Tournament UPL XII - Week Two

[Vertigo]

Amazing art by Blazenix

• Follow all rules listed here.​
• Schedule via Smogon VMs. It's easier for me to make decisions for activity calls when I can actually see what went down with scheduling.​
• If you are unable to schedule with your opponent, please let your managers know ASAP so they can communicate that to me or the other team's managers for a potential substitute.​
• Substitutions may be made after a week has started. When making a substitution, please tag myself, the managers of the opposing team, and all of the players affected by the substitute to ensure that everyone is made aware. Players who have already played in the week or were subbed out in the same week cannot be subbed back in.​
• If a match remains incomplete by the time of the deadline, it will be subject to an activity call.​
• Replays are mandatory. Not only are they useful for confirming wins, they contribute to usage stats and allow the people who couldn't watch the games live to watch them later.​
• Managers: Please send me your lineups in the same format that I used to post pairings. It makes it much easier to post future rounds more quickly.​

>>Spreadsheet<<
Courtesy of the wonderful Nyx
>>Replays and Usage<<
>>Commencement<<

vs

Dangerous Dracovish (4) vs (8) Manly Melmetals
SV Ubers: myjava vs fade
SV Ubers: Shuwri vs 7u9i2
SV Ubers: etern vs emoxu9
SS Ubers: Icemaster vs Beraldo
USUM Ubers: Rhmsitb vs Gondra
ORAS Ubers: keys vs skimmythegod
BW Ubers: shiloh vs The Dovahneer
DPP Ubers: susciety vs Piyu
ADV Ubers: Heysup vs 64 Squares
GSC Ubers: dawnbuster vs vani
RBY Ubers: YBW vs NotVeryCake
Multigen Bo3: baconeatinassassin vs lax

vs

Defiant Durians (4) vs (8) Eternal Voyagers
SV Ubers: SiTuM vs elodin
SV Ubers: bbeeaa vs Mashing
SV Ubers: TPP vs Kate
SS Ubers: Frozoid vs lotiasite
USUM Ubers: March Fires vs FadedCharm
ORAS Ubers: Royal1604 vs Lasen
BW Ubers: LpZ vs Hack
DPP Ubers: Staxi vs robjr
ADV Ubers: Fogbound Lake vs temp
GSC Ubers: crying vs BigFatMantis
RBY Ubers: BlazingDark vs Unowndragon
Multigen Bo3: Larry vs pdt

vs

Choice Bandits (5) vs (7) Devastating Dialgas
SV Ubers: Nyx vs RichardMillePlain
SV Ubers: Lana vs LouisIX
SV Ubers: abriel vs KanzakiHAria
SS Ubers: Aberforth vs QWILY
USUM Ubers: The Strap vs Master Chief
ORAS Ubers: Cam vs freezai
BW Ubers: Kebabe vs Monai
DPP Ubers: Dave vs shrang
ADV Ubers: Vileman vs MMII
GSC Ubers: Rubyblood vs cyberacc
RBY Ubers: Ctown6 vs CollectorEly
Multigen Bo3: Trade vs entrocefalo

vs

Void Villains (4) vs (8) DaReal Drizzlers
SV Ubers: SoulWind vs Skyiew
SV Ubers: JJ09LIE vs Taka
SV Ubers: tier vs Raph369
SS Ubers: Fc vs Manaphy
USUM Ubers: Paycard vs PurpleGatorade
ORAS Ubers: Ayu vs Hoopas Dad
BW Ubers: 3d vs Blim
DPP Ubers: Li Xiao Long vs Inspirited
ADV Ubers: Mako vs violet river
GSC Ubers: spell vs Conflict
RBY Ubers: Torchic vs SaDiSTiCNarwhal
Multigen Bo3: Gtcha vs Ainzcrad

The deadline for this round is Sunday, June 16th at 11:59 PM GMT-4.​

 

[Trade]

~Bo3~

Larry vs pdt​

Larry played fairly solidly last week, securing his wins in SM and SS. The most outstanding part of his series was the HP Fire predict on the Ferrothorn, arguably made much harder considering that the Xerneas was choiced. Meanwhile, pdt picked up his wins in SV and SM; something people weren't fully expecting, considering his opponent. He made some pretty aggressive plays that paid off such as the Thunder on a Ting Lu to hit the incoming Kyogre. These were some solid games to catch last week, and watching them play against each other will pose some serious questions for both players. If last week was any indication, we're probably going to get one heck of an SM game.

