Tokyo Tom - My assman and one of the people that made this team possible in the first place. I have a lot of respect for you, Ryan. We do not always see eye-to-eye, but you obviously wanted what was best for the team and never were afraid of speaking your mind, which is a must for anyone in a managerial position and it often kept my mind, as manager, open. While you do not necessarily have competencies across the generations and throughout lower tiers, you did do your best to discuss teams and games with our players, which often helped matters or at least cleared up confusion, which was quite helpful. I also valued your sense of humor and chat presence a lot as a good friend and I hope this continues throughout the future as it is chill having you around. All in all, for a duo of BW mains who rose to relevance over the past few years, I think we did a fine job overall and we kept the team together, made it an enjoyable experience, etc. We obviously had different approaches as managers, but I think they complimented each other quite well as if there was another tryhard, testing and discussing around the clock, I think everyone would go crazy. You had a pretty relaxed, yet caring sense of what was going on and how to consistently act, which I appreciated a lot. Also, I hope you did not take my "useless assman" shit seriously -- I do not expect anyone to ever match what I do in terms of tests and advice and whatnot obviously, as I said, and you did what you could when you could, which was great. It was fun getting to finally team with you and hopefully we can again at some point in the future. If you want the Bigs next year, the team is yours! I hope stuff goes well IRL and we can keep in touch, always a pleasure my man!
Editting this in after your post -- you really shouldn't feel too bad about the whole Ginku thing, by the way. I was in call with you and technically in charge and I did not stop you, so it is not really fair for you to take whatever "blame" there may be and, regardless of that, every single team takes risks that do not always work out and this simply was another one of those, so yea dw about that.
d0nut - I'm pretty sure we have the longest streak of teaming together for trophy tours of any two people on Smogon, dating back to WCOP 2015 (that means it has been WCOP 15, WCOP 16, WCOP 17, SPL 7, SPL 8, SPL 9, and Snake 1). With the potential WCOP change, Snake leading to new teams every year, my walking away from Bigs management, and your potential to not play/manage in a tour or two, this will probably end over the next year at some point, but man it has been one hell of a run. I wish we had more success to show for it -- we pretty much had it come down to the wire when it came to making playoffs during WCOP, Snake, and now this SPL, but didn't quite make it. Top that off with some pretty unfortunate stuff you had to endure this SPL with people questioning your retention and my purchasing of other GSCers and I guess this was not our best showing together, but it still was a fun one and it was definitely not all negative. As always, it was a pleasure to have you around - your chat presence is pretty underrated as you always know what you're talking about and have timely, witty remarks to add-in often. You got to play DPP again and this time things went a bit better than last, with you going 2-1, which is pretty cool to me seeing as I know that you never really were a GSCer so much as a generally solid player throughout the generations. And we got some of the old Serebii dudes on board like John and Windsong, which brought us a unique form of veteran synergy that I viewed as quite valuable and something that oftentimes kept our team together. While I am aware that this season itself was not all the fun in the world for you as an individual at times, I genuinely respect your devotion to the team regardless of that and I have felt this way about you as a teammate over the years - kind of why I was content retaining you in the first place, to be honest. All in all, it has been a lot of fun working with you and we have a lot of pretty memorable experiences together throughout the past few years on this stupid site and while I don't know if this is the end or not, I do want to say a genuine thanks for everything. I could go on and on, but this is long enough and I'm sure we'll be in touch on discord, so this is plenty for now.
