Smogon Premier League 9: UU Discussion

Sacri'

the end is here
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Hey, with SPL9 underway, this thread will be used to discuss UU related topics, whether it's about the players, general metagame trends, matches, predictions and so on. This thread will be updated frequently with each new week, player standings, and replays.

SPL Schedule
Auction Logs



Potential UUers:
Circus Maximus Tigers: A Hero's Destiny, Nintendi, McMeghan
Indie Scooters: Lycans
Team Raiders: Pak
Ever Grande BIGS: Manipulative, Kushalos
Starks Sharks: dodmen, Tricking, Arifeen
Wi-Fi Wolfpack: Cynde
Cryonicles: HT, ict
Dragonspiral Tyrants: Christo, ULTRA MEEPS
Alpha Ruiners: Bushtush, lax
Congregation of the Classiest: Sacri', Pohjis, Bouff


Power Rankings

Player Standings:
 
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Hogg

grubbing in the ashes
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Alpha Ruiners: Bushtush has easily established himself as a top SM UU player recently, winning UU Majors and placing well in most of the tours he enters. He's an interesting pick, though; while he does teambuild a bit, he has traditionally relied heavily on a few other players for teams. This will be a good opportunity for him to showcase his teambuilding in addition to his talent as a player (which he has already amply demonstrated). It's a little bit difficult to place him in the current field but I expect he'll pull off a solid record on raw talent alone, and if his teambuilding is on point, he could easily be one of the top placers.

Circus Maximus Tigers: The Brazilian Tigers core is complete with A Hero's Destiny filling out out a slot in the UU field. While AHD had an excellent UU Open run, taking Highways' teams up to a very good semifinals finish, he's a bit of a question mark here. He hasn't really had any other notable tour success in UU, and FLCL didn't seem to have much trouble dispatching him in the recent UU Champs. It'll be interesting to see if his UU Open run was a fluke or if he can establish himself as a consistent top performer in UU. While I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit skeptical, with the inventive teambuilding support that McMeghan provides, he could definitely surprise me.

Congregation of the Classiest: Classiest went all in on the very first draft pick, nabbing Sacri' in the first round of bidding for an impressive 18.5k. There will be a lot of pressure on Sacri's shoulders to live up to that price tag, but there's no question that Sacri' has been performing incredibly well this past year. A great UUPL followed by a UU Open run that took him all the way to the finals assured him a starting spot in Snake, where he finished out with a very respectable record. He's also definitely remained active since Ultra came out, so I expect him to hit the ground running. Of course, he'll have a significant hurdle right off the blocks, as he faces off against Christo, who recently knocked him out of UU Championships in a couple of extremely fair games. I'm sure he'll be eager to prove himself, and I expect to see good things. Shoutout also to Bouff, who has mostly abandoned UU for other pastures, but who definitely follows the tier and should provide a good support network for Sacri'.

Cryonicles: HT gets another chance to break the official tour curse that seems to follow him around. There's no question that he's one of the most talented players around, and I think he can pull out a win against literally everyone in the field, but for some reason his incredible success in tours like UUPL has not quite translated to any of the trophy tours. I still personally wouldn't count him out; he's got a fantastic grasp of the long game, better than almost anyone else in the field, and if he's motivated I think this can be the tour where he makes a name for himself within the tour community at large. He also has ict playing backup, and while ict has stepped back most of his involvement in the UU tier, he was building some excellent teams during UU Open and can probably make the transition to Ultra fairly easily.

Dragonspiral Tyrants: I'm obviously biased af but Christo's definitely one of the players to beat this tour. He has put in great results in just about every tour he's entered, starting off with a good record in UUPL, making playoffs in Majors and going all the way into finals of UU Championships. He sat out of Snake as a player for the opportunity to manage, but there he worked closely with Manipulative, who ended up with one of the best records in the tour. His team support is solid as well, with the PO duo of meeps and J0RIS both on the team (and I heard one of his managers dicks around in UU sometimes too). I'm going to make a totally accurate and non-biased prediction here and say that he's going to win every damned game.

Ever Grande BIGs: Manipulative had some significant shade thrown at him when he got drafted for Snake, getting placed last in the power rankings, but ended up with one of the top records in the field. Some people have changed their tune since then, and that performance landed him a starting slot on the BIGs, although others credit his results to the team support he received from his manager Christo. There is little such support for him on the BIGs, so this tour will be a major test for him. That said, Manipulative built most of his teams himself, and if he can pull off results comparable to his Snake performance, he should hopefully silence his detractors once and for all. (lol jk I have yet to see anything silence ict)

Indie Scooters: Scooters solidified their UU pick early with a Lycans retain. Lycans previously worked with obii during Snake, and just about everyone (myself included) was impressed with his run as he finished as the top performer. He has long been respected as a talented player (with previous tour results including winning the first iteration of UU Majors last year), and everyone expects to see great things for him now. Of course, during Snake, he had significant support from his manager dodmen, who is arguably one of the best teambuilders and players in UU, while UU support on the Scooters seems scant. Still, Lycans has remained active since Snake, and has continued to build and play in the tier in the post-Ultra days. This will be a fantastic opportunity for Lycans to shine on his own, and based on what I've seen of him, there's little doubt in my mind that he can do it.

