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Tournaments SPL XVII BW Discussion Thread

bello figo

per aspera ad astra
is a Social Media Contributoris a Forum Moderator
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Welcome BW Community to another year of Smogon Premier League! With SPL XVII starting up, this thread will be open to discuss replays, metagame developments, predictions, and anything else about our lovely tier. Will sand balance builds reign supreme another year or will we see a revitalization of other styles? This thread will be updated frequently with each new week, player standings, and replays.

Check out other useful SPL threads.
Current Week (Will update it weekly)
Commencement Thread
SPL XVII Spreadsheet
Administrative Thread
SPL XVII Hype Thread
Team Matchups
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BW PLAYERS (likely starters are bolded):

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:entei: Alpha Ruiners: sugarhigh, Fakes, Dababy2, Tizio Potente Ao

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:raikou: Circus Maximus Tigers: Cow, Finchinator


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:gardevoir-mega: Congregation of the Classiest: Dark Eeveon, Sheik :, LB

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:suicune: Cryonicles: GaryTheGengar, Zokuru

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:tyrantrum: Dragonspiral Tyrants: SoulWind, BlazingDark

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:snorlax: Ever Grande BIGS: Mako, JustFranco

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:alakazam-mega: Indie Scooters: Brine, elodin

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:garchomp: Stark Sharks: harshest, Malekith

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:marowak-alola: Team Raiders: Star

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:lycanroc: Wi-Fi Wolfpack: Monai, coco

Star: 36000
Fakes: 33000
SoulWind: 27000
Finchinator: 20000
elodin: 18500
Mako: 16500
GaryTheGengar: 11000
JustFranco: 10000
Monai: 9000
Cow: 8500
harshest: 8500
Zokuru: 8000
Dababy2: 5000
Malekith: 4500
Brine: 4000
Sugarhigh: 3500
coco: 3500
Dark Eeveon: 3000
Tizio Potente Ao: 3000
BlazingDark: 3000
Sheik :: 3000
LB: 3000

N/A

Discuss here right away with your thoughts. I'll update the information in this post throughout the whole tournament!
 

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Week 1 is out!


SoulWind vs Cow
GaryTheGengar vs Star
harshest vs sugarhigh
Mako vs Dark Eeveon
Brine vs Monai

A lot of incredible matchups right from the start. I will be rooting for my friends!

SoulWind vs Cow puts the greatest BW player of all time against the rookie Cow, who after many successful endeavors in BW tours in the last few years, has a chance to shine in his SPL debut.

GaryTheGengar and Star are two veterans. After a disappointing SPL XVI, GTG will try to have another awesome season like he did in the past, and he is pretty in shape, after a remarkable BW Cup win, becoming its first two-time winner. Star will play BW this year, and he will try to replicate the success of his 2025 Invitational run, where he won the whole thing without dropping a single set!

harshest will finally debut in BW OU in SPL XVII with the Sharks, after he spent last season on the Ruiners. One of the most electrifying rookies will face sugarhigh, who comes back to the SPL stage after a lot of time. Will he be able to turn back the clock and deliver a performance worth of his prime?

Mako vs Dark Eeveon is an interesting matchup. Mako showed great BW prowess in the past, winning in dominant fashion the 2023 edition of BW Cup, but never got to play the fifth generation of Pokemon in SPL yet. In the first week this SPL veteran will face one of the most creative players in Dark Eeveon, who comes back to SPL after two good seasons in 2023 and 2024, looking to give life to new refreshing and incredible teams.

Brine vs Monai
Which image animal will prevail?

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For those who'd like to visualize the schedule through the players instead of the teams, here are what the regular season matchups would look like.

