Tournament RU Snake Draft II: Commencement

Expulso

Morse code, if I'm talking I'm clicking
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RUSD II Power Rankings
writeups by me and sometimes Feliburn
voting by all the managers



TEAM OVERVIEWS

Christmas Xurkitrees
SS: watashi
SS: EviGaro
SS: Sabella
SS: ProDigeZz
SM: TDK
ORAS: Analytic
BW: Pujo
ND: Bouff

Substitutes: Z Strats, Yourwelcomethanku, scorbunnys, DerpyBoi

Veteran manager EviGaro lived up to her team's name with an old and well-rounded (:cwl:) team that received praise from the rankers and should definitely still be in this tour by Christmas time. Watashi, Sabella, and Evi herself fill in the SS slots; despite watashi’s indifference to subforum tours, Sabella’s string of poor performances in them, and Evi’s volatility as a player, all three are SCL-level players that should be favored against most of the pool. ProDigeZz fills in the fourth slot; while lacking the others’ high-level experience, he had an impressive debut in RUPL, builds a lot, and is capable of taking down any given opponent. If he can’t, Z Strats waits in the wings alongside eager RU mainer yourwelcomethank? Thankyouyourwelcome? Yourwelcomethanku? Hopefully he gives us a chance to actually learn this name…

The South duo of TDK and Bouff are considered top contenders in the SM and NatDex pools; Pujo and Analytic are similarly old but less proven or highly regarded, yet they seem quite unlikely to choke or succumb to nerves, which is always a strength. As long as their SS core can stay motivated and live up to their on-paper billing, the Xurkitrees should expect a delightful holiday season. Ranking isn’t everything, as Evi definitely observed in SCL, but there are plenty of good signs for the Xurkitrees.

The Comic Relief Croakers
SS: Feliburn
SS: atomicllamas
SS: Lilburr
SS: Confide
SM: rylon
ORAS: Enzonana
BW: oldcvcv
ND: dahli

Substitutes: Raichy, Flamita, Lets In The Sun, Leo

Feliburn united pretty much all of Latin America with some lovable faces and SCL teammates to create a solid albeit slightly below-average on-paper team. Their SS slots seem to be in excellent shape; Feli himself is ranked 3rd in the 28-player pool, while atomicllamas is ranked 10th after his recent run to winners’ finals of the ongoing RU Seasonal. Lilburr and Confide both check in just barely below the average; with the support of llamas AND one of the very best SS builders, Feli, this core is poised to excel. On-paper, the good ends there, as a very strange oldgens lineup is not considered too hot. Rylon’s lack of SM tour experience finds him near the bottom of the pack in a strong pool and Enzonana’s lack of experience in ...anything? finds him near the bottom of the pretty average ORAS pool. The support of both Feli and atomicllamas can definitely help him outperform this ranking, though. BW is occupied by oldcvcv, and I know about as much as you do -- supposedly he built this tier at one point? Lilburr can fill the slot if needed and/or pass teams, but expectations are low here. The very solid dahli occupies NatDex and should be expected to do fine as well. While they aren't one of the on-paper favorites, their very strong SS core, oldgens support, and a team environment that looks very fun should help them make it to playoffs and have a decent run.

Opelucid Obstagoons
SS: Beraldinho
SS: Xiri
SS: bb skarm
SS: yovan33321
SM: lighthouses
ORAS: Alkione
BW: eifo
ND: crying

Substitutes: Splash, Roseybear, xXcrossbowXx, Crow Music

“With the game on the line, one game, who would you rather have playing it: eifo or Punny/Star/Odr/etc?”

“Of everyone in RUSD, open slot, the fate of the universe on the line, the Martians have the death beam pointed at earth, you better win, I WANT EIFO."

Shocking the audience with first overall pick Eifo, the Obstagoons are an extremely volatile and unknown squad that has lots of surprise potential and could easily end up either first or last. Eifo struggles from in-game nerves and has never been the top player that his #1 billing suggests, but after a recent undefeated BWPL he is either the #1 or #2 player in the BW pool depending on how cursed you think Finch is (hint: very). Oath picked up his man-crush Xiri next, teaming up again after NUSD in a tier Xiri is much less experienced in. The rest of the draft prioritizes current success — ND RU Cup winner crying has lots of potential (both to win and to timeout) in this unknown tier, while RU circuit playoff contenders Beraldinho, bb skarm and yovan33321 all make their debut in Oath’s SS core. Let’s hope this goes better than bb skarm’s last interaction with SS…

The generally strong Alkione fills in for ORAS with the support of lighthouses’ unconventional teams, and the lighthouse himself hopes to return to form in SM after a rough RUPL. Two generically solid players in Splash and Roseybear, active & lovable mainer crossbow, and the totally unknown Crow Music occupy the bench. Overall, the Obstagoons have the weakest on-paper SS core but can probably make up for it with solid oldgens, particularly BW and NatDex. Their SS players are also quite motivated and have recent circuit success, giving them plenty of potential to surprise. Win or lose, their season should be very fun to watch.

