PSPL II Coverage: Round 1

By Spydreigon. Art by asgdf.
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What is PSPL?

PSPL stands for "Pokémon Showdown! Premier League", a tournament between the best of the best on PS! Essentially, 32 of the biggest public rooms all over Showdown come together to battle it out in a Smogon forum style tournament, to see which room will come out on top against the rest of the server. The tournament is held in the Pokémon Showdown! subforum, where people can see their matchups and post the results of their battles. Round 1 of the tournament has just been completed, with 16 teams eliminated and 16 moving on.

What makes it so special?

As you all know, battling is the main purpose of PS. Tournaments have become popular both on the server and the forums, where different forms of tournaments are held constantly on Smogon, and there is even a room and script on PS dedicated to tournaments between users. However, the other side of PS is contained within the chat rooms, where people can discuss their favorite topics and make friends along the way. However, with different rooms can come rivalries, based on users, staff, or even specific aspects of the rooms. This tournament combines both of those aspects; it lets the talented battlers fight it out, and helps to appeal to the rivalry between rooms, adding to the hype of the tournament. It's all to see which is the best room in the end.

How did Scene come up with this idea?

Well firstly, I've got to give credit to SteelEdges for thinking up the idea for the initial PSPL, which was draft-based.

He's referring to the original PSPL which happened a year ago, on the old PS forums.

After I'd ended up hosting most of it (and winning), I knew that a future tournment could be a success if the problems the original had could be overcome.

His expression changed to be more thoughtful and serious as he looked back on the last time we tried this, and on how it's been even more successful this time around.

With the advent of rooms, increased Smogon usage on PS, and our ever-increasing userbase, a room-based team tournament certainly seemed viable, as it's proved to be.

Now that we've taken a look at what PSPL really is and how it came into existence, let's take a look at the results of Round 1, and the 16 teams that have advanced.

