YAHALLO!!!!!!! WE ARE BACK!!!!!
I had been meaning to write another one of these for a while, but I couldn't really come up with a topic. Luckily, Corona PL exists, and reminiscing about the Smogon wild west in the boomer chat inspired this idea. What better way to celebrate for me to celebrate my birthday than by doing something I find enjoyable? lol. Cancering is obviously taboo in the tournament scene, and actively working against one's team is pretty sacrilegious. Yet, everyone on this list managed to fulfill one of those two criteria. The scenarios will be ranked based on overall impact to the team question, which will naturally take into account a player's price tag / draft round. People seem to really like these threads, and I think this topic is particularly entertaining. So, I hope you guys enjoy!
Honorable mentions:
Players getting their managers banned
Limitless and Valentine were both betrayed by their players. Limitless tried to ghost jasonpwn, who ratted him out and got him banned. Valentine tried to get njnp ghosted, and that got him kicked off the team as well. These instances avoid making the list simply because there's nothing actually stopping the manager from assisting the team while banned; it's also hard to quantify the impact managers have on teams after the draft. Because of these reasons, these acts of treachery are left off the list.
Very inexpensive players quitting and being sold back
There are a lot of examples of this, but they're all excluded from the list due to their low price tags. The most recent example is Nat, who everyone knows is a very tilt-prone player. She had apparently become an SS OU ladder fiend before the start of SPL XI, so many people were relatively high on her ability to succeed, especially with TDK's support. Things did not pan out as expected for the RU mainer, though, as she flopped spectacularly before quitting Smogon during Week 4. Sad times.
mael backstabs the Jerk
Our first entry was a pretty memorable event in recent Smogon history. The Raiders were essentially in a must-win situation in Week 9 of SPL 9; Gondra's game against Znain was naturally an important one for multiple teams. Gondra defeated Znain, and the Raiders clinched a playoff spot with an 8-4 victory. However, it soon came out that Gondra's amigo, miguelmart, had snaked Znain by supplying Gondra with some of his teams. Znain's team, the Classiest, were obviously upset with this, causing their manager, Isa, to create one of the more famous copypastas in recent memory as part of his resulting diatribe. How did Isa find out about this snakery? Well, it turns out that a Raiders player, mael, leaked logs of the event to Isa. Now, why would mael do this? Well, mael was apparently vehemently displeased that one of his managers, Pearl, had the GALL to suggest that mael should employ a ground resist on his RU team. The fallout from this event was massive for the Jerk, as both Pearl and TDK lost their Tournament Director status over the controversy. The only thing stopping this event from landing on the list is that it failed to really impact the Raiders' season; the team still defeated the Classiest and came within a game of hoisting the trophy.
The Elephant in the SPL Room
This entire situation was crazy. Basically, last SPL, Ojama told a bunch of managers not to bid on him. This lowered his price, but he ended up being too cheap; Nails took a risk and picked him up because he was unwilling to let another team have the value. This backfired when Ojama basically decided he didn't want to play for the BIGs. The Tyrants decided the trade for Ojama with a package headlined by ima and GaryTheGengar; just when it looked like the trade would go through, though, BIGs retain Sabella posted logs that implicated Ojama for cancering. The trade eventually got nullified, and the BIGs were refunded the money they used to draft Ojama; they were basically left to pick up 24098390 players from the scrap heap. The trade actually did end up going through, though...except it was for TDK LOL The Tyrants shipped off the same mediocre package they had sent for Ojama for TDK instead. Now the BIGs had lost both their superstar players. Sabella's decision clearly fucked over his team; that being said, this whole situation is just a bit too convoluted to crack a spot on the list. But, don't worry, we will be seeing more of Ojama later on...
