Tournament Smogon Exhibition: PU Discussion [Won by Untier University]

[TJ]

Hey, with Smogon Exhibition underway, this thread will be used to discuss PU related topics, whether it's about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. I will update this thread frequently with each new week, player standings, and replays.

Smogon Exhibition Schedule
Auction Prices

Potential PU Players:
Mind Blowing Blacephalons: HJAD, Sam I Yam, Neo
Dragonspiral Tyrunts: amber lamps, Haund, TJ, obii, ict, Shrug, King Billu, Sam
Untier University: Raiza, Mysterious M, Rodriblutar, Kushalos
Cosmogtic Lunalas: lax, Taskr, Many, Arifeen
Max Attaka Stakatakas: rwby, Anty, Robert Alfons, EviGaro, Kaori, Teddeh
Michelangelesque Mareanies: rural, Kiyo, Evan, Slick Willy, soapy the kid, TSR, col49, shaneghoul

Replays

Week 1:
[LUNA] Taskr vs amberrlamps [DRTY]
vs.

[DRTY] Haund vs Arifeen [LUNA]

vs.

[STAK] Anty vs Z + V [MICH]

vs.

[MIND] Sam I Yam vs Raiza [UNIV]

vs.

[MIND ]HJAD vs Kushalos [UNIV]

vs.

[STAK] Robert Alfons (Fagtron) vs Evann [MICH]

vs.

Week 2:
[DRTY] Haund vs Z + V [MICH]

vs.

[LUNA] Arifeen vs. Raiza [UNIV]

vs.

[LUNA] Taskr vs Kushalos [UNIV]

vs.

[MIND] Sam I Yam vs. rwby [STAK]

vs.

[DRTY] Reje vs TSR [MICH]

vs.

[MIND] HJAD vs Robert Alfons [STAK]

vs.

Week 3:
[DRTY] ict vs Raiza [UNIV]

vs.

[LUNA] Many vs Teddeh [STAK]

vs.

[DRTY] amberlamps vs Kushalos [UNIV]

vs.

[MIND] HJAD vs Z + V [MICH]

vs.

[MIND] Sam I Yam vs TSR [MICH]

vs.

[LUNA] Taskr vs Robert Alfons [STAK]

vs.

Week 4:
[DRTY] TJ vs Neo [MIND]

vs.

[DRTY] obii vs Bushtush [MIND]

vs.

[LUNA] Taskr vs TSR [MICH]

vs.

[LUNA] Many vs Evan [MICH]

vs.

[UNIV] Raiza vs Teddeh [STAK]

vs.

[UNIV] Kushalos vs Anty [STAK]

vs.

Week 5:
[DRTY] TJ vs Arifeen [LUNA]

vs.

[MIND] HJAD vs Teddeh [STAK]

vs.

[MICH] TSR vs Raiza [UNIV]

vs.

[LUNA] Taskr vs obii [DRTY]

vs.

[UNIV] Kushalos vs Evann [MICH]

vs.

[MIND] Sam I Yam vs Anty [STAK]

vs.

Week 6:
[UNIV] Raiza vs CKW [LUNA]

vs.

[DRTY] obii vs Robert Alfons [STAK]

vs.

[DRTY] TJ vs Teddeh [STAK]

vs.

[MICH] TSR vs Neo [MIND]

vs.

[UNIV] Kushalos vs Arifeen [LUNA]

vs.

[MIND] Sam I Yam vs Evann [MICH]

vs.

Week 7:
[DRTY] TJ vs Raiza [UNIV]

vs.

[DRTY] obii vs Rodriblutar [UNIV]

vs.

[MIND] Wanka vs Bouff [LUNA]

vs.

[MICH] Real FV13 vs Teddeh [STAK]

vs.

[STAK] Robert Alfons vs TSR [MICH]

vs.

Semi Finals:

[LUNA] Lax vs HJAD [MIND]

vs.

[MIND] Neo vs Taskr [LUNA]

vs.

[MICH] TSR vs Raiza [UNIV]

vs.

[MICH] col49 vs Kushalos [LUNA]

vs.

Tiebreaker:

[MIND] HJAD vs Taskr [LUNA]

vs.

Finals:

[LUNA] Taskr vs Kushalos [UNIV]

vs.

