Tournament ZUPL III - Commencement Thread

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Since Toto is too lame to do shoutouts I'll do it myself bc tbh this team deserves it. The season is over for us but I'm proud we actually managed to make playoffs in the first place after a rocky start and managed to comeback despite getting a lot of bad luck during the tour. I know my record was not the best but I had a lot of fun building/testing for the team and I think our SS/SM ended up doing well so I'm proud of it.

Toto - Thank you for trusting me to play SS all weeks despite my somewhat poor performance early on and for picking me in the stacked pool of players. You're a much better manager and player than you give yourself credit for. The ORAS pool in this tour was really stacked and I don't think you have to be this hard on yourself.

thebtboy - The heart and soul of this team. Seriously, I mean it, this dude is insane. Always there to support every single slot, ready to pick every metagame when needed and a testing machine. I believe you've shown a lot of growth as a player and builder in this tour and I wanna see what the future holds for you in ZU. Keep it up!

AstilCodex - You've been a great support this tour and I also believe you're much better than you give yourself credit for. Don't let a few missteps keep you from getting better and I'd be glad to team up with you again if given the chance.

a fruitshop owner - Glad i finally had the chance to team up with big blalib in a ZUPL. You're one of the best SM players around and I rly liked being able to support you in that slot wherever I could. Losing to LPY twice is unforgivable though so we sadly have to retire.

BloodAce - Definitely someone I wanted to team up with again after ZUPL I Hakas. Shame you got thrown into the shitstorm that BW ZU is but we all know you tried your best here and your support in SS was also great. Hopefully BW ZU gets better lol.

Jett aka not btboy - One of the best chat presences in the Discord and also a great teammate here. I'm glad we got to team up and I hope we team up again the future.

neomon - Easily one of the best DPP ZUers around. You're very in touch with the metagame and it honestly shows. Thank you for carrying us in DPP and for the great chat presence. Looking forward to teaming up with you again.

EviGaro and TheFranklin - You guys absolutely carried us in SS and hopefully I was able to support you as you deserved. You guys are obviously much better Pokémon players than me and watching you playing with whatever we were able to cook up has definitely been a blast.

Itchyy and DEG - The best cheerleader duo we could possibly have, thank you for all the team support!

Albi, SpacialRendevous, Charles A. Theist and everyone else who joined the discord at one point - Thank you too for the support and cheering during the tour!
 
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Hello Pokémaniacs!! I am completely bedazzled right now after our win but I would like to share my happinness with you all and do BIG and deserved shoutouts to everybody that helped us winning this tour.

First of all, some general thoughts. It has been an awesome tour and I am so glad to share this win with my mates. Many of you know me as a player that loves spamming stall and laddering in different tiers. However, I wanted to participate again in a big tour like this one and my final wish was to finally win something after all these years. This 2021 has been very exciting for me personally, as I am now switching to a new life (after finishing my PhD and going to live with my gf, next step is the same as yours Rav3 :P) so I wanted to give a good try to big tours and doing so focusing in one tier. I chose ZU due to my experience, as you may know, and because I love you all after coming here like two years ago. I must tell you that, afaik, ZU community (and NFE too) are the healthiest communities in Smogon. Thus, first shoutouts are for all of you reading this, thanks for your direct or indirect help on boosting the importance of this tier in Smogon.

Secondly and most importantly, big thanks to all my Fiery Flamencos mates. This was a tough, but funny tour. We worked a lot, and when I say a lot, is A LOT. As far as I know, some people that came afterwards to help our team mentioned that we were really active in our teamcord, not only in weekends but during all the week. We scoutted, prepared, tested, prepared again, and discussed like there was no tomorrow. I am a team-player and that can explain why I enjoyed this tour much more than individual tours. But part of this was due to the healthy community we created. We created a ton of teams (kay TWiTT were our main builders, although daniYSB did a great job too when kay was away). So, big general thanks to all of you and in special to DurzaOffTopic which I think it was our first time talking 1v1 outside forums and showdown. Thanks for trusting me when nobody did (drafting me) and subbing me during the first weeks. I think that some people believe you are rough sometimes (and you are tbh ahha) but talking 1v1 you are a great person and a great coach. You do what you do to win, but you do it as a person. I always shared your decisions and were right calls. I think you did an amazing draft in general (beyond me) and our win highly demonstrates this. Your moral support was beyond expectations too. I hope I can learn more SM with you and talk as friends from now on.