The Advancing Teams

Competitive Tutoring
Total Points: 9 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 17-2-2 Manager: Royalty Group: Quartz
By the end of Round 1, Competitive Tutoring ended up with the most wins total, dominating over the other 3 teams of the Quartz group. The entire room is based around teaching new users how to get into competitive battling, so these guys really know their stuff about the metagames. They cleaned out Mafia with a perfect record of 7-0, and they then beat Old Gens and Français with 5-1. Old Gens practically knew their fate from the very start, when room Owner Bedschibaer said, "Wait this is all XY? We are fucked."
UnderUsed
Total Points: 9 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 14-4-3 Manager: CoolStoryBrobat Group: Amber
Though they don't have as many wins as Competitive Tutoring (mainly due to the number of dead games), Underused is another room that completely dominated over the other 3 teams in their group. They've pulled out some impressive wins, beating Cafe Le Wow + TVBF 6-1, Deutsche 5-2, and Meteor Falls 3-2. Now that they're moving onto Round 2, I guess you could say that Round 1 to them was a pretty cool story, bro(bat). Ok, no more. Promise.
Neverused
Total Points: 9 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 14-5-2 Manager: Raseri Group: Emerald
As another tier room with talent all around, NeverUsed did quite well this round. They beat Trivia 4-2, Monotype 6-1, and Italiano 4-2. Their roster has some famous people that you might know, such as the NU Co-Leader Zebraiken and Smogon Super Mod tennisace. If they continue on their path, they'll have a good chance to reach success in Round 2 and on.
Rarelyused
Total Points: 9 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 14-7-0 Manager: barton Group: Onyx
RarelyUsed is filled with people who competitively battle on Smogon and on PS, so they were a threat to the other teams right from the get go. They beat Challenges 6-1, Anime and Manga 5-2, and Wi-Fi 4-3. Tier rooms all have a dedicated community filled with excellent battlers from all the tiers, and this room is no exception. Hopefully they'll keep up this success in the future rounds, so that they can advance as far as possible.
Social Media
Total Points: 9 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 14-7-0 Manager: MikeDecIsHere Group: Topaz
Social Media has been one of the more popular teams from the very start. They've got some very good players, even famous youtubers who you might know such as pokeaim and chimpact. They did well against CAP and Português, beating them out 5-2, and they had a very close round against Community Mentoring, barely beating them out 4-3. Their Pikachu mascot art is also pretty popular, and according to pokeaim, shofu would approve.
Español
Total Points: 9 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 12-6-3 Manager: Astyanax Group: Amethyst
Being the most popular language room, the international community expects quite a bit from them. They beat out Roleplaying 4-2, Doubles 4-3, and Health & Fitness + Sports 4-1, showing that they've got some true talent to make it this far. The only thing we ask of them is to not end up like Spain did in the group stages of the World Cup 2014.
OverUsed
Total Points: 9 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 12-8-1 Manager: MattL Group: Ruby
Being the most popular tier room on the entire server, OverUsed has a lot going for them. They've got the most options of users, and a lot of them are phenomenal at battling, as seen from the constant competitive discussion within the room. They were pretty evenly matched with Tournaments, barely beating them out 4-3. They then moved on to Free Time 4-2 and The Studio 4-3. It seems like they really like the number 4, maybe because they're the 4th most popular room on the server (after the Lobby, Wi-Fi, and Tournaments).
Ubers
Total Points: 7 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 10-8-3 Manager: MAJISTRATE Group: Sapphire
The Ubers room has always been known for its unique community, and they seem to have a lot of fun over there. However, that doesn't mean that they are any short battling-wise. They beat Scavengers + Battle Spot 4-3, tied (the only tie in the whole round) with Other Metagames 3-3, and beat Game Corner 3-2. They've got quite the team, and as RU player -Tsunami- would say, Round 1 was an "ez snackwrap".
Italiano
Total Points: 6 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 13-7-1 Manager: The Quasar Group: Emerald
Shifting over to Italy, the Italiano room has quite a few skilled players, which is shown by the constant lineup switches by their manager, The Quasar. They're always ready to put a good fight in, and it really shows with their record this round. They beat Monotype 4-3 and Trivia 5-2, but they ended up losing to NeverUsed 2-4. With the constant lineup changes, though, they'll be sure to figure out which players can bring them to success in future rounds.
Tournaments
Total Points: 6 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 12-8-1 Manager: Scene Group: Ruby
Being the only official room eligible to participate, Tournaments has quite the reputation to live up to. It is filled with users who battle in organized tournaments 24/7, so they have some real talent within the room. They initially lost to Overused in a close round of 4-3, but they then moved on to beat The Studio 4-2 and Free Time 5-2. I guess that Antemortem was right at the beginning of the tournament when he said, "Someone pray for Free Time."
Scavengers + Battle Spot
Total Points: 6 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 12-9-0 Manager: Spydreigon Group: Sapphire
Being the only team made up of 2 rooms to advance, Scavengers + Battle Spot have made quite the name for themselves. They started out as the underdog team that everyone theorized would get swept easily, but proved their worth in the battles to come. Their Ubers player, Updated Kanto, had a spectacular battle against the Ubers RO MAJISTRATE, where his Hasty max Speed Yveltal surprised the entire Ubers room, and he pulled a win out of that battle. Unfortunately, they still lost to Ubers 3-4, but they beat Game Corner 4-3 and Other Metagames 5-2, sealing their spot in the next round.
Português
Total Points: 6 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 11-9-1 Manager: zdrup15 Group: Topaz
When you're in a group with Social Media and Community Mentoring, not many people are going to be rooting for you. However, Português pulled through and proved that they were the superior team, surprising many. They initially lost to Social Media 2-5, but they made a huge comeback, beating CAP 5-2 and the popular Community Mentoring room 4-2. That 4-2 win guaranteed them a spot in the next round, and kicked Community Mentoring out.
Doubles
Total Points: 6 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 11-10-0 Manager: Audiosurfer Group: Amethyst
Unlike the other teams that have advanced, the Doubles room is focused on a metagame that wasn't present in PSPL. Regardless, they still have some fantastic battlers, and they managed to pull through even if they didn't specialize in what was presented to them. They beat Health & Fitness + Sports and Roleplaying 4-3, but lost to Español 3-4. Even though all of their matches were close, everyone cheered for them participating and advancing, unlike the LC room, whose users refused to participate without LC being one of the tiers.
Deutsche
Total Points: 6 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 10-8-3 Manager: asgdf Group: Amber
Deutsche did quite well, especially since they were in a group with the dominating UnderUsed team. They beat Meteor Falls 4-1 and Cafe Le Wow + TVBF 4-2, but they ended up losing to UnderUsed 2-5. However, they've got a lot of spirit and determination, which will take them very far in this type of tournament.
Français
Total Points: 6 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 10-8-3 Manager: Luckstard. Group: Quartz
Français is another one of those teams with a lot of determination, but they were in a group with a dominating force. They beat Mafia 5-2 and Old Gens 4-1, proving that they were a very talented team, but they still ended up losing to Competitive Tutoring 1-5. However, if they can keep their skill up and their heads held high, almost nothing can stop them.
Wi-Fi
Total Points: 3 Win-Loss-Dead Game Ratio: 13-8-0 Manager: Darnell Group: Onyx
People from this room are constantly trading, breeding, and raising their shinies to be competitively viable, then battling it out over 3DS Wi-Fi, so they aren't completely unfamiliar with the competitive scene. They lost to both Anime and Manga and RarelyUsed 4-3, but won against Challenges 6-1. Even though they only have 3 total round points, they still managed to make it to the next round, since they had more individual battle wins than Anime and Manga, even though they tied in round points. Even with their lack of experience on server battling it will be interesting to see how they will fare in future rounds.

So what's next?

Next is Round 2, where these 16 advancing teams move on to battle each other in knockout form! Basically, if you lose, you're out of the entire tournament. They've already proven themselves to be great battlers, and they deserve enormous amounts of respect. However, it's all about reaching the top, and these teams will have to prove that they are the best of the best. So, which team will you be rooting for?

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