SPL Midseason Analysis

The Smogon Premier League is considered by many to be Smogon's finest tournament. An eleven-week team affair, ten teams fight each other over nine weeks in an attempt to make the final four: the playoffs. It is a tournament with a history full of amazing plays, ridiculous chokes, and legendary drama over absolutely anything. This article will serve as a rundown for the first half of the 6th season.

Refer to this article for pre-season analysis.

SPL always has drama in spades and it delivered right from the beginning this year with DPP-era UU superstar Nas going to the Ever Grande BIGs for 15.5K, a relatively hefty sum, but one most agreed was worth a player of his caliber, as evidenced by his #1 spot in the UU power rankings. However, the man formerly known as RT staunchly refused to play for anyone but the Classiest. After much bickering, trade demands, citations of the SPL rules that prohibit such refusals, and references to a certain 1994 rap album, Nas was banned from SPL, as expected by pretty much everyone once they'd heard of what he was trying to do.

Significantly more surprise occurred was when Psychotic, the highly regarded UU player who the Cryonicles picked up for 12.5K, joined Nas in using their moderation powers to wipe clean the forum of the metagame they played during week 1 of SPL, earning them both permanent bans. Psychotic was quoted as saying that being permabanned was the only way he could truly quit, while Nas left Funkasaurus, the manager who refused to trade him, with a 2Pac song; many agreed this was quite a waste of potential. The BIGs were rewarded with all of their cash back for this unprecedented situation and were allowed to use 3K to select an undrafted player, choosing Italian RBY phenom During Summer. The Cryos were less lucky, only being able to get 3K back from their UU player's rampage and having to endure an endless stream of jokes about their former player's name describing his behavior.

The week began with a bit of a departure from tradition; normally there are as many players trying to fight as possible for first blood when the thread appears, but despite urging at every corner, not one battle was done on the first night. It was Laga who played the first match the next day, narrowly defeating Biosci and proceeding to spread :pig: all over IRC.

This series took many by surprise, with the lowest-ranked team edging out the first. BKC started things off well for the Cryos by defeating dekzeh in a marathon ADV game, but the Ruiners surged back with two straight wins in RU and Ubers, Bouffalant prevailing over RU Open runner-up Spirit and Steelphoenix, formerly Steeljackal<3, defeating Donkey in signature fashion, with luck at every corner preventing Donkey from finishing an otherwise well-executed comeback after a rough early game, prompting him to make a joke comment about quitting a la SPL 5, which several people were too daft to not take seriously.

The Cryos were forced to sub in King UU for their not-so-dearly departed former UU player, and he wasn't able to live up to his name by virtue of Meru's SubToxic Jirachi, though he didn't hesitate to lash out when Meru rather hypocritically complained about a relatively small instance of luck after having gotten a large sum of Iron Head flinches. Hantsuki continued the onslaught by defeating Lutra in RBY. A solid contender for Smogon's worst name change, Living So Zambian was able to recover some ground for the Cryos by beating the all-time best SPL player, Lady Bug, in OU; surprisingly, there were no gimmicks involved. However, SoulWind took it right back by defeating Ojama, who struggled with SW's Hidden Power Fire Latios. kingofmars took down Arcticblast in Doubles, but Tiba, holder of the longest win streak in SPL history, secured a tie at worst for the Ruiners by edging out Picollo in a GSC game with luck on both sides that came down to a Speed tie between two Snorlax.

Down 3-6, giara got a clutch win against Annoyer in NU, but Reymedy couldn't break PDC's balance and the Ruiners took the series. Although it didn't affect the outcome, Go10 defeated august in DPP, notching his first SPL win after an oft-made-fun-of 0-6.

The series started off with week 1 wonder Stone_Cold facing Bad Ass in DPP OU, with Bad Ass's Rain Dance Kingdra emerging victorious against Stone's offense. Isa tied it up with Ice Beam Slowbro nabbing a clutch freeze in his RBY series against Raish, but the Classiest took the lead when Mr.E beat Lavos Spawn in GSC, the latter citing luck as the main factor for his defeat, though not without reason as the frequent lynch mobs tend to ignore; some unfixed PS mechanics were revealed in the match as well, although they had significantly less bearing on the outcome. Most recent Grand Slam winner Lowgock took out IronBullet93 in UU, with much help from Granbull dodging an Entei Sacred Fire burn and critting Earthquake back. KratosMana defeated Henry in OU with a peculiar Greninja set. Rising star chimpact subbed in for CTC and defeated Aqualouis in BW OU, with Hydreigon managing to KO Scizor with Fire Blast even in rain. Down in the series, the Scooters needed to begin winning. Recent Doubles phenom Lohgock stepped up and delivered against former Scooter Braverius in the face of double Rock Slide flinches. Afterwards, the turning point of the series came.

