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Tournament ZUPL V - Commencement Thread
- Thread starter Merritt
- Start date
Hello,
The Ho3n situation has been hashed out to the nth degree by now, but I would like to make one last post on the matter to just summarize my thoughts/opinions, and why I think this whole case was handled poorly by all parties involved.
As someone who is playing on and was closely involved in the drafting process for the butterfrees, I can't help but feel that we have really gotten the short end of the stick here. Ho3n was not in any of our draft plans, we did not contact him at all before the draft, and didn't even plan on buying him until he was nommed in the auction. Once he went up for bidding, we briefly discussed that he would probably be worth purchasing, discord presence or not, for a cheap price. He went 9-0 last season, after all. When we bought him for 4.5k, we were more than prepared to start him every week while having zero presence in the team discord. We viewed it as a calculated risk; after all, his signup with the exact wording still remains untouched and was posted an entire day and a half before the auction date. If someone took issue with this signup, surely they would have mentioned it? Clearly since no one cared until after the auction was over, this was a complete fuck-up by both the hosts and managers.
We obviously could not have predicted that Ho3n would immediately ask to join our discord and start trolling in the main ZU cord as well. I agree, this part of the situation is not fair. The solution we proposed to the hosts last night was to simply remove ho3n from the team discord (the previous tour host had been in our discord since day 1, making this very simple to enforce). Unfortunately, both the initial decision to allow him to stay and the preceding decision to remove him were both rushed and heavily influenced by other managers/community members dogpiling the previous host and pressuring them into changing the ruling.
The main thing I take issue with here is how we are being punished for the incompetence of other managers/tour hosts. Given the tumultuous reaction to this whole situation, it seems like regardless of who bought ho3n, they were gonna get fucked, which I find ridiculous. He was nommed very early in the draft; us securing him that early completely warped the rest of our draft plans, and forcibly removing him from our team is simply not fair. I don't believe the punishment for other managers/hosts neglecting this signup (if they took issue with it) should fall on us. This issue needed to be handled before the draft. Retroactive action against our team for trying to draft the best team possible is ridiculous.
All I ask is that the new tour host review the previous rulings again and make sure due diligence was exercised. If they uphold the removal of Ho3n, so be it. But I encourage future managers/hosts to really try and be more attentive to similar situations, as all of this could have very easily have been prevented.
The Ho3n situation has been hashed out to the nth degree by now, but I would like to make one last post on the matter to just summarize my thoughts/opinions, and why I think this whole case was handled poorly by all parties involved.
As someone who is playing on and was closely involved in the drafting process for the butterfrees, I can't help but feel that we have really gotten the short end of the stick here. Ho3n was not in any of our draft plans, we did not contact him at all before the draft, and didn't even plan on buying him until he was nommed in the auction. Once he went up for bidding, we briefly discussed that he would probably be worth purchasing, discord presence or not, for a cheap price. He went 9-0 last season, after all. When we bought him for 4.5k, we were more than prepared to start him every week while having zero presence in the team discord. We viewed it as a calculated risk; after all, his signup with the exact wording still remains untouched and was posted an entire day and a half before the auction date. If someone took issue with this signup, surely they would have mentioned it? Clearly since no one cared until after the auction was over, this was a complete fuck-up by both the hosts and managers.
We obviously could not have predicted that Ho3n would immediately ask to join our discord and start trolling in the main ZU cord as well. I agree, this part of the situation is not fair. The solution we proposed to the hosts last night was to simply remove ho3n from the team discord (the previous tour host had been in our discord since day 1, making this very simple to enforce). Unfortunately, both the initial decision to allow him to stay and the preceding decision to remove him were both rushed and heavily influenced by other managers/community members dogpiling the previous host and pressuring them into changing the ruling.
The main thing I take issue with here is how we are being punished for the incompetence of other managers/tour hosts. Given the tumultuous reaction to this whole situation, it seems like regardless of who bought ho3n, they were gonna get fucked, which I find ridiculous. He was nommed very early in the draft; us securing him that early completely warped the rest of our draft plans, and forcibly removing him from our team is simply not fair. I don't believe the punishment for other managers/hosts neglecting this signup (if they took issue with it) should fall on us. This issue needed to be handled before the draft. Retroactive action against our team for trying to draft the best team possible is ridiculous.
All I ask is that the new tour host review the previous rulings again and make sure due diligence was exercised. If they uphold the removal of Ho3n, so be it. But I encourage future managers/hosts to really try and be more attentive to similar situations, as all of this could have very easily have been prevented.
Last edited:
the solution: keep ho3n banned from playing but force him to be in the discord and probably write 4 zu analyses too
pros:
- corrective reinforcement: he said he wouldn't be on discord, now he can only be on discord
- community contribution
cons:
- "ethical concerns" about forced smogon labor
- draft plans are fucked LOL
pros:
- corrective reinforcement: he said he wouldn't be on discord, now he can only be on discord
- community contribution
cons:
- "ethical concerns" about forced smogon labor
- draft plans are fucked LOL
[SET]
name: Spikes
move 1: Spikes
move 2: U-turn
move 3: Roost
move 4: Toxic
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Pressure
nature: Careful
evs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
tera type: Steel / Ghost
[SET COMMENTS]
Vespiquen utilizes its stellar bulk to set up Spikes and pivot out on special attackers, most notably Psychic-types like Gothitelle, Oranguru, and Hypno. It is bulky enough to take boosted hits from these three and retaliate with STAB U-turn for both good damage and momentum. Toxic makes Vespiquen more of a threat versus defensive switch-ins like Crocalar and Fletchinder. Tera Steel makes Vespiquen immune to Toxic and resist Stealth Rock if it loses its item, whereas Tera Ghost lacks as many of the valuable resistances that Tera Steel offers in exchange for spinblocking. Without Tera, Vespiquen is entirely reliant on Heavy-Duty Boots for it to perform well as a wall and to set up multiple layers of Spikes, making Psychic- and Grass-types harder to check if they use Trick and Knock Off; Sticky Hold Swalot as a teammate will deter these moves. Swalot is also a good physical wall to pair with Vespiquen alongside others like Sandygast and Mareanie. Wallbreakers and offensive pivots such as Wugtrio, Raboot, and Thwackey appreciate the offensive support Vespiquen with Spikes and U-turn to wear down Stonjourner and Swalot.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.231074/
name: Spikes
move 1: Spikes
move 2: U-turn
move 3: Roost
move 4: Toxic
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Pressure
nature: Careful
evs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
tera type: Steel / Ghost
[SET COMMENTS]
Vespiquen utilizes its stellar bulk to set up Spikes and pivot out on special attackers, most notably Psychic-types like Gothitelle, Oranguru, and Hypno. It is bulky enough to take boosted hits from these three and retaliate with STAB U-turn for both good damage and momentum. Toxic makes Vespiquen more of a threat versus defensive switch-ins like Crocalar and Fletchinder. Tera Steel makes Vespiquen immune to Toxic and resist Stealth Rock if it loses its item, whereas Tera Ghost lacks as many of the valuable resistances that Tera Steel offers in exchange for spinblocking. Without Tera, Vespiquen is entirely reliant on Heavy-Duty Boots for it to perform well as a wall and to set up multiple layers of Spikes, making Psychic- and Grass-types harder to check if they use Trick and Knock Off; Sticky Hold Swalot as a teammate will deter these moves. Swalot is also a good physical wall to pair with Vespiquen alongside others like Sandygast and Mareanie. Wallbreakers and offensive pivots such as Wugtrio, Raboot, and Thwackey appreciate the offensive support Vespiquen with Spikes and U-turn to wear down Stonjourner and Swalot.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.231074/
[SET]
name: Unaware Wall
move 1: Flamethrower
move 2: Will-O-Wisp
move 3: Slack Off
move 4: Roar / Encore
item: Eviolite / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Unaware
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 68 Def / 192 SpD
tera type: Steel / Water
[SET COMMENTS]
Unaware is a rare ability in the ZU metagame, and Crocalor is the premier wall for the role. Nasty Plot and Swords Dance sweepers like Gothitelle, Hypno, Bannette, and Thwackey are all unable to break past Crocalor on their own, and the former two physical attackers are at jeopardy of a Wil-O-Wisp burn if they stay in and trade for Knock Off. Roar allows Crocalor to phaze sweepers, pairing perfectly with Unaware, whereas Encore is another way to punish setup and Substitute users such as Acid Armor Swalot and Substitute Hypno. Given a lack of entry hazard removal support on the team, Heavy-Duty Boots is warranted over Eviolite to prerserve Crocalor's bulk for as long as possible; even without Eviolite, the given EV spread makes it bulky enough to avoid the 2HKO from Modest Gothitelle and, in most circumstances, Life Orb Adamant Banette. Optionally, full Defensive investment works to check Banette and Raboot better at the cost of losing the favorable matchup versus special sweepers. Tera Steel is valuable to Crocalor to combat residual damage from Stealth Rock and Toxic as well as to capitalize on the new resistances versus Stonjourner, Sudowoodo, and Oranguru. Otherwise, Tera Water is beneficial for removing all of Crocalor's former weaknesses and most notably allowing it to counter offensive Water-types like Wugtrio and Drizzle. Swalot and Mareanie are excellent teammates to absorb Toxic and Toxic Spikes for Crocalor, with the former's ability Sticky Hold and the latter's ability to check Water-types both being crucial assets as well. When opting for the extra bulk through Eviolite, entry hazard removal from Toadscool and Flecthinder is a must. Conversely, Crocalor can rack up residual damage with Roar when support with entry hazard centric teammates such as Quilladin and Vespiquen.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.231074/
name: Unaware Wall
move 1: Flamethrower
move 2: Will-O-Wisp
move 3: Slack Off
move 4: Roar / Encore
item: Eviolite / Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Unaware
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 68 Def / 192 SpD
tera type: Steel / Water
[SET COMMENTS]
Unaware is a rare ability in the ZU metagame, and Crocalor is the premier wall for the role. Nasty Plot and Swords Dance sweepers like Gothitelle, Hypno, Bannette, and Thwackey are all unable to break past Crocalor on their own, and the former two physical attackers are at jeopardy of a Wil-O-Wisp burn if they stay in and trade for Knock Off. Roar allows Crocalor to phaze sweepers, pairing perfectly with Unaware, whereas Encore is another way to punish setup and Substitute users such as Acid Armor Swalot and Substitute Hypno. Given a lack of entry hazard removal support on the team, Heavy-Duty Boots is warranted over Eviolite to prerserve Crocalor's bulk for as long as possible; even without Eviolite, the given EV spread makes it bulky enough to avoid the 2HKO from Modest Gothitelle and, in most circumstances, Life Orb Adamant Banette. Optionally, full Defensive investment works to check Banette and Raboot better at the cost of losing the favorable matchup versus special sweepers. Tera Steel is valuable to Crocalor to combat residual damage from Stealth Rock and Toxic as well as to capitalize on the new resistances versus Stonjourner, Sudowoodo, and Oranguru. Otherwise, Tera Water is beneficial for removing all of Crocalor's former weaknesses and most notably allowing it to counter offensive Water-types like Wugtrio and Drizzle. Swalot and Mareanie are excellent teammates to absorb Toxic and Toxic Spikes for Crocalor, with the former's ability Sticky Hold and the latter's ability to check Water-types both being crucial assets as well. When opting for the extra bulk through Eviolite, entry hazard removal from Toadscool and Flecthinder is a must. Conversely, Crocalor can rack up residual damage with Roar when support with entry hazard centric teammates such as Quilladin and Vespiquen.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.231074/
[SET]
name: Physical Wall
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Shore Up
move 3: Earth Power
move 4: Sludge Bomb / Night Shade
item: Eviolite
ability: Water Compaction
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
tera type: Steel / Dragon
[SET COMMENTS]
In this castle made of sand, most physical attackers can't make it past the moat! Sandygast has the Eviolite-boosted bulk, resistances, and recovery to check an assortment of physical attackers such as Stonjourner, Raboot, and even Triple Dive Wugtrio thanks to its ability Water Compaction. Sludge Bomb is Sandygast's primary way to spread status and to deter both Grass-types and walls like Thwackey, Toadscool, and Oranguru from switching in safely. Otherwise, Night Shade offers more consistent damage, especially versus Toadscool. Tera Steel comes at the cost of being more vulnerable to the coverage from physical attackers like Stonjourner and Raboot, but it is worthwhile when checking Wood Hammer Sudowoodo and Poison-types like Swalot and Mareanie. Tera Dragon works well versus Water- and Grass-types such as Drizzle and Scovillian while still remaining crucial neutralities against the attackers it checks. Dark-types such as Alolan Grimer and Pawniard patch up Sandygast's weakness to Ghost whilst also threatening the strong Psychic-type wallbreakers that force it out. Fire-types such as Crocolar, Fletchinder, and Flareon are crucial at checking strong Grass-types such as Thwackey and Scoilvillian. In return, Sandygast is a consistent switch-in to Stonjourner and Pupitar.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.231074/
name: Physical Wall
move 1: Stealth Rock
move 2: Shore Up
move 3: Earth Power
move 4: Sludge Bomb / Night Shade
item: Eviolite
ability: Water Compaction
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
tera type: Steel / Dragon
[SET COMMENTS]
In this castle made of sand, most physical attackers can't make it past the moat! Sandygast has the Eviolite-boosted bulk, resistances, and recovery to check an assortment of physical attackers such as Stonjourner, Raboot, and even Triple Dive Wugtrio thanks to its ability Water Compaction. Sludge Bomb is Sandygast's primary way to spread status and to deter both Grass-types and walls like Thwackey, Toadscool, and Oranguru from switching in safely. Otherwise, Night Shade offers more consistent damage, especially versus Toadscool. Tera Steel comes at the cost of being more vulnerable to the coverage from physical attackers like Stonjourner and Raboot, but it is worthwhile when checking Wood Hammer Sudowoodo and Poison-types like Swalot and Mareanie. Tera Dragon works well versus Water- and Grass-types such as Drizzle and Scovillian while still remaining crucial neutralities against the attackers it checks. Dark-types such as Alolan Grimer and Pawniard patch up Sandygast's weakness to Ghost whilst also threatening the strong Psychic-type wallbreakers that force it out. Fire-types such as Crocolar, Fletchinder, and Flareon are crucial at checking strong Grass-types such as Thwackey and Scoilvillian. In return, Sandygast is a consistent switch-in to Stonjourner and Pupitar.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.231074/
