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UUPL XIII Commencement

Cheryl. said:
I feel like some people are missing the original point. They didn’t just get unlucky that other people were chosen, they got unlucky cause a managing team prioritized their group of non-mains and made the ENTIRE TEAM out of it, practically wasting slots of what is supposed to be a UU-centered tour. Now if they go on and win, okay I’ll eat my hat who cares, they’re good players. But there is something to be said about something like this happening and what it means for the spirit of the tier if the tier’s active playerbase is overlooked for an ENTIRE TEAM OF UBERS PLAYERS! This should be happening in tiers with smaller active player bases like CAP, not UU.
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I wasn't gonna respond to this stuff earlier because I figured it just wasn't worth and what we said in uucord was enough discussion from our team, but posts like this feel disingenuous and imply a lot of negative things about our team. To call us out for "taking spots" from uu players both implies that our players didn't deserve to get in, and that things would be inherently better with said uu players getting in. I think this is completely untrue, and if someone were to be able to make such a big impact on a team one of the other 7 teams would have also sought out for them, instead of the blame just falling on us for people who didn't get drafted anywhere to stay undrafted. We picked people we have full faith can win for our cheaper buys, and weren't even the only ones with as many 3k's as we had, with other teams matching our number, so other teams coulda bought other people left out as well. I've teamed with almost everyone on our roster before and fully believe in them to put up wins.

We started the draft dropping almost 70k between myself, pdt, and garay, so it's natural we didn't have much money to go around by the end of it. I'm no stranger to drafting tour players / clickers in pl's, I even have a reputation of doing so in my own tiers pl's like ubers and ag. I don't see these subforum tours as something mainers have "priority" or anything over which is why even in my own sections I'm willing to buy a lot of tour players and non mainers, this is a competition and we are looking to win the tournament. I trust myself, fragments, and our big buys to be able to work very effectively alongside our cheaper picks to produce wins and prep well, and I see nothing wrong with this drafting strategy. Jerk teams exist everywhere in almost every PL as do "nepo buys" on other teams, and we felt buying people we're good friends with who are proven to be very strong overall players across multiple high level tournaments was the strategy to go for with how we can support and work together.

To call this wasting slots is an insult to our team and not even beneficial to uu as a whole. We made a genuine draft we think can win this tournament with our slots we picked, and we're bringing in players who were genuinely enthusiastic about playing this tournament from other sections, who may be interested in uu more in the future to grow the section. And again, 7 other teams had full opportunities to buy the players mentioned that went undrafted yet didn't, so I don't see how one team focusing harder on tour players given that we spent so much on flexible gen players who can support well is any issue.

The strikers will be giving our all this season. We didn't sign up just to mess around in a random tier, we signed up to win. I can ensure that at the very least our full effort will be put through in this tournament, and we will look to do even better than how close we came last year with a win this year.
 
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I think that like, going into a tour like UUPL, and drafting almost your entire jerk is kind of corny. However, what I think is more cringe is blaming Fc and Fragments when there are literally 7 other teams that have the ability to bid on players. I think it'd be more upsetting if Fc didn't already have a good track record in UU as a manager. If he didn't, I think he wouldn't have been accepted because the draft plan of non-UU players could have been seen from a mile away which would be cringe for the primary UU community team tour. My point is that if anything it really would just be the host's fault, not Fc's. Eitherway though, Fc is a proven good UU manager and I think he very clearly knows what he's doing and all of his friends are literally good at pokemon anyways and all would have been contenders to get picked in auction anyways.

I'm just generally echoing Fc's post and I personally don't really think its an issue to begin with. Snub's happen in every team tour, and it certainly isn't his fault as established by there being 7 other teams (nor should he have picked me with my record on his teams LOOOL). I still kind of understand where the backlash is coming from, but I just don't really think its valid or fair with Fc's history in UU as a manager. Regardless though, it really shouldn't be placed on him. Also, as said by him jerk teams literally ALWAYS happen and if its something that you just can't stomach happening you just shouldn't participate in team tours. I think its cringe that they do happen, but thats just how it is and team tours are all fun events too despite that.

Also people for the love of god PLEASE stop publicly talking about how much of a snub I am for this tour. You all are gonna give me bad luck in UUFPL, where I'm intending on keeping my undefeated run in SM UU there. Cheers everyone
 
I get the sentiment of feeling generally ungood about going undrafted. I went undrafted in basically every UUPL until recent years and it stung each time, even though I thought I was more than capable (p sure I went undrafted the year after I ranked #2 in circuit playoffs too behind only umbry). You might think that's why UUFPL was created, to give these seemingly deserved players who got snubbed in UUPL another outlet to play. But that would be missing the point. I'll explain why.