~SV~

SoulWind vs Skyiew​

Skyiew brought a terribly built stall in week 1, and it was one of his worst performances in a tour to date. He's still someone to watch out for, but he should rely less on MU and more on outplaying. SoulWind also got a bit lucky in his game, but still plays a solid game outside of that. These two are players that can bring a bit more to the plate, and we might just see that come to fruition this week.

~SV~

myjava vs fade​

These two players both played solid games last week. Myjava brought a team that honestly just steamrolled his opponent. But he piloted it almost perfectly, which is all you can ask for in this meta. Meanwhile, fade called out two important overpredictions, and found a winning position with Eternatus on the board. I can only imagine what the building for SV looks like for these teams, and I'm excited to see more from these two pilots.

~SV~

bbeeaa vs Mashing​

Bbeeaa impressed last week, winning against stall even after some almost game-losing misses and rolls. There were a few teams doubting bbeeaa's ability to show up in the Indigo Disk meta against other mainers, but the piloting speaks for itself. Mashing, on the other hand, is not new to the meta, and pulled out the win in a dicey DD Miraidon situation. Fundamentals are a key piece of this matchup, and we're probably going to see some fireworks in-game.

~SS~

Fc vs Manaphy ​

Fc prepped well into his game, knowing full well that both players in that MU love Groudon for some reason... He caught some overpredictions and ended up in prime position to win it all with Calyrex. With a fundamental understanding of the tier, he finds himself against Manaphy this week. Manaphy loaded an interesting team last week, and did end up losing with it. Despite that, Manaphy is still one of the main SS players to watch out for, and if he realises that there's no room for Shuckle HO in SS, then this MU will be a good time.

~USUM~

The Strap vs Master Chief​

Master Chief seems back and ready to take the USUM pool to new heights. His gameplay from last week was reminiscent of those from his days back as Alpha Rabbit in UWC 1. Multiple correct calls on his opponent's Draco Meteors and a decisive Black Hole Eclipse on the Arceus-Dark double showed that the Chief is still a force to be reckoned with in this otherwise stacked pool. The Strap's game from last week went differently compared to MC's. Rather than a long game, his was short and sweet, closing it out without much fanfare. The Strap's always been on everyone's radar, and hasn't disappointed. I imagine we're likely to see a more drawn out game this week from these two.

~ORAS~

keys vs skimmythegod ​

Skimmythegod came off a win last week against his former UWC teammate. While it did get slightly dicey towards the end, skimmy was able to overcome earlier positional problems associated with parahax. He proved that he was indeed integral to India's ORAS slot, and a real threat in the meta. Keys shared the same poor luck that skimmy did last week, but doubled (even tripled). Despite being fully para'd, missing integral toxics, and getting critted against, keys still managed to pull out a win somehow. I'm excited to see how these two duke it out this week, and what kind of hax shows up this time.

~BW~

Kebabe vs Monai​

When your team's Kyogre switch-in is Groudon, you're playing with fire. Kebabe pulled off a win with a team of all time, choosing to run spikestack stall without a spinblocker. There's really not much else to say other than the fact that he's proving that he's not just playing BW Ubers, he is BW Ubers. Monai is also someone we should be giving props to. He's a well-known BW name, and he really showed up last week. There was nothing too flashy about his game, but flashy is cheap compared to not letting your opponent breathe. This matchup comes down to what Kebabe brings and how Monai will deal with it on the battlefield.

~DPP~

Dave vs shrang​

Dave went through some of the worst hax of all of last week, and I should know because I watched every single replay. Despite that, he somehow managed to put himself in a winning position. Shrang, on the other hand, was probably the player who lady luck favoured more last week with a possibly important crit on Groudon and a probable speed tie win to take the game. Regardless, his positioning was on point, and played most of that game optimally. Shrang's also had a lot of time to develop teams for classic, so he's got DPP on his mind more than any other player at this point. If we see a haxless game from these two, it will definitely be a banger.

~ADV~

Heysup vs 64 Squares​

Heysup's game against temp was a masterclass in how to use Wobbuffet in ADV Ubers. Even non-mainers can get a glimpse to the gameplan unfolding in real time. There were a few unfortunate turns that turned an incredible MU to an unlosable MU for Heysup, but the prep was great and he established the game state he wanted. 64 Squares might as well have played that game without a Kyogre. Despite that, he kept his cool in a losing MU, and played to his outs. Will be interesting to see the tier of play in this matchup.