Now I would like to go from one to another as they highly deserved this:

kay - Amazing builder and a great person. You helped me learning new lines, or at least, improving them. As you know, I am a stall player but with your teams I felt with confidence to play any style you decided because your teams are great and always make sense. I think sometimes you pushed your self quite a bit but I think that this competitive sense helped us winning this tour. Thanks and I hope we can build together again soon.

daniYSB - I think you had some bad luck this tour but you are a consistent tour player and you are growing very fast. I remember when I saw you laddering for the first time in ZU and now you are a main here (and in other tiers). You deserve this win although I know you do not feel as happy as you would like but you worked a lot here all weeks.

Rav3 - It has been great discussing with you SM teams and testing practically every week. I hope your new life now is going great :) I like the way you play and I really appreciate we have had this chance of playing together in a tour bc we have known each other for a while.

TWiTT - Oh man. What a MONSTER. I think you were the savauge pick for this ZUPL. You built a ton in ORAS but also you helped in all tiers just discussing, testing, or sharing teams (like in BW). I know you did not have that much time you wanted, but if you did all this job with only that quantity of time, I do not know what you are capable of with much more. I really enjoyed all of our discussions and testings (because you were my doll for SS every week I played and I was yours for your ORAS teams and we were the only european ones in our team if I am not wrong haha). Now I have to send you my thesis and I hope the best of luck for yours and I would like to meet you in the foreseeable future in Sweden (bc I want to visit it soon). Thanks buddy, with you I gained a good friend.

Procrastinasian - Buddy, you worked quite hard and tried to improve as much as I tried too. You deserved this first tour win (mine too) and I hope the best of luck finding a good job. I think your professional career has so many opportunities out there, you only need to search and wait for the right moment to come (as with wincons haha). I am glad we played together this year :).

avarice - You did an amazing job, coming from nowhere and just bringing wins and cheesing. Thanks for all your help you greedy guy. Cof*grigus for the win!

Heysup - You are the king. Kingsup is reigning rn. Jokes aside, with you in our team we were leading 1-0 each week. That was an amazing feeling and I hope I helped you just a bit testing each week. I did my best :).

roxiee watashi - You were the tour players of this tour which were able to accept teams and adapt in every situation. You did amazingly well, as expected, and I am glad we played together because one always learn from the big tour players. With you roxiee we interacted a bit more because I did some scouting and teams for you. I hope you enjoyed my help.

Greybaum Jett Tuthur Thanks to all of you for your moral support and criticism, it was funny to share with you discussions and moments. Thanks cleffa for the amazing banner :) I loved it!. Also thanks to everyone from other teams that helped me testing (Drud czim) and specially to thebtboy with who I had some trouble but I know he is a great guy who only likes joking. I am glad you didn't get any punishment after all.

Finally, my last thanks to my gf which backed me up during all these weeks and watched some of my games to do moral support. She always tried to help in some way or another and celebrated our win as she was part of the team. I am glad I meet you and that we share our lifes with each other.

I hope all of you enjoyed my winning tape with champagne (champain) as I promised early in this tour that I would do if we won. It has been a great and funny experience, I played the best as I knew and I did so while working and being in holidays in Greece. Unfogettable experience overall.

Love you all,

Jordi.
 
While it was disappointing to fall short after coming so far I'm still proud of the run we went on, so much for being the worst team amirite?

Shootout to 5gen SBPC for being amazing managers you set a great example to follow as both leaders and players, you guys did a great job and made my first zupl a special one.

LPY you kicked ass in sm and helped me spam discord with Bengals and NFL talk was great to meet a fellow bengals sufferer on ps.

275p bro you were amazingly helpful from day one backing us all up for testing and being the best cheerleader we could have asked for behind the scenes.

Landon loved watching you kickass and run some unique sets, I learned a lot from you along the way.

OranBerryBlissey10 you carried us early and often and your input on my not so great team building was invaluable.

Hitmonstars rng wasn't your friend this tour but you never quit and kept giving it your all and putting in the work every week.

beauts you stepped into dpp and put in WORK after we swapped things up, big big reason why we turned things around.

5Dots circumstances didn't give you much of a chance to shine but you were always ready to step in if and when we needed you.

Tack AstilCodex thebtboy you guys were late to the party but the help you provided was huge.

Lastly congratulations to the flamencos on the victory it was an honor.
 