10. Noodlez waves 'goodbye' to Limitless
This is without question one of the funniest scenarios on this list, mainly because of the absolutely hilarious gif involved. Back in the day, the Frogs were a team that no one wanted to play for. LonelyNess was an enemy of countless users, and his drafting ability left a lot to be desired. If you need any evidence of his bad decision making, just consider that back when SPL had a ridiculous 4 manager slots, LonelyNess was out here with only one assistant manager:
The Smog Frogs: LonelyNess (macle)
Yikes. So, naturally, when Noodlez found himself on the Smog Frogs, he was pretty displeased. Wolfpack manager Limitless, who Noodlez had wanted to play for before the auction began, decided to orchestrate a trade for the aggravated youngster. He shipped off 7k worth of assets in Pedrock and toshimelonhead and acquired Noodlez. There was only one problem...Noodlez was apparently done with SPL? Out of absolutely nowhere, and for reasons that remain unclear to this day, Noodlez decided that he no longer wanted to be a part of the tournament, and told Limitless that he was quitting. He didn't just tell him, though. Instead, he dropped one of the most hilarious gifs I've seen during my time on Smogon:
LOL it never gets old. That gif alone honestly cements this decision with a spot in the top 10; however, considering the relatively low amount of assets Limitless had to give up to acquire Noodlez, and the fact that the Wolfpack won the tournament anyway, it certainly can't be any higher than 10th.
9. dice cancers on the Leviathans
We all know how big of a dice fan I am. I don't really think we need to go over it. As an old gen specialist for the most part, his value obviously decreases a fair amount in a tour without old gens. Because of this, he went mid-round 4 in Snake I to the Leviathans. He won his first game before dropping his next two. Out of nowhere, though, he disappeared without a trace. Finchinator and his goons even tried to reach out to him on Facebook, but to no avail. dice did not play a single game the rest of the tournament, and was subsequently banned from Snake II as well. The team was left without an Ubers player, and his replacements, atomicllamas and Malekith, combined to go 1-5 in his stead. Considering how close the race for 4th place was, dice's cancering almost certainly changed the course of the tour.
8. Donkey quits twice!?
Donkey was one of the most hyped Ubers players on Smogon heading into SPL V. Limitless, while on his retain trade spree, traded 5k for his 10k retains. The 15k Ubers phenom was ranked 2nd in the Power Rankings, and many had high hopes for him. He, however, had other plans, as he started off the season 0-2 and instantly quit the team. His high price makes him a good candidate for the list; although, he would be ranked lower than normal because the Wolfpack still managed to win SPL IV anyway. However, we're not done quite yet. A year later, Donkey once again signed up for SPL; the rules weren't nearly as strict back then, you see. This time, Donkey only went for 3.5k; his drastic price drop was almost certainly due to his actions a year earlier. Managers were very skeptical of his ability to play a full season. That being said, he was apparently still very hyped by the Ubers community, as he somehow landed at #1 on the Power Rankings. If Donkey could play all 9 weeks, the Cryonicles might have just gotten one of the steals of the draft. Unfortunately for reyscarface and his team, though, this is DONKEY we are talking about. Everyone was right to be skeptical, because after 2 weeks, DONKEY QUIT AGAIN LOL At least this time, he didn't cost his team 15k, I guess.
7. Hugo trolls the Tigers
gr8astard was one of Smogon's best players during his peak. The OST winner and IDM leader was widely respect, except by some of the boomers, I guess. So, when, for the first time, Hugo decided to stop managing SPL and enter the draft pool as a player, the masses had their eyes set on him. He would almost assuredly be upwards of 25k; this was arguably the best builder of the time period who happened to be an elite player as well. There was only one problem: Hugo never intended to play in SPL VII. You see, he had informed all of IDM and several other acquaintances that he would be quitting instantly after the auction, and only kept in his name in the pool as a troll. This meant that almost every manager knew that Hugo wouldn't be playing that SPL, with the exception of Texas Cloverleaf and...well OBVIOUSLY TENNISACE LOL
Texas, for whatever reason, only decided to bid Hugo up to 10k. But of course, our favorite longtime manager was there to strike.
[17:02] <@tennisace> !10.5
[17:02] <@dekbot> The Circus Maximus Tigers: 10500
[17:02] <@dekbot> 035 seconds remaining.
[17:03] <@dekbot> 03SOLD: gr8astard to The Circus Maximus Tigers for 10500.
I actually don't know why Texas only bid up Hugo to 10k; it's actually rather flabbergasting that you would only be willing to spend 10k on one of the best builders / players on the site, but maybe he was just a massive Hugo hater. Either way, he was rewarded for his questionable display of financial management.
The Tigers, in their minds, now had the steal of the century, and after acquiring Earthworm for a relatively cheap price as well, atomicllamas dropped a question that made the entire scenario even more hilarious for those in the know:
[17:06] <+atomicllamas> are people
[17:06] <+atomicllamas> sleeping
LOOOL Poor Tigers. Imagine thinking IDM wouldn't be bidding on Hugo. Crazy. And, to absolutely NO ONE'S surprise, after Hugo quit the team, the Tigers missed the playoffs. Who could have foreseen this?
