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Playoffs Smogon Grand Slam XI Playoffs - Finals [Won by Garay oak]
- Thread starter Finchinator
- Start date
gz, well deserved
Congratulations Garay
man wins the biggest old gen lower tier tour ever into gslam amazing congrats
Well, that's done then, it still doesn't really compute 2 days after. It's been a very strange tour for me all things considered: I'd dropped slam last year because the early stages are really tiring if you're trying hard, and I'd done so with little to no results in the previous years. But this year it was different; I hadn't played any of these tiers (besides ubers, kind of) in months and so I was going into this thinking "fuck it, won't get anywhere with this but at least I won't get burnt out either and maybe I can have some fun". I was in one of those slam servers from last year, and even tho I did get a couple of teams from there it was very inactive past the first couple rounds of the opens, so I had to make do with just reusing most of the time. One way or another I got some points in a couple opens (RU and NU iirc), and I was feeling good about myself, but when I'd confirmed the qualification beyond a shadow of a doubt, I kinda just lost in all opens at the same time and was left with no more games to play.
Surprise surprise, LC open happened, and the result of that was 2 more months of not playing any of these tiers again (sans ubers, again, thanks to UPL) coming into playoffs. And I would describe my experience with this tour as a test of survival, really. I got raichy in the round of 16, for which I had good prepping conditions (I was home and didn't have much to do that week) BUT I had a problem: if I were to make it through to the quarterfinals, I would have virtually no time to prep, so I kind of tried to prep 2 teams for every tier I had to play in advance, not necessarily thinking I would definitely win the first series (round 1 is the furthest I'd ever gone up to this point), but as a means of prophylaxis, because the opponent waiting for me in the next round was luthier, who had just won 2 opens and seemed unbeatable. So I won the first round, unfortunately not having prepped nearly enough for the quarters, and then it was time for luthier. As I said I had almost no time to prep, and that was because I was to go out on vacation for a week with my friends (from Sunday to Sunday), and you can imagine how that went: I was coming back home with severe sleep deprivation, having my teams not yet fully prepared, and the 1st seed waiting for me. Another problem was the scheduled time; I wasn't going to play until I was back home unless completely necessary (would've had to play on phone with terrible conditions) so I was entirely depending on luthier's schedule being compatible with mine once I got back. It was not. He could only play at 3 am my time on Sunday, and even though some series got extended to Monday, he couldn't play then either, so I had to choose to play at 3 am (I guess technically already on Monday for me). At least that helped me in the sense that I had a couple extra hours to finish the prep, and so I went into the game in a "fuck it" state of mind, which worked out great in the end. I played like a psychopath (the NU and UU games stand out) and ended up getting the better of luthier, thus moving onto the semifinals. Again, same problems. I went out on vacation, this time with my family, and had little time to prep alongside a very unpredictable schedule. I ended up doing the great majority of the prep in the last day, but at least I was ready going into the games. I faced bushtush, who despite being the butt of the joke many times due to his personality, had just won OST earlier this year and had just beaten a year-round solid starmaster in the quarterfinals. My gameplay wasn't nearly as aggression-based this time as it was in the previous round, and that led to 2 pretty embarrassing losses, but it also made me feel very secure about the deciding g5, in which I was in control basically from the beginning. So I made it to finals, still not quite believing it, and had to face crying. Not my favorite opponent to face in a tournament deciding scenario, I'll admit; they'd looked pretty impressive but mostly it was because of their tendency to use unconventional sets and structures. I decided to go mostly offense based, thinking I'd give them little room to take advantage of the aforementioned uncertainty brought about by the potential surprise factor of their builds. The exception was RU, of course, where I still had stuff like roar suicune and trick scarf golurk work to similar effect. I was really unsure about everything and not feeling great during the prep process, but ended up locking in on the details a couple hours before my games and convinced myself that I was going into it fully prepared. We know the rest: really cool ubers game where I came back from custap groudon getting the better of my bd darm, pretty disastrous RU game on both ends (I fucked up basically all of the midgame and they misplayed at the end), an LC game that left me so close and so far from winning it all, a PU game that was annihilation in the hands of a cheeky sneasel, and the deciding UU game, where I tried to leave the least I could to fate by playing with decided aggression. And I won. Hell, I know I made a ton of misplays throughout these playoffs and could've played some games a lot better, but I feel really fucking good about this. Grand Slam is probably my favorite individual tour to play, as I've always been fond of most lower tiers, and I'm really really glad I've taken it home. It also helps me tackle this perception that I wasn't quite good enough, even if people told me so. So yeah, all in all, it is a really meaningful victory for me.
But, having said all this, and after calling this tour a test of survival, I have to admit that I would've definitely not been able to win had I been on my own all along, and so I'd obviously like to thank the wonderful people that helped me in this journey:
And to the people who read these words (or just skipped to the end), thank you for doing so and I'll see you all in the next tournaments!
Edit: forgot to add someone very special to me, Level 56 I finally did it friend
, I hope you’ll see this sometime in the future.
