Tournament Battle Stadium Premier League V - Commencement Thread

[DragonWhale]

An issue that came up during Marilli vs Mr. GX that I wanted to bring to your attention, because I dont think we have made a ruling for this DragonWhale

Since we are playing with VGC2020 to be in place of Battle Spot Doubles, how do we go about setting timer for matches? The VGC timer is a LOT shorter than the one for normal smogon tours, so do we just play with no timer, or do we have a way of modifying the time so its not like 30 seconds a turn?

First of all there was no issue.

Second of all doubles players are very well aware of vgc timer on showdown, and signed up knowing it was vgc. Whether the timer is turned on or off is up to the players' discretion.

Im requesting to have the ponies get a replacement player for me, I sustained a physical injury and do not feel capable of playing anymore, I don’t want the whole team to be hindered because I can’t play

ok. I will make the post in the admin thread.

 

[Moose And Goose]

*Tut tut*
Well hello there! This is your favorite host of your favorite forum poster: Me! Heatmor!
*wild applause*
I'm here with my co-host Pyukumuku to present to you:
*drum roll*

Heatmor's Hotness Meter and Pyukumuku's Power PlayZ

Here we'll be looking at the heatest heat and the most pyukuowerful play this week! We are here to please!
Squish squish (in a totally arbitrary and probably objectively wrong fashion!)
*pauses staring blankly at Pyukumuku* ... *Turns to "camera"* Let's start off with this week's Heat!

Heatmor's Heat

Overall emotion for this week's heat:

The winner of Heatmor's Hottest Team goes to EmbCPT! Their team featuring roserade was overall the hottest team this week, with Coconut's Wishiwashi team, but roserade performed much better in its respective match. Speaking of which here it is:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8vgc2020-1087527983

You can clearly see that Roserade is pretty interesting in this matchup, acting as an amoonguss with a speed stat above -2 *ba dum tsss*! Haha get it cause Amoonguss is slow!
squishes angrily (This is why we don't let you write your own jokes)
Hey! it's True! an Amoonguss chased me around as a kid when I first learned ember and I got a litle too adventurous. I realized quickly that it wasn't chasing me; I was running circles around it!
Ahm. Anyways Roserade also ends up acting as an Amoo: throwing sludge and whipping up leaves (not to mention sleepy strats)!

Pyukumuku's Power PlayZ

Squishhy Squoosh Squash squish splort (Ironically despite being named plural I'm too lazy to pick more than one because I'm writing the script! Take that corporate!)

Overall emotion for this week's Power PlayZ:

squish squish squishhity squoosh (The winner of this week's Power PlayZ is Puffkilla and Artic! In general the set played is a really cool set, lots of back and forth, and quite impressively: Puff's Fini being either very lucky, or very well EV trained considering it managed to survive on 1hp in two of the matches, unless I watche the same matches twice... Here's the replays!)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7battlespotsingles-1086986180
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7battlespotsingles-1086985900
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7battlespotsingles-1086986044

Hey Pyukumuku corporate sent a letter to you! It says you're getting a raise cause you did exactly what they asked for the first time!
*Squishes with immense sadness*

That's all for this week folks. Get ready for next week's Heat and Power PlayZ!
Enjoy some fun facts as we get ready to sign off. And Remember:
Have some great days, and make some fire playZ!
*The two high five enthusiastically as the credits begin to roll and the "camera" zooms out and the camera crew begins coming onto the set and happily begin to chatter*

Fun fact: In Demantoid vs calvonix and AuraRayquaza vs LightScreener ✘ 9 of the 12 mons brought in either game are the same!
Fun Fact #2: I spelled Pyukumuku correctly every single time I wrote it in this post! (you can give me a pat on the back for this one (or a ball guy react on discord))

 

[marilli]

So what EXACTLY is a cat? I present to you a cat alignment chart so you can quickly express your opinions on what exactly makes something a cat.

 

[The Squash]

 

[Ika Ika Musume]

This reminds me of what nearly (should have) happened in the Luxrays vs. Inkays games:

 

[Moose And Goose]

*Puffs a little jet of flames*
Well hello there! This is your favorite host of your favorite forum poster: Me! Heatmor! And Pyukumuku I guess.
*Wild Applause*
I'm here with my co-host Pyukumuku to present to you:
*drum roll*

Heatmor's Hotness Meter and Pyukumuku's Power PlayZ

squishhity squoosh (Where we not only are bringing you coverage on last week's hottest games, but also bringing it to you before anyone has played this week)!
squishh (squish squort) (Unfortunately this week our writer didn't fax us the transcript until about 3 minutes ago so we are going at it blind! (yeah we write this ourselves))
*mutters* thankfully we were hired for Battle Sunday Premier League...
Without further ado let's get to this week's hotness!