Stark Sharks: While there was significant speculation early on that dodmen would NU this tour, based on the Sharks lineup, it seems likely that he will be starting in UU. This means that for the second time running, dodmen has landed as the most expensive UU buy in SPL. While his SPL 7 performance didn't quite live up to expectations (though it was far from bad), he has improved significantly since then, and he is regularly ranked as one of the top UU players. He is also one of the best teambuilders in UU, and while he chose to manage during Snake, Lycans credited much of his success in that tour to dodmen's support. I don't think anyone would be surprised to see him close out this tour with the best record of any team.

Team Raiders: Pearl has long been a big proponent of Pakmasta, so it certainly wasn't a surprise to see the Raiders pin their UU hopes on him. That being said, while Pak definitely has a ton of talent, most of his recent tour success has been in ORAS UU. He landed a starting position during Snake, but the experience seemed to be a frustrating one for him, and he ended up with a disappointing record. Still, it's difficult to ask for better UU support than Pearl, and hopefully being among friends will give him the motivation he needs to put Snake far behind him.

Wi-Fi Wolfpack: The Wolfmasters were one of the last teams to claim a UU slot, and made an interesting choice with an under-the-radar pick in Cynde. While Cynde has no official tour experience, he's one of the most inventive builders in the tier, and I was very happy to see him picked up this SPL. His most relevant tour experience is from UU Majors, where he placed second (though he was a few points shy of landing a spot in Champs). While his tour experience is minimal, he is more actively engaged in the current tier than many of the other picks, and he's got a definite knack for teambuilding that will hopefully carry him into a decent record. Unfortunately he is placed on a team with minimal UU support; ABR has dabbled in UU teambuilding during UUPL and Snake, and PokeTCG gamer 19654654136541268341 knows his way around the tier, but for the most part Cynde is going into his first trophy tour without any dedicated support. He's a risky pick, to be sure, but I for one plan to cheer in his corner, and hope to see him shine this tour.


All in all a good pool, with a decent mix of established names and up and coming players. I'm especially excited to see how BUUshtush and Cynde perform, as both have the potential to pull off some major upsets. Go Tyrants!
 
The Wolfmasters were one of the last teams to claim a UU slot, and made an interesting choice with an under-the-radar pick in Cynde. While Cynde has no official tour experience, he's one of the most inventive builders in the tier, and I was very happy to see him picked up this SPL. His most relevant tour experience is from UU Majors, where he placed second (though he was a few points shy of landing a spot in Champs). While his tour experience is minimal, he is more actively engaged in the current tier than many of the other picks, and he's got a definite knack for teambuilding that will hopefully carry him into a decent record. Unfortunately he is placed on a team with minimal UU support; ABR has dabbled in UU teambuilding during UUPL and Snake, and PokeTCG gamer 19654654136541268341 knows his way around the tier, but for the most part Cynde is going into his first trophy tour without any dedicated support. He's a risky pick, to be sure, but I for one plan to cheer in his corner, and hope to see him shine this tour.
 

Pearl

Romance は風のまま
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis the 7th Grand Slam Winneris a Past SPL Champion
I guess I'll help getting things started this time around. It's only fair (I guess) after I promised I'd share my thoughts during Snake just to bail out every single time the thought of posting crossed my mind.

Overall, I feel like the UU pool for this tournament is about as strong as Snake Draft's pool (probably weaker since it's missing The Superstar :eyes:). We most likely won't be receiving visits from seasoned veterans like McMeghan or Tesung this time around, but I'd say that all of the newcomers have very high skill ceilings by our playerbase's standards, while the guys who were less hot the last time around (looking mostly at HT and my son Pak) are definitely not to be discredited, as their ability to play past UU metagames definitely shows that they can put up solid records when they're in the mood. Anyway, this is more or less how I'd rank teams this SPL as far as their UU depth goes (excluding my own team to keep the bias as low as possible):

1. The Stark Sharks - dodmen

While there are some other guys on the team (Tricking, Teddeh, Feen) who could possibly take over this slot in order to let dodmen play a different SM tier, I feel like that won't be the case until very late into the season if something elsewhere goes wrong. This is, IMO, the highlight of SPL's UU pool compared to Snake Draft's, as dod was managing in the latter. It's pretty hard to write a description about dodmen's approach to UU without making it seem like I'm riding him hard, but to put it simply, he is one of the tier's freshest minds and is always down to give uncommon Pokemon/strategies a shot (Mega Banette in ORAS, Silvally during UUPL, BARBARACLE). That coupled with his aggressive playstyle makes him the most entertaining UU player to watch (as well as one of the most successful), and his results in tournaments this year back this up nicely (excellent UUPL, excellent Grand Slam and some wins in other tours here and there)