6. The CasedVictory Saga
Cased was a hyped lower tier player back in the day. He was always regarded as one of the best NU players on the site, before he was eventually banned for harassment and flaming. During his forced hiatus from Smogon, he picked up VGC and GSC; placing well in many events in the former and popularizing a Thief-spam team in the latter. When he was unbanned before SPL X, many people were decently high on his GSC abilities. BKC, one of his close friends, had more faith in him than anyone, which, considering that it's BKC, is probably a bad thing. He shelled out a ridiculous 17k for Cased in SPL X, and the formerly exiled lower tier main went winless in the first four weeks of the season. Tensions were high at this point, and Cased was demanding trades left and right; he felt that the hostile Raiders environment was a detriment to his SPL performance, and the team's rather mediocre performance up to that point certainly wasn't encouraging him either. He tried to get himself shipped off the Ruiners, one of the better teams in SPL at the time; however, finding a suitor for Cased was a bit tricky due to his rather abrasive personality. Case is a close friend of mine, though, and I thought he could help improve the BIGs, a team who I was "helping" in SPL X. I didn't want Sage to be on the BIGs anymore, since she was absolutely terrible, and I figured Case could only help improve the disaster that was the BIGs GSC slot. Case and Sage were swapped, and all looked to be well...up until he got himself banned only a few hours later for verbally assaulting Natalie. Yikes. The trade was still a net positive for the BIGs, though, as his fiery personality and high activity level helped revitalize the organization; Sage's battling skills were certainly not helping the team either way. Regardless, his inability to wrangle in his personality was still a detriment to both franchises, and earns him a high spot on the list.
5. Cdumas sinks the BIGs
Heading into SPL X, Cdumas was one of the most prized entities in the SPL auction. He was a sheet warrior, and has dismantled the competition since his entrance onto the big stage a few tours earlier. No one batted an eye when the BIGs spent 23k on him, well, except for maybe CBB, and most people expected him to do pretty well in the tournament. As soon as the tour started, though, it was clear that this would be a difficult season for the Frenchman. He played very poorly in his first few games, and even threw a near-certain win along the way. As the season progressed, it became increasingly clear that he was displeased with his situation. He claimed that he was "tired of being an expensive player," "didn't want to be a leader," and that he "just wanted to play with his French buddies" (I'm paraphrasing since my puushs expired). He essentially cancered and and ran home crying to the kingpin, forcing the BIGs to trade him to the Scooters in one of the most lopsided deals in recent memory. He didn't exactly turn things around on the Scooters, though, as he lost his lone playoff game and finished the season at 1-6. His massive price tag lands him at 5th on the list.
4. -Tsunami- tilts off the Planet
Well, we are unbiased here so LOOOOL good lord. I'm really featured in like every list I make, huh? Heading into Snake I, my stock was at an all-time high. I was the RU tier leader, had an amazing sheet record, and had won the Smogon Classic only a year earlier. Managers everywhere were struggling to find an RU player, since the tier had virtually no known names in it. I was considered to be a safe bet to light up the competition, especially since I had not had a single bad tour since my debut showing all the way back in SPL III. I was taken 4th overall in the Snake I Draft, ahead of many notable names like FLCL, blunder, Pearl, and Ojama. This all seems extremely sacrilegious in 2020, but it was definitely defensible back then. Well, what happened? Well, I got unlucky in my first game against mael, brought a terrible team in my 2nd game and got stomped, and got a bit unlucky in my 3rd game as well. I certainly didn't play exceptionally well in any of those, though, and probably relied a bit more on luck than I needed to. I'm very bad at taking losses; it's part of the reason why I stopped caring about Pokemon. Generally, when I lose an important game, I'll log off Discord and Smogon for a day or two to avoid going insane. It's even worse in team tours like Snake which have a cumulative record, since it's not like the damage dealt from those losses will ever be wiped away unless the team makes the playoffs. As I said earlier, I had not had a bad tour in eons, so I really had no idea how to handle my newfound predicament, especially considering the fact that I was so ridiculously hyped. I wound up quitting the team, and the Taipans crashed out of the tour in spectacular fashion. They had no choice but to turn to Bouff to replace me, and well, I'm sure you can guess what unfolded from there. Considering that I was the fourth overall pick in the draft and quit on the team with 6 games remaining, it's only natural that I be slotted relatively high on the list.