[SET]
name: Physical Wall
move 1: Recover
move 2: Toxic Spikes / Toxic
move 3: Haze
move 4: Sludge Bomb / Chilling Water
item: Eviolite
ability: Regenerator
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
tera type: Steel / Ground
[SET COMMENTS]
The sheer recovery from Mareanie's access to Regenerator + Recover makes it unparalleled as a defensive sponge, scouting and taking hits from the likes of Raboot, Wugtrio, and Sneasel. It also fits into the entry hazard metagame thanks to its access and immunity to Toxic Spikes, although it could drop the entry hazard in exchange for the more threatening Toxic versus immediate switch-ins. With Haze, Mareanie can counter and outstall Acid Armor Swalot and Dragon Dance Dragonair. Sludge Bomb is the STAB attack of choice for this set to punish Grass-types such as Thwackey and Jumpluff. Chilling Water also works generally to make it wall physical attackers better, especially given that it is strong enough to 2HKO Stonjourner. Tera Steel works well in conjunction with Haze so that, in a pinch, Mareanie can survive a +2 Psychic / Psyshock from Gothitelle and Hypno. Tera Ghost offers all new neutralities to Mareanie's previous weaknesses with the added benefit of being a spinblocker for Toxic Spikes sets. Encore Oranguru, Alolan Grimer, and Vespiquen are vital checks to Psychic-type sweepers so that Mareanie is not forced to terastallize and Haze. As Mareanie is not bulky enough to deal with wallbreakers such as Choice Band Stonjourner and Life Orb Banette, it should be paired with additional walls such as Sandygast and Swalot, respectively. These cores rely on Mareanie scouting and tanking stronger hits to ease their own switch-in versus said wallbreakers.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.231074/
Tuthur if you're reading this, you're a fucking goober mate LOL
name: Physical Wall
move 1: Recover
move 2: Toxic Spikes / Toxic
move 3: Haze
move 4: Sludge Bomb / Chilling Water
item: Eviolite
ability: Regenerator
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
tera type: Steel / Ground
[SET COMMENTS]
The sheer recovery from Mareanie's access to Regenerator + Recover makes it unparalleled as a defensive sponge, scouting and taking hits from the likes of Raboot, Wugtrio, and Sneasel. It also fits into the entry hazard metagame thanks to its access and immunity to Toxic Spikes, although it could drop the entry hazard in exchange for the more threatening Toxic versus immediate switch-ins. With Haze, Mareanie can counter and outstall Acid Armor Swalot and Dragon Dance Dragonair. Sludge Bomb is the STAB attack of choice for this set to punish Grass-types such as Thwackey and Jumpluff. Chilling Water also works generally to make it wall physical attackers better, especially given that it is strong enough to 2HKO Stonjourner. Tera Steel works well in conjunction with Haze so that, in a pinch, Mareanie can survive a +2 Psychic / Psyshock from Gothitelle and Hypno. Tera Ghost offers all new neutralities to Mareanie's previous weaknesses with the added benefit of being a spinblocker for Toxic Spikes sets. Encore Oranguru, Alolan Grimer, and Vespiquen are vital checks to Psychic-type sweepers so that Mareanie is not forced to terastallize and Haze. As Mareanie is not bulky enough to deal with wallbreakers such as Choice Band Stonjourner and Life Orb Banette, it should be paired with additional walls such as Sandygast and Swalot, respectively. These cores rely on Mareanie scouting and tanking stronger hits to ease their own switch-in versus said wallbreakers.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.231074/
Tuthur if you're reading this, you're a fucking goober mate LOL
Your Dole Dippers, Sir.
Just wanted to say that I full heartily planned on doing a little trolling this ZUPL but the accusations of "price fixing" are redic. I had no intent on lowering my price to make an overall stronger team with more buying points; my narrative for the past few days was the opposite; I literally don't care. I wanted to play some mons with the bros again and defend my 9-0 record but y'all couldn't handle the rizz.
Give me 3 warning points, the ICBB shit, and 0 tolerance for my horrible, war-crime tier trolling on teh interwebs that y'all pissed your pants over, but let me play the stupid little video game this """"community""" is meant to be about. If not, you're just rewarding crybabies, not the actual players. The gamers.
I agree nicholas
so let me understand this straight
a poor job at a pricefix attempt gets you two points and a sellback because the first punishment wasn't enough but harassing three hosts in two years to the point of making them all quit makes you keep your manager seat and only get a 1pointer?
damn i'll remember that the next time I talk with the managers of the teamtours I'm hosting, definitely a good look for any future host too!
a poor job at a pricefix attempt gets you two points and a sellback because the first punishment wasn't enough but harassing three hosts in two years to the point of making them all quit makes you keep your manager seat and only get a 1pointer?
damn i'll remember that the next time I talk with the managers of the teamtours I'm hosting, definitely a good look for any future host too!
Grass is a plant with narrow leaves growing from the base. A common kind of grass is used to cover the ground in places such as lawns and parks. Grass is usually the colour ‘green’. Grasses are monocotyledon herbaceous plants.
The grasses include the "grass" of the family Poaceae. This family is also called Gramineae. The family also include some of the sedges (Cyperaceae) and the rushes (Juncaceae).[1] These three families are not closely related but all of them belong to clades in the order Poales. They are similar adaptations to a common life-style.
The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns (turf) and grassland. Uses for graminoids include food (as grain, sprouted grain, shoots or rhizomes), drink (beer, whisky), pasture for livestock, thatching thatch, paper, fuel, clothing, insulation, construction, sports turf, basket weaving and many others.
The grasses include the "grass" of the family Poaceae. This family is also called Gramineae. The family also include some of the sedges (Cyperaceae) and the rushes (Juncaceae).[1] These three families are not closely related but all of them belong to clades in the order Poales. They are similar adaptations to a common life-style.
The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns (turf) and grassland. Uses for graminoids include food (as grain, sprouted grain, shoots or rhizomes), drink (beer, whisky), pasture for livestock, thatching thatch, paper, fuel, clothing, insulation, construction, sports turf, basket weaving and many others.
so let me understand this straight
a poor job at a pricefix attempt gets you two points and a sellback because the first punishment wasn't enough but harassing three hosts in two years to the point of making them all quit makes you keep your manager seat and only get a 1pointer?
damn i'll remember that the next time I talk with the managers of the teamtours I'm hosting, definitely a good look for any future host too!
just curious - if I put my settings as private like so:
can mods still see when I look at threads? I need to know if mods can see me staring at sample teams right before tour games.
Thank you!
yea moderators can still see that shit regardless of what your settings are at
free ho3n, he wrote 4 analyses in like 12 hours. there's no way he could've had bad intentions
Welcome to ZUPL V Official Power Rankings
Each team could submit a vote ranking every player but their teammate for every pool, moreover czim, who doesn't take part to this edition but has been one of the most consistent ZU player across multiple generations as shown by his first spot on the ZU Hall of Fame, was also allowed to vote. Each player was then ranked within their pool based on the average ranking received through votes (czim's votes were applied a 7/8 factor to account for the fact he ranked 8 teams instead of 7). Every team is then being given a score corresponding to the average rank of each of their slot at the exception of SV which due to having multiple slots is calculated slightly differently. The SV score is shared between the average of the 3 starters factored by 1/3 and the ranking of the SV core based on the average grade of the 3 starters; this SV core is then factored by 3 to match the number of slots. I would like to thank everyone who voted in no particular order, a fruitshop owner, Drud, HSOWA, Toto, DurzaOffTopic, OranBerryBlissey10, emma, czim, SOMALIA, SuperEpicAmpharos, Xrn, LpZ, btboy, TWiTT, Shaneghoul, gorex, Beka, yovan33321, Danny, Luck O' the Irish, clean, diegoyuhhi, Jett, Monai, and myself. Monai also co-wrote the following texts with me.
8th - To Pimp A Butterfree
7th SV (8th, 11th, 24th) - 2nd SS - 7th SM - 8th ORAS - 7th BW - 2nd DPP
A team once destined for greatness, To Pimp A Butterfree encountered some player legality issues and has since fallen to the wayside in the mind of the voters. Drud, Twitt, and clean, who was retained, went for a very top heavy draft, spending much of their money on experienced ZU mainstays like TheFranklin, Jett, and selfbuying clean. TheFranklin of course having consistently great records across the tiers he plays and having unique builds to boot, the Butterfrees seem to be willing to bank on his support to carry many of the newer slots as he is unable to play for several weeks. After clean’s breakout performance last ZUPL, he is a consensus pick for one of the strongest SS slots and a very strong retain, while Jett is a solid player who can anchor their SV. Drud has made the decision to self buy as well, giving their team another great slot that should at minimum go positive in a competitive DPP pool. With all these great players, why are the Butterfrees ranked at the bottom of the barrel? An important factor would be the drama that went down regarding S1nn0hC0nfirm3d’s signup and removal from the tournament, resulting in the loss of one of their best players. The second thing voters took issue with was the Butterfrees’ many unproven purchases. AtraX Madara, Thiago Nunes, tier, Lilo, siras, and LPZ are all players with respectable achievements in a variety of lower tiers. However, none of them are known to have experience in ZU at all, let alone ZUPL. So the vast majority of them found themselves at the bottom of the voting ratings. With low expectations and strong talent though, the Butterfrees can definitely defy expectations and put up a strong run.
7th - Proud Pupitars
4th SV (2nd, 17th, 19th) - 8th SS - 4th SM - 5th ORAS - 4th BW - 7th DPP
Colteor and Monai failed to convince the voters in their first appearance as managers, with their team, the Proud Pupitars, in seventh place. Only three of their players were ranked in the top half of their respective pools, starting with Monai who seems to dominate in SV, being ranked second out of twenty-four. He should be able to bring his team many victories. In contrast, the rest of the SV core, consisting of Fragments and Elfuseon, were rated rather poorly. Fragments has some experience in SV ZU, having taken part in a few tournaments without achieving any notable results, while Elfuseon has no known experience of the tier. However, both players are regulars in team tournaments and should not be left underestimated thanks to Monai's support. The team's two most expensive players, Danny and Xrn, find themselves in highly competitive pools in which they are doing rather well, both in fourth place. The ORAS core led by gorex and aided by deg are only in fifth place despite their tier experience, which is understandable given their combined winrate of 3-10 during last ZUPL. In DPP, we find SOMALIA in seventh place, which suffers from making his debut in a competitive pool with players already well established. Finally, in SS, we find diegoyuhhi in the last position of the rankings, who although an amateur in the tier has no tournament performance in the tier other than a poor 0-3 winrate in ZU Olympiad. The Pupitars are an original team, made up mainly of experienced players yet to prove themselves in ZU and just waiting to prove the Power Rankings wrong.
6th - Shiiny Shiinotics
6th SV (12th, 7th, 22nd) - 1st SS - 3rd SM - 6th ORAS - 6th BW - 6th DPP
The Shiiny Shiinotics are in the second half of the Power Rankings, and are expected to be weaker than last year, when they were eliminated in the semi-finals by the tournament winners. However, the team led by OranBerryBlissey10 is not very different from last year's, and we find him in SS once again. He was ranked first in the pool, which is hardly surprising, having won ZU Major, reaching final of ZU Championships, and climbing to first place in the standings of 2022 circuit. MZ leads the way for former Shiinotics, having established a reputation as an excellent SM ZU player since last year, with a 10-2 winrate in the tier since last year, and finds himself unsurprisingly in third place in this pool. The other Shiinotics slots are all in sixth place in their respective rankings. Although tlenit, another former Shiinotic, and love chants are ranked in the top half of the SV pool, LustfulLice only slightly improves his position from last year, finding himself in penultimate place, putting the whole core in 6th place. In the older generations, 5Dots, MrSoup and JabbaTheGriffin are struggling to hold their own against more experienced players, even though all team members have a good knowledge of these metagames, including non-starting members such as skrimps, wooper and Huargensy. Finally, we note the presence of Splash on the bench, who despite his lack of ZU knowledge should carry love chants on Valorant. All in all, the Shiiny Shiinotics rely mainly on their retain and selfbuy, but their players purchased during auctions are mainly considered as underdogs.
5th - Dave's Dunsparces
2nd SV (6th, 3rd, 18th) - 7th SS - 8th SM - 7th ORAS - 2nd BW - 5th DPP
Fulfilling their vow to manage every team tour, Stone Cold and Leru make an appearance as managers even in ZUPL, looking to overcome their low rating by the ZU community with sheer talent and experience. Mana is arguably the most skilled pilot in the auction, with a knack for solving new and niche metagames, but the voterbase seems to be turned off by his lack of ZU experience. Despite this, the Daves have made him the lynchpin of their SV support alongside another excellent current gen builder in Lily. Rounding out SV is TKO, a name not many ZU players may know but is a solid pilot nonetheless with solid showings in the lower tiers. Their strategy remains consistent in the old generations as well, drafting big name players like shiloh, dex, and especially TDK. While great players in their own right, their lack of experience necessitates the proper support, DJ Breloominati, BigFatMantis, and yovan33321 will do a great job of providing, although they may be stretched thin across the multiple tiers that will need help teambuilding. yovan33321 especially stands out as the sole ZU main among the Dave’s, where he will be starting for them in SM, along with being the supporting player most familiar with ZU. Joya rounds out the team, providing an inexperienced yet dedicated and consistent player to fill out their ORAS for a cheap price. A team with lots of potential for sure, both in the starters and the subs, but many of their players will have to find their footing quickly in unfamiliar tiers.