2. Congregation of the Necks Classiest - Sacri'

First of all, I'd like to congratulate my good buddy Sacri for being both the first nomination of the whole draft and one of the most expensive UU picks alongside dod himself. That said, I feel like spending as much as this team's managers did in UU is very likely to be pay off in this case, as Sacri's consistency throughout SM UU has been nothing short of phenomenal. Good UUPL? Check. Good UU Open? Check. Good UU Majors? I honestly don't remember LOL sorry. Good Snake Draft? Sure thing! Good UU Championship? Probably not, but you can't blame him for going down early in a tour filled with so many behemoths. Anyway, as much as I have criticized Sacri in the past (still can't deny he's the ORAS WOAT tbh), he is on his way to solidify his place as one of the most consistent people to play this tier at this point in time. And if this isn't enough, he's also backed up by Pohjis, who is probably one of the best team players I've gotten to know on Smogon, and I'm sure he'll go out of his way to make sure his teammates won't be lacking in the scouting department. As far as drawbacks go, I personally feel like the Frenchman tends to get a tad too repetitive when it comes to building teams, often resorting to trends (Empoleon. Gliscor too but he's probably moving up to OU at some point in the tournament) that can be exploited with ease by his opponents, provided they do their homework, but this is still not enough to discredit Sacri's ability to pilot said teams in a solid way. Plus, I've heard somewhere that he gets a little sad inside every time I say things like this about his teams, and actually tries to use different stuff, but I wouldn't know!

note: Ranks 3-4 are more or less even in my opinion. You can swap them around if it makes you feel more comfortable!

3. The Indie Scooters - Lycans

The first retain on the list, and for a good reason too, as he provides pretty good odds of giving his team a solid UU record for about 10k less than the two guys above him. Although you could say that dodmen was a big reason behind Lycans' success during Smogon Snake Draft, the truth is that he's still able to build his own teams relatively well. Plus, I'm pretty sure obii will be there to back him up as well if it's ever required. Aside from that, I don't think there's much else to be said here. Good Snake Draft + Good WCoP + Passable results in other smaller UU tours (as well as OU and other lower tiers) = High likelihood of shaping up to be a solid SPL starter. I'd write more about Lycans' own playstyle, but I don't really think there's anything that immediately catches my attention. I guess he's like dod in the sense that he can pilot pretty much any sort of team to a good level, but less flashy in the sense that he rarely resorts to less common techs/Pokemon (aside from that one time when Conversion Porygon2 was utilized). I could be wrong in this regard though!

4. The Dragonspiral Tyrants - Christo

The second and last retain on the list (unless you count ict as a UU retain, but I honestly don't think we'll see him around these parts this season). Similarly to Sacri, Christo is (or rather, used to be) known for his rather one-dimensional teambuilding style. However, I think he has an easier time branching out in SM UU, especially considering that he is playing under Hogg, who usually has a lot of fresh ideas to work with. That aside, this guy is the 1 person who beat me last UUPL so he's clearly a god Christo has been a mainstay in the UU community for a long time now, and while his results might not be as impressive as those of the people above him, Christo still got carried to a trophy by virtue of being in the right place of the world at the right time he's still had some success in the aforementioned UUPL and UU Majors, as well as a major supportive role in the success of Manipulative during Snake Draft. With all of this in mind, I don't think anyone would be surprised to see this man put up a solid record this tournament.

note: Once again, the upcoming two guys are more or less equal in my own rankings, so you can just swap them around if you think it's fit

5. The Ever Grande BIGs - Manipulative

Christo drone #1 (for real though, rumor has it that Christo is the man who taught Manipulative about the existence of Steel-type Pokemon). Coming off a decent Snake Draft showing, Manipulative is back for yet another round of Smogon's most prestigious team tournaments. Although I have a lot of complaints about his team choices when Christo wasn't around to give his two cents, the truth is that Manipulative never truly misplayed throughout his run during SSD. If he manages to solidify his teambuilding/team selection abilities, he has potential to surpass his 5-4 record from Snake Draft. If this doesn't turn out to be the case, however, he could find himself having issues against the rest of the pool.

6. The Alpha Ruiners - Bushtush

Christo drone #2 (jk, I know you're great). Bushtush has been putting up some pretty impressive results in the latter half of 2017, demolishing me in UU majors and then going on to win the whole thing. while also being a pretty handy guy to have around due to his ability to play every tier at a decent level (and also for being one of the most passionate chat presences in the entirety of Smogon). However, the biggest concern here will definitely be his ability to remain self-sufficient when his #1 team provider is on a different team. If he's able to get past this handicap and actually manages to cook up some cool teams of his own, then I wouldn't be surprised to see his name near the top of the UU player records. However, if this isn't the case, things could very easily go south for the Tush and his team, as their UU depth is pretty lacking for the most part (they do, however, have some spare cash to solve this during midseason if it turns out to be an issue, but I'm personally hoping Bushtush comes through here)