#1 NU player CasedVictory followed with a win against FLCL, using the opportunity to remind everyone what his name was. In the last turns of the match, Classiest manager kokoloko prayed to his co-manager, well-known "lucky sack of aids" ShakeItUp (aka -Tsunami-), for some crits, which prompted Cased to demand that koko "eat [his] cock" in response. koko, to the chagrin of his team he cursed as a result and the disgust of everyone else, chose to infract Cased, putting him one infraction away from being banned. There was an uproar, with several users citing the UU tier leader as "bitch-made" and others chastising him for abusing his super moderator powers. With what some call "divine punishment" ready to strike, the Scooters continued surging; Alf', also known as DarkLoïc, narrowly edged out Triangles in an excellent ADV bout. Triangles' Jynx did miss Lovely Kiss against Swampert and bit the dust from the impending Earthquake, which could've made for a different battle, but neither player made great fuss about it, rare examples of good sportsmanship in a tournament that Fireburn once described as "the quickest way to turn men into boys."

Former Scooters RU icon Windsong cemented his return with a win over Hikari / Bad Romance in a rematch from SPL 3 semifinals, his Specs Jolteon Thunderbolting everything in sight. With the score at 5-5, Swedish XY Uber titan Hack faced off against DPP Uber legend Jibaku, a cornerstone of the championship SPL 1 Scooters. Hack continuously missed Toxic and as a result was unable to do much of anything, so the Classiest guaranteed a tie at the very least, with the remaining battle being DPP hyper offense creator Stathakis against one of the most highly touted new prospects, ben gay, in standard OU. In one of the closest games we're likely to see all SPL, Stathakis managed to pull out a victory, ending the series in a tie.

The Raiders got off to a very fast start, with Mizuhime's Tornadus powering through TFC's team rather quickly. Steve Angello's boosted Xerneas was robbed of a chance to do anything by triple full paralysis against Problems' Klefki; however, Angello's Excadrill channeled pi face's legendary Genesect from SPL 4, Problems' Gliscor flinching as easily as Donkey's Fightceus did, and Angello was the victor. marcoasd got some ground back for the Falcons by defeating The_Chaser in RBY, and Pridy neglecting to immediately mega evolve his Sableye led to Toxzn's Tentacruel stacking Toxic Spikes against his stall team, leading to defeat. PO UU wonder JeyTheGrey defeated bugzinator, making note of the extremely interesting fact that the battle took 69 (LOL!) turns to complete in his win post. Dat Blast used a team he had posted on the forums but it didn't stop him from winning against meeps. Known RBYer Bomber92 took down "master memer" Bedschibaer, who is believed to average 50 likes per post, in GSC. High Impulse, who plays on his phone, disconnected from PO in his BW match against Leftiez, who granted a replay but took the win when HI disconnected again.

In a battle of high-level DPPers, TV-Rocka's signature Custap Heatran gave him the win over Marshall.Law. RU star New Breed won against returning RU player Pearl, leaving the Raiders with a 6-4 lead; however, the Falcons had two of their best players left. Reigning Smogon Tour champion Tesung continued his hot streak by defeating another recent up-and-comer, Lyconik. This left the fate of the series to another Smogon Tour winner and last year's ADV superstar, Golden Sun, who came up clutch and tied the week for the Falcons by defeating kael.

The greatest record in a single season is 11-0. Perhaps even more impressive is the luck possessed by the player who holds that record. Kidding aside, blarajan started the Sharks off strong; fueled by rage at Little Cup being excluded from SPL this season, he defeated blunder in NU. aim tied the series back up for the Wolfpack by defeating Edgar in Ubers, and Tamahome, aka DracoMalfoy, gave them the lead by defeating Heist in a game where the latter's own crit worked against him. radianthero156 extended the lead by winning against renowned UUer Limitless in a pretty interesting battle, and Mencemeat's SD Gliscor proved to be the decider in a stall v. stall matchup against CyberOdin.

