ik these are coming out later than usual but i was lazy, these rankings have absolutely nothing to do with the draft these teams ended up with, and exclusively to do with them as a manager duo
I want to heavily emphasize that most of these pairs are very close in ranking for sure, it’s a great group of managers, no complete stinkers for once woot woot good job
1. umbry and Bouff
These two cover basically every generation of UU and are the perfect mix of both activity and skill with neither of them going exclusively in one direction. I think umbry is one of the greatest uu minds oat and bouff is one of the most tryhardy tryhards oat. With all this being said I think they’ve already made a mistake in not buying either one of themselves, with the brokenness of manager buys and the viability of both users in their respective pools being very high, there is a chance star power won’t be as readily available for them when it would’ve otherwise been served on a platter with manager buy mechanics. They surely have a plan though, and I have no doubt it’s a well enough thought out one.
2. Lily and zoe
This ranking is pretty heavily carried by Lily and the fact that they are reigning champions. Idk anything about zoe and whether or not they offer much of anything to a UUPL, no shade i just literally have no fucking clue. Lily is of course good and strong and very helpful in the past two generations, and some BW. I think there isn’t a massive amount of flop potential and the fact that this is the reigning champs bodes well for their chances in this tournament.
3. mncmt and KM
these guys are wild cards with a very high ceiling, they’ve had true success and they’ve had true failure, the past success combined with mence being basically in his prime is what carried them above the managers below them. There is flop potential but there is also very real pop off potential and really I think it all starts with how much mence cares. If he’s shiftrying every single game then he can only rly care so much, and if he doesn’t care much I don’t see them hitting their ceiling at least. They will form their usual sisters’ core and definitely won’t be ass on paper regardless at this point probably.
4. vivalospride and col49
Zero playoff appearances as a solidified manager isn’t great for vivalospride, and every friends iteration led by him has failed in the grand scheme of things. With that being said these two can easily deserve being even higher up the list, with the two of them covering most uu gens effectively and having a lot of experience between them. No doubt viv will tryhard with the Friends under his reign and col will be his usual reliable self. The sky can be the limit but the floor can also be low, we shall see what route ends up being taken as I think viv and col are a duo with promise for sure, Col knows what it takes for players to win and will balance out the team nicely guaranteed. Unfortunately history points towards a negative outcome for the friends, it is all in their control to change it, and with a valuable enough manager buy and hopefully Col keeping idiot viv in check, they can do it.
5. Garay oak and tko
This pair is definitely a bit of a curveball compared to what the monsters usually run with. With that being said Garay is big time and the monsters foundation at its core is very good, i can’t imagine a monsters roster that just sucks ass, even without Carson at the helm. I’m sure they’ll successfully take from prior monster iterations and have a fair amount of success, however they definitely aren’t as heavy of a playoff lock in as a Carson led monsters would be assumed to be. Their tier coverage could be worse but the fact that their support isn’t as built in as previous iterations is something that could hurt them in worst case scenario. Even though these two are first time uupl managers (to my knowledge), it doesn’t feel like it as much as they’re inheriting the monsters foundation and probably can just flip thru numerous UUPLs for a free draft plan that still works. Their activity and passion is in question though, and bumps them down the rankings quite a bit.
6. Shiba and Thisbemyalt
Respect must be shown for the smashers franchise, despite no rings, this franchise is almost always competitive. With that being said, this duo is weighed down simply by the fact that it’s 2024. Shiba has quit mons like 12 times atp and Noah legit hasn’t played a single pokemon game since 2020, as a manager pair they have the tier coverage with Shiba alone, and the charisma of Noah, which is definitely noteworthy, but in 2024 Shiba’s activity level surely isn’t high enough to qualify as prime accel level support in any given tier. If shiba and noah are motivated enough they are a duo that can make for a last fairytale run for this smashers franchise for sure, the potential is there. But the chances of them reaching their ceiling doesn’t seem high enough with their assumed motivation levels.
7. pdt and Fc
This core has an extremely high ceiling, with pdt being one of the most valuable self buys possible in this tournament, easily. Fc is a respectable pilot and user but in a UU tournament might be lacking the support characteristic that is ideal of a great manager, he is good enough to provide input probably in several generations though, and pdt will cover several tiers in terms of support. The main reason these two are below the manager pairs above them is that they are first time managers in UUPL, and it is hard to expect greatness with nothing to go off of, we know what they are as players, but what abt managers? idk. It’s easy to assume pdt will carry his weight and Fc will at least be active and charismatic, who knows what else to assume from there though, perhaps their tiers not covered by pdt will suffer, or maybe not, but these two definitely have a high ceiling and can easily skyrocket up this list next year if they stay together.
8. Monky25 and Estarossa
Last but i guess also least, these two are forum grinders. They know UU inside and out but their tier coverage doesn’t compliment each other as well as they should really. That combined with their ceiling seeming lower than most other pairs is why they rank last. Monky and esta both know SV/SS well at the least, and esta vaguely knows some older gens until u fall down to GSC which he is very passionate about. There’s a lot of very top heavy pools that they will have to either support themselves, or get lucky and find support for. That being said these two are new managers to the uupl format, similar to the duo above. So there isn’t a lot to go off of, as well as not a super high value manager buy between them. There is a real world where this team does very well, but I think of all the manager pairs in the tour this is the one that it’s safest to expect more “mid” than anything else