~GSC~

crying vs BigFatMantis ​

824 turns. That's how long crying played against the top seed in week 1. The game was an insane testament to a players guts and will. Fun fact, if you add up all of crying's teammates game turn count together, it would still be less than the GSC game alone. Despite being behind for most of the game, crying showed just how well they can play GSC Ubers. BigFatMantis's game played the exact opposite way, getting lots of mileage out of CurseLax early, and entering the endgame a few key mons up for BarrierTwo to safely seal the match. One can only wonder what the turn count will look like this time.

~RBY~

Torchic vs SaDiSTiCNarwhal ​

There's not too much to say about this one. Torchic is still fairly consistent in RBY Ubers, even after a rough week 1. What makes this set particularly interesting is getting to see SaDiSTiCNarwhal playing this week. As someone who is one of the premiere RBY OU players, people will get to see that in action in RBY Ubers. He's not new to this tier as he has played in different iterations of Ubers Team Tours in the past. This will be a good match to catch if you're interested in some of the nuances of RBY.

Ending notes: I'm not a journalist or reporter. If I've got mistakes in spelling or content, let me know and I'll amend them.

 

[LouisIX]

SV Ubers: etern vs emoxu9

 

[MMII]

Heysup vs temp
vs
Unfortunate mu for temp into an even more unfortunate game. If Heysup's Latias is Thunder Dclaw, then his main goal is to force para on blissey so that he can trap with Wobbuffet. CM Blissey gets to fish for that pretty freely since Toxic isn't a problem for it. If the Latias was mono dclaw then the mu is just even more difficult for temp since he doesn't have a clean counter for it. Temp would probably would need to rely on gar boom/dbond or giving up one of latios/rayquaza to force espeed + dclaw chip, both of these lines are only short term band-aids if Heysup plays cautiously enough. Temp's goal, on the other hand, is to setup spikes so that he can get some pressure going with Latios double switches into ray or don pressure. Spdef SD HP Ghost Groudon is difficult for Heysup to respond to, especially since we know t1 that Kyogre is slower. CB HP Flying has no resists and thus puts more pressure on Latias unless Heysup decides to use Wobbuffet to trade for it (which may be complicated since it also wants to be trapping the Blissey if possible). However, the Groudon was immediately crit by ice beam and the Skarm was frozen before it could click anything so there was basically nothing that temp could do.

Raph369 vs Fogbound Lake
vs
Counter Mewtwo tech was very cool and played out perfectly for Fogbound. Raph's snorlax straight up lost the 1v1 and was forced to switch or risk the Thunder miss, this positioned Mewtwo favorably to finish with 2for1 value wise. (maybe even more) Raph managed to bite back later in the game, though, by picking the Mewtwo off with Surf when it tried to switch into a twave or ice beam. The bulk of the game ended up being played out with a loop of Fog's kyogre + snorlax vs Raph's latios + metagross. Unfortunately for Fogbound, his kyogre didn't have thunder wave and was forced to fish for thunder para in order to make progress vs the latios. This exposed his snorlax to repeated latios thunders which ended up breaking through fairly early with a crit. After that point, Fog was basically forced to boom away snorlax to get adequate value from it. After Fog's Latios cleans up the nearly dead metagross, things get really out of hand when Raph's subpet deo comes in. In this position, Fogbound is forced to respect potential physical set so that his latios is around to check kyogre. Going to Omastar covers shadow ball and denies the possiblity of an immediate subpet sweep but, in the case of the later, forces fog to give up his omastar to pop sub so ray can threaten espeed. Raph responds to Fog's ray by opting to trade off his own ray, an exchange that he loses due to fogbound's ice beam tech. This isn't very significant at this gamestate, though. Healthy Latios gets to claim a kill for free afterwards and the best that fogbound can hope for is that he wins the speed tie (assuming he's even timid here) so that rayquaza can revenge kill raph's latios with espeed. He doesn't get it and so the game is immediately over. From raph's perspective, the tie was worth risking since losing the tie would still leave his latios alive thus forcing out ray to threaten espeed. From that point, sacing subpet deo would allow Raph's kyogre free entry while also covering for any double switch attempts. Fogbound would then need to send out his own weakened kyogre into raph's healthy one, but he might not want to. Things get tricky at this theoretical turn. If Fogbound was ice beam latios, then earlier kyogre calcs reveal that raph's latios could survive a surf. If Fogbound was using dragon claw latios, then raph's latios would be barely alive and unable to switch into any attacks. Assuming the later, raph might want to double switch his nearly dead latios as Fogbound sends out his kyogre to battle raph's kyogre. We don't know which of the kyogres is faster nor was raph's moveset fully revealed. If raph eats a thunder due to fogbound having more creep or simply because raph doesn't have thunder himself then he loses the game to a ray clean. This means that his only chance to win would be to double switch as the ray retreats. (which fog could anticipate with a ray attack so basically 50/50) If raph gets the double switch right, he can recover spam to force fogbound to fish for crit/freeze with ice beam until raph decides to pull the thunder trigger and win the game. Rewind a little, if fogbound was timid ice beam latios instead, then raph wouldn't need to make that double switch (but still might want to) since he could afford to hard his latios into a surf or (non paralyzing) thunder from kyogre, essentially giving him two 50/50 opportunities were he only needs to be right once to virtually win the game. None of this happened of course, but I wanted to show that the endgame was more complicated than it might have appeared.