Posho - My friend, it has been fun working with you these past two seasons. While the results you got this time around did not meet your personal expectations, I am still impressed by your development as a player and user over the past few years. We do not always share the same views on stuff in BW, but seeing your unique perspective is often very interesting to me when it does not involve Sub Punch Tyranitar or Alomomola. In addition to this, you are one of my favorite people on here as you're a genuine nice guy who wants the best for his team and his friends and I really respect that about you. While I know you plan to step away from playing a bit after STour and WCOP, I do hope you stick around and chat as I value our interactions. With that said, IRL is obviously the most important and I know exams/school have kept you busy recently and I hope you are doing well there! It's been a blast sharing dozens of shitty memes with you and kukking around every day. Best regards in the future and perhaps we will work together again!
bro fist - 31k well spent, no doubt in my mind about that. You're probably one of the best teammates I've ever had the pleasure of working with over the years and if that alone wasn't enough, you played insanely well this season - you just as easily could have been 8-1 if things went your way, but 6-3 is still a very good record. While I know that this team was not exactly a circlejerk of top players like East in WCOP or around some of your better longtime friends like the Scooters of the past, I think that we had a pretty solid amount of synergy going and it worked out pretty well, but a lot of that was thanks to your open mind and helpfulness when it came to having a lively chat and being productive every week with prep/tests. Ever since WCOP ended, I had wanted to team with you and I always thought that having a top OUer enhances a team on a number of levels, so that and the fact that d0nut brought up the old guard of Serebii with you and Windsong kind of gave me an excuse to essentially plan to get you no matter the price, which was what happened come the auction. While you built and discussed a ton of OU, being a huge reason in our success there, with the best regular season record in SM OU, you also supported xray a ton in ORAS, tested plenty in various other tiers, especially BW because Panch played around the clock, and always gave your input on important matters. It was a pleasure to have you on board as a teammate and a chat presence, the latter of which I think a lot of people underestimate, but for good reason seeing how solid your play is and how much attention that draws. You were one of the more active members of the chat and that really helped get the ball rolling for our team, which I personally appreciated a ton. It was great getting to team with you and hopefully we can again sometime, best of luck in the future man!
Eo Ut Mortus - eoat. Oddly artistic Mimikyu fetish aside, you have been one of the best performers this SPL and it has been amazing witnessing that, especially after working with you for a majority of the past year in WCOP and Snake. I really was unsure what to expect coming in as I knew your activity would not necessarily be consistent and we did not even plan to get you unless Jirachee and Zoro didn't pan out. Turns out the former was too expensive and the latter went too early, so you fell into our laps for a cheap sum later on and the rest is history! It is funny, really, because this 6-2 run really was not supposed to happen, but all of the pieces fell into place [insert puzzle pun here] -- Posho got moved to BW, you got up to speed with USM thanks to Nedor and John, and you started off strong to gain momentum moving forward. From there, you looked like a top player each week, showing creative builds and previously unseen strategies in order to give yourself advantages and increase team synergy and, overall, your crafty balanced building style did exceedingly well this tournament when paired with your aggressive, momentum heavy playing style. Individual success aside, as I'm sure you have heard enough at this point, you are a great addition to any team and that has been shown every time we have teamed together, including this SPL. You are a fun chat presence and you seemed to fit our environment quite well while also consistently contributing to the team from a Pokemon standpoint, too. I was pretty sad when I read your post when we got eliminated -- it was a great post and I am glad you enjoyed the time with the team, but I really wish we could have at least made playoffs as I know you have not had the opportunity in the past and you really deserved it. Hopefully this will change in the near future and if WCOP stays, then perhaps I can play a part in that. Regardless, it has been a lot of fun working with you and I hope your job situation works out well for you - be sure to let me know how that goes and best regards!
ayevon - Glad we got to pick you up as your support clearly benefitted us a ton. We lost two legitimate SM games throughout the second half and one was against Cdumas, so obviously we performed exceptionally well there and your support played a large role in this dominance. While you’re not a big name and not yet proven as a player, you’re playerbase and metagame knowledge are unquestionably on par with where an SPL player needs to be. You offered consistently helpful team advice and always found time to help test with both Eo and John. On top of that, you adapted to the team culture very quickly, almost as if you didn’t get thrown in midseason without much warning, which really impressed me considering that it was your first big tour and all. From custom Landorus-T spreads to fuck up Clefable to the inspiration behind the Jirachi team, all of your influence on our SM teams was positive and this is greatly appreciated from a managerial perspective. I’m glad we had you around in the chat and gave you a brief taste at SPL, but I hope you get chances to play tours like this and WCOP in the near future as experience is huge and I think you’re ready for it. Good luck and keep it up, hopefully we get to team again!
