After three full months, this tournament has finally reached its conclusion. I'm happy all that time was worth it, and all that stress too, because I rarely, if ever, got that nervous over a single tournament. I wanna put some of my thoughts out there so I'll start with that before the corny shout-outs... Sorry in advance for the TL;DR.
As my signup post indicated, I didn't have many expectations coming into this SPL. I had just gone through a pretty inactive year, tainted with bad showings. Most of the managers knew this, so I was wondering where I'd land, which is always pretty exciting to me. My plan was just to have fun, not care to much and try to stunt in BW.
Turned out I ended up on the Tigers with a bunch of people I had never teamed before. I didn't want to influence the auction plan at all, so I just let tennis & llamas do their thing. Only influence I had on the team was telling them to outbid giara for the Scooters. I've always had great SPLs whenever I wasn't part of the auction preparation (SPL 3 & 6), so I just hoped it'd be the case again when all the bidding was done. I just hoped everything would mesh well.
Despite the week 1 beating, I was very much satisfied with the game I produced vs Jayde, and it gave me a lot of confidence back. Little by little, I started to care more about this, as we had some really hardworking people on the team. We rolled over the second week, then blew a 6-3 lead in the third one, which got on my nerves. Week 4 was insane with the 2-5 to 7-5 comeback and it really put our synergy, collective and mental to a new level. That victory was one of my favorite SPL moment ever. Going into the mid-season with 5 points and a top 4 spot, I knew we were capable of at least reaching POs!
After a rowdy midseason, thanks to our Valentine on Steroids Mazar & Steve, we started with a very disapointing loss against the Ruiners (2-5 to 5-5 comeback to 5-7 loss). The following loss against the Wolfpack made me question everything because I thought it was the week to win and we just got blown back. Tama and I had a long conversation about the line-up and we said "It's time to go big or go home". We couldn't afford a loss at this point, and had to win against playoff contenders only from that point. Although we were at an all-time low in term of ranking, I could feel the team was still there mentally and I'm glad nobody gave up.
The rest is history. We looked a lot stronger against the BIGs, even if I missed the "penalty shot" vs dekzeh and only got 1 pt out of it. The 8th week vs the scooters was a carnage and I could feel we had the wind in our sails at this point. Week 9 was a classic case of SPL magic and reminded me of SPL4 Wolfpack a lot. We got really lucky vs the Cryonicles overall, and then GOAO beat PDC in game I'll never forget. History was made already and I was in disbelief we reached POs. Calling with some of the guys to watch this game was a hell of moment.
Regarding the PlayOffs, the semi went against all odds. I remember when I lost all access to Internet on the saturday, right as I was about to prep the ADV game with Jabba and test teams in GSC. The next day I just texted Ojama using international credits so I could stay updated on the situation. The final was one of the most stressful situation I've ever been in. Between my own game, the 6-2 lead blown away and then the delayed OU game, I was feeling exhausted as far as Pokemon goes. Tiebreaker was just as crazy but it all ended well for us. It was insane how I could only think about SPL in the past 2 or 3 weeks. I remember Tokyo Tom saying he couldn't move on from it until he'd get closure and end the tournament, and I felt the exact same way.
One of the thing I'd also like to mention is that I'm also proud of the fact we won all by ourself. We had nobody outside the team during the whole season, and only invited a select few for the last 2 weeks. We kept our identity throughout the tournament
On a personnal level, I'm very satisfied with the record I got and the games I played. Felt great to be back on a good groove :D No better way to end it that to win it all while playing good along the way. Before going into the shout-outs, I'll just say that the top 3 moments this SPL were: the week 4 come back, GOAO's win and Mazar's last game. Thanks for the memories <3
To close it out:
- thanks ginku and kicc for hosting this perfectly, altho it was free as fuck until the end
- thanks to the jerkchan for making this super enjoyable for me, up until the implosion post week 6 civil war
- thanks to the raiders for crushing the competition and being on another level during the reg season, allowed the spl to be close as hell and prevent other teams to rack up pts
- thanks to our helpers, your support was helpful :) special s-o to Pearl for getting on the tigers bandwagon early and becoming one of our most active chat presence in playoffs
- s-o to the scooters who had a lot of close friends (big oj, cbb, john, slick) which made this final even more special to me
With that Finchinatoresque post out of the way: Cheers
GG BL
As my signup post indicated, I didn't have many expectations coming into this SPL. I had just gone through a pretty inactive year, tainted with bad showings. Most of the managers knew this, so I was wondering where I'd land, which is always pretty exciting to me. My plan was just to have fun, not care to much and try to stunt in BW.