mako vs Vileman
vs
An interesting matchup here. We have ho-oh balance with an aerodactyl twist versus a sunstall that drops lugia for metagross. Mako's hp fire skarm gives her the hazards war advantage against vileman's forretress, including a clean read on the forre retreat to get the first spike up. Vileman's best punish to fire skarm is to apply pressure with his ho-oh. There's a cool sequence that we see from mako where she initially scouts the set with her latios since it can refresh vs a potential toxic while forcing blissey back in so that skarmory can get more spikes attempts (sun still isn't up yet so not much worries from flamethrower). The next time vileman's ho-oh comes in, she sends out her own ho-oh since vileman has basically no reason to click toxic into skarmory or refresh latios. Here she reveals her hp rock tech while confirming that vileman is indeed offensive ho-oh (so no toxic). At this point, vileman is in a really tough position since he is already behind in the spikes war with little room to spin and has to deal with a ho-oh that hard counters his own ho-oh. His only way to damage mako's bird is through tbolt latios, which isn't very happy about shadow ball, or through toxic blissey, which just invites more skarmory spikes. He makes a cool sequence where he tbolts her ho-oh (honestly, i would have been scared to risk staying vs neutral weather thunder) and then reads the retreat to snorlax by doubling in his forretress. This gives him a much needed and difficult spin even if it comes at the cost of fire blast (it could have missed and vileman was unlikely to get a better opportunity). Dropping to fire blast also at least gives vileaman the consolation of immediate groudon tempo. Mako scouts twave first with her groudon before going skarm on the +2 eq but gets baited by vileman's overheat to prevent any further spikes on his side of the field. Revealed fire coverage groudon does very usually mean that ho-oh hard counters groudon which is pretty problematic for vileman even if he has blissey and no more spikes to worry about. Even if the situation is a lot better for vileman now than it was earlier in the game, it is still very difficult for him to deal with pressure ho-oh hard walling his groudon and metagross while having to respond to mako's snorlax who can spread para + chip through body slam while also threatening fire blast 2hko against paralyzed metagross. He basically has two options, going for an early metagross boom as ho-oh comes in so that groudon can pressure, especially with mako revealing dclaw latios early on. This is risky, though, if mako has something like Deoxys-attack as her last, which is the most reasonable assumption for vileman. The other option is to play the long game through wish blissey in hopes that he can bait mako to burn through all her sacred fire pp, at which point groudon could make things happen even without meta spending its boom. Mako is conscious of this and makes sure to use her other team members to apply pressure and attemps double switches vs blissey to conserve sfire pp. This works out for her, vileman ends up attempting a risky recover read with his latios in front of snorlax and gets punished by a crit for it (paralysis would have also done the trick, though). The play was admirable though and the latios doesn't leave with nothing, the turn just before revealing that snorlax is thick fat and not immunity which is fortunate news for blissey. Vileman is still in a very bad position, though. Mako double switches groudon in on blissey and essentially seals the game. Even with blissey clicking toxic, swords dance ensures that vileman has to make sacrifices. Luckily for vileman, he gets the 50% double protect so he "only" ends up having to sacrifice his groudon. At this point, mako can play it very slow and safe by pp stalling metagross with her ho-oh (boom isn't a threat anymore and there's no rush to click sacred fire) while pp stalling vileman's blissey with her refresh latios. Mako decides that she doesn't want to deal with that, though, and tries get boom value out of her snorlax but vileman, once again, pulls through with a lucky double protect. Afterwords, she tries to pressure with aerodactyl and groudon but vileman's blissey and metagross are resilient. In the end, it doesn't matter because mako still has her ho-oh and latios to pp stall safely which is exactly what she ends up being forced to do.