Manipulative - I know this tournament has been a disappointment for you results wise and you just want to get away from this game at this point, but I do want to say that it has been a pleasure getting to know you over the years and I am glad we finally got to team together once again after that UUPL a few years back. You have been on my radar since then and I knew you had what it took to compete at this level. You really showed that in some games this season, but it wasn't too easy to do so consistently when you lacked much support and you had a lot of harder opponents. I wouldn't dwell too much on the performance, anyway. It was a pleasure to have you around and I think you fit our team dynamic really well. You had a great chat presence when you were around and it was fun talking to you about a number of things. While I know you do not plan to play a ton moving forward, I hope we can stick in touch and I hope you end up transferring somewhere that is right for you and you go on to do really well there, both academically and socially. Best regards and thanks for everything man!
Windsong - You are a fucking beast dude. Coming out of nowhere, more or less, to kick ass once again -- impressive. Easily one of the best RU players of all time and also one hell of a dude to team with, you're really fun to be around. I wish that we could have made playoffs and won the tour because you honestly deserved it, but unfortunately we fell short. With that said, I think you had a great season and I hope you enjoyed the team environment as it seemed you got along pretty well with most of our dudes. I also hope you get to play BW at some point, perhaps in WCOP, as it would be really interesting to see how well you do and what you come up with given your history in the tier. Anyway, it was great talking to you about everything from Pokemon to ramen to d0nut's
early posts. I know you have plenty going on IRL, but I hope you stick around and we can keep in touch. Best of luck with everything!
Hot N Cold - Sergio! :D Ryan said we should get you to help support RU and some OUs and I'm glad he did because you were a lot of fun to have around and you helped the team out a ton, especially with building in RU, but also with all of your ideas throughout so many tiers. You always had unique insight and plenty of helpful things to say and I am happy we got you. I wish we could have given you a chance to start and I know you are still good enough to do well, but unfortunately we just ran out of time and couldn't quite make it to playoffs where I would have given you a shot. Regardless, it was really cool having you around and I hope we can team together again in the future and you keep playing because you're a really cool dude -- good luck man!
Kushalos - The unset mastermind himself. You never fail to amaze me with the teams you come up with and the plays you manage to make. Overall, 5-4 is a pretty respectable record and while you made some mistakes, you also played well often and you built some pretty solid teams. I wish I could’ve helped you out more, but you seemed to have most things figured out and I was mostly good for testing, which was fine. You also contributed plenty to RU and even UU throughout the tournament, which was greatly appreciated. All things considered, I’m glad we ended up getting you. It wasn’t exactly planned, but your price made you easily worthwhile considering how high your ceiling is as a player. I’m glad you got to bring some creative teams and brought in wins with them - I didn’t want to put a stop to your style and I think allowing teams like what you used week 5 was for the best, even if they seemed risky. Additionally, you’re a really chill dude and I’m glad we had you on board - I think you complimented our other lower tier players well and you fit our team dynamic chat wise, too (p.s: keep up the joey memes). It was really fun getting my ass kicked by you time after time in tests and seeing all of your unique ideas/sets and I hope you keep doing well man!
