redundancy to insulate them from risk; if one starter flops they have another excellent OU starter at the ready! And until they need Mako, they can instead run the "oldgens star picks up a lowtier with support from a strong mainer". OranBerryBlissey10 makes a lot of sense for that role, and Mako at this point has succeeded in enough different tiers, including in SV, that I really like this play. And if Mako flops, OBB is a completely serviceable backup plan, and you can flex Mako somewhere else
- DugZa's expensive, but I really like the buy. Someone who can support a whole bunch of different tiers, flex into whatever you need come tiebreak time, and give you a dependable slot with some flexibility depending on how your draft goes. Just a really versatile chess piece (among the big buys, I think xavgb is the best, and I'd probably prefer zS too if they hit auction. I'd probably have DugZa somewhere in a group with Attribute/Vert/JustFranco/etern/Fc as the next-most valuable pieces in this tournament, and 3 of those were retains)
- Skyiew is a totally solid middle-of-the-pack Ubers starter that was also excellent in LCPL. I have no clue why they were 4k, especially given the prices for the other middle-of-the-pack Ubers options
- Laroxyl and Danny are both consistently good. I definitely like the idea of buying pdt stocks right now; yeah, last year was a disaster, but they were also priced at 33k last year! Now you get a lifetime 60% UU main with more volume in their tier than anyone in the tournament besides a handful of OU mains and Nails
- Like, we're talking about a team where the "weakest" slot went 5-4 and 7-1 in their most recent SCL performances. I don't think qsns has been super active in DOU lately and I also have no idea about the support situation, but this is extremely manageable for your "worst" slot. If it doesn't go well, what are the odds we see Mako here at some point? I don't really like the bench on this team, that's the one thing I don't love, but like, I think this is a fantastic team
My least favourite draft: Platoon
This isn't the only draft I dislike, but it's probably the one where I have the hardest time seeing the vision. And I don't think just swapping clean with whoever you think is the most valuable OU player for the same price would fix the issues. The Foxes are such an outlier because most teams are relying on someone who's typically a borderline starter as their #2 option and someone who should probably be on the bench as their #3. I get it. In that context, I don't think yerdunc and ojr as your other OU starters is THAT crazy (and I'd definitely like it more if they lined up yerdunc and Lacks). What IS crazy is the price they paid for yerdunc. They're the 8th-most expensive OU starter!! The list goes Fusien, clean, Vert, Separation, Attribute, vk, Ewin, and then yerdunc. Costing more than Silent Waltz and SirPeanutCronch is a little confusing to me, but to be honest a lot of the OU rookies were expensive for my tastes. Like, DAHLI and Mako have a much longer and more successful track record in the 10k range, and you have a range of players available for basically the minimum: sire clod, Patatexv, JojoOui, Let's Rumble Shall We, Dugtrio Is Broken, and the aforementioned undrafted Ash KetchumGamer and Hiko. I might not be sold altogether on tempo di anguria and Lacks, but 3k-ish is totally fine for that gamble. I THINK teams are making the assessment that in a weak pool like this you need to gamble on the chance to get a 7-2 slot to really push your team into contention, and that the WCOP stars have higher upside. I don't think it's a crazy line of reasoning, but I just can't get behind it.
Your second star is Icemaster. I think Icemaster is good! As much as I would rather have Skyiew at 4k than Icemaster at 24k, I also recognize that Ubers was generally expensive and I think it's totally reasonable to view Icemaster as #2 in the pool. I also think Esteb4n retain was totally sensible, although I have a tougher time seeing them as a carry slot. NU is really solid and you could talk me into placing any of like 7 players as the best.
Clearly this team made a bet that they have excellent lowtier support, with Django behind the helm, and Mossy Sandwich/Esteb4n/Xiri/Hacker all being versatile pieces, enough to get good results out of oldgen players who don't really play SV or lowtiers. They chose NoName and GaryTheGengar to carry out this plan. Sure. Last month, when preparing a manager bid, I went through every instance of "oldgen player starts in SCL lower tier with no experience" and developed a short list of rules for such a maneuver.
The other three slots are fine. Hacker and Xiri should be like lower-mid in their pool, but deserving starters. The prototype of a 6th-7th ranked starter, if you would. DubiousBulb is a rookie who clearly has the upside for them to start over Akaru Kokuyo. That's not crazy, I guess. I'm not sure. I just see a team with a lot of downside, some sizable holes, and for which you have to really squint to see stars.
Most arrogant draft: Dynamos
Here me out. This team has a pair of star SPL managers in blank and Raiza, and a WCOP-winning manager in bbeeaa whose exposure to the SV field has been limited by bans (and the 2026 Wolfpack, though I thought that team had promise, wasn't exactly overflowing with SV talent). blank has been vocal for years in their view that this is more of a farm league than a genuinely elite tour, and they've run two drafts in a row in SPL where they hunted the bargain basement in SV and heavily drew from US Midwest. If you asked me how such a team would draft for their first SCL, I would guess "cheap OU options, stock the lower tiers with elite tour players willing to try any tier, and draw heavily from their national teams"
Sure enough, their OU starters cost an average of 8k, and two of them were on bbeeaa's WCOP team while the other was on Raiza's. Their two stars included one self-sufficient mainer coming off a Slam finals run (TheFranklin), and a tour player who was just on blank's SPL team, whose profile looks basically the same in whichever tier they end up starting in (Garay oak). After that, their two biggest buys were bbeeaa's WCOP teammate AgencyIsOwn, and ORAS OU star Ruffles, who first started playing SV lower tiers about six months ago. Their lineup is rounded out by EternalSnowman (star retain drafted by previous managers), Metallica126 (who has yet to play PU in an official teamtour, but rather RU and various Masters tiers), and Mareep (who I believe was an RU main prior to getting slotted into Ubers to salvage a struggle Dynamos slot last year). That leaves wail, whose best SCL results are arguably from back in SwSh!
I'm not saying this to mock. Though I personally don't love this roster and I wouldn't go with this strategy, I can also see it working, because after all, these managers very obviously played to their strengths and points of familiarity. They've had tremendous success in what they do. I just wanted to write this because the roster they built fits what you'd expect an SCL team run by these three managers to a tee.
Team with the clearest type: Terrors
Admittedly, this is the third of the three teams I'm most skeptical of, but shiloh and Gingy deserve the benefit of the doubt. The Terrors are a juggernaut every year. This is absolutely not a case of me looking at a team and wondering "what on earth were they thinking", because it's incredibly obvious what they were thinking. They made a list of the most impressive single tournament runs in Slam tiers this year, and then drafted all of them.
- best OU individual performance? Surely whoever the OST winner was, right? Yeah, they drafted SirPeanutCronch
- Slam winner seems like an obvious addition to this category, right? Yup, zugubu royale is here
- let's look through the subforum circuits, who had the most dominant tournament run this year? let's add baconeatinassassin coming off their 11-0 UPL
- yeah, OSDT is cool and all, but we have a retain who went 9-0 last year! That's more impressive than anything else, let's just go with that
- were there obvious PU standouts? I mean, probably, but are any of them obviously starter caliber? let's stick with Drud!
They didn't ALL go this way, of course. I think DAHLI and LB are totally sensible OU buys for reasonable value; if SirPeanutCronch is like 2025 Fusien then they'll be happy with this group. I think ChrisPBacon is a really logical target to try to mould into a lowtier starter, I think SammyCe123 is a great buy, and overall I think this team has a deep and talented bench. This is just kind of exactly the opposite of my teambuilding instincts, which is to shy away from players entering the draft at the obvious high point of their value. I just am not sure I would have spent what they spent on their biggest buys. But more than anyone, shiloh and Gingy know what they're doing; odds are diamonds_realm and LB go for 7 wins this year
The most Tyrants draft of all time: Shoguns
Fascinating case of a team that had their most successful season in part by deviating from their formula now returning to it in full confidence. Last year had familiar faces, of course, but the 2025 Shoguns were also hugely successful thanks to a gamble on a rising RU star in hjkhj and the addition of the supremely talented mind gaming and Fogbound Lake, none of them historically associated with this franchise or the Tyrants. They even used their biggest buy on Classiest star S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, who knocked out the Tyrants in tiebreak! (don't ask what happened with that pick afterwards)
So how does this draft look? After retaining their young stars in hjkhj and Eniigma, this team immediately spends 61k on Vert and lax, i.e. ima's co-managers on 2025 US West and the 2025 Shoguns, and then adds longtime Tyrants builder/recently unbanned CTC. Now, this team is basically out of money, and sit out most of the auction. This team barely felt like it was playing the same game as everyone else. They knew exactly which stars they were going to get, would pay whatever it took to get them, and then would join back in when no one had money left to upbid each other. Here's who they finished their lineup with:
- Axzel, OU starter with the Tyrants, now to start OU with the Shoguns
- Silent Waltz, which was literally the most obvious team-player match in the draft. Silent Waltz beat both Vert and ima at OST, there was 0 chance this was going any other way
- Sheik; probably couldn't have guessed the specific player, but assuming that this team was planning to have Vert and Giannis build in Ubers for some oldgens main is very much in character
- SCL III Shoguns starter watashi
- Now they have two slots with which to fill out their lineup! They proceed to draft an elite Draft League main (KCric) and an elite Monotype main (Trichotomy). This is very much what the Shoguns did last year with Frito and SoggyDoggySage. Picks with lax's fingerprints all over them
- bench fills out with US Northeast staple Sabella (this team has Star/lax/Giannis from that team), DOU support in breakfast enjoyer, and Heatranator! That one's cool. Could have imagined aerobee here too
Honestly feels like this team didn't even have backup plans. There is most certainly a clear identity to this team, even if that identity kinda feels like the Corleone family
Most likely ego post to come next: reviewing my team/price predictions
uh I don't know I have a few in the works and I have to finish a few articles. idk guys
Best album I've listened to recently: WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA
I really did not think she had it in her. The things she does with her voice on this album are insane. We are not talking enough about the A$AP Rocky influence on Beat Up Chanels. Crank goes so crazy you guys. I have multiple pieces of writing that are just like meditations on what post-hyperpop can even look like, and this is a pretty good suggestion. I kinda loved LAUGHINGFISH, I am a Black Dresses fan and I should do more listening. Music, Fashion, Film is a pretty good album that is really impeded on first listen by the opening track being dogshit. My hot take is that I enjoy Raditude more than the Blue Album. Lost Weekend is pretty good too!
Toronto cafes I've been enjoying lately: uh I have a few
I've needed outdoor work space lately. Pedaal is really quite good, probably on the shortlist of best non-Library coffee in the city. I Deal Coffee is prob my favourite outdoor space (love the Boxcar Rosedale location but its patio doesn't have wifi), but the coffee itself is whatever
Okay that's all for me now, stay tuned til next time for more SCL content. Prob captain interviews tbh
Funniest auction outcome: clean costing more than last year
I'll be totally real, it's not even that I think 32k for clean is the most egregious overpay in the auction. I challenge anyone who thinks it is to look at the state of the OU pool. Between players who didn't sign up (oldspicemike, myjava, 3d, ABR, Storm Zone), players that got retained (Attribute, Ewin, kDCA, zS), players that locked out of OU (Nat, lax, xavgb), and players who decided to manage instead (hellom, bbeeaa, Star), you don't exactly have a ton of options if you think you need an OU carry. Your choices are, like, Vert, and after that you're probably choosing either like Fusien or Separation, and guess what, they basically have the same officials tour record in SV OU, and they cost around 30k anyway. Totally fine if you think they're all overpays, sure.
However, none of Vert, Fusien, and Separation made forum posts begging not to cost as much as last year. Even if there is context that makes it justifiable, it's objectively very funny that the Machines spent 31.5k on clean last year, both team and player did terribly, Smogtours Discord spends the past month making fun of Expulso for spending 31.5k on clean and making fun of clean for announcing "hello everyone I am not going to carry your team please do not spend 30k on me", only for the Platoon to then spend 32.5k anyway.
(honourable mention to the Islanders for getting cancered on before the auction even ended)
Best value buy: Kebab mlml
Here's a list of players in this draft who were available to be drafted for OU, sorted by SV OU sheet wins:
DAHLI: 29-24 (10k)
Kebab mlml: 24-15 (6k)
Niko: 23-25 (5.5k)
Fusien: 21-19 (33k)
clean: 20-19 (32.5k)
Ash KetchumGamer: 20-18 (undrafted)
Hiko: 19-17 (undrafted)
Mako: 18-16 (10.5k)
Separation: 17-14 (29.5k)
zioziotrip: 16-12 (13.5k)
If you want a player with a track record in SV OU teamtours that's better than "basically even", your options are Kebab mlml, and then you have to scroll down to Garay oak and vk, who have around half as many games in the tier and who cost 24.5k and 19k respectively, and Garay isn't even playing OU anyway. Indiv tours matter, of course, this isn't me saying that Kebab should have cost more than Fusien or clean, but like, a bunch of teams paid more than 6k to start mystery boxes that they're hoping can level up to around an even-ish winrate. Good work, Dynamos.
Most recent joindate to get drafted: Regiboob!
Shoutout Regiboob, who joined this site a year and a half ago and who is now the newest player on the site! Also shoutout Regiboob for point out this neat trivia to me. Leroipolux is the only other draftee with a 2025 joindate, for the record.
Funniest underdiscussed auction narrative: Shoguns support team
If someone told a 2023 OU forum noob that in 2026, OU forum noob Heatranator would get drafted to the Shoguns to team up with banned-then-unbanned-then-banned-then-unbanned-again OU forum menace CTC, they would not believe you. They would also not believe you when you explained a lot of things, to be fair, but this one's extra funny. Anyway, shoutout Heatranator, if I was managing they would have been my top target as all-purpose lowtier support.
Biggest case of mainer lunacy syndrome: Ubers
In SPL and SCL, there is always a case of the mainers ordering the PRs making at least one unhinged placement that can be attributed weighting some of their subforum tours EXTREMELY highly and generally being skeptical of accomplished tour players with limited experience in their tiers. The most glaring instance in SPL XVII was elodin, who was ranked at the bottom in a decision I found extra baffling when M Dragon, who had also not played the tier in forever, was ranked at the top, and Fakes, who had basically the same profile in GSC as elodin, was ranked middle of the pack. I saw them all as basically the same in that tier, at the very least much more similar in profile than the PRs had them, and sure enough, elodin popped off. As much as I think it's a mistake to have Punny, who hasn't looked good in UU in two years, ranked above zS, I don't think that's in the spirit of this category. I also think it's a pretty glaring mistake to have Mako all the way down at 8th in PU (in large part because OBB would also likely be 8th and a well-supported Mako is a substantial upgrade there), and Nails feels weirdly low in DOU, but I have one very obvious one on my mind.
Look. I get that baconeatinassassin just went 11-0 in UPL. I get that that included a bunch of tiebreak wins. I get that not every Ubers star was actually available in the auction. But consider:
- 11-0 is a big shiny number. It's a number, however, that only includes 4 wins over SCL starter-caliber opponents: one over entrocefalo, and three over RichardMillePlain, who, mind you, isn't playing in this tournament). For comparison, milliongatejumpguy's 5-2 NUPL run included 3 wins over opponents of that caliber (zS, Shadow079, S1nn0hC0nfirm3d), same with big tony 2014's 5-3 run at the same tournament (Shadow079, DugZa, tier). Fundamentally, these tournaments aren't fully stocked with SCL-caliber competition, so you can't run up 7 such wins the way, like, Underlying could at GSCPL, but that's why you don't fully rely on performance here as an indicator! Like, obviously 11-0 is a record much more conducive to winning that tournament than 5-3, but that's not the point of scouting. If you argue that you are purely informed by the eyetest and not the big shiny 11-win number, I do not believe you
- We are not just talking about moving them ahead of a crowded middle of the pool (Icemaster, entrocefalo, Taka, Skyiew). That is reasonable. After all, it's both UPL and ULT (which they won). Obviously they are an elite Ubers player. But ranking them over Fc is, to me, ridiculous. And that will continue to be true even if baconeatinassassin performs better than Fc this year in SCL. Nobody would have argued this if Fc had actually hit auction, because then Fc would have cost more and it would look silly
- Fc is 31-13 in Ubers in official teamtours. Let that sink in for a moment. That's a 70% winrate. Santu in ORAS is at 69%. Empo in SM is at 71%. Heroic Troller in RBY is at 72%. baconeatinassassin is at 3-3; they weren't an Ubers starter last year!
- Maybe you don't care about that. Sure. Fc was finalist at the ULT baconeatinassassin won. He was also finalist at Ubers WS this year, and was finalist at ULT LAST year too. If you only care about Ubers subforum tours, Fc has better results there. Oh yeah, and he also has three Slam playoff appearances, including a semis.
- Oh yeah, and here's the part that I find craziest. baconeatinassassin's 11-0 run wasn't even in SV OU!!! it was in multigen!! I didn't even include that in my data, because I'm generally skeptical of how relevant cross-gen success is for SV specifically, but like, if we're going to accept that, then Fc literally went 8-1 at the same tournament!
- Is this a crazy overreaction for a single PR placement, a difference of a single spot (which, mind you, is the difference between 6 people putting baconeatinassassin 1st and 4 people doing the same for Fc, since they were both top 2 in every ballot)? I mean, yeah, absolutely. However, I think it is fun to expend a lot of words on meaningless topics, and frankly, I think it's ludicrous that this is even close, when we are talking about ranking someone who is functionally a rookie in this tier in SCL to the literal winningest player in the history of the Ubers tier. (bacon you're sick tho dw)
My preseason favourite: Foxes
Never thought I would ever say these words. I can only assume that Finch has unlocked a new level of sagacity post-retirement. I think they have the most balanced OU core 1-3, and I rate almost every one of their non-OU starters in the top half of their pools. Let's get more specific:
- I love the OU strategy. They got four players that I would put in the top half of the OU pool, and they did it for 49.5k, which is a lot, but basically in line with the Shoguns, Machines, Platoon, and Gible, i.e. the teams that drafted an OU star. The Foxes' strat builds in redundancy to insulate them from risk; if one starter flops they have another excellent OU starter at the ready! And until they need Mako, they can instead run the "oldgens star picks up a lowtier with support from a strong mainer". OranBerryBlissey10 makes a lot of sense for that role, and Mako at this point has succeeded in enough different tiers, including in SV, that I really like this play. And if Mako flops, OBB is a completely serviceable backup plan, and you can flex Mako somewhere else
- DugZa's expensive, but I really like the buy. Someone who can support a whole bunch of different tiers, flex into whatever you need come tiebreak time, and give you a dependable slot with some flexibility depending on how your draft goes. Just a really versatile chess piece (among the big buys, I think xavgb is the best, and I'd probably prefer zS too if they hit auction. I'd probably have DugZa somewhere in a group with Attribute/Vert/JustFranco/etern/Fc as the next-most valuable pieces in this tournament, and 3 of those were retains)
- Skyiew is a totally solid middle-of-the-pack Ubers starter that was also excellent in LCPL. I have no clue why they were 4k, especially given the prices for the other middle-of-the-pack Ubers options
- Laroxyl and Danny are both consistently good. I definitely like the idea of buying pdt stocks right now; yeah, last year was a disaster, but they were also priced at 33k last year! Now you get a lifetime 60% UU main with more volume in their tier than anyone in the tournament besides a handful of OU mains and Nails
- Like, we're talking about a team where the "weakest" slot went 5-4 and 7-1 in their most recent SCL performances. I don't think qsns has been super active in DOU lately and I also have no idea about the support situation, but this is extremely manageable for your "worst" slot. If it doesn't go well, what are the odds we see Mako here at some point? I don't really like the bench on this team, that's the one thing I don't love, but like, I think this is a fantastic team
My least favourite draft: Platoon
This isn't the only draft I dislike, but it's probably the one where I have the hardest time seeing the vision. And I don't think just swapping clean with whoever you think is the most valuable OU player for the same price would fix the issues. The Foxes are such an outlier because most teams are relying on someone who's typically a borderline starter as their #2 option and someone who should probably be on the bench as their #3. I get it. In that context, I don't think yerdunc and ojr as your other OU starters is THAT crazy (and I'd definitely like it more if they lined up yerdunc and Lacks). What IS crazy is the price they paid for yerdunc. They're the 8th-most expensive OU starter!! The list goes Fusien, clean, Vert, Separation, Attribute, vk, Ewin, and then yerdunc. Costing more than Silent Waltz and SirPeanutCronch is a little confusing to me, but to be honest a lot of the OU rookies were expensive for my tastes. Like, DAHLI and Mako have a much longer and more successful track record in the 10k range, and you have a range of players available for basically the minimum: sire clod, Patatexv, JojoOui, Let's Rumble Shall We, Dugtrio Is Broken, and the aforementioned undrafted Ash KetchumGamer and Hiko. I might not be sold altogether on tempo di anguria and Lacks, but 3k-ish is totally fine for that gamble. I THINK teams are making the assessment that in a weak pool like this you need to gamble on the chance to get a 7-2 slot to really push your team into contention, and that the WCOP stars have higher upside. I don't think it's a crazy line of reasoning, but I just can't get behind it.