3. Nas and Psychotic go ROGUE
This one was very strange. Heading into SPL VI, Nas and Psychotic were considered to be the two best UU players on the site. Both had played on the big stage before, and went for hefty sums in the auction. Nas was 15.5k, while Psychotic was 12.5k. kokoloko and I actually tried to trade for Nas before Week 1 started, since we didn't really want Lowgock and thought that Nas could improve our team. The trade never got completed, which wound up being a positive for us. You see, Nas and Psychotic were close friends, and both just randomly decided that Smogon was not the place for them any longer. They didn't just quit like normal people, though. They abused their UU moderation powers, and merged the entire UU forum into one thread; this obviously led to them being banned. Neither played a single game in SPL VI, costing both the BIGs and Cryonicles dearly. The teams were shafted out of a combined 28k, and now had no real UU player to boot. Considering that their decisions impacted two different teams and definitely altered the course of the entire tournament, Nas and Psychotic have earned the 3rd spot on the list.
2. Ojama's Ego gets the best of him
As crazy as it seems now, at one point in time, even OJAMA was a ghosting slot. The Kingpin found himself on the Sharks in SPL 3, alongside established OU star Eternal. Ojama faced off against IFM in Week 1 of SPL 3, and was defeated. However, Ojama has always had a lot of pride, as I'm sure you can imagine. He was unable to handle his defeat properly, and went on a tirade in a French PO server, where he whined about how badly Eternal had ghosted him.
This naturally got him into trouble; I'm not exactly sure if he thought his rant wouldn't be leaked, but it was obviously a terrible idea nonetheless. Unfortunately, the evidence is long since LN saved the logs on prehistoric technology.
Perhaps the funniest part of this entire situation is that, while Eternal was banned for the rest of SPL 3, Ojama was only banned for 2 weeks. My lord, the wild west was an insane place LOL Imagine only being banned for a couple of weeks for being ghosted. Neither of these people were even tour banned, man. This easily earns a high spot on the list since it's the first and last time I can think of when an expensive player ratted out another expensive player for ghosting them, and got both of them punished. The decision also torpedoed the playoff hopes of the defending champion Sharks, and sent them spiraling to the bottom of the standings.
1. LadyBugIsAPieceOfShit
This decision is the one that inspired this whole list. It's by far the funniest scenario on here, and I still can't believe that it really happened. Lady Bug was a pretty good player back in the day, and his matchup against former Shark teammate Philip7086 was a much-anticipated bout in Round 1 of World Cup. Lady Bug defeated Phil....but he was not satisfied with his victory, because he had gotten some game-changing luck against Phil. Now, every sane person in the history of Smogon, and even the insane ones, honestly, would just take the win and move on with their day. But Lady Bug, being perhaps the most honorable? or maybe just batshit crazy user in the history of the site (I mean, this is the same guy who spammed a bunch of meme lower tier Pokemon in all his tour games), decided to make the UNTHINKABLE DECISION OF GIVING PHILIP7086 THE WIN...IN A TEAM TOUR!!! This is absolutely incomprehensible, even to this day. Even in an individual tour, giving your opponent the win is insane. But at least in an individual tour, you aren't sabotaging your own team. No one on this site might have ever been more livid than MoP was at that moment; I'm honestly surprised that Lady Bug is still alive, to be honest LOL my lord. goofball, a captain on Asia at the time, also was NOT having it. He changed his forum name to LADYBUGISAPIECEOFSHIT, and actually got away with it too.
Of course, you can't possibly make a decision like giving your opponent the win in a team tour without absolutely changing the course of the entire tournament. West ended up clinching a playoff spot with a 14-10 record, while Asia missed out by one game as they finished at 12-11. That one game swung the entire tournament, as West ended up making a ridiculous run all the way to the finals. Now, I can't say FOR SURE who would have made the playoffs if Lady Bug had taken the win, because back in the stone age, for some absolutely asinine reason, points decided who made the playoffs as opposed to win-loss record. Latin America literally missed the playoffs with a 14-10 record while some 13-11 teams made it LOOOL it's inconceivable. Even despite that minor caveat, this decision is easily the most egregious instance of a player sabotaging his own team, and I would be shocked if it was ever topped.