7. The Cryonicles - HT

Despite the awful Snake Draft run, the legendary Hairy Toenail is back to prove the non-believers wrong. As I said before, I find it hard to believe that someone with so much success in the ORAS metagame will turn out to be a disappointment for two tournaments in a row. Things could be rough though, as his team's UU helpers are only ict (who hasn't really paid much attention to the state of the tier since last UUPL) and teal six (who is a competent player but tends to make some questionable moves in the teambuilder. Besides that, he has openly claimed that he doesn't really care much about the tier anymore many times before. Maybe one day we'll see the return of UU king teal in all of his greatness as Spoofy the messiah once preached). Anyway, I'm placing HT here due to his lack of success in SM compared to the guys above him but above the 2 remaining competitors because unlike them, HT already has some team tournament experience under his belt and could bounce back pretty easily if he goes back to the roots and cooks up some hot squads like he used to do once upon a time.

note: Same as the last two cases where the players were more or less even. Please note that I don't rate these two lowly; it's just that neither is as accomplished as the players above them. They still have decent odds of taking games from the everyone else.

8. The Circus Maximum Tigers - A Hero's Destiny

The Tigers seem to have taken a pretty unique approach to their UU draft, banking on the Brazilian wonder A Hero's Destiny, who had a pretty fulfilling UU Open run this year, as well as a brief showing in UU Championship Playoffs. I personally feel like he could very much be this pool's dark horse, as even though some claim that he needed a decent amount of luck to go as far as he did, he still seems to be fundamentally solid as far as the technical aspects of the game go. Not to mention that he has what is easily 1 of the best pool of helpers in the whole tournament, with fellow Brazilian god Nintendi having acquired some tier knowledge for himself thanks to Grand Slam and also McMeghan, who played the tier as a starter during Snake Draft and is known to be one of the most solid players to ever touch the game. I'm ranking him near the bottom because he's barely involved with the community, which means that he might be lacking in connections and tier knowledge. Besides that, this is his first big team tournament experience, and those have a lot of potential to go south, but he should be able to hold the UU slot on his own if he gets past these two roadblocks.

9. The Wifi Wolfpack - Cynde

Last (but hopefully not least) we have the Wifi Wolfpack, who decided to pick up Cynde to fight off against the competition. I personally don't know much about him aside from the fact that he's Shiba's right arm in the fight against the corrupt jerk (this spot was previously held by my son Pak, so I know from there that Cynde has what it takes to accomplish great things) and that he had a pretty convincing run in UU Majors. Besides that, I've seen some of his teams and can safely say that if I had to rank the pool based on their ability to make teams for the tier alone, this guy would be at least top 2 by a long shot. That aside, he's also supported by chessmaster Tony Flygon, who is probably one of the best people to ever open up the Stats folder on Pokemon Showdown's teambuilder, so even if the games don't play out as they are supposed to, we're sure to see some amazing conglomerations of Pokemon from these two. As far as playing goes, I haven't really seen much from Cynde, but my personal record against him in recent times is somewhere between 0-2 and 0-5, so he's not even bad in that regard. The two issues here is that he's unproven and this is his first big team tournament experience, so if things start out poorly it could become pretty complicated for him to pull back. I'll probably be rooting for him to succeed if his teams are as great as I'm expecting them to be.

To close this off, I'd just like to say that I'm pretty sad to see my boy Eyan sit this one out. I'll admit that the Raiders had you in the draft plan as a cheap UUer in case we failed to get any of our desired UU picks, but I don't think that's a good way to console somebody at all. That aside, I'm happy for everyone who got drafted and am hoping to see some great UU matches between all of the competitors.
 
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Lycans

Bebe's my bae
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
I'll try to do this although idk how well I'll do

The UU pool of this year has several new faces and others not so new that we already know by other tours although we've lost some snake draft players like Pearl and Bugzi we now have top UU players like Dodmen and Christo playing with us so in general you could say it'll be a fun season full of good high level battles

I havent put these players in any particular order, except Dodmen he'll be always the uu number one.
I won't put myself for obvious reasons

The Stark Sharks - dodmen: I think most of us agrees in that the ex uutil dodmen has been one of the most solid uu builders during these last years, a player with an impressive game vision and his recent achievements prove it by getting a record of 6-1 in the last iteration of uupl and taking the second place in grand slam standings of 2017, i wouldnt be surprised to see dodmen with one of the best records of the year.

The Alpha Ruiners - Bushtush: him who wasnt no one but the dark horse a few months ago in uu respectively has managed to become the winner of the uu majors of this year, i think his weakness in this season could be the lack of help to build teams since he doesnt have christo or hogg by his side and i dont see anyone of his team with enough knowledge of the actual metagame of uu, im very excited to see how things goes in this season and i hope to see great achievements.