Week 1 – January 12, 2026
Soulwind vs Cow
GaryTheGengar vs Starmaster
Harshest vs Sugarhigh
Mako vs Dark Eeveon
Brine vs Monai

Week 2 – January 19, 2026
Monai vs GaryTheGengar
Dark Eeveon vs Soulwind
Sugarhigh vs Mako
Starmaster vs Harshest
Cow vs Brine

Week 3 – January 26, 2026
Soulwind vs Sugarhigh
Harshest vs Monai
Mako vs Starmaster
Brine vs GaryTheGengar
Cow vs Dark Eeveon

Week 4 – February 02, 2026
Starmaster vs Soulwind
Sugarhigh vs Cow
Dark Eeveon vs Brine
Monai vs Mako
GaryTheGengar vs Harshest

Week 5 – February 09, 2026
Mako vs GaryTheGengar
Brine vs Harshest
Soulwind vs Monai
Cow vs Starmaster
Dark Eeveon vs Sugarhigh

Week 6 – February 16, 2026

Sugarhigh vs Brine
Starmaster vs Dark Eeveon
Monai vs Cow
GaryTheGengar vs Soulwind
Harshest vs Mako

Week 7 – February 23, 2026
Brine vs Mako
Soulwind vs Harshest
Cow vs GaryTheGengar
Dark Eeveon vs Monai
Sugarhigh vs Starmaster

Week 8 – March 02, 2026
Monai vs Sugarhigh
Starmaster vs Brine
GaryTheGengar vs Dark Eeveon
Harshest vs Cow
Mako vs Soulwind

Week 9 – March 09, 2026
Dark Eeveon vs Harshest
Cow vs Mako
Brine vs Soulwind
Sugarhigh vs GaryTheGengar
Starmaster vs Monai

Lineup rotations and substitutions are inevitable but this should suffice.
 
If Pokémon were an honest game

GaryTheGengar vs Starmaster — Better player
Harshest vs Sugarhigh — Better player
Mako vs Dark Eeveon — Better player
Brine vs Monai — Better player
Soulwind vs Cow — Better player

In reality:

Starmaster should still win. Harshest should win but sugarhigh's style matches perfectly into his, so there's a serious threat of losing this one. Dark Eeveon might load SR-less or Blastoise Jolteon for the nth time and cause seething among some BW aficionados as well as a loss for his team. Brine and Monai are almost evenly matched, so it could go either way, especially since brinky is one lucky cat. Soulwind might still fall prey to bored mainer syndrome and show up with his latest barely-held-together-by-duct-tape concoction and lose. Plus it's best of 1 and people spend serious time building a team, someone will overcook, someone will get Mazar botted, someone will get crit t3 or miss Draco Meteor turn 16 and lose. You know the drill.
 
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SoulWind vs Cow Even though i think SW may be a better player SW teams are incosistent in terms of quality imo which makes me belive cow might just win this week bc sw brought something so fishy that ends up being bad agaisnt most things.
GaryTheGengar vs Star this is just vibes tbh.
harshest vs sugarhigh im sorry but i only know harshest of those 2
Mako vs Dark Eeveon i think Dark eeveon creativity will put him ahead of mako.
Brine vs Monai Both are great players , i just belive brine wins this one
 
Soulwind vs Cow - yea yea come on settings. Will we see conk gliscor mag unviable slop from soulwind like last year or will he try? Remains to be seen. Brinkpredict says this is 50/50
GaryTheGengar vs Starmaster - garythegengar as a username is just not it, thats the kind of shit you pick when ur like 9. Starmaster isnt much better but ill allow it. interested in how starmaster builds as Ive only ever seen him use finchinator teams. Idt Gary builds either so this will likely depends on whos supporting and who gives more of a shit. Brinky says starmaster wins
Harshest vs Sugarhigh - harshest is the worst username of all time harshest revert that shit asap. Im told sugarhigh is an old spl player show us something old man i guess. Mars wins easy is my expectations.
Mako vs Dark Eeveon - I have been thinking what to say ab this MU for 5 mins but i got nothing. Its just very uninteresting, i know nothing ab Mako and eeveeon isnt even playing the same game as the rest of us which makes his games just the worst to watch. Dark Eeveeon is also a name in a similiar vein as GaryTheGengar which is a thumbsdown from me. Mako wins i suppose
Brine vs Monai -
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