Heatmor's Heat

Overall emotion for this week's heat:

And the winner of Heatmor's Most Likely to Blow A Hot Breeze is cant say! Their GBU match this week could be considered quite FLY!
*crickets*
cause... ya know... Flying-Types?
cant say brings an intriguing lineup featuring Thundurus' slightly younger twin brother who isn't quite as good as him at anything but still tries really hard and deserves a good job medal AT LEAST! Not to mention the Fossil Pokémon Aerodactyl, who despite not making an appearance does a great job being menacing in the back. Here's the replay:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen5gbusingles-1091210793
Unfortunately our feel-good flappin' friends barely manage to take a loss after a solid showing with Tornadus picking up a KO.

Pyukumuku's Power Playz

Overall emotion for this week's Power PlayZ:

sqiush hsuiqs (The winners of this week's Power PlayZ is jmal98 and chemcoop! If you want a match with solid play every turn, and stakes higher than an alolan exeggutor you're coing to the right place. This match features a dance between jmal98's CM koko and chemcoop's Landorus trying to find space to get free turns to clean the game. Here are the replays!)
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7battlespotsingles-1091644273
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7battlespotsingles-1091644463
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7battlespotsingles-1091644603
squishy. (With the raise I got from corporate I think i'm going to buy a hot tub for the office... I think that'll be a nice addition. It's basically a free calm mind!)

That's all for this week folks. Get ready for next week's Heat and Power PlayZ!
Enjoy some fun facts as we get ready to sign off. And Remember:
Have some great days, and make some fire playZ!
*As the camera pans out on the side of the frame you can see two machamp with baseball hats reading "Champ Pools and Tubs", who are carrying in a hot tub and preparing to install it as Heatmor goes wide eyed and gives an uncomfortable smile. Meanwhile Pyukumuku is joyously squishing beside Heatmor*
Fun Fact: Hydro Pump was used 5 times this week. It went into protect 2 times, missed 2 times, and hit 1 time.
On that note congratz Mr.GX for being the only person to connect a hydro pump this week of BSPL!

 

[average fella]

scenic hax

 

[Ika Ika Musume]

Hydro Pump Hit Rate in BSPL - A Data Driven Analysis to why you should never use Pump


It has become a bit of a meme that, just like Stone Edge, Hydro Pump hits around 10% of the time. I've compiled data from BSPL to see whether we should actually be using this move or whether it is cursed.

According to Gamefreak, Hydropump should theoretically have an 80% hit rate so we shall see if this stacks up.


Week 1:

Jmal vs. Qsns - In game 1, Qsns hits his first pump with his Tapu Fini up against Jmal's Celesteela but then proceeds to miss his next one. For the rest of the match, he goes for Surf...wise choice. In Game 2, Qsns's first pump goes into protect so we will not count this but his second goes straight to the right...as does his third...and his fourth...and just as quickly as the games began, the set is over.

Aurarayquaza vs. Lightscreener - We see no more pump action until AuraRay vs. Lightscreener where AuraRay's Lapras manages to hit a pump in game 1 and in game 3. Good job Lapras.

Ika Ika Musume vs. Kaori - We then go to GBU where my Kingdra is not very well trained and misses a pump. Kingdra makes up for it by hitting a pump that doesn't matter at all later on in the match.

Eg0r vs. The Squash - The Squash's Rotom-W starts strong by hitting a pump and does it again in game 2, but unfortunately even with that luck it isn't enough and he ends up losing the set.

Kamikaze vs. 11oyd - In game 2, we see Kamikaze go for Hydro Pump with Rotom-Wash. Rotom-W is clearly not used to hitting Hydro Pumps and it misses the second pump, but fortunately for Kami, the third manages to hit. In SWSH, you can see players starting to adapt to Hydro Pumps miss rate by clicking the Dynamax button rather than miss pump and risk losing the game.

Noved vs. Megazard - Turn 3 of the GBU game, Noved swings for the hills with his Politoed...and he misses.

Zaaya vs. Chemcoop - Zaaya not only hits pump game 1 but crits it which is the first time this has happened. This luck does not last though, because Zaaya misses pump game 2 with his Fini when he desperately needed it to hit.

Mishiimono vs. Memoric - Lastly we have Mish vs. Memoric where Mish hits two pumps with his Rotom-W. Good Job Mish.

Hit Rate: 11/19 - 57.8%
Crit Rate: 1/19 - 5.2%


Week 2:

Raj.Shoot vs. The Squash - We start this week's pumping action with Raj vs. The Squash. Raj's Rotom-W misses Pump in game 1 and Raj wisely decides not to go for Pump again.

MisterGX vs. Mishiimono - MisterGX hits a Pump in game 3 against Mish, basically guaranteeing his win. This is the last time we will see Pump hit this week.

Cynara vs. Kamikaze - Cynara goes for a Hydro Pump game 1 with Rotom-W and misses it. It is at this point where I wonder whether this is a Rotom-Wash specific issue or just a general pump problem.