Turned out I ended up on the Tigers with a bunch of people I had never teamed before. I didn't want to influence the auction plan at all, so I just let tennis & llamas do their thing. Only influence I had on the team was telling them to outbid giara for the Scooters. I've always had great SPLs whenever I wasn't part of the auction preparation (SPL 3 & 6), so I just hoped it'd be the case again when all the bidding was done. I just hoped everything would mesh well.
Despite the week 1 beating, I was very much satisfied with the game I produced vs Jayde, and it gave me a lot of confidence back. Little by little, I started to care more about this, as we had some really hardworking people on the team. We rolled over the second week, then blew a 6-3 lead in the third one, which got on my nerves. Week 4 was insane with the 2-5 to 7-5 comeback and it really put our synergy, collective and mental to a new level. That victory was one of my favorite SPL moment ever. Going into the mid-season with 5 points and a top 4 spot, I knew we were capable of at least reaching POs!
After a rowdy midseason, thanks to our Valentine on Steroids Mazar & Steve, we started with a very disapointing loss against the Ruiners (2-5 to 5-5 comeback to 5-7 loss). The following loss against the Wolfpack made me question everything because I thought it was the week to win and we just got blown back. Tama and I had a long conversation about the line-up and we said "It's time to go big or go home". We couldn't afford a loss at this point, and had to win against playoff contenders only from that point. Although we were at an all-time low in term of ranking, I could feel the team was still there mentally and I'm glad nobody gave up.
The rest is history. We looked a lot stronger against the BIGs, even if I missed the "penalty shot" vs dekzeh and only got 1 pt out of it. The 8th week vs the scooters was a carnage and I could feel we had the wind in our sails at this point. Week 9 was a classic case of SPL magic and reminded me of SPL4 Wolfpack a lot. We got really lucky vs the Cryonicles overall, and then GOAO beat PDC in game I'll never forget. History was made already and I was in disbelief we reached POs. Calling with some of the guys to watch this game was a hell of moment.
Regarding the PlayOffs, the semi went against all odds. I remember when I lost all access to Internet on the saturday, right as I was about to prep the ADV game with Jabba and test teams in GSC. The next day I just texted Ojama using international credits so I could stay updated on the situation. The final was one of the most stressful situation I've ever been in. Between my own game, the 6-2 lead blown away and then the delayed OU game, I was feeling exhausted as far as Pokemon goes. Tiebreaker was just as crazy but it all ended well for us. It was insane how I could only think about SPL in the past 2 or 3 weeks. I remember Tokyo Tom saying he couldn't move on from it until he'd get closure and end the tournament, and I felt the exact same way.
