Playoffs Smogon Classic XI Playoffs - Round of 16 [Times in OP]

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Hiro'

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Amazing art by MiniArchitect

FINAL STANDINGS

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Congratulations to the 16 players who've qualified for playoffs! Massive thanks to our individual cup hosts, a fairy, goldmason, Nashrock, and adorluigi for their time and effort hosting each cup to completion. In addition, thank you immensely to Ticken for creating the template of the standings sheet as well as the script that goes with it. Finally, thank you to shiloh for bringing us back the traditional versus animations!

Now, here are the top finishers for the 11th Smogon Classic.
  1. PDC – 39 points
  2. Skarpherim – 36 points
  3. elodin – 30 points
  4. D4 Repertoire – 21 points
  5. GaryTheGengar – 20 points (78.95% Win Ratio)
  6. Kristyl – 20 points (77.27% Win Ratio)
  7. Fear – 20 points (76.19% Win Ratio)
  8. Garay oak – 19 points
  9. Fakes – 18 points (77.78% Win Ratio)
  10. ima – 18 points (76.19% Win Ratio)
  11. JabbaTheGriffin – 17 points (76.19% Win Ratio, Fourth Deepest Run: Top 64 RBY)
  12. Kingler – 17 points (76.19% Win Ratio Fourth Deepest Run: Top 128 DPP)
  13. Amaranth – 17 points (75.00% Win Ratio)
  14. OmBrArch – 17 points (73.68% Win Ratio)
  15. Exiline – 17 points (72.22% Win Ratio)
  16. ??? – 16 points (Won Tiebreaker)
All sets will be Bo5. The higher seeded player picks the tier of game one and for the rest of the games, the loser of the previous game chooses the tier.


Round of 16

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1. PDC vs 16. Winner of (coco vs Tenebricite)

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2. Skarpherim vs 15. Exiline

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3. elodin vs 14. OmBrArch
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4. D4 Repertoire vs 13. Amaranth
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5. GaryTheGengar vs 12. Kingler

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6. Kristyl vs 11. JabbaTheGriffin

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7. Fear vs 10. ima

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8. Garay oak vs 9. Fakes
DPP / GSC / ADV / BW2


Deadline is Sunday October 5th, 11:59 PM GMT-4 aka 6 octobre 2025 à 05:59.
Schedule times have to be made public. Replays are mandatory.​
 
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After months of qualification, after dodging the unpleasant 17 point tiebreaker only to end up with a not particularly less unpleasant 16 point tiebreaker, it's now time for playoffs to unfold. And once again, we will crown a new Classic champion in the next few weeks! For the occasion, the Classic Hall of Fame has been updated! Now let's introduce the contenders for the white trophy.

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1. PDC – 39 points

PDC is coming off one of the very best runs in Smogon Classic, ending at a total of 39 points and displaying overall great consistency across the five generations featured in this tournament, ending up in at least quarterfinals of 4/5 cups. His run is actually the third best run all-time in terms of points, and he equalized Lavos at 29 wins for the most wins during the qualification phase. This is all the more impressive that PDC had such a run without winning a cup, which puts him well ahead of previous non-cup-winning run records.

He joined the very small circle of people with more than 100 total wins across all Classic seasons, making it in the top 10 of best Classic overall records. He became the third best DPP Cup record and also joined the top 10 best BW2 Cup all-time records along the way. After qualifying twice for playoffs, in 2015 and in 2020, this is his once in five years chance to prove he is indeed the strongest contender for the title!

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2. Skarpherim – 36 points

The triple ribbon winner strikes again with a strong performance in oldgen by being the second ever to achieve a double cup win in the same season, after Jimmy Turtwig in 2018. Ending up at a total of 36 points, Skarpherim's run is impressive, collecting a grand total of zero win both in BW2 and DPP but making past quarterfinals in the three other cups, while obviously winning two of them. For his only second participation in the tournament, Skarpherim is now in the top 10 best runs of the tournament, and sits with one of the very best win ratio in the history of the tournament with 24 wins for 3 losses.

With a 82.22% overall win ratio, he is one of the most dominant participants in playoffs in 2025. While he might be more known for his ADV performances, both as a cup winner and a defending ADV circuit champion, he also sits at 93.75% win ratio in GSC Cup with an impressive 15-1 record.