[LUNA] Lax vs Raiza [UNIV]

vs.

Player Standings

Kushalos: 6-2
TSR: 5-2
HJAD: 4-2
Raiza: 5-4
Neo: 3-0
Sam I Yam: 3-2
Taskr: 4-4
Lax: 2-0
TJ: 2-2
Teddeh: 2-3
Robert Alfons (Fagtron): 2-3
Arifeen: 2-3
ict: 1-0
col49: 1-0
Wanka: 1-0
Real FV13: 1-0
Bushtush 1-1
Haund: 1-1
Z + V: 1-2
Evann: 1-3
obii 1-3
rwby: 0-1
CKW: 0-1
Reje: 0-1
Bouff: 0-1
Rodriblutar: 0-1
Many: 0-2
amberrlamps: 0-2
Anty: 0-3

​

 

[yogi]

whoever thought it was okay to buy me for 8k must be chugging more chlorox than me...

should be a fun tour and it'll be nice to see some top quality matches!

most stacked team is stakatakas!

 

[Raseri]

go my team

 

[gz]

Time for some quick power rankings

#1 Mind Blowing Blacephalons

HJAD+Sam I Yam / Sub: Neo

This is the team to beat in my opinion, but that's probably every team with HJAD on it. HJAD is one of the best battlers and builder in the tier, always doing good in tournaments while also having a great meta-knowledge in general. His builds will decide if it will be a good run or an exceptional one. Sam on the other hand is a straight up amazing player, which he demonstrated in the latest PU Open. There is still a little questionmark besides his name though, because he was taking a little break from PU, lurking around in other tiers. So we have to see if he still has it and how fast he can adapt to the current meta. One problem I see with this team is the lack of reliable substitutes with only Neo in the back, who simply is not on the same level as the former two. So if one of them lets down, this can go downhill really quickly.

#2 Max Attaka Stakatakas

Teddeh+Robert Alfons / Subs: Anty, Rwby

This is an interesting combination of players. With 4 PU mains they have advantages over other teams in terms of testing and building. Teddeh is the stand out player on this team with a guaranteed starting slot. His builds are always terrifying and hard to beat for most archtypes, due to the more balanced-defensive playstyle he prefers. His current run in the Seasonals shows how consistently well he can play. Robert on the other hand is a very innovative builder and highly unpredictable. One game he can bring a weird offense team with Banette and the next battle he brings straight up stall. The success in the seasonals are also speaking for it's own reaching the finals of the winners bracket. Anty was a little surprise for me. Of course his name is huge in the PU community and he had a lot of success in the past, but I haven't seen him play a lot in the current generation so we have to see how it will turn out. On the contrary, Rwby is the perfect substitute for a team. He is a really solid builder, an above average battler, while also being a great chat presence. To be honest, I won't be surprised if he will start in week 1. Nevertheless, I also see problems for this team and it's called SPL. With Teddeh being part of both tournaments, he may or may not be 100% focused on this tour which makes this team a lot more vulnerable with their top player not being on his level.

#3 Cosmogtic Lunalas

Taskr+Manyy / Sub: Arifeen

Solid draft from the Lunalas. Taskr is a really good battler and my favorite builder in the tier. He often uses unknown, effective sets, which can throw a lot of people off guard, turning the battle in your favor. I also think his offensive approach matches well with the preferences of his team mates. Manyy will probably also start besides him. Again a fantastic battler, finishing at a Top 10 place in the ongoing ssnls. In my opinion an underrated player who can start to shine in this tournament. Arifeen is a very interesting buy. Even though he is maining another tier and being distracted by SPL may not be the best precondition, I still believe he can be a valuable teammate for the Lunalas. In the seasonals he also demonstrates from week to week how well he can play in this tier. Maybe he can be even better and unleash his full potential when I stop feeding him with teams, and Taskr gives him some good ones.

#4 Dragonspiral Tyrunts

amber lamps+Haund / Subs: TJ, ict

The Italian core is completed. Amber lamps is doubtlessly the star of this team, dominating most of his battles, while being the favorite of the current winter seasonals. He will be playing week 1 for sure and it would shock me, if he won't end up with a positive w/l rate, but behind him the air is getting thinner. Haund is without a question a good player, but he really hasn't put any noteworthy on the table this generation, so let's see if he can pull his weight. TJ is also a solid player, who I can see having a starting spot, but both are kinda lackluster in comparison to other teams. ict is a little bonus to the team with his knowledge in every lower tier he can help every team.