4th - Fiery Flamencos
8th SV (14th, 20th, 15th) - 3rd SS - 1st SM - 2nd ORAS - 8th BW - 1st DPP
DurzaOffTopic's Fiery Flamencos are used to being at the top of the Power Rankings, and we're almost surprised to find them only in fourth place. They are the most successful team over the years, having won half the iterations of the tournament. Once again this year, DurzaOffTopic has spent lavishly to surround himself with those he considers the best, starting with Greybaum, his loyal sidekick, who has established himself as the best SM ZU player and was accordingly ranked first, despite the competition looking tougher than ever in the SM pool. The former tier leader and most expensive player in the auction, 5gen is back for another season with the Fiery Flamencos, reaching the honourable position of third in SS. However, we know that his price also includes his ability to help out in all the ZU old generations, especially ORAS, where former 7-1 Butterfrees champion Raichy should be as dominant as last year, given the Power Rankings placed him second. Finally, for the fifth year in a row, Heysup plays for the Fiery Flamencos and, as every year, is expected to dominate the DPP pool and bring valuable victories to the Fiery Flamencos. However, the Fiery Flamencos are ranked last in SV and BW, which account for half the slots in the tournament. In BW we find innovamania who has so far been disappointing in ZU team tournaments, 1-5 in ORAS in ZUPL and 1-4 in GSC in the ZU Olympiads, while this year's BW pool looks very cruel. The SV core is led by plznostep, who despite his seemingly boundless motivation has yet to show success in a tournament. It is completed by pannu, who is discreetly making a place for himself in ZU team tournaments but who remains unconvincing, and Sylvi, who has managed to make a place for themselves in lower tiers PL since their appearance in SPL powered by MichaelderBeste2. This core is further supported by Lizardu' and BaitWiz, who have a good SV ZU knowledge, maining it since the beginning of the generation. We also note that the team's players are used to working together, with Sylvi, Greybaum, pannu, and hayedenn currently together in the OMPL playoff. We wonder, however, what role Beraldinho plays in the team, as he seems to be the question mark of this draft, having shared a lack of motivation for prep and being absent from the lineup. The Flamencos draft seems riskier than in previous years, being perfectly balanced between accomplished players and rookies needing to prove themselves.
3rd - Mighty Mycelium Marauders
4th SV (5th, 20th, 13th) - 4th SS - 5th SM - 4th ORAS - 5th BW - 4th DPP
The Mighty Mycelium Marauders find themselves rated just below the top of the pack, but rather than lagging behind the Sakura and Grumpigs, they’re right on their heels. Corthius and Toto have drafted a nice spread of old and new generation talent, with a very strong emphasis on great pilots. Toto will be self buying for ORAS, rightfully confident in his play and prep after a convincing ZU Triathlon victory. For the all-important SV builder, the Marauders have drafted fish anemometer, a solid player with SV’s Kickoff tour under their belt, ensuring they also have a builder that has proven they can adapt to changing metas. His support will be vital to the success of Ciro Napoli and Sylveon used Calm Mind, two players with great showings in Smogon Grand Slam and OST that will need help easing into ZU for the first time. The Marauders were able to pick up their SV core for quite cheap, which allowed them to splurge on the rest of their starters and pick up a menacing lineup. After a solid practice run in Olympiad, btboy’s combination of solid piloting and great knowledge of BW, DPP, and SM will be an important factor in a Marauders victory. Finchinator needs no introduction and now has the experience in SM to turn his 5-4 record from last year into something truly impressive, while Lunala is another official tour staple whose experience from last ZUPL readies them to be a threat going into a new season. While both are excellent players, they lag somewhat behind in the rankings compared to some of the more established names, but it would be foolish to dismiss them. Rounding out the Marauders is Ninja, looking to repeat his success from last year in SS once again. While rated slightly lower than his SS peers, it goes to show the competitiveness of this slot that a player with such a solid showing as Ninja is rated only 4th. Definitely a team to give the top rated Sakura and Grumpigs a run for their money.
2nd - Flying Grumpigs
3rd SV (4th, 10th, 22nd) - 6th SS - 2nd SM - 1st ORAS - 1st BW - 8th DPP
The Flying Grumpigs stand at the second place in these Power Rankings, managed by two managers who reached playoffs last year and taking over a huge part of the Cursed Trevenants roster. We find no less than five veterans from the previous year, starting with their manager in a fruitshop owner who stands at the top of the ORAS rankings in this iteration without Ho3n and where Raichy is separated from TWiTT. TPP is not to be outdone, author of an incredible 8-1 performance last year and accompanied by BW ZU veterans like Mirbro and SBPC, he was quite naturally ranked best player in his pool. pokemonisfun and avarice are also two ZUPL veterans who always have incredible winrates, 13-4 and 11-3 respectively and both former ZUPL champions, and their consistency is reflected in their rankings at the top of their respective pools. ProDigeZz, who after his mid-tournament acquisition led his team to victory acquiring an excellent 5-0 win rate. These five players have a combined 29-4 winrate during ZUPL's previous iteration and it's hardly surprising to see their team ranked so high. However, their other players didn't convince as much the voters and find themselves at the bottom of the rankings of their respective pool. Despite very decent performances in previous ZUPLs, PrinceOfAllTacos is struggling to convince the general public of his level in ZU. However, JustFranco, who is coming off an excellent BLT in SV RU with a handsome 7-0 score, will certainly be able to pick up the slot if things go badly for POAT. TomatoZause, whose credibility has grown steadily since his fine debut at the ZU Olympiad earlier this year, and aided by AstilCodex, will have to assert himself in a pool of more experienced players. Finally, we discover SBPC in DPP, a player with average results in BW before the boom of the tier in early 2022 and former ZUPL manager who skipped last iteration. Many were surprised to see him in a brand new tier, in which he has no experience, even if he will be helped by LBN, and didn't hesitate to rank him at the very bottom of these PRs. All in all, the Flying Grumpigs have a very solid core of excellent veterans who should have their backs, while their three weakest slots will have to hang on to live up to their pool.
1st - Sacred Sakura
1st SV (1st, 9th, 16th) - 5th SS - 6th SM - 3rd ORAS - 3rd BW - 3rd DPP
Looking to redeem their disaster that was ZUPL IV, the Sakuras drafted a truly elite squad and are now poised to take over the season. The decision to selfbuy Tuthur was an obvious one, as he is the undisputed #1 SV player off the back of his ZU Open win and strong performance in ZULT. With a proven ability to adapt to and innovate on the constantly changing landscape of ZU, he will also be invaluable support to Bouff and Mashing, two excellent players that are only held back by their lack of experience in ZU. The Sakura spared no expense on the old generations either, spending top dollar for top talent in DPP, BW and ORAS. HSOWA is a household name of DPP lower tiers, having gotten in his ZU warm up sets in Olympiad, the voters agree that he is ready for a strong showing on the big stage. SuperEpicAmpharos is finally being given the chance he deserves in BW after having been shunted around in SS and SM last ZUPL. After some stellar performances in RoA Olympics and BWPL, expectations are high for his unique brand of Unfezant. Shaneghoul is another favorite for ORAS lower tiers, well regarded by both the managers for his high cost and by the playerbase for his solid #3 placement. These 3 great old generation players will anchor the Sakura’s only perceived flaw, being their middling SS and SM slots. However Luck O’ the Irish has already proven themselves quite solid in SS last ZUPL, and Beka has quite the respectable resume of an SM Cup finalist, so they can definitely defy their average rankings and rise above their pools. Overall, the Sacred Sakura have managed to secure both a well rounded team and high-expectation players, so it is no wonder they are a favorite to take home the victory.
Below you can find the details of the rankings.
Each team could submit a vote ranking every player but their teammate for every pool, moreover czim, who doesn't take part to this edition but has been one of the most consistent ZU player across multiple generations as shown by his first spot on the ZU Hall of Fame, was also allowed to vote. Each player was then ranked within their pool based on the average ranking received through votes (czim's votes were applied a 7/8 factor to account for the fact he ranked 8 teams instead of 7). Every team is then being given a score corresponding to the average rank of each of their slot at the exception of SV which due to having multiple slots is calculated slightly differently. The SV score is shared between the average of the 3 starters factored by 1/3 and the ranking of the SV core based on the average grade of the 3 starters; this SV core is then factored by 3 to match the number of slots. I would like to thank everyone who voted in no particular order, a fruitshop owner, Drud, HSOWA, Toto, DurzaOffTopic, OranBerryBlissey10, emma, czim, SOMALIA, SuperEpicAmpharos, Xrn, LpZ, btboy, TWiTT, Shaneghoul, gorex, Beka, yovan33321, Danny, Luck O' the Irish, clean, diegoyuhhi, Jett, Monai, and myself. Monai also co-wrote the following texts with me.
8th - To Pimp A Butterfree 7th SV (8th, 11th, 24th) - 2nd SS - 7th SM - 8th ORAS - 7th BW - 2nd DPP
A team once destined for greatness, To Pimp A Butterfree encountered some player legality issues and has since fallen to the wayside in the mind of the voters. Drud, Twitt, and clean, who was retained, went for a very top heavy draft, spending much of their money on experienced ZU mainstays like TheFranklin, Jett, and selfbuying clean. TheFranklin of course having consistently great records across the tiers he plays and having unique builds to boot, the Butterfrees seem to be willing to bank on his support to carry many of the newer slots as he is unable to play for several weeks. After clean’s breakout performance last ZUPL, he is a consensus pick for one of the strongest SS slots and a very strong retain, while Jett is a solid player who can anchor their SV. Drud has made the decision to self buy as well, giving their team another great slot that should at minimum go positive in a competitive DPP pool. With all these great players, why are the Butterfrees ranked at the bottom of the barrel? An important factor would be the drama that went down regarding S1nn0hC0nfirm3d’s signup and removal from the tournament, resulting in the loss of one of their best players. The second thing voters took issue with was the Butterfrees’ many unproven purchases. AtraX Madara, Thiago Nunes, tier, Lilo, siras, and LPZ are all players with respectable achievements in a variety of lower tiers. However, none of them are known to have experience in ZU at all, let alone ZUPL. So the vast majority of them found themselves at the bottom of the voting ratings. With low expectations and strong talent though, the Butterfrees can definitely defy expectations and put up a strong run.
7th - Proud Pupitars 4th SV (2nd, 17th, 19th) - 8th SS - 4th SM - 5th ORAS - 4th BW - 7th DPP
Colteor and Monai failed to convince the voters in their first appearance as managers, with their team, the Proud Pupitars, in seventh place. Only three of their players were ranked in the top half of their respective pools, starting with Monai who seems to dominate in SV, being ranked second out of twenty-four. He should be able to bring his team many victories. In contrast, the rest of the SV core, consisting of Fragments and Elfuseon, were rated rather poorly. Fragments has some experience in SV ZU, having taken part in a few tournaments without achieving any notable results, while Elfuseon has no known experience of the tier. However, both players are regulars in team tournaments and should not be left underestimated thanks to Monai's support. The team's two most expensive players, Danny and Xrn, find themselves in highly competitive pools in which they are doing rather well, both in fourth place. The ORAS core led by gorex and aided by deg are only in fifth place despite their tier experience, which is understandable given their combined winrate of 3-10 during last ZUPL. In DPP, we find SOMALIA in seventh place, which suffers from making his debut in a competitive pool with players already well established. Finally, in SS, we find diegoyuhhi in the last position of the rankings, who although an amateur in the tier has no tournament performance in the tier other than a poor 0-3 winrate in ZU Olympiad. The Pupitars are an original team, made up mainly of experienced players yet to prove themselves in ZU and just waiting to prove the Power Rankings wrong.
6th - Shiiny Shiinotics 6th SV (12th, 7th, 22nd) - 1st SS - 3rd SM - 6th ORAS - 6th BW - 6th DPP
The Shiiny Shiinotics are in the second half of the Power Rankings, and are expected to be weaker than last year, when they were eliminated in the semi-finals by the tournament winners. However, the team led by OranBerryBlissey10 is not very different from last year's, and we find him in SS once again. He was ranked first in the pool, which is hardly surprising, having won ZU Major, reaching final of ZU Championships, and climbing to first place in the standings of 2022 circuit. MZ leads the way for former Shiinotics, having established a reputation as an excellent SM ZU player since last year, with a 10-2 winrate in the tier since last year, and finds himself unsurprisingly in third place in this pool. The other Shiinotics slots are all in sixth place in their respective rankings. Although tlenit, another former Shiinotic, and love chants are ranked in the top half of the SV pool, LustfulLice only slightly improves his position from last year, finding himself in penultimate place, putting the whole core in 6th place. In the older generations, 5Dots, MrSoup and JabbaTheGriffin are struggling to hold their own against more experienced players, even though all team members have a good knowledge of these metagames, including non-starting members such as skrimps, wooper and Huargensy. Finally, we note the presence of Splash on the bench, who despite his lack of ZU knowledge should carry love chants on Valorant. All in all, the Shiiny Shiinotics rely mainly on their retain and selfbuy, but their players purchased during auctions are mainly considered as underdogs.