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3. elodin – 30 points

elodin is the most accustomed to Classic playoffs this year, as it's the fourth time he qualifies for playoffs. With a nice 23-4 record, he also joins the very small circle of people with more than 100 total wins across all Classic seasons, making it in the top 10 of best Classic overall records, just one win above PDC. With a much deserved win in DPP Cup, elodin has become the 4th best DPP Cup all-time record. He also has entered the top 10 best ADV Cup and RBY Cup all-time records.

Will he be able to outperform his strongest performance from ten years ago?

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4. D4 Repertoire – 21 points

With a huge drop-off in points, the next in line is D4 Repertoire, who makes his debut in Classic playoffs. While you may instinctively know him for his 7-2 GSC record in SPL, it also happens to be his least proven tier in Classic, whereas his records in the other four generations are more solid: 6-2 in DPP, 7-2 in ADV and DPP, and 8-2 and RBY.

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5. GaryTheGengar – 20 points

GaryTheGengar is the first player to achieve a second win in BW2 Cup, which also puts him at 4th in all-time BW2 Cup records with a stunning 33-6 record, and makes him 21st in the all-time overall records. Now, can he replicate his BW2 success in other gens during playoffs?

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6. Kristyl – 20 points

Kristyl is probably one of the strongest underdogs in playoffs this season, as she proved to be in 2022 when she made semifinals. Her skills in DPP and ADV no longer need to be proven, as she's won circuit majors for both and was the best record in the first DPP Invitational. This time, however, she owes her qualification to solid runs both in GSC and RBY, which proves she can be a menace in pretty much any gen now and will be a fierce adversary in playoffs.

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7. Fear – 20 points

Each Classic season needs a dad in playoffs and 2025 is no exception. Surprisingly though, this is Fear's first time in playoffs. You obviously all know him for his prowess in GSC after who knows how many crazy seasons in SPL, and this is no surprise to see it is indeed his best gen in Classic, although his ADV record comes close and is nothing to be ashamed of. After all, Fear has known most of the gens when they were current gens, it would thus be a mistake to underestimate him in any other Classic gen. Will he follow the steps of his fellow dinosaur comrades august, Conflict and M Dragon?

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8. Garay oak – 19 points

Garay oak returns to Classic playoffs after an early exit in 2023. He's proven to be a very solid player the past few years, with a particularly wide range of tiers played with at least decent success. ADV in particular has proven to be one of his best ones and I wouldn't underestimate him in any other tier either. Can he prove he's become one of the best jack-of-all-trades on the site and unlock the mighty Slam+Classic combo on his trophy set?

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9. Fakes – 18 points

It is probably fair to say that Fakes is among the favorites to win the whole thing. He's right next elodin and PDC in terms of best overall records in Classic, with an impressive 106-45 total record. His last SPL appearance proved how sharp he was in BW2, he's the second best all-time record in ADV Invitationals and actually won the most recent iteration, and his semifinals run in ADV Cup also made him the second best all-time record in ADV Cup.

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10. ima – 18 points

ima is new to Classic playoffs, we're usually used to seeing him in fairy gens. He doesn't owe his qualification to any particular deep run, his success was instead more evenly spread across generations and is a sign he can probably take a game in any tier.

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11. JabbaTheGriffin – 17 points

JabbaTheGriffin returns to playoffs for the second time consecutively. He's mostly known for playing ADV and DPP but like the other old farts out there, he was around when most of the generations were current gens and can probably make things happen.

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12. Kingler – 17 points

Kingler came back from the dead and returns to Classic playoffs for the first time since 2019. If you've talked to him on discord at any point these past few weeks, you already know how much pride he seems to have taken in losing to McMeghan that one time he made playoffs, and you know how eager he is to once again lose in R1. This much of a loser mentality doesn't deserve a longer write-up tbh, go back to retirement old man.

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13. Amaranth – 17 points

This happens to be the first incursion in Classic playoffs for Amaranth as well. He's easily the sharpest in RBY this season, he's won multiple individual tournaments in RBY, which includes the very first RBY Invitational. He's been into BW2 a bit recently and has had decent success in that generation during his run. Will he prove he's capable of more than that?