Renowned GSCer Conflict, who is famous for being one of the few people who actually enjoy BW OU, defeated Shoka with an interesting Magnezone set; VGC player SnakesOnAPlane defeated former SPL commissioner, Nugget Bridge admin, and VGC commentator Synre in Doubles; and the legendary husk returned with a bang by narrowly defeating modern ADV star Danilo, whose decision to switch out his Rock Sliding Aerodactyl in fear of missing allowed husk's Curse Snorlax to set up and sweep. gene, aka G80, continued the Sharks' comeback by defeating The_Joker in RBY, and M Dragon continued the old gen wins with a victory over Colchonero. Calloflochie brought one back for the Wolves by defeating Hot N Cold in RU and securing a tie; Adam, aka Yusuke, couldn't make his battle so Asuya was subbed in to fight Inflikted, whose Acid Spray Tentacruel proved to be decisive in the victory, leaving the week tied.

Everyone's favorite Doubles stud from last season, Laga, started this series and all of SPL off defeating Biosci, with his Mega Diancie's Diamond Storm giving the 50% +1 Defense boost like its life depended on it, which it very much did - after several boosts it only took 45% from a quad-effective STAB Jirachi Iron Head. namehtmas, who surprised everyone by revealing his name was actually sam the man spelled backwards (and for everyone's sake had it changed to Sam), defeated Omfuga in UU. Soulgazer narrowly won against Doubles Circuit winner Tricking in NU, putting the Tigers on the board, but Brazilian phenom Destiny Device, who came out of nowhere to go 5-0 in WCoP and make top 4 in Smogon Tour 18, won his SPL debut against the returning MOET. Sinclair, also known as the PO OUTL, beat sebixxl in an OU battle with interesting Pokemon choices on both sides.

Legendary modern GSCer Jorgen surprised many by bringing Baton Pass to his GSC game; it started off by Smeargle Baton Passing an Agility to a Meditate Machamp which broke a lot of Royal Flush's team. The battle came to somewhat of a standstill as RF's Umbreon continuously Charmed Jorgen's Scizor's Swords Dances, but it was an exercise in futility because Jorgen's Marowak cleaned up with ease. Jirachee's CB Garchomp opened holes for his Alakazam to clean in BW against OST 8 runner-up Thatsjustpeachy; emergency BIGs RBYer MetalGro$$ surprised many by taking down the veteran Floppy. McMeghan clinched the win for the BIGs by defeating undisputed; the game had some instances of luck but was well-fought on both sides and ultimately came down to whether undisputed's Suicune could roll Surf with Sleep Talk. It didn't, and McMeghan's Metagross Exploded for the win.

Ginku continued the BIGs' winning ways by defeating FAJI, aka Wepwn, but Fakes took a game for the Tigers in a drawn-out DPP battle against boudouche. Young French Ubers player Evuelf finished off the series by winning his debut against Ubers tier leader Fireburn with Mega Mewtwo Y, his last, taking out paralyzed Xerneas and a weakened Rock Arceus.

Amidst all the inter-team rivalry, everyone took a moment out to keep Adam, who had been in a car accident, in their thoughts; it was extraordinarily touching. Adam was quoted as saying that it "literally made [him] cry," which may or may not have brought a tear or two to the eyes of SPL participants, spectators, and English language purists alike. We all hope you get better, Adam, and commend you on doing what was previously thought impossible - bringing everyone in SPL together. Granted, it did take a near-catastrophe, but still.

"I would say I'd finish what the car accident started but that'd be a dick move, sucks because it's the perfect piece of trash talk" ~Stathakis

Note: what goes around comes around. Stathakis nearly died on the highway two weeks later, but was able to keep a cool head - a skill he hasn't yet fully been able to transfer into Pokemon battles.

blarajan took his first loss since week 9 of SPL 4 in his NU battle against FLCL in a game with luck on both sides; FLCL claimed he didn't deserve to win but blara shook it off in a sportsmanlike manner. Heist took one back for the Sharks, his balance team fending off Bad Ass's offense. Braverius recovered from a rough early game to sweep Synre with Belly Drum Azumarill, making creative use of Mew's Transform to gain a second Amoonguss. Lowgock won against one of the best UUers from the DPP and BW days, FlareBlitz, proving once more his run in Grand Slam was no fluke. Hikari defeated Hot N Cold and Jibaku continued the streak of Classiest wins by beating Edgar with smart use of Ho-Oh.

M Dragon won one for the Sharks and Mr.E, known for his ceaseless stream of bitching, surpassed expectations and blessed the thread with a dissertation on the ridiculously unwinnable team matchup he faced and why the sets he wasn't able to beat were ridiculous; lesser minds like CasedVictory were unable to respond with anything wittier than a "shut up lol" while others such as Floppy were absolutely incredulous at the audacity it took to bring Sleep Talk Roar Suicune.