MMII vs 64 Squares
vs
This was my team for this week. I ended up having very fortunate matchup. Turn 1 spike is always very powerful, especially vs metalax structures. 64's poor kyogre was barely allowed to play the game as well due to all the para and hydro miss. I was a bit unfortunate with para on my deoxys-defense but it was honesty my fault for putting deo in that position to begin with. I was so wary of a potential hidden magneton leaving me without metagross to deal with 64's snorlax that I decided my strategy would be deal with 64's snorlax without... metagross.... Honestly, I blame my pride for this one, I just didn't want to see #trapped in the chat. This exposed me to potential subpetaya deo a as well as actual back boomtwo but I managed to guessie correctly on the boom turn and save my snorlax without really losing anything else. The rest of the game basically played itself, 64 did his best to play for the choke or the miracle. The lopsided mu really undersells just how strong 64 is at the metagame but that's just unfortunately the nature of pokemon. He should have accepted the bo3 ):<


I'll talk about this week's mus in another post. I probably rambled too much in this one. Part of the reason is because those two games were really good this week with a lot to talk about. I'm also just bad at this stuff, hopefully I get better with experience. There was more that I could have talked about so maybe I shouldn't have focused so much on less important details?

 

[tier]

predicts

got a meeting in 2 hrs zzzz

Dangerous Dracovish (8) vs (4) Manly Melmetals - alr im abig fan of everyone on the vishs besides icemaster so lgi
SV Ubers: myjava vs fade - fade bought some boring lead arc fairy team that every sv player alrdy has and myjava played a rlly convincing game vs a good player BUTTTT he brought smth dishonest in screens so i hope he loses
SV Ubers: Shuwri vs 7u9i2 -literally who are these number people, they should all name change asap and i hope they go 0-40 till they do
SV Ubers: etern vs emoxu9 - well for 1 ur opp has a number in there name but etern is also cool =)
SS Ubers: Icemaster vs Beraldo - hope icemaster gets 6-0d, berald pls watch out for clefable ferrothorn, this guy isnt gonna build until 2 mins before the game and he will probs bring that bs because he is old and cant cook anymore. Bring a whole band darmanitan galar and teach him a valuable lesson.
USUM Ubers: Rhmsitb vs Gondra - well id pick gondra but apparently there is some tea soooo
ORAS Ubers: keys vs skimmythegod - keys is liable to complain about a 51% roll being lost but he will win regardless
BW Ubers: Evuelf vs The Dovahneer - cool MU, i think theyre both good i just got a feeling dovah will bring smth fun
DPP Ubers: susciety vs Piyu - AAAAAAAAAA goats, imma always root for susciety tho theyre an exvillian
ADV Ubers: Heysup vs 64 Squares -hasnt lost a game since 1842
GSC Ubers: dawnbuster vs vani - best gsc bar conflict
RBY Ubers: YBW vs NotVeryCake - literally who are either of them
Multigen Bo3: baconeatinassassin vs lax - rough start forbacon but vamos my friend u got this

Defiant Durians (5) vs (7) Eternal Voyagers - despite claiming voyagers to be one of the worst teams ever i think they will win
SV Ubers: SiTuM vs elodin - ngl i rate elodin p highly and i think situm builds can be wonky weird wacko but situm is just better as a player probs
SV Ubers: bbeeaa vs Mashing - lgi my goat
SV Ubers: TPP vs Kate - skill diff probs
SS Ubers: Frozoid vs lotiasite - skill diff
USUM Ubers: March Fires vs Tenebricite - skill diff
ORAS Ubers: Royal1604 vs Lasen - MASSIVE SKILL DIFF
BW Ubers: LpZ vs Hack - ngl i think LpZ can do it, hack is definitely ubers jesus but lpz is so consistent everywhere he plays so i can definitely see the upset
DPP Ubers: Staxi vs robjr - havent seen robjr play dpp but i think he is a great player and probs has done so before
ADV Ubers: Fogbound Lake vs temp - i meannnnnnnnnnnnn does temp play adv
GSC Ubers: crying vs BigFatMantis - boring generation hope they both lose
RBY Ubers: BlazingDark vs Unowndragon - icemaster said this guy was good
Multigen Bo3: Larry vs pdt - tier said this guy was good