Your second star is Icemaster. I think Icemaster is good! As much as I would rather have Skyiew at 4k than Icemaster at 24k, I also recognize that Ubers was generally expensive and I think it's totally reasonable to view Icemaster as #2 in the pool. I also think Esteb4n retain was totally sensible, although I have a tougher time seeing them as a carry slot. NU is really solid and you could talk me into placing any of like 7 players as the best.
Clearly this team made a bet that they have excellent lowtier support, with Django behind the helm, and Mossy Sandwich/Esteb4n/Xiri/Hacker all being versatile pieces, enough to get good results out of oldgen players who don't really play SV or lowtiers. They chose NoName and GaryTheGengar to carry out this plan. Sure. Last month, when preparing a manager bid, I went through every instance of "oldgen player starts in SCL lower tier with no experience" and developed a short list of rules for such a maneuver.
- Support is mandatory (at least unless you are trying to do this with McMeghan). Platoon are fine in this regard
- The player should be versatile in their home tiers. If they regularly learn multiple different oldgens, I have more faith that they can do this
- The player should be strong in their main tier. If a player's winrate in their strong tiers is more 50% than dominant, not much upside here
- The player should be cheap. This is a strategy that can work by squeezing serviceable production out of a cheap slot. This strat usually does badly in the 10k-20k range. Makes sense to me; the mainers you could get in that range are good! The 20k+ players in this category also do well. I would summarize the rule as, superstars can make it work in any tier. If they're not a superstar, then look for bargains
The other three slots are fine. Hacker and Xiri should be like lower-mid in their pool, but deserving starters. The prototype of a 6th-7th ranked starter, if you would. DubiousBulb is a rookie who clearly has the upside for them to start over Akaru Kokuyo. That's not crazy, I guess. I'm not sure. I just see a team with a lot of downside, some sizable holes, and for which you have to really squint to see stars.
Most arrogant draft: Dynamos
Here me out. This team has a pair of star SPL managers in blank and Raiza, and a WCOP-winning manager in bbeeaa whose exposure to the SV field has been limited by bans (and the 2026 Wolfpack, though I thought that team had promise, wasn't exactly overflowing with SV talent). blank has been vocal for years in their view that this is more of a farm league than a genuinely elite tour, and they've run two drafts in a row in SPL where they hunted the bargain basement in SV and heavily drew from US Midwest. If you asked me how such a team would draft for their first SCL, I would guess "cheap OU options, stock the lower tiers with elite tour players willing to try any tier, and draw heavily from their national teams"
Sure enough, their OU starters cost an average of 8k, and two of them were on bbeeaa's WCOP team while the other was on Raiza's. Their two stars included one self-sufficient mainer coming off a Slam finals run (TheFranklin), and a tour player who was just on blank's SPL team, whose profile looks basically the same in whichever tier they end up starting in (Garay oak). After that, their two biggest buys were bbeeaa's WCOP teammate AgencyIsOwn, and ORAS OU star Ruffles, who first started playing SV lower tiers about six months ago. Their lineup is rounded out by EternalSnowman (star retain drafted by previous managers), Metallica126 (who has yet to play PU in an official teamtour, but rather RU and various Masters tiers), and Mareep (who I believe was an RU main prior to getting slotted into Ubers to salvage a struggle Dynamos slot last year). That leaves wail, whose best SCL results are arguably from back in SwSh!
I'm not saying this to mock. Though I personally don't love this roster and I wouldn't go with this strategy, I can also see it working, because after all, these managers very obviously played to their strengths and points of familiarity. They've had tremendous success in what they do. I just wanted to write this because the roster they built fits what you'd expect an SCL team run by these three managers to a tee.
Team with the clearest type: Terrors
Admittedly, this is the third of the three teams I'm most skeptical of, but shiloh and Gingy deserve the benefit of the doubt. The Terrors are a juggernaut every year. This is absolutely not a case of me looking at a team and wondering "what on earth were they thinking", because it's incredibly obvious what they were thinking. They made a list of the most impressive single tournament runs in Slam tiers this year, and then drafted all of them.
- best OU individual performance? Surely whoever the OST winner was, right? Yeah, they drafted SirPeanutCronch
- Slam winner seems like an obvious addition to this category, right? Yup, zugubu royale is here
- let's look through the subforum circuits, who had the most dominant tournament run this year? let's add baconeatinassassin coming off their 11-0 UPL
- yeah, OSDT is cool and all, but we have a retain who went 9-0 last year! That's more impressive than anything else, let's just go with that
- were there obvious PU standouts? I mean, probably, but are any of them obviously starter caliber? let's stick with Drud!
They didn't ALL go this way, of course. I think DAHLI and LB are totally sensible OU buys for reasonable value; if SirPeanutCronch is like 2025 Fusien then they'll be happy with this group. I think ChrisPBacon is a really logical target to try to mould into a lowtier starter, I think SammyCe123 is a great buy, and overall I think this team has a deep and talented bench. This is just kind of exactly the opposite of my teambuilding instincts, which is to shy away from players entering the draft at the obvious high point of their value. I just am not sure I would have spent what they spent on their biggest buys. But more than anyone, shiloh and Gingy know what they're doing; odds are diamonds_realm and LB go for 7 wins this year
The most Tyrants draft of all time: Shoguns
Fascinating case of a team that had their most successful season in part by deviating from their formula now returning to it in full confidence. Last year had familiar faces, of course, but the 2025 Shoguns were also hugely successful thanks to a gamble on a rising RU star in hjkhj and the addition of the supremely talented mind gaming and Fogbound Lake, none of them historically associated with this franchise or the Tyrants. They even used their biggest buy on Classiest star S1nn0hC0nfirm3d, who knocked out the Tyrants in tiebreak! (don't ask what happened with that pick afterwards)
So how does this draft look? After retaining their young stars in hjkhj and Eniigma, this team immediately spends 61k on Vert and lax, i.e. ima's co-managers on 2025 US West and the 2025 Shoguns, and then adds longtime Tyrants builder/recently unbanned CTC. Now, this team is basically out of money, and sit out most of the auction. This team barely felt like it was playing the same game as everyone else. They knew exactly which stars they were going to get, would pay whatever it took to get them, and then would join back in when no one had money left to upbid each other. Here's who they finished their lineup with:
- Axzel, OU starter with the Tyrants, now to start OU with the Shoguns
- Silent Waltz, which was literally the most obvious team-player match in the draft. Silent Waltz beat both Vert and ima at OST, there was 0 chance this was going any other way
- Sheik; probably couldn't have guessed the specific player, but assuming that this team was planning to have Vert and Giannis build in Ubers for some oldgens main is very much in character
- SCL III Shoguns starter watashi
- Now they have two slots with which to fill out their lineup! They proceed to draft an elite Draft League main (KCric) and an elite Monotype main (Trichotomy). This is very much what the Shoguns did last year with Frito and SoggyDoggySage. Picks with lax's fingerprints all over them
- bench fills out with US Northeast staple Sabella (this team has Star/lax/Giannis from that team), DOU support in breakfast enjoyer, and Heatranator! That one's cool. Could have imagined aerobee here too
Honestly feels like this team didn't even have backup plans. There is most certainly a clear identity to this team, even if that identity kinda feels like the Corleone family
Most likely ego post to come next: reviewing my team/price predictions
uh I don't know I have a few in the works and I have to finish a few articles. idk guys
Best album I've listened to recently: WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA
I really did not think she had it in her. The things she does with her voice on this album are insane. We are not talking enough about the A$AP Rocky influence on Beat Up Chanels. Crank goes so crazy you guys. I have multiple pieces of writing that are just like meditations on what post-hyperpop can even look like, and this is a pretty good suggestion. I kinda loved LAUGHINGFISH, I am a Black Dresses fan and I should do more listening. Music, Fashion, Film is a pretty good album that is really impeded on first listen by the opening track being dogshit. My hot take is that I enjoy Raditude more than the Blue Album. Lost Weekend is pretty good too!
Toronto cafes I've been enjoying lately: uh I have a few
I've needed outdoor work space lately. Pedaal is really quite good, probably on the shortlist of best non-Library coffee in the city. I Deal Coffee is prob my favourite outdoor space (love the Boxcar Rosedale location but its patio doesn't have wifi), but the coffee itself is whatever
Okay that's all for me now, stay tuned til next time for more SCL content. Prob captain interviews tbh
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Good morning everyone, SCL avatars were finalized just a few minutes ago and I'd like to use this post to give Mrbanana45 a very warm welcome to the Team Tournament Spriters team; the work he put in for this season was truly insane and he's made some of my personal favourite custom avatars of all time for this edition of SCL.
As always, huge thanks to HSBT and Mrbanana45 who worked their asses off this season, picking up WIPs left and right to get everything done in time and improving everything they could touch up on. Big thanks to the rest of the team as well, a lot of us were really busy this month so not everyone could work on something, but we managed and I'm really proud of our artists for that.
Circuit Breakers
Got to work on the Breakers avatars a bit last minute as I've been insanely busy for reasons I'll go into details at the end of this post.
The Mafia Melmetal sprite used the Smogon Sprite Project Melmetal sprite, while the other one is an edit of a custom one we made years ago.
Mt. Silver Foxes
This is one of a few pair of avatars I couldn't finish by myself, huge thanks to HSBT for offering help with edits and taking care of touch ups when I wasn't able to.
I made this custom Ninetales sprite that's based on this Pokemon Card from Silver Tempest, made by Shiburingaru
Both trainer sprites were originally made by kyledove, who we can once again thank for letting us use his incredible sprites
Orange Islanders
I worked on the Male Orange Islanders avatar this year, which has a rly fun concept that was equally fun to work on.
Once again, HSBT picked up the female one where I left it and made something truly incredible with it;
Indigo Platoon
I made this avatar for the Platoon, using kyledove's Falinks sprite as base material for it, and getting inspo from Turtleye's work on WCoP avatars.
The female one is a reuse of the iconic SCL 1 Platoon Avatar by Brumirage
Showdown Shoguns
I put together these two avatars that HSBT (once again) finished when I couldn't.
This Gambit sprite was originally made by Turtleye and reused from last year, while both trainer sprites were made by kyledove and edited by yours truly & HSBT.
---
We're opening the artist common fund for teamtour avatars once again for this season of SCL!
If you'd like to donate, please PM me on discord @ claquettesgucci, with your Smogon username and how much you'd like to send so I can confirm with staff in charge. There is by no means a minimum amount, any donation is welcome and we really appreciate the general sentiment.
We take donations via PayPal, and can accept international payments through Wise.com as well.
For transparency, this fund is going to be equally distributed between artists who contributed to the ongoing edition's batch.
This fund will be open for a week (maybe two lol), and if you'd like to be credited with the donation, let me know and I'll update this post.
Once agian, shoutouts to people who made this possible & everyone willing to contribute!
As always, huge thanks to HSBT and Mrbanana45 who worked their asses off this season, picking up WIPs left and right to get everything done in time and improving everything they could touch up on. Big thanks to the rest of the team as well, a lot of us were really busy this month so not everyone could work on something, but we managed and I'm really proud of our artists for that.
Circuit Breakers
Got to work on the Breakers avatars a bit last minute as I've been insanely busy for reasons I'll go into details at the end of this post.
The Mafia Melmetal sprite used the Smogon Sprite Project Melmetal sprite, while the other one is an edit of a custom one we made years ago.
Mt. Silver Foxes
This is one of a few pair of avatars I couldn't finish by myself, huge thanks to HSBT for offering help with edits and taking care of touch ups when I wasn't able to.
I made this custom Ninetales sprite that's based on this Pokemon Card from Silver Tempest, made by Shiburingaru
Both trainer sprites were originally made by kyledove, who we can once again thank for letting us use his incredible sprites
Orange Islanders
I worked on the Male Orange Islanders avatar this year, which has a rly fun concept that was equally fun to work on.
Once again, HSBT picked up the female one where I left it and made something truly incredible with it;
Indigo Platoon
I made this avatar for the Platoon, using kyledove's Falinks sprite as base material for it, and getting inspo from Turtleye's work on WCoP avatars.
The female one is a reuse of the iconic SCL 1 Platoon Avatar by Brumirage
Showdown Shoguns
I put together these two avatars that HSBT (once again) finished when I couldn't.
This Gambit sprite was originally made by Turtleye and reused from last year, while both trainer sprites were made by kyledove and edited by yours truly & HSBT.
---
We're opening the artist common fund for teamtour avatars once again for this season of SCL!
If you'd like to donate, please PM me on discord @ claquettesgucci, with your Smogon username and how much you'd like to send so I can confirm with staff in charge. There is by no means a minimum amount, any donation is welcome and we really appreciate the general sentiment.
We take donations via PayPal, and can accept international payments through Wise.com as well.
For transparency, this fund is going to be equally distributed between artists who contributed to the ongoing edition's batch.
This fund will be open for a week (maybe two lol), and if you'd like to be credited with the donation, let me know and I'll update this post.
Once agian, shoutouts to people who made this possible & everyone willing to contribute!
I've been completely inactive for a few days and had to ask other artists to take care of stuff I had been working on as I've lost a close relative a few days ago to this horrible fucking disease named ALS.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Charcot's Disease is subtype of muscular dystrophy. It's a fatal disease, and people diagnosed with it progressively lose the ability to walk, move, speak, hug or kiss, and even eat.
For transparency, the share of the funding pool I will recieve will be donated to Fondation Charcot, which is the main organism funding research and improving the life of people with this disease in France.
If you would like to make a donation to a more international organism, you can donate to ALS association.
Take care of your loved ones.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Charcot's Disease is subtype of muscular dystrophy. It's a fatal disease, and people diagnosed with it progressively lose the ability to walk, move, speak, hug or kiss, and even eat.
For transparency, the share of the funding pool I will recieve will be donated to Fondation Charcot, which is the main organism funding research and improving the life of people with this disease in France.
If you would like to make a donation to a more international organism, you can donate to ALS association.
Take care of your loved ones.
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Arena Spartans
M - (Drayden), custom design by MrBanana45
F - (Skyla), recolor and edits by MrBanana45
M Aegislash by deetah and Brumirage, edits by MrBanana45
F Aegislash by deetah and Brumirage, edits by MrBanana45
Studio Gible
M - (Acetrainer-Gen7) by Kyledove, recolor and edits by MrBanana45
F - (Cynthia-Masters3) by Kyledove, recolor and edits by MrBanana45
Gible by MrBanana45
Draco Meteors by MrBanana45
Uncharted Terrors
M - (Drake-gen3), recolor by MrBanana45
F - (Crusher-gen3), recolor by MrBananar45
Gyarados and effects by MrBanana45
Thanks to the spriter team for inviting me this year & to the managers for trusting + giving me the creative liberty to come up for the designs. Happy with the results, looking forward to work again on oficial team tour prizes.
M - (Drayden), custom design by MrBanana45
F - (Skyla), recolor and edits by MrBanana45
M Aegislash by deetah and Brumirage, edits by MrBanana45
F Aegislash by deetah and Brumirage, edits by MrBanana45
Studio Gible
M - (Acetrainer-Gen7) by Kyledove, recolor and edits by MrBanana45
F - (Cynthia-Masters3) by Kyledove, recolor and edits by MrBanana45
Gible by MrBanana45
Draco Meteors by MrBanana45
Uncharted Terrors
M - (Drake-gen3), recolor by MrBanana45
F - (Crusher-gen3), recolor by MrBananar45
Gyarados and effects by MrBanana45
Thanks to the spriter team for inviting me this year & to the managers for trusting + giving me the creative liberty to come up for the designs. Happy with the results, looking forward to work again on oficial team tour prizes.
Hi there, I had a small participation here but I was very happy for the great work that Clem and Mrbanana45 have done and the contribution I was able to make. Here is my part and some comments.
Power Plant Dynamos
Although the sprite that Dynamos usually use (S/O conyjams) looks incredibly good, this year I wanted to break the monotony a little with a more challenging proposal and from an interesting perspective. Very happy with the result.
Technical Machines
(Jacinthe by Brumirage, Birch by kyledove)
Pretty cool ideas for Machines this year, Birch one was funny to edit.
Showdown Shoguns
(Kingambit by Turtleye_, streethug edits by Clem)
I just did the Kingambit's sword, pretty cool in my opinion.
Orange Islandes
(Lacey-Masters by kyledove, edits by Clem)
Small recolors on the trainer, edits on the umbrella and the detail of the Park Ball.
Mt. Silver Foxes
(Tulip by kyledove, recolor and edits by Clem, Morty-Masters3 by kyledove, recolor by Clem, Ninetales by Clem)
Only snowflakes effect.
Hope respective teams liked this works, good luck everyone and see you next time! (Go Dynamos!)
Power Plant Dynamos
Although the sprite that Dynamos usually use (S/O conyjams) looks incredibly good, this year I wanted to break the monotony a little with a more challenging proposal and from an interesting perspective. Very happy with the result.
Technical Machines
(Jacinthe by Brumirage, Birch by kyledove)
Pretty cool ideas for Machines this year, Birch one was funny to edit.
Showdown Shoguns
(Kingambit by Turtleye_, streethug edits by Clem)
I just did the Kingambit's sword, pretty cool in my opinion.
Orange Islandes
(Lacey-Masters by kyledove, edits by Clem)
Small recolors on the trainer, edits on the umbrella and the detail of the Park Ball.
Mt. Silver Foxes
(Tulip by kyledove, recolor and edits by Clem, Morty-Masters3 by kyledove, recolor by Clem, Ninetales by Clem)
Only snowflakes effect.
Hope respective teams liked this works, good luck everyone and see you next time! (Go Dynamos!)
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The creativity you guys have for avatar ideas is unmatched and your visual work is also incredible. Congrats!
DW we can have both...ngl I did not even realize this auction was last weekend LOL I thought this tour was slightly later. ANYWAY, I am pretty much solely doing this PR because last season was rly good, so I'm curious if that was just luck or if this tournament actually makes sense. Last year, I got 3/4 playoff teams right and the only team I missed was ranked 5th. Let's see if the power of the sheet can guide me to another successful PR campaign. WELCOME TO ANOTHER EDITION OF THE UNBIASED POWER RANKINGS
The Arena Spartans
SV OU: Attribute 9
SV OU: Niko 4.5
SV OU: Patatexv 4
SV Ubers: Fc 9
SV DOU: Nails 8
SV UU: etern 5.5
SV RU: spitfire 4.5
SV NU: Shadow079 3.5
SV PU: Michaelderbeste2 7.5
SV LC: JuanSG 4
Managers: tko, vivalospride, ninjadog
Total: 59.5
Last year, at the end of my PRs, I wrote this: "how the living fuck did the spartans get 4th LMAO god HOW that team looks so sketchy man oh my god it's fucking doomed the islanders are going to screw me." Well, as it turns out, the Spartans rewarded my faith in them. I remember they had a decent amount of doubters, but let the record show, I always believed in them...Surely this team is good again this year.