Triangles beat husk with help from Starmie's Hydro Pump being less than accurate, and Kevin Garrett won against KratosMana. ben gay returned the favor by beating Inflikted's HO with his rain team, Power-up Punch Mega Swampert cleaning up and winning the week for the Classiest. CTC's Specs Salamence caught Conflict off guard, demolishing the Gliscor switch-in with Hydro Pump, and a Draco Meteor crit on Heatran after a miss on Jellicent sealed the deal; since that battle, CTC's made it his mission to quote The Godfather as much as possible and has assumed a new persona of Don Corleone. Raish defeated gene to finish the series.

Mizuhime got her team off to a quick lead again, her rain prevailing over Arcticblast's sun; SoulWind tied it up with a win over Leftiez, and Bouffalant was looking to have a win against New Breed but used Leaf Storm instead of the safe Hidden Power Fire and missed. Steelphoenix tied the score by winning an incredible game against Steve Angello, where the former BW2 superstar Genesect proved its worth. PDC took one off Pridy, who chose a 90% Heat Wave in lieu of the 100% accurate Knock Off against Gengar and paid the price for it. Meru chalked up another win, his SubCM Suicune creating a huge hole in JeyTheGrey's team early on that he was able to exploit.

Dat Blast brought one back for the Raiders against Annoyer, and The Chaser followed suit with a win over Hantsuki. august defeated Marshall Law, who had some rough luck early-game and was screwed later on by his Scarf Infernape's Fire Blast missing. Lyconik beat Sugarhigh in a quick match where Nasty Plot passing to Rock Polish Mega Diancie ended the game.

With the score at 5-5, the real kicker of the series began with the GSC match between Tiba and Bedschibaer. Some luck took Tiba's win condition, Snorlax, out of commission and eventually the battle came down to a standstill: Bedschibaer's Zapdos using Struggle and Leftovers out-healing the recoil damage, while Tiba opted to switch between his remaining 5 Pokemon rather than kill it and let Bedschibaer's last Pokemon Snorlax set up, which he could only beat with Special Defense drops from Tyranitar's Crunch. Not liking those odds, he chose to instead stall until PO's 1024 turn limit ended the battle, forcing the tie. Some were outraged at this, claiming Bedschibaer's continuous Struggling would've eventually drained all of Tiba's Pokemon of their PP trying to heal against it, and that the PO turn limit saved Tiba from a loss. During the battle, dekzeh defeated kael's substitute, e7e, with a CurseLax that e7e's stall team had no phazer for, securing the tie for the Ruiners. The Tiba-Bedschibaer game was ruled a tie and they rematched, Tiba winning, proceeding to piss off many people with some very rude words, and giving the Ruiners the win for the series.

Finchinator's recent breakout performance continued into his SPL debut as he started the BIGs off with a win over meeps in a battle that had his assistant manager, harsha, wondering whether the opposing Torterra packed Earthquake and launching the week's thread into debates as to who really used Mantine first after Cased had achieved Victory with a Specs set the previous week. Ginku won against Pearl, MetalGro$$ beat marcoasd and Laga beat TFC. However, the streaking BIGs were about to be brought to a halt; bugzinator started the Falcons comeback with a win over Sam and Destiny Device messed up a won game against Toxzn, who had been leaked DD's previous team by KratosMana (who was given a two-week suspension as punishment) and as such brought the rather odd Agility + Hammer Arm Mega Metagross. Problems defeated Evuelf, and suddenly the 4-0 lead was cut to 4-3.

It was at this point that the tension between the two teams exploded; High Impulse's Tyranitar double-defense-dropped Jirachee's Gastrodon before critting Landorus-T with -1 Crunch, robbing Jirachee of a sure win. To add insult to injury, Jirachee still could've won but HI's Specs Latias Draco Meteor rolled high and Gastrodon was taken out. This was frustrating enough as is but was made even worse for everyone, not just the BIGs, by the Falcons vehemently denying that the luck mattered. It escalated when High Impulse falsely said that Latias outright OHKOed Gastrodon and that Tyranitar would've killed Landorus-T anyway when calcs proved otherwise, calling those who didn't believe him "silly cunts," but the Falcons refused to admit they were wrong and instantly earned the ridicule of many. Bomber then proceeded to get so much full paralysis and so many crits against Royal Flush that even professional mathematicians would've had trouble calculating the odds.

McMeghan evened the score with a big win against Golden Sun, making use of a creative Aerodactyl set, and boudouche gave the BIGs the security of a tie with a win over TV-Rocka. However Sinclair couldn't handle Tesung's Volcarona and the series ended in a tie, much to the annoyance of everyone not on the Falcons.