Pittsburgh Screeners
SS: TheFranklin
SS: Mac3
SS: tlenit
SS: zS
SM: Mannat
ORAS: MrAldo
BW: GoldCat
ND: TheWeirdGastrodon

Substitutes: Ampha, NEON_Voyager, daniYSB, SOMALIA

Unlike the real Pittsburgh Steelers, led by a cast of unlikable geriatrics (FUCK the steelers!), Mac’s Screeners are full of active newcomers and should live up to their name by being extremely unpredictable in prep and gameplanning. TheFranklin enters as a top-five SS player after his strong SCL and circuit results along with success in almost all prior RU team tours; he’s close to a lock to do well. Mac3 himself also cracks the top ten, while tlenit is slightly below average and zS is near the bottom. The latter two’s creativity should mean they will snag a few wins, though; tlenit was 4-1 last RUPL and I’m forced to praise zS in this tier after he beat me with a Silvally in RU in October of 2021. With two SCL players and two more active players on board, their SS core looks solid.

SM and NatDex are their two weak spots, as voters don’t expect Mannat or (deep breath) National Dex RarelyUsed Tier Leader (-NDRUTL) TheWeirdGastrodon to do well; however, both are active, tryhard types that will definitely fight hard to end up positive. MrAldo and GoldCat both land above-average in the ORAS and BW pools. On the bench, meanwhile, the activity only grows; lovable RU mainer NEON_Voyager joins Ampha and daniYSB to create a really motivated prep core. The Screeners look slightly above average on paper, and with a team that has such tryhard energy that it may even cause SOMALIA to not leave it’s easy to see them working hard enough to surpass these expectations and win the tour.

Roseraiders
SS: Sensei Axew
SS: beatiful
SS: Raptor
SS: Daruma
SM: Lyss
ORAS: freezai
BW: Ninjadog
ND: gum

Substitutes: zeefable, Gray, afakedugong, omicorio

Roseraiders or Rosaraiders? Don’t bother to learn LOL Sensei drafted a very weird team of friends and veterans of his successful finals campaign last RUPL, but this team sorely lacks starpower and is considered below-average in almost every oldgen slot. Sensei has shown signs of viability in RU, perhaps breaking his curse of doing things like going 7-3 in SCL in other tiers while having the most absurd RU metagame takes you have ever heard. On a serious note, his star is on the rise and he should be expected to do well. Beatiful enters SS RU after a massively successful SCL OU campaign; he has done well piloting teams in UUSD and did decently in a RU seasonal, so I think he can definitely succeed here. The rankers didn’t all agree, though, giving him a truly hilarious spread of 3rd to 28th in the 28-man SS rankings. A perhaps un-motivated Raptor fills in alongside Sensei after they teamed in SCL, while last place starter Daruma rounds out the pack. If he performs even average, this SS core should go positive, but that may be a tall task given his prior tour results. On the bright side, that really can’t be too tall a task in only 3 regular season games.

Oldgens are a mixed bag; Lyss is ranked last in SM, freezai enters ORAS at the middle of the pack, and Ninjadog is fairly low in BW. There’s some reason to believe that the SM and BW slots can perform better than this due to the successful teams that Sensei has from their RUPL finals run (but if he didn’t delete the Sneasel one yet i’m ranking the SM slot 11th out of 8). Gum was taken quite early by Sensei but enters ND RU after a successful, positive campaign in ND UU during NDPL and should do well if not spectacularly in NatDex. Gum also has the support of probably their only substitute that builds, omicorio; Gray, zeefable, and afakedugong are mostly there to play wherever needed. Overall, the Roseraiders aren't totally lost, but they'll really need some shaky SS and oldgen slots to overperform in order to have any success this tour.

Socialite Snorlaxes
SS: robjr
SS: The Strap
SS: Thiago Nunes
SS: LpZ
SM: Yay
ORAS: QWILY
BW: etern
ND: gorex

Substitutes: KJLX, Staxi, roxiee, DJ Breloominati

After mercifully deciding against a litany of awful team names, Gorex stuck to what he knows, once again naming his team the Snorlaxes and once again drafting a large cast of solid players without much historic RU involvement. Gorex’s self-buy may be a tactically questionable decision after a disappointing 1-6 RUPL, but you can’t blame him for wanting to have fun in the wildly entertaining NatDex RU. Yay and Thiago Nunes return from his RUPL team, with Yay coming off of a very strong RUPL performance while Nunes has thrived in other settings like NUSD and Smogon Tour. Robjr is the roster’s top name, hoping to build on his SS RU success after winning RU Cup and qualifying for the circuit playoffs with ease. etern and QWILY are quite solid players that should do fine in BW and ORAS, particularly with roxiee eagerly supporting BW. LpZ surprisingly enters SS rather than the Durant generation, and The Strap joins him to complete their SS core.