The Ever Grande BIGs - Manipulative: coming of snake draft with a good record overall mani comes back to escene of teamtours to prove that he still hasnt showed his full potential, this time without hogg and christo by his side he will still have help of an experienced low tiers builder, maybe it will depend on how much hes willing to listen to his teammates when it comes to choose his teams

Congregation of the Necks Classiest - Sacri': sacri will have to pay off his expensive but justified price which i dont think will be hard for him to do, since hes one of the top uu players atm, with an undefeated record of 7-0 in regular phase of this years uupl apart from another remarkable stuff like winning the nu open of the last slam and getting to the finals of the uu open of this years slam, making him one of the toughest opponents of the pool

The Dragonspiral Tyrants - Christo: since i started playing uu christo has been one of the few players i followed because of his versatibility and creativity when it comes to build teams aside from his vast knowledge about the actual metagame have made him accomplish great things in the uu subforum, the most recent in getting to the finals of the uu championship, a very solid player for this pool without a doubt

Team Raiders - Pak: coming back of a rather disappointing experience in snake draft, pak has got a place in a team with one of the best uu supports anyone could ask for in pearl by his side, this without a doubt will be amazing for building and choosing teams, everything else will depend on paks skills

The Circus Maximum Tigers - A Hero's Destiny: while being somewhat unknown atm hero has proved to know how uu works by reaching an impressive achievement in semi finalist of this years uu open although with solid help from highways giving him teams from the shadows, we will have to see how he develops in this new competitive enviroment having a good support in nintendi and mcmeghan by his side

The Wifi Wolfpack - Cynde: a player that went unnoticed during the last years comes from the shadows to jump in his first experience in an official tour, clynde is known in the uu forums for being a player that comes off with weird builds and he could use this to his advantage to surprise his opponents, his most recent achievement is getting to the finals of the most recent uu majors so i have good expetations of his performance.

The Cryonicles - HT: despite his not-so-good record in snake draft, hairy toenail comes back to break his curse in official tours, in oras he proved to be a decent uu player and this time he has ict and teal by his side to support him in his prep so i think he can still end up with good results
 
Circus Maximus Tigers: - A Hero's Destiny - AHD is an unproven player in the tour scene, and is not known for being active in the UU community either. He had an impressive UU Open run, probably using some of his buddy's teams. At first glance this seems like a poor option, but in reality I do not think its that bad. Teams either had to pay 10k+ for safer and more proven options or drop 3-5k on wildcards. With the support of McM and his mystery factor, being mostly unknown by the rest of the community, prepping for him and knowing what type of plays he makes is hard. For these reasons I think its an ok buy. Solid Scale: Loaf of Bread
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Indie Scooters: - Lcans - Lcans(Lcans>Lycans sorry) popped into the UU scene seemingly out of no where some time ago and has only put in positive results. Not only is he good at UU, but he has shown that he is a capable battler in general, as seen in tours like WCOP. He had the best record in Snake, and regardless of his help from dodmen, its clear he is no "dodmen drone". Although I do not expect the same record as he did during Snake, I'm confident that he can get a positive record with ease. Solid Scale: Supreme Brick
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Team Raiders: - Pak -
I've always thought Pak(masta) was a very talented UU player, especially during ORAS. Coming into SM, he got his shot and was underwhelming. I believe this was because it was his first time playing on the big stage and he underestimated the amount of prep it takes to keep up with the rest of the pool of players. I do not think he is as talented a pokemon player as others on this list, but he definitely has the UU knowledge and experience from Snake to hold his own. On top of this, with Pearl by his side, Pak will be more prepared and motivated for all of his games, which is what I think was his downfall before. Solid Scale: 4 Pieces of Plywood
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Ever Grande BIGS:
- Manipulative - Being a dominant force at the end of ORAS, but showing no compelling records in SM, Manip was a seemingly risky pick for Snake. Luckily for Manip, I kept a close eye on him, and was confident in his ability to do well in SM if given the right support. He ended up pulling out with a solid record and played pretty well for the most of the tournament. SPL is now his time to prove himself as an individual. He knows how to build and has had enough tournament experience in Snake to know what to expect. Solid Scale: A lego