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14. OmBrArch – 17 points

OmBrArch is also new to Classic playoffs! Those who know him already know he mains GSC, although just like everyone in this tournament, he owes his qualification to a deep run in BW2 Cup, which proves he can be a threat outside of his main tier.

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15. Exiline – 17 points

Exiline returns to Classic playoffs after his first appearance in 2021. The very first RBY Circuit champion owes both his qualifications to a great run in BW2 Cup, the most recent one going all the way up to finals. Will he be able to replicate this success in playoffs?

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16. coco or Tenebricite – 16 points

Despite being 13th in overall all-time Classic records, coco made playoffs only once before. Even if he might be more known for playing ADV and DPP, his records are very evenly spread across all five generations, which proves he can do better than an early Top 16 exit. On the other side, Tenebricite is part of a funny storyline, missing playoffs by losing in DPP Cup semifinals and therefore preventing us from an awful tiebreaker at 17 points... only to still compete in a tiebreaker later. One can only hope he will manage to defeat his final opponent to finally qualify and challenge the first seed.


With a much deserved and longtime coming win in RBY Cup, Peasounay has now the second best all time records in RBY Cup, what a goat!

Malekith has entered the top three all-time overall records in Classic, surpassing McMeghan with a total of 143 wins. He's also top three in ADV Cup and GSC Cup all-time records. Next year shall be yours old man.

SoulWind was already first in all-time records for BW2 Cup, DPP Cup and RBY Cup, he's now taken the throne in GSC Cup as well. Thank god McMeghan shall never be dethroned in ADV Cup...
 
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I don't think I can do better than Hiro's introduction to the contenders, nor can I really offer predicts that draw from genuine insight into these players and their strengths and weaknesses. So instead I'll run off some facts that I find neat!

Who has the deepest Classic runs of anyone in this playoff? The most recent belongs to Kristyl, making semifinals three iterations ago in the Classic ultimately won by august. They entered playoffs as the 14th seed with their deepest cup run being a top 16 in ADV, but they outperformed expectations with a quick 3-0 over GaryTheGengar before overcoming Conflict in 5 to make the final four, ultimately losing to the eventual tournament winner. This was kind of a neat Classic playoffs for a few reasons, being the most recent to feature all three of ABR, SoulWind and McMeghan, and which was led by the 1st seed Pohjis in their final playoff appearance before retirement. My favourite fact about this one, though, is that it featured a tiebreak for the final seed between Finchinator and hellom, prior to the latter's first sheet game the following year. Not that any of this has anything to do with Kristyl, of course.

The other deepest Classic run by someone left in this playoff field comes from elodin in the first-ever iteration of the tournament, making it out of a tiebreak against BKC and battling through Texas Cloverleaf and Malekith to make the semifinals, ultimately knocked out here against The Grand Babido. Of course, it has been 10 years since then; BW Cup in that tournament was initially hosted by Bloo prior to their ban sometime between the first and second rounds. elodin last made an individual semifinals again three years later, making Grand Slam semifinals in 2018 with wins over HT and HarrisIsAwesome.

There are a few others that deserve an honourable mention, though, since there are two players in this pool with Smogon Tour runs from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic such that they actually made those runs when the tournament contained all Classic tiers. The more recent of the two was the BW-era STour XVI, in which Fakes made the semifinals as the 10th seed, beating Eternal and Leftiez before losing to Boudouche (this was the first of BKC's two trophies). Going back even further to STour V, held during current-gen ADV (!!), Fear made the semifinals as the 5th seed, beating Ace777 before getting taken out by eventual champion Giga Punch.

With that in mind, though, the deepest of these only reached the top 4. A quick glance through the players in this playoff will reveal that there is only one player in this playoff with an individual trophy; that player is Garay oak, winner of Grand Slam 2022. That run saw Garay make semifinals in each of the (SS) RU and NU Cups en route to the 8th seed, taking down Raichy, Luthier, Bushtush, and crying to win the trophy. Nobody has ever won both the Slam and the Classic, and while we're at it, the only players with both the Classic trophy and the green Snake/SCL trophy (which Exiline and elodin could accomplish in addition to Garay oak) are Ojama, SoulWind, and McMeghan. This was also Garay oak's only top 8 at an individual.

