hey, i don't usually do sendoff posts but kaif is immune to doing these and he is salty over missing pult quals by 15 seconds so i'm doing this on his behalf as well
i'm definitely not the classic manager type, nor am i enthusiastic to manage; but kaif approached me with it asking me to be a co, and i ended up agreeing, partly cause it meant we would be guaranteed to be on the same team again. a big part of our plan was prioritising drafting people that we enjoyed teaming with, and getting budget players on the side that we could depend on to cover slots and click well. well, our draft plans kind of got hard contested and we ended up paying a ton for our players; but that's just the reality of an auction, and i think the quality of the players that we drafted had us pretty much satisfied with getting every member of our team. i think we drafted a pretty strong team by the end of the tour, and even if there's much to complain about, there's much to cherish from the experience.
in some order,
goldmason - we got you in for adv on pretty much no notice and we're happy for your commitment to the tier immediately after being drafted. i think some fraction of bad luck mixed with some sequencing got us on the wrong end in a couple of games, but it wasn't for lack of prep and i'm glad you put in the effort. no hard feelings. hope you keep having a great time with the adv gang :> btw shoutouts to all of you for stepping into cord it was great ^^ (special tag
LRXC for popping in for help whenever free, ty)
Fragments - you got us some pretty neat wins in the group stage; i think rfning semis without prep behind it was definitely a step in the wrong direction but it's hard to say if that would've changed the outcome. you're a reliable player and you won every game when i was asleep / waking up so it felt nice to see the scoreboard bump up on a sunday morning.
lolebruh - you're a crazy steal for 3k and a demon to boot, i'm unsure why we got you for basically free and your close series was just amazing, not many people can lock in at 0-3 and bring it down to a clincher. i'd hope that you find a great home to play in in future team tours because your mental strength and clicking was top notch this tour.
gorilaa - tough tour, you were on the wrong end of a lot of bs this tour but i'm sure you'll come back strong whenever, you're still a top notch player and this tour doesn't change that. maybe if our squad was more flexible we could've rotated you into ss as well but yeah, good luck and hope to see you again.
STABLE - first off, welcome back !_! i'll take ownership of your loss from not letting you rfn with teams week 4, but aside that i was pretty impressed with your prep this tour and i'm sure you would've killed it if you were able to play in semis, i think there were some tart moments but hopefully you're here to stay, look forward to seeing you in future tours and beating the allegations (whatever they are). good luck on your project too, btw ^^
Nuxl - it feels a bit awful for things to end this way cause there's no better way to reward a breakout tour, than with a chip; but that's how things shook out. you killed it both in tests and in the actual games (the clicks you made were clinical + clinically insane) and impressed the whole team; that aside i don't know how you spawned in with like 0 1v1 games and became a god builder in dpp of all gens, good run and you're due for more in the future. also see you as a 20k in pl for no reason whatsoever? that aside you're a really nice person to team with from support to being super fun to team with. go crazy my guy
Potatochan - basically we spawned in with an extra manager slot and probs the best support you could ask for regardless of gens, i think your record is a poor reflection of how well you played for obvious reasons, you're not washed and your squirtell series really put the clockwork into action for our week 5. you easily have the most lines in the cord and carried multiple gens; you were worth every penny of your pricetag imo.
(is this enough bribery to not get my lines turned into a doc this tour???? ) but jokes aside you were vital to our draft and really joined the dots on our team, it's rough you either don't get the best recognition or that people judge you off the games you troll but this tour was a good reminder of where you deserve to be seen. there's a reason teamtours have a jacob tax, you've earned your stripes.
Kaif - you're an excellent manager and a great judge of potential; your record will never change that, but if it matters i had full faith in you to win out w5/semis, i think you're still not the most comfortable with any old gen to commit to while wanting the same degree of perfection as a mainer wrt how you build, i think if you blindly used teams and outclicked you'd be doing a lot better in most of the games you played. you have my permission to go win gc though. obviously you did a ton for the team mental wise and you're a great voice of reason off the books, look forward to how things shake out from here on?
my slot - i came in with little motivation to actually play oras because i've been playing it for like 3 teamtours straight? and inspiration is really hard to sustain versus opponents you don't have a clear idea of what to prep with. the last series i played vs Taka was the most satisfying game I played this tour because of the confidence i had in the teams i loaded; a long overdue shoutout to
eblurb for building teams i loaded in the semis and them really feeling strong to to click with. just like he popped in to help for wc finals and ogpl 1 successfully, his teams were a way to get out of the holes i was in prep wise. thanks emil.
overall i think maybe we should've donated to more orphanages e.g to secure our win this week but i can't really complain about mons being mons; it was a good week to play and i think these were hype matchups regardless. good luck to both the frosmoths and the spectres in finals, yeah
peace out