Memoric vs. Lightscreener - The last time we see Pump this week it goes straight into Memoric's Arcanines Protect so this doesn't count. The current adaptation to Hydro Pump's accuracy rate seems to be to Dynamax or not use it at all.

Hit Rate: 1/3 - 33.3%
Crit Rate: 0/3 - 0%


Week 3:

Ika Ika Musume vs. Psynergy - With all the above knowledge at my fingertips, I decide to take a big risk and use Hydro Pump in my USUM game vs. Psynergy. Of course it misses the first time and hits the second time. I specifically tech the Waterium-Z just so I don't miss the 3rd Pump.

Descending vs. 11oyd - We see Hydro Pump miss yet again in Game 1 of Descending vs. 11oyd where 11oyds Toxtricity skillfully dodges a Pump. One wonders though whether it's even skill at this point.

MisterGx vs. Umbreon098 - MisterGx goes for 5!!! Pumps game 1, going for broke, he hits 3 and misses 2. It's like this guy hasn't watched any of the previous BSPL games and learned that using Hydro Pump isn't wise.

Kaori vs. Noved - Kaori goes for 4 pumps with his Kingdra in GBU, he hits 3. Noved strikes back in ORAS by going for 3 pumps and hits 2. Good job to both of these guys for being so accurate.

TectonicDestroyer vs. The Squash - The Squash misses Hydro Pump and with it his team's dream of a draw this week is dead.

Hit Rate: 9/16 - 56.25%
Crit Rate: 0/16 - 0%


Total:

Hit Rate: 21/38 - 55.2%
Crit Rate: 1/38 - 2.6%


Conclusion:

Hydro Pump has been a controversial move choice this BSPL, deciding the fates of players and teams. Those who have managed to hit, such as MisterGX have enjoyed glory and decent records and even he has not hit every single one. Others have not been so fortunate. I'd advise for players in the future to hit the Casino instead, Hypnosis at 60% is considerably more accurate than Hydro Pump, as is the often maligned Focus Blast and Stone Edge which hit 70% and 80% of the time respectively. You have to get to moves like Sing and Zap Cannon to find moves that are barely less accurate than Hydro Pump. I hope this enlightens everyone on this controversial topic and we can see more Pump action in the future.

 

[cant say]

I've been forgetting to post the re-upload of the podcast afterwards but here's episode 3!! we had an epic star-studded lineup of guests including chemcoop, Puff Killa, Jmal98, Ika Ika Musume, 1_TrickPhony, Hulavuta, average fella, and marilli. Here it is:

The highlight was definitely fella's top quality analysis of his match vs zaaya. I made that its own clip for everyone to enjoy:

week 2 is somewhere on my channel as well if people who missed it live want to go back and watch. week 1 got the 2-week purge by Twitch unfort....

 

[Hulavuta]

Thanks to me for suggesting average fella be on the show. I'm the best casting director.

 

[The Squash]

 

[Thick Fat Azumarill]

I have returned from the shadows, for I have been summoned by pizza stall

 

[marilli]

YAHALLO VROS! welcome to the unbiased BSPL eulogy for the Shadow Ballers.

Shadow Ballers are a new franchise in the BSPL scene. 11oyd has seen success in individuals and on cartridge, but his track record in BSPL has been questionable at best. As one of the cheapest managers with the scaling manager price, it was argued that 11oyd could draft himself for a bargain price that would have been rather unlikely in the draft. Let's take a look at how he did.

The Ecruteak Shadow Ballers' draft was a mixed bag. First, lloyd drafted himself. He has been underperforming in BSPL, but I think it would have been foolish to not draft himself for 11.5k in this format. He quickly got the superstars jmal98 and Edu for 17k and 26k, respectively. However, as the result of their high price tag, it was sure to hurt the remainder of the draft. One could say that it's poor strategy in general to nearly lock up your roster leaving no room for when the players were going for cheaper later in the draft. It's hard to say no to jmal or edu - but perhaps it was more viable to just pick up 1 of these players as I will expand on later.

Mishiimono was the fourth pickup for 7k. This sounds great in a vacuum, but with players like Memoric and Demantoid going for 8.5k and 8k it's hard to consider this a steal by any stretch - and they really needed 1 to really crunch their budget after picking up the most expensive player and the 4th most expensive player of the draft. moose and goose and squash were their next pickup for 4k. What is more puzzling is how they missed out on contending on deals such as umbreon for 3k, tectonicdestroyer for 4k, egor for 4.5k, etc. opting for a 3rd Substitute. You cannot have your cake and eat it too when you are drafting the most expensive player and the 4th most expensive player in the draft. While Moose, squash, and AF are not bad players, they are more of a known quantity, and it seems a bit of a wishful thinking to say that they are just going to suddenly pop off. So it was surprising to see they weren't willing to bid on anyone who hasn't played in a previous BSPL, hoping to get large return on their willingness to give a more unproven / less involved BSS player a shot to benefit off of all the building / bench support they already drafted. And the bench they did draft, neither mikaav nor raj.shoot saw much playing time - one must have thought that raj would have stayed on the starting lineup after winning in week 2.