5th - Dave's Dunsparces 2nd SV (6th, 3rd, 18th) - 7th SS - 8th SM - 7th ORAS - 2nd BW - 5th DPP
Fulfilling their vow to manage every team tour, Stone Cold and Leru make an appearance as managers even in ZUPL, looking to overcome their low rating by the ZU community with sheer talent and experience. Mana is arguably the most skilled pilot in the auction, with a knack for solving new and niche metagames, but the voterbase seems to be turned off by his lack of ZU experience. Despite this, the Daves have made him the lynchpin of their SV support alongside another excellent current gen builder in Lily. Rounding out SV is TKO, a name not many ZU players may know but is a solid pilot nonetheless with solid showings in the lower tiers. Their strategy remains consistent in the old generations as well, drafting big name players like shiloh, dex, and especially TDK. While great players in their own right, their lack of experience necessitates the proper support, DJ Breloominati, BigFatMantis, and yovan33321 will do a great job of providing, although they may be stretched thin across the multiple tiers that will need help teambuilding. yovan33321 especially stands out as the sole ZU main among the Dave’s, where he will be starting for them in SM, along with being the supporting player most familiar with ZU. Joya rounds out the team, providing an inexperienced yet dedicated and consistent player to fill out their ORAS for a cheap price. A team with lots of potential for sure, both in the starters and the subs, but many of their players will have to find their footing quickly in unfamiliar tiers.
4th - Fiery Flamencos 8th SV (14th, 20th, 15th) - 3rd SS - 1st SM - 2nd ORAS - 8th BW - 1st DPP
DurzaOffTopic's Fiery Flamencos are used to being at the top of the Power Rankings, and we're almost surprised to find them only in fourth place. They are the most successful team over the years, having won half the iterations of the tournament. Once again this year, DurzaOffTopic has spent lavishly to surround himself with those he considers the best, starting with Greybaum, his loyal sidekick, who has established himself as the best SM ZU player and was accordingly ranked first, despite the competition looking tougher than ever in the SM pool. The former tier leader and most expensive player in the auction, 5gen is back for another season with the Fiery Flamencos, reaching the honourable position of third in SS. However, we know that his price also includes his ability to help out in all the ZU old generations, especially ORAS, where former 7-1 Butterfrees champion Raichy should be as dominant as last year, given the Power Rankings placed him second. Finally, for the fifth year in a row, Heysup plays for the Fiery Flamencos and, as every year, is expected to dominate the DPP pool and bring valuable victories to the Fiery Flamencos. However, the Fiery Flamencos are ranked last in SV and BW, which account for half the slots in the tournament. In BW we find innovamania who has so far been disappointing in ZU team tournaments, 1-5 in ORAS in ZUPL and 1-4 in GSC in the ZU Olympiads, while this year's BW pool looks very cruel. The SV core is led by plznostep, who despite his seemingly boundless motivation has yet to show success in a tournament. It is completed by pannu, who is discreetly making a place for himself in ZU team tournaments but who remains unconvincing, and Sylvi, who has managed to make a place for themselves in lower tiers PL since their appearance in SPL powered by MichaelderBeste2. This core is further supported by Lizardu' and BaitWiz, who have a good SV ZU knowledge, maining it since the beginning of the generation. We also note that the team's players are used to working together, with Sylvi, Greybaum, pannu, and hayedenn currently together in the OMPL playoff. We wonder, however, what role Beraldinho plays in the team, as he seems to be the question mark of this draft, having shared a lack of motivation for prep and being absent from the lineup. The Flamencos draft seems riskier than in previous years, being perfectly balanced between accomplished players and rookies needing to prove themselves.
3rd - Mighty Mycelium Marauders 4th SV (5th, 20th, 13th) - 4th SS - 5th SM - 4th ORAS - 5th BW - 4th DPP
The Mighty Mycelium Marauders find themselves rated just below the top of the pack, but rather than lagging behind the Sakura and Grumpigs, they’re right on their heels. Corthius and Toto have drafted a nice spread of old and new generation talent, with a very strong emphasis on great pilots. Toto will be self buying for ORAS, rightfully confident in his play and prep after a convincing ZU Triathlon victory. For the all-important SV builder, the Marauders have drafted fish anemometer, a solid player with SV’s Kickoff tour under their belt, ensuring they also have a builder that has proven they can adapt to changing metas. His support will be vital to the success of Ciro Napoli and Sylveon used Calm Mind, two players with great showings in Smogon Grand Slam and OST that will need help easing into ZU for the first time. The Marauders were able to pick up their SV core for quite cheap, which allowed them to splurge on the rest of their starters and pick up a menacing lineup. After a solid practice run in Olympiad, btboy’s combination of solid piloting and great knowledge of BW, DPP, and SM will be an important factor in a Marauders victory. Finchinator needs no introduction and now has the experience in SM to turn his 5-4 record from last year into something truly impressive, while Lunala is another official tour staple whose experience from last ZUPL readies them to be a threat going into a new season. While both are excellent players, they lag somewhat behind in the rankings compared to some of the more established names, but it would be foolish to dismiss them. Rounding out the Marauders is Ninja, looking to repeat his success from last year in SS once again. While rated slightly lower than his SS peers, it goes to show the competitiveness of this slot that a player with such a solid showing as Ninja is rated only 4th. Definitely a team to give the top rated Sakura and Grumpigs a run for their money.
2nd - Flying Grumpigs 3rd SV (4th, 10th, 22nd) - 6th SS - 2nd SM - 1st ORAS - 1st BW - 8th DPP
The Flying Grumpigs stand at the second place in these Power Rankings, managed by two managers who reached playoffs last year and taking over a huge part of the Cursed Trevenants roster. We find no less than five veterans from the previous year, starting with their manager in a fruitshop owner who stands at the top of the ORAS rankings in this iteration without Ho3n and where Raichy is separated from TWiTT. TPP is not to be outdone, author of an incredible 8-1 performance last year and accompanied by BW ZU veterans like Mirbro and SBPC, he was quite naturally ranked best player in his pool. pokemonisfun and avarice are also two ZUPL veterans who always have incredible winrates, 13-4 and 11-3 respectively and both former ZUPL champions, and their consistency is reflected in their rankings at the top of their respective pools. ProDigeZz, who after his mid-tournament acquisition led his team to victory acquiring an excellent 5-0 win rate. These five players have a combined 29-4 winrate during ZUPL's previous iteration and it's hardly surprising to see their team ranked so high. However, their other players didn't convince as much the voters and find themselves at the bottom of the rankings of their respective pool. Despite very decent performances in previous ZUPLs, PrinceOfAllTacos is struggling to convince the general public of his level in ZU. However, JustFranco, who is coming off an excellent BLT in SV RU with a handsome 7-0 score, will certainly be able to pick up the slot if things go badly for POAT. TomatoZause, whose credibility has grown steadily since his fine debut at the ZU Olympiad earlier this year, and aided by AstilCodex, will have to assert himself in a pool of more experienced players. Finally, we discover SBPC in DPP, a player with average results in BW before the boom of the tier in early 2022 and former ZUPL manager who skipped last iteration. Many were surprised to see him in a brand new tier, in which he has no experience, even if he will be helped by LBN, and didn't hesitate to rank him at the very bottom of these PRs. All in all, the Flying Grumpigs have a very solid core of excellent veterans who should have their backs, while their three weakest slots will have to hang on to live up to their pool.
1st - Sacred Sakura 1st SV (1st, 9th, 16th) - 5th SS - 6th SM - 3rd ORAS - 3rd BW - 3rd DPP
Looking to redeem their disaster that was ZUPL IV, the Sakuras drafted a truly elite squad and are now poised to take over the season. The decision to selfbuy Tuthur was an obvious one, as he is the undisputed #1 SV player off the back of his ZU Open win and strong performance in ZULT. With a proven ability to adapt to and innovate on the constantly changing landscape of ZU, he will also be invaluable support to Bouff and Mashing, two excellent players that are only held back by their lack of experience in ZU. The Sakura spared no expense on the old generations either, spending top dollar for top talent in DPP, BW and ORAS. HSOWA is a household name of DPP lower tiers, having gotten in his ZU warm up sets in Olympiad, the voters agree that he is ready for a strong showing on the big stage. SuperEpicAmpharos is finally being given the chance he deserves in BW after having been shunted around in SS and SM last ZUPL. After some stellar performances in RoA Olympics and BWPL, expectations are high for his unique brand of Unfezant. Shaneghoul is another favorite for ORAS lower tiers, well regarded by both the managers for his high cost and by the playerbase for his solid #3 placement. These 3 great old generation players will anchor the Sakura’s only perceived flaw, being their middling SS and SM slots. However Luck O’ the Irish has already proven themselves quite solid in SS last ZUPL, and Beka has quite the respectable resume of an SM Cup finalist, so they can definitely defy their average rankings and rise above their pools. Overall, the Sacred Sakura have managed to secure both a well rounded team and high-expectation players, so it is no wonder they are a favorite to take home the victory.
Below you can find the details of the rankings.
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Well, it sucks to end just a hair away from playoffs. I truly believed in the team that we built and I have to give massive appreciation to my team as a whole for being there for me and vice versa; their spirit was amazing to be around and I wish every last one of them the best. This season really wouldn't have been anywhere near as good of a time as it was without them. Sorry about the long ass post coming ahead, but I needed to include a bunch of...
Shoutouts!
DurzaOffTopic - The man who started it all. We may have gone through some rough patches early in the season, but ultimately you've been an absolute pleasure to work with and I can't thank you enough for just how much you've taught me. I can only hope to continue to grow, and I'm lucky to consider you as not only a teammate, but a friend as well. You've made me feel seen in a way that few people can and I don't think any words could really fully cover the appreciation I have for you as an individual.
Greybaum - You're genuinely a great guy and it was awesome getting to know you and occasionally working alongside you in SM. Thank you for putting up with my flawed knowledge of SM (lmao) at the beginning of the season; getting an insight into how you see the game was truly wonderful.
5gen - Another amazing individual, your activity in ORAS and SS and your willingness to even step out of your comfort zone into SV was invaluable and I loved being able to work with you for a regular season instead of just during playoffs; it's a shame we don't get to work together for playoffs again. Genuinely amazing guy.
plznostep - The heart of the team by far. You have so much potential both as a builder and player, and it sucks that we weren't able to see enough of it in practice. You're also such a wonderful human being, super positive and uplifting, and your optimism is contagious. I truly believe that if you can find some confidence in your gameplay and keep improving, you could be one of the greatest players in the entire tier. I believe in you, keep doing what you do best.
Lizardu'' - The hero we needed most, you came in and gave us some direction in our SV slots when we were lost and gave us renewed enthusiasm towards the tournament as a whole. It's a shame our timezones weren't very friendly, so I didn't get the chance to work with you much outside of weekends, but your input across our SV was ridiculously helpful in improving our teams as a whole and I don't regret petitioning for your pickup at all - by far the biggest steal of the draft.
innovamania - The inno comeback tour happened. You're such an awesome guy and I'm so glad we were able to get you; you dominated B/W almost every week and secured us ties on key weeks that seemed hopeless, keeping us in the tournament as much as possible, and I'm certain that if this week had gone better and we loaded a real team instead of dinos you would've clutched up; even with dinos you got damn close, lol. I wish nothing but the best for you in the future and I hope we get to work together again in the future - it's been an honor having you as part of the team.
Heysup - I know we didn't talk a ton but I appreciated talking with you the couple times I did; keep absolutely obliterating DPP you king.
Raichy - Even if games didn't go your way you still remained positive and active, helping out as much as possible. It was great getting to work with you again, and I hope we can end up doing so again at some point.
Beraldo - Thank you for being there for us in the latter half of the tour when we needed you; it was awesome having you around again. Keep doing what you do best ^^
Sylvi - Genuinely positive team presence, and your effort was great throughout the tournament. I appreciated having you around and I hope you continue to do well, whether you stay within ZU or return to focusing on other tiers.
pannu - Absolute goober, keep being your toxic ass self. Would've been nice having you around more for building, but you still played solidly when you were in (rip the crit week 1).
hayedenn - My brother in Christ, please set hazards. Your passion throughout the season was invaluable though and you were a great presence to have on the team, even if there was room for improvement in your in-game performance.
Monai a fruitshop owner Jett OranBerryBlissey10 - Thank you all for being resources to help test at various points throughout ZUPL, it was wonderful to get new ideas and perspectives on SV and the help in my quest to to improve overall as a player and builder was greatly appreciated.
I can't help but wonder how things might've gone if even a couple games went differently or a couple of out-of-game things didn't happen, but that's how things go sometimes - it never feels good to not make playoffs. Regardless, I love all of you Flamencos to death; it was an honor leading you and I hope I get to work with at least some of you again in the future!
P.S. Bait metagame post coming soon to a VR thread near you.
Shoutouts!
DurzaOffTopic - The man who started it all. We may have gone through some rough patches early in the season, but ultimately you've been an absolute pleasure to work with and I can't thank you enough for just how much you've taught me. I can only hope to continue to grow, and I'm lucky to consider you as not only a teammate, but a friend as well. You've made me feel seen in a way that few people can and I don't think any words could really fully cover the appreciation I have for you as an individual.
Greybaum - You're genuinely a great guy and it was awesome getting to know you and occasionally working alongside you in SM. Thank you for putting up with my flawed knowledge of SM (lmao) at the beginning of the season; getting an insight into how you see the game was truly wonderful.