To win a trophy on your only career quarterfinal appearance is relatively rare, but nonetheless common enough that I doubt anyone could reasonably guess all of them, and also common enough that I definitely might have missed some (a lot of the players with really early STours and OSTs I just don't remember off the top of my head). This is a feat that has already been achieved twice this year, with Fusien and bagel both picking up trophies on their first (and so far only) career top 8. It also happened twice last year, with LpZ and Frixel each winning the trophy on their first appearance in the quarterfinals of an individual. An eagle-eyed reader might notice a pattern there, and you'd be correct to extrapolate it; 7 of the 8 players to win the orange trophy for either the VGC tournament or OSDT did so on their only career appearance in the top 8, with Nido-Rus the lone exception.

- the orange trophy holders: kingofmars, Feyy, Frixel, bagel, Biosci, tob, Tyler
- the players whose trophies from this run got revoked: njnp, Bouff, Mazar (the latter two being the same trophy), Zuchtrest
- the rest: Delta 2777, Lusa, Pokemon Professor (STour), Atticus, Fusien, hanke, mael, Snunch, cholena, noobster (OST), Adaam, Level 56, Lowgock, LpZ, Pearl (Slam), Lyconik (OLT)

Technically, the deepest individual run after Garay's Slam was actually none of the above runs by Kristyl/elodin/Fear/Fakes, but rather PDC's in the very first OLT, whose double elimination playoff structure allowed them to reach a somewhat-rare-for-Smogon 3rd place by taking out Tele in losers' semis before ultimately getting eliminated by chimpact. PDC would reach another semifinal the following year in an ORAS-generation STour XVII, beating Century Express and cosine180 before ultimately getting taken out by eventual champion McMeghan. In addition to quarterfinals appearances at Slam V and STour XVII (the latter in the XY days), PDC's four top 8s at individuals stands alone as the most of anyone in this bracket. (edit: I forgot about Slam IV, where Kingler made finals in the year where both Mazar and Bouff got the trophy stripped, my bad y'all)

Turning instead to team tournaments, the winningest players in this field are elodin (72), Garay oak (67) and Fear (58), with PDC and Fear standing above the rest with a win percentage above 60% (setting the minimum GP at 10, anyway; D4 Repertoire has a 7-2 record in their only team tour). On the other end, only a single player in this playoff has zero sheet games altogether, that being OmBrArch. As I mentioned at the time of Grand Slam, there is only a single player in the 2020s who has won a trophy on their first-ever individual top 8 with zero prior sheet games, and Vert did so by defeating another such player in the finals. If anyone's rooting for an underdog, here you go!

I guess while I'm just throwing out thoughts as they come to my head, I'll draw attention to ima's 2025 season, which I think might be going under the radar. Sure, they haven't really come close to an individual, but they've made the top 16 in three different individual tournaments this year (STour, OLT, and Classic). Yeah, SoulWind's also done it this year (STour, Slam, OLT), but SoulWind does it seemingly every year, having done so for each of the past three years, including four top 16s in 2023. Star did it in both 2023 and 2024, reaching four top 16s last year. And other than them, making three in one year is something only a few players each year typically achieve. No one else has done it yet this year (though there are a few that can get there with a deep Masters run), last year it was just Welliou and Empo along with SoulWind and Star, and in 2023 it was a pretty strong list of players (Nat, Luthier, MichaelderBeste2, Giannis Antetokommo-o, and Sylveon used Calm Mind, along with SoulWind and Star). Plus, they made the round of 32 at OST, and are actively competing in Masters too. It's not that I'm trying to compare this to a MichaelderBeste2 or mind gaming 2023 or anything, but like, it's been a really solid, consistent season from ima!

The one last thing I'll say is that I was flipping through recent team tour performances, and among players in this bracket, there are two that stand out by sheer numbers, those being Garay oak's 8-1 SPL this year and Fakes' 9-2 SPL last year. Those two are second and fourth in this pool in career sheet wins. As mentioned, Garay oak has the single deepest individual trophy run of anyone in this bracket, while Fakes is one of four players in this bracket with at least two career top 8s, and one of six with a top 4 in their career. They're facing off in the first round. What's more, the one of the two that moves onto the quarterfinals is seeded into PDC, who's the only player in this pool with four career individual quarterfinals, the only one along with elodin to make two career quarterfinals, who's only behind Fear in this bracket in terms of sheet win percentage (with a significant sample size), and of course, who's coming off of one of the greatest qualification seasons we've seen. All of which to say, that Garay oak/Fakes/PDC quarter of the bracket is going to be an absolute bloodbath, and I'm very excited for some great games.