This first star player here is Fc. He has performed very well on the sheet thus far, amassing a very solid +21 differential. He went 11-0 in this tier last year, and is 17-2 in Ubers since the start of 2025. He even managed to go 5-5 in SPL in what I thought was the hardest pool in the entire tournament. I have full faith here. The team also retained Attribute for 22k. This is what I wrote about him in SPL: "Attribute was on his way to becoming a sheet god, attaining a prestigious 8/10 confidence score from me in SCL. However, he had the first -2 tournament of his career. He will look to get back on track here, hoping to not disappoint the team that chose to retain him. My confidence in him is still solidly high, but it is a bit lower than last time. Still, he should definitely be expected to go positive here". Well, he managed to have the best tournament of his career, going 8-2 and then following it up with a 3-1 World Cup. I guess we're just going to call him a sheet god at this point. This team is off to an insane start holy these are broken retains.
Bro what?? They have Nails and Michael also?? Is this just the greatest team of all time? What is happening?? I should have done this team last bro. Ok well, Nails really needs no introduction. I guess I will just post what I wrote last year because it makes me look good..."The star player here is Nails, who was ranked as the #1 Doubles player. He uncharacteristically had a mediocre performance last year, but he generally performs pretty well. He is 37-19 in this tournament overall and I still have a good amount of faith in him. I don't actually understand how he was only 17k tbh He has been a bit worse recently but I will project him for 6 wins." Shockingly, he got exactly 6 wins lol And he was somehow 17.5k again? We have lost the plot man. I mean, the man is 43-22 in SCL. He got a 7.5 confidence score from me last time so I'll slightly increase it this time around. Michael, meanwhile, somehow has 4 individual trophies wtf I have really been out of the loop what LOL Anyway, we know Michael is maybe the most talented Pokemon player given his dominance on both this site and in VGC; it's pretty unparalleled at this point. During last SCL, I dinged him a bit in my ratings because he generally performed much better in SS OU than in lower tiers, but he managed to go 6-2 in PU last season. He is 31-16 in this tournament overall so he clearly has just figured something out here. I will bump him up a bit this time.
The OU core is rounded out by Niko and Patatexv. I see that Niko's stock is back to being in the gutter; his value seems to ping pong a lot. Well, he has been pretty bad lately. He is 7-18 since the start of 2025....that is definitely not good. He has obviously had some solid results in the past, but it's hard to project him to go positive with those results. I do think he is better than 7-18, though...he should find his form eventually. He is also good in SV OU as pointed out above. For now, I'll go with 4ish wins. I rated the Patatex guy a 4.5 in SPL and he proceeded to go 3-6, following it up with a 2-1 World Cup. He also seems like a safe enough bet to do okay.
The team also retained etern, who exceeded all expectations and went 10-1 last season. He also went 3-0 in World Cup and had a really good Grand Slam run so maybe he has just ascended a bit as a player. I viewed him as a bit mediocre before, but I will definitely project him to go positive now despite a tough player pool. I would like to see one more really good tour before I fully drink the kool-aid, though, given his lengthy rather average history prior to this run. In RU is Spitfire, who has been pretty average overall on the sheet in his career. He is probably a safe bet for 4.5ish wins. I have never heard of this dude in NU before, but he is apparently #5 on the prospect rating and cost 4k...sure. He is 0-5 on the sheet, so I will dock him a bit. I also have obviously never heard of this LC player before. Apparently, he has played a lot of subforum tours and done slightly above average in them. Sure. His season could go either way; I have no reason to believe in him for now.
Overall, there are some randoms here, but I would be shocked if this wasn't the best team. The core here is just really strong. It should not be possible for this team to miss the playoffs to be honest. We love the Spartans!
The Circuit Breakers
SV OU: SoulWind 4.5
SV OU: Rubyblood 4.5
SV OU: Let's Rumble Shall We 4
SV Ubers: crying 4
SV DOU: ann 4
SV UU: JustFranco 7
SV RU: xavgb 8
SV NU: Nat 6.5
SV PU: MZ 5.5
SV LC: Lokifan 4.5
Managers: togkey, elodin, Mada
Total: 52.5
The Breakers were solid last season, falling short in the semifinals. Let's see if they can find success again this year.
The ace player here is xavgb. Outside of a poor showing in World Cup 2025, stresh is generally an elite player. He had a very good 4-1 performance in the last World Cup and has pretty much always been amazing in SCL in particular, amassing a superb 25-9 record. This year, he finds himself on a different team besides the Terrors, which is certainly interesting. I see he went for 33k, which given his general history of being a menace in this tournament coupled with his elite flexibility, seems like a reasonable price. He does not have many sheet games in the past 2 years, which will be the only thing preventing me from having full faith in him. I will project him to get 6+ wins, though.
The OU core consists of SoulWind, Rubyblood, and Let's Rumble Shall We. SW has generally struggled a good amount in this tournament, amassing a pedestrian 40-46 record in Snake / SCL. He has not finished with higher than a +2 record in any team tour in the past 5 years and he has not gone positive in this tournament in 5 years either, so it would obviously be insane to predict him to do super well here. He's obviously still a really good player; for whatever reason, his skills just do not translate to consistent sheet wins. I will project him for 4 wins here. He is still a scary player to face in a tiebreak setting, so I don't hate the 15.5k price; despite his lackluster performances, it would seem a bit insane for him to be under 10k, so it makes enough sense to me. Rubyblood's stock seems to be a bit low in this tournament given his 4.5k pricetag, but given the absence of GSC, that makes sense. I wrote in the SPL PRs that I thought he was an overpay in that tournament; I gave him a 5.5 confidence rating and he finished with a 4-5 record. He was on a good sheet run before that at least. I think his season could go either way. The last dude was 0-4 on the sheet before SPL, but managed to put up a 4-5 record. Perhaps he could be a viable player after all. I will project him to go negative, but I will bump him up slightly.
elodin really picks crying in every draft I swear LOL wtf Oh, they were a retain. That's interesting. Well, crying went 5-5 last year. I suppose the reason for the retain was their good Slam performance + tier flexibility. Sure. Well, they were getting smoked before last SCL. Their performance last campaign coupled with their past successes is enough for me to slightly bump their rating up, but I'm not a believer yet. I think their season could go either way. In Doubles, we have Ann, who got washed last SCL to the tune of a 2-6 record. That probably is not ideal...coupled with their low price tag, I'm not really sure why I'm supposed to believe in them. We'll project a negative record here. In UU, we have JustFranco, who went for a crazy 31k. This guy's stock is still ridiculously high, I guess. Well, I doubted him slightly last SCL, and he went 6-3 against a tough player pool. He did do badly in SPL, but that probably doesn't really make a difference. He has gotten 6 wins in three straight editions of this tournament, so he clearly just ascends when lower tiers are in the tour. I don't really have a choice but to say he'll go 6-3 here.
In NU, we have Nat, who I assume was this cheap because of the tierlock lol Nat has performed very well on the sheet since the start of 2023, putting up a 29-15 record overall. I will downgrade them slightly because they are not in OU, but this just seems like a classic case of 'mons is mons'. I really like this price for someone that has shown a consistent ability to get sheet wins. Seems like a clear steal to me. I rated MZ at a 5 last year and he managed to go 6-4. He is 11-6 overall in the past two SCLs, so it would seem pretty foolish to expect him to do poorly. I'll project a positive record here, but I would like to see one more good tour before I fully glaze him. Rounding out the roster is Lokifan, who has tumbled a bit down clout everest after his showing last year. Everyone and their mom was glazing this dude; he was the #1 ranked LC player in what looked like a pretty mediocre player pool and finished the year 3-5. Not what you want to see...That being said, he was good two years ago. His season could really go either way here.
Overall, this team seems solid enough. I think there are enough solid pieces to where they could make a run if stresh plays up to his ceiling.
The Indigo Platoon
SV OU: Clean 6
SV OU: yerdunc 5
SV OU: ojr 5
SV Ubers: icemaster 5.5
SV DOU: DubiousBulb 4
SV UU: NoName 4.5
SV RU: GaryTheGengar 4.5
SV NU: esteb4n 5
SV PU: xiri 4.5
SV LC: Hacker 4
Managers: Django, Quinn, Baddy
Total: 48
NGL...my first as I was typing this roster out is wondering how the hell this team spent all their money? How is this roster the same value as the other two LOL What? Who was that expensive here wtf LOOOOOL oh my god clean was 32k? bruh what?? Well...at least he won some sheet games in the past two tours. I will give him that....
There's no shot anyone here deserves to be called a star player so let's just get into it. clean was absurdly overpriced last SCL, which is something anyone with a brain could have figured out. His price fell all the way to 17.5k last SPL; I bumped him down slightly due to his SCL performance, but to his credit, he did manage to go 10-4 in SPL + World Cup combined. There's obviously talent here too given his status in the community and some of his individual results, but naturally, I still wholeheartedly believe that spending 32k for someone that's 23-23 on the sheet is genuine delusion. Embarrassing lack of sheet respect SMH. I hate this draft. Anyway, I will project him to go positive here, but the team will likely need him to do a lot more than that if they want to contend. The other OU players are yerdunc and ojr. I did follow World Cup a decent amount, so I know that yerdunc was phenomenal in that tournament. He could be well on his way to being a sheet warrior. However, that is still only one tour. I'm certainly not going to drink the kool-aid just off of that. 16.5k feels like a bit much. ojr, meanwhile, is pretty much the complete opposite of the other two names, his stock being very low as reflected by his 3k price tag. He is 5-1 on the sheet, so I will show him some respect. I think he could do fine.
In Ubers, we have icemaster, who was an absurd 24k wtf I guess this is how the team spent so much money. I feel like icemaster was projected to be some Ubers god a la pi face...the problem is, that was like eons ago. He certainly never lived up to that billing, but has been turning things around as of late. He is 17-9 since SCL 2024, which is certainly impressive. I projected him to go positive last year and he finished 4-4. Given his good World Cup showing, I'll rate him the same here. In DOU, we have someone I have never heard of. He apparently did well in OSDT, but hype for him does not seem to be very high. I think his season could go either way. In UU, we have NoName, who delivered a bit on his hype with a 4-2 World Cup showing. He went 5-5 in SPL; sure. I rated him as a 4.5 in SPL and he has been respectable enough since then. That being said, there are A LOT of good players in UU, so I can't really bump him up here. His price seems a bit exorbitant to be honest. In RU, we have GarytheGengar?? What? LOL huh?? He has never played in SCL before, which is certainly interesting. He did play Snake in 2019. He has been solid in SPL, but this is obviously a bit of a different ballgame. I think this could be a solid pick for 3k, though, to be honest; he does win on the sheet at least. I think his season could go either way. esteb4n was apparently a retain after going 6-3 last year. Sure. I would obviously like to see more before I believe in him, but probably he's a decent bet to go positive. In PU is Xiri, who is returning to the tournament for the first time in 3 years. That's random. I mean, he's been a pretty serviceable player whenever he's played, so I guess maybe it's fine. His season could go either way as well. Last up is Hacker, who is 9-15 on the sheet and has yet to go positive in a single team tour...yeah, that's probably not good. He did go 3-3 last year so he can get a very slight bump, but I'll still project him go to negative.
Well, things were going a bit too well LOL This team is pretty uninspiring. It just feels like it has a very low amount of safe bets. The floor is just really low here. The managers here really need to open the sheet and ctrl + f some more next time; the lack of bankable wins is criminal. They also have Gondra on the bench, but he has not gone positive in a team tour since 2020!!! so that's probably not someone you want to rely on.
The Mount Silver Foxes
SV OU: vk 5
SV OU: Stareal 5
SV OU: Pkel SweetforU 4.5
SV Ubers: Skyview 4.5
SV DOU: qsns 4.5
SV UU: pdt 5
SV RU: Dugza 7
SV NU: Danny 6
SV PU: Mako 5.5
SV LC: Laroxyl 5.5
Managers: Finchinator, Laurel, purbaj
Total: 52.5
What a random manager core LOL wtf Well, Laurel achieved ultimate glory in SPL after a decade. Let's see if he can recreate his success here; few have been able to succeed in both arenas, so it may be an uphill climb. I hope Finch makes a big board for this.
There is no one here I would classify as a star player, but Dugza somehow went for 28k wtf I am really out of the loop I guess LOL When in the world did Dugza become this big of a sensation? He does have good flexibility and has performed well enough in the past, I suppose. Since the start of 2024, he is 16-5 on the sheet. That is certainly impressive; if he does really well in this tour, I will definitely glaze him. For now, I will project him to go positive. 28k does seem a bit insane still, though, but we shall see.
The OU core consists of vk, Stareal, and Pkel. vk has been kind of up-and-down in his career thus far, ultimately amassing a rather average 15-13 sheet record. He went for 19k, which seems like a lot given his tendency to occasionally completely fall flat on his face. I think his season could go either way to be honest. Stareal has been pretty okay lately, going 13-10 in his past three tours. He has had an up-and-down sheet career as well; he will probably do fine I guess. Pkel has also been pretty average thus far, going 14-13. I gave him a 5 last time and he went 3-5 so slight demotion for him. These are all almost basically the same player to me ngl LOL wtf. If these three players combined were like less than 20k, I would have said it was kind of fire, but for 39k, it seems a bit excessive. We'll see how the rest of the lineup shakes out I guess...
In Ubers, we have Skyview, who is 7-9 on the sheet. He did go 4-0 in World Cup, so there's that. This is another player whose season could go either way. qsns is still playing apparently wow. He started out his career poorly but went 12-5 in his last two SCLs. The fact that his last sheet result was two years ago does make me doubt him a bit more, though. His season could go either way as well. wtf is every player on this lineup just the same LOL pdt was over 30k last SCL apparently, which anyone with a pulse could have said was absurd lol His price this time is a much more reasonable 14.5k. He struggled quite a bit last time out, having the worst tour of his career and putting up a 2-7 record. He was good in World Cup, at least. He has had some good showings in the past, succeeding when I've doubted him against elite player pools. I will show him respect still but bump him down slightly from his 6 confidence rating last year. This is what I wrote about Danny last SCL: "In NU is the penguin avatar guy, who is also apparently a 20k player jesus. He had an excellent campaign last year but I sure as hell am not trusting this dude just off of 1 tour. That being said, he should be a safe bet to get 5 wins or so." Well, he went 6-4, so he can get a slight rating bump for me. Congratulations on being one of the highest-rated players on the team. Mako is apparently in NU...sure. Mako has been largely pedestrian as of late which dampens my confidence in them a bit. They are sometimes good, though. I will project around 5 wins here. The roster is completed by Laroxyl, who is 34-31 on the sheet and is trending slightly upwards as of late. He is probably a safe bet to go positive.
Overall, this team is interesting I guess. There's no one I really love, but there are some pretty decent pieces. If DugZa lives up to his crazy price tag, they will probably make the playoffs I suppose.
The Orange Islanders
SV OU: Ewin 6
SV OU: kdca 5.5
SV OU: Mattz_ 4.5
SV Ubers: Lana 5
SV DOU: Xrn 5.5
SV UU: zS 8.5
SV RU: robjr 4
SV NU: GeniusX 4.5
SV PU: Vulpix03 4
SV LC: Reggg 4
Managers: Dave, hellom, tier
Total: 51.5
For the first time ever, the Islanders did not screw my PRs up last year. It was a rare poor showing from the Dave-led enterprise. Can he return to glory this year?
The ace player here is zS the goat. omg. Now this is someone who actually DESERVES to be 31k. Not clean. He was a retain too, which is definitely fair. He is 23-8 in his past 4 tours and is 43-24 overall on the sheet. Why would anyone doubt him at this point? The UU pool is scary as it is every year, which is the one thing stopping his rating from ballooning to the moon. That being said, I obviously still believe in him a great deal.
The OU core consists of Ewin, kdca, and TDNT. Ewin had a poor World Cup but had managed to go positive in his last 5 tours prior to that. He really salvaged what was becoming an extremely mediocre career. He is 26-18 since the start of 2024 which is certainly solid. I will bank on his World Cup being a small stumble rather than a sign of things to come and slightly bump up the 5.5 rating I gave him in SPL. kdca was one of the heroes of SPL, having had a good shot of winning the very coveted SPL MVP trophy...speaking of which, I saw that to absolutely NO ONE's surprise, the absurdly moronic subjective voting system was thrown out the window and replaced with an objective sheet one. Who could have guessed this would be a much better idea? Anyway, Outside of that amazing SPL, he has been a bit pedestrian overall in a relatively small sample. I will probably project him for 5 wins here. TDNT is a very cool 35-20 on the sheet, but most of that is due to SS OU, which is not in this tournament. I believe that he is now 28-11 in SS OU, which would mean that he is 7-9 in non-SS OU. That certainly does not bode well for his chances here. I think his season could go either way.
Lana is 10-9 on the sheet and has generally just been decent in all of their tours so far. They seem like a safe pick for 4-5 wins. Xrn was a whopping 20.5k for some reason. He has had some good tours in the past, but his recent tours have been more underwhelming. He has been good in SCL as a whole, though. I will probably go with around 5 wins here. In RU, is robjr, who is generally always serviceable enough. Sometimes he gets washed, but he does occasionally have solid tours. He's probably a safe pick for 4 wins. GeniusX plays NU apparently so sure. He has been pretty mediocre on the big stage thus far and has never really impressed. He has consistently managed to be decent pretty much every time, though. I mean, I don't see a reason to expect him not to get 4ish wins I guess. In PU, we have Vulpix, who has apparently returned to playing for the first time in eons wtf. His last sheet game was in 2022 when he went 0-4 in SPL...yikes. This is probably a safe negative projection. Rounding out the roster is someone I've never heard of. He's also not on the prospect report wtf Well, I don't really have a reason to believe in him I guess so sure. whatever.
Overall, this is maybe a solid team. zS is the goat, so maybe he can carry them. They have some solid slots.
The Power Plant Dynamos
SV OU: Tempo di Anguria 5
SV OU: kebab mlml 6
SV OU: AgencyIsOwn 5
SV Ubers: Mareep 5
SV DOU: EternalSnowman 6
SV UU: Garay Oak 6
SV RU: TheFranklin 7
SV NU: Ruffles 5.5
SV PU: Metallica126 5
SV LC: wail 4.5
Managers: blank, Raiza, bea
Total: 55
The Dynamos are back with some very interesting managers this time LOL wtf is this core. Well, I have some pretty solid expectations for those names so let's see.
I guess the star player here is Garay...Well, he was generally someone that usually underachieves his skill level and is bad at sheet farming. He has had some good tours in the past few years, most notably an elite run that helped Spain win the World Cup trophy a couple years ago and an elite 8-1 showing two SPLs ago. I rated him as a 6 last SPL because of his past pedestrian sheet performances, and he finished 5-4. Well, I don't really have a reason to bump him up then. The UU player pool is also very scary as usual, so it would be surprising to me if he was super good. I do think he'll go positive, though.
The OU core consists of KEBAB, Tempo, and AgencyIsOwn. Kebab might be the most disrespected player on the entire website. The guy is 38-31 on the sheet and is 16-10 since the start of 2024. How on earth is he possibly so cheap every tour? HOW WAS HE 6K? WHAT? Bro people will spend 30k on someone with similar results. This is embarrassing man. I'm sure as hell not doubting him. He's going positive. Easy steal wtf. The Tempo person had a good World Cup run, helping lift surprising contenders Latin America to their first trophy. I will need to see more to believe in him, though, obviously. His season could go either way. AgencyIsOwn is a similar story. I guess it makes sense bea drafted these two lol His stock is apparently much higher, as he went for 15k in his first draft tournament. That is certainly a lot, but he was playing tiebreaks so I suppose people really think he's that good. I will need to see more to drink the kool-aid, but I will be somewhat optimistic.