One of the thing I'd also like to mention is that I'm also proud of the fact we won all by ourself. We had nobody outside the team during the whole season, and only invited a select few for the last 2 weeks. We kept our identity throughout the tournament
On a personnal level, I'm very satisfied with the record I got and the games I played. Felt great to be back on a good groove :D No better way to end it that to win it all while playing good along the way. Before going into the shout-outs, I'll just say that the top 3 moments this SPL were: the week 4 come back, GOAO's win and Mazar's last game. Thanks for the memories <3
tennisace & atomicllamas : very different managers compared to the people I've been used to in the past. Much more quiet but still around when needed. You guys weren't afraid to experiment with the line up either, and it worked out well for us. I could feel you cared more and more as the season went on and you offered some solid reports in doubles & rby for PlayOffs. Stay chill and laid back, glad you were able to take it home. Tigers won't be a farce franchise anymore. #goatace
p2 : love your humor man. The expanding brains images you and ryan made cracked me up. I loved your confidence whenever you played, you always had a gameplan in mind and could see what you had to do stay in the game and win it. Rough second hald of the season, but I know how annoying it can get to build in a tier with so many threats for 11 weeks... You just need to pair originality with efficacity now, when it comes to building, because some of your stuff failed miserably :sob: Also your win vs Adam to clutch Week 4 was fuckin amazing. neverforget
Steve Angello : I think you're a good guy and I really liked your enthusiasm. You finally got more than 4 wins in a season too, grats again. You were one of the most active chat presence, and combined with your workload, you were a big part of our early season success. You always apologize after bursting out, but keep in mind damages are still being done, so try to think about it :x Great teammate overall, especially if you like the crazy type. mahlzeit
Eternal Spirit : The SM OU starter I have the worst record against based on our test games. You're a super wild player for sure. You need to be a bit less loco sometimes and work on your gameplan making and you'll reach a new nevel. You also did a lot of work behind the scenes with the BR goons, be it with Nintendi or Tama during the tiebreaker. You were also often around to tier in every SM tier, props to that too. Loved your support and confidence in me :) wrawnn
MajorBowman : Rarely seen a VGC guy so active in his team chat. You had another great SPL and worthy of the Terminator title I gave you. Really cool guy to talk to, and keep enjoying the life man; travelling is a lot of fun! You dipped a bit midseason, and I didn't want to be the guy that doesn't play doubles but try to give advices but you took them very well. You were very impressing again afterwards and I had a ton of confidence in you to bring Ws after Ws. I wish you the same success in VGC now :)
miltankmilk : I already told you a ton of times, but you're the teammate every team dreams to have. Constant supportive, helpful and active presence in the chat. It was a blast to have you on the team. You were also a big reason why Doubles was one of the Tigers' best tier, and you shoud definitely be starting if it wasnt for MajorBob being a beast. You were the team mascott to me, and it seemed just right that you had to play the OU game vs TheThorn. Thanks for stepping up to the plate in that nervewrecking situation again. I remember when I was talking in PMs with tama and llamas about who should we send to play it. We both decided on you unanimously because we could feel you had the fire in you.
OP : Very quiet and always online at ungodly hours of the night / morning for me. Very rough start of the season, but I could feel you weren't getting on tilt. Also, you only lost because people used broken Sun against you most of the time... Anyway, you stepped it the fuck up when we had to win out and our season was on the line, which is all I'll remember from you. An instrumentary part of our late-season revival.
Zebraiken : Zebra :D One of my only friends coming into this team. Really amazing guy and teammate, just perfect all around. Helped OP a ton when you weren't playing, supported everyone and went around asking our preparation were going, etc. Then you reached your god forme when we put you in RBY winning in both playoff games, that was great. You worked your ass off to reach this level in so little time and that's why I was sure putting you there in the first place was the best decision to take. Glad for you and your fan-base that you finally took some gold home!
Edgar : Only member of the jerkchan that was picked in the auction. I remember telling tennis & llamas it'd be cool to get you. You were solid while you played and I'm glad you enjoyed the season. You're not afraid to stand your own ground, and I like your honesty. Keep doing you IRL hombre.
Mazar : Oh boy. Definitely one of the most singular guy I've met so far. There would be so much to say about you... I'll mainly bring up 4 things: great chat presence that helped the OUers a ton; insane midseason string puller, putting valentine to shame, not to mention that one time you wanted us to start Jabba in SM; listened to all my advices and I'm glad you appreciated them; finally: being one of the most impressive player I've ever seen. You were radiating with confidence when you played Uber. You had to win a ton of important games, and you always did it. I marked you down as a win every week when you got rolling and when the tiebreaker got announced, there was no doubt you had to play it for me. Thanks for making me feel like a child when you clutched it all at the end. You're a legend.