Hope this was fun, and I hope we get some predicts! Classic predicts are some of my favourites because unlike Slam they usually contain much greater insight into how each player performs in every tier (which is what happens when you're talking about a tournament that's contained these exact tiers for over a decade now).

PDC vs. (coco vs. Tenebricite)
Skarpherim vs. Exiline
elodin vs. OmBrArch
D4 Repertoire vs. Amaranth
GaryTheGengar vs. Kingler
Kristyl vs. JabbaTheGriffin
Fear vs. ima
Garay oak vs. Fakes

PDC vs. Garay oak
Skarpherim vs. Fear
elodin vs. JabbaTheGriffin
Amaranth vs. GaryTheGengar

Garay oak vs. Amaranth
Fear vs. elodin

Garay oak vs. Fear
 
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1. PDC vs 16. Winner of (coco vs Tenebricite)

I expect coco to win the tiebreak set, but it should be a close one. Tenebricite has had some good performances and is pretty versatile, but has a joindate disadvantage of 8 years here, which will be pretty damn hard to overcome. Regardless of who wins that though, they're up against PDC who I consider to be one of the favorites in this entire pool. He used to have frequent deep runs in stuff like ST all the time, and seems to be back on his game since SPL. It also just thematically fits for PDC have a revival so many years later and win his first indiv with classic.

2. Skarpherim vs 15. Exiline

Skarph's an interesting case, kind of unknown until the last 1-2 years when he randomly got the ADV OU ladder elo record, and now he's here as a 2-seed while winning both ADV and GSC cups. Exiline doesn't have many oldgen accolades beyond the ancient ribbon, so he might win a couple games but still not favored against Skarph. I will also say Skarph had a solid slam run (6 seed) but lost r1 so he will need to up his playoff game.

3. elodin vs 14. OmBrArch

Elodin is really just a lot more seasoned here, being particularly proficient at BW/DPP. If OmBrArch wants to sneak away with this one he will likely have to capitalize on Elodin's relative weak spot in the older gens and come up with some heat - probably unlikely to happen though.

4. D4 Repertoire vs 13. Amaranth

This one I wasn't fully sure on, they both had similar cups with scattered points and no super deep runs. Amaranth is better at RBY and probably BW, while D4 is certainly favored in GSC but could technically take BW too. The other gens idk what to really expect of them, but the vibes say that D4 advancing is slightly more probable.

5. GaryTheGengar vs 12. Kingler

Lowkey (highkey?) the least close r1 matchup, no disrespect to Kingler but Gary is also one of the faves overall and has a more decorated oldgen history. Kingler did famously take one (1) ADV game off roro in his winning year so maybe some pixie dust could turn the tides here, but Gary really should win.

6. Kristyl vs 11. JabbaTheGriffin

Kristyl is just solid at oldgens and has the previous semifinals appearance, obviously most known for DPP but has been dabbling elsewhere for sure. Jabba's b2b playoffs is noteworthy for such an old man (term of endearment) but I don't know what to expect of him here. I wouldn't be super shocked if he won this series but gonna bold Kristyl for now.

7. Fear vs 10. ima

The closest / hardest to predict in my opinion, with two very different players facing off. Fear is about as boomer as they get (even joined forums before jabba), and is one of the GSCoats but also has a fair bit of ADV experience. Ima is way more of a newgens guy but honestly I just see him winning this one. He feels like the type of guy who could make a sleeper semis run or something if he is really motivated and takes the exploration of these tiers seriously. This will be fun to watch for sure.

8. Garay oak vs 9. Fakes

Another close one, but Fakes feels more impressive recently. He won the ADV invitational and had that really great SPL too, overall just has a ton of experience in gens 3-5. Garay has always been more of a jack of all trades in these gens it feels like so he has the familiarity but maybe not the oomph to topple Fakes. Definitely another where neither result would be surprising though.

~

PDC, Gary, elodin, and Fakes would be my overall picks for who I can see winning the whole thing - those just feel the most plausible and lore-accurate. Hoping for some great games and tough competition, good luck all.

As always, may the best one win.
 
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