I had been meaning to write another one of these for a while, but I couldn't really come up with a topic. Luckily, Corona PL exists, and reminiscing about the Smogon wild west in the boomer chat inspired this idea. What better way to celebrate for me to celebrate my birthday than by doing something I find enjoyable? lol. Cancering is obviously taboo in the tournament scene, and actively working against one's team is pretty sacrilegious. Yet, everyone on this list managed to fulfill one of those two criteria. The scenarios will be ranked based on overall impact to the team question, which will naturally take into account a player's price tag / draft round. People seem to really like these threads, and I think this topic is particularly entertaining. So, I hope you guys enjoy!
Honorable mentions:
Players getting their managers banned
Limitless and Valentine were both betrayed by their players. Limitless tried to ghost jasonpwn, who ratted him out and got him banned. Valentine tried to get njnp ghosted, and that got him kicked off the team as well. These instances avoid making the list simply because there's nothing actually stopping the manager from assisting the team while banned; it's also hard to quantify the impact managers have on teams after the draft. Because of these reasons, these acts of treachery are left off the list.
Very inexpensive players quitting and being sold back
There are a lot of examples of this, but they're all excluded from the list due to their low price tags. The most recent example is Nat, who everyone knows is a very tilt-prone player. She had apparently become an SS OU ladder fiend before the start of SPL XI, so many people were relatively high on her ability to succeed, especially with TDK's support. Things did not pan out as expected for the RU mainer, though, as she flopped spectacularly before quitting Smogon during Week 4. Sad times.
mael backstabs the Jerk
Our first entry was a pretty memorable event in recent Smogon history. The Raiders were essentially in a must-win situation in Week 9 of SPL 9; Gondra's game against Znain was naturally an important one for multiple teams. Gondra defeated Znain, and the Raiders clinched a playoff spot with an 8-4 victory. However, it soon came out that Gondra's amigo, miguelmart, had snaked Znain by supplying Gondra with some of his teams. Znain's team, the Classiest, were obviously upset with this, causing their manager, Isa, to create one of the more famous copypastas in recent memory as part of his resulting diatribe. How did Isa find out about this snakery? Well, it turns out that a Raiders player, mael, leaked logs of the event to Isa. Now, why would mael do this? Well, mael was apparently vehemently displeased that one of his managers, Pearl, had the GALL to suggest that mael should employ a ground resist on his RU team. The fallout from this event was massive for the Jerk, as both Pearl and TDK lost their Tournament Director status over the controversy. The only thing stopping this event from landing on the list is that it failed to really impact the Raiders' season; the team still defeated the Classiest and came within a game of hoisting the trophy.
The Elephant in the SPL Room
This entire situation was crazy. Basically, last SPL, Ojama told a bunch of managers not to bid on him. This lowered his price, but he ended up being too cheap; Nails took a risk and picked him up because he was unwilling to let another team have the value. This backfired when Ojama basically decided he didn't want to play for the BIGs. The Tyrants decided the trade for Ojama with a package headlined by ima and GaryTheGengar; just when it looked like the trade would go through, though, BIGs retain Sabella posted logs that implicated Ojama for cancering. The trade eventually got nullified, and the BIGs were refunded the money they used to draft Ojama; they were basically left to pick up 24098390 players from the scrap heap. The trade actually did end up going through, though...except it was for TDK LOL The Tyrants shipped off the same mediocre package they had sent for Ojama for TDK instead. Now the BIGs had lost both their superstar players. Sabella's decision clearly fucked over his team; that being said, this whole situation is just a bit too convoluted to crack a spot on the list. But, don't worry, we will be seeing more of Ojama later on...