At least their meme game was absolutely on point as a team.

As of now in their elimination, Jmal and Edu combined for 75% of the team's total wins. These 2 players doing most of the work were pretty in line with the pre-season expectations. Jmal and Edu are strong players, but neither can single-handedly carry the team. What was unexpected is both 11oyd and Mishimono going 0-3, which absolutely ruined their season and led to their team getting eliminated in the middle of Week 4. But I don't think that this was expected at all so it's difficult to blame the draft for this.

On the topic of lloyd underperforming, I think it is valid to point out that lloyd might have been better served in SM. While it's tough to argue that SM is jmal's best tier and he did go 4-0 in it, it's also true that lloyd needed to win games for the team to really tick - with him losing, Edu and jmal were playing must-win-or-week-might-be-lost, and SM is also lloyd's best tier. It might have been an altruistic taking-one-for-the-team move on lloyd's behalf. But for them to get 3 wins they really needed lloyd to start producing, so it's interesting that they never experimented with this option.

Edu's 2-2 record with a 26k price tag may also be pointed as a downfall but honestly his game vs Demantoid was really close and came down to a few endgame predictions, while he really got pretty robbed vs Aurarayquaza. That just goes to show the risk of buying a high-cost player like Edu: not that Edu will ever completely flop but that this is Pokemon after all and no amount of on-paper advantage will result in a guaranteed win, especially when the field is fairly competent overall. Even if Edu were to go 4-0, their season is looking pretty dire - it means their troubles cannot really be pointed at a single individual.

Overall, I credit 3 main factors to the downfall of the Shadow Ballers:

1. Drafting both jmal and edu at a very high price tag, leaving little breathing room in draft
   1.2. Following up these picks with no sense of urgency, getting no potential high-reward steals and instead opting for an extra bench that never played a single game.
2. Not using their bench that they opted in for and and not giving moose / raj / mikaav more chances. They needed something to change but did not, letting Squash out to dry 0-3.
3. lloyd and mishi underperforming.

I will post more if there's enough interest, I understand full cancer is not what we're going for in BSPL so lemme know if i was out of line.

 

[cant say]

BSPL Podcast was a good one this week. We even found a way to screenshare without crashing my computer (Discord and Zoom haven't worked for me so we've all just been pressing play on the same replay and tried commentating battles that way in previous weeks lmao).

 

[marilli]

YAHALLO VROS! welcome to the unbiased BSPL eulogy for the Saffron Side-Pups

Once a fierce competitor samvgc, kaori-chan has taken a more laid back approach to subforum PLs and nowadays prefers to watch hentai over prepping and analyzing their opponents' possible teams. Let's see how they did this BSPL.

Kaori started off their draft with Puff Killa for 22k, as the 3rd most expensive player after Edu and greil. Puff killa is great at SM and is active and motivated in SS as well to support their team. One could question the 22K as a slight overpay, but no-one can deny that Puff Killa is a great player to pick up early and build your roster around. Cynara and Can't Say are kaori's next picks, which is rather intriguing. cynara's AND can't say's best format, ORAS BSS, is no longer a format. Classic Bo3 is a format, but both kaori and can't say prefer to play in it. And it's not like they were stacking oldgen players for Classic slot support, as all of these players are fairly inexperienced in GBU. One has to question if kaori read the memo that ORAS BSS and GBU BSS would not be separate slots. Cynara for 12k seemed like a huge overpay in a world where they are playing SS BSS and honestly a big disrespect to the SS BSS players who were actually competing in the circuit tournaments and performing well, that got drafted for much less, or not at all. And yeah they are known in tour scene but finch went for 11k hello??? I guess it is understandable in a team that prioritizes fraternization over trying to win.

For the doubles players, kaori drafts Lightscreener and umbry for 8.5k and 3k each. Again, we see the roster being flexible to put it nicely, unsure or clashing if you put it a bit more direct. I think a large part of lightscreener going for 8.5k was that they was a highly touted SS BSS player. I know lightscreener is good at doubles too, but they was due for more free wins in the weaker Singles field in my opinion, and with calvonix and crystalninetales going for much lower makes my point pretty evident - lightscreener isn't worse by them by any means, but the difference in price could be used to say, upgrade puff killa to embcpt or greil, which makes a big difference if you put it that way. Puff killa is elite, but in a format that has to compete vs greil, chemcoop, and jmal, while embcpt and greil are pretty cleanly the best Pokemon players in their pool. Havens makes sense as their sub in this context for being a budget flex player to allow lightscreener to be juggled, but they have struggled in prior DPL and BSPL, so it remained to be seen how viable they truly were in the doubles role. However, all these hypotheticals were rendered irrelevant with kaori refusing to playing doubles and lightscreener failing to be slotted in the relatively less proven SS BSS field and is forced to play in the relatively more stacked doubles field.