5gen - Another amazing individual, your activity in ORAS and SS and your willingness to even step out of your comfort zone into SV was invaluable and I loved being able to work with you for a regular season instead of just during playoffs; it's a shame we don't get to work together for playoffs again. Genuinely amazing guy.
plznostep - The heart of the team by far. You have so much potential both as a builder and player, and it sucks that we weren't able to see enough of it in practice. You're also such a wonderful human being, super positive and uplifting, and your optimism is contagious. I truly believe that if you can find some confidence in your gameplay and keep improving, you could be one of the greatest players in the entire tier. I believe in you, keep doing what you do best.
Lizardu'' - The hero we needed most, you came in and gave us some direction in our SV slots when we were lost and gave us renewed enthusiasm towards the tournament as a whole. It's a shame our timezones weren't very friendly, so I didn't get the chance to work with you much outside of weekends, but your input across our SV was ridiculously helpful in improving our teams as a whole and I don't regret petitioning for your pickup at all - by far the biggest steal of the draft.
innovamania - The inno comeback tour happened. You're such an awesome guy and I'm so glad we were able to get you; you dominated B/W almost every week and secured us ties on key weeks that seemed hopeless, keeping us in the tournament as much as possible, and I'm certain that if this week had gone better and we loaded a real team instead of dinos you would've clutched up; even with dinos you got damn close, lol. I wish nothing but the best for you in the future and I hope we get to work together again in the future - it's been an honor having you as part of the team.
Heysup - I know we didn't talk a ton but I appreciated talking with you the couple times I did; keep absolutely obliterating DPP you king.
Raichy - Even if games didn't go your way you still remained positive and active, helping out as much as possible. It was great getting to work with you again, and I hope we can end up doing so again at some point.
Beraldo - Thank you for being there for us in the latter half of the tour when we needed you; it was awesome having you around again. Keep doing what you do best ^^
Sylvi - Genuinely positive team presence, and your effort was great throughout the tournament. I appreciated having you around and I hope you continue to do well, whether you stay within ZU or return to focusing on other tiers.
pannu - Absolute goober, keep being your toxic ass self. Would've been nice having you around more for building, but you still played solidly when you were in (rip the crit week 1).
hayedenn - My brother in Christ, please set hazards. Your passion throughout the season was invaluable though and you were a great presence to have on the team, even if there was room for improvement in your in-game performance.
Monai a fruitshop owner Jett OranBerryBlissey10 - Thank you all for being resources to help test at various points throughout ZUPL, it was wonderful to get new ideas and perspectives on SV and the help in my quest to to improve overall as a player and builder was greatly appreciated.
I can't help but wonder how things might've gone if even a couple games went differently or a couple of out-of-game things didn't happen, but that's how things go sometimes - it never feels good to not make playoffs. Regardless, I love all of you Flamencos to death; it was an honor leading you and I hope I get to work with at least some of you again in the future!
P.S. Bait metagame post coming soon to a VR thread near you.
I have got very mixed feeling about this ZUPL season. Making playoffs really is an achievement, after setting a record for the worst season in ZUPL last year and starting the draft without retains. However, I cannot hide that I am still disappointed about the ending. Losing 0-5 in semis, with every game being somewhat close where we lacked slightly better team choices and play, is really hard to accept after all the efforts and time put in the tournament. My only regret about this draft was selfbuying; I am very happy what every team member brought to the table but myself. I've been very vocal about how selfbuys are very high risk in these team tournaments, the price is high and you got one less player in your teamchat. Beka and I were confident in my ability to perform in SV ZU after my two consecutive individual wins, but this was eventually a mistake that I won't make again. I had never gone negative in a ZUPL, I've struggled to adapt post August tier shifts, and played some games very poorly as shown by inability to click super effective moves against a Pupitar yesterday. I am not sure Sakura will return next year, as I am unsure I will find enough availability to commit to managing again without summer break, as I am now done with university. On a more positive note, let's start shoutouts.
Beka Than you for accepting to manage with me once again. Olympiad had been a blast and I couldn't imagine managing with someone else. You did very well in the competitive SM pool, and I think you can be proud of you for this season.
BeTheShadow I am very glad we got you. You really got very invested for this tournament despite staying on the bench for most of the season, learned the SV ZU metagame and taught it to our starters. I cannot undersell how useful you've been throughout the season and how underpriced you actually went. Your record isn't representative at all of your level as a player and as a builder, and we would never have made that far in the tournament without your help building and playing test games with all our starters.
Bouff I only slightly knew you from facing you twice in NUPL and you gave me the impression of someone who would care about their games. This was a very big deal for me, as ZUPL IV had taught me it is very challenging to get people to care if things don't go our way for a bit. I am very glad you ended up living up to my expectations, making a point of honor to take part to the teambuilding process, play test games, and understand how to use them. Your help in BW was also very valuable and I'm happy you did your best to be useful everywhere you could. Good luck in SCL.
SuperEpicAmpharos It was really amazing to know we could rely on you for solid showings every week in BW. You put an insane amount of time in this tournament and your slot, and the results followed. You are truelly an amazing Pokemon player and your deep understanding of BW ZU is just astonishing and deserves respect. It is truelly criminal that you had to stay in SoulWind's shadow last year and you were probably the most deserving us for this ZUPL trophy. Good luck with CI.
JJ09LIE I didn't know much about you prior to the tournament; you just had won OU Stour against W3K and Herv, and earned Michi's respect as a random battle player. I asked you to signup, because I really wanted to see how you'd perform in this new setting and trusted your abilities to pick up metagames. You didn't deceive me at all, playing some very solid games and putting time and effort learning the metagame and your team every week. I think you are a very promissing player and just need to learn more about how to build and prep in a tournament, as you already have excellent battling skills. Don't let these last ZUPL weeks and OLT swiss rounds discourage you, I trust you and I know you can achieve great things in this game.
HSOWA I am very sorry we left you alone in this slot and your record didn't live up to your expectations and capacities. DPP's pool has became very top heavy for the past year with Lunala and Drud picking up the tier, while Heysup's supremacy had seemed to take a end with his records getting worse every tournament. There wasn't anyone Beka and I trusted more to fulfill this role, we were very glad to have you in Olympiad and we just had teamed in NUPL together where we both got incredible records. If I manage ZUPL next year, I'll be sure to learn a bit DPP and not have another DPP ZU player left alone like you. You deserved better than that, and I hope you will get it next times you compete in ZU team tournaments.
Luck O' the Irish I have no idea why other managers valued you so low at SS, when you've always had some of the best SS records for the past two year. You played extremely well, which is always a blast for SS ZU enjoyers like me. Entering this ZUPL, I had planned to play SS, unless we got someone good for cheap, and I don't think I could have done better than what you did. You've a good understanding of the tier and of the generation's mechanics, and I hope to see you play SS ZU again in the future.
Shaneghoul You got quite busy with PUPL management and still managed to carry us in the ORAS slot. Akin to HSOWA, Beka and I entered the draft with making you a top priority as we trusted noone more than you for mastering ORAS ZU. Good luck in PUPL, nobody wants to see Drud win both ZUPL and PUPL.
Mashing You were unhappy with your record, but I am really glad we got you. Your teamchat activity, encouragements, and cheer ups meant a lot to me. You took your role seriously when you started, and we were truelly worried when we lost you for two weeks to this nonsensical ban.
Thank you to all our helpers,
Xrn You didn't hesitate long to join us and support SEA. You joined us very early and cared about Sakuras just like you were truelly one of us.
Danny You joined us in the lattest weeks and it is always great to have your opinion on modern ZU generations to bounce back ideas.
TomatoZause :zause: I wish we could have you like in Olympiad, but you ended up exceeding our predicted budget. Nonetheless you joined us during playoff and started helping everywhere you could, just like in Olympiad. You still have a lot to learn as a player, but you are truelly one of the best teammates one could dream to have in a ZU team tournament.
Sirwings
Beka Than you for accepting to manage with me once again. Olympiad had been a blast and I couldn't imagine managing with someone else. You did very well in the competitive SM pool, and I think you can be proud of you for this season.
BeTheShadow I am very glad we got you. You really got very invested for this tournament despite staying on the bench for most of the season, learned the SV ZU metagame and taught it to our starters. I cannot undersell how useful you've been throughout the season and how underpriced you actually went. Your record isn't representative at all of your level as a player and as a builder, and we would never have made that far in the tournament without your help building and playing test games with all our starters.
Bouff I only slightly knew you from facing you twice in NUPL and you gave me the impression of someone who would care about their games. This was a very big deal for me, as ZUPL IV had taught me it is very challenging to get people to care if things don't go our way for a bit. I am very glad you ended up living up to my expectations, making a point of honor to take part to the teambuilding process, play test games, and understand how to use them. Your help in BW was also very valuable and I'm happy you did your best to be useful everywhere you could. Good luck in SCL.
SuperEpicAmpharos It was really amazing to know we could rely on you for solid showings every week in BW. You put an insane amount of time in this tournament and your slot, and the results followed. You are truelly an amazing Pokemon player and your deep understanding of BW ZU is just astonishing and deserves respect. It is truelly criminal that you had to stay in SoulWind's shadow last year and you were probably the most deserving us for this ZUPL trophy. Good luck with CI.
JJ09LIE I didn't know much about you prior to the tournament; you just had won OU Stour against W3K and Herv, and earned Michi's respect as a random battle player. I asked you to signup, because I really wanted to see how you'd perform in this new setting and trusted your abilities to pick up metagames. You didn't deceive me at all, playing some very solid games and putting time and effort learning the metagame and your team every week. I think you are a very promissing player and just need to learn more about how to build and prep in a tournament, as you already have excellent battling skills. Don't let these last ZUPL weeks and OLT swiss rounds discourage you, I trust you and I know you can achieve great things in this game.
HSOWA I am very sorry we left you alone in this slot and your record didn't live up to your expectations and capacities. DPP's pool has became very top heavy for the past year with Lunala and Drud picking up the tier, while Heysup's supremacy had seemed to take a end with his records getting worse every tournament. There wasn't anyone Beka and I trusted more to fulfill this role, we were very glad to have you in Olympiad and we just had teamed in NUPL together where we both got incredible records. If I manage ZUPL next year, I'll be sure to learn a bit DPP and not have another DPP ZU player left alone like you. You deserved better than that, and I hope you will get it next times you compete in ZU team tournaments.
Luck O' the Irish I have no idea why other managers valued you so low at SS, when you've always had some of the best SS records for the past two year. You played extremely well, which is always a blast for SS ZU enjoyers like me. Entering this ZUPL, I had planned to play SS, unless we got someone good for cheap, and I don't think I could have done better than what you did. You've a good understanding of the tier and of the generation's mechanics, and I hope to see you play SS ZU again in the future.
Shaneghoul You got quite busy with PUPL management and still managed to carry us in the ORAS slot. Akin to HSOWA, Beka and I entered the draft with making you a top priority as we trusted noone more than you for mastering ORAS ZU. Good luck in PUPL, nobody wants to see Drud win both ZUPL and PUPL.
Mashing You were unhappy with your record, but I am really glad we got you. Your teamchat activity, encouragements, and cheer ups meant a lot to me. You took your role seriously when you started, and we were truelly worried when we lost you for two weeks to this nonsensical ban.
Thank you to all our helpers,
Xrn You didn't hesitate long to join us and support SEA. You joined us very early and cared about Sakuras just like you were truelly one of us.
Danny You joined us in the lattest weeks and it is always great to have your opinion on modern ZU generations to bounce back ideas.
TomatoZause :zause: I wish we could have you like in Olympiad, but you ended up exceeding our predicted budget. Nonetheless you joined us during playoff and started helping everywhere you could, just like in Olympiad. You still have a lot to learn as a player, but you are truelly one of the best teammates one could dream to have in a ZU team tournament.
Sirwings
Yo, we won again. After what has felt like half a year (moreso 4 months) this tour is finally over. It's been a ride for sure. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't always enjoyable. Having to play this game for this many weeks, with people's life getting busier and busier the longer the tour was going was something I had not anticipated when signing up. To actually get to close it out with a win in the end, after all the effort we put it, does feel very rewarding though.
After last year I was not sure how to go about this tour. I tend to like playing with new people to get to know new faces. I was not sure how my summer would be though, having recently graduated and starting a new job averaging up to 60 hours a week. I therefore reached out to Drud asking to run it back. By doing this, with the retains we had as well I knew I'd be able to team with some of the people I work the best with and that I trust the most. In addition to having the most fun.
Draftplanning was incredibly enjoyable, as always. We didn't agree on everything and I was often in a minority on some people I wanted to pick up but we ended up with a plan we were all satisfied with. It was also very satisfying to see the draft plan out almost exactly as we had planned with us securing pretty much every priority pick we had set out to get. Despite losing Ho3n pre week one we still had a strong team in my opinion and I went into the tour with a lot of confidence. We got ranked last on power rankings which I felt was kind of a joke but it didn't affect us negatively. Was moreso something that inspired our guys and became a inside joke in our server as the tour went on.
Onto individual shoutouts. I just want to let you all know, which I have told you countless times in our server that I am so glad that we got every single one of you on our team. I hope you all had as good of a time as I did.
Finishing a way too long post off I also want to thank Merritt for coming in and hosting this tour once things went south. You were incredibly easy to work with and made the life of all managers in this tour a whole lot easier. Hoping to interact more with you in the future. I also want to thank all the other managers and players for a long but fun tour. This tour really feels like the highlight of the year for ZU and that's all because people put so much time into it. Let's keep that up for future editions.
Love ya'll. Go Frees!
After last year I was not sure how to go about this tour. I tend to like playing with new people to get to know new faces. I was not sure how my summer would be though, having recently graduated and starting a new job averaging up to 60 hours a week. I therefore reached out to Drud asking to run it back. By doing this, with the retains we had as well I knew I'd be able to team with some of the people I work the best with and that I trust the most. In addition to having the most fun.