Choice Bandits (5) vs (5) Devastating Dialgas - close series wonder who wins
SV Ubers: Nyx vs RichardMillePlain - "wrist watch got a russian face like an oligarch". we are gonna ignore he is french or whatever
SV Ubers: Lana vs LouisIX - ngl not much to say i think lana will be better
SV Ubers: abriel vs KanzakiHAria - literally who... i feel like ive seen abriels name before, he mighta been in my team cord lsat yr or smth
SS Ubers: Aberforth vs QWILY - vamos my friend plus fc put a masterclass vs aber sooo maybe morale is wonky?
USUM Ubers: The Strap vs Master Chief - god theyre both shit.. the strap is liable to cancer the second he starts losing and master chief went 0-50 for me in AGPL so im not gonna pick either tbh.
ORAS Ubers: Cam vs freezai - apparently freezai went insane in uwc?
BW Ubers: Kebabe vs Monai - welp he haxed my guy last week but nonetheless probs a stronger player, i expect this to be kinda close tho
DPP Ubers: Dave vs shrang - old man deserves some karma after getting crit 19x and missing 4 moves
ADV Ubers: Vileman vs MMII - 0-1 vs 1-0
GSC Ubers: Rubyblood vs cyberacc - boring generation i like ruby
RBY Ubers: Ctown6 vs CollectorEly - apparently this dude payed whoever made thunder wave cus what happened to torchic wasnt legal
Multigen Bo3: Trade vs entrocefalo - id bold even if he wasnt my friend, skill diff unless he is vs lbn

 

[Icemaster]

Defiant Durians (5) vs (7) Eternal Voyagers
SV Ubers: SiTuM vs elodin situm plays very well and is consistently underpriced for his playing ability at least
SV Ubers: bbeeaa vs Mashing its a close one cause mashing played very eell last week
SV Ubers: TPP vs Kate kate is top 5 sv
SS Ubers: Frozoid vs lotiasite loti plays well and should have a decent team between themself and Kate
USUM Ubers: March Fires vs Tenebricite I'm a sorry tenebricite
ORAS Ubers: Royal1604 vs Lasen
I'm not super high on royal as a player but he consistently proves me wrong he always gets something ridiculous like 7-1 or 6-1 or something
BW Ubers: LpZ vs Hack he's too creative
DPP Ubers: Staxi vs robjr robjr played decently last week, staxi Is like turbo inactive
ADV Ubers: Fogbound Lake vs temp I actually dunno adv players that well; temp is good and has approximately half the adv playerbase on his team, but Fogbound must be confident if he self bought himself and then went into adv of all things. bro probably has something that I don't know about
GSC Ubers: crying vs BigFatMantis bigfatmantis is good at this format
RBY Ubers: BlazingDark vs Unowndragon not really sure but UD has played it a lot
Multigen Bo3: Larry vs pdt pdt has good teams on his side and is a better fighter imo

Choice Bandits (5) vs (7) Devastating Dialgas
SV Ubers: Nyx vs RichardMillePlain CalyrexIcePlain is going to destroy the Corviknight repeater
SV Ubers: Lana vs LouisIX it's close, but lana will always bring a good team and play it good
SV Ubers: abriel vs KanzakiHAria i have no confidence in the teambuilding support for abriel, or for abriel building cof themself
SS Ubers: Aberforth vs QWILY qwily consistently does well in ss ubers team tours, aber consistently doesn't
USUM Ubers: The Strap vs Master Chief they're both good, so it's hard to say. i went with strappus
ORAS Ubers: Cam vs freezai freezai lost his first ubers game ever last week but he's still very powerful
BW Ubers: Kebabe vs Monai he's too consistent
DPP Ubers: Dave vs shrang dave had some top results recently and his prep is usually cracked
ADV Ubers: Vileman vs MMII mm2 has weight of experience in this slot
GSC Ubers: Rubyblood vs cyberacc yberacc plaus nicely from what I've seen
RBY Ubers: Ctown6 vs CollectorEly I can't really analyse rby but everyone rates ctown so I guess i will too
Multigen Bo3: Trade vs entrocefalo entro is still the guy to beat in SV, I think he's top 2, and his fundamentals in general are going up still, so he'll give anyone a tough game in even ss and sm. trade has high fundamentals but probably less weight of experience. it's a good game