10. Noodlez waves 'goodbye' to Limitless
This is without question one of the funniest scenarios on this list, mainly because of the absolutely hilarious gif involved. Back in the day, the Frogs were a team that no one wanted to play for. LonelyNess was an enemy of countless users, and his drafting ability left a lot to be desired. If you need any evidence of his bad decision making, just consider that back when SPL had a ridiculous 4 manager slots, LonelyNess was out here with only one assistant manager:
The Smog Frogs: LonelyNess (macle)
Yikes. So, naturally, when Noodlez found himself on the Smog Frogs, he was pretty displeased. Wolfpack manager Limitless, who Noodlez had wanted to play for before the auction began, decided to orchestrate a trade for the aggravated youngster. He shipped off 7k worth of assets in Pedrock and toshimelonhead and acquired Noodlez. There was only one problem...Noodlez was apparently done with SPL? Out of absolutely nowhere, and for reasons that remain unclear to this day, Noodlez decided that he no longer wanted to be a part of the tournament, and told Limitless that he was quitting. He didn't just tell him, though. Instead, he dropped one of the most hilarious gifs I've seen during my time on Smogon:
LOL it never gets old. That gif alone honestly cements this decision with a spot in the top 10; however, considering the relatively low amount of assets Limitless had to give up to acquire Noodlez, and the fact that the Wolfpack won the tournament anyway, it certainly can't be any higher than 10th.
9. dice cancers on the Leviathans
We all know how big of a dice fan I am. I don't really think we need to go over it. As an old gen specialist for the most part, his value obviously decreases a fair amount in a tour without old gens. Because of this, he went mid-round 4 in Snake I to the Leviathans. He won his first game before dropping his next two. Out of nowhere, though, he disappeared without a trace. Finchinator and his goons even tried to reach out to him on Facebook, but to no avail. dice did not play a single game the rest of the tournament, and was subsequently banned from Snake II as well. The team was left without an Ubers player, and his replacements, atomicllamas and Malekith, combined to go 1-5 in his stead. Considering how close the race for 4th place was, dice's cancering almost certainly changed the course of the tour.
8. Donkey quits twice!?
Donkey was one of the most hyped Ubers players on Smogon heading into SPL V. Limitless, while on his retain trade spree, traded 5k for his 10k retains. The 15k Ubers phenom was ranked 2nd in the Power Rankings, and many had high hopes for him. He, however, had other plans, as he started off the season 0-2 and instantly quit the team. His high price makes him a good candidate for the list; although, he would be ranked lower than normal because the Wolfpack still managed to win SPL IV anyway. However, we're not done quite yet. A year later, Donkey once again signed up for SPL; the rules weren't nearly as strict back then, you see. This time, Donkey only went for 3.5k; his drastic price drop was almost certainly due to his actions a year earlier. Managers were very skeptical of his ability to play a full season. That being said, he was apparently still very hyped by the Ubers community, as he somehow landed at #1 on the Power Rankings. If Donkey could play all 9 weeks, the Cryonicles might have just gotten one of the steals of the draft. Unfortunately for reyscarface and his team, though, this is DONKEY we are talking about. Everyone was right to be skeptical, because after 2 weeks, DONKEY QUIT AGAIN LOL At least this time, he didn't cost his team 15k, I guess.
7. Hugo trolls the Tigers
gr8astard was one of Smogon's best players during his peak. The OST winner and IDM leader was widely respect, except by some of the boomers, I guess. So, when, for the first time, Hugo decided to stop managing SPL and enter the draft pool as a player, the masses had their eyes set on him. He would almost assuredly be upwards of 25k; this was arguably the best builder of the time period who happened to be an elite player as well. There was only one problem: Hugo never intended to play in SPL VII. You see, he had informed all of IDM and several other acquaintances that he would be quitting instantly after the auction, and only kept in his name in the pool as a troll. This meant that almost every manager knew that Hugo wouldn't be playing that SPL, with the exception of Texas Cloverleaf and...well OBVIOUSLY TENNISACE LOL
Texas, for whatever reason, only decided to bid Hugo up to 10k. But of course, our favorite longtime manager was there to strike.
[17:02] <@tennisace> !10.5
[17:02] <@dekbot> The Circus Maximus Tigers: 10500
[17:02] <@dekbot> 035 seconds remaining.
[17:03] <@dekbot> 03SOLD: gr8astard to The Circus Maximus Tigers for 10500.
I actually don't know why Texas only bid up Hugo to 10k; it's actually rather flabbergasting that you would only be willing to spend 10k on one of the best builders / players on the site, but maybe he was just a massive Hugo hater. Either way, he was rewarded for his questionable display of financial management.
The Tigers, in their minds, now had the steal of the century, and after acquiring Earthworm for a relatively cheap price as well, atomicllamas dropped a question that made the entire scenario even more hilarious for those in the know:
[17:06] <+atomicllamas> are people
[17:06] <+atomicllamas> sleeping
LOOOL Poor Tigers. Imagine thinking IDM wouldn't be bidding on Hugo. Crazy. And, to absolutely NO ONE'S surprise, after Hugo quit the team, the Tigers missed the playoffs. Who could have foreseen this?