Nintendi : Like I told you many times, I had a positive opinion on you when Gama told tennis to pick you ever since you trashed me in a stour countering Keldeo with Gliscor. You're a little prodigy man. Very solid games with solid teams, you're on your way to become a model of consistency, which is what every team should strive to acquire. You can achieve big things here if you put your mind to it.
Tokyo Tom : Much like p2, I love your humor and I got to love your persona in general. Very down to earth and worked hard for every games you've played. You seemed very unconfident at the start, but you played pretty solid man. I was very glad to have our BW slot be in a good spot after I left it. You brought some important wins to the team, even if Lady's Luck was on your side to help achieve that. When you think about it, you also clutched the tie in the final, which turned out to be invaluable. I hope you keep growing as a player if you stays around, I love watching your games if only for the teams.
DeepBlueC : Very quiet but always around to serve Tama :slave: Hope you enjoyed your first SPL experience and thanks for helping the oldman to achieve his GOAT season.
JabbaTheGriffin : You kept beating yourself over for every losses. Sadly, the last minute prep didn't work as well this year... I've told you everything I wanted to on Discord anyway at this point, but thanks for sticking around and showing more care as the season went on. Your win in week 4 in particular was some clutch shit. Glad you got to collect a ring after all these years man.
giara : wesh, j'espère que le paysage était cool à bord du train. bref comme je t'ai dis, j'espère t'as pas été trop déçu de tes perfs. pour une fois que tu underperformes, tu gagnes au final... désolé si j'étais pas toujours chaud pour tes idées farfelues. j'ai bien rigolé en PM quand on commentait sur ce qui se passait dans la team ou le tournoi et merci d'avoir laissé quelques opinions sur mes teams en GSC. enjoy ton nouveau train de vie IRL et on reste en contact d'ici la wcop de toute façon. inchallah tu seras remis sur pieds d'ici là
Century Express : last addition to the br squad bought to help in OU who had to play GSC. Another quiet member but you were always online and showed a lot of involvement when you had to play. Also always around to test whenever we highlighted you. I hope that SPL was formative for you and that nerves wont affect you too much in the future so you can show your true potential :)
Golden Gyarados : thanks for sticking around despite ending as a sub, i saw you play and help zeb a lot, and I'm sure that helped him to become familiar with the tier that fast. It seems that SPL keeps being a tournament in which you underperform, so I can only hope you'll break out of that mold in the future. You need to stop using reflect lax every games tho :sob:
Tamahome : The best for the end. What a season man, what a fuckin season. I've told you in PM everything I had on my mind, be it about the team or about you so I'd just be repeating myself here... I can say with certitude that you became one of the best teammate I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Prior to this SPL, we never really talked and I saw you as just a solid player who always fished for para. While the last part still holds true, I now think you're the kind of guy every team should try to buy as a priority because you have an amazing influence on your mates AND you're good as fuck. That season was one of the best performance I've ever seen, kinda like Conflict last world cup, except I had the pleasure to be on your side. I rmbr when you wanted to throw the towel after your 1-2 start, man am I glad you didn't. We've done pretty much everything together, be it line-up discussion, team preparation, etc. It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad all the efforts you put in your preparation, test games, etc were all worth it. From destroying the reg season, to playing & winning first in the final & the tiebreaker, you showed you were the best player of this SPL to me. I hope we'll keep our friendship even if this tour is over. At least we made history and we'll always recount it later. Fighting is everything
Jirachee : special mention to you, I had a lot of fun talking, building and testing with you while I was slotted with BW, you sadly didn't have a great season individually, but I hope you'll turn it around in future occasions :)
GOAO : THE LEGEND & HERO or our spl, you da best man, you deserve this trophy just like any of us tbh, thanks for savin our season and allowin this to happen
p2 : love your humor man. The expanding brains images you and ryan made cracked me up. I loved your confidence whenever you played, you always had a gameplan in mind and could see what you had to do stay in the game and win it. Rough second hald of the season, but I know how annoying it can get to build in a tier with so many threats for 11 weeks... You just need to pair originality with efficacity now, when it comes to building, because some of your stuff failed miserably :sob: Also your win vs Adam to clutch Week 4 was fuckin amazing. neverforget