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Starks Sharks: - dodmen - dodmen has been the obligatory top 1 uu player for a long time now. He builds a lot of great teams and is pretty creative and versatile with what he can use. His playing ability is very high, and always performs extremely well in uupl. This is the 2nd SPL in a row he was the most expensive buy, and although he had a 4-5 record in SPL 7, I am sure he has grown from that and is prepared and ready to take on this SPL full force. I am not gonna gobble his cock like a majority of the community does, as similarly to me, he still needs to prove himself fully on the big stage. With that being said, I think dodmen can live up to what he is hyped up to be no question. Solid Scale: A Stainless Steel Block
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Wi-Fi Wolfpack: -
Cynde - Cynde has been a UU contributor for a while and has always been pretty good. With no real tournament experience, and his main accomplishment being a runner-up in UU Majors, he is a risky pick. He does build pretty well and plays at a decently high level, but not much more than that. With his support from Tony, he is definitely capable to make some moves this tour, but for now we just have to wait and see if he can hang with the rest. Solid Scale: Spongebob Squarepants
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Cryonicles: - HT - I have always thought of HT as one of the best UU players since the start of ORAS. For whatever reason, he can't seem to translate his ORAS talent and impressive UUPL records into official tour wins. Similarly to Pak, HT is mostly known for his ORAS UU skills, but I still think HT has the capability to beat anyone in the tournament as long as he puts in the effort and stays motivated. Solid Scale: Fragile Plate
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Dragonspiral Tyrants:
- Christo - yung don with a respectable taste in curly-haired women. Solid Scale: particles arranged such that their shape and volume are relatively stable
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Alpha Ruiners
: - Bushtush - Part time UU player, part time ABR slayer Bushtush has been on the grind the past few months. Bushtush has always been pretty good, but since he has been apart of the high-level tournament environment as a Snake sub, his playing ability and overall SM UU knowledge grew a ton. His run in majors was extremely impressive and he was dominant throughout the entire tournament. While most of the teams he used were mine and hogg's, he piloted them very well. Bushtush does build decently well, but most of his success has come from using other people's teams. If Bushtush can perfect his building ability, or gets his teams from outside sources, I think he can match up very well vs the majority of the players. Solid Scale: a decently-sized tree
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Congregation of the Classiest:
- Sacri - Sacri has had an extremely impressive SM UU track record so far. Being the runner-up in UU Open, a great UUPL, and good Snake record, Sacri has shown why he is a top dog in the UU tier. While these records are great, his teambuilding, while good, is extremely one dimensional and easily exploitable. Any time he has strayed away from bulky offense, he does not perform as well. Assuming the majority of the players are going to prepare for his common trends, Sacri might find some trouble. At the end of the day, though, Sacri is a very capable player and will most likely outclass most of his opponents. Solid Scale: Nokia phone
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I guess I'll try my hand - not gonna rank through numbers, just using Hogg's list.


Alpha Ruiners: Aside from being one of the most handsome users around, PPoC franchise Bushtush has had a pretty convincing year in terms of UU, winning Majors and making it to semis of Championships. Like the others said though, what seems to be his biggest roadblock on paper is his lack of teambuilding support. With that being said, even if he might find himself on the back end in terms of matchup, he's a player with a high ceiling and has the capacity to outplay pretty much anyone imo. Excited to see what he runs with this season tbh.

Circus Maximus Tigers: AHD seems to be a newcomer in the tour scene for the most part, but he's made a name for himself through his UU open presence. With that being said, taking a glance at the shit McMeghan had brought in his Snake run, it'd be wrong to say he has nothing to aid him in the support aspect. A bit of a risky pick maybe out of the pool, but the results speak so you can't really sleep on him entirely.

Congregation of the Classiest: Bias gassing aside, I think out of everyone in the pool Sacri has had probably the most impressive year, and if you've been following UU frequently ( and / or read Pearl's post since he pretty much summarizes his track record), he's probably one of the most threatening players in the game rn. Like the others said, his diversity or whatever might be a worry, as SPL is a tour where you almost can't afford to bring consistent as fuck standard teams in the same way that you would in an individual tour. On the other hand, he has me and Pohjis, the most attractive user on God's green earth, to help him in the teambuildng aspect if necessary. It'd be pretty easy to see him showing the same results that have made him so successful over the course of the gen.

Cryonicles: Despite his Snake performances, I think anyone who knows HT knows that he's not to be underestimated. Honestly if there anything I was worried about from that tournament it was his teams, but things are different this time around when you have ict on your side. like the others have said, he may not be as invested as he was last gen, but I'd bet that he'll tryhard like fuck to make sure that HT's covered on that regard.

Dragonspiral Tyrants: Skater boy Jesus H Christopher The Gr8 one...what a guy. Similarly to Manipulative in Snake, he has Hogg's support in the teambuilding regard, and he's been consistent as fuck for the past two and a half years. Really there's nothing to say here that you wouldn't already know - he can outplay pretty much anyone, and he has a tendency to pull games out of thin air which is honestly annoying in a way that Christo has pretty much trademarked.

Ever Grande BIGs: Manipulative shut off critics (myself included honestly) with his snake run, and even if he doesn't have the support of Hogg or Christo, he has a certain pasty individual at the helm who'll make sure his teams are top notch despite his involvement in the tier - that's just a habit of his tbh. Assuming that individual doesn't die of a heart attack from eating too many chicken wings, I'd expect a strong showing from Manip this season, though he is certainly not reliant on that support.

Indie Scooters: I guess most people will expect less of a showing from Lycans without the support of dod, but you have to consider that he still has obii on his side, who is pretty much as good of a team support as you can possibly get. Couple that with his playing ability and his own knowledge of the tier and you have a pretty menacing player on your hands. Excited to see how he does as his Snake showing was great.