Umbry for 3k wass a big steal. Probably went underpriced because of their 0-3 BSPL4 in ORASD but yeah, that's a tough meta to pick up and be forced to play vs embcpt and charlotte rightaway, and they were barely integrated on smogon. They also improved a lot in the last year, so it was no surprise to me they were actually doing pretty well (and if luck went their way a bit differently, could have been their only positive player.) Suinub is a strong player for 7.5k, too. However, their lack of communication and tendency to not prep made them prey to hard counterteams in some weeks. However, none of this mattered because the rest of the team had racked up 4 losses on the weeks they lost anyways. These are the type of picks that actually wins drafts, not the top player with 20-30k price tag. However that simply wasn't enough with how incoherent the draft was. I feel these were some pretty good players that either got forced into slots that they were not optimal in and got overpaid for as a result in comparison to how much value they were providing to the team. Generally you want some kind of fraternity / synergy / "power of friendship" - but when multiple players are forced to compete for a slot and feel absolutely miserable playing something else and have to take 1 for the team, that adds nothing to the team.

Understandably, they were placed the sole last place in the post-draft power rankings. They said "the power rankings dont even mean anything" but apparently, they were pretty good at identifying the 2 teams that were eliminated before the final week.

At the point of their elimination in week 2, 2 players went neutral, and no player went positive. Puff Killa went 2-2, and 2-1 if only counting SM, and umbry went 2-2 despite getting some crazy luck against them. I think it is telling that the 2 players that did the best, were players who were allowed to perform in their optimal slot. Can't say was in awful head space rotating between SS and classic, despite being very verbal about their absolute distaste for SS BSS, and didn't do so hot either. kaori drafted themselves for 10k but barely played and brought no wins going 0-2. Lightscreener and suinub, their 2 joker picks didn't pan out, but again, turning any 1 individual's losses to wins literally would not have changed this fate for the side-pups.

I credit these factors on the side-pups' poor performance

1. Wild drafting that prioritized fraternization at the cost of anti-synergy, forcing players into suboptimal slots when they are overpriced due to their ability in another metagame from whatever they actually ended up playing.
   
   
2. Wasting a lot of auction credits on no production.
   
   
3. Bad week-to-week roster decisions, which either ended up forcing players into bad head space over playing a metagame they don't like and explicitly refused to play in signup post, or fielded players in a format that gave them maximum resistance.

Cheers

 

[zaaya]

 

[Thick Fat Azumarill]

Sorry, this was the only image I had and I can't be bothered to make another one.

Ahem, with that out of the way, Ball Jerry just showed us that Sheer Cold > Hydro Pump in an amazing display of sheer(heh) luck skill.

 

[Ika Ika Musume]

Updated Kaori's spreadsheet for BSPL all time records from BSPL III, I'll update this at the end of BSPL V so people can use it for posterity :).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17TKt3l7f4QgBEDYc2uGn5Xk1X8mzFDixjHx8E7DWa8E/edit?usp=sharing

 

[marilli]

YAHALLO VROS! welcome to the unbiased BSPL eulogy for the Flare Blitzers

The Flare Blitzers are known for a few things: drafting loads of doubles players, always making playoffs since its inception in BSPL2, tying for most finals appearances, and never winning the whole thing. In fact, all the other longstanding BSPL teams, being Flare Blitzers, Side-pups, Cavs, and Helmets, the Flare Blitzers are the only team that hasn't won it all thus far despite their continued excellence in the regular season. Let's see how they did this year.



Now we're actually seeing some viable teams be knocked out. qsns was their first pick and probably the worst part of the draft. He went for an inexplicable 16k, which in my opinion really started off their auction on the wrong foot. What is interesting is that stax, memo, calvonix, theloanranger, etc. all went for significantly cheaper than him, are not significantly worse doubles players by any stretch of imagination (some arguably have far more 4v4 doubles experience than qsns), but the decision to put this overpriced 16k pick in the stacked SM BSS slot really shot their whole draft despite everything else going for their draft: the obvious strong psynergy between the players, power of friendship, cheapest manager bargain, the efficient cheap buys later on in the draft, and more. Classic and being the variance madhouse it is and SS BSS being full of unproven players, SM BSS was not only the pool with the most stacked players in chemcoop, jmal, zaaya, puff killa, and possibly greil, it was also the singles metagame with the highest amount of skill discrepancy available in the BSPL format. They didn't have a master SM BSS prepper support like Ika or me to alleviate this problem, either. I don't blame their decision to put them in SM BSS - it is what they wanted after all, but this factor should have acted as a steep pay cut. Instead, he was the second most expensive doubles player despite them not wanting to really play doubles. I really don't have an explanation as to why this happened, but it did.