In Ubers is Mareep, who apparently went 4-1 last season. Surprisingly, he was still only 3k despite that. That is interesting. His season could go either way, but I like the price for that. In Doubles is EternalSnowman, who went 7-2 last year and is 11-5 overall. He seems to be a very safe bet to finish positive at least, and if he's elite this tour, I will start glazing him for real. In RU, is TheFranklin, who rebounded from a bunch of poor showings in a row with an elite 7-2 run last SCL. He also had a very good Slam run. I believed in him a decent amount last time out, rating him at a 5.5. I will bump him up a bit given his last performance. Apparently, Ruffles plays NU. Sure. He has been very solid so far on the big stage, managing to go positive in each of his tours thus far. He is obviously worse without ORAS, but he has earned enough of my respect to where I'll project him to go positive. Metallica has been pretty decent the past few years. He never seems to get washed at the very least. He's probably a good enough bet for 4-5 wins. Last up is Wail Wailord, who decided to shorten his name for some reason. Most of his results are kind of old, but he did go 5-5 last time out. Sure. His season could go either way.
Overall, this seems like a pretty solid team. They have some nice pieces and managed to be the only people intelligent enough to draft a dude for 6k that wins games every tour lol The manager core is also kind of fire.
The Showdown Shoguns
SV OU: Vert 6.5
SV OU: Axzel 5.5
SV OU: Silent Waltz 4.5
SV Ubers: Sheik: 4.5
SV DOU: KCric 4
SV UU: watashi 4.5
SV RU: hjkhj 5
SV NU: lax 5.5
SV PU: Trichotomy 4
SV LC: Eniigma 6
Managers: ima, Star, Giannis
Total: 50
The Shoguns managed to stop being the most cursed team in the tournament and secured the trophy last time out. Can they find success again?
The star players here are Vert and lax. Vert has always been known as a jesus-type player, but has not really played in enough team tours for me to fully glaze him. He has been solid overall, going 13-7. He has gone 7-5 since I last rated him, despite the fact that he was not playing SV OU in SPL. I will slightly bump his rating this time, but I'm definitely not completely drinking the kool-aid here until he has some jesus tours in a row. I see that lax is still going for exorbitant prices in 2026. 29.5k seems kind of insane to be honest LOL He is 22-17 since the start of 2024 I'm really not sure if that's the profile of someone you want to pay 29.5k for. This man is almost 5x the price of Kebab the goat, who has a higher win% and +- than that...tbh this is just more kebab glaze. Anyway, I'm projecting lax for 5 wins this time around.
The OU core is rounded out by Axzel and Silent Waltz. Axzel has been solid so far, going 10-5 to start off his young sheet career. I obviously can't glaze him that much yet, but I think I can say he can maybe get 5 wins. Silent Waltz went for an insane amount, over twice the price of KEBAB bruh I can't get over this man. This shit is embarrassing LOL Anyway, whatever. I know he got to the finals of OST, but he has no sheet results outside of his 1-2 showing last World Cup. I will temper my expectations quite a bit here. His season could go either way.
In Ubers, we have Sheik:, who went 5-4 last SPL. Sure. He was 3k so expectations don't seem to be that high. His season could go either way. I have obviously never heard of this Doubles player before, but they are ranked 82nd in the illustrious prospect rankings. This is another coinflip player. In UU, we have watashi, who has actually had some pretty decent tours as of late. He managed to get 4-5 wins in 3/3 of his last SPLs / SCLs. That is impressive. My problem here is that the UU pool is scary as hell, so people I would rate a bit higher will generally have their ratings depressed. I would have bumped him up in another tier probably, but in this one, I'll say his season could go either way. In RU, we have a dude with a meme name who managed to go 7-4 last time out. Sure. If he's good this tour, he can get some more glaze, but for now, I'll just say he'll do decently. Rounding out the roster are Trichotomy and Eniigma. The former is apparently not on the sheet, but plays monotype according to Ego. I don't really have a reason to believe in him just yet. Eniigma, meanwhile, has managed to go 13-7 in the past two editions of this tour combined. That is certainly respectable. He should be a safe bet to go positive.
The team also apparently has CTC who is not starting. If he played, it would bump up their rating slightly. This team is literally just the Tyrants bro LOL The issue with that is that I have not put the Tyrants in the playoffs either of the past two SPL editions; I think I was the one person that correctly predicted they wouldn't make the playoffs last SPL. This team gives off similar vibes. There's not enough bankable wins here for me to be confident in them. There is certainly a lot of upside, though, and the teambuilding support is certainly through the roof here. We shall see how it goes. Last year's team felt way better to me; I did rank them #1 in my PRs, after all.
Studio Gible
SV OU: Fusien 5.5
SV OU: Eternal Spirit 5.5
SV OU: sire clod 4
SV Ubers: Taka 4.5
SV DOU: bagel 4.5
SV UU: Marcop 6
SV RU: lighthouses 4
SV NU: shengineer 5.5
SV PU: LpZ 5.5
SV LC: tazz 5
Managers: Feliburn, Accel, Master Chief
Total: 50
I ranked this team 5th last time and they made the playoffs; it was the only team I didn't predict correctly. Let's see if their roster is as good this time around.
The headline player here I suppose is Fusien. He went over 30k, which really isn't surprising considering that it seems like everyone and their mom goes for over 30k nowadays regardless of how many sheet games they win. He has had some solid tours thus far, but sits at 21-19 overall, which is rather mediocre for someone with this price tag. I mean, I rated him as a 5.5 in SPL and he has gone 6-7 since then. I suppose I will give him a similar rating this time around. This feels like another overpay to me. The sheet disrespect is real.
The OU core is rounded out by Gama and sire clod. Gama was only 7k this time around, which is interesting. His price is genuinely just unpredictable honestly LOL He was bad in SCL so I slightly downgraded him in SPL; since then, he has gone 9-5 so I guess I'm moving him back to 5.5. He's definitely a very solid pick 7k. idk what people are doing bros. sire clod is 8-10 overall and struggled in SPL. That is probably not that good of a sign. In Ubers is Taka, who did go 5-1 last SCL. That being said, his other results are a bit sketch. I think his season could go either way. In Doubles is bagel, who won OSDT before and has some ribbons. Cool. Apparently, his name on the sheet is bage1?? That's his name? wtf. Well, he went 5-3 two years ago and went 4-6 last year. His season could go either way, but I'll downgrade him slightly from last time.
In UU, we have marcop, who has some crazy name that was too annoying to spell out. He was very good last SCL, but subjected himself to the meme that is the variance madhouse last SPL, failing to come out alive with a positive record. He has quietly been very good in this tour in the past, going 22-11. I certainly think he'll go positive, even with very stiff competition in this tier. Apparently, lighthouses is back? ok lol Well, he went 4-5 two SPLs ago; that was his first sheet action in basically a fucking century, so I guess that's something. I'm definitely a bit concerned here, though. I guess they have the classic Feliburn + lighthouses core....His season could go either way, but I will be slightly pessimistic on this one. In NU, we have shengineer, who was a revelation last year for rozes's team. He struggled in SPL, but he didn't get to play a lower tier there, so I don't really hold that against him. It is very surprising to me that he wasn't retained; this pretty much seems like the classic 0-brain retain everyone does in each edition of one of these tournaments. Well, I will need to see more before I fully drink the kool-aid, but I think he'll go positive. LpZ is in PU. He has managed to be pretty solid in every tour he plays, consistently going +1 or so each time. 18.5k feels like kind of a bit much for that type of profile, but it could be worse I guess. I think he should go positive. Last up is tazz, who, as I said last time, is literally just the LC DeepBlueC at this point lol He even went 4-5 last tour man LOL Basically the same player. Anyway, 0 brain prediction of 4-5 wins here.
Overall, this seems like a solid enough team. There are some questionable prices, but there are enough good players here to where it wouldn't shock me if they made a run.
The Technical Machines
SV OU: Separation 6.5
SV OU: zioziotrip 4.5
SV OU: Plague 5
SV Ubers: entrocefalo 5.5
SV DOU: eragon 5
SV UU: Punny 8
SV RU: THE_CHUNGLER 4
SV NU: Elias PSY 5
SV PU: Kushalos 4
SV LC: Envy 5
Managers: Expulso, Bouff, xcx
Total: 52.5
The Machines were certainly not very good last season. Let's see if they can turn things around.
The star player here is Punny. Punny has been one of the best players in Snake / SCL history, amassing a dominant 46-24 record across a multitude of appearances. His last showing was a lot more pedestrian, as he only managed to go 4-4. That coupled with the strength of the player pool gives me some pause, but this is still someone that has managed to farm excellent player pools consistently in the past. I will bump him down slightly but still project him to do really well.
The OU core consists of Separation, zioziotrip, and Plague. Separation's stock is apparently on the fucking moon LOL what the hell? I did not expect him to be 29.5k. Ok well, to his credit, he has managed to go 15-6 in his last 4 tours. He has always generally done pretty solidly since he showed up on the scene. That being said, his track record is not elite enough to where I would be comfortable spending this much on him. I will still predict him to do solidly well here. zio being 13.5k also seems weird to me. I don't really get it. He has basically had one good team tour ever and is 19-15 overall..like sure. He's probably a safe bet for 4-5 wins. Plague has been pretty decent in his career as well. He should do fine enough.
In Ubers, we have entrocefalo, a player who was supposed to be the second coming of jesus in Ubers but never exactly lived up to that. He won Ubers Open so that's cool I guess. He has generally been pretty solid in this tier at least; I will project him for 5 wins. In Doubles, we have the dude that won OSDT. That is certainly something, but I obviously need to see some positive sheet results before I drink the kool-aid. In RU, we have some dude who surprisingly is not a name change what the hell is this name LOL He seems to play a lot of Circuits or whatever I guess. Cool. His season could go either way. I do recognize Elias Psy. I rated him as a 5.5 last year and he went 4-5, so I guess he will receive a slight downgrade this time out. He's definitely a safe bet for 4-5 wins at least. Kushalos is starting LOL wow. The Chef has fallen off quite a bit from his peak, famously cratering with 1-8 performances in both SPL and SCL in 2024. The chef at his peak would have been rated quite highly, but my faith in him is certainly much lower nowadays. He did go 3-3 last year which will save his score from being completely nuked. I will still predict him to go negative here. Last up is Envy, who is 10-8 overall in this tournament. Sure. This person seems like a very safe 4-5 win projection as well.
Overall, this team seems interesting enough I guess. If Punny can get his mojo back, they have some solid pieces that could help them make a run.
The Uncharted Terrors
SV OU: SirPeanutCronch 4.5
SV OU: DAHLI 5.5
SV OU: LB 4.5
SV Ubers: baconeatinassassin 5.5
SV DOU: Zee 5
SV UU: ChrisPBacon 4.5
SV RU: zugubu royale 5
SV NU: diamonds_realm 4
SV PU: Drud 5
SV LC: dcae 4
Managers: rozes, Gingy, Kunal
Total: 47.5
The Terrors did not screw me for the first time last season. I rated them 9th and they missed the playoffs. Let's see if some of the best SCL managers ever can make the playoffs this time around.
I would not call anyone here a star player to be honest, but apparently this bacon dude was 25.5k wtf LOL what? He just went 0-3 in this very tier in World Cup!!! My god. I learned from the above ego post that he was undefeated in Ubers PL....too bad that's not on the sheet. In terms of more relevant results, he is 8-6 overall and went 5-3 last SCL. This seems like an absolutely absurd price bro. My lord. People just throw 20k+ on anyone nowadays. I see people in the Ubers subforum ranking him above Fc. Genuine nonsense. Imagine doubting Fc the absolute goat. I mean, I guess I will project him for like 5 wins for now. This is not a good start..I can see where this is going.
The OU core consists of SirPeanutCronch, DAHLI, and LB. I know the Peanut person won OST, which is a respectable accomplishment. He is 3-4 on the sheet, though, which does give me some pause. His season could go either way. DAHLI, meanwhile, is a veteran at this point, having played 70 games and putting up a decent 37-33 record. He has been kind of hit-or-miss, having some poor tours mixed with some solid ones as of late. He does usually go positive, though. 10k seems like a good price for him to be honest; I like it. I'll project 5 wins here. LB is 4-5 overall on the sheet. They were 5k in the draft, so their stock does not seem to be that high. Their season could go either way.
In Doubles is Zee, who managed to completely flip the script on what was an atrocious career with a phenomenal 9-0 run last time out. Going from 3-13 on the sheet to going 9-0 is certainly something. Maybe they just improved. That being said, I will still be skeptical for now; I will project 4-5 wins here. In UU, we have Crispy Bacon, who I guess is a UU player now? ok. I mean, he's certainly been solid in SPL, which has earned him my respect. That being said, there are a lot of good players in this tier, so my rating for him will be slightly depressed. In RU is zugubu royale, who raised his stock quite a bit with an excellent Grand Slam showing. His Slam win gives me some confidence in him, but his extreme lack of sheet results makes me very skeptical still. His season could go either way. In NU, we have someone I have never heard of. They were ranked 24th in the prospect report and don't have any sheet games. This is literally just a classic Terrors pick honestly LOL Well, not much else to say I guess. In PU is Drud, who the team retained after a great 7-2 run last time out. That's certainly impressive, but he needs to do more for me to be a real believer. He will get a slight bump from last year, though. Last up is dcae!!?? LOL what? This man is back? the goat? That is very random. And he was somehow 10k wtf I really do not know what to make of this. He certainly was a threat at some point, but he went 0-5 in his last showing, which was 3 years ago....yeah, this is kind of sketchy lol I did go to the LC subforum to see what the mainers thought and pretty much the only relevant post was Kingler putting dcae 1st overall and then getting memed to death so ?? Who knows.
Overall, this team inspires very little confidence, which is really not surprising at all given that they spent 25.5k on an 8-6 sheet player. Classic Terrors draft honestly. They usually screw me over, but maybe last year was a sign of things to come.
Well, for the people that are new to this...the numbers next to each player are 'confidence ratings' aka how much I believe in each player's ability to succeed. I just add the points up and bop.
Final Rankings:
1. The Arena Spartans (59.5)
Yeah, I mean, genuinely...you could have had an rng draft the team if you had Attribute + Fc retains and probably been in the top 4 for me LOL The fact that they got Nails + Michael is just kind of the cherry on top. We love the Spartans.
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2. The Power Plant Dynamos (55)
Pretty clear 2nd
3. The Circuit Breakers (52.5)
4. The Mount Silver Foxes (52.5)
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5. The Technical Machines (52.5)
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And now, we have the very annoying coin flip. Just looking at the lineups again, I think I have to put the Breakers in honestly. It just looks more reliable. That leaves us with the Machines vs. Foxes for 4th. I think I trust the Foxes by a hair more; they rely less on one player being jesus and have more flexibility to me. Hopefully this decision doesn't screw me. I do think the Machines are pretty solid but wcyd.
6. The Orange Islanders (51.5)
7. The Showdown Shoguns (50)
8. Studio Gible (50)
9. The Indigo Platoon (48)
10. The Uncharted Terrors (47.5)
If there's anything I need to fix, just PM me on here thanks. See you next time. Hopefully the power of the sheet can beat the eye test yet again.
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DW we can have both...ngl I did not even realize this auction was last weekend LOL I thought this tour was slightly later. ANYWAY, I am pretty much solely doing this PR because last season was rly good, so I'm curious if that was just luck or if this tournament actually makes sense. Last year, I got 3/4 playoff teams right and the only team I missed was ranked 5th. Let's see if the power of the sheet can guide me to another successful PR campaign. WELCOME TO ANOTHER EDITION OF THE UNBIASED POWER RANKINGS
The Arena Spartans
SV OU: Attribute 9
SV OU: Niko 4.5
SV OU: Patatexv 4
SV Ubers: Fc 9
SV DOU: Nails 8
SV UU: etern 5.5
SV RU: spitfire 4.5
SV NU: Shadow079 3.5
SV PU: Michaelderbeste2 7.5
SV LC: JuanSG 4
Managers: tko, vivalospride, ninjadog
Total: 59.5
Last year, at the end of my PRs, I wrote this: "how the living fuck did the spartans get 4th LMAO god HOW that team looks so sketchy man oh my god it's fucking doomed the islanders are going to screw me." Well, as it turns out, the Spartans rewarded my faith in them. I remember they had a decent amount of doubters, but let the record show, I always believed in them...Surely this team is good again this year.
This first star player here is Fc. He has performed very well on the sheet thus far, amassing a very solid +21 differential. He went 11-0 in this tier last year, and is 17-2 in Ubers since the start of 2025. He even managed to go 5-5 in SPL in what I thought was the hardest pool in the entire tournament. I have full faith here. The team also retained Attribute for 22k. This is what I wrote about him in SPL: "Attribute was on his way to becoming a sheet god, attaining a prestigious 8/10 confidence score from me in SCL. However, he had the first -2 tournament of his career. He will look to get back on track here, hoping to not disappoint the team that chose to retain him. My confidence in him is still solidly high, but it is a bit lower than last time. Still, he should definitely be expected to go positive here". Well, he managed to have the best tournament of his career, going 8-2 and then following it up with a 3-1 World Cup. I guess we're just going to call him a sheet god at this point. This team is off to an insane start holy these are broken retains.
Bro what?? They have Nails and Michael also?? Is this just the greatest team of all time? What is happening?? I should have done this team last bro. Ok well, Nails really needs no introduction. I guess I will just post what I wrote last year because it makes me look good..."The star player here is Nails, who was ranked as the #1 Doubles player. He uncharacteristically had a mediocre performance last year, but he generally performs pretty well. He is 37-19 in this tournament overall and I still have a good amount of faith in him. I don't actually understand how he was only 17k tbh He has been a bit worse recently but I will project him for 6 wins." Shockingly, he got exactly 6 wins lol And he was somehow 17.5k again? We have lost the plot man. I mean, the man is 43-22 in SCL. He got a 7.5 confidence score from me last time so I'll slightly increase it this time around. Michael, meanwhile, somehow has 4 individual trophies wtf I have really been out of the loop what LOL Anyway, we know Michael is maybe the most talented Pokemon player given his dominance on both this site and in VGC; it's pretty unparalleled at this point. During last SCL, I dinged him a bit in my ratings because he generally performed much better in SS OU than in lower tiers, but he managed to go 6-2 in PU last season. He is 31-16 in this tournament overall so he clearly has just figured something out here. I will bump him up a bit this time.
The OU core is rounded out by Niko and Patatexv. I see that Niko's stock is back to being in the gutter; his value seems to ping pong a lot. Well, he has been pretty bad lately. He is 7-18 since the start of 2025....that is definitely not good. He has obviously had some solid results in the past, but it's hard to project him to go positive with those results. I do think he is better than 7-18, though...he should find his form eventually. He is also good in SV OU as pointed out above. For now, I'll go with 4ish wins. I rated the Patatex guy a 4.5 in SPL and he proceeded to go 3-6, following it up with a 2-1 World Cup. He also seems like a safe enough bet to do okay.
The team also retained etern, who exceeded all expectations and went 10-1 last season. He also went 3-0 in World Cup and had a really good Grand Slam run so maybe he has just ascended a bit as a player. I viewed him as a bit mediocre before, but I will definitely project him to go positive now despite a tough player pool. I would like to see one more really good tour before I fully drink the kool-aid, though, given his lengthy rather average history prior to this run. In RU is Spitfire, who has been pretty average overall on the sheet in his career. He is probably a safe bet for 4.5ish wins. I have never heard of this dude in NU before, but he is apparently #5 on the prospect rating and cost 4k...sure. He is 0-5 on the sheet, so I will dock him a bit. I also have obviously never heard of this LC player before. Apparently, he has played a lot of subforum tours and done slightly above average in them. Sure. His season could go either way; I have no reason to believe in him for now.
Overall, there are some randoms here, but I would be shocked if this wasn't the best team. The core here is just really strong. It should not be possible for this team to miss the playoffs to be honest. We love the Spartans!