Heya! I forgot to write something last year, but I'll make it up!

I had a lot of fun in this tour, even if I did lose all my matches. I had a good time helping my team members to prepare and it was truly a blast!
I first of have to thank both 5gen and SBPC for allowing me to be a part of this amazing team in the first place! But I also have to give my thanks to POAT, for being such an amazing player, same for LPY, you both did so well! Oran and Hitmon both of you were really reliable and helped out a lot! Beauts, you improved so much over the tournament and it was the best decision to let you play instead of me!

5dots, you didn't play too much but I am grateful for you as well. The way you jumped in for Hitmon was so great of you!

As a team, we may not have won ZUPL III but to be honest, we still did so well! Czim earlier on predicted us as the weakest team in the tournament, but I am happy we proved him otherwise! Our start was rough, but as time went on we became better and better and even made it into the finals! Our synergy was nearly perfect; we worked together, gave each other tips, encouraged us and believed in each other! I must say, at times it felt as if I knew everyone on the team since childhood, which is a testament to our strong bond we have built, during these last years!

We had a successful tournament and although it wasn't enough for us to get the golden trophy, 2nd place is also big!

Thank you for this amazing time and grats Flamencos!


EDIT: Oh yeah, Tack and the others who joined to help us at the end of the tour must be thanked as well! Was great having you!
 
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Wow. What a run. This tournament really meant a lot to me, for various reasons. Since my last few runs as ZUPL manager, I've been demoted from all my ZU auth positions, dismissed as a league of legends addict, and felt looked down on by the general zu community. I felt like my contributions to the tier I loved so much were forgotten and replaced by this poor image I had left behind. I felt like I had a lot to prove this year as a manager and a leader, and that first step for me was dropping the ego and realizing that I didn't have anything to prove as a player. As much as it would have been fun to play vs losers like yovan or czim for some free wins, I felt like my pricing was too expensive for what we were getting and I ultimately decided that opting out of buying myself would give me the best odds of winning.

I feel like we deserved to win this tournament more than I have ever seen any team deserve to win. We worked the hardest. We had the best players. But I know how Pokemon can be sometimes - last years semifinals tiebreak can attest to that - but I genuinely believe that we came out on top because of the work we put in and the friendships we cultivated together. Thank you to my fantastic team for showing me so many things this year. Your efforts mean more than you can ever know. On to individual shoutouts....

kay My right hand man. Your friendship goes far beyond Pokemon and I'm glad that I was able to team with you for another year. Thanks for all your hard work on SS and as avarice said - your record is the SS record as a whole, and what a performance it was.

TWiTT Absolute monster. Shadow third manager of the Flamencos. Out of everybody on this team, I think I can say that you impressed me the most. Your ability to download these metagames are beyond my understanding. You had ORAS locked down... and then you went and locked down BW as well. I seriously believe that if you learned current generation OU you could be drafted to SPL. Even on a team with names like Heysup and Watashi... I think you might have the most raw talent on the squad. Please consider trying some tournament tiers. I believe in you! It was awesome teaming with you man.

Mirbro Doc... It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the team this year. There is no other way to put it. You were the life of the team. You brought a smile to everyones face every day in the discord and you motivated everyone to try their hardest. I can certainly say that this team would not be nearly as successful without your spirit and enthusiasm that you brought every single day of this tournament. Thank you for all your hard work and I hope you enjoyed the champaign. Congratulations on all the big things going on in your life and I certainly hope you'll find the time in your schedule to keep playing pokemon with us in the future - as well as stay in touch. feel free to hit me up anytime, I genuinely mean it!! Also, thanks to your girlfriend as well... her support was appreciated!!

Heysup The franchise name of the Flamencos... You're the best. You've been my rock for 3 years, and I don't know what I'd do without you. After that terrible end of last season I wasn't sure if you would sign up this year, but I'm glad you did, and with what a performance it was. Great job man.

daniYSB it was nice getting to know you this season!! I've never interacted with you before despite the fact that we're both friends of kay, and you're a fun dude who I definitely wanna stay in touch with. Despite the fact that you got manhandled by Hitmonstars and topped off by POAT... you did a lot of work for this team and I'm very glad to have had you on the squad. Definitely hope we team again for something in the future.

watashi thanks for signing up this year - i appreciate your friendship even if you're forcing me to watch hayate....