Steve Angello : I think you're a good guy and I really liked your enthusiasm. You finally got more than 4 wins in a season too, grats again. You were one of the most active chat presence, and combined with your workload, you were a big part of our early season success. You always apologize after bursting out, but keep in mind damages are still being done, so try to think about it :x Great teammate overall, especially if you like the crazy type. mahlzeit
Eternal Spirit : The SM OU starter I have the worst record against based on our test games. You're a super wild player for sure. You need to be a bit less loco sometimes and work on your gameplan making and you'll reach a new nevel. You also did a lot of work behind the scenes with the BR goons, be it with Nintendi or Tama during the tiebreaker. You were also often around to tier in every SM tier, props to that too. Loved your support and confidence in me :) wrawnn
MajorBowman : Rarely seen a VGC guy so active in his team chat. You had another great SPL and worthy of the Terminator title I gave you. Really cool guy to talk to, and keep enjoying the life man; travelling is a lot of fun! You dipped a bit midseason, and I didn't want to be the guy that doesn't play doubles but try to give advices but you took them very well. You were very impressing again afterwards and I had a ton of confidence in you to bring Ws after Ws. I wish you the same success in VGC now :)
miltankmilk : I already told you a ton of times, but you're the teammate every team dreams to have. Constant supportive, helpful and active presence in the chat. It was a blast to have you on the team. You were also a big reason why Doubles was one of the Tigers' best tier, and you shoud definitely be starting if it wasnt for MajorBob being a beast. You were the team mascott to me, and it seemed just right that you had to play the OU game vs TheThorn. Thanks for stepping up to the plate in that nervewrecking situation again. I remember when I was talking in PMs with tama and llamas about who should we send to play it. We both decided on you unanimously because we could feel you had the fire in you.
OP : Very quiet and always online at ungodly hours of the night / morning for me. Very rough start of the season, but I could feel you weren't getting on tilt. Also, you only lost because people used broken Sun against you most of the time... Anyway, you stepped it the fuck up when we had to win out and our season was on the line, which is all I'll remember from you. An instrumentary part of our late-season revival.
Zebraiken : Zebra :D One of my only friends coming into this team. Really amazing guy and teammate, just perfect all around. Helped OP a ton when you weren't playing, supported everyone and went around asking our preparation were going, etc. Then you reached your god forme when we put you in RBY winning in both playoff games, that was great. You worked your ass off to reach this level in so little time and that's why I was sure putting you there in the first place was the best decision to take. Glad for you and your fan-base that you finally took some gold home!
Edgar : Only member of the jerkchan that was picked in the auction. I remember telling tennis & llamas it'd be cool to get you. You were solid while you played and I'm glad you enjoyed the season. You're not afraid to stand your own ground, and I like your honesty. Keep doing you IRL hombre.
Mazar : Oh boy. Definitely one of the most singular guy I've met so far. There would be so much to say about you... I'll mainly bring up 4 things: great chat presence that helped the OUers a ton; insane midseason string puller, putting valentine to shame, not to mention that one time you wanted us to start Jabba in SM; listened to all my advices and I'm glad you appreciated them; finally: being one of the most impressive player I've ever seen. You were radiating with confidence when you played Uber. You had to win a ton of important games, and you always did it. I marked you down as a win every week when you got rolling and when the tiebreaker got announced, there was no doubt you had to play it for me. Thanks for making me feel like a child when you clutched it all at the end. You're a legend.
Nintendi : Like I told you many times, I had a positive opinion on you when Gama told tennis to pick you ever since you trashed me in a stour countering Keldeo with Gliscor. You're a little prodigy man. Very solid games with solid teams, you're on your way to become a model of consistency, which is what every team should strive to acquire. You can achieve big things here if you put your mind to it.