The Circuit Breakers
SV OU: SoulWind 4.5
SV OU: Rubyblood 4.5
SV OU: Let's Rumble Shall We 4
SV Ubers: crying 4
SV DOU: ann 4
SV UU: JustFranco 7
SV RU: xavgb 8
SV NU: Nat 6.5
SV PU: MZ 5.5
SV LC: Lokifan 4.5
Managers: togkey, elodin, Mada
Total: 52.5
The Breakers were solid last season, falling short in the semifinals. Let's see if they can find success again this year.
The ace player here is xavgb. Outside of a poor showing in World Cup 2025, stresh is generally an elite player. He had a very good 4-1 performance in the last World Cup and has pretty much always been amazing in SCL in particular, amassing a superb 25-9 record. This year, he finds himself on a different team besides the Terrors, which is certainly interesting. I see he went for 33k, which given his general history of being a menace in this tournament coupled with his elite flexibility, seems like a reasonable price. He does not have many sheet games in the past 2 years, which will be the only thing preventing me from having full faith in him. I will project him to get 6+ wins, though.
The OU core consists of SoulWind, Rubyblood, and Let's Rumble Shall We. SW has generally struggled a good amount in this tournament, amassing a pedestrian 40-46 record in Snake / SCL. He has not finished with higher than a +2 record in any team tour in the past 5 years and he has not gone positive in this tournament in 5 years either, so it would obviously be insane to predict him to do super well here. He's obviously still a really good player; for whatever reason, his skills just do not translate to consistent sheet wins. I will project him for 4 wins here. He is still a scary player to face in a tiebreak setting, so I don't hate the 15.5k price; despite his lackluster performances, it would seem a bit insane for him to be under 10k, so it makes enough sense to me. Rubyblood's stock seems to be a bit low in this tournament given his 4.5k pricetag, but given the absence of GSC, that makes sense. I wrote in the SPL PRs that I thought he was an overpay in that tournament; I gave him a 5.5 confidence rating and he finished with a 4-5 record. He was on a good sheet run before that at least. I think his season could go either way. The last dude was 0-4 on the sheet before SPL, but managed to put up a 4-5 record. Perhaps he could be a viable player after all. I will project him to go negative, but I will bump him up slightly.
elodin really picks crying in every draft I swear LOL wtf Oh, they were a retain. That's interesting. Well, crying went 5-5 last year. I suppose the reason for the retain was their good Slam performance + tier flexibility. Sure. Well, they were getting smoked before last SCL. Their performance last campaign coupled with their past successes is enough for me to slightly bump their rating up, but I'm not a believer yet. I think their season could go either way. In Doubles, we have Ann, who got washed last SCL to the tune of a 2-6 record. That probably is not ideal...coupled with their low price tag, I'm not really sure why I'm supposed to believe in them. We'll project a negative record here. In UU, we have JustFranco, who went for a crazy 31k. This guy's stock is still ridiculously high, I guess. Well, I doubted him slightly last SCL, and he went 6-3 against a tough player pool. He did do badly in SPL, but that probably doesn't really make a difference. He has gotten 6 wins in three straight editions of this tournament, so he clearly just ascends when lower tiers are in the tour. I don't really have a choice but to say he'll go 6-3 here.
In NU, we have Nat, who I assume was this cheap because of the tierlock lol Nat has performed very well on the sheet since the start of 2023, putting up a 33-15 record overall. I will downgrade them slightly because they are not in OU, but this just seems like a classic case of 'mons is mons'. I really like this price for someone that has shown a consistent ability to get sheet wins. Seems like a clear steal to me. I rated MZ at a 5 last year and he managed to go 6-4. He is 11-6 overall in the past two SCLs, so it would seem pretty foolish to expect him to do poorly. I'll project a positive record here, but I would like to see one more good tour before I fully glaze him. Rounding out the roster is Lokifan, who has tumbled a bit down clout everest after his showing last year. Everyone and their mom was glazing this dude; he was the #1 ranked LC player in what looked like a pretty mediocre player pool and finished the year 3-5. Not what you want to see...That being said, he was good two years ago. His season could really go either way here.
Overall, this team seems solid enough. I think there are enough solid pieces to where they could make a run if stresh plays up to his ceiling.
The Indigo Platoon
SV OU: Clean 6
SV OU: yerdunc 5
SV OU: ojr 5
SV Ubers: icemaster 5.5
SV DOU: DubiousBulb 4
SV UU: NoName 4.5
SV RU: GaryTheGengar 4.5
SV NU: esteb4n 5
SV PU: xiri 4.5
SV LC: Hacker 4
Managers: Django, Quinn, Baddy
Total: 48
NGL...my first as I was typing this roster out is wondering how the hell this team spent all their money? How is this roster the same value as the other two LOL What? Who was that expensive here wtf LOOOOOL oh my god clean was 32k? bruh what?? Well...at least he won some sheet games in the past two tours. I will give him that....
There's no shot anyone here deserves to be called a star player so let's just get into it. clean was absurdly overpriced last SCL, which is something anyone with a brain could have figured out. His price fell all the way to 17.5k last SPL; I bumped him down slightly due to his SCL performance, but to his credit, he did manage to go 10-4 in SPL + World Cup combined. There's obviously talent here too given his status in the community and some of his individual results, but naturally, I still wholeheartedly believe that spending 32k for someone that's 23-23 on the sheet is genuine delusion. Embarrassing lack of sheet respect SMH. I hate this draft. Anyway, I will project him to go positive here, but the team will likely need him to do a lot more than that if they want to contend. The other OU players are yerdunc and ojr. I did follow World Cup a decent amount, so I know that yerdunc was phenomenal in that tournament. He could be well on his way to being a sheet warrior. However, that is still only one tour. I'm certainly not going to drink the kool-aid just off of that. 16.5k feels like a bit much. ojr, meanwhile, is pretty much the complete opposite of the other two names, his stock being very low as reflected by his 3k price tag. He is 5-1 on the sheet, so I will show him some respect. I think he could do fine.
In Ubers, we have icemaster, who was an absurd 24k wtf I guess this is how the team spent so much money. I feel like icemaster was projected to be some Ubers god a la pi face...the problem is, that was like eons ago. He certainly never lived up to that billing, but has been turning things around as of late. He is 17-9 since SCL 2024, which is certainly impressive. I projected him to go positive last year and he finished 4-4. Given his good World Cup showing, I'll rate him the same here. In DOU, we have someone I have never heard of. He apparently did well in OSDT, but hype for him does not seem to be very high. I think his season could go either way. In UU, we have NoName, who delivered a bit on his hype with a 4-2 World Cup showing. He went 5-5 in SPL; sure. I rated him as a 4.5 in SPL and he has been respectable enough since then. That being said, there are A LOT of good players in UU, so I can't really bump him up here. His price seems a bit exorbitant to be honest. In RU, we have GarytheGengar?? What? LOL huh?? He has never played in SCL before, which is certainly interesting. He did play Snake in 2019. He has been solid in SPL, but this is obviously a bit of a different ballgame. I think this could be a solid pick for 3k, though, to be honest; he does win on the sheet at least. I think his season could go either way. esteb4n was apparently a retain after going 6-3 last year. Sure. I would obviously like to see more before I believe in him, but probably he's a decent bet to go positive. In PU is Xiri, who is returning to the tournament for the first time in 3 years. That's random. I mean, he's been a pretty serviceable player whenever he's played, so I guess maybe it's fine. His season could go either way as well. Last up is Hacker, who is 9-15 on the sheet and has yet to go positive in a single team tour...yeah, that's probably not good. He did go 3-3 last year so he can get a very slight bump, but I'll still project him go to negative.
Well, things were going a bit too well LOL This team is pretty uninspiring. It just feels like it has a very low amount of safe bets. The floor is just really low here. The managers here really need to open the sheet and ctrl + f some more next time; the lack of bankable wins is criminal. They also have Gondra on the bench, but he has not gone positive in a team tour since 2020!!! so that's probably not someone you want to rely on.
The Mount Silver Foxes
SV OU: vk 5
SV OU: Stareal 5
SV OU: Pkel SweetforU 4.5
SV Ubers: Skyview 4.5
SV DOU: qsns 4.5
SV UU: pdt 5
SV RU: Dugza 7
SV NU: Danny 6
SV PU: Mako 5.5
SV LC: Laroxyl 5.5
Managers: Finchinator, Laurel, purbaj
Total: 52.5
What a random manager core LOL wtf Well, Laurel achieved ultimate glory in SPL after a decade. Let's see if he can recreate his success here; few have been able to succeed in both arenas, so it may be an uphill climb. I hope Finch makes a big board for this.
There is no one here I would classify as a star player, but Dugza somehow went for 28k wtf I am really out of the loop I guess LOL When in the world did Dugza become this big of a sensation? He does have good flexibility and has performed well enough in the past, I suppose. Since the start of 2024, he is 16-5 on the sheet. That is certainly impressive; if he does really well in this tour, I will definitely glaze him. For now, I will project him to go positive. 28k does seem a bit insane still, though, but we shall see.
The OU core consists of vk, Stareal, and Pkel. vk has been kind of up-and-down in his career thus far, ultimately amassing a rather average 15-13 sheet record. He went for 19k, which seems like a lot given his tendency to occasionally completely fall flat on his face. I think his season could go either way to be honest. Stareal has been pretty okay lately, going 13-10 in his past three tours. He has had an up-and-down sheet career as well; he will probably do fine I guess. Pkel has also been pretty average thus far, going 14-13. I gave him a 5 last time and he went 3-5 so slight demotion for him. These are all almost basically the same player to me ngl LOL wtf. If these three players combined were like less than 20k, I would have said it was kind of fire, but for 39k, it seems a bit excessive. We'll see how the rest of the lineup shakes out I guess...
In Ubers, we have Skyview, who is 7-9 on the sheet. He did go 4-0 in World Cup, so there's that. This is another player whose season could go either way. qsns is still playing apparently wow. He started out his career poorly but went 12-5 in his last two SCLs. The fact that his last sheet result was two years ago does make me doubt him a bit more, though. His season could go either way as well. wtf is every player on this lineup just the same LOL pdt was over 30k last SCL apparently, which anyone with a pulse could have said was absurd lol His price this time is a much more reasonable 14.5k. He struggled quite a bit last time out, having the worst tour of his career and putting up a 2-7 record. He was good in World Cup, at least. He has had some good showings in the past, succeeding when I've doubted him against elite player pools. I will show him respect still but bump him down slightly from his 6 confidence rating last year. This is what I wrote about Danny last SCL: "In NU is the penguin avatar guy, who is also apparently a 20k player jesus. He had an excellent campaign last year but I sure as hell am not trusting this dude just off of 1 tour. That being said, he should be a safe bet to get 5 wins or so." Well, he went 6-4, so he can get a slight rating bump for me. Congratulations on being one of the highest-rated players on the team. Mako is apparently in NU...sure. Mako has been largely pedestrian as of late which dampens my confidence in them a bit. They are sometimes good, though. I will project around 5 wins here. The roster is completed by Laroxyl, who is 34-31 on the sheet and is trending slightly upwards as of late. He is probably a safe bet to go positive.
Overall, this team is interesting I guess. There's no one I really love, but there are some pretty decent pieces. If DugZa lives up to his crazy price tag, they will probably make the playoffs I suppose.
The Orange Islanders
SV OU: Ewin 6
SV OU: kdca 5.5
SV OU: Mattz_ 4.5
SV Ubers: Lana 5
SV DOU: Xrn 5.5
SV UU: zS 8.5
SV RU: robjr 4
SV NU: GeniusX 4.5
SV PU: Vulpix03 4
SV LC: Reggg 4
Managers: Dave, hellom, tier
Total: 51.5
For the first time ever, the Islanders did not screw my PRs up last year. It was a rare poor showing from the Dave-led enterprise. Can he return to glory this year?
The ace player here is zS the goat. omg. Now this is someone who actually DESERVES to be 31k. Not clean. He was a retain too, which is definitely fair. He is 23-8 in his past 4 tours and is 43-24 overall on the sheet. Why would anyone doubt him at this point? The UU pool is scary as it is every year, which is the one thing stopping his rating from ballooning to the moon. That being said, I obviously still believe in him a great deal.
The OU core consists of Ewin, kdca, and TDNT. Ewin had a poor World Cup but had managed to go positive in his last 5 tours prior to that. He really salvaged what was becoming an extremely mediocre career. He is 26-18 since the start of 2024 which is certainly solid. I will bank on his World Cup being a small stumble rather than a sign of things to come and slightly bump up the 5.5 rating I gave him in SPL. kdca was one of the heroes of SPL, having had a good shot of winning the very coveted SPL MVP trophy...speaking of which, I saw that to absolutely NO ONE's surprise, the absurdly moronic subjective voting system was thrown out the window and replaced with an objective sheet one. Who could have guessed this would be a much better idea? Anyway, Outside of that amazing SPL, he has been a bit pedestrian overall in a relatively small sample. I will probably project him for 5 wins here. TDNT is a very cool 35-20 on the sheet, but most of that is due to SS OU, which is not in this tournament. I believe that he is now 28-11 in SS OU, which would mean that he is 7-9 in non-SS OU. That certainly does not bode well for his chances here. I think his season could go either way.
Lana is 10-9 on the sheet and has generally just been decent in all of their tours so far. They seem like a safe pick for 4-5 wins. Xrn was a whopping 20.5k for some reason. He has had some good tours in the past, but his recent tours have been more underwhelming. He has been good in SCL as a whole, though. I will probably go with around 5 wins here. In RU, is robjr, who is generally always serviceable enough. Sometimes he gets washed, but he does occasionally have solid tours. He's probably a safe pick for 4 wins. GeniusX plays NU apparently so sure. He has been pretty mediocre on the big stage thus far and has never really impressed. He has consistently managed to be decent pretty much every time, though. I mean, I don't see a reason to expect him not to get 4ish wins I guess. In PU, we have Vulpix, who has apparently returned to playing for the first time in eons wtf. His last sheet game was in 2022 when he went 0-4 in SPL...yikes. This is probably a safe negative projection. Rounding out the roster is someone I've never heard of. He's also not on the prospect report wtf Well, I don't really have a reason to believe in him I guess so sure. whatever.
Overall, this is maybe a solid team. zS is the goat, so maybe he can carry them. They have some solid slots.
The Power Plant Dynamos
SV OU: Tempo di Anguria 5
SV OU: kebab mlml 6
SV OU: AgencyIsOwn 5
SV Ubers: Mareep 5
SV DOU: EternalSnowman 6
SV UU: Garay Oak 6
SV RU: TheFranklin 7
SV NU: Ruffles 5.5
SV PU: Metallica126 5
SV LC: wail 4.5
Managers: blank, Raiza, bea
Total: 55
The Dynamos are back with some very interesting managers this time LOL wtf is this core. Well, I have some pretty solid expectations for those names so let's see.
I guess the star player here is Garay...Well, he was generally someone that usually underachieves his skill level and is bad at sheet farming. He has had some good tours in the past few years, most notably an elite run that helped Spain win the World Cup trophy a couple years ago and an elite 8-1 showing two SPLs ago. I rated him as a 6 last SPL because of his past pedestrian sheet performances, and he finished 5-4. Well, I don't really have a reason to bump him up then. The UU player pool is also very scary as usual, so it would be surprising to me if he was super good. I do think he'll go positive, though.
The OU core consists of KEBAB, Tempo, and AgencyIsOwn. Kebab might be the most disrespected player on the entire website. The guy is 38-31 on the sheet and is 16-10 since the start of 2024. How on earth is he possibly so cheap every tour? HOW WAS HE 6K? WHAT? Bro people will spend 30k on someone with similar results. This is embarrassing man. I'm sure as hell not doubting him. He's going positive. Easy steal wtf. The Tempo person had a good World Cup run, helping lift surprising contenders Latin America to their first trophy. I will need to see more to believe in him, though, obviously. His season could go either way. AgencyIsOwn is a similar story. I guess it makes sense bea drafted these two lol His stock is apparently much higher, as he went for 15k in his first draft tournament. That is certainly a lot, but he was playing tiebreaks so I suppose people really think he's that good. I will need to see more to drink the kool-aid, but I will be somewhat optimistic.
In Ubers is Mareep, who apparently went 4-1 last season. Surprisingly, he was still only 3k despite that. That is interesting. His season could go either way, but I like the price for that. In Doubles is EternalSnowman, who went 7-2 last year and is 11-5 overall. He seems to be a very safe bet to finish positive at least, and if he's elite this tour, I will start glazing him for real. In RU, is TheFranklin, who rebounded from a bunch of poor showings in a row with an elite 7-2 run last SCL. He also had a very good Slam run. I believed in him a decent amount last time out, rating him at a 5.5. I will bump him up a bit given his last performance. Apparently, Ruffles plays NU. Sure. He has been very solid so far on the big stage, managing to go positive in each of his tours thus far. He is obviously worse without ORAS, but he has earned enough of my respect to where I'll project him to go positive. Metallica has been pretty decent the past few years. He never seems to get washed at the very least. He's probably a good enough bet for 4-5 wins. Last up is Wail Wailord, who decided to shorten his name for some reason. Most of his results are kind of old, but he did go 5-5 last time out. Sure. His season could go either way.
Overall, this seems like a pretty solid team. They have some nice pieces and managed to be the only people intelligent enough to draft a dude for 6k that wins games every tour lol The manager core is also kind of fire.
The Showdown Shoguns
SV OU: Vert 6.5
SV OU: Axzel 5.5
SV OU: Silent Waltz 4.5
SV Ubers: Sheik: 4.5
SV DOU: KCric 4
SV UU: watashi 4.5
SV RU: hjkhj 5
SV NU: lax 5.5
SV PU: Trichotomy 4
SV LC: Eniigma 6
Managers: ima, Star, Giannis
Total: 50
The Shoguns managed to stop being the most cursed team in the tournament and secured the trophy last time out. Can they find success again?
The star players here are Vert and lax. Vert has always been known as a jesus-type player, but has not really played in enough team tours for me to fully glaze him. He has been solid overall, going 13-7. He has gone 7-5 since I last rated him, despite the fact that he was not playing SV OU in SPL. I will slightly bump his rating this time, but I'm definitely not completely drinking the kool-aid here until he has some jesus tours in a row. I see that lax is still going for exorbitant prices in 2026. 29.5k seems kind of insane to be honest LOL He is 22-17 since the start of 2024 I'm really not sure if that's the profile of someone you want to pay 29.5k for. This man is almost 5x the price of Kebab the goat, who has a higher win% and +- than that...tbh this is just more kebab glaze. Anyway, I'm projecting lax for 5 wins this time around.
The OU core is rounded out by Axzel and Silent Waltz. Axzel has been solid so far, going 10-5 to start off his young sheet career. I obviously can't glaze him that much yet, but I think I can say he can maybe get 5 wins. Silent Waltz went for an insane amount, over twice the price of KEBAB bruh I can't get over this man. This shit is embarrassing LOL Anyway, whatever. I know he got to the finals of OST, but he has no sheet results outside of his 1-2 showing last World Cup. I will temper my expectations quite a bit here. His season could go either way.
In Ubers, we have Sheik:, who went 5-4 last SPL. Sure. He was 3k so expectations don't seem to be that high. His season could go either way. I have obviously never heard of this Doubles player before, but they are ranked 82nd in the illustrious prospect rankings. This is another coinflip player. In UU, we have watashi, who has actually had some pretty decent tours as of late. He managed to get 4-5 wins in 3/3 of his last SPLs / SCLs. That is impressive. My problem here is that the UU pool is scary as hell, so people I would rate a bit higher will generally have their ratings depressed. I would have bumped him up in another tier probably, but in this one, I'll say his season could go either way. In RU, we have a dude with a meme name who managed to go 7-4 last time out. Sure. If he's good this tour, he can get some more glaze, but for now, I'll just say he'll do decently. Rounding out the roster are Trichotomy and Eniigma. The former is apparently not on the sheet, but plays monotype according to Ego. I don't really have a reason to believe in him just yet. Eniigma, meanwhile, has managed to go 13-7 in the past two editions of this tour combined. That is certainly respectable. He should be a safe bet to go positive.