Draftplanning was incredibly enjoyable, as always. We didn't agree on everything and I was often in a minority on some people I wanted to pick up but we ended up with a plan we were all satisfied with. It was also very satisfying to see the draft plan out almost exactly as we had planned with us securing pretty much every priority pick we had set out to get. Despite losing Ho3n pre week one we still had a strong team in my opinion and I went into the tour with a lot of confidence. We got ranked last on power rankings which I felt was kind of a joke but it didn't affect us negatively. Was moreso something that inspired our guys and became a inside joke in our server as the tour went on.
Onto individual shoutouts. I just want to let you all know, which I have told you countless times in our server that I am so glad that we got every single one of you on our team. I hope you all had as good of a time as I did.
Drud
I don't know what to say here that I've not already told you. Managing with you is so easy. We work super well together and we can trust eachother with everything that managing is about. You've quickly became one of my best friends on this website and I obviously hope to keep doing these things with you. I was also glad I could talk you into playing this year despite managing two tours at the same time (I'm sorry for not putting equal amount of time into PUPL). I knew you, I and BeatsBlack had the potential of topping a very top heavy DPP pool with your incredible understanding of generation 4 and we sure as hell did. Love ya friend. Let's do this again sometime.
I don't know what to say here that I've not already told you. Managing with you is so easy. We work super well together and we can trust eachother with everything that managing is about. You've quickly became one of my best friends on this website and I obviously hope to keep doing these things with you. I was also glad I could talk you into playing this year despite managing two tours at the same time (I'm sorry for not putting equal amount of time into PUPL). I knew you, I and BeatsBlack had the potential of topping a very top heavy DPP pool with your incredible understanding of generation 4 and we sure as hell did. Love ya friend. Let's do this again sometime.
Jett
One of the reasons why I really wanted to run this tour back with the Frees was to have your retain. Like with Drud I know how well we work together. Some people might say the retain was too much but for everything that you contribute to the team, not only during the tour but also the prepwork before the tour it wasn't something Drud and I hesitated on. In game you really clutched it for us during playoffs after a slow start early on. You worked super hard to learn how to use the squads I dropped you in ORAS and it really showed in your games. I didn't know until Olympiad just how much I value having you on my team for these things friend.
One of the reasons why I really wanted to run this tour back with the Frees was to have your retain. Like with Drud I know how well we work together. Some people might say the retain was too much but for everything that you contribute to the team, not only during the tour but also the prepwork before the tour it wasn't something Drud and I hesitated on. In game you really clutched it for us during playoffs after a slow start early on. You worked super hard to learn how to use the squads I dropped you in ORAS and it really showed in your games. I didn't know until Olympiad just how much I value having you on my team for these things friend.
clean
Easiest retain of our life. Same as the guys above. Knowing I could go into this tour with the three of you was what really motivated me. You're such a fun person to be around and even if we only team for this one tour each year I still feel like we've grown really close. Outside of obviously being the person I rate the highest in SS ZU right now you're experience from playing in pretty much every tour on this website was invaluable when planning out the draft. Slotting you into finals tiebreak was something I was extremely confident in and watching you clutch the final game for two years in a row has been quite incredible not going to lie!
Easiest retain of our life. Same as the guys above. Knowing I could go into this tour with the three of you was what really motivated me. You're such a fun person to be around and even if we only team for this one tour each year I still feel like we've grown really close. Outside of obviously being the person I rate the highest in SS ZU right now you're experience from playing in pretty much every tour on this website was invaluable when planning out the draft. Slotting you into finals tiebreak was something I was extremely confident in and watching you clutch the final game for two years in a row has been quite incredible not going to lie!
TheFranklin
As soon as Toto declared he was not going to retain you I knew what direction our draft was going to go. You're a great friend of mine and building and playing with you these last few years has been a blast. I knew, despite you missing a few weeks early season, that you would be the star player any team needs come playoffs. After you using my teams for your ZU open run I also knew that our build styles work well together and would work out in the end. Come playoffs you really carried us hard with both team ideas, builds and team edits while also clutching it twice for us in tiebreaks. You really are one of the best players on this website.
As soon as Toto declared he was not going to retain you I knew what direction our draft was going to go. You're a great friend of mine and building and playing with you these last few years has been a blast. I knew, despite you missing a few weeks early season, that you would be the star player any team needs come playoffs. After you using my teams for your ZU open run I also knew that our build styles work well together and would work out in the end. Come playoffs you really carried us hard with both team ideas, builds and team edits while also clutching it twice for us in tiebreaks. You really are one of the best players on this website.
Thiago Nunes
Going into this tour we discussed a fair bit on how we wanted to build our team. I wanted to build a team with synergy in mind as for long tours I feel like getting people that get along well tends to help with fatigue. Especially after last year where our team had barely 20k lines after a full season and most chats being completely dead. When we saw your signup we knew you were the type of player we would want to build the team around. I reached out to you and you seemed like the nicest guy ever, and also sounded very motivated so the strategy was settled. We were going Brazilian. I also knew you teamed with Franklin in RUPL to win it all which even further made me like this direction. It was a blast to have you around this year. You are such a nice person to chat with and your ingame when you put your time into it is absolutely incredible. Having a slot that was super motivated, especially early tour, to build for yourself was invaluable and later on as I got more time you quickly picked up my squads and piloted them super well. I would never hesitate to draft you again, you're great!
Going into this tour we discussed a fair bit on how we wanted to build our team. I wanted to build a team with synergy in mind as for long tours I feel like getting people that get along well tends to help with fatigue. Especially after last year where our team had barely 20k lines after a full season and most chats being completely dead. When we saw your signup we knew you were the type of player we would want to build the team around. I reached out to you and you seemed like the nicest guy ever, and also sounded very motivated so the strategy was settled. We were going Brazilian. I also knew you teamed with Franklin in RUPL to win it all which even further made me like this direction. It was a blast to have you around this year. You are such a nice person to chat with and your ingame when you put your time into it is absolutely incredible. Having a slot that was super motivated, especially early tour, to build for yourself was invaluable and later on as I got more time you quickly picked up my squads and piloted them super well. I would never hesitate to draft you again, you're great!
siras
I had never interacted with you prior to this tour but Thiago told me to pick you up and oh my am I glad he did. Your chat presence was incredible and you are one of the sweetest people I have interacted with on this site. You also put in a lot of work prepwise the weeks you were slotted, building your own teams, testing them, asking for feedback and test them even more. A score of 1-2 with the two losses being due to game deciding hax might have put you off but you kept up the positive energy throughout the season and I'm super grateful for that. Had we not wanted to give everyone playtime you definitely would have gotten to play more. I really wish that I get to team with you again in the future <3.
I had never interacted with you prior to this tour but Thiago told me to pick you up and oh my am I glad he did. Your chat presence was incredible and you are one of the sweetest people I have interacted with on this site. You also put in a lot of work prepwise the weeks you were slotted, building your own teams, testing them, asking for feedback and test them even more. A score of 1-2 with the two losses being due to game deciding hax might have put you off but you kept up the positive energy throughout the season and I'm super grateful for that. Had we not wanted to give everyone playtime you definitely would have gotten to play more. I really wish that I get to team with you again in the future <3.
LpZ
Thank you for reaching out to me pre tour. I had not teamed with your prior to this and PUPL but I knew you were very much in touch with the BW metagame and everyone else on our team vouched for you as well. The BW pool tends to be the most competitive in this tour and this year was no exception. I'm super impressed that despite the tough opposition you showed up big and became one of our carries. Your prep was on point (usually held back by my stupid ideas not going to lie) and your ingame mostly the same. Being ranked 7 on PRs into being the best BW in the tour sure is a feat my friend. I hope you keep signing up for these tours in the future too!
Thank you for reaching out to me pre tour. I had not teamed with your prior to this and PUPL but I knew you were very much in touch with the BW metagame and everyone else on our team vouched for you as well. The BW pool tends to be the most competitive in this tour and this year was no exception. I'm super impressed that despite the tough opposition you showed up big and became one of our carries. Your prep was on point (usually held back by my stupid ideas not going to lie) and your ingame mostly the same. Being ranked 7 on PRs into being the best BW in the tour sure is a feat my friend. I hope you keep signing up for these tours in the future too!
DugZa
Looking at the SM pool I think everyone on our team wanted to pick you up. We all value you incredibly high as a pilot and the few times I had seen you around you seemed like a super nice guy. I also knew you had played some SM ZU in the past so when we could have you for a mere 10.5k in the auction I knew we were set. Only issue was builds since you asked for support and I don't really build SM. I stole a bunch of teams from everywhere and gave them to you and we were set. You also started to build some for yourself for a few weeks and in the end ended up with the best record on the team with the tied best SM record in the tour. Something we really hadn't anticipated going into this tour. Really a carry of the team <3.
Looking at the SM pool I think everyone on our team wanted to pick you up. We all value you incredibly high as a pilot and the few times I had seen you around you seemed like a super nice guy. I also knew you had played some SM ZU in the past so when we could have you for a mere 10.5k in the auction I knew we were set. Only issue was builds since you asked for support and I don't really build SM. I stole a bunch of teams from everywhere and gave them to you and we were set. You also started to build some for yourself for a few weeks and in the end ended up with the best record on the team with the tied best SM record in the tour. Something we really hadn't anticipated going into this tour. Really a carry of the team <3.
Lilo
Lilo! I had never interacted with you prior to this tour but I knew from NU that you had a good grasp of the SV generation. You also told me you would be motivated to build in the tier so snatching you up was a given. Since you didn't want to start you were kept on the bench until later parts of the tour where you got slotted and started killing it. During the later parts of the tour you were one of our most active builders and you tested all the different mons and techs that I was too scared to do. Thank you for being you and for putting so much effort into this tour. It really was a blast to team with you.
Lilo! I had never interacted with you prior to this tour but I knew from NU that you had a good grasp of the SV generation. You also told me you would be motivated to build in the tier so snatching you up was a given. Since you didn't want to start you were kept on the bench until later parts of the tour where you got slotted and started killing it. During the later parts of the tour you were one of our most active builders and you tested all the different mons and techs that I was too scared to do. Thank you for being you and for putting so much effort into this tour. It really was a blast to team with you.
tier
Oh man. I had seen your name everywhere prior to this tour and after picking you up a week prior to the draft for our PUPL team and you seeming super motivated you were a given pickup for this tour. With Ho3n out of the picture you were the most given sub into ORAS for our team. And man, you killed it. I've grown used to just dropping an ORAS team in the ORAS channel and someone picking it up but it usually takes some time for people to pick the tier up. But not for you. Later on the teams I built didn't really fit you which was my bad and with my time constraints and me not able to build a lot we ended up doing some roster shuffling instead. You were definetly too good to bench in this tour though but hey, we won both this and PUPL so things did work out in the end...
Oh man. I had seen your name everywhere prior to this tour and after picking you up a week prior to the draft for our PUPL team and you seeming super motivated you were a given pickup for this tour. With Ho3n out of the picture you were the most given sub into ORAS for our team. And man, you killed it. I've grown used to just dropping an ORAS team in the ORAS channel and someone picking it up but it usually takes some time for people to pick the tier up. But not for you. Later on the teams I built didn't really fit you which was my bad and with my time constraints and me not able to build a lot we ended up doing some roster shuffling instead. You were definetly too good to bench in this tour though but hey, we won both this and PUPL so things did work out in the end...
Mada
Just two words. THANK YOU. Thank you for reaching out to Drud pretour. Your help with everything this tour was super invaluable. You have a different level of scouting than anyone I have seen before and your eye for things to pickup on in prep is incredible. I am sorry that we didn't let you play more this tour but that is always an issue in these kinds of tours sadly. Similar to Siras you kept on being one of the most active guys in our team chat which I valued so much. I would love to team with you again and I wish you the best of luck with your team in UMPL!
Just two words. THANK YOU. Thank you for reaching out to Drud pretour. Your help with everything this tour was super invaluable. You have a different level of scouting than anyone I have seen before and your eye for things to pickup on in prep is incredible. I am sorry that we didn't let you play more this tour but that is always an issue in these kinds of tours sadly. Similar to Siras you kept on being one of the most active guys in our team chat which I valued so much. I would love to team with you again and I wish you the best of luck with your team in UMPL!
Feaniix
I am sorry we did not give you more playtime after we picked you up. I know you prefered BW and only got to slot in one week. Thank you for joining us after Ho3n was sold back though. I rate you very highly as a player and I know that if you had been given more time to play you would have absolutely killed it. Hope you at least had a good time in our chat!
I am sorry we did not give you more playtime after we picked you up. I know you prefered BW and only got to slot in one week. Thank you for joining us after Ho3n was sold back though. I rate you very highly as a player and I know that if you had been given more time to play you would have absolutely killed it. Hope you at least had a good time in our chat!
Thank you to everyone that helped us out this season.
BeatsBlack of course for being our cornerstone with DPP prep.
Monai. You were one of the people I wanted to team team the most with for this tour and I knew after taking the decission to run it back with the frees that I would not be able to do so. I am therefore super grateful that you joined our team chat as early on as you did and helped us with BW and SV prep!
plznostep, 5gen, @OranBerryBlissey10,Tuthur, Dj Breloominati♬, wooper, skrimps, HSOWA thank you all for joining us for playoffs and helping all our slots with tests and build ideas. In particular a special thank you to OBB and 5gen for helping Nick as much as you did for our SS tiebreaker game. You guys rock.
BeatsBlack of course for being our cornerstone with DPP prep.