When I created UUFPL on the forums (sorry drew) it was because I had just started getting into Smogon generally and UU Smogon specifically. UUPL was coming up and I thought "oh hey what a cool concept!" I came from other Pokemon leagues that were omega inclusive, in the sense that, if you wanted to play in a team tour with teammates, you sign up and get to play. The thought that anyone could get "excluded" from playing was so foreign to me - I didn't really understand it. How could someone that wants to play, and signs up to play, not play? That didn't seem very fair. I didn't care what their individual accomplishments or contributions were, the only thing that mattered, to me, is that they wanted to play and could not. When people tried to explain how UUPL was some sort of Superstar League of Extraordinary UU Players and you shouldn't expect to play, I thought "hahahaha how silly." So, after messaging and annoying Lily with like 2000 messages I was finally able to bring UUFPL to the forums. I thought to myself, this would be great for people who want to play in a UU team tour, but did not get the opportunity in UUPL.

But, that wasn't really enough to me at the time. Having a sort of "D League" of UUPL wouldn't really excite many people. I needed to make it something more - something that people could really really look forward to just as much as UUPL. The goal wasn't to just play in a farm league - it was to have an adjacent league that, in a sort of different way, had almost the same (or in some cases more) hype than UUPL. That would really give a lot of people the experience that more people should have the opportunity to partake in. Lucky for everyone (or unlucky for some losers), doing this sort of thing was fun for me too, so I was able to enjoy it all while coming up with crazy ideas. So every year I tried to build hype for UUFPL, I wanted more people to be able to play in a UUPL style tour. It wasn't about accommodating "snubs" and, contrary to popular belief, it wasn't about building new talent in UU either (although this happens anyways as a result). It was about engaging the community at large and building something special that allowed for more participation from everyone - not just in the UU sphere, but for all of Smogon to play if they want to play.

So if you didn't get drafted into UUPL, again I am sorry. Maybe you think you can stand on the same ground as all of the other starters in the tier you wanted to play (I sure thought so at one point when I was undrafted). And, maybe you could too. Even though it seems cruel not getting the opportunity, just know that I've worked very hard to bring something else that's around the corner for you and everyone to experience. Trust me, if you keep at it and do this enough, and keep a positive attitude, you'll eventually make it into both. Happy touring everyone, and let's make this UUPL and the upcoming UUFPL a great tour for all.
 
Hacker said:
I think that like, going into a tour like UUPL, and drafting almost your entire jerk is kind of corny. However, what I think is more cringe is blaming Fc and Fragments when there are literally 7 other teams that have the ability to bid on players. I think it'd be more upsetting if Fc didn't already have a good track record in UU as a manager. If he didn't, I think he wouldn't have been accepted because the draft plan of non-UU players could have been seen from a mile away which would be cringe for the primary UU community team tour. My point is that if anything it really would just be the host's fault, not Fc's. Eitherway though, Fc is a proven good UU manager and I think he very clearly knows what he's doing and all of his friends are literally good at pokemon anyways and all would have been contenders to get picked in auction anyways.

I'm just generally echoing Fc's post and I personally don't really think its an issue to begin with. Snub's happen in every team tour, and it certainly isn't his fault as established by there being 7 other teams (nor should he have picked me with my record on his teams LOOOL). I still kind of understand where the backlash is coming from, but I just don't really think its valid or fair with Fc's history in UU as a manager. Regardless though, it really shouldn't be placed on him. Also, as said by him jerk teams literally ALWAYS happen and if its something that you just can't stomach happening you just shouldn't participate in team tours. I think its cringe that they do happen, but thats just how it is and team tours are all fun events too despite that.

Also people for the love of god PLEASE stop publicly talking about how much of a snub I am for this tour. You all are gonna give me bad luck in UUFPL, where I'm intending on keeping my undefeated run in SM UU there. Cheers everyone
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bro thinks he's getting drafted in UUFPL
 
Managers have the right to pick whoever they think will help their team win. This is not rocket science. Maybe it’s someone conventional and maybe it’s someone who usually plays other formats, but I think this pre-tour outrage at managers is misled.

If there are too many snubs in the eyes of the community, then the community should discuss for next edition to have more slots and/or teams to have supply match demand. If you think you were snubbed, remember your value is tied to how managers perceive you and get to work improving your game, building, presence, etc. — it will always be more productive to do that than to be outwardly frustrated over it.

I hope everyone has a good experience as a participant or spectator no matter your placement.
 
lax said:
vg2Ky19.jpeg
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I couldve done that sacrifice gladly if i got drafted... though goodluck!
 
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