#5 Untier University

Raiza+Kushalos / Subs: Rodriblutar, Mysterious M

Weird draft from the PU bosses. Raiza definitely has the ability to carry a team and he was an obvious pick due to the good synergy with the TL galbia, but the other three guys are a little bit strange. Sure they are all good battlers, but PU isn't their home. With galbia and Megazard in the back, they do have the benefit of the doubt and it will be super interesting how their picks will turn out for them.

#6 Michelangelesque Mareanies

Drafted literally 0 PU players. This will be rough.

 

[MZ]

Lemme just say up front that this is trying to be objective and pointing out flaws with reasoning and this post isn't just about one person saying we didn't draft well in PU and my need to prove them wrong. Anyway, Kushalos as a strange pick what? He's had a ridiculous amount of PU success, and success across a ton of lower tier tours, and has PUTL support. I was one of the people pushing for players like amber and manyy to get drafted, but giving them more positive reviews than Kush is really weird. Oh and after Rodri's PUPL performance, PU not being his home doesn't seem to really matter. I'm not gonna rank my own team or anything, but I do think the above heavily discounts two players that it's not unreasonable to expect a lot of good stuff from no matter what team you're on.
Still, on paper without including my own team, I'd easily place Stakatakas in the #1 slot. Teddeh maybe having to deal with SPL stuff as a potential question mark is fairly mitigated by the fact that they bought three players who've seen a lot of success in PU with rwby to help out, and either Fagtron or Anty (unsure of who's gonna be starting w1) can easily handle a slot on their own. "Because HJAD is really good" is just not enough to rank the Blacephalons higher, even though he absolutely is.
Frankly I think the weakest non-Mareanie draft is the Lunalas. Taskr and Manyy are both up and coming and I don't expect bad performances from either by any means, but every other team has either a lot more building and testing support than just the two starters or HJAD, who's really good. They're going to have to take on each week mostly on their own, which is a difficult thing to do when this is their first tournament on a higher level than PUPL (pretty sure this is gonna end up being higher level anyway. Except maybe whatever happens with the Mareanies).
For the record I do think the Mareanies have potential, ranking them lowest is absolutely correct but they have enough tour players that if just one or two turn out to take to PU pretty well like False did in ORAS then it might not be a total wash.

 

[Haund]

justice for lst

 

[Jason Genova]

Looks like its going to be an awesome season. Max Attaka Stakatakas & Mind Blowing Blacephalons are easily the strongest PU cores IMO.

It would be awesome to see some kind of semi-official power rankings for at least the pu individual power rankings. We don't get a lot of that kind of stuff normally

 

[Anty]

underrated people im expecting big from:
Haund: After testing a lot with him and chatting to him a lot im certain that hes an underdog. You might be used to him using horseshit teams and losing r2 of room tours but i think this tour is when he finally makes a big name for himself. Not only does he have support of fellow italian amberllamps but also i gave him a rly good team earlier. Overall expecting him to go positive at least

false: He has proven to be a top 5 all time PU player (other 4 being brits) and was proban quagsire last gen so is certainly an intelligent player. His playing skill is out of this world and has been pretty successful this yr in tours. His building is very solid and he doesnt need to be versatile to win most of his games. Might not be the top notch but certainly better than people give credit for. He isnt playing PU apparently but still have high hopes.

ppl who wont do well:
Yogibears & robert alfons: get benched kek

other predictions:

• brits to overall do better than italians
• lack of diversity in playstyles with top 4 mons having over 40% usage
• kushalos to use articuno every week
• clef gets 100% wr week1 and the tier reverts to ORAS
• Mearenie's player trying to bring a PU alpha team most weeks and wondering why their team wont load
• Mearenie's dont come last so managers pretend like they didnt completely ruin the tour

Anyway I do have high hopes to this tour, as I assume most players will take it seriously and there were a good amount of PU players drafted so there's a very good potential. Of course I could be wrong but that doesn't matter since one team has 33 players how funny

 

[yogi]

ppl who wont do well:
Yogibears & robert alfons: get benched kek

story of my fucking life

 