The team is well below average on paper, with a few slots that could conceivably fold and lacking dominant players at the top of their pools. Their success will almost certainly hinge on their ability to build in SS RU; The Strap and LpZ are certainly not known as SS RU builders, while rob would generally only be expected to build for himself. Lacking an active mainer as either a player or sub, this may well become a significant issue. Alternatively, they could sneak in with their solid players either copying solid teams or catching the pool by surprise with the unique squads Nunes likes.

The Solid Steelixes
SS: odr
SS: TJ
SS: cirlo
SS: devin
SM: Lunala
ORAS: mncmt
BW: Finchinator
ND: Kate

Substitutes: cy, avarice, Luck O' The Irish, cb aaron judge

After managing a PL in nearly every lower tier and old gen, experienced manager Lunala finds herself at the helm of a first-place RUSD squad for this tour. It is said that the best artists steal, though, and Luna wasted no time filling her roster with Orange Islanders. SCL champion odr leads an SS core that still ranks below average; he isn’t paired with any SS players ranked above the pool’s average, meaning he and Luna may need to spend a lot of time team-building despite his pledge to load up memes for most of the tour. Two of those players, TJ and devin (also SCL champions) definitely don’t build in this tier, and the third (Cirlo) has recently been inactive, so they’ll need to work to pick up wins in these 4 slots. Their oldgens shine, though: SM player Lunala, ORAS player mncmt, and BW player Finchinator are all ranked 2nd or 1st in their respective tiers. Despite mncmt’s penchant for using exactly 1 HO in this tier, Finch’s horrendous BW RU luck, and Lunala’s need to l2p, they’re about as solid as you can get in some fairly weak oldgen pools. They trust Kate with the NatDex slot, but the rankers don’t seem to share that trust, placing her at dead last. Supported by NDPL managers cy and avarice (another Islander lmao), it’s very possible that she overperforms this low ranking.

The Solid Steelixes certainly live up to their name; when your relative weakness is an SS core that still has 3 very proven players and an SCL starter, that’s usually a good sign. They may need to grind in the SS and NatDex teambuilders but should definitely make playoffs and are a favorite to win the tour.

Zany Zygardes
SS: Punny
SS: Star
SS: Bebo
SS: toinha
SM: roman
ORAS: banks
BW: Spl4sh
ND: UnzipsCrogre

Substitutes: Elfuseon, daunt vs, Aberforth, Luna's Banned Now

The Zygardes started their draft strong, picking Star and Punny, two experienced players who have had success in the tier in recent times. Star qualified for RU Circuit playoffs and made it far in the latest RU Seasonal; Punny has had a very dominant year in SS RU in general. Then we have Bebo, a known player who has been pretty quiet the past months, however only a few know he was actually helping TheFranklin with his SCL preparation, so he’s been silently keeping up with the meta. To finish the SS RU core we have toinha, another known name who has been pretty quiet the past year. We’ll have to see if he’s still able to play in form. Overall, this team has decent support in Punny, Bebo, Expulso, and Star able to bounce around ideas. It’ll all depend on who cares enough to actively prep. Now getting into the older gens, we have SM RU mainer roman, someone who could very well either own the competition, or get lost in the sauce. Next up we have banks, someone who has had decent success playing ORAS in previous team tours; we’ll see if banks is able to dominate a very barren pool. Finally, in the dreaded BW RU slot, is spl4sh. He has played almost every RU meta in side tours, and has proven that he can keep up with the other players. It’ll all depend on how lucky he is feeling coming into this tour. Finally in NatDex RU, is UnzipsCrogre. They qualified for OLT, making it clear they can at the very least play. However, their NatDex experience is unknown, so we’ll have to see how the general ability translates to this newly added meta. Overall, the Zygardes have a pretty strong draft. The SS core is solid, and it would be a shocking surprise if they didn’t go positive. The older gens are a bit shakier, due to some players not being that active anymore. Still a strong list of names nevertheless.

PLAYER RANKINGS
Points correspond to the average rank assigned to a player. Small number = good

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TEAM RANKINGS
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1. Christmas Xurkitrees (26.15)
2. Zany Zygardes (26.90)
3. Pittsburgh Screeners (31.57)
4. Roseraiders (35.19)

1. The Solid Steelixes (26.01)
2. Opelucid Obstagoons (30.85)
3. The Comic Relief Croakers (33.07)
4. Socialite Snorlaxes (34.65)

Here's to a great tour, everyone! :pimp:
 
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