Tokyo Tom : Much like p2, I love your humor and I got to love your persona in general. Very down to earth and worked hard for every games you've played. You seemed very unconfident at the start, but you played pretty solid man. I was very glad to have our BW slot be in a good spot after I left it. You brought some important wins to the team, even if Lady's Luck was on your side to help achieve that. When you think about it, you also clutched the tie in the final, which turned out to be invaluable. I hope you keep growing as a player if you stays around, I love watching your games if only for the teams.
DeepBlueC : Very quiet but always around to serve Tama :slave: Hope you enjoyed your first SPL experience and thanks for helping the oldman to achieve his GOAT season.
JabbaTheGriffin : You kept beating yourself over for every losses. Sadly, the last minute prep didn't work as well this year... I've told you everything I wanted to on Discord anyway at this point, but thanks for sticking around and showing more care as the season went on. Your win in week 4 in particular was some clutch shit. Glad you got to collect a ring after all these years man.
giara : wesh, j'espère que le paysage était cool à bord du train. bref comme je t'ai dis, j'espère t'as pas été trop déçu de tes perfs. pour une fois que tu underperformes, tu gagnes au final... désolé si j'étais pas toujours chaud pour tes idées farfelues. j'ai bien rigolé en PM quand on commentait sur ce qui se passait dans la team ou le tournoi et merci d'avoir laissé quelques opinions sur mes teams en GSC. enjoy ton nouveau train de vie IRL et on reste en contact d'ici la wcop de toute façon. inchallah tu seras remis sur pieds d'ici là
Century Express : last addition to the br squad bought to help in OU who had to play GSC. Another quiet member but you were always online and showed a lot of involvement when you had to play. Also always around to test whenever we highlighted you. I hope that SPL was formative for you and that nerves wont affect you too much in the future so you can show your true potential :)
Golden Gyarados : thanks for sticking around despite ending as a sub, i saw you play and help zeb a lot, and I'm sure that helped him to become familiar with the tier that fast. It seems that SPL keeps being a tournament in which you underperform, so I can only hope you'll break out of that mold in the future. You need to stop using reflect lax every games tho :sob:
Tamahome : The best for the end. What a season man, what a fuckin season. I've told you in PM everything I had on my mind, be it about the team or about you so I'd just be repeating myself here... I can say with certitude that you became one of the best teammate I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Prior to this SPL, we never really talked and I saw you as just a solid player who always fished for para. While the last part still holds true, I now think you're the kind of guy every team should try to buy as a priority because you have an amazing influence on your mates AND you're good as fuck. That season was one of the best performance I've ever seen, kinda like Conflict last world cup, except I had the pleasure to be on your side. I rmbr when you wanted to throw the towel after your 1-2 start, man am I glad you didn't. We've done pretty much everything together, be it line-up discussion, team preparation, etc. It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad all the efforts you put in your preparation, test games, etc were all worth it. From destroying the reg season, to playing & winning first in the final & the tiebreaker, you showed you were the best player of this SPL to me. I hope we'll keep our friendship even if this tour is over. At least we made history and we'll always recount it later. Fighting is everything
Jirachee : special mention to you, I had a lot of fun talking, building and testing with you while I was slotted with BW, you sadly didn't have a great season individually, but I hope you'll turn it around in future occasions :)
GOAO : THE LEGEND & HERO or our spl, you da best man, you deserve this trophy just like any of us tbh, thanks for savin our season and allowin this to happen
- thanks ginku and kicc for hosting this perfectly, altho it was free as fuck until the end
- thanks to the jerkchan for making this super enjoyable for me, up until the implosion post week 6 civil war
- thanks to the raiders for crushing the competition and being on another level during the reg season, allowed the spl to be close as hell and prevent other teams to rack up pts
- thanks to our helpers, your support was helpful :) special s-o to Pearl for getting on the tigers bandwagon early and becoming one of our most active chat presence in playoffs
- s-o to the scooters who had a lot of close friends (big oj, cbb, john, slick) which made this final even more special to me
With that Finchinatoresque post out of the way: Cheers
GG BL