Their next pick were kamikaze, for another steep 15.5k price. This is a slight overpay, but as the manager who upbid his price up to this point I believe this is far more justifiable. For one, kami is a far better singles player than qsns and is certainly far more viable in SS BSS. he was going to be a reliable singles starter in an obviously doubles-focused roster, and pretty key to a "positive locker room environment" which is honestly kind of a meme in most cases but I think it's relevant for kami. Finally, the qsns overpay really forced psynergy's hand at that point to wait until the tail end of the draft, when most of the proven singles players highly involved in the community were rapidly disappearing, so kami's presence came at a premium. But I think this was a fine move - not a move that really helped them claw out of the massive hole they dug themselves into with their first pick, but a fine move. Next up were memoric and stax as their doubles players for 8.5k and 12.5k. Neither of them really play BSS much, so they were going to be the VGC2020 starters. I drank the stax cool-aid and I think both were fine choices. I definitely think there were "wrong choices" in this current doubles pool, and they did not fuck up by picking the wrong ones, and got a pretty good price by waiting until the endgame.

They now wanted to draft their final singles player. Ideally you would want 2 more singles players but at this point in the draft because they had to wait so long all the viable SM BSS players are gone. psynergy and kami could juggle into it, and probably a viable strategy could have been to juggle psynergy into SM BSS, pick another competent singles players to thundurus / glalie out the Classic slot. They did draft Metalgross for 6k, and being an rby player I'm sure he knows how to click Thunder Wave in classic slot, but he never did. Egor was coming off of a hot seasonals run, and a huge bargain for 4.5k. I think he's a strong player and a great pick for later in the draft. Crystalninetales only played 1 game but strangely for a doubles focused team I believe they are the only player who actually is a vgc mainer, and I was given insider info that they helped out with prepping and fetching teams and such, so that was an OK pick I guess.

This team missing out on playoffs was not expected, but they did make it real close until the bitter end. Aside from that, this team really met my expectations for the most part. kami did well, arguably better than I was expecting. psynergy and egor did well and held their ground. qsns crashed and burned as expected, though at least he didn't go 0-5 which was a real possibility. However, they went 4-6 in Doubles combined, with a 1-3 stax. As someone who drank the stax cool-aid I still cannot blame them for picking stax. I thought they were the next tier of draftable doubles players in the pool after edu. Even with his poor track record in team tournaments across multiple communities I will still put him near the top in BSPL6 if he signs up.

It might seem like I'm really throwing qsns under the bus here but here are my reasons why the Flare Blitzers were eliminated:

1. Overpaying 16k for qsns, and him failing to prove anyone wrong.
2. Their doubles underperforming.
3. Losing to side-pups week 2 in a perfect storm.

Otherwise, it's hard to pick apart their team.

Cheers,

 

[1_TrickPhony]

Inspired by Ika's All Time-Records sheet being updated, I will be releasing my BSPL Greatest of All Time lineup. The slots will be as follows: SM 1, SM 2, SM Bench, BSD 1, BSD 2, BSD Bench, ORAS, ORAS Bench, GBU, GBU Bench, Multi-Format, Multi-Format Bench. Full disclosure, I expect there to be a slight recency bias, and this is just my opinion of course, but I hope you all like this regardless!

Today, I will start by releasing my results for the SM slots, congratz on making the lineup to these individuals!

SM 1: greilmercenary9 (15-4)

greilmercenary9's legendary feats include going 6-0 in BSPL III as well as leading his first year franchise, the Lumiose Luxrays, to a title in BSPL IV. Considering the levels of opponents he has overcome in perhaps the most difficult field, greilmercenary9 is definitely one of the most feared, and respected competitors in our scene, particularly when it comes to BSPL. Still in the playoff running for BSPL V, he has a chance to one-up his already impressive resume by adding another championship to his list of accolades.

SM 2: Jmal98 (12-6)

Jmal98's achievements include an undefeated 5-0 4-0 record in BSPL V, and sporting winning records on losing teams, excluding his one unfortunate year with the Po Thicc Clubbers (1-3), where he infamously went for 40k due to a typo. There was a lot I considered when putting Jmal98 ahead of Chemcoop for the second starting spot, but ultimately it came down to two major factors: Jmal98 defeating Chemcoop in their most recent head to head, and chemcoop never securing a BSPL Championship. I think if either of these two criterion were met for Chemcoop, he would earn this spot over Jmal98. Time will tell if chemcoop can win a championship this year, and take back a starting slot on the all-time lineup

SM Bench: Chemcoop (12-8)

Chemcoop, the 2019 BSS Invitational Champion, missed the second starting slot by the slimmest of margins. Most of the rationale is explain above, click there if you want to understand more of why chemcoop is in a bench spot. Chemcoop's accolades include a 4-2 record in BSPL IV, with a win over greilmercenary9, and a 3-1 record in BSPL III, where he was undefeated in a limited regular season before falling 2-1 to The Squash in finals

 

[11oyd]

Seeing as my Ballers have met the end of the line for our Maiden voyage, thought I'd share some thoughts.