The team also apparently has CTC who is not starting. If he played, it would bump up their rating slightly. This team is literally just the Tyrants bro LOL The issue with that is that I have not put the Tyrants in the playoffs either of the past two SPL editions; I think I was the one person that correctly predicted they wouldn't make the playoffs last SPL. This team gives off similar vibes. There's not enough bankable wins here for me to be confident in them. There is certainly a lot of upside, though, and the teambuilding support is certainly through the roof here. We shall see how it goes. Last year's team felt way better to me; I did rank them #1 in my PRs, after all.
Studio Gible
SV OU: Fusien 5.5
SV OU: Eternal Spirit 5.5
SV OU: sire clod 4
SV Ubers: Taka 4.5
SV DOU: bagel 4.5
SV UU: Marcop 6
SV RU: lighthouses 4
SV NU: shengineer 5.5
SV PU: LpZ 5.5
SV LC: tazz 5
Managers: Feliburn, Accel, Master Chief
Total: 50
I ranked this team 5th last time and they made the playoffs; it was the only team I didn't predict correctly. Let's see if their roster is as good this time around.
The headline player here I suppose is Fusien. He went over 30k, which really isn't surprising considering that it seems like everyone and their mom goes for over 30k nowadays regardless of how many sheet games they win. He has had some solid tours thus far, but sits at 21-19 overall, which is rather mediocre for someone with this price tag. I mean, I rated him as a 5.5 in SPL and he has gone 6-7 since then. I suppose I will give him a similar rating this time around. This feels like another overpay to me. The sheet disrespect is real.
The OU core is rounded out by Gama and sire clod. Gama was only 7k this time around, which is interesting. His price is genuinely just unpredictable honestly LOL He was bad in SCL so I slightly downgraded him in SPL; since then, he has gone 9-5 so I guess I'm moving him back to 5.5. He's definitely a very solid pick 7k. idk what people are doing bros. sire clod is 8-10 overall and struggled in SPL. That is probably not that good of a sign. In Ubers is Taka, who did go 5-1 last SCL. That being said, his other results are a bit sketch. I think his season could go either way. In Doubles is bagel, who won OSDT before and has some ribbons. Cool. Apparently, his name on the sheet is bage1?? That's his name? wtf. Well, he went 5-3 two years ago and went 4-6 last year. His season could go either way, but I'll downgrade him slightly from last time.
In UU, we have marcop, who has some crazy name that was too annoying to spell out. He was very good last SCL, but subjected himself to the meme that is the variance madhouse last SPL, failing to come out alive with a positive record. He has quietly been very good in this tour in the past, going 22-11. I certainly think he'll go positive, even with very stiff competition in this tier. Apparently, lighthouses is back? ok lol Well, he went 4-5 two SPLs ago; that was his first sheet action in basically a fucking century, so I guess that's something. I'm definitely a bit concerned here, though. I guess they have the classic Feliburn + lighthouses core....His season could go either way, but I will be slightly pessimistic on this one. In NU, we have shengineer, who was a revelation last year for rozes's team. He struggled in SPL, but he didn't get to play a lower tier there, so I don't really hold that against him. It is very surprising to me that he wasn't retained; this pretty much seems like the classic 0-brain retain everyone does in each edition of one of these tournaments. Well, I will need to see more before I fully drink the kool-aid, but I think he'll go positive. LpZ is in PU. He has managed to be pretty solid in every tour he plays, consistently going +1 or so each time. 18.5k feels like kind of a bit much for that type of profile, but it could be worse I guess. I think he should go positive. Last up is tazz, who, as I said last time, is literally just the LC DeepBlueC at this point lol He even went 4-5 last tour man LOL Basically the same player. Anyway, 0 brain prediction of 4-5 wins here.
Overall, this seems like a solid enough team. There are some questionable prices, but there are enough good players here to where it wouldn't shock me if they made a run.
The Technical Machines
SV OU: Separation 6.5
SV OU: zioziotrip 4.5
SV OU: Plague 5
SV Ubers: entrocefalo 5.5
SV DOU: eragon 5
SV UU: Punny 8
SV RU: THE_CHUNGLER 4
SV NU: Elias PSY 5
SV PU: Kushalos 4
SV LC: Envy 5
Managers: Expulso, Bouff, xcx
Total: 52.5
The Machines were certainly not very good last season. Let's see if they can turn things around.
The star player here is Punny. Punny has been one of the best players in Snake / SCL history, amassing a dominant 46-24 record across a multitude of appearances. His last showing was a lot more pedestrian, as he only managed to go 4-4. That coupled with the strength of the player pool gives me some pause, but this is still someone that has managed to farm excellent player pools consistently in the past. I will bump him down slightly but still project him to do really well.
The OU core consists of Separation, zioziotrip, and Plague. Separation's stock is apparently on the fucking moon LOL what the hell? I did not expect him to be 29.5k. Ok well, to his credit, he has managed to go 15-6 in his last 4 tours. He has always generally done pretty solidly since he showed up on the scene. That being said, his track record is not elite enough to where I would be comfortable spending this much on him. I will still predict him to do solidly well here. zio being 13.5k also seems weird to me. I don't really get it. He has basically had one good team tour ever and is 19-15 overall..like sure. He's probably a safe bet for 4-5 wins. Plague has been pretty decent in his career as well. He should do fine enough.
In Ubers, we have entrocefalo, a player who was supposed to be the second coming of jesus in Ubers but never exactly lived up to that. He won Ubers Open so that's cool I guess. He has generally been pretty solid in this tier at least; I will project him for 5 wins. In Doubles, we have the dude that won OSDT. That is certainly something, but I obviously need to see some positive sheet results before I drink the kool-aid. In RU, we have some dude who surprisingly is not a name change what the hell is this name LOL He seems to play a lot of Circuits or whatever I guess. Cool. His season could go either way. I do recognize Elias Psy. I rated him as a 5.5 last year and he went 4-5, so I guess he will receive a slight downgrade this time out. He's definitely a safe bet for 4-5 wins at least. Kushalos is starting LOL wow. The Chef has fallen off quite a bit from his peak, famously cratering with 1-8 performances in both SPL and SCL in 2024. The chef at his peak would have been rated quite highly, but my faith in him is certainly much lower nowadays. He did go 3-3 last year which will save his score from being completely nuked. I will still predict him to go negative here. Last up is Envy, who is 10-8 overall in this tournament. Sure. This person seems like a very safe 4-5 win projection as well.
Overall, this team seems interesting enough I guess. If Punny can get his mojo back, they have some solid pieces that could help them make a run.
The Uncharted Terrors
SV OU: SirPeanutCronch 4.5
SV OU: DAHLI 5.5
SV OU: LB 4.5
SV Ubers: baconeatinassassin 5.5
SV DOU: Zee 5
SV UU: ChrisPBacon 4.5
SV RU: zugubu royale 5
SV NU: diamonds_realm 4
SV PU: Drud 5
SV LC: dcae 4
Managers: rozes, Gingy, Kunal
Total: 47.5
The Terrors did not screw me for the first time last season. I rated them 9th and they missed the playoffs. Let's see if some of the best SCL managers ever can make the playoffs this time around.
I would not call anyone here a star player to be honest, but apparently this bacon dude was 25.5k wtf LOL what? He just went 0-3 in this very tier in World Cup!!! My god. I learned from the above ego post that he was undefeated in Ubers PL....too bad that's not on the sheet. In terms of more relevant results, he is 8-6 overall and went 5-3 last SCL. This seems like an absolutely absurd price bro. My lord. People just throw 20k+ on anyone nowadays. I see people in the Ubers subforum ranking him above Fc. Genuine nonsense. Imagine doubting Fc the absolute goat. I mean, I guess I will project him for like 5 wins for now. This is not a good start..I can see where this is going.
The OU core consists of SirPeanutCronch, DAHLI, and LB. I know the Peanut person won OST, which is a respectable accomplishment. He is 3-4 on the sheet, though, which does give me some pause. His season could go either way. DAHLI, meanwhile, is a veteran at this point, having played 70 games and putting up a decent 37-33 record. He has been kind of hit-or-miss, having some poor tours mixed with some solid ones as of late. He does usually go positive, though. 10k seems like a good price for him to be honest; I like it. I'll project 5 wins here. LB is 4-5 overall on the sheet. They were 5k in the draft, so their stock does not seem to be that high. Their season could go either way.
In Doubles is Zee, who managed to completely flip the script on what was an atrocious career with a phenomenal 9-0 run last time out. Going from 3-13 on the sheet to going 9-0 is certainly something. Maybe they just improved. That being said, I will still be skeptical for now; I will project 4-5 wins here. In UU, we have Crispy Bacon, who I guess is a UU player now? ok. I mean, he's certainly been solid in SPL, which has earned him my respect. That being said, there are a lot of good players in this tier, so my rating for him will be slightly depressed. In RU is zugubu royale, who raised his stock quite a bit with an excellent Grand Slam showing. His Slam win gives me some confidence in him, but his extreme lack of sheet results makes me very skeptical still. His season could go either way. In NU, we have someone I have never heard of. They were ranked 24th in the prospect report and don't have any sheet games. This is literally just a classic Terrors pick honestly LOL Well, not much else to say I guess. In PU is Drud, who the team retained after a great 7-2 run last time out. That's certainly impressive, but he needs to do more for me to be a real believer. He will get a slight bump from last year, though. Last up is dcae!!?? LOL what? This man is back? the goat? That is very random. And he was somehow 10k wtf I really do not know what to make of this. He certainly was a threat at some point, but he went 0-5 in his last showing, which was 3 years ago....yeah, this is kind of sketchy lol I did go to the LC subforum to see what the mainers thought and pretty much the only relevant post was Kingler putting dcae 1st overall and then getting memed to death so ?? Who knows.
Overall, this team inspires very little confidence, which is really not surprising at all given that they spent 25.5k on an 8-6 sheet player. Classic Terrors draft honestly. They usually screw me over, but maybe last year was a sign of things to come.
Well, for the people that are new to this...the numbers next to each player are 'confidence ratings' aka how much I believe in each player's ability to succeed. I just add the points up and bop.
Final Rankings:
1. The Arena Spartans (59.5)
Yeah, I mean, genuinely...you could have had an rng draft the team if you had Attribute + Fc retains and probably been in the top 4 for me LOL The fact that they got Nails + Michael is just kind of the cherry on top. We love the Spartans.
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2. The Power Plant Dynamos (55)
Pretty clear 2nd
3. The Circuit Breakers (52.5)
4. The Mount Silver Foxes (52.5)
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5. The Technical Machines (52.5)
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And now, we have the very annoying coin flip. Just looking at the lineups again, I think I have to put the Breakers in honestly. It just looks more reliable. That leaves us with the Machines vs. Foxes for 4th. I think I trust the Foxes by a hair more; they rely less on one player being jesus and have more flexibility to me. Hopefully this decision doesn't screw me. I do think the Machines are pretty solid but wcyd.
6. The Orange Islanders (51.5)
7. The Showdown Shoguns (50)
8. Studio Gible (50)
9. The Indigo Platoon (48)
10. The Uncharted Terrors (47.5)
If there's anything I need to fix, just PM me on here thanks. See you next time. Hopefully the power of the sheet can beat the eye test yet again.
The Arena Spartans
SV OU: Attribute 9
SV OU: Niko 4.5
SV OU: Patatexv 4
SV Ubers: Fc 9
SV DOU: Nails 8
SV UU: etern 5.5
SV RU: spitfire 4.5
SV NU: Shadow079 3.5
SV PU: Michaelderbeste2 7.5
SV LC: JuanSG 4
Managers: tko, vivalospride, ninjadog
Total: 59.5
Last year, at the end of my PRs, I wrote this: "how the living fuck did the spartans get 4th LMAO god HOW that team looks so sketchy man oh my god it's fucking doomed the islanders are going to screw me." Well, as it turns out, the Spartans rewarded my faith in them. I remember they had a decent amount of doubters, but let the record show, I always believed in them...Surely this team is good again this year.
This first star player here is Fc. He has performed very well on the sheet thus far, amassing a very solid +21 differential. He went 11-0 in this tier last year, and is 17-2 in Ubers since the start of 2025. He even managed to go 5-5 in SPL in what I thought was the hardest pool in the entire tournament. I have full faith here. The team also retained Attribute for 22k. This is what I wrote about him in SPL: "Attribute was on his way to becoming a sheet god, attaining a prestigious 8/10 confidence score from me in SCL. However, he had the first -2 tournament of his career. He will look to get back on track here, hoping to not disappoint the team that chose to retain him. My confidence in him is still solidly high, but it is a bit lower than last time. Still, he should definitely be expected to go positive here". Well, he managed to have the best tournament of his career, going 8-2 and then following it up with a 3-1 World Cup. I guess we're just going to call him a sheet god at this point. This team is off to an insane start holy these are broken retains.
Bro what?? They have Nails and Michael also?? Is this just the greatest team of all time? What is happening?? I should have done this team last bro. Ok well, Nails really needs no introduction. I guess I will just post what I wrote last year because it makes me look good..."The star player here is Nails, who was ranked as the #1 Doubles player. He uncharacteristically had a mediocre performance last year, but he generally performs pretty well. He is 37-19 in this tournament overall and I still have a good amount of faith in him. I don't actually understand how he was only 17k tbh He has been a bit worse recently but I will project him for 6 wins." Shockingly, he got exactly 6 wins lol And he was somehow 17.5k again? We have lost the plot man. I mean, the man is 43-22 in SCL. He got a 7.5 confidence score from me last time so I'll slightly increase it this time around. Michael, meanwhile, somehow has 4 individual trophies wtf I have really been out of the loop what LOL Anyway, we know Michael is maybe the most talented Pokemon player given his dominance on both this site and in VGC; it's pretty unparalleled at this point. During last SCL, I dinged him a bit in my ratings because he generally performed much better in SS OU than in lower tiers, but he managed to go 6-2 in PU last season. He is 31-16 in this tournament overall so he clearly has just figured something out here. I will bump him up a bit this time.
The OU core is rounded out by Niko and Patatexv. I see that Niko's stock is back to being in the gutter; his value seems to ping pong a lot. Well, he has been pretty bad lately. He is 7-18 since the start of 2025....that is definitely not good. He has obviously had some solid results in the past, but it's hard to project him to go positive with those results. I do think he is better than 7-18, though...he should find his form eventually. He is also good in SV OU as pointed out above. For now, I'll go with 4ish wins. I rated the Patatex guy a 4.5 in SPL and he proceeded to go 3-6, following it up with a 2-1 World Cup. He also seems like a safe enough bet to do okay.
The team also retained etern, who exceeded all expectations and went 10-1 last season. He also went 3-0 in World Cup and had a really good Grand Slam run so maybe he has just ascended a bit as a player. I viewed him as a bit mediocre before, but I will definitely project him to go positive now despite a tough player pool. I would like to see one more really good tour before I fully drink the kool-aid, though, given his lengthy rather average history prior to this run. In RU is Spitfire, who has been pretty average overall on the sheet in his career. He is probably a safe bet for 4.5ish wins. I have never heard of this dude in NU before, but he is apparently #5 on the prospect rating and cost 4k...sure. He is 0-5 on the sheet, so I will dock him a bit. I also have obviously never heard of this LC player before. Apparently, he has played a lot of subforum tours and done slightly above average in them. Sure. His season could go either way; I have no reason to believe in him for now.
Overall, there are some randoms here, but I would be shocked if this wasn't the best team. The core here is just really strong. It should not be possible for this team to miss the playoffs to be honest. We love the Spartans!
The Circuit Breakers
SV OU: SoulWind 4.5
SV OU: Rubyblood 4.5
SV OU: Let's Rumble Shall We 4
SV Ubers: crying 4
SV DOU: ann 4
SV UU: JustFranco 7
SV RU: xavgb 8
SV NU: Nat 6.5
SV PU: MZ 5.5
SV LC: Lokifan 4.5
Managers: togkey, elodin, Mada
Total: 52.5
The Breakers were solid last season, falling short in the semifinals. Let's see if they can find success again this year.
The ace player here is xavgb. Outside of a poor showing in World Cup 2025, stresh is generally an elite player. He had a very good 4-1 performance in the last World Cup and has pretty much always been amazing in SCL in particular, amassing a superb 25-9 record. This year, he finds himself on a different team besides the Terrors, which is certainly interesting. I see he went for 33k, which given his general history of being a menace in this tournament coupled with his elite flexibility, seems like a reasonable price. He does not have many sheet games in the past 2 years, which will be the only thing preventing me from having full faith in him. I will project him to get 6+ wins, though.
The OU core consists of SoulWind, Rubyblood, and Let's Rumble Shall We. SW has generally struggled a good amount in this tournament, amassing a pedestrian 40-46 record in Snake / SCL. He has not finished with higher than a +2 record in any team tour in the past 5 years and he has not gone positive in this tournament in 5 years either, so it would obviously be insane to predict him to do super well here. He's obviously still a really good player; for whatever reason, his skills just do not translate to consistent sheet wins. I will project him for 4 wins here. He is still a scary player to face in a tiebreak setting, so I don't hate the 15.5k price; despite his lackluster performances, it would seem a bit insane for him to be under 10k, so it makes enough sense to me. Rubyblood's stock seems to be a bit low in this tournament given his 4.5k pricetag, but given the absence of GSC, that makes sense. I wrote in the SPL PRs that I thought he was an overpay in that tournament; I gave him a 5.5 confidence rating and he finished with a 4-5 record. He was on a good sheet run before that at least. I think his season could go either way. The last dude was 0-4 on the sheet before SPL, but managed to put up a 4-5 record. Perhaps he could be a viable player after all. I will project him to go negative, but I will bump him up slightly.
elodin really picks crying in every draft I swear LOL wtf Oh, they were a retain. That's interesting. Well, crying went 5-5 last year. I suppose the reason for the retain was their good Slam performance + tier flexibility. Sure. Well, they were getting smoked before last SCL. Their performance last campaign coupled with their past successes is enough for me to slightly bump their rating up, but I'm not a believer yet. I think their season could go either way. In Doubles, we have Ann, who got washed last SCL to the tune of a 2-6 record. That probably is not ideal...coupled with their low price tag, I'm not really sure why I'm supposed to believe in them. We'll project a negative record here. In UU, we have JustFranco, who went for a crazy 31k. This guy's stock is still ridiculously high, I guess. Well, I doubted him slightly last SCL, and he went 6-3 against a tough player pool. He did do badly in SPL, but that probably doesn't really make a difference. He has gotten 6 wins in three straight editions of this tournament, so he clearly just ascends when lower tiers are in the tour. I don't really have a choice but to say he'll go 6-3 here.
In NU, we have Nat, who I assume was this cheap because of the tierlock lol Nat has performed very well on the sheet since the start of 2023, putting up a 33-15 record overall. I will downgrade them slightly because they are not in OU, but this just seems like a classic case of 'mons is mons'. I really like this price for someone that has shown a consistent ability to get sheet wins. Seems like a clear steal to me. I rated MZ at a 5 last year and he managed to go 6-4. He is 11-6 overall in the past two SCLs, so it would seem pretty foolish to expect him to do poorly. I'll project a positive record here, but I would like to see one more good tour before I fully glaze him. Rounding out the roster is Lokifan, who has tumbled a bit down clout everest after his showing last year. Everyone and their mom was glazing this dude; he was the #1 ranked LC player in what looked like a pretty mediocre player pool and finished the year 3-5. Not what you want to see...That being said, he was good two years ago. His season could really go either way here.
Overall, this team seems solid enough. I think there are enough solid pieces to where they could make a run if stresh plays up to his ceiling.
The Indigo Platoon
SV OU: Clean 6
SV OU: yerdunc 5
SV OU: ojr 5
SV Ubers: icemaster 5.5
SV DOU: DubiousBulb 4
SV UU: NoName 4.5
SV RU: GaryTheGengar 4.5
SV NU: esteb4n 5
SV PU: xiri 4.5
SV LC: Hacker 4
Managers: Django, Quinn, Baddy
Total: 48
NGL...my first as I was typing this roster out is wondering how the hell this team spent all their money? How is this roster the same value as the other two LOL What? Who was that expensive here wtf LOOOOOL oh my god clean was 32k? bruh what?? Well...at least he won some sheet games in the past two tours. I will give him that....