Stark Sharks: Here's the real gassing lmao. I think it's pretty undisputed that dodmen, put simply, is fucking raw when it comes to just about pretty much anything regarding the tier. Teambuilding, playing, whatever. He knows this shit inside and out. Not only that, he also has the support of Hikari to boot, though hikari may die of an aneurysm from the cringe simulator. It's pretty obvious that dod's the man to beat right now.

Team Raiders: The Mandiqueen mascot is back more this season. Obviously the Snake record may stand out to some, but if anything I'd credit that to his lack of enjoyment from the tier. Things are different this time around though, and he has Pearl and TDK to support him as well, so sleeping on Barclay's biggest fan would be a mistake.

Wi-Fi Wolfpack: I think he was paranoid that he wouldn't get picked up, and honestly it'd be a travesty if he wasn't, so it's great to see him here. Yeah yeah you could think Tony isn't /really/ support - but even if that was the case, from working with Anti and PokeTCG Gamer in Snake, they're definitely no slackers when it comes to help in UU. Not to mention that Cynde has come up with some nice shit on his own, so I think he's probably the dark horse as of now - he has some tough competition, but again, he shouldn't be slept on.

Not much else I can think of to say honestly, so I'll just close it out by wishing everyone a fun season! :blobthumbsup:
 
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Hogg

grubbing in the ashes
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Staff Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus
Power rankings are up!

http://www.smogon.com/articles/spl9-power-rankings

What did everyone think about the rankings this year? A travesty of justice? About as expected? Who made out great and who got robbed?

EDIT: alright for all the prophets and armchair quarterbacks in the crowd, I made a prediction form. Think you know how the season will go? Then bless us with your hot predicts here: http://spo.ink/spl9uupredicts

Person with the most accurate predictions at the end of the season wins a beautiful hand-drawn trophy made by yours truly.

EDIT2: I’m bad and messed up the form, should be working now.
 
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Hogg

grubbing in the ashes
is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Staff Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus
Week 1 is up!

SM UU: Bushtush vs Cynde
SM UU: HT vs Lycans
SM UU: Sacri' vs Christo
SM UU: dodmen vs A Hero's Destiny
SM UU: Manipulative vs Pak

Lots of good matchups this week. Bushtush v Cynde is especially fun, as it’s a repeat of UU Majors finals. Sacri v Christo is also pretty hype of course (go Christo). I’m also really looking forward to the dod/AHD game. dod is always fun to watch, and AHD is teaming with McMeghan, who was the most interesting teambuilder in Snake, so that has potential to be a really fun one as well.
 

Sun

Who cares if one more light goes out? Well I do...
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SM UU: Bushtush vs Cynde
SM UU: HT vs Lycans
SM UU: Sacri' vs Christo :fire:
SM UU: dodmen vs A Hero's Destiny
SM UU: Manipulative vs Pak

Very interesting match ups, gl all, especially spongebob n_n
 

Cynde

toasty
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
SM UU: HT vs Lycans - ht told me he was gonna win and his team is heater mcheaterson so i have to go with my boy
SM UU: Sacri' vs Christo - there's honestly no way i can make a prediction in favour of one of these two players and justify it well enough because they're both really good so we'll just have to wait and see. i'm probably the most excited for this game this week.
SM UU: dodmen vs A Hero's Destiny - i don't think anyone can realistically predict against dodmen in this match up but you never know, we could very well end up seeing some cool stuff from ahd and get a big upset.
SM UU: Manipulative vs Pak - with the really good team builder that is pearl in pak's corner he's probably gonna whip up some fire ass squads and catch manipulative off guard. This could easily go either way though

as for me, i'm really looking forward to getting my revenge against bushtush this week >:D. excited that this is finally underway and i hope everyone has great games n_n
 
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Sacri'

the end is here
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http://smogtours.psim.us/battle-gen7uu-339392 cynde vs bushtush playing for the first uu game of this spl!
we're back i guess
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-339392
Odd game all around, I don't think there's much to say. Cynde brought an hyper offensive team featuring a lure scarf azelf but he led hydreigon and stayed in vs Sceptile which made the game much harder on the very first turn. From there Bushtush just had to keep rotom or azumarill healthy so as to deal with Sharpedo, Sceptile and Salazzle were both quite threatening for Cyndes team so he couldn't really lose if he played these two decently. Cyndes team featured many interesting sets but that first turn meant he couldn't efficiently make use of them. This game had a lot of potential but ultimately the pressure of SPL debut made it slightly frustrating to watch. I'm sure Cynde will be able to turn this around in the future if he keeps on making good use of innovative sets and we all know he has the potential to play much better than he did this game.
 
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Sacri'

the end is here
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won't make this too long, don't have the energy nor the motivation. I got the match up I wanted and I played it poorly early on. Scald burn on gliscor sucked a lot because it meant no rocks but thats what the move is for and it wouldn't have mattered had I played this better. Nidoking killed everything that wasnt called Aero and I somehow managed to let it get trapped. I tried to get it back later on but it was just too late and Seismi was too healthy. I don't have anything to say, I'll do better next time I guess.
 