Monai. You were one of the people I wanted to team team the most with for this tour and I knew after taking the decission to run it back with the frees that I would not be able to do so. I am therefore super grateful that you joined our team chat as early on as you did and helped us with BW and SV prep!
plznostep, 5gen, @OranBerryBlissey10,Tuthur, Dj Breloominati♬, wooper, skrimps, HSOWA thank you all for joining us for playoffs and helping all our slots with tests and build ideas. In particular a special thank you to OBB and 5gen for helping Nick as much as you did for our SS tiebreaker game. You guys rock.
Finishing a way too long post off I also want to thank Merritt for coming in and hosting this tour once things went south. You were incredibly easy to work with and made the life of all managers in this tour a whole lot easier. Hoping to interact more with you in the future. I also want to thank all the other managers and players for a long but fun tour. This tour really feels like the highlight of the year for ZU and that's all because people put so much time into it. Let's keep that up for future editions.
Love ya'll. Go Frees!
It's finally over, after what felt like an eternity, ZUPL has come to an end. I am insanely proud that for my first time managing in ZUPL, my team has made it, not only into POs, but forced the defending champions into finals tiebreaker. I could say "but it wasn't quite enough", but really, I can only feel pride with my team. Good job everyone!
As for formal shoutouts:
Big thanks to you from me as a manager and Tier Leader Merritt for taking over hosting this years ZUPL after what has been, well, not the best looking start. You have been an amazing host (and maybe youre around for next year?).
Also shoutout to all the other managers and teams, you guys were great and made this tour a fun experience for me.
Note: the shoutouts arent in any particular order, just how players flew to my mind!
I am looking forward to our next teamtours, it is always a pleasure to interact with you guys, have a good one.
As for formal shoutouts:
Big thanks to you from me as a manager and Tier Leader Merritt for taking over hosting this years ZUPL after what has been, well, not the best looking start. You have been an amazing host (and maybe youre around for next year?).
Also shoutout to all the other managers and teams, you guys were great and made this tour a fun experience for me.
Note: the shoutouts arent in any particular order, just how players flew to my mind!
Toto After breaking my heart in Olympiad and ditching me for AFO, I am really happy that we managed together. You are a fun guy that takes his things seriously, but doesn't need to always express themself so formal, which is something I can work with very well. I like to have fun, and the time I had with you certainly were. Pre draft prepping was very fun and the vc while draft was even better. I got to learn a lot to maybe stand on my own feet as a manager, thanks for everything you've done and I'd always gladly repeat it as we did. *smootch*
btboy 17k :bruh_smile: You were already someone I really liked within the community prior to the tour, but only grew more to me. Besides being very complemetory to my modern gen metagame experience and knowledge, you pretty much were the big cornerstone to my old gens prep. It was a pleasure to constantly ping you for DPP teams. Great teamplayer, and great guy.
fish anemometer One of my favorite new people in the community, you are easily top5/top3 SV ZU players right now and I was so glad that we picked you up for that strong SV pilot and builder. You have such a good understanding of the game itself and it was so fun building teams with you. I forgive you for not having your priorities straight early ZUPL and focused on other, way less important tours.
Lunala I'm glad I listened to Toto and we retained you. You are such a positive chat presence and fun to interact with. Great understanding of DPP ZU and a legend in playing it. I wish I was more around to test my favorite old gen with you. I wish I had more time to prep tiebreak SS ZU with you too. Great person, grateful that we experienced ZUPL together.
Finchinator Prodigy of a SM player. Amazing pilot and 15k was such a steal in my eyes. Our SM core was so good with you piloting the teams provided, thank you sticking troughout the whole tour, despite it going on for so long. I hope we can teamup again in future team tours, it was great to have you around.
Ciro napoli We didn't interact too much prior to this tour, but I am glad we picked you up. You are a skillful player, and I hope you feel like you could show off how good you are. Your constant activity for SV testing was definitely a cornerstone of our high success in said generation. Always up for new strats and you gravitate towards teamstyles I liked a lot.
Sylveon used calm mind You're a very talented player and fun to prep with. Your demand for Dolliv might be a little too high, but you make up for it with how good you are. I was glad to have you around and would draft you any time again.
Beim nächsten mal gewinnen wir, und du darfst Olivinio + Rutena HO benutzen. Halt' die Ohren steif!
Tack You made a very good first impression to me, as we haven't interacted at all (?) prior to this tour, by winning the SV game we had to sub you in with a wonky team I made. Other than that you delivered with clutch BW wins throughout the tournament, I hope btboy treated you well. I don't have much BW experience myself; I'm sorry we didn't test more, but I plan to expand my generations knowledge, so maybe another time?
Medeia After being on the bench for the first couple of weeks, you showed that you were capable of performing well in SS ZU, clutching it out for us a bunch of times too. Also another "Landsmann" like Sylv, so always a sympathy point. I wish I had more time at the end of the tournament, when I was on vaccation to prep more for gen8, but you guys did fine, and I am glad that I had you around.
JonAmon 25 You didn't get much screentime in battling in the tournament itself, but you did help us prep for SS ZU a lot with good ideas and input, stealing some teams from older tours. I hope we get to see more of you in Olympiad where there is more focus on more old gens too. Have a good one, and maybe we get to play together again.
Ninja You struggled a bit with your main gen this tour, but I knew from the past that you are always a respectable force in SS ZU. We prep'ed a lot together, while having some small issues with changing our ideas too close to the actual battle. It showed me what I need to improve as a manager a lot, which is very valuable to me. Thank you for being around.
btboy 17k :bruh_smile: You were already someone I really liked within the community prior to the tour, but only grew more to me. Besides being very complemetory to my modern gen metagame experience and knowledge, you pretty much were the big cornerstone to my old gens prep. It was a pleasure to constantly ping you for DPP teams. Great teamplayer, and great guy.
fish anemometer One of my favorite new people in the community, you are easily top5/top3 SV ZU players right now and I was so glad that we picked you up for that strong SV pilot and builder. You have such a good understanding of the game itself and it was so fun building teams with you. I forgive you for not having your priorities straight early ZUPL and focused on other, way less important tours.
Lunala I'm glad I listened to Toto and we retained you. You are such a positive chat presence and fun to interact with. Great understanding of DPP ZU and a legend in playing it. I wish I was more around to test my favorite old gen with you. I wish I had more time to prep tiebreak SS ZU with you too. Great person, grateful that we experienced ZUPL together.
Finchinator Prodigy of a SM player. Amazing pilot and 15k was such a steal in my eyes. Our SM core was so good with you piloting the teams provided, thank you sticking troughout the whole tour, despite it going on for so long. I hope we can teamup again in future team tours, it was great to have you around.
Ciro napoli We didn't interact too much prior to this tour, but I am glad we picked you up. You are a skillful player, and I hope you feel like you could show off how good you are. Your constant activity for SV testing was definitely a cornerstone of our high success in said generation. Always up for new strats and you gravitate towards teamstyles I liked a lot.
Sylveon used calm mind You're a very talented player and fun to prep with. Your demand for Dolliv might be a little too high, but you make up for it with how good you are. I was glad to have you around and would draft you any time again.
Beim nächsten mal gewinnen wir, und du darfst Olivinio + Rutena HO benutzen. Halt' die Ohren steif!
Tack You made a very good first impression to me, as we haven't interacted at all (?) prior to this tour, by winning the SV game we had to sub you in with a wonky team I made. Other than that you delivered with clutch BW wins throughout the tournament, I hope btboy treated you well. I don't have much BW experience myself; I'm sorry we didn't test more, but I plan to expand my generations knowledge, so maybe another time?
Medeia After being on the bench for the first couple of weeks, you showed that you were capable of performing well in SS ZU, clutching it out for us a bunch of times too. Also another "Landsmann" like Sylv, so always a sympathy point. I wish I had more time at the end of the tournament, when I was on vaccation to prep more for gen8, but you guys did fine, and I am glad that I had you around.
JonAmon 25 You didn't get much screentime in battling in the tournament itself, but you did help us prep for SS ZU a lot with good ideas and input, stealing some teams from older tours. I hope we get to see more of you in Olympiad where there is more focus on more old gens too. Have a good one, and maybe we get to play together again.
Ninja You struggled a bit with your main gen this tour, but I knew from the past that you are always a respectable force in SS ZU. We prep'ed a lot together, while having some small issues with changing our ideas too close to the actual battle. It showed me what I need to improve as a manager a lot, which is very valuable to me. Thank you for being around.
sleid I know we had some differencies while ZUPL was ongoing, but I am so grateful you joined us in POs as a helper. Your prep/scout and overall chat acitvity is enormous and I herby declare you managing ready, signed from the ZUTL. Honestly, you have been such a prodigy in prep, compensating my lack of time more than enough. Thank you for all you've done in our team, and I hope we get to manage/play together in more tours (like UMPL!)
love chants Yeah so basically the first four weeks or so fish used your teams anyway with minior tweaks, so it was only a matter of when your team gets out that I had to grap you. I had you on my original draft plan anyway, so it only made sense. Just like fish, good fundamentals and good teams, thanks for supporting our SV.
BaitWiz I'm sorry we couldn't finish your Butterfree's killing arc, but I am glad you became part of the team. You are always a positive chat presence and have good activity for prep, which is very valuable for these team tournaments. Sorry that I banned your Co early on. I hope you find success in our community.
diegoyuhhi I know you're unhappy with your record, but you stayed motivated and joined us for help, thank you for that. I'm sure you'll get your chance to prove yourself, just don't make yourself too much out of these records, you're a fine builder and player.
ayevon We didn't interact a lot, but you were invited by btboy and helped a lot with our SM prep. Having that additional help and someone btboy can comfortably work with was very valuable for us. Thanks for your help.
love chants Yeah so basically the first four weeks or so fish used your teams anyway with minior tweaks, so it was only a matter of when your team gets out that I had to grap you. I had you on my original draft plan anyway, so it only made sense. Just like fish, good fundamentals and good teams, thanks for supporting our SV.
BaitWiz I'm sorry we couldn't finish your Butterfree's killing arc, but I am glad you became part of the team. You are always a positive chat presence and have good activity for prep, which is very valuable for these team tournaments. Sorry that I banned your Co early on. I hope you find success in our community.
diegoyuhhi I know you're unhappy with your record, but you stayed motivated and joined us for help, thank you for that. I'm sure you'll get your chance to prove yourself, just don't make yourself too much out of these records, you're a fine builder and player.
ayevon We didn't interact a lot, but you were invited by btboy and helped a lot with our SM prep. Having that additional help and someone btboy can comfortably work with was very valuable for us. Thanks for your help.
I am looking forward to our next teamtours, it is always a pleasure to interact with you guys, have a good one.
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Wait the draft happened?
Not usually one to post for lost unofficial team tours, but i think this deserves one. The tour lasted 3 entire months (i still hate tiebreaks and wish they never a thing just make it uneven slots PLEASEEEE) and that has given me ample time to bond with my teammates and helpers. Wanna say thank you to both Corthius and Toto not only for retaining and trusting in me, but also for building an amazing and fun team atmosphere, that i'm sure helped us get to where we got. To all my teammates, thank you for all the effort you put every week into prep and into your games, and to all helpers, thank you for being there when you don't really get anything out of it, y'all are always super appreciated.
I'm not sure if i'll be coming back to DPP ZU, the tier has kinda run it's course to me, i had fun with it and it's a really good tier but i don't see me having fun with it for a whole other tournament. Hopefully i find a new ZU tier to enjoy cause i definetely want to stick around in this community. See you in the next tournament!
I'm not sure if i'll be coming back to DPP ZU, the tier has kinda run it's course to me, i had fun with it and it's a really good tier but i don't see me having fun with it for a whole other tournament. Hopefully i find a new ZU tier to enjoy cause i definetely want to stick around in this community. See you in the next tournament!
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Tour is finally over and I guess the least I can do is shoutout the people who carried me during this ZUPL.
Now for my personal scramble of thoughts:
This was a long tournament, but surprisingly I wasn't as burnt out as last year. I guess being bad at mons gives you a motivation where as being mid sorta makes you complacent. I don't really know, but I was definitely tired at the end and relieved that we managed to close it out. Again my record still sorta sucked, but hopefully one of these tours I'll put up a somewhat impressive record. I struggle a lot to motivate myself to improve in mons nowadays, and have always had the issue of trying in individuals which definitely means I have catching up to do every ZUPL. I will properly beat the getting carried allegations one day but I'm still happy with my turnaround since my two ORAS wins kept us in the tournament both times. I'm fine with being considered the weak point of the team because it gives me comfort knowing that our team is at least tying if I win my games; which I guess is why I focus so much on prep. It's been a good run though for me so far, at no point did I think I'd win a back to back and I don't think there were a better group of people to do it with. I doubt I'm being retained again next year, but it's been a fun two years on frees so far. Not sure how many ZUPLs more I have in me but the mons community is addicting so even if I prefer playing other games nowadays and my life has gotten a lot busier with my masters, I'll probably return for the next one. Hopefully we have less drama next year cause that shit's tiring, but regardless ZUPL will always be my favourite part of the year. Thanks Merritt for hosting after the stuff happened.
Thank you @ZU community; hopefully we have more banger ZUPLs in the future!!
Drud The best ZUPL manager ever. Since you decided to self buy this time around, you were a lot more involved despite still having to juggle PUPL as well. The tour went on for what felt like forever but you were still able to motivate us all and even get our teammates who rarely test (and maybe got a bit too complacent given we were so far ahead during regular season) to actually play a bunch of practice games before their playoff games. You put up an insane record this tournament as well, and helped me a lot when it came to test games despite not really playing some of those tiers. After my horrendous start, you were the main advocate for starting Lilo in SV and moving me into the ORAS slot. I'm often quite pessimistic about things but you always had faith that I would beat the getting carried allegations, which i sort of did? Unironically shoulda had me play DPP because I was owning you for a bit with the degen teams and you were owning me in ORAS.