Surprise surprise, LC open happened, and the result of that was 2 more months of not playing any of these tiers again (sans ubers, again, thanks to UPL) coming into playoffs. And I would describe my experience with this tour as a test of survival, really. I got raichy in the round of 16, for which I had good prepping conditions (I was home and didn't have much to do that week) BUT I had a problem: if I were to make it through to the quarterfinals, I would have virtually no time to prep, so I kind of tried to prep 2 teams for every tier I had to play in advance, not necessarily thinking I would definitely win the first series (round 1 is the furthest I'd ever gone up to this point), but as a means of prophylaxis, because the opponent waiting for me in the next round was luthier, who had just won 2 opens and seemed unbeatable. So I won the first round, unfortunately not having prepped nearly enough for the quarters, and then it was time for luthier. As I said I had almost no time to prep, and that was because I was to go out on vacation for a week with my friends (from Sunday to Sunday), and you can imagine how that went: I was coming back home with severe sleep deprivation, having my teams not yet fully prepared, and the 1st seed waiting for me. Another problem was the scheduled time; I wasn't going to play until I was back home unless completely necessary (would've had to play on phone with terrible conditions) so I was entirely depending on luthier's schedule being compatible with mine once I got back. It was not. He could only play at 3 am my time on Sunday, and even though some series got extended to Monday, he couldn't play then either, so I had to choose to play at 3 am (I guess technically already on Monday for me). At least that helped me in the sense that I had a couple extra hours to finish the prep, and so I went into the game in a "fuck it" state of mind, which worked out great in the end. I played like a psychopath (the NU and UU games stand out) and ended up getting the better of luthier, thus moving onto the semifinals. Again, same problems. I went out on vacation, this time with my family, and had little time to prep alongside a very unpredictable schedule. I ended up doing the great majority of the prep in the last day, but at least I was ready going into the games. I faced bushtush, who despite being the butt of the joke many times due to his personality, had just won OST earlier this year and had just beaten a year-round solid starmaster in the quarterfinals. My gameplay wasn't nearly as aggression-based this time as it was in the previous round, and that led to 2 pretty embarrassing losses, but it also made me feel very secure about the deciding g5, in which I was in control basically from the beginning. So I made it to finals, still not quite believing it, and had to face crying. Not my favorite opponent to face in a tournament deciding scenario, I'll admit; they'd looked pretty impressive but mostly it was because of their tendency to use unconventional sets and structures. I decided to go mostly offense based, thinking I'd give them little room to take advantage of the aforementioned uncertainty brought about by the potential surprise factor of their builds. The exception was RU, of course, where I still had stuff like roar suicune and trick scarf golurk work to similar effect. I was really unsure about everything and not feeling great during the prep process, but ended up locking in on the details a couple hours before my games and convinced myself that I was going into it fully prepared. We know the rest: really cool ubers game where I came back from custap groudon getting the better of my bd darm, pretty disastrous RU game on both ends (I fucked up basically all of the midgame and they misplayed at the end), an LC game that left me so close and so far from winning it all, a PU game that was annihilation in the hands of a cheeky sneasel, and the deciding UU game, where I tried to leave the least I could to fate by playing with decided aggression. And I won. Hell, I know I made a ton of misplays throughout these playoffs and could've played some games a lot better, but I feel really fucking good about this. Grand Slam is probably my favorite individual tour to play, as I've always been fond of most lower tiers, and I'm really really glad I've taken it home. It also helps me tackle this perception that I wasn't quite good enough, even if people told me so. So yeah, all in all, it is a really meaningful victory for me.
But, having said all this, and after calling this tour a test of survival, I have to admit that I would've definitely not been able to win had I been on my own all along, and so I'd obviously like to thank the wonderful people that helped me in this journey:
TonyFlygon and a certain banned deucer for their ubers help; it was my best tier among the ones in the tour but having 2 very experienced players help me is always very useful.
KSt3ve Adaam Poek for their UU help; I stole steve's team for quarterfinals and he helped me steal adaam's team (who I didn't work with directly but felt compelled to add him here) for semifinals, while poek made my finals team on his own (although I changed a mon that almost cost me the game LOL).
London Beats for his RU help; neither of us really knew too much about the tier but we figured it out in the end with pretty good results.
col49 for his NU help; helped me with theorymonning and discarding the bad ideas to focus on the good ones.
termi for their PU help; stopped me from using terrible stuff, finished up and quality checked the teams I made and gave me some teams of theirs too.
Éric for his LC help; again, prevented me from using stupid shit and gave me good teams to use.
London Beats TonyFlygon again for general help and emotional support, and Pearl (blue gang) for his sage advice going into finals.
And, last but not least, to all the people who rooted for me, whether they did it actively or not, whether I know them or not, thanks to everyone. Would especially like to mention WWDL (we need to change this name asap), which has been a great part of my social activity in the past year or so and is full of the best people I've met on the site; and murmy's bakery (yeah it's stag), which is the clique I've been a part of the most time out of all and I'll always appreciate them (especially now that the toxic users are gone for good).
KSt3ve Adaam Poek for their UU help; I stole steve's team for quarterfinals and he helped me steal adaam's team (who I didn't work with directly but felt compelled to add him here) for semifinals, while poek made my finals team on his own (although I changed a mon that almost cost me the game LOL).
London Beats for his RU help; neither of us really knew too much about the tier but we figured it out in the end with pretty good results.
col49 for his NU help; helped me with theorymonning and discarding the bad ideas to focus on the good ones.
termi for their PU help; stopped me from using terrible stuff, finished up and quality checked the teams I made and gave me some teams of theirs too.
Éric for his LC help; again, prevented me from using stupid shit and gave me good teams to use.
London Beats TonyFlygon again for general help and emotional support, and Pearl (blue gang) for his sage advice going into finals.
And, last but not least, to all the people who rooted for me, whether they did it actively or not, whether I know them or not, thanks to everyone. Would especially like to mention WWDL (we need to change this name asap), which has been a great part of my social activity in the past year or so and is full of the best people I've met on the site; and murmy's bakery (yeah it's stag), which is the clique I've been a part of the most time out of all and I'll always appreciate them (especially now that the toxic users are gone for good).
And to the people who read these words (or just skipped to the end), thank you for doing so and I'll see you all in the next tournaments!
Edit: forgot to add someone very special to me, Level 56 I finally did it friend
, I hope you’ll see this sometime in the future.
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Congratulations mate
Felicidades bro.