Jhon - Not your best tournament and I’m not going to try and bs around that, but not entirely your fault either. I’m sorry for not providing a ton of support aside from my weekly checking-in and whatnot — I should’ve planned for another doubles player and that’s my fault, probably. Regardless of that, you clearly know how to play and build at a top level, so I’m not even sure how much support would have changed matters, but I hate leaving people alone on a team like that. I know a few little things truly were the difference between your record here and the 6-3 you put up in Snake and a lot of those weren’t entirely in your control, so take it easy and don’t worry about what happened as it’s all in the past now anyway. It was chill to have you around as always. Even if you aren’t the most chatty, I know you’re dedicated and your head is in the right place and I respect that a ton. Good luck in the future and hopefully we can work together again, let me know if you ever need any help with singles tiers ofc!
xray - You were insanely motivated all season long and seem super passionate about ORAS and I have a ton of respect for that. You’re a great player and your grasp on ORAS is up there with the best, too, so I’m glad you finished positive, even if it wasn’t up to your personal expectations. Regardless of that, I planned on getting you for a while after we talked pre-season and I’m glad we got you. You worked on teams everyday for hours and you set the tempo for everyone else to try their best and win — every team needs someone like that and I am glad you were our guy. You’re also fun to have around and helped out in other OUs when possible, even if they aren’t your areas of expertise. Sometimes you get a bit too into it and that’s fine by me honestly because I get the same way and so do many others, so don’t worry about that. I hope you keep playing ORAS in the future and we get to team again someday — good luck man.
Honor - I know you are usually pretty busy, but I am glad we got you for DPP and you got to play the first six weeks. While the results weren’t ideal, you got quite unlucky and you played really well anyway. I think you’re a really interesting DPPer with a ton of unique ideas and I hope you can showcase them more in the future. Sorry we couldn’t stick with you down the stretch, but I just wanted to see how other options did. You’re still a great player and I hope you keep on going in the future. Thanks for playing and chatting with us and best regards friend!
Triangles - My dude, I’m glad we got you for so cheap and you put up a pretty solid record. The core of you and Rui is really dynamic and I think you played some really solid games this season and the two of you had great team ideas (not really sure who made what or if I’m giving him too much credit, but either way you’ve always been an interesting builder in my eyes and it was nice seeing it firsthand). I’m not a big ADVer, but I can tell you really know what’s up in the tier and can compete with the best, even if you ran into some Pokemon related issues against BKC and Astamatitos when trying to prove that. It was also really chill chatting with you throughout the season about a number of topics, you’re a pretty fun presence and I think that added onto our team dynamic plenty. All things considered, it was a fun season and you did well. Thanks for everything and I hope we get to work together again!
Mr.E - You’re the best. Plain and simple - as you say it everyday. I know that our purchase of you was basically an accident and I don’t know what other managers where thinking, but it was great to slot you in GSC in relief and see you put up three key victories for our team. While I don’t always agree with your views or attitude, you’re a funny guy and it’s been cool talking with you. Glad I ended up getting you and hope you keep on playing man, good luck in the future!
Bedschibaer - Yea, this season wasn’t really fair to you. I have no clue why other managers didn’t go higher and valued the dudes they did the way they did, but I wanted an old generation substitute anyway and while my plans where a bit less proven and capable of starting right away, you fit the bill over them for sure. The thing is that this wasn’t really a fair end result for you as you clearly are good enough to start yet didn’t really get the chance to here, so I apologize for that. I hope that the team environment was at least enjoyable for you and I hope you get into a lineup really soon because you’ll definetly do well. With this said, the support you gave marco and our GSC slot was greatly appreciated and you were a strong teammate overall. Good luck in the future and keep the meme game strong!
marcoasd - The GOAT of RBY, you’re a fantastic player and I was glad we got you for relatively cheap. You had some rough weeks and ended up losing three of your four series to game three tauros wars, so that was a bit unfortunate, but regardless you kept going with your best effort and put up a positive record, so I am glad we had you on the team. Your ritual with MrE was hilarious and overall you’re a fun, old school chat presence that I enjoyed to have on the team. Thanks for doing well this season and tolerating this insane metagame for nine weeks straight. I’m sure that achievement list will keep getting longer and longer in the future, good luck man!
Vamos zukushiku
v 
but team was alright minus Beds going psychotic over me for having the gall to use Smeargle once 