Lavos started the series off against Colchonero, both players eager to not fall into the dreaded 0-2 territory. Approximately a million turns later, they decided to draw and rematch at a later time, causing disappointment in quantities so great they could be likened to the masses of crushed Seahawks fans after Super Bowl XLIX. Shortly afterwards, Mencemeat notched another win in a close match against Henry. Lavos tied the score by winning his rematch against Colch with favorable luck, which he attributed to his willingness to attack repeatedly as opposed to spamming Rest. IronBullet's Stoutland cleaned up the remains of radianthero's weakened team after a fine battle, while Isa lost to The_Joker in an RBY freeze fest. Cased defeated blunder, citing a flinch and a miss that helped him out in an otherwise solid battle, and blunder received encouragement from those who recognized the good game he played that his luck would pick up soon.

Tamahome rode his Zapdos and Jirachi to victory against Honor, while soul_survivor beat Lohgock. Windsong got a clutch win against Calloflochie in a tight battle that came down to Scald burning and Aqualouis's surprise HP Fire Celebi turned Shoka's cautiousness into a thrown win. Hack had an early double-switch into Ho-Oh caught by Stone Edge, but recovered and played very impressively throughout the rest of the battle to win against aim, securing the tie. Stathakis's Mega Metagross took a burn from Adam's Mega Gardevoir early in the game, which made the game look quite bleak for the Scooters, but he fought tooth and nail and Togekiss pulled through for the W. Alf's physical offense defeated Danilo's trap team to end the series at 8-4.

Spirit, determined to make up for his lackluster performance the week before, set the tone for the week quickly; luring in Moltres with Durant and nailing it with a Rock Slide, he was able to defeat FAJI. sebixxl tied up the score by defeating Reymedy in a very close match, with the lesser-seen Life Orb Tornadus-T proving pivotal. It was at this point that this week's main event, drama that would make Vince Gilligan cry, was about to unfold.

The BW match for this series was between two of the metagame's most respected players - Ojama and Thatsjustpeachy. Both are known for being highly skilled and in some instances extremely unlucky. Fortuna was smiling down on Ojama when this match was played because ShakeItUp at the top of his game wishes he could've had the kind of luck displayed in this match—despite the multiple Will-o-Wisp misses, back-to-back Icicle Crash flinches, and ungodly amounts of full paralysis, Peachy still looked to have it won, but Mamoswine continued its merciless assault and crit Breloom with Earthquake, putting the game away—it was later dubbed as a "masterpiece" by Ojama himself, whose Swagger Tornadus caught the attention of many spectators, although the one confusion it caused didn't affect anything.

Peachy's loss post contained a sarcastic reference to Ojama's "advanced tactics" - and understandably so after the way she'd just lost. Ojama's fellow Frenchmen (and Pwnemon) posted #JeSuisPeachy in (mock?) outrage of the brutal hax their countryman had just administered. One in particular, Aqualouis, posted a picture of salt directly in response to Peachy's post, and it was deleted by Tigers manager tennisace—while it wasn't exactly a post that warrants 100% deletion, it wasn't exactly a big deal either. However, Aqualouis is not one to give up at the first sign of resistance, so he posted the picture not once, not twice, but five more times! Eventually tennisace had enough and banned him for repeatedly doing something he'd been told not to do. Ginku immediately appeared to dub the incident as "kindergarden shit." Mt. Aldaron went from a dormant to an active volcano in the blink of an eye.

Eventually, it was agreed that a ban was slightly harsh and Aqua was let off with an unsportsmanlike conduct infraction. It didn't take long for the imaginative Frenchmen to start chanting #JeSuisAqualouis instead, while Laga chimed in with a "SACREBLEU" to the disappointment of everyone expecting the standard foreign response of c'est la vie.

Lutra advanced the score to 3-1 with a victory over Floppy and Soulgazer made it 3-2 with a win against giara, but that would be the last win the Tigers would get in the series, as the Cryos proceeded to win the next 7.

The week started off by Lavos displaying that despite having done this tournaments thing for nearly three years, he still couldn't figure out timezones; he claimed to be playing Bedschibaer at 11 AM EST, 6 PM GMT +1, and had to be corrected by Vinc2612. What a dumbass...