TWiTT The best ZUPL comanager and support ever. 3 in a row is crazy. I dont know how you can find time away from your job and support every tier. I'm convinced you dream about teambuilding in your sleep because there is no way you can just pump out quality teams like that. Trusted me to slot into ORAS and do well despite it being week 6 of the tournament and I was 0-4 at the time. You built all my ORAS teams so basically carried my record and ran through a bunch of lines with me when testing for my first 2 games when our schedules aligned better. This helped significantly and I felt that I was slowly regaining my form a bit as the tour went on. I also slacked a bit in the SV department especially when it came to playoffs due to my limited time but fortunately you and our players picked up the work there as well. For the tiers I could not help at all due to my lack of knowledge in them like SM and BW, you were incredible support and for the gens I was involved in, you were arguably even better which made me question why I was even retained (half joking). Maybe 4 in a row next year although everything you've done already is nuts.
clean We're truly the dream package deal. 3/3 together although it's mostly just you carrying me in all of these tours ngl. I wasn't the most active in SS building this year but you were able to take some of the responsibility when it came to teambuilding which helped us a ton. I definitely need to rethink a bit on the building side for sure given that we sometimes become too predictable but you're able to outplay opponents anyways making our builds look better. Beat the 0-2 in the first 2 weeks allegations for once but then you remembered you couldn't have a better record than drud. Just like last year you also won the game which won us ZUPL. With our managers, you and I were part of the core that had a greater influence on some of the decisions for draft, lineups etc. and fully backed me when I was struggling. Hope to team up with u again next time and go 4/4.
TheFranklin We teamed up on pekos in ZUPL 3 and having frequently talked to you in the pekos cord I've always wanted to team up with you again. Definitely one of the players who I thought before the tournament deserved to be in the HoF the most so I'm glad we made it happen. Despite being away for the first few weeks (start of the tournament feels like forever ago), you were able to catch up on the metagame trends super quickly. Your return definitely solved a lot of issues we had in SV ZU (basically being a strict upgrade over me haha) and you built your own stuff for the most part iirc letting TWiTT focus a bit more on other slots. Put in a shift for us during finals where you redeemed the previous shortcoming. Hopefully we see you win an individual here as well soon.
Thiago Nunes By far the player who challenged me the most when it came to builds; and I mean this in a great way. I often limit myself a fair bit when it comes to building, but you liked some of the more unorthodox Pokemon, and this certainly helped us as a team to expand our options and make us less prone to being cteamed. Extremely motivated from the very start to the very end of this tournament. When I had a slow start in SV, you were already flying out the gate and carrying us hard in current gen performance. Later on, I was so confident in our SV trio and you were definitely a large reason why. You became a lot busier after a while, which sucked because it meant you couldn't dedicate as much time towards testing and altering spreads, but even with TWiTT passing you squads, you still continued to do well. I'm convinced that if it weren't for your busy schedule you coulda racked up even more wins because you're consistently doing well in every tour you sign up for.
Lilo We were extremely fortunate to have you on your team. Our results being quite draw heavy towards the latter half of the tour which coincided with you being added to our starting lineup but don't let that fool anyone, because butterfrees seemingly developed a syndrome to forget how to play games after the team reached 4 wins. But you were often part of the 4 that won! At first I was extremely sceptical because you were pretty quiet in the discord and I thought we had bought you to help with teams. But then you started putting in a lot of effort midway through the regular season and turned our struggling SV around. Extremely active both in building and playtesting and I was super happy with how much time you were putting in for your matches as well as the other SV slots (especially cause it meant I could slack off I became busier as the tour went on). Like with several of our players, it was illegal we got you for so cheap.
siras You and I both had some big shoes to fill during the earlier weeks, given that our plan was always to have TheFranklin be added to the starting lineup when he was back from his vacation. Unfortunate hax in both the week 1 and 3 games were tough, since you definitely deserved more than your record showed. I'm super happy that you attempted to build for yourself despite never having touched the metagame prior as this made it much easier for TWiTT and I to modify said teams into something that we would believe would work out best. It's a shame you didn't get more gametime as we did end up rotating our SV slots a lot to give everyone a chance but our SV slots ended up being really good towards the end of this tour. Nonetheless I have no doubt that if any of our players had to leave, you would have been the perfect sub and you were always cheering us on till the very end. I still cannot look at your pfp on discord without think it's the same one poor 5dots had his discord account compromised tho :(.
Mada Undefeated in SV ZU. Of course, you weren't rly given a chance to really start which is definitely a shame because you would definitely do well if given the chance to start. Very active throughout in terms of supporting, and would join our calls when we were discussing the playoff games of other players. Your main role of getting scouts for pretty much all of our slots ended up being vital for us. Saved us a lot of time, and they were super nice to look at as well. Very useful for prep in general given that you would find or recreate teams for the purpose of testing with us; which became even more important when my schedule didnt align with TWiTT's very well and other teams were knocked out so fewer players to test with in general.
DugZa Extremely consistent for us. Just kinda got given teams and won out at the start. Later on you built a bit as well and that worked pretty well. When the games mattered more like in playoffs, you were more active in the discussions of team choice and I think my managers forced you to test a fair bit lmao. SM is the gen I'm completely clueless about so having someone as solid as you there was extremely comforting. Can't believe how hard you were slept on before the tournament (but I suppose our entire team was); you were definitely one of the main carries on frees performance wise.
tier Started off great for us and then we had some issues with teams and what not but I think the record is poor reflection of how good you are. In the test games we played you were beating me in most of them, and I have no doubt that you woulda managed to put up the record I did if not better had you been given game time instead. Coming in as the replacement for Ho3n is no easy task and you did a good job here. Wish you didn't troll some of your opponents as hard though because managers put me in ORAS despite me not having it in my signup lmao but the whole week when you played deg was hilarious. If you sign up next year, you definitely deserve to be starting the whole tournament. Keep on carrying drud in tours ;).
LpZ The BW pool has been stacked ever since btbozo hosted breadwinners and this year was no different. Despite this you performed amazingly, putting up the best record here while being severely underrated by the voters. Even got unlucky in some of the games as well so could have easily gone X-1 or w/e. I don't think I said more than 2 lines in your channel because BW is also one of my weaker slots but you were extremely reliable in both your play and prep so there probably wasn't really anything for me to say if I knew the tier well. I don't really know why in particular but I was always super impressed by your wins during this tournament and thanks for carrying me.
Feaniix Again didn't interact much in BW channel cause I'm clueless. Shame we couldn't get you a win or much game time. You got lucked the one chance you got to play. Supported us nonetheless during our games. Hopefully being part of the team was still enjoyable and I suppose you get a custom avi so there's that.
S1nn0hC0nfirm3d Thanks for helping a bit here and there when I asked you about stuff on ps. You're still a bit of a clown for getting banned from zupl but hopefully one day you can carry me and we can get a team tour dub in ZU together.
Tuthur Every ZUPL, Tuthur is the first guy who isn't on my team that I go to for tests, talk to about teams etc. Super reliable and the player I regarded as the best SV ZUer coming into this tournament. This time around, helped me in SV during the earlier half of the tournament, and when his team went out in semis, he ended up joining our cord to help us out. I can always learn a lot from you. Thanks as always but please get someone else to QC for once.
BeatsBlack You were here from the very start and helped brain storm and test with drud, as well as provide me some non-drud teams to beat him with. I especially liked the Gym Leader one which also has the added benefit of tilting drud. Just a great presence to be around and hopefully we get to see you back in ZU team tours at some point. Fortunately for us, no fake calcs were used during ZUPL
but now I'm aware af, and I hate you for that.
Monai You joined after we played you guys, and were amazing help in our SV slots. Also helped with BW and really strengthened the squads we ended up bringing during the latter half of the tournament. Hoping your next stint as a manager goes a lot better because your support was exceptionally good.
plznostep You were one of the first people we reached out to for support once your team's ZUPL run ended. While you were one of the many DPP helpers we had, you also helped out in our other slots. Thanks for the tests both when you weren't and were in our cord. Hopefully we have better tours next time from an individual perspective :D.
5gen OranBerryBlissey10 Glad you guys joined and helped us out in SS and several other gens as well. Being able to test against 5gen was pivotal for my wins and his knowledge of the tier was extremely inciteful for someone like me. OldBaldBoomer, you are unfortunately bald but despite that shortcoming you were also really helpful. The expert of RosePawn delivered us a RosePawn team as well as suggested some other wacky teams which were very close to being chosen. Thanks both for helping clean especially in finals, like 1000 lines of discussion or whatever it was when I was busy. Crazy. Hopefully we get to team up together in ZUPL next time around.
The DPP Squad HSOWA wooper skrimps Dj Breloominati♬ Thank you for playing games with drud and discussing the teams with him so that I didn't have to and could be lazy. Was quite funny how we ended up having basically a monopoly of you guys but you were all very helpful. Maybe we'll get to team up next year.
BeatsBlack You were here from the very start and helped brain storm and test with drud, as well as provide me some non-drud teams to beat him with. I especially liked the Gym Leader one which also has the added benefit of tilting drud. Just a great presence to be around and hopefully we get to see you back in ZU team tours at some point. Fortunately for us, no fake calcs were used during ZUPL
but now I'm aware af, and I hate you for that.Monai You joined after we played you guys, and were amazing help in our SV slots. Also helped with BW and really strengthened the squads we ended up bringing during the latter half of the tournament. Hoping your next stint as a manager goes a lot better because your support was exceptionally good.
plznostep You were one of the first people we reached out to for support once your team's ZUPL run ended. While you were one of the many DPP helpers we had, you also helped out in our other slots. Thanks for the tests both when you weren't and were in our cord. Hopefully we have better tours next time from an individual perspective :D.
5gen OranBerryBlissey10 Glad you guys joined and helped us out in SS and several other gens as well. Being able to test against 5gen was pivotal for my wins and his knowledge of the tier was extremely inciteful for someone like me. OldBaldBoomer, you are unfortunately bald but despite that shortcoming you were also really helpful. The expert of RosePawn delivered us a RosePawn team as well as suggested some other wacky teams which were very close to being chosen. Thanks both for helping clean especially in finals, like 1000 lines of discussion or whatever it was when I was busy. Crazy. Hopefully we get to team up together in ZUPL next time around.
The DPP Squad HSOWA wooper skrimps Dj Breloominati♬ Thank you for playing games with drud and discussing the teams with him so that I didn't have to and could be lazy. Was quite funny how we ended up having basically a monopoly of you guys but you were all very helpful. Maybe we'll get to team up next year.
Now for my personal scramble of thoughts:
This was a long tournament, but surprisingly I wasn't as burnt out as last year. I guess being bad at mons gives you a motivation where as being mid sorta makes you complacent. I don't really know, but I was definitely tired at the end and relieved that we managed to close it out. Again my record still sorta sucked, but hopefully one of these tours I'll put up a somewhat impressive record. I struggle a lot to motivate myself to improve in mons nowadays, and have always had the issue of trying in individuals which definitely means I have catching up to do every ZUPL. I will properly beat the getting carried allegations one day but I'm still happy with my turnaround since my two ORAS wins kept us in the tournament both times. I'm fine with being considered the weak point of the team because it gives me comfort knowing that our team is at least tying if I win my games; which I guess is why I focus so much on prep. It's been a good run though for me so far, at no point did I think I'd win a back to back and I don't think there were a better group of people to do it with. I doubt I'm being retained again next year, but it's been a fun two years on frees so far. Not sure how many ZUPLs more I have in me but the mons community is addicting so even if I prefer playing other games nowadays and my life has gotten a lot busier with my masters, I'll probably return for the next one. Hopefully we have less drama next year cause that shit's tiring, but regardless ZUPL will always be my favourite part of the year. Thanks Merritt for hosting after the stuff happened.
Thank you @ZU community; hopefully we have more banger ZUPLs in the future!!
Rare TierAcid shoutouts
I’m not gonna cover everyone because as well know, I’m lazy and inactive so I didn’t necessarily get to bond with very many people but it was such a wholesome place that imma say a few words :)
I’m gonna hurt myself if we end up with an ugly greedent avatar
I’m gonna hurt myself if we end up with an ugly greedent avatar
U smell bad yw for carrying u twice. On a real note I’m sorry you got caught buying me twice for tours where I was going to be not my usual tryhardy self. If I’m still fucking around with tiers like this next yr. I’ll give u the goated TierAcid.
also how the fuck do u play dpp ZU that sounds gross as fuck but nice
also how the fuck do u play dpp ZU that sounds gross as fuck but nice
One of the coolest humans on this site, I wanted to insult you but you got me bought and carried me so much love. May the TierAcid + Clean Cuts core continue winning
sry for thinking u where just a hyperactive adhd helper. You’re unironically the single most impactful manager I’ve ever had in all my years of showdown. Managers being active is one thing, them making sure people are organized too is fine but I’ve never had a manager so willing to help build and play every single slot as much as they could like you did. This win is 100% a product of your efforts and I hope to team with you again one day. Sorry for what I put u thru in ORAS , if I was a little bit more reasonable I’d have told you what archetypes and mons I wanted to use those weeks but tbh I didn’t even know (that game I threw sucked too)
Cant say I spoke to you much or got to know you, but I will say ty for picking up where I left off and cg on another ZUPL win
Insert clown emoji here
Insert I carried you remark here
Let’s win SCL =] the tierrugza core is 2 for 2
Insert I carried you remark here
Let’s win SCL =] the tierrugza core is 2 for 2
Y’all are some of the most impressive players I’ve ever seen play, I’m not sure what either of your records where but I assume y’all where goated
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