[Evan.]

underrated people im expecting big from:

• Mearenie's player trying to bring a PU alpha team most weeks and wondering why their team wont load

dude none of us even played PU alpha lmao

anty edit: ik, it just makes that prediction even more impressive when it inevitably happens

evan edit: ooh damn we play you guys w1 too its gonna LIT

 

[rural]

hey finch can u trade me? chop saying the n word on discord scares me

 

[Raiza]

Pairings for Week 1 are up

PU matchups:
Dragonspiral Tyrunts (0) vs Cosmogtic Lunalas (0)
Haund vs Arifeen
amber lamps vs Taskr

Untier University (0) vs Mind Blowing Blacephalons (0)
Raiza vs Sam I Yam
Kushalos vs HJAD

Michelangelesque Mareanies (0) vs Max Attaka Stakatakas (0)
Evan. vs Teddeh
col49 vs Anty

Highlights for me are definitely amber vs taskr and kush vs hjad, even tho all matches are overall good / exciting, so let's hope to have a good tournament

 

[Magearna8000]

Can we get some power rankings ? I'd do some but I only know like 75% of the players

 

[EviGaro]

Paging Robert Alfons, power ranker extraordinaire.

Also we're STACKED omg.

 

[LordST]

PU matchups:
Dragonspiral Tyrunts (1) vs Cosmogtic Lunalas (1)
Haund vs Arifeen Hate picking against Hanudd but feen's been tearing it up in ssnl and Haunds been out of it for awhile. I have full confidence the esteemed Marowaks captain can be competitive this tour, but I wanna see results from him first.
amber lamps vs Taskr Both of these players could be considered top5 pu players in this gen so far and this is easily the most competitive match this week. Both have a mastery of building and the skill to back that up. Leaning towards amber to take this one tho his builds have been wild lately.

Untier University (1) vs Mind Blowing Blacephalons (1)
Raiza vs Sam I Yam Raiza booted me from ssnl so his ass better win. I'm not sure how much PU Sam has been playing recently and he's undoubtedly a great battler, but Raiza is still the clear favorite here.
Kushalos vs HJAD Kush is a top tier player and i have no doubt he'll get a great team from his captains/raiza, but Hjad still has advantage with the superior meta knowledge. I'm expecting some hot anti-meta stuff from Hjad to edge out a close victory.

Michelangelesque Mareanies (0) vs Max Attaka Stakatakas (2)
Evan. vs Teddeh Hornet's nest of a match. Evan really doesn't have anything to lose which can be dangerous but I trust Teddeh can confidently pilot himself to a W here.
col49 vs Anty Read the above. I'm honestly just really curious as to what kind of teams the Mareanies bring seeing as their roster's closest thing to a USUM PU player is one soapy the kid.

Looking forward to seeing some high level matches, gl to all!

 

[SergioRules]

Predictions:
Dragonspiral Tyrunts vs Cosmogtic Lunalas
252+ SpA Lunala Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 76 SpD Eviolite Tyrunt: 258-304 (103.6 - 122%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Untier University vs Mind Blowing Blacephalons
/ds untier --> 'untier' could not be found in any of the search categories.

Michelangelesque Mareanies vs Max Attaka Stakatakas
252+ Atk Life Orb Stakataka Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Mareanie: 203-239 (66.7 - 78.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Honestly depends on how quick Mareanie can Scald burn

But in all seriousness, I don't know enough about the teams to make predictions, I'm just happy to watch some good games and steal some good teams gl all players :]

 

[TJ]

Pairings for Week 2:

Dragonspiral Tyrunts vs Michelangelesque Mareanies

PU: Haund vs Z+V
PU: Reje vs TSR

Cosmogtic Lunalas vs Untier University

PU: Arifeen vs Raiza
PU: Taskr vs Kushalos

Mind Blowing Blacephalons (0) vs Max Attaka Stakatakas (0)

PU: Sam I Yam vs rwby
PU: HJAD vs Robert Alfons

 

[g]

PU: Haund vs Z+V

Haund played decently last week and Arifeen was tough but with amberlamps benched fully focused on providing a team to the fellow italian i think he got it.

PU: Reje vs TSR

I'm assuming amber is not playing due to PTSD after Taskr's Mesprit ruined his life. I don't know either player but I'm gonna go with the one without an acronym as a name, as usual.