First of all I want to thank my boys for all of your efforts, it has been an excellent experience to get to know you all a little more and I wish I could have served you better as a manager. I am particularly proud of Jmal for not dropping a game this BSPL, even though the last match was a metronome mess lol. Also very proud of Raj for going undefeated, even though I only saw it fit to tee you up for two games. I really enjoyed all of the scrimming, team sharing, theory crafting and general banter. You're truly a pack of legends.

Also want to thank Dragonwhale for all the work that you do. I hope at times you feel like the work you put in is worth it. You do a pretty incredible job of running this ship and keeping it tight, while generally being not all that mean. So thank you.

Managing has been a pretty crazy experience for me, I think if I do it again I probably won't buy myself and I will also go through the player pool with a fine tooth comb next time in the lead up to the draft.
A combination of remarkably poor choices by Game Freak have really taken a toll on my enthusiasm towards playing pokemon this year and I will probably reduce the amount that I play for a while, I'll still be lurking in the BSS room on the daily though ;)

From here I will be getting behind my main lads Greil and Ika and jumping on the Pony train - Let's get it Ponies.

Ballers out!

 

[chemcoop]

I'll try not to make this a long sappy post, and hopefully marilli will be kind in the eulogy :3 I want to start off by saying that I was nervous as hell coming into this draft. This was my first time managing a PL and first time doing any kind of draft so I was definitely worried about screwing up before the season and drafting a dud of a team. Clearly that turned out not to be the case! This was such a fun season, and I was blessed to have such a wonderful group of guys and gals on the team this year. I'm not sure when we all started getting in call to watch games, but those VCs were definitely the highlight of the season for me. Hard to ask for a better time than watching some high-level mons, cheering on friends, and chilling with some cool people.

As for the individual shoutouts:
NOVED you were the best assman I could have hoped for. Coronavirus may be putting a damper on things and keeping almost everyone except everyone's #1 Pizza Maker home. I really appreciate how much of your limited time you put into prepping for arguably the hardest format this BSPL, and it was a ton of fun scrimming with you each week.

Solerme unfortunately you are the #2 Pizza guy, despite being from the country that gave the world pizza. We were able to finally team up in BSPL, and I'm glad no other manager was able to snag you! I know SwSh BSS wasn't your first choice for formats to play, but you did an awesome job playing a tough format and the improvement to your game from W1 to playoffs was noticeable. This season would have been way less fun without you, so I'm happy you were around for the ride.

calvonix words do not adequately describe how impressed I am with you for your play this season. Aldrich told me to get you before the draft, so I took a risk and drafted someone who I didn't know from the Smogon doubles community, and boy did that gamble pay off. I think we had the best doubles core this year, and it was so much fun being in call and watching you just carry weeks for us. GOAT.

Mr.GX similarly, our doubles this season wouldn't have anywhere near as much of a success without you. I knew when I drafted you that we were gonna be just fine now that we had a player with one of the best ever BSPL records on our side. Also, the cat pictures were a nice addition to the team chat. Mew Mew!

TonyFlygon I think this is the first time I've played with anyone from the SmogTours scene, and boy was it a blast watching you pick up the format. You did an amazing job absorbing information during our test games, and seeing you translate those takeaways into epic plays and wins during your sets was incredible. Best of luck on your job and in Smogon Classic. Stay safe and win that trophy! Hope you enjoyed your trip into BSS and stick around!

Coconut thanks for carrying the load in SwSh the first couple of weeks. I was super busy with work early in the season and I know I wasn't able to give you enough team support. Nonetheless, you played well in spite of that and it was great having you on the team!

Kurtupo Sorry I wasn't able to get you off the bench this year, but I hope you enjoyed being a part of the team and hopefully learned a thing or two! I'm looking forward to seeing more of you in the community!

AldrichYan no shoutout list would be complete without thanking the team's resident hypeman and doubles prepper extraordinaire. Our VCs would have been nowhere near as exciting nor the battle chats as thrilling without your cries of "LETS ROCK WITH STEALTH ROCKETS!" You were clutch in prep and test games as well, and I was really hoping we would be in a position towards the end of the season where I could reward your hard work with a game. Next year for sure! Thanks for your work this season, bud!

Fischgrat thanks for all your prep help this year! Despite not being on the team, you helped like you were and we definitely got a few wins thanks to your assistance. Solerme's VISH game comes to mind most notably. That was a great team call. You were an excellent presence to have in chat, and it was fun working with you this season!

And of course, last but not least, thank you to all the guys who helped out during playoffs. Jmal98 was the BSPL goat this year and his help testing teams was epic. Big thanks to all the Blitzers guys who also supported us. It's always fun working with friends and former BSPL teammates.

Anyhow this was long enough, this was a good first run managing, and I'm looking forward to winning the PL next year! Cheers!