roxiee after seeing what you were capable of in bwpl i definitely knew you'd be a great steal for zupl... thanks for your good work this season!!

avarice mini ss mvp... thanks for giving as much effort as you did every week despite playing in (subjectively) more important tournaments. as usual you're an awesome team presence and a great player as well. It was comforting having your feedback and opinions consistently which definitely led to you performing as well as you did - I don't know why everybody keeps bringing up cheese though you really didn't cheese that hard lol... ANYWAY it was a pleasure (again)

Rav3 Hey dude - my SM partner in crime. I know we didn't agree on a lot of things in the SM metagame but I really loved how we could just talk about what we thought with no hard feelings or anything. You taught me a lot of things this year and gave me some perspective on a lot of aspects of the meta that I really didn't acknowledge. You knew what you wanted and I respect that. Thanks for putting up with my shit this tour, and congrats on everything thats going on in your life right now!! You're a really solid player and I think you'll consistently perform going forwards.

Procrastinasian my brother said "i'd rope if I had to lane with this ape for more than 6 minutes" when we were playing league this morning and frankly I agree... despite that, you were an awesome pickup and I'm appreciative of your spirit and helping in all tiers through the tour. Just keep getting better! I'll use the fact that we won as an excuse to say this without breaking character... but I'm deeply grateful for our friendship even though it may not always seem like it.

cleffa :3 thanks for the great art and kind words throughout the season!

Greybaum easily one of my best friends on this website... sorry I couldn't get you this year. i really wanted you. fuck drud. thanks for all your help in playoffs.

Tuthur Jett (and Aaronboyer) Thanks for your help in the final stages of the tour. You're all good players and even better friends and I'm happy that I can call you the latter.

missangelic baby monkey transcending overpowering everlasting baby monkey gazing into the nexus


I'd also like to thank the hosts for hosting this tournament. While I don't necessarily believe all the calls made were correct or the processes were handled properly... I appreciate the time and effort it takes to host a tour like this. Everything was done promptly and on time, usage stats, OPs, and spreadsheet were updated extremely fast, and you were always available if anybody had any questions. I appreciate you both.

Thanks to everybody who helped this season and the people who cheered us on. I heard there were some activity/motivation issues on some other teams which is kinda sad because thats never a fun experience. Additionally, I'd like to congratulate the Persians on beating the odds and making it all the way to finals despite a rough start. I'm very impressed with all of you and I'm sure your managers had a lot to do with it. Hopefully future ZUPLs will be full of life and spirited competition!!

See you next year!
 
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SBPC

stranded on an island
is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Shoutouts that I took forever to write because college is good at keeping me busy

First off, always big love for my co-manager 5gen for making this tour a fucking blast to play in, absolute amazing man to manage with and hero in keeping me motivated to run through with everything. Astounding play in ORAS this year + always being a solid support, absolutely will never turn down a chance to run something with you man

Landon while we didn't communicate much I think your teams were some of the most solid ass builds I've seen for a cg zu tier in a long ass time.

OranBerryBlissey10 Again, someone I didn't get to speak much with, but I think your building was absolutely incredible, and while you throw a lot of oddball picks around, it was heat as fuck and kept me interested to see your games even if I didn't get to comment on the team.

5Dots Chess man, it was sick getting to have you support us, you kept everyone's mind open to some cooler techs and ideas and I definitely think you can go far if you keep working at it as hard as you do.

Hitmonstars Absolute king, got some huge upset wins and I definitely got to have some fun coaching with you week by week when we'd run test games. If I ever end up doing B101, I'll be sure to thank you for bringing that end out of me.

PrinceOfAllTacos and 275p, I wanted to give a special shoutout to both of y'all for being the life of the team. You guys were absolutely astounding to be around and I'd pick you guys up any year for another run. Loved having you guys and I can't wait to see how far you guys go.

beauts You were a joy to have around team chat, and your effort in perfecting teams is genuinely unmatched, you put forth so much effort and I'm glad I was able to see you succeed in a slot this year.

LPY People kept saying you were washed but honestly you held your own in this super stacked pool and genuinely you were a blast to make teams with throughout the tour. Absolutely loved having you on the squad.

lockjaw I didn't exactly get to talk to you much but it was sick to have you on the team, hope you do well.

ggs to DurzaOffTopic and all of the Flamencos, you guys were kickass to play against and I hope to see you guys in finals again soon for the runback.
 

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