There's no shot anyone here deserves to be called a star player so let's just get into it. clean was absurdly overpriced last SCL, which is something anyone with a brain could have figured out. His price fell all the way to 17.5k last SPL; I bumped him down slightly due to his SCL performance, but to his credit, he did manage to go 10-4 in SPL + World Cup combined. There's obviously talent here too given his status in the community and some of his individual results, but naturally, I still wholeheartedly believe that spending 32k for someone that's 23-23 on the sheet is genuine delusion. Embarrassing lack of sheet respect SMH. I hate this draft. Anyway, I will project him to go positive here, but the team will likely need him to do a lot more than that if they want to contend. The other OU players are yerdunc and ojr. I did follow World Cup a decent amount, so I know that yerdunc was phenomenal in that tournament. He could be well on his way to being a sheet warrior. However, that is still only one tour. I'm certainly not going to drink the kool-aid just off of that. 16.5k feels like a bit much. ojr, meanwhile, is pretty much the complete opposite of the other two names, his stock being very low as reflected by his 3k price tag. He is 5-1 on the sheet, so I will show him some respect. I think he could do fine.
In Ubers, we have icemaster, who was an absurd 24k wtf I guess this is how the team spent so much money. I feel like icemaster was projected to be some Ubers god a la pi face...the problem is, that was like eons ago. He certainly never lived up to that billing, but has been turning things around as of late. He is 17-9 since SCL 2024, which is certainly impressive. I projected him to go positive last year and he finished 4-4. Given his good World Cup showing, I'll rate him the same here. In DOU, we have someone I have never heard of. He apparently did well in OSDT, but hype for him does not seem to be very high. I think his season could go either way. In UU, we have NoName, who delivered a bit on his hype with a 4-2 World Cup showing. He went 5-5 in SPL; sure. I rated him as a 4.5 in SPL and he has been respectable enough since then. That being said, there are A LOT of good players in UU, so I can't really bump him up here. His price seems a bit exorbitant to be honest. In RU, we have GarytheGengar?? What? LOL huh?? He has never played in SCL before, which is certainly interesting. He did play Snake in 2019. He has been solid in SPL, but this is obviously a bit of a different ballgame. I think this could be a solid pick for 3k, though, to be honest; he does win on the sheet at least. I think his season could go either way. esteb4n was apparently a retain after going 6-3 last year. Sure. I would obviously like to see more before I believe in him, but probably he's a decent bet to go positive. In PU is Xiri, who is returning to the tournament for the first time in 3 years. That's random. I mean, he's been a pretty serviceable player whenever he's played, so I guess maybe it's fine. His season could go either way as well. Last up is Hacker, who is 9-15 on the sheet and has yet to go positive in a single team tour...yeah, that's probably not good. He did go 3-3 last year so he can get a very slight bump, but I'll still project him go to negative.
Well, things were going a bit too well LOL This team is pretty uninspiring. It just feels like it has a very low amount of safe bets. The floor is just really low here. The managers here really need to open the sheet and ctrl + f some more next time; the lack of bankable wins is criminal. They also have Gondra on the bench, but he has not gone positive in a team tour since 2020!!! so that's probably not someone you want to rely on.
The Mount Silver Foxes
SV OU: vk 5
SV OU: Stareal 5
SV OU: Pkel SweetforU 4.5
SV Ubers: Skyview 4.5
SV DOU: qsns 4.5
SV UU: pdt 5
SV RU: Dugza 7
SV NU: Danny 6
SV PU: Mako 5.5
SV LC: Laroxyl 5.5
Managers: Finchinator, Laurel, purbaj
Total: 52.5
What a random manager core LOL wtf Well, Laurel achieved ultimate glory in SPL after a decade. Let's see if he can recreate his success here; few have been able to succeed in both arenas, so it may be an uphill climb. I hope Finch makes a big board for this.
There is no one here I would classify as a star player, but Dugza somehow went for 28k wtf I am really out of the loop I guess LOL When in the world did Dugza become this big of a sensation? He does have good flexibility and has performed well enough in the past, I suppose. Since the start of 2024, he is 16-5 on the sheet. That is certainly impressive; if he does really well in this tour, I will definitely glaze him. For now, I will project him to go positive. 28k does seem a bit insane still, though, but we shall see.
The OU core consists of vk, Stareal, and Pkel. vk has been kind of up-and-down in his career thus far, ultimately amassing a rather average 15-13 sheet record. He went for 19k, which seems like a lot given his tendency to occasionally completely fall flat on his face. I think his season could go either way to be honest. Stareal has been pretty okay lately, going 13-10 in his past three tours. He has had an up-and-down sheet career as well; he will probably do fine I guess. Pkel has also been pretty average thus far, going 14-13. I gave him a 5 last time and he went 3-5 so slight demotion for him. These are all almost basically the same player to me ngl LOL wtf. If these three players combined were like less than 20k, I would have said it was kind of fire, but for 39k, it seems a bit excessive. We'll see how the rest of the lineup shakes out I guess...
In Ubers, we have Skyview, who is 7-9 on the sheet. He did go 4-0 in World Cup, so there's that. This is another player whose season could go either way. qsns is still playing apparently wow. He started out his career poorly but went 12-5 in his last two SCLs. The fact that his last sheet result was two years ago does make me doubt him a bit more, though. His season could go either way as well. wtf is every player on this lineup just the same LOL pdt was over 30k last SCL apparently, which anyone with a pulse could have said was absurd lol His price this time is a much more reasonable 14.5k. He struggled quite a bit last time out, having the worst tour of his career and putting up a 2-7 record. He was good in World Cup, at least. He has had some good showings in the past, succeeding when I've doubted him against elite player pools. I will show him respect still but bump him down slightly from his 6 confidence rating last year. This is what I wrote about Danny last SCL: "In NU is the penguin avatar guy, who is also apparently a 20k player jesus. He had an excellent campaign last year but I sure as hell am not trusting this dude just off of 1 tour. That being said, he should be a safe bet to get 5 wins or so." Well, he went 6-4, so he can get a slight rating bump for me. Congratulations on being one of the highest-rated players on the team. Mako is apparently in NU...sure. Mako has been largely pedestrian as of late which dampens my confidence in them a bit. They are sometimes good, though. I will project around 5 wins here. The roster is completed by Laroxyl, who is 34-31 on the sheet and is trending slightly upwards as of late. He is probably a safe bet to go positive.
Overall, this team is interesting I guess. There's no one I really love, but there are some pretty decent pieces. If DugZa lives up to his crazy price tag, they will probably make the playoffs I suppose.
The Orange Islanders
SV OU: Ewin 6
SV OU: kdca 5.5
SV OU: Mattz_ 4.5
SV Ubers: Lana 5
SV DOU: Xrn 5.5
SV UU: zS 8.5
SV RU: robjr 4
SV NU: GeniusX 4.5
SV PU: Vulpix03 4
SV LC: Reggg 4
Managers: Dave, hellom, tier
Total: 51.5
For the first time ever, the Islanders did not screw my PRs up last year. It was a rare poor showing from the Dave-led enterprise. Can he return to glory this year?
The ace player here is zS the goat. omg. Now this is someone who actually DESERVES to be 31k. Not clean. He was a retain too, which is definitely fair. He is 23-8 in his past 4 tours and is 43-24 overall on the sheet. Why would anyone doubt him at this point? The UU pool is scary as it is every year, which is the one thing stopping his rating from ballooning to the moon. That being said, I obviously still believe in him a great deal.
The OU core consists of Ewin, kdca, and TDNT. Ewin had a poor World Cup but had managed to go positive in his last 5 tours prior to that. He really salvaged what was becoming an extremely mediocre career. He is 26-18 since the start of 2024 which is certainly solid. I will bank on his World Cup being a small stumble rather than a sign of things to come and slightly bump up the 5.5 rating I gave him in SPL. kdca was one of the heroes of SPL, having had a good shot of winning the very coveted SPL MVP trophy...speaking of which, I saw that to absolutely NO ONE's surprise, the absurdly moronic subjective voting system was thrown out the window and replaced with an objective sheet one. Who could have guessed this would be a much better idea? Anyway, Outside of that amazing SPL, he has been a bit pedestrian overall in a relatively small sample. I will probably project him for 5 wins here. TDNT is a very cool 35-20 on the sheet, but most of that is due to SS OU, which is not in this tournament. I believe that he is now 28-11 in SS OU, which would mean that he is 7-9 in non-SS OU. That certainly does not bode well for his chances here. I think his season could go either way.
Lana is 10-9 on the sheet and has generally just been decent in all of their tours so far. They seem like a safe pick for 4-5 wins. Xrn was a whopping 20.5k for some reason. He has had some good tours in the past, but his recent tours have been more underwhelming. He has been good in SCL as a whole, though. I will probably go with around 5 wins here. In RU, is robjr, who is generally always serviceable enough. Sometimes he gets washed, but he does occasionally have solid tours. He's probably a safe pick for 4 wins. GeniusX plays NU apparently so sure. He has been pretty mediocre on the big stage thus far and has never really impressed. He has consistently managed to be decent pretty much every time, though. I mean, I don't see a reason to expect him not to get 4ish wins I guess. In PU, we have Vulpix, who has apparently returned to playing for the first time in eons wtf. His last sheet game was in 2022 when he went 0-4 in SPL...yikes. This is probably a safe negative projection. Rounding out the roster is someone I've never heard of. He's also not on the prospect report wtf Well, I don't really have a reason to believe in him I guess so sure. whatever.
Overall, this is maybe a solid team. zS is the goat, so maybe he can carry them. They have some solid slots.
The Power Plant Dynamos
SV OU: Tempo di Anguria 5
SV OU: kebab mlml 6
SV OU: AgencyIsOwn 5
SV Ubers: Mareep 5
SV DOU: EternalSnowman 6
SV UU: Garay Oak 6
SV RU: TheFranklin 7
SV NU: Ruffles 5.5
SV PU: Metallica126 5
SV LC: wail 4.5
Managers: blank, Raiza, bea
Total: 55
The Dynamos are back with some very interesting managers this time LOL wtf is this core. Well, I have some pretty solid expectations for those names so let's see.
I guess the star player here is Garay...Well, he was generally someone that usually underachieves his skill level and is bad at sheet farming. He has had some good tours in the past few years, most notably an elite run that helped Spain win the World Cup trophy a couple years ago and an elite 8-1 showing two SPLs ago. I rated him as a 6 last SPL because of his past pedestrian sheet performances, and he finished 5-4. Well, I don't really have a reason to bump him up then. The UU player pool is also very scary as usual, so it would be surprising to me if he was super good. I do think he'll go positive, though.
The OU core consists of KEBAB, Tempo, and AgencyIsOwn. Kebab might be the most disrespected player on the entire website. The guy is 38-31 on the sheet and is 16-10 since the start of 2024. How on earth is he possibly so cheap every tour? HOW WAS HE 6K? WHAT? Bro people will spend 30k on someone with similar results. This is embarrassing man. I'm sure as hell not doubting him. He's going positive. Easy steal wtf. The Tempo person had a good World Cup run, helping lift surprising contenders Latin America to their first trophy. I will need to see more to believe in him, though, obviously. His season could go either way. AgencyIsOwn is a similar story. I guess it makes sense bea drafted these two lol His stock is apparently much higher, as he went for 15k in his first draft tournament. That is certainly a lot, but he was playing tiebreaks so I suppose people really think he's that good. I will need to see more to drink the kool-aid, but I will be somewhat optimistic.
In Ubers is Mareep, who apparently went 4-1 last season. Surprisingly, he was still only 3k despite that. That is interesting. His season could go either way, but I like the price for that. In Doubles is EternalSnowman, who went 7-2 last year and is 11-5 overall. He seems to be a very safe bet to finish positive at least, and if he's elite this tour, I will start glazing him for real. In RU, is TheFranklin, who rebounded from a bunch of poor showings in a row with an elite 7-2 run last SCL. He also had a very good Slam run. I believed in him a decent amount last time out, rating him at a 5.5. I will bump him up a bit given his last performance. Apparently, Ruffles plays NU. Sure. He has been very solid so far on the big stage, managing to go positive in each of his tours thus far. He is obviously worse without ORAS, but he has earned enough of my respect to where I'll project him to go positive. Metallica has been pretty decent the past few years. He never seems to get washed at the very least. He's probably a good enough bet for 4-5 wins. Last up is Wail Wailord, who decided to shorten his name for some reason. Most of his results are kind of old, but he did go 5-5 last time out. Sure. His season could go either way.
Overall, this seems like a pretty solid team. They have some nice pieces and managed to be the only people intelligent enough to draft a dude for 6k that wins games every tour lol The manager core is also kind of fire.
The Showdown Shoguns
SV OU: Vert 6.5
SV OU: Axzel 5.5
SV OU: Silent Waltz 4.5
SV Ubers: Sheik: 4.5
SV DOU: KCric 4
SV UU: watashi 4.5
SV RU: hjkhj 5
SV NU: lax 5.5
SV PU: Trichotomy 4
SV LC: Eniigma 6
Managers: ima, Star, Giannis
Total: 50
The Shoguns managed to stop being the most cursed team in the tournament and secured the trophy last time out. Can they find success again?
The star players here are Vert and lax. Vert has always been known as a jesus-type player, but has not really played in enough team tours for me to fully glaze him. He has been solid overall, going 13-7. He has gone 7-5 since I last rated him, despite the fact that he was not playing SV OU in SPL. I will slightly bump his rating this time, but I'm definitely not completely drinking the kool-aid here until he has some jesus tours in a row. I see that lax is still going for exorbitant prices in 2026. 29.5k seems kind of insane to be honest LOL He is 22-17 since the start of 2024 I'm really not sure if that's the profile of someone you want to pay 29.5k for. This man is almost 5x the price of Kebab the goat, who has a higher win% and +- than that...tbh this is just more kebab glaze. Anyway, I'm projecting lax for 5 wins this time around.
The OU core is rounded out by Axzel and Silent Waltz. Axzel has been solid so far, going 10-5 to start off his young sheet career. I obviously can't glaze him that much yet, but I think I can say he can maybe get 5 wins. Silent Waltz went for an insane amount, over twice the price of KEBAB bruh I can't get over this man. This shit is embarrassing LOL Anyway, whatever. I know he got to the finals of OST, but he has no sheet results outside of his 1-2 showing last World Cup. I will temper my expectations quite a bit here. His season could go either way.
In Ubers, we have Sheik:, who went 5-4 last SPL. Sure. He was 3k so expectations don't seem to be that high. His season could go either way. I have obviously never heard of this Doubles player before, but they are ranked 82nd in the illustrious prospect rankings. This is another coinflip player. In UU, we have watashi, who has actually had some pretty decent tours as of late. He managed to get 4-5 wins in 3/3 of his last SPLs / SCLs. That is impressive. My problem here is that the UU pool is scary as hell, so people I would rate a bit higher will generally have their ratings depressed. I would have bumped him up in another tier probably, but in this one, I'll say his season could go either way. In RU, we have a dude with a meme name who managed to go 7-4 last time out. Sure. If he's good this tour, he can get some more glaze, but for now, I'll just say he'll do decently. Rounding out the roster are Trichotomy and Eniigma. The former is apparently not on the sheet, but plays monotype according to Ego. I don't really have a reason to believe in him just yet. Eniigma, meanwhile, has managed to go 13-7 in the past two editions of this tour combined. That is certainly respectable. He should be a safe bet to go positive.
The team also apparently has CTC who is not starting. If he played, it would bump up their rating slightly. This team is literally just the Tyrants bro LOL The issue with that is that I have not put the Tyrants in the playoffs either of the past two SPL editions; I think I was the one person that correctly predicted they wouldn't make the playoffs last SPL. This team gives off similar vibes. There's not enough bankable wins here for me to be confident in them. There is certainly a lot of upside, though, and the teambuilding support is certainly through the roof here. We shall see how it goes. Last year's team felt way better to me; I did rank them #1 in my PRs, after all.
Studio Gible
SV OU: Fusien 5.5
SV OU: Eternal Spirit 5.5
SV OU: sire clod 4
SV Ubers: Taka 4.5
SV DOU: bagel 4.5
SV UU: Marcop 6
SV RU: lighthouses 4
SV NU: shengineer 5.5
SV PU: LpZ 5.5
SV LC: tazz 5
Managers: Feliburn, Accel, Master Chief
Total: 50
I ranked this team 5th last time and they made the playoffs; it was the only team I didn't predict correctly. Let's see if their roster is as good this time around.
The headline player here I suppose is Fusien. He went over 30k, which really isn't surprising considering that it seems like everyone and their mom goes for over 30k nowadays regardless of how many sheet games they win. He has had some solid tours thus far, but sits at 21-19 overall, which is rather mediocre for someone with this price tag. I mean, I rated him as a 5.5 in SPL and he has gone 6-7 since then. I suppose I will give him a similar rating this time around. This feels like another overpay to me. The sheet disrespect is real.
The OU core is rounded out by Gama and sire clod. Gama was only 7k this time around, which is interesting. His price is genuinely just unpredictable honestly LOL He was bad in SCL so I slightly downgraded him in SPL; since then, he has gone 9-5 so I guess I'm moving him back to 5.5. He's definitely a very solid pick 7k. idk what people are doing bros. sire clod is 8-10 overall and struggled in SPL. That is probably not that good of a sign. In Ubers is Taka, who did go 5-1 last SCL. That being said, his other results are a bit sketch. I think his season could go either way. In Doubles is bagel, who won OSDT before and has some ribbons. Cool. Apparently, his name on the sheet is bage1?? That's his name? wtf. Well, he went 5-3 two years ago and went 4-6 last year. His season could go either way, but I'll downgrade him slightly from last time.
In UU, we have marcop, who has some crazy name that was too annoying to spell out. He was very good last SCL, but subjected himself to the meme that is the variance madhouse last SPL, failing to come out alive with a positive record. He has quietly been very good in this tour in the past, going 22-11. I certainly think he'll go positive, even with very stiff competition in this tier. Apparently, lighthouses is back? ok lol Well, he went 4-5 two SPLs ago; that was his first sheet action in basically a fucking century, so I guess that's something. I'm definitely a bit concerned here, though. I guess they have the classic Feliburn + lighthouses core....His season could go either way, but I will be slightly pessimistic on this one. In NU, we have shengineer, who was a revelation last year for rozes's team. He struggled in SPL, but he didn't get to play a lower tier there, so I don't really hold that against him. It is very surprising to me that he wasn't retained; this pretty much seems like the classic 0-brain retain everyone does in each edition of one of these tournaments. Well, I will need to see more before I fully drink the kool-aid, but I think he'll go positive. LpZ is in PU. He has managed to be pretty solid in every tour he plays, consistently going +1 or so each time. 18.5k feels like kind of a bit much for that type of profile, but it could be worse I guess. I think he should go positive. Last up is tazz, who, as I said last time, is literally just the LC DeepBlueC at this point lol He even went 4-5 last tour man LOL Basically the same player. Anyway, 0 brain prediction of 4-5 wins here.
Overall, this seems like a solid enough team. There are some questionable prices, but there are enough good players here to where it wouldn't shock me if they made a run.
The Technical Machines
SV OU: Separation 6.5
SV OU: zioziotrip 4.5
SV OU: Plague 5
SV Ubers: entrocefalo 5.5
SV DOU: eragon 5
SV UU: Punny 8
SV RU: THE_CHUNGLER 4
SV NU: Elias PSY 5
SV PU: Kushalos 4
SV LC: Envy 5
Managers: Expulso, Bouff, xcx
Total: 52.5
The Machines were certainly not very good last season. Let's see if they can turn things around.