Lavos started the Scooters by winning a great bout with Bedschibaer, where Belly Drum Charizard couldn't quite get the job done, and Honor defeated Marshall Law's Custap Rampardos team soon afterwards. liberty32 beat Leftiez, who was unhappy with Mega Slowbro's Scald critting his Gliscor and asked the chat if they thought he was sacrificing it; however, it was liberty who took it upon himself to answer "yes" as he quaked in fear at the HP Fire Ferrothorn he was facing. Here's an excerpt from Scooters co-manager CrashinBoomBang's reaction to liberty's Tyranitar nickname:

[19:26] <~cbb> idk why i find it so funny
[19:26] <~cbb> that the ttar
[19:26] <~cbb> is named "hood"
[19:26] <@windsong> nice damage
[19:26] <~cbb> lmao
[19:26] <~gengar> rofl
[19:26] <~cbb> i cant stop
[19:26] <~cbb> laughing
[19:26] <~gengar> hood the ttar
[19:26] <~cbb> whys it named hood
[19:26] <~cbb> hahahaha

He was so enamored by it that he decided to take a screenshot and post it in the thread.

CasedVictory looked to have a win against Dat Blast, but the ever-tricky Zarel had other plans, rigging Showdown to click Rock Polish instead of Earthquake and losing Cased the game. Isa extended the lead to 4-1 with a win against The_Chaser, but the Raiders weren't going down without a fight; Steve Angello came out on top against Stathakis, New Breed capitalized on a mistake by Windsong to win, and Alf' apologized to his team for his poor play in his battle against kael, a rarity in an age where one almost never sees a player take responsibility for a loss. Suddenly, the series was tied.

Lyconik disappeared in his battle and didn't come back, so after an hour of waiting Aqua was granted the W. IronBullet won against Emvee in a speed-tie-riddled game, guaranteeing the tie, and Lohgock's Trick Room team beat Mizuhime to give the Scooters their second straight win. Hack's offense overwhelmed Melee Mewtwo's balance to end the series.

Go10 opened the series by extending his win streak, defeating Heist in a battle of Nidoqueen semi-stalls. VGCer Zubat tied it with a win against kingofmars in a haxy game, and badabing took the lead right back by winning his UU debut against Limitless, claiming to have "shat on" the poor hairstylist. gene tied the series by defeating Lutra and blarajan gave the Sharks the lead by beating giara, a lead extended by Inflikted's win over Reymedy. Edgar kept the wins coming with his GeoXern + EKiller finishing malefic off, making the score 5-2 in the Sharks' favor and in the process avoiding decapitation by angry cartel members that an 0-3 record would've gotten him.

Ojama began the Cryos comeback with some luck helping out against "berry master" Conflict, whose knack for choosing the correct resist berry was on full display as Chople Heatran survived Terrakion's Close Combat and Earth Powered it into dust. Picollo continued it, defeating M Dragon in an intense back-and-forth battle with some interesting choices of Dragonite, Quagsire, and Heracross on the maestro's end. The gods of neutral luck were looking the other way when Spirit played Hot N Cold, with some crucial end-game luck losing the game for the Spaniard—suddenly, the series was tied at 5-5. BKC beat husk in a good fight with some crits helping out, putting the Cryos ahead and guaranteeing the tie, and it was at this point that some drama unfolded.

Kevin Garrett said he'd be on for his OU match against Living So Zambian between 6-7 PM, and didn't show up. Zambian left at 7:30, and KG appeared at 7:35. In the past, this sort of thing would be a clear activity win; however, all but one of the tournament directors decided to grant an extension, and Kevin_G was able to win, netting the Sharks a tie.

Finchinator started the BIGs off with a win again, taking down FLCL, and boudouche defeated Bad Ass in an excellent DPP game where the only noticeable flaw was neither side packing a Fighting resist. Braverius took one for the Classiest by defeating Laga and chimpact tied the score with a win over Sinclair. Sam put the BIGs back ahead by delivering Lowgock's first loss, and ben gay's Toxic Spikes were too much for Destiny Device to overcome. The back-and-forth tug-of-war between the two teams grew ever more intense as Ginku overcame a poor matchup against Hikari with some luck and a misclick by the latter, while MetalGro$$ continued to win in RBY, partly due to the 3rd game of the series being played on the PO main server which happened to restart when Raish had a good position. Metal's win post was his 100th, which he celebrated by giving shoutouts.

Triangles showed the hints of greatness he'd displayed last season coming into full force in his win against McMeghan, a great game on both ends that came down to the wire. Evuelf took down Jibaku, securing the tie, and Jirachee's Scarf Scizor + Expert Belt Keldeo muscled through CTC in an offense v. offense battle, netting the BIGs the win. Mr.E won the last match with a Snorlax-less team, thus completely destroying everyone's expectations for its 100% usage and 50% win rate.