6. The CasedVictory Saga
Cased was a hyped lower tier player back in the day. He was always regarded as one of the best NU players on the site, before he was eventually banned for harassment and flaming. During his forced hiatus from Smogon, he picked up VGC and GSC; placing well in many events in the former and popularizing a Thief-spam team in the latter. When he was unbanned before SPL X, many people were decently high on his GSC abilities. BKC, one of his close friends, had more faith in him than anyone, which, considering that it's BKC, is probably a bad thing. He shelled out a ridiculous 17k for Cased in SPL X, and the formerly exiled lower tier main went winless in the first four weeks of the season. Tensions were high at this point, and Cased was demanding trades left and right; he felt that the hostile Raiders environment was a detriment to his SPL performance, and the team's rather mediocre performance up to that point certainly wasn't encouraging him either. He tried to get himself shipped off the Ruiners, one of the better teams in SPL at the time; however, finding a suitor for Cased was a bit tricky due to his rather abrasive personality. Case is a close friend of mine, though, and I thought he could help improve the BIGs, a team who I was "helping" in SPL X. I didn't want Sage to be on the BIGs anymore, since she was absolutely terrible, and I figured Case could only help improve the disaster that was the BIGs GSC slot. Case and Sage were swapped, and all looked to be well...up until he got himself banned only a few hours later for verbally assaulting Natalie. Yikes. The trade was still a net positive for the BIGs, though, as his fiery personality and high activity level helped revitalize the organization; Sage's battling skills were certainly not helping the team either way. Regardless, his inability to wrangle in his personality was still a detriment to both franchises, and earns him a high spot on the list.
5. Cdumas sinks the BIGs
Heading into SPL X, Cdumas was one of the most prized entities in the SPL auction. He was a sheet warrior, and has dismantled the competition since his entrance onto the big stage a few tours earlier. No one batted an eye when the BIGs spent 23k on him, well, except for maybe CBB, and most people expected him to do pretty well in the tournament. As soon as the tour started, though, it was clear that this would be a difficult season for the Frenchman. He played very poorly in his first few games, and even threw a near-certain win along the way. As the season progressed, it became increasingly clear that he was displeased with his situation. He claimed that he was "tired of being an expensive player," "didn't want to be a leader," and that he "just wanted to play with his French buddies" (I'm paraphrasing since my puushs expired). He essentially cancered and and ran home crying to the kingpin, forcing the BIGs to trade him to the Scooters in one of the most lopsided deals in recent memory. He didn't exactly turn things around on the Scooters, though, as he lost his lone playoff game and finished the season at 1-6. His massive price tag lands him at 5th on the list.
4. -Tsunami- tilts off the Planet
Well, we are unbiased here so LOOOOL good lord. I'm really featured in like every list I make, huh? Heading into Snake I, my stock was at an all-time high. I was the RU tier leader, had an amazing sheet record, and had won the Smogon Classic only a year earlier. Managers everywhere were struggling to find an RU player, since the tier had virtually no known names in it. I was considered to be a safe bet to light up the competition, especially since I had not had a single bad tour since my debut showing all the way back in SPL III. I was taken 4th overall in the Snake I Draft, ahead of many notable names like FLCL, blunder, Pearl, and Ojama. This all seems extremely sacrilegious in 2020, but it was definitely defensible back then. Well, what happened? Well, I got unlucky in my first game against mael, brought a terrible team in my 2nd game and got stomped, and got a bit unlucky in my 3rd game as well. I certainly didn't play exceptionally well in any of those, though, and probably relied a bit more on luck than I needed to. I'm very bad at taking losses; it's part of the reason why I stopped caring about Pokemon. Generally, when I lose an important game, I'll log off Discord and Smogon for a day or two to avoid going insane. It's even worse in team tours like Snake which have a cumulative record, since it's not like the damage dealt from those losses will ever be wiped away unless the team makes the playoffs. As I said earlier, I had not had a bad tour in eons, so I really had no idea how to handle my newfound predicament, especially considering the fact that I was so ridiculously hyped. I wound up quitting the team, and the Taipans crashed out of the tour in spectacular fashion. They had no choice but to turn to Bouff to replace me, and well, I'm sure you can guess what unfolded from there. Considering that I was the fourth overall pick in the draft and quit on the team with 6 games remaining, it's only natural that I be slotted relatively high on the list.