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-339656

hello, if you saw my game im sure you were wondering why i did what i did at the end so heres a brief explanation of my thought process

turn 13: didnt want a possible uturn on glisc on hydra and giving infernape a hit off with hazards up
turn 14: wanted to get a memento off on the glisc and just win from there with barb, which was not the case since i let timer get low and forgot +2 barb is slower than scarf ape so i went into hydra on the predicted eq, but he thought i was going for an hp ice i assume and went into ape

so yh ape is fast! and i sacked nido + made chandy take hazard damage bc of that :/
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-339656

hello, if you saw my game im sure you were wondering why i did what i did at the end so heres a brief explanation of my thought process

turn 13: didnt want a possible uturn on glisc on hydra and giving infernape a hit off with hazards up
turn 14: wanted to get a memento off on the glisc and just win from there with barb, which was not the case since i let timer get low and forgot +2 barb is slower than scarf ape so i went into hydra on the predicted eq, but he thought i was going for an hp ice i assume and went into ape

so yh ape is fast! and i sacked nido + made chandy take hazard damage bc of that :/

All the games are great so far but you won with a Barbaracle vs a Serperior Volt-Turn team I'm so proud of you and the metagame, good game and well played HT.
 

Lycans

Bebe's my bae
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ok gonna a talk a bit about that battle first of all i didn't expect scarf nido at all i played all game thinking the speed control it was scarf chandelure so basically my game plan was pressure with hazards and win with serperior in late game which wasnt possibly

Turn 8: i let klefky eat a Play Rough cause i knew that with 2 layers of spikes i can 1hko barbaracle with Beedrill so it wouldnt be a threat anymore but unfortunately i lost the roll

252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 16 Def Klefki: 142-168 (44.7 - 52.9%) -- 27.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock

Turn 12: i was about to kill myself LOL

Turn 14: tbh idk what happened there i was expecting a specs overheat and was sacking mi nape

Turn 15: ok so i had a choice locked infernape vs Chande a Gliscor at 79 before rocks and a Beedrill even if i would've sakced my Gliscor i would've need a crit whether of CC or Drill Run to win so yeah I'd say the whole game was based in that turn 12

before the game i was considering use psysically defensive klefky and EQ nape (mine was gunk shot) which would've helped me but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ gg HT i hope we can play again soon
 

Pak

fly higher
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Just going to give some thoughts on some key turns
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-339681

Turn 1: Looking at his team I didn't see much purpose for a bulky sciz since he had Seismitoad and Klefki to handle shit like Aero and Lati, so I assumed it was a CB variant to complement Manectric. Given that the roll against 0/0 bulk Scizor was heavily in my favor and going to Amoonguss on a strong U-turn let Manectric in for free, I just decided to go for it turn 1 and it worked out and got me an early lead.
252 Atk Krookodile Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Scizor: 273-322 (97.1 - 114.5%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO

Turn 2: I think both of our plays here spoke to how big of a threat my Mega Aerodactyl was looking. He needed to rocks to pressure any switch ins later on and for a Scarf Latias Draco to KO, and I wanted Seismitoad weakened and itemless so it could no longer check Aero effectively.

Turn 4: Really my only regret from this game. There's no way he was sacking Seismitoad with Aero in the back but I clicked Psychic over Ice Beam anyway. I got bailed out by a crit that put Lati in CB Scizor BP range, which was honestly pretty big later.

Turn 5: I was just sitting there going "please please don't go Manectric" since my two plays into Scarf Lati were Sciz and my middle ground in Togekiss which seems to be what Manip predicted to come in. Small thing but a pretty key turn in me maintaining momentum.

Turn 13: The tech came through (shoutouts Pearl). It sounded pretty crazy at first but when you really think about it, offense often deals with Mega Aerodactyl by sacking something and picking it off with either priority or a scarfer. It worked about as perfectly as it was drawn up since I got a free sub on a sleeping toad and kinda won from there provided I hit edges, since Manectric was still a huge threat.
e: I do acknowledge I probably had the game won with any other Aero set, but this prevented any TWave attempts and forced Manectric to stomach a hit to break the sub, making the endgame more straightforward
Aerodactyl-Mega (M) @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Unnerve
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Ice Fang
- Fire Fang
- Substitute

Pretty straightforward and fun game, looking forward to next week.
 
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https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7uu-339962

not too much to say about my game, i was able to setup spikes pretty easily to pressure the sylveon and killed off latias early. i didn't need to risk anything fancy late-game (dd'ing on protects, or risking fire blast on sylveon) because i just needed to weaken sylv, force it out with nihilego, and then the combo of superpower chesnaught + scarf infiltrator chandelure won me the game against any possible sceptile set. hoped to show off dd zygarde a bit more (i was espeed>iron tail cause my beedrill and manectric matchups were a bit rough)
 

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