Void Villains (8) vs (4) DaReal Drizzlers
SV Ubers: SoulWind vs Skyiew good game, SoulWind has playing exp, skyiew has ubers xp. Fc will ensure soul has the better team tho
SV Ubers: JJ09LIE vs Taka JJ was playing such a good game and then he terad hooh LMAO, I'm sorry i can't predict for u until i see a good game
SV Ubers: tier vs Raph369 tier either does shit or extremely well each tour, he went 1-0 and has an fc team so far so I'm leaning towards him doing well this tour
SS Ubers: Fc vs Manaphy facing fc is already bad, doing it in his best tier is even worse
USUM Ubers: Paycard vs Zesty43 zesty brings ligma teams and wins a lot with them. idk how to describe his teams but it's very stylish
ORAS Ubers: Ayu vs Hoopas Dad i think ayu is pretty good but I don't know oras too well
BW Ubers: 3d vs Blim blim has a lot of xp
DPP Ubers: London Beats vs Inspirited london beats was on my uwc team they play at a nice high lvl in all gens including dpp
ADV Ubers: Mako vs violet river makos game last week was great
GSC Ubers: spell vs Conflict im a sorry spellamos
RBY Ubers: Torchic vs SaDiSTiCNarwhal torchic is consistent in rby of all things, insane
Multigen Bo3: Gtcha vs Ainzcrad gtcha is good and he has fc teams which gives him a big advantage in ss and sv

 

[Waruchuu]

We have made a video covering all the DPP games from last week in depth

Similar videos for the BW and ADV sections are also planned this week, as well as our more general recap for all the tiers!​

 

[MMII]

Sorry I'm late

Heysup vs 64 Squares
This is a stacked af matchup between, arguably, the two best players in the pool. These two already have fought in tournament twice before. The first game was won by 64 with his meanpass umbreon team. This was in large part due to his luster purge latios lead, which was a coverage option that hadn't quite become mainstream yet. (btw, psychic is in most ways better nowadays) Heysup got his revenge later on that year with his own baton pass team. His was focused on ninjask which allowed him to run multiple slower wallbreakers that proved too difficult for 64's rain stall to control. Which brings us to this week where the score between the two is 1-1 and the move baton pass is now banned. Stylistically, it's difficult to predict what we might see. Generally speaking, I feel that 64 tends to stick with the reliable and well-established team archetypes but will almost always add in his own moveset flourishes that twist how mus are usually played and allow for big reward plays. Heysup, on the other hand, I find to be more freeform on how he structures his teams. They tend to be made in a way that prioritizes the main novelty he's looking to take advantage of as he can always count on his ability to finesse his way out of potential problem matchups. With these things in mind, I expect to see impressive, big value swings throughout the game as each player's hidden tech and/or big reads surprises the other. Of course, this is still pokemon so it's always possible that an absurd matchup or critical hit decides the game, instead.

Fogbound Lake vs temp
These two players lost their games in the first week in a way that felt like they were cheated out of their opportunity to really show their strength. Last week, Fogbound Lake proved that he has range and really clever ideas for the metagame. Temp, meanwhile, showed his tenacity in spite of dire circumstances. I'm not familiar enough with either player to know what to expect from them this week but I'm pretty excited to see how they bounce back from their misfortunes.

vs Vileman
I'm currently 1-1 vs Vileman in tournament matches so, even outside the context of upl, this match is important to me. I may have the advantage of more adv ubers specific experience but that just means that there's a lot more information for Vileman to exploit when prepping for me. There's much less for me to examine for my own prep against him so it'll be very important for me to take advantage of his possible unfamilarity with the metagame in any way that I can. Good luck, have fun.