The star player here is Punny. Punny has been one of the best players in Snake / SCL history, amassing a dominant 46-24 record across a multitude of appearances. His last showing was a lot more pedestrian, as he only managed to go 4-4. That coupled with the strength of the player pool gives me some pause, but this is still someone that has managed to farm excellent player pools consistently in the past. I will bump him down slightly but still project him to do really well.
The OU core consists of Separation, zioziotrip, and Plague. Separation's stock is apparently on the fucking moon LOL what the hell? I did not expect him to be 29.5k. Ok well, to his credit, he has managed to go 15-6 in his last 4 tours. He has always generally done pretty solidly since he showed up on the scene. That being said, his track record is not elite enough to where I would be comfortable spending this much on him. I will still predict him to do solidly well here. zio being 13.5k also seems weird to me. I don't really get it. He has basically had one good team tour ever and is 19-15 overall..like sure. He's probably a safe bet for 4-5 wins. Plague has been pretty decent in his career as well. He should do fine enough.
In Ubers, we have entrocefalo, a player who was supposed to be the second coming of jesus in Ubers but never exactly lived up to that. He won Ubers Open so that's cool I guess. He has generally been pretty solid in this tier at least; I will project him for 5 wins. In Doubles, we have the dude that won OSDT. That is certainly something, but I obviously need to see some positive sheet results before I drink the kool-aid. In RU, we have some dude who surprisingly is not a name change what the hell is this name LOL He seems to play a lot of Circuits or whatever I guess. Cool. His season could go either way. I do recognize Elias Psy. I rated him as a 5.5 last year and he went 4-5, so I guess he will receive a slight downgrade this time out. He's definitely a safe bet for 4-5 wins at least. Kushalos is starting LOL wow. The Chef has fallen off quite a bit from his peak, famously cratering with 1-8 performances in both SPL and SCL in 2024. The chef at his peak would have been rated quite highly, but my faith in him is certainly much lower nowadays. He did go 3-3 last year which will save his score from being completely nuked. I will still predict him to go negative here. Last up is Envy, who is 10-8 overall in this tournament. Sure. This person seems like a very safe 4-5 win projection as well.
Overall, this team seems interesting enough I guess. If Punny can get his mojo back, they have some solid pieces that could help them make a run.
The Uncharted Terrors
SV OU: SirPeanutCronch 4.5
SV OU: DAHLI 5.5
SV OU: LB 4.5
SV Ubers: baconeatinassassin 5.5
SV DOU: Zee 5
SV UU: ChrisPBacon 4.5
SV RU: zugubu royale 5
SV NU: diamonds_realm 4
SV PU: Drud 5
SV LC: dcae 4
Managers: rozes, Gingy, Kunal
Total: 47.5
The Terrors did not screw me for the first time last season. I rated them 9th and they missed the playoffs. Let's see if some of the best SCL managers ever can make the playoffs this time around.
I would not call anyone here a star player to be honest, but apparently this bacon dude was 25.5k wtf LOL what? He just went 0-3 in this very tier in World Cup!!! My god. I learned from the above ego post that he was undefeated in Ubers PL....too bad that's not on the sheet. In terms of more relevant results, he is 8-6 overall and went 5-3 last SCL. This seems like an absolutely absurd price bro. My lord. People just throw 20k+ on anyone nowadays. I see people in the Ubers subforum ranking him above Fc. Genuine nonsense. Imagine doubting Fc the absolute goat. I mean, I guess I will project him for like 5 wins for now. This is not a good start..I can see where this is going.
The OU core consists of SirPeanutCronch, DAHLI, and LB. I know the Peanut person won OST, which is a respectable accomplishment. He is 3-4 on the sheet, though, which does give me some pause. His season could go either way. DAHLI, meanwhile, is a veteran at this point, having played 70 games and putting up a decent 37-33 record. He has been kind of hit-or-miss, having some poor tours mixed with some solid ones as of late. He does usually go positive, though. 10k seems like a good price for him to be honest; I like it. I'll project 5 wins here. LB is 4-5 overall on the sheet. They were 5k in the draft, so their stock does not seem to be that high. Their season could go either way.
In Doubles is Zee, who managed to completely flip the script on what was an atrocious career with a phenomenal 9-0 run last time out. Going from 3-13 on the sheet to going 9-0 is certainly something. Maybe they just improved. That being said, I will still be skeptical for now; I will project 4-5 wins here. In UU, we have Crispy Bacon, who I guess is a UU player now? ok. I mean, he's certainly been solid in SPL, which has earned him my respect. That being said, there are a lot of good players in this tier, so my rating for him will be slightly depressed. In RU is zugubu royale, who raised his stock quite a bit with an excellent Grand Slam showing. His Slam win gives me some confidence in him, but his extreme lack of sheet results makes me very skeptical still. His season could go either way. In NU, we have someone I have never heard of. They were ranked 24th in the prospect report and don't have any sheet games. This is literally just a classic Terrors pick honestly LOL Well, not much else to say I guess. In PU is Drud, who the team retained after a great 7-2 run last time out. That's certainly impressive, but he needs to do more for me to be a real believer. He will get a slight bump from last year, though. Last up is dcae!!?? LOL what? This man is back? the goat? That is very random. And he was somehow 10k wtf I really do not know what to make of this. He certainly was a threat at some point, but he went 0-5 in his last showing, which was 3 years ago....yeah, this is kind of sketchy lol I did go to the LC subforum to see what the mainers thought and pretty much the only relevant post was Kingler putting dcae 1st overall and then getting memed to death so ?? Who knows.
Overall, this team inspires very little confidence, which is really not surprising at all given that they spent 25.5k on an 8-6 sheet player. Classic Terrors draft honestly. They usually screw me over, but maybe last year was a sign of things to come.
Well, for the people that are new to this...the numbers next to each player are 'confidence ratings' aka how much I believe in each player's ability to succeed. I just add the points up and bop.
Final Rankings:
1. The Arena Spartans (59.5)
Yeah, I mean, genuinely...you could have had an rng draft the team if you had Attribute + Fc retains and probably been in the top 4 for me LOL The fact that they got Nails + Michael is just kind of the cherry on top. We love the Spartans.
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2. The Power Plant Dynamos (55)
Pretty clear 2nd
3. The Circuit Breakers (52.5)
4. The Mount Silver Foxes (52.5)
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5. The Technical Machines (52.5)
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And now, we have the very annoying coin flip. Just looking at the lineups again, I think I have to put the Breakers in honestly. It just looks more reliable. That leaves us with the Machines vs. Foxes for 4th. I think I trust the Foxes by a hair more; they rely less on one player being jesus and have more flexibility to me. Hopefully this decision doesn't screw me. I do think the Machines are pretty solid but wcyd.
6. The Orange Islanders (51.5)
7. The Showdown Shoguns (50)
8. Studio Gible (50)
9. The Indigo Platoon (48)
10. The Uncharted Terrors (47.5)
If there's anything I need to fix, just PM me on here thanks. See you next time. Hopefully the power of the sheet can beat the eye test yet again.
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Shake stop dickeating I’ll bet u anything we Assblast the shittans and this is coming from a god of war fan. We twopeating and im gonn be the winningest team tour player oat and ur lil trophy stash came to be because of daddy, show some respect pussy
clarification: shake and i are buds since way back, this post is in no form an attack on him or his character but merely satire. enjoy the show but ease up on the moderation, dear admins
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Time for my favourite post of the tour, whose title I am still workshopping. ego's guide to the Hall of Fame race? The bandwagoner's guide to SCL? Something like that, I'll change it every year. Point is: I have a bunch of different metrics for the best, longest-tenured, or otherwise most accomplished members of the tournament community participating in this SCL still looking for either their first SCL green trophy or their first trophy overall. As someone whose favourite sports team is often eliminated early in the playoffs, I frequently ask myself similar questions. Maybe the simplest way to frame this post idea is "ranking the teams in this tournament by number of players that it'd be cool to see win."
Chapter 0.5: some neat trivia
I'm not going to count this as a metric, because I don't think it ended up being reflective of how I think about this concept, but do you think you could name the top 5 players in this tournament with the earliest joindate? Some of the names are easy. Islanders manager Dave is the longest-tenured player in this tournament, with an Oct. 19, 2007 joindate. (whether or not Dave is the oldest is something I can't answer, but although fans of my posts might be wondering "hey, in SPL you said you were in your 50s and a father of 3 including Nemosse," none of that was true) There are seven players in this tournament total with a 5-digit user ID; the oldest of them is Dave, and the newest of them is a whippersnapper named SoulWind, who joined the site in October 2010. They are also the only two of the seven with a green trophy from either SCL or SSD. Think you can guess the other five?
Chapter 1: best teamtour performers, no green trophies category
Chapter 2: best teamtour performers, no trophies:
Chapter 3: best SCL/SSD performers, no green trophy
Chapter 4: best SCL/SSD performers, no trophy
Chapter 5: Miscellaneous categories
Conclusion: let's rank the teams!
1. Islanders (Xrn, robjr, Mattz_, Ewin, zS, hellom, tier) - 7
2. Gible (Fusien, LpZ, Shengineer, bagel, Gilbert arenas, Accel) - 6
3. Shoguns (Vert, CTC, watashi, Star) - 4
3. Terrors (SirPeanutCronch, zugubu royale, ChrisPBacon, Gingy) - 4
3. Dynamos (TheFranklin, Kebab mlml, Raiza, blank) - 4
3. Foxes (DugZa, Danny, Finchinator, Laurel) - 4
7. Spartans (Nails, MichaelderBeste2, Attribute) - 3
7. Breakers (xavgb, JustFranco, Nat) - 3
7. Machines (Separation, Punny, Kushalos) - 3
10. Platoon (GaryTheGengar, Icemaster) - 2
I guess I'm going to be an Islanders bandwagoner then??? My playoff picks are Foxes, Spartans, Breakers, Islanders, so I guess I can get behind that. Personally, the most interesting story to me is whichever player is most overdue for their first trophy, so in this tournament I'd say it's either Gilbert arenas, Nat, Attribute, or maybe JustFranco? Not sure. Anyway, good luck everyone, hope everyone gets all the hax they need this year.
Chapter 0.5: some neat trivia
I'm not going to count this as a metric, because I don't think it ended up being reflective of how I think about this concept, but do you think you could name the top 5 players in this tournament with the earliest joindate? Some of the names are easy. Islanders manager Dave is the longest-tenured player in this tournament, with an Oct. 19, 2007 joindate. (whether or not Dave is the oldest is something I can't answer, but although fans of my posts might be wondering "hey, in SPL you said you were in your 50s and a father of 3 including Nemosse," none of that was true) There are seven players in this tournament total with a 5-digit user ID; the oldest of them is Dave, and the newest of them is a whippersnapper named SoulWind, who joined the site in October 2010. They are also the only two of the seven with a green trophy from either SCL or SSD. Think you can guess the other five?
Longest-tenured players on the site who are in this tournament and do not have the green trophy yet (note that I italicized the managers, as I will for all incoming lists):
0: Dave (2007)
1. Django (2009)
1. Laurel (2010)
1. watashi (2010)
2. Hasayo (2010)
3. Nails (2010)
SoulWind goes here, the last 5-digit joindate in this tour.
4. Finchinator (2011)
4. dcae (2011)
5. GaryTheGengar (2011)
And now for the harder list: longest-tenured players on the site who are in this tournament and do not have any trophies:
1. Django (2009)
1. Hasayo (2010)
2. vivalospride (2012)
2. qrChar (2012)
3. DD Joe (2012)
4. Kushalos (2013)
5. MZ (2013)
0: Dave (2007)
1. Django (2009)
1. Laurel (2010)
1. watashi (2010)
2. Hasayo (2010)
3. Nails (2010)
SoulWind goes here, the last 5-digit joindate in this tour.
4. Finchinator (2011)
4. dcae (2011)
5. GaryTheGengar (2011)
And now for the harder list: longest-tenured players on the site who are in this tournament and do not have any trophies:
1. Django (2009)
1. Hasayo (2010)
2. vivalospride (2012)
2. qrChar (2012)
3. DD Joe (2012)
4. Kushalos (2013)
5. MZ (2013)
Chapter 1: best teamtour performers, no green trophies category
Top 5 by sheet wins:
1. Finchinator (128)
1. watashi (96)
2. Nails (92)
3. Punny (90)
4. robjr (79)
5. Star (76)
5. MichaelderBeste2 (67)
By sheet winrate, at least 30 games:
1. xavgb (67.11%)
2. Attribute (65.22%)
3. hellom (65.22%)
3. zS (64.18%)
4. Mattz_ (63.64%)
5. Ruffles (62.16%)
By sheet differential:
1. Punny (+29)
2. xavgb (+26)
3. Finchinator (+22)
3. Attribute (+21)
4. MichaelderBeste2 (+20)
5. zS (+19)
1. Finchinator (128)
1. watashi (96)
2. Nails (92)
3. Punny (90)
4. robjr (79)
5. Star (76)
5. MichaelderBeste2 (67)
By sheet winrate, at least 30 games:
1. xavgb (67.11%)
2. Attribute (65.22%)
3. hellom (65.22%)
3. zS (64.18%)
4. Mattz_ (63.64%)
5. Ruffles (62.16%)
By sheet differential:
1. Punny (+29)
2. xavgb (+26)
3. Finchinator (+22)
3. Attribute (+21)
4. MichaelderBeste2 (+20)
5. zS (+19)
Chapter 2: best teamtour performers, no trophies:
Top 5, sorted by sheet wins:
1. Kushalos (65)
1. Gilbert arenas (65)
3. Nat (64)
4. Attribute (45)
5. Ewin (40)
5. TheFranklin (40)
By sheet winrate, at least 30 games:
1. Attribute (65.22%)
2. hellom (65.22%)
2. Mattz_ (63.64%)
3. DugZa (60.53)
4. Gilbert arenas (58.04%)
5. Danny (57.89%)
By sheet differential:
1. Attribute (+21)
2. Gilbert arenas (+18)
3. Mattz_ (+15)
4. hellom (+14)
4. Nat (+13)
5. tier (+10)
5. ChrisPBacon (+9)
1. Kushalos (65)
1. Gilbert arenas (65)
3. Nat (64)
4. Attribute (45)
5. Ewin (40)
5. TheFranklin (40)
By sheet winrate, at least 30 games:
1. Attribute (65.22%)
2. hellom (65.22%)
2. Mattz_ (63.64%)
3. DugZa (60.53)
4. Gilbert arenas (58.04%)
5. Danny (57.89%)
By sheet differential:
1. Attribute (+21)
2. Gilbert arenas (+18)
3. Mattz_ (+15)
4. hellom (+14)
4. Nat (+13)
5. tier (+10)
5. ChrisPBacon (+9)
Chapter 3: best SCL/SSD performers, no green trophy
Top 5, sorted by SCL/SSD wins:
1. Punny (46)
2. Finchinator (44)
2. Nails (43)
3. Kushalos (42)
4. robjr (35)
5. MichaelderBeste2 (31)
By SCL/SSD winrate, at least 25 games played:
1. xavgb (73.53%)
2. Gilbert arenas (66.67%)
3. Nails (66.15%)
4. MichaelderBeste2 (65.96%)
5. Punny (65.71%)
By SCL/SSD differential:
1. Punny (+24)
2. Nails (+21)
3. xavgb (+16)
4. MichaelderBeste2 (+15)
5. Gilbert arenas (+11)
1. Punny (46)
2. Finchinator (44)
2. Nails (43)
3. Kushalos (42)
4. robjr (35)
5. MichaelderBeste2 (31)
By SCL/SSD winrate, at least 25 games played:
1. xavgb (73.53%)
2. Gilbert arenas (66.67%)
3. Nails (66.15%)
4. MichaelderBeste2 (65.96%)
5. Punny (65.71%)
By SCL/SSD differential:
1. Punny (+24)
2. Nails (+21)
3. xavgb (+16)
4. MichaelderBeste2 (+15)
5. Gilbert arenas (+11)
Chapter 4: best SCL/SSD performers, no trophy
Top 5, sorted by SCL/SSD wins:
1. Kushalos (42)
2. TheFranklin (27)
3. Gilbert arenas (22)
4. Danny (21)
4. Nat (21)
4. Accel (21)
By SCL/SSD winrate, at least 25 games played:
1. Gilbert arenas (66.67%)
2. JustFranco (64.29%)
3. Xrn (62.96%)
4. Danny (61.76%)
5. TheFranklin (60%)
By SCL/SSD differential:
1. Gilbert arenas (+11)
2. TheFranklin (+9)
3. Danny (+8)
3. JustFranco (+8)
5. Kushalos (+7)
5. Xrn (+7)
5. Shengineer (+7)
1. Kushalos (42)
2. TheFranklin (27)
3. Gilbert arenas (22)
4. Danny (21)
4. Nat (21)
4. Accel (21)
By SCL/SSD winrate, at least 25 games played:
1. Gilbert arenas (66.67%)
2. JustFranco (64.29%)
3. Xrn (62.96%)
4. Danny (61.76%)
5. TheFranklin (60%)
By SCL/SSD differential:
1. Gilbert arenas (+11)
2. TheFranklin (+9)
3. Danny (+8)
3. JustFranco (+8)
5. Kushalos (+7)
5. Xrn (+7)
5. Shengineer (+7)
Chapter 5: Miscellaneous categories
Players one green trophy away from the Smogon Triple Crown (winning all three Smogon team trophies):
Machines: Punny
Spartans: Nails
Islanders: zS, robjr
Dynamos: Kebab mlml, blank, Raiza
Shoguns: CTC
Platoon: GaryTheGengar
Players with an individual trophy but no green trophy:
Machines: Punny, Separation
Spartans: MichaelderBeste2
Shoguns: Vert
Gible: bagel, LpZ, Fusien
Terrors: SirPeanutCronch, zugubu royale
Breakers: xavgb
Players with at least 2 SCL/SSD finals appearances and no green trophy:
Terrors: Gingy
Foxes: Danny, DugZa
Platoon: Icemaster
Machines: Punny
Spartans: Nails
Islanders: zS, robjr
Dynamos: Kebab mlml, blank, Raiza
Shoguns: CTC
Platoon: GaryTheGengar
Players with an individual trophy but no green trophy:
Machines: Punny, Separation
Spartans: MichaelderBeste2
Shoguns: Vert
Gible: bagel, LpZ, Fusien
Terrors: SirPeanutCronch, zugubu royale
Breakers: xavgb
Players with at least 2 SCL/SSD finals appearances and no green trophy:
Terrors: Gingy
Foxes: Danny, DugZa
Platoon: Icemaster
Conclusion: let's rank the teams!
1. Islanders (Xrn, robjr, Mattz_, Ewin, zS, hellom, tier) - 7
2. Gible (Fusien, LpZ, Shengineer, bagel, Gilbert arenas, Accel) - 6
3. Shoguns (Vert, CTC, watashi, Star) - 4
3. Terrors (SirPeanutCronch, zugubu royale, ChrisPBacon, Gingy) - 4
3. Dynamos (TheFranklin, Kebab mlml, Raiza, blank) - 4
3. Foxes (DugZa, Danny, Finchinator, Laurel) - 4
7. Spartans (Nails, MichaelderBeste2, Attribute) - 3
7. Breakers (xavgb, JustFranco, Nat) - 3
7. Machines (Separation, Punny, Kushalos) - 3
10. Platoon (GaryTheGengar, Icemaster) - 2
I guess I'm going to be an Islanders bandwagoner then??? My playoff picks are Foxes, Spartans, Breakers, Islanders, so I guess I can get behind that. Personally, the most interesting story to me is whichever player is most overdue for their first trophy, so in this tournament I'd say it's either Gilbert arenas, Nat, Attribute, or maybe JustFranco? Not sure. Anyway, good luck everyone, hope everyone gets all the hax they need this year.
Last edited:
Released the week 1 lineups. Since there were a good amount of last min signups, I keep it open until Wednesday to draft a week 1 team. (if you draft a player that played already at the point you make a draft i will check that and replace that player)