PU: Arifeen vs Raiza
PU: Taskr vs Kushalos

hyped for those, no predictions.

PU: Sam I Yam vs rwby

rwby is undefeated in team tournaments and Sam I Yam can't miss his chance to send him back to the bench and stop his bragging in a smooth single move. Predicting a Togedemaru in this match.

PU: HJAD vs Robert Alfons

Robert Alfons is on fire and has been showing pure class on and off the field for weeks now, can't predict against the man even if HJAD is a tough opponent.

 

[dibs]

PU: Haund vs Z+V - cute user
PU: Reje vs TSR - where is the cute user???

PU: Arifeen vs Raiza - cute user
PU: Taskr vs Kushalos - cute user

PU: Sam I Yam vs rwby - cute user
PU: HJAD vs Robert Alfons - cute user

this weeks really good that it's hard to pick a highlight match, probably between HJAD vs Robert Alfons and Taskr vs Kushalos.

my predictions this week:
- Qwil left and Spiritomb dropped, so i'm expecting the meta to slow down a lot with increased usage of stuff like Clefairy and Altaria
- Expecting BD Zangoose + Spriritomb to be used at least once
- Someone will bring hail and the opponent will have Miltank, Gurdurr or Hitmonchan

 

[Haund]

not playing this week so i can do these (sorry lads switched to monotype see ya! )

Week 3
PU: ict vs Raiza
PU: amber lamps vs Kushalos

PU: Many vs Teddeh id go with teddeh bc good player(tm) but im sure many will use z gyro ball ferroseed or something similar and will take the w with it
PU: Taskr vs Robert Alfons good performance by taskr overall but i can see the communist dutch taking this easily

PU: Sam I Yam vs TSR plays pu more i guess
PU: HJAD vs col49 same as above and jihad is literally unbeatable

 

[g]

PU: Many vs Teddeh

predicting a narrow win with a Mareanie or whatever

PU: Taskr vs Robert Alfons

taskr's matchup won't be as easy as the previous ones and he won't win unless he plays flawlessly

PU: Sam I Yam vs TSR

he won last week right?

PU: HJAD vs col49

masterful sweep by a Hone Claws Skuntank with EVs in every stat

 

[Raiza]

ive wanted to do this for other weeks too but i forgot

PU: Many vs Teddeh - Teddeh has always been top3 pu players, and is in great shape as seen from spl. he has been playing nu but i'm sure he is still as solid as ever in pu so i'm expecting him to win, even though many is no pushover and shouldnt be underestimated

PU: Taskr vs Robert Alfons - this can really go either way and it'll be probably close but going for the robert alfons win here. i've been really impressed by robert's builds and seasonal performance lately. taskr has been doing great this exhibition, but has gotten favourable mus and i want to see a closer match where he brings his A++ game

PU: Sam I Yam vs TSR - i dont know much about these two. sam plays pu and is good, i've played him week 1 where he gave me a scare with z sunny day pyroar, so i imagine he also has good prep and can take this

PU: HJAD vs col49 - id say they're even skill wise but hjad knows pu like his pockets

 

[dibs]

Y'all are doing it wrong

PU: Many vs Teddeh - cute user
PU: Taskr vs Robert Alfons - cute user

PU: Sam I Yam vs TSR - cute user
PU: HJAD vs col49 - cute user

PU: ict vs Raiza - cute user
PU: amber lamps vs Kushalos - cute user

who actually has reasons wtf

 

[Sk3no]

week 4 is up right now so I might as well get up some predictions.

PU: ict vs Neo
PU: amber lamps vs HJAD

PU: Taskr vs TSR
PU: Many vs Evan.

PU: Raiza vs Teddeh
PU: Kushalos vs Anty

 

[Teddeh]

PU: ict vs Neo - I think Neo is more of a PU main tbh
PU: amber lamps vs HJAD - hjad is on a roll atm, he made last week look easy

PU: Taskr vs TSR - taskr is good at pokemon i guess
PU: Many vs Evan. - wtf why wasn't evan subbed in vs hjad last week...

PU: Raiza vs Teddeh - pfft like fuck i'm going to lose vs this pizzalian guy
PU: Kushalos vs Anty - Anty sucks so bad you all have no idea lmao