3. Nas and Psychotic go ROGUE
This one was very strange. Heading into SPL VI, Nas and Psychotic were considered to be the two best UU players on the site. Both had played on the big stage before, and went for hefty sums in the auction. Nas was 15.5k, while Psychotic was 12.5k. kokoloko and I actually tried to trade for Nas before Week 1 started, since we didn't really want Lowgock and thought that Nas could improve our team. The trade never got completed, which wound up being a positive for us. You see, Nas and Psychotic were close friends, and both just randomly decided that Smogon was not the place for them any longer. They didn't just quit like normal people, though. They abused their UU moderation powers, and merged the entire UU forum into one thread; this obviously led to them being banned. Neither played a single game in SPL VI, costing both the BIGs and Cryonicles dearly. The teams were shafted out of a combined 28k, and now had no real UU player to boot. Considering that their decisions impacted two different teams and definitely altered the course of the entire tournament, Nas and Psychotic have earned the 3rd spot on the list.
2. Ojama's Ego gets the best of him
As crazy as it seems now, at one point in time, even OJAMA was a ghosting slot. The Kingpin found himself on the Sharks in SPL 3, alongside established OU star Eternal. Ojama faced off against IFM in Week 1 of SPL 3, and was defeated. However, Ojama has always had a lot of pride, as I'm sure you can imagine. He was unable to handle his defeat properly, and went on a tirade in a French PO server, where he whined about how badly Eternal had ghosted him.
This naturally got him into trouble; I'm not exactly sure if he thought his rant wouldn't be leaked, but it was obviously a terrible idea nonetheless. Unfortunately, the evidence is long since LN saved the logs on prehistoric technology.
Perhaps the funniest part of this entire situation is that, while Eternal was banned for the rest of SPL 3, Ojama was only banned for 2 weeks. My lord, the wild west was an insane place LOL Imagine only being banned for a couple of weeks for being ghosted. Neither of these people were even tour banned, man. This easily earns a high spot on the list since it's the first and last time I can think of when an expensive player ratted out another expensive player for ghosting them, and got both of them punished. The decision also torpedoed the playoff hopes of the defending champion Sharks, and sent them spiraling to the bottom of the standings.
1. LadyBugIsAPieceOfShit
This decision is the one that inspired this whole list. It's by far the funniest scenario on here, and I still can't believe that it really happened. Lady Bug was a pretty good player back in the day, and his matchup against former Shark teammate Philip7086 was a much-anticipated bout in Round 1 of World Cup. Lady Bug defeated Phil....but he was not satisfied with his victory, because he had gotten some game-changing luck against Phil. Now, every sane person in the history of Smogon, and even the insane ones, honestly, would just take the win and move on with their day. But Lady Bug, being perhaps the most honorable? or maybe just batshit crazy user in the history of the site (I mean, this is the same guy who spammed a bunch of meme lower tier Pokemon in all his tour games), decided to make the UNTHINKABLE DECISION OF GIVING PHILIP7086 THE WIN...IN A TEAM TOUR!!! This is absolutely incomprehensible, even to this day. Even in an individual tour, giving your opponent the win is insane. But at least in an individual tour, you aren't sabotaging your own team. No one on this site might have ever been more livid than MoP was at that moment; I'm honestly surprised that Lady Bug is still alive, to be honest LOL my lord. goofball, a captain on Asia at the time, also was NOT having it. He changed his forum name to LADYBUGISAPIECEOFSHIT, and actually got away with it too.
Of course, you can't possibly make a decision like giving your opponent the win in a team tour without absolutely changing the course of the entire tournament. West ended up clinching a playoff spot with a 14-10 record, while Asia missed out by one game as they finished at 12-11. That one game swung the entire tournament, as West ended up making a ridiculous run all the way to the finals. Now, I can't say FOR SURE who would have made the playoffs if Lady Bug had taken the win, because back in the stone age, for some absolutely asinine reason, points decided who made the playoffs as opposed to win-loss record. Latin America literally missed the playoffs with a 14-10 record while some 13-11 teams made it LOOOL it's inconceivable. Even despite that minor caveat, this decision is easily the most egregious instance of a player sabotaging his own team, and I would be shocked if it was ever topped.
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