 

[Aldrich]

I'll try not to make this a long sappy post, and hopefully marilli will be kind in the eulogy :3 I want to start off by saying that I was nervous as hell coming into this draft. This was my first time managing a PL and first time doing any kind of draft so I was definitely worried about screwing up before the season and drafting a dud of a team. Clearly that turned out not to be the case! This was such a fun season, and I was blessed to have such a wonderful group of guys and gals on the team this year. I'm not sure when we all started getting in call to watch games, but those VCs were definitely the highlight of the season for me. Hard to ask for a better time than watching some high-level mons, cheering on friends, and chilling with some cool people.

As for the individual shoutouts:
NOVED you were the best assman I could have hoped for. Coronavirus may be putting a damper on things and keeping almost everyone except everyone's #1 Pizza Maker home. I really appreciate how much of your limited time you put into prepping for arguably the hardest format this BSPL, and it was a ton of fun scrimming with you each week.

Solerme unfortunately you are the #2 Pizza guy, despite being from the country that gave the world pizza. We were able to finally team up in BSPL, and I'm glad no other manager was able to snag you! I know SwSh BSS wasn't your first choice for formats to play, but you did an awesome job playing a tough format and the improvement to your game from W1 to playoffs was noticeable. This season would have been way less fun without you, so I'm happy you were around for the ride.

calvonix words do not adequately describe how impressed I am with you for your play this season. Aldrich told me to get you before the draft, so I took a risk and drafted someone who I didn't know from the Smogon doubles community, and boy did that gamble pay off. I think we had the best doubles core this year, and it was so much fun being in call and watching you just carry weeks for us. GOAT.

Mr.GX similarly, our doubles this season wouldn't have anywhere near as much of a success without you. I knew when I drafted you that we were gonna be just fine now that we had a player with one of the best ever BSPL records on our side. Also, the cat pictures were a nice addition to the team chat. Mew Mew!

TonyFlygon I think this is the first time I've played with anyone from the SmogTours scene, and boy was it a blast watching you pick up the format. You did an amazing job absorbing information during our test games, and seeing you translate those takeaways into epic plays and wins during your sets was incredible. Best of luck on your job and in Smogon Classic. Stay safe and win that trophy! Hope you enjoyed your trip into BSS and stick around!

Coconut thanks for carrying the load in SwSh the first couple of weeks. I was super busy with work early in the season and I know I wasn't able to give you enough team support. Nonetheless, you played well in spite of that and it was great having you on the team!

Kurtupo Sorry I wasn't able to get you off the bench this year, but I hope you enjoyed being a part of the team and hopefully learned a thing or two! I'm looking forward to seeing more of you in the community!

AldrichYan no shoutout list would be complete without thanking the team's resident hypeman and doubles prepper extraordinaire. Our VCs would have been nowhere near as exciting nor the battle chats as thrilling without your cries of "LETS ROCK WITH STEALTH ROCKETS!" You were clutch in prep and test games as well, and I was really hoping we would be in a position towards the end of the season where I could reward your hard work with a game. Next year for sure! Thanks for your work this season, bud!

Fischgrat thanks for all your prep help this year! Despite not being on the team, you helped like you were and we definitely got a few wins thanks to your assistance. Solerme's VISH game comes to mind most notably. That was a great team call. You were an excellent presence to have in chat, and it was fun working with you this season!

And of course, last but not least, thank you to all the guys who helped out during playoffs. Jmal98 was the BSPL goat this year and his help testing teams was epic. Big thanks to all the Blitzers guys who also supported us. It's always fun working with friends and former BSPL teammates.

Anyhow this was long enough, this was a good first run managing, and I'm looking forward to winning the PL next year! Cheers!

Thank you chemcoop for drafting me in the first place! been a fun ride especially I got to be on the same team with both Calvonix & GX in the doubles division! Knowing the rest of the members along the way and learning BSS singles for a little bit was fun too! Voice calling with you guys made this the best draft league I've ever experienced. Coming into the draft I knew I was either undrafted or be in your team anyways but you said in the first place that you cant gurantee my playing time before the draft, and our doubles has no excuse to be subbed since they keep on winning, and winning for me is more fun than me playing but losing


While being sad that the team getting knocked out and not having an all APMs Finals I would like to wish my APM boys
Demantoid and zaaya, and also my man AuraRayquaza the best of luck. Go kick some ass (Demantoid vs Aray would be a dream finals for me oo)


For the last time this season , Lets coop With chemcoop Lets Rock WITH STEALTH ROCKETS!

 

[cant say]

after going 0-4 and coming dead last it's time for me to jump on my old team's bandwagon and pretend to know what winning feels like again. time for the cavs to go back to the promised land!!

 

[cant say]

the semi finals podcast is up, I had to edit the VODs into one video because my internet screwed up and we took a break midway... hopefully the audio isn't too out of sync because even though I stream at a specific bitrate, the twitch VODs download as an mp4 with variable bitrate which are awful for editing...


Anyway I was joined by Ika Ika Musume 1_TrickPhony and marilli to go through every game of the semis + tiebreaker so it's a long one, enjoy!