Mako vs violet river
After winning last week, raph is taking his monkey tatics to sv with violet river replacing him in adv. Again, this is probably my fault but I know absolutely nothing about violet river past adv ubers experience. It'll be interesting to see just what sort of player she is. Mako had a very dominant win last week and I expect her to continue her formidable dark horse run this tournament but I do not know if that will mean she is favored to win the game this week. While heysup vs 64 is very appealing to me because of the legacy that those players have, this game is equally as appealing to me for the exact opposite reasons.

 

[Waruchuu]

As promised, here is our video covering the games played in the BW tier!
​

 

[Nyx]

Current score: 17/37 (yes, predicting London Beats to win did in fact work against me...)
Last minute predicts since I almost forgot, less explanation since I'm in a mild hurry and eepy

Dangerous Dracovish (7) vs (3) Manly Melmetals
SV Ubers: myjava vs fade - close one but I think the better build support is what makes the diff here
SV Ubers: Shuwri vs 7u9i2 - I hope he lives up to the 19.5k price tag
SV Ubers: etern vs emoxu9 - still dunno who this is but W1 looked cool
SS Ubers: Icemaster vs Beraldo
USUM Ubers: Rhmsitb vs Gondra
ORAS Ubers: keys vs skimmythegod - Never predicting keys
BW Ubers: Evuelf vs The Dovahneer
DPP Ubers: susciety vs Piyu - What IS a Bronzong? I'm not watching a single DPP game all season if I can avoid it
ADV Ubers: Heysup vs 64 Squares
GSC Ubers: dawnbuster vs vani
RBY Ubers: YBW vs NotVeryCake - Has a cooler username and I think she won something this year
Multigen Bo3: baconeatinassassin vs lax - hamdrinkin- I won't finish it

Defiant Durians (4) vs (8) Eternal Voyagers
SV Ubers: SiTuM vs elodin - PLEASE make him play SS at some point, I miss seeing RapidStrike and no Ghost resist into complaints abt Caly being broken
SV Ubers: bbeeaa vs Mashing
SV Ubers: TPP vs Kate
SS Ubers: Frozoid vs lotiasite - is loti washed? If he is flip this
USUM Ubers: March Fires vs Tenebricite
ORAS Ubers: Royal1604 vs Lasen - omg he didn't cancer after losing to keys, LASEN CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT INCOMING?
BW Ubers: LpZ vs Hack
DPP Ubers: Staxi vs robjr - I know rob better
ADV Ubers: Fogbound Lake vs temp - I'm still confused as to why he's here and not in SS/SV
GSC Ubers: crying vs BigFatMantis
RBY Ubers: BlazingDark vs Unowndragon - coinflip tier means coinflip my prediction
Multigen Bo3: Larry vs pdt

Void Villains (6) vs (6) DaReal Drizzlers
SV Ubers: SoulWind vs Skyiew
SV Ubers: JJ09LIE vs Taka
SV Ubers: tier vs Raph369
SS Ubers: Fc vs Manaphy - funny game here
USUM Ubers: Paycard vs Zesty43
ORAS Ubers: Ayu vs Hoopas Dad
BW Ubers: 3d vs Blim
DPP Ubers: London Beats vs Inspirited - fuck London Beats.
ADV Ubers: Mako vs violet river
GSC Ubers: spell vs Conflict
RBY Ubers: Torchic vs SaDiSTiCNarwhal - did this to be controversial to have an excuse to write smth for this series because the MUs are kinda boring ngl
Multigen Bo3: Gtcha vs Ainzcrad

 

[abriel]

won gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-774256

 

[Vileman]

Won with turbo early luck, let's get a cleaner in playoffs (yes the choice bandits are making playoffs lets go team)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ubers-774286

 

[DAWNBUSTER]

I won, gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen2ubers-774302

 

[fade]

won vs myjava

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-774313

 

[RichardMillePlain]

won gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-774331

 

[64 Squares]

won, gg

 

[Master Chief]

won vs solo, gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ubers-774382

 

[freezai]

won gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen6ubers-774391

 

[Royal1604]

won, gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen6ubers-774485

 

[cyberacc]

Won, gg.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen2ubers-774487

 

[Dave]

Won gg
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4ubers-774492

 

[emoxu9]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-774490
ggw

 

[Thor]

PurpleGatorade > Zesty43
mitana Paycard

 

[tier]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-774545 won gg

 

[baconeatinassassin]

won, ggs

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9ubers-774556
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen8ubers-774565
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen7ubers-774567?p2