Peachy got the series going by winning in BW against Asuya, who was sorely disappointed by the way the "date" went. Biosci put another one up for the Tigers by winning against SnakesOnAPlane, and Fireburn nabbed his first win against aim, with Darkrai being a key player. Jorgen's win extended the Tigers lead to 4-0 and prompted Wolfpack ADVer Danilo to quip "we getting owned" while Colchonero lamented his lack of usefulness. JabbaTheGriffin won against radianthero with the power of Haxorus, a relic to the days of legendary BW team Enter the Dragon.

Calloflochie finally got the Wolfpack on the board with a win against the struggling Omfuga, quoting Tigers co-manager Valentine who'd made an off-hand comment describing anyone expecting Callo to win as "mental". Mencemeat continued to be impressive, winning against sebixxl, but Fakes won against Tamahome in a marathon battle that came down to PP stall, guaranteeting a tie at worst for the Tigers. blunder's hard work paid off and he finally got his first SPL win—against Soulgazer, the #2 NU player no less—but undisputed's turn 1 Metagross Explosion catching Suicune and nice maneuvering with Camerupt helped him break through Danilo's stall team, getting the win for the Tigers. Floppy beat Raichy with his trusty Electric-types and teambuilder extraordinaire The DragonKnight won his debut against Adam, who gave him his blessing after the match.

The red-hot SoulWind started the week off by defeating High Impulse, his Jirachi surviving Landorus-T's Earthquake for the win, and Lady Bug followed with a win against Toxzn, making unique use of Togekiss and Jolteon. Pearl put the Falcons on the board with a victory against Bouffalant, but dekzeh was able to beat Golden Sun, who used Rain Dance with his Kingdra instead of Surf against Gengar and Tyranitar for fear of Destiny Bond and got crit which turned the end into a 50/50. Steelphoenix continued the ruinage by defeating Problems in an impossible matchup, prompting the Brit to leave Steel with a curt "good game you piece of shit" before forfeiting. Teddeh won his debut against meeps, Hantsuki defeated marcoasd, and the Ruiners were already out to a 6-1 lead.

TV-Rocka beat august in a fine match to get one back for the Falcons. Tesung did the same against PDC with luck that became the envy of everyone immediately—he accidentally selected the wrong team and it happened to have a perfect matchup. However, Meru got the Ruiners their third consecutive win by defeating bugzinator, with Slowking putting in work even when afflicted by a layer of Toxic Spikes. TFC won against Sekiam and Tiba beat Bomber to finish the series.

The drama from the Falcons-BIGs series was nothing compared to the Falcons-Scooters one; manager Texas Cloverleaf was consistently at the forefront attempting to out-stubborn his forerunner LonelyNess while having his ASB past mocked by CasedVictory, prompting GSC icon Jorgen to query as to what the shit it was.

Floppy set the tone by winning against The Chaser despite some unfortunate events and quipping "ayy tigres lmao" to get his team fired up. This inspired FAJI, back after a week on the bench, to get his first win and hand New Breed his first loss. Lunar, Tiger staple and emergency Doubles sub, surprised many by beating Mizuhime, although a flinch did help. The DragonKnight continued to show teambuilding wasn't the only thing he was good at with a win over Leftiez, and the Tigers were immediately up 4-0.

Steve Angello put the Raiders on the board with a win against sebixxl in a tight match, but Fakes continued to win, beating Marshall.Law although a Draco Meteor miss certainly helped. Peachy continued the onslaught by defeating Lyconik, and Soulgazer handed Dat Blast his first loss, winning the series. Bedschibaer was able to give the Raiders another win but the Tigers won the last three games, finishing the series at 10-2.

radianthero started the week by beating badabing, his Taunt Mega Aerodactyl playing a key role. BKC tied it up by defeating Danilo in an incredibly tight battle with luck exchanged on both ends, but aim took the lead back for the Wolves with a win over malefic. Lutra tied it up with a win against The_Joker, and Ojama beat Shoka to give the Cryos the lead, which giara extended by beating blunder. Tamahome ended Go10's win streak in quite a haxy battle, cutting the Cryos lead to one, but Picollo boosted it to two by netting his third straight win, beating Colchonero. Living So Zambian gave Mencemeat his first loss, but the Wolfpack rallied, starting with Adam defeating Reymedy, continuing with Calloflochie beating Spirit, and culminating in soul_survivor's narrow victory over kingofmars. Adam was quoted as being "actually horny", as opposed to not actually being horny.

Tesung started the week by winning a very close game against liberty32, his burned Tyranitar persistently hitting Stone Edge against liberty's Roosting Talonflame. Lavos tied it up by barely edging out Bomber in a very close fight, but marcoasd gave the edge to the Falcons again, beating Isa. Lohgock continued to play impressively, defeating TFC, but Henry's unique rain couldn't overcome Toxzn's troublesome SubToxic Jirachi, and again the Falcons took a 1-game lead. A drunken CrashinBoomBang publicly admonished him and sarcastically called the battle a "classic," but once sober became aghast at what he'd done and begged his player for forgiveness. Soon after, Pwnemon stated that the goddess Kaley Cuoco was "built like a man" and confirmed his non-heterosexuality.

Golden Sun extended the lead to two games with a win in a solid match against Alf, but IronBullet cut it to one, defeating bugzinator. High Impulse beat Aqualouis to bring it back to two, and at this 5-3 Falcons lead, a huge fight erupted in #spl, the highlights of which can be seen here.

Problems beat Hack, securing the tie, while Cased came out on top against meeps, keeping the Scooters alive. However, Pearl beat emergency RU sub Stathakis and the Falcons took the series. TV-Rocka beat Honor in an odd match where both players used the rarely-seen Tentacruel, and Honor sending out Empoleon got it killed by Rocka's unrevealed Magnezone.

Hantsuki kickstarted the Ruiners' week by beating Raish in RBY and FLCL responded with a win against Teddeh. ben gay turned heads by beating Lady Bug with a SmashPass team that had a Pikachu-Belle (for those lucky enough to be ignorant on the subject, it's the one that wears a dress). Bouffalant defeated Hikari with some Fire Blast misses, earning the nickname "Bouffaluck" and spurring Tokyo Tom to post "FUCK BOOF"; we're still not sure if he accidentally put caps lock on or if he really was that agitated.

Jibaku ended Steelphoenix's bid for a 4-0, all the while complaining about how the match took time away from watching League of Legends. Emergency Doubles player IFM defeated Braverius, and Meru dropped his first game, against Lowgock. Unfortunately the curse of koko got the best of Triangles, who was in a very good position after removing dekzeh's Blissey; Blaze-range Charizard missing Fire Blast against Claydol helped him with a free turn for Suicune, but that missed Hydro Pump on the Skarmory switch-in ended the match. SoulWind managed to miss Focus Blast, Will-o-Wisp, and two more Focus Blasts in what started as a solid battle against CTC and ended in a bulky SD Scizor sweep.

august started his match against Bad Ass before realizing he didn't have EVs on one of his Pokemon. Since he had sent his team in, he was allowed to rematch; however, after Bad Ass left the first battle, august's teammate Tiba joined in his stead, allowing him to see Bad Ass's whole team. This was something so against the rules that not even the Sharks could've gotten out of it, and Tiba was suspended for three weeks starting week five. august proceeded to win the match, as Bad Ass's team struggled with Blissey; non-LO Gengar's Explosion couldn't quite do the trick. With the score at 5-5 and Tiba coming to bat, it's probably safe to say that the Ruiners were pretty confident in at least a tie and most likely a win. However, after 15 straight victories, Tiba lost to Mr.E in a game with both sides choking so hard they were comparable to the most recent Super Bowl that concluded not too long prior to the game. Thus it was up to PDC to beat chimpact's substitute, Key, to tie the score for the Ruiners, and that he did, with some assistance from some very well-timed critical hits.

Laga's Gyarados assisted him in taking down Zubat to kick things off, and Heist's double blob stall team outlasted boudouche's bulky offense. Finchinator continued to win, taking down blarajan, and Sam got some luck in his win, sending Limitless back to retirement; he hasn't been seen since posting "yea fuck this game i'm done." Hot N Cold finally got a W on the board by defeating the 3-0 Ginku, proclaiming that Scarf Drapion had made a return, while everyone else wondered when it'd ever been been a thing at all.

Destiny Device defeated Kevin Garrett, while gene ended MetalGro$$'s win streak. McMeghan used dekzeh's legendary CM spam to overwhelm husk, and Evuelf guaranteed a tie for the BIGs with Hypnosis Mega Gengar proving too much for Edgar. The Sharks looked to up-and-comer Inflikted to keep their hopes of a tie alive but Sinclair stepped up and delivered, giving the BIGs the win. Conflict beat Jirachee, engaging in some braggadocio uncharacteristic of him before the battle was even over; the lack of sportsmanship on display was something not many were too happy about, and we all hope it doesn't happen again. M Dragon kept everyone entertained by claiming Royal Flush was an hour late to their scheduled time, that he needed to go to bed because he had to wake up early, and proceeding to bring a hardcore stall team.